Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic
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Intuition deals with the difference between the intellectual, logical mind and the more encompassing realm of spirit. Logic is how the mind knows reality, intuition is how the spirit experiences reality. Osho’s discussion of these matters is wonderfully lucid, occasionally funny, and thoroughly engrossing.
All people have a natural capacity for intuition, but often social conditioning and formal education work against it. People are taught to ignore their instincts rather than to understand and use them as a foundation for individual growth and development—and in the process they undermine the very roots of the innate wisdom that is meant to flower into intuition.
In this volume, Osho pinpoints exactly what intuition is and gives guidelines for how to identify its functioning in others and ourselves. You will learn to distinguish between genuine intuitive insight and the “wishful thinking” that can often lead to mistaken choices and unwanted consequences. Includes many specific exercises and meditations designed to nourish and support each individual’s natural intuitive gifts.
Osho challenges readers to examine and break free of the conditioned belief systems and prejudices that limit their capacity to enjoy life in all its richness. He has been described by the Sunday Times of London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day (India) as one of the ten people—along with Gandhi, Nehru, and Buddha—who have changed the destiny of India. Since his death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world.
ISBN-13: 9780312275679
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication Date: 12-14-2001
Pages: 208
Product Dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.35(h) x 0.50(d)
Series: Osho Insights for a New Way of Living
Osho is one of the most provocative and inspiring spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. Known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, the influence of his teachings continues to grow, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world. He is the author of many books, including Love, Freedom, Aloneness; The Book of Secrets, and Innocence, Knowledge, and Wonder.
Read an Excerpt
Intuition
Knowing Beyond Logic
By Osho St. Martin's Griffin
Copyright © 2001 Osho
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312275679
Intuition
MAPSWhen the body functions spontaneously, that is called instinct. When the soul functions spontaneously, that is called intuition. They are alike and yet far away from each other. Instinct is of the body--the gross; and intuition is of the soul--the subtle. And between the two is the mind, the expert, which never functions spontaneously. Mind means knowledge. Knowledge can never be spontaneous. Instinct is deeper than intellect and intuition is higher than intellect. Both are beyond the intellect, and both are good.HEAD, HEART, AND BEINGYour individuality can be divided--just for the purpose of understanding it; otherwise there is no division. It is one single unity, whole: the head, the heart, and the being.Intellect is the functioning of the head, instinct is the functioning of your body, and intuition is the functioning of your heart. And behind these three is your being, whose only quality is witnessing.The head only thinks; hence it never comes to any conclusion. It is verbal, linguistic, logical, but because it has no roots in reality, thousands of years of philosophical thinking have not given us a single conclusion. Philosophy has been the greatest exercise in futility Intellect is very clever in creating questions and then creating answers, and then out of those answers, more questions and more answers. It can make palaces of words, systems of theories, but they are all just hot air.The body cannot rely on your intellect, because the body has to live. That's why all essential functions of the body are in the hands of instinct--for example, breathing, heartbeat, digestion of your food, circulation of the blood. A thousand and one processes are going on inside your body in which you have no part at all. And it is good that nature has given body its own wisdom. Otherwise, if your intellect were to take care of the body, life would have been impossible! Because sometimes you may forget to breathe--at least in the night, how will you breathe while you are asleep? You are already so confused just with thoughts; in this confusion, who will take care about the blood circulation, whether the right amount of oxygen is reaching your cells or not? Whether the food that you are eating is being analyzed into its basic constituents, and those basic constituents are sent where they are needed? And this whole, tremendous amount of work is done by instinct. You are not needed. You can remain in a coma; still the body will continue to work.Nature has given all essential functions of your body to instinct, and it has left all that makes your life meaningful ... because just to exist, just to survive, has no meaning. To give meaning to your life, existence has given intuition to your heart. Out of your intuition