As you’re sitting there thinking - do you even know what’s taking place?

Probably you don’t. Me neither. There are so few people that have really looked at thought and tried to learn about it. Yet, our thoughts are flying around in our mind 16 hours everyday in a waking state, and another 8 hours in a sleeping state every single day.

What is thought? I’m going to do my best to analyze my thoughts here and write down what they are. I’m like you, I’ve never really analyzed them in-depth. I’ve meditated before - by focusing on the breath - Vipassana style- and watched thoughts arise… link to other thoughts - and seemingly disappear. But, I’ve not really looked AT thoughts. I’ve not tried to describe them in words verbally or online. So, let’s see what happens.

Initially my idea is that thoughts are me being creative, expressing my intelligence by linking things together to form solutions. I’m proactively directing my thoughts to different questions, areas, and trying to find answers. Isn’t that what thought is? I think so. I think thought is posing questions to myself and then my mind flies through possibilities like a computer on “search”. As an answer becomes available I can list it alongside other possibilities or I can edit it, change it to make it a better answer to the question. Or, I can make a decision - no - it doesn’t fit at all and it goes away as a possibility.

So, that’s my initial idea of what thought is. This kind of thought occurs when I’m actively searching for an answer to some issue, some problem, some question.

Wait a second. I guess this would be just one kind of thought. Are there many?

What other types of thought are there? I guess there are a few kinds. I think dreams involve thought. My lucid dreams definitely involve thought as I’m making decisions what I want to do in the dream. I think I have thought where I can hear my voice in my head. I think I can hear other people’s voices in my head as I remember something they’ve said. I think I have visual thoughts too. Do I?

As I’m investigating this - already I realize - there are many different things going on in my mind. We have a habit of calling it all - thought. But, all thought is not the same apparently. We lump everything into the word, “thought”. It’s obvious to me already that the many things we call thought can’t all be thrown into the same word. There are many types of thought.

As I get started I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’ll do some observation periods followed by some writing about what I experienced. I’ll look at my thoughts and see if I can come up with something to describe them in a way that you might be able to identify with if you did the same exercise. Are my thoughts unique? Yes, probably - but, the process - the thinking processes that go on are most likely shared by everyone - yes? Or, maybe not. Not at all sure at this point.

Did Einstein have a different way of thinking? Qualitatively, was it vastly different than our own thoughts - and, if everyone could think in the same way as he did - could we also approach his brilliance? If Einstein’s way of thinking was responsible for his great contributions to the world - is there any way we could copy them if we knew what they were? What about Steven Hawking? Could he describe to us the way he thinks in a way that we could begin to duplicate it? Could we all become 180 IQ Wile. E. Coyote, supergeniuses? Quite possibly I think. But, lets start with this simple observation first

1st Observation. What do I see, hear, feel when I close my eyes and look at thought? (10 seconds)

OK, within 2 seconds I learned something fascinating. I heard the hammer of a guy working on some houses that are being built on the side of our villa. As the noise of the hammer striking something registered in my mind I saw a mind picture of concentric circles around the spot in my field of vision that closed in on where the noise was coming from. I’ll create an image below to describe it.

Click image to enlarge.

A big circle filled my field of view then was replaced by a smaller one, and a smaller and successively smaller one until it focused in on the area of my field of vision the sound originated from (in this case - right in front of me since I’m facing the side wall - and where the hammer was hit about 40 meters beyond the wall). The other spots on the field of vision image above will be explained shortly.

I can tell already this is going to be an EPIC post of thousands of words. Since I could already talk volumes about what I learned in just a 10 second observation.

What is a mind picture? I don’t know myself as I haven’t studied them before today. I’ve seen them - but never tried to describe them. They aren’t really visual pictures. In this instance my eyes were closed - but, my eyeballs were facing forward. If I opened my eyelids - my eyes would be open. My eyes had not rolled back into my head as they do when I’m really relaxing or sleeping.

When I say I “saw” concentric circles in the form of a mind picture - I didn’t really see anything with my eyes. The feeling was that there were concentric circles forming - and getting smaller and smaller around the source of the hammer’s noise, but - visually - I don’t think there was anything to “see”. My mind created the circles - as a mind picture. Or, I was experiencing the movement of the mind perhaps. Yes, that could be it - I experienced the mind moving. When the mind moves it is focusing it’s attention on something. As it does this it doesn’t correspond to any of the 5 senses that enable us to perceive it - so, a picture was created (felt) and that’s how I experienced what the mind did.

Not sure, but that makes some sense to me. I could talk for another 30 minutes, but I’m anxious to see what else I can learn about thought.

