1. The Foundational Triad
Awareness of the disorder of our cultures—particularly the emergence of increasingly subtle yet powerful forms of digital control over populations dependent on information technologies—leads to the insight that the hallmark of reality can only be creative freedom, the unshakable ground of human creative freedom.
This creative freedom is not relative to our needs or interests; it is absolute. It is without form and cannot be fully described. It is accessed directly through liberating intelligence—without words, without a separate experiencer, and beyond time. It is the ever-present unknown: always free, unconditioned, and new.
The agent of this creative freedom can only be universal intelligence, and its body is the universe itself. This interdependent triad—creative freedom, universal intelligence, and the universe—is a foundational insight for our time.
Throughout history, this intuition has appeared across cultures in different forms. In Western thought, figures such as Anaxagoras), with his notion of Nous, and later Plotinus (Plotinus, 1991), the Stoics, and Averroes (Averroes, 2009), pointed toward a universal intelligence underlying reality. In Chinese philosophy, this appears as Dao or Tian; in Indian traditions, such as the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, reality itself is understood as intelligence; and in Buddhism, as a pervasive awareness present in all things. Across cultures, the idea that intelligence is not merely human but universal has been a persistent insight formulated in diverse forms.
Human beings are called to participate in this creative freedom. Such participation is not only possible but necessary if humanity is to face its current crisis. Without the awakening and development of this deeper dimension of intelligence, our trajectory risks leading toward increasing domination, fragmentation, and ultimately destruction.
This claim may seem abstract or even utopian. Yet unless human beings awaken and exercise this creative freedom—still largely undeveloped in most people—our current path may lead toward a grim end, marked by domination and exploitation. For this reason, lifelong education oriented toward this freedom should become a priority for humanity.
Many modern thinkers have also reflected on this insight, each in their own way. Among them are Erwin Schrödinger (Schrödinger, 1958), David Bohm (Bohm, 1980), Henri Bergson (Bergson, 1911), Alfred North Whitehead (Whitehead, 1978), and Nikolai Berdyaev (Berdyaev, 1955) all of whom, in different ways, point toward a reality grounded in creative freedom and intelligence.
Reality’s freedom escapes any determination or description, especially through language. Whatever can be fully described or fixed conceptually belongs not to reality itself, but to the domain of thought—to the intelligence of need, which produces models of reality necessary for survival.
For this reason, thought alone cannot characterize universal intelligence, the agent of all intra-actions in the universe. Such intelligence cannot be captured by concepts. It can only be directly intuited through the awakening of liberating intelligence, which is itself the presence of universal intelligence in human beings.
Attachment to words and to the models they generate tends to enclose us within constructed realities, isolating us from one another and from the living whole. This enclosure, reflected in rigid social structures and forms of domination, is one of the fundamental errors of humanity, leading to division, exploitation, and suffering.
The triad proposed here—creative freedom, universal intelligence, and the intra-active universe in continuous creation—is not a theory, but a symbol pointing toward the unity of human life in diversity, and toward the possibility of a civilization grounded in this insight.
From early in life, we are taught that through knowledge and skills we may gain control over the world, satisfy our desires, and succeed within competitive societies. Yet this model inevitably produces division: a few “winners” and many “losers,” with increasing inequality and suffering.
True human realization lies elsewhere: in living within this creative freedom, which all human beings can access and develop. This is the real power of human intelligence—to create one’s life in awareness, and to live it fully.
When human beings live in this freedom, their needs are met in a balanced and sustainable way, oriented toward the well-being of all. In such a life, love is not conditioned or instrumental, but expressed freely.
This is not an objective to be achieved or possessed. It is the result of freeing ourselves from conditioning—individual and collective—especially from the structures of ego-centered existence. Such freedom may arise through attentive observation of the creative capacities of intelligence, allowing liberating intelligence—the intelligence of truth, beauty, and love—to awaken.
Finally, it must be remembered that words such as reality, truth, freedom, unity, intelligence, creativity, beauty, life, and love do not admit fixed definitions. They cannot be captured in concepts or enclosed within models. They do not belong to the domain of knowledge, but point toward immediate experience.
