“The wisdom of the heart. It is very much surer in guidance than the head. ... Nearly everyone has at some time touched this hidden wisdom and has been more or less astonished at its revelations.” —Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity

One of the advantages of youth is being free of the “knowledge” that can fuel self-doubt.

In 1892, when future ragtime musician Eubie Blake was 5 years old, he went shopping with his mother, wandered into a music store, climbed onto an organ bench, and began “foolin' around” on the keys, picking out simple tunes. The store manager persuaded Eubie's mother to buy an organ, telling her, “It would be criminal to deprive him of the chance to make use of such a sublime, God-given talent.”

Eubie composed “The Charleston Rag” when he was 12, co-authored the hit Broadway play Shuffle Along in his 30s, and went on to a stellar music career, culminating in his induction into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Fortunately, we are not born with a head full of knowledge but with a heart full of wisdom, open to the unknown, the territory of the unexplored—the possible. Welcoming the unknown, Eubie touches the keys and falls in love with the promise they make, becoming an excited apprentice of the keyboard and a willing disciple of his own “wisdom of the heart.”

… “The ignorant are a reservoir of daring,” wrote philosopher Eric Hoffer. “It almost seems that those who have yet to discover the known are particularly equipped for dealing with the unknown.”

How true that was for 8-year-old David Stuart when he went to Mayan ruins in Central America in 1974 with his archeologist father to study the mysterious hieroglyphs. Young David intuitively started drawing the “glyphs” and offering insightful interpretations, much to the amazement of team members. “By the time we got back to the States,” David remembers, “… my inner soul had been so affected by that experience that I just wanted to keep going back. … I had been bitten by the ‘Maya glyph bug.'”  Back he went, presenting his first professional paper on the glyphs to a gathering of archeologists when he was 11. In 1983, at the age of 18, he became the youngest ever recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant” for his groundbreaking contributions to understanding Mayan hieroglyphs. Today he is professor of Mesoamerican art and writing at the University of Texas.

No matter our age or situation in life, the unknown stands before the wisdom of our hearts … full of unexplored potential, waiting to kindle in us what Einstein called “a holy curiosity.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sister remembered her brother's own intense curiosity. “He often spent much time at the clavier (piano keyboard), picking out thirds, which he was always striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. ... At the age of 5 he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father, who wrote them down.” His heart's wisdom open to the unknown, Mozart begins like Eubie, playing by ear, with the daring to improvise. Here, the present is entered, timidity is lost, self-reliance is gained, imagination is freed, spontaneity appears, the past is let go, self-pity is circumvented, our total self is engaged and life's fun is restored.

This excerpt appeared in Unity Magazine®.