words - "we are what we think"

words - "we are what we think"
A

andrew51

Registrant
Something to think about:

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world." Gautama the Buddha

Just about 30 years ago I was lucky enough to meet and persuade a Dr. Jan Foudraine to work as a consultant for Browndale-Gunning Stichting - a residential treatment centre I was associated with in Holland.

I love the 'we are what we think' quote. I want to share Dr. Foudraine's 'take' or interpretation. Dr. Foudraine was quite a famous stage actor in Europe before he studied to become a psychoanalyst and did some very cutting edge pioneer work in Connecticutt before returning to the Netherlands.

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world." What is the meaning of those words, "With our thoughts we make the world"?

It means that the world that we are perceiving is not just an extension of our senses. The re-cognisable world of names and forms as it is being observed, as it appears, is the result of concepts (thoughts or words) drifting in consciousness. We think the world, we are dreaming the world. We are seeing and hearing the world not through our eyes and ears but through the mind. All that we see is mind and we do not perceive what-is. We clearly do not see a tree. What is being seen is a trembling movement in consciousness and made of consciousness, and we stick very rapidly the label (or word) tree onto this movement. We snatch that label out of our reservoir of concepts and that reservoir is the accumulated past. So we are all mind-dominated and thus past-dominated. We are, as it is said, sleeping, like Lazarus, in our grave and that grave is the past. How about that for a definition of our general, and shared insanity!

Are we then actually living in a world of words? I had to ask myself that question. The answer is clear. Of course we are!"
Click to expand...
Sounds like words are very powerful tools, guys. Sharp, shaping, demanding respect.

Peace, Andrew
 
Look for a Movie titled "What the Bleep do we Know" If It hasn't Found you yet it Will or even Better Find it. You will get it and Love what it says. It is right in this same vein.

BTW-- I Love the Movie and Agree with the Thought though I admit I have not mastered the Idea yet But enjoy working towards it.

Glad you are here.
 
Thanks for shareing this with us Andrew...

To expand on that...

If a child were taught that a 'tree' was a 'dog' - and no one were to ever correct him as he was growing up - he would trully see what we all can clearly see as a 'tree' to be a 'dog' to him...

The mind uses what we have learned in the past - to recognise everything that we think we 'see' in the present...

The mind is a very powerfull thing indeed...

TJ jeff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top