These words are not descriptions, but symbols—indications of something to be directly lived. They belong to the present moment, beyond time, always new. Their purpose is not to define, but to awaken inquiry and attention toward the realities they indicate.
2. Are We External Observers of the Universe?
We are accustomed to believing that we are external observers and experiencers of the universe and of nature, treating them as separate objects and phenomena to be known, predicted, and, if possible, controlled for our purposes. This is the perspective of the intelligence of need—the intelligence of survival. It names and assigns meaning to things, constructing models of reality relative to our needs and interests, and in doing so shapes the different and often divided cultures in which we live.
From this standpoint, techno-sciences have developed with extraordinary success. Yet they often rest on the implicit belief that they describe and determine reality in its most concrete form, overlooking the fact that reality, in its essence, is free and absolute. What techno-sciences actually produce are models—abstract representations relative to our needs—which allow prediction and control through highly developed, largely quantitative and mathematical forms of language.
Although techno-sciences belong primarily to the intelligence of need, they also participate—often without awareness—in the intelligence of freedom, which is the source of their creativity.
The belief that techno-sciences provide the most concrete knowledge of reality is, however, misleading. In truth, they deal with abstractions, leaving aside the immediacy of lived experience. Alfred North Whitehead in his 1925 book (Whitehead, 1925) “Science in the modern world” described this as the “fallacy of misplaced concreteness”: taking abstractions as if they were concrete reality. Thus, an electromagnetic wave may be considered objective and real, while the direct experience of color is reduced to a subjective impression—when in fact it is a concrete quality of experience.
Techno-sciences have also relied heavily on the notion of causality. Yet causality, while useful, is not an absolute law of the universe. As David Hume pointed out, the fact that the sun has risen every day does not guarantee that it must rise tomorrow—we project patterns from past experience onto the future.
Modern physics further challenges this view, showing that at fundamental levels reality behaves probabilistically rather than deterministically. In a similar spirit, Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that humans construct “causes” in order to impose order and maintain a sense of control over an essentially dynamic and uncertain world. Even thinkers such as Bertrand Russell observed that advanced sciences tend to replace the notion of cause with functional relations and mathematical descriptions.
Despite these insights, we continue to interpret our models as reality itself. This tendency extends today into attempts to define intelligence through artificial systems—through mathematical logic, evolutionary biology, and artificial intelligence—seeking to formalize what may not be definable, but only directly lived. This ambition is reflected in contemporary discussions of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), as explored by authors such as Shane Legg, Marcus Hutter, (Legg & Hutter, 2007) Max Tegmark (Tegmark, 2017), Nick Bostrom (Bostrom, 2014), Ray Kurzweil (Kurzweil, 2024), Lovelock, J. (Lovelock, 2019) and others.
At the same time, many traditions—particularly in Indian thought—continue to maintain that intelligence is not an emergent property of matter, but a fundamental dimension of reality itself.
Finally, this belief—constructed by thought—in a separate “I” as observer and experiencer of the universe reinforces a mode of existence based on separation. Instead of feeling integrated and in harmony with the whole, we relate to nature as something external to be dominated. This has led to a form of violent predation of nature that today places human survival itself at risk.
3. We Are Part of the Unpredictable Dynamism of the
Universe
Less common, however, is the experience of feeling ourselves as fully integrated members of the universe—our home—participating through our actions in its harmonious yet unpredictable and continuously creative intra-active unfolding. This unpredictability is evident in the fact that techno-scientific knowledge, based on the regularities of the universe, is itself constantly evolving.
Rather than experiencing ourselves as observers separated from what we experience, reality is the living present. To understand it, we must enter into it directly, without separation, and be part of it.
The foundational view of universal intelligence situates us within this whole, with all its inherent insecurity. It makes clear that the supposed separation of the human being is a conventional model—constructed to provide a sense of security in the face of the radical unpredictability of the universe.
In seeking such security within an intrinsically insecure reality, we construct a separate “I”, made of memory and thought. This division gives rise to possession, inequality, domination, conflict, and suffering. As Alan Watts insightfully suggests in The Wisdom of Insecurity, this search for security often becomes the very source of our insecurity.
