From the point of view of ego, it is difficult to comprehend that boundaries are ideas or concepts. This insight arises when you experience space on the nonconceptual level. It is a different understanding than seeing that concepts are boundaries, which is a more accessible perception. From the perspective of Holy Omniscience, we see that compassion and steadfastness, for example, are different qualities of Being, but both are nonetheless Being—one thing. You could say they are God’s concepts, thoughts in God’s mind that appear different but that arise out of one source. This is why we consider all differentiations arising out of the Absolute to be universal concepts, thoughts in God’s Mind. (For a more extensive discussion of universal concepts, or noetic forms, see Diamond Heart Book 4, Almaas, 1997.) Without differentiations, there would be no experience, no knowledge, no action, no life, no universe—nothing but the unmanifest Absolute. This is why understanding the nature of boundaries is significant in terms of understanding reality. Someone who experiences only Holy Truth, only unity with no differentiations—without even the concepts of experience, unity, or differentiations—for all practical purposes is not alive. Such a person would be in a kind of coma, a divine coma. When you reach the true essence of the truth, this ultimate reality is in a coma in the sense that it doesn’t know itself. It is unconscious because it has no boundaries, no distinctions. Differentiation is completely gone, so there are no differences. Therefore, there is nothing to see, nothing to experience. This is what makes it the unmanifest Absolute.

As you stay with this hole, essential Will begins to arise in your consciousness, and is experienced at first as a sense of determination—“I will do that”—and a sense of confidence. As you experience this, you see that what you had previously called “will” on the level of the personality is very different from essential Will. On the essential level, it feels like a sense of inner support that imparts the capacity to persevere effortlessly because one is confident in one’s capacity to do so. Effort, the hallmark of fake will, becomes meaningless on this level because we see that real will means “going with the flow” of one’s Being. If efforting is still present, it means that you are still identified to some extent with the personality. So essential Will is an effortless steadfastness in carrying out the task at hand, resulting from a sense of inner support and confidence. When we first experience real personal Will, as opposed to the willfulness of the personality, we see that it has this sense of effortlessness about it. It does involve action, but not trying. When you experience this, you begin to get the intimation that essential Will doesn’t mean choosing or controlling whatever situation you are in. Because you feel supported by the universe when you are in contact with Being, you don’t need to try to make things happen in a premeditated kind of way, and so your action becomes effortless and spontaneous.

In conventional knowledge, it seems paradoxical to think of will as effortless. Most people think will has to do with effort, that we need to apply our will and try hard to persist. But in fact, effortlessness is a by-product of the presence of personal will. For awakened beings, persistence and steadfastness require no effort; they come naturally and easily. And this can be a way that faith expresses itself. The solidity of will underlies faithfulness. This is actually counter to the understanding of will in conventional wisdom. The more we understand will by embodying it, the more we see that persistence, determination, and resoluteness are all approximations of true will. They are good approximations, but approximations nevertheless. There is no striving in true will. If there were, then it would follow that divine will must also involve effort. When creating the world, does God strive and try and persist? Isn’t it more likely that spontaneous effortless creation just happens? Something similar to that is the experience of the Six type once liberated from their fixation. 

You could say, then, that the openness of our true nature manifests as the love of displaying the truth, and that love then appears in the various qualities —including the curiosity, the courage, and the determination. Thus the love of truth is what underlies true steadfastness. In contrast, the steadfastness of the personality—the kind of stubbornness of the iron will—expresses a position that we are identified with and want to maintain or defend. It is not an expression of appreciation for reality as it is. The commitment to the truth that appears as determination manifests as a steadfastness in all the principles of inquiry. We are committed to remaining open and finding the truth. And we are committed to this openness through approaching the process without prejudice, without a position, without a preference about the truth that arises. This attitude will protect us from the tendency to manipulate our experience in order to accommodate a prescribed goal. So we are steadfast not only in the sense that we continue investigating, but we also continue to be interested and open in our investigation. Even though our experience might be difficult sometimes and the truth may be slow to reveal itself, we will stay with the inquiry. We might stop and rest, but we will come back to it from another angle, willing to experiment and curious about what we find. 

Perseverance becomes determination, which in turn can become effortless persistence. It appears from the outside as if one is applying one’s will. But it is not an application; the will is simply present. Perseverance and persistence are the outer manifestations of the condition of steadfastness, which is a feeling that arises when we are being impacted by true will. Confidence breeds steadfastness, which is effortless because we are flowing with the truth. True confidence and steadfastness contrast with the stuttering and indecisiveness of the phobic Six or the stubbornness of the counterphobic Six, both indicating the lack of access to personal will.