arises the possibility of art, of aesthetics, of love, of friendship--all kinds of creativity are intuitive.Intellect has its use, but by some misfortune it has become the master of your whole being. That has created immense troubles in the world.But the marketplace does not need your intuition. It does not deal in love, in your sensibilities; it deals with solid and mundane things. For that, your intellect--which is the most superficial part--functions. Intellect is for the mundane life with others in the marketplace, in the world, to make you capable of functioning. It is mathematics, it is geography, it is history, it is chemistry--all science and all technology are created by your intellect. Your logic and your geometry are useful--but the intellect is blind. It simply goes on creating things, but it does not know whether they are being used for destruction or for creation. A nuclear war will be a war created by intellect.Intellect has its use, but by some misfortune it has become the master of your whole being. That has created immense troubles in the world.The master is hidden behind these three: the body, the mind, the heart. The master is hidden behind all these three--that is your being. But you never go inward; all your roads go outward,all your senses go outward. All your achievements are out there in the world.Intellect is useful in the world, and all your educational systems are techniques to avoid the heart and take your energy directly to your head. The heart can create troubles for the head--the heart knows nothing of logic. The heart has a totally different center of functioning, and that is intuition. It knows love, but love is not a commodity of any use in the world. It knows beauty, but what are you going to do with beauty in the marketplace?Nobody wants his or her children to become musicians or painters or dancers. Everybody wants them to be doctors, engineers, scientists, because those professions pay.The people of the heart--the painters, the poets, the musicians, the dancers, the actors--are all irrational. They create great beauty, they are great lovers, but they are absolutely unfit in a society that is arranged by the head. Your artists are thought by your society to be almost outcast, a little bit crazy, an insane type of people. Nobody wants his or her children to become musicians or painters or dancers. Everybody wants them to be doctors, engineers, scientists, because those professions pay. Painting, poetry, dance, are dangerous, risky--you may end up just a beggar on the street, playing on your flute.The heart has been denied--and by the way, it will be useful to remember that the denial of the heart has been the denial of the woman. And unless the heart is accepted, the woman cannotbe accepted. Unless the heart has the same opportunity to grow as the head, the woman cannot have liberation. The woman is heart and the man is head. The distinction is clear.Instinct, nature has taken in its own hands. And whenever you interfere with instinct, you create perversions. All the religions have been doing that; every religion has been interfering with the body--and the body is absolutely innocent, it has never done anything wrong. If you accept the body in its absolute naturalness, it will help you tremendously. It will help your heart, nourish your heart. It will help your intelligence to become sharper, because the nourishment for the intellect comes from the body, nourishment to the heart comes from the body. And if your head, your heart, and your body are all in a symphony, then to find your being is the easiest thing in the world. But because they are in conflict, your whole life goes on being wasted in that conflict, conflict between instinct and intellect and intuition.I am not against anything. I am only against disharmony, and because your head is creating the most inharmonious situation, I want your head to be put in its right place. It is a servant, not a master.A wise person creates a harmony between the head, the heart, and the body. In this harmony comes the revelation of the source of one's life, the very center, the soul. And that is the greatest ecstasy possible--not only to human beings but in this whole universe, nothing more is possible.I am not against anything. I am only against disharmony, and because your head is creating the most inharmonious situation, I want your head to be put in its right place. It is a servant, not a master. As a servant it is great, helpful.A Dublin milkman has just finished his delivery, so he parks his horse and cart outside the pub and goes in for a drink. Refreshed after an hour, he comes out to find his horse painted bright green. Angry, he strides back into the pub and demands, "Which of you just painted my horse green?"A seven-foot Irish giant stands up and, towering over him, says, "I did. Want to do something about it?"The milkman gives a sickly grin and says, "I just came in to tell you, the first coat is dry!"Intellect is helpful! In some situations you will be in need of intellect--but only as a servant, not as a master.PAST PRESENT, AND FUTUREYou have a past and you have a present and you have a future. Instinct is what belongs to your