The Will

Read John 14:12-19 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it”. John 14:12-14

These are astounding words. It is hard to imagine that we could do greater works than the risen Christ. It is also hard to imagine that what we ask in his name he will do … if we believe, if we trust.
If we really trusted Christ we would never be fearful or anxious, we wouldn’t worry about outcomes and we would love unconditionally. We could do this by means of our will which would quell any unsettling emotions and thoughts.
Right Action is intricately connected to the will. It is by applying will to an idea that we bring about action in the world. So the quality of our action depends on the quality of our will. Will, being our inner initiative, is an impulse of warmth which develops into motivation. It is important for us to continually question our motivation. Who will benefit from our actions? What kind of future will be created by our actions? How conscious are we of all of this?
We are hardly conscious of our will; it slumbers in the depth of our soul. What is more, we often mistake our strong feelings for our will. Our will must burst forth into our soul life and wake us up. In our wakefulness, in our awareness, we can trust in the presence of Christ and as St Paul says do all things in him who strengthens us. Phil 4:13
The only way to strengthen our will is with our thinking. Thinking, feeling and willing are our tools, with them we must become the master craftsman. If we do nothing else in our life but flex our thinking, feeling and willing we will prevail. The more conscious we are, and the more in control of them, and the more trusting we will be of Christ.
Thinking is such a powerful tool that if we can’t see spirit, if we can’t see Christ, we can think it! If we believe that then we will do Christ’s works as well as Buddha’s Right Action. We can create ideas about spirit every time we read the Bible or the Bhagavad-Gita or any spiritual truth. We can create pictures, images, that bring the words to life. If we don’t use our thinking to create these images the words remain abstract and lifeless ideas which have no relevance in our daily life.
As we become more aware of thinking, feeling and willing in our soul we realise that our natural habitat is found in the semi-conscious feeling levels. Every time we are called to think we become aware of the effort it takes. Can we call up our will and activate it in the feelings levels? If we do then whatever we read or whatever we do will take on a greater meaning. Or do we prefer to just let feelings wash over us because we can’t be bothered?
We tend to substitute Right Action with our wishful thinking. Think about how often we wish for this or that? Wishing can be confused with willing but wishes actually dampen our consciousness. Wishes are unfulfilled desires, they do underlie our willing but they don’t invoke it.
Can we discern if we act though conscious motive or unconscious urge? How often are we conscious of the reason for our action? Are we aware of how often we act out of an unconscious past-life memory? Instantly liking the new person we meet usually indicates a favourable past life relationship. The reverse is also true. It requires an act of will to harmonise our relationships. It is about respect versus alienation.
The three acts of will which we must practice constantly are these – we should put them in our dairy and read them every day.
1.    Develop the sense of our I-being carrying the body around; the body is its vehicle.
2.    See the I AM in each other not past karma – in other words, see the divinity in the other person.
3.    Remember that the real human being that we are is invisible to the physical eye.
We must say this with full consciousness every minute of the day. When we see another person all that is visible is the mineral substance that fills the human form. Just think, more than 90 percent of the human form is water. All we see is the outer mineral world that we have united with ourselves, we do not see the human being who does the uniting. This is what Christ means when he says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.