Posts Tagged: Roberto Assagioli

“Willing to Submit my Will”

On July 28, 2022 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Not my will, but yours, be done.” (Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before his death and crucifixion)

“Not your will, but mine, be done.” (My prayers most of the time)

The simplest insights can bring me up short. They can also help me to stand a little bit taller and to walk a little bit straighter.

An Italian psychologist that I had not heard of until today said some very simple and profound things about the human will. In an interview with Sam Keen of Psychology Today, Roberto Assagioli asserted the following:

‘The will is not merely assertive, aggressive, and controlling. There is the accepting will, yielding will, the dedicated will. You might say that there is a feminine polarity to the will – the willing surrender, the joyful acceptance of the other functions of the personality.’” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Assagioli, accessed 07-28-22)

Assagioli had not had an easy life in some ways. He had been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 27 days by Benito Mussolini for “praying for peace and inviting others to join him along with other international crimes.” After his release, he went into hiding in the Alps. His young son died there, likely due to their living conditions.

Assagioli was almost eighty-two years old when he did this interview. He would die the following August after the interview.

At the end of the interview, the interviewer, Keen, concluded:

“It is hard to know what counts as evidence for the validity of a world view and the therapeutic it entails. Every form of therapy has dramatic successes and just as dramatic failures. Enter as evidence in the case for psychosynthesis an ad hominem argument: in speaking about death there was no change in the tone or intensity of Assagioli’s voice and the light still played in his dark eyes, and his mouth was never very far from a smile.”

To be willing to yield—even to death—is an amazing use of the will.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus used his will to submit to the will of his Heavenly Father. He told God what he wanted, but Jesus also bowed to the will of God. Many people believe that Jesus’ willing submission to the will the God has transformed their lives. I am one of those people.

Oh God, help me to use my will wisely today, whether that means exercising my assertive will or my submissive will. Amen!

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