Training Attention to Color
One
There are truly powerful forces at work in our universe, forces so awe-inspiring our minds can’t comprehend them: giant black holes of near infinite gravity, invisible waves that propagate through vast expanses at speeds that bend space and time, energy rays which permeate all the matter in their path, enormous forces in something as small as a neutron, patterns that organize entire galaxies with impeccable precision.
If there is anything we humans understand, is power. We run our lives by it, struggle to negotiate it, acquire it, maintain it. Power rules everything that is made of matter.
In the unseen realms of reality, the subtle currents which shape life, society and progress, the equivalent of power is will.
Will is the guiding force of sentience, and it’s frequently confused with power, since we fused these two words into one, and now use will and willpower interchangeably, but that is a misunderstanding of the words’ meaning.
We impose willpower on things we want in order to control them, because as yet, we don’t. We express our will through things we control without even having to think about them.
Will guides gently beneath the threshold of reason. It senses synchronicities, recognizes unique opportunities, shields us from unapparent dangers.
Will is the very purpose of one’s life, a purpose we often aren’t consciously aware of.
More than making choices and following up on them, will is a drive that pulls us forward in auspicious directions before we understand why, draws our attention to details that matter, and sharpens our focus. It withers in the presence of willpower.
You can’t force will, it works with the subtlety of tides, but you can feed it the power of your convictions, your knowledge and your experience.
What of power, then?
Here is a contrarian notion: you only have to use power when you don’t have it, and always consume yourself in the process.
You always lose something you can’t get back. The proper application of will gets things done effortlessly and enhances your life.
Humans are helpless in the face of genuine power: we are small naked apes, no match for the mighty forces of nature, easily hurt and frightened, always preoccupied with satisfying our basic needs, and counting down to our expiration date.
Will transcends this flaw by allowing us to leave our mark on reality.
Will sets things in motion, births things and circumstances that subsequently become self sufficient, self perpetuating and self organizing, and those things have a life of their own, which far exceeds our transient existence.
There is a splendid garden in a small town by a lake in upstate New York.
It was the brainchild of a widow in her golden years, one she brought into this world two hundred years ago, for no other reason than she loved gardens and she had the means to afford it.
One would consider such a project a sinful indulgence, and call out her entitlement for spending so much time and resources, and engaging so many other lives in creating something with no utility value.
During the last two hundred years, the world experienced war, epidemics, regime changes, the fall of empires, economic upheaval. Cities flourished or got abandoned because of the vicissitudes of history. Country borders changed. New technologies reshaped society.
Through all these changes and through years of neglect, that garden is still thriving.
Such is the power of true will.
In conclusion, what are the points worth remembering?
- Power rules the world of matter; will reshapes and directs its circumstances and events.
- Will is a fundamental drive that decides the direction of one’s life, and it often does so unconsciously.
- Will and willpower work at odds with each other, their meanings are not interchangeable. Willpower wants, will controls.
- Will transcends time and material circumstances by giving birth to self-sufficient and self-perpetuating patterns, which take upon a life of their own, much longer than that of their initiator.
- Using power consumes you. Expressing will enhances you, by drawing upon synchronous resources you may not even have known existed.
- You can’t force will. It is a subtle and discrete force and it only works in harmony with its circumstances.
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