Intuitive Decision Making
Daily meditation practice
increases reliable access to the superconscious mind
by Leonard and Jenness Perlmutter
Imagine if every choice you made were perfect. Sound too good to be true? Not if you you're a meditator.
A daily meditation practice can teach you how to access an unerring library of intuitive wisdom. If put into action, this knowledge will positively impact every single relationship you have. Regardless of the circumstance in which you find yourself, the skills you learn in meditation can help you embrace the most beneficial thought, speak the most beneficial word and act in the most beneficial manner.
Each of us is faced with the responsibility of making thousands of choices every day. While some are more difficult than others, they all share one thing in common. Every action we choose results in a consequence that will either lead us closer to the health, happiness and nurturing relationships we seek or will postpone that prospect. In yoga science this universal truth is known as the law of karma.
In order to be free of painful consequences and to fulfill life's true purpose, the ancient sages experimented with their decision making process. Utilizing the law of cause and effect, they began to test this premise: if thoughts, words and actions were based exclusively on intuitive wisdom, human beings would feel better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Through the experience of daily meditation these sages first learned that the conscious mind could reliably access intuitive wisdom. They discovered that the portion of the individual mind we moderns call conscience (buddhi in yoga science), is actually a mirror-like function that has the capacity to reflect intuitive wisdom from the superconscious mind into the conscious mind. When the conscience quietly presented a suggestion, ancient meditators knew intuitively that it would be in their best interest to act on that knowledge. Then, for the sake of science and the experimentation process, they disciplined their normal habit patterns so that their conscious choices were based exclusively on their superconscious wisdom.
The results were profound. Through their daily inward attention (meditation) the ancient sages concluded that superconscious intuitive wisdom is continuously available--twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and three hundred sixty-five days of the year. To experience its beneficial effects, however, requires the willpower and courage to challenge the enslaving force of habit.
Today, we can experience the same truth through our own meditation practice. The superconscious mind is not a figment of some fanciful imagination. It is the same aspect of the universal mind that directs the monarch butterfly--with a brain smaller than a pinhead--safely on its journey from New York to Mexico. By accessing the superconscious mind Albert Einstein saw mathematical equations and Paul McCartney hears beautiful melodies. In daily life, whenever your thoughts, words and actions serve your own intuitive wisdom, the doorway to the superconscious mind swings wide open. This doesn't mean that you'll become a great mathematician like Einstein or a talented musician like Paul McCartney, but by purifying and exercising the buddhi, you will be able to access the right creative ideas that will enable you to skillfully and fearlessly attain your purpose in life.
In the decision making process the suggestions you receive from the senses, ego and from others often blur the line between the passing pleasure and perennial joy. The gurus of our culture-Madison Avenue copywriters-are constantly repeating commercial mantras into your awareness. They suggest that if it looks pleasant, smells pleasant, tastes, sounds and feels pleasant, it's virtually guaranteed to be good for you. "Buy it," these commercials entreat. "You will become happy and your pain will be eliminated."
You should understand that these Madison Avenue gurus are not malicious, nor the cause of your troubles. In fact, the advertising industry is actually doing you a favor by acquainting you with available options. And admittedly, there are times when the pleasant and the good are indeed one and the same. Yoga science makes no admonition against the purchase of necessities and items that gratify the senses. You have a body equipped to experience pleasure and life is to be enjoyed. And, let's face it, everyone needs stuff. You need a car, a home, clothing, food and recreation.
But remember, every choice you make will create a specific consequence. If you accept bold promises (from the culture or from your own senses, habits or ego) without exercising your own intuitive wisdom, you will not always receive what was promised. No
matter what your age, you already know there are choices that yield strictly passing pleasure and others that serve your long-term interest. Your intuition and experience tell you that there is a
difference between the pleasant and the good.
The only way to know for certain if a particular thought will lead you for your highest and greatest good is to follow the intuitive wisdom of the buddhi. Align every thought, word and physical action with intuitive wisdom, and your life will become healthy, happy, creative, productive and free of the dis-ease of stress, anxiety and pain. If, however, you disregard your intuitive wisdom when making a choice, you increase the likelihood that you'll experience physical, mental, emotional or spiritual dis-ease.
The word conscience comes from the Latin, and it means "with wisdom or knowledge." As a meditator, you are simply asked to make all your decisions consciously-based on your own intuitive wisdom.
Intuitive wisdom allows each human being to transcend the limitations of animal instinct in order to attain the unbounded happiness of serving the Supreme Reality. When this occurs, humans are able to free themselves from the pains, miseries and bondages created by their learned habits of fear, anger and greed.
The ancients tell us that the process of transcendence is the very reason each of us has been born with a human body-mind-sense complex. We have all come to this plane of existence to take the next step toward Self-realization. By aligning every thought, word and action with our own intuitive wisdom, we will transcend the animal, through the human, and unite with the Divine. Through this process, the flower of our lives will reach full bloom.
