The Journey to Wisdom

The paradox of chaos and order is not new. As ancient myths and new science both assert, every system that seeks to stay alive must hold within it the potential for chaos (Briggs & Peat, 1989). The destructive energy of chaos dissolves the past and gives us the gift of a new future. It releases us from the imprisoning patterns of the past by offering us a ride into newness. Chaos enables us to recreate ourselves.

Most of us have experienced this ride of chaos in our own lives. At a personal level, it might be a profound loss of meaning; nothing makes sense in the way it did before (Wheatley, 2008). Yet, these are part of the human experience; how we participate in the spiral dance of form and new form, As we reflect on these times of descending into chaos, we realize that towards its end we emerge changed and stronger in some ways (Wheatley, 2007). We participated in the dance of creation and learned that growth always requires passage through the fearful realms of disintegration.

Depite the chaos' role in the emergence of new order, Western culture denied it mainly. The dominant belief was that chaos could be eliminated from life. Most people believed that there were straight lines to a specific goal and we would not descend into confusion. These beliefs led us far from the processes by which newness is created (Wheatley, 2007).

As modern life becomes more complicated we are willing to give thoughts about chaos itself. Regardles of how we discover it the important lesson to keep in mind is: "The destruction cretaed by chaos is necessary for the creation of anything new." (Wheatley, 2007).

Fractals are defined as being complex by virtue of their infinite detail and unique mathematical properties (Briggs & Peat, 1980); yet they are simple as they can be generated through successive applications of simple iterations. Complexity is not built up out of simple forms like an intricate building being made out of a few simple shapes or bricks. The simple iteration in effect liberates the complexity hidden within it, giving access to creative potential (Briggs & Peat, 1989).

The process of fractal suggests some ways to work with the paradox that greater openness is the path to greater order. A fractal reveals its complex shape through continous self-reference to a simple equation. So, one should start with a clear sense of what to accomplish and how to behave together with others(Briggs & Peat, 1989). Once these equations are established these can be used as a lens to interpret information, surprises and experience. Although the individual decisions will not look the same there is no need for conformity in behavior. As time passes, an orderly pattern will emerge.

We need to learn more about these sources of order as we failed to notice this capacity of life to self-organize. As we learn more about it our attention will shift away from the parts and focus on the deeper, embedded processes. As Bohm (1980) states "what is needed is an act of understanding in which we see the totality as an actual process that tends to bring about an orderly action in which analysis into parts has no meaning."

Closed systems tend to wear down and give off energy that can never be retrieved. This is a result of the workings of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In classical thermodynamics, equilibrium is the end state in the evolution of closed systems, the point at which the system has exhausted all of its capacity for change (Wheatley, 2009). Entropy is an inverse measure of a system's capacity for change. The more entropy there is the less the system is capable of changing. So, at equilibrum, the system can produce nothing more.

If the universe is a closed system, it must eventually reach equilibrium. As the scientist Peter Coveney states "it will become a place where entropy and randomness are at their greatest in which all life has died out." The most obvious exception to this law is life. Unlike closed systems such as machines, the universe engages with its environment and continues to grow and evolve. If we believe that the universe will decay we can't help but live in fear of change. In such a world, any change exhausts our store of valuable energy and leaves us empty (Wheatley, 2005). Keeping our balance is a means of defense against the eroding forces of nature. Yet, equilibrium is neither the goal nor the fate of living systems as they can continously import energy from the environment. They don't sit quietly by as their energy dissipates. On the contrary, they maintain a state of non-equilibrium so that the system can change and grow. They participate in an open exchange with their world using what is there for their own growth (Wheatley, 2007). Every organism in nature behaves in this way.

In order to develop the life-saving quality of adaptability, we need to open ourselves in many ways, especially in terms of seeking new and disturbing information. Rather than looking for information that might make us feel good we should be open to disturbances to avoid atrophy.

Without transcendence, life has no beauty. In order to live a full life, one should go beyond all boundaries. As the Sufi poet Rumi said, "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there."

Time-bound awareness occurs when the self is relinquished for the self-image which acts like a protective mask behind which we hide (Chopra, 2002). Time-bound awareness is burdened by guilt and sorrow which is rooted in fear and might cause entropy.

As Chopra states, the self is between our thoughts. Trusting that the right response would come to every situation as it occurs and not being fearful of the future creates a state of bliss. This might also be referred to as the state of intuition. Time-bound awareness is in the intellect; it calculates. On the contrary, timeless awareness is in the heart; it feels.

In Emerson's words "Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar."

The emotional complaints of our time we hear everyday include: emptiness, meaninglessnes, disillusionment about marriage, family and relationship, a loss of values, yearning for personal fulfillment and a hunger for spirituality. As Moore said "..without soul, whatever we find will be unsatisfying, for what we truly long for is the soul in each of these areas. Lacking that soulfulness we attempt to gather these alluring satisfactions to us in great masses thinking apparently that quantity will make up for lack of quality." (Moore, p. xii)

Godlas (2003), describes the intellect as providing people with the ability to see things as they are, to distinguish such attributes as truth and falsehood, beauty and ugliness. However in most humans the intellect is unable to function properly because it is veiled by the ego. If the intellect could go beyond forms to inward meaning, the intellect would discover God in all things. Or as Rumi puts it, "How many words the world contains! But all have one meaning. When you smash the jugs, the water is one" [p. 8 of The Sufi Path of Love].

