Will-power: friend or foe?

 Few of us get this, we cannot use will-power to break free from self-identification. Why not, you might ask, isn’t there a higher Self and this lower self has to be vigilant on Its behalf? Yes and no! The problem is that self that feels something is missing and longs to be reunited with the higher Self—and that is supposedly out there waiting for us—is the interference. How can it act on behalf of something that it isn’t?

 

I saw a tragic event the other day as I was sitting outside. An ant got caught in a web that I couldn’t even see. As it was struggling to get out of it, it entangled itself ever more. A spider that was barely a third of the ant’s size waited patiently for the ant to finish the entangling act. Working towards breaking free with the help of will-power—be it forcing oneself to love the neighbor as oneself, or meditating even though we don’t want to, is like that.

 

Still, will-power has its place. These inter-generational conditioning we have to deal with runs deep. It’s easy to get exhausted being mindful of all these self-induced interferences we put up. Will-power is necessary when it comes to get up the next morning and try again. We all have been there, and we all rely on our support group to keep going for the simple reason that there is no alternative. Will—an instrument of self—fades as we “fall” into the now.