stochastic parrotry/the influence of others/just this
There's a flippant critique of AI that interacting with it is nothing more than interacting with a stochastic parrot. But according to my observations, most of the time, what we call thinking can very much be described as stochastic parrotry. The thoughts that we have in our heads tend to be echoes of media that was taken in, past conversations with other people, proclamations by authority figures…in this big sonic soup.
“Words are not just wind. Words have something to say. But if what they have to say is not fixed, then do they really say something? Or do they say nothing? People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn't there?”
– Zhuangzi
On a related note, there's a reason why thinking is looked at with suspicion in, say, non-duality, Buddhism etc. It can be very misleading. You have thoughts, you have thoughts about thoughts, and you don't really know where they came from. While thoughts cannot exactly derail awakening if that process is already in motion, they can interfere with... the clear seeing of awakening, the seeing that all is enlightenment.
For example, I've listened to quite a lot of material from Angelo Dilullo and other nonduality speakers. An orientation emerged on and off in where I’d continually try to relate my experience to what they describe their experience to be — potentially a very major hindrance.
For example, a lot of these speakers talk about how they experience phenomena as appearances, appearances that arise and pass away, that rush forward and then pass away.
That's not how I would describe it. I experience it more like an ever-changing collage, a collage of phenomena emerging, being replaced and replaced and replaced. It's extremely gentle. The gentleness is the loudest thing in the room, not the appearances as such. The word nirvana comes to mind. It's not perfect by any means, but sometimes it feels perfect.
All that looking for a certain kind of perception that the body-mind was doing really was just more pushing and pulling. But I also am not sure that it could have unfolded any other way.
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Appreciating the rabbit hole your "stochastic parrot" dropped me into (smiling). I found myself recognizing how sometimes, when thinking is happening, I don't recognize the Doer (the Thinker?).
I listen to Angelo and participate in his Zoom retreats. I find that his descriptions are clear, which I appreciate, but not necessarily my own experience in some cases and other times they're 'point on'.
I've become curious when I recognize certain thoughts . . . like "why that word?" . . . because it was automatic. And then I find myself dropping into the body, into a deeper than the mind field (?), where that word includes more than the mere thought.
I hope it's OK to share with you where your writing pointed to a lovely inquiry for myself.
🙏❤️✨
Thank you for sharing your insights on "thinking"!