Thought is different than thinking

The first word in the Hebrew title has many meanings when translated to English. I include some as I find it bridging different languages, helpful for a reader not accustomed to the lateral thinking involved in translations. It is a noun. It is written in singular with a definite article.
Thought, conception, idea, device, plan, intention.

In the published monograph thinking is used. In English, it can be both a verb and a noun, not so in Hebrew. The main difference is that, although thoughts are self-arising, thinking is a choice. It is something you can choose to engage in or not. Also thinking involves a range of skills developed over time, including reasoning, problem solving, judging, and remembering. In connection with autosuggestion thought is more appropriate as thinking is more cortical and here the subconscious or unconscious is in focus. More convincingly, it is expressly stated in the text for the one who ponders the content.

The same confusion in translation is also found in the final lesson 12 [1] in the English Awareness through movement [2]. Two verbs, thinking and breathing is used whereas in the Hebrew original, it is written thought and breath . This misleading translation is the primary professional source for non-speakers of Hebrew. The English book is used most times, if not all, for translations to other languages. Mistakes multiply.

A more correct translation changes the introduction to the 12th lesson, the last one, yes, the lesson itself.

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Chapter IV

"The Unconscious is the storehouse of memory, where every impression we receive from earliest infancy to the last hour of life is recorded with the minutest accuracy. These memories, however, are not inert and quiescent, like the marks on the vulcanite records of a gramophone; they are vitally active, each one forming a thread in the texture of our personality. The sum of all these impressions is the man himself, the ego, the form through which the general life is individualised. The outer man is but a mask; the real self dwells behind the veil of the Unconscious."

"The Unconscious is also a power-house. It is dominated by feeling, and feeling is the force which impels our lives. It provides the energy for conscious thought and action, and for the performance of the vital processes of the body."

"Finally the Unconscious plays the part of supervisor over our physical processes. Digestion, assimilation, the circulation of the blood, the action of the lungs, the kidneys and all the vital organs are controlled by its agency. Our organism is not a clockwork machine which once wound up will run of itself. Its processes in all their complexity are supervised by mind. It is not the intellect, however, which does this work, but the Unconscious. The intellect still stands aghast before the problem of the human body, lost like Pascal in the profundities of analysis, each discovery only revealing new depths of mystery. But the Unconscious seems to be familiar with it in every detail."

"It may be added that the Unconscious never sleeps; during the sleep of the conscious it seems to be more vigilant than during our waking hours."

"We are now in a position to formulate the basic law of autosuggestion as follows:—

Every idea which enters the conscious mind, if it is accepted by the Unconscious, is transformed by it into a reality and forms henceforth a permanent element in our life.

This is the process called "Spontaneous Autosuggestion." It is a law by which the mind of man has always worked, and by which all our minds are working daily."

Chapter V
“…If we can get the Unconscious to accept an idea, realization follows automatically. The only difficulty which confronts us in the practice of Induced Autosuggestion is to ensure acceptation, and that is a difficulty which no method prior to that of Emile Coué has satisfactorily surmounted.“

"Every idea which enters the mind is charged, to a greater or less extent, with emotion. This emotional charge may be imperceptible, as with ideas to which we are indifferent, or it may be very great, as when the idea is closely related to our personal interests. All the ideas we are likely to make the subjects of Induced Autosuggestion are of the latter class, since they refer to health, energy, success or some goal equally dear to our hearts. The greater the degree of emotion accompanying an idea, the more potent is the autosuggestion resulting from it. Thus a moment of violent fright may give rise to effects which last a lifetime. This emotional factor also plays a large part in securing acceptation."

§ 1 The unconscious as an executor
-הבלתי הכרתי כמוציא לפועל

As an executor, ki motzi l´poal כמוציא לפועל is the immediate translation but I think it is possible to interpret the meaning even further for a deeper understanding.

The language could capture something that is greater than itself and since it is so decisive in the Method, this is not superfluous.

Motzi מוציא is also translated as bring forth like in the Jewish blessing over bread[5].

Poal פועל, is translated in philosophy as a renewer, a cause of change.[6]

An alternative translation from my dictionary could as well be:
The unconscious with the ability to implement any idea and give it reality.

The views and understandings of the unconscious have changed over the 100 years since Autosuggestion was written and later translated.  We know that the brain is predictive in its overall function to enhance survival.

There is scientific advancement and also diversity of models of explanations. This can be found in multiple references that are outside the scope of this paper.
We use the concept of awareness, as descriptive of what a Feldenkrais process entails. Knowing what you can know.  The back and forth between the un- or subconscious and the cortical awareness as the active force in the somatic learning.

We can also delve into the understanding of Autosuggestion[7] of that time, being an early game changing source to Moshe Feldenkrais. One need, though, the ability of looking at history from behind, with the eyes of 1920ies.  

I find it more than obvious to understand why and how the brain becomes the target ofMoshe Feldenkrais' inquiry.

§ 2 Last in deed, first in thought
Made at the end and planned from the start - 


Sof maaseh b’machsva hetchila
סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה

This phrase is taken from a well-known stanza (the third) from the Shabbat prayer Lecha Dodi, sang at Erev Shabbat, Friday evening.
The kabbalist Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Elkabetz (c.1505 - c.1584 CE), born in Thessaloniki and living in Safed, wrote the poem.

I understand that Moshe Feldenkrais did not only sing the hymn weekly as a child and later, but he also knew kabbala. His middle name Pinchas points to Pinchas Shapiro or Pinchas from Koretz. I take the opportunity to refer to a longer text about him [8]

Reuven Ofir choose the translation Last in deed first in thought for this second chapter. A good alternative from Sefaria[9] is Made at the end and planned from the start.

In a book by Rabbi Jules Harlow[10] I found some interesting explanations of the phrase. It is about prediction.

” Though God created the Shabbat on the last day of creation, Shabbat had been first in God’s plan. In Midrash Genesis Rabba 10:9 the Sages illustrate the meaning with a parable. A king constructed and decorated a wedding canopy. Every object was in place, yet something was missing, a bride! The king of course had her in mind from the beginning before he built the wedding canopy.”

Notes