Theos-Talk Archives (April 1999 Message tt00068)

APRIL 6TH 1999

Dear Peter:

Thanks for quoting this note by HPB.  I have known it for a long
time.

I is exactly on the difference between the two: desire (selfish)
and Will (unselfish-if true) that I was thinking.

In this connection have you come across two short articles in
LUCIFER

"Consciousness"  by "I"		LUCIFER  Oct. 1888

"The Function of Attention in Personal Development"  by "I"
LUCIFER,  Nov. 1888

I do not know who"I" was but do not think it was HPB.  In any
case both articles are most interesting and thought provoking.

If you wish, I will try to copy them for you.

Dal

==================



              Dallas TenBroeck
               dalval@nwc.net




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-theos-talk@pippin.imagiware.com
[mailto:owner-theos-talk@pippin.imagiware.com]On Behalf Of Peter
Merriott
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 1999 6:32 AM
To: theos-talk@theosophy.com
Subject: RE: Theos-World Consciousness


Hi Dallas,

You ask:

> What is it in us that exercises the WILL ?
> In fact, what is the Will ?
> What does it work with and for ?

There is a very interesting passage on WILL and DESIRE in HPB's
"Collected
Writings" Vol 8, p109.    I give it below for those who are
interested in
HPB's view on this.

...Peter
*_*_*_*_*_*_*

WILL AND DESIRE

Will is the exclusive possession of man on this our plane of
consciousness.
It divides him from the brute in whom instinctive desire only is
active.

Desire, in its widest application, is the one creative force in
the
Universe.  In this sense it is indistinguishable from Will; but
we men never
know desire under this form while we remain only men.  Therefor
will and
Desire are here considered as opposed.

Thus Will is the offspring of the Divine, the God in man; Desire
is the
motive power of animal life.

Most of men live in and by desire, mistaking it for will.  But he
who would
achieve must separate will from desire, and make his will the
ruler; for
desire is unstable and ever changing, while will is steady and
ever
constant.

Both will and desire are absolute creators, forming the man
himself and his
surroundings.  But will creates intelligently - desire blindly
and
unconsciously.  The man, therefore, makes himself in the image of
his
desires, unless he creates himself in the likeness of the Divine,
through
his will, the child of light.

His task is twofold;  to awaken the will, to strengthen it by use
and
conquest, to make it absolute ruler within his body; and parallel
with this,
to purify desire.

Knowledge and will are the tools for the accomplishment of this
purification.

(Originally in "Lucifer, Vol. 1, No 2, October, 1887, p96)





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