Updesh [Teaching] to the Khalsa - Sarbloh Granth

Updesh [Teaching] to the Khalsa - Sarbloh Granth- Taken from-- http://www.manglacharan.com/2010/09/updesh-teaching-to-khalsa-sarbloh.html

Below is a passage from Sri Sarbloh Granth Sahib Ji where Guru Gobind Singh Ji gives updesh [teaching] to the Khalsa. This follows the Mangla Charan [preamble] and is just before the main story of Sarbloh Granth.

ਉਠ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤਿ ਕਰਹੁ ਇਸਨਾਨਾ, ਪਦ ਪੰਕਜ ਮਹਿ ਲੀਨਾ ॥
Wake up in the early hours of the morning, and merge with the Lotus Feet [of the Lord].

ਜਥਾ ਸਕਤਿ ਦਾਨ ਭੂਖੈ ਕਹੁ, ਨਿਮਖ ਨਿਮਖ ਰੰਗ ਭੀਨਾ ॥
As much as your means allow give charity to the hungry, in every moment be entrenched in the love [colour] of Vahiguru.

ਕ੍ਰੋਧ ਨਿਵਾਰ, ਦਯਾ ਮਨ ਲਾਵਹੁ, ਹਿੰਸਾ, ਦੁਰਮਤਿ ਤ੍ਯਾਗੋ ॥
Destroy anger, instill compassion in your mind, disregard violence and poor thinking.

ਇਕਮਨ ਹੋਇ ਭਜਹੁ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ, ਖਿਮਾ ਧਰਮ ਅਨੁਰਾਗੋ ॥
With one mind worship Narayan, create a love for forgiveness and rightousness.

ਤੀਰਥ, ਬਰਤ, ਨੇਮ, ਸੁਚਿ ਕ੍ਰਿਯਾ, ਸੀਲ, ਸੰਤੋਖ, ਆਚਾਰੋ ॥
[Make] Pilgrimages, desireless worship, the Name, truthful actions, restraint, contentment your nature.

ਪੂਜਾ, ਤਿਲਕ, ਹੋਮ, ਗਾਯਤ੍ਰੀ, ਸੰਧ੍ਯਾ, ਤਰਪਨ ਧਾਰੋ ॥
Conduct worship, [adorn a] Tilak, [conduct] Havans, [recite] Gayatri [mantras], worship at the prescribed times, instill these virtues [in your heart].

ਗੁਰੁ, ਠਾਕੁਰ, ਪਿਤੁ, ਮਾਤ, ਬੰਧ ਜਨੁ, ਮਿਸ਼੍ਟਿ ਬਚਨ ਅਭਿਲਾਖੋ ॥
Speak sweetly to your Guru, your Takhur, Father, Mother, and in laws.

ਸਭਿ ਕੀ ਰੇਨੁ ਹਇ ਰਹੇ ਪੰਖਰੂ, ਮੰਦਾ ਕਿਸਹਿ ਨ ਭਾਖੋ ॥੯॥
Become the dust from the feet of others and stay humble, do not call anyone else bad.

ਇਸ਼੍ਟ, ਦੇਵ, ਰਿਖੀ, ਪਿਤ੍ਰ, ਬ੍ਰਹਮਨ, ਗਉ, ਅਭ੍ਯਾਗਤਿ ਮਾਨੋ ॥
Recognize [respect] your Beloved, God, Sages, your Father,the Brahman, the Cow, and those who have their face to the Guru

ਕੀਟ ਹਸਤਿ ਮੇਰੁ, ਤ੍ਰਿਣਨਨ ਮਹਿ, ਸਰਬ ਨਿੰਰਜਨਿ ਜਾਨੋ ॥
In a small ant, a large elephant, a massive mountain and even in a small blade of grass, the Lord Niranjan resides in all.

ਸਤ੍ਯ ਰੂਪ ਆਤਮ ਅਬਿਨਾਸੀ, ਬ੍ਰਹਮ ਸਤਿ ਪਹਿਚਾਨੋ ॥
Your true Aatma [form] never dies, recognize Braham [God] as always true as well.

ਏਕ ਬ੍ਰਹਮ ਸਭ ਘਟਿ ਘਟਿ ਪੂਰਨ, ਆਦਿ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਭਗਵਾਨੋ ॥੧੦॥
The One Braham is in all; Bhagvaan was here from the very beginning.

Page: 81 Chapter 1, Vol. I, Sarbloh Granth

Notes:

ਪੂਜਾ, ਤਿਲਕ, ਹੋਮ, ਗਾਯਤ੍ਰੀ, ਸੰਧ੍ਯਾ, ਤਰਪਨ ਧਾਰੋ ॥

Tilak has traditionally been seen a sign [nishan] of someone who does worship [bhagati] of Parmesvhar. At Takht Sri Hazur Sahib they still apply Tilaks to pilgrams. Traditionally when the Gurgaddi was passed to another Guru a Tilak was adorned as part of the ceremony. Furthermore, annoiting weapons [shastars] with blood is also seen as a form of Tilak, a practise which can be seen at Takht Sri Hazur Sahib and within the Nihung Singh groups.

Hom here refers to Havans. Havan is a traditional practise where a fire is lighted and various materials are poured into the fire. For the Khalsa, Giani Baba Inderjit Singh Ji explained that making langar is a form of hom, as it uses fire and provides for the poor. Furthermore, traditionally the Khalsa would lite Havans when reading Dasam Guru Granth Sahib Ji or when preparing for war. It was seen to appease Vahiguru's Shakti, Chandi. Baba Deep Singh Ji before fighting the Mughals performed a Havan as recorded in Naveen Panth Prakash [written in the 1800s], it says:

ਸੁਨਿ ਬੇਅਦਬੀ ਬਹੁ ਗੁਰੁਦ੍ਵਾਰੈਂ ।ਚੰਡੀ ਚਢੀ ਤਾਂਹਿ ਅਤਿ ਭਾਰੈਂ ।੯।
When hearing about the disrespect at the Gurdrawa [Harimandar], The spirit of Chandi arose within him [Baba Deep Singh Ji Shaheed]

ਸੁਨਿ ਸਿੰਘ ਪਾਠ ਅਖੰਡ ਕਰਾਯੋ । ਹਮਨ ਕਰਯੋ ਕੰਗਨਾ ਬੰਧਵਾਯੋ ।
Baba Ji organized an Akhand Paat and completed a Havan [before heading towards the battle] and tied a wedding bracelet around his wrist [a preparation for martyrdom as death is seen as a merging with their beloved Lord]

Gaayatri here refers to a type of mantras being recited. For the Khalsa the Gayatri mantra that has been told is:

ਗੁਬਿੰਦੇ ॥ ਮੁਕੰਦੇ ॥ ਉਦਾਰੇ ॥ ਅਪਾਰੇ ॥੯੪॥
ਹਰੀਅੰ ॥ ਕਰੀਅੰ ॥ ਨ੍ਰਿਨਾਮੇ ॥ ਅਕਾਮੇ ॥੯੫॥

Recognizing the Cow as sacred is also a traditional practice which has now been forgotten. Within the Nihang Singh camps one will never find them eating beef, even though other meat is eaten and served in the langar [communal kitchen].

