4221. Blind Will and Desires
 

The usual target in most spiritual and general self-enhancement practices consists of eliminating that what a person perceives as his or hers 'unwanted desires'.

While this elimination of 'unwanted desires' is very beneficial as such, it is often neglected to address the _cause_ of these unwanted desires.

This cause will be called here, in this context, the 'will' or perhaps better: the 'blind will'.

There is a twofold blindness in the phenomenon of the 'will':

 - the root for desires of any kind, the 'blind will', lies in the superconscious area
   that is not directly accessible by a person
AND
  - the 'will' itself has no discriminatory properties: it will
    cause a creation irregardless of the consequences for the
    person in a particular situation.

To analyze the underlying situation in its context the view Gotamo Siddharto (the 'Buddha') shall be explained briefly:

- the Being, once descended into a Universe, can trap itself only
  by identifying itself with its own creations or the creations
  of other players in the cosmic game.

- these identifications have the side effect of becoming unaware
  of one's own past decisions about creations.

- The result is a collection of potentials for desires. (Gotamo
  called this collection of potentials "ta.nha")

- Whenever an occasion for a manifestation of a _potential_
  desire presents itself to a person, this potential will cause
  the creation of an according desire.

The creation of the desire itself has an intermediate step which, for Gotamo, provided the solution to the problem that "ta.nha" - the collection of potentials for desires - is not recognizable by a person because of its identification with same.

Any creation is preceded by the phenomenon of 'bhaavaa', which, literally, means 'becoming'. This word has often been interpreted around to mean 'existence', a logical, conceptual, grammatical, and linguistical misattribution.

In 'The Little Purple Notebook..' the timeframe of the occurence of 'bhaavaa' ('becoming') is being called the 'pre-cycle void' and, together with the 'post-cycle void', it was presented as the crucial time in which postulates, decisions, and conclusions are being made.

Again, since the blind will operates in the area of the superconsciousness, it is not directly accessible by processes.

How can the tendencies of the blind will then be recognized?

One way could be to 'trick' the blind will into revealing itself.

Gotamo's main approach was to prompt the blind will to manifest itself by starving out all present desires and then to just wait until the will appears in the pre-cycle void, the phase of 'becoming' (bhaavaa).

This is not an easy task and a bit of a catch-22 which will need a long time and a lot of effort.

Another approach would be suitable for the 'contemplative/intuitive'  branch of the path (a branch which is not feasible for everybody, however): this is the flooding technique in which the mind is 'flooded' by the 'four boundless states': friendship, caring, joy with others, and equanimity. But since these states are not 'teachable' as such and also because they are not achievable by everybody in its true form, this approach has necessarily a limited audience.

But a similar situation like that of the 'blind will' can be found on the physical plane itself.

It can be found in the workings of the human body and one can study and practice the  flows and dependencies of processes on that plane first before addressing the 'higher order' phenomenon of the 'blind will'.

For example, the so-called 'Alexander Technique' provides a set of processes to address the problem of automatic body movements and postures.

Just like the 'blind will', these automatic postures and reflexes are not perceivable by a person itself under 'normal' circumstances.

In order to 'trick' the body in revealing its reflexes, the person is asked to _start_ doing something seemingly trivial, such as sitting down on a chair, _without_ actually doing it.

There is a brief moment where the automatic muscle activities reveal themselves.

To resolve these automaticities, it is usually enough to _spot_ them, but since there are always many 'copies' of these automaticities, the process may have to be run often enough to find out all instances of an automaticity/

Now, the same method can be used to 'trick' the blind will: if one is pretending to perceive an object that would trigger the blind will, the blind will is being activated.

If one stops right there and does not continue, the blind will hangs in a vacuum, and because of its inertia will be perceivable for a fraction of a second - enough to recognize it as what it is.

This approach can be combined with nearly all processes that trigger automaticities.

Here, an example is given using of one of Hubbard's most successful processes ever. It is from the late '50s and he unfortunately (and for unknown reasons) dropped this process later on altogether.

(The process has been reframed and very well described by Alan C. Walter in his article 'Handling a Negative by Processing a Positive' which is included in the Guest
Speaker Section of  'The Little Purple Notebook...').

Combining the 'blind will trick' with this process yields the following sequence:

   - decide to start a mock-up process;

   - stop or slow-down and observe what is happening during the
     moment just _prior_ to the actual mock-up.

   - spot any intentions that show up exactly _before_ the mock-up
     begins to appear.

It does not matter if the mock-up is actually being created or not, just as it doesn't matter if the decision to move the body results in that body sitting down on a chair or not.

If mock-ups are done, they should be followed through, however. Otherwise, things are 'hanging in the air', just like if someone would stop halfway in the process of sitting down on a chair.

    - decide to start 'keeping the mock-up from going away'. Observe
      what's happening during the timeframe _before_ this action
      occurs.

    - decide to start 'holding still the mock-up' and observe
      the moment _before_ automaticities of the mind are kicking
      in.

    - decide to start 'making the mock-up more solid' and again
      observe the actions (not re-actions!)  of the 'blind will'.

Again, in principle, nearly every creative process could be modified to  address the 'pre-cycle void' phase of creation.

Addressing the 'blind will' could be seen as the single most decisive and consequential action of a person because the 'blind will' determines the future of a person not only in the present time but also at the time of the death of the physical body.

At the latter moment, the blind will takes over completely:

At this point, when the body ceases to function, there is no
possibility of saying a prayer or chanting a mantra.

No chance to assume a fancy yoga position.

No eyes to read a holy scripture.

No ears to hear uplifting music.

No time to invoke some spirits.

What will be there is whatever will be left of the person's collection of unresolved potentials of desires: the 'blind will'.

And since the potentials for craving creations cannot be processed without the opportunity for its manifestations there will be no time left to process anything either.

In short, all the processes necessary to gain liberation must be done