Acquiring True Knowledge -- Levels of Knowing | Moving from Ignorance to Integral Knowledge Decision-Making | On Genius & Original Thinking | Miscellaneous -- knowledge,truth,integral,ignoance,insight,understanding,decision-making,decisions,rationality,logic,reason,mind,conception,preception,sensation,false,falsehood,evil

In the entries you see below, we discuss various Aspects of Knowledge from the various faculties of mind to what we mean by understanding, logic, reason, insight, truth, etc. Then we tackle the fundamental Ignorance of Man born of Creation, through which he falsely looks out into the world with very limited knowledge, leading to endless wrong or limited action. We explain how this came to be in the Creation, and how he can set out to uncover the true Integral Truth and Knowledge by become more conscious, ultimately accomplished through connection with Spirit. (Moving from Ignorance to Integral Knowledge - Featured). This is one of the most important insights in the entire Growth Online family of web sites, topics, and articles. After a section on the inner keys of Decision-Making, again dependent on knowing the full truth rather than the part knowledge of Man in his Ignorance, we cover the expression of the greatest knowledge through Genius and Original Thinking. We show how anyone can rise to this capacity.

Origins of Mind
(main)

The Plane of Mind's Origin in the Involution and Its Expression in Man in the Evolution
The way I understand Mind is that it is a universal plane of being that emerged as an instrument of Supermind to divide the Force (of Conscious-Force) in order to create the forms of creation. It is the dividing intelligence that turns the Original Energy into distinct patterns of that energy that produce the distinct forms of atomic reality and matter. It is Knowledge divided; whereas Supermind is knowledge united with itself and with a conscious Will. Supermind is Knowledge and Will united. Mind -- i.e. the universal plane of Mind -- is Knowledge and Will divided (which causes the original energy to withdraw, leading to separate forms. (What I am saying here is not the full truth; merely my current understanding.)

Mind in the involution is absorbed in matter, and emerges in the evolution as our mentality which emerges out of our vital being. Mind as a seed existed in matter, and emerges through a Divine and inner compulsion. In Man, it perceives the world in Ignorance, divided from the truth of Supermind. By moving to the depths, and overcoming our ego, we overcome our Ignorance, and Mind rises to Higher, Illumined, and Intuitive states where knowledge of objects become complete. At Supermind the Knowledge is integrally complete and there is dynamic will of action to see the knowledge fulfilled on earth or in our being. Becoming rational and moving to silence are preliminary steps to touching the Soul, which enables the full movement out of Ignorance, and the continuous descent of Light (i.e. Knowledge) from the universal plane, enabling true knowledge and true existence.

These are just starting points of how I think of Mind. To move towards your points. Mind is different from the brain. Brain is the physical instrument in which our being is able to relate the workings of knowledge. There is knowledge that the body "knows" so it can function (breathe, move , etc.). This is what we mean by physical mind. There is above that the knowledge of how to live in life. This is the vital mind. There is the mind proper, which is divided in three; a part that integrates thoughts and ideas and turns them into understanding, above that a part that applies values to the knowledge (such as our personal values and beliefs), and above that the part that engages in pure thought. Above that are the planes of spiritual mind (of silence, illumination, intuitions, revelation, and knowledge by identity; i.e. supramental vision). There is also an inner mind (the subliminal ) which continually sends up positive influence on us which is itself in tune with the universal planes of Mind. It is essentially our inner intuition. Mostly we live not within, but on the surface of life, overwhelmed by sense data that comes in through our five senses (e.g. sight, hearing, etc.). Sri Aurobindo implores us to move within to the depths, even to the Psychic, i.e. the personal evolving Soul to overcome Ignorance and gain true integral many-sided knowledge (that has complementary Will of effectivity). In essence, by moving to the depths we move upward to rational mind and pure thinking, and have intimations of the higher planes of spiritual mind, overcoming Ignorance and gaining integral knowledge and effectivity of being.

Ranges of Mind on Various Scales
Mind ranges from mechanical thought processing, to emotionalized thought such as beliefs, to rational and logical mind to the spiritual realms of mind above it. We can even a level of mind in the life intelligence and in the physical body itself. These are varieties of mind in a vertical plane. We can also see mind on a horizontal plane from an outer absorption in the sense data to the far more conscious inner realms of mind, i.e. the subliminal ranges within.

-There is the physical, vital, and mental planes of the individual. Each of these can be subdivided into at least three more levels. This is along a vertical scale of mind.

