The nature of thought is that it's a cognitive process involving
manipulating information, ideas, and memories, originating from both
external sensory input and internal states. The process involves the
brain's neural networks, where chemical processes and connections between
neurons enable activities like reasoning, problem-solving, imagination, and
decision-making. This leads to a flow of mental images and symbols, forming
a coherent, yet often intangible, stream of consciousness.
Nature of thoughts Thoughts are the result of complex
chemical and electrical processes within the brain's neurons. They are
intangible, but their effects are observable in our actions, emotions, and
behaviors. Thoughts are forms of information, and they are representations
of both the external world and internal experiences. A single thought can
be an idea, an image, a sound, an emotion, or a combination of these.
Thoughts are intimately linked to consciousness, but the exact relationship
is a subject of debate, with some philosophical viewpoints considering
consciousness a fundamental property and others seeing thought as an
emergent property of a complex system like the brain.
The process of thinking The process begins with input,
which can come from the external world through the senses or from internal
bodily states. The brain organizes this information through its neural
connections. The brain manipulates this information through various mental
operations, such as:
Reasoning and problem-solving: Logical deduction and finding solutions.
Concept formation: Creating abstract ideas from concrete examples.
Imagination: Creating new images and scenarios in the mind.
Decision-making: Evaluating options to make a choice.
Flow of mental events: Thinking is a continuous process, a "perpetual
whirlpool of interlinked processes" rather than a series of discrete,
isolated events.
Mental symbols and images: The process involves manipulating symbols and
corresponding mental images, which can be sparked by a real-world object or
by recollecting a memory.
Repetition: Thoughts can become repetitive due to the brain's habit-forming
processes and the influence of past experiences.
1. Creative thinking
Creative thinking is synonymous with “thinking outside the box.” It’s the
ability to push past established thoughts, theories, rules, and procedures.
In turn, it enables a person to conceive new and innovative ideas by
looking at them from a different perspective. One great example of a
creative thinker is Miki Agrawal, trainer for Mindvalley’s Zero to $100
Million program. She found herself facing very common issues—stomach
problems, period problems, and pooping problems. And the creative solutions
this social entrepreneur came up with led her to create Wild, Thinx, and
Tushy.
2. Analytical thinking
Those who think analytically have a structured and methodical way of
approaching tasks. They are left-brain dominant individuals with the
ability to take something that’s whole and separate it into basic parts to
be examined. This makes them great at problem-solving. One such thinker is
Mindvalley’s founder, Vishen. Given his position, having analytical skills
comes in handy when it comes to running a global company. This is
especially true when it comes to identifying problems (remember the
lockdowns?) and solving them.
3. Critical thinking
When it comes to critical thinking, a person exercises careful evaluation
or judgment. This allows them to determine the authenticity, accuracy,
worth, validity, or value of something. Rather than strictly breaking down
information into parts, critical thinkers explore other elements that could
impact the conclusions. Take Mark Cuban, for instance. His role as a judge
on Shark Tank requires him to evaluate each sales pitch carefully. He’s
also a huge advocate for people with this thinking type, making a
prediction in an interview with CNBC that knowing how to think critically
is “going to be more valuable” than the trending careers (like programming)
of today.
4. Concrete thinking
For a concrete thinker, it’s about practical thinking only, always literal
and to the point. They mainly focus on what’s in front of them, but not so
much on what’s beyond their viewpoint. Idioms, metaphors, and analogies
often go over their heads. “It’s raining men”—they’ll take it at face value
and expect to literally see men falling from the sky. Infants are a great
example of those with concrete thinking. They have yet to develop abstract
thinking, so when there’s a toy in front of them, they see it for what it
is. Place a blanket over the toy, and the infant will think it has
disappeared.
5. Abstract thinking
An abstract thinker is able to relate seemingly random things to each other
and make the connections others find difficult to see. Their forte? Hidden
meanings behind things and relate them to other items, events, or
experiences. They usually can observe things as theories and/or
possibilities. And they’re often curious about how everything relates to
the bigger picture. Case in point: Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s The Da
Vinci Code. The fictional Harvard professor used abstract thinking as well
as his knowledge of art history and symbology to decode various complex
puzzles in the storyline.
6. Divergent thinking
Divergent thinkers take the path of exploring an infinite number of
solutions to find one that is the most effective. So, instead of starting
off with a set number of possibilities and converging on an answer, they go
as far and wide as necessary and move outwards in search of the solution.
For example, if the faucet breaks, a divergent thinker would try to
determine what caused the malfunction and look at all the possible ways to
fix it. One option may be to call a plumber, while another may be
researching a solution online or finding a video on YouTube. It takes a
little creativity when it comes to this type of thinker. So people like
Leonardo Da Vinci use this type of intelligence to stimulate his
imagination and create lots of ideas.
7. Convergent thinking
With convergent thinking, a person will focus on finding one, well-defined
outcome. They’ll target these possibilities, or converge them inward, to
come up with a solution to a problem. Now, let’s go back to that broken
faucet as an example. A convergent thinker will call the plumber right away
to fix it. (Or in Sheldon Cooper’s case, fix it himself.)
