Thought-Action Vs. Pure action

Is there ever a pure response devoid of any thought? Is keeping an awareness of the opponents movements considered thinking about your actions?

The most oft-repeated advice: do not think, move. Train until it becomes second nature. This obviously meaning that if one has to think about a move or reaction to an opponents attack then it is too late. But having no thoughts in a fight? That seems silly. How would you be capable of moving or responding to anything. If any mental activity need be done then it is a simple focused awareness of the opponent. The time it takes to name an attack, think of an response and do it is ages. It is like there is only one move to do that moment, and so no time need be spent thinking about which one to do.

The idea of mentally pondering moves should be done in practice, shadow boxing and sparring. There one can stop and examine the technique and drill the muscle feeling of it. Over time it becomes less of a mental image and more of a feeling in the muscles; a urge to tighten this finger or pull back the right shoulder etc. In a way the moves become ingrained in the body rather than the mind, they can feel the attack or the movement of the opponent much better than an analytical mind. By feel I mean the nuance of small moves: shuffling feet, twitches of the arms, shoulders leaning forward. Those are movements of the body that your own can recognize.

Those thoughts are what distract from a complete awareness of the opponent and the environment. Rather than saying "If this than this," it seems better to always be on the verge of attacking, yet open to an infinite amount of possibilities. Its difficult to describe but like a blue sky with a single red line running through. I stand an inch from that red line, ready to cut down the middle. But, I can feel a thousand other almost whispery faint lines of red branching from that starting point. And its not me or the opponent that decides the correct line but simply when the cut opens itself up, like its the only proper line to proceed on.

I find it difficult to use so many words to talk about something that shouldn`t be thought about so deeply. But its hard to grasp, this theory of pure action and decision. Can you practice this, train this state of mind? In other walks of life, analyze your reactions to events and see what arose during the pivotal moments. Was there indecision? a list of possible directions? or was there simply a smooth transition from action to reaction? Granted this cannot apply to all manner of problems in life, but I ask myself this: cannot it help to be prepared in this manner, to not have every single point of progress mapped out in the mind but rather flow decisively through these crossroads?