-The mind consists of a first level where thoughts are processed into ideas; a still higher level where thoughts are turned into sentiments, values, and ideals; and higher still where he engages in reason, pure thought, and can conceptualize new ideas, and that which he wishes to be. *By mind we mean mind proper, that does not include spiritual mind above mind.

Planes on the Vertical Scale -- There is the physical, vital, and mental planes of the individual. Each of these can be subdivided into at least three more levels. At the first level where thoughts are processed into ideas; at a still higher level where thoughts are turned into sentiments, values, and ideals; and higher still where he engages in reason, pure thought, and can conceptualize new ideas, and that which he wishes to be. (We are not including the ranges of spiritual mind here.)

Planes on the Horizontal Scale -- There is another range of mind from outer to inner; with the outer sense mind being least conscious, and the inner of the highest order. This is a horizontal scale of mind. The least conscious element of mind on the horizontal scale is the sense-based mind, involved in the interpretation of data provided by the senses. When we live on the surface, we are focused primarily in sense-based mind, rather than the higher rational, pure thinking mind, thus limiting our view of the world.

Vertical and Horizontal Planes of Mind
Mind can be seen in scales across a vertical and horizontal planes. Along the vertical scale there is the mind of the body and of the life functionings, and above that the mind we commonly know. It ranges from pure processing of fact to emotionalization of ideas (e.g. ideals and values) to rational thinking. Above that is the spiritualized mind of illuminations, intuitions, and knowledge by identity.

Along the horizontal scale we have a range from mind on the surface (Sense mind) to mind in the depths (subliminal mind.) The higher up on he vertical scale and the deeper within on the horizontal scale, the more conscious mind is. It is most conscious at the supramental plane (knowledge by identify) on the vertical scale, and in the deepest depths of the subliminal in the soul/psychic being on the horizontal scale.

Understanding by non-thinking � thinking is a bar, silent contemplation (inner)

Direct intuition � understanding is a bar to knowing � what you don�t seek comes to you. (spiritual) (MSS, slightly added to)

Moving Away from Sense Mind to the Inner Enables an Ascent Upward to Spiritualized Mind

The mind consists of a part that interprets the inputs of the body's senses. The mind also consists of the capacity for logic and self-conceiving new ideas, new possibilities, etc. As the mind moves away from its connection to the senses, it utilizes its higher mental functionings, and beyond that functionings of spiritual mind. Knowledge from spiritual mind comes through silence which enables knowledge to spring forth, through illuminations and lights of knowledge, and through descents of the entire object of knowledge as intuitions.

When one lives more within from the depths of our being, less connected to the surface, the senses, we open ourselves to intuitions form the higher planes, giving us direct perception of the object of knowledge.

Spiritual Mind
By spiritual mind, we are referring to the very highest faculties of mind. It is a realm of our being that borders and interfaces with the pure spirit. It is where knowledge enters our minds without the churning thought processing of mind, but where understanding and right thought comes through silence, or higher still through descents of thought as light of knowledge (as in Archimedes famous statement �Eureka, I�ve Got it�), or higher still through descents of intuitions of knowledge into our minds without the need for any thought at all. Above spiritual mind is the universal consciousness and pure spirit from which is the source of all knowledge.

Mental Energy
The forms of mental substance are waves of mental energy presented to our cognitive faculties as thought-forms (mental sounds and images, conceptions, mental perceptions, ideas, and the like). In mind, the consciousness or knowledge content of the energy is quite apparent, its energy content less so. (MSS)

Evolution of Mind in History
Mind was born in Greece. It made Europe seek science. Mind was born long before that in China where Mind was taken to its acme. But it was applied to life. Aristotle applied mind to the inquiry of Nature. Hence Science was born. In India mind was born earlier than in China. Its philosophic urges were famous. Mind in India was applied to Spirit. What matters is not mind, but what it is applied to. Neither China, nor India, nor even Greece pursued the inquiry of Science. It was left to Europe. The USA applied Science to work, organised work. Hence its prosperity. (MSS)

The Faculties of Mind: Expressed Positive & Negative
-We know the faculties of Mind -- memory, thinking, understanding, suggestion, discrimination, inspiration, revelation, conception, perception, sensation, imagination, decision, determination, commitment, organisation, planning, remembering, recalling, recognising, responsibility, direction and many more things.