2nd Observation, 10 seconds

I saw that when the eyes are closed the mind is still aware of a visual field of view. It’s a greyish - reddish field of view. Like a half circle, flat at the bottom. When sounds are heard - whatever they are - they register on a location in that field of view. The bird chirping on my right side at a 45 degree angle to straight in front of me registered about 45 degrees in my field of view. The mind just sort of noted that that’s where the sound was coming from. When I heard another bird, chirping more quietly the mind moved to a place just left of the first bird. So the 2nd bird chirp was coming from about 40 degrees to straight ahead.
Was that correct? Was the 2nd bird to the left of the 1st bird? Not sure, so I’ll check.

Looking out my front door where they’re both still chirping - yes it was true. The mind knew the sound of the 2nd bird was to the left of the first one. Hmm, interesting. Logically I can’t figure it out just sitting here with my eyes open, but with them closed, the mind knew. I’ll try to do more about that later. How accurate is the mind in placing sounds with their origin?

So, I saw that the mind marks each sound in a place in the visual field of view as it occurs.

Interestingly the mind doesn’t make a picture of the bird and put it in the place of where the sound is coming from. Nor when a car goes by the main road behind me does the mind show a picture of a car.

3rd Observation, 30 seconds

I closed my eyes and there started this power saw in the construction area. It is a loud sound - cutting up wood with it’s circular blade. In my mind it’s a vibrating picture… the sound is very pulsy - on-off-on-off - very fast - and the mind marks it with an area of shaking movement in the left side field of vision. It is so loud that the mind focuses on it pretty exclusively - almost ignoring birds, cars, and hammering all going on at the same time.

At first the mind is very attentive to hear every variation in the sound of the saw. From the starting of the cut to the ending… and then, it seems the mind gets accustomed to it and wanders just a bit.

It wandered to memory. There it found a mind image of my father cutting wood with a circular saw as he was renovating some area of a house. When I was younger and my father was around, I remember helping him as he renovated whole rooms and built a game room area in our basement. The sound of that saw reminded me of that. The mind brought it out for me to look at. For what reason? Is that the natural function of the mind, to spit back memories?

The way the mind worked when bringing up this memory was interesting… As I was listening to the sound a mental picture (real picture from memory, like a still clip from a video) formed then animated… of a circular saw cutting wood. Then more details were filled in. My dad was holding that saw. Then I saw his cigarette. Then I saw the room we were in. It’s like one memory linked to the other memories in turn…

That distinctive noise meant circular wood saw.
Circular wood saw meant dad.
Dad meant smoking.
Dad and wood saw and smoking meant a certain room that we were in when that memory was formed.

As the room came into view in my mind I opened my eyes to record what happened, not wanting to forget any detail.

So far, very interesting stuff!

4th Observation, about a minute.

A loud motorbike pulled around the road to my right. As it got louder gradually - and then VERY loud I watched as the mind became a bit disturbed. It was as if anger was going to build if it got louder than it was. Then, after the motorbike passed the saw on the left got very loud - the loudest I’ve heard it. The mind was anxious… tight. When the sound died down the tenseness went away.

Apparently there is some threshold within our minds - our ego - that, when surpassed, leads to a tenseness in the mind… the body. This tenseness then leads to anger. I felt in my chest and arms a certain tightness. Or, at least a greater awareness that chest and arms were ‘there’. It felt as a tenseness, though my muscles didn’t tighten up physically that I could feel.

I was going to make this a very long post - but, no point. I’ve learned a LOT already. Too much to really go over in depth.

I learned that when the eyes are closed and thought is observed:

1. The mind moves toward sensations of sound. Sometimes forming mind pictures or mind images that aren’t really images at all - but a movement of the mind represented by the mind as an image or series of images. Concentric circles gradually focusing down on the hammer noise was one example.
2. The mind assigns each sound a place in my field of vision - even when my eyes are closed. It knows rather precisely where to place the sounds in relation to each other.
3. A loud, vibrating, harsh, pulsy sound is seen as a shaking - a movement of the mind that keeps it moving in the area of field of vision corresponding to where it’s coming from in the environment.
4. A sound, once focused on for a time may lead the mind to search memory and find instances of that sound - or similar sound (my dad using the circular saw when i was a small boy). This may lead to other thoughts as each new memory triggers more memories either about that scene or other, related scenes.
5. Loud sounds start to affect the mind as if there is a threshold for acceptable or tolerable sound. Once that limit is approached a tenseness builds in the mind, chest and arms become more tangible - or tense, but it’s more like the mind is associating it’s own tenseness with a place in the body to feel to make it more tangible. Once it starts to be felt in the body - anger starts to arise at the loud noise. It’s too loud to be comfortable. It’s aggravating. It’s not being socially kind or fair because it’s bothering me. I can’t think how I want to, the nose is overpowering my mind’s ability to ignore it.

