The Real and
True Will is Spiritual Will
Robert Crosbie
Robert Crosbie

000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Editorial Note:
The following text
is reproduced from
the volume “The Friendly Philosopher”,
by Robert Crosbie,
Theosophy Company, Los
Angeles, 1945, 415
pp. 310-314. The text concludes
saying that according
to the Masters of the Wisdom
mankind is “the
great orphan”, for few individuals work
for it as a whole.
Many suffer from a severe spiritual
ignorance and
think of themselves as isolated beings.
We add two
explanatory notes.
(CCA)
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
All have
doubtless made New Year’s resolutions, and all, no doubt, have failed to keep
them. There must be a reason for our failures, as well as for the fact that
there comes a certain season in the year when we have the inclination to make
resolutions. These reasons lie hidden in the depths of our own being.
Unconsciously to ourselves, it may be, we have a
natural perception of occult law in our observance of this particular period of
the year. The ancients celebrated and understood what was called by them “the
birth of the Sun,” or the return of the Sun on its northern course, beginning the 21st of December.[1] They knew that all the occult forces in nature
have an upward and increasing tendency at the return of the Sun. When the Sun’s
rays become warmer and stronger, all the other forces behind the Sun itself,
and behind ourselves, become stronger within us.[2] In the rising wave of spiritual and psychic renewal, all that
we desire to do has a greater impulsion than at some other time of the year.
The reason for our failures is that we do not
understand our own natures. Consequently, we are not able to use the force and
influence that lie within us, so far as we are physically concerned, and we
have difficulty in endeavoring to carry out resolutions of any kind. Our first
mistake is to make negative resolutions. We say, I will not drink; I will not
lie; I will not do this; I will not do that. Whereas the proper resolve
to make is that - I will do this, the
opposite of what we are now doing. In this case, we make a direct affirmation
of will, while the other form of
resolution puts us in a purely negative position. Perhaps we have thought with
regard to others or ourselves, that because we do not do a number of questionable things, therefore we are “good.” On the
contrary, we are merely not bad -
again a negative position. True goodness is a positive position.
To effect our resolutions we have to call on the will of man, for that will is not
restrained by any form of obstacle whatever. By will, however, is not meant
what is ordinarily called will. We are prone to think that a person who is very
determined on gaining his ends has “a strong will,” and is very positive in his
character; but such a person exhibits only a kind of will. He has very, very
strong desires, rather than Will
itself, and will follow them out.
There are many exhibitions of the will itself, some
phases being quite unrecognized. The very will to live is a recondite aspect of
Will. If the will to live were not present, we would not live. It is not the
body which holds us here but the desire
to live. Always behind Will stands Desire. Again, everyone of man’s bodily
organs and processes was at one time evolved by conscious effort. Even the
process of digestion, of assimilation, the heart beat, the various qualities
and functions of all the organs were consciously evolved. Now we have bodies
which will proceed automatically, while we use our consciousness, perceptions
and attention in other directions. Our will, then, operates in reality in every
part of our physical life though we may not be able to perceive it and
understand it. There is also a mental phase of the will which can be cultivated
by practice: the fixed attention, or concentration in certain directions
capable of effecting desired results.
But the real and true Will is known as the Spiritual
Will, which flies like light and cuts all obstacles like a sharp sword. It is
that Will proceeding from the highest spiritual part of our natures which
causes man to be an evolution from within out wards, through all the forms of
substance that have been, and to continue evolving instruments in this state of
matter. All the powers that exist or can exist are latent, however ill
expressed, in the spiritual nature. We draw from it in degree, but in small
degree because most of us, having our ideas so fixed on physical existence,
have come to the conclusion that life means nothing more than physical existence.
