Chapter 38 - Mining Our Personal Bias for Solid Facts - Strength for the Journey
In the process of Intuitive decision-making, it becomes vital to identify all available 'data', both internal & external, and further, to understand where each inclination, opinion or 'fact' originates from. This is a step that can actually become harder the more it is practiced.
An average individual in modern society, prior to any corrective procedure, can more easily ascertain their impulsive motivations & leanings, as they typically stand in stark contrast to any sort of ethical or moral disposition. Once one begins to behave more in line with Divine Wisdom, the internal distortive aspect (lower self), in turn, becomes more deceptive in its expression & influences.
As one leaves the land of duality, things quite naturally begin to appear less black & white. In fact, there tend to be fewer overtly disastrous situations, as these sorts of things become obvious far before one enters their realms. While we may still choose to have chaotic events in our lives, they no longer seem to us to 'happen' of their own accord. In other words, we tend to then know why things go poorly, and are no longer surprised out of hand. This is due to an increased awareness on our part, not a change in any external factor(s).
Our internal biases, then, can morph from entirely unhelpful, and often self-sabotaging, ideas, into a veritable kaleidoscope of variously well-intentioned, but still primarily confusing series of thoughts. Concurrent with the internal realization of, and often reliability upon, one's internal process of sand-baggery, the inner center of our mortal framework begins to shift into a more positive position. If this happens, we can begin to feel lost again, if we are attempting to maintain the view that we are fixed characters. As usual, attachment is the problematic culprit involved here.
We must come to see our 'Center', our 'Observer', our Divine Spark, as our only True navigational guide, our lone Light in the darkness of our ignorance. How then are we to tell what this part is sharing with us? This is where our biases become useful again. No longer do they directly convey to us anything outright, but our awareness of them can bring us a measure of clarity in and of itself. Through seeing our leanings, we can then eliminate their influence on our further gathering of Truth (actual facts). Sometimes though, what we firmly feel to be opinions are, in reality, Intuitive communications from our Higher planes.
Not all unexplainable feelings are Intuition, but when we fully comprehend the reasonings behind our biases, a few may yet remain mysterious. We can ask ourselves a personal 'Why?', and if we cannot answer this question still, we can then ask ourselves 'Why?', now from a common welfare standpoint. These questions must be approached in a deep & intimately internal exploration, as no one else has (nor typically can have) access to the fullness of our experiences, thoughts or beliefs. What is 'obvious' to another about our situation may be an entirely inaccurate assessment, due to a natural insufficiency of available factual foundations. Sometimes it can be helpful to call upon another for advice, but is it better to inquire the results of their own inner searchings, than to seek for them to provide us a direct answer to our questions.
Another issue is an inadequate procedure of excluding seemingly related, but realistically extraneous factors. Attachments to certain personally fundamental concepts (Truly opinions, even if unrecognized as such), can cause us confusion as we attempt to reconcile their effects into our decision process, when they would be more wisely discarded. They're gumming up the works, really.
The 'learning' of 'lessons' is another closely-intertwined subject. Ultimately, the world and forces thereof, assisted by our own internal troublemaker (lower self), are constantly 'teaching' us 'lessons', namely that Love, Forgiveness, Kindness, Unity & Virtue are all terrible concepts, good for nothing in the 'real world'. One must, quite stubbornly at times, steadfastly refuse to learn these 'essential facts about the world'. They are Untrue, even when quite convincingly demonstrated. We can only stand firm in this Truth with the aid of an unshakable Faith, which is an 'unexplainable', 'miraculous' gift of Divine beneficence.
An instructive question is: "Which inclinations require a reasonable amount of Faith?" Reasonable being the operative keyword. Perfection is a coordinated, concerted effort between our bodies & the Divine Principle. We should never recklessly throw ourselves unnecessarily into hazardous circumstances, in an attempt to tempt Faith and/or Fate. Conversely, we need not assume that we move forward only on our own steam, without any sort of assistance. Faithfulness 'makes sense', but our vision of this may be clouded by material 'lessons'.
Up to this point, we have been speaking primarily of mental biases. Of course, any emotional interference could be Stoically bypassed. First, however, a comprehensive inventory of this specific flavor of inclinations must be acquired. In gaining this awareness, we become closer to the Intuitive factor previously discussed, as it will be less lost in emotional feelings. True Intuition is something we need not focus on developing, so much as we should discover & remedy our continually obstructive behaviors and proceedings. Getting out of our own way is paramount.