In order to sensitize and encourage you to take a leap (or at the very least a peek) into that rabbit hole of what, to this point, might have felt alien, or something that hasn't even crossed your mind - since you have always been used to, or were moulded to believe (in one or another way) that this was not something you were supposed to do - I'd like to take you a bit deeper into my experience on how free will - as connected to our heart's attitude - the most primordial and powerful gift given to us from the very beginning, has EVERYTHING to do with how our life unfolds. In other words, the eventual outcome of our thinking processes, and consequently our will, is not initially fuelled by its assumed connection with the brain, but its interaction with the heart.
As highlighted in my previous blog, Eccelsiastes (and Ryabinov's elaborating on it) most clearly sheds light on how this plays out. The heart of the wise man is at his right (hand), meaning it is connected with a person's emotions, imaginations and images, while a foolish man's heart is on the left (hand), the brain-wired part of his, or her understanding of spiritual matters.
Unquestionably, the Bible is paved with symbolism, which is one of THE substantial traits of the Hebrew language, and something Jesus distinctively made use of. When, on one particular occasion being asked by his disciples of why he uses symbolic language, such as parables, he offers this response:
"Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." (Matthew 13:13)
"Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has A READY HEART for this, the INSIGHTS and UNDERSTANDINGS FLOW FREELY."
(Matthew 13:11-15, the Message translation)*1
Jesus makes it very clear here, that a ready heart will be a door opener to actual understanding. So, in other words, if someone is ready to do something, he/she is WILLing to move from a pre-existing status (thoughts/ mindset) to an (up to this point) non-existing, new one. In neuroplastic terms, this is called "intrinsic stimuli" which, from a neuroscientific point of view, leads to an "adaption to structural and functional changes"*2, subsequently channelled throughout the body's nervous system (also known as the neurotransmitter system).
I assume that I am not the only one who recognizes that there is a growing consensus between what science has started to vocalise more prevalently these past couple of years and what the Bible had already emphazised three thousand years before, as combined in its collection of writings (ie. the Pentateuch [Torah - the five books of Moses], the historic era of judges, and some Psalm texts). Hence, science (and yes, otherwise put, the Greek-driven approach) has caught up with the Hebraic understanding of wholeness, - that when we analyse a human's whole being, various factors undeniably intersect, also known as the holistic approach.
But let's pause here, before I'll take you a bit deeper into the subject.
*1 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2013%3A11&version=MSG)
*2 Neuroplasticity. Puderbaugh, M. & Emmady D. Prabhu. updated May 1, 2023 National Library of Medicine. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557811/
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