The Light of Understanding

Ignorance is bondage and understanding is freedom. Understanding and consciousness are inextricably tied - the higher our consciousness, the higher our understanding. True understanding has nothing in common with intellectual satisfaction or the accumulation of knowledge and concepts. It is a direct experience-perception of reality - it is being understanding. In pure understanding, that which is comprehended reveals its meaning in the luminous mirror of consciousness, where there is no one who understands, understanding just is.

The Purpose of Understanding

Although it has many functions, understanding is a light unto itself. More than a means to attain spiritual states, it is their very essence. Understanding not only brings us to our inner realizations, it saturates them with pure knowing. When our intelligence merges with a realization, understanding actually embodies the significance of that which has been realized.

Understanding is the nature of reality. There is no difference between being and knowing, no difference between understanding and love. Understanding pervades all aspects of existence - life is understanding. Like the light of the sun that makes the earth visible for no other purpose than to express its true nature, understanding illuminates the reality of creation.

The Art of Learning

Life is a never-ending learning process of self-discovery and evolution. Those who resist learning not only stop growing, but are bound to regress. Understanding is the essence of life, and like life itself, must continuously move forward. The art of learning is the art of living. In order to master it, we have to be truly awake, sensitive and highly intelligent in our encounter with our lives.

We must not take our lives for granted, leading a dull and lethargic existence. To grow in our understanding we must be open to learn. There are questions to be asked and answers to be discovered. We must enquire into the nature of our existence and seek the true explanation of its meaning and purpose. We must awaken from the amnesia of the collective mind and recognize the central problem of human existence, our forgetfulness. We are not who we think we are and life is not what it appears to be. A shroud of ignorance smothers our perception of reality as it is. To awaken from our unconscious condition and unravel the hidden truth of our creation is our ultimate reason to be.

Evolution in Time

Intelligence evolves through time. At the beginning of time, a seed of intelligence was planted in our soul so we might grow towards our ultimate destiny and reach the optimal understanding reflected in our blueprint. Before becoming one with the inner realm, intelligence uses linear time as its vehicle. After shifting to the transcendental realm, intelligence enters 'real time'. Though often considered timeless, it is not true that there is no time in the dimension of universal I am. As long as consciousness and creation are present, so is time.

Real time is the time of universal consciousness. It is not based on a linear progression from past to future, but on pure evolution; it is the movement of intelligence within the motionlessness of the timeless. On the earth plane, time comes first and evolution follows, whereas in real time, evolution comes first and time follows. In this dimension, consciousness is ruled by time; in reality, consciousness rules time.

Universal evolution occurs ahead of time, on the other side of the now. In linear time, we recognize an experience because it has already happened in the past; consciousness refers to the past in order to register experience. In real time, we recognize an experience because it has already happened in the future; the one who knows the experience is ahead of the one who recognizes it. It is the position of the experiencer that determines the quality of time. If he is bound by the past, his experience of time is linear. If he abides in the now of reality, he is one with the universal flow of real time - his being precedes his becoming.

Time is the space of cognition between the recognizing consciousness and the recognized reality. If this space is absent, so are the recognition and sense of time. In linear time, the experiencer recognizes reality by referring to his last identifiable experience; he cannot experience the present. What he perceives as occurring in the present has in fact already happened in the immediate past. Only in real time is the experience truly of the present - it is instantaneous. Here, consciousness is one with the arising of each now, for the experiencer is merged with its timeless source.

Recognition in real time is a function of both the soul's being and intelligence. Since she is merged with the pure consciousness of reality, her total awareness of the now precedes the secondary recognition of that now within her intelligence. First she knows, then she recognizes. Her intelligence is non-abiding; it exists apart from the linear continuity of becoming in a state of constant surrender to the vertical reality. In real time, the experiencer is reabsorbed into the state of absence in each now, dissolved in every instant of recognition. He cannot distance himself from experience. He is one with it - one with reality.

Our evolution in this dimension depends upon the evolution taking place in real time; how fast consciousness evolves within universal I am impacts our linear time. As long as we are separated from the source, our consciousness is bound by the extremely low velocity of earthly time, but the more we merge with real time, the faster our evolutionary movement becomes.

The Evolution of Understanding

In the dimension of forgetfulness, the evolution of understanding is slow and materialistic in nature, predominantly oriented towards serving our survival instinct and the desire to improve our worldly existence. It is only by connecting to the higher purpose of our intelligence that our understanding can evolve towards our ultimate destiny­ ­- spiritual awakening.

The evolution of understanding unfolds over the course of many lifetimes. Even for a seeker on the path, it is most often not based on a positive movement towards truth, but on a search for relief from unconscious living. In the state of deep unconsciousness, the highest attainment is the recognition of the unreal and dissatisfactory nature of the un-awakened reality. At this stage one can finally begin to open up to the spiritual quest.

Our understanding accelerates exponentially as we move beyond the dimension of ignorance. The more we understand, the more easily we can expand into further understanding. As we become increasingly free of ignorance, we move closer to universal evolution, and our understanding gradually transcends the boundaries of our human consciousness.

Individual and Collective Understanding

Our evolution on earth has both collective and individual aspects. It is our individual evolution that places us above all other species. In pre-human forms of life, evolution is exclusively collective, but the progress of humanity has always been fuelled by the creativity of individual minds. Ironically, however, the individuals who introduce new and revolutionary ideas to human consciousness inevitably struggle for freedom from the collective mind, for the herd mentality of mass-consciousness always seeks to restrict the freedom of subjective perception. True evolution can only take place independent of the collective mind. The deepest creativity of intelligence has its source in the realm of I am and by nature expresses itself through individual souls.

Because the vision of spirituality is a part of the collective mind, its message is inevitably tailored to reach the masses. Organized religion, though widely accepted, cannot bring transformation to the individual, because its message has to accommodate the unconsciousness of its audience. It opens the human mentally to the divine, but at the same time, locks it into a system of belief that is merely a sentimental substitute for real experience. 'New age' spirituality addresses a more sensitive group, but suffers the same limitation, because its popularity depends on the shallow level of the spiritual truth it presents. It positively affects humanity by opening it to the reality of subtler realms and alternative modes of transformation and healing, but it fails to point to the heart of awakening. Pure subjectivity is a dimension of existence totally incomprehensible to the collective consciousness.

The suggestion of spiritual illumination based on I am threatens the status quo of the collective unconscious. Humanity as a whole is afraid of confronting its own fundamental emptiness, the absence of sacred individuality. The invitation to awaken can only be extended to individuals who are sufficiently mature and conscious. For this reason, spiritual teachers of a higher order have never addressed humanity en masse, only individual seekers. Those who attempt to impact the collective mind by preaching spirituality and morality, or by commercializing the spiritual path, cannot bring true awakening, because they themselves are part of that mind.

Complete Understanding

Complete understanding does indeed exist, but not in the sense of knowing everything or having all the answers. Not all souls are destined to reach the same understanding of reality; each has a particular flavor of evolution and a unique vision of wholeness. The final understanding of each soul is reflected in the very nature of her completion through which she reaches the limits of her expansion within the realm of the known.

Upon completion, the soul can finally drop understanding. Her need to understand has exhausted itself, and she can rest on all levels. Understanding continues to evolve within her intelligence as a function of real time, but it is no longer based on any inner deficiency or personal will to learn, but on the impersonal expansion of universal intelligence. The soul finally graduates from the dimension of understanding and returns to the original state of not-knowing. This is complete understanding.