10. Fundamental Experience #4: the Will

I remember reading many years ago how the Dalai Lama asked a group of Western scientists about whether it was possible to separate one’s awareness of a certain stimulus from one’s reaction to it. Could we choose our response more deliberately, if we were able to pause our reflex reaction? I remember wondering back then: wouldn’t pausing only make me less efficient?

Then I discovered the concept of the will, so central to psychosynthesis. Assagioli made me realize that how I use my will and my freedom of expression largely is an inner process. That will equals self-expression and is related to my inner sense of freedom. Because how we use our will depends on how conscious we are of our identifications and the subpersonalities I have mentioned earlier. Assagioli went further to describe that the will has several aspects:

It is necessary that our will be good as well as strong and skillful. Only this is the true, the whole will.

I think now that he was making a point similar to the Dalai Lama’s: that the will is a more deliberate expression than the impulsive reaction to a certain situation. Assagioli gave the Will three distinct facets.

1. The strong will is the one we most readily associate with decisive, powerful action. But it also expresses energy, focus, clarity and persistence. We often mistake this for the whole will, but if strong will is not balanced by its other aspects, it can become aggressive, conflictual, and blind to others.
2. The skillful will is connected to qualities such as judgment and discernment. When we navigate our existence with skillful will, we balance our interests with those of others, find collaboration, and thus expend minimum energy to reach our purpose. However, if this is not balanced with the other aspects of will, it can show up as manipulation and ruse. As Erik Erikson expressed this aspect: ‘To will does not mean to be willful but rather to gain gradually the power of increased judgement and decision in the application of drive.’
3. Of the three aspects, the good will is perhaps the least intuitive one in our time. It has to do with how our actions express our connection to what is larger than us, and ultimately, our connection to love. Expressions of the good or accepting will can be ”willing surrender” or ”joyful acceptance.” The willingness to listen deeply, to sit in complete stillness, are also expressions of good will. When this aspect is not in balance with the others, it can show up as possessive or dependent, stifling others’ freedom.

The will is not merely assertive, aggressive and controlling. There is the accepting will, yielding will, the dedicated will. You might say that there is a feminine polarity to the will – the willing surrender, the joyful acceptance of the other functions of the personality.

In psychosynthesis we posit that the will, when true and whole, brings us into effortless alignment with the universe. In this state, we can have an experience of transpersonal will. Often described as flow, we feel entirely present, time dissolves, and we are at one with our purpose.

It is possible to develop our will, to move its expression from being kidnapped by impulse or a subpersonality in us, to becoming more deliberate. To move it from what the Dalai Lama describes as a reaction, to a deliberate and balanced response. I may come back to that at some point but if you are hungry for more, I recommend Assagioli’s book on the matter.

References:
Assagioli, R: The Act of Will
Csikszentmihalyi, M: Flow