Bops, you always surprise me. Pleasantly, though. This is certainly a topic worthy of reply.

What are thoughts? Where do they come from? Why do we have thoughts and what is their purpose then? Beliefs are thoughts, too. But beliefs are merely the same thoughts repeated over and over and over again. IMHO, the question that is perhaps the most important is, what effects do thoughts produce?

Bops, did you ever see the movie, The Sphere? YES! Good flick! For those who haven't I'll give a brief plot outline.

In the middle of the South Pacific, a thousand feet below the surface of the water, a huge vessel rests on the ocean floor. Rushed to the scene is a group of American scientists who descend to the depths of the sea to investigate this astonishing discovery. What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a massive spaceship, undamaged from it's fall from the sky-and at least three hundred years old.

What they find boggles the mind as they discover a perfect metal sphere. What is the secret behind the sphere? Will they survive the mysterious 'manifestations'? Who or what is creating these? They may never live to find out.

In short, what the sphere helps them discover is that thoughts produce reality. Unfortunately, as is the case with 99% of the movies that deal with 'fringe' phenomenon, this potentially world-shattering and extremely liberating concept is cast in a very dark and ominous light. For while the idea is put forth that thoughts create it is only the grimmest and unsavory of thoughts that seem to manifest. Duh!!!!!!!

The point of bringing this movie up is that I thought this particular film came closest to unveiling a truth that most have very little awareness of.

What would happen if we were to stop thinking? If we were able to, in a physically attuned and physically orientated conscious state, shut off our constant and never-ending internal dialogues to ourselves? From what I've learned I would say that the world, as we know it and as it appears to us in such familiar fashion, would cease to exist. For it is precisely our continual, and quite necessary, endless thoughts that support the world as we know it.

Although, this would not imply that we would cease to exist. Why? Because we are not our thoughts. Thoughts are merely the tools which we use to create, to manifest, an utterly magnificent outer world that springs from the fountain of who we really are. And because we have complete freedom to think what we please it then becomes our endless choice to pick and choose which thoughts we would like to entertain.

Those are my thoughts, in short, about thoughts.

Think what you will, believe what you will, it's your choice, it's the bed you make for yourselves. Be happy.

Where do they come from these thoughts? Why think one thing over another? Those who do not think are but human vegies taking up mass in this plane, yes? Do they, the unthinking, still effect this plane? What thought possessed me to write in purple?

I think i found the small voice.

Its telling me to kill you all....

Would you whip me a little first?

I will if she won't.

Why can't it be both, life is very short after all.

Does not feeling just end up as thoughts thus thinking about what you feel? Don't people have to think about what they are feeling before they can say what they are thinking? Thinking to recognize anger, depression, happiness, what have you?

If you'll notice, if you would pay attention to your thoughts, you'll find that feelings, emotions, follow your thoughts. Think a happy thought and how do you feel? Think a negative thought and what's your feeling response? Emotions, IMO, serve to let you know, on a feeling level, the content of thoughts you happen to be entertaining.

Imagination, on the other hand, is a tool that allows us to perceive what does not yet exist in our outer world. If it were not for imagination we would certainly be stuck in an existence that could never change from what is in the moment. And I would say that imagination follows thought, too.

BTW, if you think about it, can you name a single item that man has produced which did not first exist as a thought in his mind? Hmmmm. Telling, isn't it?

What about reactions? You walk in on your partner with someone else....anger, what? Did you have your thoughts on the matter so quickly that you didn't even know it and went on to emotion? Did emotion come first in this case?

I think i found the small voice.

Its telling me to kill you all....

Would you whip me a little first?

I will if she won't.

Doesn't count if the whipper enjoys it too much.

Isn't meditation an act of clearing your mind of all thoughts? Some would have us believe that stilling our mind through meditative practices is the path to getting in touch with our spiritual essence.

Feelings and thoughts are not mutually dependent on each other I have just started practising yoga and certainly find that when I meditate and focus on clearing all thoughts, a calm descends (if only for a brief while) while my mind stills.

What about reactions? You walk in on your partner with someone else....anger, what?

threesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't meditation an act of clearing your mind of all thoughts? Some would have us believe that stilling our mind through meditative practices is the path to getting in touch with our spiritual essence.

Feelings and thoughts are not mutually dependent on each other I have just started practising yoga and certainly find that when I meditate and focus on clearing all thoughts, a calm descends (if only for a brief while) while my mind stills.

What does a still mind get you? Are you living more in the moment? Are you more real at that moment?

What about reactions? You walk in on your partner with someone else....anger, what?

threesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Let's focus on what normal people would do, not the Kayoway.

