Thoughts

In ancient times, wisdom was not conveyed in plain thoughts, but clothed in images. These images are not to be understood by our intellect as plain truths. Wisdom is given, but given in pictures. Everyone who is living in our stressful world will recognize the ‘gifts’ from Pandora’s box: cares and troubles - and hopes, all being the subject of our thoughts. Thinking goes on and on, for as long as we live. It even continues when we are sleeping. When we fall asleep or when we wake up, we grasp some snatches of these thoughts when later remembering our dreams.

The moment we recognize that our thinking is never restful or peaceful, we start longing for such rest. Thinking can be beautiful and hopeful, filled with love-thoughts whenever we are daydreaming ... but it can also be tormenting and generate all kinds of stress. Thoughts are, in fact, mostly conscious feelings. First come the feelings, then the thoughts follow, and through thinking we become conscious about these feelings.

Trying to flee from our thoughts is a fruitless undertaking. We can fly to Australia or Tibet or Brazil, and so escape from our everyday circumstances. These everyday thoughts will change, too - but our deeper feelings that are the content of thinking will travel with us, wherever we go. In earlier times it was easier to make a fresh start - for instance during three weeks of vacation - because all the ties to home were broken for a time and our feelings faded away... In modern times we have our what’s app, sms and gmail with us - and we never quit thinking in our normal way .

The new forms of social media supply us with thoughts in all corners of the world, and it even can be scary if we have no access to the internet or to some other network. We carry Pandora’s Box around with our smartphone in our pocket or our bag; it is a source of happiness, but also a source of worries and troubles of every kind. Thoughts, images, conversations, likes, dislikes, shares ... pop up every minute, just like our thoughts do. Our thoughts guide the use of the ‘box’, but are also being directed in a way by the box.

We go to a wellness-center, for massage, diet, fitness, sauna, swimming... and the thoughts just keep rolling on, even getting stronger, the more I relax! Maybe they will stop when I have run 40 kilometers, because by then I will be so tired, that my thoughts will only be about my physical feelings and the question of how to reach the finish - but that can hardly be called a relaxation.

So we try to relax - and realize that thoughts never relax. They go on and on, and on - till death ... or maybe they will still go on after death? What a terrible idea...

In Buddhism, Zen-Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga, and in the western mindfulness programmes, these problems with thinking are well-known. Krishnamurti was an independent teacher for the western people on the basis of eastern principles. He tried to teach us how to recognize thinking as the spring of all disputes, both inner and outer, of all struggles and fights. He recognized thinking as being built up by country of birth, family, education - as a burden that makes it impossible to live our lives. His art was guiding the attention to perception and to the recognition that if the perceiver and the perception are one, there can be no dispute, no struggle. His lectures remain wonderful to read, suggesting the possibility of finding rest and peace in our inner lives, by ‘taking off our thinking cap’.

Thoughts distract our attention to life, they turn us into beings that are fully absorbed in ourselves - or in the small ‘box’ in our hand that resembles our outward self; this box seems to have become a thing that bears thoughts, that produces thoughts. We see people walking around with ‘thoughts’ in their hands, ‘thoughts’ that are even more difficult to stop than their own thoughts - although the ‘box’ could be kept unopened ... or could easily be closed. So what is the use of this book? Another book about finding happiness? If so, then let’s just go to the oriental masters or to the courses on mindfulness and yoga. That thoughts are a source of stress and egoism is clear enough. That it would be very good to find a way to regulate thinking, is also clear enough. But the question is: How do we do that, how do we proceed? And then, what do we achieve by proceeding towards regulating our thinking?

This is a quote from my book 'The art of thinking', coming soon!

 
Thoughts by Mieke Mosmuller