Brilliancy (eBook)

A. H. Almaas (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2006 | 1. Auflage
336 Seiten
Shambhala (Verlag)
978-0-8348-2347-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Intelligence is one of the defining characteristics of human beings: an inherent ability to respond to the world with awareness, knowledge, learning, and insight. Most considerations of human intelligence are based on the notion that intelligence is a product of brain functioning. A. H. Almaas introduces here a radically different viewpoint, one that recognizes an actual quality of consciousness as the source of intelligence. He calls this source the Brilliancy of our true nature.

The presentation of his understanding of intelligence is followed by in-depth dialogues with his students on the various barriers to recognizing and embodying this essential quality. In particular, an unresolved relationship with one's father is found to shape the experience of Brilliancy. Using a Socratic method that draws upon techniques of body-centered, Gestalt, psychodynamic, and cognitive psychologies, Almaas helps participants work through their defenses and conflicts surrounding this issue and then, diverging from pychotherapeutic practice, guides them in discovering their own Brilliancy.

Textauszug

What is intelligence? Is it simply one element in the functioning of the brain? If so, how much of it is determined by heredity and how much by one's upbringing? If not, is it a quality or mode of consciousness? And if it is an expression of consciousness, what then is its relationship to the physical body, and to the brain in particular? And what influences its development? Looking at intelligence as an expression of consciousness, we can see it in one of two ways, depending on the theory—,either as an epiphenomenon of brain development or as a phenomenon that emerges only when brain complexity reaches a certain level. These questions point to how controversial the nature of intelligence is, especially in light of contemporary scientific theories. And if we are familiar with spiritual teachings, the situation may appear even more complex. In those contexts, spirit or spiritual nature is frequently described as intelligence or the intelligence in all things, and we also hear that the universe has intelligence underlying or governing it.

In this book, it is not my primary interest to address these questions, nor do I intend to challenge the various positions except in limited ways. Clearly there is evidence that intelligence is related to brain functioning and that it is partly related to hereditary factors and partly to environmental ones. And it is obviously related to the functioning of consciousness.

My attempt in this book is simply to point out another element related to to intelligence, another dimension of it that can be directly experienced and ascertained. In understanding this dimension of intelligence, we will see how it is related to consciousness, without challenging the evidence that correlates it to brain functioning or heredity and environment. Yet we will also see how our spiritual nature is the deepest source of intelligence and, therefore, why spirit is frequently referred to as intelligence. The understanding reflected in this book is a result of a particular spiritual transformation that reveals the ground and nature of consciousness. This ground turns out to be the underlying nature of everything, even the physical universe—,and hence the body and its brain. This spiritual ground, what we call Essence—,the essence of consciousness and all of reality—,reveals itself through many qualities, which are primordially inherent to it.

These qualities may manifest undifferentiated from each other—,as the presence of spiritual nature beyond mind and normal experience—,or as differentiated and discriminated experiences of ontological presence. In the latter case, spiritual nature manifests itself through differentiated qualities, which we refer to as essential aspects. These essential aspects are intimately related to our various mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual faculties.

One thing we discover in this revelation of the nature of spirit is that it is characterized not only by qualities such as Power, Love, and Truth, but also by a particular luminosity that appears to our mind to be intelligence. In other words, we realize that we can actually experience intelligence directly—,not through an activity, as we normally do, but as a palpable presence, as a presence of pure consciousness characterized by intelligence. We find out that intelligence is an inherent quality of our spiritual nature, fundamentally inseparable from it. Yet in functional activities, it flows through our consciousness, and through its physiological supports—,the brain and the nervous system—,to give these functions a kind of efficiency and completeness we usually associate with intelligence. We discover...

Produkt-Details

• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Psychoanalyse / Tiefenpsychologie
• ISBN-10: 0-8348-2347-0 / 0834823470
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8348-2347-1 / 9780834823471