How do you think?

reply to post by arpgme


Peace is silence.
Thought cannot bring about peace - it disturbs peace.
Peace is always here beneath the noise - listening.

Originally posted by prjct
reply to post by Itisnowagain

 

I have been reading deeply the past few days about awareness and your post is timely……is awareness possibly the long lost "secret"…..it has been entertaining to consciously be aware of myself…..observing "me"…….it's a fun "exercise"…..reminding me of the soccer ball we're asked to imagine and once we do it's always there……

Hmmmmmmm

Who is this 'self' that 'you' are aware of?
Awareness is what you are. You are aware of what is appearing - always present and aware.

reply to post by gosseyn

The biggest problem has been the clear separation between mind and body that they "invented", which has led us to the clear separation between hard science and "non-hard science", aka social sciences.

Exactly. This is the result of Platonic idealism. Our answers are basically the same.

I had a chance to think about this (no pun intended) when someone asked me how I was able to answer so many random questions about what I did for a living. (I was a tax accountant) I have a great mind for trivia, but larger thought seems to overwhelm me. But, I was able to describe my thought process when recalling a fact or explaining a concept.

Imagine an infinitely large table full of Rolodex files. As I search for the particular answer I'm looking for, the table shifts and the Rolodex files shuffle. Remembering a section of a textbook takes me to the particular area of tax law I'm seeking. That leads me to a paragraph of a publication I read. That takes me to a snippet of lecture I attended which sends me to the section of code I need. This information tells me exactly where I can pull my reference guide and show the questioner the answer.

Larger issues such as "why am I here", "is there a God", "what is the meaning of existence" tend to get worked out while I talk to myself in the car. No clue where I'm accessing those ideas.

reply to post by Mountainmeg


Great way of putting it. It seems interesting that we have to always resort to imagery when articulating thinking. The mind as a rolodex works well.

reply to post by Wang Tang


Thanks WangTang that is what I was looking for.

It seems we think the same way. When I am not focused on thinking, thought lashes out at the sensations and ideas it wants to. When I am focused on thinking, I start thinking about focusing on thinking, and thoughts never seem to arise as easily when I'm not focused on it.

I really like 'desire are thoughts,' I have never heard that before. Something to think about.

reply to post by jiggerj

When my thoughts are purposeful (focused on work, chatting with others, worrying about family, my bills...) I think in a straight line. 1. Problem, 2. Think on what I need to do to arrive at a solution, and 3. Think on what the solution would mean to all concerned.

However, when my mind is free of the concerns of reality, I am of two minds. I involuntarily daydream scenarios where I'm the bad guy, then suddenly switch to being the hero. Hopefully this simply means that I'm human. I imagine a drop-dead-gorgeous woman that I ache to know intimately, yet know that she would have nothing to do with me. So, I kidnap her, and just as I'm about to partake of her, my mind clicks over to the good guy, and the bad guy becomes someone else. Then I save her in a way that is nothing short of heroic.

Other times I'm flying a futuristic plane that sprays a deadly poison that only kills humans. I do this in order to reduce the population, and then I'm frantically handing out the antidote in order to save as many as I can.

I've never heard this before in my life. Both good and bad guy? I wonder if this helps you psychoanalyze people by understanding both aspects. I might have to try that....

Love this topic,

I think I am an intuitive thinker, but I am not able to communicate my thought into words,

I have a topic on my forum on thoughts,

I think everything I think, someone thought before me.

reply to post by Itisnowagain

Thought is an 'appearance' that comes and goes, as you say - it comes when it wants. So how can you believe that it is you that is thinking?

I've been in a desert for a prolonged amount of time, no one around me for many miles. The only thing thinking about water in that dessert, and connecting it to things I've experienced, was me.

He who sees the body, the mind, the soul, 'I', 'me', the one observing the observer etc. as mere abstractions of the same thing doesn't need to further ponder ideas that cast doubt on it. You should instead stop abstracting yourself.

reply to post by Stormdancer777

I think everything I think, someone thought before me.

On the contrary my dear friend! Everything you think, though it may be similar to the thoughts of others, is done through your perspective and fostered in the the environment of your own memories—all of them, every single one you could ever remember. Your thoughts are entirely unique. There is nothing else like them.

Thought is the consequence of consciousness, and imagination, thought creates form, endless thoughts, imagination and consciousness awoke, action.

New revelations, the possibilities were endless, thoughtless machination poured forth without vision.

