Momentum is called mass in motion. In other words
p (momentum) = m (mass) X v (velocity)
It is easy to visualize and conceptualize the momentum of a physical body as we can directly observe that it has mass which is moving in the space. Though it is difficult (and perhaps impossible) to directly map it to the thoughts in the mind, yet we can draw some analogy.
Thoughts do not contain any mass. Yet, we can single them out and observe them in isolation from other thoughts. So, even though the thoughts do not exist at the physical plane, yet our mind works with them as if they did. So, even though a thought does not correspond to a physical entity, for our purpose of drawing analogy, we can say that a thought is at the psychic level what mass is at the physical level.
So, we have brought in mass into the equation and what remains is velocity. The physical world has space where objects can move around. However, the psychic world doesn’t have any space. So again, a thought cannot have motion in the physical sense of the word, however, we should be able to draw some analogy.
A thought is usually not static. It gives mind some impetus and propels it in some direction. Now, this is not a physical direction. There are no directions in the psychic world. We are using this word for our convenience alone. If we take an example of the thought “Oogly is a bad boy”, this thought can and most probably will lead to some other thoughts. For instance, it could lead to “Let me stay away from Oogly” or it could lead to “How did Oogly become so” so on and so forth. This phenomenon of one thought leading to another thought can be described as motion of the thought at psychic level. And as I just pointed out, one thought can lead to several thoughts but it leads to only one thought (at a time). So, after some of these thoughts have passed by, someone observing the thoughts would come to get some sense of direction of the progression of thoughts. The observer would say that the thoughts were progressing in some direction. Many times we say, don’t think negative, think positive. What do we mean by that? It means that given the starting thought as X, we should make an attempt such that chain of thoughts progresses in positive direction.
So, we have got three things here. We got the mass, we got the motion and we got the direction of the motion. I know it sounds crude but what can I do. Whole of our language is so focused on the physical world that we interpret even the psychic world in the same terms (even though all those terms lose their meaning as soon as we are out of physical world). So, what remains to be done now? We need to demonstrate one more important thing about momentum.
Any thought in motion would continue to proceed in the same direction unless countered by another thought. I think this is easy to observe. Let’s look at the flow of some thoughts:
Oogly is a bad boy. Let me stay away from Oogly. He would unneccessarily bother me otherwise. He is yet to return that Rs 10/-. He is such a bad boy. Next time I meet him, I would directly ask him for the money. Offo, again I started thinking about Oogly. Don’t I have anything better to think about? Ok, let me think about Priti. She is so nice…
As you can see, the thoughts were progressing in some specific direction when another thought came and made the initial thought lose its momentum. Till the other thought came, the first thought would have continued to proceed.
Don’t take it too seriously, it was just a fun exercise. Though I believe that thoughts have a momentum (and I think you would be inclined to agree with me), however, I don’t think the momentum in the psychic world can map to the equation of momentum in the physical world…