Train of thoughts..
Thoughts have layers. You do not believe me? They do. At least from now on they will have. Because once you learn something you cannot unlearn it until it happens naturally. Just like layers of a drawing program we can use the analogy to understand thoughts.
Where do you think the phrase "Train of thoughts" come from? We kind of knew it from early days. Imagine the engine of a long, long trans American cargo train, is like the initial thought. And followed by this there will be a lot of follow up thoughts. And just like a train, once started to move thoughts will carry on like a train without brakes! Exactly like in the film Unstoppable! It might crash on the platform either killing half a dozen people or breaking into tears.
But now we have established thoughts have layers, we can see this phenomenon carefully to improve our understanding of them. Why? Because we are naturally inclined for truth. Most of our minds are just work like that. They are in search of some truth, in a sea of lies.
Summary so far.
Thoughts are like a train.
First thought is like an engine.
Next thoughts are like carts
And more the momentum engine gives longer the train of thoughts would stretch
It's difficult to stop once they start to get going
Deeper understandings on train of thoughts.
Imagine you took a walk in the park. There is a little pond in the middle of it surrounded by green bushes. In the pond you saw some ducks.
Some were black. Some were white some were small. Some were big. It was a sanctuary for the ducks. Unlike the last summer where you went with your office colleagues for duck hunting with a group of hunting dogs in high mountains. These were not afraid of humans. Yesterday you were singing the duck song with kids in the back of your car driving from the school. How does that stupid little cartoon get a million views? And you notice the bush where two ducks just went in and maybe they are mating. Is it the mating season?
Now lets analyze.. the Train of thoughts
Seeing some ducks in the lake was the engine.
Thinking about duck hunting, duck songs and duck mating were the carts.
And if you look carefully, you would appreciate the experience only belong to the so called "Now" moment in mindfulness. Rest of the things we imagine is either past or the future.
More importantly our values are associated with these follow up thoughts. Just like valuable cargo is carried in carts of a train. Values can be either positive or negative even neutral. If you do not have these follow up thoughts, you would not be able to enjoy ducks. Or be sad about them even. But the engine of the train, or our observation is inherently valueless. It is the past or the future, which is not there, creates a value for the present experience.
That is simple and easy to understand 😌 explanation of train of thoughts.
Sea of lies.
But there is more depth to this. Some do tend to understand this truth and lose all values and try to live with the experience. As they find peace there, in the present moment. Without judgement. Yet the truth is even the duck that we first saw is there due to the previous ducks that we have seen in life. If we have never seen a duck before, and came from a different planet we would not see a duck. Just something which moves and quacks. If we forget all our past, we would not even be able to walk, in the park, just waddle like a newborn duck. So, living in mindfulness in the present moment isn't possible technically as we need past to interpret the present moment.
It's just logic, but still we do live in a relative true reality made by our own minds.
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