The Intelligence That Actually Matters

*Based on the inaugural class of the Samba Śiva group, by Jonas Masetti*

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There is a provocation Jonas makes in the inaugural class of the Samba Śiva group that hit me hard: a person can earn 100 million reais in a day on the financial market, but needs medication to sleep. Can they be called intelligent?

The short answer is: no. At least not in the way that matters.

Three Types of Intelligence

Jonas describes three types of intelligence, each deeper than the last.

Logical intelligence is the one we value most in the world. It builds rockets, operates computers, performs complex calculations. But someone can build an atomic bomb and still cannot sit at the dinner table with their family and be happy. Who is more intelligent -- that person or someone who cannot operate a computer but lives well?

If you are not using your intelligence to live well, that is not intelligence. It is stupidity with a diploma.

Then comes emotional intelligence -- the capacity to walk into a room and perceive what people are going through. To understand that the world is not black and white, that people carry pains they cannot express. This intelligence is superior to logic, because without it, you cannot engage with the complexity of being human.

And there is a third, which Jonas says is the highest of all: metacognition. It is the mind's capacity to see that what it is thinking is wrong. To rewrite itself.

The Sleepwalker and the Cheese

To illustrate, he tells a story that is absurd and brilliant at the same time. A guy gets a cheese, puts it in the shared fridge. Next day, the cheese is half gone. He is furious. Fights with everyone, complains, puts a hidden camera on top of the fridge. Guess what? He was sleepwalking. He was eating his own cheese.

The metaphor is perfect: when does a sleepwalker catch themselves eating cheese? Never. In the same way, when we are "asleep" -- on autopilot, without self-awareness -- we cannot see that we are the cause of our own problems.

Metacognition is the camera on the fridge. Without it, we stay trapped in cycles we cannot resolve.

The Mind's Glitch

Jonas gives another example that gave me chills. A person wants to feel loved. To feel loved, they need someone to *choose* to be with them. For someone to choose, there must be freedom. But the person fears losing them, so they take away the other's freedom. And without freedom, the other person cannot truly *choose* to be there. And the sensation of love disappears.

It is a circular paradox -- what Jonas calls a glitch. A programming error in the mind that does not resolve itself. And the person thinks the problem is the other person: "I knew I should not have let them talk to so-and-so." But the problem is the internal loop.

Why You Cannot Do It Alone

The conclusion is direct: this reflective capacity does not develop on its own. You need a method. You need someone from outside who acts as a mirror.

The teacher is not there to say, "You are wrong here, wrong there." They are there to create a frequency, a context, where the mind can see itself. Like the story of the Buddha with the Aśoka tree -- no matter how many lifetimes it takes, the attitude toward time is what matters. Do not meditate waiting for the anger to pass. Meditate.

Vedānta is not another spiritual group, nor another belief system. It is a journey of clarity based on three pillars: logic (if it is not logical, it is no good), personal experience (I need to verify it in my own life), and self-understanding (it does not matter who said it -- only whether it is true *for me*).

And this journey -- painful, funny, transformative -- begins when we admit: the worst slavery that exists is the slavery of one's own mind. It is waking up every day, looking in the mirror, and not finding yourself good enough.

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*When was the last time you asked yourself: could the problem be me?*