Tim Boyd – India, USA
In last month’s article I mentioned a question that I was asked during an interview, “If you were to write a message in a bottle and entrust it to the sea, what would you write?” My answer was five words: “Trust, Be Open, Do Something.” Having given attention to “Trust” in the previous article, I would like to give some thought to “Be open”. A good starting point might be to ask what it means to be open.
Openness, in theory and practice, appears in a number of forms. In our normal way of thinking it includes ideas like transparency, inclusion, accessibility of knowledge, permeability of organizational structures, lack of secrecy, and honesty. These ideas find expression in different ways depending on the field of human activity. In government, openness is thought of as citizens’ rights to information and proceedings, with democracy being our age’s standard for the highest ideals of governmental function. In education it expresses as equality of access to quality education — one of the reasons that the educational system in Finland regularly receives such high praise. In social and interpersonal relations, honesty and forthrightness are seen as indicators of openness. While these are all valuable approaches to human affairs, they are products of a deeper dimension of the human being; they are forms created to contain a measure of a more exalted consciousness. These forms are not what I had in mind in my “Message in a Bottle”.
Tim Boyd, the 8th International President of the Theosophical Society
For me the focus of the message is on the spiritual life. As with much of the inner life, openness can be paradoxical — both open and secret. The Higher Self, or soul which is occult, hidden, and secret within us is obvious to those with eyes to see, and to ourselves whenever we can pause our frenetic searching and attempts to control the world. Previously I shared a quote from At the Feet of the Master: “Unless there is perfect trust, there cannot be the perfect flow of love and power.” In that little book the two things that are to be trusted above all others are stated as “your Master” and “yourself”. Trust removes obstacles. It is the nature of trust that it dissolves barriers to openness. In the presence of someone or something that we trust, we feel safe and supported. The genuine friend not only “has our back”, but encourages us to move forward. True rest is only possible when we feel safe.
This kind of openness is not about systems, processes, knowledge, or ideas. In one of Rumi’s poems, he makes the statement that “Hundreds of thousands of impressions from the invisible world are eagerly wanting to come through you.” Openness enables our receptivity to that dimension of being. In the absence of obstructing self-protecting walls, we can rest, unafraid, and allow for the flow of intuitive insight. Although it is only two words, “Be open”, it is about openness to the intuition — the “still, small voice” that brings the unitive insight of buddhi.
Scattered throughout the Mahatma Letters, HP Blavatsky’s (HPB) writing, and the whole of theosophical literature are hints on the cultivation of intuitive awareness, which alone connects us to the “hidden splendor” of our divinity. Annie Besant called spirituality “the realization of unity, the seeing of the oneness of all things”. The buddhic/Intuitive field marks the entrance to such awareness. The physical expresses in action; the emotions in feeling; the mind in thinking; and buddhi in intuition.
For many, intuition can be a “fuzzy” idea — everything from “gut feelings” to psychic perception to emotional and even physical impulses. There is a need to be clear. HPB gives the description: “Every one of us possesses the faculty, the interior sense, known as intuition, . . . the only faculty by means of which men and things are seen in their true colors. It is an instinct of the soul, which grows in us in proportion to the use we make of it, . . . awakens the spiritual senses in us and the power to act.” I. K. Taimni described intuition as “the faculty of direct perception or awareness of truth, which results when the consciousness of the seeker somehow becomes attuned to the Divine Consciousness”.
The issue for us is: How do we access the intuition? All of the fields of consciousness within us are constantly interacting. We step on a nail and it affects the body, invokes feelings of sadness or anger, attracts the attention of the mind for cures and ways to diminish the pain. Intuition is a function of buddhi, but buddhi cannot be said to be the intuition. So, buddhi and the intuition are unaffected. On the other hand, the intuition is continually communicating to body, emotions, and mind, yet they too are unaffected. The first reason for the inability of intuition to make an impression is that, at least in the early phases of our spiritual life, it is subtle. There is a reason for it being described as the “still, small voice”. It is not accompanied by the deafening roar of the crowd. It does not strike us on the head, or disrupt our emotional life, so it goes unnoticed. We have louder, more pressing, personal concerns.
Another reason is that we have not developed sufficient sensitivity to the more rapid and refined vibrations of the intuitive dimension of our being. We can, but early on we are largely unaware of its existence. It is only with the trust and dawning conviction of the soul’s existence that we can meaningfully turn our attention toward cultivating our receptivity. Another reason is that only when the body, emotions, and mind are at rest can they be receptive. In speaking about the effect of trust in the Universal or Divine consciousness a Hermetic text says: “The knowledge of It is divine silence and the rest of all the senses.”
Two short comments from the Mahatma Letters further develop this point: “The mind can be made to work with electric swiftness in a high excitement; but the buddhi — never. To its clear region, calm must ever reign.” And, “It is upon the serene and placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered from the invisible find a representation in the visible world.” In the Bible this same idea is expressed as “in quietness and trust is your strength”.
One might ask the question: Why bother? Why take the time and effort to cultivate this consciousness? Life goes on whether or not we are in touch with the intuition. There are a great number of reasons that could be given: the access to creativity, to holistic vision, to an on-going confirmation of unity and wholeness, to a world of inspiration, to the capacity to rightly evaluate the people, circumstances, and situations in daily life in a manner that transcends mere logic. Poets, writers, artists of all types, speakers, scientists, entrepreneurs, CEOs, saints, sages, healers, and housewives who have done the necessary work to recognize the “voice” of the intuition are unshakeable in their conviction of its value.
Albert Einstein had a lot to say about the intuition, not only in relation to scientific discovery, but to life:
I believe in the brotherhood of man and the uniqueness of the individual. But if you ask me to prove what I believe, I can’t. You know them to be true but you could spend a whole lifetime without being able to prove them. The mind can proceed only so far upon what it knows and can prove. There comes a point where the mind takes a leap — call it intuition or what you will — and comes out upon a higher plane of knowledge, but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap.
The reasons for making the effort to access the intuition are many and could be convincing to some people, but intuitive awareness is not a rational process. It is superrational and only enters the sphere of normal rationality in the effort to describe, or act on it. It is then that we encounter the challenge of clothing the experience in words, or creating the formulas, structures, or plans that give form to the vision.
For a few the answer to “Why bother?” is much simpler. For them it would be like asking the baby, “Why bother coming out of the womb?” It is not a matter of choice. Like birth, it is the natural progression of a consciousness ready to learn and function in the same world we all share, but at a different level.
I had a friend who accomplished amazing things. She left a comfortable life as a nurse in Chicago, initially to help children in her homeland, Haiti. Over time her work grew into a large operation that included an orphanage, hospital, food bank, and other services operating within a very difficult environment. She was a simple person, but fully alive and inspirational. In talking with her you would hear one amazing story after another of unplanned, rationally unlikely, seemingly impossible occurrences that continually flowed to her in her efforts to serve others. I never heard her use the words intuition or buddhi; she was a religious person and tended to give all credit to God. But when asked about how she was able to bring into being all of her remarkable accomplishments she would say that it all came down to “the joy of being open”.
Trust and Be Open. (To be continued)
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This article was also published in The Theosophist, VOL. 145 NO. 12 SEPTEMBER 2024
The Theosophist is the official organ of the International President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky on 1 Oct. 1879.
To read the September 2024 issue click HERE