The lost-in-thought state

A state of profound unconsciousness... but is it really?

As I wrote yesterday:

People usually become unconscious in a certain way while they think.   They don’t know what they’re thinking. They don’t know that they’re thinking. They don’t know anything.

Since people are unconscious in this state they don’t usually notice it.   Most people probably go through their entire lives without realizing that it happens.  But you can notice it fairly easily with the help of two simple exercises I described yesterday.

If we define “consciousness” as knowing what’s going on, we are profoundly unconscious in this state.  

But that’s not the only way the mind uses consciousness.

Consider, for example, that we often experience pleasant fantasies while we’re in this state.   We imagine that we won the lottery or found the love of our life or got promoted at work.  These daydreams create a feeling of happiness.   In order to feel happy — in order to feel anything — consciousness must be present.  

And yet we don’t know the fantasies are occurring.

It‘s as if the mind has a limited supply of consciousness.  It can allocate it to “I know what's going on” or “I feel happy because I won the lottery” but not both simultaneously.

For those of us who seek liberation, the lost-in-thought state seems like a problem.

There’s a natural tendency to believe there’s an opposite state of awareness which is the gateway to what we seek.

But what if both states are in the mind? What if neither one is closer to the Self? (I speak from a Vedanta/Samkhya/Yoga perspective not a Buddhist one.)

More to come.