Pretty interesting. This will need to be a series, I couldn’t possibly sit here for the time that’s necessary and bang this whole book chapter post out. So far we’ve briefly looked at the mind with the eyes closed and auditory stimuli. There were other sensory stimuli taking place at the same time - but I didn’t write about them. Touch, taste, sound, smell… so much to investigate about how the mind works when it “thinks“.

Best of Life!

Since I don’t have answers I’ll ask questions. What are life’s most important questions? There are many questions that we should contemplate during life because questions help guide us and put us on a path to doing something. After all, we should be doing something during life right? I don’t know - that’s one of the questions.

Life’s Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself:

Where did you come from? You could, realistically, spend the rest of your life on this one. It’s more esoteric and you’re likely not going to come up with a satisfactory answer. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask yourself the question anyway! Maybe you WILL come up with an answer that satisfies you.

Were there any special circumstances leading to your birth? I’m not talking about the sexual act itself, I mean along the lines of fate, providence, some plan, some reincarnation type reason for your birth taking place as it did with the parents you were born to.

Is there a point to life, and what is it? Meaning, is there something you need to attain - to reach, in order that life be realized to it’s fullest. Or, is life like a song - the point of life is that every second of everyday you’re living it and doing the best you can - or maybe just realizing it’s there. There’s no goal in a song - there’s no endpoint to be reached, nothing to be accomplished. The song itself is the goal. The enjoyment one feels while listening to a song is the point itself. Is life like that? Or, is life’s point to reach some goal?

What are the activities in life that are worth doing? We can pick any number - millions of things we could do each day, things we could focus on. We’ve got 16 hours to do something with. But what? What of them are “worth doing”? Are they all worth doing? Is life an experiment - we should try everything possible - rack up new experiences? Is life to be reduced to only a couple things worth doing - helping other people through it, and eating and drinking and trying to make the best of it? What role should sleep play? As big a role as possible? What about play? Fun? Joking? Laughing? Eating? Swearing? Physical fitness? Having sex? Thinking about life’s most important questions?

What’s next? If we had any idea what was next that would quickly define for each of us what life meant. Unfortunately, we don’t have any clue about what’s next. Some choose to believe books and what others told them. Some have religious experiences that makes it all clear to them. The majority of us - if we’re honest and face reality, though it’s tough to do so, don’t have a clue what comes next. That being the case we are left to ponder - what is the point of life. Could be anything since we don’t know what’s next - right? If nothing is next - just nothingness, then this life means nothing and the next step too - means nothing. If there is a stronger test of morality or goodness or something that comes next then this life might be seen as a testing ground, a practice for what’s next. If there is mayhem and orgies next then this world might be seen as something we should take seriously. If seriousness is next, then this life maybe should be dedicated to triviality.

Is anything out there smarter than ourselves? Is there someone to answer to after this life? During this life?

If life is ours - can we dictate what happens to it - the length of it? So many people believe suicide is completely wrong - but why? It’s our life. If we don’t see something worthwhile, if we don’t see some point - why continue it?

Who am I? Who, why, what am I? All these questions come out of the “who” am I question. Am I someone important? Am I a blip in the population of humans on the earth? Is anything I do of any real consequence in the world? Or, is it of any consequence later? If I do good now, is there some payback later? Is there some punishment for living a life full of choice one knows inside are foolish, selfish, and that harm others?

Am I more than a body with a guidance center (mind)? Am I more than the sum of my physical parts? Is there something not physical here? Something outside the 3-dimensions our body dwells in? Is sleep another dimension? Does it matter? Is there something inside each of us that continues after death? Does it matter? Is there a universal consciousness to which we all belong to and which we blend with after death? Can we access that now?

Is life a dream that we can only wake up from at death? Is death the beginning of a new dream? Is dreaming a peek at death?

So many questions once the mind starts looking at the basic, Who am I question.

Anymore questions you can think of that we should be asking ourselves?

Best of Life!

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What was the most fun you’ve ever had in your life? Have you ever asked yourself that question? I just did. I’ve never asked my self - well, not true. I think I’ve asked it but it remained unanswered.

First, I’ll define ‘fun’. I don’t mean funny. I have laid on the floor laughing so hard I soaked my pants through as a child laughing with my sister and brother. That’s not fun. That’s funny.

Fun is not laughing as much as it is just enjoying the experience - being totally lost in the experience and enjoying it at the highest level.

