By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
Kabbalah – mysticism makes it pretty clear; ”A person is his thoughts”. In the words of the Holy Baal Shem Tov, “In the place where a person’s thoughts are, there is where the person really is.”
The master key to all of your life is determined by what you allow your mind to think, and, “The mind is drifting, moving and thinking all the time.”
Inside each one of us – inside our bodies of flesh and blood – we have a soul independent of our bodies. A type of G-dly energy that is unique to humans. A pure spark of actual G-dliness that animates our bodies and is our true identity. This soul provides us not only with life as in the case of all living creatures but with many other exclusive soul powers. Our ability to think about our own existence independent of our bodies, the deep awareness and feelings associated with our emotions and the ability to make choices, are all from this soul. This soul has its own preprogrammed way of operating, similar to the body of every person that operates by a predetermined and for the most part fixed pathology.
There are many things that can affect or manipulate the body either in a positive or negative manner. The foods we eat, exercise or the lack of it, are some of the things that can seriously make a difference and change to our bodies.
Kabbalah explains that the soul inside our bodies, this pure spark of G-d with its own preprogrammed pathology, has its own ways in which it can and will be influenced and manipulated. This power to influence the soul comes in the form of spiritual garments to the soul.
The soul has three garments: thought; speech and action.
Why are they called garments? Because their relationship to the soul, is similar to clothing and the person who puts it on. For one thing, a garment is not the essence of a person. A garment, serves the person. One of the ways garments serve the person is by revealing and expressing the person. They are a form of communication. People judge us by the clothing we wear. The essence and character of a person is expressed in the clothing he or she decides to wear. Clothing, also affects and influences the person’s attitude and demeanor. We feel and think very differently when we are wearing expensive and classy clothing as opposed to cheap and “shleppy” clothing.
Through the medium of thought, which is always using internal letters and words, a person exposes their own character and true feelings to one’s self. The internal words of thought are like windows, or the style and color clothing of the soul. That is why the better a person’s vocabulary, the clearer a person will understand him or herself. Through speech, a person reveals his or her thoughts to the people around them. And through action, a person expresses his or her soul and character in this physical world. What a person decides to say or do speaks volumes on who they really are.
Also, like actual garments, the thoughts a person CHOOSES to place and clothe their mind and on their soul and humanity, whether they are positive or negative – will affect their feelings and motivations accordingly. Thinking, speaking and acting positive is not just how you communicate with others, it is also how you influence, manipulate and control your own feelings.
The first step in the donning of the three garments of the soul, and the first tangible expression of the soul that leads to the other garments is thought. The way a person decides to think, determines not only the world a person lives in as far is their mind and heart is concerned, even further, what a person exposes their mind to will determine how they speak and act concretely and physically.
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