FEBRUARY 2006

ISSUE #13

“Your newsletter an odd, intriguing piece of work. I don’t understand it all but feel that I do. I love reading it, re-reading it, re-re-reading it. I am intrigued by your comment (January) that you “still” avoid the word intuition. Please share soon. If knowledge is lasting and trumps understanding as ignorance is banished, what is intuition?”

The Latin origin of the definition of intuition is “the act of contemplating” (contemplation: “a state of mystical awareness”). Some additional clues: “quick and ready insight; immediate cognition; the power or faculty of attaining direct knowledge.” I also like, from intuitionism, “a doctrine that there are basic truths intuitively known,” and, “a doctrine that the fundamental principles about what is right and wrong can be intuited.” (I’d add only to the last phrase just before be.)

One could say that intuition is how to know, a method of spontaneously fusing our faculties of physiological, instinctive, emotional and intellectual knowledge into a single force that ignites imaginative revelation.

In most languages, intuition is described as a mysterious, objectively true perception or engagement. Many philosophies and spiritual disciplines place an extremely high value on intuition. Some have gone so far as to build their entire methodology on the search for and attainment of intuitive perception. Zen is a good example. The fundamental principle is that spiritual liberty is only achievable through transcendence, and that transcendence can only happen by intuitively rising above paradox. A simple image that might help in giving you a sense of this: Love will cause one deeper suffering than anything else, and it will also cause one deeper joy than anything else. But love is not about one’s suffering and joy; it’s about the other, the one you love.

There are so many different kinds of intuitive expression, many of which are so subtle as to seem invisible, that it defies categorizing. But, to give a few tangible examples here, let’s settle on this as a general description… Intuition is spontaneously arranging all internal elements so that they interface perfectly with the corresponding external configuration one finds oneself within.

You could look at this as if every circumstance has a specific combination of active and passive contact points. That is, any objective circumstance demands a relatively precise combination of active and passive “calls” for anyone within it. For example, a mother hands you her newborn baby. Obviously, that’s a time to activate a greater consciousness of qualities such as attention to detail, grace, gentleness and affection, and shift to a slower gear in your movements. You put on hold, into passivity, things like boldness, aggressiveness and your favorite moves from your hip hop class. An hour later, you find yourself on the freeway with a car out of control swerving directly toward you. That situation requires another set of choices and qualities, and a faster gear. Reality is offering a different set of contact points that you have to meet, or interface with correctly. This is easy to understand, yes?

Now, put the two together. You’re driving a car, the mother is handing you the baby, and there’s another car out of control swerving directly toward you. That’s a paradox, at least in the sense that what you understand to be appropriate active and passive choices via physical, instinctive, emotional and intellectual experience are invalid. (It’s also a paradox that a mother would hand you her newborn baby while you’re driving a car, but you don’t have time right now to consider the possible meanings or implications.) So, what do you do? The only resolution to that particular combination of external variables is to spontaneously invent an unknown, unique set of qualities and actions so as to blend perfectly with the actual requirements you’re confronted with. That can only be done intuitively.

This type of imagery leans toward one cult “family” of intuition, which we see touted in a lot of films, such as The Matrix or Star Wars, and many cartoons. These are modern versions of a spiritual hierarchy expressed through myths in every culture throughout history: the spiritual master as someone who has perfected physical engagement—interfacing perfectly with the corresponding external configuration he finds himself within—particularly regarding challenges with time and space (usually, not enough time and not enough space). All martial arts have their origin in this essential myth, spiritual mastery as a mysterious internal transcendence that shows itself in the supernatural ability to interface perfectly with time and space themselves, and everything within them.

Another family of intuition is sought and expressed through the arts. The same explanation on interfacing I’ve used above works there, too, but the variables, or corresponding external configuration, are different. The ideal and method to achieve perfection are the same; transcendence of what is already understood and used is primary. This is why such a high value is universally placed on creative originality. An artist, ideally, produces something that we haven’t already seen or heard, causing the recognition that a basic mysterious truth has been revealed.

An example of this might be a great piece of music. We recognize its value and beauty, even though we wouldn’t necessarily be able to understand or explain why or how. A three month-old child will revel in listening to Pogorelich play Bach or Mozart, even though he doesn’t understand at all what’s happening. It’s a certain perfect arrangement of elements, in this case, just different sounds that have no apparent meaning. Emotions, sensations and insight are provoked, but the exchange is essentially intuitive.

