The origin of thought
We ask ourselves a question, where does it come from? Let's give an answer where did it come from?
The mind is an apparatus that transforms perceptions and emotional and physical sensations into images which it is then able to process into logical and memorable consequential constructs.
We ask ourselves a question, where does it come from? Let's give an answer where did it come from? Now, for example, I'm here wondering about the reality of the manifestation of our life. Is it accomplished by a set of joint forces and elements that combine according to their laws, or dictates of the case, or is it the result of a voluntary action that tries in every way to forge its form and contents? This investigation is the basis of every conceptualization and physical or metaphysical action… In an attempt to understand the nature of our thinking and acting, the men who preceded us have already questioned themselves and it will be the same for those to come…. And the answer?
This text, for example, that I am writing and that you are reading (assuming that someone reads it…) where does it come from? How could the ideas contained in it have surfaced in the mind, how are they shared and understood by the hypothetical reader? The reader understands the issue, therefore it means that the dilemma has nevertheless arisen ... In any case, this writing is the result of a free choice, a work with a precise intention, deriving from a voluntary process, from a decision to implement the action of thinking and writing? Or rather is it the consequence of a series of self-generated impulses that come together to formulate this article?
Following a hypothetical rational process, at first glance, I would be led to answer that yes, this writing is the result of my decision, it is the result of my personal compositional genius that takes this descriptive form, using the figures of a philosophical reasoning...
No, I'm not sure… I'm not sure because I “understand” or intuit that my reasoning is definable only after it spontaneously and without any intention on my part has appeared in my mind. Did it “appear” and from where? The mechanism of the appearance of thoughts is an unknown and unknowable aspect, they arise from no one knows where…. Only after they appear before our conscience can we say "I thought about this...". In short, we make our thoughts our own after they have come to us out of nowhere, we possess them like any other object we call ours (although they are actually from the earth)… and then the sense of possession is only a continued indication of use, a limited use in any case over time and in the quality of its enjoyment… Everything that we define as “ours” or with which we identify ourselves, such as “my body” -for example- or “my mind” is in truth ours only due to a habit of use and presence. When we dream we are accustomed to identifying ourselves with one of the characters in the dream and we perceive this character as a "me" who relates to other characters operating in a world, the whole dream actually presents itself before our consciousness and we have no operational control, even though, as in the waking state, we feel we are acting with a purpose, either achieving results or failing to achieve them.
I say “as in the waking state” to insert a quick comparative analogy with the reality of our waking operations…. We call our actions in the world the result of a free will and we make ourselves, in front of ourselves and the others (exactly as in the dream), responsible, we accept the effort of trying to reach a goal, we feel frustrated if we fail in achievement, we consider that our actions are linked to a process of cause and effect, we get busy trying to prefigure an end, to then eventually repent and look for its opposite.
Religions have used this process of becoming and instability of the mind and the desire for a result (imagined as stable and definitive but vain) to order everyone's life in terms of "direct responsibility" with a subsequent final prize as a hell or heaven.
In religious, social or ideological dualism, in separation from the Whole, the only thing that can be done is to try to obtain good results using one's own will, which we define as free choice, thus deluding ourselves that we will arrive at some outcome that we naively define “answer” to our material and spiritual research. Reward and punishment are in our hands… and with this weight on our backs we “trade” and “speculate” with and on God –if we believe him- or with Nature and the laws of the jungle –if we are materialistic atheists- or we do as the superstitious people who say "it's not true ... but I believe it!" ending up a little here and a little beyond the imaginary barricade, or perhaps, as often happens to the majority of us, trying tout court to forget the problem by immersing ourselves in the satisfaction of daily needs and requirements.
But the riddle returns…. It is something unknown and unknowable that comes back to haunt us… In the end we blame the Gods and the force of destiny! In fact we observe from direct experience that some things that we intend to achieve elude us, while others that we abhor happen.
"We can define this force that makes everything happen as God or "swabava", which means the inherent nature of everyone - said Anasuya Devi when I was in Jillellamudi - adding that "this force manifests itself not only in natural and cyclical events but also in the unexpected and even in man's attempt to control the unexpected, and even in the sense that we have decided to carry out a certain action or course of action”.
As if to say that this "force" takes the form of inner compulsion and that we, making our own formulation, define "free choice"... In short, free choice is nothing more than the mental development consequential to the inner stimulus received, the which one "force" or "swabava" makes us perform the action "voluntarily".
Nonetheless, in our ego, at least that mental reflection of consciousness that we define as "I", we are perfectly convinced that the action performed is the result of our decision, that the observed thought is our own, that this writing is arbitrarily written by me edited, which you are reading of your own option.
"But the fruits of our action are not permanent - Ramana Maharshi said - and chasing after the results makes us prisoners of the ocean of "karma" (becoming through action), preventing the understanding of the true nature of the Being"
This means that the actions we perform with a purpose, and with identity appropriation of the accomplishment, lead us to experience pleasures and pains. They are indeed limited in time but leave seeds in the mind, causing a subsequent effort to avoid or pursue certain actions. These seeds (called in Sanskrit "vasana") push us into an apparently infinite series of involvements and acts, tying our attention to the external world and preventing the discovery of our true inner nature. Therefore in the intention given to action there can be no liberation from the self (ego), which is limited to the body mind.
It could be objected that if there is no understanding not even evolution is possible, nor the improvement of one's condition…. Yet by accepting the spontaneous growth to which life spontaneously tends (as it is in fact to understand it) we will be "free" to carry out all those actions that naturally go in the direction of growth, in fulfillment of inner inspiration, without assuming the burden....
