Murshid Inayat Khan’s Teachings on "Will-Power"

Hazrat Inayat Khan says: Will is not a power; it is all the power there is.

The creation of the world is an act of will by God. Therefore that in us which we call will power is in reality God-Power. When this power is recognized and affirmed, it increases in potential and strength.

All that we do in life is the result of an active will-power. Our hands with their perfect mechanism, would not be able to even hold a glass of water if there was no will power to support them.

A person may seem to be healthy, but if will power fails him, he will not be able to stand, for it is not the body which makes us stand upright, it is our will-power.

Success and failure are the phenomena of will power.

The influence of will power over the mind is more significant than over the body. A man cannot hold a certain thought even for a moment if there is no strength of will to hold it. If a person cannot concentrate or hold a thought still, it means that will power has failed him.

What is will power made of?

In metaphysical terms will power is love. If one says God is Love, it really means God is Will. God loved creation only after He came to Will its creation.

It is by His Will that Allah is holding the Heavens in place and the Earth stable. It is Divine Will that keeps the stars and the planets in perpetual orbit.

When a person says that he/she desires or wishes something, it is an incomplete will. This kind of wishing or desiring is not sure of itself and not conscious of its strength. But when a person says, "I will", it is a definite action of the soul.

Will and Consciousness are fundamentally the same. It is the dual expression of the same thing. God’s own Being in expression is Will, and in response Consciousness. In action it is Will and in stillness it is consciousness. It is just as sound and light are fundamentally one thing, which in one condition produces light through the friction of vibrations and in another, sounds that are audible.

The Holy Quran says, "We said "Be" and it became." To the advanced thought it shows that manifestation came into existence in answer to That Will which expressed Itself in saying, "Be". When we look at the creation of the universe as a mechanism, we are of necessity made to think of the Engineer that crafted this mechanism. But ordinarily we see only the mechanism and not the Engineer before our eyes, and therefore we involve ourselves more with the laws of its working and forget the Engineer by whose command it is going on.

How Does Will Power Manifest?

Will is the development of a wish. When the wish becomes action it becomes will. Wish and Will are the names of the same thing, one is in its undeveloped state and the other is in the process of development.
The reason why sometimes our wishes are not fulfilled is that we do not know how to truly desire. Desires are decomposed in the unclearness of the mind. Clarity and certainty are very important in taking a wish to fulfillment. Doubt, fear, uncertainty are the obstacles to fulfillment. It is also important to articulate one’s wish in prayer. Many people say that God knows everything so why should we tell God what needs to be done. Besides, they think, it might be selfish to put one’s desires before God. The answer to this is that prayer acts as a reminder to God, a song that you sing before Him and He enjoys it. If you think that how does your insignificant voice reach God, then know that it reaches Him through our ears, because He lives within us. If our soul hears our voice then God hears it too. Prayer is a beautiful relationship between man and God, in which our need and His power combine to bring about fulfillment.

Before anything manifests on the plane of Nasut , it has to be born on the plane of Malakut. Malakut is the inner realm , the realm of spiritual blueprints. What exists as a spiritual reality in the realm of Malakut, ultimately finds a bodily existence in the realm of Nasut. For an artist the picture first exists in his mind and then finds its place on the canvas. Similarly whatever our mind carves out through the power of our thoughts, is ultimately manifested in our physical world. A Sufi once described the reality of creation with reference to God as that of our thoughts or imagination with reference to us.

Mawlana Rumi said, "The earth, water, fire, air, these seem to us as things or objects; but before God they are living beings. They stand as His obedient servants, and they obey the Divine Will."
A part of this will is our Divine Heritage, and it is our consciousness of it that brings it alive and makes it stronger within us. When we truly access our divine heritage then we as human beings gain command over the elements of water, fire, air and earth.
When man succumbs to his animal nature he falls lower than animals and when he awakens to his divine nature, he rises higher than the angels.

The optimistic attitude towards life develops will, and the pessimistic attitude reduces it. The greatest foe of our progress is our attitude. There is no greater enemy than our own selves. In every failure we will see ourselves standing in our own light and in every success we shall see ourselves in the Divine Light.
Just as the earth holds the seed and the plant springs out of it, so too the heart holds the seed of the thought and the plant of fulfillment rises from it. It is not just the thought but the power to hold the thought that is of significance too. Many people say that they try hard to concentrate but are unable to, because they cannot seem to still the mind. Trying hard is not enough, one must try one’s best and best always brings the purpose to fulfillment.

