Besides the kind of knowledge obtained with the activities of the human intellect, the Wisdom Teachings sustain that there is another way to know. It is described with various names: Intuition, Knowing, Intuitive Knowing, Straight Knowledge or Pure Reason.
Intuition is the power to contact, at will, the contents of the Universal Mind or Mind of God — that is, the Archetypal Ideas and the Evolutionary Plan for our Earth, Solar System and Universe. This higher faculty is a natural faculty of the human Soul.
The Intuition as a higher faculty should not be confounded with what we usually describe as “intuitions”. In the daily life we call “intuitions” to the spontaneous manifestations of our common sense. These manifestations are the normal product of our past experiences and observations stored in our subconscious memories. They are evoked when analogous circumstances in life are experienced. They are, therefore, the result of own past experiences and always refer to our personal affairs.
On the contrary, Intuitive Knowing or the Spiritual Intuition never refers to anyone’s personal affairs. It invariably refers to group and universal issues. It contains those inspired ideas and visions that can lift human and planetary progress one step higher. Thus, these soul intuitions always deal with future possibilities and wider horizons for humanity and the other kingdoms of Nature.
When through concentration and meditation we rise our awareness to the level of Soul and identify with our Self, we can exercise the faculty of the Intuition. Otherwise, we do not have access to it.
As the Self, we are seated at the center of our Soul. From there, we can use either the higher faculties of the Soul or the faculties of our human nature.
To exercise the Intuition, we use the abstract powers of Mind to tap directly into the Universal Mind. After this, using the faculties of the concrete mind, we can “ideate” upon the contacted Divine Ideas and build concrete thought-forms to apply and express them in our physical world.
At first glance, this process may sound difficult. However, it is a natural result of learning to rise our awareness to the level of Soul. When some practice and experience is developed, the entire process takes place effortlessly.
The Intuition is, thus, an accurate and almost instantaneous knowing. It is accurate because it does not make use of the filters imposed by stored memories, analogies or analyses. It is almost instantaneous because it is free from the limitations that the brain imposes upon the use of the rational mind.
Knowledge, intellectually obtained, follows a different process. Information comes to our mind through a series of mechanisms, filters, energy transformers and relay stations in our form. It thus comes to our mind through a series of steps, all of which modify the information. These filtering mechanisms are: the physical senses, the central nervous system, the energy centers (or chakras) around the head, the feeling body and, lastly, the mental body itself.
In our mental body we process the received information with the analytical faculties until we obtain some result. We then classify and store this result in the mental body, to be a part of our pool of knowledge and experience, which we can recall it whenever needed.
Obtaining knowledge in this way has limitations on several levels: First, the condition of our physical body, mainly the integrity and functioning of our nervous system. Second, the vitality of our etheric body, which depends on our usual ways of thinking, feeling and acting. Third, our capacity of analysis, usually conditioned by our educational background. And fourth, our ability to relate the achieved conclusions to any previously received information (i.e., memory).
As we can see, obtaining knowledge intellectually is a process always conditioned by our state of health and vitality, by the point of development of our analytical, reasoning mind and by our capacity to recall other experiences and relate them to a new experience.
The unfoldment of the higher faculty of Intuition is a natural result of becoming universally aware and individually responsible. It is a result of seeking to realize that we are one with all beings and all Life.
Efforts to purify our physical living, to detach ourselves from the turbulence of emotions, to use rightly the power of thinking, and to cultivate Love “for all that breathes” lead us to the discovery and mastery of the higher faculties of the Soul.
The disciplines and efforts in all these areas of our being progressively refine the substances of our physical, feeling and mental bodies, making them “transparent” and “resonant” to the vibrations and magnetism of our Soul. These disciplines and efforts free our usual state of consciousness from the continuous, uncontrolled and often overwhelming stimulation coming from the mental, feeling and etheric realms we share with all. This freedom empowers us as the master and lord of our total Being and Its faculties and open for us other levels of awareness.
Summary:
“To know” can be the result of using two different kinds of equipment in our Being:
- The mental body and its faculties — known as the common or intellectual mind.
- The Soul and its faculties — known as the abstract or universal Mind.
Many human beings are still in the process of developing and enriching their mental bodies, and for them their present evolutionary goal is to master the faculties of the intellectual mind. Yet, one should be aware that the intellectual mind alone, without the illumination of the Soul, leads to an imperfect, incomplete and, sometimes, distorted appreciation of things. Unfortunately, many human beings today take intellectual knowledge as complete, well-founded and unquestionable truth. They forget that the history of human knowledge has shown, repeatedly and countless times, how the intellectual truths of today are the refuse of tomorrow.
For some human beings today the evolutionary goal is the contact and alignment with the Soul. Efforts in this direction will progressively bring them in contact with the intuitional realms of Mind. When more and more human beings succeed in this process, we will see the emergence of a new way of living for humanity — a way of living inspired by the Divine Mind.