-Each of the faculties have two ways of responding high and low. E.g. understanding can be exercised to reinforce your past gains. It is lower. Understanding can be exercised to acquire new ideas. It is high. In fact, any faculty has infinite ways of functioning -- social, personal, psychological, etc. etc. -- and each has the two ways of cleavage. Hence the choice is of paramount significance. (MSS)

Range & Faculties of Mind
Within the ranges of mind are the multiplicity of faculties of mind.

Mind vs. Higher Mind Method of Thinking
Mind's habit is to think in terms of oppositions, of thinking in terms of distinctions, of pairs of contraries. (Higher, spiritual mind thinks in turns of harmonies, wholenesses, and the complementary nature of opposites.)

The Limitations of the Human Mind, which Causes Scientists to Creates Products of Destruction
The human mind tends to selectively choose one part of a multifaceted truth, leading to misunderstanding and Ignorance. We each see the part, not all the parts, and certainly not the whole. In the case of the scientist, he sees only the physical, material part of truth, or otherwise only sees a small part of the whole which causes him to come to come to partial understandings, which in turn causes him to create products of destruction to match every success he has -- e.g. nuclear power and nuclear annihilation. When the scientist sees all aspects of any object of inquiry -- physical, vital, mental, and spiritual -- he will move from the part that sees only the material and will embrace all parts that make up the whole, and then some. Then there will be a movement beyond the current limited material science to a true Science of Life. This same challenge awaits the individual, for our mind's are each limited this way, and the ultimate cause of our essential Ignorance, falsehood, and our suffering. If we take that great effort, we will evolve out of our current Ignorance of Mind, and into the light of an integral Truth consciousness.

Mind's Capacity for Aggregation, & that Expression in Life
Mind�s capacity for endless subdivision is complemented by its capacity for continuous aggregation.

Mind has the ability to combine any number of smaller wholes and view them as the parts of larger wholes. Thus, electrons, protons and neutrons combine to form atoms, atoms combine to form molecules, molecules unit to constitute organelles, cells, organs and living organisms. Thus, individuals, families, communities, castes, classes, professions, sexes, ethnic and religious groups combine to form nations and the international community. We construct organizations along the same pattern, be they the organizations for governance, business, education or even religion. (MSS)

How Mind Knows
Linearity -- Mind tends to think in a linear, unidimensional manner and pursue one line of truth, ignoring other complementary sides, viewing all reality from a single viewpoint.

Conception, Perception, Sensation
Conception is to have a mental concept, an idea of a thing. Perception is to experience it beyond thought. Sensation is to realize it. (Example: After I have been told that the building is blue, it is a concept in my mind. When I see the building, and see that it is in fact blue, I have experienced the truth of that fact. Whenever the issue of the building arises, I absolutely know or it is fully assumed in my being that the building is blue.)

To know something is the first step. To truly know it is to feel it, and that is experienced knowledge, which is a greater knowing. To experience it as sensation is to truly know the thing. Thus we know in a scale that ranges from conception to perception to sensation. E.g. we can know God as a conception, sense it as perception, and feel it in our very bones as sensation. The same is true for "knowing" anything.

The individual working in the field of his work "knows" more than the man studying the field. And yet studying creates a great solid basis for a future perception and sensation.

When we have the sensation of a fact or idea it is usually far more powerful than mere mental conception of it. When we perceive and experience the fact, the knowledge moves from being an idea to it being a true idea, an experienced idea in our minds. At that point we have fully embraced the veracity of the idea.

To truly understand and know an idea, one must have more than the mental conception of it, but it must move to the perception of the vital, and, ultimately, to the sensation of the body.

When an idea has moved fully from conception to experienced perception and then to sensation he has fully embodied, and thus realized the idea.

The form of sensation is beauty. Mind can comprehend beauty. Therefore, mind comprehends the form of sensation, i.e. beauty; not the sensation of it. (Adapted from MSS)

A teacher can only explain so much to a student, to aid in his conception. At some point the student must experience the veracity of the truth of the idea as perception and sensation.

Education and Conception, Perception, and Sensation
Conception of ideas, such as we get through education or learning anything for that matter, will always be useful, even before we have the experienced perception and the embodied sensation. Perhaps the best education we can get can also provide perceptual and sensational experiences as well.

Integral Knowledge of the Idea
When a concept moves from conception to perception to sensation, and further to fully embodied sensation, which is realization, we truly know. And true knowing is integral knowledge of the idea, which is accompanied by our ecstatic delight of being. When it is embodied as skill and then acted on in life through our higher capacities, character, and consciousness, it can enable a vast success that leads to endless joy and delight.