The Adi Shakti Mantra and the Meaning of Sadhana

A contemporary prophet once said, “Oh, the times they are a-changing”. And along with
those changes come stress—at work, at home, in our communities, and even the
environment. We’ve been blessed to have a Teacher that gave us a way through these
challenging times—sadhana. Sadhana cultivates steadiness and vitality in the face of
change. Sadhana allows us to know the unknown and to face the present moment with
security and stability. So our task in the morning—you may think of it as your chore—is
sadhana, self-discipline. “Oh! I have to discipline myself.” It sounds so forced, doesn’t
it? And yet with sadhana, we have an opportunity to remove a lot of stuff from our
subconscious. It can be quite joyful; and that’s why I called it sweet fulfillment.
If you’re one who considers sadhana a chore, how do you begin to hold it in a
different way? How can we change our relationship to sadhana so that it becomes a
delight? How can we cultivate a self-discipline that is both sweet and fulfilling? I like to
think of sadhana as a beautiful dance, Shiva Nataraj, Shiva dancing; sadhana is the entire
universe dancing around you and you’re simply trying to get into rhythm. Part of the
rhythm is simply showing up. I think you should show up even if you don’t know why.
It’s a good idea to be regular in your sadhana, even if you’re irregular as a person.
Sadhana isn’t only a discipline; it is this universal dance—a dance with certain
steps. In every single sadhana, you want to complete those steps. You want to internalize
them, because if you don’t, you never get into rhythm. You’re always heading in the
wrong direction. Sadhana is a dance between the body, the mind, the soul and the
universe; sadhana is the discipline to know when to lead and when to follow. So much
has changed and yet there is a common element that remains—the Adi Shakti Mantra or
Morning Call. Let’s think about this dance, this thing we do in sadhana, from the basis of
the very first one—because that never changed. It acts like a thread weaving together all
the changes over the years: Ek Ong Kar Sat Nam Siri Wahe Guru.
What does it mean? Wake up! Awaken—it is the kundalini awakening mantra.
And each syllable within the phrase can be thought of as a gesture—a step in the dance.
First we say Ek; it means ‘one’. If you vibrate with the word, then you become instantly
open to everything at once. If you are truly one with the gesture, you will experience no
boundary—all barriers will drop away. As soon as you say Ek, you’re totally open;
you’re one; you haven’t divided anything yet; you’re without thought. Does that make
sense? There are other experiences available from this same word—for example, you
could feel strong by chanting a long Ek, drawing it out; or, you could say to yourself,
“I’ve really had it with all this stuff” and the sound becomes more like ‘Ick’. Your
subconscious is funny. There are many potential experiences, but as a sadhana, Ek
consolidates total openness in an instant, poof, all at once.
The next word is Ong, the sound of the gong, which always expresses a sense of
expansion. So first, we experience total openness, Ek, there’s no distinction; and then
Ong, the universe taking birth; me giving birth to me. Does that make sense? First—
Ek—I’m me without any prejudice, without any judgment, without any fragmentation;
then Ong, the creative energy to express my destiny.
Ek Ong Kar: You’ve expanded and now you project out, because Kar means all
those thoughts and actions in the creation. So think of it—Ek Ong, the universe has
created the field of action; Kar, so you act. Ek Ong Kar—what a joyous state to start
with! So we’re already in pretty sweet fulfillment and we’re only through the first third.
What’s the next word? Sat. What’s the energy of Sat? The expression of Sat? The
word Sat means existence—what is—because what’s true is what is; what is, is what’s
true. There is no gap. Sat is your being in existence, that sense of coming into your
being, crystallization of the self. And the Self is unlimited.
Nam is an interesting one. We translate it noun, identification, identity. All of
existence gains an identity. What’s the gesture of identity? What’s the dance of identity?
What do you do when you have an identity? What does that mean? There are things I
can do and there are things I can’t do as Gurucharan—right? If I’m a human, if that’s my
identity, there are certain things I can do and not do as a human, correct. Identity has a
bantar* and jantar; it has structure. So identity requires a confrontation, a qualification.
Many people enjoy Sat, that great vast being: I’m being; I’m one with existence.
But then Nam comes along and—oops, identity crisis. Because Nam demands that you
qualify yourself: Does this thought or action qualify as Nam in this moment? It requires
discipline and surrender and courage. Yogi Bhajan asked again and again—can you
qualify? So Nam is the poke, provoke, confront, and elevate. It’s not that we poke each
other or confront each other, but rather our Self—in our sadhana! Nam is your greatest
gift. Sometimes we get lost, we hook into self-existence, Sat, as the essence, the ‘real
thing’. Yogiji would say, So what? Everything has existence. You can’t get out of it. So
that’s not so interesting. But Nam, now that’s interesting, because every identity, every
word we speak, creates identity and shapes our total effect in the world and our
experience of ourselves.
So the fundamental gesture in sadhana is confronting the thought. If you go
through your entire sadhana and never confront the thought, did you really do sadhana? I
don’t think so. This took me a long time to learn, because I would sit down and all I
wanted to do was just bliss out. Nothing wrong with that is there? So I’d chant Ek Ong,
bliss out, and say, I could go on for 20 hours—the more bliss the better. But in the end,
there’s a kind of bliss that should come from your being, your mastery of your Self. So
during sadhana, Nam is not just generating a good feeling or going to a positive place or
entrancing yourself in a certain thought because it feels good and you don’t want to deal
with your other stuff; that’s not it. Sat--you’re in your being; Nam—this is me, my
identity. So be it, be it so. Sadhana must have this aspect to it, this gesture. Otherwise
you’ve gotten vast, you’ve projected, but you’ve forgotten Nam and your sadhana is
incomplete.
What’s the next word, Siri. What’s it feel like? What happens to the mind? Siri
brings you to shuniya, a moment of stillness. It means great; it means beyond; it means
you went past whatever you had been feeling, thinking, living. Suddenly you’re a hero;
you’ve gone beyond the ordinary. And if someone sees a heroic act, they say Wah!
You’ve stilled your former, small self and for a moment, you’ve become zero. So Siri is a
stillness, a focused shuniya, because without that you can’t manifest Wahe. Without that
moment of shuniya, you’re just hoping. Wahe becomes a question not a reality, not the
true merger, the vastness, the surrender, the experience that is Wahe Guru.
And what’s the final word? Guru. Guru is transformation. You have all that
you’ve gone through, you’ve cleaned out the closets of the mind, you’ve gone to the
temple, you’ve presented the being, you’ve totally opened, you’ve expanded, you’ve
merged, you’ve bowed; now the instruction comes. Guru is the teacher; guru shows you
the way. So, what are you going to correct? How are you going to do it? That’s when
you’re given an experience, an insight, a transformation.
When we practice sadhana as a life-long discipline, it frees up so much energy, so
much vitality and grounds us in such a vastness of reality that we can take on anything,
anytime, anywhere. It gives us flexibility and resourcefulness, caliber and character. It
gives us courage. Think about it, you can live drawing energy from any chakra. And
when you’re young, you don’t have to worry. Everything is working—hormones are
balanced, cells are regenerating, there’s lots of energy from the first three chakras. Then
you get into middle age; things are still pretty good. You’ve been working out, doing
okay, no problem. Except—if you’re still drawing on the same source of energy as when
you were young, you’re going to eventually fall apart. You have to tap into that energy
of compassion and connection, clarity in your projection, or you start messing up. It’s a
different energy, different bodies, make sense? You have to have emotional relationships
that make sense. You have to have a lifestyle that supports your identity. You get a little
older and you have to start drawing energy from your subtlety, from your spirit.
In the old days, to be an elder meant possessing a special force. It was a time of
enormous vitality. Baba Deep Singh, at the age of 80, took up a great sword and went to
war. The story goes like this: the enemy cuts off his head and he just grabs it and keeps
going, walking toward the Golden Temple! Freaks everybody out! As he approaches the
temple, he throws his own head through the gates and onto the prakarma. And the enemy
says to itself, “I’m not dealing with this guy!” and retreats. So what is that? Oh, he’s
weak and old. No! You can be; but you can also switch to a source of energy that goes
along with this stage of life, this subtlety, this enormous power. When you find that
source of vitality that is your consciousness itself, that’s called living, that’s called
sadhana. Sadhana gives you a link—through all the chakras—to that core energy that is
you.
Until then, it’s not actually an experience. It’s imagination, fantasy, emotional
satisfaction. It’s called all sorts of wonderful things. It’s what drives Country Music. So
we’re describing this simple way of being. Take up the mantra and in the vastness of our
group psyche (that’s why we do group sadhana)—somebody’s sad, somebody’s mad,
somebody’s glad, somebody’s bad—you can always accept somebody else’s problems
more than yours. So their stuff slips in, your stuff slips over there, the whole thing gets
exchanged, and sure enough this Nam thing starts happening, and you get catalyzed, you
become you. Otherwise, you can locate yourself in a nice safe corner where you can say,
I did sadhana. But ask yourself: Is sadhana doing you? You have to do the dance.
That’s where you get your sweet fulfillment and delight. To enter into that play and
allow the confrontation, the expansion and the energy of sadhana to transform you. It’s
going to be fantastic!
[Bantar and Jantar are two stages in the sequence of creative expression from inner
essence to full manifestation: antar, bantar, jantar, mantar, tantar, patantar, and
sotantar. Bantar is associated with structure in time and space, when the thought begins
to have dimension. Jantar are the qualities associated with the form.]