We were once conscious of our spiritual nature, but as
we came down through the planes of matter to this plane, we made a growth in
intellectuality at the expense of spiritual perception. With our intellect we
always reason from premises to conclusions, whereas the spiritual nature has
the power of direct cognition of the nature of anything regarded. So our
intellectual gain was at the loss of spiritual insight, and it is useless for
theology, science, and psychology to proceed from the personal and physical
perceptions in order to get an understanding of what man really is: their
psychological causes are but reflections of the physical ideas. If we are going
to realize our own natures, we must begin at the highest point of our nature - by
assuming that. It is, and by holding to the power of that assumption. We begin
to see light by the very affirmation of the spiritual nature.
As we stand, we are always using our will along the
line of our desires and of our likes and dislikes, imagining these to be a
proper basis for thought and action. What is most necessary for us is a proper
basis for thinking. We need to eject the false idea of our being weak, sinful
creatures, with all the faults of our parents and their parents before them,
because we were born that way. We need to eject the mental idol of an outside
creator. We need to understand the purpose of life, to see that we are the
product of many of our own prior lives, and to recognize an evolution under law
- a law both true and merciful - which operates everywhere. It is because that
law operates in a round of impression that we have the tendency each year to
make New Year’s resolutions. We could by an understanding and using of this law
of recurrence bring into effect those resolutions.
Often, however, resolutions are made because it is “proper”
to make them - with no real expectation of keeping them. We remember them for a
few days - they choke us off for a little while - and then gradually the old
desires assert themselves and we find ourselves traveling along the old way.
Resolutions will never do us any good if we do not sustain them. A desire is
not a condition. The mere desire will never get us anywhere. We have to
maintain the desire; we have to stick
to the resolution; we have to exert our will, and cleave to the object of that
will throughout. We can’t get rid of the evil in us by thinking of it, nor can
we get rid of any unpleasant thing by thinking about it; for it is truly said
that we are attached to anything by thinking about it. The harder we don’t think about the evil things in us,
the better; think about their opposites, and the evil will not have the chance
to return. Attachment is by thought, first of all. Desire exists in thought,
first of all. Then follows the action. We have to have a firm basis for our
thinking if we are ever going to express ourselves as we should, as spiritual
beings.
Why do we all have our pet theories of life, our pet
religions or philosophies? Because they conform to our own desires; not because they conform to truth or that they provide an
explanation of all the mysteries we see about us. This is why after so many
thousands of years of what we call civilization, we have become none the wiser,
still moving in the same old tread-mill of life and death and sorrow and
suffering and pain. Yet we are not bound to it, save as we bind ourselves by
our own thoughts and action. We are not under the necessity of following along
on those planes of error as we are now doing.
There is a chance for us if we understand our own
natures. Then, let us resolve one great thing: resolve to know; resolve to
think right, and do right; resolve to acquire some of the knowledge that always
has existed - the knowledge of man as a spiritual being through all his
fluctuations in the realm of matter.
As we rely more and more upon the Self within, we
begin to express and use the power which we already have - and that is far more
than we imagine. We have to help ourselves by taking the suggestions already
given in the teachings of Theosophy - which are Masters’ suggestions. And then,
as the sustaining power of the will is held along the line in which we desire
to do, more direct help comes from those Elder Brothers, who at every hour of
each day “are willing and anxious to meet those clear-eyed enough to see their
true destiny and noble-hearted enough to work for the great orphan, Humanity.”
NOTES:
[1] This refers to the Northern
Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, the period between 21 December and 04
January corresponds to the moment when the light of the Sun - after attaining
its highest intensity - starts to slowly lose strength, preparing the way
towards Autumn and Winter. Outer life then begins to diminish, which opens room
to the subtle light of the immortal soul - the inner Sun.
[2] Besides the solar cycle,
there is a numerological factor. According to theosophy, numbers have an occult
power. The first days of the first month inaugurate trends which can gain
strength along the way of the yearly
timeline.
000
On the role of the esoteric movement in the ethical
awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire
and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.

Published in 2013 by The Aquarian
Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon
Books.
000