_____________________________________________________________________

Step 5, Observing Thought

This step talks about thought. You've already seen thought in action after looking at mind, body in mind and pain. Everything in your mind leads to thought.

What is thought?

When you stop and look at it - thought is strange. For me thought consists of a voice that is not heard with my ears, but still heard with my mind as if it came through my ears. It's my own voice. My voice is just running on about nonsense. Much of the time thought is just that - nonsense.

Other times I have a thought like a photo. I often think of my grandma's backyard that I haven't seen for 24 years - the spot over by the mint that my brother and sister and I would pull to release that amazing minty smell into the air.

Sometimes thoughts are instigated by feelings. If I'm angry or sad then my thoughts can come out of that mood. They can take the tone of whatever mood the mind is in. Happy thoughts too come in this way.

Your brain is just like a memory stick in the computer - some say it's like a hard drive, but now we have memory sticks that your brain is much more akin to. Your head isn't spinning at 5400 revolutions per second like a hard drive does. Your brain sits there like a rock. Like a memory stick.

The brain is constantly scanning all the ports of the body. The sensory ports. As it does it is firing off neurons that relate to what it sees through the 5-senses. In addition to this there are what seem to be random firings of neurons that occur for whatever reason... like I told you about the mint in my grandma's back yard.

Thoughts are merely memory bits. Sometimes the memory is very short - the tiniest blip that you can't see during a busy day and that you must meditate in order to find. When the mind becomes quiet it's amazing what you can see of thought. Thought is really interesting to watch. The tiniest blip of thought might blip and go away and lead to nothing. Or, it may lead to another memory which blips and the two tie together - are related in some way. Then it may keep going. Soon it may lead to a full-blown daydreaming session that all started from the tiniest blipping neuron that could have been random.

Thought then is memory just blipping on. Sometimes small blips and sometimes huge blips that lead to more involved memories or they get creative and make stories or masterpieces played like Beethoven in your head.

Ever have a song running through your head? Yeah, me too. Usually the thought starts as a group of musical notes that starts like, ba da da da da da    da. (Cat Stevens, Wild World)  Sometimes I catch it - and go backwards to see - how did it start? Other times I just go with it and soon I'm singing the whole song. If I played this song the night before - as I did last night, the song keeps firing off in my head and controls a portion of my morning thought activity.

The mind LOVES to blip. That's what it does. It blips and puts blips together. Sometimes they make sense when they go together. Other times there are these random firing blips that are not interconnected at all. If there is something pressing - something making you anxious or worried - then blips about that subject will be firing on more than other subjects. Sometimes you'll be able to form a cohesive thought with the blips and maybe come up with some ideas on how to resolve the issue. Sometimes not. Sometimes you'll be able to ask more questions of the mind and it will blip off new things - new angles to look at.

The mind is only an amorphous memory stick though.

The key to changing your entire life has to do with the thought in your head. Or, more correctly, the lack of it.

Meditation by focusing on some object - like the breath has the effect of gradually slowing thought down a bit - or, lessening the amount of blips that pop-off. When you sit and focus your attention - your mind on one type of sensory input - like the feeling of the breath on your upper lip where it enters and exits the nose - then you are training the mind.

As concentration is made stronger through a regular practice of this you're able to see the blip of thought arise. You're able to follow it if you want and see how it triggers other blips that are related somehow. You're able to re-focus on the breath or whatever object you choose - and in this way thought will slow down to a pace that eventually reaches...

Stop.

Yeah, no more thought. This is where it all begins... the mind at rest seems to open a door to another galaxy. Is it shared subconscious? Who knows? It's definitely worth finding out for yourself what happens after thought stops. It's very attainable. For me I first saw glimpses of it after a month of practice. In 3 months - no thought for periods of 10 minutes or more. In 6 or so months I was sitting without thought for 40 minutes, an hour... a little bit longer...

The entire point of meditation is reaching this level... and things just go naturally from there - without anything more you need to 'do'. In fact, doing is counterproductive to what happens naturally...

KNOW YOURSELF through meditation.