The Guru Gayatri for sikhs.

“The Guru Gayatri of Guru Gobind Singh has the power of the four Vedas, six Puranas and 36 Simritis. All these are equal to reciting the Guru Gayatri just once. Traditionally, only a person who has been initiated by a guru is entitled to chant a gayatri. First you have to find a guru, one with God consciousness, and then he needs to initiate you. Only then are you entitled to chant the gayatri. That is why Guru Gobind Singh recited this Gayatri for his Sikhs, and that is why this is known as the Guru Gayatri. Whosoever shall chant it, the Primal Power, the Adi Shakti, will guard that being.
This mantra is a “Shakti” mantra. Shakti gives one the positive power of God. If you chant this mantra, there shall be no enemy, including one’s own ego, which can overpower you. It is a mantra of deathlessness, and the personal mantra of Baba Deep Singh.” – Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Yogiji (7/9/75)

HANUMAN SADHANAS- Important Rules For This Sadhana

1. The idol of Hanuman should be smeared with a paste of vermilion and sesame seed oil.

2. Among the various sweets it is best to offer jaggery, coconut, laddus in the morning, jaggery, ghee and chapati (Indian bread) mixture (choorma) at noon and fruits like mangoes, guavas and bananas at night to the Lord.

3. Only large red and yellow flowers like lotus, sunflower and marigold should be offered.

4. A ghee lamp with one or five wicks should be lit.

5. Celibacy should be maintained during Sadhana.

6. If possible take a bath only with water from a well.

7. The Mantra should be chanted clearly, looking straight into the eyes of the Lord.

8. Sadhanas should not be tried with evil intentions.

9. Lord Hanuman signifies true devotion, hence the Sadhak should be fully devoted.

10. Having a picture of Lord Rama and Sita in the place of Sadhana pleases the Lord. 

11) - Hanumaan saadhana has to be finished at the same spot it was started.

12- Ladies should not undertake this sadhana if their natural cycle interrupts it.

13- One should sit on a woolen blanket possibly red facing east or north.

