Spiritual discernment, a sensing, or seeing, into the truth or lack of it of a particular person, group, idea, or situation.
Spiritual intelligence, wisdom by which the spiritually insightful live - while discernment is specific, this is the insight the self has been transformed into, so spiritual intelligence allows a life of discernment.
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And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight (or, discernment, spiritual understanding).
*Philippians 1.9 (NRSVUE)
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There was a Grocer who had a parrot, a sweet- voiced, green, talking parrot.
Perched on the bench, it would watch over the shop in its master's absence and talk to the customers.
Once as it sprang from the bench and flew away, it spilled some bottles of rose-oil.
Its master came from his house and merchant- wise seated himself at ease on the bench.
Finding the bench wet with oil and his clothes greasy, he smote the parrot on the head: it was made bald by the blow.
For some few days it refrained from speech; the Grocer, repenting, heaved deep sighs
And tore his beard, saying, "Alas, the sun of my prosperity is gone under the clouds.
Would that my hand had been paralysed when I struck such a blow on the head of that sweet-tongued one!"
He was giving presents to every dervish, that he might get back the speech of his bird.
After three days and nights he was seated on the bench, distraught and sorrowful like a man in despair,
Showing the bird all sorts of marvels that, per- chance it might begin to speak,
When a bare-headed dervish passed by, clad in a jawlaq, his head hairless as the outside of a bowl.
Thereupon the parrot began to talk, screeched at the dervish, and said, "Hey, fellow!
How were you mixed up with the bald, O bald- pate? Did you, then, spill oil from a bottle?"
The bystanders laughed at the parrot's infer- ench, because it deemed the wearer of the frock to be like itself.
*Rumi. A Rumi Anthology. Trans. Reynold A. Nicholson.
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Nicholson reads the poem "The Grocerer and the Parrot" to illustrate two lessons. First, "reasoning by analogy." Second, "judging by appearances." The lessons are linked.
As the maxim goes, "Appearances can be deceptive (or, misleading)." This faulty logic is shown in such remarks as "All religions are really pointing to the same thing." There are no grounds for such a view. And how many of those saying this have studied all religions? Yet, it sounds insightful, kind, and inclusive. The saying is faddish. Faddish rarely, if ever, is equivalent to truth, and what is widely accepted as true often - possibly most of the time - has nothing to do with truth.
Likewise, due to the extremes and historical faults of religion, all religion - and in my culture, especially Christianity - gets battered on social media. Such mouthiness is simply a show of ignorance and, often, arrogance. The foolery includes discrediting religion based on its faults while excluding all the positives. Again, arrogance is often present when ego, left to its own devices - ungraced - enjoys criticizing what it does not know for attention and the appearance of being in-the-know. Bluntly put, such display is absurdity on public display.
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We are wise to seek to spiritually discern truth from untruth, including partial truth from whole truth. A story tells of the devil and a man walking down the road. They come upon something written on paper and lying on the road. The man picks it up. He reads it and throws it back down. The devil asks, "Why did you throw it back down?" "Well," said the man, "it wasn't completely true." The devil replied, "Well, pick it back up and give it to me. I mislead people better through half-truths than by all-out lies."
Deception is rampant, and is often garbed in an alluring dress. Relying on everyday reasoning is not adequate. We need spiritual intelligence. When sensing spiritual truth from falsehood and half-truth, we need more than the logic we use in deciding which head of lettuce to purchase at the grocery store. There are levels of truth requiring different levels of reason.
As you are drawn closer to Spirit, you will become increasingly sensitive to the oft-subtle difference, for example, between authentic and inauthentic among persons. You will spontaneously sense, without needing to revert to logical reasoning, through people's personality presentation, including when they present as religious, holy, or enlightened. When someone claims something is true, you will sense into its truth or lack of truth. You will walk into a room full of people and perceive right away the spiritual temperature, so to speak, of that gathering. Simply put, appearances do not dupe you.
For example, many persons are good people. You will see this, as many others do. The others, however, do not see what you see. You see being good can be quite surface - a play of ego. You see doing good can be quite ego-centric. You will know there is a difference between a person who does good and one who is doing good from the Spirit-filling, living from the overflowing Influences of the Light.
Hence, you know two things. First, you sense spontaneously within particular situations what does not appear to mere ego logic. You see through what appears. Second, you generally sense a more subtle realm of being and truth than can be assessed by common reasoning. When seeing from the Heart, you see in a way one cannot see through even the most competent of ego reasoning - ego logic is not always flawed, but it is very limiting.
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Why the word "spontaneously"? Spiritual insight is a spontaneous sense; it does not exclude reasoning. However, the insight itself is independent of logical reasoning and arises from non-conceptual wisdom.
Now, will your life be helped through this insight? Yes. Spiritual intelligence is integral to a spiritual life. You cannot have one without the other. However, your life may not be easier or more pleasant if you are given this insight. Seeing what others do not see does mean a wiser life but not necessarily a more comfortable one.
What happens when you see into (in-sight) what others do not? What happens when others wonder why you cannot go along with the crowd (i.e., them) - even the religious crowd? What happens when your religious beliefs and moral values change based on insight rather than indoctrination, for now you are basing conclusions on a spiritual sensitivity and consent to truth, not agreement with the approved truth-tellers?
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2023. Permission given to use photographs and writings with credit given to copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
