The Gentle Art of Making Things Happen or Not

By George A. Boyd © 2018

Q: Some people advocate we should attempt to change our life circumstances through using our will power and intention, and others say that we cannot change our fate and we should simply, radically accept who we are. How do you view this?

A: There are personal methods for change and acceptance; there are transpersonal ones. To understand these approaches, it will first be instructive to examine what they are.

Personal methods include:

  1. Goal setting (1st Ray) – This approach emphasizes that your Self, at the core of your personality, uses its faculty of volition to set and carry out goals. In this scenario, for example, you might decide that you need to take a course to augment your career, and you then sign up for an online class, and you study on a regular basis.
  2. Setting up the conditions to achieve something (2nd Ray) – This more intuitive method has you look at the context or environment in which you wish the action to take place, and set up the conditions so that you cannot fail to do it. This might involve you getting an accountability partner, whom you have to pay a fine, if you fail to do the action. Judges commonly use this approach. For example, if you have a first Driving While Under the Influence (DUI) conviction, if you drink while driving again, you lose your drivers license, you have to pay a large fine, and you will spend time in prison—if you must use your car to work and bring in money to support your family, these consequences may be sufficient to change your behavior.
  3. Problem solving (3rd Ray) – This frames the issues of your life and the things you want as problems that have a solution. This solution may have already been accomplished: certain people have done a system or program and it allowed them to achieve what you want or to overcome something that you consider a problem—you only have to copy what they did. In other cases, you may have to discover a way out through trial and error, and eventually stumble upon a successful resolution. For example, you may join a weight loss program that has already helped thousands of men and women lose weight.
  4. Going with the flow (4th Ray) – This view experiences that there is no Self, only the state of being, where life unfolds spontaneously in the moment. There is no doer, there is no Self, and there is no effort. Taoists call this “effortless action,” wu wei. The act of observing the situation creates the necessary adaption; no act of will is required in this perspective.
  5. Analysis and testing (5th Ray) – Scientists adopt this methodology. It begins with a hypothesis, which they test through an experiment. They may have to try different interventions until they arrive at a solution that works, and other researchers can replicate and validate your results. Analysis and testing is widely used to test the safety of medicines, consumer products, and clinical procedures. This approach typically requires significant funding and there may be regulatory hurdles that researchers must surmount before the product can reach the market.
  6. Asking for help – In this viewpoint, you may seek the advice, strength, protection, or guidance of someone who is stronger, more powerful, more experienced, or wiser than you. A child asks his father for advice. An employee solicits the guidance of a mentor, who can help her advance in the company, where she is working. A student queries his instructor on how to solve a problem that he doesn’t understand. An adherent of a religious group may seek counsel from the group’s minister, or she may pray and ask God to give her strength and wisdom to deal with a difficult situation in her life.
  7. Find a creative synthesis – In this systematic way of resolving a problem, you consider all of the elements that are needed to achieve the objective. This sees issues as whole systems, and designs interventions that take all factors into account, and provide dynamic, effective, efficient, and successful outcomes. For example, a businesswoman doing a product launch for a new cosmetic line pays attention to the details of manufacture, packaging, advertisement, placement with retailers, and customer support to provide a seamless experience for her employees, her vendors, and her customers.

Transpersonal methods operate beyond the zone of the personality: they channel through the personality or work on it from the standpoint of a detached witness. These include:

  1. Intentional creation – This occurs when your attentional principle anchors suggestion or affirmation to change behavior, belief, emotional reaction, or the conditions that operate in your life. You use a technique that works with your subconscious, unconscious, or Superconscious mind. [We teach these methods in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail or online Accelerated Meditation Program.]
  2. Faith creation – This conative impulse arises from your spirit, which might act to reform your attitudes, your morals, and your character, and influence you to live a more loving and compassionate life.
  3. Soul creation – This awakens when you tap into the wave of the present time on the Akashic Ether, which New Age groups call the Eternal Now. At this junction point between your human life and your Soul, your Soul is able to release old patterns in your life and create something new. Methods like process meditation, contemplating the eternal now, and feeling emotions to their origin activate the Soul’s power of re-creation. [We teach a method to access this center in our intermediate courses.]
  4. Moral will overshadowing – Groups that activate the Moon Soul or Christ Child nucleus of identity activate this aspect of the higher will. This interfaces with the conscience, and may use different techniques for moral persuasion to induce you to live up to ideal religious norms for behavior and belief. It may use shame, guilt, or fear to enforce obedience; when these measures do not work, it may even resort to punishment or austerity to ensure compliance.
  5. Solar angelic overshadowing – Groups that activate the Mighty I AM Presence or Solar Angelic nucleus of identity open the verbal channel for this essence to “speak the Word” to manifest particular conditions in their lives and in the world. This can take the form of prophetic messages, declarations of creation (decrees), inspired oratory, or channeling messages from Ascended Masters. The personality experiences this as a Higher Self or Divinized Aspect of the Soul that speaks the Word with great power and authority that operates independently of its functions and capabilities.
  6. Transpersonal will overshadowing – This aspect of will, which typically begins to overshadow the personality during the Third Planetary Initiation, leads the personality to align with the Soul’s mission and purpose. It may guide the personality to have different types of life experiences, to learn about certain subjects, to undergo training to acquire select skills, or to become employed in specific careers to prepare to become the Soul’s instrument to carry out its purpose.
  7. Divine will overshadowing – This type of will appears in individuals who are Spiritual Masters and their advanced disciples. Here the Divine, through the intermediation of the Spiritual Master, actively overshadows the personality. It takes three forms: (1) Holy Yeah – also called Agya, this is a commandment to carry out a specific action, (2) Holy Nay – this stops an action and does not personality to carry out an action, or (3) Holy Wait – this postpones and action for a more appropriate time. Those under the aegis of the Divine Will report that this Great Force guides many aspects of their lives, though they retain liberty of functioning in some areas.

In some religious contexts, the Divine Will is believed to be synonymous with Fate. They construe that where you are born, who your parents and family are, and the fortunate or unfortunate circumstances of your life are preordained by some mysterious plan or Divine decree, and you are powerless to change what you are experiencing. You simply have to accept it that this is your lot in life and realize that nothing will improve—so you need to make the best of what you’ve got.

The going with the flow perspective also predicates that you must radically accept what is, and stop trying to resist the Tao. Those that adopt this perspective believe that this surrender to the flow or Way leads to peace and harmony.

These other viewpoints hold that your personal Self, or certain aspects of your spiritual nature, has the agency to create change in your life—and you don’t have to simply surrender to what is, but you can change what you experience in life.

We suggest you familiarize yourself with each of the personal methods that can initiate change or promote acceptance, and use those ones that are appropriate for your situation. So for example, if you are surfing, you might adopt the going with the flow approach. If you have a problem, you can utilize the problem solving approach. If you are aiming to achieve a specific objective, you might wish to employ the goal setting approach.

You will find some of these are easier for you to use; some are harder. By flexibly using these different approaches, however, you may find one that works for you, even if it is not your preferred method to promote change or spur achievement.

As you learn meditation and begin to advance on the spiritual Path, you may find that you begin to experience interface with different aspects of your spiritual nature, and they may start to overshadow your personality. As your spiritual evolution unfolds, you will progressively incarnate higher aspects of your transpersonal potential until you ultimately become a direct instrument of the Living God, an Initiate or Spiritual Master.