[GrolmangHat27]

Or would Buddhists consider the thoughts to be not caused by an illness?

Hi Zack

I consider this thread to be important

My opinion is thoughts are causes by at least two things: (1) emotion and (2) view

Our natural emotions, such as sensual desire, fear, uncertainty, etc, can cause thoughts

Our views or underlying belief systems can also cause and influence thoughts

So I do not regard thoughts being primarily caused by some uncontrollable & inherent illness but, rather, also by the nature of our views & beliefs

The Buddha taught thoughts & emotions can be managed by adjusting our views. He called this wise reflection or reasoned consideration (yonisomanasikara).

The Buddha taught, by using wise reflection, we can train our mind to have the ability to replace one kind of thought with another kind of thought

The human mind is certainly something very unique and unusual. It can observe itself, observe its thoughts and then make the decision to change its thoughts to something more peaceful & beneficial

The Buddha regarded this wise reflection as something to be 'developed' or 'learned'. We can train, learn & develop this ability, little by little, bit by bit.

Kind regards