Assignment for Week Six: Patterns of the Thinking Mind.

Assignment 4, Session 2.

The Pervasive Patterns of the Thinking Mind

A valuable aspect of the postings on the CCI website for me is that I am able to see that our group includes a range of minds, each with their own capacities and inclinations.  It’s especially interesting to notice that some people are far more observant than I am about their surroundings.  This seems both an innate ability and a choice that has been (is being) made about how to use that ability.

Reflecting on the pantomime of my own mind, I sometimes appreciate being invited to its free daily showings.  Well, not always free, if you count the years wasted in day dreams, the fading contrails of images and thoughts that do not add up to anything, but vanish in the high winds of the passing of a time that I have failed to notice.

Perhaps there are several minds in operation.  One constantly bounces in and out (like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh).  If that mind asks a question (as TSK suggests is a valuable thing to do), it is no longer there to notice the answer, if one arrives.  And this is not an example of the question being more important than the answer.  It’s an uncentered careening of a fitful, unbalanced kind of mind that is incapable of seeing a broader stream of time, nor a space available for what may follow from this momentary presence, and all the while knowledge is served up teaspoon after teaspoon after teaspoon.

          Another kind of mind is more of a weaver, going with each thought—embroidering, connecting, whirling, letting chance thoughts fly “off the cuff”, and then hanging on for the ride.  This mind could entertain itself all morning and not remember anything about the magic landscapes it has visited.

          A third kind of mind is now sitting at the computer, typing, interested in capturing some of the thoughts of the weaving mind, which were in turn launched into action by the fitful Tigger mind.

          Are these reflections themselves a “pattern of thinking”?   Yes.  It’s a pattern that is attempting to combine other patterns (such as the three minds noted above) with one another, and then to inject a sense that they can collaborate better if they appreciate the contributions made by each.  Perhaps that can also be the potential value of this TSK group?

 –Michael Gray, 12/13/13