Willingness and Faith

 

8-sided Chapel in the making; Jan 13, 2024 

These words came to me in morning meditation on Jan. 12, 2024, and was shared with the resident brothers and sisters at the ashram.

Willingness and Faith -

Two sides of the coin, for a happy, successful life.

Willingness is essential. Without willingness to take action, to meet life head on, to pick up the sword and fight, we simply have no chance to be happy, or achieve anything worthwhile. Stuck in a muck of unwillingness is like swimming in a sea of weeds. For every stroke forward we spend just as much energy clearing away the kelp in order to just take another stroke. All too often, we ourselves grow the weeds of bad attitudes, through simple unwillingness to keep swimming, or put out the necessary energy to find a solution. Willingness, however, isn’t merely a kind grim determination; it is positive; it is energetic; it is enthusiastic. Without such qualities, it’s not actually willingness yet, even if you may well will yourself into action. It also isn’t simply the forsaking of one’s own knowing of what is, or isn’t mine to do; such discernment is essential, lest you become a slave to the desires and demands of another.

Yet in that positive, discriminating and humble willingness, we have a solid foundation upon which we can begin to be truly happy. To ask, How can I help? In any given situation or circumstance… and to truly mean it! To take an active interest in life, and in your own part to play.

And yet, it is not enough alone, is it. The ego’s willingness is all too often born of a grim necessity to deal with life, not to be inspired by it; or as a reaction made out of fear, or greed, or some other emotion of ego-centeredness.

Faith we find, is the key to a healthy sense of willingness. And to true happiness, not merely the fleeting clouds of fancy or willing-furor.
For in faith, lies the building blocks for an actual temple of joy, not merely a mansion of man made desires and attachments. Faith is to realize, not merely believe, in a divine plan for life. For YOUR life. It must be earned, and realized. It cannot simply be wished into existence.

It is to realize in fact, that God lives inside your own very life. Absent such realization, life is indeed chaos. Yet with such understanding, life itself is a classroom, perfectly designed for every student, to learn exactly the lessons they are ready to learn, and to become secure, free and happy in oneSelf.

The most difficult thing about learning, is that very often the lessons we need most, are those we haven’t learned yet; so they are often much harder to learn than we imagine. Given that we have yet to learn them, they remain abstract, often until a suffering-induced exam forces enough humility, surrender, and yes, willingness, that we finally see what the right answer is; and often it is nothing to do with what our ego insisted!

The right answer is always rooted in faith for God’s plan for this life; God's presence inside every situation. God's love, growing inside of you, in the willingness to love another, to serve your neighbor, to be a friend to all.

Yes, willingness and faith go hand in hand. One without the other is simply half of a formula for a happy life, leaving us only half way to where we want to be.

So, the question becomes, how do I live my life? Am I willing? Ready to say yes when God asks it of me, and when my roommate asks it of me? Ready to do all that which is mine to do?

And, do I need more, and deeper faith? To cultivate the knowing of God's gentle guidance from inside, helping me to trust this Life. For how can we trust anything, without faith in a plan much greater than our ego can imagine. For this, we must step off the precipice of a worldly life, and into God Alone.

May each of us learn to be willingly faithful, and faithfully willing, that true happiness may be known and lived in our own heart, this very day