The intellect and the screwdriver

A screwdriver is a useful tool.

It gets screws firmly in place. But you shouldn’t expect a screwdriver to run your life.

Same thing with the intellect.

It allows you to reason, but no amount of reasoning will help you run your life.

Life dynamics are beyond reasoning. It took me six decades to grasp this. Not my fault, but rather the consequence of Western education.

Subjected to the overpowering Western system of thought, the mind filters perceptions, retains selected bits of information, distorts them, grinds them into countless fragmented disciplines, mixes them with beliefs and emotions, and finally processes them through reasoning.

The end result is called “knowledge”: science, technology, philosophy, religion,…

All widely regarded as mankind’s forte.

After centuries of using knowledge to organise life on the planet, we are facing a mega crisis nobody has the slightest idea how to fix. Brilliant.

This said, I have nothing against knowledge, reasoning or the intellect. But I am quite convinced, at last, that we should stop believing they can help us run our lives.

The invisible runs our lives, and all there is.

The invisible works on energy, consciousness, intention, and love. Pure subtle stuff. To have some access to the invisible, nature gave us intuition.

The dominant system of thought – materialism – sent intuition into a tiny corner and told it to shut up and go to sleep.

But the time has come to awaken intuition and invite it to the centre of our lives.

Intuition responds reliably only to good intention, kindness, gratitude, non judgment and compassion. Otherwise it gets you into ever more trouble. Not as punishment, but as educational experience.

Look at the “elites”; listen to their propaganda, inspired by reasoning ego. These people are powerful, they often have a sharp intellect, they are cunning and dangerous, but in the end they’re just a bunch of poor souls.

Once you switch to the love based intuitive mode of thinking, these poor souls can no longer harm you.

A typical case, among many, of ego driven elite type is ex British PM Tony Blair. Take a look at his recent interview to the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b2ec4fd6-c0af-11e1-9372-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1zMTNpsWV

A few extracts:

When he stepped down from power aged 54, Tony Blair rejected Bill Clinton’s advice to take a break and threw himself instead into multiple roles: philanthropist, statesman, mediator and financial fixer. “I did not want to leave, but having left I was not going to go into retirement.” Later, he says, defensively: “I am not just going around the boring speaking circuit, telling them jokes about what it was like meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace.”

….

Some of Blair’s closest friends say he has spread himself too thin. “He lacks focus,” says one, “someone needs to tell him – but there isn’t anyone around any more to do so.” These friends declined to be quoted for this article, but they worry privately that Blair’s multiple roles are an invitation to conflicts of interest, especially when it comes to taking money from despotic governments such as Kazakhstan.

….

Earlier this year, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US national security adviser, told the FT that he had a “visceral contempt” for Blair on account of his moralising and money-making since leaving office.

Soon after he stepped down, Blair accepted an invitation to join JP Morgan’s international advisory board. The Wall Street investment bank now pays him about £2.5m a year (Blair refuses to state a precise number on or off the record). In return, he gives speeches and provides “strategic advice” to senior clients and the bank’s board. He occupies a similar role with Zurich Insurance Group, albeit at a lower fee. He gives speeches at a rate of up to $300,000 a session, depending on the location, according to aides. These interests comprise most of his personal portfolio. The corporate and tax arrangements were drawn up partly on the advice of Robert Barnett, the Washington super-lawyer who looked after Bill Clinton when he left office. Barnett also negotiated Clinton’s and Blair’s book deals. (A Journey was a bestseller in Britain and Blair later gave the £4m advance to the Royal British Legion, a veterans’ charity.) Unlike Clinton, Blair takes money directly from governments, and is not obliged to disclose the amounts (as he would be under US law). He also runs a lucrative private business consultancy, making introductions, opening doors and taking a cut on any future deals.

“This notion that I want to be a billionaire with a yacht; I don’t! I am never going to be part of the super-rich”

Let us have only compassion free of judgment for the poor soul and for the many who aspire to his kind of life.

Fear not, keep your intellect, screwdrivers, hammer and other tools in a tidy box.

Love,

Leo

Leo Foresta