What is the highest form of intelligence?

Rabbi Landau teaches that the highest form of intelligence is not thinking. It is “the ability to think about what you’re thinking,” noticing a thought while it is happening.

There is a level above thought, he explains: watching yourself think, catching the thought as it happens. “That’s the highest place a human mind can reach.” Every person has thoughts, but most people think all day without ever stepping outside them. That step back is where awareness begins.

He finds this in the verse “Nasati es libi lachakor,” “I gave my heart to examine.” Not just to think, but to observe. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau notes that thoughts usually come by themselves, yet King Solomon speaks as if he handed his heart over on purpose. “I gave my heart” is a choice to turn your awareness toward the act of thinking itself, and not only toward what the thought is about.

Also answered in this teaching

How do I deal with stray thoughts during prayer?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that fighting an unwanted thought often makes it stronger. Instead, notice it: the moment you see the thought, there is space between you and it, and you are no longer swallowed by it.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

The highest intelligence is awareness of your own thinking while it is happening.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Thoughts roll in by themselves, and a person finds himself inside them without ever deciding to go in. Most people never step outside their thoughts.

Underlying need or longing

A person wants to be in charge of his inner world rather than carried by it. In the book, Rabbi Landau writes that whoever watches from above is in control, and whoever is swallowed up is controlled.

Deepest human truth

Rabbi Landau writes that when a person becomes a watcher over his own inner world, he becomes like his Maker, who watches over His world, and through that very looking he opens his heart to Hashem.

More questions from this teaching

• What does “I gave my heart to examine” mean?