The story of Noah’s Ark is taught to us as children. For a child it has a magical quality: a simple fairytale of a good man who is told by God to build a boat in which to save himself and his family, taking two of every kind of creature within this vessel so that life may by saved from a great flood that will sweep away all the corruption that is taking place within humanity.
The Hebrew in which the story is written is difficult to translate word for word into any other language. The early translators could not understand the Hebrew text and so many of the Hebrew words were mis-interpreted and reduced in meaning to fit this fairytale version.
The story of Noah and the Ark is really a profound meditation which depicts what happens when a human consciously chooses to spiritually awaken. This means that you become aware of your connection with life in all its forms, and aware of the spaciousness of living as Human-Being.
To feel this as a reality begin by taking a conscious breath:
continue to breathe consciously as you read.
Noah represents your awakening to the essence of your humanity as Being: Presence.
In Genesis 6:14 Noah is able to commune with God because she or he lives in an awakened state of consciousness.
The text does not depict God talking to a man in a subject-object relationship. What takes place through the building of the Ark is your inner realisation of Presence. This is placed in the context of the lack of Presence in the unconscious mind.
The Hebrew words for God alternate between Jahweh – To Be-Being, and Elohim – Absolute life. And the name Noah (Noach in Hebrew) means “to rest” and “resting place,” that is, to be still, lucid, and attentive.
In the text the teaching of this inner realisation is put into a story form. So, Noach, your inner stillness, Presence beyond the mind, beyond subject – object relationship, realises this:
“Make for yourself an Ark ( a sacred space – a vessel) from a Tree of flowing rhythmic patterns.
And you shall make within it nesting places, and atone, (reconcile), within this your dwelling place, and in your outward words and actions.” (My translation)
The Hebrew word Kaphar, translated as atone and reconcile, also means that we forgive, and pardon, and through forgiveness, cleanse ourselves of all conflict, all unconscious thought forms that cause violence and unrest in the mind.
The word for Ark is Tebah, in Hebrew. This is the very same word that is used for the basket in which Moses was placed on the river in Egypt. It denotes an awakening from identification with the waters of psychological forms. This means – to awaken beyond the unconscious mind, where you are identified with your thoughts and emotions. Symbolically, the Soul is saved from drowning in the unconscious mind.
As you breathe with all your attention in the present moment
feel the aliveness of the energy-field within the body;
feel the spaciousness within you.
In the text, the Ark is a vessel made from a Tree of Gopher.
The word for Tree in Hebrew (Etz), is also used to mean building blocks – structured energy – and the spinal cord – the axis of the human frame, centre of the six directions of Space.
Gopher is not a Hebrew word in the conventional sense. It has no known meaning and it can only be understood through taking its three letters as individual ciphers.
These ciphers give us: a conduit of flowing energy; patterns and rhythms arranged in order; and cosmic container – the consciously awakened dwelling place of all life.
Within this Ark, are nesting places: these are literally “places of comfort,” where you can “nurture” and “commune” with life – life in all its forms.
Within you is the Ark which Noach consciously builds up. This comes from the essence of who you are.
The dimensions of the Ark are given as 300, by 50, by 30 cubits. In Hebrew each letter is also a number.
Shin – 300 is the primal fire – light of creative life; the power of the breath – spirit of Absolute Life.
Nun – 50 is the generating power of new life through offspring in expansive movement.
Lamed – 30 is that which unfolds and extends and elevates life to its fullest expression.
Breathing consciously increases your awareness of the creative spaciousness that exists within you, here, now.
Within the nesting places of this Tree of Life are all the creatures that we co-habit existence with.
We realise that we exist within a community of souls, that all forms of life are sacred.
Nothing is separate: that which we do to life, we do to ourselves.
Our current unconscious state is run by the ego: we see ourselves as a separate entitity in the universe and on Earth and everything before us as a mere commodity, which we can take for ourselves, or wantonly destroy. In the story of Noach, the great flood is the new consciousness which sweeps all this unconscious behaviour away.
We can consciously choose to co-create with life in all its forms.
To enter the Ark with all creation is to awken spiritually and know our fellow creatures as aspects of the One Consciousness. Then all that we do as we emerge from the Ark is in harmony with the creative abundance of life.
We are now confronted with a stark choice. We can remain as we are, and continue our life-negating, destructive behaviour, which is a form of suicide. Or we can consciously choose to enter the Ark and Be at one with the flow of creative life. Then we emerge onto a new Earth, which is at-one with the spiritual Universe – as in the story.
As Noach, who builds and enters the Ark, you are choosing to spiritually awaken – building a receptive vessel that consciously nurtures life.
This requires your conscious presence. When you are consciously present, your life and your work are in harmony with the rest of life.
By taking moments to breathe consciously throughout your day, you are freeing yourself from the egocentric, unconscious, time-bound mind. This is the work of building the Ark.
In the work of building the Ark you are making space for all the creatures of the Earth within your own field of consciousness.
This allows universal creativity to flow through you. You are one with the landscape, and all it contains, and at-one with the formless creative space in which the landscape continually unfolds.
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