Manifesting Your Will

Much of New Thought is about manifesting your will. It’s far more helpful to do this if your will is in alignment with your own higher nature. This exercise is designed to help you accomplish this aim. It may be read aloud and recorded, or one person may read it to another or to a group if that is helpful.

Sit in a comfortable but erect position, free from disturbances, so that you can be as relaxed and alert as possible. You may want to begin with a prayer to God or to whatever Higher Power you find suitable for guidance in this particular situation (e.g., work, love, finances, etc.). Close your eyes and allow your attention to come to the breath. Simply let it flow in and out, without any desire to change it in any way.

As the breath relaxes into a steady rhythm, allow your attention to come to the sensations of the body. Feel your feet on the floor, your back against the chair, your hands and arms – whatever part of the body presents itself to your attention. You may start to feel sensation as a kind of subtle current that flows where it wills throughout your body. (If not, however, that’s also fine.)

Then allow yourself to sense your body as a whole, in a single moment. (This may require some concentration if you’re not an experienced meditator.) Let your attention rest for a moment on the solar plexus – the point at the centre of the body just below the rib cage.

Now bring your attention to the heart. You may feel it beating, or you may not. What’s important is that you centre your attention there. As you continue to feel the heart, some emotions may come up. Allow your attention to come to these, and do your best to watch them attentively but dispassionately, even if they are somewhat intense. (Emotions, by the way, aren’t thoughts or physical sensations; they’re feelings like love or hate or fear or joy.) You may be surprised to see that pleasant and unpleasant emotions can follow one another quite quickly, without any apparent reason. Watch them but do not cling to them or push them away.

Let your attention now come to the thoughts and images that are passing across the screen of the mind. Again, watch them alertly without either clinging to them or pushing them away. Whether they’re pleasant or unpleasant, simply let them come and go. After a few minutes of watching the thoughts, become aware of the watcher, the silent witness in you that is observing all this experience. Ask yourself where in you it is. For many people, this witness feels as if it is in the centre of the head, a couple of centimetres behind the eyes (which is why this is called the Third Eye). But you may have a sense of it elsewhere, such as in the heart or solar plexus.

Pretend that this silent watcher is looking up through the crown of your head almost as if it were peering through the opening of an astronomical observatory. In your mind’s eye visualise a point of light, like a star in the night sky, say some four metres directly overhead. This point of light represents your higher Self. Rest your attention on this point of light for at least two or three minutes.

Now turn your attention to the situation that concerns you. Ask, ‘What is my will in this situation?’ You can also look up (in your mind’s eye) at the point of light and ask, ‘What is thy will?’ Make a firm resolution in your mind to see the truth in the situation, not what you want or what you imagine it to be. If you’re feeling great fear or anxiety, breathe it out.

Allow the answer to come as it will. Note your responses precisely and objectively. (You may find it helpful to make notes after the exercise is finished.) When you have received the information you need, let the exercise drop and return your attention to the sensations of the body for a minute or two. Then let the exercise drop completely and return to your ordinary state of consciousness. You may find it helpful to stamp your feet a little to ground yourself again. If you feel disoriented or ‘out of it’ as a result of the exercise, a bite of food or a beverage may be helpful.

Make a conscious decision to remember what you have willed at least once daily, and also at least once daily take some action, large or small, to bring this will into realisation. You will know for yourself what the actions are to be.

For more on this subject, read the author’s accompanying article The Real Secret of The Secret.

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RICHARD SMOLEY has over thirty years of experience studying and practicing the Western esoteric traditions. He is editor of Quest Books and executive editor of Quest magazine, both published by the Theosophical Society in America. His website is www.innerchristianity.com.

The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 103 (July-August 2007).

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