Discovering
the inner approach to knowledge
What is life? One
way to look at life of this to say that life is a continuous stream
of questions that are thrown at you from sources outside yourself:
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How do I respond
to this situation?
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How do I solve
this problem?
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How do I overcome
this crisis?
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How do I reach
this or that goal?
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How do I answer
this or that question?
It is easy to feel
overwhelmed by the questions that are thrown at you every moment of
the day. It is easy to feel that you are always coming from behind,
trying to catch up to this or that crisis. It is easy to feel that you
are never really measuring up and doing what you should or could be
doing.
There is an alternative to being a victim of life and life’s questions.
By finding your personal answers to some of the deeper questions of
life, you can rise above the consciousness of being a victim of circumstances
beyond your control. Instead, you can turn your life into an exciting
journey, a path to greater understanding and greater peace of mind.
Outer knowledge is not enough
When it comes to finding answers to the deeper questions of life, it
is not enough to seek outer, factual or intellectual knowledge. This
world has many doctrines or belief systems that claim to provide answers
to the questions of life. Numerous people have studied such doctrines
without finding answers. It is not enough to simply assimilate facts
or outer knowledge about life. You need to go beyond assimilating knowledge
and attain a deeper understanding of life. To gain at deeper understanding,
you must integrate outer knowledge into your consciousness. Instead
of accepting an answer formulated by someone else, you must attain an
answer that is formulated by your own mind.
There is nothing mysterious or difficult about integrating knowledge.
You simply need to become aware that you already have the ability to
do this, and then you need to start systematically using this natural
ability. This ability is commonly known as intuition.
What is intuition?
Most people are aware that they have a conscious mind and a subconscious
mind. In a general sense, the subconscious mind is any aspect of the
mind which lies beyond conscious awareness. However, if you want to
understand intuition, you need to gain a more detailed understanding
of the subconscious mind.
Some psychologists, such as Carl Jung, have realized that the subconscious
mind has layers or levels. As mentioned ealier, the lower levels of
the subconscious mind are the seat of the negative aspects of human
nature, such as selfishness, greed, fear and doubt. The higher levels
of the subconscious mind are the seat of the higher human qualities,
such as love, selflessness, faith and the desire to know.
By accepting the idea of a higher mind, we can gain a new perspective
on intuition and a new definition of intuition. In the Teachings
section, Jesus gives the following definition of intuition:
Intuition is a process whereby your higher mind communicates
insights and understanding to your conscious mind.
The limitations of outer knowledge
This definition contains the key to finding personal answers to life’s
questions. You must begin by realizing that there is more than one way
to acquire knowledge and understanding.
Traditionally, most people take what one might call the outer approach
to knowledge. People reason that they cannot personally answer life’s
questions, and therefore they seek answers from an authoritative source
outside themselves. They study some kind of doctrine or belief system
which claims to contain answers to the questions of life. This approach
has two limitations.
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When you seek
answers within the context of a specific belief system, you can
only find answers that are contained within that framework. If the
answers are not there, you will not find them. Many people have
come to realize that no single belief system or doctrine can answer
all of their questions about life. If you have questions that your
current belief system cannot answer, the only way to find answers
to those questions is to look outside of your current belief system.
If you are not willing to look outside the box, then you will not
find answers to those questions.
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Outer knowledge
in itself will do very little for you. Knowledge becomes useful
only when it is integrated and thereby transformed into understanding
and wisdom. For decades, medical science has proven a definitive
link between smoking and numerous health problems. Millions of people
have acquired an outer or intellectual knowledge of this fact, yet
they continue to smoke. In itself, outer knowledge does not cause
people to stop smoking. People will stop smoking only when the outer
knowledge becomes internalized and thereby gives them an inner resolution
which empowers them to stop smoking.
Going beyond outer knowledge
If you want to escape the state of mind in which you feel like a victim
of circumstances beyond your control, you must go beyond the outer approach
to knowledge. You must realize that there is an inner approach to knowledge.
When you apply the inner approach to knowledge, you realize that you
have the ability to find answers inside yourself. Instead of simply
assimilating knowledge from outer sources, you can transform that knowledge
into a deeper understanding. You do this by using your intuitive faculties.
Through these faculties, your conscious mind attains insights from a
higher part of your mind.
Adopting the inner approach to knowledge does not mean that you have
to ignore outer sources of knowledge. It simply means that you go beyond
the answers given by outer sources. For example, you might study a particular
belief system, but instead of accepting the answers without thinking
about them, you now submit the outer knowledge to your higher mind.
Your higher mind then sends you back at deeper understanding of this
knowledge, and this deeper understanding is expressed in a language
that you can understand.
If you take a statement of truth and show it to 10 people, some people
will understand it, and some will not. The reason is that words are
relative and they don’t mean the same to different people. A statement
might be perfectly understandable to one person and seem like complete
nonsense to another. In many cases, you can study outer knowledge without
understanding it. The knowledge simply does not “click”
with you.
By applying the inner approach to knowledge, you send outer knowledge
to your higher mind. Your higher mind then transforms that knowledge
and expresses it in a language that has special meaning to you. Therefore,
when the higher mind gives you an intuitive insight, that idea will
“click” with you. You have what is often called an “Aha
experience” whereby you truly understand an idea. This inner understanding
will help you resolve the question, and this resolution will make it
easy for you to carry your new understanding into your everyday activities.
When you truly understand an idea, it becomes easy to act upon that
idea.
Adopting the inner approach to knowledge
If your are serious about finding meaningful personal answers to life’s
questions, the single most important step you can take is to at adopt
the inner approach to knowledge. You must begin by realizing that the
inner approach to knowledge actually exists. The key to doing this is
to become consciously aware that you have always had intuition and that
you already use it in many of life’s situations.
You have used your intuition to accept many of your present beliefs
by reasoning that these ideas "make sense." You simply need
to become consciously aware of this faculty of your mind, and you need
to start using it more effectively.
To find out why
intuition is the key to personal growth.
Go back to How
to find answers main page.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
