“Close to a century ago, Rudolf Steiner said the greatest discovery of 20th century science would be that the heart is not a pump but vastly more, and that the great challenge of the coming ages of humanity would be, in effect, to allow the heart to teach us to think in a new way” (as cited in Joseph Chilton Pearce, 1998, Wild Duck Review).
Heart by Sophia Trinh
Humanity now faces a crisis on a planetary scale. In the recent Copenhagen climate summit, the discourse and discord around what mankind is facing with climate change is a call for birth of a new global consciousness, a realization of one global family. Here the question arises of whether rich and poor, South and North as a divided world can be united with common ground as one people on the Earth. This challenge also begs the question whether this divided world can even survive. When seen from the longer view, here lies an opportunity for the cultivation of a larger identity that transcends nationality, gender and race. This new global civil consciousness can only begin within each individual. It will be not born out of what is imposed from outside in external forms of corporate globalization that extends its tentacles around the world. But instead deep inside, each individual may give birth to it and grow as they learn to think, feel and relate to one another in a new way.
For some, writing or speaking poetry provides a space to practice this new way of thinking. If we start paying attention to what emerges as reverie, as inspiration and images behind the mundane chatter, we can start learning how to listen to the voices within. When one engages in an artistic process such as this, hearts can begin to have their own life, and we may learn to think in a new way. The breath of thoughts and emotions awaits us between borders. In time humanity may develop a new language, the language of the heart.
