The Accrual of Will

When something is right, then everything benefits from this. Like one flower. If the flower is perfect, it is not its own satisfaction. It matters. If a dance is perfectly danced, it is objectively real. It enters into the Treasure. One must never feel that it disappears because it is over in time. We don't see where it goes to. But everything that comes up to the required quality is a true form of worship. It is far truer worship to do a dance properly than to do a prayer half-properly.[1]

Consider a painting by one of the great masters. When we stand before such a work, not only do its shapes and colors enter us, but also its presence. The timeless act of will that comes through the artist in creating the painting stays with it over the decades and centuries, and we perceive that act itself. It has added to the world's treasure, not only as the physical work of art, but also as an act of will that transcends the material.

What are the timeless, unseen Treasure and the required quality that Bennett refers to? The growth of a perfect flower, or perfectly dancing a dance, or painting a perfect painting, or perfectly performing a piece of music: these are all acts of will, acts of sufficient quality to rise into the singular reservoir of will at the root of the universe.

Yet we can know from our direct experience that the accrual of will also occurs in more mundane circumstances. A promise kept, a duty fulfilled, an act of kindness, a wave of anger allowed to dissipate quietly, attention held steady, attention made strong, presence brought whole, doing something wholeheartedly, doing something as it should be done, and following one's conscience even when it conflicts with one's desires: these are also examples of acts of will that accrue both to us personally and to the common treasure. Each such moment of work adds a drop to us, strengthening and purifying our will. The required quality is that the act be conscious, intentional, selfless, not inflict harm, and not violate our conscience.

The treasure resides in a higher world, the world of will. And because everything, including us, participates in that one reservoir of will, every addition to that treasure affects us all in a positive way. Each such act of will feeds our own future and flows into humanity's reservoir of will. Like tributaries flowing toward the ocean, humanity's conscious acts of will flow into the Earth's reservoir of will, which flows into the solar system's reservoir, into the Milky Way's reservoir, and into the universal reservoir. Yet this makes it sound like a process in time and space, whereas on the level of the world of will, there is only one reservoir, and it is timeless, immediate, and everywhere, affecting everything. This is the spiritualization of the evolving universe and we humans play a significant role in that, just as the one reservoir of will plays a significant role in our personal and collective evolution.

Many effects arise from well-conducted inner work, including the strengthening and purification of our personal will. The simplest direct perception of that comes in the quality, depth, and steadiness of our presence, underpinned by our share of the one will, our I. That, in turn, adds a drop to the universal reservoir of will and lifts us all.

We are surrounded by worlds of energies and will. At every moment, if we can open to it, we are buoyed up by that compassionate and universal force, immediate in us and in our surroundings. If we allow it, it can lift us into presence, the simple presence in which we are the clarity of emptiness and not separate from anything or anyone. Not only can this ever-present force lift us into presence, but its embrace can hold us there if we let it, so that we can be that One and that One can be us.

[1] J. G. Bennett; Theme: Doing, Further Observations; Audio Recording, July 22, 1974

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