Mind-Body Connection & Mental Health

by Dr Deryck D. Pattron

Introduction: Many medical professionals, scientists and researchers are now devoting much more  attention to the mind and body connection with relation to restoration of health. It is now believed that as many as 90% of health problems have psychological roots. It is estimated that about 9 out of 10 illnesses are psychosomatic. Psychosomatic means the PSYCHE (mind) wrongly influencing the SOMA (body), or a disorder having physical symptoms but originating from mental or emotional causes. The mind and body work closely together. They regularly influence each other. Understanding this process can be very helpful in improving our mental and physical health.
Psychosomatic problems can result from many reasons, which are interrelated. Many are related to the way we think, to the way we react to certain situations, to prior programming and to our belief systems.
Negative Thinking: This negative thinking develops from previous programming, which normally occurs at a young age. For example, if a person thinks negative and believes that he is going to get a sore throat because he steps on the cold floor with bare feet chances are that it will happen. This person will create a mental image of getting a sore throat after stepping on the cold floor and his brain will instruct the body to comply with what the person is imaging, believing or thinking.
Traumatic Experiences: Traumatic experiences can create problems rooted at deep levels of the mind such as a threat. When this happens the survival mechanism takes over to protect the person from experiencing serious pain or injury. The traumatic situation could be physical or mental; however, it may take years to manifest as a psychosomatic health problem. The brain records all the conditions present at the time of the experience and in the future if several of these conditions such as sound, temperature, smell, place, time and other circumstances are present this could trigger the same reaction. The reaction could be in the form of a seizure if that is the way the survival mechanism responded to the traumatic experience.
One of the best ways to correct an experience like this is by getting help from an experience hypnotherapist that can regress the person to the time the experience took place and make the necessary corrective actions from there.
Fear: Fear exerts a great influence on our bodies and can create many different health problems. Some people break out in hives, or have stomach problems, headaches or other problems simply because of fear of doing something like public speaking or anything else that they fear.
Endocrinologists are now finding out that negative emotions and feelings can have serious effects on our bodies. Our emotions create mental images of fear, sadness, etc., that cause the release of stress hormones that when prolonged cause a person to get sick.
Similarly, if our mind can cause our brain to instruct our bodies to get sick, then it can also help us to get well. Many scientists and researchers use placebos to treat people when they don't really know what is causing the health problem.
If a person has faith in the doctor by the time they get the medication they are on there way to recovery simply because the doctor said the medication or placebo will get them well.
What Can We Do To Help Ourselves? It is worthy to remember that we are what we think, what we say, what we hear and what we do. So if we think, talk, hear and do negative things we are going to end up with negative results. The best way to cancel negative situations is to immediately clear the negative situations from the mind and replace it with a positive image that corrects the negative one. Learn to always be positive, happy and lovable and you will attract those things to you. Learn to and practice the importance of relaxation, which can serve to help neutralize stress. Controlled relaxation that uses imagination at the correct levels of mind could help guide the brain to stimulate the body to correct health problems.
Meditation can be done with the eyes opened or closed, or even as a focused walking meditation in nature once it has become familiar. It can help reduce stress, connect you to healing energies in the natural world and increase energy and magnetism. Mediation done a few minutes every day could improve your state of being and health. It could be practiced anytime and almost anywhere. Breathing is an important component of meditation and should be slow, gentle and focused.
Meditation With The Elements On The Breath Earth: (i)Breathe in through the nose and out through the nose. (ii)Bring your attention to the bottom of your feet if you are standing or sitting on a chair. I (iii)Visualize the molten core deep within the Earth. (iv) As you inhale, draw the magnetism from within the earth up through your feet into the cells of the entire body. (v)As you exhale, radiate the energy out through the pores of your body in all four directions as well as above and below. (vi)Repeat four times.
Water: (i)Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. (ii) As you do, imagine a clear stream of pure water gently pouring from above over the crown of your head and washing over your entire body. Cleansing you of environmental toxins, internal negativities, and tension. (iii)Repeat four times.
Fire: (i)Breathe in through the mouth and out through the nose. (ii)Imagine a pure white flame burning in the solar plexus (three or four inches below the navel). (iii)Breathing in through the mouth fan the flames into a burning fire. (iv)Allow the white fire to rise and ignite the heart centre. (v)Breathing out through the nose, radiate the fire's energy from the heart centre out through your upper back and shoulder blades. (vi)Wrap the energy like a cosy blanket around your shoulders, upper back and over your head. Inhale fire. Exhale light. (vii)Repeat four times.
Air: (i)Breathe in through the mouth and out through the mouth. (ii)Imagine a warm breeze caressing your body and penetrating through the spaces between the molecules of your body like a soothing balm. (iii)Repeat four times.

Three Steps To Better Intuition

by Steven Gillman

Have you ever used your intuition to solve problems? Can you trust your  intuition? Can you improve it?
What Is Intuition?
Intuition is simply a feeling , sense, or hunch based on information not available to your conscious mind. Some say this comes from the ether or wherever, but I'm content to believe that our minds have a lot more going on in there than we know.
How can Gary Kasparov win a chess game against a computer that can calculate positions many moves further ahead than he can? By using his intuitive grasp of the game. His experience allows him to combine analysis with a "sense" of which move is best.
Intuition can also warn us. My wife and I felt we shoudn't get on that bus in South America. We knew crowded busses were prime hunting grounds for pickpockets, and we saw the drunk man bumping into people. We didn't think about these things consciously, but they registered in our minds, and warned us. We ignored our intuition, and I was robbed.
Of course, you can have a hunch for irrelevant reasons too. If you were hit by a taxi as a child, you might have "intuitive" hunches not to get into taxis for the rest of your life. So how do you know when to trust your intuition?
Three Simple Steps To Better Intuition

1. Watch for it. You'll have hunches and ideas more often. I bought a conversion van, and now I see them all over. Have you had a similar experience? The same process will happen if you watch for your intuition - you'll start to see more of it.
2. Question it. If I had asked myself why I felt bad about that bus, I might have thought, "Oh yeah, crowded busses are a bad idea. I know that." Try to see in which areas your intuition works best, or not at all. If, for example, your hunches about people are always wrong, don't follow them.
3. Give it good information. Your skill, knowledge and experience determine the potential effectiveness of your intuition. A weak chess player will never intuitively beat that computer. So learn enough about a subject, before you expect any good hunches. Remember the programmer's maxim: garbage in - garbage out.

Do these three things and you'll have more useful

How To Enhance Or Improve Your Intuition

Intuition is the ability to know or feel automatically or instinctually what is going to happen or what may be necessary or appropriate or the right solution in a given situation. It is a kind of premonition, a gut feeling or a hunch, which lets you know exactly how things are shaping out or in what direction you are progressing. In intuition you do not deliberately use reason and analysis. They probably happen in the background without your active involvement. What you get from your intuition is usually the end result or the final conclusion. But how do you know that your intuition is going to work and that it is not a mere guesswork? There is no real answer to this. Only time will tell whether your intuition was right or wrong. One fundamental truth about intuition is that you cannot force it to happen. It happens most of the time on its own, without any expectation. If you have a strong ego, very likely you may not be able to think intuitively. You may force yourself to think intelligently through hard work and discipline. But you cannot do the same in case of intuition. You can however let intuition arise on its own in your heart and mind. You can to do it by cultivating a passive, mindful, nonjudgmental and detached awareness and by not interfering with your thoughts with a rigid mindset. You should allow your intuitive mind to express itself by developing sensitivity and inner tranquility. The following factors improve or enhance your intuition and help you experience intuitive feelings and thoughts more frequently.
1. You must be sensitive to your thoughts and feelings.
2. You must be mindful of what is happening in your mind and body because intuition may arise in you as a bodily sensation, gut feeling or vague thought.
3. You must be calm and composed. If your mind is disturbed and agitated, you may not be able to notice the intuitive thoughts arising in your consciousness.
4. You must remain in the present and observe people and situations keenly. A keen sense of observation is very essential for intuitive thought to arise.
5. You must listen attentively. When you listen to people actively, you will allow your mind to draw its own conclusions about the verbal and nonverbal clues coming from people and think intuitively.
6. Cultivate empathy and compassion. They will make you more sensitive.
7. Practice detachment. When you are detached you allow your mind to think more freely.
8. Empty yourself to the extent possible. When you empty your mind, you give room for other people's thoughts reach you.
9. Cultivate purity. Try to be a good person to the extent possible. Intuition is a higher faculty and it develops to the extent you allow your higher mind to function.
10. Consider yourself to be an essential and integral part of the Universal Self. Know that your body is a part of God's body and your soul a part of His effulgent Self. You may think yourself a separate entity, but you are inside the universe and you are part of it both physically and spiritually. when you identify yourself with the universal self, you feel more connected with the rest of the universe and feel their thoughts, feelings and emotions.
11. Practice yoga and meditation. They purify your mind and body and allow you to experience greater calm and inner stability, which are very essential for intuitive thinking.
12. Suspend your judgment. It opens your mind to seen new possibilities and opportunities that you were not noticing before.
13. Minimize your expectations. Don't anticipate. Live in the present and flow with the flow of life.
14. Express gratitude for the intuitive thoughts arising in your mind and do not fee disturbed or unhappy if your gut feeling proved to be wrong. Accept the uncertainty of life as normal and essential aspect of life.
15. Overcome  your urge to control things. Do what you can and leave the results to God. Live with the understanding that you have a right to do and you have not control over the outcome.
16. Control your fears. If you are afraid, nervous or depressed, your intuition will remain suppressed.
17. Slow down. In our fast paced lives, we miss to notice many things which are important and which have a value and relevance to our lives. Slow down, whenever possible, and take a deeper look at yourself and your surroundings.
18. Maintain a journal to record and analyze your intuitive experiences and know how you are making progress with your intuitive sensitivity.

