MUSINGS

In the late 70s I started writing a book, I titled it "Conversations On A Bridge". I imagined it to be a bridge between the ages and the conversation was between a Jesus like figure and a Socrates like figure. Their conversation reflected on the evolution of humanity to that point.  Both taught truth from a perspective of unconditional love. Jesus saw truth and taught by example and used parables. Socrates attempted to use reason to delineate truth.

I didn't get very far with the book. I wrote about four chapters and I took a break. In some cleaning frenzy my manuscript disappeared. It has never shown up. I moved on and thought, perhaps, I wasn't ready to address the subject.

One of the chapters dealt with our inability to trust our innate knowledge. I went on to describe how even the most lowly seed has the ability to know when to sprout, send out roots then the dicotyledon leaves, then its more mature leaves. It knows how to search for water and nutrients in the ground and spread its leaves to the Sun. When one delves into the workings of Nature one sees miracle after miracle. No matter how long one studies Nature there seems to be more to learn about the incredible intelligence that is portrayed.

Yet, we don't seem to trust Nature. In every aspect of life we seem to trust technology over Nature. We gave up herbal remedies as soon as we could synthesize the active ingredients. Sure, seeking profit had a lot to do with this, but if we really appreciated what nature gave us would we have been so quick to give it up. We, often, don't really know how the active ingredient works and if it is that beneficent separated from the whole.

Look at what we have done with agriculture. Look at how we have manufactured foods. Are we ignoring what is readily observed in nature? Do we think we know better how to nourish our bodies than Nature? We can trust a simple plant to know what is best for it, but we can't trust our own bodies.

We, who consider ourselves perched on top of Natures evolutionary spiral, don't have the faith in our biological processes that we see in the smallest seed. How can that be?

In my "Conversations on the Bridge" I had hoped to find where humankind quit learning directly from Nature and supplanted it with reason that was not grounded in Nature.

Our reasoning power is amazing. Socrates embraced it. He attempted to demonstrate what was fallacious reasoning. His touchstone was Love. He had faith that correct reasoning would lead to the most loving solutions. Jesus, on the other hand, saw the pitfall of worshiping reason and pointed directly towards Love.

I imagined that I could have a conversation between these two and demonstrate how we went off track. I think it is clear to most of us that reasoning without a touchstone can lead to some very destructive ideas and it has, hasn't it? 

Can we get back to the place, just before our reasoning processes separated from the rest of Nature? It was long, long time ago. It started much before the rise of modern science. It had its roots long before the ancient Greeks. Our reason separated from our direct experience of Nature in antiquity. Perhaps with the beginning of religion and the attempts to control other people with States and institutions. I wasn't there. I don't know.

Can we correct this problem by marrying our hearts with our minds? Could the heart originate and provide the energy for thought and the mind be the processor? Could we see the mind as the tool for the heart? How would our world look if all our thoughts were based on Unconditional Love?

My thoughts for today.

Love and Peace,  Gregg