Tape 3- Developing Willpower

"What is will? It's a decision. It is a decision to be something. We really aren't anything in particular. We can be anything; that's the good news. Everything that you are or conceive of yourself as being is just an idea. It's an illusion. It's a hallucination. You can completely wipe the slate clean and you can dissolve the person you've been and become somebody else. That's the good news. There are ten thousand states of mind, and you can explore and experience them. You can have an uncommonly fine life. But it takes determination. You have to march to the beat of a different drummer. You have to decide."
- Rama

Self discovery requires discipline. If you want to have an uncommonly fine life then you have to make it happen. A teacher cannot give it to you and it doesn't depend on your external circumstances. You have to make it happen through your self-effort. It is within your power to have an uncommonly fine life. But you must choose to make it happen.

"Will is developed in meditation. It is refined. It is within you, but you don't know how to get to it. When you sit down and meditate each day, and you really try, that is the development of will. That is the exercise that develops will. Stopping thought is what you are seeking to will. When you can stop thought, your will becomes complete..... From there you will then be able to take that will that you're refining and developing in meditation, and bring it into your outer life and will outer changes."
- Rama