Authority and Intelligence
Are we followers? Do we believe in the knower, the expert, the gurus, the teachers? Do we have the capacity to inquire into a matter independently, without any help or guidance? Or are we always looking for guidance? Is it because we are lost, and unable to dissolve our own confusion, that we rely on the authority?
When we rely on authority, we have given up our own intelligence, haven't we? Then we operate in the land of belief, faith, and fear. We believe in someone's expertise, because we are unwilling to find out for ourselves, what is true and what is false. In our life, we have so many forms of media. This word, medium, shares its meaning with the word, conduit. One of the most ancient media is the preacher, who is the conduit of God, of happiness and holiness. This is a game which we are still playing. Blinded by our illusion of progress and civilization, we believe we are above the primitive, the superstition. In actuality, what is happening? Do we ever ask, or question, our reliance on authority, which is only another form of superstition? Obviously, we must depend on others in physical activities, like the driver, the delivery, the cook, and so on. But do we need to depend when it comes to the mind, the psyche, and what we call spiritual matters? We rely on the news to tell us what to think and how to think. We depend on the psychological experts, the spiritual teachers to guide us, to provide solutions to our problems. We might also resist the medium, but in doing so depending on another medium. The crux of the matter is dependence, isn't it? When we so depend, are we intelligent? Or have we transferred this fire of investigation, this acute alertness when we are faced with a challenge, this burning and vital quality, to the authority, so that we become ever more dull, comfortable, heavily conditioned by our own beliefs? This is the echo chamber.
When we are faced with a challenge, a problem, a situation all by ourselves, which means to face something totally alone, then we have the energy necessary to act, don't we? But through constant dependence, seeking comfort in authority, we have denied our brain this energy. Without this energy, how can we live a life that is vital, burning, like a healthy fire?
The medium is the expert, the politicians, the erudite, the professors and the teachers. Our dependence on the medium severs our direct contact with reality. If we see by ourselves, what reality is, what happiness is, what the holy and the sacred is, without any dependence, any prejudice or opinions, then we need no teacher, no authority. The direct contact with truth is clarity, is utterly immovable by anyone, any prejudice or opinions. That is true intelligence. Therefore, any dependence within the psyche denies intelligence. Authority destroys intelligence. Authority is the oppressor, the dictator, the totalitarian. Without any dependence on authority, that very freedom of the mind, untethered, unattached, is intelligent action.
Cover photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash
