Day Three- Willpower and Self-Discipline

22. October 2009 by admin.

Don’t you love America? If you ain’t got it, you can buy it, complete with free shipping.  Yes, that’s right directly through e-bay, buy willpower and self-discipline, subliminally, so you don’t even have to waste a moment of your time thinking consciously about what drives us crazy or to great success.

Its early in the morning and I have gotten lost in music  preparing for the workshop when it came to mind this is definitely Willpower pushing me through to keep my commitments and it’s an all too familiar feeling.  But I also know the joy of cleansing and getting on my Yoga Mat every day and that gives the impression of Self-Discipline. Are these five pillars to Self-Discipline really accurate, Acceptance, Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and Persistence and could Willpower be a part of Self-Discipline?  Went looking to the net for ideas, although inspirational quotes aren’t my favorite form of communication, these seemed worth the glance:

“I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish
humble tasks as though they were great and noble.  The world is moved along,
not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny
pushes of each honest worker.” -   Helen Keller
“Yoga is a light which, once lit, will never dim. The better you practice, the brighter the flame.” -  B. K. S. Iyengar
“You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.” -   Upanishads

And as I dug deeper I found this comment on a weight loss website that brought in another perspective:

… i don’t develop a plan and then expect to hold myself to it when the moment of ‘choosing’ arrives. That is what willpower is to me, and when i think self-discipline, i conceive of consequences for not adhering to a plan i developed in advance, regardless of what circumstances may arrive for that future event.  When you’re acting out of willpower, you’re making a plan in advance and sticking to it regardless of what’s happening in the present moment. You are disregarding your present-moment experience. That is very different from what Normal Eating teaches. When you’re acting out of self-care, you learn to be present in the moment, aware of your feelings and needs in real time. This allows you to cope with triggers in productive ways so you don’t need to self-soothe with food. How you think about something matters enormously. When you think in terms of self-discipline and willpower, you can fail. It’s diet-think. When you think in terms of freedom, self-love, and choice, it’s all good and it feels effortless….

This comment on Willpower seemed very exhausting, but certainly accurate.

Lastly some heady advice on Will from Papaji ,who was my teacher’s, teacher’s, teacher for a time and is how I heard of him.  Along with three other books,I pray to finish and comprehend before I die, is  Papaji:Wake up and Roar,  a collection of interviews taken throughout his life edited by Eli Jaxon-Bear.  The interview question is; I can’t will myself to change.  You can’t will yourself not to have desires, because that is more of the ego isn’t it?

 This will cannot be rejected so easily.  This will, “I want to be free”- let’s call it the last will, the last desire for the highest thing, which is perfection, eternity, emptiness it cannot be rejected.  It will take you somewhere and then it will vanish.  This desire will burn itself out, and what will remains is your nature. So be thankful for this will. Very few lucky people will choose this freedom. Cling firmly to this desire, and it will take you to freedom and then vanish.  Every desire needs the support of another desire.  Otherwise, one desire is no desire.  Therefore, it is freedom itself.  There the means and end are the same.  Intense desire for freedom alone, allowing on other desire to rise is freedom itself.

Once you consciously know you are free, desire will rise, they will not have a ground because these will be roasted seeds.  They will not have sprouted in the memory. You will already know the end.

All desires actually end in freedom.  Your desire is fulfilled and you are empty.  The emptiness brings you happiness, but it is unconscious.  You attribute your happiness to a possession, not the emptiness.  It is the freedom from desire that gives you happiness.

Only an instant is required for this recognition.  Once only.  Just a moment.  Look into and recognize your Self within this instant.  You don’t need a long program spread over years to recognize this freedom.  You are already free.  It is only recognition that isn’t there, that you are postponing.  You must recognize your own nature or you will not be happy.

Tell me what you think about willpower and freedom!

On those big words, good night,

Deby

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