Welcome
to Day 17 of our 40-Day Retreat.
Yesterday we spoke about willpower and how to be more aware of it, how to intensify it. Today, I want to speak about the intellect in the pursuit of knowledge; how important the intellect is, and how important it is to use it in the pursuit of knowledge – in knowing more about you and your world.
Investigate to acquire knowledge
I am sure that you will agree with me that before you undertake any task, you try to know as much as you can about it. You want to have all knowledge, even knowledge of the obstacles: “What will happen if this becomes an obstacle? How will I deal with it?” You try to foresee the outcome, what is likely to happen. In learning more, you want to choose the easiest path to the goal, or to accomplish what you desire to accomplish.
Without this knowledge what will happen? If you desire something and you don’t have enough knowledge about it: How to get it? What are the pitfalls or obstacles involved? What will happen if you don’t have this knowledge? Therefore, in the journey of life, and in any goal you set out to accomplish, knowledge is an extremely important pursuit. And the intellect is the most powerful tool in acquiring knowledge.
Way of questioning to know more
Before you undertake any journey or accomplish any goal, you ask yourself, “Is this the goal that I really want to achieve? If I achieve it, will it satisfy my desire or requirement? How do I achieve it? What is the easiest and best way? On the way to achieving it, what is likely to happen? What are the obstacles I am likely to face?” These are questions that we will naturally ask. The intellect is the one that will really help you to investigate to acquire the knowledge that you want. We see how those who have a very keen and powerful intellect question things in the way of knowing more.
The greatest knowledge
Certainly, if you seek knowledge the Universe will open its doors to you, that’s for sure. We need to be seekers after knowledge, right knowledge that will help us to accomplish what we will like. Based on my experience, I will say that Self-knowledge is the greatest of knowledge: knowledge of you, who you are, what you are; knowledge of your own potential; knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses. If you have this knowledge then you can act in the world in a better way to achieve what you want and to create harmony. So seeking Self-knowledge is a very important pursuit, in the way of questioning to learn.
Value of application of knowledge
When knowledge is acquired, it needs to be applied. Knowledge without application is really wasted knowledge, isn’t it? For example, if you buy all the books about exercising and keeping fit and you learn everything in the books, information wise, how useful is it if you never exercise, but you can talk a lot about it. You give advice to everybody, but you do not do it. You have all the knowledge but it is not being used for yourself.
When knowledge is applied, we learn even more in the application of knowledge. We can really verify whether the knowledge is good or not, whether it is relevant or useful. When we have the experience of using knowledge in our daily lives to achieve what we want, and knowledge becomes assimilated or absorbed, we say that the person is wise. So we need to be wise. We need to take knowledge the next step into realizing its power, its use, and its relevance.
Path of Wisdom
In the pursuit of Self-knowledge there is a path called the Path of Wisdom. We are told that there are three steps on this path:
Firstly, it is acquiring the information in terms of listening or reading
Secondly, contemplating it. Really understanding it so that you know how to apply it. You spend time studying it.
Thirdly, application of the knowledge until the desired goal is achieved.
How to contemplate
Let us say, for example, on the spiritual path you are told that you are a spiritual being of great power; you exist in a source of all possibilities. Then you need to understand what does this really mean? So you take the statement, you honour and respect it, then you begin to contemplate it. What does this really mean? You can do self- contemplation by yourself from every point of view, or you can engage in discussion as well. But you are focused on what you want to understand. When it is clearer to you, perhaps you would have learned that: “I exist at different levels of consciousness. Pure consciousness is my real being. I operate in different dimensions of energy, and I exist in the source of all energy.” You contemplate, you question, you reason until you have a good idea of what this state is that you are, and the way to achieve it. Then you begin to put it into practice.
Be solution focused
In seeking knowledge you can even go so far as to ask, “What are the obstacles in the way? Is it greed or lust? Is it being caught up in worldly things? Is it in discipline? You look for where the weaknesses and obstacles are, and then you ask yourself,” How am I going to avoid these weaknesses?” So for every weakness that you encounter on the path, you look for the solution to it, and then the application. There is a certain amount of discipline required in application. How do I put this into practice? This is also extremely important, not just the acquisition of knowledge but putting the knowledge into practice.
How wisely are you using your intellect?
The intellect is the primary tool of intelligence. It can help you through this journey of acquiring knowledge, processing knowledge, and applying knowledge that we may become wise. Therefore, the important question is: Are you using the intellect in a powerful way in the pursuit of knowledge? When you want to achieve a certain goal, do you learn everything that you can about it? Do you discuss it to find out more? Do you learn more about the process? Do you learn more about the obstacles? Do you really make the effort to apply this knowledge and analyze the experiences? Do you? This is the question you need to ask yourself. I constantly ask myself these questions, and I don’t give up until I am satisfied. When I say “satisfied” I mean when the practice begins to yield fruits.
Seek to understand your Self
The quest for knowledge should lead to transformation, to experience, to learning. And your intellect should be used in the most powerful way that it can be used. Of course, the more you learn about yourself, the more you understand your Universe. So the quest for Self-knowledge is the most important quest in the human journey. Of course, you may seek knowledge of your world, as this is extremely important in your worldly activities. Seek knowledge and use it in practice. However, whilst seeking and using knowledge in the world, you should continue in a parallel way, to seek to understand yourself more. The more you understand yourself, the more you will be able to manage the powers that you have; the more you will understand where the obstacles are; and the more able you will be to achieve your goals.
The use of the intellect as a primary tool in seeking knowledge, processing, applying, learning, and growing is important. You need to ask the important question, “Am I using the intellect as much as I can? If I am, then certainly I will be progressing. If I am not then stagnation is likely to be the order of the day.”
I leave you with this. Contemplate it and put it into action.
