Where do thoughts come from?
I have to wonder about where thoughts come from when they do and why they do. My thoughts are often like those tunes that we find ourselves humming. They come unannounced, and make themselves known, yet I had had no thought of them not even a moment before.
This morning I was working along, and then this thought popped into my head:
"What I miss most about teaching school is writing the date on the chalkboard every day."
If I had consciously been thinking, that would not have been my pick of things to miss about teaching. And yet there was something about that simple act every morning -- erasing the previous day's date and writing in today's -- that, silly as it may seem, I miss it.
Maybe that unbidden thought comes from when I was a young child in school and thought it was an amazing wonderful breathtaking thing to be a teacher and write the date on the blackboard.
That simple repetitive act must have been like the curtain going up on the stage of the classroom. Ah, that moment.
It must have been like the moment before setting out on a journey, or the moment before eating a great meal.
I wonder if, at the time, I gave writing the date any thought at all.
Now every day, in solitude, I type down the date as I am ready to receive the day's Heavenletter™. Receiving the day's Heavenletter is a thrill every time. Yet typing the date, even for a Heavenletter, doesn't compare to what it once was to write the day's date on the blackboard in my best handwriting, then put the chalk down and rub my two hands together to wipe off the chalk dust, and get to work.
Comments
There seems to be a sense of adventure connected to the memory of this simple act. We all have those memories of sounds, smells, views and gestures that have this special significance, or taste of something bigger, perhaps far bigger and very exciting. Then why isn't it the same with the dates of Heavenletters? Speaking only for myself, sometimes the adventure waiting there seems far bigger than I can easily feel comfortable with. More accurately, it's as frightening as it is alluring.
This quotation from Heaven #412, "Come Back", is certainly true for me, but perhaps it applies to all of us to some degree:
"Awareness of Me is such ecstasy that you back away in disbelief or disavowal. You tremble before Me."
Thoughts are notes played on an instrument. They arise like notes when the instrument is strummed.
What a fascinating question you ask, Gloria! Yes, where do thoughts come from? It is a fun question to play with, also.
When I really think about this question it seems to split into two questions. The two different questions arise out of two distinctly different perspectives from which we can ask it.
One perspective arises out of the limited and separate “me” that I am used to using so often. From here, thoughts seem at first to be part of who i am, part of my mind naturally acting. But I have learned this is an illusion. From meditation I have learned that I am not my thoughts and I exist and am aware without any thoughts actively flowing through my mind. With this observation, thoughts then seem to be arriving in my mind from outside of who I am somehow, emanating from some other part of creation. Thoughts from this perspective are a little like the energy we get from the food we eat that powers our physical body, only these thoughts power our thinking mind and seem to serve as the raw materials for our choices in life. We select the thoughts which we want to internalize and to use to build our day to day lives.
The second perspective arises when I consider that I am a part of the infinite Oneness. Thoughts are a part of All That Is and are a natural part of Our Oneness, they do not arise out of something else since there is no something else. From here, thoughts are a creative source that helps fuel the expansion of Who We Are. This perspective is even more mysterious than the first and seems to be one of the deepest aspects of who we are, Who God is and what Love is. The process of thinking seems almost synonymous with the process of creation. If this is so, how could we possibly hope to understand where thoughts come from or what they are? It would be like asking where God comes from.
One more idea that I find fascinating. Gloria, what if you were to ask God your question in a Godwriting session? If my question is out of line, please forgive my audacity……Love…….Chuck
Couldn't resist doing some research, and here are some of the gold nuggets from my pan, most delightful and instructive for myself at the moment, by the way:
Heaven #2227, GREAT THOUGHTS:
The impulses of your thoughts come from somewhere too. Even your flightiest thoughts arise from a deep reservoir. They run through a sluice. The way a pasta machine can give you different shapes, so do you mold your thoughts. Thoughts that arise from the pure Ocean appear on the surface in shapes of various kinds. Some keep their fullness. Others get misshapen. Various flavors and shapes of thought arise from the same Ocean.
You do not have to imbibe every thought that pops up. Some thoughts are flotsam and jetsam. They have no bearing. You don’t pick those up. Let them float away. There are better thoughts to pick up from the waves of the Ocean. Run your mental fingers through the waves, and pick up the fish you want. And when fish are too small, you throw them back in. It never was meant for you to reel in small thoughts.
