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It’s been interesting to see the very slow tally of votes on the question of the importance of spirit vs. intelligence vs. knowledge. Many years ago I read some text from a Hindu source that expanded on this issue directly. In my usual method of things that intrigue my senses, I took the concept of these words within and explored them by applying the ideas to my own life. I found the words to be true, at least in the sense of how I see things work.

Though love is the ultimate goal of being in the world, there are many other aspects that have to be dealt with on a daily basis. Starting with knowledge, it is found that it is very hard to get things done, or to survive for that matter, without knowing how to do things. As we learn from our parental influences, we achieve the basics in life that we further in the ways that allow us to attain things that are interesting for us. Continuing on in knowledge, we learn a trade or skill that allows us (hopefully) to earn a living. These things are attained through a school of some sort… be it a formal education, guidance of a master, or learning on the streets of life. Either way, knowledge is the base of the experiences through one’s life to learn how to be in the world. In many ways, the world looks upon knowledge as the pinnacle of being, as reflected by the importance we give those who have dedicated their lives in such endeavors and achieving doctoral degrees. We have learned that we should only listen to those who have a surplus of knowledge in certain fields of study. These are the experts that flood the news and information channels everyday. But is knowledge the ‘end all, be all’ of the human experience? I think not.

Knowledge has a a limiting factor. Without intelligence, knowledge hits a dead end. Using intelligence we can filter through the facts of others’ knowledge to see what applies to our particular learning. We can also use intelligence to see outside the current mode of knowledge. Take for instance the old-world thought that the earth was flat, and the collective thought that heavenly bodies revolved around the earth. In their day, these were the dominating elements of knowledge, but for some it just didn’t explain the whole picture well enough. Intelligent persons surfaced with new facts and evidence, many against persecution, to enlighten the population of these new ideas. This is a prime example of intelligence. Intelligence is the constantly evolving notion that moves us as a collective force into more advanced (and hopefully more enlightened) ways of seeing and understanding the world.

But what is knowledge and intelligence without spirit? Indeed, what is life itself without the motivating force that animates our bodies and minds, creating a base from which sprouts the other two? I myself can see how spirit charges my mind and intelligence to attain certain kinds of knowledge. It is the alignment of my spirit with certain qualities that are important to me and motivates me to learn about some things, and to totally ignore others. Most of us don’t think about what forces drives us, but only that we are driven to learn about some topics. This force is spirit, and a poor alignment of the spirit can bring about harmful and dangerous results. A person armed with knowledge and intelligence, but with no concern for spirit, can do quite a bit of damage in society as shown by selfishly idealistic dictators and criminals of all sorts. Before I listen to the thoughts of any one person, I always have to assess where the person is in regards to her/his spirit. If that person cannot reveal that, then I cannot commit my devotion to his or her passion. It is therefore the most important factor of the three.

Aligning the spirit brings discernment to chase the proper goals. Intelligence allows us to find the best methods to attain the desired goals. Knowledge is the active force that gives us the retention of learned items to be able to apply them to our daily world. Though all three are inherently intertwined in our human existence, it is important to know where one should start.

March 23, 2009

Eugene, OR

             Last night I had a dream. In it I frantically searched for water as my tank fish were somewhere in the swampy carpet of someone’s living room. I couldn’t find the de-chlorinator, no matter where I searched. I kept looking at the carpet, wondering if my fish were all right. But somehow I couldn’t see the fish in the shaggy soggy carpet. Crabs began to crawl about, which I thought was rather curious.

             I woke from my dream and thought of my dream. How odd it was! It was only two days ago that I removed Sprinkles, the smaller pearl gourami, from the work tank. Goldie, the larger gold gourami, wounded Sprinkles after days of relentless rage. The two had to be separated before things became fatal. In the home tank Sprinkles seemed to be relieved that the fish were all smaller. This morning he appeared to recover well from his dilemma. 

             A little later as I walked into work, I noticed something was different.  As I approached the tanks, I suddenly stopped and gasped! There, on the floor, not far from the watery home, was Goldie. It was hard to tell how long he lay there, perhaps very recent or from the night before. His piscine body lay there lifeless and stiff. I found a makeshift glove and gently picked up the corpse. (I mean, I can’t just pick it up with my fingers… yuck.) I took him outside and found a nice place for a burial. After a few deep thoughts of Goldie’s life in the tank, I returned inside. 

             In the tank was Pancake, the large, long-finned, classic silver-black angel. He didn’t greet me like he always does. He stayed in the back of the tank, withdrawn and staring at the back wall. I almost thought for a moment that I sensed a bit of wrongdoing from him. I couldn’t distinguish the look on his face to gauge, whether he actually chased Goldie out, or if I projected guilt upon him. I easily remembered when the same fish murdered my gorgeous veil-tailed angel, Chocolate, two years prior. Either way, I think he knew I was pissed.

             A few moments later I stopped and reflected on the soggy and shaggy carpet in my dream. I somehow must have felt the unconscious energy of my doomed Goldie while flapping helplessly on the floor. And perhaps before his last fruitless gulp for water, he thought of his feeder while I dreamt and felt his panicked energy. Or maybe he looked back at Pancake, and with the last bit of strength, stuck up his middle fin.

I – Fish

 
     Walking through the city to get some things. A man begs for drinking money
and disturbs the people just trying to pass. Only a fool would give him
the change he needs to keep from the responsibilities of life. He is the
mirror of my angry child who wants to rebel.

     On the street train a man sits across from me, wine in a box, drinking it
readily. The train stops in a long and uncomfortable pause, and as
everyone hopes he won’t interact in his demented state, he starts
whispering to the spirits that accompany him. He is the mirror of my mind
that has lost control.

