Angela, I subscribe to the Taoist belief that creating a dichotomy automatically creates a breach in our understanding of reality, because nothing real exists separate from anything else. A tree is not separate from a rock, a planet is not separate from the sun, good is not separate from evil, except by out definition. Logical reasoning, which I consider to be the ultimate goal of thought, is limited by the fact that it is a subjective interpretation of objective reality. But no matter how good that interpretation is, it is not truly real. No matter how well meteorologists interpret the weather systems, they can never perfectly predict them. So yes, on one level, it is necessary that one examine their thoughts (oddly enough, by thinking about them) to discover the ones that are contradictory to reality, but on another level one must realize that no matter how much they think, it is impossible for reason to recreate the real. Reason is simply a tool used to root out all the thoughts that contradict reality, and once those have been discarded, one is not left with anything but true being, existence without thought or reason or definition. And if one can attain a state where one does not define things in terms of this or that, but rather exists with them as a whole, my belief is that that person is truly enlightened.
Of course, for any of this to be valid you must subscribe to the belief that subjective reality is merely an artifact of objective reality, but I'll hardly be able to convince anybody willing to argue against me on that issue since I have no proof. I hope that you are not one of them, since the idea of subjective realism to me is an attempt to further separate one's self from the universal whole, and to define one's self as a singular unit around which the universe revolves. Basically, it's an egotistical idea that you are somehow special or unique from the world you live it, and I can only imagine it to be based on an insecurity that one must feel special and unique and separate and in control. But I digress, and I will cut myself off before I do so further.
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