The Gentle Will

Every spiritual practice, every exercise of consciousness, all meditation -- indeed, every moment of true awareness -- we do with the 'gentle will', even if we are unaware of it initially and cannot fully activate it yet. Through practice, however, the gentle will begins to shine, and we gradually gain the ability to access it in our ordinary, daily activities, allowing our lives to become infinitely richer, meaningful and creative. The gentle will is relaxed, receptive, expressive, creative, soft, light and playful. It is not rigid or cramped. We use the gentle will in artistic activities such as playing a musical instrument, writing a poem, or painting a picture. In today's world, however, life is governed by the principles of usefulness, utility, comfort, and efficiency -- the hard will of egoism. Georg Kuhlewind writes in this book that the only hope he sees of avoiding global destruction is a change in human consciousness; the 'hard will' must become the 'gentle will'. To this end, he provides exercises through which we may transform the hard will into the gentle will.