The Power of Thought

I read a passage today that sent me flying into the uncharted territory of thought.  My thoughts, your thoughts, all of Yah’s children got thoughts.  Just thinking about thinking is one hell of a trip for me.  It’s not that I or anyone else have never read a book, listened to a lecture, or contemplated thoughts at some point in our lives.  Who are they these thoughts?  Where do they come from?

I was reading from the supposed Book of Enoch and I came across a passage that set me back on my heels and sent my mind flying.

This is what was written:

2 And I bowed down to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to me: Enoch, beloved, all thou seest, all things that are standing finished I tell to then even before the very beginning, all that I created from non-being, and visible things from invisible.

3 Hear, Enoch, and take in these my words, for not to My angels have I told my secret, and I have not told them their rise, nor my endless realm, nor have they understood my creating, which I tell thee today.

4 For before all things were visible, I alone used to go about in the invisible things, like the sun from east to west and from west to east.

5 But even the sun has peace in itself, while I found no peace, because I was creating all things, and I conceived the thought of placing foundations, and of creating visible creation.

The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Chapter 24:2-5 (source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/)

Let me start by stating that I’m not a religious nut (I don’t practice “religion”), not a bible thumper, or a let-me-save-your-soul-type of person, but I am a thinker, I am curious, and an active seeker of knowledge. Notice I didn’t type “truth” because we all have our own brand of the truth and mine is no more accurate than yours.   I let myself sink into the words and let my mind roll with what I thought and felt the words meant.  I mean wow!  Let’s start with “I created from non-being”.  To me, that said if something was non-being it did not exist.  I pictured a dark space without a molecule of light.  Void.  Nothing. Blank. When I think of “being” I think of life, of existing in a form that has a tangible presence. For all the “big bang” theory folks – this would be the moment the “bang” happened.  For the more religious types, this is the moment with The Creator created the expanse of the universe, all dimensions with a thought.  I like to think it was the touch of a finger onto the surface of the infinite void.  Since neither science or theologians can elucidate the triggering event that “created” all that we think we know, I’ll stick with my finger theory.

The next part of the line “visible things from invisible” threw me into thinking about the idea of dimensions, whether parallel or not, and how close invisible and visible are.  The road I traveled down stated that in order for something to become visible it had to exist beyond “non-being”. Again, mind blown.  I tried to wrap my brain around that.  I tried to imagine what and where that “invisible” resided.  Who existed there and why “they” existed there.  A part of the next line, 25:3, answered or more accurately provided a foundation for my questions.  The “endless realm” reference I took to mean “endless invisible realm”.  I thought that would be lonely for a mere human but an entity that could create “being” from “non-being” and make things visible would want to create stuff.   There was obviously more happening before the “let there be light” action occurred.  No one, in the religious world, talks about how long Yah existed before those fateful seven days of our creation.  Billions of years according to scientific theory.

The next line, 25:4, made me ponder what being alone and going about in the invisible things would be like.  I literally, asked myself “what invisible things?”  The only answer I could fathom was my brain and where exactly does the mind reside.  The process of thought and speech is one of those invisible things.  I don’t ponder for a minute or two before I speak, I speak.  I can hear the things I’m thinking as words with a voice attached but can’t discern if that voice in my head is the voice you would hear if I’m speaking to you.  How does that work?  When I speak the invisible thoughts become visible or uncovered as words or sounds.  Yes, I know we have vocal cords but thought to speech is instantaneous and something science cannot explain beyond neurons and synapses.  You can’t see my thoughts they are invisible to you as yours are to me.  Those thoughts can become “visible” If I speak them or type them.  We, human beings, are alone as we go about in the invisible things that occupy our minds.  Are you convinced that I’ve lost what little mind I have?  Nope just thinking out loud using a keyboard.

The last line, 25:5, is about the power of thought.  I don’t sit and contemplate that I can CREATE with just a thought.  When that flash of insight or fully formed idea that presents itself without fanfare from some unknown recess in my mind appears I roll with it.   I can’t list the number of times a really good idea for some product or a storyline has popped into my head and is later forgotten or written down and lost—never to return again.  However, my secret power is solving problems, finding solutions, discovering that other way out of a sticky situation.  When the solution presents itself, I grab ahold and ride it to completion.

We may not be able to create universes, or galaxies, or heaven, or dimensions, or the foundations for a whole world but we can create life, music, disaster, emotions, art, tears, a whole host of amazing and terrible things, and really good banana bread.  What I’m saying in a really long-winded way is WE are truly the captains of our own ships.  We have brains that house an “invisible” thing we call a mind, that is capable of producing thoughts that can lead to heartache, tears, great joy, compassion, and wondrous works.  We all have this mysterious universe within us that is invisible to everyone else.  Our capacity to love, hate, mourn, laugh, learn, forget, forgive, and believe are all generated inside the invisible realm of our minds and written on our souls for every second we are on this earth, in this realm.

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are mine and are not meant to move the needle on the reader’s belief, non-belief or scientific bent.  Just a thought!  Now on to the next chapters.

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Heavenly Peek Show

Sky watching can be an enjoyable and relaxing way to pass the time, spend an afternoon, or a lifetime.

 I spent Saturday morning sitting in an old but comfortable white leather square-backed chair.  The chair, recently retired from active house duty, occupies a prominent position on the back patio right next to my odd collection of hopeful but empty clay pots and planters.  They, unlike the chair, sit unoccupied silently praying for dirt, soil, seed, a little sunshine and water.  

Directly across from the chair is my green thumb training root camp–shriveled, brown, mottled want-to-be green things that did not survive last years planting season. “Moody” grass,  as Mom Pearl used to call it, has taken advantage of the root camp and is happily catching stray afternoon rays that wonder over the elevated concrete slab that dominates the space.

I could sit here for hours in the chair on a clear and sunny day listening to bird calls, watching the winged beauties ride the air currents, listening the to rustle of leaves, or watching the shimmery dance of palm fronds gyrate in the wind.  On those occasions when clouds come calling, I sit in the chair and watch the every changing show. White clouds, wispy blue-laced clouds, big bold thunder clouds, dark clouds, fluffy cotton candy clouds, and sometimes solid flat gray clouds all arranged overhead for my viewing pleasure.

Sky gazing by sunlight does have its benefits, its pleasures but sky gazing after the sun has slide past the horizon and after the curtain is lowered on the sunset show is beyond even my vocabulary.

The chair is my station for viewing my little slice of the heavens.  Watching the stars parade across the inky blackness of space is awe inspiring.  I often wonder what would it feel like to get a clearer view of the stars, the constellations, meteorites, and even comets during the nightly peep show sessions.  

The chair of course doesn’t join me in my musing.  It does provide great body support but no opinions.  So tonight the chair and I will sit quietly on the back patio and let the heavens have us and be entertained and be awed.