Understanding
At this level you transcend the emotional facets of the lower levels and start to think clearly and rationally. This is the level of medicine and science. The way I see it, when you accomplish this level, you become capable of utilizing your reasoning abilities to their fullest extent. You now have the discipline and the proactivity to fully tap your natural abilities.
Understanding- The level of science, medicine, and a want for knowledge. Your lust for learning becomes insatiable. You don’t waste time in activities that don’t provide educational value. You start to categorize all of life and its experiences into proofs, postulates, and possibilities. The failure of this level is you can’t seem to separate the subjective from the objective, and for of that, you tend to miss the point. You fail to see the forest because you’re tunnel-visioned on the trees. Paradoxically, understanding can become a stumbling block for further progressions of consciousness.
You’ve accomplished the point where you say, “Geez. I can do all this stuff, and I know I must put it to beneficial use. So what’s the best use of my talents?” You have a look around the world and begin making meaningful contributions. At the very high end, this is the level of Einstein and Freud. It’s likely obvious that most inhabit never reach this level in their entire lives.
Decidedly we gain much knowledge from books, for it’s truly said nothing can be thought or imagined that cannot be made manifest; consequently whatever thought a man may flirt with or express, we know that it denotes a condition that might obtain and that it’s a reflection from one of humanity’s aspects, though the color might be dark and disgusting. It might carry with it the most devilish suggestion and influence or it might be luminous with the highest thought and purpose, impelling to noble deeds and words. Therefore from the printed page we gain much if we view each of these as an exhibition only of man’s composite nature and that it expresses his viewpoint.
He who truly wants to help humanity must first off forget self and then he will find increased knowledge and power in every move that might be made. He won’t be troubled with doubts nor cast down by disappointments, but with the simple trust of a child will touch bigger heights than he dreamed of. He won’t need to hunt for Nature’s secrets through hidden ways.
Love
I don’t care for the’ label “love” here as this isn’t the emotion of love. It’s unconditional love, a permanent understanding of your connection with all that lives. Consider compassion. At the level of understanding, you live in service to your head. But that eventually becomes a stalemate where you fall into the trap of over-intellectualizing.
Love- Only if, in the level of understanding you begin to see yourself as a potential for the greater good of mankind, will you have adequate power to enter here. Here is where you begin applying what was learned in your thinking and you let the heart take over instead of the mind – you live by intuition. This is the level of brotherly love – a selfless love that’s no desire except for the welfare of those around them. Ghandi and Mother Theresa are examples of individuals who were living at this level. Only 0.4 percent of the world will ever accomplish it..
You see that you need a greater context than just thinking for its own sake. At the level of love, you now set your head and all your other talents and abilities in service to your heart (not your emotions, but your bigger sense of right and wrong — your conscience). I see this as the level of wakening to your real purpose. Your motives at this level are pure and undefiled by the desires of the ego. This is the level of lifespan service to humanity. Think Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr. Schweitzer. At this level you likewise start to be guided by a force greater than yourself. It’s a feeling of relinquishing. Your intuition gets extremely strong. This level is reached only by 1 in 250 individuals during their entire lifespan.
When you feel enough of the unconditional love of others, you’ll have the most crucial treasure in life. The wounds of the past will heal—wounds caused by insufficient true Love—and you’ll feel whole and happy. As your emptiness and fear are eliminated by this, you’ll simply have no need to use bad behaviors. Without those behaviors, you’ll find relationships with others relatively effortless and will begin finding the happiness you’ve always wanted.