Working through willpower is the domain of the mind – however, it is highly unnecessary to employ your personal will when you have your life-force providing the momentum to live your natural expression. The hatred dimension in our brain gives us the tendency to be masochists at some level or the other, in that we get a sense of accomplishment/ gratification by going through pain & strain – there is a high that we get from exerting such a force on ourselves, but such a behaviour can well cause us to get into an imbalance which can create fatigue/injury to the body or deteriorate our wellbeing in some way, due to the strain & severity of our forced actions. Once you are resistance-free in your being you are in alignment with your life-stream, as its momentum carries you into your natural expression on a daily basis -so there is no need or necessity for you to exert willpower. The idea of effortless existence can make the mind feel that it will lose this sense of hard-work-based accomplishment – but in truth, effortless existence does not mean that you will just be lolling around – it just means that you will move into activities in an effortless manner from a place of inspiration without strain, and work in alignment with the right timing, avoiding unnecessary actions & producing quality output. Also, it does not mean that you will avoid the ordinary daily chores & just be doing extra-ordinary work as there is as much natural expression in the ordinary chores as in creating masterpieces of art. Effortless existence is the natural state of being when one is fully aligned with his/her life-stream, as there is no need for any personal willpower in this state of being, unless you want to exert yourself for the joy of it – there is leeway for everything in life.
The challenge of letting go of personal will
People imagine that letting go of their personal will would create a dysfunction in their life in that nothing will get done. The ego in the mind or “me” thought in its limited understanding assumes that it is at the helm of taking care of its life as this body & hence uses willpower to get things done.
But the use of willpower also brings the mind’s limited vision into play, as your mind can never know the bigger picture, and hence lacks the intelligence to guide your life – your willpower-based actions could well be taking you in a direction opposite to the direction where your heart is guiding you. In fact, the common argument of a struggle-oriented mind is if I let go of struggle, who will pay my bills? As if Life’s Intelligence that created the entire Universe is either detached or indifferent to take care of these requirements of existence for the body’s expression. Letting go of willpower can well be the biggest challenge you will ever face during this transition from struggle-based living to aligned living. It does require a huge leap in faith to let go of your personal will. There is this saying not my will, but Thy will be done, where Thy refers to God – it can scare a lot of minds to imagine such a surrender of personal will, but in truth, living through your personal will is indeed the biggest risk you could ever take in your life, as it disconnects you from the intelligence of your being, disturbs a natural balance & keeps you from living your real potential. As you see, a lot of your personal will stems from some beliefs, external conditioning, fear, lack-based perception & lack of trust in God. In fact, as you sense the energy behind your personal will you may well detect lots of fear, hatred & lack, which are usually the driving force towards straining yourself. Letting go of personal will does not mean that you will end up a hermit or recluse in some way – those expressions are just spiritual egos in most cases. Whatever your natural expression is, comes through when you let go of the struggle created through forcing yourself from a place of fear- or lack-created motivations. To enjoy the material/physical world is as much the expression of life as it is to express your creativity through your unique talent & skill.
This whole notion of “curbing” your physicality through some spiritual idea is just another negativity of the mind where it holds some noble/ holy ideas about how life wants to express through you. For e.g. to live a simple life may be a natural expression in 1 person whereas living in luxury may be a natural expression in another – when you let go of your conditioned will, you will always fall into your natural expression. Letting go of personal will leads to the dissolution of realities that you were maintaining through strain & force – be it a routine, relationship, job or discipline.
This dissolution is required so that a new order of reality can come into place which is rooted in your natural expression, being aligned with the movement of your life-stream – in this place you find yourself in relationships that are aligned with you, that do not require effort or friction to maintain – you are in an expression that feels passionate & inspiring to you, and your reality is a reflection of abundance, ease & wellbeing. It is totally a new way of living, compared to the strain-based living that many mind-oriented humans are rooted in. The challenge of course is in the transition phase when you move from struggle-based living to aligned living, as it requires you to go against a lot of your limiting external conditioning.
Personal will fuels mind momentum
Since personal will is the creation of egoic perception in the mind, it is only obvious that living through personal will keeps fueling your mind momentum more & more. Letting go of personal will is the fastest way to reduce the mind momentum. That is why techniques do not help, except as some initial practice only, to gain some primary leverage & understanding. All techniques require willpower/personal will – even those that look very spiritual, like trying to be compassionate – any form of trying is against the natural expression of the moment. The freedom of Life is that you can live free of techniques & it will always be available to the guidance of life in the moment – there is no need to carry a baggage of understanding, techniques or concepts. You must understand that your life Force is highly intelligent & knows what is required of the moment & knows how to ensure a full expression of the potential in which you were born, be it the emotional- or creative expression. You will not become defunct in any way when you let go of your personal will – rather you will sense yourself coming to a place of effortless movement, harmonious expression, synchronicities, wisdom & creativity – a balance gets established without you trying to balance anything. The mind can keep struggling to maintain balance & it never figures it out – but when you let go of personal will a balance gets established effortlessly as your physicality becomes an expression of the wholeness that is inherently the nature of life.
If you have not experienced what it feels like to live in alignment with your life-force, it is quite understandable that your mind is highly skeptical about the efficiency of living this way. For some people this pointer of letting go of personal will resonates instantly in their hearts, as they may have already seen through the limitations of their mind’s strategies & efforts, and hence are open to giving a chance to this way of living. Others who feel highly skeptical & fearful of letting go of their personal will, will just take some more readiness before this pointer hits home. This readiness usually comes in when one comes to a dead-end with respect to their mind’s will-based efforts & strategies.
Transition from will-based living to aligned living
If you are disconnected with your natural expression & reality, it will entail a small transition phase before you become aligned with it. There is no getting around the transition phase, as some old realities need to be dissolved before new structures can come in place – in fact the energy for the new structures is gained from the energy obtained in the dissolving of the old structures. The deconstruction phase where the old realities start coming down, not only in the external but also in your mind in the form of dissolution of some patterns of behaviour, beliefs, habits, perceptions & attitude is challenging but it also prepares you in terms of maturity, clarity, lightness & depth which are required to live a resistance free life. Every shred of personal will is usually brought down before a full alignment happens, and when you are already in this transition, any form of holding on becomes too strenuous, and you just naturally let go of your personal will & become open to be moved by Life. This is 1 reason why it helps to have an understanding of what this transition involves, so that you do not feel so confused when you are in the process of it, as in some cases it can feel like a total upheaval, especially if you had for long been living a disconnected life. You will notice however, that you are well taken care of during this process, even if there is a lot of uncertainty & confusion in the mind when it is in this process. Though the transition phase is not the most functional state, as you are in limbo between losing your personal will & not being totally taken in by life-force – nevertheless, you are well taken care of even in the midst of perceived chaos or inertia – usually you will realize this in hindsight.
When you are in the process of this transition you can easily resonate with all the above-mentioned. However, if you have not really moved into this transition or if you are in the initial stage of letting go of mind momentum it may seem a little disconcerting to go through this phase, as the mind does not like the idea of going through change so much, although it desires the fruits at the end of a change. Of course not everyone goes through an upheaval during the transition – for many it could just be a smooth transition as their reality was not very disconnected to start with – big upheavals happen only when you have been living in a totally disconnected manner.
Your personal will can have enough force to sustain lots of disconnected realities, so a big part of this transition phase is the ebbing away of your personal will, and if you do not resist this natural movement, the transition happens much faster until you get aligned with your natural expression & congruent external realities.