Will alone cuts like a blade, but will infused with the strength of love becomes a shield: Assagioli traces the path from struggle through acceptance to divine union.
By Dr. Roberto Assagioli
Archive: Assagioli Archives, Florence
Original title: Lotta – Accettazione – Unificazione
Translated with notes by Jan Kuniholm
Editorial Note
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth Sørensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered. The translation, footnotes, and scholarly editorial commentary are by Jan Kuniholm, who has contributed contextual annotations throughout.
Abstract
Assagioli presents struggle, acceptance, and unification as the stages of the inner path. Struggle initiates purification; acceptance transforms suffering into conscious growth by recognising its constructive value. Will, armed with constancy, sustains the seeker at every step, yet Assagioli warns that the strength of love must be cultivated before the strength of will, lest will become a dangerous blade. The essay culminates in the surrender of the individual will into the Divine Will, understood not as annihilation but as fulfilment.
These three words are the motto of anyone who sincerely enters or aspires to the spiritual path; they summarize the work of the disciple and the aspirant, and accompany the initiate to high goals.
During the initial bitter struggles, the flower of acceptance blossoms. This is not passivity, but a courageous resolution not to flee from situations and events that are perceived or experienced as unpleasant, offensive, or exhausting. Rather, you are to experience them with an awareness of their purifying value, leaving aside the seemingly negative considerations and assessments of the human plane, and to be able to glimpse the constructive work they are doing in us.
The qualities of strength, endurance, and steadfastness that assert and consolidate themselves in us forge our being toward bolder goals.
In this phase, it is essential to place our personality in absolute trusting submission[1] to the soul. But this submission to the higher aspect of ourselves is only one side of the coin; on the other side, made of the hardest steel, is written “Will.”
It is Will, armed with constancy, that must sustain you at every step of the way, keeping your gaze fixed on the inner goal to be achieved. It is Will that will sustain you in dangerous and dark moments; it is Will that will lift you up when you fall; and it is always Will that will prevent you from nursing or dwelling on your wounds.[2] This Will must be an ever stronger and firmer strap[3] around your forehead and a shield for your body — a focal point in continuous expansion and increased power.
However, we should not seek its development and the “strength of Will” if we have not previously sought and developed the “strength of Love” within ourselves, because as a strap and shield it could become a dangerous blade.
This Will full of Love must be your companion throughout the journey, with the specific purpose of eliminating all the burdens of the past, all the elements of separation and obstacle, until it is possible to intuit and gradually realize Divine Union — Oh, truly divine moments in which we will identify ourselves with the ONE Will with ever greater awareness.
Then, little gem of individual will, which has been precious, you will fade away, lost in such splendor of Strength and Will, and you will have found the Source and the Goal.
Unification with the Divine Will is such a highly developed state that at our present stage it cannot be fully understood in its grandeur; however, it is not wrong to grasp its broad outlines even now. It is not essential now, given the long road that separates us from it, to inquire in advance whether we will retain or lose our individuality in unification.[4]
(This movement toward unification is also a movement toward greater inner freedom — the cultivation of what we might call free will in psychosynthesis. Ed.)
There is no stage in spiritual progress that is surpassed that does not lead to more wonderful and broader aspects. Those who strive for unification with the Divine Will, love that Will and open themselves so that It may flow in them more and more freely and completely.
[1] The Italian word here is ababandono,which is most directly translated as “abandonment.” In any case the concept seems to be clear, that Assagioli means the complete giving over of the personality into the “hands” of the soul. —Ed.
[2] This paradoxical teaching does not prohibit self-care. Rather it moves the aspirant away from self-pity and dwelling on past hurts, or focusing on pain and injustice and thereby reinforcing a victim mentality. —Ed.
[3] The Italian word here, cintura,can be translated as “belt,” “strap,” “headband” or something similar. There are several antecedents for this usage in Jewish, Christian, Yogic, and esoteric traditions, where the “belt of truth” or other versions are placed at the head, which is often seen as the location of the “third eye,” signifying spiritual insight to keep one’s focus on the path and the work, yet to be tempered by Love. —Ed.
[4] This and following sentences imply that there is a state of non-duality in which this issue becomes irrelevant. —Ed.
