January 3rd, 2024—A perennial question in philosophy is, how do we know anything in the world? What counts as evidence? Where does truth reside? Common reference points for this conversation include the mind, the senses/body, the Divine Presence, and the spiritual. In this essay I will focus on the spiritual aspects of knowing, especially the role of the heart. In many faith traditions the heart is more than an organ the tirelessly pumps blood throughout the body. The heart is also an essential source of experience in the process of discerning which actions lead to wholeness and formation of the soul, and which behaviors move toward ego-informed images of self. The heart, like the mind, is capable of wisdom and formulating knowledge about the world. It has cognitive capabilities. Unlike the mind it operates through the lenses of mystery, silence, and revelation. It takes practice and discipline to cultivate and understand heart-knowledge in a society that values the rational and systematic. For educators tending to the heart offers new ways of understanding what is best for self and students when the goal is educating the whole person.
Here is a concrete example that might bring additional clarity to the point I’m making about heart-knowledge. I recently took up the role of department chair. It is not a role I sought or wanted. It was role I resisted given that I’m planning on retiring in the spring of 2025. Yet somewhere along the path of my resistance my heart sent a quiet message of acceptance. Now I’m doing the heart-forward work of organizing meetings, setting norms, directing resources, determining class assignments, fielding questions, and so much more that allows a program to function. The work is important and I’m approaching it with sincerity and integrity. It can also be exhausting, time consuming, and my plans for the day are often derailed by more pressing immediate needs. I try to remember that if I follow my heart’s wisdom, I will do the work that needs to be done, which isn’t always the work that my schedule suggests is important.
For example, on a recent day full of meetings, emails, and chair responsibilities. I was in the copy room and a colleague asked, “How are you?”. I replied, “I’m okay”. My colleague then asked, “What would you be doing to go from okay to thriving?”. I immediately replied, "Oh that is easy, riding my bike or watching birds”. What the text of this short interaction doesn’t convey is the underlying sense of heart-knowledge that allowed the conversation to go from an ordinary interaction to one centering on care, belonging, and attentive listening. I walked back to my office with a newer understanding of the difference between the mind and the heart as centers of knowing. My ordinary day of meetings, emails, and decisions shifted to a deep learning moment around the heart as a source of meaningfulness.
There are several key elements in this interaction that I want to illuminate in support of the heart as a source of knowledge. The first thing that happened was my colleague’s question, “How are you?”. My ears heard the question. My mind acknowledged the question and began formulating a response premised on efficiency without being rude. I have been asked that question many times and I have answered truthfully with the facts. However, in this case my heart heard the question differently and the genuine intent and interest behind the words. This time I answered with the facts as well as a slight emotional tone consistent with being tired and stressed. What my heart heard that my mind missed is the importance of intent, which the heart is well tuned to decipher and respond to. My colleague wasn’t asking out of social convention. They were asking out of true concern and true wonder. It was the intent behind my colleague’s works that invited or a revealing of how I was truly doing. I was “okay” in a role sense but not thriving in the fullness of my humanity.
The second heart-forward move in this conversation was my colleague hearing the hesitant tone in my voice. They didn’t move past my muted response that suggested I was holding back my full sense of how I was doing. Instead, they leaned into the state of unease with my work and asked the question again. Only this time, not with the same words but rather with a different approach. They invited me to move past my semi-perfunctory response to something truly meaningful. An invitation to speak from the heart. “What would you be doing to go from okay to thriving?” My reply was immediate, deeply personal, and honest. It felt as if my heart was responding to the heartfelt intent of their question. The mind and social formality were equally incapable of answering the question. I was compelled not by force but by the openness of their question to answer fully.
From the initial and follow up question, there are several learnings that I want to draw attention to. The first is that the heart has its own logic and way of making sense of the world. And that the wisdom of the heart, like the wisdom of the mind, can be refined with practice and attentiveness. The second lesson follows the first. As the actions of my colleague demonstrate, deep listening is evidence of a refined heart. My colleague heard a tiredness and longing beyond my words that tried to convey that everything was okay. To a good listener, there is a reciprocal relationship between heart-wisdom and listening to truths that reside below the social cover of casual conversation. This is a skill that is developed over time by individuals who seek deep truths for self and others. It is the heart, not the mind, that speaks to the full essence of our humanity.
A third lesson speaks to the importance of caring relationships when working to create community. My colleague could have slipped past my less than honest response and continued with their work. Instead, they cared enough to ask a deeper question that invited me to fully consider the state of my being. They did not allow the normative social chatter of casual copy room conversation to cover over the fact that everything in my work was not okay. For my part, I cared enough about my colleague and their question that I stepped out of my mind and into my heart as a source of truth. Heat was speaking to heart and the nature of our collegial relationship deepened in ways that mind-to-mind conversations can never achieve. When I see this colleague, I now know we both value the heart. I know someone I can speak to from the heart and know that they understand. In the world of academia where the mind sets the tone for interaction it feels comforting and humanizing to been seen in the fullness of my being.
How might heart knowledge inform your teaching and leadership? How might speaking from the heart improve collegial relationships? What might interactions with learners look like when the heart, along with the mind, is invited into the conversation? How might the fullness of the person’s humanity be revealed through the heart?