*The Concept of Mind in the Vedas*
The nature of mind and the functions and constituents of mind have
been agitating the people for a long time. There have been various
explanations but none is satisfactory. Indian philosophy, from the very
beginning, has recognized mind as something distinct from the self or the
Atman, though it partakes of its nature as intelligence through association
with it. Since it is subtle in nature, it is not a gross matter. The word
‘mind’ literally means ‘measuring’; and it has been used in this sense in
the Vedas and the Brāhmaṇas from early times. It is a subtle matter in all
philosophy. It has been considered to be the part of that which was
designated by its name manas. It is an activity in the life of man and it
measures his wisdom, pleasures, pain, feelings etc. It seems that the
problem of the nature of mind and its relation to matter may be
satisfactorily solved only if we think of mind as a higher form of matter
capable of reflecting the nature of self which is consciousness. This mind
or manas has no concrete place. It is the name given to a series of
conscious activities such as desire, aversion, pleasure, pain,
intelligence, thought etc, and this mind is capable of referring to the
past, present and future. Apart from the qualities of the mind it is very
difficult to know the pure self at the empirical level.
“The mind is the material part of the external world. It belongs to us but
it does not explain who we really are, just as our house belongs to us but
is not us. This may be a shocking matter to consider, but it is really
something intuitively known to us. When we speak of ‘my mind’, we are
defining the mind as an object which belongs to us and not as ourselves”.
The mind has a material structure; and it works as an instrument or tool.
The sense organs themselves are instruments. The eye is an instrument of
seeing; the ear is an instrument of hearing and so on. Similarly the mind
that works to process sensory information is itself an instrument. The mind
is the main instrument we use to function in life. It is organically
related to our physical body. So the mind is also a kind of body organ. The
physical body is primarily an organ of perception and expression. It is
structured mainly by our sense the motor organs like the sound and hands
through which we express ourselves. The mind can function apart from body
consciousness as in sleep, trance and after death states.
The reference to mind can be found in the Vedas from the beginning.
The first germ of mind can be radical in the lust or wish. It is desire for
individual pleasure. In the Ṛgvedic hymns it is said:
kāmastadagresamavarttatādhi manasoretaḥ prathamaṃ yadāsīt ||
>From these days the philosophers were interested in understanding and
controlling the mental processes. Mind originates from the root ‘man’ ‘to
think’ and the word ‘citta’ is used at some places almost synonymous to
mind and it has been used in this sense in the early Vedas, Brāhmaṇas and
Upaniṣads. It is the recording faculty and it receives impressions gathered
by the sense organs from the outside world. It seems to be regarded to
attend to all the cognitive, affective and conative processes.
It is that the gods know the mind of man who proposes and passes on through
the breath to be the wind and tells the gods what the mind of man is.
>From the beginning such a concept of mind can be found in the Vedas
themselves.
The famous Gāyatri mantra in the Ṛgveda and in the Yajurveda reveals the
way in which the consciousness pervades the Vedic prayers:
oṃ bhurbhuvasvaḥ tat saviturvareṇyam bhargodevasya dhīmahī dhiyo yona
pracodayāt ||
This mantra was revealed by sage Viśamitra. It is named after its metre
Gāyatri which means ‘the saviour of the singer’. It is looked upon as the
essence of the Vedas. The essence of the prayer is ‘stimulation of one’s
intellect; and enlightening of one’s mind’.
Another great Vedic hymn desires that man’s resolutions should be
auspicious verses:-
suṣārathiraśvanivayenmanuṣyānnenīyathe'śubhirvājinaiva hṛdpratiṣṭhayaṃ
yadaciraṃ javiṣṭam manme manaḥ śivasaṅkalpamastu |
It is the fantastic verses about mind. It says that mind is considered as
the swiftest, and it is seated in the heart and also unmortified. It is the
controller of the sense organs. These verses also indicate the necessity of
controlling the mind. In the Vedic texts, there are numerous references to
mind as being located in the heart. The Yajurveda declares that the mind is
the means of knowledge. The mind is considered as mananaśīlaṃ jñānasādhanam
Mind is sarvakarmasādhanam. In the Ṛgveda the mind occupies a major part of
logical thinking and discussions. Mind can be truthful, unruffled, mature,
firm and sharp. The mind has been considered as a lord of the body, showing
the significance of mind over the body. The description of mind in the
Ṛgveda comes in the context of alcoholic intoxication. This indicates that
somarasa envelopes the mind and it produces a marked effect on the sense
organs. The ‘naiṣadīyasūkta’ of the Ṛgveda indicates the important role of
mind in human life. The word ‘citta’ is used at some places almost
synonymous to mind.
The Ṛgveda states that intellect is the swiftest of birds. It is:
mano javiṣṭaṃ patayatsu antaḥ ||
The Ṛgvedic hymns proclaim the unity among the people and maintain the
unity for mankind.
