Intelligence is not something to be attained because every being is endowed with intelligence, it is the inherited inborn quality of life. Just like nature, from caterpillar to chimpanzee, every animal lives its life beautifully using natural gift of intelligence. Everyone is born intelligent; it is just a question of discovering each one’s unique dimensions of intelligence.
Unfortunately, over time many of us have lost touch with our natural intelligence due to several factors. Firstly, due to the proliferation of Western educational system where so much undue importance is given to logic and analysis, we start to mistake the acquired knowledge as intelligence. As a result, the activities related to the left side of the brain is active whereas the right side of the brain, which is related to creativity and artistic expression, is less stimulated. No wonder human beings are not living life to the fullest potential since we are not utilising our whole brain capacity. In Vedic tradition, the ancient masters, sages and rishis know that for a complete being to express itself, both the brains need to be balanced, then you will see your natural intelligence flowering beautifully.
The second factor is this herd mentality which comes from the root belief that we are limited, instead of infinite. This is the worst crime done to human consciousness in children. The mind is always driven either by fear or greed, it is never out of inner fulfilment. When we want something to happen, it is more out of greed, whereas when you are afraid something will happen, it is out of fear. If we are living our life based on just seeing what others are doing, we are just wasting our precious life. This is called herd mentality, that is joining the rat race because everybody is part of it. In a rat race, everyone expresses their individuality but we don’t feel the connection as a Whole. We are made to always feel the need to be better than someone due to comparison. It is the mind that leads us to bondage or freedom, the mind can simply create anything out of anything. Every situation can be experienced as either suffering or enjoyment. It can comprehend pleasure or pain, anguish or joy, peace or restlessness. The mind is like a radio, we don’t know how to tune on and off as we want.
Fundamentally, we should use the mind as a tool only, not as a master. To do that, we require a few cognitive shifts.
- The first cognitive shift we need to have is – it is intelligence that gives the real result not the knowledge. Intelligence is the ability to respond to new situation or challenge which comes from your being, not from the knowledge which comes from the mind. As every situation differs, the dimension of intelligence that responds to a situation also differs. See, all children are intelligent because they are so spontaneous and enthusiastic. When you were a child, you looked at things in a very simple straight forward way. That is why you were spontaneous. However, over time because of societal conditioning, you constantly try to become something else. To prove something to others, like constantly trying to become something else, you try to imitate others and waste the wonderful natural energy bubbling inside you. If you blindly imitate another person’s performance or behaviour, instead of acting from your own inner spontaneity, your own intelligence you will be cheating yourself out of wonderful possibility. Knowledge is good only when it is applied intelligently. Spontaneity is expressing the knowledge in the right place at right time. when you don’t use the intelligence, you will start believing that you don’t have the intelligence to handle situations. With awareness, you don’t rely on what others are thinking or you don’t rely on the past, you act just out of your fresh intelligence which comes from within. With deep awareness, you are in the present moment, the very awareness is enough to awaken and break free even from the past conditioning. The light of awareness is enough to remove the darkness created by many years of conditioning.
- The second cognitive shift is – start seeing your entire life is an empty canvas, the blank canvas where you can go on projecting what you believe and making it as reality. With the right powerful cognition, you can start projecting the needs with which you can start living. Just start changing the inner software i.e. the way you think, internalize and look at the world. If we start cutting the branches of a tree, it is not going to work, same way, by changing your habit is like changing your branches, that will take for years. If you have to remove the twig, touch the roots and shake it. So, if you really want transformation, let the inner software be touched and changed.
- The third cognitive shift is – be open to life. Intelligence is about being open to life, it is by being welcoming to people’s situations and everything in life. Deep down inside us, we are afraid to receive life with open arms. Understand that there are 2 things that we can do in response to life – 1) collecting data and making argument and judgment, 2) forming a judgment and then collecting argument to support the judgment. Most of the time we have already formed our judgment than being in awareness, only paying attention to those incidents that support our judgement. Hence, we are not open other’s decision and ideas. Operating with intelligence is a process of going back to the innocence you were born with. When you are intellectual, you operate purely from your head from the logic. When your intelligence is awakened, you drop the head to the heart, from logic to love. We rely on thinking because we don’t allow the natural understanding to happen. When we allow the understanding to happen, we don’t have to think anymore. Understanding is intelligence, it is fresh and new. Not falling back on the answers arising from past memory but functioning from our present consciousness is called understanding.
In conclusion, real transformation happens in you only when you awaken intelligence, live with spontaneity and bring understanding in life. Namaste 😀