I think...................................oh bugger, I've forgotten.

What about reactions? You walk in on your partner with someone else....anger, what?

threesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Let's focus on what normal people would do, not the Kayoway.

I think...................................oh bugger, I've forgotten.

Squirtles, what did Mr Bebop just say?

What about reactions? You walk in on your partner with someone else....anger, what?

threesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Let's focus on what normal people would do, not the Kayoway.

I think...................................oh bugger, I've forgotten.

Squirtles, what did Mr Bebop just say?

What is the confusion? Normal doesn't include us does it?

My thoughts of late (for the past few days) have been noticably distinct from that which I normally experience! I think I know why! But why do I think I know why?

my thoughts go for you all...good night

But tiggy, we don't care "why you think you know why",

We wanna know why?

But tiggy, we don't care "why you think you know why",

We wanna know why?

Why?

But tiggy, we don't care "why you think you know why",

We wanna know why?

Why?

This is becoming one of 'those' threads, isn't it?!?

No no tigger...because I hoping i can have something answered. Im thinking that i dont know what i think. Seriously. I am pretty confused about where my judgement on things lie. To illustrate what i mean, you just have to view this thread: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...15&start=15 (Oh, if anyone wishes to make a comment on what i said, can you do it here so the original thread stays on topic purty pleazzzzzzze! )

Well..its got me thinking..we all must have these personal bounderies that on occasion only make sense to ourselves. Where, when, and how do we set these bounderies? When is something considered inapproapriate or crossing the lines in our books? Also..why is it often dependent on mood, or is that also just something that is applicable to me? Do you find some days you can pass something off and be unaffected but others the thing said/seen/read hits a nerve and makes you upset/angry/etc?

Me very confused. Me feels like psychopath nut job. OH MammY!

That's a very interesting link ekk, I had not seen it (not been on line much). I'm not really sure what your poist is though? Was it that your thoughts were like that on a particular day? Or a particular time?

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick!

Heh, no you are not being thick...i dont know what my point is either. ..in fact, dont know WHAT TO THINK anymore. Im thinkin too mutt! Scrambled eggs for brains..

Ok, think mrs, think. I guess my point is......

..er...

at the time i posted my first comment on that thread, I was a bit ryled because I felt people we being unjustly mean. But, why should it bother me? Im wondering what went through my head for me to feel so inclined to defend people I do not even know. And..I also think that on another day, or time, i may have thought 'whatever' and not be too fazed.

I wonder if others feel the same way. Sometimes bothered enough to speak out, and at other times can let things fly. Im confused by my own consistency.

So, what triggers our thought processes? Are we fairly equal or hugely different in how we think? I dont mean equal in the topics, but in our 'think process' reaction to things. Is some of it a matter of cognitive responses based on experiences that may in fact be unrelated to the situation at hand, but which have triggered a response based on an unknown source from our past?

I dont think i like analysing what im thinking. I think i will just go back to letting my thoughts fly without much consideration.

Heh, no you are not being thick...i dont know what my point is either. ..in fact, dont know WHAT TO THINK anymore. Im thinkin too mutt! Scrambled eggs for brains..

Ok, think mrs, think. I guess my point is......

..er...

at the time i posted my first comment on that thread, I was a bit ryled because I felt people we being unjustly mean. But, why should it bother me? Im wondering what went through my head for me to feel so inclined to defend people I do not even know. And..I also think that on another day, or time, i may have thought 'whatever' and not be too fazed.

I wonder if others feel the same way. Sometimes bothered enough to speak out, and at other times can let things fly. Im confused by my own consistency.

So, what triggers our thought processes? Are we fairly equal or hugely different in how we think? I dont mean equal in the topics, but in our 'think process' reaction to things. Is some of it a matter of cognitive responses based on experiences that may in fact be unrelated to the situation at hand, but which have triggered a response based on an unknown source from our past?

I dont think i like analysing what im thinking. I think i will just go back to letting my thoughts fly without much consideration.

When mental angst sets in. Do what all sane and like minded individuals do...........Blame Kayo.

Heh, no you are not being thick...i dont know what my point is either. ..in fact, dont know WHAT TO THINK anymore. Im thinkin too mutt! Scrambled eggs for brains..

Ok, think mrs, think. I guess my point is......

..er...

at the time i posted my first comment on that thread, I was a bit ryled because I felt people we being unjustly mean. But, why should it bother me? Im wondering what went through my head for me to feel so inclined to defend people I do not even know. And..I also think that on another day, or time, i may have thought 'whatever' and not be too fazed.