animal past. It is very old, solid; it is the inheritance of millions of years. And when I say it is animal-like, I am not condemning it. With the word animal the priests of all religions have associated some condemnation--but I am simply stating a fact, with no condemnation at all. Our past was an animal past. We have passed through all kinds of animals; our evolutionhas been from fish up to man, passing through all the species of animals. It has been a long, long journey to arrive at mankind.Intellect is human. It is our present. That's how we function, through intellect. All our sciences, all our businesses, all our professions, whatever is going on in the world--our politics, our religion, our philosophy--they are all based on intellect. Intellect is human.Instinct is almost infallible because it is so old, so ripe, so mature. Your eyes are blinking--are you doing it? They go on doing it by themselves--this is instinct. Your heart is beating, your breathing is going in and out; it is not up to your intellect to look after all these essential things of life. They are in the hands of instinct because instinct is absolutely infallible. It never forgets to breathe, it never forgets anything.Your heart is beating, your breathing is going in and out--all these essential things of life are in the hands of instinct because instinct is absolutely infallible. It never forgets anything.The intellect is fallible because it is new, a recent arrival. It is just groping in the dark, still trying to find out what it is and where it belongs. And because it does not have roots in experience, it substitutes experience with beliefs, philosophies, ideologies. They become the focus of intellect. But they are all fallible because they are all man-made, manufactured by some clever guy. And they are not applicable in every situation. They may be right in one situation, and in another situation they may not be right. But intellect is blind, it knows not how to deal with the new. It always brings the old answer to the new question.Intellect is blind, it knows not how to deal with the new. It always brings the old answer to the new question.Paddy and Sean are sitting opposite the local whorehouse in Dublin, discussing the virtues of the Catholic faith. Suddenly, Gideon Greenberg, the local rabbi, approaches the whorehouse door, looks left and right, then hurries up the stairs."Did you see that?" roars Paddy. "I'm glad I am a Catholic."Ten minutes later, the Anglican priest approaches the door, looks around quickly, then dashes up the stairs."Another hypocrite," says Paddy, laughing. "Thank God I am a Catholic."A few minutes later Sean nudges Paddy and says, "Hey, man, look! There is Father O'Murphy coming this way."The two men watch in stunned silence as the Catholic priest disappears up the stairs into the whorehouse. Suddenly Paddy jumps to his feet, crosses himself, and shouts at Sean, "Where is your respect? Stand up and take off your hat! There must be a death in the house!"Intellect lives through prejudices; it is never fair. By its very nature it cannot be, because it has no experience. Instinct is alwaysfair and shows you exactly the natural way, the relaxed way, and the way that the universe follows. But strangely, instinct has been condemned by all religions, and intellect has been praised.Of course, if everybody follows instinct, there is no need of any religion, no need of any God, no need of any priest. Animals don't need God and they are perfectly happy--I don't see that they are missing God. Not a single animal, not a single bird, not a single tree, is missing God. They are all enjoying life in its utter beauty and simplicity with no fear of hell and no greed for heaven, no philosophical differences. There are no Catholic lions, there are no Protestant or Hindu lions.The whole existence must be laughing at man, at what has happened to human beings. If birds can live without religions and churches and mosques and temples, why can't man? The birds never fight religious wars; neither do the animals nor the trees. But you are a Mohammedan and I am a Hindu and we cannot coexist--either you have to become converted to my religion or be ready; I will send you to heaven immediately!If instinct is praised, these religions lose any rationale, any reason to exist, so they praise intellect.And the third thing, which is your future, is intuition. So these three words have to be understood.Instinct is physical--your past, based on the experience of millions of years, infallible, never commits any mistake and does miracles in you of which you are not even aware. How does your food become blood? How does your breathing go on functioning even when you are asleep? How does your body separate the oxygen from nitrogen? How does your instinctive world of nature go on giving to every part of your body what it needs? Howmuch oxygen is needed in your head for the mind to function? The exact amount is sent through blood running all around the body, distributing fresh oxygen, taking out the old, used, dead cells, replacing them with new ones and taking them back to places from where they can be disposed of.The scientists say that what instinct does for