Bro. Albert Pike wrote, in his Lecture for the Fellowcraft Degree:
“Remember, that though life is short, Thought and the influences of what we do or say, are immortal…”
Our Brother was certainly not the first to try and teach us that our thoughts have great influence on our lives and the world around us, indeed this teaching goes back to antiquity. Likewise it is still taught today, perhaps most visibly recently in the 2006 book The Secret which sold over 30 million copies.
While modern teachers may try and wrap this teaching up in pseudoscience, and teachers of old may have deliberately wrapped it up in unclear and difficult language, the core truth remains that Thoughts have power.
In my view this is why what we think about is one of the Perfect Points of a Mason’s Entrance, and one of the ways we may know a man to be a Mason.
This brings a few questions to mind.
How can we work within ourselves to ensure that our thoughts enhance instead of harm our lives?
How can we work within ourselves so that our thoughts serve to improve and not degrade our characters?
How do our thoughts influence our Lodge? How can we use them to improve our Lodge?
The technology company that makes Emeth possible, Substack, has introduced a new automated feature. As I understand it, those holding a paid subscription to Emeth may receive an email once or twice a year, asking if there is anyone they would recommend Emeth too, and if so, giving an opportunity to provide those folks with a paid subscription at no cost, for a limited time. I wanted to mention this before those automated emails go out, to assure you that it is a legitimate offer. Anyone receiving a ‘Gift Subscription’ will not have to enter their Credit Card or other personal details, will be under no obligation, and will not have to cancel once the term is up. It’s just a chance for them to sample Emeth for a month. If you receive one of these emails, and you know a guy or three in your Lodge who might benefit from Emeth, please do consider offering them a ‘Gift Subscription.’
MWB sometimes I think you we should host a retreat, so we can explore these topics with the time and space they deserve. Once again this is a huge topic. One of the things that humans have, among all of creation, is the ability to think about thinking. This extraordinary ability is the most magical phenomenon you will ever experience, once you truly experience it.
Consider, your entire experience of life, the world, the universe, the computer or phone you are looking at, the chair you are sitting in, everything you experience is a simulation. The only thing you experience directly is your mind! Doubtful? What you see is the result off photons reflecting off or emitted by an object, those photons stimulate specialized cells in the eye, that send a simple binary signal to the brain (0,1). Those simple signals are then interpreted by the brain and converted into an image. That image does not capture everything about that object, just those parts that can be sensed by photons in the visible range. That image is then presented to your mind in a way that is VERY magical. Where is that image in your brain? Can you cut a brain open and see some small screen, no. In this question, I think is nested something incredibly important, and easily missed. If you see the image that your brain creates, then that is a dichotomy, you and your brain are NOT the same thing. In some eastern traditions the brain is not the seat of consciousness, but rather a sense organ. My experiences through meditation would lead me to agree.
Now back to the question at hand. OK, so you might say, “that is all well and good, but the world I sense is real and concrete.” To which I would answer, “is it?” I’m sure many of you have had the experience of expecting to see something, seeing it, and latter discovering what you had seen was colored by your expectation or other biases and was not actually what you saw. In my home town there was a bridge I crossed every day going to work. On one side was a sign that said “ Free Russian Jewelry”. I often wondered what that was all about, but I never stopped. One night at a party the subject of that sign came up, and may of my friends had seen it and we were all discussing it, thinking it was a scam. I noticed one of my friends was laughing and shaking his head. He said, “you idiots, it says Free “Russian Jewry”, it’s a call to help Jews in Russia!” Well, I was sure I had seen that sign correctly, as were all of my friends and in a democracy of perception that was what it said, but the next time I drove by I looked at the sign and saw, in fact, we were wrong! It said “Jewry”. My mind was more prepared to see jewelry and every day that is what I saw, until I was enlightened. After that i saw Jewry. I’m sure others have similar experiences. So, what’s my point? Our minds, or thoughts and our biases contribute to the simulation of the world we see. There isn’t much that is more powerful than our thoughts! I haven’t even touched on pathologies like hallucinations!
