Where do thoughts come from?

[tatsumaru]

Am I making my own thoughts or am I picking them up like a radio from somewhere else?
Sometimes I get the most weird thoughts and I have no clue where they even popped from literally useless noise.
And sometimes I get high quality deliberate thoughts that make my life better.
Sometimes thoughts are automatic and reactionary and sometimes thoughts arrive on demand when I want them to.
It's almost like my brain is both a radio and a signal tower.
Like an interdependent communication node in a sea of mysterious communication.
Has anyone solved this already?

[Willie]

It’s just a stream of consciousness. Where does consciousness begin or end?

[BlackMaze]

I never asked this question in my life. Nice question. Of course i have no clue. Do really thoughts arrive when you want them though? Is there really a signal tower? 

I'm not trying to make any point, these are my honest questions. It is the free will question with some extra layers. Because if the thoughts never come when you want them to then there is no free will. If someone was a signal tower it would be controlled by something else other than itself. Each cell in our body is like a signal tower. A human is very small if you compare him with the earth. We are a cell in a large organism. The cells are connected and form an organism. The earth is another cell. Then then next thing is also a child class. It's the perspective you take. So no i think we have the same free will as our cells in our body. But we have a brain. Why do we have a brain? I would really like to know the answer. 

[allislove]

The source of everything is one, so where do thoughts come from? There is no other place.  Everything comes from actual you.

Great insights about the thoughts. First of all, notice that you can experience only one thought at time. Then, be aware that you can feel the thought. That's it. Reactive thoughts usually don't feel good. So, what I am trying to say, it's not about the thoughts at all, it's about who you are. Are you the sky with clouds, or are you one tiny cloud on the sky? Be like a sky, my friend.

[snowyowl]

I once asked this question to a rational atheist, she just looked at me and couldn't answer, perhaps in case it undermined her sense of free will to know what's true. 

IMO, I'm still inclined to believe in the unconscious, or subconscious as an 'invisible' part of mind which creates thoughts, feelings etc, before the narrow light beam of conscious awareness is shined and we 'know' them. But of course I can't demonstrate this belief!  It's like my belief in the mysterious ground of being that's prior to me creating reality. 

Edited March 24, 2021 by snowyowl

[Nahm]

11 hours ago, tatsumaru said:

Am I making my own thoughts or am I picking them up like a radio from somewhere else?
Sometimes I get the most weird thoughts and I have no clue where they even popped from literally useless noise.
And sometimes I get high quality deliberate thoughts that make my life better.
Sometimes thoughts are automatic and reactionary and sometimes thoughts arrive on demand when I want them to.
It's almost like my brain is both a radio and a signal tower.
Like an interdependent communication node in a sea of mysterious communication.
Has anyone solved this already?

You pretty much got it. Thoughts are infinite intelligence, awareness of itself, as itself, for itself, through the lens of the finite mind.

Potentiality...concepts.

Infinite imagination...images. 

One appearing as if two. 

A single aligned thought arising in a quieted mind, focused upon, consciously creates. 

 

[LastThursday]

11 hours ago, tatsumaru said:

Am I making my own thoughts or am I picking them up like a radio from somewhere else?

Neither.

It's the nature of conscious reality that things and thoughts suddenly appear, only to disappear again. The present moment is full of such discontinuities. You can weave any story or theory around it you like, but it's fundamentally mysterious and unknowable.

[blankisomeone]

literally nowhere

[Batman]

In a relative sense, thoughts are the function of mind and thus are meant to serve your survival in some way. They are the expression of a distinction you learned to create when you were a child, somewhere around when you learned language. The fact that they can also appear spontaneously and involuntary shows you how powerful is the motivating force that stands behind the conceptual self. If you watch your thoughts closely, scrutinize them, you will notice that mostly they serve you to map out your internal beliefs and concepts using language, so you could express them toward the other or actualize them some how in your experience. In self-enquiry they can also 'reveal' aspects of your mind that is not present in your cognition (also known as the negative distinction sub-conscious or uncognized mind).

This is my personal experience thoughts.

[Breakingthewall]

Your brain creates them, just as your brain creates images by translating the light captured by your retinas. thoughts are created based on language and images. pure consciousness does not think in thoughts. experience the thoughts created by your brain. thoughts are nothing, simple images in limited language. The conciousness imagine your brain to think the thoughts. The most complex creation (that we know)

Edited March 24, 2021 by Breakingthewall

[PureRogueQ]

Don't think that it is something that we learn, children make such distinctions since they are born, they just get way worse with time as we get more and more concepts and we are more expected to follow social norms to survive which makes life less free.

And it is not even that there is any problem with concepts, it is what ego does with them. 

Before ego right here there is only action, experience, what ego does is makes story out of this action, experience, basically labelling everything and distorting it, it is like having narrator over experience, but it is not just chattering. 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by PureRogueQ

[BlackMaze]

On 24/3/2021 at 11:09 AM, allislove said:

The source of everything is one, so where do thoughts come from? There is no other place.  Everything comes from actual you.

Great insights about the thoughts. First of all, notice that you can experience only one thought at time. Then, be aware that you can feel the thought. That's it. Reactive thoughts usually don't feel good. So, what I am trying to say, it's not about the thoughts at all, it's about who you are. Are you the sky with clouds, or are you one tiny cloud on the sky? Be like a sky, my friend.

Reading this again i really liked it. Thank you. 

[allislove]

@BlackMaze thanks ☺️

[Kensho]

This simplified non-metaphysical example might be easier to understand. 

Your body has several functions, and several organs to serve them.

The pancreas produces enzymes. The liver produces bile. The glands produce several hormones. These chemical substances are exuded in your system and serve a specific purpose that has been developed by millions of years of evolution.

The organs do what they are designed to do and as you know, you have no direct control over them.

And then there is the ego. 'Produced' by the Default Mode Network, although not tangible, it acts like a real entity inside you, like another organ. Its role is to give you a sense of self because evolution-wise this helped for survival. 

How does it fulfill this funtion? By producing thoughts. And it's doing a damn good job at it, as all the other organs. (The complicated way thoughts work to develop the ego it's not the point here) 

So, like you cannot voluntarily stop your liver from producing bile, you cannot stop your ego from producing thoughts. 

As you may interfere with your organ's functions by taking a supplement or a drug or by doing a special practice, likewise you can interfere with the ego's function with meditation, yoga, and of course, psychedelics. When you experience an ego-death your sense of self is lost and thoughts seize. It's completely controlable, but...

In order to take control, a disidentification with the thoughts is needed. Then, you realize that the thoughts are not your own, you don't have control over them, and that there is something inside you that is not you, that is producing them. 

[Gesundheit]

According to Islam, thoughts come from the devil.

[tatsumaru]

3 minutes ago, Gesundheit said:

According to Islam, thoughts come from the devil.

I knew it.

[Bodhitree]

Thoughts come from memory. Experiences that you have (everything from learning to walk to the book that you read this morning) determine your thoughts.

[Mason Riggle]

11 minutes ago, Gesundheit said:

According to Islam, thoughts come from the devil.

Where did thoughts about Islam come from? 

[Kensho]

40 minutes ago, Gesundheit said:

According to Islam, thoughts come from the devil.

In your opinion, does your post give an answer to the question?

[Gesundheit]

51 minutes ago, Mason Riggle said:

Where did thoughts about Islam come from? 

Shaitan, aka the devil.

23 minutes ago, Kensho said:

In your opinion, does your post give an answer to the question?

Yes.