The Origin of Thoughts

Most thoughts that arise in our minds are reactions to what we consume through our sense organs.

If you don’t believe me, try to still your mind and observe. Your day flashes in your mind behind your closed lids. Once you’re through, your mind may lead you backward on the timeline of your life and past incidents start coming to the fore. Sometimes, thoughts arising out of what you have read or watched dominate the scene (pardon the pun). Incidents of your day, of days long past, do not and have not occurred in a social vacuum. All such incidents are driven by the people involved and their actions and reactions towards you – external influence.

Bhajans or mantras or similar divinely inclined content make you sense divine intervention in the smallest of coincidences.

Horror films make you see shapes and ghosts in all shadows. Despite knowing every corner of your house you cannot shake the tingling pinpricks sensation of being watched by some nefarious entity when going to the restroom in the dark.

Simply the knowledge that there may be a snake in the garage makes you assume every touch is sinister.

Bad food makes you fantasise about your comfort food cooked to perfection by your mother; acidity drives out all other thoughts until it is eased.

The above examples prove without a doubt that whether the stimulus is physical or emotional; positive or negative; it elicits a response in the mind. Those responses are the building blocks of thoughts.

According to Sri Aurobindo:
“There is hardly an original thought in the world. It is almost impossible to have an original thought.”

So, if most thoughts are merely responses to stimuli, will fine-tuning stimuli result in thoughts more suited to our interests? As far as I found out, the answer is yes. Seems quite intuitive once it is laid out, and yet is the hardest thing to exercise and achieve.

Watching what you consume through all your five senses; and controlling what you allow to impact the most important sense, your heart, certainly is a first step towards a calmer, quieter, cooler, more rested, and more tranquil mind.

Maybe, someday, if some of us are sincere enough, we may be blessed with an “original thought” driven by stimuli carefully provided by the gods and not merely influenced by the world of mortals.