4. One Intelligence
Universal intelligence indicates that there is only one intelligence: the agent of all the symbiotic intra-activity of the universe, manifesting in all forms of intelligence. We may refer to it as “universal intelligence,” but without attributing to it a fixed meaning or definition, since, as something foundational, it cannot be fully defined. It can only be approached through awareness of its activity, which is largely unpredictable.
Only the models we construct—based on observed regularities, such as those developed by techno-sciences—allow a certain degree of prediction and control, and are therefore extremely useful.
Human intelligence is an embodiment of this universal intelligence. Unlike computers, where hardware and software can be separated, in human beings, body and intelligence are inseparable and intra-dependent. Moreover, they are inseparable from the whole universe, and especially from the intelligence of our planet, through a continuous intra-action with it.
Everything, including human beings, may be understood as networks of intra-actions in which intelligence is the operative principle. Even when we appear isolated, we remain in constant exchange—for instance, through breathing and our ongoing exchange with the atmosphere.
In this sense, intelligence sustains the unity of the universe, including human beings. It is the meeting point of all that exists—a reality that can be directly intuited through liberating intelligence, beyond words and thought.
Nature, including ourselves, may thus be understood as the ongoing creation of this vast, non-fragmented intelligence, continuously evolving by learning from its own activity. Through intelligence, the universe unfolds as a process of self-learning and self-creation, in which human beings participate as co-creators, and therefore bear responsibility.
Our lack of awareness of this unpredictable creativity and unity is largely due to our attachment to linguistic models of reality—coherent and useful, yet ultimately conventional. These models, produced by language and thought, are often mistaken for reality itself, and their distinctions interpreted as real divisions.
We thus become fascinated by a world of information, coming to believe that intelligence is merely information processing, or even that reality itself might be reducible to bits—an example of what has been called the fallacy of misplaced concreteness.
Moreover, the linguistic models of the universe developed by techno-sciences can lead us to conceive it as an immense machine, sometimes even understood as governed by algorithms—as suggested by Daniel Dennett in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1995).
5. Awakening of Liberating Intelligence
When the mind becomes quiet and free from mechanical thinking, it may become aware of the unity of the universe and begin to act as a co-creator in the unfolding of universal intelligence.
This is the awakening of liberating intelligence. In such awareness, observation deepens, and one may experience oneself not as separate, but as part of the whole of humanity.
For example, if one looks at a tree with full attention, without naming it—since naming creates separation—its presence may be perceived more fully, revealing the interdependence and unity of all that is.
Human beings have direct and immediate access—selfless, wordless, and beyond time—to such fundamental realities, and in particular to truth and unconditional love, through this silent liberating intelligence.
In other words, what is expressed here points to the awakening of an awareness of the creative freedom of reality, of its agent—universal intelligence—and of its body—the universe itself: a foundational, interdependent triad to which human liberating intelligence is directly connected.
To live this reality, a calm and attentive mind is needed—silent, free from self-centered activity, and present to the immediacy of each moment. This may be glimpsed, for instance, in the quiet perception of nature, or in actions arising from unconditional love.
6. Human Freedom
Human freedom is participation in the creative freedom of reality—not merely the exercise of individual free will.
Full awareness of this freedom, and action in accordance with it, arise through the immediate observation of our conditioning—personal and social—without judgment. Such sustained observation—without words or evaluation—may gradually free us from these conditionings.
In this way, human beings may live in the unity of reality, without separation from one another or from nature—and therefore without conflict or violence, something that still remains largely unrealized.
This unconditioning of human intelligence—its freedom to act appropriately in each present moment—is our fundamental responsibility, one that is never fully accomplished. The rest—a healthy, intra-active intelligence, capable of responding to real human needs and expressing itself through truth, beauty, and love—follows naturally from it.
7. Responsible Co-Creators of the Universe
Our intention is not to provide an abstract or logical description of the universe and its origins, as cosmology attempts to do. Ideas, concepts, knowledge, theories, and narratives—the models of reality we construct—cannot be foundational. They are necessary, always relative to our needs, interests, capacities, and instruments. They are means of survival.
Indeed, the universe itself continually obliges us to revise and transform our scientific theories. Only the unknowable creative freedom of reality, universal intelligence, and its body—the universe—may be understood as the source and true identity of all that is real. To be aware of this, and to act accordingly, has profound consequences for human freedom and happiness.
