Thought
I Think Therefore I Am (insane)
Cogito ergo sum (insania)
'I Think Therefore I Am' was a statement made by René Descartes and although it can be argued to mean many different things it is not the basis of the statement being made here. My concern is about the effects.
It is obvious that there is thought but how is it created, who created it and has it anything to do with the reality of what a human being is. This will probably be continually discussed, believed and pondered until it becomes unnecessary through lack of interest, or directly experienced beyond thought.
A problem cannot be solved by the same consciousness that created it. Einstein:
There's a thought!
Most people believe that they are their thought process or at least believe that the thoughts that arise in their mind are theirs and belong to them. This is no more true than a BBC radio broadcast belonging to the radio which receives it.
Thoughts arise in the mind of the so called individual to support the conscious state or vibration he or she is in.
in other words; wherever one focuses their attention, which is powered by emotional fears and other misguided psychological defects; thoughts will come to amplify and support that mental process, and on and on it goes and grows into the malady we call the universal human condition.
Question? What is going to be your next thought. Anyone who has spent any time practicing meditation will say that they generally have a difficult time trying to concentrate on a specific subject while spurious thoughts keep arising in the background trying to claim their attention. It is usually then that we are told we need to spend time trying to control thought in order to create a peaceful state, but this control is in itself stressful. It seems to me that if thought arises in us without our permission and those thoughts are not welcome at the time they arise, then we have no control over our thought processes. So who is it that doesn't have control and why is the mind producing thoughts that we don't want. These thoughts are not me obviously, they arise in me. I am the one who is being troubled by them. How many people are not able to sleep at night because thought is so intense due to worry which causes all kinds of mental, emotional and physical stress and disease. Eventually we go to sleep and dream these stressful thoughts and the only time we get any rest from them is in deep sleep. I am sure most people in the world have experienced this situation many times in their lives, but is this normal and if it isn't, what can be done to rectify it?
So many philosophies and religions say, 'learn to control your mind', which creates more conflict, or 'get to some thoughtless state' which is only temporary like deep sleep, and in the process we become thoughtless human beings living in a cave or a world of our own. Alternatively we are told to think positively in the midst of the bombardment of negative thoughts.
When I was very young a neighbour who lived in a flat, two stories above me on the twelfth floor, walked to the fourteenth floor, jumped off and impaled herself on the railings below. Even at a young age I imagined the conversation going on inside of her head that eventually suggested to her to kill herself. I then imagined all of the conversations going on in other peoples' heads that I couldn't hear. What would I be hearing if I could. Later as I got older I realised what they were by seeing the outside effects in the world. Insanity in a multitude of forms masquerading as intelligence and hidden in the realm of thought.
So there is a serious problem here that is shared by all of mankind. Are we supposed to be in this condition?
I Think Not!....
Therefore I am Not Insane!
So here is how it seems to me.
Human beings do not think in the way we think we think. I think we are insanely attached to thought.
Confusing yes! Because the thoughts haven't arranged themselves into a pattern of satisfactory understanding or what is commonly termed belief. So please suspend your beliefs for a few moments, you can have them back later.
Let us look at this in a different way.
Start with me or you, the so called self. The one who is looking, now. The one who is hearing and so on, or more to the point the awareness that is experiencing. It is the same awareness that was experiencing in the past when we were younger and had a different body with different thoughts, memories and intelligence and will be the same one in the future when the body grows old and the experience expands or contracts. While all of these things changed, awareness remained the same. no labels, just awareness. The same awareness that is looking out of this body having a different experience.
This awareness that can be sensed has only one ability. and that is to pay attention. The free will to pay attention to whatever is desired in the present moment which is experienced as time. This is the experience of life.
What can it choose to pay attention to? It can pay attention to 'itself', which is internal or It can pay attention to anything external in the seeming creation outside. Simple!
The confusion comes as awareness is faced with a myriad of useless and stressful thoughts arising in the mind that start to claim the attention, which is falsely believed to be the truth. All it has is attention and this is where it mistakenly chooses to apply it, ceaseless thoughts derived in fear without knowing. The constant flow of thought, clouding the mind, and leaving no room for direct present experience.
Awareness is you, it is me and it is one, and not the objects it pays attention to. The objects are the playground for awareness.
Awareness is present and changeless and not restricted by time. The playground is bound in time and constantly changing.
Am I suggesting that there should be no thought? No!
I am suggesting that the thoughts should exist as a personal aid in physical life instead of a continual source of threat and control. Then we can choose to pay attention to them as and when they are needed because they do not demand attention due to fear. Only then we can have free experience of life in a natural state.
If a thought arises in the mind with no background fear present, then one is either living in a natural state or in the prison of one’s own false security. Thoughts cannot provide truth, only opinionated belief. Freedom is felt naturally and for no reason at all.Thoughts appear after the fact.
If this is true then there is also a reason why this problem has arisen.
Why have our thoughts become so fearful? Because they are derived from fear! Answer found? No!
Fear is the first effect of the source problem which is the misidentification of who or what we really are.
So who or what are we? We are the one who is experiencing, simply you, nothing added, always there, and if we give the attention to that, the problem will dissolve.