When people hear “will” they often believe it is synonymous with “willpower” and this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
What is willpower?
Willpower represents a state of distrust, or rejection — it is the tantrum a child throws after they cause their own problem. Willpower is the attempt to “resolve” a problem you have created via prior choices.
You are tempted to use willpower when you encounter a situation in life that is displeasing, uncomfortable or outright painful. You think willpower is a quick fix that will put you back on course if you can just “power through.” Or perhaps you use willpower because you have convinced yourself you “have to” otherwise your life will implode.
There is never a case when you should be using “willpower” to solve your problems. Willpower is like adding fuel to a fire. This is like drinking more to overcome a hangover.
You are resisting a state that has come to pass because of your own choices and willpower sounds like an enticing way to dig yourself out of a hole.
It will never change until you do. It will keep repeating. Forever. Because you create your own “state of the universe.”
Whenever you think that willpower is a good idea — stop. Your life should be an effortless flow of will — DECISION — one to the next without interruption. A hiccup or a block represents a conflict within yourself, like rocks in a stream and should be an immediate indication to set aside time to do some inner-work.
There is something within that keeps bending the currents of your life against itself and causing disharmony, i.e., suffering, or “evil.”
By using willpower, you are attempting to create an impossible state because you are rejecting your own will. This becomes expressed through the Nonsense, or through ‘chaos’ which must be represented somehow within your life.
I am not rejecting my own will. I am solving a problem right now!, you say!
How can I violate my own will?
Let us present the concept of ‘enlightenment’ which for the sake of this article can be considered a spectrum. The higher along this spectrum you are, the faster your WILL becomes reality.
At the lower end of the enlightenment scale, experience (qualia) requires higher degrees of verisimilitude. That means it requires more linearity or “believability.” It is more deterministic, because the less enlightened mind needs more stories to explain everything that happens. It needs these stories because it has to explain where it is has lost its authority and to make sense of the world “happening to itself.” This leaves less room for the unexpected, the unrelated, or breaks in time/space and so on. It is more physical, more victim-oriented and less dreamlike.
The higher you go along the enlightenment scale, the less need for explanation you need because you are able to hold opposing concepts or beliefs. You are able to remain ‘detached’ from the world that seems to be happening around you. You have less need for stories, logic or rationales for why the world works. Imagine a dream that skips around or things come into being or blink out. If you’ve ever had a lucid dream, you have had a taste of what enlightenment would be like.
At lower ends, the Nonsense is always expressed via unexpected negative events, because this is the story you need to tell yourself to explain how you are ‘rejecting your own will.’ You will attempt to find ‘reasons’ for these events because you are still operating at a lower level of enlightenment — but this is a trap. The more you go looking for stories, the more power you are giving to a world outside of yourself. You disempower yourself when you are unable to surrender/accept your circumstances (which YOU created!) and grow beyond them.
The former has abandoned the inner-child (lower end) while the ladder has embodied it (higher end). This is the mindset of the adult (one who is imprisoned) vs the child (one is free.)
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Matthew 18:5
Whenever you exercise willpower, you are saying: “No, this isn’t my will, this is some external force violating me.” It doesn’t matter what this external force is — the physical world, other people, bad mood, upset stomach, angels, devils — the list is endless. All of these represent a loss of authority.
So what is WILL, then?
Will is the quiet observer behind your senses. You deciding to read each word, one after the other — all independent exercises of the will. The will is eternal and never turns off. It is a light by which choices are made upon wherever it shines.
Attention is POWER.
Will is the ‘one who decides.’ To better know your will, you simply need to broaden what you consider a decision. Many people think that their thoughts or emotions are not part of their decision making process — their will — but they absolutely are. It takes daily, ongoing practice to put yourself in a mental landscape where you can alter these things rather than be altered by them.
But thoughts & emotions are still “surface level.” The work I do is about training us to see the subtle decisions we are making ALL THE TIME. So subtle that they often will try to evade your conscious recognition as if intelligent.
What are we doing that causes us to feel or think X? How do we change ourselves so that we no longer feel a certain way, or how do we feel MORE of another way?
What about how we perceive the world itself? Can we get at the roots of certain beliefs that cause reflexive actions — can we redefine how we interact with the world to such a degree that the whole world seems like a different place?
Yes!
Some schools might consider these subtleties DEMONS, ARCHONS, NEGATIVE ETs, or other such concepts. And you can read other esoteric material with that in mind to see lots of relevant advice. But I feel no need to cede this much authority. How do we begin to correct ourselves if we do not take responsibility? We cannot even see the path.
These are all aspects of Nonsense — glitches, bad patterns of thought without consciousness. Perhaps other beings who express the corruption and need help. Nonsense has NO POWER except the power YOU/WE give it.
What, then, is the proper use of will, if not willpower?
Reality is suggestive.
I will post more about this in the future, but using will is a bit like investing. You are planting seeds that will play dividends down the road. But this is much more profound than it sounds!
When you begin to understand “unity” you will understand that every moment you are aligning — or creating — the whole universe that you directly experience. This includes how your body feels, what thoughts come into your mind, the ease at which certain emotions arrive or depart, and the events of your life itself!
It is like you are navigating to different versions of yourself who can feel like a completely different person. You may even see major shifts in your life circumstances that seemed impossible. And indeed … this is a glimpse of a higher spectrum of consciousness that does not require continuity.
Yet … YOU … persist.
You persist seemingly independent of the constantly changing “self” that arises from the contextual world, because that self is also part and parcel of the whole world you have created.
Everyday make the best, most authentic willful choices you can make, but not just in the physical realm but within your mind. Always surrender to & accept the reality of your life whilst knowing that right now you are already planting seeds for what is to come. More and more, inch to the center of the storm.
Choose how to feel, especially if you aren’t feeling it. Choose what thoughts you would like so they serve you better, especially when it seems like your thoughts are not in your best interests.
Fake it, knowing these are investments that will come back to you and make it easier and easier.
The Reverend Mother Helen — the Bene Gesserit — in this clip is a surrogate for our own thoughts when she “commands with the voice” and convinces Paul his hand his burning. Paul, in this scene, beautifully demonstrates — especially via the Litany of Fear — how we can disregard the suggestions and come out unscathed.
P.S. our bodies are also suggestive just like thoughts.