Importance of Intuition in Tantric Spirituality

"In the space between thoughts, wisdom shines bright!" Milarepa, the Great Tantric Yogi of Tibet

      Tantra and esoteric Indo-Tibetan Buddhism are very clear on one thing: that great things happen through great intuition. The power of intuition is said to contain all the experiences that are mystical in nature. Your individual intuition contains the wisdom of all the Buddha's in the universe through the ages, but in seed form. In order for the seeds to be able to grow into great trees of wisdom whose shade allows you to live fearlessly, you simply to start using the true power of your deep intuition. This is a fundamental and subtle key to the tantric aspects of Tibet's ancient Bon tantrism, Japan's Tendai Buddhism, and China's Tiantai. Intuitive power is ultimate power, taking us safely across life's challenges and difficulties.

Intuition in Tantra

      But what is the secret to tap into your intuition? Tantra and occult Buddhism say that it is the ability to relax within the unconscious part of your intelligence. Now, science tells us that a very small percentage of the totality of our brain is actually used. And this is what Tantra and esoteric Buddhism have been saying for thousands of years: that we use only a very small part of our intelligence. It is like the tip of the iceberg being seen from a ship: the bulk of the iceberg is hidden below the surface of the water, unseen. So, too, is human consciousness. And the mystical science of Tantra and esoteric Buddhism is simply indicating that that is where your deepest intuition lives. It is in the reserves of your unconscious mind. There exist the seeds of your super-conscious life. And if you tap into those seeds, if you're able to make those seeds sprout, you start living a fearless, courageous life. You start becoming focused, you start creating a situation where life becomes really beautiful. You find the territories of your own being start expanding a million-fold. You start feeling like what was possible to the Buddhas is also possible to you. The machinery of your mind-body complex starts running very efficiently and the flower of your mystic intelligence starts blooming and flourishing. Confusion ceases, doubt ceases. You start living with the completeness of your energy and the totality of your Buddha energy. And that is what truly fearless living is!

Psycho-Analysis and Jung

      The great psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung we deep into Tantra and secret Buddhism and he Came up with the same findings: that within these paths are coded secrets which point out the power of the subconscious and the unconscious parts of ourselves. In a nutshell, what Tantra and esoteric Buddhism are saying is that there is infinite potentiality within us, but very few of us explore even a small portion of that infinite potentiality. The only way to explore it is through the power of going deep into intuition. Then you find that within yourself there is no limitation. There is no boundary. There is no sorrow. That you are vast as the universe itself; that you carry the cosmic message within your heart. To release this cosmic message into your work and into your day-to-day life is what will make your life truly meaningful.

      The importance of the mystic science of Tantra and esoteric Buddhism is that it tells you to forget about tomorrow: in this today itself you can become a Buddha, in this today itself you can find Nirvana or Moksha (freedom-enlightenment). You can find the liberation of your truest intelligence. You can penetrate into that loving energy within yourself which brings you calmness, which brings you coolness. And, at the same time, which creates a great circle of internal energy that makes you flow more dynamically in whatever you do. Not only that, but it makes you celebrate your life in a far more dynamic and efficient manner.

      Most people's highest potential seems hidden: it is the few who are able to tap into the power of the deep intuition within themselves, and who are thereby able to unburden all the rubbish which their mind has been carrying as philosophical speculation, as knowledge systems, as belief systems, and so on. Through this, they are able to come into the true light of the Buddhas. Which implies a discontinuance of the past, which implies a shattering of our normal functional intelligence and diving deeper within the absolutely relaxed spaces of deep intuition which abide within us. Tapping into this intuition can herald a new dawn for our lives.

Forget Limitations!

      The most fundamental lesson for courageous living is the ability to destroy your preconceived notions about who you are, about your limitations and so on. Our belief in our limitations keeps us limited. Know that you are unlimited bliss! Know that you are unlimited potential! And so doing, you find that all your anxieties are quite irrelevant. So doing, within this moment itself you can feel marvellous! Within this moment itself you can feel the sensation of the cosmic mystic power within you - within the inner sky of your being which is boundless and infinite.

      Most people live life through complexes: either a superiority complex or an inferiority complex. But the person of intuition lives life through mere presence of higher consciousness, and therefore, is perfectly able to face up to whatever has come in front of her or him. Such a person is able to do that because they have activated the power of their innate intuitivity. It brings about a great richness of being; it brings about a great independence. Now, we never think in terms of the independence of our intelligence. In fact, knowledge often takes away the independence of our intelligence. It makes us bound up in its limitations, it makes us dogmatic, it makes us often rather shallow. Intuition brings a different kind of intelligence: it liberates, it is flowing it creates independence within you. It makes you flexible. And through all the mystic philosophical systems of the world you will find at the very heart of them is this teaching: the mystic message of this independence of consciousness. All the enlightened people of the word - you can take Jesus, you can take Gautam Buddha, you can take Padmasambhava or Adi Shankara - are people of deep intuition. Through deep intuitivity they have been able to move into conditions of super-consciousness. They have left all thoughts of past and future. They have left all their impressions of karma behind. And they have found that deep down below the layers of the conscious mind abides the profound power of the intuition. Once that starts radiating, then the whole art of spiritual living starts becoming possible. Else, we are not really able to come into a situation with a freshness of mystic understanding. We remain confined by material understanding. Intuition is the means to take us from material understanding to cosmic understanding. It is what the power of meditation means: tapping into this ability within ourselves.

