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Understanding the Human Mind is both the Key to God’s Plan and the Way to Peace and Prosperity.
Understanding the human mind. The what, the how, and why unlocks the key to God’s Plan and Peace and Prosperity.
Understanding the human mind is the most critical knowledge that humanity can possess. Amazingly, after centuries, the best human brains are still stumped and dumbfounded. Unless we grasp the what, the how, and the why of the human mind, we cannot have real inner peace and inner prosperity. Not on an individual level, and certainly not on a worldwide scale.
(Origin of Humankind, chapter 5.7)
The Explanation has devoted a lot of space to Genesis 2:7, “God formed man from the dust (afar) of the ground and breathed the breath (neshama) of life into his nostrils.” This single verse encompasses the full objective and subjective essence of human existence. This first verse, describing the literal creation of man, clearly defines what science, philosophy, and religion have been unwilling to investigate. Miss the meaning, and we’re lost from the start. That’s the ugly situation in 2020. Understanding the human mind is possessed by few.
Here are the numerous enlightenments Genesis 2:7 reveals to us.
- It is the creation of the first human being.
- The first man appears, followed by the woman. I’ll explain why she comes second.
- The body, including the brain, is formed from dust.
- The breath of life, the neshama, is like breath; it is spiritual, non-measurable, by all physical and human standards.
- The dust-neshama combination reveals a physical-spiritual relationship. The body-mind issue.
- Science has not resolved the body-mind problem. Genesis 2:7 solves it.
- It tells us WHAT makes humans human, why humans are light-years above animals.
- It tells us HOW humans were created with the main components.
- Only humans possess neshama. No animals possess it.
- God possesses neshama, and this is key to what God, and humans have in common.
- You can only understand WHY God and humans have neshama and WHY God endowed humans with neshama IF you understand the preceding chapter, Genesis 1.
- Genesis 1:2 with the Spirit of God, and Genesis 2:7 with the dust and neshama give us the clues to establish the Theory of Everything. It combines God, the material universe, and the spiritual nature of humans into ONE equation. It is coherent completeness.
That is what I intend to explain in this post, WHY humans alone possess NESHAMA. The consciousness, along with the ruach, the mind of humans. I’ve defined the functions of each of these two animators of humans. Here I will collectively refer to them as the human mind.
Blanket statement: Everything in the Bible refers directly or indirectly to the mind. Genesis 2 and 3 can only be truly understood if we realize that they focus on understanding the human mind. We could refer to these two chapters as the Battle for the Human Mind. From next week, we will continue to elaborate on chapter 2. Translations have obliterated its meaning! You will see that it is God focusing on the minds of Adam and Eve. Chapter 3 is the Serpent focusing on their minds. I don’t want to get ahead of the story, but you know the outcome. The rest of the Bible story is God restoring the mind of humans to the pristine cleanness of Genesis 2.
Everything starts and ends in the mind.
Audit of the Universe (chapter 10) elaborated on the Singularities of Humankind. The neshama is the human operating system that confers on humans their characteristics. These are all qualities of the MIND: double-faced human nature, space-time mastery, creativity, imagination, lifelong learning, Lifelong choices and decision-making, growth mindset to face problems, and find solutions. challenges move us forward., and finally, ruling life responsibly. These singularities of humans are ALL BASED ON THE POSSESSION OF NESHAMA, CONSCIOUSNESS – MIND.
Coupled with the singularities, Audit of the Universe (chapter 11) elaborated on How Humankind Functions. Their human nature, free will, human behavior, ethics, justice, self-reproach, forgiveness, and love. These functions of humankind are ALL BASED ON THE POSSESSION OF NESHAMA, CONSCIOUSNESS – MIND.
Understanding the human mind is the human thought and action process in all domains, politics, propaganda, tweets, publicity, debates, fake news, headlines, gossip, arguments are all designed for one purpose. To affect and eventually change your mind. To influence and convince you or to move you to sway over to someone’s way of thinking.
Neshama is the human consciousness that is at the root of the mind process. That’s the basis of the endowment of human singularities and functions. That’s why it is stated explicitly in Genesis 2:7. Without neshama, we are just like animals, as the example of Nebuchadnezzar reveals in Daniel 4. He had a choice: To recognize God gave him his kingdom or to think he got it by his intelligence and wisdom. He used his neshama to make the choice and was punished.
Once God restored him, Nebuchadnezzar used that same neshama to make the right choice! That’s the plasticity of the mind with the person (in this case, Nebuchadnezzar) in charge of their decision-making process.
There isn’t one single event or action that doesn’t start with a thought. It could be thoughts that are SO INGRAINED that they fire neurons automatically! Pilots train in simulators, tennis players train for hours. Why? So they can automate their decisions. You dress in the morning and drive home at night and sometimes don’t realize it until it’s safely over. Why? Not because you’re an automaton, or because your body is making the decisions for you.
You’ve done it so many times before that your thinking is practically on automatic pilot. Your mind has so incorporated your reactions and gestures that it’s become an ingrained part of you. Neurons that fire together, wire together. This is the understanding the human mind.
Think about it (that’s your neshama in action). What I’ve just described is the formation of HABITS. Here’s a controversial example, temper tantrums—a physical outburst. What parents don’t realize is what’s going on in the child’s mind. It feels, and knows, after a few times, that it can upset its parents, that they won’t intervene, that it can get its way. The child’s neurons are firing and wiring together. A child, like a twig, can and must be guided when it’s young. That is setting the stage for the rest of its life.
