One Thought Layer Deep

Many times, it feels the likes, dislikes, interests, and even to the extent of our personalities are just one thought layer deep. Our mind, so externally focused, is always quick to make an impression or opinion on whatever it comes across, of which most of the times a reaction follows defining our actions and in turn our perceived personalities.

Any reaction for something outside stays outside, and not from within. An intellectual person analyses, contemplates outer world through his own thoughts habitually constructed, outwardly. This reminds me of a dialogue from movie “god must be crazy – part 1” where the narrator says in the beginning of the movie, “we create a complex world and spend billions of dollars understanding that complexity.” In general opinion, the more complex the ‘thought constructs’ the more intelligent.

More curious and even crazy is how a same object can create such different thoughts and impressions in different people.  This trait is a deeper characteristic of so-called “being human”,  where we attribute this difference in the thoughts to objects outside and mark them good/bad/right/wrong/lovable/dangerous depending our different one-thought layer deep personalities.

Why are our thoughts so different from one person to another? Why are we the “set of thoughts” we are? Why are we not a different “set of thoughts”? Why are we a “set of thoughts” at a certain age and a different “set of thoughts” at another age?  What is it that makes us? Until few months back, I was fond of this phrase “a collections of thoughts wrapped around in organic tissue.” Thought the fondness is not there much now, but the aptness of the phrase still is the same – as I could not find a much better definition.

If we are a collection of thoughts – how many thoughts constitute a person? More number of thoughts is definitely not proportional to physical size of brain. If so, then where do they hide? Few stimuli can bring back thoughts from decades back. Again, in this case – where were these thoughts for all these decades?

In one of the conversations, I was told that that thoughts are like waves on a sea and their nature is to keep rising and falling – with stimulus or without. It is simply the nature of a thought. Waves originate from the Ocean, but where do thoughts originate? Given the number of thoughts that gush the mind consciously or unconsciously – I could only imagine a place as huge as an ocean as their storage. An invisible ocean of thoughts lying inside every one of us, constituting each one of us, which somehow only the brain could access. Like the rise and fall of waves, thoughts just come and play on the screen of mind, for mind to comprehend/react/act, and then go back to the “nowhere ocean.”

What kind of thoughts are actually thoughts? Is the thought that makes you think about a thought is a thought as well? Perhaps, simply put, it is like seeing your mirror image through another mirror I guess. If we think of constructing a house, buying a car, planning for future, playing chess etc., we know we are thinking and can definitely say these are thoughts.

Some activities we do each day without much of “thought” going in to them – brushing teeth, taking bath, eating on time (though we may consciously think what we have to eat, but the act of eating itself may not need so much ‘thought’) – mostly often mentioned as habits – are they not thoughts? Definitely yes, as the stimulus has to arise from brain itself – but the code for these thoughts are so often transcribed on and on each day that there is no effort at all in playing them. So habituated we get to these thoughts, that most of time mind just acts by reflexes – they are all thoughts nonetheless.

Habits, reflexes, feels and sensory experiences all thoughts so much programmed in the mind that it is tough to tell the difference – also we have different names for each of them, making them more conspicuous. So many thoughts always playing in the mind – some conscious, and many more times sub-conscious make me wonder what would have been the very first thought we had at all in the first place.

Is it possible that there is no thought at all? How would it be? When you sit still, and try not think anything (maybe with yoga or meditation), you are still “aware” of yourself and you know exist and of course you are living. There is vast amount of data on internet to differentiate between awareness of thought and thinking of a thought. Somehow, it is not so convincing to me and they both are present within the brain/mind. Being aware of thought can enable to better process a thought, and even enable the outward reaction related to a thought to be more in ‘control.’ For me both of them different, though subtly, but both are still thoughts nonetheless.

I read somewhere that there is a theory dated back to 17^th century that mentions, “Human mind is like a blank slate at birth without any rules for processing data, and that the data is added and rules for processing it are formed solely by one’s sensory experiences.

Though, I disagree to this theory as well, because of my acquired thoughts through years that fetus can react to external stimuli, and that ‘thoughts’ can start forming in the brain even before birth, somehow get curious with this term “blank slate.” Perhaps, this could be state where there is no thought at all or even that there is no awareness of self.

Somehow all this discussion above makes me lead to one possibility – without a thought, brain does not exist. For brain to exist – it has to think. Moreover, if there is no thought at all, then there is no awareness of existence too and thinking is the very nature of brain/mind.

Is it even possible to “consciously be” in blank slate? ....................