Where do intuitions come from – are they related with instincts or impulses?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, where does inclusion come from? Do we place it in instincts or impulses or something else? Ultimately, there is something happening within us and we give some names to that. So, the meanings of words are not stored statically in dictionaries.
They are dynamically determined by usage. So, the same meaning can work in different things. I was in England, I gave a program in a college and the person that organized the program, they had some good question-answer session.
And after the question-answer session, he just came to me and said, you killed it! I said, what? What did I kill? Was I sitting on some insect and I killed it or what? So, you killed it is actually a compliment which comes from a hunting metaphor that you shot it and you killed it. So, now the word kill has a different meaning in a different context. So, similarly, if you get caught in semantics, we will get into an endless technical discussion.
But suffice it to say that there is there are forces within us which misdirect us by acting or making us act thoughtlessly. And there are forces in us which prompt us towards deeper reflection and wiser action. So, I would say that intuitions fall in the positive category.
We can use different words for it. I had a gut feeling. That’s also in the positive category.
So, now in advance, it’s very difficult to know which feeling is coming from where. But what we can look at is where is this feeling taking me? So, where is this feeling, where is this thought, where is this idea taking me? If I act on it, what is going to happen? So, if we focus on the consequence rather than the name, then we will be better situated. And gradually, as we become more introspective, then we are going to identify that also.
So, instincts in general point to some higher intelligence. We could call that as intuition. We could even use the word inspiration.
I would say that there is a subtle difference between these. Instincts are something which you are habitually good at. Some people are language.
Every time they get some paper in front of them, they can reconstruct it very well. What we are regularly good at, that’s instincts. Inspiration refers to some sudden magnificent insight that just comes to us.
Most of the breakthroughs in science, most of the great works of art, they are products of inspiration. So, in that sense, inspiration is not something which we can regularly possess or say that we possess also. It just comes to us sometimes.
So, intuition is also something similar to inspiration, but intuition is more in terms of a sense of life guidance rather than a breakthrough insight or some new flash of understanding. This is what we should do. We could also have another word we use is conscience.
That’s also a voice from within. This is good. Do this.
This is not good. Don’t do this. So, let’s not get into words.
The point is that we want to be attentive and respond positively to the voice that is guiding us towards the wise course of action. And we want to restrain the voice that is misleading us.