2006-12-03 23:31:27 · 24 answers · asked by pp 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
That's too deep for me.
2006-12-03 23:34:00 · answer #1 · answered by elgil 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What about when we are asleep? More specifically, when we are in deep sleep as opposed to dream sleeep (which can be distringuished physiologically).
It is not possible to stay alive without brain activity to control bodily functions such as breathing. Who knows what thought this entails at an unconscious level?
We appear to have some control over the direction of our thoughts, e.g. we can decide to imagine ideas to write a novel. How far such decisions are a matter of free choice is a big question! However, it would seen that many of our thoughts, not least our perceptions, happen automatically. Perhaps the difficulty of attaining empy meditative states, as advocated as an ideal by some Eastern religions, proves the point.
So maybe the answer is:
Ask Bhudda.
2006-12-04 02:12:56 · answer #2 · answered by Philosophical Fred 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've done it.
You hallucinate 'yourself' leaving your body.
You just perceive differently.. instead of having a fixed perspective. Like, you know how you can walk, chew gum, smell the flowers, listen to music and imagine the future? The mind is able to do all at once, without conflict. It's not like Terminator's perception which looks like a video sceen with red text saying "Target Identified" or whatever. You perceive your perceptions directly and without conflict, unlike the rabbit-duck picture.
When you stop thinking, you open your mind to a profusion of data and have the experience of consciousness from a less fixed location, while normally you experience yourself 'in your head'. If you were to raise your hand, you could perceive it from the top, the bottom, the sides -- all at once -- though your eyes may not be in those places.
The difficulty of achieving and maintaining such a state is what keeps buddhists paying tithes to 'the enlightened'. It takes a lifetime of practice to do anything with such mental acuity-- and they are mostly circus tricks in the end.
2006-12-04 08:00:15 · answer #3 · answered by -.- 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe that thinking is not possible to stop. Even in sleep, some sort of thinking keeps going on in the mind. That is why meditation needs something to singularly concentrate on. Blank meditation is not practicable. Even reflex actions arise out of a subconscious thinking process whereby past reactions are repeated. I suspect even in coma, perhaps thoughts do not desert us.
But then I am no expert... what I have said is merely what I believe in my limited knowledge of such matters.
2006-12-03 23:54:23 · answer #4 · answered by small 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just to demonstrate the possibility, look at the extreme situations... like 'near death' situation, those few couple of moments before an "imminent-looking" headlong fatal crash, the mind ceases (may be out of fear), and those rare moments are when a person is fully "ALIVE"... but when it is possible to consciously 'switch off' the mind,.... well...., things start happening, which is difficult to accept , digest, believe !
Another rare occasion is rare few moments of intense love (this is a very rare occasion.. happens in youth when there is a supplemental physical intimacy to enhance the intimacy too ).
2006-12-04 00:34:06 · answer #5 · answered by Spiritualseeker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You CAN clear your mind, Can live in the moment and Can deliberately try to remain thought free but you Can Not Be w/out thinking its part of the human condition its just how we are all wired. You can pick up a book called the Decameron by Boccaccio written during an outbreak of plague in Italy or Canterbury tales written in england in the middle ages and relate to several of the stories in both of them the stories although hundreds of years old are about & by people being people it's one way I have found to accept that thought is part of being.
2006-12-04 00:00:45 · answer #6 · answered by crawler 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, no, no!!! It's not possible to stay without thinking, 'cos the mad guys even think. The moment the brain stops working that's the end of life,since every thing comes from the brain. That's the engine of the body.
2006-12-03 23:54:10 · answer #7 · answered by laud_kotey 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is possible.....
when someone reaches an advanced level of MEDITATION.
when someone sits in meditation successfully, and manages not to pay attention to the several thoughts are coming initially.....while has entered a state where you stop thinking, you are just absorbed into your inner self, and at that state one begins to realize the true nature of all phenomena which is emptyness.
It takes time and effort, it is complicated....not easy but possible...and the Buddha Sakyamouni Himself, it took Him years to reach emlightenment!
2006-12-03 23:42:53 · answer #8 · answered by Dakini 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some oriental religions say that to stop the inner voice is to be closer to the gods.
I believe that is not possible to stop thinking but it is possible to clear up the mind and think in just one subject.
2006-12-03 23:34:42 · answer #9 · answered by Charles Brown 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, consider thinking as a physical (brain)and / or [concious] awareness.i'am 'taking; your stay' as: in : the physical 'body'.the 'non-physical' perhaps; oft labeled: as un-conscious or instinctive "mind" will and indeed does - - will(continue to) keep the body 'here' = thus "stay-ing" (without "thinking").example : sleeping yet the heart(phys) continues to beat...would like to include that 'deep' meditation can also provide a "stay"-ing ;; without thinking. please consider ;"awareness" as 'different' --> than just 'thinking' ...
2006-12-04 00:02:08 · answer #10 · answered by errorfinder 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That seems to be the ideal of meditation, but apparently even people who have been meditating for many years still have thoughts drift in.
2006-12-04 02:08:21 · answer #11 · answered by Ace Librarian 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