What is the True Nature of Thoughts?

[Marblehead]

Thoughts are just vayu / wind / air.

 

Totally insubstantial.

I really wanted to click that I liked this but I think that thoughts are just a little more than this.

[Rara]

I really wanted to click that I liked this but I think that thoughts are just a little more than this.

 

Thinking about thoughts. Woah, now we're getting deep...it just clicked!

[C T]

Could thoughts merely be a sum total of one's vocabulary store coupled with learned structures with which to form meaning and give direction to one's existence based off that storage? If so, then the expanse of one's knowing would be as wide or as limited as one's vocabulary command and memory recall, is that right?

 

Are thoughts even possible without words?

 

What will happen if one tries to think, not in words, but in sounds and visions? Or light....

[Marblehead]

I like what you said (asked) but I think it goes a little deeper than just our vocabulary. I'm referring to those experiences we have had that were never put to words.

[manitou]

I like what you said (asked) but I think it goes a little deeper than just our vocabulary. I'm referring to those experiences we have had that were never put to words.

 

Such as, lol?

[Marblehead]

Such as, lol?

Hehehe. Belly laughs.

[C T]

What are words? What about "3-D" language such as sign language? That communicates much more than the written or spoken word.

took the initiative, worked the fingers a bit, and found this article...

 

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2486/in-what-language-do-deaf-people-think

 

 

quite interesting, life.

[roger]

Hi 4bsolute.

 

I think we should not see thought as a "bad" thing, because if we see it that way, that's what it will seem to be. Our perspective creates our experience of things. For example, if you see people as bad, you will create that. If you believe thought is a hindrance, it will be that for you.

 

I see thought as a river flowing to the ocean; the ocean being Ultimate Reality, Tao, God or whatever you want to call it. You ride with the river until you reach the ocean.

 

The river flows perfectly. So we should know our thoughts are perfect. Everything that happens is the highest good, including our thoughts and feelings. Being aware of this is very powerful and will make your thoughts a blessing that takes you to the ocean faster.

 

So my answer to the question, "What is the true nature of thoughts?" is, DIVINE NATURE!

 

Our thoughts are perfect manifestations of love/Tao and should be acknowledged as such.

 

Basically, one's Divine Being, Soul, Self, or whatever is directing their thoughts for the highest good.

[manitou]

took the initiative, worked the fingers a bit, and found this article...

 

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2486/in-what-language-do-deaf-people-think

 

 

quite interesting, life.

 

 

Wow, CT - thanks for taking the initiative. What interesting questions it raises.

 

Is it possible that the deaf, because they do not think in linear terms if they've not learned language, are far closer to the 'truth' than we are. That they are more attuned to the Here and Now because they haven't the distraction, the inner dialogue, of linear thought? Perhaps intuition reigns supreme within those deaf from birth and everything is centered around love (until frustration sets in because they perceive that they are not able to perform in some ways as the others they see around them do?)

 

What questions this raises!

 

I went to a Chinese restaurant last night and there was a family a few booths down that had a child that had some sort of paddle in her hand. She was repeatedly banging on either the table or the booth, and it reverberated throughout the restaurant non-stop, at least for a half hour. As my PTSD symptoms finally kicked in after trying to transcend this for a long while, I decided to approach the parents. Something told me that there could be a medical issue, so I was very careful to approach them kindly, meekly, with a smile on my face. I actually asked them, "unless there is a medical problem at issue, could you please take the paddle away from her?" The parents were wonderful and gently explained that indeed there was a medical issue--she had been blind from birth, but that they were so accustomed to the banging that they didn't hear it any more, and of course they would take the paddle away. I felt like a bit of a jerk, of course, but they were just as nice as they could be, and actually the interchange wasn't a bad one at all. And the banging stopped.

 

But the point is this. As her father explained, she needed to reassure herself that there was 'something there', when in fact she could not see it - so she was constantly looking for reassurance with sound. I'm not sure how this quite ties in with your internet find, but I sense a connection.