Food for Thought
Some thoughts are desirous in nature. My appetite for chocolates is more than just an occasional desire. The overdose of sweets this holiday season has delightfully satiated my taste buds. The constant nitpicking about my pickiness of food made me wonder about what is it that differentiates I like versus I don’t like.
Superficially, it is just a matter of a few pre set priorities of my mind about what tastes I like. It is similar to relationships. I like a few people and don’t like others. This is because I establish a connection or develop attachment (of varying intensities) with them. So my love of chocolates is a sweet attachment!
While I still haven’t figured out the above, I stumbled upon the nature of thoughts as such. Thoughts are infinite in number. Mind is like an assembly line dispensing myriad superimposed reflections. It seems daunting to control both number and nature of these thoughts.
Here are a few examples of nature of thoughts:
kAma - desire
sankalpa - willing
vikalpa - doubtful
nishchaya - decisive
sandeha - doubtful
shraddha - belief
ashraddha - disbelief
dhRti - fortitude
adhRti - lack of patience
hRi - modest
dhI - understanding
bhI - fearful
All these different kinds can occur with different intensities. These thought fluctuations is the mind.
saMkalpa vikalpa Atmika vRttih manah
Thoughts in a state of doubt are the mind
nishchay Atmika vRttih budhdhih
The thought of decision is the intellect
samaraN Atmika vRttih chitah
The faculty of memory is chitta
Superficially, it is just a matter of a few pre set priorities of my mind about what tastes I like. It is similar to relationships. I like a few people and don’t like others. This is because I establish a connection or develop attachment (of varying intensities) with them. So my love of chocolates is a sweet attachment!
While I still haven’t figured out the above, I stumbled upon the nature of thoughts as such. Thoughts are infinite in number. Mind is like an assembly line dispensing myriad superimposed reflections. It seems daunting to control both number and nature of these thoughts.
Here are a few examples of nature of thoughts:
kAma - desire
sankalpa - willing
vikalpa - doubtful
nishchaya - decisive
sandeha - doubtful
shraddha - belief
ashraddha - disbelief
dhRti - fortitude
adhRti - lack of patience
hRi - modest
dhI - understanding
bhI - fearful
All these different kinds can occur with different intensities. These thought fluctuations is the mind.
saMkalpa vikalpa Atmika vRttih manah
Thoughts in a state of doubt are the mind
nishchay Atmika vRttih budhdhih
The thought of decision is the intellect
samaraN Atmika vRttih chitah
The faculty of memory is chitta
posted by Sirisha @ 12/13/2006 02:08:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I think what you have mentioned about food is more general in that our mind trains itself to think about a specific thing in response to a stimulus, even if those are unrelated events. In the simplest cases it is like a specific smell or a particular sound which brings old memories of some event back. In the general case, the mind forms a pre-conceived notion of a something simply because either due to our upbringing or the society in which we currently are or the peopl we are in contact with.
For e.g. no matter how logically we believe that a snake we see is not poisonous, the particular reaction is to be scared of it, simply because we are so told that they are dangerous. There are several other examples in our life which show that mind tries to purposely cloud our thinking.
Nice analysis:)
Well chocolates have caffeine which is addictive, and it causes the release of serotonin when it binds to receptors in the brain leading to a conditional(expected) response to happen. actually sweets will do this as well, the increase in glucose levels will cause an increase as well making us feel happy. but either way, I like chocolates:D.
On thoughts though, sometimes they are so fleeting, they evaporate as soon as they are formed and then there are the thoughts that are like intuition, somewhat built in ,and then to study these we will have to factor in society, life and every conceivable human experience. Humans are just like their finger prints , no two are exactly the same and this is true for thought processes as well.
By the way, I like your blog.
Thanks Nandini.
You are right no two thoughts are exactly the same. And when two strikingly similar thoughts occur, I feel like I had definitely lived it in the first instance.
Post a Comment
<< Home