Most people have very talkative/thinkative minds. I have had people tell me that their internal dialogue never stops. Because I was interested in this matter, and because I had a very talkative/thinkative mind at one time, and because I was curious about whether the internal dialogue could cease, I experimented with that issue. It took more than a year of ATA before there were even short gaps in the internal dialogue of this body/mind, and it took more than five years of ATA before there were sustained periods of silence. After ten years of ATA, attention could be shifted away from thought to "what is" and total mental silence would ensue for as long as desired. Today, I can stop thinking at will at any time and for whatever length of time is desired. There is NO thinking at all. Is this important? No, but it provides a reference for what was being discussed.
Most people think a great deal of the time, and they have an almost constant internal dialogue running in their heads, so they think that thinking is necessary. It is not. Anyone who is interested in this can keep shifting attention away from thoughts to "what is" until compulsive thinking ceases. Neither Mamza nor I are saying that anyone SHOULD do this; we are only saying that people who ARE ABLE to do this know that thinking is not necessary for most daily activities. As I've said before, it is possible to drive a car, cook a meal, go grocery shopping, and do hundreds of other things in total mental silence. It's rare, but its possible. Mamza and I are saying that if someone CAN do this, it becomes insanely obvious that a person can help someone who needs help (the Good Samaritan parable) or chop someone's head off (the Zen monk parable) without thinking anything. The body is innately intelligent, and most thinking is superfluous and unnecesary.
We're not saying that this is good or bad or anything like that; we're saying that people who think all the time have no reference for understanding how people can act without thought.
Tolle claims that after his big woo woo experience, 80% of his thinking disappeared, and he partially credits the subsequent bliss he experienced with that disappearance of thought. Because I was a compulsive thinker with a non-stop internal dialogue, like Tolle, I am intensely aware of the difference between what life was like when the mind was jabbering incessantly and what life is like now that it is relatively silent.
Whether the mind thinks or doesn't think isn't terrribly important, but when someone claims that thinking is necessary for intelligent physical action, I know that they are clueless about this particular subject, and have no reference for total mental silence.
When the mind becomes relatively silent, many things become obvious, and you are right about what you wrote. People spend a great deal of their time without thinking about what they're doing, but they don't realize it. They are simply not aware of how the mind is activating and de-activating (talking/thinking and not-talking/thinking) throughout the day. Even people who think that their internal dialogue is incessant are experiencing gaps in that dialogue and don't know it. Only a relatively silent mind can see what is happening because the appearance and disappearance of thoughts then becomes obvious.
Most people think a great deal of the time, and they have an almost constant internal dialogue running in their heads, so they think that thinking is necessary. It is not. Anyone who is interested in this can keep shifting attention away from thoughts to "what is" until compulsive thinking ceases. Neither Mamza nor I are saying that anyone SHOULD do this; we are only saying that people who ARE ABLE to do this know that thinking is not necessary for most daily activities. As I've said before, it is possible to drive a car, cook a meal, go grocery shopping, and do hundreds of other things in total mental silence. It's rare, but its possible. Mamza and I are saying that if someone CAN do this, it becomes insanely obvious that a person can help someone who needs help (the Good Samaritan parable) or chop someone's head off (the Zen monk parable) without thinking anything. The body is innately intelligent, and most thinking is superfluous and unnecesary.
We're not saying that this is good or bad or anything like that; we're saying that people who think all the time have no reference for understanding how people can act without thought.
Tolle claims that after his big woo woo experience, 80% of his thinking disappeared, and he partially credits the subsequent bliss he experienced with that disappearance of thought. Because I was a compulsive thinker with a non-stop internal dialogue, like Tolle, I am intensely aware of the difference between what life was like when the mind was jabbering incessantly and what life is like now that it is relatively silent.
Whether the mind thinks or doesn't think isn't terrribly important, but when someone claims that thinking is necessary for intelligent physical action, I know that they are clueless about this particular subject, and have no reference for total mental silence.
When the mind becomes relatively silent, many things become obvious, and you are right about what you wrote. People spend a great deal of their time without thinking about what they're doing, but they don't realize it. They are simply not aware of how the mind is activating and de-activating (talking/thinking and not-talking/thinking) throughout the day. Even people who think that their internal dialogue is incessant are experiencing gaps in that dialogue and don't know it. Only a relatively silent mind can see what is happening because the appearance and disappearance of thoughts then becomes obvious.
