Thinking About Thinking
I think about thinking a lot. How our thoughts are continuous. How they can make us feel so very good and so very awful. How some people get so wrapped up in them that they lose control. Hey- thinking about thinking is a whole lot better than the shit I used to think about.
How great would it be if we could go back to being children with all the wonder and curiosity? None of the layers of crap and experiences to jade us and give us endless possibilities of thoughts to dwell on. A simple consciousness, joyful, and light.
Unfortunately, that is not how humans have evolved. At what point did basic instinct become the complex thought process we have now? There are tons of theories with evidence to suggest we have uncovered these secrets. But no one theory is not arguable.
Seeing how arguing is not my jam, let’s take a look at some facts.
The Earth is billions of years old, somewhere around 4.5 billion. Wrap your head around that. Evidence of the existence of a brain can be found around 500 million years ago in reptiles. This is likely when consciousness and awareness came about. Very simple at first. Reptiles with primitive brains had consciousness and awareness. Awareness for prey, for survival. I don’t think early gator consciousness was anything like what humans have today, of course. They weren’t thinking about Jane’s party on Saturday night, plus a thousand other things, all at the same time. Also unlike reptiles, we were able to develop language. This occurred about two million years ago. Humans began communicating, spreading ideas and thoughts and we haven’t shut up since. The ability to share thoughts and ignite them in others is when thinking started to become more complex.
Evolution is determined by our environment. We adapt to survive in a particular environment. Our first human ancestors, from a couple of million years ago began to solve problems with tools. Using devices to make life easier. Soon after tools, we began to use fire. No doubt it was the instinct for survival that drove this adaptation. Still, women of the stone age were not likely worried so much about how they looked or presented themselves.
So where did this enormous amount of thinking come from? I can understand using our consciousness to problem solve. But today we try to solve problems that we don’t even have!! We manufacture problems in our heads.
I like looking back at history and where we originated. It helps me to make sense of our true nature. Our endless thought cycles and consciousness are no doubt an adaptation for life. Evolution leads to survival foremost but also efficiency. We have become more efficient but perhaps our thinking has become too efficient.
Unfortunately, it takes so many years to observe the outcome of evolution. It is not a process that can be predicted or observed in real-time. It could take millions of years before humans can look back to see the significance of our personal evolution. What is happening today will not be a “whole picture” for quite some time. We won’t be around for that.
I bring up this whole lesson in evolution to make this point. We are still evolving. We have been adapting for millions of years and we will continue to do so. Life evolves and becomes more efficient. More and more people are becoming less of a slave to their minds. This is a HUGE clue about where evolution is headed: learning to control these supercharged processing units that live in our heads.
So, what is consciousness?
Think of your head like a big dark movie theater. The thoughts in your head are the movie playing on the big screen. Your consciousness is that one lone being watching the movie. The awareness. Which tells us you aren’t the thoughts!! You are just watching them, like a bad ole movie on an endless loop.
Now, what if I told you that you could control the projector?
I like watching the leaves on trees blowing in the wind. I like the contemplation and where my mind takes me. I go back to being a kid with wonder and curiosity. Before the layers of crap and experiences that jaded me giving me endless possibilities of thoughts to dwell on. A simple consciousness, joyful, and light. I like that.
Get ahold of that head of yours.
This is my prayer for you.
♥
Originally published at http://theharmonygarage.com on May 23, 2020.
