According to the oriental gurus, "Thinking is one main reason that leads to unhappiness", "Philosophers are the unhappiest people on earth, because they keep reasoning (involves thinking) out every aspect of life", "A Spiritualist mocks at the thought process going on in the mind of his followers" etc etc. Here is an incident from Buddha's life. Disciples are in a room, waiting for Buddha to deliver a sermon. Buddha enters the room with a bunch of beautiful lotus flowers. He goes directly to the diaz and takes a seat there. There is silence in the room and people are waiting for Buddha to speak. In the silence, People are constantly wondering about why Buddha has brought the lotus to the sermon? and what is he going to talk about the lotus? etc. Suddenly, there is a loud laugh in the room. The disciple who laughed was very much amused to see Buddha with the flower and let out the laugh. He was not at all bothered by any questions about why Buddha was carrying the flower. Buddha got up, walked straight to the disciple and presented him with the flowers and walked away from the sermon.
According to Osho, Thinking should be done only when it is required. For example, there is no need for thinking when someone is eating or driving or jogging. This is a very RIGID condition. Let me dilute it a little to make it practical. Let us take the example of walking. When walking, instead of just shutting of the thinking process, let us say that thinking must just be focussed on obeying the traffic rules and adapting to the surrounding, to ensure the safety. But if the mind wanders and you start thinking about "What will happen, if I die an accident? Who will take care of my family? etc etc", the person will become more and more unhappy. Thinking leads to imagination. Imagination deviates from reality. Deviation from reality can make you happy ("I am the king of the world") or sad("what happens to my family, if I die?"). But neither of it gives you peace of mind (bliss or satisfaction). Yes, It is absolutely impossible for most of the people to be free of any thought. But controlling the "thought", can definitely lead to improved "Peace of mind". Only a Buddha can be completely free of thought or vice versa (only a person completely free of thought becomes a Buddha).
When Buddha gave the flowers to the Laughing disciple, wasn't he thinking for a while to make the decision of giving the flowers to him? May be or May not be (I don't know. If I knew the answer, I might be a Buddha myself). But one thing is sure. Siddhartha had to go through a lot of thinking to attain Nirvana and become a Buddha. "Zen and the art of M.C maintenance" echoes the same theory. The author says that as you get closer and closer to the peak ("Nirvana"), the journey becomes slower and slower (more questions crop up).
Well, In the above passages I have presented my understanding of "Thought". My conclusion is "If the "Thought" is controlled, it may give better satisfaction to life". Is Nirvana (complete "thoughtlessness") acheivable by Human beings? I THINK SO. Are the so called thinkers, unhappier? Yes, I am unhappier, most of the time.
Can imagination be soothing in reality? Yes. I had a dream yesterday. I had a death experience in my dream. Surprisingly, unlike all other "dream", I think I was able to experience this "death" experience more vividly (physically!?). In the dream, I was taken as a prisoner (I don't the reason for my imprisonment). I was sentenced to death. My execution was carried out by some radiation gun. First, everything was normal. Then there was pain. The pain started increasing exponentially. It flowed like current from all parts of my body toward my head. Then the pain started receding. I couldn't feel the existence of my stomach. The inexistence or numbness started to spread to other parts of my body. Slowly I felt that i was loosing all my body parts. It seemed that my head was the only part of my body. Suddenly, everything went off. I dreamt about being in my home to see a coffin. They take the coffin away to cremate it. I went to my mother and asked "Were you able to see my body? or was there only ashes in the coffin?" (I started shedding tears when I asked this question to her. I think there was a physical shiver when I asked this question). My mom replies "We got your charred body. Everything is going to be ok. Rest now".
The dream was so vivid that, I thought there was some actual fire or something like that. After the dream, When I got up in the morning, I was very happy to see that I was alive and nothing has happened to me. The morning after a really bad dream is always good. You wake up to find that things are fine and start the life as if it is a new birth. (Yesterday was a very cold day. I must have slept off with the comforter covering my face. The oxygen level inside the comforter must have gone really really low, suffocating me. This suffocation must have triggered the dream. Nonetheless, the experience was very vivid. It felt very real!!!!)
