How would you define and identify "thought?"

Posted by cmazzagatti 83 days ago (Question)

How would you define and identify a "thought?" What would you say a thought looks like? Because to me what we know of as "thoughts" seem more like fleeting "visions," "imaginations," or "expectations" about the future or past that I become aware of. They do not appear in my head with any language, rather it seems more like I translate them after I make sense of them. Also, the strangest thing is that whenever I see, hear, taste, or smell something that reminds me of some past experience (positive or negative experience), I will literally feel the same way as I did during the original experience. Everything from my so called "thoughts,â€ feelings, attitude, the aura of my surroundings, etc., are identical as in the original experience and so I will feel like I am reliving that experience all over again. An example of this is that when I first discovered this site, I felt extremely hopeful and optimistic. Now, everytime I visit this site or even think about visiting this site I literally feel the same hopeful and optimistic feelings as I did when I first discovered the site. Another example is the actual time of day. In the morning I tend to feel anxious and even depressed and as the day progresses I feel less anxious and optimistic.

Maybe I am completely wrong, but I think that the same thing happens whenever I have a social anxiety attack (I have social anxiety). Automatically before or during a social situation once I feel that sweaty, heat sensation through my body and face it reminds me of the past experiences I have had and it puts me back in that time, and the attack begins. All of this seems to happen on a subsoncious level. Would you say that this is the case?

Thank you

2 Answers

Answers

Written by Edahn 83 days ago Rating: 0 | Rate Answer: + -

Cool post. We don't get too many opportunities to talk about experience at this level.

I think of thoughts as being fleeting too, and they often don't have any language or labels attached to them. I think you're very right about that. In fact, that observation -- that experiences don't have words pre-assigned to them -- makes up the foundation of a lot of Eastern philosophy as well as meditation practices.

The content of thoughts varies. Sometimes there's analysis, sometimes projection into the future, sometimes memories come up (in sound, pictures, words, episodes, or facts), sometimes impulses, sometimes pictures, sometimes just awareness of stuff going on in my experience. It's a very cool topic, one that cognitive psychologists study (and should study more) and one that Buddhists study as well. There's a text called the Abhi Dharma that is devoted to breaking down the contents of experience with thinking (mental objects) being one of 5 major components. There's also an awesome book called What the Buddha Taught by Rahula that explains it eloquently and briefly. The term "skandhas" which I think translates to "vessels" or "containers" is the term used to describe mental components and sub-components. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha

The experience you described seems to be perception triggering memories which you store as feelings and moods in addition to any other information. I do this too and I bet others do too on some level. I'm not sure if cognitive psychology has researched that idea very much, though there are theories about memory for episodes (experiences). I don't know if anyone has discussed memory for the FEELINGS during those episodes but I think it's a cool topic. It's funny because I was just about to write about this in my blog. (theamateurpsychologist.com) Now that I think about it, though, I think that insight (that we remember feelings) serves as the basis for learning theory: when we experience something bad, we remember it and that feeling is triggered the next time, so we learn to avoid the stimulus. You are, however, looking at it from a cognitive psychology viewpoint, which I think it interesting and possibly somewhat novel.

I think that's probably your experience with social anxiety. The nice thing is that if you understand that your fear is actually coming out of a MEMORY and association, and not just the PRESENT SITUATION, maybe you don't have to worry so much about being anxious and can just relax a bit. I think that would be a nice way to take your insight and leverage it into something you can use for self-improvement.

Also, I think you should consider cognitive psychology AS WELL AS Buddhist psychology. You can study the latter on your own.

Would love to get your thoughts if you have any new ones. (No pun intended, lol.)

Edahn

Written by Clyde 78 days ago Rating: 0 | Rate Answer: + -

I think a lot of the stuff you are "thinking about" (no pun intended) and doing is what a lot of us is like.

Are the fleeting thoughts a lot more common when you are busy, or otherwise occupied?

You may be thinking too much about it, becoming very analytical, which is good, but also can stop you from living your life.

Sometimes, we just have to get out there and live life and see how it goes.

I can understand the social anxiety, and that can be taken care of slowly, a piece at a time, until you get comfortable being whom you are.

Best,

Clyde