Thoughts on Thought

Think About It. Thoughts on Thought. After one hundred of these expressions of my views of the world, and as we begin anew, perhaps you’ve wondered why your friendly Sage always asks you to think about the content of these humble offerings. I suppose it’s presumptuous to expect others to spend much time in thought on subjects that interest me. On a recent morning, I awakened without a background music theme for the day, but obsessed with the many words we use to describe the act of thinking. We are known to ponder, consider, mull, cogitate, and even ruminate. Ruminate? Really?

Just the thought of it creates pictures of four stomachs taking turns regurgitating so that a cow can chew the cud for additional digestion of the vegetation. To some that may seem disgusting, but don’t tell that to ruminant cousin the camel. He might spit in your eye. What’s odd is that no one speaks of “gurgitating” grass in the first place. Spell check had a hard time with that. Our alimentary canal may be less complicated, but in the final analysis, no more pleasant to consider.

I prefer the word “mull”. My mind turns to winter evenings before the wood-stoked flames of a walk-in fireplace. There’s warming stew in an iron pot suspended from a long arm permitting it to be positioned for just the needed heat. That is accomplished with an even more important tool, an iron poker. This precious object has another role to play. When a young red wine is seasoned with spices in a large clay cup, the poker fresh from the flame, is thrust into the liquid and called mulled wine. Mull that for awhile and always sip responsibly.

To meditate seems more zenlike, or biblical if you prefer. Here we have a process that is said to free you from “thinking” so that you are prepared to receive truth with an open mind. Beginning within a religious context, meditation’s secular use spread in the 1950s to include relaxation and peace of mind. Some say this capacity for focused attention may have long ago signaled the completion of human biological evolution.

Research began when I was born (1931), accelerated in the 70’s with the relatively unschooled Gerhard Erhard developing a system of forums called est., Erhard Seminar Training. He said, “Of all the disciplines that I studied, practiced, learned, Zen was the essential one.” While some scoffed at the system and the fact that he profited from it, others were apparently rewarded by (among other things) ceasing the psychiatrist-schooled blaming of their parents for their problems and instead came to express their natural love for them. After all, where should the blaming stop and the acceptance of personal responsibility begin?

Feel free to muse, contemplate or deliberate and of course meditate, but not ruminate. I certainly wouldn’t use that as a punch line for Thoughts on Thought. Think About It.