If someone asks what is the most common activity every human being is involved in, I think the answer would be a straight- “Thinking”. Isn’t this true? We are thinking a trillion thoughts all day long. More importantly we are also solving problems with our thoughts. What do we do when we study Math or Science or English? We think! We think about historical facts, we think about the laws of Physics, we calculate in our thoughts. When do we not think? For most of us it is a never ending process. Sometimes it becomes too much causing our thoughts to race or get even worse leading to disorders.

However it is also true that thinking is not always or not the ONLY way to solve a problem. Ever heard of this before? Have you ever solved a problem without thinking? Yes you have. You have solved many problems by simply observing.

Observing is an activity that acts at a layer above the thoughts. Observing and thinking are not the same. Sometimes we hear our observations through our thoughts – which we call “Thinking aloud”. But sometimes the mind is so calm and concentrated, that there are actually no thoughts in it, we are simply observing, or what we call “being with the present moment”. Thoughts are not necessary but it is not possible to not have thoughts while we live in this world. Thoughts are a response to the stimulus we receive from the outside world. A stimulus could be an image you are seeing (visual) or someone’s voice talking (audio) to you, or something you feel on your body like air or wind (body). Humans have thoughts as one of the responses to such stimuli, the other being feelings. We also have imagination, smell and taste. Remember the five senses? Mind in the form of thoughts is sixth. But mind has many compartments- thinking is just one of them. The highest compartment is that of the observer.

The observer is just simply that, an observer. It observes. It does not react. It simply is.

What happens when we try to solve problem with our thoughts?

We are basically receiving input in our mind day and night – through conversations, reading, seeing, listening, remembering, while problem solving and innumerable other ways. When we get a stimulus, our mind responds with thoughts and feelings based on how it perceives the input. The thoughts could be analysis, questions, a theory, a revision, a memory, an imagination of the past or future. These thoughts can act as further stimulus to our brains which responds with more thoughts. Too many thoughts create nerve potential in many directions and creates stress. A stressed mind cannot observe well. It also populates our mind with different signals- a full mind cannot observe either.

A thought is simply a vibration- a sound vibration often associated with our feelings and perception. The more we think, the more vibrations are produced. The more vibrations are produced the more stimulus we get. The more stimulus we get, the more we think again. So it becomes a vicious cycle. Hence to remain calm, focused and present, we have to move away from our sensory thoughts and feelings, towards observation. And how do we do that? By developing in concentration. One basically switches from thinking and feeling to observing the breath. Following the breath, one can tap into concentration. A highly concentrated mind does not have many thoughts. The mind is mostly empty, ready to observe and absorb information.

In today’s day and age, our thinking minds are creating a lot of stress for us. Hence learning to develop and practice concentration is imperative. One can learn to develop in concentration by the practice of Anapana meditation or Zen meditation. It’s a practice of observing the incoming and outgoing breath continuously while simply observing any thoughts arising or passing away nonjudgmentally. Slowly one can build concentration and even establish a mind with fewer thoughts or no thoughts. Such a mind can have very high focus and calmness.