Genius through Realization of an Idea
By having the permanent realization of the idea, one can become a genius in his field, whether it be a particle physicist or an organic farmer. [Genius is born of being connected to the Universal, Cosmic Mind and Consciousness.]

Idea as Sensation
When an idea has moved fully to sensation he has fully embodied, and thus realized the idea.

Truly Know an Idea
To truly understand and know an idea, one must have more than the mental conception of it, but it must move to the experienced perception of the vital, and, ultimately, to the embodied sensation of the body.

Conception, Perception, and Sensation; Mental, Vital, Physical
A human essentially consists of a mind, a vital/emotional component, and a physical body. In terms of our inquiry into the nature of true knowledge we can say that I have the conception of an idea with my mind; I have perception of the ideas through my vital, i.e. in my feelings, emotions, sentiments, and psychological status; and I have sensation of the idea through my physical body, including my five senses.

Conception, Perception, and Sensation
We can know things at three levels -- conception, perception, and sensation. At conception the idea is a thought, at perception it is an experienced idea, and at sensation it is an embodied idea where we know it in its fullness; where the experience has been realized in our being. At the level of sensation the idea has become a skill that we can invoke when it is necessary. We just know it instinctively.

Individual's Achievement and Conception, Perception, and Sensation
The more a person is directed and organized for achievement, i.e. the more he is self-directed, the more he has ambition of that which he wants to achieve, the more he is invigorated and has the will to see things carried out in his life, the more he is likely to have the experiences that move him from conception to the actually vital experience and physical sensational embodiment of it. So one's ability to have a fuller, integral knowledge of a concept or idea is related to the level of consciousness of the individual.

Power of Experiencing Ideas in Action
You can hear about a new, breakthrough product, but it is only when you see and use it that it becomes fully real to you. It is similar with an idea. It is only when you experience that idea in action, does the knowledge, wisdom, even the profundity contained in it become real to you. It is the experience of perception and sensation, rather than mere mental conception.

Experiences occur periodically. They give a glimpse of a truth or reality. Realization is the culmination of experience or experiences. It is the full embodiment of the truth or reality.

Any person in his chosen field and occupation can truly know and realize something, when the idea related to his field becomes a permanent realization of sensation of that knowledge. By having the permanent realization of the idea and by connecting to the universal planes of consciousness, one can become a genius in his field, whether it be a particle physicist or an organic farmer.

When an individual actually experiences the ideas that he propounds, then his writings has a added power; it's meaning will more be communicated to others; i.e. they will understand more deeply. If others move into the atmosphere of his statements, they gain that energized knowledge which is power. If they then experience it in their own lives it creates true wisdom as results.

Data, Information, Idea, Knowledge
Data are unrelated facts accumulated. Information is organised data so that it can be readily used. The essence of various information is idea. An idea becomes knowledge when it becomes practically usable. (MSS)

Facts/Data to Information to Ideas
When I organize this current project I start with facts [data], a "haze of information," which are then organized into ideas, with more facts added as support information, which clarifies and expands the ideas.

Facts vs. Useful Information
Facts are valuable but not usable until they are organised into useful information. (MSS)

On Opinions vs. Facts
Obviously opinion is ours, not necessarily the fact of the situation. There is a report about a theft. It comes to us. As we hear of it, our past experience receives the facts - assuming they are correct facts - and arrives at a conclusion.

That becomes our opinion. Our opinion of an event reported to us is our version of it in the light of past experience, valid to us only. To know the facts of the situation, one needs to shed that opinion. He who desires an open mind must be able to prevent opinion formation. He who forms an opinion prejudges the event. It becomes a prejudice. To insist on that prejudice is to have a closed mind. (MSS)

Ideas Entering the Mind from the Atmosphere
Ideas are afloat in the atmosphere. They enter conducive minds. We mistake such outside ideas as our own ideas. There is nothing our own. What is our own is our receptive mentality. If those ideas are powerful, they fulfil themselves. It is the power of ideas. Some people speak about the future. It comes true. (MSS)

On the Fundamental Nature of Thoughts
Thoughts as Basic Unit of Mind -- The basic unit of mind is the individual thought. Like atoms and acts, thoughts combine to form larger, more complex structures variously termed concepts, ideas, theories, etc. When we delve into the nature of the individual thought, we find that the substance of thought resolves into energy waves.

