Thought itself is the thinker.

There is no unmoving mover behind the movement. It is only movement. It is not correct to say that life is moving, but life is movement itself. Life and movement are not two different things. In other words, there is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is the thinker. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found. Here we cannot fail to notice how this Buddhist view is diametrically opposed to the Cartesian cogito ergo sum: 'I think, therefore I am.'

This quote is taken from What The Buddha Taught, an excellent book on Buddhism that tells it straight up what Buddhism is really about, without all the self-helpy-ness, without all the new-agey feel good stuff. It's straight up history, it's straight up philosophy. It's good.

We are merely the wholeness of our stream of thoughts and actions, and this philosophy which Gatama taught 2000 years ago is confirmed by the recent cutting edge technology of neuroscience, and neuroscientists are saying the same thing: we have no soul or consciousness per se. There is no pilot behind the helm in our brain. Our consciousness IS our thoughts.

Okay, so what? What practical use does this have? It means don't get worked up about things or people that piss you off. They shouldn't piss you off, because you shouldn't take it personal. It's just the conditions and causes and effects that has led this person to be annoying. Take it with a grain of salt, and instead of yelling back, judge the situation objectively and act in the best way for the offender. As for good joyous occasions, enjoy them, but don't grasp onto them like they're the key to happiness.

I write this not only for others, but for myself. This stuff is tough to do in real life, and it helps to get it on paper, or more accurately, get it into the network system of information known as the internet.