Photo courtesy of: ‘Oceanic’ jplenio – Pixabay
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For class, I was asked to write a page or so on the question… EXPERIENTIALLY, DO YOU MOSTLY THINK IN THOUGHTS OR IN IMAGES (or in some other way)?
It’s a ‘tricky’ question. It invites internal inquiry and observation. But how do I use the terms thought and mental images? I have experienced my mind as oceanic, a vast medium of evolving motion, however, I seem to predominantly operate on the surface navigating waves of here and there. So I’ve taken some time to look further into this. The words ‘thoughts’ and ‘images’ are symbolic summary terms for many activities and events involving: feelings, remembrances, imaginings, impressions, incoming bits of sensual data, filling and emptying spaces… where the unformulated evolves into luminous appearances…
I am thinking of examples of thoughts and images… in flashes of hints regarding, suspicions, fancy, and intention. Have you ever experienced someone telling you one thing, but not acting consistent with what’s being told to you? Below specific attention, you pick up contrary ‘micro-expressions’ from the face, body language that seems inconsistent with the spoken words… tone, and innuendo hint at opposite underlying intention or perspective. Most of that is going on below the surface of summary ‘thoughts’ and ‘images’.
Images and thoughts move so fast… mind-pictures never completed, with fuzzy or empty spaces, wiz by like close-up and quickly passing scenery… And I also notice thought-strings, where I may even see some of the words bubble up from the unseen, and disappear into the not-seeable. This all demonstrates to me that there is much more going on than just thoughts and images. I see I can dive deeper, and even experience what is prior to words… the feel of the rudimentary underived, where meaning is born from the eruptions of being.
Related to the ‘thoughts’ or ‘images’ question… “While you are in a conversation, notice how you sometimes think about what you want to say next in response (a private thought). How do you ‘hold’ that thought while you are waiting to speak?
While I busied myself with the work of contextualizing meaning, that activity seemed to suspend itself at the ‘edge’ of the Now, where the future is touched, an open source, where the new and not yet embodied seem to emerge. From this openness contextualizing takes its direction and heading in a continuously renewing, creative process. ‘Intent’ seems to often draw up and refine from the depths… the point of elaboration. But not always, something prior to intent operates, perhaps it’s a basic living response to the dawning of a pristine moment born…
