The wisdom and intelligence of the heart

The Wisdom of the Heart is the title of one of Henry Miller's little known books. And it is one time when we actually can tell a book by its cover. Just as Miller was relentlessly seeking the truer, freer, more abundant life, we must also learn to live by fearless feeling, not by cowardly thought, for only then shall our hearts grow wings, and our Spirits fly free.

"These are things that are being searched for… through Knowledge and Cleverness, but they do not come from Knowledge and Cleverness. They never have, and they never will. ...The masters of life know the Way, for they listen to the voice within them, the voice of wisdom and simplicity, the voice that reasons beyond Cleverness and knows beyond Knowledge."

To 'follow our hearts', then, means simply being ourselves, and doing what 'feels' right, regardless of what our minds, or the mind of another, has to say. To live only by the direction of the mind is to inhibit the true flow of the spirit, of harmony, of life. It is to live incompletely, like reading about the intoxicating smell of flowers, instead of smelling them. The mind may indeed have its place, but it is as the servant of the heart, not the master.^{^[18]}

[18] Another quote from Miller runs: “My intelligence told me one thing, my heart another. If I must sacrifice one of them, it is my intelligence I will throw overboard. I want to live by the heart which is the real seat of intelligence. If my intellect tells me that life is unbearable I will discard all that I know and learn all over again to accept life and to love it.” (Hamlet, p162) And from Eckhart Tolle we have: “If you really want to know the mind, the body will always give you a truthful reflection, so look at the emotion or rather feel it in your body. If there is an apparent conflict between them, the thought will be the lie, the emotion will be the truth.” (The Power of Now, p22)