Thoughts in Relation to Other Elements in the Fabric of Mental Consciousness -- No thought exists in isolation from a complex fabric of sensations, perceptions and conceptions, and that a slight modification in a single piece of data or a simple thought can have significant impact on a much wider structure of understanding. The activities of cognition, thinking, conception, perception, understanding, and imagination constitute a single web or fabric of mental consciousness. Unravel any single thread, ever so tiny, and eventually it will modify the entire mental formation which we variously refer to as understanding, thinking or knowing. (MSS)

Origins of Thought
When the mental activity is separated from the sense, thought is born. (MSS)

Thoughts are Not Ours, They are Universal
Yoga says thoughts are not ours, they are universal and they pass through our minds. (MSS)

The Process of Thinking
To take two or more facts and relate them in the mind is the process of thinking. (MSS)

How Thinking Mind Knows
Thinking mind knows through a linear process that moves from one thought-form to the next and finds it extremely difficult to handle higher order concepts consisting of complex interrelations interacting in multiple dimensions.

Thinking mind also knows by a process of division and aggregation. The mind studies and knows things by distinguishing them from other things. (MSS)

Not Identifying with Thought by Its Consecration
Thought comes from outside. We accept the thought and think, thus we identify ourselves with the thought and become THE THOUGHT and cease to be ourselves. We have to shift from the thought not even to the mind, but to our being. We can enable this this by consecrating the thought. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Mental, Vital, and Physical Thinking
Mathematics is thinking entirely centred in the MIND � mental thinking. Philosophy is such. Poetry is the mind thinking in the vital (No. 2). Reclamation of land, mining, insight into prospecting are pure examples of thinking with the body. (MSS)

Understanding is an organization of the mental energies around an idea that takes a direction so that future thought and action will have its full benefit of support and sure guidance. (MSS)

Understanding in Higher Mind is through Silence
The medium for understanding in the human mind is thinking while in the Higher Mind it is silence.

Non-Thinking to Understand
As the running thoughts are a disturbance to thinking, thinking interferes with understanding. Understanding is facilitated by SILENCE.

Light is Source of Understanding Ideas
Knowledge is the source of light as light is the source of understanding ideas. (MSS)

When you explain things [to others] you already know, the understanding grows in the mind occupying the corners it has not occupied. (MSS)

Untitled
A visual representation of ideas can make it more real than the ideas as thought. And yet the reverse is also true, when we are better able to understand a thing through language, which unlike the visual does not entice the sense nor block the thought.

Memory of Understanding
Understanding is based on a logic and each point well understood by the very strength of its understanding moves it to the next point, NOT on the strength of memory. This [approach of logic] may be called the Memory of Understanding. Memory of understanding is unfailing as its facts are all integrated. The Memory of Understanding is situated in the subtle mind where various facts relate themselves automatically and get integrated when the intelligence exercises itself on them. (MSS, somewhat reorganized)

Success and Gaining Fullness of an Idea
If you are interested in success, then when you learn some new idea, you should aspire to know the idea in its fullness; i.e. experience the idea and then embody it in your being as a spontaneous available skill.

Understanding and Insight
The gathering of the many-sided plethora of details of the objects of inquiry enables understanding and the possibility of insight to emerge. A many-sided and objective analysis is the cornerstone of one's insight into what is right and true.

Four Ways to Truly Know
The more we are open to the multi-sided facts around us, through our true objectivity of these facts, the more we are able to gain insight from those facts. Second, the deeper we live in our consciousness within, the more likely we are able to be objective in the first place, to be open to all the facts, which in turn gives us the many-sided view, and which inevitably leads to understanding and insights of those facts. Third, the more insight we have, the more the chance of spiritual experience of mind such as illuminations, intuitions, and revelations of knowledge, which enables one to acquire a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional integral knowledge. And fourth, the more we live deep within, the more we open the portals of spiritual mind on an ongoing basis.

Skills vs. Ideas vs. Spiritual Ideas
A carpenter acquires physical skill. It is remembered by the PHYSICAL memory. Mind memorises formulas. Neither is knowledge; both are skills. Deep ploughing takes the roots down, preserves moisture, gives a great yield. This is not merely information, but an idea based on information. The Westerner discovered that pleasing the customer increases business. Though selfish, it is another man�s point of view, a spiritual idea, as the Spirit considers the other man�s profit as one�s own welfare. (MSS)

Reason
(main)

On Reason
Reason is to exercise our minds in a logical pattern to develop understanding and truth.

