Training the Will: 2

[ecosophia]

Let's talk some more about training the will.  

If you followed last week's instructions, you put up a note reminding you to touch your nose, and then once each day, when you saw the note, you touched your nose ten times. Deliberately absurd as that action was, it helped you work on developing two important skills. The first skill is to do what you choose do to do, just because you choose to do it, without any other reason at all. The second skill is not to do what you choose not to do, just because you don't choose to do it.

The times you saw the note and didn't touch your nose are just as important as the times you saw it and did so. If you lift weights, you know that your muscles are paired -- there's an extensor muscle that stretches part of your out, and a flexor muscle that pulls the same part back, and you have to exercise the two of them separately.  The will is the same way. The extensor muscle of the will is the word "Yes." The flexor muscle is the word "No." You need to strengthen both of them equally, so that you can freely accept what you want in life and just as freely reject what you don't. 

With that in mind, let's move on. 

We talked last week about habits of will. Those are your greatest strength and your greatest weakness, and we'll be dealing with them in various ways and from various angles as we proceed. For now, think of them as movements of will that you repeat over and over again until they become automatic.  That's a source of immense power, since you can create habits of will any time you want to, by the simple expedient of repeating a movement of will over and over again. It's a source of immense weakness, because once a movement of will becomes automatic, it tends to sink below the threshold of awareness -- and once there it's difficult to reach and even more difficult to stop. 

Yet there's a skeleton key to open that lock, and its name is attention. 

Most people, most of the time, go through life in what amounts to a shallow doze. They let their habits of will run their lives for them, and sleepily accept whatever the results of those habits happen to be. That's a normal part of being human, but it's not hardwired into us. We can change that state by choosing to pay attention. 

Right now, before you read any further, look around and see if you can find anything in your surroundings that's orange. If you find one, see if you can find another. Devote a minute or two to that deliberately absurd task, and try to notice what you're doing while you're doing it. 

Have you done that?  Good.  You just changed the focus of your attention from the words on the screen in front of you to the presence or absence of orange things in your visual field. Odds are that when you came into the room where you're sitting and did whatever you did before you read this post, you weren't aware at all of the orange things in the room. Now you're aware of them. The fact that you're aware of orange things means nothing; the fact that you consciously changed what you're aware of is everything. 

The movement of attention is the simplest and most basic of all acts of the will. Before you can use your will consciously in any situation, you have to turn your attention to it. Thus the task I introduced in the first post of this series -- establishing the habit of conscious willing -- depends first of all on developing the habit of conscious direction of attention. The exercise you just did, varied appropriately, will provide you with your next week worth of work. 

Exercise 2:  Take down the slip of paper that says "Touch your nose!" and in its place put up another that says, simply, "Color."  Once a day, using that note as a reminder, choose any color you like -- blue, red, black, purple, white, brown, you name it -- and then look around and notice things in your surroundings that are the color you chose. You don't have to notice everything that's that color, though you can if you like. Just pay attention to the color. Any other time you see the same note on that day, don't repeat the exercise. 

Got it?  Good. We'll go further next week. 

Comments

Pineal Gland?

[goats_and_roses]

Looking at the two illustrations you chose for these two posts about will. They show a beam of something? emanating from the head. Does will have an etheric or astral component? I am assuming your choice of images is deliberate. Can you elaborate on why you have used these to illustrate will, thanks! I am curious about the connection to the head.

And for those who enjoy (or tolerate) moving images, this short YouTube video shows the classic experiment on directing attention.....or having someone else direct your attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY

Re: Pineal Gland?

[ecosophia]

It's very deliberate, and no, this would be far too early to discuss the reasons behind it. All in good time!

Orange.

[(Anonymous)]

(Sven Eriksen)

Good choice of color, O Archdruid... ;-)

Re: Orange.

[ecosophia]

Why, yes. I've been contemplating for some time the curious fact that orange is the color of Hod, the sphere of the entrepreneur, the communicator, and the trickster...

[(Anonymous)]

As someone interested in mudras, who practices them regularly, I wondered if the Kubera Mudra, intended to help with the attainment of goals or wishes, could be helpful here.

[ecosophia]

Good question. You'll have to let us know.

[open_space]

People can gather quite a bit of bad habits, especially in industrial societies I would say, where an unaware society is synonymous with cash cow. Is there a relationship between the level of consciousness one is in and you becoming more of a slave to your impulses and your surroundings for example drug addiction and surrendering to lust? I can see how that could turn into a feedback loop where your habits, if unhelpful ones, they keep pulling you towards lower levels of consciousness while good habits pull you up, in the same feedback loop to higher levels of consciousness. The only thing that I think is not right in this reasoning is that that I am applying a moral color to what is bad or wrong where it seems to be that the “will” of it and doing consciously is what matters. If done consciously can “destructive” attitudes and “evil” stuff like what some Aghoris engage in still take you to higher levels of consciousness?

On another note I wonder if all the fascination with zombies is a projection of what people see in their lives, many people unaware of what they are doing and just sleepwalking through life.

[ecosophia]

We'll be discussing this in detail as the conversation proceeds. The difference between vices and virtues is that vices are habits that follow the hardwired predilections of the animal consciousness, while virtues are habits that conflict with those predilections. It's much easier for vices to become automatic and take control of your life than it is for virtues, but the latter does happen!The Aghori approach is mostly useful for those who have become slaves to their virtues, especially if they've made those virtues a prop for their egos. For the rest of us, not so much.

As for zombie flicks, that's my guess. Watching people walk down the street in the evening staring at their smartphones, the blue glow lighting their features from beneath, is truly spooky...

Archetypal Forces

[(Anonymous)]

Fascinating. This would make sense then, with the idea that it's not just him, as a person, but deep archetypal forces playing or working through him.

(I like these Will training exercises too.)

Re: Archetypal Forces

[ecosophia]

Exactly. It's not just him.

Conscious attention

[(Anonymous)]

In 1998, I programmed some visual stimuli for the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. Robotical as that name may sound, conscious attention is actually the one point where quantitative "hard" science touches non-materialist philosophy.

One of the stimuli was a pair of images, where very gradually e.g. a giraffe appeared in the middle of a landscape. The moment the proband saw the giraffe, they pressed a button. Probands were chimpanzees working for orange juice, and students working for money. With the chimpanzees (this sounds horrible and certainly wouldn't be permitted in 2020), electrodes registered the exact moment when the stimulus caused corresponding and well-defined electrical activity in the visual cortex. That moment might be quite different from the moment when the chimpanzee became aware of the giraffe and pressed the button, and the difference had of course to with attention, with previous priming and other factors.

As far as I know, nobody has, so far, a full-blown materialistic account of where in the brain this awareness would be localized, though there is no lack of hypotheses.

Re: Conscious attention

[ecosophia]

Yes, I've heard of experiments like that. A useful reminder that the claim that the mind is merely the activity of the brain is an unproven hypothesis...

[(Anonymous)]

Something just clicked: of course you do will training where nothing matters on the outcome; that's the way to get emotions, also known as habits of will, out of the way! The reason so many people fail at it is that they don't do that, and either land on their rumps trying to will two things at once; or never establish the habit of conscious willing in the first place, just of favouring one habit over another!

[ecosophia]

Excellent! Yes, exactly. We start by building the habit of conscious willing in situations where there's no other habit interfering with it, and only when it's strong enough do we start undercutting those existing habits of will that no longer serve our purpose.

[(Anonymous)]

Now how did you know I put on an orange shirt today?

I admit (much to my embarrassment) that it was the last thing I noticed! I'll explain that away by saying I was following your directions to a T and concentrating on my surroundings, not myself. Yeah, I'll go with that.

Joy Marie

[ecosophia]

I've been known to go looking for my reading glasses when I was wearing them, so don't be too embarrassed!

Checking on a practice I’ve adopted

[(Anonymous)]

So one thing I’ve been doing for a few months now is assigning a wide variety of different Will exercises (some really absurd, some things that are actually habits I’d like to change) and assigning them a number from one to 20, then rolling a 20D once a week to see which one to adopt. That way my exercise for the week could just as easily be “touch your nose” or “touch a wall” as it could be “stay of Facebook or YouTube this week” or “spend at least three consecutive unplugged hours outside daily.” Then recording my success or failure. So far it’s gone really well, and it’s taken the things I really do want to change and turned them into less of a struggle and more of a game I play with myself, which makes it a little easier every time. I’ve only slipped up a few times (almost always on the ones directed towards things of the “don’t touch your face” variety which really brings forward your body’s unconscious behaviors in a scary way). Does this sound like something that could potentially have negative effects in the long run or does it sound like an effective way to continue Will training? (As mentioned yesterday I’ve worked through all of the Will exercises in LRM, and this was a way I’d come up with of keeping that going post course.)

Re: Checking on a practice I’ve adopted

[esingletary]

This was me incidentally it looks like I got kicked out right before I posted.

[(Anonymous)]

As I tried to notice what I was doing while doing it (looking for orange things), I suddenly thought, "I'm willing it!" — both I'm willing to follow your direction, and I'm willing the action of attending. Naturally, that completely interrupted my color search as I burst out laughing at how truly obvious willing becomes once we pay any attention to it. Fortunately, I then managed to will myself back to the search, like a good bloodhound.

Now I'm thinking that noticing what we're doing while doing it (whatever it may be) is always an act of will. Ruminating about how very upset we are that some jerk did some jerky thing yesterday — certainly a habit of will, but not so much a new act of will. Absorbing whatever is getting advertised at us — a truly will-numbing habit. But actually noticing that we're reviewing our upsets from yesterday and dragging them into today requires an exercise of will. And becoming aware that we're allowing some advertising to saturate us in the present moment requires an awakening of a numbed will.

Whatever shall we do with our newly awakened wills once the novelty of waking up wears off? I imagine that paying attention to life around us can eventually turn into a self-satisfied habit if not animated by some guiding purpose. As a matter of fact, I can think of a number of academics who appear to have gotten lost in that attention-filled cul-de-sac, waking up only long enough to find a more comfortable position in which to stay sleep. Perhaps the question would become: what area are we still not paying any attention to if we have not managed to find any guiding purpose?

Thank you, John Michael, this is going to be such a fun journey!

— Christophe

[ecosophia]

Excellent! That's one of the things these exercises are intended to teach. As to how to deal with unproductive habits of will, and how to rouse a numbed or unconscious will -- we'll get to that. One step at a time...

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for this series.

The parallels between occult training and philosophy and military/martial arts training are staggering. This is one of your posts that makes me think that I've already been run through a couple 'initiation' journeys,on the mats and in the field. "Make the mind drive the body!", indeed.

[ecosophia]

My experiences studying a variety of martial arts over the years have done a great deal to inform my understanding of occultism. There are indeed spectacular parallels between the two -- and in my daydream residential occult school, occupying the campus of a failed college, there would be classes in several martial arts going on every day, so that students learn the difference between the level of practice that will keep you from getting clobbered and the level that won't...

Orange is such a happy color

[neptunesdolphins]

Orange is such a friendly happy color. It warms the heart. I like orange.

I am surprised that the people who dislike President Trump call him the dread orange one. Is that an unconscious clue as to their true feelings?

In noticing a color, it becomes interesting in how it is used. Lemon is used for bad cars. Blue for sadness.

So, I guess that noticing a color requires all the senses. At least for me, orange has a different feel to it than does violet.

One thing that I do is see time in colors.

Re: Orange is such a happy color

[ecosophia]

You know, that's a good point. Have you noticed that the wokesters are violently opposed to happiness? They want people to be angry, outraged, ashamed, guilty, offended, grieving, terrified -- anything and everything except happy...