The mind controls the child’s emotions. Once it gets ingrained, like a tree that has grown crooked, it is tough to straighten out. The earlier you train the mind, by setting boundaries, by proper, sustained discipline, by correcting excessive behavior, which is the expression of the mind, the better off the child, the parents, and the family will be. Understanding the human mind is essential to grasp this point.
As in the example above, the HUMAN MIND is the TOTAL CENTRAL FOCUS of the Bible and the Plan of God.
The rest of Genesis 2 is God training Adam and Eve’s mind as I’ll show you. It involves imparting ethics to the first man and woman, what they can and can’t do. Chapter 3 is the Serpent training the couple’s minds, followed by their free-will decision to behave as they did. Then God applies justice, and the entire rest of the Bible story is God bringing humankind to self-reproach; in Bible terms, we call this repentance with forgiveness, and with the proper application of ethics, the conclusion is love. I hope you realize that God follows and applies the seven steps of How Humankind Functions. God is training the human mind!
Maybe I’m getting a little ahead of the story here, but it is the overall picture to understanding the Bible story and what God is accomplishing with the human mind. The entire Old Testament period deals with God’s people in their CHILDHOOD: this is directing the OUTER ACTIONS of a child. The Ten Commandments set the PHYSICAL limits beyond which a child must not go. The child doesn’t yet understand (that’s a function of the mind) WHY it must do this or that.
But, for its benefit, the child should learn to realize that it’s in their best interest to follow the ethics of the family for the welfare of the family; this is the entire story of the Old Testament.
The New Testament is entirely different. Unfortunately, most people, even religious instructors, do NOT understand the difference between the Old and New Testaments. In the NT, God only gives two commandments.
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Why only two compared to ten? Because in the New Testament, God is dealing with repentant (self-reproach) people who have accepted forgiveness for their wrong behavior and who are now making every effort (with the help of the Holy Spirit) to apply God’s ethics. (Matthew 6). These are ADULTS, no longer CHILDREN. These adults know they have NESHAMA, and this MIND is where their THOUGHTS and IMAGINATIONS are. They know that the Battle is in the MIND. They don’t need all the details the children need. They’re mature enough to apply love towards God and neighbor.
Frankly, the issue with child-rearing and religion today is trying to apply ADULT principles to CHILDREN. We’re teaching and expecting the application of the SPIRITUAL tenets when ADULTS can’t and don’t even apply the basic CHILD principles. Teach a child according to child principles and LEAD them into understanding the human MIND, what it is, and how they have to LEARN to have CONTROL over their own minds; this is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Before parents are in control of a child, after the child, now become an adult, should be in control of itself. That transition takes place during adolescence. Parents have to prepare children for that period.
The world population is one of the children gone astray. God IS working with them, but as with rebellious, not respectful children, this is another subject. Let’s stay with Neshama – Consciousness and see three verses that summarize the entire Plan of God.
- God gives humans neshama and ruach, which is the basis of human understanding. It alone allows understanding the human mind. Human singularities and functions, as listed above, are the basis of this comprehension. This verse in Job is what happened precisely in Genesis 2:7; it is fundamental knowledge that is unknown in all circles of leadership and responsibility. Humankind is addressing the wrong issues.
But there is a spirit (ruach) in man: and the inspiration (neshama) of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
2. Humans are accountable for their behavior. Ultimately, they are not accountable to their peers, their political, judiciary, or religious leaders (although they are to follow the acceptable ethics). God gave them their minds, and they are accountable to Him for what they do with those minds. Just as a parent gives birth to a child and children should be held accountable for their actions by their parents.
Cease you from man, whose breath (neshama) is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
3. Humans will recognize God as the Giver of their neshama, and be much better off for it. The Plan of God consists of taking EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING through the step from point 1 to point 3. From the realization that God gave them their neshama (point 1) to using that neshama to glorify God (point 3) as the verse below points out. It is the final culmination verse of the entire book of Psalms; this is the ultimate goal of God. Can you see that most humans have NOT even started the Plan of God! In fact, many are at total loggerheads with their Creator.
The Plan is to continue to work with ALL humans with their FREE WILL and still bring them to point 3. That’s the Bible story.
Let every thing that has breath (neshama) praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
There it is, the 3-step Plan of God that starts and ends with those who possess neshama. God’s Plan leaves no man, woman, or child who has walked the face of the Earth out. All will have this incredible and exciting opportunity. The Bible story is the most thrilling story ever told. Unfortunately, it is a mystery to most, even those who think they grasp it. Understanding the human mind is at the heart of the story.
It all revolves around the neshama. From rejecting to accepting God as Creator and Giver of mind. From rejecting to accepting His ethics. Accepting we’re made in the image of God to become like God.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
I suggest you go over to UnlockBibleMeaning.com and do a search on mind. See how the neshama is the key that unlocks access to God, His way, and ultimate peace and prosperity. There is much more to be said on this vital and intriguing subject. The Bible gives all the details of this Battle of the Minds of each Human Being. Understanding the human mind is the key to understanding the Bible.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 5.7 of the book Origin of Humankind.
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