Mind Reading 3 – The thought

What is a thought? Memory, desire, decision, action.

Let's return for a moment to the word "mind reading". It is worth splitting it in two and defining it clearly, so that our analysis is precise.

What is a thought?

Thought: "the desire that forms from the recalling of memories, which a person, having decided, acts out again."

So in fact the word thought consists of several components:
Memory → Desire → Decision → Action

Action is the deed we carry out with our body.

In our mind it is desire and decision that keep spinning, and it is from these that our actions arise.

Action becomes a memory immediately after it has happened.

(Are there 4 factors, or 3? It doesn't matter. Let's not get stuck here...)

Practical examples of thoughts: recalling a taste, the sensation of a scent, musing on a pleasant sight seen earlier, or the feeling that arises from reading a book.

It is worth thinking through how simple people consider their own thoughts to be; yet one must admit that our word thought is not at all easy to define precisely, because it consists not of one but of several components, and in time they do not occur all at once, but one after the other.

So it is great carelessness on the part of humanity not to examine the workings of its own mind more thoroughly. But then, there was no lesson at school called "human consciousness analysis theory-practice" either.

This kind of distortion of information characterises our world, and unfortunately it is taking on ever greater proportions. The things that are important for developing human understanding and for a happy life are looked down on and laughed at, while the unimportant things are magnified and proclaimed, and in the crowd (since individual responsibility disappears there) people are even capable of killing for their false ideas.

Let's return to our analysis:

Memory (the delicious taste of a soft drink) → Desire (I would like to feel it again) → Decision (do I do it or not?) → Action (I buy a soft drink)

If we draw this in a circle, it becomes clear that action, as soon as we do it, passes away. After it has passed, only a memory remains, so it can serve as the basis for the next desire that arises, and so on.

In our human form of existence this is what we do day after day. So repetition, that is, cyclicity, arises. This is what causes addictions to develop.

There is nothing so surprising in this, since it is natural that we have memories of, say, last year's holiday. It is natural that we sometimes think of it. It is natural that we long to return to our memories. It is natural that we may even repeat it next year, going on holiday to the same seaside as last year.

When the word natural is repeated so many times, think about it: in fact it is not natural. When your boyfriend laughs at his own crude remarks, why don't you laugh? Because you know it isn't funny...