Ironic Errors
I must confess that I have always prided myself on not suppressing my thought processes, though I do suppress my actions. This is part of a constellation of understandings I have about the difference between the inner and outer worlds, and the tendency we all have to assume that what we know and / or perceive is also apparent to others.
I have had this disproven to me over and over, in trivial as well as serious situations, and so I always try to remember that no one but me hears the voices or thoughts in my head. Whether it be carnal desire in the midst of yoga class or the type of ironic social incorrectness that seems so prevalent to the teenage boy (that I still, in many ways, am) I have tried avoid inner limits while obeying the logic of outer limits.
Now a new study seems to back up what the yogic philosophers have been saying for centuries (and our good Christian grandmothers taught us): that impure or negative thoughts not only leave a trace, but plant a seed, one that may well grow and break through the surface at an inconvenient moment. And that even simple actions can be loaded with a kind of addictive significance that is difficult to resist.
Here is a link to a NY Times web post about it.
