20220703: creative thinking
I woke up last night (around 3:00am am I think). I woke up for something and couldn't put myself back to sleep. I was laying rolling different thoughts in my head - both previous day's events and various abstract junk.
There were so many thoughts I wanted to do something, follow up with things and many new things popping up here and there. I have had a lot of time to mull over many thangs in the past but this was a different experience with so many things popping up at once. There may be something to do with the time.
I was panicking with the thoughts. Not because the thoughts themselves were difficult ones but there were too many too fast. My issue is if I have any thoughts in the middle of the night, I can't get up, put on the light, take a paper and pen and jot it down so I can remember them later. I have to make that list in my head and try to remember later. I was panicking because there were so many things I wanted to remember and follow up and I knew I would fall back asleep eventually and very good chance I would have forgotten many things.
One of the things that I was thinking was - where is it coming from. I understand the mundane thoughts about things to do. What about new ones which I wouldn't usually have thought about.
The explanation/ argument I have often come across is that the mind and thoughts are a consequence of previous thoughts and memories. So how does a completely new thought or line of thinking or Idea come about? It has no previous reference. Very original artwork or painting or invention or something else very abstract.
What creates the "Eureka" moment in the mind and the possibility for new things..
So where do you think they come from?
ReplyDeleteApparently all we can do is mix it up and create Chow Chow Bath..
ReplyDeleteMadhukar: I agree. Chow chow bath is what we make all the time. But once in a while, we get our hands on a new ingredient. Where did it come from?
ReplyDeleteTheory goes like this sir:
ReplyDeleteThere is a state of mind where there is no thoughts. In that state any “action” is of creation and hence creative in nature. This action can be termed as “insight”.
A physical body can live in this state.. we call them as realised people.
Or we still have thoughts/memory and can have partial insights.
Example: sometimes when we are deeply involved in a problem.. we work at it till night but can’t find a solution. Next day morning when we wake up we have solution.. this I believe is action of insight.
When we are at a problem with our energy and expired all options that our memory/thought can come up with.. then we go to a state of “I don’t know” .. then our thoughts have ceased to operate and hence mind is silent. Then insight into that problem can happen I believe.
As a friend I will take a bit of liberty for below 😊
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read your “useless” article it felt logical and ok.. like it is normal to feel like that given the circumstance..
But sometime later I could see the fault line of that thought.. it is general rule we have “I have to be useful/helpful”.. this is like a universal law.. but is a law WE have created and in OUR memory.
When a situation arises in contradiction to this law - it reacts with some negative emotion… we have taken these emotions for granted.
But given a circumstance - this Law is Invalid and False. Emotion emanating out of this is wrong. Law is not updated/changed with latest “Life Facts”…. It is mechanically reacting to inputs from senses.. this illustrates basic fault of our thought/memory. Our world of known/memory is full of morales, ethics, belief, judgements, etc. etc. which is not necessary..
Good thought/memory examples: when we are driving to a place.. our sense organs are active seeing the path ahead.. memory is automatically identifying and reacting with right instructions of next action.. there is no fault in this process.. all decisions are mechanical but performing as per design..
Madhukar - Yes, I agree that the vessel must be empty for anything else to get there. However, what makes it get there anyway. Where does it come from?
ReplyDeleteAlso, i have also come across many theories. What is it suggesting in practical experience?
Madhukar - I read your comment a few times. I have to confess that I could not grasp it fully - which is ok, what matters is that it is clear in your mind.
ReplyDeleteWhere does it come from? - I don’t know sir.. I live in world of thoughts.. I need to clean the vessel to perceive that..
ReplyDeleteFor me it is practically suggesting “limit of thought. Since I don’t understand the limits correctly, it leads to false usage”.. beyond thought there is something probably..
Interesting as the question "where does original thought come from?" is, my first reaction to your post was that every time I have trouble falling asleep, the thoughts that race through my mind are all the mistakes and minute failures from my past, displayed in technicolor vividity. My usual trick is to listen to (not watch) something I've already heard, like a favorite movie or standup routine so the mind is dulled back into stupor.
ReplyDeleteSo ask not where they come from, but rejoice that they do, maybe, and put them to use? I'm kinda jealous you have insightful thoughts at 3am :)
Closer to your question, though, I think one source of insight, especially in the context of an unsolved problem that has vexed a person, is that the mind forms an opinion over time and arrives at a novel conclusion as a result of a collection of personal experiences. it "bubbled up" at 3 am, but had been simmering below the surface for a while, likely. One of the few arguably original thoughts I've had is: "reduce the number of horizontal surfaces in the house because they lead to clutter". The idea crystallized as I was making a point to my wife many years ago when we were arguing about buying some furniture, and the full force of the many cross-continental moves we'd done when I had to jettison 40% of our belongings because they were too much to carry hit me. I realized that one less horizontal surface is one less surface to place things on. Mundane, I know, but hopefully illustrates my point. Side note: I'm still not successful in convincing my wife against buying more stuff, but that's besides the point :)
I believe that our thoughts come from our own library of experiences. Sometimes we are able to access our library quickly and we have answers which are derived from our experiences and sometimes we don’t have an answer because we maybe lacking one or more experiences. At the end of the day, I believe we are all here to accumulate experiences.
ReplyDeleteNice to hear your views KD. They probably have been around for a long time and changed its shape beyond recognition and feel like new thoughts.
ReplyDeleteNice thought about horizontal surfaces. I must say it does very well for big things.
If you want to reduce a lot of hoarding and clutter, get rid of storage spaces around the house 🙂