Breaking the Shackles of the Intellect with Mindfulness

Critical thinking can get us to the root causes of why things are the way they are in the world. However, whether it is conflict due to religion or nationalism, climate change, scramble for scarce resources or consumerism driven by Wall Street, even thinking critically may not take us to the ultimate root causes, as our worldview based on intellect blinkers us to the superficial.    

Intellect is derived from our thoughts shaped from the lens of how we see the world, limited through our cultural, religious and social conditioning. This conditioning traps us in our intellect and limits us - as what and how we see things as they are can be fragmented and compartmentalized. Then we are deprived of the big picture, the whole system and all its interconnections and interdependancies.

This fragmentation may cause the divisions that lead to competition and conflict. If we are to truly think critically, we need to balance our intellect with intelligence, and there is a distinct difference between the two.

Intelligence is our capacity to understand the whole truth through perception, observation and insight. To gain intelligence we quiet our minds by stopping the thought process. Thoughts are influenced by the past and conditioned bias is a barrier to awareness of how things really are.

Krishnamurti and David Bohm

Quantum Physicist David Bohm says, “the quietness of the brain is itself the operation of intelligence”. Bohm captured these ideas well in his conversations with Krishnamurti presented in the book, An Uncommon Collaboration[i].  Krishmamurti points out that intellect dominates the world and when that is the case, intelligence has very little space as one dominates the other. 

 Krishnamurti distinguishes thought and intellect from intelligence in this way;

“Thought must have security; it is seeking security in all its movements “, hence we see fear driving the world where people seek safety within their race, community, nation and religion. These are human constructs based on thought that provide people an identity, a place to belong to with emotional attachment for a sense of security.  He goes onto say;   “Intelligence is not seeking security“.  The idea of security does not exist in intelligence, as intelligence itself is secure. 

David Edmund Moody, author of An Uncommon Collaboration[ii] states; 

“In seeking security, thought has created nationalism, for example, although nationalism is in fact a great danger to the individual.  Intelligence, by contrast, is capable of seeing that danger and therefore can use thought to create an entirely different world.” 

We live in a world driven by thought with tension and fear, divided between nations - developed and developing; north and south, dominated by wealth, race and religion.  Often ad-hoc lines demarcate nations that require protecting borders to secure its people, economies and its resources from fellow humans.  

Yet humans have so much in common with each other – the way we think, feel, hurt and bleed.  We are all an integral part of the very nature we inhabit.  However, the intellect has trapped us in a conditioned emotional construct that divide us.

Intelligence through Mindfulness

If intelligence is to emerge in a world that is fraught with the fragmented intellect, gaining intelligence requires us to quiet the mind.  A mindfulness practice may just be the way to that quiet space.  

Quiet reflection may provide insights to move us from the conditioned to an unconditioned space - which for some can be scary - as the conditioned provides anchors in family, community, religion, race, the nation and material things - the attachments we identify with. 

The Root Cause of Suffering

The Buddha said the root cause of suffering is attachment. 

When we are dependent on our attachments - be it identity, nation, race or religion -  they can be insulted, threatened or taken away against our will.  Then we are compelled to protect and defend it, whether it is real or not in the mind. This is a burden many of us carry that makes us afraid of others who we perceive as enemies.

Then we are vulnerable to fall prey to a preacher or demagogue - religious or political, to incite the intellect to act out the fears of the other, as the other is perceived as separate, not connected to us and a threat.   

Intelligence illuminates that everything is interconnected and when we hurt the other, we harm ourselves.

Intelligence enables us to take religion, dogma, the nation, race and ideology that may divide us with a pinch of salt. 

Unbiased critical thinking enables us to discern to assess whether any narrative will hate and harm or connect with love. Intelligence helps make that distinction to take responsibility for self to overcome attachment to superficial identity constructs, as they take us on a path of separation, violence and destruction.      

That is why our sacred time for quiet is crucial, to focus on the breath - meditate to move away from the intellect - from fragmented thought to be holistic, to realize and be humbled by the insights of our oneness with nature.   

Imagine

Imagine if our political, business and religious leaders had this wisdom. They may seek another path with insight to stem the suffering that comes from culling the earth of its natural habitat, the poor and the weak - so a select few can live well.  

That is the delusion of the status quo - Narcissus staring at its own reflection in a pond to think it is real.  Intelligence may reveal that the image is in water, impermanent and will disappear with movement. 

The ultimate reality is that nature will have its last say. The folly of those who think we the human, arrogant with intellect can control nature with science and technology, can only come from fragmented thinking of the intellect alone. That will reap its own karma.

As I walk this path of mindfulness, I witness many others waking up to this reality – spirituality rising, intelligence emerging at the grass roots, seeking meaning and purpose to balance the intellect with love and connection and eventually, intelligence will prevail, as nature has a way of finding homeostasis.

Buddha’s Four Noble Truths

Buddha’s path is about ending the 'samsara' of the cycle of life. Those who fear that the earth is too crowded need not fret, as according to the Buddha and other teachers who followed, there will be a natural culling as more humans become enlightened, not to be born again on this earth to suffer, but to enjoy the joys of Nirvana.

That awareness dawns only through wise action and meditation to quiet the chatter of thoughts to realize three insights;

Anicca; the impermanence of life,

Dukkha; the unsatisfactoriness of life,

Anatta; the realization of the non existence of self. 

These insights according to the Buddha’s four noble truths[iii], will cease desire and end our attachments and suffering.   

I know them intellectually and the more I quiet my mind patiently and diligently, the more I realize them intelligently. With that realization, I shed weight off my shoulders, to rid the burdens of attachment to mindlessly achieve more and more, to conquer and grow in a materialistic world. 

I am also not attached to my hybrid Sri-Lankan/Canadian identity. It has shaped me, yet does not define me, so I am not burdened by it. I identify with our common humanity, as I feel happy and touched when any human does well and sad when another suffers, just the same with animals. I realize my connection to the tree as I meditate under one and inquire into where the substance of my breath originates.  

Culling material attachments is easier than dealing with my familial dependencies, so I humbly accept the joys and suffering that go with it for now.  That is my current plane of existence, as I continue to practice mindfulness and insight and it may change with time, as I take responsibility for my journey. 

Ultimately the Buddha did tell us to take responsibility for ourselves in the Kalama Sutta[iv] and this is why I am not attached to Buddhism;

 “Rely not on the teacher, but on the teaching.  Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words. Rely not on the theory, but on experience.  Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  Do not believe anything because it is spoken by many.  Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

...But by observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it”                                                                                              Kalama Sutra – the Buddha

This seems then a path to intelligence – to mindfully inquire to create awareness to gain insight to find the truth.

However, do not take my word for it... quiet your thoughts, focus on your breath to align mind, body and nature to find your own way to break the shackles of your intellect to balance with intelligence.   

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine there is no heaven, it’s easy if you try; No hell below us, above us only sky.  Imagine all the people living for today..... Imagine there is no countries, it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.  Imagine all the people, living a life of peace.... John Lennon

---

[i] An Uncommon Collaboration – David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti by David Edmund Moody

[ii] An Uncommon Collaboration – p 81

[iii] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Four-Noble-Truths

[iv] Kalama Sutta: To the Kalamas, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu