Philosophy Explorer wrote:
Descartes, a great philosopher, did question his own existence (and concluded "I think, therefore I am").
PhilX
Well Descartes was putting the cart in front of the horse when he said that. It's actually the other way around. I Am therefore I think.
The way Descartes puts it .. '' I think therefore I Am '' ... implies there is a thinker of thought, and that's who I Am .
There is no thinker of thought. Thoughts have no location or reality, they are phantom appearances...so no thinker. They arise here now in the I Am. The I Am has to be first, if a thought is to appear at all. The I Am is nowhere and everywhere all at once and doesn't need a thought to be here. But thoughts need the I Am to be here.
Thoughts arise and fall in the I Am and their presence gives the illusion there is a thinker present mistaken as the I Am.
So when there is identification with a thought, by another thought, it appears as if there is a thinker, but this is a mistaken identity which appears to take on it's own separate life form separate from the thought ie: here there is a thought so I must be thinking that thought, when in truth there's just thought arising and falling in you the I Am that is not a thought or a thing. When no thoughts are present, the I Am of pure existence is totally self shining so the question would not even arise...only when thought is present does the question arise. So all that's happening is thought asking thought what thought is.
It's like asking electricity what it's like to be electricity, one isn't going to get an answer any time soon, or the answers may come all at once to the one question it will ever need to ask.
I will find some links tomorrow to back up and clarify what I'm trying to say here.