These are high-end or ideal examples of intuition working as an outgoing force—an individual creating a perfect interface. For most of us, any recognizable access to intuitive perception will mostly come through very short-term incoming revelation—a few seconds here, a few seconds there—when we forget about ourselves (step one in the art of contemplation). We all have glimpses of temporary perfect interfacing, such as seeing an item and suddenly realizing it would be a perfect gift for someone, a brilliant comment coming out of your mouth before you think about it, wondering what time it is and seeing three-fifteen on a watch on the billboard as above you, picking up the phone just before it rings, bending down to tie a shoe just as a leaf falls on it… Of course, the proof of the perfect interface is in the result: the gift is actually surprisingly wonderful, the comment silences the crowd because of its piercing precision, it is three-fifteen, someone has just called you on the phone, your child just asked you for a leaf…

I try to avoid the word intuition as much as I can, mainly because almost everyone has a conveniently preconceived idea of what it means, such as finding an empty parking spot on a crowded street, believing that seeing the word Ireland on a newspaper you walk by while thinking you should move means you should move there, speaking the words of someone else before they are able to assemble them themselves, sensing for some unknown reason that one investment is bette than another, or feeling protected by your guardian angel because they had your preferred bakery item in the café (while you were just thinking about it!). These are all examples of simply not understanding, or not liking, cause and effect and consequently interfacing one’s own vague concepts of grand mystery with personal preferences. That’s fantasy fueled by emotional desire and believing it’s real (otherwise known as neurosis), not at all the same thing.

There are all kinds of schools and “masters” out there proselytizing this type of miraculous solution to one’s misconceived hopes, beliefs and real yearning for spiritual experience, and marketing it under the heading of “intuition,” which doesn’t help the cause. I cover this and what real intuition is in my latest book, You Wanna Into it?, available by calling 1-800-I-WANT-TO-INTUIT. Operators are standing by 25 hours a day. With every order you will receive a free personal horrorscope and signed photo of me blessed by Our Sisters of Perpetual Intuition. Call now. Supplies, like intuition itself, are limited.

Traditionally, there is a sequence of states of consciousness that leads up to intuition. In every reliable and practiced system on the subject, highly developed love, compassion or devotion precedes access to outgoing intuition. One cannot manifest intuition for any sustainable length of time without valuing something or someone more than oneself. This is the context that gives one the right and the freedom to intuit. It gives us sufficient meaning and compellingness with which to engage the act of contemplation—the necessary power to see beyond prejudice, fear and ignorance. If intuition is how to know, then devotion is why to know. Knowing, intuitively or otherwise, is not an abstract game or casual hobby; there is responsibility that comes with it, particularly because all knowing is meant to aid in achieving resolution and establishing harmony. One can’t know unless one really intends to do something appropriate with the knowing.

Coming back to the essential principles we try to express here in this newsletter, we all have clues or pathways to our intuition everyday. But yes, these are indicated by our passionate curiosity, the natural impulse to find our way out of the labyrinth of what we already understand and believe. That’s how we learn to access a different way of perceiving and engaging, which you’ve articulated so well in your comment at the beginning of this letter: “I don’t understand it all but feel that I do.”

Darrell Calkins

February 2006

Comments
Thank you for your comments about the previous issue of CobaltSaffron. Excerpts from a few responses we received:

“Thank you for the generosity that this newsletter brings to us. Bravo and please keep this great work! In my case, the newsletter is a constant remainder in my errant life. The last issue was great as a finishing to the octave (personally, I associate to the musical octave that needs to be complete to go to the next one…). I enjoy so much the humor in it.”

M.A., California.

“Some of the questions selected for inclusion and response do not seem to be up to the level of what I would optimally like, but as I have never sent in a letter or response it is not quite appropriate for me to criticize. I like especially and find intriguing Darrell’s stories, examples, comments on incidents, life observations, most. I’d like to see more provocativeness, his taking to task some of the questions, but in general the newsletters are magnificent and coming as they do just like that unexpectedly after a hectic day of work or frustration or totally expected activities with no surprises, they are little gems and gifts, serendipities. I thank all who are involved in getting the newsletters out and would like to help them in the future.”

J.J., California.

“I have neglected to tell you how much I enjoy receiving the newsletter. It is so clean and crisp and aesthetically pleasing. And, of course, what Darrell writes is always thought-provoking. Congratulations to the team for doing such a great job!”

D.P., California.

“It’s as if with this newsletter (#11) you took the lid off and the essence of life began to escape from the chamber we’ve tried so hard to contain it in, the desire to seek out this mastery, to seek it out in the lives we live. To actually read that in our lives there are those around us not wearing the customary attire of a “master” who live, exhibit what we are looking for, is utterly and wondrously compelling. What makes it so fascinating is that to see what I am looking for in others I have to not only know the qualities but also use them… This newsletter has left me with this sense of living in an enormous playing field, one that I had set limits to without realizing it.”

S.L., Belgium.


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