Intution

value of the Eastern meditative tradition, overall Hindu and Buddhist, for its methods of awareness and transformation, and much work has been done toward a synthesis between these methods of meditation and psychology. Transpersonal psychology, however, existed in Europe much before the birth of the American movement. As pointed out by Descamps, “Transpersonal psychotherapy was, at its beginning, a typically European construction, with the Swiss Carl Gustav Jung, the Italian Roberto Assagioli, the French Robert Desoille, the Austrian Victor Frankl, the German Karl Durckheim. These are the five precursors of transpersonal psychotherapy.”6
In addition to the foremost psychologists mentioned by the leader of the French Transpersonal Association, Europe offers a precious spiritual tradition, mainly among Christian sources, and both contributions are relevant for the development of research in the field.
The ego-Self axis in European transpersonal psychologists
The common element to four of the above five European transpersonal pioneers is the conception of the ego-Self axis.
Carl Gustav Jung. Widely overcoming the narrow psychoanalytic concept of personality, based on the mechanistic, materialistic and biomedical model, Jung defined the Self as a totality, embracing individual and collective unconsciousness and synthesising all of their polarities in a wholeness. He pointed out that the Self is not only a totality, but also a center transcending the ego and operating on it. Such a paradoxical description of the Self as a wholeness and transcendent center is widely described in the Upanishads, the last part of the Vedas, the ancient Hindu sacred texts, on which is founded the Advaita Vedanta tradition, providing the largest source of knowledge of the nature of the Self and Self-realisation. Jung used a symbolic language to define the Self. The symbol he used is the circle, an archetypal figure of entireness, where the circumference represents all the forms of individuality and the center the point to which all refers. In other words, the circle represents the Self as the center of an extension that includes all human components, and that maintains and holds in equilibrium the entire psyche and the personal ego7 .
Comparing the totality of the Self to the fragmented ego expressing itself as a mask or persona, Jung used another metaphor, noting that: as the earth turns around the sun, so the ego turns around the Self8 . As a central and transcendent principle, the Self is like an interior guide of superior order: differentiated by the conscious personality, it is a higher subject acting as a regulating factor, inspiring the ego and bringing it to maturation. The Self operates beyond the psychological contents and independently from conscious efforts.
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Roberto Assagioli. The father of psychosyntesis shared with Jung the conception of the ego-Self axis. In his view, the Self is behind, or above, the conscious ego, and exists in an area of reality which is different from the flowing of psychological phenomena and from organic life: the Self cannot be influenced by their contents but its own influence can deeply modify the psycho-physical conditions.9
Assagioli recognised that the Self has a permanent nature and is interconnected to universal life: in other words, the Self has a universal and transcendent nature that is beyond the limits of death and finitude. It is the archetypal essence of Truth, Goodness and Beauty, and the seat of the manifest spiritual virtues which originate from an undifferentiated and indivisible reality (Spirit, Consciousness, Summum Bonum).
Compared to Jung, Assagioli goes beyond theory and proposes a practicable experiential goal. With him, Self-realisation becomes connected to applied and transformative spirituality: he referred to it as the goal of psychosynthesis and the highest meaning of human development.
Assagioli emphasised that Self experience is different from Self-realisation. The former is a temporary and transitory experience, which can arise when ordinary consciousness is deconstructed for various reasons, such as meditative techniques, deep visualisations, as well as traumas or experiences of deep love. Far more than a transitory experience, Self-realisation is instead the ending point of the developmental process of integration of all the unconscious potentialities: it is the highest stage of identity and consciousness.
Victor Frankl. The meaning of ego transcendence is implicitly found also in the theories of Victor Frankl, the Austrian codifier of logotherapy. In this context, the human dimension goes beyond the psychological patterns and includes a higher noetical area: suffering is related not only to psychodynamic causes, but also to noetical disturbances resulting in existential frustration and inner void and despair.
Overcoming the behavioristic perspective, according to which individuals merely obey or react to external stimuli, the Austrian psychotherapist stressed the free capacity to address the issues of life and to realise the specific meanings of an individuated existence. The need for meaning is independent from others and is an expression of human nature and a sign of mental health. The lack of meaning is behind the many corruptions of modern life and the repression of the need for meaning has a relevant role in the genesis of neurosis, and also of suicide.
The meanings pointed out by Frankl refer to the actualisation of the human potential, consisting in the unconscious talents of intelligence, creativity, and values: the psychology which addresses meanings is a “high psychology”, that is different but complementary to “depth psychology”.
The search for meaning is what produces the shift to ego transcendence: namely, putting oneself in relation with something higher: ego transcendence is based on universal values and meanings, which include the action of helping others. In this context, the evolution of human growth shifts from that of Homo sapiens, who moves between success and failure, to that of
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Homo patiens, who understands suffering as a mean of evolution toward a higher and wider way of being in the world.10
Carl Durckheim. Foremost psychologist and spiritual teacher, Carl Durckheim11 proposed an inner path that takes example from the great self-realised Masters and balances the two cultures of meditation and psychology. Deeply connected to the dimension of the sacred, Durckheim finds that love of God gives meaning to inner life and that spirituality nourishes the search for mystery inside the intimate Soul.
To Durckheim, the ego dimension is out of the great unity of the Self, and unifying the ego-Self dichotomy is the highest meaning of life. Overcoming ordinary personality and discovering the unifying essence of the Self is the issue of real maturity and optimal mental health. The goal of transcending the ego is realised through the path of initiation, that requires silence and action: silence for the time of inner search, and action for activating creativity to the service of life. Joining contemplation to action and service is the basic and fundamental way to realise transpersonal development.
The level of the human being and the expression of the Self are mirrored in the relation with life when action produces well-being and harmony. The supreme grade of human development manifests itself as a constancy in overcoming egoism: the more elevated is the grade of the human being, the more his/her life is determined by unity in behavior, feeling and thoughts. In this context, unity is not a philosophical term or an abstract theory, but a practical way of living, consisting of intuition, cooperation, love, and service. Durckheim stresses the power of liberated human beings, who are witnesses and messengers of the transcendent, superior order of life. These human beings of “high rank” are unattachable and authentically free from the boundaries of any kind of attachment to material and mental dimensions.
Dedicated to healing suffering, and differently from an Eastern guru, Durckheim has been a spiritual psychotherapist, who has used the psychodynamic, analytical methods, combined with the best of a real religious life.
Ego transcendence in Christian spirituality
The theme of ego transcendence is present in all these pioneers of transpersonal psychology, but the way to reach it has long been testified in the spiritual tradition. Since the very beginning, and up till now, the transpersonal movement has mostly approached Eastern traditions, rather than Western ones. Why has this been?
This cultural choice could be related to the explicit reference of Eastern traditions to a transformative spirituality associated to optimal mental health and development. Eastern sacred texts contain deeply differentiated methods of mental awareness and transformation, which help the healing processes at both the psychosomatic and the psychological level. Moreover, as it is
