...a little Good Will emerges....

Greetings everyone

Well here we stand again at another point of transition on planet earth.  

Specifically I'm speaking about the twists and turns of the seasons...June is fast approaching,  bringing winter to the southern hemisphere and summer to the northern.  Once more we humans get to find ways to adapt to our external climates.

What about internally though - how are we weathering the seasons within us at this time in our existence?  How are we manifesting in the world?  For those who are willing ... some thoughts for hearty contemplation:

1) How do you find you're personally 'doing' with this concept of having Good Will for 'self' and 'others'? 

2) and how about globally, how does it feel we're going 'collectively' as the human race, as souls on a journey, as caretakers of the earth?

In 1974 Sam Keen spoke with Roberto Assagioli and during that meeting the subject of Good Will arose.

Sam Keen: 

Good will seems to belong more to religion than psychotherapy, Can’t the will be healthy without being good?

Roberto Assagioli: No. A person is always in a social context; he is not an isolated unit. So the more conflict there is, the more energy is wasted. If we are to have any deep peace it depends upon the harmonization of wlls. Self-centredness is deeply destructive to the cooperation without which a person cannot live a full life in community. Why should we consider good will an expendable virtue, a matter only for the religious? I can go even a step further. This same principle applies to an individual’s relation to nature and the universe. No person can take an arrogant stand and consider himself unrelated to the universe. Like it or not, man is a part of the universal will and he must somehow tune in and willingly participate in the rhythms of universal life. The harmonization and unification of the individual and the universal will – the Chinese identification with the Tao, the Stoic acceptance of destiny, or the Christian will of God – is one of the highest human goals, even if it is seldom realized.

So here we are - 38 years on - literally in a new millennia!  And yet, I'd suggest, as a species at least, we are still grappling with the same concept.  So in the spirit of 'picking up the proverbial ball' that Roberto has offered us in his words and ideas.

"How can we actively manifest Good Will in ourselves - and the world?"

more to come...

On Good Will

Natasha and I have been in an email dialog for a couple of months. We’ve reflected on her and my experience of The Act of Will book group and will projects in which we were engaged from late January to late March of this year. I had noted that 2012 seems to be/feels like an important year for many reasons. One aspect of this year for me is the growing sense that time is speeding up, and that there are many, many things competing for our time and attention. I believe getting control of personal time and tasks is increasingly important so that we can be sensitive and mindful of each moment rather than scattered and unfocused.

Natasha had identified ‘Good Will’ as important, and wrote, “How can we manifest Good Will in ourselves and in the world?” Clearly, unless we are aware of what we are doing, we will not know if what we are manifesting is Good Will or if it is merely some whim. We need to be attentive to our intentions in whatever action we undertake.

We thought about finding relevant readings that further illustrate what Good Will is, and how we develop it. We agreed to look for such readings. So far, my attention has been drawn to Lovingkindness Meditation as an example of how to develop Good Will. Practices such as Lovingkindness Meditation, expressing appreciation, practicing gratitude, all foster Good Will. Along the way I encountered a link from www.gratefulness.org  to an International Symposia for Contemplative Studies. Here is the link to a wonderful presentation on empathy and compassion, http://events.powerstream.net/008/00189/2012_ISCS/SaturdayPage.html.

We also agreed to use Assagioli’s Creative Meditation focused on Good Will, and follow up on what comes to us. Natasha has done some Creative Meditation with her question about how to manifest Good Will. She has written a bit about her meditation, and I hope will post here about what came to her during the meditation and as a result of further reflecting on it.

We intend to make a number of blog posts on our exploration of how to manifest Good Will. We hope you will join us and make comments and offer suggestions for further pursuit in our exploratory efforts.