Page 5

Your Own Degree of Spirit

by Lynn Andrews

When we speak of intelligence, most often we speak are speaking about matters of the mind, our ability to learn, plan and reason, to store, retrieve and apply information through our mental faculties. As with most things of the mind, this kind of intelligence is considered one of the most valued aspects of our existence.

I have a somewhat different perspective on ‘intelligence,’ one that grows out of decades of study and work with shaman healers from all over the world. To the shaman, the mind is a tool, a glorious tool to be certain, but still only one tool among many that humans have at our disposal to guide and inform us in our journey through life.

My understanding of intelligence is based on the knowing of our body-mind, the place within us and at the center of our existence where we are one with the Great Spirit and all of life.

The body-mind is where we go to draw upon our intuition, that certain knowing that comes from our ability to gather information from the unknown as well as the known world. It is through your intuition that you can walk into a crowded room and know instantly whether or not this is a safe place for you to be. Whereas the mind tends to confine itself to the known and knowable world, incessantly seeking out proof for every thought that it has, intuition is the sure sense of knowing that comes with being completely present and in the moment, free of the distractions and mind chatter that block our ability to receive the wisdom and energy of the universe and apply it in any given situation.

Intuition is the intelligence of your body-mind, which is located near your navel, what shamans call our shaman center. This is where you feel what is true with the source of your being without reasoning it away and becoming filled with doubt. Your intuition is likely going to keep you out of trouble even as the mind is busy denying intuition and getting you into trouble. The truth lives within your heart and your soul. It informs your mind rather than waiting for the mind to make up its mind about things! It is through intuition that you have access to the great voices of spirit that exist on so many levels of existence, voices which the mind usually dismisses as a matter of course.

Intelligence is a remarkable thing. It is a wonderful and even a unifying concept, even as it means something different to everyone every time we use it. It is a concept that speaks to potential, with all of the hope and excitement that potential brings with it.

Sometimes we limit the word ‘intelligence,’ as when we use it to measure a person’s capacity for intellectual learning based upon what they already seem to know. Other times we use it to imply the wide open possibilities of all of life, as when we talk about the intelligence behind ‘intelligent design,’ the ability of the natural world to adapt and accommodate itself to any eventuality. Lately, we even talk about artificial intelligence, our own ability to design machines that can replicate and perform many of the human mental processes often more quickly than we can.

To me, “intelligence” is found not in what we know, don’t know or are capable of knowing intellectually but in the creative brilliance with which each us handles the riddles of life each and every day, from the biggest complexities to the smallest perplexities. Some of the most well-educated, sophisticated people I know make some of the biggest miscalculations in living that I could ever imagine, while so often it is the least complicated souls, without layers and layers of conditioned and institutionalized learning, who have the most profound and brilliant insights into human nature and what it takes to make life work.

A college education is a marvelous thing, indispensable, really, in today’s world. So often the pathway to a college degree is the only place modern people can go to acquire mental discipline and the ability to think in an ordered way, paying attention to detail, that it takes to succeed in life. Intellectual curiosity opens us to new vistas everywhere we turn, and the research and analytical skills we learn in school can help us to satisfy and build on that curiosity in every endeavor we may ever pursue. Without curiosity, we stop creating; when we stop creating, we stop living.

At the same time, however, the most important degree you will ever accomplish in life is the degree you create within your own spirit, where you take responsibility for what you know and do not know, where you take responsibility for what you create and choose not to create in life. When you stand firmly in your own spirit, in your shaman center, the center of your own personal truth, there are none of the crippling excuses or blame that so paralyze our ability to function in the world.

It is in your own spirit that you know the truth of what you have accomplished, as opposed to the value that the external world may place on your accomplishments. How often do we see ideas shunned and shoved aside by the prevailing ‘authorities,’ only to have those same ideas resurface to solve some of the most complicated problems we have to face?

It is in your spirit that you develop trust in yourself and your abilities, along with faith in the world around you that even though life may be fraught with difficulty today, the Great Spirit has a higher plan for you. All you have to do is stay true to the person you are in your spirit, the person you are in your body-mind at the center of your own existence, the place where you are one with the Great Spirit and all of life. This is not something you can major in in college, relying on the mind to reason its way to success. It is something that you will only find through your search for a spiritual understanding of life. To follow this search, you must become open and attuned to the voice of your intuition and the power of your oneness with the world around you.

Whatever your glorious pursuits in this life, at a time when all of possibility is at our fingertips, never forget the urgency and importance of your pursuit of your own degree of spirit.

Lynn Andrews is the New York Times and internationally best-selling author of the Medicine Woman series of books. She is the founder of the Lynn Andrews Center for Sacred Arts and Training, recognized worldwide as a leader in spiritual healing and personal growth and development. Learn more at www.lynnandrews.com