It has been a while since I was contacted by someone who was not familiar with the SSoA-material. I'm glad to notice that is possible as well; apparently the growing distance between the SSOA and me attracts other people, like Larry. (Although I was rather enthusiastic about the recent developments in the SSoA as I wrote in Hooray! They are Back!, the article itself turned out to be quite critical and there are still many differences that remain. I still hope that the distance between the SSoA and this site will grow smaller eventually).
I would like to spend some time on an idea that Larry offered in one of his letters. It is about the intellect that is described in certain Eastern religions as 'the ten thousand babbling idiots'. He sees a lot of intellect at work on this site and he adds:
The intellect has its own agenda that is reflected in many of the older eastern religions. Most of the techniques in these religions were based on the idea of getting the intellect out of the way so the higher self or soul could speak to us from its perspective. The reason this was done is that the intellect is a tyrant that wants to be in control at all times.It is terrified that the other parts of you are the same way and therefore is very busy trying to present its case ( that there is a crises right around the corner) so that no one else gets "charlie the chooser" to give control to anyone but the intellect/ego. The higher self is very patient and shy so in this contest the intellect and its "crisis " energy seems to win the contest until some one uses techniques to whip it into a corner and ask it to sit down and shut up.( the sufis refer to the intellect as the ten thousand babbling idiots)
Often when we decide to "become spiritual" the intellect wants to run that search also explaining that it the only part that really cares about your learning. The intellect immediately then starts a process called "seek but do not find". You find this with people who buy new age books and read some of them and set them aside to read "later" and then they buy the latest book and again do not read it. Some go to class after class and no matter how good the teachers are, come away still searching. The intellect does not recognise "truth in spirituallity" since it uses logic not a "heart feeling" to analyze the information.
It is probably no coincidence that this topic was already broached in a recent page called Modes of Thinking. It is not completely clear how I should regard the word 'intellect'. The way the term is often used is to describe the rational cerebral-only thinking device. If you approach topics with that kind of intellect it would indeed be better to add some heart to the matter, and not only that, but also as many other aspects of yourself as well.
When the sufis refer to the intellect as 'ten thousand babbling idiots' I guess they refer to the great amount of thoughts that all vie for attention, but who lack the contact of the Higher Self or Soul. Like I say in the 'modes of thinking'-article that is one extreme side of a thinking-continuum, but I believe that near the other side of this continuum you can have thoughts that gently appear without having to scream amongst thousand other thoughts.
I think there is possibly a certain trap involved in holding on to the concept of 'whipping the 'intellect' into a corner' in order to shut it up. The trap could be that you are not able to distinguish between the origin of certain thoughts: is it the ego-rational-only-intellect or is it the intellect, the mental body as a fine translater of all the messages coming from the various subtle bodies (the emotional, intuitive, creative) AND the Higher Self that is producing the thoughts.
INTELLECT AND MENTAL BODY
It is not my experience to regard every single thought as the result of a screaming ego-enlarging intellect. The term intellect is a bit too ambiguous for me. I think that often the situation is not that black and white. In stead of talking about the intellect I would prefer to talk about the mental body.
The mental body is part of many other bodies and a necessary part in order to function properly. If you mainly use your mental body and disregard the other bodies or sources, you could be very rational and even heartless. If you however label the mental body as 'a babbling idiot' then you throw away an important part of your system as well. So, what I would like to propose is to learn to use all aspects of your being and it is only the mental body that is able to put it all into words, even the concepts of the Higher Self need to be relayed through the mental body in order to be understood.
MONROE BANDS
As of late I have grown interested in the analysis of the monroe bands that we may enter as soon as we die. The best way to analyse these bands is by looking around in our physical world, for it would be the thought forms that people create that would determine where they will go after death. Only if you accept certain realities related to these bands you are able to see them (see Tuning into Astral Realities).
That's why I think it is very constructive to spend time on these explorations. For it might be that if you accept the concept that the intellect needs to be silenced in order to hear the true word of your soul, that is what you will get, now, and in the monroe bands. The question then becomes, how can you be sure that if you silence your intellect and listen to your soul, that it is truly your soul that is speaking?
BASIC DISTRUST OF YOUR THOUGHTS
This approach to thinking or using your intellect could lead, in its most extreme form, to believing blindly everything that is presented after you have skilfully silenced your intellect, or your mental body. This could make you an easy prey for the theocrats who can probably easily pretend to be your 'higher self' speaking. If you have this basic distrust of your own thoughts (which is another way of putting it), you might develop the 'skill' to just ignore them all.
This reminds me of those Christians who think of themselves as basically sinful, when left on their own, without their god, are liable to fall into sin again and again. Here you have a like distrust in their abilities to think properly.
CONCLUSION
I think it is useful to recognize both ends of this spectrum: on the one hand the limitless incoherent babble of your mind and on the other hand the mind that skilfully translates the images, the feelings or concepts of the rest of your system into words. They are all words, but of a very different nature, and I guess that everybody has thoughts that belong to all parts of this spectrum and you can learn to move towards having more thoughts that relay information from other parts of your being.
- Four FT Mind Components (Random, March 2007)
- Aligning Mental Body (Exploring, February 2007)
