Saturday, September 8, 2012

About that Thought (part 2)

At the risk of painting legs on a snake, I will elaborate on the previous About Thinking post. In that entry, Zen Master So Sahn referenced a gem that goes like this "If you know the arising thought is itself unreal delusion, you are already free."

Recently, I read a book on the neuroscience behind magic. In that book, the authors referenced a study that investigated the relationship between thought and action. Using some of the newer imaging technologies they were able to determine that for a given stimulus, the body acted first, following that - the mind generated a story about what happened.

There was also a discussion on the current thinking in their circles on the way memory works. They were saying that when an event is stored, we only keep certain details on it. Later, when we recall the memory, we actually fill in the rest of the details. Not only that - the memory is then re-stored with the new details that were just made up.

Add that to the fact (not from the book) that when we recall events we are also bringing the past into the present. We are then viewing yesterday’s memories with today’s accumulation of experience.

Of course, this is way too many words. It is one thing to read this and find it interesting. It is another to realize it.

Pay attention.

What do you find?