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(489) Active thought and passive habit of thinking [英借文]

Active thought and passive habit of thinking

  The older we get the more things we forget in everyday life. It might be from our getting senile. But even young people can forget the name of their close friends. This is quite another story. Here is a reason why. There are two actions in our mind, active thought and passive habit of thinking.  You can say hello to your friend with his name. This is done by the automatic workings of the mind. Our active thought is not concerned with this, and when we consciously think about his name it escapes.

Have you ever experienced this kind of thing?

  Most of us, I suppose, know how easy it is to forget the most familiar name when the mind wakes up and urgently asks for it. You are talking, let us say, to Taro when up comes Ichiro. You know Ichiro as well as you know your own shadow, and if you met him in the street in the ordinary way his name would be on your tongue as naturally as your own.

  But now your mind interferes. It demands Ichiro’s name for the purpose of introduction on the spot --- instantly. The passive habit of thinking Ichiro when you see Ichiro vanishes. Your active thought becomes at work. It rushes round in search of his name, and cannot find it.

When you consciously think about his name it escapes.

(I borrowed sentences from "Many Furrows" by A. G. Gardiner) 
a. g. gardiner.jpg
A. G. Gardiner

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