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Da Vinci Decoded: Discovering the Spiritual Secrets of Leonardo's Seven Principles

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Da Vinci Decoded: Discovering the Spiritual Secrets of Leonardo’s Seven Principles

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Highlights & Notes

In his acclaimed New York Times best-seller The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav offers a guide to the kind of heightened consciousness that will get us to that next level, which he describes as the “territory of inspiration,” the place where intuition accelerates, putting us in touch with something beyond ourselves, something beyond “the realm of time and space and matter … something of great vision that comes from beyond the personality.”

we are conditioned by the brain’s reticular formation (a structure in the midbrain) to pay special attention to anything that seems new, different, or “sensational,” while allowing more timeless, less topical material—such as universal spiritual wisdom—to be forgotten.

at least eight of the ten commandments are common to all the world’s cultures, constituting the equivalent of a global statement of human values.

born on April 15, 1452, and died on May 2, 1519—he

He was outraged, for example, by the Church’s practice of indulgences, which allowed people to “buy” absolution for their sins.

“He accepted that there was a supreme, ineffable power behind the design of nature, identifiable as God, but he was convinced that concrete knowledge could not reveal the nature of divinity itself.

The details of Leonardo’s childhood are sketchy, but we do know that his mother, Caterina, was a peasant from the village of Anchiano and his father, Ser Piero, who was not married to Caterina, was an upper-middle-class but otherwise unremarkable accountant and notary from Vinci. Ser Piero sired a total of twelve children, but none of Leonardo’s siblings was especially gifted.

A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. By rejecting dogma and superstition, Leonardo took responsibility for his own search. The spiritual journey requires us to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions, and ultimately for all of creation.

“Learning is the greatest game in life and the most fun. All children are born believing this and will continue to believe this until we convince them that learning is very hard work and unpleasant. Some kids never really learn this lesson and go through life believing that learning is fun and the only game worth playing. We have a name for such people. We call them geniuses.”

His curiosity about nature went hand in hand with his most important question: What is the nature of the human soul? This core question drove him to plumb the secrets of the womb and of birth, to explore the anatomy of the moment of death, and ultimately to capture in his paintings a depth of soul that had never before been expressed.

“No one should imitate the manner of another, for he would then deserve to be called a grandson of nature, not her son. Given the abundance of natural forms, it is important to go straight to nature.”

The labor that brings us all good things is more than just our effort in the outer world—it is also a reflection of our inner work and ethical awareness. Leonardo emphasized that “justice requires power, insight and will.” He admonished his students to recognize that “he who does not punish evil commends it to be done.” And he counseled, “He who walks straight rarely falls.”

“Everything can be taken from a man, but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

As the Buddhist saying goes, “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.”

“While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.”

“It is necessary for doctors who are the guardians of the sick to understand what man is, what life is, and what health is, and in what way a balance and harmony of these elements maintains it.”

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