So analysis is related to the Red or Strength Essence; synthesis to Brilliancy. Analysis is based on separating elements in a situation or an experience—that is, discriminating parts and specifics, which brings clarity, precision, and knowledge. However, the presence of Brilliancy as the prototype of synthesis gives the soul the additional capacity to see underlying unities. This capacity appears as synthetic insights that engender understanding of larger and larger segments of reality. The functioning of the Guidance in inquiry is primarily an interplay of analysis and synthesis. Sometimes analysis dominates, sometimes synthesis dominates. But they can also work together. We break down an object of inquiry into components and recombine certain parts; then we analyze other parts and make other combinations, until at some point an overall final synthesis emerges. We call that an insight or realization, which is the understanding of the entire matter we are inquiring into. 

The precise intelligence of reality has a fluid and free balance between analysis and synthesis of all the content of experience. It takes into consideration clearly and exactly the whole of our experience. Analysis means that we discriminate, we see differences, and we see the relationships between things; and synthesis means we see the picture that connects all these discriminations together. The dialectic of analysis and synthesis opens up the revelation of “Oh, this is what it means!” and that becomes a new truth we haven’t seen before. And this creative discriminating intelligence cannot operate without compassionate sensitivity. It is sensitive to the situation—aware of it, attuned to it, and responsive to it.

Although this discriminating intelligence is the teacher or the guide—or rather, the facet of true nature as inner guide—that doesn’t mean it is something separate on its own. It is still true nature. It is an expression of true nature. It is true nature manifesting as the guide who points the way, who inspires the aspirants, and who supports the journey of discovery, awakening, and transformation. 

Consider the following example: You are beginning to experience the essential aspect of Will, the White presence. You are able to discriminate it as Will. You can stop at that—“Oh, this is Will”—or you can begin to discriminate various characteristics of it, such as the feeling of determination, the sense of confidence, the inner solidity of support, the steadfastness Will gives to the soul, and so on. This is analysis, discrimination. “Oh, I see. When I’m feeling determined in this way, I recognize in it a sense of confidence.” Then, as you feel the self-confidence: “I see, this confidence is the same as what makes me steadfast. And I recognize that when I’m steadfast, it is because this Will is a sense of inner support.” You begin to discriminate the qualities that are implicit in Will. So if you have a discriminating capacity, you can analyze, you can see more details, recognize more specifics in the same experience. If your discriminating capacity is not developed, if the sharpness of the diamond isn’t there, it will be difficult for you to see the various qualities that make up the aspect. In this process, you are not only experiencing analysis, you are experiencing synthesis at the same time—understanding how all the qualities are manifestations of the same aspect. There is confidence, there’s support, there’s steadfastness, there’s determination, there’s an effortlessness and a sense of purity, there’s a sense of pristineness and a sense of definiteness. At the very instant of seeing the discrimination among these, you recognize that they are all the same thing. They are just slight differentiations of the same presence. 

In its functioning, Diamond Guidance uses two primary faculties, two operations, in an organically combined way: analysis and synthesis. It combines the functioning of the right and left hemispheres of the brain in a unified action of understanding. In order to understand something, we frequently need first to analyze it. In other words, we need to look at the various parts and components, differentiate the significant elements, and discriminate them in more subtle and minute ways. Thus, the faculty of analysis is related to separation and discrimination, which ultimately is the capacity provided by the Red Essence. The way this faculty generally manifests in the Diamond Guidance is in its diamondness—its clear, objective nature. The diamondness of the Guidance—the fact that it possesses sharp facets—is what gives it a precise capacity for discrimination and analysis. Regardless of what quality is operating, there is always a diamondness to it—always a diamondness to the Green, to the Red, to the Brilliancy, to the Black. This gives the overall diamond structure the capacity to discriminate precisely and sharply, which then becomes the capacity of analysis. 

It is true that in synthesis you have to be able to let go of the analytical mind, but analysis is not necessarily antithetical to synthesis. Analysis is also the functioning of an essential quality; thus it is not exclusively a mental activity. As we said, the integration of analysis with synthesis is in fact necessary for any true understanding. 

By exploring the Brilliancy diamond, we will know objectively and precisely what intelligence is and how it functions in understanding. As we have discussed, Brilliancy as an aspect is a very clear, very explicit sense of presence. Its substance is so pure, so compacted with true nature, that its presence is palpable. It is exquisitely smooth. We can feel it as a flowing luminous presence, with a density similar to mercury but infinitely smoother and finer. If we see the reflection of sunlight in a mirror, and then imagine liquefying it, we get the effect of brilliance. Brilliancy is so intense that it looks almost like a continuous explosion of light. When we see this beautiful brilliance, we understand why and how Being is intelligent. It is intelligent not only when it manifests in thought but also as intrinsic and organic brilliance, which is the underlying intelligence in any sphere of action. It provides our faculties of inquiry and understanding with an innate intelligence, so that discriminations are subtle, connections are insightful, analysis is luminously delineated, and articulation is lucid and perfect. Brilliancy is so perfectly immediate, so complete, smooth, fluid, and free that its functioning brings ease, perfection, lucidity, and clarity to any action, whether the action is communication or thinking, interaction or analysis. The intelligence of Being does not function in a mechanical way like a computer does—by stringing together perceptions and memories. It is not like artificial intelligence, which is why artificial intelligence will never become real intelligence. There is an innate creativity in the functioning of Brilliancy. Intelligent inquiry possesses an organic, intuitive magic in how it arrives at  insights. As a result, there is always a newness in the experience, and always an efficiency in our way of understanding. The inquiry embodies a lucidity, a fluidity, and a radiance that illuminate experience and make it possible for us to see more directly. Consciousness becomes so luminous that it cannot help but see more intrinsically, more to the core of the matter, always in a very smooth, easy, and lucid way, without effort or method. 

It also helps to inquire into our capacities for analysis and synthesis and to see the way they are limited to the external and the mental. Understanding utilizes analysis and synthesis, but our ordinary intellect does this with ordinary data, not with experience, and especially not with immediate experience. Many spiritual practitioners are afraid of understanding their spiritual experience because they fear that would indicate the presence of the thinking mind, which would cut them off from their spiritual presence. Thinking mind certainly does this, but it is still possible to study our spiritual experience and analyze its characteristics. Remember, the diamond guidance includes the aspect of brilliancy and through its analysis, a synthesis can arise naturally and spontaneously as insight, without relying on mental deduction. We need to be open to the possibility of higher intellect and realize that when spiritual teachings tell us to drop the mind, they are referring to the thinking intellectual mind, not to all knowing  and understanding.