The Source and Nature of the Thoughts an Individual Receives

If we ask almost anyone where thoughts come from, they will say that they are produced in the brain. The brain is some kind of thought-factory. They don’t know how. They don’t know why. They don’t know what causes certain thoughts to develop. They recognise that sense perceptions influence the thoughts; in other words, that the vibrations that we receive from outside our individuality through our senses provoke some process in the brain and this leads to the creation of various forms of thought.

We do not know at what level of life thought actually begins to occur, but as we research this topic in the animal kingdom we know that at least certain forms of thought appear in a number of different animal species, but thus far, the more subtle and complex thought processes that lead to science, mathematics, philosophy, religion, etc. are reserved for the level of development of the human instrument.

Some Western thinkers, such as Teilhard de Chardin, posited that there was a mental environment, a “belt” of thought spanning across the world, similar to the ionosphere at the physical level, or the biosphere at the level of the life-force. He called this a “noosphere” and it was a level that contained all thought that cycled constantly throughout the entire world and those who were receptive could tap into and participate in this noosphere. The ‘hundredth monkey’ phenomenon that led to general capability after a certain number of individuals mastered a skill, would seem to support the idea of there being a general noosphere as otherwise, world-wide adoption would not be likely under this circumstance.

C. G. Jung determined from his research that there was a “collective unconscious” where certain archetypes and symbols and images, the seeds and basis of thought, resided and which were available to all human beings when they opened to them.

The Taittiriya Upanishad held that there was a mental plane of existence, a mental ‘sheath” that was the repository of thought. Plato, Plotinus and other Western philosophers developed the concept of the ‘real idea’ that was the precursor and seed of all the forms in the universe. Modern physicists recognised that Matter was a form of Energy and that Energy is a form of Consciousness, which implies that there is a universal consciousness that creates the entire universal manifestation, including Matter, Life and Mind.

If we recognise the reality of this understanding, it soon becomes very clear that the ego-personality does not originate or manufacture thought at all. Rather we can, at certain times and in certain ways become receptive to the thoughts that exist in the “noosphere” that surrounds us, and the thoughts we accept are based on an affinity or some kind of filtering system that we develop, through cultural training, education, mental development etc.

Which leads to a question that everyone confronts at some point; namely:

Why do bad thoughts come?

The Mother writes: “Haven’t I told you why bad thoughts come? … For as many reasons as there are bad thoughts! Each one comes for its own special reason: it may be through affinity, it may be just to tease you, it may be because you call them, it may be because you expose yourself to attacks, it may be all this at once and many more things besides. … Bad thoughts come because there is something corresponding somewhere within you; otherwise you might see something passing like they would not come inside you. I suppose the question means: why do you suddenly think something bad?”

“Because the stages are very different. I have already explained to you that the mental atmosphere is worse than any public place when a crowd is there: innumerable ideas, thoughts of all kinds and all forms criss-cross in such a complicated tangle that it is impossible to make out anything precise. Your head is in the midst of all, and your mind even more so; it bathes in it as one bathes in the sea. And all this comes and goes, passes, turns, collides, enters, goes out…. If you were conscious of the mental atmosphere in which you live, obviously it would be a little maddening! I think personal cerebral limits are quite necessary as a filter, for a very long time in life.”

“To be able to get out of all that and live fully in the mental atmosphere as it is, seeing it as it is — it is the same for the vital atmosphere, by the way; that is perhaps yet uglier! — to live in it and see it as it is, one must be strong, one must have a very steady sense of inner direction. But in any case, whether you see it or not, whether you feel it or not, it is a fact, it is like that. So one cannot ask where bad thoughts come from — they are everywhere. Why do they come? — where would they go? You are right in the midst of them!”

“What governs this filter of consciousness which makes you conscious of certain thoughts and not conscious of others, is your inner attitude, your inner affinities, your inner habits — I am speaking of the mind, not of the psychic — it is your education, your cerebral development, etc. That is a kind of filter formed by your ego, and certain thoughts pass through it and others don’t — automatically. That is why the nature of the thoughts you receive may be quite an important indication for you of the kind of character you have — it may be quite subconscious for you, for a man is not in the habit of really knowing himself, but it is an indication of the general tendency of your character. To put things in a very simplified way, if you take an optimist, for instance, well, in general, optimistic ideas will come to him; for a pessimist they will generally be pessimistic ideas — I am speaking very broadly — for a person with a rebellious nature, they will be rebellious ideas; and for a very sheepish person, they will be sheepish ideas! Granting that sheep have ideas! That is the usual normal condition.”

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Living Within: The Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth, Disturbances of Mind, Unruly and Perturbing Thoughts, pp. 35-43