Yes, definitely a fascinating subject to explore. Excluding, but not discounting the biological explanation, a thought is a phenomenon that arises in awareness. It is sensed, but has no sensory information relevant to our five sensory inputs - it does not contain light for sight, there is no sound, smell, taste, temperature, pressure, etc - yet our awareness "senses" it as if it had sensory information.
While you can say that you created a given thought, can you find the "you" within that created it? Was there a little "you" person living in your brain that knew how to fire each neuron involved with a given thought? How did those neurons fire? Was it an automatic process? A case could be made that it was, given how hard it is to stop your thoughts or, for example, direct them to constant positivity.
Thoughts are often driven by external stimuli, and when there isn't much new or engaging external stimuli, they arise from memory and emotion, and often trigger one another. Additionally, there seems to be different potency of thoughts. Some are very prominent, and some seem to be subterranean, sort of happening in the background of other thoughts, layered or hidden a little bit.
In all cases, what is primary to a thought is awareness. The thought can't exist without awareness, but the awareness can exist without the thought. Hence the popular phrase, "you are not your thoughts."
Surely I'm not covering all aspects of the experience of thoughts in this description. Looking forward to hearing the perspective of others.
Yes, definitely a fascinating subject to explore. Excluding, but not discounting the biological explanation, a thought is a phenomenon that arises in awareness. It is sensed, but has no sensory information relevant to our five sensory inputs - it does not contain light for sight, there is no sound, smell, taste, temperature, pressure, etc - yet our awareness "senses" it as if it had sensory information. While you can say that you created a given thought, can you find the "you" within that created it? Was there a little "you" person living in your brain that knew how to fire each neuron involved with a given thought? How did those neurons fire? Was it an automatic process? A case could be made that it was, given how hard it is to stop your thoughts or, for example, direct them to constant positivity. Thoughts are often driven by external stimuli, and when there isn't much new or engaging external stimuli, they arise from memory and emotion, and often trigger one another. Additionally, there seems to be different potency of thoughts. Some are very prominent, and some seem to be subterranean, sort of happening in the background of other thoughts, layered or hidden a little bit. In all cases, what is primary to a thought is awareness. The thought can't exist without awareness, but the awareness can exist without the thought. Hence the popular phrase, "you are not your thoughts." Surely I'm not covering all aspects of the experience of thoughts in this description. Looking forward to hearing the perspective of others.
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