This triad may be understood as an expression of present reality and its unity. Nothing exists in isolation; everything exists in relation. No thing, no fact, no being, no event stands by itself. At the same time, this triad makes us aware of our participation—and our responsibility—in the spontaneous dynamism of the universe, as co-creators within it.
Yet we tend to devote most of our attention to describing the origins of the universe, as scientific cosmology does. However, human beings are capable of participating in this fundamental creative power through liberating intelligence—selfless, wordless, and beyond time—through which we may become conscious, and even loving, co-creators of the universe.
This may seem exaggerated or even illusory. Yet such participation, if awakened more widely, may be one of the very few ways—perhaps the only way—to avoid future conflicts and the possible self-destruction of humanity.
8. Reality’s Creativity in Each Present Moment
Reality is not a finished mechanism to be described or controlled—the idea that the future is already determined by the past, as Henri Bergson insightfully argued. Rather, reality is an unpredictable dynamism, a living process shaped by creative interactions and relationships.
The universe is continuously moving toward novelty, toward the unknown, through its continuous power of creation in each present moment. In this sense, reality is constantly recreating itself—including life and human beings. Nothing in human life is permanent. To live fully, we must remain in tune with this movement of universal intelligence. The foundational triad itself expresses this continuous creativity—the ever-present possibility of renewing our lives for the well-being of all.
This constant change reveals both the liveliness and the subtle beauty of the universe. It is not the execution of a fixed plan, but the growth of an intelligent whole, learning from each act—very different from something deliberately constructed. Nothing in the universe is ever completely finished or perfectly still. The moment we try to fix it in a concept, to hold it as something stable, it becomes abstract, lifeless, and unreal.
The present reality is like music: as soon as it sounds, it fades away. Reality is therefore inherently uncertain—no one can fully predict what will unfold.
9. Fascinated by the Power of Techno-Sciences
In the search for security, human beings model the regularities of reality through words and concepts with relatively fixed meanings, allowing us to live in a more or less predictable and controllable world—something essential for survival. Within this framework, the models developed by techno-sciences have become especially significant. Through their abstract knowledge of the past, and through scientific laws and theories, they are able to predict the behavior of many phenomena, greatly enhancing the material well-being of humanity.
At the same time, this power carries an immense potential for destruction, as seen in the development of the arms industry. We have become so fascinated by the capacity of techno-sciences to improve material life that much of humanity has placed its trust—and its hopes—in their expansion and dominance.
In doing so, we tend to forget that truly wise intelligence arises from the harmony of its three dimensions: the functional (concerned with the how), the axiological (concerned with what truly matters), and the liberating (which frees us from conditioning, including the dominance of a separate ego). It is this balanced intelligence that is needed to transform our instrumental and often unhealthy cultures into more integrated and life-affirming ones.
When one dimension—especially the functional—dominates, intelligence becomes partial and insufficient to discern what is genuinely needed. This imbalance is one of the roots of the disorder present in many contemporary cultures. What can be done for profit is often done, with little understanding of its broader consequences—precisely the domain where axiological and liberating intelligence are required.
10. The Human Predicament
Let us insist: words do not describe reality; they model it, fixing it in ways that are necessary for organizing our lives. Based on the perceived order and regularities of the world, we construct linguistic models of reality—a world of named subjects and objects, stripped of their intrinsic intelligence, to which we assign meanings, measure, and classify according to our needs, interests, desires, fears, and expectations.
In the search for security, we thus create a more fixed and predictable world through language, setting aside the unpredictable dynamism of reality, with its inevitable and often unexpected pains. Rather than being fully experienced and assimilated—individually and collectively—these are resisted and opposed, which only increases human suffering.
Deeply attached as we are to words and to the models they generate, we tend to forget their relative nature and instead take them as faithful descriptions of reality. In this way, their distinctions and communicative conventions become actual divisions between us—between “you” and “I”, between individuals, cultures, and nations.
At the same time, we come to believe that narratives and accumulated knowledge can fully capture truth—a belief that has contributed to conflict, violence, and war. This has long been the human predicament. The wrong turn taken by humankind from its origins: to live primarily within models of reality, while remaining largely unaware of liberating intelligence—the source of unity and unconditional love.