On Reason
Reason is the intermediary between the instincts/impulses of the life-mind and the higher intuitive character of spiritual mind. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Moving to Deeper Consciousness Enabling Multi-Sided View and Insight
By going deeper within, into our deeper consciousness will enable can help us move from our sense-based mind -- rooted in our feelings, emotions, judgments, and prejudices -- to the higher part of mind proper, where we see things objectively and rationally; where we engage in pure rational thought, rather than emotional thought. From that inner poise and status we can see the abundant myriad of facts around us, which in their multiplicity and variety lend themselves to insights. And from insights we can have integral insights and illuminations and intuitions that lead to ever greater conclusions, until we reach what we call the "integral knowledge and understanding" that Holmes seemed to have had at the end of every case.

On Logic
Logic is a rational pattern, sequence of thought for the purpose of coming up with the right understanding and knowledge.

Logic
Logic is a pattern of thought independent of our subjectivity. It is rational and impersonal.

Logic is an impersonal system of thought, transcending the normal human way of functioning. (Paraphrase of MSS)

On Logic and Being Human
-Logic is an impersonal system of thought, transcending humanity.
-Logic distinguishes us from animals not by humanity but by impersonality. (MSS)

Communicate from Status of Logical Mind
Whenever you react in anguish to an inquiry, it proves you are living in the vital or sense-based mind. When you calm down and use the logic of mind, then you will know the true truth that the other person was trying to convey. Perhaps also a period of patient quiet will fill in any missing pieces, reducing the chances of misunderstanding and miscommunication.

Logic of the Infinite
We perceive the logic of common sense, of cause and effect in the gross/material plane, but they are pale in scope, in truth, in power, in creativity, in dynamism, in variety, in possibility and actuality to the "logic of the Infinite."

Objectivity Engenders Multi-Sided Truth and Insights
We need to move our center of consciousness from what we call the sense-based mind to a higher status of mind, where we are using the more logical, rational parts. From that higher rational, conceptual status of mind we are more objective, more likely to see the varied sides of a truth, which enable us to get at most of the facts that lead to unending insights. Most of us don't live in this rational mind.

Living in Vital Creates Subjectivity and Prejudice
People are centered in their lower vital consciousness of need and desires and attachments; of strong opinions, judgments, and negative attitudes. When we think from such a poise, we are filtering out many of the objectives facts that don't meet these vital standards, or we are twisting the incoming information to suit our ego-centered, prejudiced outlook.

We live in our emotions. Or, if we are centered in our minds, we live in the lower, sense-bound, prejudiced part of mind, instead of the rational, logical, conceptual higher part of mind, where emotions, judgments, and sentiments are in balance with pure objective logic and thinking.

Objectivity
Reason devoid of sense impressions becomes objective and rises to Intuition. (MSS, extracted)

Subjectivity vs Objectivity
Subjectivity is to understand the world from our point of view. Detaching ourselves from our own understanding, looking at things as they are, is objectivity.

Youth accepting a new philosophy or religion and embracing it will find that creed is the ultimate TRUTH in the world. It is mental subjectivity. (MSS, extracted) [The Spiritual view, on the other hand is true objectivity]

A True Rational Mind
-A rational mind is necessarily true. It entertains no falsehood of any type or shade.

-The Force enters very much a rational mind. To fully receive the Force, one should go further to Supermind. (MSS, extracted)

Subjectivity vs. Objectivity in Life
-Subjectivity is to understand the world from our point of view. Detaching ourselves from our own understanding, looking at things as they are, is objectivity.
-The earth is flat for our perception. It is often cited as an example of human subjective perception. The sun going around the earth is a classical example of ocular evidence disproved by scientific objective calculation. It may be possible or easy to be objective with material objects, not so easy when we study our feelings, emotions and attitudes.
-To maintain one's objectivity with respect to other nations, races, religions, and schools of thought is not so easy.
-Youth accepting a new philosophy or religion and embracing it will find that creed is the ultimate TRUTH in the world. It is mental subjectivity. [The Spiritual view, on the other hand is objectivity]
-Reason devoid of sense impressions becomes objective and rises to Intuition. (MSS, extracted)

Rational Men Do Not Yet Exist
The world has NOT developed RATIONAL MEN in Action. If R stumbles upon anyone, I wish to know. Sri Aurobindo has seen the possibility of the Supramental Being even before the Rational Mental man has evolved.

-- Men who will plead for Rationality are there. Some of them irrationally plead.

