A thorough explanation into the nature of thoughts

[BIggleswerth]

When I'm sitting idly, I have no awareness of my hand. I can make my focus shift to my hand. Now suddenly, I feel my hand.

An awareness of the sensation arises. The same thing happens with thoughts. I can see how thoughts feel, if there are any. This usually leads to letting go of the thought fairly quickly.

This leads me to the conclusion that thoughts are sensations. Allow me to explain further the similarity between thoughts and sensations. 

My hand doesn't move unless I make it move. When I make it move, I have this volitional awareness of the movement. The awareness of the movement is literally what creates the reality of the movement.

Similarly, thoughts are created by intending to create the certain thought. It's an awareness of intention. For me a lot of the time, it's curiosity. Actually, curiosity is an emotion. Emotions give rise to thoughts. Emotions are the volitional part of thoughts.

People can have involuntary movement just as they can have involuntary thoughts. I would imagine the involuntary thoughts happen more often for most people, but the equality still holds.

Just as moving the hand and becoming aware of the sensation of the hand are two different forms of awareness, so too are creating thoughts, the thoughts themselves, and "feeling" the thoughts.

Put another way, there are 3 forms of awareness I'm talking about here: emotion awareness (that which is the emotion), thought awareness (that which is the thought), and an awareness of the thought awareness (that which is aware of the thought). 

I have created a 3 prong duality and now I must collapse it to be truthful. The relationship between emotions and thoughts are blurry. When does an emotion end and a thought begin? There exists something in between an emotion and a thought. Indeed, these are just labels on a gradient of awareness. Leo did a video on this.

Similarly, where is the line between being the thought and being aware of the thought? Put another way, where is the line between thinking and being aware of what you are thinking? Surely if you're thinking you must have at least a little awareness of what you're thinking. If you're fully on the "awareness of the thought" side of the spectrum, you're just feeling the thought as a sensation and not considering the content of the thought. It's not a binary switch here either.

Engaging with the thoughts and what we call the activity of the Ego is then just thought awareness, followed by a sprinkle of some awareness of the thought, followed by some emotional and possibly judgmental reaction to the thought. Which leads to the creation of another thought, and the cycle repeats. And most people are stuck in this loop until they die. And yet the loop wasn't there when we were born, the loop was created to navigate the world.

Now it's not enough to see these words and have an abstract understanding. As this is only thoughts about thoughts. The meaning I'm attempting to convey must be relatable in your direct experience to truly understand.

Now, I don't think I'm enlightened.  This understanding seems to fade with time and I will go back asleep into the ego loop often. I'm interested to hear what people think of connection to this and enlightenment. 

 

 

 

 

[who chit]

What is the one common element, or factor,  throughout the 3 prongs:
Thought Awareness
Emotion Awareness
Awareness of the Two.

Is a thought aware of itself or are you aware of the thought. A thought cannot be aware of itself. Neither can a thought be itself. A thought is insentient and has no selfhood(i.e.,self identity), to neither be itself, nor be aware of itself.

2 hours ago, BIggleswerth said:

If you're fully on the "awareness of the thought" side of the spectrum, you're just feeling the thought as a sensation

Since a thought is in the mind,it cannot feel itself as a sensation. The sensation is felt in the body. Is the body aware of the sensation,, or, are you aware  of  the sensation.? In order for a sensation to be felt there has to be an awareness of it.

If the body cannot be aware of itself and thought can neither be itself, nor be aware of itself, What is left, is the one common factor throughout.
You. The one that is separately aware of both. If the body, and/or sensation, is an object of which you are aware of. And thought, is an object of which you are aware of. Then the answer to:
What is the one common element ,or factor, throughout the 3 prongs:
Thought  Awareness
Emotion  Awareness
Awareness  of the Two.

You,that which is aware. 

Quote

This understanding seems to fade with time and I will go back asleep into the ego loop ofte

This is re-identifying your self as being the body-mind and forgetting that, You , are the one common factor, Awareness, in which they appear, and, are dependent upon.





 

Edited May 14, 2019 by who chit