The Seat of the Self—the Human Heart

We began this series looking into the future at a peaceful world, which safeguards the rights of all people.

Can you imagine what life on Earth might look like twenty-five years from now? We will not just be going into a store and swiping our wrists over a chip reader to pay for our purchases, or routinely flying to our destinations in all fusion weightless airmobiles.

Instead we can look forward to a future when finally, across the entire face of the Earth, humanity enjoys peace and prosperity. Prosperity means jobs, for every person on earth; and peace means an end to the militarization of the world and the death of millions.

How can we all work toward this powerful vision of the future? We can start in the seat of the self, the human heart:

Briefly; we must strive with heart and soul in order that this darkness of the contingent world may be dispelled, that the lights of the Kingdom shall shine upon all the horizons, the world of humanity become illumined, the image of God become apparent in human mirrors, the law of God be well established and that all regions of the world shall enjoy peace, comfort and composure beneath the equitable protection of God. – Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 73.

If we begin with the human heart, the Baha’i teachings tell us, we can solve our vast ills and troubles.

Our hearts give us life, fueling our brains with oxygen. With the power to beat, the heart makes blood flow through our bodies. Those beating hearts symbolize love, refinement, hope and the grace of God.

Throughout the ages, humans have called the heart the seat of our emotions, feelings, wants and desires.

Of course, we now know that our deepest emotions and feelings emanate from our brains, closely attached to our limbic system, the automatic and elemental part of us said to have stemmed from the dinosaurs themselves.

Deep in our brain’s cerebellum, which scientists call the arbor vitae–Latin for “tree of life”—lies the cerebral white matter, so called for its branched, tree-like appearance. Present in both hemispheres, it brings sensory and motor information to and from the larger brain, and functions as our main center of thought and communication.

This communication may be more than physical or verbal, it may be spiritual also:

There is no doubt that the forces of the higher worlds interplay with the forces of this plane. The heart of man is open to inspiration; this is spiritual communication. As in a dream one talks with a friend while the mouth is silent, so is it in the conversation of the spirit. A man may converse with the ego within him saying: “May I do this? Would it be advisable for me to do this work?” Such as this is conversation with the higher self. – Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 179.

What Abdu’l-Baha refers to here could be the reality of the self, the very purpose of existence. When we open our hearts to inspiration, we learn our true emotions and thoughts, and we get in touch with our higher self.

To me, our very purpose as human beings is to find out everything about ourselves that we can, to answer the question “Who am I?”