YouTube: Your Heart’s Knowledge
Audio: Your Heart’s Knowledge
“Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.”
Through the years I’ve gleaned much inspiration from the work of Gibran, particularly his book, The Prophet. These lines point to our longing to know at the head-level what our heart already knows at the intuitive level. The thirsting ears are part of our sensory system of perception that is normally focused only on the external world. Gibran suggests the satisfying of an intellectual longing by learning to draw from a deeper, inner connection.
It is appropriate on Father’s Day to consider the role of the intellectual aspect of our mind. We think of the intuitive element as feminine and the intellectual as masculine, though not in the same sense we normally associate with gender. The intuitive side is receptive to our spiritual Source. The intellect is that idea-producing interface that enables us to think in logical sequence, an indispensable feature that allows us to function in this world.
Many gender-related disputes might be resolved if individuals focused less on attempts to legislate social balance and gave more attention to understanding these masculine and feminine aspects. It is the intellect disconnected from its intuitive counterpart that prompts much of the gender-driven activism we see today. This internal division generates the underlying sense of incompleteness. This feeling of lack translates into the belief that we can get from others that which can only be found within ourselves. With our ears focused on the sounds of the external world, that in us which is naturally attuned to the secrets of the days and nights gets lost in the noise.
The intellect is obviously a wonderful and needed faculty. We benefit greatly by making regular visits to our spiritual center of wisdom and power. We do not shut down the intellect. Rather, we spend periods focused on Gibran’s referenced source of our heart’s knowledge. This practice expands our understanding of options available, not merely to a being limited by the facts of our history and circumstance, but to one whose very essence is grounded in God.
J Douglas Bottorff 