You mean your mind isn't still most of the time? It's still noisy? You
need to work on that. ;-)
On 06/22/2015 08:28 AM, Duveyoung wrote:
I once heard Maharishi Mahesh Yogi say, ".....and they don't even know
what a thought is."
At the time, we all felt so smug, but 40 years later, I'm wondering if
FFL could possibly agree on a definition.
I maintained that I have 5 thoughts per second. My definition of
thought is "a complete concept."
Using this definition, I note that when I count as fast as I can,
mentally, I can get up to five before the second hand clicks to the
next second.
Each number is clearly heard in my mind rather than it being kind of
slurringly said process.
You?
Here's the rub: obviously the brain/body is processing actual
millions of inputs, and most of the material is "ignored." Proof
being that YOUR elbow just now that I mention it is found to be
sending you messages about its position, pressures on it, clothing
rubbing sensations etc. This information is broadcast 24/7 to you,
but almost never gets to the front burner of consciousness.
Clearly 5 thoughts per second is a relative concept.
Never-the-less, I like to offer it as a starter concept about thought.
If one CAN have conscious awareness of five thoughts per second, then
the concept of "cherry picking" comes to my fore. Seems to me that
all of us are cherry picking which of our thoughts to attend and which
to ignore, but this "picking" is automated and usually not a conscious
choice.
Seems to me, enlightenment is a kind of surrendering to this vastness
of processing -- it being a perfect example of "karma is unfathomable"
and so just relax and let it all happen.
*Q:* Can there be awareness without an object of awareness?
*Nisargadatta:* Awareness with an ! object we called witnessing. When
there is also self-identification with the object, caused by desire or
fear, such a state is called a person. In reality there is only one
state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a person,
when coloured with the sense of being, it is the witness; when
colourless and limitless, it is called the Supreme.
