The Condition of The Human Mind: Thought

I've been learning a lot about life lately. About the way we as humans think and do things. About the rut we have all put ourselves in.. But most importantly I have been learning how to change all of that, and how to become better. 

So I've decided that I should share it with all of you. Take from it what you may. I personally have found all of it fascinating and life changing. I seriously go about my life differently each day. And I have come to realize that the world is oh so very different than what I thought..

I'm going to start with a picture: 

Now all you have to do is answer a simple question, what is in the picture? 

The answer should be simple, it's a snowflake right? Just a snowflake, nothing special. So why am I asking you to tell me what's in the picture? 

Well... What if I was to tell you that you are wrong. It isn't a snowflake at all...

Look again... And think about it. 

Has your answer changed? If you get where I'm going by now then it should have. But a lot of people don't see it until it's explained..

So let me explain. It isn't a snowflake. Not really. All it is is a picture of a snowflake. Not an actual snowflake. Therefore when your automatic answer is to say it's a snowflake, you are wrong.

All of us have thousands, millions, even billions of thoughts go through our head, everyday, all day, from the moment we wake up. They are just zipping through at the speed of light. Take this moment right now for instance, and look out the window. What do you see? Perhaps you see grass, or cars, or birds. Whatever it is you see your mind will automatically send you a thought saying "oh it's a bird" or "oh it's grass". 

But see... Here's the thing. These thoughts are not your thoughts at all. Not even close. They are your brains thoughts. Thoughts that every single human being has every single day. They are an automated response, just like with the picture of the snowflake. You had an automatic response "oh it's a snowflake".

Do you get where I'm going with this? 

A lot of things people would call a thought are really just our minds filtering things. 

So if those aren't our thoughts, then do we even have thoughts, real thoughts? Well yes, of course we do. Provided that we aren't one of those people that just glide through life without wanting to challenge anything. Because the only time when we have a thought of our own is when we challenge.

Like when I told you your answer that the picture was a snowflake was wrong. That was a challenge. Some of you jumped to it. You challenged yourself, you took a step back, you thought critically, and you came to the conclusion that it wasn't a snowflake at all, but just a picture in the shape of a snowflake.

This is the condition of the human mind, of human beings in general. We all do it. All the time. All day. But the goal is to stop that, and challenge.. Stop and say "is it.. is it really?"

That is the truth of the human condition.