Information technology (IT) confronts us on a daily basis and in real time with the uncomfortable truth that our world is in big trouble. Its king-sized problems include wars, climate change (forest fires, earthquakes, droughts and floods), racism, human trafficking, drug addiction and a host of others not the least of which is Covid-19.
It would seem from these problems that advances in science and technology, all products of the mind, have not really made the world a better place to live in except for a relative few. We have reached the moon and are now literally reaching for the stars, yet we are nowhere near able to feed everybody adequately, nowhere near able to live in peace with everybody.
One can’t help wondering if this is a failure of human intelligence? Yet, something tells me it is not. Something tells me it is more a failure of the heart because it is really the human heart that decides what to do with the truths the human mind discovers. It is the heart that misuses or puts to good use the truths of the mind. It is the heart that defines us as humans not beasts.
This failure comes from our being ruled by our mind and not by our heart as we humans should be because it is the heart not the mind that differentiates us from beasts that are incapable of love, mercy, forgiveness etc., and have no choice but to follow the dictates of their limited brains.
When somebody does us harm it is very rational to have revenge and do back harm. It is also very rational to be master of the universe and exploit earth’s resources to fill our egos to bursting. But isn’t that what beasts with their smaller brains do, compete and hunt for food exclusively for themselves to the exclusion of all other animals and regardless of what happens to the external world?
It takes a heart to forego revenge and use the earth’s resources to satisfy not our superfluous desires but the basic needs of all. It takes a heart to do insane acts of kindness to those that our mind judges as undeserving. The heart never rationalizes, as the mind often does, its way out of helping those in need.
We are not born with equal mental capacities. But we are all born with hearts that possess equally infinite capacities to love fellow humans and all of God’s creatures. We are equal because both the smartest and the mentally slowest among us are capable of insanely infinite love.
If we want to survive the world’s problems, like if we want to survive Covid-19, we have to let our heart rule our mind. The world will be a better place for all if we speak, act, share and live our mind’s truth from the heart. To be authentic humans we must live life from the heart not from the mind. Authenticity is in the heart.