What is thought? What is Peace?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): What exactly is thought? It seems as if it’s not material. But there is also a heaviness to it at times, especially when done in excess. So what is it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): It is material, there is no doubt about it. Because its content is never anything except material. Further, in purely scientific and material terms, the activity of thought can be measured on a purely material scale. When you are thinking, then there can be a needle sketching a graph and a graph is a pretty material thing, right? A graph that will almost accurately describe your brain waves. Now, only material can probably be accurately described on a piece of paper, not the para-material. So thought is something material. It’s just that we are accustomed to seeing material with eyes. Material can have subtler definitions; thought is that subtle material.

Q: Similarly, can you say that peace is subtler material because you can see it on an MRI scan. I can’t see both thought and peace. Peace seems subtler than thought.

AP: You cannot think about peace; or can you? You can think about your definition of peace. But you cannot think about peace. Peace can, in no way, be depicted on a piece of paper in the way that thought can be.