How To Cultivate Intuition and Know Truth

by Robert Wilkinson

It’s very human to feel that we don’t know, and will never know, with any degree of certainty, very much about this impermanent existence. However, while this is a common experience, in the words of the immortal song, “it ain’t necessarily so.”

As I told you, I’ve been tripping around the archives lately and found some articles that are still timely and relevant. I last gave this to you about 3 years ago, and have rewritten it to make some concepts clearer.

For your reconsideration, an article originally titled “Intuition, Heart, Mind, Desire, and Knowing How to Know With Certainty.”

Is it ever possible to know with certainty a) what to do, and b) who to do it with? Many potential and actual experiences arise from these questions, and our lives truly depend on our ability to know the right thing to do at the right time. That’s one gift that combining Astrology with our Spiritual practice gives us.

We all long for certainty, whether who to love and how to love them, which way to point our ship of destiny so we know we are on our path to genuine fulfillment, or which professions are ours to claim and master. How can we know with certainty if someone or something presenting itself is right for us, whether in business, pleasure, or lifework?

It is proverbial that throughout the years we are told to use our mind, but follow our hearts. What does this mean? What is the heart? How can we know what our heart is telling us?

The heart is the crystal at the core of our Being. It is the source of our life. The physical heart pumps the blood, which is the vehicle of our Life essence and our vitality. However, the Spiritual heart is the door to the Soul. If our eyes are the windows of our Soul, the heart shows us and the world what we love and what we are willing to commit to.

We know a Soul commitment when we see it and feel it. We do not say we are into something or someone "wholeheartedly" if we aren't, and it is obvious to us and others whether this is so or not. It is a knowing that is deeper than the evaluations and dualistic judgments of our minds that only lead us to uncertainty if we don’t also have the heart's commitment.

So why do our minds, when devoid of heart, lead us in circles of difficulty? How can we use our mind wisely in our attempt to find certainty? What is the nature of the mind?

Our mind has several components which when undisciplined are always in constant motion. It operates through sequence and selection, and while giving us valuable knowledge, also quite often leads us to errors due to its own ignorance and assumptions, as well as factors beyond the mind's ability to perceive ahead of time.

Some of this is because the mind only knows what it knows, and even when fed more information, as often as not comes to erroneous conclusions through associating things that aren't necessarily related. The mind is a house of mirrors, and we must learn how to perceive the correct images versus the false ones.

Another very powerful component of our mind that often leads us into problems with people and situations is the part we know as Kama Manas, or "desire mind." This is a very strong blend of impulse and raw emotion, and more powerful than our reason. That is why we can always reason out a desire. Our desires are also stronger than our intellect, which is why we may know something "intellectually," but will still follow our desires until we find ourselves in a proverbial ditch.

The mind will always wonder about things, since desire is so unstable. Also remember that desire grows each time it is fed, whether for more of the same or something “more, better, different.” The mind’s inherent restlessness ensures that it will always look for that which is both unfamiliar and familiar, since the mind desires variety but also familiarity.

It is in the nature of the mind to explore endless possibilities, and seek confirmation for what it knows, as well as what it thinks it wants to know. Because the mind wanders through many different sensations and desires, it never can achieve a complete satisfaction of knowing much about much. That’s why we sometimes feel lost while wondering about whatever catches our perception.

Of far greater importance than speculations, interpretations, and endless examination of mental constructs is our ability to listen to our hearts with intense concentration. That can lead us to a sense of what is, rather than wondering about anything. The desire mind is a very powerful thing, but it can be brought under the gentle, wise, and loving control of our heart expressing our Higher Self and/or Soul the best we're able.

So how can we do this so we can know with certainty whether someone or something is right for us? Again, we must learn to listen to a deeper, inner knowing. We cultivate learning how to recognize our heart's knowing through learning to listen to the "voice of the silence" within us and without us. It requires concentration and a degree of diligence, but once the pattern is created it becomes more natural over time.

This is why going deeply into silent spaces through any form of meditation can train us to recognize subtleties we never knew before, but will know forever after. If we would know deeply, we must we willing to go deeply into whatever we're trying to know.

