I’ve got the answer on Willpower! May 21, 2012

The question about the nature and meaning of Willpower kept me busy for some time. I even posted about it already twice, but still I could not understand what is the mystery behind. The other day I talked to an old friend about some private issues and suddenly he dropped a sentence that “The willpower is there to overcome the negativity/circumstances/destiny and thus to make another step in the personal evolution”. That’s it, I thought!

For instanse people who had problematic parents and difficult childhood – now they are comfortable in the victim position and say  “you know I have so many problems because of my childhood”. But why not overcome it? The Will Power will serve greatly if one takes to it.

Indeed, what is the fine border between a destiny and willpower? All great spiritual Masters talked about both, that a lot is already predestined and Divine Plan does exist. At the same time a human being has the Free Will, which makes us different from animals. If we use this Free Will we evolve further. Thus, at some point the Free will becomes the Will Power, the force that makes many great things happen.

Obviously today the question of Willpower is not popular. I remember in the Soviet Union we were brought up on the ideals of heroic people – not like Superman, but real heroes, existing people,  people who showed wonders of Will Power in their personal achievements or their work for others… Either in the industrialisation period, or during the Second World War or even after. I find it’s pity that today’s children miss that kind of upbringing. Today they only learn the ego-boosting.

I made my personal experiences with Willpower – not many but still some. I know what it feels like and I know how much courage it demands. And finally it’s a great mixture of thrill and discipline. A strange mixture that makes every personal journey worth tryting.

LOVE

axinia

Poll on Willpower: is it ego, free will or spiritual power? May 1, 2012

Willpower  comes from “Will” which does not refer to one particular or most preferred desire but rather to the general capacity to have such desiderata and act decisively to achieve them, according to whatever criteria the willing agent applies.

One of the repeating questions discussed in the Western philosophical tradition since Christianization is the question of “free will“, and the related but more general notion of fate, which asks how will can be truly free if the actions of people have natural or divine causes which determine them, but which are not really under the control of people. The question is directly connected to discussions of what Freedom is, and also the “problem of evil“, because it brings into question whether people really cause their own acts.

In idealist models of reality, the material world is either non-existent or is a secondary artifact of the “true” world of ideas. In such worlds, it can be said that everything is an act of will. Even if you are arrested by the police, this is actually an act of your will, too; if you didn’t want it to happen, you could have decided otherwise.

And what is your option about it? Does the free will exist? If yes, how strong can it be?  Do you think many people possess it? If not why? – please share your ideas as a comment.

The Poll is for those who do not like to post a comment but happy to press a button 🙂

thanks!

axinia

Why conditionings are more respected than a free will? May 11, 2009

 (image by me)

There is one interesting feature in a human character that amazes me the most. I don’t know the exact source of this phenomenon but its nature puzzles me every time I face it.

I have always been able to withstand some wide-spread conditioning/habits if I would consider them wrong. Such as, at my teens I was the first in my school to rebel against the school uniform and started wearing regular cloths. In my adult life I have opposed successfully and constructive some collective madness… What strikes me most about these experiencs, it is the fact that people, when it comes to some common shared views (which is oft nothing but superstition or conditioning) are not able to respect a FREE WILL, but they would except it if you justify something with another conditioning.

My favorite example in this case is alcohol drinking. I don’t drink alcohol since many years because somehow I dislike the taste of it. Apart from that I don’t need the effect of it – I think the main reason why people drink it is because they say their brain relaxes and they get into the better mood. Both is not needed in my case as my brain is never under pressure and I am always in the joyful mood. Anyway, whenever I am at a party or with people usually drink, they all try to insist on my drinking (Calssical arguments like “come on, you are Russian, you have to”, or “don’t you respect us?” etc.).

I have judged others November 23, 2008

 

I plead guilty from time to time

when I have judged others

in relation to standards of mine;

for now I see that each one of us

sees only from the point where one is placed

on the long path of eternal time.

Each one has to grow by his free will,

 choosing right or wrong at his own discretionary will.

Siding the grey darkness or silvery light,

one either brightens or mars one`s chances

of reaching the end keeping the goal in sight.

 

poem by Armaity H. Bhabha “Sahajmala”

image by axinia

You foollish mind October 29, 2008

                           

Oh! You foolish mind, why can’t you see the obvious,

that everyting that you think is yours

does not belong to you.

The pure knowledge, the brains to grasp it,

the talents, the beauty, whatever that’s truly precious,

comes from one ultimate source,

and there it has got to return,

set free by the free will,

the only thing that we can dare to call our own.

 

poem by Armaity H. Bhabha “Sahajmala”