One Hand Clapping

The Source Of All Intelligence

True Intelligence is to rise above thinking as the source of all intelligence.

You are a human being. These two words not only describe who you are as a member of a particular species but, if examined more deeply, also point to the twofold nature of your identity. Human is who you are on the level of form; that is to say, your body and mind. Those two aspects of your form identity make up your conditioned self. That self is conditioned by genetics and the environment, as well as other factors as yet unknown to science. Being, on the other hand, points to the essence of who you are as timeless, formless, and unconditioned consciousness. Human and being, form and essence, are ultimately not separate, in the same way that a wave or ripple on the surface of the ocean is not separate from the ocean or from any other wave or ripple, although it may appear to be so.

Being, or pure consciousness, emanates from the Universal Source of all life – God – as light emanates from the sun.  Unlike the sun, however, the Source does not exist in space and time. It is unmanifested and therefore inconceivable, so there is nothing you can say about it. However, your consciousness emanates from the Source, so you can never be separate from it, just as a ray of sunlight cannot be separate from the sun but always remains connected with it. The Source emanation pervades the entire cosmos – which is to say, our dimension of space and time – and it is the intelligence underlying and guiding the evolution of what we perceive as the physical universe. So the universe, including human beings, was not just created in the distant past but is still in the process of being created.  It’s a work in progress, so to speak. You need to understand this basic premise to be able to appreciate and derive great benefit from reading this book. As Steve Taylor puts it, evolution is not just behind us, but in front of us as well.

Furthermore, and contrary to the creed of our mainstream culture, there is direction and purpose behind the evolutionary process, as he explains in this book. Where it is going, however, is beyond all imagination. What we can say is that the evolutionary impulse behind the process is the growth of consciousness. The universe wants to become more conscious, and the main life purpose for all human beings, is to come into alignment with that universal purpose. Seen from a higher perspective, of course, all that exists is already in alignment with it, even if it seems to be opposed to that purpose, but it is aligned only unconsciously. Entering into conscious alignment with the universal purpose is an amazing evolutionary leap.

However, what does it really mean for human beings at their current evolutionary stage to “become more conscious” or to “awaken”? If I had to put it in a nutshell, I would define it as “disidentification from thinking.” When you realize that the voice in your head, your incessant compulsive thinking, is not who you are, then you have begun to awaken. A new dimension of consciousness has arisen, which we could call awareness, presence, or wakefulness. You haven’t fallen below thought; you have risen above it. Now you can use thought instead of being used by it. Your sense of self shifts from identification with your mental positions and narratives to the alive presence within you, which is consciousness itself.  You realize the being behind the human, so to speak. Something that transcends your conditioned personality begins to emerge. You realize your essential identity as unconditioned consciousness itself, and you can verify within yourself the truth of Jesus’s words: “You are the light of the world.”