The Heart-Soul wisdom is slow and steady compared with the desire mind's eternal restlessness. As we move through our unique learning process, we cultivate an ability to listen to the "straight-knowledge" of the heart using the mind and perceptions as useful guides. This requires patience and diligent attention to subtle and obvious lessons and choices.

The mind learns by being fed various experiences so it can get more information. The trick is not to get distracted by the information so that we forget to keep the heart as our guide, since mind without heart only leads to uncertainty. The mind is dual. The Heart is our core which is eternally at One with Source.

Learning to listen to the heart is a long term discipline, and the heart is a muscle which grows through exercise. That’s why we attract experiences that show us what our heart is and is not into as we move through our experiences of what love is and what it isn’t.

However, while the heart can grow in strength and clarity through challenging experiences, we also must learn it is equally important to value your heart enough to protect that which matters at the core of your being. Knowing our integrity often provides the clarity we need.

Sometimes we are put through heart exercises we’d rather not go through, but if we pay attention and show courage and determination we come out the other side stronger, more courageous, and clearer about what works and what doesn’t work. By our challenges, our willingness is tested, which generates the courage we all need to overcome the scourge of fear.

Which brings us back to the part the mind plays in all this. Even when we are totally focused in cultivating the intuition that allows us to know “the heart of the matter” accurately, and can reference the direct knowing of the heart, we still have a mind that is active all the time. That’s why even as we practice recognizing the “direct knowing” of the heart, we still sometimes we still experience uncertainty when dealing with difficult relationships and public activities.

I have found it’s useful to regard it as a process of learning how to learn. The more we learn, the more we quicken our evolution, which quickens our need to deal with old karmas, since at that point we are on our path to Self-realization. As we walk toward our greatest good, we learn how to know true friends, allies, partners, and ourselves.

Falling into error in our relationships and choices is only a problem if we don't learn from our minor mistakes and instead let them lead us to major problems. This is part of our training to pay attention, and use the mind wisely.

Our mind, if we train it to pay attention, can become a tool we can use to process needed information that the heart can use in its evaluation of what is and is not true about what confronts us. By knowing the heart's truth, we learn to recognize how to be, what to do, and who to be with.

Uncertainty is of the mind, impulse of the feelings, instinct of the body, but the Heart knows through its own intuitive accuracy. Intuition is “direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of reasoning processes.” It is direct and immediate apprehension of a thing.

This is a different “knowing” than hunches, feelings, instincts, or “psychic abilities.” Intuition is “straight knowledge,” and arises from the heart rather than the astral mechanism. That's why it's better to cultivate true intuition rather than other abilities based on instinct or feelings.

Psychic hunches are often unreliable, while true intuition is never wrong. Intuition uses mind to analyze what presents itself, and chooses to act or not act based in the heart's knowledge.

Inner tuition is a tool that when fully functioning, never leads us to error and always leads us to be Lovingly Wise and Wisely Loving. As a bonus, since it is a quality of our heart expression, we also experience a deeper compassion, or "fellow feeling" toward others as well as our own process.

Eventually the uncertainty we previously experienced fades into an ability to tap a deep inner knowing. This leads to contentment with one's Higher Destiny in whatever unique form it takes. Then we'll know what to do and who to do it with.

© Copyright 2015 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Chickie]

Your Highness....I've had at least one psycho-syncho per day for a week....NUTS!!! My broom is fuel injected WOW!!

[sue]

Dear Robert,
To be blessed with the meeting of minds such is this epic journey you include all your readers to travel... on and in many dimensions...
... even when that 'knowing' isn't kosher...it would still make a brilliant movie!
fiction and fact all fuzzy round the edges...

[Nic]

Brilliant! A great synthesis of deep teachings.
From my experience I know that the mind can see, while the heart listens. How important is silence then so we can understand what we have seen.
Blessings be to all

[Ann]

Thank you Robert - your timing in sharing what is needed in the community is spot on as always.

[Barbara Barrell]

12/27/15
Hard, hard lessons for this Pisces heart, Robert. I appreciate the lesson(s), however! - Over and over again as is needed (which is often)! 😊 Thank you very much.
😝💗
Barbara
Natal/Birth loc: 93W14, 38n42; 03:56 02/26/57