As an individual's ego "thins out", the intellect becomes better at fulfilling its purpose. In most people, the ego dominates the intellect. However in those individuals who are making spiritual progress, the intellect begins to dominate the ego. When the veil of the ego is altogether eliminated, the human spirit is altogether sanctified. In Rumi's words: The partial intellect is a denier of Love, even if it pretends to know the mysteries. It is clever and knowledgeable, but not naughted -- as long as the angel is not naughted, it is a demon. [p. 223 of The Sufi Path of Love] (Godlas, 2003)

Rumi says:

If a man of intellect should enter, tell him the way is blocked, but if a lover should come, extend him a hundred welcomes! By the time intellect has deliberated and reflected, love has flown to the seventh heaven. (in Murad, 1999).

We have reached a turning point in our evolution as conscious human beings on this planet. Our technologies have allowed us to create civilizations unlike any known in recorded history.Yet, there is both an economic and environmental chaos.

Technologies of Outwardness—the tools we employ to comprehend nature are not balanced by technologies of Inwardness—the means the great Masters have devised through the millenia to understand, control, and enhance ourselves as conscious and self-conscious human beings. The outer forces by which we command nature are not rooted in the inner capacities we possess to define and express ourselves as free and balanced human beings.

Cultivating these inner capacities is invariably healthy and vivifying. What could be simpler than a philisopher's following remark:

“How strange that people desire the world, a place where the destiny of all things is death.”

There is a telling Proverb which speaks to us:

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not
Is a fool—shun him.

He who knows not, and knows that he knows not
Is a child—teach him.

He who knows, and knows not that he knows,
Is asleep—wake him.

He who knows, and knows that he knows,
Is a wise man—follow him.

So, without cultivating the technologies of inwardness, it would be meaningless to develop the technologies of outwardness. Only then can we begin to contribute to the greater good of the society and eventually the humanity.

Self-realization requires an awareness that has been described in many different ways by many different people. The mystics have spoken of it as the perception of the divinity and perfection of the world (Speck, 2009). It has also been referred to as cosmic consciousness or ‘being-cognition’ as described by Maslow.

Some people also prefer to call it as the perception of the miraculous. Miraculous refers not only to extraordinary phenomena but also to the commonplace as anything can evoke special awareness if close attention is paid to it (Speck, 2008). Once perception is disengaged from the domination of preconception and personal interest, it can experience the world as it is in itself. Perception of the miraculous requires only paying attention to the givens of life, i.e. to what is so ever-present that is usually taken for granted. The wonder of the world can be seen anywhere in the vast expanses of the cosmos.

We are part of the intimate interconnectedness of all the things. We are part of a finely balanced ecosystem in which interdependency and individuation go together hand-in-hand (Speck, 2008). We are all individuals belonging to a greater whole and being united in something beautiful beyond description. Perception of the miraculous is the essence of self-realization. It makes our highest experiences grow.

The experience of spiritual power brings joy. Really knowing what we are doing makes us experts in living. When we truly know what we are doing we are participating in the omniscience of God (Speck, 2009). With total awareness of the nature of a situation, our motives for acting upon it and of the results of our action our conscious self succeeds in coming into alignment with the mind of God.

Those who have attained this stage of spiritual growth demonstrate a joyful humility. Their unusual wisdom has its origin in their unconscious. They are aware of their connection to the rhizome and that their knowledge flows to them through the connection (Speck, 2006). They are also aware that this rhizome is all mankind's. They feel merely as a conduit of a far greater power. With this awareness of their connectedness they feel a diminution in thier sense of self.

On the other hand, the greater one's awareness the more difficult it is to take action. The greater our awareness the more data we must assimilate and integrate into our decision-making. The more we know the more complex, yet predictable decision-making becomes. Sometimes, we may be overwhelmed by the complexity of decision-making so that we may prefer to take no action which may be under some circumstances the best action. So, spiritual power is also the capacity to maintain one's ability to make decisions with greater awareness. Omniscience does not make decision-making easier; yet the more one feels sympathy for God the more one comes closer to God.

Those who evolve to higher level of awareness may find it difficult to share their understandings with other acquaintances in their circle. This kind of aloneness is shared by all travelling on the journey of spiritual growth. In the communion of growing consciousness there is enough joy to sustain us.

It may seem to many that giving up oneself represents a kind of cruelty on the part of fate that makes our existence a sort of bad joke. This attitude is especially true in present-day Western culture in which the self is held sacred. Yet, it is in giving up of self that human beings can find the lasting, solid joy of life.

