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There's a lot of overthinking going on here recently.

No amount of overthinking is too much to me because before I had chronic pain and could think better, I would have multiple lines of thoughts going (sometimes over 15 which especially helped while taking tests). If I couldn't sleep at night, I'd think. People used to tell me I thought about stuff too much all the time. Now my mind is mostly in a bunch of pain so I barely have any thoughts at all other than the absolutely necessary ones.
 
Au Naturel said:
For people who are not naturally inclined to think, thinking is hard work. Just as some people are naturally better at lifting heavy objects or running down a game animal, some are going to find thinking easier. From a practical perspective, it pays to have other people do the thinking for you if you believe they are more knowledgeable than you. Even if you were above average in thinking, there are still better thinkers than you to think about things that are not within your immediate needs. And half the population is already below average to start with, anyhow.
Click to expand...

Could be that most are practical thinkers (how can this information directly help me and others in my circle?) and then some of us are extra or beyond thinkers (interested in information that doesn't necessarily help us, interest for the sake of).

...and there I go overthinking. Guilty.
 
It is not so much that I overthink things anymore, what is most important is to try and make sense of the insanity going on all around me. Absolute, non-critical thinking exists at just about all levels of life. This is quite alarming, for it seems symptomatic of the continued downward slide of the human race.

The only thing of actual merit to anyone comes from compromise, not from adamantine insistence that the way someone thinks is the only proper was for everyone to think. That is both childish and incredibly myopic if you read history with any critical eye. Why does it seem that no one actually learns a lesson from their past mistakes; thus dooming themselves to repeating them ad nauseum?
 
Richelle-H said:
Why does it seem that no one actually learns a lesson from their past mistakes; thus dooming themselves to repeating them ad nauseum?
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That would probably be the emotions trap. That is, thinking that the problem you have to solve is how to feel, or not feel, a certain way rather than resolving the actual problem that contributed to those emotions.
 
If something can't be solved by thinking, then I think it can't be solved.
No such thing as overthinking IMO. If I weren't thinking constantly
I would feel empty.
 
One of the most useless criticisims is "you just don't think".
Of course that is code for "you did not arrive at the conclusion I wanted you to".

But as a kid that particular criticisim would send me into a deep dive of more over thinking, self doubt and terrible insomnia. I felt really stupid and tried really hard to think even more than I already did but it felt overwhelming.
 
In what way?
When the Dulcolax did an exceptional job? :eek:

Just kidding on that one.
I can't imagine having an empty mind without thoughts. In sleep without dreams perhaps.
Otherwise I don't want an off switch to the brain.
 
SusanLR said:
I can't imagine having an empty mind without thoughts.
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"Emptiness is often discussed in Zen, Advaita, Non-Duality and Buddhism, but, what does it truly point towards? There are subtle differences in how each tradition uses its teaching, but its essential essence remains the same.

Emptiness is complete inner-silence; a quiescent mind, empty of the belief that oneself is a separate entity with an independent existence, apart from all others.
Emptiness is empty of any egoic influence.

Emptiness is when a person's inner-storytelling and self-conceptualizing has stopped entirely, leaving only an aware, empty presence of stillness, joy, contentment and peace. To realize true emptiness is to no longer be distracted by any thought that spontaneously appears, intuitively knowing that you are not any of them, and that you are the empty and pure presence of consciousness that perceives them.

To abide in emptiness is to have the non-dual realization that you are not the personal “doer” who you’ve always thought yourself to be. It is an absolute understanding that there is nothing that needs to be done, as there is no separate entity within who is able to assert any such independent volition over its life.

Source: Emptiness is the fullness of potential — Zen Thinking
 
Empty of the belief that oneself is a separate entity with an indepenent existence, apart from all
others.

I understand since all is connected. Nothing is separate.
But, what of free will consciousness?

The complete inner-silence is what feels strange and empty.
Guess I need to think about that. o_O
 
I find the biggest challenge being 'on the spectrum' is not being able to turn my brain/thinking off, ever. Relentless and tiring, sometimes useful but rarely. Constant analysis of everything, I think that is the source of the social issues, the constant thinking. The more outside information the more internal thinking.

Paralysed in shops by my own brain.

The ability to absorb large quantities of information quickly only exacerbates the issue, the information is fuel for the brain. If for one second I could slow the speed of it down it would be a special moment. All attempts to slow it down through, exercise, drugs, meditiation, alcohol, engagement with activites has failed so far.

Sometimes the thinking goes into complete overdrive and reduces me to a deeply depressed state, only on the brink of suicide and the moment of complete letting go and giving up do I get a little relief, from the f...ing supercomputer, fate put in my head.

Sorry to be negative but that is my experience of Autism and thinking.
 
SusanLR said:
But, what of free will consciousness?
Click to expand...
Often what we think of as free will is not really what it seems.
Consciousness, as the experience of a separate independent perspective, seems to be true only up to a certain point. Zen cannot really be described, because to do so would not be Zen. At best we can only try to point to it. And it is only by finding it that it makes sense.
 
James45 said:
Sorry to be negative but that is my experience of Autism and thinking
Click to expand...

This is how I've found Autism thinking also, but, I like it.
Just as I like being ultra observant and seeing things others miss.
I guess we are all different.
Like some enjoy roller coaster rides and others can't stand them.
Or watching horror movies enjoyable while others get nightmares.

What makes the differences? I don't know. :rabbitface:
 
@SimonSays
Like the tree falling in the forest with no one there to here it does it still make a noise?

It would still create the shock waves and sound waves that we call noise.
So I always said yes. If the conditions were the same, what difference does it make if someone
is in the forest?

Yes, interesting and can't really be explained. Zen.
 
@SusanLR
I think your tree example points to the idea that if there is no one there to experience it how can we be sure it makes a sound? Your conclusion makes sense because as you say, sound waves are generated mechanically; the animals would still hear the tree fall. I've often wondered about this question myself.

The only other way of looking at it might be that hearing is an internal experience, as is in fact everything we perceive to be ‘out there’. So if there is no perceiver can it be said something actually happened? The tree was upright the last time you saw it and then laying down the next. If no one was there to perceive the change, can you be certain that something happened to change it, other than remembering how it was and imagining what must have taken place?
 
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