     I walk from my stop towards my small and simple home. A man is slumped in
a corner of the street, fully intoxicated. After I pass, he sees a ghost
not so far from him and starts screaming in frustrated bewilderment. He is
the mirror of my haunting past.

     As I walk, my mind regresses, and for a moment I am the begging man. I am
the man whispering at ghosts. I am the man running from my shadows once
again. And in the next moment I am back in my present. Somehow I have been
lifted from my turmoil. Today, I walk straight and clean in my overcoat and
briefcase. But one day, not so long ago, I was who they are now. And as
long as they remain, I am always reminded to not forget my past and to
not forget their pain.

     Who will be their angels? Who will love the unlovable? How do the lost
find their souls? Will they ever stop again to enjoy the beauty of a
flower, the smell of dew on a fresh spring morning? What does death hold
for them? Hopefully peace will find them before death does.

     And so I move forward in my life. A special awareness fills my spirit
everyday. Too much awareness can bring heaviness of the heart. For to even
think of all the pain felt in the world in one brief moment is more than I
can bear. But even when I was lost and alone, cold and wet on the streets
of Rome, there were two presences with me. And as soon as I turned my
perspective in the right direction, a force of energy was there to lift me
up. Though I shared the streets with the homeless and destitute, there was
still a glimmer of hope waiting for me to believe again. And when I
finally turned away from my depression, hope was there to deliver me.

     With so many dark mirrors constantly surrounding us in the streets, we
must remember the one thing that cannot break the spirit of our
soul. Belief in something more, something greater, and something we cannot
feel with our senses but can only feel in our hearts. This is our
deliverance and our hope.

I cannot stop their pain alone, but in the simple act of caring for those
who cannot care for themselves, somehow I can imagine the Greater Good
that blesses me today and hopefully can break through their clouded souls
to help them see the Light.

- keitan

Repost from my previous mu-channels (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mu-channels), originally written March 6, 2001.

     ”Be careful what you feed your mind, for it might create what it has eaten.”

     After talking to some family members, I am reminded that we have much to do to bring about peace in our time. Many of us wait for peaceful things to be in front of our eyes, and even after questioning positive events with cynicism, many of us find it hard to see the world in a new light of love and harmony. It doesn’t surprise me. There are so many channels of information that inundate our minds with negative thoughts that it is hard to get ‘out of the loop’. Television is probably the easiest place to find negativity, but that is followed up by music that glorifies it, and now the Internet has become a new channel for overwhelming us with less-than-pleasant images.

     It is easy to see hell on earth. News is full of bad news, and this perpetuates the madness. And since we humans tend to imitate what is presented to us, we are in grave danger of creating a world where Armegeddon might actually be manifested through our collective lack of faith in humanity and the beauty we can really create. Some call it self-fulfilling prophecy, and it is our greatest danger.

     Thankfully, each individual has the power to quickly reverse this downward spiral. Each individual can turn off the television, go outside and see something beautiful. Every person has the ability to give 3 seconds of time to allow one car to merge in front of us in the course of our busy days. And each person can learn how to choose not to react to conflict.

     After spending years of my life trying to eliminate negative thoughts from my mind, I finally feel like I have found a level of peace that seems to emanate to my immediate surroundings and my community at large. It wasn’t always this way with me. I remember a time, not too long ago, that I had feelings and thoughts swimming through my head of ‘The End Times’, a draconian new world order, and so many other ‘boogie man’ scenarios that I was really living my daily life in a culture of fear. My decisions followed and I soon ralized that I was living well below my personal potential. Then I learned something really important: hate begets hate, fear begets fear, and yes, love begets love. I was convinced that in order to change how I see the world, I had to rid myself of the undertone of negativity that was so present in my mind.

     It wasn’t an easy path. For me, it started with turning off the television, which for the most part has become a channel of fear, murder shows, poor role models (The Simpsons, e.g.), conflict and a perpetual cynical message that used to hit me in my two main input sensors: vision and hearing. I remember at night, I would lay in bed and hear the echoes of all the thoughts were presented to me duriong the day. I remember that I used to be afraid of getting out of bed to even go to the bathroom, in fear of something or someone grabbing me. I finally realized that this was no way to spend the rest of my life. It convinced me that I needed to purge these thoughts away. And so I started on a new path.

     I took the extreme route at first and just eliminated my television and radio talk show time altogether. I went through a heavy withdraw, but I was able to keep my ‘fix’ through the new Internet news websites. At least with this, I was able to scale back the sound and visual animation part of the negative input which was a huge part of my problem. The results of my new behavior started bearing fruit in very little time.

     I began to notice that my perception of being a victim was starting to fade. I drew a correlation between the two and was excited to see some improvement. The next thing I started realizing was my driving habits. I started letting people in front of me at intersections. I realized that a few seconds of patience and compassion for my other fellow drivers was worth it, since I was doing something positive to people I didn’t even know. Before I realized, I started seeing other random acts of kindness from other strangers. It’s the same dynamic of purchasing a new red car. Suddenly, it seems like everyone else went out and did the same thing. Red cars just started coming into perception. Without realizing it, living in negativity does the same thing. It makes us see things that are also negative. The positive things aren’t even ‘on the radar’, even though they happen in front of us, too.

     Today, I can testify to the fact that purging my mind of almost all negative thoughts, especially the mundane and unimportant ones, opened my eyes and my mind to a much more beautiful world. And I believe that until we reach a level of critical mass of positive thought, we are always going to be plaqued with always trying to rid negative things fro our culture. When we start within by removing the smaller elements of negativity, we can then make some real strides in taking care of the bigger picture.

-keitan