man, we are not yet capable of doing. And in a small body the instinct does so many miracles. If someday science wanted to do the work of a single human body, it would need at least one square mile of factory for a single human being. Tremendous machinery! And still it will not be infallible; machinery can break, can stop, the electricity can go off. But for seventy years continuously, or even one hundred years for a few people, the instinct goes on functioning perfectly well. The electricity never goes off. Not a single mistake is committed; everything goes according to plan, and the plan is in every cell of your body. The day we can read the code of the human cells, we will be able to predict everything about a child even before he is born, even before he is in the mother's womb. The cells of the parents have a program, and in that program your age, your health, what kind of diseases you will have, your genius, your intelligence, your talents, your whole destiny is contained.Like instinct, at the other polarity of your being--beyond the mind, which is the world of intellect--is the world of intuition.Intuition opens its doors through meditation. Meditation is simply a knocking on the doors of intuition. Intuition is also completely ready. It does not grow; you have inherited that too from existence. Intuition is your consciousness, your being.Intellect is your mind. Instinct is your body. And just as instinctfunctions perfectly on behalf of the body, intuition functions perfectly as far as your consciousness is concerned. Intellect is just between these two--a passage to be passed, a bridge to be crossed. But there are many people, many millions of people, who never cross the bridge. They simply sit on the bridge thinking they have arrived home.The home is on the farther shore, beyond the bridge. The bridge joins instinct and intuition. But it all depends on you. You may start making a house on the bridge--then you have gone astray.Intellect is not going to be your home. It is a small instrument, to be used only for passing from instinct to intuition. So only the person who uses his intellect to go beyond it can be called intelligent.Intuition is existential. Instinct is natural. Intellect is just groping in the dark. The faster you move beyond intellect, the better; intellect can be a barrier to those who think nothing is beyond it. Intellect can be a beautiful passage for those who understand that there is certainly something beyond it.Science has stopped at intellect--that's why it cannot figure out anything about consciousness. The intellect without your intuition awake is one of the most dangerous things in the world.Science has stopped at intellect--that's why it cannot figure out anything about consciousness. The intellect without your intuition awake is one of the most dangerous things in the world. And we are living under the dangers of intellect because intellecthas given science immense power. But the power is in the hands of children, not in the hands of wise people.Intuition makes a man wise--call it enlightenment, call it awakening; those are simply different names for wisdom. Only in the hands of wisdom can intellect be used as a beautiful servant.And instinct and intuition function together perfectly well--one on the physical level, another on the spiritual level. The whole problem of humanity is getting stuck in the middle, in the mind, in the intellect. Then you will have misery and you will have anxiety and you will have agony and you will have meaninglessness and you will have all kinds of tensions without any solution anywhere to be seen.Intellect makes everything a problem and knows no solution at all. Instinct never creates any problem and does not need any solution; it simply functions naturally. Intuition is pure solution, it has no problems. Intellect is only problems, it has no solution.If you rightly see the division, it is simple to understand: unless instinct is available, you will be dead. And unless intuition is available, your life has no meaning--you just drag on. It is a kind of vegetation.Intuition brings meaning, splendor, joy, blessings. Intuition gives you the secrets of existence, brings a tremendous silence, serenity, which cannot be disturbed and which cannot be taken away from you.With instinct and intuition functioning together, you can also use your intellect for right purposes. Otherwise you have only means but no ends. Intellect has no idea of any ends. This has created today's situation in the world--science goes on producing things but it does not know why. Politicians go on using thosethings not knowing that they are destructive, that they are preparing for a global suicide. The world needs a tremendous rebellion that can take it beyond intellect into the silences of intuition.The very word intuition has to be understood. You know the word tuition--tuition comes from outside, somebody teaches you, the tutor. Intuition means something that arises within your being; it is your potential, that's why it is called intuition. Wisdom is never borrowed, and that which is borrowed is never wisdom. Unless you have your own wisdom, your own vision, your own clarity, your own eyes to