Action vs. No Action
05/29/2008 04:47 p.m.

I don't know how many people think about this. Maybe I'm strange.

But a long time ago, I had a thought process that went something like this:

Thoughts are not benign. They have energy. The Bible says, "As a man thinketh, so he is" (if I'm not misquoting too terribly). In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna explains, “Thinking about sense-objects will attach you to sense-objects; grow attached, and you become addicted; thwart your addiction, it turns to anger; be angry, and you confuse your mind; confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; forget experience, you lose discrimination; lose discrimination, and you miss life’s only purpose.” –Bhagavad Gita 2:62, 63 So, thoughts create a certain level of energy.

The next level of energy is speaking. I find it particularly significant that in Genesis, God SPOKE this world into existence. He didn't THINK there should be light, he SAID "Let there be light" and so it happened. The book of Proverbs is full of advice about the tongue, for what is spoken can be VERY potent. In Lord Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, the third step is that Right Speech:

The Third is Right Discourse. Govern the lips
As they were palace-doors, the King within;
Tranquil and fair and courteous be all words
Which from that presence win.
(The Light of Asia)

The last and greatest energy that can be created comes from taking action. This is the ultimate manifestation of thought or speech, and even the least philosophical person in any room would say, "duh."

But because of what happened this last weekend, something new has occured to me. INACTION, in other words, thought or speech that results in taking NO action, can also pack a whallup of consequence. And this is a new train of thought for me, one that I'm going to have to seriously meditate on.





I am currently Thoughtfull
I am listening to my thoughts