Now, in thought itself, there are three levels. There is thought of thought, speech of thought and action of thought. There is pictorial imaginative thought which is not in combinations or permutations of letters, just imagery. This is like the thought of a child, who does not yet have thought in combinations of letters. He only has pictorial thought with imagery recognition, which comes from the power of imagination. Now, although it is true that even in this pictorial thought there are divisions of particulars, nonetheless, it is only imagery and cannot yet be called true thought. It is for this reason that it is stated that a child does not have thought at all.
Later, the child matures somewhat, so that he has combinations and divisions of letters of thought. However, they are not yet complete. He still is only able to think in a very limited fashion. For example, he can think about something that he is given, and choose between it and something else, having a desire for one thing and a distaste for another. This is the beginning of actual thought, and is called “Action of thought”. Now, an adult also possesses “Action of thought”. In an adult this would be when he is thinking how to do something, such as writing, drawing or building something etc. It could also be when what he needs to do, arises in his intellect. For example, he thinks, “I need to clean this room” or “I need to lose some weight” etc. This is “Action of thought”.
We see that there are two general levels in action of thought. The lowest, cannot yet be considered true thought. Rather, it is the power to conjure an image in his mind. (Actually, this level is lower than “Action of thought”. Nonetheless, it is still higher than the imagery of dreams.) The second level, which is true “Action of thought”, is like the child who has matured slightly, as mentioned above, or like the adult who is thinking about what he needs to do.