So, as men who seek to make the world better, in a very REAL sense, we can make it better by simply being better. Our thoughts contribute to the world we perceive and we act accordingly to the world we perceive. Any legacy we might leave behind is powerfully affected by our thoughts, and that being the case we MUST work on ourselves, examining our preconceived notions, biases, expectations and motivations if we want to affect the world positively. Otherwise, we co-create a dark world, more akin to a dystopian world, that reflects our own dark side, more than the world as it is.
Bro John Gebhat, I love what you shared. That's very true and straightforward. To know your thought, it is a step to "know yourself." Hence the Greek word for soul is psyche. Likewise, the Roman's called it Anima, which is well explained by Carl Jung. I have written on this subject further and can be found at https://truthprevails.life/topics/f/shadow-self#af04c0a1-9c42-4c63-a2f6-98a8744c60e4
A few years back I came across the following:
Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
Even if this is just one of those catchy things that bounces around the internet it sure worked on me. I've been watching my thoughts ever since.
MWB sometimes I think you we should host a retreat, so we can explore these topics with the time and space they deserve. Once again this is a huge topic. One of the things that humans have, among all of creation, is the ability to think about thinking. This extraordinary ability is the most magical phenomenon you will ever experience, once you truly experience it.
Consider, your entire experience of life, the world, the universe, the computer or phone you are looking at, the chair you are sitting in, everything you experience is a simulation. The only thing you experience directly is your mind! Doubtful? What you see is the result off photons reflecting off or emitted by an object, those photons stimulate specialized cells in the eye, that send a simple binary signal to the brain (0,1). Those simple signals are then interpreted by the brain and converted into an image. That image does not capture everything about that object, just those parts that can be sensed by photons in the visible range. That image is then presented to your mind in a way that is VERY magical. Where is that image in your brain? Can you cut a brain open and see some small screen, no. In this question, I think is nested something incredibly important, and easily missed. If you see the image that your brain creates, then that is a dichotomy, you and your brain are NOT the same thing. In some eastern traditions the brain is not the seat of consciousness, but rather a sense organ. My experiences through meditation would lead me to agree.
Now back to the question at hand. OK, so you might say, “that is all well and good, but the world I sense is real and concrete.” To which I would answer, “is it?” I’m sure many of you have had the experience of expecting to see something, seeing it, and latter discovering what you had seen was colored by your expectation or other biases and was not actually what you saw. In my home town there was a bridge I crossed every day going to work. On one side was a sign that said “ Free Russian Jewelry”. I often wondered what that was all about, but I never stopped. One night at a party the subject of that sign came up, and may of my friends had seen it and we were all discussing it, thinking it was a scam. I noticed one of my friends was laughing and shaking his head. He said, “you idiots, it says Free “Russian Jewry”, it’s a call to help Jews in Russia!” Well, I was sure I had seen that sign correctly, as were all of my friends and in a democracy of perception that was what it said, but the next time I drove by I looked at the sign and saw, in fact, we were wrong! It said “Jewry”. My mind was more prepared to see jewelry and every day that is what I saw, until I was enlightened. After that i saw Jewry. I’m sure others have similar experiences. So, what’s my point? Our minds, or thoughts and our biases contribute to the simulation of the world we see. There isn’t much that is more powerful than our thoughts! I haven’t even touched on pathologies like hallucinations!
So, as men who seek to make the world better, in a very REAL sense, we can make it better by simply being better. Our thoughts contribute to the world we perceive and we act accordingly to the world we perceive. Any legacy we might leave behind is powerfully affected by our thoughts, and that being the case we MUST work on ourselves, examining our preconceived notions, biases, expectations and motivations if we want to affect the world positively. Otherwise, we co-create a dark world, more akin to a dystopian world, that reflects our own dark side, more than the world as it is.
Bro John Gebhat, I love what you shared. That's very true and straightforward. To know your thought, it is a step to "know yourself." Hence the Greek word for soul is psyche. Likewise, the Roman's called it Anima, which is well explained by Carl Jung. I have written on this subject further and can be found at https://truthprevails.life/topics/f/shadow-self#af04c0a1-9c42-4c63-a2f6-98a8744c60e4