Call it “surrendering” to one's inherent nature or performing one's karmic duty (dharma) at this point it doesn't matter, it just happens!
Paolo D'Arpini
We ask ourselves a question, where does it come from? Let's give an answer where did it come from? Now, for example, I'm here wondering about the reality of the manifestation of our life. Is it accomplished by a set of joint forces and elements that combine according to their laws, or dictates of the case, or is it the result of a voluntary action that tries in every way to forge its form and contents? This investigation is the basis of every conceptualization and physical or metaphysical action… In an attempt to understand the nature of our thinking and acting, the men who preceded us have already questioned themselves and it will be the same for those to come…. And the answer?
This text, for example, that I am writing and that you are reading (assuming that someone reads it…) where does it come from? How could the ideas contained in it have surfaced in the mind, how are they shared and understood by the hypothetical reader? The reader understands the issue, therefore it means that the dilemma has nevertheless arisen ... In any case, this writing is the result of a free choice, a work with a precise intention, deriving from a voluntary process, from a decision to implement the action of thinking and writing? Or rather is it the consequence of a series of self-generated impulses that come together to formulate this article?
Following a hypothetical rational process, at first glance, I would be led to answer that yes, this writing is the result of my decision, it is the result of my personal compositional genius that takes this descriptive form, using the figures of a philosophical reasoning...
No, I'm not sure… I'm not sure because I “understand” or intuit that my reasoning is definable only after it spontaneously and without any intention on my part has appeared in my mind. Did it “appear” and from where? The mechanism of the appearance of thoughts is an unknown and unknowable aspect, they arise from no one knows where…. Only after they appear before our conscience can we say "I thought about this...". In short, we make our thoughts our own after they have come to us out of nowhere, we possess them like any other object we call ours (although they are actually from the earth)… and then the sense of possession is only a continued indication of use, a limited use in any case over time and in the quality of its enjoyment… Everything that we define as “ours” or with which we identify ourselves, such as “my body” -for example- or “my mind” is in truth ours only due to a habit of use and presence. When we dream we are accustomed to identifying ourselves with one of the characters in the dream and we perceive this character as a "me" who relates to other characters operating in a world, the whole dream actually presents itself before our consciousness and we have no operational control, even though, as in the waking state, we feel we are acting with a purpose, either achieving results or failing to achieve them.
I say “as in the waking state” to insert a quick comparative analogy with the reality of our waking operations…. We call our actions in the world the result of a free will and we make ourselves, in front of ourselves and the others (exactly as in the dream), responsible, we accept the effort of trying to reach a goal, we feel frustrated if we fail in achievement, we consider that our actions are linked to a process of cause and effect, we get busy trying to prefigure an end, to then eventually repent and look for its opposite.
Religions have used this process of becoming and instability of the mind and the desire for a result (imagined as stable and definitive but vain) to order everyone's life in terms of "direct responsibility" with a subsequent final prize as a hell or heaven.
In religious, social or ideological dualism, in separation from the Whole, the only thing that can be done is to try to obtain good results using one's own will, which we define as free choice, thus deluding ourselves that we will arrive at some outcome that we naively define “answer” to our material and spiritual research. Reward and punishment are in our hands… and with this weight on our backs we “trade” and “speculate” with and on God –if we believe him- or with Nature and the laws of the jungle –if we are materialistic atheists- or we do as the superstitious people who say "it's not true ... but I believe it!" ending up a little here and a little beyond the imaginary barricade, or perhaps, as often happens to the majority of us, trying tout court to forget the problem by immersing ourselves in the satisfaction of daily needs and requirements.
But the riddle returns…. It is something unknown and unknowable that comes back to haunt us… In the end we blame the Gods and the force of destiny! In fact we observe from direct experience that some things that we intend to achieve elude us, while others that we abhor happen.
"We can define this force that makes everything happen as God or "swabava", which means the inherent nature of everyone - said Anasuya Devi when I was in Jillellamudi - adding that "this force manifests itself not only in natural and cyclical events but also in the unexpected and even in man's attempt to control the unexpected, and even in the sense that we have decided to carry out a certain action or course of action”.
As if to say that this "force" takes the form of inner compulsion and that we, making our own formulation, define "free choice"... In short, free choice is nothing more than the mental development consequential to the inner stimulus received, the which one "force" or "swabava" makes us perform the action "voluntarily".
Nonetheless, in our ego, at least that mental reflection of consciousness that we define as "I", we are perfectly convinced that the action performed is the result of our decision, that the observed thought is our own, that this writing is arbitrarily written by me edited, which you are reading of your own option.
"But the fruits of our action are not permanent - Ramana Maharshi said - and chasing after the results makes us prisoners of the ocean of "karma" (becoming through action), preventing the understanding of the true nature of the Being"
This means that the actions we perform with a purpose, and with identity appropriation of the accomplishment, lead us to experience pleasures and pains. They are indeed limited in time but leave seeds in the mind, causing a subsequent effort to avoid or pursue certain actions. These seeds (called in Sanskrit "vasana") push us into an apparently infinite series of involvements and acts, tying our attention to the external world and preventing the discovery of our true inner nature. Therefore in the intention given to action there can be no liberation from the self (ego), which is limited to the body mind.
It could be objected that if there is no understanding not even evolution is possible, nor the improvement of one's condition…. Yet by accepting the spontaneous growth to which life spontaneously tends (as it is in fact to understand it) we will be "free" to carry out all those actions that naturally go in the direction of growth, in fulfillment of inner inspiration, without assuming the burden....
Call it “surrendering” to one's inherent nature or performing one's karmic duty (dharma) at this point it doesn't matter, it just happens!
Paolo D'Arpini