Got Prajna? (Use It!)

Sometimes I feel like Wilma Flintstone in Jane Jetson’s world. (Surely you remember their husbands, Fred and George?) I have never sent a text message; I’ve owned one cell phone since 2008 and it’s turned off 99% of the time; I don’t Facebook; and my eyes glaze over when it comes to gigabytes, flash drives, and jpeg thing-ys. I do, however, have a GPS (aka Global Positioning System, I think). In fact, we all have one. It’s called the tan t’ien through which a steady stream of guidance (Prajna) flows. The awesome thing about our natural GPS is that it is always with us. We can access and use it anytime, not only when we’re in our cars or using hand-held devices.

I’d bet that most of us use this guidance without even realizing it much of the time. How many can relate to that feeling of something is telling me to do ‘X’, when we planned on doing ‘Y’? The tricky part is that what we planned on doing seems logical and rational. Yet many times, our “gut feeling” seems far from it. And, alas, if it makes no sense to our minds, we often are inclined to override our gut feeling/tan t’ien/inner wisdom/Prajna. As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

Several years ago, a friend and I got lost on Long Island, New York, while driving home from vacationing in Vermont. (Don’t ask.) We had no idea where we were, how we got there and which direction to go to find our way home – in spite of asking the police for directions off the island. There’d been an accident that we seemed to pass from every possible direction and surrounding highway. All of a sudden, I received a gut feeling that essentially said, “Pay no attention to the buildings; pay no attention to the traffic; pay no attention to your co-pilot. Let nothingoutside of yourself distract you.”

Then, my tan t’ien seemed to sprout hands that took the steering wheel. I became so focused on the subtle feelings in my tan t’ien that I felt as if I had been driving bent in half. Within minutes, we were going in the right direction after I had been invited to follow my gut. I was astounded and humbled. When Justin says, “There is within you That Which Knows,” perhaps he’s simply telling us that we all have very capable GPS devices inside. What do I have to add to this notion? Yabba Dabba Do!