These days I have been reading The Analects anew for fun, or no fun. Today I saw Confucius's "The heart is wiser than the intellect" which makes me ramble down the following.

 

     When my heart tells me often deceives me. What my brain tells me, however, also betrays me frequently. I am always in such conflict. The Analects in front of me now suggests that I follow my heart's guidance since "it is wiser than the intellect." Is this true?

 

     Sometimes, people act in an incomprehensible way, driven by something powerful in their minds. Under such circumstances, human beings reveal themselves as if there were standing naked. Their intellect is very much like their clothes they wear to cover such nakedness. It serves well when they socialize themselves and works well when they have to convince other people.

 

     Intellect is "the power of knowing". When our basic sense are stimulated, a thought starts taking shape in mind. In moral circumstances, we refine the thought by letting it circulate over and over again between the heart and the brain, just like blood circulation, until our intellect is satisfied. We thus reason our ways of thinking. This is also a process in which a human being is transformed into an individual of higher sophistication, who tries to understand before she or he "leaps." This is how the intellect works. It restrains us from behaving like animals.

 

     The intellect, however, often fails to satisfy the heart, which represents the power of feeling. When we fall in love, we do not have to reason or justify, do we? No explanation is needed when someone is in agony after the death of her or his family member, isn't it? When the heart and the intellect conflict, we try to free ourselves from the chain that the intellect puts around us. And, normally, in the end, the intellect yields to the heart.

 

     Human beings feel and react before their intellect catches up and makes them realize what they are doing. The reaction comes spontaneously from the bottom of the heart, and the way they react accords with what they really are.

 

     Being oneself by simply obeying the power of feeling sometimes gives a great sense of relief as the act discloses what human beings were in the past, what they are now, and what they will be in the future. This is something invariable, which is human nature.

 

     Whatever the heart tells us, it is more natural than what the intellect dictates to us. No matter how powerful the intellect becomes, the power of the heart coming directly from human nature overshadows it, as long as we are part of this great nature. Here, we glimpse the wisdom that Chinese culture has nourished for more than 5000 years. It says "Obeying the rules of nature, and you will be happy."

 

     Listening to Shania Twain sing "So you got the brain...yeah...you are alright, but that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night. That don't impress me much...," my heart now rests in peace.