HUMAN REASON

The human intellect works with two very healthy attributes. One is curiosity, our innate attraction to the unknown. The other is skepticism, our natural attraction to certainty. Surely, being the intellect in love with certainty, when we engage in reasoning our intellect asks us to be rigorous, clear, authentic. That is why a passionate scientist has a serious commitment to truth. I think one of the greatest virtues in a scientist is the honesty to repeatedly ask himself what is it that he truly understands, and what not.

It amazes me how sometimes science can be so beautiful, so elegant and sophisticated, when it is born from this place within the human being who is deeply in love with the unknown and certainty. There is nothing wrong with science or the human mind. However, there is something severely ill in putting all our trust in the human intellect. This equates to a diminishment of the human being.

First, science has weaknesses. Intellectual knowledge and science in general are based on debatable assumptions and interpretations. If you are willing to investigate profoundly, you can see that in most arguments of economic science, for example, there is a gray area, subject to ambiguity.

The intellectual foundation that underlies the organization of our society is based on debatable beliefs rather than scientific facts. A rigorous truth-seeker is aware that, without exception, scientific reasoning always contains a willingness to believe in something.

Why is this so? First, logical reasoning can only be applied to a separate part of reality at a time, but never to the whole. So to investigate any object, science explicitly or implicitly assumes a series of beliefs about everything else, to which the object is without a doubt related.

In fact, the unknown is always part of reasoning, whether we like it or not. In conventional science, there is a belief that the unknown can be set aside so that intellectual reasoning can stand by itself. But in truth the known and the unknown are always dancing together. They cannot be separated. Indeed, the mystery of life is such that, as soon as we realize something we did not know before, simultaneously we recognize that the unknown is more immense than we thought. The unknown is like a giant and wild ocean floating in the universe that could never be conquered by our understanding.

Reasoning is inherently imperfect and inevitably incomplete because it is linear, and the universe is not. Science or reason can be used to defend any truth you want. I am not trying to be derogatory when I say "any truth". What I mean is that it really is possible to use science or reason seriously, honestly, with sophistication to defend any position. That is why intellectual discussions rarely manage to change the positions of participants. A serious and ethical use of reason does not guarantee a healthy use.

 
No matter how brilliant or well - intentioned, intellectual understanding always reduces Truth. Being aware of this makes reasoning a more beautiful and less pretentious experience. Complete truth cannot be reached solely by reason. Complete truth can only be experienced with the mind of the spirit. In the mind of the spirit, understanding is without language and complete.

By opening the human mind to a higher source of wisdom, while maintaining the rigor and seriousness to seek the truth, an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the human mind is possible. For this purpose, it is useful to consider two forms of intelligence, masculine and feminine -both present in men and women alike.

It is difficult to define the different forms of intelligence: masculine, feminine and the intelligence in the mind of the spirit. By defining them -a typical trend of male intelligence itself- the risk is to separate them into different objects and put them into rigid boxes. In reality, these are not absolutely separable and rather are supposed to work together. I hope that the reader may realize, in a place in your mind that is beyond logical reason, the meaning of these forms of intelligence.

Masculine intelligence refers to the logical, analytical and linear use of our mind. Feminine intelligence refers to the mysterious, circular and intuitive use of our mind. Beyond the human mind there is a higher mind (but within us!) that can be called the mind of the spirit, whose intelligence has no limits and does not require the use of words. Any human being has the opportunity to access the mind of the spirit at times. 

A healthy use of the human mind requires knowing the strengths and limitations of different forms of intelligence. But these virtues and limitations are largely ignored in our society. Consequently there is an imbalance in the use of the human mind, with an overwhelming bias towards masculine logical intelligence.

Masculine intelligence tends to separate the parts of the whole. Although this way of understanding can be useful in many cases, the whole is more than the sum of the parts. In other words, when understanding becomes linear, the essence can be lost. Sometimes it is wiser to look at the "Whole in its Wholeness". The ability to do this is feminine.

The power of reasoning expands when the masculine and feminine minds are used in balance. We are closer to the truth when the unknown is recognized as such, and integrated into the reasoning process. Integrating the unknown really means to integrate the sacred. Rather than being an isolated individual reasoning about "otherness", be a neuron connected to the millions of neurons in the mind of the universe.