Imagination, inspiration, and intuition, curiosity,

Curiosity sought the secrets of the universe,

We have evidence of this, and of that, and of the other, we theorize and hypothesize we are like nothing every beheld, before, forever,

Emotional boredom, can you have both?

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

I think everything I think, someone thought before me.

On the contrary my dear friend! Everything you think, though it may be similar to the thoughts of others, is done through your perspective and fostered in the the environment of your own memories—all of them, every single one you could ever remember. Your thoughts are entirely unique. There is nothing else like them.

I never thought about it that way, but I do realize that my thoughts come from another source and many sources throughout my life.

Then they are compiled into my data bank.

The question is what is really happening when you are not thinking, are you really here or there, is consciousnesses just inhabiting form, and were is your consciousness when it isn't self-aware?

reply to post by Itisnowagain

Do you believe you are the content of your mind? 'Mind' is really only the thought that is appearing presently - no one has ever experienced 'mind' - 'mind' is just a word that describes something no one has ever seen. A thought appears and moves and changes to another thought - in humans there is not much space between them.

In a moment of silence the senses are keenly aware. The moment of silence is the space between thought, a gap. Awareness is silently watching the appearances appear - the appearance can appear as a thought.
A thought is content. Awareness is the container. Thought is like a picture appearing on a screen - no thought/picture can appear without the screen of awareness being present. Underneath the picture/thought awareness is hiding (in the plain act of seeing (and knowing) - the truth is hidden in plain sight).

You cannot silence yourself. You are silence 'itself'. To discover 'self' all content must be seen as 'not me'.
Neti, neti - not this, not this. You are what never appears. You are the awareness of what is appearing.

You are awareness. You are the aware space in which all appearances appear - thought is just an appearance.

These are the ideas you've abstracted me into in this post:
- silence 'itself'
- what never appears
- the awareness of what is appearing
- awareness
- the aware space in which all appearances appear

Like the rest of us, you use your thought to abstract me into an idea you feel comfortable with. You've made me into at least five different concepts for the purposes of attempting to define me to me. Now if I am not my thoughts, I am certainly not yours.

You claim thought is an appearance; well then certainly your thoughts on thoughts, awareness, the act of seeing (knowing) etc. are appearances as well, yet you will not regard them as so.

'Aware' is an adjective, a description. Turning 'aware' into 'Awareness' is turning that description, that 'appearance', into a thing, which is, of course, folly and untrue. Consequently, I am not awareness—no one is, nothing is.

Ok so if conscious thought exist outside of form, are we just like authors in a novel, and form is imaginary, and when you have those thought free moments of bliss, you are outside of the material universe.

maybe not,

reply to post by Stormdancer777

The question is what is really happening when you are not thinking, are you really here or there, is consciousnesses just inhabiting form, and were is your consciousness when it isn't self-aware?

Look at the dream. When one is unconscious, thinking still happens, except it isn't very grounded or connected to sensual experienced. Thinking stops happening when the brain is no longer.

'Consciousness' is an appearance of something being conscious. Appearances cannot be conscious of themselves. I know others treat consciousness as if it was something, but it really isn't.

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope

It seems as though thought comes when it wants to and not when I want it. It arrives as a torrential river and a chaotic melody of memory and sensual experience. Only through focus can I recognize myself in it, and attempt to fish from it certain ideas.

When focusing, what did you recognize as yourself?

reply to post by LesMisanthrope

I've never heard this before in my life. Both good and bad guy? I wonder if this helps you psychoanalyze people by understanding both aspects. I might have to try that....

Not sure if it's something you can try. I don't consciously control it. Maybe subconsciously my Id, ego and superego are battling it out. I dunno.

reply to post by Itisnowagain

When focusing, what did you recognize as yourself?

A reflection representing everything I've ever experienced.

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

The question is what is really happening when you are not thinking, are you really here or there, is consciousnesses just inhabiting form, and were is your consciousness when it isn't self-aware?

Look at the dream. When one is unconscious, thinking still happens, except it isn't very grounded or connected to sensual experienced. Thinking stops happening when the brain is no longer.

'Consciousness' is an appearance of something being conscious. Appearances cannot be conscious of themselves. I know others treat consciousness as if it was something, but it really isn't.

Let me think about it.

I understand your point that consciousness is not a separate entity.

Thought creates.

Sadly the thoughts fly out of my mind before i can express them.

A thought is a process.

No two thoughts are identical, because the process of thought never happens the same way twice.

Abstract concepts that a thought draws from may be identical.