Tapsearch Com EditorWhat can your will do for you
In exploring personality and character in hope of improving it, we can study what our will can do for us. What can we reasonably expect from our will. One can credit the will with too much power or too little. If we become discouraged with our will to change things, we may have credited the will with too much power. However, if we give the will too little credit , we will never prompt self-improvement.
The will is free to choose right or wrong. When the stage is set for choosing something, it is the will that gives the final signal. It is one thing to call the will free and quite another to say the will is all powerful. Many try to will their way to fortune without any success. A person can will to stop drinking but it will not stop the person from liking a drink. In this we see the will having control over its own desires. It can stop, perhaps, the desire for food by substituting a gum but still we must have a good idea of its place relative to all our other faculties.
One good way to do this, is to imagine the will as the rider and the body as the horse. The rider and the horse are two different things. If we think of the horse as a gentle obedient creature, we run the risk of exaggerating the power of the will. If we think of the horse as a unmanageable beast, we run the risk of underestimating the power of the will. Certainly, anyone who has tried to play par golf will agree the faculties of a person do not obey the will. One cannot order the hand to perform high precision skill just by deciding to do so.
The will can order the hand, but if the hand is not trained, then the result will be just a sorry attempt. The will can choose the hand to move in certain ways and train it but this tells the will it needs patience and understanding to develop the proper stroke.
The understanding of character is based upon a correct view of the will. Character is built and "trained" upon the pattern of one's choices and the records of acts of the will over a period of time. So, if the will is to build character efficiently, it must not only train itself to will the good, but it must also train the other faculties humans have to obey.
(Next : How well can the will disitinguish the bad from the good? Do bad choices in little matters affect choices in big matters and vice versa? Are we willing to pay the price for bad choices and take long detours away from the life ideal?
Based on notes by Father McQuade and Ray Tapajna - Next installment will explore further training of the will
Find in your will your angels of hope
The will is free to choose right or wrong. When the stage is set for choosing something, it is the will that gives the final signal. It is one thing to call the will free and quite another to say the will is all powerful. Many try to will their way to fortune without any success. A person can will to stop drinking but it will not stop the person from liking a drink. In this we see the will having control over its own desires. It can stop, perhaps, the desire for food by substituting a gum but still we must have a good idea of its place relative to all our other faculties.
One good way to do this, is to imagine the will as the rider and the body as the horse. The rider and the horse are two different things. If we think of the horse as a gentle obedient creature, we run the risk of exaggerating the power of the will. If we think of the horse as a unmanageable beast, we run the risk of underestimating the power of the will. Certainly, anyone who has tried to play par golf will agree the faculties of a person do not obey the will. One cannot order the hand to perform high precision skill just by deciding to do so.
The will can order the hand, but if the hand is not trained, then the result will be just a sorry attempt. The will can choose the hand to move in certain ways and train it but this tells the will it needs patience and understanding to develop the proper stroke.
The understanding of character is based upon a correct view of the will. Character is built and "trained" upon the pattern of one's choices and the records of acts of the will over a period of time. So, if the will is to build character efficiently, it must not only train itself to will the good, but it must also train the other faculties humans have to obey.
(Next : How well can the will disitinguish the bad from the good? Do bad choices in little matters affect choices in big matters and vice versa? Are we willing to pay the price for bad choices and take long detours away from the life ideal?
Based on notes by Father McQuade and Ray Tapajna - Next installment will explore further training of the will
