REPRINTED FROM JUSTIN C. SCOTT
Is fulfillment found in shaping life or surrendering to its flow? Most teachers, guides, and gurus will advocate for one of two paths: 1. The path of willful creation in the name of personal growth and creative accomplishment (will of conquest) 2. The path of willful detachment from desire and complete acceptance of the flow of life (will of surrender). But there is a middle way – a way that harmonizes the polarity of will and allows you to embrace each without the rise of contradiction and conflict between them. The key is not to eliminate desire, but to develop a conscious and responsive relationship to it. To understand that this is a consensus reality – a shared, co-creative experience – and, by definition, will not always align with your intentions or what you think you want. It is virtually impossible for every moment to reflect your personal desires and intentions perfectly, and so you need to release the sense that it has to in order for you to embrace joy, happiness, and contentedness. Additionally, you need to accept that desire is eternal. Even upon achieving a coveted dream, your spirit will naturally yearn for more, to go further, and to seek novelty. This is not a flaw, but a design – it’s the tool that allows you to interface with the limitless potential of the universe, collapse it into form, and manifest it into being. Desire is also a tool utilized to eliminate problems, challenges, and obstacles. But like desire, these are eternal, and will not disappear with the fulfilment of what you want - they will simply change. There will always be problems, challenges, and obstacles because these are the fertile soil of life, that which fosters continued growth and expansion. They are not to be avoided, but – to the best of your ability – embraced when they arise. Ultimately, desire is the signal that brings your attention to a perceived gap between your current reality and the idea of your ideal reality. To bridge this chasm without emotional distress, you take conscious action towards realizing your desire – the desires you feel are worth realizing – while simultaneously immersing yourself wholly in the present, embracing and appreciating the now for what it is, despite what you would like it to be. This is how you align the polarity of will, activating both the energy of conquest and the energy of surrender simultaneously. This dance, between acceptance of life as it is and the pursuit of shaping life into what you want it to be, is what exists as the very essence of living wholly, consciously, and completely. It is the middle way and, in my experience, the most rewarding approach to life.
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