The mind can play the main role of universal unity. It preaches that:-
saṃgacchadhvaṃ saṃvadadhvaṃ saṃ vo manāṃsijānatāṃ devā bhāgaṃ yathā pūrve
saṃjānānā upāsate | samāno mantraḥ samitiḥ samānī samānaṃ manaḥ saha cittaṃ
eṣāṃ samānaṃ mantraṃ abhimantraye vaḥ samānena vo haviṣā juhomi || samānī
va akūtiḥ samānā hṛdayāni vaḥ samānaṃ astu vo mano yathā vaḥ sa sahāsati ||
Mind in the Saṃhitas and the Brāhmaṇas is the pure sensory organ or it is
possible intellect. It is identified with the Being. The Carakasaṃhita
states that knowledge is the character of mind and that mind and knowledge
are interrelated. In the absence of mind, knowledge gets vanished.
So knowledge is the attribute of mind. It says:
lakṣaṇaṃ manasojñānasyābhāvo bhāva eva ca ||
The Yogavāsiṣṭa discusses the mind of which the characters are declared as
abstractive forms. It states:-
saṅkalpanaṃ manoviddhi saṅkalpāttannabhidhyate ||
The target of mind is to achieve higher knowledge for enlivening the
intuition of the Jīvātmā. This presumptive mind is immortal because it has
the essence of the Ātman. The mind is related to the energy of citta.
In the Vājasaneya Saṃhita the conception of mind as a psychical entity is
fully discussed. The concept of mind is dealt with in some details in the
Vājasaneya Saṃhita and it takes the ‘mind as a whole’ i.e., tanmemanaḥ
śivasaṅkalpamastu. Dr. Jwala Prasad translated the very first verse of this
collection in his Indian Epistemology; and he characterizes the mind as
something which goes out afar. It is not a gross physical sense organ, it
cannot be conceived as going out of the body, nor can it be the soul for
the same reason. Intelligence, feeling and resolution are the three-fold
divisions of mental activities and the mind is responsible for all
accomplishments. From these ideas it becomes evident that even in the
ancient texts the physical and the epistemological functions of mind have
been recognized and acknowledged.
The Atharvaveda uses a number of psychological phrases like ṣardayam,
samanāsyaṃ etc. The word ‘meda’ is used for intellect or intelligence. The
Aitareya Āraṇyaka elucidates the significance of the human mind. According
to this, all reality exists as far as it is known. The cognition is divided
into the knower [prājñā], the intellect [prajñā], and the cognition
[prajñānaṃ]. Some references of mind are given in the Śatapata Brāhmaṇa
about the perception and cognition of things, and the relation of name and
form with the mind. These ideas or doctrines are further elucidated in the
Aitareya Brāhmaṇa. The characteristics of mind are enumerated through a
number of concepts. Awareness, comprehension, understanding, knowledge,
retentiveness, insight, resolution, opinion, memory, reflection, impulse,
will, purposed life, desire, control etc are the names of mind or knowledge.
In the second chapter of the Aitareya Āraṇyaka it is mentioned that man is
superior to animals because he can anticipate the future and remember the
past. The Yajurveda states that the creations given to that in mind the
moon, in eye the sun, in ear the air and in mouth the fire are of much
significance. Mind is the first creative partner of the world.
Taitreya Aranyaka, Chapter 1, Anuvaga 23, Verse 1. Here is a part
of the verse in Sanskrit:
तस्मात् यत् पुरुषः सनसाअभिगच्छति।
तत् वाचा वदति।
तत् कर्मणा करोति।
यत् मनसः रेतः प्रथमं आतीत्।
तद् कामः अग्रे समवर्तताधि।
तत् एषाअभि अनूक्ता ।
तस्मात् यत् पुरुषः सनसाअभिगच्छति। वाचा वदति।
Because of that whatever one thinks by mind
तत् कर्मणा करोति।
that one does
यत् मनसः रेतः प्रथमं आतीत्।
What is first in the mind as seed
तद् कामः अग्रे समवर्तताधि।
that later forms as desire
तत् एषाअभि अनूक्ता ।
That is what this proclaimed
“Watch your thoughts, they become words;
watch your words, they become actions;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
But in Vedanta, it has deeper meaning:
Each of us control our destiny as we control our thoughts, words and
action. We and we alone control our destiny. Katha Upanishad states that,
alma, our non-changing consciousness, witnesses every one of our thoughts.
We generally lose sight of the consciousness and act on our thoughts.
This, in turn, impacts our destiny. Taittiriya Upanishad states that
consciousness (alma) is the witness of the arrival and departure of our
thoughts, indicating we, our consciousness, control our thoughts.
K Rajaram IRS 191125
On Wed, 19 Nov 2025 at 05:03, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]>
wrote:
> One can help oneself by deliberately encouraging positive thoughts by
> Staying present in the moment:
> Cultivate mindfulness through practices such as meditation and deep
> breathing exercises. By staying present in the moment, you can observe
> negative thoughts without judgment and choose to redirect your focus
> towards a more constructive stream of thoughts.
>
>
>
>
> *N Jambunathan , Chennai " What you get by achieving your goals is not as
> important as what you become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a
> happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things "*
>
>
>
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