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Heaven #374, OTHERS' THOUGHTS
Have original thoughts. Have thoughts in freedom. Free yourself from others' thoughts. Free yourself from your own. You rehash and rehash your thoughts. They are old.
There is an expression: "Who put that thought into your head?"
That is a wise expression. Someone put useless thoughts into your head, and it was not I.
Where do your thoughts come from? Who put them there? Where have you heard them before? Who says them? I ask you now, who put those thoughts into your head?
You are often mimicking what someone uttered long ago in a passage of time. Their thoughts were irrelevant then, and they are irrelevant now, and yet you adhere to them. Now release yourself from others' thoughts and the sway they hold over you. And release others from your thoughts of them as well.
Casual thoughts are casual thoughts. They are not significant to your life. They are not true gold. You know how gold makes you feel. When you feel less than gold, you have accepted counterfeit. Less than truth does not serve you. Know the truth of you now, and relinquish the lesser thoughts you have adopted from the imitative world.
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Oneness Dancing on Earth
Heavenletter #2742 Published on: May 28, 2008
God said:
More and more you are going to be wondering whose thoughts you are thinking. You will wonder:
"Are these Your thoughts, God, or are they mine? Where oh where do my thoughts come from? Do You emanate a vibration that filters down to me? Are Your thoughts filtered vibrations that my mind changes and alters in order to accommodate them? And, finally, do these thoughts burst forth in the adulterated form that I interpret as my own, that I have been calling my own, far too often a far cry from the pureness of what must have been Your original burst of love?
"It has to be that all energy that arises on Earth originates from You in Heaven, doesn't it? And are not thoughts energy? Are not my thoughts energy?
"I pray there will be less filtering. With less filtering, then my thoughts will become more like Yours, God - dare I say more Godlike? Do my thoughts become then more loving, and therefore I will be able to love more and more equitably? May this happen soon!
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The Cup of Being
Heavenletter #1865 Published on: December 30, 2005
God said:
The body takes its cues from your thinking. The body is a chattel of Being. Your mind is like a crayon in your hand, and its thoughts color your body, sometimes drawing shadows.
Being is irrespective of the body. From Beingness, thoughts arise. There is many a slip between the cup of Being and the lip of thinking. Your thoughts come from your Being, but your mind dribbles thoughts away in variant directions. Being is
key, and Being rests in your heart.
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Self-Realization
Heavenletter #2414 Published on: July 5, 2007
God said:
Most beautiful soul, are you thinking of Me? You may call what you’re thinking about a memory or an idea, or you may simply have no thought at all, yet it is I Whom your thoughts are full of, and it is I Who is on your mind. Whatever you’re thinking about, you are thinking of Me. I am a great factor in your life. You couldn’t have a thought without My Presence. It is not really up to you whether I exist in your life or not. I exist in your life. You cannot escape it.
Thoughts come from somewhere, beloved beloveds. You have to hook up somewhere in order to have a thought. The electricity has to be on. A connection has to be made, and what else is there for you to connect to but the great Source of All Thought?
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Heaven #636, WHAT DESTINY DO YOU HAVE IN MIND?
Awareness is not in thought alone. It is from awareness that thoughts arise. Awareness is openness to itself. It does not come from your thoughts. Your thoughts come from your awareness. As easy as it is to think one way, it is just as easy to think another.
Wow!
What delightful answers, Jochen! It seems the answer to my last question was already there before I asked. Thanks. Nice work!
What wonderful responses to Gloria's thoughtful blog ... LOL
When I do a spiritual session with someone, or even when I am processing with a spiritual friend and am speaking from Spirit, if I say "I think" I get a distinct nudge from Spirit to leave me out of it. It's a reminder to NOT let the filters of mmy mind make it MY thoughts, to keep my own ego out of the way. I imagine, Gloria, that it is much the same with you as you Godwrite. You set yourself out of the way and let Godde work through you.
The Heart Is Different from the Mind
Heavenletter #316 Published on: September 9, 2001
God said:
Limitless are the recesses of your mind when it listens to your heart. When the mind listens to something else, someone else's thought or an amassed world thought, it is not using its head. It may exercise a particular skill but unless your heart is in it, the mind repeats or recites an exercise that keeps you in place.