Attention

[neptunesdolphins]

I do this by habit - notice stuff. I think it is a defense mechanism for navigating with a brain injury. Your attention is brought to things that may affect how you interact with the world such as a step or a squirrel.

I also have made it a .ahem. habit to notice things on my walk. I write down what I see each day and ponder it. It does help me to orient myself to seasons and to root me to my neighborhood.

Is this what you are driving at? Living mindfully?

Re: Attention

[ecosophia]

That's one useful thing you can do with will, and we'll be talking about it at length as we proceed. The game is much bigger than that, though.

Saying President Trump's name

[neptunesdolphins]

I discovered that by paying attention to when I say The 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump, that I feel a fission or something electric. I also having being noticing the people around when I say it. The ones who dislike Trump, visibly shake. Most don't even notice.

In fact, the ones who dislike Trump focus on his orangeness. They cannot say any part of his name. It is locked inside of them.

Is that a part of will training to feel the object and to notice its effect?

Re: Saying President Trump's name

[ecosophia]

Fascinating.

It's a useful exercise, certainly!

[(Anonymous)]

Can being in the grip of nostalgia be considered a habit of will? Over the last day or two, maybe triggered by the Autumn weather, I have been fairly melancholy due to thinking back to my past and feeling both nostalgic and a touch regretful. I suppose that if emotions are signs of habits of will, then nostalgia must indeed be included in that. I don't know if such feelings are something to overcome, or are best just ridden out.

[ecosophia]

Every emotion is a motion of will; a habitual emotion is a habit of will. If you're feeling nostalgic and regretful, maybe that's appropriate for the time; you can always use it as an incentive to learn frm your past.

[(Anonymous)]

This seems oddly like the exercise where you review the tarot in the first lesson of LRM. It makes sense too: the basics in LRM would need to include some focus on learning to pay attention to the world around us.

[ecosophia]

The resemblance is entirely natural. Yes, basic will and attention exercises are common in most forms of magical training.

[(Anonymous)]

On training the Will and on divided will - just a note here. The last two days have taught me what my True Will really is! To not even try to trainthe Will or to use it, but to cut loose and slack off entirely. To not slog drearily through the daily walk or PT exercises - energy is dreadfully low as overcast weather and wildly varying temperatures have moved in has moved in - nor even arts and crafts and being social. But rather to go on binges of either things in the unfinished pile - such as going through the Buy Me file to weed out what I need (or want, such as the 4" cheap figurine of Lady Liberty),and order them. Which is massively time consuming even if you only do the first hour highest priority ones! (Today)

Or to binge-read from the Havamal through the entire Poetic Edda through the Volsunga Saga through the entire Matter of The North complete with historical context and dates and running what-ifs on how the central tragedy could have been avoided and realizing it couldn't... (The past several days) and the gods only know what's next.

And would far rather not even tackle the necessary chores like washing dishes, the tiresome dental routine, etc, but force myself to do so because they are necessary.

So - having discovered that, what else is next? A bopmbardment of concerted acs of willpower to get up and slog through the day? (Here's the checklist, check off every blasted item, and let the rest pile up for later. Which worked for a good long time until I started running down as if my battery were low and failing.) Or to binge on the special projects and sudden obsessions (Siegfreid et. al.) and indulge them? and let the rest go hang? Or hare off in a totally different direction?

[(Anonymous)]

Because tentacles 🐙 are always relevant...

Today is World Octopus Day!

—Lady Cutekitten

[(Anonymous)]

I looked up Tiphareth, Hod, and Selohaar. The first two were too esoteric for me to tackle now; the third looked like a nice effort at studying the European MA’s, an effort of which I approve. I send them a sincere “Kitto Katsu!” 😄⚔️

—Lady Cutekitten

Resistance

[2sw33t]

Is it weird that I feel a noticeable amount of resistance to this exercise, as compared to the first one, to which I had no resistance at all?

It's still easily doable, but I'm definitely in the habit of letting my attention roam passively (and that generally involves ignoring my surroundings). Should I just override the resistance and do the exercise, or should I also address the issue in some other ways as well?

