Q: If I get an idea about what I might do, does this come from the Soul?

A: Ideas arise in a band of the Subtle Realm called the Manomayakosa. These sparks of inspiration interface with the Metaconscious mind.

• This idea can stimulate the Intellect, where we call it a concept.
• It can provide a picture of a potential solution in the Concrete Mind, where we call it a visualized outcome or goal picture.
• It can activate the Conscience, where we call it a precept.
• It can inspire a potential personification for the Persona, where it suggests roles, dialog, and humor, as you might express in role-play, drama, or comedy.
• It can stir the Desire Body to commit to a cause, to take action, or to do battle.

An idea most commonly appears at the level of the Intellect, where it appears as a conceptual representation of an object, a quality, or a category. Ideas are linked together to create models that elegantly describe a subject matter, as a conceptual framework.

The dimension of quality for an idea has several layers:

1. Intensity – This is the relative energy of an idea from mild to compelling. The energy for design for a new lamp would not be as intense as someone framing the need to vote for one’s candidate as something that will save the country.
2. Emotion – Ideas range from non-emotionalized or strongly emotionalized. A design for a butter dish would have little or no emotion associated with it, where as a political candidate cast as the country’s savior would be powerfully emotionalized.
3. Desire – Ideas that becomes representations of desires are called dreams. You might have an idea of what it would be like when you graduate… when you take a vacation… when you retire… and this motivates you to want to achieve this goal image. Desire-laden ideas are typically highly energetic and strongly emotionalized.
4. Fantasy – This is the symbolic or imaginal significance of an idea. This is the fantasy you weave or the story you tell yourself of what it will be like when you realize your dream. This fantasy component becomes more energetic and emotionalized, the more closely you identify with the outcome. Fantasizing about getting your first job as a chemist, when this is strongly connected with the way you visualize yourself in the future, is experienced more intensely than weaving a fantasy about visiting Disney World—a fantasy connected with your identity and how you see yourself in the future is more compelling than having a fun time.
5. Reception – This layer taps how you received the idea, and whether you received the idea in a way that you could remember it. The idea can spontaneously pop into your mind through inspiration. You might encounter it through other people’s communication, in conversation, in a speech or lecture. The idea might be conveyed to you through different channels—reading, audio, or video. This layer is relevant to whether the idea makes an impression on your mind and you retain it. If you learn best through listening, you might not remember the idea if it is presented as a written article.
6. Context – Each idea is received in a particular context that helps you understand its meaning. Ideas can be presented in an environmental, social, cultural, or religious context. For example, the word “love” has many different meanings: when you are clear in which context this idea nests, you can understand the intended meaning of the person who communicated it to you.
7. Appropriateness – An idea must be relevant and germane to your goals and dreams, or you will reject it. At this layer, you make judgments about whether an idea is realistic or unrealistic; whether it is proven through testing and evidence or it is merely a fantasy; or whether it is doable or unattainable.

The Soul can send you an idea, but it is hard to tease out the origin of where you receive an idea. If you are unsure of the origin of the idea, you might try using Receptive Meditation, where you receive information from the Soul while you are in its presence. This lets you clearly discern that you are getting this communication from the Soul.

We teach Receptive Meditation in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. We teach a form of this meditation in our Introduction to Meditation Program that does not require you to enter a deep state of meditational absorption.

We encourage you to train yourself to identify where particular ideas arise, and to notice the qualities with which these ideas are imbued.