see, you will not be able to understand the mystery of existence.With instinct and intuition functioning. together; you can use your intellect for right purposes. Otherwise you have only means but no ends.As far as I am concerned, I am in absolute favor of instinct. Don't disturb it.Every religion has been teaching you to disturb it--what is fasting but disturbing your instinct? Your body is hungry and asking for food, and you are starving it for spiritual reasons. A strange kind of spirituality has been possessing your being. It should be called simply stupidity, not spirituality. Your instinct is asking for water, it is thirsty; your body needs it. But your religions ... Jainism does not allow anybody even to drink water in the night. Now as far as the body is concerned, it may feel thirsty, particularly in summer in a hot country like India--and Jainas exist only in India. In my childhood, I used to feel guilty because I had to stealwater in the night. I could not sleep without drinking at least once a night in hot summers, but I used to feel that I was doing something that should not be done, that I was committing a sin. Strange and stupid ideas are being forced on people.I am in favor of the instinct. And this is one of the secrets I want to reveal to you: if you are in total favor of instinct, it will be easy to find the way toward intuition. Because they are both the same, even though functioning on different levels--one functions on the material level, another functions on the spiritual level. To accept your instinctive life with absolute joy, without any guilt, will help you to open the doors of intuition--because they are not different, just their planes are different. And just as instinct functions beautifully, silently, without any noise, so does intuition function--and even more silently, far more beautifully.Intellect is a disturbance. But it depends on us whether we make it a disturbance or use it as a stepping-stone. When you come across a stone in the street, you can either think of it as a hindrance or use it as a stepping-stone to a higher plane. Those who really understand use intellect as a stepping-stone. But the masses are under the control of religions that teach them, "Use your intellect as a repressive force for instinct." People get involved in fighting with instinct and forget all about intuition. Their whole energy becomes involved in fighting with their own life force. And when you are continuously fighting with your instinct ...To accept your instinctive life wit absolute joy, without any guilt, will help you to open the doors of intuition--because they are not different, just their planes are different.A Jaina monk is supposed to remain naked all the year round, even in the winter months, even in the cold night. He cannot use a mattress, he cannot use a blanket, he cannot use anything to cover his body, day or night. He has to fast. The longer he fasts, the greater a saint he becomes in the eyes of the same kind of conditioned people--thirty days, forty days ... . This is fighting against the body. This is conquering the body and the material, this is spirit conquering the body. It is the same situation in all the religions, with different superstitions. They turn the energy of your intellect against your instinct, and that spoils all possibilities of opening the flower of your intuition.Intuition is the mystic rose that will lead you to the ultimate ecstasy and to immortal life. But people seem to be absolutely in the hands of the dead past. Whatever the old scriptures have told them, they go on doing it, without ever considering the whole science of man.These three are the layers of the whole science of man. Instinct should be allowed a relaxed flow. Never disturb it with the intellect for any reason. And intellect should be used as an opening for intuition. It has just to give way for intuition to take over your life. Then your life is a life of immense light, of luminosity. It becomes a constant festival.THREE RUNGS OF A LADDERIntuition is the highest rung of the ladder, the ladder of consciousness. It can be divided into three divisions: the lowest and the first is instinct; the second, the middle one, is intellect; and the third, the highest one, is intuition.The word in is used in all three words. It is significant. It means these are qualities inborn. You cannot learn them, there is no way to grow them with any outside help.Instinct is the world of the animals--everything is instinct. Even if sometimes you see indications of other things, it is your projection. For example, you can see love in animals--the mother looking after her kids lovingly, caringly--and you can think that it is not just instinct, it is something higher, not just biological. But it is not higher, it is simply biological. The mother is doing it like a robot in the hands of nature. She is helpless--she has to do it.In many animals the father has no instinctive fatherliness; on the contrary, many will kill their own kids and eat them. For example, in crocodiles, the life of the kids is in immense danger. The mother is protective and fights for the kids' lives, but the father just wants to have a good breakfast! The father has no instinct to be fatherly; in fact the father is a human institution. The mother crocodile has to keep the kids in her mouth to protect them from the father. She has a big mouth--all women have big mouths--she can manage to keep almost a dozen kids in her mouth. In the mother's mouth, just beside her dangerous teeth, the kids are perfectly safe. The more difficult thing is for the kids to figure out who is the mother and who is the father, becausethey both look alike. And sometimes the kids go close to the father, go into his mouth, and are gone forever; then they will never see the light again.But the mother tries to fight, to protect. Perhaps that's why nature gives crocodile children in such abundance: the mother has one dozen each time, each year. If she can manage to save even two, that keeps the population exactly the same, but she manages to protect almost half of the kids.Anybody watching will feel that the father is really cruel, has no compassion, no love, and that the mother is really motherly. But you are just projecting your ideas. The mother is protecting not for any conscious reason; it is in her hormones to protect them, and the father has nothing to do with those hormones. If he is injected with the same hormones, then he will stop killing his own kids. So it is a question of chemistry, not of psychology or of anything higher than biochemistry.Ninety percent of man's life is still part of the animal world. We live by instinct.You fall in love with a woman, or a woman falls in love with you, and you think it is something great. It is nothing great, it is simple instinctive infatuation: it is hormones being attracted by the opposite hormones. You are just a plaything in the hands of nature. No animal bothers about the delicacies and subtleties of love, but man feels that to be just instinctive is insulting, humiliating. Your love is just biochemistry? Your love is poetry, your love is art, your love is philosophy--but biochemistry? It seems as if you are ashamed of your biology, of your chemistry, of your nature.But this is not the way of understanding. You have to understand exactly what is what. Distinctions have to be clear, otherwiseyou will remain always confused. Your ego will go on making you project as high as possible things that have nothing to do with anything higher than the lowest stratum.If the romantic idea of love were taker I away, then I don't think any man or woman would be able to stand sex and its absurdity. It would look so stupid.Your love is just an illusion created by your chemistry. Just think: if the romantic idea of love were taken away, then I don't think any man or woman would be able to stand sex and its absurdity. It would look so stupid. Just take away the romantic idea and think in straight terms of biology and chemistry; then your sex will make you feel ashamed. There is nothing in it to brag about. Just imagine yourself making love to a man or a woman with no romance, with no poetry, no Omar Khayyam, no Shelley, no Byron--just as a reproduction process because nature wants to procreate through you, because nature knows you are going to die. You are not permanent; before you die, nature wants life to continue. But man cannot go into sex unless he has something romantic about it, so he has created great smoke around sex, which he calls love. He pretends, even believes that it is love--but watch more carefully.You are interested in a man or a woman. The natural instinct in a woman is to play hide-and-seek. It is strange that in all the cultures, all over the world, the small kids play two games without fail. Their religions are different, their cultures are different, their races are different, their societies, their languages--everything isdifferent--but as far as these two games are concerned, whether they are born in Africa or China or America or India, it makes no difference. One is the game of hide-and-seek. It is strange why, all over the world, not a single culture has existed where children have not played the game of hide-and-seek. It seems to be something to do with instinct, as if they are preparing for some bigger game of hide-and-seek. This is just a rehearsal, and then for the whole of life the game is continued.The woman is always the one who tries to hide, and the man is always the macho who seeks. It is a challenge for him to seek--the more the woman hides, the more he is challenged and excited.But all children, all over the world, play the game of hide-and-seek. Nobody teaches them, so how did it become universal? It must be coming out from their inner nature--some urge to seek, to find, some challenge.These things happen naturally--nobody decides these things, they are part of your biological nature. But nature has been wise enough to give you the delusion of love; otherwise, just for reproduction purposes, for life to continue, you are not going to do all those exercises and eighty-four sex postures that Vatsyayana prescribes--strange, ugly, stupid. If you take love away, then bare sex looks really animal-like. That is one of the problems that humanity has been troubled by all along, and is still troubled by. One can only hope that in the