Anyone who has suffered through internal turmoil at some point in his life could tell you that you are at your most powerful and most peaceful when your mind and heart are in agreement. Internal disagreement weakens you, while internal accord allows the invigorating currents of love or the destructive currents of hate to flow freely through you and outward by means of your words and deeds, that is, your life expression.

What is your heart, anyway? It can be useful to think of your heart as both an antenna and a receptacle. Your heart picks up spirits – good and ill – which have been given expression by yourself and others in the past. Once perceived, they float around in in the receptacle of your heart, waiting to gain the attention of your mind.

Those hellbent on doing evil in the world are surprisingly often at peace. They have established internal agreement. That is, their hearts and minds are set on doing ill and they have made their peace with the decision. So, too, with those who are intent upon living a generative life. To the degree that their heart and mind are in agreement they, too, are at peace in themselves, no matter how hard they may be working.

Most people, however, live in a mixed state. They alternate the focus of their mind’s eye between good and ill spirits. They “have their ups and downs,” as it is said, “their good days and their bad days.” They live in an earthly purgatory, with one foot in heaven and the other in hell. They might blame their circumstances for their wavering and excuse themselves because of the intensity of the feelings which led them this way or that, but no matter how they cut it, the internal agreements were a choice that they made for and by themselves.