What gives thought the energy to keep it going?

Thinking is a mechanical process in the brain. Like heart and lungs, brain has its own rhythm — storing and responding. This is necessary for the organism to survive. The problem begins when thinking becomes detrimental to the wellbeing of the organism itself. Most of our thinking is garbage. We know this but thinking continues. Why?

A potential difference is necessary for water to flow from the mountains to the sea. Similarly, garbage thinking requires a potential difference. The idea of becoming something else creates that difference. Thinking then becomes about getting from here to there. Therefore, getting rid this potential difference must stop the thinking process?

It is easier to get rid of the “there potential” — being something which we’re not. After all, it’s imagined and therefore not factual. The problem however is that we keep on creating new potentials, to be something other than what we are. Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of the creator of the potentials — our past, the self! But I getting rid of the self is like a dog chasing its tail. What is this self, the creator of potentials that we want to get rid of?

We always respond from our memories which are residues of our past experiences. This is necessary but is it necessary all the time? For example, why is anger always the response to insult or why is suffering the response to loss of someone? Obviously these responses are mechanical, out of memory. Is it possible to respond to these challenges without the past? Without memories interfering? What is such a response?

In such a response, there are only physical sensations in the body that rise and fall. In such a response there is no content for thought to feed upon and continue. Therefore, not making problems out of any experience.

“A mind that listens with complete attention will never look for a result because it is constantly unfolding; like a river, it is always in movement. Such a mind is totally unconscious of its own activity, in the sense that there is no perpetuation of a self, of a “me,” which is seeking to achieve an end.” ― Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Book of Life: Daily Meditations With Krishnamurti