Question to advanced meditators.

AstralProjectee · #1 13-01-2012, 02:28 AM

This is a question for experienced meditators.

Have you found that you can know were your thoughts are coming from? For instance if you have a thought, can you say, that thought came from this part of the head, or something like that?

Peace!

Xan · #2 13-01-2012, 02:52 AM

Yes. And further, keep looking to see where your thoughts arise from until you find that ultimately they come from nowhere and nothing, which the Buddhists call emptiness... except there is something extremely subtle there.

Xan

Gem · #3 13-01-2012, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstralProjectee

This is a question for experienced meditators.

Have you found that you can know were your thoughts are coming from? For instance if you have a thought, can you say, that thought came from this part of the head, or something like that?

Peace!

I don't think it matters.

If there are things that apply to your practice I like talking about those.

#4 13-01-2012, 04:32 AM

I have heard that thoughts are not ours, but personally I believe they are by products of our beliefs which come from the subconscious mind....just my opinion : )

Gem · #5 13-01-2012, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shabby

I have heard that thoughts are not ours, but personally I believe they are by products of our beliefs which come from the subconscious mind....just my opinion : )

What I find important is our insight, which in simple terms means becoming conscious of the subconscious, and it's a matter of paying attention to our entire structure, because even the most physical things excape our conscious cognition.

#6 13-01-2012, 05:32 AM

No. I'm pretty sure that no human can sense what neurons are firing off in their head at any given time. We'd need a brain scanner for that. =P

But in a non-literal "where" sense, still my answer is no. The question is not important to me either. Thought doesn't occupy a "where" to me, it occupies a "when."

AstralProjectee · #7 13-01-2012, 05:56 AM

I doubt you Quintessence. But thanks for your input.

Peace!

Xan · #8 14-01-2012, 03:40 AM

Gem: What I find important is our insight,
which in simple terms means becoming conscious of the subconscious...

I like this description of insight... self-awareness.

Xan

Mr Interesting · #9 14-01-2012, 07:24 PM

I've been reading Eckhart's book "The power of Now" recently, took me years to get around to it, and I'd like to say straight out that I'm not anti thought, which kinda tends to come accross in Eckhart's book, as he refers to the mind in control as an enemy to enlightenment.

This then has brought me to that point of interaction between the sense of self quieted and the turning on and off of thought with relative ease.

Eckhart kinda suggests that thought emanates from the pain body which is the accumulation of stored emotion which we might call the unconscious and/or the subconscious. I suppose then we might say that thought is a translation of emotion into words.

I can agree with this to a point as an objective lesson but does it really matter?

To me what matters is understanding that these details are just marks in the sand to show us where we are... in and of themselves they are merely the yardsticks we use to create around and tidy up what was messy and uncontrolled.

Thoughts are also a shorthand used by spirit to get ideas and messages into our heads quickly so while those thoughts may very well follow the same paths as self created thought how they were triggered is another ballgame.

One other thing that has interested me lately is how by putting our awareness in different places it seems that thought appears in different ways. When awareness is in the body thought seems to be underneath awareness and can babble away without being very audible, merely a kind of background noise like the burbling of a stream, whereas when awareness is in the head then thought is almost projected out and above. From both positions stillness and breathe are the over riding tendency and what I'm seeing is that thought is a very useful tool!!!

Where it comes from I have no idea but why... is intriguing!!!

Gem · #10 15-01-2012, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xan

Gem: What I find important is our insight,
which in simple terms means becoming conscious of the subconscious...

I like this description of insight... self-awareness.

Xan

...but to say what the term means, not as the answer, but by the practical means of the process, is insight.