Tuesday, 23 June 2026

# 1

We have been told that our brain has “Left” hemisphere and “Right” hemisphere, and each one of us is either dominated by the “Right hemisphere” or the “Left”? However, the recent research using brain scanning technology has revealed that brain’s two hemispheres work together intricately. They are codependent. 

It is still true that the right brain is more creative and artistic and the left more technical and logical. But the processing of reading, math and language is understood to take place in both hemispheres. And more importantly for us to know that regular meditation practice connects and coordinates the two hemispheres. And the more they connect the more optimally we perform on any given task.

# 2

Oral world existed before writing was invented. Verbal thought lived in the inner contemplation and spoken language. Only spoken words existed as sound, not sight. They existed only after people started to write and read. 

Sound like taste and smell is intimate by its very nature. Spoken language possesses power. With the advent of writing a sea change came to our relationship to words, to time and ultimately to thought. Language moved from tongue and ears into the sense of sight. In writing thought was recorded. Reflection and analysis emerged. It reflected what it meant to be human who could think. Writing helped us develop a deepened sense of individual life as well as independence of opinion. We could hold an opinion at odds with others and not pay an immediate social price. 

Language lives in the human mind and heart. The outer images and inner emotions serve poetry’s energies. When world of objects and nature comes in contact with human emotions the words speak beyond human consciousness. Another aspect of poetry is what Carl Jung called “the Shadow.” It is the realm of the underworld, suffering, uncertainty, fear and death. Poet’s task is to explore it. Wisdom is obtained only when one goes through them. No poem is wholly safe nor pure. If it describes joy it must also hold joy’s shadow. In doing so both the world and self are irrevocably changed.