By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
Every soul has three garments — thought, speech and action. The garments of the soul are not the soul itself but tools of the soul. Garments are put on and off at will. Garments affect the way we feel, and garments tell people who we are. The same is also with how we think, speak and act, they operate exactly as the garments we wear.
One immediate distinction between the garments of thought versus speech and action is that. Because speech and action are on the outside of the person, the outside can sometimes become an influence and impact the person to speak and act in ways not consistent with one’s inner beliefs. Just like sometimes our outside garments can become soiled with dirt, beyond our control, but because of where we placed ourselves.
The soul within each one of us attracts and picks up thoughts like a vacuum and if we don’t consciously control our thoughts, it will suck in whatever it can from anywhere outside itself. Thoughts, which are totally inward, are always entirely our own choice.
Something else differentiates the garments of thought, and the other two — speech and action. Speech and action are not garments of the soul that must always be on. A person can at will and more easily put them on or take them off, “a time to speak and a time to stay quiet”, “a time to act and a time not to act”.
Thought on the other hand, is always flowing. A person can never stop thinking. This garment, is glued to one’s soul, and this garment a person can never take off, like he can with the other garments of the soul. Thoughts are sometimes compared to a flowing river that never stops. Even while sleeping, when at that time the person isn’t speaking or doing anything, his mind is still working and his thoughts are still flowing. That’s how dreams become possible even while a person is sleeping.
Although the stream that carries thoughts is always flowing and cannot be stopped, a person can decide what should flow in his mind — clean and pure water or muddy water. Even though a person is not in control of stopping the flow, he can decide what the content of the flow should be.
The soul which energizes your thoughts can train and habituate this garment to think positive or negative thinking and impact even ones dreams. Every person at any given moment has the power and full ability to place whatever thoughts he makes his choice to think. Otherwise, the soul which attracts and picks up thoughts like a vacuum, will draw and suck in whatever is in the atmosphere at that moment.
The only way a person gains control over his thoughts and as a result, all that thought influences internally, is by deliberately and intentionally inserting into this field of energy whatever it is he desires think. To ignore this calculated and deliberate effort necessary to decide what to think, will surely allow for random thoughts and the random results that come as a result of not taking control.
This would be no different than not taking control of a steering wheel in a car while the car is in motion on a highway.
A person can distract himself from unwanted thoughts by consciously inserting different and desirable thoughts. According to his true wishes, and what he really wants to think, and the degree of his commitment to chase away his current thoughts, he will succeed to drive away what is presently there.
This power to control the garments, in particular thought, determines ultimately how our soul and internal character will be molded.
To read more articles from Rabbi Ezagui visit him at http://koshercaffeine.blogspot.com/
