Work on Will

One of the things we must observe in ourselves is how we resolve to do something one moment and the very next moment, we get carried away. Say I make a decision from my Intellectual Center to sit at my table to write some notes. The moment I sit, my Instinctive Center intervenes. It says it would be nice to have a cup of tea while writing the notes. And so, after just writing one line, I get up to make a cup of tea.

As I put the kettle on, I suddenly remember from my Emotional Center (my interests) that I didn’t watch the end of the match last night as I went to sleep early. This triggers the curiosity of the Intellectual Center, making me wonder who won the match. As I wait for the water to boil, I switch on the TV to find out the results of the match.

While carrying my tea to the table, I find a movie playing on TV that I’ve been waiting a long time to see. So instead of going back to my table to write my important notes, I sit with my cup of tea to watch the movie. Of course, the Instinctive Center comes in again and says, you cannot watch a movie with just a cup of tea, a pack of wafers would be nice. And so I get the wafers and sit back comfortably to watch the movie.

Here, I must say that in the above example, I’ve spoken about a new movie that’s yet to be seen. But many times, we’ll forgo the task at hand to watch a movie or TV show we’ve already seen before.

Every student of spirituality works to create Will, which frees him from slavery to the tiniest of whims of the four centers which can dictate his life.

Let’s start with the Emotional Center. Say we’re in a situation where we have to decide to do one of two things. One we like to do and the other we do not. Normally, we would choose doing what we like first and postpone what we do not like for later. But to create Will in the Emotional Center, struggle is needed. If we choose what we do not like, then in that struggle and friction to do it, we have created Will.

Next, take the Instinctive Center. We’re feeling very hungry. If we immediately run to the fridge, then we’re a slave to its whims. But if we say ok, I’ll wait 30 minutes and then eat, we’re creating Will in the Instinctive Center by fasting for half an hour. Here we can also bring the Emotional Center into play by first eating something which may not satisfy our tastebuds.

The Moving Center, that is our organs of movement, stands on the structure of the muscles of our body. We may have been standing a long time and suddenly feel the need to relax in a chair. Here we can create a pause, struggle with the desire to relax and keep standing for a longer time, thus creating Will in the Moving Center. As we keep standing, if we can consciously roll our attention across our muscles and relax them, we’re really doing good work on our Moving Center.

Now the most idiotic part of our Intellectual Center is our chattering mind, the monkey which chatters all the time. We must catch this monkey in awkward situations and then work upon it to create Will in the Intellectual Center. Say we’re stuck in traffic, it’s very hot and our irritation is rising. Our inner monkey chatter is in overdrive. This is the time to order it to shut up. Say to it that if it does not listen, you will punish it by allowing all the other cars to overtake you when the signal turns green. Working in such situations is more powerful than any meditation.

We can be inventive and find ways to increase our Will in so many situations in life. In this way, we can one day be free from being slaves to the small whims of our centers.

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