 |
| theheartof.com.au |
In Part 1 of this article, I discussed the role of knowledge when trying to pursue the truth and how the scientific method plays an important part in the study of the so-called inner sciences. A systematic, impartial and organized approach, ergo a scientific approach, is even more critical in a field of study that does not lend itself to the scrutiny of computers and laboratory equipment. Even the Buddha said as much when he told his students: Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. Validate, validate, validate is the mantra.
But at the end of Part 1, I also mentioned that the scientific method has its limitations. How? Let me illustrate with a simple example:
Let's say Bob approaches John and tells him that Tubbataha Reef is absolutely beautiful and a great place to scuba dive. Bob has been there and he had an absolutely magical experience. Skeptic that John is, he does his research and finds out that a place called Tubbataha Reef indeed exists. It's located in the Sulu Sea near Palawan in the Philippines and that it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The conservation efforts and policies are world recognized and the reef is also popular among scuba divers. John also knows Bob to be an experienced diver, so John reasonably concludes that Bob is not pulling his leg when he says Tubbataha Reef is a magical dive site.
Never having dived before but now all fired up by his friend, John takes some scuba lessons, passes the course and then goes to Tubbataha Reef. But let's say that once John gets there he develops an allergy of unknown origin, water keeps getting in his goggles or his mouth and John generally has a horrible time of the whole experience. Does John's bad experience now make a lie out of Bob's statements? Of course not. What is magical to Bob is simply a nightmare for John, yet they're both referring to the same place and activity. What, then, is the truth?
From the above example, we can identify a few general characteristics of truth:
1. Truth is relative, dependent upon the observer undergoing the experience. This brings us to the next point;
2. "Truth" only becomes the truth when it is realized. Direct experience transforms belief into certainty. Without direct experience, what one accepts as truth is actually just information and theory, the credibility of which we take on belief and faith. In our example, John believed (based on his research) that he would have the same magical experience as Bob, but the reality was that he had a bad experience.
The above points sound weird from a Newtonian standpoint, but is consistent with what quantum physics says. According to quantum physics, consciousness influences the behavior of quantum particles and by extension the reality that is made up of those same particles. Thus we find ourselves in a situation where the truth is both universal and conditional at the same time.
What, then, is truth? That's the tricky part, because life has many bewildering expressions that are all reflections of the central truth of the Creator. This gives the truth a mercurial quality, like trying to see what's on the other side of a dirty window mosaic. One can therefore imagine how much more complicated things become when one tries to understand the realms that are beyond the reach of the physical senses.
Since there are apparently many levels of truth, and the state of one's consciousness affects how much of the truth one can comprehend, only an expansion of consciousness allows one to successively part the veils that sheathe our reality.
Master Choa Kok Sui liked to use three Tagalog words / concepts in order to illustrate the different levels of truth. The first of these is tama (correct), which is the 1st level of truth. Next is wasto (literally proper, or something that is within context); the 2nd level of truth also includes the 1st level. And then there's the 3rd level of truth tumpak (used to describe something that captures the essence of a thing or subject, e.g. "hitting the nail right on the head") which encompasses both the 1st and 2nd levels.
Consider the following statements:
Tama (1st level of truth): Scuba diving is an underwater activity.
Wasto (2nd level of truth): Scuba diving is an underwater activity that is fun.
Tumpak (3rd level of truth): Scuba diving is an underwater activity that is fun for most people.
It's a very rough example but I hope it conveys the point. Incidentally, these terms for the levels of truth are also used by an esoteric Christian group called Ganapan. Their focus is mainly on the esoteric study of the Bible as well as meditation.
With the mercurial nature of truth and the limitations of the scientific method, what can bridge the gap between the empirical and the intangible? This is where wisdom comes in.
According to Franz Bardon, knowledge and wisdom are closely intertwined. But where knowledge is dependent on intellect, memory, maturity, talent, etc. (whether in theory or through practical experience), wisdom is not dependent on the qualities mentioned above. Wisdom instead comes from God.