      Intuition is hidden behind layers and layers of conditioning, layers and layers of knowledge or so-called acquired wisdom of the mind: like the layers of an onion. You are to simply discard those outer layers. Out belief, our faith, our education has deceived us, says Tantra. It has kept us deluded from the inner genius which abides within us. Hence, you'd find that there are so many geniuses in the world who choose to drop out of educational systems, out of societal systems, and they pursue their own thing. It is simply because the power of their intuition is constantly telling them that they are made for something more original. The purity of their intelligence is harkening them to follow their own path. And that is the mystic spirit. That is the mystic vision. It can be applied to any aspect of life. It can be applied to technology, it can be applied to the arts, it can be applied to music. It can be applied to human relationships. People who are too bound up by that which is known or that which is accepted are also living in a continual state of fear of breaking the status quo. The courageous person is somebody who does not mind going against the status quo. The continual stream of being afraid has been broken through recognizing the inner power of intuition.

      The thing about fear is that it is the most debilitating and disabling aspect of life. What it does is not allow you to enter the truly sacred spaces of being. The word 'god-fearing', in fact, is indicative of the religious conditioning that has been imposed upon mankind. We have been taught to be in absolute awe or absolute fear of an entity called God which we know nothing about. This fear complex has been created by the institutions which control religions, which control access to the portals of the so-called paradise or haven. But in reality, in the Tantra vision and in the Buddha's vision, there is no such thing. Nobody is the gatekeeper to the gates of heaven. We all have our own sets of keys. It is just a question of whether we want to open the door or not, and that key which we carry within us is the key of intuition that allows us in. We have the keys to our own mansion of fulfillment, whether we choose to enter of not.

      From this moment, resolve that you will use your power of intuition to enter into the portals of your own paradise! That paradise is the state of bliss. Within that paradise is the discovery of God. That paradise is the discovery of all creativity and purity of energy within yourself. Then you feel yourself expanding from within. Then you feel that nothing can stop you. You feel like you can flower and blossom to any extent in your life, and that you can transcend all human suffering. What intuition allows you to do is to take away the usual barriers of your mind such as fear of disease, fear of death, fear of the future and so on. Intuition takes away these different fears, and it brings about Such a change in you that you are able to invest all your energy in the present moment. You become very aware and alert in the present moment, and you enjoy that very moment for what it is: not really caring about a thousand and one other thoughts.

      Intuition is different from thought in this fundamental way: it is not calculating what may happen in the future. And out of this very nature of it, arises fearlessness and true courage. That way, you start attaining a situation which is more blissful, more loving, more full of passion and more full of purity of energy.

      Why do people feel tense most of the time? It is simply because of the gnawing feats which thought has engendered within them. The only way to transcend thought is to go to a higher state of being. That is the state of mystic intuitivity. And that is the state which is shared by not only great spiritually realized people, but by all Mavericks, inventors, people of creativity. Archimedes was in fact using his intuition when he had his Eureka moment! You would find that Albert Einstein also used his intuition when he did his thought experiments and came up up with the theory of relativity. So, too, it is with great mathematicians. Look at the great Indian mathematician Ramanujan: he used to say that all his discoveries and all his formulas are generated through the power of intuition, not through the power of structured thought or analytical thought that we would normally associate with the classroom. So, too, is Mozart's music, Bach's music, Michelangelo's sculpting, and the paintings of Vincent van Gogh!

Creative Breakthroughs

      Hence, creative breakthroughs in life happen through the intuitive moments. That is when we can go beyond the normal neural networks of the brain and find greater connections. And, hence, find a greater harmony within cosmic phenomenon. The whole pursuit of science is to find a singular theory, the 'theory of singularity' which can explain all things as a oneness or a harmony of a togetherness. That will eventually happen, but through a person who's deeply intuitive. You see, a scientist like Nikola Tesla was deeply intuitive, but the problem is that by the end of his life, his mind started becoming so deranged with various thoughts that his intuitive ability started becoming lost, and he became prone to hallucinations. He became prone to paranoia. And that is the surest doorway to mental hell: his mind started working in ways which were away from intuition and more invested into the various anxieties and fear that come with perception of failure in the future. Hence, creating a bigger cycle of feat, perpetuating it. Whereas, the person with a true sage-like countenance and demeanour or the meditative person has been described as the truly intuitive person. And who could be a greater meditative person than the Buddha? So, Tantra and esoteric Buddhism are about finding this ability to move beyond the qualities of the religious mind or the political mind; in other words, the clever mind or cunning mind. And instead to tap into the mind which is of Buddha-consciousness. That is the intuitive mind. It implies being less dominated by thoughts and more invested in being able to receive higher truths.

      Higher truth has always been said to be revealed within man's consciousness almost like a light of the divine, by divine grace. But really the conditions to create it are a state of receptiveness, a state of meditative emptiness within oneself. And this emptiness is eventually filled with the power of intuition. Here emptiness means emptying your mind of its limiting content; getting rid of garbage (thoughts that are not needed). Then you feel ready for rebirth within your consciousness. That is the meaning of resurrection in the Eastern world. In fact, certain esoteric Buddhist traditions talk about how Jesus of Nazareth came to India and Ladakh, and learned much of this esoteric side or intuitive interpretation of things. So, the whole concept of resurrection, rebirth, refreshing of the body-mind complex, is at the center of esoteric Buddhism and Tantra. It implies feeling indivisible with the larger wholeness of reality. It implies feeling oneness with universal intelligence. And that only happens through the great power of deep intuition, which dispels our feats and makes us truly courageous from within!

"All appearances are fog-ike, mist-like"

Milarepa