By George A. Boyd © 2017
We can identify different levels of decisions that people make. Some arise from the strata of the personality; some arise from the transpersonal levels of the mind. These seven orders of decisions are listed below.
- Emotional decisions
- Poorly considered decision
- Well-thought-out decisions
- Inspired decisions (transpersonal) – wisdom, intuition or a sense of purpose guides these decisions
- Higher order decisions – these arise from the Superconscious mind; they enact an aspect of one of the higher octaves of the will—this is usually a decision to operate a spiritual gift.
- Inspired decisions (Transcendental) – a decision taken to obey the order or commandment of your Spiritual Master (Agya)
- Core Decisions (made by the Soul) – these include decisions to serve in the Hierarchy or select Liberation, decision to travel the path to reach Liberation and Mastery, decision to reveal itself and awaken the personality from its sleep, or the decision to take initiation in a spiritual tradition.
Types one through three are personal decisions. We can characterize the three levels of personal decisions as follows:
You make emotional decisions out of passion and ignorance. These decisions arise under the influence of greed, lust, or anger; you may act on erroneous beliefs or conspiracy theories. These types of decisions come from your defensive ego and personal unconscious; they are primarily reactive. Demagogues and cult leaders prey on this this level of the mind, and use these emotions to drive decision making and behavior. Politicians and sales people also try to manipulate this zone of the mind to get your vote, get a donation, or make a sale.
Poorly considered decisions stem from only considering one or two factors, and not looking at the “big picture” of the multiple interacting factors inform better decisions. You might choose a pair of shoes based only on the design and how they look. Getting them home, you may find that they really are not comfortable and rub on the top of your foot and your ankles.
Well-thought-out decisions consider all relevant factors and determine the pros and cons of several options. You engage personal intuition to check in with the different facets of your Conscious, Subconscious, and Metaconscious mind to ensure that you are not ignoring an important factor that impacts the outcome. You gather as much information as needed to be able to make a cogent decision, without considering extraneous or irrelevant data.
The challenge for the personality is to make fewer emotional decisions and poor decisions, and increase the frequency of well-thought-out decisions that yield successful outcomes.
Once the personality has reached a certain level of integration and self-control, it can begin to open the Antakarana bridge to begin to commune with the Superconscious mind and the Soul. As this bridge to the Soul is progressively built, the Soul begins to guide the personality to carry out its purpose and participate in the development of the Soul’s abilities. Usually by the Third Planetary Initiation, this link has been strengthened to the point where the Soul can begin to overshadow the personality and express its ministry and service in the world.
Types four through seven arise from the transpersonal zone of the mind.
Type four, inspired decision, comes from your Superconscious mind—it is the first order of transpersonal decisions. Reception of this type of inspiration is typical of the aspirant stage of spirituality. It might be conveyed to you through the inner voice of intuition, or the impress of the Holy Spirit. Alternately, you might receive this information through a structured psychic reading like a tarot card or astrology reading, or the from a channeled message or inspired discourse (satsang). Some of this material is vague and ambiguous; it sometimes founded upon spurious notions—decisions made from this level sometimes yield poor results.
The three highest forms of transpersonal decisions, we see in advanced disciples.
Type five, the election to use the powers of the Superconscious mind, or siddhis, often appears when the disciple has reached the Cosmic Sphere in their meditations. Most disciples activate selected powers for healing, spiritual guidance and ministry, or awakening the spiritual potentials of others.
Type six, overshadowing with guidance from the spiritual Master (Agya), typically occurs when the disciple has begun the Transcendental Sphere leg of his or her journey. The Supervising Initiate gives guidance to enable the disciple to carry out spiritual ministry, fulfill their Soul Purpose, or to engage in compassionate action to help others.
Type seven, the core decisions of the Soul, occur at key junctures on the Path that enable it to complete its purpose and fulfill its spiritual destiny.
Many sojourners on the Path discount the role of developing the personality to make effective and prudent decisions. Instead, they may come to rely upon a relatively underdeveloped intuitive faculty to guide them, seek the counsel of channeled entities, consult their astrologer or tarot card reader, or live in the moment and see where serendipity leads them.
As a result, they my defer or avoid important life decisions, or come under the spell of a charismatic cult leader, who is only too happy to make all of their life decisions for them. They dread failure, embarrassment, and having to explain why they are not successful—so instead, they remain in altered states of awareness, and never engage the difficult task of constructing a meaningful life, one decision at a time.
We suggest it is possible to use meditation to evaluate your outcomes and select better options for the future. The ability to introspect and honestly evaluate the results of your behavior will allow you to make positive changes in your life.
Those of you who have difficulties with making successful decisions in your life may wish to consider a structured program to help gain greater self-mastery: we would recommend our Life Coaching Program as a means to build a stronger foundation for a more fulfilling life.
