Taking the Last Steps Across the Bridge

If you are trying to resist temptation, you may find yourself feeling the forbidden desires more strongly just when your ability to resist them is down.
(Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, Willpower)

When an addict tells you that from here on he will stop his destructive path because he has finally figured out how much he values life after all, you will be happy to hear this new-found commitment, but you will nevertheless be doubtful. Too often have you raised your hopes only to find that a little pressure or a simple reminder of the old drug-filled world immediately brings a relapse with it.

The journey of a spiritual traveler is remarkably similar in that there will be a phase towards the end of your journey when a a war will be brewing inside of you, with the self battling the Self. The reason for that is simple. There is a force inside of you that tries to prevent you from taking these last steps and will put all its remaining eggs into one basket, the last area of specialness that is dear to you. You will have to be mindful and vigilant at this stage otherwise you will waste a lot of time with an endless back and forth. This is where the comparison with the addict comes in, willpower alone will probably not get you over the bridge.

Have you heard about the Radish Experiment? A group of students were given the instruction to eat radish in a room with freshly baked cookies while waiting for a test. It turned out that in the test students had to work on a puzzle afterwards and those who had already used up their willpower on withstanding the cookie temptation dropped out earlier than students who were allowed to eat cookies in the waiting room. So it turns out that willpower is a muscle, you want to use it on occasions, you may even try to strengthen it over time, but you can't strain it for too long otherwise you will give in fact give even more power to your temptation.

There is only one guaranteed way to take the last few steps over the bridge. Simplify your life, surround yourself with things that give you spiritual energy instead. Find projects and people that you are passionate about and let this mission put you on auto-pilot. The Tao will present all your temptations as simple choices for or against your sacred mission and your love for the people and the work will get you over the bridge without problems. So what is your calling in life? Once you have decided on something, trust that your soul siblings will show up shortly afterwards. As a matter of fact, your soul siblings signed up for their mission eons ago to take those few steps with you. All you have to do is to drum up that little will-power to follow their lead. Let love show you the way.