Wise Words
Thoughts On Thought
Chongeswar
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**Thoughts on Thought.** Innumerable thoughts run through a mind about lot of things, but very few people think about thoughts. There are many who are not even aware of their own thoughts, and then there are the few who are aware of their thoughts. Those who are aware can classify them as useful/non-useful, positive/negative, new/ recurring, moral/immoral, light/heavy, relevant/irrelevant , fleeting /sustained , sinple /complex, etc. There can be further classifications and categorizations, which can be endless, as the mind has this capability. It can keep dividing. Interestingly, in Old English (500–1100 CE), two verbs existed: þencan → deliberate thinking, and þyncan → “it seems” or “appears.” One referred to active mental effort, and the other to the appearance of something in awareness. It became necessary and prudent to settle the debate between thinking and thought before the article moves forward. ***Does a person think, or does a thought appear to a person?*** Let us recall the following instances. What did you think just before your so-called natural bodily reaction? Or when someone scared you from behind? What is going to be your next thought? If this seems unfair, can you tell me what you are going to be thinking about in the next five minutes? You might have observed how your thinking varies during exams or when you are scared, tense, or in a panic. On numerous occasions, when you admitted that you could not think clearly, you could have thought better. “I did not think of all the parameters, possibilities, and conditions available.” “I could not think logically.” “How often, in retrospect, do we think we could have thought and done better?”--and regret it. *Thinking differs depending on the situation, your physical state, hunger, emotions, age, gender, and projected consequences.* If a person thinks, then they must have control over their thinking. They should be able to start or stop thinking as they wish, but this does not match our own experience. Every one of us would have experienced our own Eureka moment--thoughts that come out of the blue. If you care to look and observe without ideas or concepts. Thoughts appear and disappear; thoughts come and go. So, a model of the process can also be imagined or drawn. A thought **does not contain** information; rather, it represents data or information that can be interpreted in many ways. There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit - Vichāra (विचार). One of its roots is char (चर्), which means movement. So, movement is inherent in the word vichar (thought). **Thinking is the movement of thought.** Thought is a mental phenomenon, a mental event, or, better, a mental object that moves through the mind. A thought can be in the form of images, figures, phrases, or words. A person does not think; thoughts appear in a mental frame. “I” do not think."I" is a Thought. ………………………………............................................................................................................................................................ The most obvious observation about thought, for most of us, one thought is followed by another, and the chain starts. It is better to call it a train of thought. The train keeps moving. Only its speed varies. Sometimes it pauses, but it keeps moving. The only issue is that its movement is random. station is not fixed; it moves in random directions, from one thought to another. instead of saying that one thought attracts another thought, it is better to say that one thought follows another. There is a kind of pull. Let me draw a picture for you. One thought, another thought, and then another--perhaps about the same topic. Then another thought emerges from it, a random thought followed by a few successive thoughts out of topic. Then your attention comes back to the previous topic, and the train moves in that direction. Then there is another pause, and movement kicks in .Perhaps one thought can trigger several new thoughts in different directions .So, *a thought can be a cause and a thought can be an effect too*. This train keeps on going , only intensity differs depending on the state of the mind (waking, dreaming and sleeping etc ).Most of us are aware of the only end of it, messier part. <br><br><div><img width='75%' src='images/52995902-THOUGHT.png'></div><br><br> A very interesting question can arise: What could have been our first thought, the one that set the ball rolling? If we look at the picture or observe the thoughts, we can see that the **types of thoughts may depend on our tendencies**, but ***most of a person's thoughts are about “me,” “my,” and “mine.***” We can infer backwards that the first thought was... “I.” “I” is the first thought.* …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… P.S. *Very interestingly , वि- (vi-) is a prefix in Vichāra (विचार) means separation, division, distinction, opposition . now what did the first thought/ Vichāra (विचार ) separates or divides from ?. Contemplate. Peace. 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