“In the ancient language of Wisdom, the [physical] moving center carries the “affirming force”; its natural aptitude is for reaching out, embracing, making contact. The intellectual center carries the “denying force”; its natural aptitude is for reasoning, doubting, making fine discriminations. In their own right, these discriminatory skills are legitimate and profoundly necessary, built into the structure of the human mind itself. But in terms of the spiritual journey, trying to find faith with the intellectual center is something like trying to play a violin with a saw: it’s simply the wrong tool for the job.”
–Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Way of Knowing (Josey-Bass, 2003), p. 31
Good stuff from CB. I’ve been immersed in intuitive awareness recently. The broad range of intuitive human experiences fall into four levels : physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. An example – a mystical experience is an intuitive experience at the spiritual level. The experience doesn’t depend on sensory, emotional or mental cues to be valid. At the body level, intuition is associated with bodily sensations, at the emotional with feelings, and at the mental or intellectual level with images and ideas.