-- Among the scientists, no complete rational man exists today. If there is one, he should be able to see that what is considered Science today is NOT fully rational in its action. (MSS)

Moving from Subjective to Objective View of Another
There is a subtle difference between thinking about another person in terms of the truth of what truly IS, of rational fact about the reality of the other, and the feelings, often negative, that arises from your ego-sense, that prejudices your view of that individual.

Limits of Rationality in Man
Most men are rational in affairs that do not touch their own personality, which means they have the rational faculty. When it touches their own personal affairs adversely, they act like others, with a closed mind or led by prejudice.

Sincerity of Purpose: Beyond the Vital to Rational Views
A forward thinking man was advocating that men and women should be free to decide their actions uninhibited by social moorings or moral compunction. This annoyed all his friends, married and unmarried. When he got married, wisdom dawned on him. He confessed to his friends, �I am ashamed of having thought of free action by men and women before my marriage. It looks barbaric now that I am married.� He was sincere in his convictions before and now. But it was the sincerity of vital feeling, not rational thinking. The phrase Sincerity of Purpose has a wider implication, wider than the thinking Mind. It speaks of Truths not locally valid for a context or person, but eternally valid.

Sincerity of Purpose is of the Spirit. We are in our vital emotions. Rarely in issues that do not bother us personally, rational minds speak rationally... (MSS)

Sherlock Holmes at all points along the way is completely objective in his pursuit of truth. He keeps all emotions at bay, making his research an exercise of true objectivity. In that way he has married the many-sided plethora of details to an unscrupulous mental objectivity. This enables true insight to emerge. By turning aside one's prejudicial subjectivity, and making the full, unfettered effort at objectivity, one arrives at insight.

Accomplishment and Objectivity
If we want to be great accomplishers in life, very successful people, bright stars and geniuses in our field, then we must be objective.

A Man's True Rationality
Who can truly know a man's True Rationality till we see him from all perspectives; e.g. from the character he demonstrates which is known by his intimate friends and spouse, to the psychological and social biases he might hold, to the way he reacts to things, to the way he solves the problems he is confronted with in life (through his personality, and in other ways. Ultimately perhaps we can say that he can be measured by the rational utility of the results he produces in life, which can be seen in response of life. If they are rational results, they must emanate from a rational man or woman. The sum total of those results, or the purity of that totality can be said to be the measure of the rational man.

When we study a topic from all sides, neutrally without prejudice, we gain insight. Having insight on that topic makes us ripe to experience descents of intuitions of spiritual mind, where the deepest truths, the object of integral knowledge that we sought to know when we undertook the endeavor just enters our being.

Insight comes from knowing the facts and ideas from all sides, plus knowing the subtle phenomena and truths of life that effect things. To know thusly the outer and the inner forces, gives one the most solid basis

Insights are the foundations of truth; not the true, full, integral truth of the thing, which is born of insight.

Acquiring objective, many-sided facts lead to insight on a topic or idea. Insight can then be the foundation for a completer, integral knowledge that can come through hard thinking or without thinking as intuitions into the person of the complete object of knowledge.

Objectivity and Emergence of Insights
By turning aside one's prejudicial subjectivity, and making the full, unfettered effort at objectivity, at an objective effort to get the many-sided facts, one arrives at understanding and then bursts of insight.

On Insight
Insight is the capacity to place the event in its original psychological context and not in its social appearance.

The activated mind thinks as everyone else's. The silent mind refuses to bring in the popular prejudices. That invites the Silence of the Spirit. The Spirit by its atmosphere enables us to have the insight into the circumstances which others are denied. When five people have been searching for a lost object for some time in vain, your silent mind will give you the capacity to catch sight of the object. It is the insight of vision.

Insight generally comes as a thought, but can arise through any of the senses. Alert senses avail of insight. Intuition is a greater and more powerful faculty than insight. Insight serves as a door that opens on Intuition. (MSS)

Perhaps Sherlock Holmes' greatest genius however was his ability to observe a situation, see it from its myriad of sides and subtleties, and from this cornucopia of details was able draw them together into a series of insights, from which he could come up with an integral analysis and thereby a solution to the situation at hand.

Developing Intuition
Intellectuality matures into intuition through insight. (MSS)

Insights Not Full Truth
Insights are the foundations of truth; not the true, full, integral truth of the thing.