Steadfastness appears externally as patience. The more one embodies the White quality, the more one is patient. But patience doesn’t mean that you are just tolerating things. Most people think that being patient means you don’t like a situation but you stick around anyway, feeling frustrated. That is not what patience is. Patience means commitment. It means staying the course. It means that you are really interested in continuing to be there, regardless of the feelings that may arise. When you are truly being patient, you don’t feel that you’re being patient; you only know that you’re doing what you’re doing. If you feel that you are being patient, then you are most likely tolerating the situation, just waiting for things to get better. Though the ordinary notion of patience is the willingness to continue waiting one hundred years without complaining, this kind of patience is nevertheless limited because it is dependent upon a certain attitude toward the situation: that the outcome should be some kind of change. This is the patience of the ego, not essential patience. Real patience implies an openness to the situation and trust in the process. It is not an attitude of waiting—for waiting implies a desire for a particular kind of change to occur. Many people think I am very patient but, in fact, I never feel patient. I just don’t abandon the task—it is as simple as that. 

As we have discussed in previous chapters, the dynamism of our Being has an optimizing force, an evolutionary intelligence that will tend to move our experience closer to the purity of true nature. It will keep doing that, over and over again, regardless of our resistances, regardless of our conflicts and our ignorance, and in spite of the difficulties. The universal will of the optimizing force appears in our experience as our own will—as our commitment and steadfastness in the process. So when we say that the steadfastness expresses the optimizing thrust of Being’s dynamism, we mean that even in stuck, dark, or difficult times, the dynamism is still alive in the form of our determination. Being’s dynamism is still exerting its will, exerting its force. True will displays an intelligent responsiveness to the truth of our situation, including our limitations in dealing with what arises in our experience. Because human beings have inherent limitations, the revelation of human potential is an ongoing process. And as such, it requires patience and steadfastness. This steadfastness, however, is an intelligent expression of the White Essence. How solid, how soft, how hard, or how flexible this expression is depends on the particular situation. Sometimes you may need to pay intense attention for many hours in order to explore your experience. That could include talking with people, reading books, investigating your own history, perspectives, and patterns of behavior—doing everything you can to inquire into your current situation. But after all this activity, the process may require that you relax and let your mind settle. This doesn’t necessarily mean disengaging the inquiry; resting or taking a break for a while is just another part of the process. You have been committed to finding out whatever you can, and for the moment, you know all that you can know. Now it’s time to be quiet, to watch and see what arises in your experience. That is frequently when new insights arise.

There is no need to fight with the content of inquiry by pushing on it or through it. The true function of the Will is to help us become steadfast so that we are not swayed, and not distracted or seduced away from the inquiry. We keep on exploring regardless of what happens. Keeping on doesn’t mean that you have to push; sometimes it can be very gentle and delicate. Steadfastness is mostly a matter of simply being there with your experience, being aware of what is going on, remaining interested in the truth, and continuing to explore whatever limits your openness. This steadfastness is not possible without love of the truth. In fact, true commitment cannot be present without love. Will expresses your love of truth and your openness to it. Will is not the same thing as love, but you won’t be interested in manifesting a steadfast will if you don’t love the endeavor. Love underlies all the qualities we have been discussing in relation to inquiry. For example, if you don’t love the truth, you won’t be curious about it. And if you don’t love the truth, why would you be courageous in your search for it? 

This steadfastness is not possible without love of the truth. In fact, true commitment cannot be present without love. Will expresses your love of truth and your openness to it. Will is not the same thing as love, but you won’t be interested in manifesting a steadfast will if you don’t love the endeavor. Love underlies all the qualities we have been discussing in relation to inquiry. For example, if you don’t love the truth, you won’t be curious about it. And if you don’t love the truth, why would you be courageous in your search for it? You could say, then, that the openness of our true nature manifests as the love of displaying the truth, and that love then appears in the various qualities—including the curiosity, the courage, and the determination. Thus the love of truth is what underlies true steadfastness. In contrast, the steadfastness of the personality—the kind of stubbornness of the iron will—expresses a position that we are identified with and want to maintain or defend. It is not an expression of appreciation for reality as it is.