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particularly true of Patanjali’s Yoga tradition, they consist of progressive techniques which are most helpful for the difficulties of the neophyte, whereas Christian tradition teachings are apparently more fit for advanced meditators at an evolved stage of trans-ego development. At the present time, research in comparative Eastern and Western spirituality seems to be an urgent task, as it can deeply contribute to the understanding of the transpersonal processes and methods.
In my experience as a transpersonal psychotherapist and researcher in developmental theories, with a Christian background and a deep experience as seeker in the Yoga-Vedanta tradition, I have found common and complementary elements in Western and Eastern spirituality, relevant to transpersonal development and optimal mental health. In a developmental perspective, Hindu teachings are crucial for the integration of cognitive translogical structures (for example, the process of discrimination in Vedanta develops superconscious intuition), whereas Christian mysticism is especially precious to open the heart chakra and for the deep transformation of egocentric feelings towards altruistic and unconditional love. The combination of the wisdom of Vedanta with the agape of Christianity seems to unify the masculine and feminine polarity of spirituality and for this reason can represent an integral way for transpersonal development.12 In a healing perspective, both Christian and Hindu practices produce positive mental qualities and well-being.
In this article I will point out some basic Christian assumptions which I found relevant for transpersonal purposes in both a developmental and a healing perspective. They are taken from Meister Eckhart, St.Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, the Fathers of Philocalia, and from two anonymous jewels of Christianity, The Imitation of Christ and The Cloud of Unknowing.
The common denominator in these Christian sources is the idea that the spiritual path is composed of three basic stages: purification, insight, and unification with God. In this context are cultivated and developed virtues and mental qualities which are deeply relevant for ego transcendence and liberation from suffering. The most important ones are humility, devotion, surrender to God’s will, and mental silence. These spiritual qualities, which are the basis of the Christian path, are also precious for the transformation of mental factors of ignorance and separation, and their practice can have a direct application in psychotherapy.
Humility. In Meister Eckhart13 humility is described in terms of forgetting oneself: this is very similar to the Eastern concept of disidentification or detachment. Forgetting oneself does not mean that we must loose the love for ourselves or separate from our needs, but that we have to transcend the arrogant personal importance and the blind assumption that only our ideas are valid. A similar concept is found in Thomas Merton14, who points out that we have to detach not from things but from ourselves in order to see God. The obstacle is our separate will.
Both the Eastern and the Western tradition consider egocentric intentionality as a boundary preventing from the integration of transpersonal potentialities, till Self awakening.
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Personal will (meaning with this not the indispensable mental function but the praxis of an activity dominated by egocentric aims and attached to its pleasures and possessions) is the real enemy of spiritual unity.
In Christian mysticism, two are the grades of humility: one comes from contemplating human fragility, and the higher one from contemplating the perfection of God.
In the Cloud of Unknowing15 humility is described as the true knowledge and full awareness of one’s own ego as it is. A similar concept is found in St. Teresa of Avila16, who describes humility as the virtue that allows us to see ourselves as we are. As humility is connected with knowledge, it is also connected with awareness and insight on the ego’s unconscious dimensions: in fact, if we reach humility, we are no longer disturbed by what we are, we stop defending ourselves from our shadow and accept to see our real nature. In other words, the condition of humility, as acceptance of oneself, permits to overcome the defensive mechanisms, which create perceptive filters that obscure the vision of oneself.
In that it permits the acceptance and knowledge of oneself, humility is the main quality of clear vision, psychological integration and mental healing.
In the absence of humility and presence of pride, illusion and suffering develop: any psychotherapist knows that the super-ego pathology, which constellates the neurotic and narcissistic conflicts, is full of pride and therefore void of humility.
Pride is a main factor of inner hate, as it builds omnipotent expectations and motivations which damage the peace of the mind and create inner conflicts. The narcissistic struggle against one’s unacceptable limits and defects is a characteristic of the proud mind which creates separation in the inner world: substituting pride with humility is a task of psychotherapy, in order to create healing factors which alleviate mental conflicts.
Devotion. Like humility, devotion is a main quality for the Christian lover of God, applied as an expression of reverence toward God and all His creation. Devotion has an implicit meaning of all-pervasive and inclusive love for nature and humanity: it fosters ecological concern, compassion, empathy, and forgiveness. Moreover, devotion is an attitude of pure intentionality which represent the essence of spiritual transformation.
In the Imitation of Christ17 it is said that the basis of the elevation to God is the intention to reach Him: right intention is the devoted attitude of looking beyond the visible reality, including one’s body and desires, toward the invisible essential goodness. In the Vedanta tradition, devotion is considered as an ardent will for liberation from ignorance, expressing itself as unceasing search for one’s real nature (the Self, or immanent Divine). In this context, devotion is at the service of self-realisation. The more devotion donates a pure and selfless intentionality, the more it donates a heart full of love. The Christian pure intentionality, as the Vedanta ardent will for liberation, is the cry of the heart for the unity with the Sacred, and such a state of spiritual desire pushes toward right action and loving feelings.
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From an ethical point of view, intentionality, as the ardent direction to realise the divine qualities, releases consciousness from ego attachment and promotes a redirection of desires and choices from egoistic projects to altruistic and loving ones.
Besides being an ethical quality fostering the loving relationship with God, devotion is a fundamental tool for developing intuition: transpersonal insight is the gift of an open and loving heart. In fact, the space of mind where devotion exists as an attitude or pure intentionality toward the Sacred, qualifies itself as a state of silent receptivity where intuition starts to develop. Like humility, devotion is also a quality of mental healing, as it dissolves solitude, insecurity, and weakness.
Surrender. In the Christian path, devotion is the door to surrender to God’s will: the peak of realisation of inner peace. It consists in accepting everything that happens in life, as it is and as it comes, with trust and serenity, listening with hope to the teachings of life. Such a deep acceptance brings the human being closer to the Truth, and also builds calmness, another quality of mental health.
The awareness produced by humility, the sense of love and insight produced by devotion, and the serenity produced by surrender to God, are also qualities of mental health which open to unity and interpersonal harmony.
The person who experiences humility, devotion and surrender becomes less and less concentrated on personal needs and more concentrated on the needs of others, thus forgetting personal difficulties and problems while becoming attentive to those of others.
Such egoless and altruistic attitude opens to Service and is also a way of healing one’s wounds: helping others and forgetting oneself produces an openness through which it becomes possible to receive transcendent healing energies; moreover, it gives meaning to life, dissolves fear, and increases freedom.
Mental silence. In the path of ego transcendence, both in the Eastern and the Western tradition, it is easy to encounter obstacles and pitfalls. The Christian sacred texts advise the seeker of God that even Service, which is the essence of egolessness, can became an obstacle for spiritual evolution, if one is attached to the idea of being a good person: in such a sense, Service might reawaken pride and personal importance. The advice is to consider oneself as a useless servant, to be protected from the ever-present risk of pride. The real spiritual ascender knows that what really matters is not what one does, but what one becomes by doing. The real aim of Service is to acquire virtues which can be means of transcending the ego’s prison.
