ening and relaxing them. Through these conduits (nadi) there is a
spread of awareness. Awareness is consciousness. Intelligence is a part
of consciousness and so its light is reaching every cell in areas that pre
viously were dull and unknown to us. We hear a lot about illumination
of the Soul. This is illumination of the body. Our cells die by the mil
lion every minute, but at least if we bring life to them, they live before
they die. When intelligence shines into the cells, then instinct is joined
by the higher faculty of intuition. Instinct is memory and mind func
tioning for good or ill with reference only to the past, life preserving
and life destroying jumbled together. When intelligence is awakened in
the cells, then instinct is transformed into intuition and the past loses
its deterministic grip on us, as our inner intelligence tells us what the
future requires.
Memory at the cellular level is at the service of intelligence in the
form of intuition. At the conscious level it serves initially as a reference
library for intelligence, to be consulted judiciously and with scholarly
detachment. When intelligence consults spontaneously with memory
at each moment, then conscious intuition arises, and the word we give
to conscious intuition is wisdom.
There is another subtle way in which memory influences our lives
without our realizing it. The imprints of memory at an unconscious
level act as a filter to perception. Intelligence strives to see things as
they are, but mind and memory tend to interpret these in relation to
the past. The effect of this is imperceptibly to construct sandbanks of
prejudice. We are all aware how prejudice acts retrospectively; you see
something and place a distorted value judgment on it. But prejudice
also projects itself into the future, by which I mean that it influences us
to see and therefore to experience only those things that will confirm
what we already think. That is why I say it acts as a filter, eliminating
anything that will challenge our entrenched beliefs. If you think that
all foreigners are untrustworthy, then it is certain you will meet lots of
I I A ll I T Y I II I·. M 1-. N I' A I II I l I l \' I .II A N A .I^1