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Can you think?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Most of us have socialised and are in or beyond monkey mind. Some are or have confirmed the nature of self as a condition not a distinct reality.
As we develop the capacity for focussed objectivity we gain insight and compassion for our former ignorance and present limitations.
I would suggest Buddha like qualities are an inevitable result of 'Right thinking', don't you think? 
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I like 'right intention' better than 'right thinking'.. because there are not certain thoughts that we must or must not have.
I haven't really given it much thought lately...But I would have to say , thanks to awareness thought does the thinking ( Occasionally "I" just go along for the ride....
)
BTW I'm under the impression that "Right" Thinking just involves "knowing" ( involving awareness) which thoughts to give life to and which ones to drop...
Yes! Thinking, intention and awareness. And better yet, aware that we are aware!
1)Thought arises. (I just had a thought)
2)Awareness arises( I can't be the thought! I am aware of it!)
3)Awareness of awareness( I am aware of awareness watching thought - mind blown) Hahaha
I never truly understood the 8 fold path as a step by step process. Seems more like a huge interplay of all of it.
What's the practical difference between 2 and 3?
A recognition we are not even the awareness. It's perceivable.
^^^ I thought I thaw a puddy cat (ego) a creeping up on me. I did, I did ...
I don't do much thinking these days.
So where does this "awareness of awareness" fit in with the Buddhist model of consciousness, where basically there are 6 aspects of consciousness, one for each sense base?
You guys are all over thinking it.
No idea my friend. This from more direct experience through mindfulness. I don't understand that model. Everything seems to be happening by itself but not really separate.
Feeling consciousness and thinking consciousness are separate? I don't understand that. I can't find any lines
Yeah, it's what I do for some light relief from practising mindfulness.
No doubt.
!
Sometimes I think there is too much thinking done for the sake of thinking.
The 6 aspects of consciousness are really just a model for paying attention to these different aspects of experience, that's why the sense bases are included in the 4th frame of satipatthana. I was asking about the "awareness of awareness" thing - it's reminiscent of the Dzogchen approach, though to be honest I never really understood that even while I was practising it, oh well, back to being mindful I suppose....
Yes, right intention is really about developing more wholesome states of mind. I've become increasingly aware of how mind-states or moods influence thinking, and vice versa.
I think I absolutely agree with you.
Now, I think THAT'S novel!
the awareness of awareness thing is a flaw I see in stating that all things are conditioned. because an awareness would need to establish that (all things conditioned). and then another awareness would need to establish that that one (previously described as the observer) was also conditioned... endless regression..
it could all be conditioned. but to establish that as true rather than false (or unknowable) you would need the infinite regression of concsciousness each one establishing that the one previous was also conditioned.
this is just a funky thought I have it's not some big deal.
Not inevitable; you also need the other 7 steps!
^^^
Indeed.
According to the bhikkhu (monk) and scholar Walpola Rahula, the divisions of the noble eightfold path "are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others." Bhikkhu Bodhi explains that "with a certain degree of progress all eight factors can be present simultaneously, each supporting the others. However, until that point is reached, some sequence in the unfolding of the path is inevitable."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path
I'm saying it IS unknowable, I don't even think awareness is the right word.
"Something/no thing" knows it is aware.
You can't regress because you can't look at No-thing. It isn't even looking.
Yeah I'm not trying to understand it yet... Because I can see the ego tries to understand it. I know the ego is a false sense of identity so I watch this instead.
Well both the ego and the one looking are all happening by themselves. Hahah
Thanks guys,
remarkably we can think even with minimum or rearranged brain. For example the remarkable cases of mostly gone brains.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/210/4475/1232
There is also evidence of neurons in the heart and I should imagine they or similar capacity will be discovered throughout the body.
Thinking or 'mind' in Buddhism has been mostly studied from an experiential basis. I would suggest to a potentially more psychologically balancing and healing degree than some aspects of modern thinking.
However should we think in part like modern Buddhists not semi mythical prince-yogis? Unless of course those yogis had pragmatic insights or were omniscient/totally awesome Mary Poppins ...
Practically perfect? ... mmm ... thinking cap on ...
Mary Poppins was probably an eminashun of Green Tara.
Green Tara is a magical English Nanny Buddha. Makes sense. She is definetly a sky walker ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakini
OM TARE Tutare Ture Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious So there!
Indeed.
Thanks guys.
As @Daozen mentioned I would suggest thinking is a range or continuum in dharma. A range dependent on factors that enable right thinking. So in a sense we have to be at least aware of the choice to not go in certain directions and concentrate on right thinking, don't you think?
More like a short story.