In order to avoid pitfalls, the Christian purification teaches that it is necessary to live in solitude and silence, dedicated to prayer and meditation. The condition of mental silence is also mentioned in the Hindu tradition as a basic qualification for Enlightenment.
Patanjali18 states that “Yoga is the suspension of mental contents”: Yoga, which means unity of the individual soul with the universal soul, requires the dissolution of mental contents and
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the absorption in the void, as pure awareness without thought and images. Like Patanjali, St. John of the Cross points out that, as perfection consists of the unity of the soul with God, in order to realise it the mind must be released from sensorial reactions, intellectual thinking and imagination: any kind of mental process is an obstacle to the divine unity and must be dissolved. As the Eastern masters, St. John19 describes how personal attachments to sensorial desires and temporal possessions prevent from the silence of mind and produces weakness, affliction, anxiety and unawareness. In other words the path of purification of will, thought, imagination, feeling and sensation leading to silence, develops qualities of spiritual insight and a progressive freedom from suffering.
For the Fathers of Philocalia20, absolute solitude (Hesychasm) is the fundamental mean to develop mental silence, preventing stimuli which capture attention and move the flow of thinking .In Hesychasm, solitude is cultivated living in a cell: this is not only a concrete environment but metaphorically is the private inner space of prayer and meditation. The cell is the inner dimension where the meditator abides and leads the spiritual practices: it refers to a consciousness state of introversion and attention to inner movements, which submits the person to the so-called inner struggle against the mental enemies or egotistic drives.
In the spiritual path, the more virtues develop, the more knowledge and healing develop. Purification fosters gratitude and love for God, but also peace of heart and interpersonal harmony.
Mental health beyond the egocentric suffering
As already mentioned, the integration between psychotherapy and spiritual teachings offers an expanded framework for spiritual growing and mental healing21. Such an integral model is neither just another way of dealing with psychopathology nor another school of psychotherapy: it is a larger perspective for developing psychological diagnosis and therapy, which reveals the role of egoism in mental suffering and the role of spirituality for mental healing.
In this integral perspective, transformative spirituality is a means for ego transcendence and a healing factor for egocentric suffering. Transformative spirituality emphasises the fundamental role of love as a factor in the solution of conflicts, as well as of wisdom as a factor of peace, freedom and creativity.
In this frame of reference, two main categories of practices are relevant:
1. The Eastern practices of awareness and observation, in order to understand mental processes and overcome the illusory perceptual filters which create boundaries of consciousness.
2. The Christian practices of virtues, in order to develop positive states of mind.
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Observing the sources of mental suffering. In the awareness and observation path, it is possible to realise how egoistic factors can be harmful and produce mental suffering. For example, greed for pleasure and the focus on obtaining only gratifications, avoiding any frustration, is the root of existential anxiety and hostile defence against the world.
The need for ego assertion is at the very root of rage, fear, hate, and rebellion. The stronger the reference to oneself, in terms of “I like / I don’t like; I want / I don’t want“, the more the person is weak and dependent on others: such a dependence is a fundamental fragility consisting in the incapacity to bear the normal sorrows and failures of life. In other words, egocentric vulnerability is directly proportional to the feeling of personal importance: from the strong attachment to oneself come possessiveness and the anxiety of loosing things, and therefore dependence and agressiveness.
In the egoistic mind, solitude is always present: no-one in the world can warm the solitude which inhabits a heart closed by egocentrism! Moreover, passions, such as desires and aversions, create a basic feeling of insecurity and fear: the stronger the egocentric drive, the greater the terror of being disappointed and deprived. Resentment, jealousy, envy and competition are factors of egocentric suffering, present in those who are unable to accept that their will can be defeated.
The anxiety of abandonment is a result of the egoistic pretense that others must nourish one’s inferiority and frustrated needs: such people tend to become satellites of others, and expect love and food from them, in the illusion that they have the power to nourish them. From the egocentric attitude, particularly the pretense of being perfect, comes also the feeling of inferiority and shame for one’s limits and defects: such a narcissistic context, connected to the idea of perfection, is based on the will for power and can be found in persons who are extremely concentrated on their ambitions.
Integral psychotherapy teaches that optimal mental health can only be reached beyond the boundaries of ordinary egoistic attitudes, starting with their building rocks: pride and avidity. Real poisons of mind, they are at the very root of the sense of separation from the unity of life: they build ignorance and are the sources of all other factors of suffering.
One who is possessed by avidity and pride experiences the stress of competition, fear of failure, fragility and touchiness in interpersonal relations, anxiety for the future. One who is enthralled by avidity and pride experiences the worst state of dependence and weakness. Possessiveness and defensive attitudes are the effects of avidity and pride: they develop dishonesty and violence as means to compensate for the ego’s insecurity.
The practice of virtues as purification. Overcoming the suffering created by such poisons of mind reacquires a process of mental purification, which is nothing else than a cultivation of spiritual qualities: in Christian terms, the practice of humility heals the wounds of pride, which are intolerance, fear, and competition; the practice of devotion heals the wound of possessiveness and liberate from the sense of separation from others; the practice of surrender to God’s will
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heals the wounds of pride and avidity and releases from any personal desire.
The purity of mind reached trough humility, devotion and surrender allows the archetypal forms to start being integrated. Courage, strength, will and creativity are reflections of humility and devotion, as mental stability and lack of anxiety are effects of the surrender to God’s will.
In the spiritual path, both East and West, liberation from egocentric suffering starts when consciousness becomes inhabited by attention to mental contents. It then grows through the awareness of the duality of evil, or egocentric illusions, and goodness, as altruistic creativity. Liberation is eventually realised as the joyful expression of a non-ego state, when personal importance is abandoned and we live concentrated on cultivating virtues.
Liberation becomes a state of invulnerability when surrender to the divine will is attained, as the serene acceptance of the good and evil of one’s experiences, beyond attachments and aversions, in the joyful reverence for all that occurs in life.
Concluding remarks
Spiritual teachings help us understand that ego transcendence, through transformative spirituality, donates not only an ethical way of being but also optimal health and lasting joy. In the path of ego transcendence through dissolution of the egocentric boundaries, the themes of mental health, consciousness expansion, and development of virtues, appear in a continuum and demonstrate the interface between psychology, spirituality and social ethicity.
Ego transcendence is that which our world really needs in order to foster peace: beyond ego there is unity with the interrelated life of universe, the embracing with the infinite and the harmony with the Sacred.
By observing life in the perspective of unity with the Sacred, any concern disappears and the ever-present inner joy awakens.
When, in the permanent joy, the archetypes of the Self appear as the essence of beauty, goodness, and truth, all that has been looked for in the external world stops existing: any external expectation dies and the feeling of deep fulfilment and gratitude takes the place of any personal drive.
In the harmony of a purified mind, ego transcendence permits us to be what we really are: no longer a false and weak identity struggling for power, success and wealth, but a lasting channel of the Divine power and joyous witnesses of His beauty.
To strive toward this ultimate goal is the spiritual task of transpersonal research and its real meaning, that any seeker is to keep in mind and pursue, with the best of efforts, talents and love

