There are many types of intelligence talked about these
days……from emotional to spiritual to good old fashioned IQ.
This blog sets out to explore something rather different
to all of these - the idea
of an intelligence which is born not out of the brain or heart activity of an
individual but from a connection between a person’s attitudes, values and
actions and an intelligence which
resides outside of the person but which will join them and help them
according to what they are attempting to do.
Is this a new idea
? Well, in parts no …..but in other ways, yes, very much so. It may well be part of the new evolution of
consciousness which is much talked of in the 21st century but actually very
little described or explored in depth..
So, where are there seeds of this truth , already partly
realized in history ?
Well, let’s think back in history over a longer period of
time and review certain prime times when there seems to have been some major
breakthrough in thought, or art or religion.
Lets start 2500 years ago when there was a flurry of new
thought across the globe from as far away as India,
to China to Greece. This was the time of around 500BC where
within a hundred years, we saw the lives of Gautama Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucius,
Socrates, Zoroaster and perhaps others
less well known of this period. This
time saw the birth of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, the building of the
Parthenon, the refinement of the Acropolis and the birth of the Golden Age
of Athens.
In other words many of the ideas and philosophical templates which were born in
this age, were major influences upon the unfolding of modern man and are today’s still key influences in today’s thinking. Pre 1000 BC, there was far more emphasis on
the importance of the collective, than the individual. For example, tribal law was almost
exclusively designed to protect the continuity and well being of the whole tribe.
To us it can seem harsh, yet the survival of the whole was always of paramount
importance and far succeeded the importance of ‘fairness’ to the individual.
The various thought influences which appeared around 500BC
lay the seeds of the rise of the importance of individuality, and all that
surrounds that significant shift from the collective to the unique aspect of
each one of us.
But let’s pause a moment , return to 500BC and consider the
odds against this extraordinary ‘crop’ of great thinkers all happening within a
hundred years of each other. The odds against this being coincidental are
stacked pretty high. This was not the time of the internet or global
communications but a time when travel was by boat, horse and foot. It is an
interesting facet of life today that there is a new trend appearing which is to
see things from a global or world citizen perspective. ..something which would
have been impossible in 500BC.
The proposition that is being put forward is that these
great men were all responding to an intelligence and possibility of their time. Some might call it
the Zeitgeist, to use a later term, or the spirit of their age. Whatever we call it, if there is such an
external influence which man responds to, then it is a pretty amazing part of
our human history, that has often been ignored! As a student of history at
university, there was certainly no reference, outside of men and nations, as
being those responsible for events and trends.
Perhaps, there has been an unsung and unseen hero appearing
and disappearing on our time line of refinement and progress!
It’s fascinating that 500 years after this extraordinary
philosophical appearance, we have the birth of Jesus Christ, and another 500
years later the appearance of Mohamed. With them appear two other hugely
influential religious philosophies which have shaped much of our population’s
thoughts , ethics and religious beliefs.
Move forward yet another 1000 years, and we see around 1500,
the advent of the Reformation and Renaissance where Western thinking went
through massive change in understanding, religion, art, architecture and music. …and again one might ask what prompted
this great surge of new learning, overturning of outdated views, inventions
like the printing press, and a review of religious authority. In hindsight, it is easy to say, well it was
just the Reformation or the Renaissance but names can often blind us to the
hugeness of what was changing in humanity at that time.
Again one might zone in on another aspect of this which was
the way that for example, so much music appeared in Germany ..or why there was such a
concentration of painters in France…was it just one person inspiring another or
could it be that there was an influence which moved people to think, see and
hear in new ways…which lead to the new art and music?
It ‘s
fascinating that the truly great creative people often talk in terms of ideas
dropping into their mind - almost from
left field. That great Eureka moment when something is thought that
has never been thought before. Einstein is quoted as saying “Imagination is
more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and
understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever
will be to know and understand.”
So where does
this new knowledge come from ? Do we just dream it up, or is there perhaps a
helping vitamin from elsewhere which stimulated the human mind to new elevations.
I sometimes try and imagine what it was like for those creatively involved with
new appearance…men like Leonardo Da Vinci, the archetypal ‘Renaissance Man’ What
was their ‘Muse’..or ‘Inspiration’ ? How
driven they must have felt, how energised ..and perhaps how lonely at times?
For surely, they must have been surrounded by thousands of other people for
whom life was ‘business as usual’ and although living through it, the Renaissance
somehow passed them by as they got on with the every day maintenance of living
their lives? How can some people be
driven , yet others not notice this new vibrancy and possibility? Indeed, many
in the establishment not only ignored the significance of the appearing new
learning but were positively threatened by it and persecuted those who were its
pioneers as they disturbed the status quo of power, religion and politics.
Ok….so these are
some snaps from the past ….but what of today?
Are we in a
similar time of upgrade and new energy, which began in the 20th century?
A time of re-evaluation of what is important, of our ethics and values? An opportunity for making a quantum leap in intelligence ? It becomes increasingly difficult to deny we are in the throws of a major world crisis which is outplaying in so many ways .....more and more people feel and know the reality of this. But there are also a growing web of people who detect this apparent and worrying breakdown, is an inevitable, though painful, part of something very new and exciting making an appearance.
To be part of the flow, you have to release the beauty
within - for example, within our eyes is the beauty
of sight, just as within the seed is the beauty of the flower. And what we see is governed by what we are interested in and by…… We can see the detail close to hand , or take
the longer view as we gaze into the distance or the significance of what we are looking at… or go deeper still and appreciate that to see at all is a very great gift.