In more concrete terms, wisdom is attained through the use of intuition. Master Choa Kok Sui describes intuition as "direct inner perception and knowing without the need to study." If one were to encounter a stuffed elephant in a pitch black room, one would need to first feel the feet, the trunk, the head, etc. in order to guess at the form and proportions and through deductive reasoning conclude that the animal in the room is an elephant. To someone with highly developed intuition, it would be like simply switching on the light and immediately seeing the elephant for what it is.
This reminds me of the rooftop scene in the first Matrix movie when Morpheus was being rescued. When Trinity (played by Carrie-Ann Moss) needed to fly the helicopter, she asked the Operator for a helicopter pilot download so that she could fly it. It's a cheesy example but a clear illustration of "direct inner knowing without having to study."
In Kabbalah, the sefira called Chokmah is named Wisdom. In pranic healing, Chokmah corresponds to the forehead chakra, which is also the seat of the third eye and higher clairvoyancy (lower clairvoyancy uses the lower chakras). Through higher clairvoyancy, one can see into a person, an object or a concept, and simply know. In The Spiritual Essence of Man, Master Choa Kok Sui gives the example of King Solomon, who asked God for the gift of wisdom and through it he was able to discern the guilt or innocence of a person.
However, in esoteric Buddhism the forehead chakra is the seat of lower intuition or lower Budhichitta. Higher intuition or Budhichitta is centered in the crown chakra, called Keter in Kabbalah or Sahasrara (Thousand-Petalled Lotus) in Sanskrit. The difference between the two is that lower intuition is direct knowing with form, meaning one would have inner visions or hear instructions. Higher intuition is direct knowing without form, or pure knowing without accompanying inner visions or sounds.
It is no coincidence that through the crown chakra one experiences (realizes) oneness with the Higher Soul, and oneness with God. Remember that earlier I mentioned that truth is only truth when it is realized? Realizing the truth of God is the underlying focus and intention of yoga and all other spiritual practices.
Given the above descriptions, the words of Lord Jesus in Matthew 6:33 now make more sense: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Achieving oneness with God through spiritual practice leads to a highly developed intuition, and this intuition in turn gives access to knowledge that allows one to skillfully navigate life while enriching the lives of others at the same time.
Such a soul-realized saint does not need to spend so much time plowing through tons of books or studying in school in order to learn the skills that they need to better accomplish their mission. Intuition is not omniscience, but these saints simply receive what they need when they need it. They base their actions not on faith and belief, but on true knowing and certainty.
One who has validated one's beliefs through direct experience or direct knowing (i.e. realized the truth) is not dependent on the beliefs of others about the same subject. Consider the yogi who achieves illumination through consistent spiritual practice. The atheist, who rejects the idea of God, will likewise reject the experience of the yogi. The atheist will instead try to convince the yogi that the experience is due to some weird psychosis or perhaps the collective unconscious of Jung. On the other hand, a pious person would believe the yogi's experience even without having gone through the same state, because his beliefs conform with the experience of the yogi. Alternatively, a fundamentalist may just as easily attribute the yogi's experiences to the devil and great deceiver. But to the yogi, none of those opinions matter, because no argument to the contrary will change the truth of what he went through. The yogi's concern would not be to convince others to believe him but rather to assist others in achieving the same experience if they are willing.
Note that it's possible to have an experience without understanding the experience itself. If one meditates regularly or is clairvoyant, it's possible you may have seen or heard things that you do not understand. This is where intuition also comes in, so that one may know and understand. The advantages of a highly developed intuition are therefore obvious.
Up to this point, you have been reading a lot of extraordinary claims about intuition. But again, without direct experience, there is no way one can validate what it is actually like to be in that intuitive state. What then is needed in order to develop the intuition?
Since Budhichitta is centered on the crown chakra, development of intuition is also tied to the development and activation of the crown chakra. However, the crown chakra cannot be activated without first activating the heart chakra. This is because the heart chakra is the lower correspondence of the crown chakra.
