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.