Let Your Intuition Give You An Answer

While I lived at Hwa Gye Sa, I taught English once a week. With the English classes and the Sunday dharma practice of meditation instruction, two rounds of meditation followed by a dharma talk, I had quite a bit of contact with the sangha. On occasion, people would ask me for advice—sometimes about life-changing questions. Should I quit my job? Or should I go to school full time? Or should I get married? After finishing school, should I go traveling before starting my career? Instead of advising them on what decision to make, I would suggest they try the sam cheon bae (extended bowing practice). Often the reason for such indecision is a lot of thinking. Trying to weigh the pros and cons doesn’t always work with a question that doesn’t have a right or wrong answer, but which has an answer that works for the person asking the question. The thing you have to do is stop thinking about the problem and let your don’t-know mind give you an answer. This is the mind before thinking. Another way of saying that is let your intuition give you an answer. Your intuitive mind, don’t-know mind, and before-thinking mind are all the same mind.