Theo. – We have been sharing several times now on the Advanced Practice and on the being’s divinization. Today, I’d like to talk about human nature, its qualities and its potentialities.
The Elder – When I am connected to the divine essence, I get enthusiastic and I feel like transmitting all that has been so liberally offered to me for decades. I wish I can transmit the best, but I must also temper my restlessness.
Theo. (feeling mischievous):
– Youth will have its way!
The Elder – Taoism is the ideal tool for it. It places man between Heaven and Earth. The Taoist Masters naturally integrate all levels of existence in their teachings.
Theo. – Just like Daaji, who is a father, a businessman, a mystic, and a scientist, while being a modern spiritual guide.
The Elder – I’ve always been interested in Taoism and its spiritual guides, their eclecticism, their freedom of thought and their benevolence. They will respect everything and everyone. They let the breath of life go through them. They are cheerful, neutral to the point of an apparent carelessness, though they fully partake in this world. They are a good illustration of the bird and its two wings the Sahaj Marg gives as an example. They are naturally poised between the material and the spiritual.
Theo. – That is the sort of wisdom I’d like to gain, but I’m only at the beginning of my life. I feel like living it intensively, I want to contribute to the progress of humankind, at all levels, and at the same time be happy, enjoy living, enjoy creating and sharing.
Inside himself, the Elder exulted in his young friend’s firework display. Only a glitter in his eyes betrayed his delight. Wasn’t his role to channel, guide and balance Theo’s energies?
Theo could see the Elder had been touched and was listening to him with a tender amusement.
He went on, mockingly:
– Maybe I’m being too fast for you. Let’s quietly come back to it and be kind to our elders.
Both friends, in good fellowship, burst out laughing.
Then the Elder continued, more seriously:
– When I told you about Taoism, I immediately thought of the ‘Flow’, which is the state of excellence psychologists describe in their so–called ‘positive psychology’.
Theo. – Why is it called ‘positive’?
The Elder – Because it cares for the persons’ wellbeing, for their happiness, and because it has stopped considering the human beings according to their pathologies, as traditional psychologists and psychiatrists would do. Neurosciences are gathering momentum. After further research on human beings, scientists have reached interesting conclusions.
Theo. – Emotional intelligence, for instance?
The Elder – They have realized that the intelligence quotient (IQ) depends on the neo–cortex, where the information received is integrated in order to ease decision–making. However, occupying a managerial position and being efficient requires more than pure intelligence. Emotional intelligence plays its part. Feelings are just as important as the intellect and, among other things, they help empathy develop. Therefore, scientists have established an emotional quotient (EQ). A business leader does need that emotional intelligence, and still more than pure intelligence, if he wants to take the right directions, understand and detect market trends, contract with as yet unknown interlocutors who are rarely benevolent and may even behave as birds of prey – and there I remain moderate.
Amused, Theo suggested:
– I can help you discover some of them.
The Elder – So, there was the IQ discovery, followed by the EQ one, as far as emotional intelligence is concerned, and now there is Heartfulness and the prominence of a spiritual quotient (SQ), and of an obvious connection between the heart and the brain via neural pathways. That SQ shows the heart’s leverage and its intelligence. It is the beginning of a new era.
Theo. – Didn’t you tell me that the heart had been highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine – in the Ling Shu, to start with, and then in The Secret of the Golden Flower, more than five thousand years ago?
The Elder – It is true that modern science is hardly one hundred and fifty years old. Youth may be arrogant. They think they know everything. Just imagine that, in the seventies, science decreed that acupuncture was no longer an esoteric topic, since it was now possible to operate without resorting to anesthesia, and using four or five needles was enough to stimulate some particular areas. A researcher had injected a tiny amount of radioactive substance in an acupuncture point, thus demonstrating that meridians existed. However, the science acupuncture is had been practiced for more than three thousand years!
Theo. – I saw a program where they showed a surgical operation called craniotomy aimed at acting on the brain merely thanks to acupuncture analgesia. It was impressive! The patient was even being fed during surgery.
The Elder – And to cap it all, he or she will recover more quickly.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation