.The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.. ? Helen Keller
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I was reading an essay on Rilke,"The In-between" by Lesley Chamberlain, author of Rilke, The Last Inward Man, about how popular Rilke was right into the 1920s (in Europe as well as the US), but mechanization, "modernism", the social upheaval of two world wars, the rise of spiritless secularism, materialism etc, changed the collective psyche so that, from the 1920s on, Rilke seemed like he belonged in the 19th century (with his heart-centered inward, spiritual (but not religious) -orientation). Basically, the heart, especially of men, went completely underground for most of the 20th century. Now it is trying to emerge again even though we are still dealing with all of the dehumanizing forces that were unleashed in the 20th century! To arise, into its own, to return, the heart can't be sentimental. It needs to be true to its innate potential as the primary organ of perception that mediates between a healthy gut and the brain.
The return of the heart is more than just a "thing" or a phase or an idea. It is epic, and seems to me to constitute our best hope to find ourselves clear of the world "we" created by repressing the heart (and the heart chakra) for 300 years.
What woke me up to the real significance of the heart as the organ of perception, is a book by Stephen Buhner .amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-Plants-Intelligence-Perception/dp/1591430356. The first 50 pages blew my conventional understanding of the heart to smithereens. (About 15 years ago.)
May the heart, that he helped to resurrect, rise into its own and help us see what we need to see, feel what we need to feel, perceive how we need to perceive, to continue on as human beings.
In Stephen Buhner's words, describing himself:"I am an interdisciplinary, independent scholar, polymath, autodidact, Fellow of Schumacher College UK and have been head researcher for the Foundation for Gaian Studies for the past thirty years (gaianstudies.org).. . .I am and always have been interested in the invisibles of life, those meanings and communications that touch us from the heart of Earth and let us know that we are surrounded by more intelligence, mystery, and caring than our American culture admits of; how to reinhabit our interbeing with the world; how to sit in the council of all life as kin rather than dominators; and how to live sustainably on this Earth that I love more than I know how to say."
(Article changed on Aug 28, 2022 at 2:42 PM EDT)
