The Intellect

It is inborn in the human mind to wish to know. If this begins with
the endless surface questions of a child's curiosity, if it continues
into the deeper questions of a scientist's probing investigation, it
cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will
eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective
thought with mystical intuition which is true intelligence, which
needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so the knowing
faculty enters the realm of philosophy.

It is true that no man can arrive at the truth about God through his
own thinking, which is merely the ego thinking. But it is also true
that through keen, close, and sustained reflection he can arrive at
the truth which perceives the ego's limitations, the intellect's
limitations, and thereby know the time has come to suspend such
efforts to stop and to surrender in mystical meditation to the
non-thought side of his being.

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Idea is not the ultimate reality, it is only a manifestation of
something which is its ultimate reality. The latter seems to be an
abstraction. Intellectually it must be so because it is beyond the
power of finite, human mentality to conceive it. But it may not be
beyond the power of a higher faculty lying latent within us to have
the experience of this reality--at least for a time. It is not known
how to verify whether this is so or not unless the intellect humbly
realizes its own limitations and voluntarily abnegates itself at a
certain stage. In most cases this is done prematurely, hence the
self-deceptions and hallucinations which are rife in mystical circles,
but in the philosophical mystic's case it would come only after the
fullest use of critical thought and analytic reasoning. This is the
proper moment for such a suicidal act. For in the end he will be
brought to such an abrupt turn. Perhaps Jesus' statement, "Except ye
become as little children ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of
heaven," is appropriate here, if understood as an invitation not to
foolishness but to surrender of all human pride.

Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 1: The Place of Intellect...Krishnamurti