The process of giving up the self is a gradual process which we get into by a series of fits and starts. One form of temporary giving up the self is the so called 'bracketing' (Peck, 2006) which is an absolute requirement for growth of the human spirit. Bracketing is the act of balancing the need for new knowledge by temporarily giving up one's self for the assimilation of new material. As Sam Keen describes in his book "To a Dancing God" one should go beyond the egocentric perception of the immediate experience. Mature awareness requires one to digest the prejudices that are part of the personal history. Awareness of what presents itself involves a double movement of silencing the familiar and welcoming the strange.

Each time we approach a strange person or event we tend to let our present needs, past experiences and expectations for the future determine what we will see. In Keen's words "In order to appreciate the uniqueness of any datum we should be aware of our preconceived ideas and emotional distortions to bracket them long enough to welcome strangeness and novelty into our perceptual world". This discipline or bracketing or silencing requires sohisticated self-knowledge and courageous honesty (Keen, 1996). Yet, without this discipline each present moment is only the repetition of something already seen or experienced. In order for genuine novelty to emerge we must undergo a decentralization of the ego (Keen, 1996).

As Peck (2006) claims, for all that is given up more is gained. Self-discipline is a self-enlarging process and to develop a better idea we must let die our old concepts and understandings. This lifetime is a series of simultaneous deaths and births. The further we travel on the journey of life the more births one will experience and the more joy and the more pain.

Once suffering is accepted it ceases to be a suffering. The ongoing practice of discipline leads to mastery and one evolves spiritually to a level of consciousness at which the pain of living is diminished. By virtue of this discipline, one becomes more competent at serving the world.

One of the greatest truths is that life is difficult. Once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted the fact that life is difficult no longer matters (Peck, 2006).

Instead of moaning about the enormity of problems and burdens we should try to fully see that life is a series of problems. Yet, these problems don't represent a unique kind of affliction that has somehow been visited upon us, our families or nation. It is the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit we encourage the human capacity to solve problems. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that human-beings learn. In Benjamin Franklin's words, "those things that hurt instruct." So, being wise means welcoming the pain of problems; problems call forth our wisdom.

According to Peck (2006), rather than trying to avoid the emotional suffering inherent in problems we should inculcate in ourselves the means of achieving spiritual and mental health. Given the necessity for suffering and the need to face problems, the main means of experiencing the pain of problems constructively are (Peck, 2006):

- Delaying gratification: This refers to the process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.

- Taking responsibility: We can't solve life's problems except by solving them. Only if we can say that this is our problem and it is up to us to solve the problem rather than seeing it as caused by others and social circumstances beyond our control we can deal with life's difficulties.

- Not escaping from reality: We must learn that adult life is a series of personal choices and decisions. To the extent that we don't accept this we may feel ourselves as victims.

- Dedication to truth: The more clearly we see the reality of the world the better we are to deal with the world. Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. Even if our maps are to be accurate we have to continually revise them. As the world itself is constantly changing the process of making revisions might be painful as well. Rather than defending an outmoded view of the world we should expend our energy in revising the map. Transference is the set of ways of perceiving and responding to the world developed in childhood which is no longer appropriately transferred into the adult environment.

- Openness to challenge: Life is a never-ending stringent self-examination. As we know the world through our relationship to it we must not only examine it but also examine the examiner. There must also be a willingness to be personally challenged as by only exposing our maps to challenge we can ensure that our maps are valid.

In a nutshell, to confront reality, we should develop a capacity for openness and truthfulness.

Being present in the moment does not mean acting without intention or flowing through life without any plans. Yet, we would do better to attend more carefully to the process by which we create our plans and intentions (Wheatley, 2008). We need to see these plans as processes that enable us to clarify our intent and strengthen its connections to new information. We need more attention to the processes we use to create our own lives. Healthy processes create better relationships among us and more clarity about who we are. In this way, we can create greater capacity to know what we to do. We wave together our lives as resilient and flexible as a spider's web.

As we learn to live and work in this process world, we are rewarded with other changes in our behavior. We might become more curious about differences, more open to life's surprises and more respectful of one another. We do become more patient and accepting. We also do become more willing to to move into the dance of life. Although this looked frantic from the outside and impossible to master we realize that life becomes eventually a good partner and its demands are not unreasonable. A great capacity for change lives in every one of us.

Intuition played at least once in our lives a dominant role. As Chopra said, the action of our subtle body accounts for sensations that seem completely new and powerful surging from an invisible region. To nurture intuiton, the following ways might be taken into account (Chopra, 2008):

- Trust what you feel over what you think

- Discount negative feelings like anger, resentment, greed, hatred, envy and selfishness as they never come from the subtle body; they mask it.

- Let your intuition be your guide, trust instinct, override your fears and apprehensions with trust.

- Don't trust blindly. Give your allegiance to the best outcome that you can truly see and desire. Following your dreams is a matter of trusting your subtle perception and where it wants to lead you.

- Learn to recognize the egoless state. It is easy, carefree, open, alert and attuned. Each time you notice yourself in a clear space tell yourself that this is how you wish to exist more and more.

Our subtle senses are closer to the source of intelligence. For example, while looking for a lost object all of a sudden we know with certainty where it is. Intuition connects our physical eyes with one's much sharper subtle eyes.