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How can we recognize the spiritual Divine Mind, our Creator, within ourselves? How can we distinguish it from that which draws us down to the underworld of misery, disease and mortality, of tensions and wars – only to perish in despair?
The great Greek philosopher Plato – who lived in the western world not long after great souls like Buddha, Māhāvīr or Lao-tse in the East – has written wonderful books. They have become the basis of all Western philosophy – and the West would have been a more spiritual and pleasant place than it is now, if it wouldn’t have lent its ear to the “Lords of the Underworld” as well. Plato talked about three forms of intuition. Intuition means: tuition from within, a teaching from the spark of God within each of us – which we can here when we listen to the Voice of the Silence which is in the center of out heart, beyond personal emotions and thoughts. He called them: the True; the Good; and, the Beautiful. These are three faces with which God shows Its One Being to humanity.
Deep within our own heart we know what is Truth – truth unstained by any lie or deception. Deep within we know what is Good. It is morality beyond rules. Deep within we know what is beautiful. Truth is beautiful, the Good is beautiful, and Beauty is in every expression of humans who strive to be close to the divine, and in billions of expressions of nature, which is the manifestation of the divine. Truth is the impersonal God-aspect of philosophers and scientists – what we all are to some extent. The Good is the God-aspect of religion – and we are all religious to some extent, even when we would call ourselves atheists. Beauty is the God-aspect of art, or of any really esthetical feeling we have. Real artists, whether poets and musicians, architects or sculptures or other creative workers, labor to turn even the coarsest form of matter into something divine. Words – which can be used to curse or insult a person – can by poets be turned to use in expressions of divine devotion. Architects and sculptors use the hardest stones of our material earth to build temples or prayer houses of utmost refinement.
The good is the same as unwavering service to Truth. It is universal justice. And it is – and I want to lay emphasis on that – compassion, which means “sharing in suffering” – the great divine Force – in Tibet symbolically depicted as a divinity with a thousand of arms and eyes and heads turned in all directions in our world as well as higher ones – which is ever and ever again sacrificing itself to give spiritual support and guide every soul on his evolutionary pilgrimage. It helps the dust molecules of the earth turn into flowers – the highest expression of divinity the plant kingdom can produce.
In humans it trains the mind – but we humans have the choice: either to follow the impulses of the compassionate forces in nature by the practice of daily life; or to follow the attractive voice of semi-wisdom, delusive art forms and religion and go the path of delusive behavior. That is why spirituality is needed for each and everyone all over the world: to show the way and lead human minds to make the choice.
What is the sacred – the god – in our daily lives? It is the silent ever-presence which is beyond thoughts and emotions. It is that of which we talk with nobody – it is the divine spark within us, our guide, and our individual dharma beyond rules. It is that what we really know. It is the spiritual, the divine in our life. Follow it, and you will be happy and calm right now.
May you recognize the peace within your heart.
Part of a lecture called:
The Function of Spirituality:
The Sacred in Our Lives
for the Shri Nijanand organization.
Jaipur, India, 2004
