Daily Meditation: Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Mind and heart - keeping the two pans of our scales in balance

04/30/2013

Life is a tightrope we move along, pulled this way and that by opposing impulses. Every day we have to keep the two pans of our inner scales – our heart and mind – in balance. If the heart leans too far one way, if the feelings have too much say, then the mind, thought, must quickly intervene, and vice versa. There is always something to add on one side and to take away on the other. We walk by moving first one foot forward, then the other; similarly, on the psychic plane we must move forward by calling alternately on our mind and on our heart. Knowing when and how much the mind or the heart must intervene is a difficult matter. You rarely meet people who are able to be insightful and rigorous while at the same time remaining kind, flexible and open to others. It requires learning to consciously switch between those activities that feed the mind and those that feed the heart.