What Compels You?

(Originally Posted on 10/19/2025) 

What compels you?

On one hand, being compelled can mean being forced by some external dynamic into action, even against one’s will - to be coerced, or constrained to do something. And, on the other hand, and in the deeper sense, it means being subject to an irresistible, inner urge to take an action, even if it goes against our own rational understanding at the time. Paul for example, was compelled to preach by the Holy Spirit; and compelled to enter Jerusalem, even as he was shown he would be bound upon doing so. 

Right now, and in our country, many hundreds of thousands are compelled to join in the streets for a cause, dubbed the “No Kings” march. For others, an alternate and ongoing cause for compulsion, has been to remove people whom they feel don’t belong here. Both are compelled, in the same time and place, in seeming equal and opposite directions.

In our own daily life, compulsion can surface as a kind reactivity to circumstances and happenings - perhaps it is in the form of being compelled to eat something which you know you shouldn’t; or, to obsessively wash one’s hands to avoid germs.

In the case of a hurtful act, one might easily imagine their grandma saying, “What on earth compelled the boy to do such an awful thing? He has always been such a good boy!” 

And just as reasonably, we may find ourselves saying, “I was compelled to keep going, by some unknown force, to finish what I had started.”

Despite the significant differences of all these instances, they speak to a common, underlying experience of being compelled, which manifests in all our lives.

Compulsion is perhaps most simply understood, as the power and feeling which brings us into action in this world. Without any sense of it, we lead a very drab life indeed - perhaps depressed, or without meaning or personal motivation at all. 

Compulsion often begins to expand beyond our self, by an impetus to do that which we know we should be doing; to take out the trash or do the dishes; to go to school; to learn a skill which appeals to us; to play a sport or a musical instrument; to take up a path of service to others; to provide for our family or friends.

Saint Francis was compelled to war; then to not war!; to steal money from his father for rebuilding the church; then to his own nakedness before the town of Assisi; then to seek approval before the Pope for the life of poverty as expressed by Christ. His life functioned as one flowing sense of compulsion to the next.

For us too, the compulsions we feel within us are ever present and powerful, and for good reason: so that we can learn and grow from every experience. As the old ball coach always says, “You’ve gotta have some skin in the game!” Compulsion is what makes life real, for each one of us. If you don’t ('have skin in the game'), perhaps you aren't playing the right game yet. In other words, each of us must find out what compels us.

As Krishna counsels Arjuna, “Action cannot be conquered by inaction; you must act!” The very nature of compulsion ensures that we do act; and Karmic law ensures that we learn by participating in this process, eventually.

Ultimately, it is the inward, compelling force which drives us to take up the spiritual Path, and to hang on to it with a "bull dog grip", as Lincoln told Grant in the critical battle for Petersburg in the Civil War, which resulted in the surrender of the confederacy one week later. This kind of effort is required of the devotee, as well. To hang on to God, to our Union with His will, no matter what.

When I look back on my own life, I can easily see the important and sometimes dramatic episodes of being compelled into a new direction, or course of action. In some cases, it has taken years to reflect on those choices and find peace around them. Sometimes I perhaps didn’t respond how I wished I would have, or I took an action which brought forth hard consequences. And yet, I accept that I did behave in the best way I could, given who I was at that time. What I was compelled to do, is that which already lived inside of me, and was simply being brought out into the light of day. This is true for all of us.

Universally, this force of compulsion takes over in key moments of life, whether we perceive it as spiritual, or otherwise. In the case of the mundane compulsions of habit and behavior, self control and modesty are our perpetual friends; yet, in the case of bigger feelings and intuition, our job is not to outright reject every compulsion, either in the idea of some absolute spiritual principle, or by an indifferent, passive attitude towards life. It is rather, to observe, what is it that is actually compelling?

We remain open to the inner compulsion (and intelligence) in our life, and to exploring it with all honesty, humility and openness in God. 

Upon identifying that which compels, we ask: is this compulsion rightly guided, or is it mistaken? How did it turn out? How will it turn out going forward? Is it helpful? Is it true? 

In the case of all compulsions, the ultimate task beyond identification, is the offering up of those compulsions for purification. Sometimes that means carrying each compulsion or cause along, ever further, and to do so without attachment or personal desire for the outcome. And sometimes this can mean the total abandonment of that former ‘cause,’ in light of new understanding and growth. 

Each of us is in this process of growing from the little and fragile ego-self, to the universal and loving, God-Self. Our compulsions in daily life reflect this journey exactly, each and every day - which is what makes them so important for each one of us. They are the reflected intelligence of our own life-experience and consciousness. Our compulsions are our own feelings and subtle patterns, set on the course of being acted out, that we ultimately may face each one. They arise not as a product of our conscious, analytical mind, but as a reflection of our inner nature; that which needs purification, or that which has already been made pure.

When we have embraced this relationship, we seek to know the truth about ourselves, no matter the cost. To get to the Source of all that compels us, and not merely wander endlessly in a sea of compulsion. In so doing, we can look calmly at our own life, with compassion, with sincerity, with willingness, and with faith. 

We can see how everything that we do; every action we take, comes from the deeper well-spring of compulsion that lives within us.

When our own sense of compulsion is made clean and clear, we have arrived at the state of purity and of Union with our Father’s Will.  

What compels you?