Post by david on Nov 7, 2018 19:29:41 GMT
The reasons why intellect is unpopular contradict each other. Some people say it involves clinical detachment which causes suppression of nonrational faculties, others say it's the cause of attachment. Some people say that the truth is simple, but the intellect makes people want to make it seem complicated. Other people say that the truth is complicated, but the intellect is simplistic. They use the word linearity for intellect, in order to give an impression of something simple and rigid. They also say it requires everything to be true or false, and spiritual things are both.
Intellect does require detachment, in that it as hard to understand when you have an emotional attachment to an idea, but you can overcome this attachment without harming other faculties. You can still enjoy food, music, and beautiful views.
Intellectual explanations are supposed to create a subject/object division which is the cause of attachment, but if you think, for example, of the explanation for wind, and try to explain it in this way, you just get a separation of qualities: there's sun, there's air, and there's heat. This does not explain. To explain it, you have to look for an inter-relation of principles. The intellect has an inter-relating effect, which has a stabilising effect on the mind.
The intellect is also supposed to grasp, which is spiritually harmful, but, in fact, in cannot grasp, because of the element of detachment needed.
The truth is sometimes complicated, and sometimes simple. You cannot make preconceptions of the form truth will be in, but must be able to perceive it as it really is. Sometimes, what appears to be complicated is simple, and what appears to be simple is complicated. If you apply logic to them, you see them as they really are. The intellect can be complicated, as anybody who has studied mathematics will know.
Things must be either true or false. They are true because they correspond to an objective reality, and false because they don't. It is true that Paris is the capital of France because there really is a France and a Paris. The Spirit must be an objective reality, or, otherwise, it's an illusion.
There remains intellectual pride. Some people talk as if intellect is the only thing that people have pride in. People have pride in all things, including spiritual pride, and I've encountered more spiritual pride than intellectual pride. When you use the intellect, it helps you become aware of your faults, so that you know you have pride, and this puts a curb on it.
David.
Intellect does require detachment, in that it as hard to understand when you have an emotional attachment to an idea, but you can overcome this attachment without harming other faculties. You can still enjoy food, music, and beautiful views.
Intellectual explanations are supposed to create a subject/object division which is the cause of attachment, but if you think, for example, of the explanation for wind, and try to explain it in this way, you just get a separation of qualities: there's sun, there's air, and there's heat. This does not explain. To explain it, you have to look for an inter-relation of principles. The intellect has an inter-relating effect, which has a stabilising effect on the mind.
The intellect is also supposed to grasp, which is spiritually harmful, but, in fact, in cannot grasp, because of the element of detachment needed.
The truth is sometimes complicated, and sometimes simple. You cannot make preconceptions of the form truth will be in, but must be able to perceive it as it really is. Sometimes, what appears to be complicated is simple, and what appears to be simple is complicated. If you apply logic to them, you see them as they really are. The intellect can be complicated, as anybody who has studied mathematics will know.
Things must be either true or false. They are true because they correspond to an objective reality, and false because they don't. It is true that Paris is the capital of France because there really is a France and a Paris. The Spirit must be an objective reality, or, otherwise, it's an illusion.
There remains intellectual pride. Some people talk as if intellect is the only thing that people have pride in. People have pride in all things, including spiritual pride, and I've encountered more spiritual pride than intellectual pride. When you use the intellect, it helps you become aware of your faults, so that you know you have pride, and this puts a curb on it.
David.