The mind is like a restive horse. If a wild horse is tied to a carriage it will most obviously kick, jump and try to destroy the carriage. In the same way when you begin to concentrate, the thought is like the unwanted carriage for the restive horse, and the mind wants to throw it off. The mind has to be made accustomed to discipline and therefore the art of meditation is just that. When the mind is untrained, then it can hold a thought of any kind, not subject to your will, but commanded by impulses whether beneficial or detrimental. It can hold onto a thought of grief, pain, sorrow or failure so fast that you cannot loosen its grip over that thought. Once the mind is disciplined by concentration, then we can free our souls from the damaging effects of negative thoughts and focus on the desirable ones. The mind, through discipline, must be subjugated to the will. When your mind becomes your servant, then you are the true king of your kingdom.

Once there was a King passing through the town with his royal entourage. All the people on the roads stood up and bowed before the royal presence. One faqir kept sitting, quite nonchalant and unmoved. The King was surprised at the faqir’s insolence. So he addressed him and said , "O beggar! Do you not know how to behave in the presence of the King." The faqir replied, " But where is the King?" The king was further infuriated and he said angrily, "Don’t you know who you are speaking to?" The faqir retorted, " To a beggar." The king was shocked at the faqir’s answer but at the same time wanted to know why the faqir said so. When asked, the faqir explained, "You have two masters who are my slaves: Greed and Arrogance!"

All the lack in our life is the lack of will. All the blessings that come to us come by the power of will. Some think that will power is given as a grace and blessing and so does not depend on us. What we need to realise is that it is grace and blessing and it does not depend on us but it is us. As mystics have always said and science is now proving, we are not just creatures but co-creators in life. Allah says in the Quran, "We do not change the condition of a people until they change it themselves." We are the instruments through which the Will of Allah works. Let us become the fit instruments through which His Will flows freely.
The Divine experiences Itself through us. Our thoughts and will are the reflection of the Divine Impulse. If we keep the mirrors of our hearts free from the rust of our selfish impositions, then we would see clearly the Divine Will that is seeking fulfillment through our existence and our lives would become a Divine Vision. Our thoughts become our lives. We will be what we will think.

Which wish to give up and which to rear?

It is not wise to rear every wish and desire and seek its accomplishment, for it may be right or wrong, good or bad. One must cultivate discrimination first. If we have enough self-discipline to always have a good thought for everyone, and a profound sense of justice within ourselves, sympathy and goodwill, then every wish born in our heart will be productive of good results. The wishes that develop in our heart when we are feeling miserable, unhappy, deprived and wronged will always be coloured by our ego-response. On the other hand the moment we think of the good of another person, our will becomes the universal will. The boundary that limits the will of an individual is the thought of the self. As soon as the thought of the self is given up, the boundary breaks down and the will takes on Divine Power. This is how all the masters and prophets of humanity accomplished their herculean tasks. The more one forgets about the self with regard to selfish desires, the more one’s being expands and the will grows. Qadha is universal Will and Power and Qadr is individual power. The secret of success in life is to bring Qadr into alignment with Qadha. In Sufism we are taught how to attune our qadr with our qadha.

First it is important to learn how to focus or concentrate. The next step is to concentrate on the Real , the Positive and the Good. The secret of health is also that. Spiritual healing teaches us that what is most important in healing is to focus on the cure or healthy state and not on the disease. We perpetuate and solidify that which we concentrate upon. If our thoughts are always on the disease, discomfort and pain, then that is what we are making permanent in ourselves.

Today we need peace in our world. Let us concentrate on a world full of peace, love and harmony. It is an active visualization in which we think of the areas of disagreement or fragmentation and consciously perceive them as harmoniously healed and integrated. Every morning when we wake up and look at the newspaper, instead of being influenced by the media’s reporting of all the disasters, if we consciously project positive thoughts to those geographical areas, people and situations that our in distress, we can make a favourable impact. Spiritually awakened and attuned individuals have the power to bring about changes in the environment and situations by their mere concentration.
Repetition is a step in the way of concentration. That which is done repeatedly becomes ingrained in our consciousness. If we repeat the exercise of concentration it will eventually become our life. We must be very careful about what we think and concentrate upon. The Sufis have always spoken of placing a sentinel at the door of the heart. Be fully and wisely aware of what you let into your heart. Whatever enters your heart and becomes fixed there will become the concentration of your life.

Exercise:

Ya Murid Ya Salaam.

We willfully desire Peace.