William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

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(5). WILL.

IN THIS class of mental states or activities we find but one thing, and that a most wonderful thing—Will. We meet with a decided check when we reach the consideration of Will. We find something ultimate, basic, and elemental about it which reminds us of the difficulty experienced by the mind in considering itself. We find that Will is at the very center and in the very depths of that which we call "mind." Will is the most elementary, and at the same time the least understood, form of mental activity. It has always defied analysis. It seems to be fundamental and basic in the mental field of activity. Schopenhauer says: "The Will is the innermost essence, the kernel of every individual thing, and equally so of the totality of existence.…Intellect decreases as we descend in the animal scale, but not so Will." The Will is the mental activity closest to the "I" of the individual. He may turn it upon perception and cause the activities thereof to quicken, become alert and active; he may turn it upon memory or imagination and cause these to redouble their activity; he may turn it upon thought and cause the thinking activities to do greater and better work. By employing the Will in the process of attention, he may cause certain ideas to occupy and keep the center of the field of consciousness. An authority says: "Will concerns itself with action.…From the cradle to the grave we are never passive recipients of anything; in other words, we are never without the activity of Will in the broadest sense of the term."

Professor Bigelow says: "We are conscious of something closer to the center than anything else, and differing from the other forms in being the only form of consciousness to which we are not passive. This we call Will. We say, ‘I feel sensation, pain, or emotion'; but we never say, ‘I feel my Will.' The Will is always subjective and active.…This Will is a part of the normal consciousness of each one of you, yet it is neither a part of sensation nor emotion, but, on the contrary, is capable of dominating both.…Sensations originate outside and inside the body; Emotions, inside. But the Will is deeper than either and they are both objective to it. We cannot classify it with anything else. We cannot describe it in terms of any other form of consciousness.…We cannot separate ourselves from it. We cannot stand off and examine it. We cannot modify it by anything else. It itself modifies everything within its scope. Other forms of consciousness are objective in their relation to it, but it is never objective to them. There is nothing in our consciousness deeper. It underlies and overlies and permeates all other forms, and, moreover,—what is of immeasurably greater importance,—it can, if need be, create them ."

Are we not justified in asserting the existence of Will in the Universal Mind of SPIRIT? Cannot we conceive of SPIRIT manifesting Will, without destroying or affecting in any way the facts of its essence, nature, substance, and very being? Nay, more, are we not compelled by reason to assert the fact of Will in SPIRIT? Do we not find in Will the reason and explanation of the creative activities manifest in the Universe? Some of the world's clearest thinkers have gone so far as to assert that the One Ultimate REALITY is Will, and nothing but Will. We do not go so far with them, but we find it impossible to deny the fact of Will in Spirit. Will is activity, first, last, and always. It is not only the active Spirit of mind, but also the conative Spirit. By "conative" is meant "of the nature of active power impelling to effort ." Will is seen not only as active power, but also as active power self-impelled to effort. Considering SPIRIT in the light of its manifested activities,—by what it does ,—we are justified in asserting that Will is an inner fact of SPIRIT.

MENTATION OF SPIRIT.

We find, then, that, after divorcing the mental activities wholly bound up with and dependent upon the phenomenal objects and Sense-Mind, there are three mental activities remaining which may be asserted as facts of the mind of Spirit, viz.: (1) the Pure Logic or Law of Spirit; (2) the ideative, conceptive, creative fact of Infinite Mind, which has the infinite power, possibility, and capability of creating and producing ideas and mental images; (3) the active, conative fact of Infinite Mind, known as Will, which has the infinite power, possibility, and capability for manifesting active, directing, and compelling creative power. Can we not see that in the action and reaction of the two facts of Infinite Mind the latter is capable of infinite manifestation and expression?

VOLITION AND IDEATION.

Let us listen to the authorities regarding the action and reaction of the Will and the Ideative processes in the human mind. By carrying the principle to the plane of Infinite Mind we may be able better to grasp the idea of the action and reaction on that plane. A leading authority says: "The Will appears in perception in the form of attention, holding the mind on the object while the intellectual process is completing itself.…The Will shows special activity in thought. Consciousness is not made up of isolated ideas but by ideas woven together in thought in the conscious mind. Weaving implies activity, and Will is behind that activity; hence Will is necessary to correlate the facts of consciousness. In comparison, the Will is necessary to correlate the facts of consciousness. In comparison, the Will is busy fixing the attention and in dismissing and retaining ideas." And, on the other hand, "In the higher type of action the Will can go out only in the direction of an idea. Every idea which becomes an object of desire becomes a motive. It is true that the Will tends to go in the direction of the greatest motive, that is, toward the object which seems the most desirable; but the Will through voluntary attention puts energy into the motive idea and thus makes it strong. It is impossible to center the attention long on an idea without developing positive or negative interest, attraction, or repulsion. Thus does the Will develop Motives. The Will determines which motive shall become the strongest by determining which ideas shall occupy the field of consciousness."

Thus we see on the one hand that the Will may determine or even create the idea; and, on the other, that the Will goes out in activity only in the direction of the idea. We find that the Will is master of the situation by reason of its ability to develop ideas by attention; while it is equally true that it can be induced to do so only by the motive arising from another idea. Thus do we see the action and reaction of these two mental forces. Each exerts an influence on the other and is in turn influenced by it. Each depends upon the other for completed activity and action. Without the other each is inactive. The action and reaction is comparable to that existing between the magnet and the steel filings. The energy in the filings is aroused only by the presence of the magnet; that of the magnet, only by the presence of the filings. The result is that the combined energies produce the shapes and forms of Creation.

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SPIRIT CANNOT be conceived as being conscious of anything but its own existence unless it first manifests ideative images, forms, ideas, etc., and thereupon becomes conscious of them . The Universal Mind of Spirit, in the absence of ideative images and forms, can have nothing other than its own existence of which to be conscious. Its state would be that of a man cut off from the time of his birth from all sense communication from the outside world and his physical body. Such a one would simply be conscious of his own existence , without a single other thought, idea, feeling, mental image, or conception. This must be true even if we raise Mind to infinity of Power and Being, for outside of Spirit there is nothing of which it can be conscious. Its only possibility and capability of being conscious lies in the creation of ideative forms and images in itself. Just as the man before mentioned could become objectively conscious only by contemplating his own mental images, so can Infinite Mind become objectively conscious only by contemplating its own mental creations, with this difference, however, that the man, by reason of his finiteness, could not create original images or ideas in his mind, while Infinite Mind must have the possibility and capability of so creating original images. The reason reports that Spirit can become conscious of naught but its own existence except by the creation of ideative forms and images .