Thought is their master

We are often blind as to the negative effects of thinking and thought, or the same, that unforeseen failures such as with large systems are largely due to the thoughts by which they are created and sustained.  This is what the Buddha meant in the Dhammapada when he said “Events (dhammâ) are preceded by thought. Thought is their master. They are made by thought.”  This further suggests that the main source of our problems is thought, itself, which paradoxically we use to try to solve our problems which only makes the problem worse.  On this subject the late physicist David Bohm noted:

“What is the source of all this trouble? That is really what we have been concerned with in all these dialogues of the past few years. I’m saying that the source is basically in thought. Many people would think that such a statement is crazy, because thought is the one thing we have with which to solve our problems. That’s part of our tradition. Yet it looks as if the thing we use to solve our problems is the source of our problems” (David Bohm, Thought as a System, 2)

The Buddha and David Bohm both understood that thoughts are not impotent or just tools to use as we see fit.  Far from it.  As Bohm points out, thoughts essentially use us.  

“But I want to say that you don’t decide what to do with the information. The information takes over. It runs you. Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives the false information that you are running it, that you are the one who controls thought, whereas actually thought is the one which controls each one of us” (David Bohm, Thought as a System, 5).

Indeed, thoughts have an effective power.  To the extent that we believe we are not moved by thoughts, in that proportion we probably are.  Thoughts, in this respect, produce a kind of spell over us.  We go to schools and universities to learn systems of thought which amounts to a kind of trance induction.  Our minds are subsequently programmed with thoughts which will determine how we perceive the world and make decisions.  

Least we forget, thoughts create nations and wars.  They create and shape religion.  Moreover, they are at the core of religious disputes and inquisitions.  Thoughts destroy nature, produce famine and disease while creating systems of governance of which the devil would be proud.  Thoughts also create economic systems which lead to recessions and great depressions.  Thoughts even produce an astonishing number of iatrogenic or physician induced deaths each year (some 250,000!), then tell us this is okay—it’s acceptable in light of the good being done!

One never thinks as the Buddha did to blame negative or evil consequences on thought, itself.  Thoughts are supposed to be harmless.  But this is clearly not the case.  Nor does it count for anything that our intentions are good.  The fact of the matter is that negative consequences often arise as a result of our thoughts although we have good intentions.  

While it is easy to point the finger at others when systems fail or our life is not working out as we imagined it would, the real blame lies with thoughts.  In other words, we have been used by bad thoughts which will lead to a bad outcome—always.  Incidentally, it never dawns on us to interrogate thought, rigorously, questioning where certain thoughts are leading us and to what doom.  We are more like sheep in this than rational humans.

It is pertinent to say that the reason that we are presently facing a depression; a crisis in our healthcare system; an environmental catastrophe is because of the preponderance of  thoughts that are unsound and often contradictory.  To be sure, all of these problems were created by thoughts that were never entirely sound, rational or based on credible hard evidence.  Even science fails, miserably.  Most of science is an elaborate fiction of what might be in terms of thought, but is not in terms of hard physical evidence.    

Thought is very capable of creating fictions of what might be but never is.  Thoughts can produce hypotheses, models, and hunches faster than a German sausage machine can pump out sausage.  Yet with all this thought which fills thousands of acres of books, man is still more like a barbarian than a civilized being who is, above all, compassionate.

But let us also not forget that thoughts can wrongly arouse our emotions as when at night when we hear a sound outside our home and imagine that someone is breaking into our car only to find out upon inspection that nothing has happened.  But worse, thoughts can arouse our emotions so that we hate and fear Native Americans, Asians, and African Americans.  Thoughts can drive us to hate Muslims or drive us to embrace psychopaths and do horrible things in the name of God.  Again, citing from Bohm’s book, Thought as a System:

“The thought of something pleasant will make you feel good. The thought that you are doing great will make you feel good inside—all the good feelings will come out. Or the thought that you have done something wrong may make the adrenalin flow, may make you feel guilty. If somebody says you are guilty, which is a thought, then you can feel very miserable. Feelings are tremendously affected by thoughts. And obviously thoughts are tremendously affected by feelings, because if you are angry you don’t think clearly. Likewise, if you have a feeling of pleasure in something you may find yourself reluctant to give up that idea which gives you pleasure, even if it is wrong—you engage in self-deception” (7).

What the Buddha asks us to keep in mind with regard to thought is the outcome of thought, especially, in light of the negative events that again, and again arise from thought.  History, in fact, if it is done right, is a good teacher of how deceptive thoughts can be and how they can destroy us by creating artificial divisions and problems where there are none.  

The history of the last four hundred years of Western civilization is such a history of bad thought which produced evil consequences.  And likely the evil consequences will occur again if we don’t critically interrogate thought and toss some thoughts into the waste bin of history that promised us much but delivered only more suffering such as our current economic system based on greed and the purposeful mal-distrubution of wealth.  And this also goes for thoughts used by certain religions that look to the future for a savior to deliver the flock from their backwardness and violence.  And this includes a secular society as well whose systems of thoughts drive sentient beings to value selfishness, materialism, and nihilism.

Comments

[BuddhaFrog]

Very thoughtful article :-)