Welcome
to Day 16 of our 40-Day Meditation Retreat.
Summary
Yesterday we spoke about concentration, focus, and how important that is, and today I’m going to focus on the subject of “Willpower.”
Willpower
The ego within us can will things to happen. We have an individual will. We can create, we can sustain, we can dismantle, and we can influence our world. We can exert ourselves on our world through the power of will. In exerting will, we may find ourselves with a weak will or a strong will, or a not so strong will. Our willpower may vary. When our willpower is strong we can make things happen. When our willpower is not so strong we find it challenging or difficult to make things happen.
Willpower and energy centres
How can we increase our willpower? How can we identify the weaknesses of the will? How does the “I” exert itself? How does the “I” exert influence on the world? If you observe you will see it is through these subtle energy centers that it influences the world. The individual ego influences the world through these energy centers: the centre of the brow, the throat, heart centre, navel centre, sacral centre, and base centres. Through these centres we exert influence.
The most powerful of these centres would, of course, be the intellectual centre. It allows us to create a picture or vision of what we want, what we may desire. It allows us to hold a belief that we can achieve this, and the stronger our belief is, the stronger our will will be. Using the intellect we can increase our willpower if we reason, and if we believe in what we are going to do. If we see that it’s achievable, using the reason, using the intellect, we see possibilities; we see how to achieve it - the methodology.
The belief will then become stronger and that will increase the willpower. The other centres come in, for example, the heart where we begin to develop a relationship with what we want to achieve. Using the intellect we can improve that relationship, we can begin to contemplate more about, “If I achieve this how wonderful it will be.” And so in increasing this relationship, in developing this relationship a lot more heart quality comes in.
We are using the heart as well in terms of the willing when we begin to think of what we want to do, and to exert ourselves in terms of achieving it. The heart quality immediately comes when there is an emotional relationship with the object of desire.
Importance of the physical body – vitality, groundedness
You live in a human body and if it is physically weak, then it is a hindrance. It holds you back and so the vitality of the body becomes important when you want to achieve something. When you want to go after something, you need to have the physical vitality to do it. At times, you may have all the good intentions in the world, and a wonderful relationship with your object of desire that you really want to achieve it, but the body just doesn’t give the support - so you need the vitality.
The navel centre is where you can really get the body fired up or energized to achieve what you want to achieve. When you are grounded in the physical, and this is the base centre, you are able to have your feet on the ground, so to speak. You become more realistic, more practical in terms of achieving what you want, because you can actually feel your groundedness. Sometimes we want to achieve something but we may not be so practical. We love it but physically it may not be within our reach. We really have to be grounded to see that physically this may not be possible. Therefore, when we are in touch with the physical world, we will have that sense of being in touch with the physical reality.
The Ego wills through these centres of energy
The ego, the seeker, the “I”, in the human experience or journey, goes after its desire or its object of desire through the use of all these centres. It wills through these centres to manifest whatever it wants. The more powerful these centres are, the more possible it is to achieve what we want to achieve.
Challenges reflect your willpower
The question therefore becomes, “How powerful is my will? Do I really believe in what I want to achieve in my world or what I want to become? Do I really believe? Is my heart really in it? Am I physically energized when I think of what I want to achieve? Am I grounded so that I’m not lost in the clouds? Do I see whether it’s really physically achievable?” That is what we need to ask ourselves. You know whether your willpower is strong when you meet challenges. If there are no challenges, you may feel that your willpower is strong but when challenged, you see how strong your willpower is.
When you begin to sleep in your meditation, or stagnate in your meditation, or you begin to be challenged by people around you as you meditate, or you are challenged by negative feelings coming up in your meditation, and you begin to say, “You know what, this is not for me,” then you see how strong your willpower is. You can extend the same kind of thinking to other kinds of goals and see if you become discouraged after a while. You want to learn something and difficulty comes and immediately you begin to think, “Is this really for me?”
You take up a new career or a new activity, and in the beginning you need familiarity, you need to settle in. But during that time you feel, “You know what, this is so difficult,” and then you see what kind of you will have. You know the saying very well: “Where there is a will there is a way.” Those who really have strong will, will believe that a way will appear. So challenges really make you see how strong your willpower is.
Tools to develop your will
Are you aware of the tools that you need to use in developing your will?
1. The intellect: you need to have a very clear picture of what you want to achieve. You need to reason out the possibility of achieving this. Is it realistic? Is it achievable? And then creating a strong belief intellectually that I am going to achieve this.
2. Creating a relationship with the object of your desire. Begin to think of how you would feel when you have this; when you achieve it. Begin to feel that you already have it and how wonderful it feels to have it. Begin to enjoy it even if you don’t physically or materially have it. Begin to think of how much you will enjoy it; that’s a relationship you create with your heart. “Wow this is going to be so nice when I have it. I can feel I have it already.”
If it’s meditation, think of how wonderful it will be when you achieve the sense of freedom. You can see all choices before you. You can love in a better way. There is more peace within you. You continuously think and admire those who have greater peace or greater love, and you hold them before you, “Oh this is achievable. If they can have it I can have it.” This is creating a relationship with your object of desire.
3. Here you can bring the heart into willing this desire into manifestation, and then vitality. “Does my body support me?” Do I feel physically energized when I think of it? Am I excited in my whole being? And then you see the power of vitality. When you learn how to increase your vital energy in your meditation and in your exercises, you learn to increase your vital power then it enhances the will that you have; the body becomes supportive.
4. Grounding - I always believe in grounding. When I ground myself in the world I have more power in a total sense. My feet are on the ground; I don’t lose myself.
Aligning your will with cosmic, divine will
Willpower involves your entire being. It is the “I” seeking through its power to manifest its desires and it does so using all the centres of energy. Just to say to you that when the crown is opened up, or when the brow is opened much more and there is a connection with the Source, then in exerting will we begin to think, “So what is the cosmic will, or what is the divine will intending?” and we seek then to align our individual will with the cosmic or universal will. We look to see, “What is the Universe intending? What is the Universe creating? What is the Universe doing and how can I align myself to that? When we do, we find that it becomes easier. It’s Grace pouring when we align ourselves to divine will.
If there is a need in the community, for example, for a certain kind of activity to uplift the community, and I have the skills to do it, if I begin to create a goal of wanting to serve the community and help the community with respect to this improvement, I’m aligning my will with the cosmic will, with the community will. When I begin to do that, I see so much support coming around me and so many good things. In aligning my will with the will of the environment or the collective will of the space around me, I find that I become supported. So learn what is happening in the space around you and align your will with the will of the space.
The most important goal– Self-Realization
I wanted to make you more aware of the power of will and our weaknesses when it comes to willing things to happen or come into manifestation. And to learn how to improve, how to strengthen that willpower to achieve what we want to achieve.
Of course the most important goal in the human journey is self-realization, manifesting your full potential at every level. It’s a great joy to experience doing that and the grace that follows, how the Universe supports us in doing that.
