More on Will relating to Alphonse Williams writings of ([fm-w], 9/8/2011)
mt
In my estimation, an understanding of willing what cannot be willed is integral to an understanding of a stage in the process of becoming more aware. Some initial effort is usually needed in most mediation as an effort or will to remain focused in some way, for example. It usually takes a lot of will to remain focused on one thing, and most fail at this rather quickly as they LEARN they are not in control of their own mind. Well, that learning is an increment of awareness. If they continue they may learn, or begin to ask who is it that wants to control the mind, and this “control” usually has some name attached, which of course, is the mind with a label. Mind with label wants to control mind? Strange. And for the mind, thought is the product or the very nature of the mind, and just about the last thing the mind wants to do is to stop thinking, for that is tantamount to death for the mind-with-label (or substitute your name).
And so the mind that wills creates thought in that willing, every moment, even in meditation, even as meditation. Will and Desire merely strengthen the self with every object desired and obtained (mentally or physically). Thus the phase of existence from birth to self is to have the will and desire, the developed ability to survive on the planet and as some central and consistent identity as such, which appears as a necessary and natural function of existence. But is that all there is to the circus?
Mystics (or Realizers) Know a little more, as “self”-fulfillment is only a quasi-temporary station or identity moving through the path of Identity from self to Self (or through to Spirit and beyond). This path, however, may not be for those who have not had some success in the completion of the first phase, psychologically, developmentally, or where Will and Desire were utilized and developed for practical existence. Now, the unveiling and the undoing of the self-illusion is to take place (but not the inability to think or do), and so the value of just seeing the limitation of Will, Desire, and Thought, as self but without condemnation or judgment is part of the task (which here judgment would be then just another thought with feeling) as consciousness moves beyond those psycho-social domains. And, so to speak, the gross work is more or less completed but now the subtle work beings in earnest where spiritual avoidance is the avoidance of the Present, and often where the methods or techniques themselves become the problem as interference (a little like in Quantum Physics where the instruments of measurement become too gross in their interference with the level of observation desired).
The advanced student finally realizes there is nothing they can do to cause Satori, Freedom, Love, or Truth. The realization that all methods fail is not to say they are without value. This last sentence has little value as an intellectual statement or understanding, except perhaps for the advanced student that is more prepared (or unprepared in another but advanced sense) to surrender, much as Jesus, perhaps, demonstrated on the cross (“Let Thy *Will* be done”). But this Will is the most Natural Will in Existence and Non-existence, yet far beyond the human mind at its present level of understanding. It is where Love resides beyond all understanding, Naturally.
On page 294 in Transformations in Consciousness, FM-W writes: “The Realization of Presence is the sign that an insane person has at last become sane. It is conceived as a rare and strange state of consciousness in this world, because this humanity has the perspective of the inmates of a lunatic asylum. For the truly normal it is so natural as not to be noticeable.” And there you have a description of “Home” Yet, most of the inmates in this lunatic asylum are so insane they have no idea that religious and political beliefs, oppressive law, all imposed upon and running the constricted consciousness of the species in deadly conflict world wide, is the the lunatic asylum that presently operates.
Is it any wonder then that the mystic may see that governments, largely supported by political social conditioning, kill, maim, control, manipulate, and deprive for some ideological nationalism or bureaucratic greed and may want to step out of this traditional disease of cultural interaction and manipulated social responsibility?
The secret to the final solution is that It happens beyond any human will, as It is already the case, and Reality simply Unfolds far beyond the search for meaning within traditional social mythology.
mt
berlake
The notion of will - either human or Divine - certainly seems to
occupy a central position in many of the works of Mystics;
particularly those of a Christian orientation. Jacob Boehme advocated
a complete surrender of the personal will to God's Will. He clearly
states the importance of surrendering the personal self in all its
manifestations to God; which is to say that one must give up being the
willing centre of one's own existence, and instead surrender to a
"somewhat" which is as yet unknown and undiscovered. This is the
supreme act of faith, as it involves dying to something which can only
be known once the dying is done...
Wolff spoke quite clearly about this, too. His account in "A Mystical
Unfoldment" and the subsequent "The Grand Adventure" describes how the
personal will slowly ebbed away, while there was a period of a kind of
apathy and disidentification which required of him an act of
resolution towards continuing into the Unknown. This could not have
happened without the action of the personal will (which is never
actually personal, of course, because there is only one Will acting in
ignorance of its source), and it seems to me that it must be active
until the final moment when it turns back upon itself.
Again, in "Cosmic Consciousness" by Dr Bucke, there is a wonderful
account (which I have mentioned before) from a woman who finally
surrendered herself to the Unknown and found the All. The crucial
"moment" finds her finally deciding that she could no longer resolve
the puzzles of existence herself, and so she gave up all striving.
This, it seems to me, describes the paradox of Realization to which
"mt" is trying to draw our attention, and which Ron Leonard has also
pointed out here and elsewhere. It is the moment when the seeking self
realises the impossibility of its own search, and surrenders to the
Unknown.
Again, in agreement here with "mt", I believe the search itself is a
crucial - perhaps even necessary - part of the paradox, because
without it, the personal self is never finally convinced of what must
happen for the ultimate in self-interest to occur. The ultimate in
self-interest is, of course, the end of the ascendency of the
individual self! Without this supreme abdication, the Unknown can
never become Known (in an Ultimate sense), and the personal self
continues to be "the penny that blots out the sun".
I think my position here may differ from "mt"'s postion somewhat,
however - though please do correct me if I'm wrong, "mt" - because it
seems to me that "Self-Realisation" (which involves the supreme Will)
and "Enlightenment" (which takes us beyond it), while different states
or stages, are BOTH leaps into the Unknown; or, rather, are both
Introceptual Awakenings. I have been impressed in "mt's" writing by
the idea that Self-Realisation somehow still involves the personal
self, when Wolff is quite clear (as are others) that it is complete
transcendence of the personal. Forgive me if I'm misrepresenting you
here, "mt", and if I am, perhaps you could clarify your position a
little.
Thanks for an interesting discussion!
Tim