Immediately something popped into mind for me as I wrote the sentence above. During meditation (just focusing on the breath) in the first few what Buddhists call “jhana levels” there’s an experience of bliss that is as if you are in heaven. Is it fun - yes, I guess so. It’s more like the best feeling that I’ve ever had in my life. It was pure love, bliss, ecstasy. No, fun is different. Hmm, how to define fun? Maybe best to explain in terms of different experiences.

Experiencing something new is fun. It’s an enjoyable experience. Pleasant. You might smile, but the overriding feeling is that you are experiencing something that is awesome - you might catch yourself and say - this is something I never want to forget. This is the MOST FUN I’VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. Yah, you might even say that because it’s almost as if you’re in a dream and you catch yourself having the most fun you’ve ever had. You want to remember it because you realize - this will likely never happen again - it’s amazing. It’s awesome. Spellbinding fun.

If the fun is elusive - maybe it’s more fun, you know? If you can’t just wake up and do it everyday then maybe the experience is more fun while you’re going through it. Yes, I think so.

Maybe having the most FUN means you know you are experiencing living life at the peak experience possible - in terms of what fun IS to you. If your idea of fun is jumping out of airplanes with a parachute and things that involve danger then bungy jumping might appeal to you - since you don’t have a parachute - it’s the next level… or another level.

For me that would be my idea of terror. I’d do it - but, ‘fun’ it would not be, as much as exhilarating and death-defying.

If your idea of fun is to be grossed out then covering yourself with greasy half-cooked ground meet and laying in the woods face down for 8 hours might appeal to you. You’d have all manners of insects and maybe beasts crawling over you, licking the grease off you.

For me, fun isn’t gross either.

The most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life was:

My first SongKran Water Throwing Festival (Thailand New Years) in Thailand. I’ve already written a detailed description of what I did during SongKran at one of my other blogs.

SongKran Water Throwing Festival >
(photos and articles I blogged about at another blog I have)

What is SongKran? >

Songkran Videos >

To give you a short description here… The entire country of Thailand celebrates New Years (this year is 2551) on April 13-15 of every year. The way they celebrate makes it the most fun I’ve ever had in my life…

On the morning of the 13th Thai people start getting ready for the 3-day festivities. They wear clothes that can get soaking wet and stay wet all day. They put together a waterproof bag they can hold money, keys, phone and cameras in. They check their squirt guns, water-buckets, hoses, PVC squirt tubes (now illegal, but still sometimes used) and other water tools to make sure things are working.

The kids are probably already outside at 7:30-8am throwing water at whatever moves. That’s SongKran. Everyone throws water at everyone else for 3-days. Kids, parents, teens, grandparents, everyone throws water from morning until early evening when it’s supposed to stop - but there are still people throwing at 9pm in most areas.

Throwing water is one part of the tradition. The other is just as fun. People walk up to strangers and rub baby powder on their cheeks and say something like, “Happy New Year” or, “Good Luck to You!” or something like that. Of course it’s a great way to meet strangers. Drop dead gorgeous, beautiful strangers! Ha! Also a way to meet ladyboys (guys that cross-dress) and gay men that want to rub my face or give me a kiss (no lie).

For me it was the most fun I’ve ever had because I was throwing water at people I’d never met. Nobody got angry. Nobody got too crazy and hurt anyone else while throwing water like might happen in the USA. Everyone was a target - police included. Many adults drink during the festival and dance in the streets to loud speaker systems playing dancing music - both Thai and popular dance-club songs from abroad.

It’s the hottest time of the Thai year during Songkran so the cool water is welcome. Some people put ice in their water to make it really cold! After 10 hours of throwing water my first day I was so happy. I had more fun than I could have imagined.

So, picture this - a huge water throwing party the entire country is taking part in. Nobody gets mad. Nobody even gets a little bit angry. Everyone is smiling, laughing, dancing, throwing water, rubbing powder on strangers’ faces and having the most fun they ever had in their lives.

Tell me about the most fun you’ve ever had in your life!

Best of Life!

Vern

I was going through Flickr and I stumbled into something that was so amazing I had blog it right away, even though I don’t have time to blog it I must.

A photographer, Eric Rousset, created some galleries of different places he’s been. One of them was Thailand, which has some phenomenal images in - but the one that really caught my eye was a photo from Switzerland. Unreal! One of the coolest photos I’ve ever seen in my life. So, below are links to his Flickr photos and another site he has.

CLICK TO ENLARGE - and be amazed!

Switzerland

Sattahip Naval Station in Thailand

Temple in Japan

A small gallery of some of the most incredible images Eric has >

Eric’s sets of images at Flickr >

I hope you enjoyed these amazing images half as much as I did! If you know of other photographers with a similar style of manipulating the image with graphics programs could you leave a link here? I think these are really amazing and cool photos.

Best of Life!