On Thought

On Thought

One of the practices of mindfulness meditation is the following: to observe thoughts without engaging with them. This practice is also known as ‘noting’. To perform this practice, one simple notes that a particular thought has arisen and continues to observe the mind for the next thought.

Some period into practicing this noting meditation it occured to me that thoughts simply appear without my doing anything about it. Certainly I can direct my mind to think about certain topics when I want to, but in this situation I’m not directing my mind to think about anything at all but there they are; thoughts. This realization that thoughts appear spontaneously and without my input prompts me to wonder: where do they come from? What causes them? Who is thinking these thoughts if not me? Why these thoughts?

In yogic theory there is a concept of “latent impressions” called samskaras in Sanskrit. It is the concept that as one goes through their life, events and reactions to events leave impressions in the mind. These impressions can be activated later on, causing thoughts and actions based on those thoughts. When we become aware that perhaps we are reacting to an image of the past, then we can choose to look more clearly at the present situation and choose to act differently. In this way, samkaras dissipate.

Modern neuroscience tells us succintly that “neurons that fire together, wire together.” Our minds and thought patterns are creatures of habit. We can influence our stream of spontaneous thought by choosing to think the kinds of thoughts we’d like to have come to us unbidden when we are actively using our minds.

The mind is essentially constantly in a state of motion. Yoga is the practice of yoking or restraining the mind, and one of the tenets of yoga is that the cessation of the swirling of mind-stuffs precedes the capacity to experience reality as it is. Left to its own devices, the mind is essentially constantly spewing out something. Viewing the mind this way, it’s not so much a question of why I’m having thoughts without actively thinking but rather that this is the normal state of things– I’ve just never noticed until I sat down and observed my mind.

Our bodies perform numerous functions autonomously; perhaps it ought not to be so suprising to consider that the mind does too.

With practice, one can quiet the mind so that it spews fewer spontaneous thoughts around. Another interesting result from observing the mind is seeing how many thoughts the mind insists are true but are fairly easily to demonstrate are false.

More profound than the realization that I am not entirely in control of my thoughts is the realization that the being that is aware of thought is separate from thought and the source of thought.