I don’t always know who/what I am because I am making it up as I go along.
I know that if I never stop thinking
I’ll never know that thinking
Is only as good as it is used
To solve the problem of
How to stop thinking
Being nothing but what I think I am
I am nothing but being when I don’t think
I’m always hoping and trying to feel better
Because I feel best when I can’t feel better
Being serious is knowing when not to be serious
What drives you to keep thinking? Have you identified and understood the engine?
Is there a “you” to be driven?
Have you identified and understood the engine?
I don’t know why the engine doesn’t stop when there’s no need for thought, and the only “reason” I can think of is that no thought, silence, would reveal that there is no thinker, no I, and thought only as needed.
But what is it about the the process of thinking that has to keep moving, even in dreams? Habit? It obviously keeps the brain from being silent, quiet.
The movement of thinking is ‘generating’ me. So in order to keep me ‘alive’, it really can’t stop except in the deep sleep that the brain needs to refresh itself. The me depends on its existence to thought / feeling as the body depends on its processes to stay alive.
The brain wants to stop the kind of “thinking” that isn’t deliberate thinking; the compulsive thinking that is just movement, sound, imagery, filler, any content that can be streamed for as long as there is the will, the energy to continue. Continuity of the known is the brain’s false sense of security.
It’s pathetic and distressing to know that this is what we are, but it’s better to be unsettled by what can’t be denied than to take comfort in what can be imagined.
What occurs to me is that the trap we fell into was that we had to (and have to) psychologically ‘be’ something…being ‘something’ was better than being ‘nothing’. It isn’t.
Awareness of being a living organism capable of self-deception makes thought a mechanism to be used only when necessary, and always with caution.
The mind wants (needs?) to keep busy. When that busy-ness doesn’t come from the outside (movie, tennis, conversation) the mind generates it inside (the internal monologue). The mind abhors a vacuum.
But why? Is the fading out of mindstream (when you’re awake) like death? That resonates for me, fear of stillness = fear of death.
The illusory need to ‘believe’ comes into being with the division (also illusory) between me and you, between me and the world. Belief supplies resolve; the stronger the belief, the stronger the resolve.
Belief is the self image’s attachment to something. The brain has isolated itself. Attachment to no matter what gives a sense of security and a psychological ‘territory’ to defend. The self ‘becomes’ the belief.
Sedatephobia (the fear of silence) applies to external and internal sound, Sedatephobia (The Fear of Silence) – Signs, Causes, and Treatment.
The brain abhors being nothing but a brain, so it uses constant thought to keep itself too distracted and inattentive to be aware of what it is.
Had an opposite experience recently in an airport motel. In the bistro lounge area there were 3 or 4 tvs on. Sound coming from all directions and people seemingly oblivious to it. To me and my wife coming from the quiet river area we live in, it sounded like a madhouse!
Oh, I could tell you why
The ocean is near the shore
I could think of things I never thought before
And then I’d sit and think some more
I would not be just a nothin’
My head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain
And perhaps I’d deserve you
And be even worthy of you
If I only had a brain
How are you with your internal tv sets?
Interested to see what’s beyond the noise, if anything, before death.
I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers
Consultin’ with the rain.
And my head I’d be scratchin’ while my thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain.
I’d unravel every riddle for any individ’le,
In trouble or in pain.
Dorothy
With the thoughts you’ll be thinkin’ you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why The ocean’s near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I’d sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin’ my head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.
Then listen to the noise every chance you get. Sit quietly, thinking of nothing while thought goes on despite you.
Life would be a ding-a-derry, is this what we’re all looking for? 
Not necessarily…there is concern about pollution, climate disturbance from fossil fuel burning, gang violence, overpopulation, nationalism, racism, sexism, anti gay violence, extinction of species, war etc. Products of the brain in its current state with its beliefs, cultures and societies.
Why do you assume we are all looking for something?