Renewal, Will, and the Flow of Divine Life in Psychosynthesis
By Roberto Assagioli
(Doc. #23419 – Assagioli Archives – Florence)
Original Title: Felicità Statica e Letizia Dinamica
A Talk Originally Given in Florence, New Year’s Eve 1936. This writing clearly consists of lecture notes and is not an organized lecture in itself. —Tr.
Translated and Edited with Notes by Jan Kuniholm
Editorial Note:
The subheadings in this online edition have been added by Kenneth Sørensen for clarity and navigational purposes. They were not part of the original 1936 talk and do not modify or interpret the original text.
Abstract
In this New Year’s Eve talk from 1936, Roberto Assagioli contrasts the illusion of static happiness with the experience of dynamic joy. He argues that true renewal requires an act of will and the overcoming of inertia, fear, and attachment. Static happiness—defined as comfort, security, and stagnation—leads to boredom and decline, whereas dynamic joy arises from consciously entering into the current of the One Life. Assagioli presents renewal as a daily spiritual resolution: to remove obstacles and align with the regenerative flow of Divine Life, which brings health, love, intuition, and spiritual consciousness.
New Year as Inner Renewal
I would like to propose that we consider together the old but ever-relevant theme that can be summed up in the popular saying “NEW YEAR, NEW LIFE.”
Elements of truth:
- The solar cycle, an ascending magnetic wave that constitutes a favorable moment.[2]
- We can use the opportunity, or rather the pretext, of the external change of year to bring about an inner and vital renewal.
Renewal Requires Will and Effort
However, such renewal does not occur on its own: it requires our resolute intention and an act of will. It requires overcoming a deep instinct and freeing ourselves from an illusion.
Overcoming Inertia and Spiritual Laziness
I. Overcoming the instinct of laziness and inertia.
Fundamental quality of matter — resistance — the first of the gunas.[3] Its importance: Jung.
Horror of effort.
Subtle and disguised forms of moral and spiritual inertia: psychic activism — dispersion (dissipation) — “escape” in a horizontal sense, outward.
The Illusion of Static Happiness
II. Illusion of static happiness and ‘security’.
General search for well-being, for “happiness.”
Illusion of the possibility of a ‘comfortable life’.
The Law of Evolution: Renew or Decline
This would be stagnation – boredom – decadence – death. Contrary to the law of evolution and progress. In fact, “those who have no troubles create them.”
Therefore: either renew yourself or die. This is a universal law for both individuals and institutions.
This is the profound meaning of the “continuous revolution” intuited by M.[4]
Instead:
Entering the Current of Dynamic Joy
DYNAMIC JOY
Decisively entering into the current of Life, which is a continuous flow.
The Nature of the One Life
Let us be clear: which life? It is not at all a matter of passively letting oneself drift or lazily allowing oneself to be pushed by the slow current of evolution. It is a matter of adhering to the One Life, the Total Life, the Divine Life. The Life that permeates and transcends all forms, all particular manifestations and individualizations. This Life renews, regenerates, eliminates contrasts, conflicts, and oppositions, which are all artificial and illusory from the point of view of the Spirit, of Reality.
This great Life harmonizes everything, integrates everything into a higher synthesis, connects everything, and merges everything.
This Life gives health and vigor to the body.
It gives joy and love to our emotional nature.
It gives light, vision, and intuition to the mind.
It gives spiritual consciousness, which is expansion and bliss.
Let us therefore dare to take the leap, the plunge, to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves, so to speak, “piece by piece.” Our task is to remove the obstacles that block the entrance, the channel.
Removing the Obstacles to Life
These obstacles are above all ignorance, fear, attachment.
The more and to the extent that we do this, Life flows and works in us.
And this is the appropriate and healthy resolution we should make every morning. As our friend Calvari[5] said in a beautiful and powerful mantram: “Every day is for me a new birth, a new baptism, a new confirmation, without undertones, indecision, or weakness.”
Daily Resolution and Spiritual Renewal
Let us renew this resolution now, at the beginning of a new year, with greater determination and fervor.
This is the encouragement and wish I offer to each of you.
Notes:
[1] This writing clearly consists of lecture notes and is not an organized lecture in itself. —Ed.
[2] The solar cycle is a roughly 11-year cycle of activity on the Sun, driven by changes in its magnetic field. Of course, a more familiar solar cycle is the Earth’s annual rotation around the Sun. —Ed.
[3] In yoga and Ayurvedic philosophy, “gunas” (Sanskrit for “qualities,” attributes” or “tendencies”) are three the three fundamental forces or qualities that govern all of existence. They are sattva (goodness, harmony), Rajas (passion, activity) and Tamas (inertia, darkness). C.G. Jung never explicitly use the term “gunas” but the influence of these fundamental qualities of nature and experience can be seen in his concepts. —Ed.
[4] This was typed as “Max” in the manuscript, but possibly refers to Karl Marx, who advocated a “permanent revolution” to reach defined goals. Any mention of Marx in Italy at the time this talk was given might have been dangerous, given the political situation of the time. —Ed.
[5] Olga Calvari Giaccone, a.k.a. Olga Calvari, was an associate of both Roberto Assagioli and Nella Ciapetti Assagioli who wrote many article for the magazine Ultra and other publications. She was a member of the Italian Theosophical Society and was the author of several books, including on the topics of karma and reincarnation, another on Wagner’s opera Parsifal. —Ed.