Re: Resistance

[ecosophia]

Just override the resistance. You're doing the same thing with your will right now that you do with your muscles when they need exercise. In this case, if you're like most people, your will is like muscles that have rarely if ever gotten any exercise, so we start with gentle stretches and very light dumbbells...

Will and Meditation

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for posting the will training exercises.

After reading the blog post and doing the first two exercises, I decided to change my meditation slightly. But to explain this, and its relevance to the topic under discussion, I will have to discuss a rather obvious idea that occurred to me as I was doing the will-training exercises.

The DUH.. insight was 'everything one DOES involves at least minimal use of VOLUNTARY musculature.' Any behavior, including speech or writing, requires activating some muscle groups. And this involves will at either a conscious level or, in the case of habitual actions, 'unconscious will.' My voluntary muscles are voluntary in the sense that my will controls them.

Now to the change in my meditation:
The meditation I am discussing can be with eyes open. It works quite well when driving (provided the radio is off and I am not engaged in conversation with a passenger).
I ask myself, "what is this, here, right now?" This question is equivalent to asking, "what am I aware of at this moment?" I keep repeating the question. The answer is ever-changing because my experience is ever-changing.

My answer might be anything at all. But I find that all my answers to the question fall into one of six or so categories. You may decide to cut the 'category pie' into a different number of slices.

HOW I SLICE THE AWARENESS PIE

ACTIVITY
Awareness of activity (behavior) of some kind, e.g., I'm driving.

PERCEPTION
Perception means anything I am presently aware of through the five traditional senses.

EMOTION
Any feeling, emotion, or mood I notice.

BODY
Any physical sensation.

AVERSIONS and ATTRACTIONS
Liking or disliking something or someone

THINKING
I am now or have just been thinking. I may further characterize the type of thinking, e.g., worry, planning, fantasy, etc.

INTENT / WILL
I want to bring something about or prevent it.

The point of this too-long post is just that I make one (seemingly trivial) change to my meditation. But it seems to make a big difference. When I realize I am DOING (or refraining from doing) something, I ask, "What am I willing?"

[open_space]

I had an internal musing today about an issue I have been having for a while now and I think this will exercises have given me the language to see what is going on within me.

I am in conflict with a situation in my life regarding my job, which I don't particularly like but it is a good job that I want to keep and be good at until I can figure out how to change that situation and move on, because I have figured that if I do well, it would be much less of burden in my life and allow me to plan for the future than if I just keep having work problems. I want to be good at it, though I dislike the corporate life with all my heart because I don't want to train myself to be mediocre but I think my will is conflicting with wanting to leave to do more interesting things and wanting to stay so that I can sustain myself economically. I think that is why I find myself resisting tasks that are very easy and even to my benefit and then just wondering why I was making so much of a buzz by a single simple task. Is this what you have referred to as a conflicting will? If so, is it possible to make my will understand that I have to get one first in order to get the next or will I just have to pummel with the resistance?

[ecosophia]

Yes, that's a will in conflict. It's not your will that has to understand anything -- the will doesn't understand, it just moves. We'll get to ways to rework dysfunctional habits of will as we proceed.

[(Anonymous)]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bv8wvv/witches-are-trying-to-figure-out-whose-spell-gave-trump-covid-19

Not a word about raspberry jam!

—Lady Cutekitten

Excercise Question

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
thank you so much for the gentle stretches & light dumbbells - I mean - the will posts. Since I misinterpreted the first exercise and I thought it had to do with me not reading the instructions close enough, I decided to handwrite the posts on paper, so to be more precise. It makes me more slow also, so I'm in the middle oft this excercise. If I still may: My "Antagonist" seems to be not so much in existence, my mind tries to supplement me with orange & chosen color data whenever I think about the excercise & also "out of the blue" - What can I do? Even closing the eyes doesn't help much. Just prolonging the excercise until that is easy?
And if yes, I should also not peek into the other willposts, yes? Thank you!