Intuition
Crossing the faculty of intellect through the aid of insight, one enters the zone of Intuition. (MSS)

Becoming Expert in Field
If you want to become a true expert, a genius in your field, then look at the object of inquiry from every conceivable perspective, without any prejudice; be unscrupulously objective; not care about what society says, and pursue your interests with great interest and intensity. Great insights will emerge, putting you far ahead of the game, far ahead of your peers or rivals or associates, enabling you to be a true leader in your field; enabling you to accomplish beyond your wildest expectations and dreams.

Gaining Knowledge of Deeper Truths of Life through Higher Consciousness
In life, our knowledge of past and future events, the thoughts, attitudes and intentions of other people, and even much of our own deeper motivations lie beyond the bounds of conscious knowledge. The discovery of the deeper truths of life requires the development of greater self-consciousness and consciousness of others, keen observation of human behavior, and deep insight into human motivation. (MSS, slightly modified)

Nature of The True Rational Mind
The true rational mind is not influenced by the surface, not moved by the society, has inner control of emotions, thinks logically, has thought processes that flow through logic, is open to the intuition, is non-intellectual, argumentative, cynical, and sarcastic. It is calm and clear; it is open to the emerging truths; it sees the past affecting the present and the potential arc towards the future. It is open to all sides even if it doesn't know them. It is practical and has common sense in that it sees the utility of all things. It can accept that inner or unseen forces and currents, including the Spirit can be objective facts; that the subjective is part of the objective, which together is the real Truth. At some point beyond perhaps he is moved to discover the Integral Knowledge.

Limitations of Mind to Know Whole Truth
The mind accepts one truth out of all truths, and asserts that truth as the whole. And it�s because our minds are normally rooted in the prejudicial nature of the vital consciousness, which asserts its separateness, its ego, and, therefore, its prejudicial predilection to the facts.

By going deeper within, into our deeper consciousness can help us move from our sense-based mind -- rooted in our feelings, emotions, judgments, and prejudices -- to the higher part of mind proper, where we see things objectively and rationally; where we engage in pure rational thought, rather than emotional thought. From that inner poise and status we can see the abundant myriad of facts around us, which in their multiplicity and variety lend themselves to insights; and from insights to greater conclusions, to what we call the "integral knowledge and understanding" that Sherlock Holmes had at the end of every case.

Accomplishment and Objectivity
If we want to be great accomplishers in life, very successful people, bright stars and geniuses in our field, then we must be objective, live deep within, and have our insights coagulate into illumined and intuitive descents of ultimate truths.

One's Focus and Direction Utilizes Rational Mind Which Attracts Descents of Knowledge from Universal Mind
Normally our minds are governed by the outside, by the input of the senses, and by the emotions. However, when we make a movement away from these influences, and move toward rational thought, we can see that life responds positively in kind. One example of this can be seen in the fact that when one moves to mental focus and specific direction in life, life responds through descents of illumination and intuition into our minds of what to do next. For example, a man was confused about where he should take his work. He was ruled by the inertia of the body and the whims of his emotions. Then he decided to focus, and give direction to this life; i.e. he utilized the rational, non-sense aspect of mind. Within a few minutes of his focus, he had a sudden illumination of an idea of how to specifically implement his plan with a particular client. Perhaps we can say that the focused direction of mind has a greater capacity to go out to Universal Mind, from which he receives illuminations, light, intuitions of knowledge, without thought, of what to do next.

Incongruities and Dualities of History that Defy Normal Mind
There are many incongruities and dualities of history that show false or evil men acting good, and good men acting foolishly. It defies the mind, which likes to have a single view of things � including the main characters and events of history. Mind that is flexible, rational, and spiritualized can however embrace the many sides simultaneously. Here are some examples of incongruities and dualities of people in history:

� Stalin helped save his country and Europe from the onslaught of Nazism, even as he had 30 million of his own countrymen shot (as expression of his own extreme paranoia).

� Hitler marched across Europe, perpetrating the greatest evil in history, which ironically helped bring about the unification of Europe very soon thereafter, an outcome that might have taken centuries if ever to have come about.

� Saddam Hussein brutalized his people and neighbors, even as he was the chief leader advocating non-religious governance in the Middle East, who�s opposite is now one source of its scourge.

� Gandhi brought independence to India through non-violence, even though his action delayed the exit of the British, which enabled the partition of the country, leading to the death of millions, and bringing about two nuclear foes across the border from one another.

� Nixon, who brutalized nations of the world including Vietnam, and sought to oppress forces of freedom and progress in his own country, went to China and helped open up that land to modernity.