We learned from Spinoza we are enslaved by desire. Desire comes from our emotions, and it has to be satisfied. All emotions fall under one of two categories; hate or love. The emotions under the category of hate are passive (passion); meaning they are stimulated or aroused by something or someone outside of us. We respond or react to the outside stimulus unconsciously. The emotions under the category of love are active (action); meaning they come from inside us and are directed toward something or someone outside of us. We can free ourselves from the bondage of passion through reason and exercise our stronger emotions of love, consciously.
We learned from Erich Fromm we have the power through love to penetrate other beings and break out of our isolation. We can realize our potency and aliveness with love. Love is all inclusive. The one kind of love that underlies all other kinds of love is brotherly love; the loving of all of humanity. Even erotic love, the sexual desire to have union with one other person, comes from brotherly love. Love is giving. Love is an action. Love can be practiced only in freedom, never as compulsion. Love is a conscious act. Love of the helpless and the poor is the beginning of love.
In Julian Jaynes book we can see that man has two brains sitting side by side and operating independent of each other. Both brains function to give the individual understanding. The left brain is where language is formed and is limited in understanding by the limitations of the individual’s knowledge of words and by the limitations of the definitions of words themselves. The left brain is where man’s consciousness resides and is the dominant brain. The right brain is where creativity is formed. The understanding man has in his right brain remains largely unconscious. Partly because man can’t find words for the deep understanding he has in his right brain so he can’t remember it. In early civilization man had language yet he didn’t have self consciousness. The act of making decisions terrified him and he froze in fear. The right brain created hallucinations and gave him verbal orders to allow the individual to function without having to make conscious decisions.
The poems in Spirit and Poverty are a clarion call to action, and help us to refine our understanding. They encourage us to learn and to become caring and compassionate; to care for the helpless and the weak. They enrich us with clarity and incite our imagination to find ways to bring happiness and joy to everyone. They challenge us to rise above our base desires and to create a higher order; to overcome our hate and to build a better world through love.