If we have a physical heart, the crown chakra is our divine heart. Where the heart chakra is the center for higher emotions and the love for others, the crown chakra is the center for divine love and a love for all Creation. If one cannot love close friends or family, or at least oneself, how can one feel love for strangers or the rest of Creation?
Various religions and spiritual systems have promoted the practice of character building with varying degrees of emphasis. Since such character building leads to the ennoblement of one's Self in thought, word and deed, it opens the way for the development of the heart chakra and allows the activation and development of the crown chakra. Thus through noble character can one attain wisdom, and this is why wise men say that a righteous person is "close to God." From an esoteric perspective it now makes sense.
Let's now turn to more practical matters. Meditation greatly helps in the development of intuition. There is a particularly powerful, yet safe and highly recommended, meditation that will allow one to develop and synchronize the heart and crown chakras. It's called the Meditation on Twin Hearts. It's safe enough that even beginners can practice it. For more details, just click the link to read the article that I wrote about the meditation. You can also read this other article on MTH that I also wrote which includes simplified instructions on how to do this meditation. Be advised that this meditation is not some type of switch where you do it once and you immediately become like Trinity in The Matrix. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and this meditation is a step in the right direction.
The benefits of intuition are not limited to metaphysics. Did you know that some of the greatest scientific discoveries were achieved through the use of intuition? These scientific discoveries are actually the best examples of merging the empirical and the intuitive. More often than not, laboratory experiments would hit a roadblock, but the scientist would make an intuitive leap and this new idea would prove to be the one that allows them to hurdle the problem.
Perhaps one of the greatest examples of the fusion of science and intuition is Albert Einstein, whose birthday happened to be yesterday (March 14). Einstein's Annus Mirabilis papers particularly come to mind. These papers refer to four articles that Einstein wrote and published in the scientific journal Annalen der Physik in 1905. The four articles dealt with the photoelectric effect (giving rise to quantum theory), Brownian motion, the special theory of relativity and matter-energy equivalance (E=mc2). So revolutionary were these papers that they changed the foundation of modern physics.
In a documentary about Einstein, one resource person mentioned that most scientists would have been extremely happy to have published one or at most two of these revolutionary discoveries in their whole lifetime. Einstein published four of them in one year. That in itself is already extraordinary and is the reason why 1905 was called the miracle year.
From the same documentary, I found out that Einstein frequently used what he called Thought Experiments. In his most famous thought experiment, Einstein (then aged 16) imagined what it would be like to chase a beam of light. The results of this experiment led Einstein to form the basis for his theory of relativity. Another way to say this is that Einstein meditated on the subject, and through this intense meditation was able to make an intuitive leap about the properties of light. In fact, we could say that Einstein intuitively formed the basic concepts of relativity before he formulated the mathematics to empirically express his theory. This is a great example of how Understanding Meditation and Concretizing Meditation work together.
According to Master Choa, what one learns in a few moments through intuition can sometimes take days, weeks or even months to mentally distill into a form that can be explained and taught to others. This is particularly the case when one is transmitting higher spiritual teachings. This is why a highly developed logical faculty is also needed, in order to give the teaching a form that is recognizable to others.
As we have seen, much good can be done with the proper balance of knowledge and wisdom, although unfortunately most people are imbalanced in this respect. Albert Einstein himself said: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
As with everything in life, the search for truth is a dance between two poles: the yin of intuition along with the yang of intellectual inquiry. By harmonizing these two forces, we further expand our consciousness and gain a deeper comprehension of truth.
Will we ever understand all of life? Who can say? The Creator is said to be infinite, so our consciousness also needs to expand to the point of infinity in order to fully encompass the whole Truth. But with the faithful application of knowledge and wisdom, our experience of life becomes that much richer and we go further along in our path towards the Infinite...one truth at a time.
Go to Part 1
No comments:
Post a Comment