Hardly. My head would sell the piano because it's the rational thing to do. Using Bernhard's analogy, my emotional elephant has been so subdued by the intellectual one that it rarely ever factors into the decision.
What I attempted to say earlier is that I believe you can't answer an emotional question via intellect or vice versa. Whether you allow your life to be dictated by emotion or intellect is, to me, a different discussion.
On that note, if your heart and head don't agree, how do know which one to follow? Should intellect always win?
If we go back to the theory that there are these three forces (which we could probably and more accurately call three
tools), we may make yet another analogy.
Imagine we are back in the 18th century when all land transport was made by horse pulled carriages.
It so happens that we have this most beautiful carriage, golden gilded and all. We also have this most beautiful horse, powerful and majestic. We have a trustworthy coachman, who knows the ways of the horse, the mechanics of the carriage, the geography of the place. We can if we wish, go anywhere. Most of all we want to go home.
However the situation is not good. The coachman is in the pub drinking beer and slightly inebriated has completely forgotten his duties and his job. The horse, has been left to roam free in the nearby meadow and is now galloping wildly here and there and resisting all attempts to catch him and harness him to the carriage.
The carriage itself has been left in the rain, without proper care, so the paint is coming out, the wheel shaft is rusty, the wheels are starting to fall apart and so on.
The owner of the carriage is actually inside, deep, deep asleep.
Now in this analogy the horse represents the emotions. The carriage the body, and the coachman the intellect. Our true self, our essence if you so wish sleeps away impervious to what is going on.
So you see, the question is not what the emotions want, or what the intellect wants, or what the body wants. Their job is not to want anything but to do the bidding of their master.
But before any of that can take place someone has to reorganise the mess. The horse must be brought from the fields and harnessed to the carriage, for truly only the horse can
move the carriage (motivation comes from motion). The carriage on the other hand must be in a fit state to travel, otherwise it may fall apart when the horse starts pulling. And of course the coachman must be fetched from the pub, and get sober for the travel ahead. But only the master asleep inside can direct the whole enterprise. While he is asleep all that can take place is strife between the horse, the coachman and the carriage.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.