The characteristics of solidity, groundedness, immovability, and confidence are the characteristics of Will on the Being level. In fact, we find that support of any kind is always connected in essential experience to Will. (See note 34.) Will is one of the pure forms in which Being manifests, and it is always a sense of groundedness, definiteness, and certainty that provides the self with the confidence and the capacity for commitment and perseverance along the path of transformation. It usually has a sense of purity and sacredness, although it is not a quality commonly considered to be spiritual. The aspect of Will manifests at the beginning stages of the spiritual journey, making possible the student’s true commitment, patience and perseverance. It is one of the several aspects that are central for transformation, like those of Loving Kindness, Strength, Peace, and Joy. Will emerges again in deeper stages of transformation, not only as a specific aspect, but as a whole dimension of Essence, a plane of Being where all aspects manifest as Will. This dimension, which has to do with the question of supporting spiritual transformation, manifests Essence in all its pure qualities—Love, Kindness, Clarity, Strength, Joy, Truth, Peace, Fulfillment, Contentment, and so on—but always as Will. In other words, in this dimension, we experience Love, for instance, with its sweetness and appreciativeness, but also with the characteristics of solidity, definiteness, confidence, and commitment. Love is then experienced as supportive. This kind of experience is not known in the conventional dimension of the self, and it might not make sense from that perspective, but it makes a great deal of sense from the perspective of many spiritual traditions.

One way true will manifests is a sense of confidence that you can stay with your experience; deeper still is an implicit confidence, which is not from the mind, that staying with what is there is the right thing. It's a trust in oneself -- as simple as that. There is no need to hope for anything, no need to desire anything. There is nothing somewhere else to hope for, to desire. Everything is right here, with us; we just need to let it be. And if we don't understand this perspective, we need to explore why, why we are not allowing our organism to function.

Ultimately, true will manifests as an understanding. It's not as if something is there that will do something for you. It's an understanding that the organism, the life force, knows what needs to be done in the best, most efficient way. It's a confidence in yourself. If the true will is operating you experience it as confidence and trust. There's a complete harmony.

The usual use of will is actually a contraction in the body. It is a hard place in us, which we use as a stepping-stone for action. When people say they have their will, they are referring to a certain hardness in the body, from which they feel they can act; they can spring out and feel supported in their action; or they feel they have something under their feet, and that they won't fall. But if you look closely at that hardness, that stepping-stone, you can identify it as a tension in the body. You might feel that you can't live your life without that tension; you have learned to contract certain parts of you, near your heart, to make a little hardness, and from that little hardness you feel you can act. You feel if that hardness is not there, you will be completely empty, and will just fall, unable to do anything. But what the contraction actually does, ultimately, is close your heart. It closes the love, the joy, and the satisfaction. Using false will always goes against the heart.

Will involves surrender to the truth, which is the effortless being of what is. Will is actually effortless, complete spontaneity, complete letting go. It is surrender. People think that to surrender is to let go of your will. This is not true. To surrender is to have your will completely, objectively.

Will emerges again in deeper stages of transformation, not only as a specific aspect, but as a whole dimension of Essence, a plane of Being where all aspects manifests as will. This dimension, which has to do with the question of supporting spiritual transformation, manifests Essence in all its pure qualities -- Love, Kindness, Clarity, Strength, Joy, Truth, Peace, Fulfillment, Contentment, and so on -- but always as will.

So true will is like the grounding, the implicit grounding that serves as a confidence that things will flow. It's hard to describe exactly, because I'm talking about it as if it is something you think in your mind. It isn't; that's why I use the word "implicit." It means you function from an innate feeling and understanding that things flow. True will is right in this moment; it's a complete openness to what's happening right now.

True will does not involve surrender to another person, but to yourself, to life, to your experience, to the truth of now. Surrender to the truth of now does not mean that you see what is happening and don't care. That's not surrender. Surrender means complete willingness to be with your experience, including your emotional reactions, whether they are pleasurable or frustrated. You are steadfast with the truth.

So we see that Will and fear are connected. The loss of basic confidence makes us block our will, which then creates a fear that without the false will we'll have no support. We feel we will be vulnerable and defenseless, unsupported, groundless, with nothing under our feet. We feel our needs will just collapse under us if we let go of the false will. This might actually happen momentarily, until the true will is felt. With the true will, you do not feel as if you are being supported, you simply feel the absence of the fear and of the need for support.