In service - with Love
Leonard and Jenness Perlmutter
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A
portion of this essay is expected from the
soon-to-be-released book,
The
Heart and Science of Yoga™:
A Blueprint for Peace,
Happiness and Freedom from Fear. |
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Conscience is God's presence in man.
Emanuel Swedenborg
The first task of a seeker of truth is to follow the dictates of his conscience. His conscience helps him to choose what he will do by placing the consequences of his actions--good and bad, helpful and damaging, right and wrong--in front of him. And if he has a firm will, he will be able to carry out the action he chooses. If will power is not utilized, there will always be failure, regardless of the external efforts made and the means applied. True spiritual seekers are taught to be vigilant--not to allow their will force to be diminished or extinguished.
Swami Rama of the Himalayas
A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity with us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us without.
James F. Clark
The only religion is conscience in action.
Henry D. Lloyd
Conscience is the most perfect mirror ever made, the one looking glass that cannot be broken.
Fred Van Amburgh
The conscience interprets life honestly and realistically; the same cannot be said about the ego.
Shantidasa
The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it, but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.
Madame de Stael
Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not the voice of God. Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear, undivided voice, a voice which does away with doubt and brings with it persuasion, light and serenity.
Henri F. Amiel
Cowardice asks, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks, "Is it popular?" But conscience asks, "Is it what is to be done?"
Alexander Punshon
Be the master of your will, and the slave of your conscience.
Yiddish saying
I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.
John Calvin
I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, the Self.
Martin Luther
Conscience warns us as a friend before it punishes us as a judge.
Leszczynski Stanislav
The testimony of a conscience is the glory of the good man. Have a good conscience and thou shalt have gladness.
Thomas a Kempis
The unknown is an ocean. What is conscience? The compass of the unknown.
Joseph Cook
Conscience is the softer whisper of God in man.
Edward Young
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Teachings of the BUDDHA
An Introduction to the Dhammapada
The Path of Dharma (Truth)
Leonard & Jenness Perlmutter
AMI Founders and Directors
Level II (First time offered) - The Compassionate Buddha is one of our most practical teachers. From the very first line of the Dhammapada-- "our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think"-- the Buddha explains what leads to joy and what to sorrow, and tells us how to take our lives into our own hands. Without metaphysics, without appeal to anything superhuman, he encourages us to experiment with our minds in order to remake ourselves. Join Leonard and Jenness as they discuss this profound and rewarding text from India's rich spiritual tradition.
AMI Home Center, 60 Garner Road, Averill Park
September 22, Wednesday Night, 6:30 - 8:30pm
Registration: $35.
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INTRODUCTORY LECTURE -
MEDITATION & YOGA SCIENCE $15
September 9: AMI Home Center, 60 Garnes Road, Averill Park
Thursday Night: 7:00 - 8:00 PM
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If you know someone who might benefit from our American Meditation
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Karma Yoga --- the practice of selfless and skillful action
If, as part of your practice, you have a few extra hours during
the week and are interested in helping grow the American Meditation
Institute, we need your dedicated, volunteer energy. As a student
of yoga science, you are already familiar with the kinds of practical
services the Institute provides. Each month we write, edit and
publish this newsletter, teach an average of thirty new meditation
students and present stress-reduction seminars to various businesses
and organizations. We also invite visiting speakers of interest
to our area, organize seminars on yoga science and do continuing
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Our immediate needs include press relations, seminar management,
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use.
If you have the time, please call the Institute at (518) 674-8714.
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practice and process of paying attention and focusing your awareness. According to Dr. Chopra, "when you meditate, a number of desirable things begin to happen--slowly, at first, and deepening over time. When you concentrate any form of energy, including mental energy, you gain power. When you focus your mind, you concentrate better. When you concentrate better, you perform better--you can accomplish more, whether in the classroom, in the boardroom, or in the athletic arena. Whatever
you do, you do it more effectively when you meditate."
eleven, he was almost entirely self-educated. He worked as a printer, school teacher, editor, essayist--and finally as a poet. Around the age of 30, he experienced a spontaneous mystical illumination which was strongly reflected in his poetry. In Song of Myself he writes from the perspective of a meditator about the perfect wisdom that is present in every thing and every relationship. "All truths wait in all things" Whitman wrote. "They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it. The insignificant is as big to me as any."
can't rush. You can't skip to the next position. If you find yourself in difficult or humiliating situations, you can't judge yourself. You just have to breathe, observe and let go. It's a workout for your mind, body and soul."
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newest book,
A Thousand Suns, has been released by Yes Publishers. In it, she masterfully explains how your Vedic birth chart can reveal your personality, experiences and spiritual potential. Noted Vedic scholar, David Frawley, calls Johnsen's book "the most readable and entertaining introduction to Vedic astrology." Copies of
A Thousand Suns and other Linda Johnsen titles can be ordered through the AMI bookstore.
This is the 'I Am' that is deeper than name and form. Stillness is your essential nature, the awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and translated into thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world. Look at a flower. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still it is, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness."