Internal Monologue - Buddhist Perspectives

Buddhist Perspectives

In the Zen tradition, there is the phrase "Nen nen ju shin ki" which means something like "Thought following thought." Sometimes this concept is translated with the help of the words "first nen" and "second nen" where each "nen" is a reaction to the previous one. We can think of our thoughts, memories, visualizations, or sensations as good or bad, and as true or false. Particularly with the judgment of word-thought as true or false we continue this reactionary "nen" process. Another way to think of thoughts is as in context, sort of like a Jenga puzzle or concept map, where each thought is part of a system and is related to other thoughts.