Let me start this essay about wisdom with the question regarding the evolution of knowledge.
We all know from our experience that during life we gather knowledge about more things – it increases in quantity and at the same time we gain more detailed knowledge about certain subjects – the quality improves. When we relate this to the evolution of knowledge, we are referring to both quantity and quality of knowledge.
Or not which I hope to show later.
We all agree that the senses are the source of information about our surrounding world as well as our bodies. This is all good, except for the fact that senses are influenced by the state of our mind which in turn reflects our emotional and mental states. When we are agitated, we perceive things differently than when we are calm. That, to which we are neutral, to which we have no attachment, has a different influence compared to where the attachment is strong. When you hear that someone you don´t like is sick, you have a different reaction if your favorite person gets sick. You respond yet differently if the sickness involves you if it is you who gets sick.
Without a doubt, senses color our perceptions. The vedic system uses the term jnana most commonly for the knowledge derived via senses. In the perception process, there are three parts involved: there is the object of perception, the one who perceives, and the process of perception. You can imagine how many things may go wrong in this triad. No wonder, we often end up in confusion experiencing the same object differently each time.
Working through this maze to get to the essence of things, to a true understanding of the true nature of things is what vijnana represents. We may call vijnana a higher knowledge. It is the knowledge we derive from direct experience, not only through the senses. When we experience something, we KNOW what it is like, we understand more. With our understanding increasing, we reach a level of wisdom.
Wisdom means having the ability to know what is important and what is not. To distinguish between something lasting ad changing or passing is even more important. So while accompanying a friend through disease gives us a certain experience, that particular experience changes dramatically when we make that experience firsthand. Now wisdom does not require us to go through the disease repeatedly to understand why we got it in the first place and what opportunities are there for us to deal with it, although repeating the same process is a common means of gathering knowledge for many of us. Not automatically, though, as we all know. It depends on the level of understanding that we gather from each situation.
The evolution of knowledge does not stop at vijnana. It may go even further to something sanskrit calls prajnana. Prajnana indicates the highest level of knowledge, the spark of understanding that perceives the common substance in everything. That substance is consciousness. This knowledge is described as the realization that at the heart of all creatures, everything that exists lays consciousness. Consciousness is the very nature of things and that very consciousness is a creation /including the creator/ itself. There is nothing else to be known, this is knowledge in all totality. It includes and involves everything in its essence, it is atma svarupa, the very soul of everything.
Everything means everything, including us, humans. Svajnana is the knowledge of Self. We know the Self is in us, there is no doubt about it. So if it is always present in us, why do we not perceive it at all times?
Like a catch 22, this gets us back to the state of our perception. When we perceive through senses and see the physical body that is alive and functioning and then dead and nonfunctioning, we assume this is the only reality that exists. The material reality is the only reality for tamas colored state of perception.
Most of us, most of you reading these words, belong to the next category of perception, the rajasic one. We have a hunch that there is something more than a body and material existence. We search for it, study various systems, follow several paths to get answers, yet we have doubts, uncertainties, questions. It is not until we make first-hand experiences that bring us clarity. We know then without a doubt that our nature, who we are in our essence, is consciousness. We are conscious feeling and thinking and therefore perceiving human beings.
Not only that! Truth is, so are other creatures around us. All creation is consciousness-based. When we realize this, all we feel is unity. When all comes from one consciousness and is, therefore, nothing but one consciousness in multiple forms, the essence of everything we perceive is uniform. What we feel, see, perceive, understand and experience is UNITY. This is not an intellectual understanding, but rather a direct experience. That experience brings a major transformation to our consciousness /another circular movement/.
While this might sound very abstract or esoteric /non-tangible/, let me bring it to the level of common experience. Let us say you make a pilgrimage to a sacred site. It might be a place of God´s residence or a place in nature, it does not matter. When your perception and therefore entire attitude is at the level of jnana, sensory perception, the visit brings no change to your understanding. I have been in such situations as an organizer of pilgrimages to India. One participant was utterly disappointed after a few days being at the sacred land of most ancient wisdom by not being transformed. She felt no change in her and blamed it on India and naturally me. We were doomed by her forever for not making her feel transformed, for transforming her. This is tamas working overtime doing a brilliant job.
When the same person makes the same pilgrimage and rajas is dominant in their approach, the experience is different. They get some understanding, but also perhaps the same amount of questions are raised. They might read about the place, tradition, ask questions, try to gather more information in the hope of getting more knowledge. This is a typical pattern of prevailing rajas guna. Such a person realizes that pilgrimage is not only about visiting a holy place, it is a journey to meet the Self. This is vijnana materialized.
