Original Thinking

In Original Thinking, Glenn Aparicio Parry delves into the evolution of Western thought to recover the living roots of wisdom that can correct the imbalances in our modern worldview. Inspired by groundbreaking dialogues that the author organized between Native American elders and leading-edge Western scientists to explore the underlying principles of the cosmos, this book offers a radical revisioning of how we think. Asking questions such as, Is it possible to come up with an original thought?, What does it mean to be human?, and How has our thinking created our world today?, Parry challenges us to consider many of our most basic assumptions. To think originally--as in thinking new thoughts that have never been thought or said before--is according to Parry, largely an illusion. So, too, is the idea of linear human progress. Most of us have traveled far from our ancestral lands, and in so doing, lost connection with place, the origin of our consciousness.

Original Thinking offers a radical revisioning of how we think and what it means to be human. It invites us to reintegrate our hearts with our heads and to expand our self-imposed narrowing of consciousness. In doing so we reconnect with the living, original source--nature and her interconnected elements and cycles--and embrace the communion of old and new, rational and intuitive, and masculine and feminine. Ultimately, Parry shows us how to create the tapestry of truly original thinking and to restore thought as a blessing, as a whole and complete transmission from Spirit.

Contents

PART ONE (ORIGIN): Is it possible to come up with an original thought?

Chapter 1. Original Thought, Time, and the Unfolding of Consciousness

Chapter 2. Looking Backward to Go Forward

Chapter 3. Wheels Within Wheels

Chapter 4. It''s About Time

PART TWO (DEPARTURE): What does it mean to be human?

Chapter 5. Purpose, Potential, and Responsibility of Being Human

Chapter 6. Rational Thought and Human Identity

Chapter 7. Re-thinking Language

Chapter 8. Beyond Rationality

Chapter 9. A Tale of Two Directions

PART THREE (RETURN): How has our thinking created the world today,

and what is emerging?

Chapter 10. The Essence of Thought

Chapter 11. To Make Thought Whole Again

Chapter 12. To Think Without Separation

Chapter 13. Re-Thinking the "Dismal Science"

Chapter 14. Toward An Original Economics

PART FOUR (RENEWAL): Can education promote the renewal of original thinking?

Chapter 15. Education as Renewal

Chapter 16. Childhood and Education

Chapter 17. Higher Education

Chapter 18. A New (and Ancient) Vision

Chapter 19. A Vision for Higher Education