I wonder if others feel the same way. Sometimes bothered enough to speak out, and at other times can let things fly. Im confused by my own consistency.

So, what triggers our thought processes? Are we fairly equal or hugely different in how we think? I dont mean equal in the topics, but in our 'think process' reaction to things. Is some of it a matter of cognitive responses based on experiences that may in fact be unrelated to the situation at hand, but which have triggered a response based on an unknown source from our past?

I dont think i like analysing what im thinking. I think i will just go back to letting my thoughts fly without much consideration.

I can see where you're coming from. There are some days nothing bothers me and others that everything riles me! And it's our thoughts that cause all of this. Has it to do with our perceptions? For example, a friend of mine moved to Liverpool and was telling me how people were being nasty and rude to him all the time. To which I replied that I have lived in Liverpool for 19 years and not once have people been nasty or rude! So what does this tell you? Do my perceptions, ie how I perceive people to be affect my interactions with them? Iexpect people to be friendly and cooperative so that's what usually happens, maybe my friend expects people to be nasty and rude so this is what he is more likely to experience. Hmnnn, you've got me thinking now!

be careful suegha, if you think about it too much, you may become more confused and then, possibly, you may worry you are unhinged! Its a dangerous path you tread.

be careful suegha, if you think about it too much, you may become more confused and then, possibly, you may worry you are unhinged! Its a dangerous path you tread.

Okay I'll take your advice - I think!

Eek you sound like a good candidate for meditation.

Bebop, a still mind with no thoughts is difficult to describe. So I shall liken it to restarting your PC. You know when the CPU has far too many processes running its performance deteriorates to the point where you have to restart it just to get things done. When our mind has too many thoughts spinning around in it sometimes sleep patterns become disrupted, and performance at work degrades (multitasking isn't all that its cracked up to be).

Taking time out to restart and clear your mind helps.

Eek you sound like a good candidate for meditation.

quiksilva you sound like a good candidate for a kick up the bum.

No no tigger...because I hoping i can have something answered. Im thinking that i dont know what i think. Seriously. I am pretty confused about where my judgement on things lie. To illustrate what i mean, you just have to view this thread: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...15&start=15 (Oh, if anyone wishes to make a comment on what i said, can you do it here so the original thread stays on topic purty pleazzzzzzze! )

For the benifit of others like our wee Kayo who decided to look at the thread and didnt realise the thread opens on page 2, I will hot link you to page 1: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...132042&st=0

Eek you sound like a good candidate for meditation.

quiksilva you sound like a good candidate for a kick up the bum.

Ahhh now now, only trying to help. No harm intended meditation is a good thing. You were the one who mentioned that your mind was a whirl, meditation may help is all Im saying.

Although if you'll trade the kick for a spank perhaps we can talk

You obviously have bad judgement, on many levels. For starters the medication comment is proof of this. For, I believe it is better to face ones minor confusions than drug oneself into oblivion, wouldnt you think? If I were a candidate for medication then my comment regarding the bum kick would have been much less mellow.

However, maybe if I had taken your medication suggestion seriously, I may have found your stab at having a sense of humour funny. That would definately a plus, but I fear would need to be some strong shit.

Meditation luv, MED IT ATION. Perhaps a dictionary would help too

Meditation luv, MED IT ATION. Perhaps a dictionary would help too

Well they say a picture speaks a thousand words, so I will make another effort to explain myself and demonstrate that I was in fact only trying to be helpful, but perhaps I'll drop the attempts of humour as someone seems to be having a failure of this today..

Here's a link with lots of information on where to learn meditation in Thailand

Whilst I am at it I think this quote from the aforementioned website adds something to this discussion.

Allow me to quote the words of Bhikkhu Khantipalo, an Englishman who is a Buddhist monk and has written and translated several books on Buddhism:

"The ordinary man's mind may be compared to a pond of muddy water ruffled unceasingly by a strong wind. When one enters a state of collectedness and the senses are withdrawn from their objects, the wind of desire is stilled. When this happens, the ripples of hindrances cease to disturb the mind. The mind is now like a calm but still muddy pond.

This condition does, however, give one a chance to develop Wisdom and this quality is like alum crystals which will clear the pool, making it pellucid, so that even the smallest objects upon its bottom may be seen in every detail. For this reason ultimately, collectedness is practised, as Wisdom is the key to Enlightenment."

Of course, not every person practising collectedness, or "meditation" as commonly known, can gain enough Wisdom and reach the stage of Enlightenment and Nirvana. But at least one can hope to calm one's mind and avoid outside disturbances. This will do a lot of good to one's health and will help one work or study with greater efficiency.

Peace.