What to Do When Worries
And Problems Block Your Road
“More trouble coming my way!” you exclaim with a feeling of frustration.
Don’t complain about it! Problems give you a great opportunity to strengthen your willpower. You must acknowledge, in fact, that it is the obstacle blocking your path that creates this phenomenon called an act of will. If your life always had a smooth track and never faced contradictions, you would soon become an amorphous, viscous, pasty being, a “noodle”!
Look around you and observe those who are called “tough fighters”. Their lives are strewn with countless difficulties. This is the source and foundation of their strong will.
But why do they have to face so many obstacles?
It is because they threw themselves vigorously forward, eager to grasp reality, and want to give it a form according to their vow and their desire.
So much so that we arrive at this observation: the need to overcome the obstacle creates the will. But, on the other hand, the will itself makes the obstacle emerge.
See a proof of this fact in the idiots who have no will. What is the problem with them? To avoid getting into trouble, they stop wanting. They suppress their desires by limiting themselves to grunting. Yet, by rejecting worries, they reject themselves.
We can see then that willpower and obstacle generate each other. They are inseparable. By wanting, you inevitably create difficulties, since the intention is to force reality to adapt to your will. By fighting to obtain such a submission on the part of reality, you develop your willpower.
Conclusion: whenever worries, problems and challenges block your path, accept them cheerfully and say:
“How lucky! Here is, finally, the possibility offered to me to overcome myself; in other words, to jump over this obstacle. Let us go!”
Thus the very dissatisfaction of seeing your path interrupted by an obstacle becomes the cause of the creation of yourself, by yourself.
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The article “Obstacle, a Precondition of Willpower” is available on the websites of the Independent Lodge since 27 February 2024. It is also part of the January 2024 edition of the Aquarian Theosophist. It consists of a translation - made by CCA - of “Obstacle, Condition de la Volonté”. The original text was first published in 1945 in the book «Dictionnaire de la Volonté», by Jean des Vignes Rouges, Éditions J. Oliven, Paris, 320 pp., pp. 213-214.
Jean des Vignes Rouges is the pen name of French military officer and writer Jean Taboureau (1879-1970).
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Read more:
* The Notebook of Willpower, by Jean des Vignes Rouges.
* How to Strengthen One’s Will, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these revealing words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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