The power of sattva is clarity: clarity of perception, clarity about who the experience is, what is being experienced, and through which process of perception is this happening. All of this comes in a perfect unity, which is the highest truth. Only that truth brings a deep transformation on all levels of our existence, most importantly a transformation of our understanding.
The most common path to achieving prajnana, the highest level of knowledge is through yoga sadhana, the path of yogic practice. The first order here is full sensory control, which allows the mind to focus resulting in more accurate perception. Try to study how a fly looks when it constantly buzzes around you – it is impossible. The moment it stops moving, you may notice how many legs it has, how its body looks, and all other details. So for us to have a chance at correct and complex understanding, the process of observation, object, and the observer all have to be still. Ideally, they all become one. This is how we arrive to a true knowledge: we know this is the way it is, there is no doubt, there is nothing else to be known. We comprehend all knowledge – a state of prajnana.
I love the play of words and here is a great one. Instead of sight, we get insight. Insight is something more than just plain sight. In insight, we don´t think, don´t learn, don´t analyze. Without any previous, we simply know. We don´t know how do we know, but we have a direct and clear grasp of reality. That is what insight is. This confirms the existence of the Self, a localized source of universal consciousness already present in us, without which no insight could happen.
It is the same with our example of tamas ridden person traveling to India in the hope of enlightenment, but reverse. When we are in pure perception, not obscuring the Self, we perceive the essence in everything and that brings automatically a change in consciousness. When we are veiled by rajas, we search, work, study, and look for that which we sense dwells somewhere in us. Tamas causes no matter how many trips to India we make, how many wise books we read and teachers we have, in the end, the spark of the inner light of understanding still eludes us leaving us in despair and envy.
The common method of knowledge evolution is to remove the veils to allow the experience of the deep intuitive wisdom that is already in us. Yoga path is the technology that is designed exclusively for this purpose. Yoga is all about discipline and practice, long consistent effort without attachment to either the path or the result. Various masters describe the path of yoga differently. The most systematic way is laid down by the father of modern yoga, Patanjali in his Yoga sutras. This text talks about a systematic way of cultivating consciousness.
Any path towards wisdom starts with sraddha. Sraddha is a firm conviction or faith, an unwavering attitude not influenced by anything happening around us. We may say that sraddha is a personal firm resolve, an attitude that fuels why and how we walk the path. As it is such a key concept, we´ll discuss it in more detail next time. Sraddha starts with our decision to explore what is there to know and not to stop until we get a complete answer. For this process, we need to exert energy, make an effort, cultivate an ability to overcome obstacles, stay focused on the path and not stray away from it. All this is called virja – inner strength. That gives a basis for smrti – a memory of experiences that reinforce our decision to continue the journey no matter what. Only this brings realization, what this system of thought calls a samadhi. That realization is prajna. We have full control over this process as we decide what kind of effort we put into this journey.
There is also another way to achieve the goal. This way cannot be arranged by us. It is a gift we receive for no particular reason. This is called pratibha – a spontaneous flash of insight. It completely bypasses the senses and involves no thinking. The best way to describe pratibha or a flash of insight is a perception that comes directly from the Self, not the mind. Spiritual teachers and teachings give instructions on how to create conditions for this to happen. The teachers and their teachings then step back – this is an important part – and let the arousal of light within us happen. They know – and we all know this whether we realize it or not – that this happens only through the grace of God.
God does not succumb to our advances, wishes, tantrums, or bribes. We have no control over this process. Some say pratibha is the result of our past practices, a long-lost investment that brings fruit only now for no apparent reason. As this is the case, we cannot rely on this flash of realization for the evolution of consciousness. We must resort to the well-traveled path that many have gone before us and many will follow after us: the path of practice that removes the obstacles from our true understanding.
My inner Self says that while walking the path, the likelihood for pratibha increases. It´s only logical. When you stay in an area where storms are frequent, you are likely to experience them. So let us do the most sensible thing we may: focus on our path, walk on it diligently with full focus and effort, and enjoy the many benefits the journey brings us.
Remember, all that is important is in us, not outside of us. And it all starts with sraddha.
With a wish of a great spring and its enjoyment despite the hardship near or in us, let us wisely be now and here in the highest level of knowledge we are capable of holding.