How to Develop Intuition

How to Develop Intuition

April 18th, 2010  •  By Paramhansa Yogananda

An article by Paramhansa Yogananda from the October 1939 Inner Culture Magazine

Intuition is that directly perceiving faculty of the soul which at once knows the truth about anything. Unless you have the power of intuition, you cannot possibly know Truth. It is the knowing power of the soul without the help of the senses or the mind. Intuition can give you knowledge about things which your senses and understanding can never give. Intuition does not depend upon any outside data whatsoever.
Intuition Means Soul-Perception
Intuition means “soul-perception.” It shows the difference between true and false reasoning. Errors are made by people who fail to distinguish between a real “hunch” or intuition, and their conceptions born of intellect, experience, or blind belief.
Many books and courses of study are prescribed for students in school, but nothing is taught them about concentration and the development of the sixth sense–the all-knowing faculty of intuition. Many people make mistakes in everything, from the study of health and business up to the study of philosophy and religion. Thousands of people make wrong investments and take wrong paths because their minds are not scientifically guided by intuition.
By the development of intuition one can outgrow the law of cause and effect in one’s own life. Intuition tunes the mental radio so that it can intercept all vibrations of future happenings which otherwise are deflected by diverse currents.
Developing Intuition
Pure reason and calm feeling lead to intuition. Therefore, the first requisite in developing it is to calmly reason and calmly feel everything. Intuition is developed by exercising common sense, daily introspection and analysis, depth of thought and continued activity in one direction, calmness, and, best of all, by meditation, holding to its calm after-effects. This is the only way. You then begin to perceive everything which is within as well as without.
If you can produce a perfect state of calmness in concentration and meditation, when you have a deep problem to solve, you will be able to solve it. If you hold to the calmness that comes after meditation, then you will be guided aright. Intuition guides your reason. When you have developed intuition, you will stand firm in your knowledge, though the whole heavens and the universe rise up to defeat you. Whenever you want to intuitively solve a problem, first go into deep meditation or silence. Do not think of your problem during meditation, but meditate until you feel that a sense of calmness fills the inner recesses of your body, and your breath becomes calm and quiet. Then ask God to direct your intuition so that you may know what you should do.
First, try to find out the truth about simple problems; then, when you find your intuition working infallibly, use it in finding the solution to big problems. For example, suppose two propositions are given you about a business matter; both propositions seem very attractive, but both cannot be right for you. You are obliged to decide between them, and you can decide rightly by your intuitive sense. Supermen continually use their intuition in everything they do, and thus accomplish the seemingly impossible.

Intution and Indian astrology.

Astrology is a divine science, came into existence as a savior to mankind. Vedic astrology is based on the findings of sages who left the legacy of their knowledge pool to the world in order to render benefits to the world as the whole. Intuition is the mysterious side I will say as even sometimes intuition comes as a flash of light to an ordinary individual. Intuition is the extrasensory perception of the brains. We may call it the heightened or developed mind or the self-consciousness. As we know that mind is a mysterious part of our existence we may not able to understand the mind to its full potential scope unless we know what actually meditation is. Perhaps the successful realization of the mind is the actual knowledge that is powerful than the most powerful tool of knowledge.

It is believed that intuition is the deeper power of mind which goes beyond the reasoning and logic of mind; hence it is something that comes as a flash of light resulting into a dream while awake, and in most cases the subject remembers the dream and experiences the events that he sees in his dream turning into reality.

There are cases of intuitive premonitions that have become reality. For instance Bill Gate had windows in his mind that came as a flash of light, kekule dreamt of two snakes coiled together and later on this vision has become the reality of the structure of DNA, Abraham Lincoln’s premonition of his own death and several other cases are recorded.

According to Vedic astrology it is believed that intuition is a matter of 5^th house and 9^th house (5th from 5^th), Jupiter in any of the houses or Jupiter aspecting the Lord of the house enhances the native’s intuitive ability. I personally believe that 4^th house and 8^th house is also to do with extrasensory perception, deeper level of intuition and clairvoyance. 8^th house here is more to do with the mysterious side of human mind as this is a house of mystery. Pluto is more to do with intuition and Jupiter and Pluto together in 8^th house is good sign of developed intuitive ability.