Credit: teaparty911.com
One of the things this world is most in need of cultivating, it seems to me, is Will. I’m going to capitalize it to distinguish it from the future tense, “will.”
If you add “free” to it, you get the human right most trampled on in our world today: free will.
Whether we’re talking about war crimes and other gross human rights violations, simple manipulation in a marriage, or all situations in between, routine incursions on the freewill of another are, in my estimation, perhaps the most common violation of universal law that occurs.
We’ve gone through so many decades of subservience and dissolution that our connectedness to our own Will is, in my opinion, not strong.
The occasions in my life on which I’ve been put in connection with rich, red, raw Will – such as studying karate – have been among the most profound in my life.
Remembering my karate days is allowing me to remember the supreme joy of seeing what my body could do, how it obeyed my Will. A flying scissor kick five feet off the ground. Wheel kicks. Snappy side kicks. The experience of personal power.
And always the Will is exerted only over myself. It isn’t exerted over others. (Well, not ideally.) They have the right to their own free will. (1)
Exerting my Will over myself has been fruitful. Just the other day, I assumed leadership over myself and found that, for the first time in my life, someone was in the driver’s seat. Seeing that, I looked at how personal responsibility seemed from this vantage point and immediately what was just a concept came to life for me.
It had remained just intellectual knowledge before because there was no one taking personal responsibility for my life. Now there is.
This element of Will does not need to be exercised in the ordinary sense of the word. We don’t need to do pushups in the area of Will. Willpower we may, but that’s not what I mean by “Will.” The difference between the two is similar to the difference between ordinary and transformative love. Willpower is of the mind; Will is of the soul.
Yes, exercise in the area of willpower, but no need to in the area of Will.
Will is transcendental – a gift from the Mother/Father One – and so can never be lost, diminished, or gotten rid of.
We may forget about it or have belief systems that block us from contact with our own Will. But our Will remains unimpaired, shining in its own dimension.
My Will is the genie in the bottle. My wish is its command. My Will is my protector, the determiner of my fate. If it abandons me, all is lost. If it supports me, all is won.
My job in return is to love it.
Footnotes
(1) Every karate form or kata begins with a defensive move. Thus, the karate student is not taught to attack. I know I felt perennially unable to attack another. I had to wait for them to throw the first punch. Once they threw that punch, I would respond in a manner that neutralized them with the least damage. The karate I knew was strictly defensive.