Although the personal self likes to think that the thoughts going through the mind are ‘my thoughts’, they are actually only ‘the thoughts’ that prevail at a given level of consciousness. It’s like different depths in the sea attract different types of fish. Thus, if one’s calibrated level of consciousness is primarily in the field of pride, then the field itself impersonally attracts similar supportive thoughts that are quite different from the ones that prevail with an overall attitude of neutrality or acceptance.
Spiritual intention subserves, reinforces, and focuses on witnessing and observing rather than on doingness or specifics. Spiritual processing is like positioning oneself in the wind or in a water current.
Spiritual motivation, intention, and alignment could be likened to changing the magnetic or gravitational field of influence by which context is shifted, revealing a different understanding. For example, a presumed loss becomes recontextualized as a hidden gain (greater freedom, opening of opportunities and choices, etc.). By comparison, from the level of Pride, the options are few and limited, but from Willingness, Surrender, and Acceptance, the options are multitudinous.
The Will
The Spiritual Will is not like the ego’s understanding of will as ‘willpower’, which means emotional force with clenched teeth of exertion and increased emotionality. The ego-driven will takes energy and is taxing. It could actually be understood as a form of aggression. In contrast, invoking the Spiritual Will is like opening floodgates and then standing back. The ego/will contextualizes events in terms of cause and effect in which the personal self-will claims credit or blame because it sees itself as a causal agent. In contrast, the Spiritual Will is not personal but is a quality of consciousness that changes context by surrender to an invitation to the power of the Self. The Spiritual Will calibrates at 850, and the personal will calibrates at only the person’s current level of consciousness.
The Spiritual Will, invited by complete surrender, is thus capable of performing the seeming ‘miraculous’, whereas the personal will, paradoxically, often automatically triggers resistances, as anyone knows who has tried personal ‘willpower’ to overcome even minor habits.
Surrender of the personal will to the Will (Wisdom) of God (or Providence, Higher Power) signifies relinquishment of control. One can expect the ego to resist doing so, and it invents excuses, counterarguments, and multiple fears in order to maintain illusory control. The ego’s positions are reinforced by pride as well as desire for specific results. Thus, to the ego, to step back and invite the intervention of Divinity seems like a loss, whereas, to the Spirit, it is definitely a win.
Another limitation of the personal will is that it has no knowledge of karmic propensities or propitious timing, nor does it have the wisdom (omnipotence) to comprehend beneficial sequence. The Self orchestrates with an inner knowingness of capacity. For instance, to try to face a certain conflict prematurely may be unsuccessful, whereas it would have been successful after a few other layers of the conflict had been resolved.
From: “Discovery of the Presence of God: Devotional Nonduality” (2006), Chapter 3: Orientation, pp. 64–66