The ability and willingness to change is at the heart of all spirituality.
Michael A. Singer
I would like to talk about volition today, or, more exactly, the intention and willingness to change for the better. Why do I want to talk about this? Well serendipity again has led me to a topic. Last night I read chapter two of Karma: A Yogis Guide to Crafting Your Destiny and went to bed thinking and dreaming of will and intention. Then I wake up this morning to Michael Singer's, Temple of the Universe Talk, entitled, The Willingness to Change. Could I write about anything else, lol?
Anyway, I digress...
Do You Want to Change?
Are you willing to change? Or are you determined to keep things as they are in your life because they suit you or are, at least, comfortably familiar and safe? Maybe you are afraid of change? Maybe you want change but feel it isn't your responsibility? Maybe you still cling to the notion that others and situations have to change "out there" for your life to be better? Maybe you are just too tired or overwhelmed to do the work of changing? I understand all that, I do. I spent most of my life in 'stuck mode' because of those rationalizations. Not anymore. Life slapped me across the face and said, "Wake up! Things really need to change!"
I want change. Man I want change. I want this life I am living to be different and the only way it is going to be different is if I change myself! So I am working on changing my inner world. I am trying to clean up the mess I made of my body, mind and energies. I devote myself now to being a yogi. A yogi is devoted to changing from the inside out.
Working Out Karma
Though I spent most of life so far believing I was a victim or a villain, assuming I was being punished by some outside force, I now see completely that life is an internal game, as is change. I am working towards understanding and releasing all those samskaras that are blocking the flow of pure energy within me and that are somehow determining the quality of the life I am living. I am attempting to work out my karma.
What does "working out karma mean"? It means that the play of your life is happening according to your tendencies, not according to some system of right or wrong. Your life simply organizes itself to fulfill your inclinations. Karma is not a punishment or reward; it is just the process by which Life tries to fulfill itself. page 29
Life is trying to fulfill itself through this body, mind and energies but I keep blocking it, stopping it from doing so because of these patterns and tendencies I developed and slapped a label of "me, my and mine" on. Life is trying to pour through "me". Shakti, prana, essence, soul, Atman, Self...whatever way we describe it...cannot flow through if this "me" is standing in the way with all its clinging and pushing away. We can resist and block the flow of Life with our bodies ( through action) but we can also block it with our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, ideas of who we are as separate little entities etc. We can block with our intentions. Infact, our intentions and our volitions have more to do with what we "get from life", in terms of consequences, than our physical actions do. When we judge, right or wrong, good or bad, should be or shouldn't be, and select what comes into our "experience" and what doesn't...we are resisting the fullness of Life; we are blocking, we are screwing up our internal energies, and we are creating karma. We are making a mess of our lives here.
It doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't. We can clean up the mess. We can heal. We can grow. We can find peace, joy and love within us. We can change the direction our karma is taking us.
How?
The first and most important thing is to be willing to change. We all have a will within us, the ability to make choices . We need to stop using that will to feed this idea of "me". We need to start using that will for our freedom?
What determines our willingness, intention or volition to live a certain way?
Most of us use our will in the service of the human part of us rather than the "being" part of us. (Singer)
...volition is shaped fundamentally by your belief that you are a seperate being - an individual....If you were not identified with this sense of separateness you would not be accumulating karma. Sadhguru, page 31
This determines how we see ourselves and thusly how we interact with the world around us.
The endless oscillation between likes and dislike, attraction and aversion, further hardens their[most people's] sense of serratedness. Overtime likes and dislikes freeze into a personality and produce more karma. Individuality now becomes a prison rather than a privilege. Sadhguru, page 31
Your mind...is convinced it is a limited entity. Therefore any volition based on this limited understanding goes against the fundamental design of the source of creation. Any action that is impelled by such shortsighted and narrow volition invariably means karma. Or in other words, more compulsive existence. Sadhguru, page 32
We will remain stuck in our "me-ness" with all its habitual and Self/God- denying tendencies until we start seeing that "me" is just a thing we made up. Until we realize we are in a self-created prison and start looking for our way out, for liberation and freedom, we are not using our will for the best purpose and will continue to act out our tendencies, continue to collect karma. That slap across the face I got from Life woke me up to the fact that I was locked up in a compulsive way of existing. I then made it a point to use my will, not to keep me stuck, but for freedom. Only when I am free will I be able to go back to free others.
What is it we are to be willing to do then, crazy lady?
We must be willing to see, first of all that what we have been doing doesn't work and that we got ourselves stuck in this painful way of existing. We have created our own Karma with the identifications with our actions, our stinking thinking, our emotions, our preferences etc. We then must be willing to see that it is we who put the bars up and we that are the ones that can get through them. We must be willing to step beyond the familiar and into the unfamiliar, which can be scary. Our fear may tempt us to want to retreat back into the habit of resisting Life. Singer reminds us that it is here where we must be willing to persevere... to stay open, to surrender to what is. Change, he reminds us, takes place through surrender.
Surrender? What are we surrendering?
We surrender this identification we have with "me", this idea of separateness and fall back into the wise Self beyond that veil of "me" we built. From there we surrender this idea that Life should be accommodating this "me" and all its likes and dislikes. We realize that Life has its own agenda and we are simply here to experience it, not control it. Instead of resisting and closing up to any of it...we stay open allowing it all in, appreciating it, honoring it, experiencing it fully before it passes through.
If we want to change our lives, change the direction our karma is taking us...we must be willing to surrender and let go of "me".
Every moment you have the right to grow, you have the right to get closer to God by releasing yourself. Michael Singer
When your actions are no longer about you, when they are simply based on the demands of the situation, when narrow self interest no longer fuels your violation, you have reached the end of karmic production. Your liberation is assured. Sadhguru, page 33
Once this is accomplished, your life becomes an expression of bliss, not a pursuit of it. Sadhguru, page 31
Sadhguru (2021) Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. New York: Harmony Books
Michael A. Singer ( August 7, 2023) The Willingness to Change. https://tou.org/talks/
Note: I am not sure if Sadhguru wrote this book himself or if he used a ghost writer ( maybe one of his 'volunteers') but I think the the writing is excellent! Just had to say that.
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