Thinking, being of abstraction, is sequential in nature; therefore, it is of time; it is time. It is psychological time that creates and manifests as fear. In time, one may be despised by others; in time (i.e., in the future), one may be laughed at; in time, one may become senile; in time, one may get psychologically hurt by another. So, often, thought and its shadow (i.e., concomitant fear) manifest in (and “as”) time. And remaining in (and “as”) conditioned, sequential abstraction… is a form of suffering. Such suffering is not blissful living.
Thought is often a very necessary tool. However, all too often, we go on thinking (when thought is not necessary). This remaining in (and “as”) thought/thinking, is remaining in what is merely conditioned, merely sequential, merely symbolic, and what is merely time-bound. To psychologically die, at times, to the repetition of abstract thinking, is to go beyond fear, secondhandedness, fragmentation, symbolism, and separation. It may be that the separation between the thinker and the thought is, in itself, another conditioned, sequential misstep… another learned fabrication that isn’t true. It may be that thought creates (and is) the thinker, not the other way around. And we are afraid to have thinking stop (because we are afraid of being nothing). But this “nothing,” that we are afraid of, is a projection of thought/thinking that is erroneous and illusory. To often go beyond the limitation of abstract, fragmentary, and sequential thinking — and all thought is fragmentary, sequential, and time-bound — may be (if it is actually done) rather blissful and beyond distortion, fear, and suffering.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Tom, incredible photo as usual! Thinking can be a monster but if we move into that space of unknowing thinking as we know it in our culture ceases and we enter another kind of time – agreed?
Thinking is very beneficial and good when necessary. However, most of us just habitually overuse it. Going beyond it has a timeless element to it since thought is sequential and time (of course) is sequential. And, though this sounds a bit weird, we do not go into a space of unknowing… because time and space are one (and going beyond time, then, negates space). 😉
Oh Tom today all these stupendous photos from 2023 – had to feast my eyes over and over – such joy you bring to the world – thank you
Thank you, Sara. Great to read! 😊
Wonderful photo and I so wish I could turn off the thoughts. .Meditation helps but they interrupt that, too. Mostly anxious thoughts. The greats have no thoughts at all. Thinking of Sadhguru and other gurus. I wish I had started out on this path many years ago. Any suggestions? Thanks for posting.
Well, my suggestion, Ellen, is to keep reading my posts… and one hopes that one is not being too arrogant here.
Thanks much about the photo. And as for your comment about turning off the thoughts, there is no “I” separate from the thoughts that — via some supposed central controller — turns them off. Subsequent postings will delve into that.
I laughed when you mentioned Sadhguru. Personally, one thinks that he is full of baloney and full of deceptive, silly nonsense… although a little of what he says is OK. Most all gurus are charlatans and when i met some in college — who came to our college campus — i wiped the smile from their faces… (but not by being impolite). My advice is to read things like Leaves of Grass (by Walt Whitman) and some of J. Krishnamurti. And please don’t make a big effort to go beyond thinking; that just creates internal friction, separation, and conflict. 😉
I agree, “Thought is often a very necessary tool.” Yet, you have to give your brain a break, conditioned or not. I feel you have to delete some unnecessary files that are clogging your hard drive! 🤔
Yes, Kym, and every single thought, whether we face it or not, is conditioned and fragmentary. The only way to be fully aware, with great holistic awareness, is to be beyond that limited domain. Then we are something more than mere reactions. 👍😉
Agreed! 👍🏻
Well, now I’ve often been told I “overthink” things, but I am constantly analyzing stimuli that infiltrate my little world. My world has gotten smaller the last few years, due to Covid and keeping more to myself – nothing wrong with that, but I do ponder things more the older I get. I like the lime-green grasshopper on the lime green leaf – the eyes, the antennae … a great close-up shot Tom!
Maybe you, Linda, are pondering more — which would be great — and not merely analyzing various stimuli. 😊 Anyway, it’s intelligent to ponder and to question a lot and to — additionally — go, at times, beyond the pondering. Keeping to yourself is cool; don’t let them get to you; don’t let them fill you with what they’ve been conditioned to accept. Ponder for yourself beyond the web of their conditioning.
Thanks about the lime-green grasshopper… (and it’s a young katydid really).
I follow your blog and find it interesting and sometimes somewhat out of line.. You may be enlightened but to say all meditation is self hypnosis is really an outcome of some experience you have had. I have followed a number of gurus. I have not read Krishnamurti but have heard of him and will look him up. And Wordsworth and other poets were enlightened. I have followed a few gurus. Yogananda has brought me to great places as has Thay and Daaji. My gripe against Sadhguru is not that he is a joke. He has spoken at the U.N. and done wonderful deeds for the Indian people. He is a mystic. But he is also a business man which turns me off. Daaji has a worldwide web and charges nothing. His books are enlightened though they don’t bring me to the heights Yogananda did. He is helping me tremendously. I have a guy in Lucknow, India, who has great insights, simple yet close to God. He is teaching me Hinduism at my request. He never set himself as a guru. He is teaching me what he taught his children. He is very humble. As is Daaji. Not a charlatan bone in his body. I am going online with him now. Sorry to say some of the things I said but I could not leave them unaddressed.
Ellen, i don’t really care about what your opinions are of me. 😉 That is not important to me. And i follow a number of peoples’ blogs, and i never comment on their blogs about how i think that what they write or believe in is out of line. As for saying that certain writers or gurus are enlightened, or mystic, or close to God, how do you know? Have you gone through nirvana? And i used to study hypnosis — reading books about it, etc. — and, a little later in life (while in college) i realized that what many of these gurus were advocating to do was simply a glorified form of self-hypnosis.
As for Sadhguru, he says a lot of things that are questionable and childish if one has any intelligence; like he says that human perception and the moon are directly connected. Really? I have pieces of the moon in my house, as part of a few of the meteorites that i have. They are rocks and do not emanate any magical forces. Sadhguru also does things like over-stereotyping women (by saying that, these days, they are trying to be like men).
I would like to comment if I may,
Quote: “Thinking, being of abstraction, is sequential in nature; therefore, it is of time; it is time. It is psychological time that creates and manifests as fear.
If I may add my viewpoint to this.
Time.. you are correct. We are conscience only in the now of time. We can see in the past and make judgements of the future but we only live in the today.
From this viewpoint of Now we obtain information through our experiences. We store this information and use it to guide our lives, and make decisions. This is the normal process everyone uses to calculate life and make judgements.
Fear is one of the components we use in this evaluating process.
It is in this “psychological time frame”, where we calculate what our decisions will be. It is here where we fear ….. The unknown…
Fear is a power. And very powerful I must say.
Fear only has power over us only when it is unknown.
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Please forgive me if I offend in anyone in anyway with my viewpoint.
Please forgive me for my penmanship, I have an 8th grade education. Juan.
Yes, I can see the disadvantages in overthinking and over analysing. I also read a lot about thinking and analysing regarding over thinking and over analysing. This seems to come from people who think and analyse a lot themselves. Pondering created from experience?
She’s rambling again …. 🙂
We are — most of us, anyway — good at overthinking and over-analyzing. (And the analyzer is the analyzed.) Pondering, for a time, may be very beneficial. But it is also important and beneficial to go beyond pondering and analyzing. The whole doesn’t come about due to dissection or due to breaking things up into fragments to examine piece by piece. Too many scientists, Margaret, are trapped in fragmentation and analysis, and they don’t perceive beyond parts and components. 😊
Wow!
This reminds me of the quote from Byron Katie: “I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being.”. Some of her books are here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=katie+byron