“Udoh, you need to travel to Abuja tomorrow!” my boss said as he exited my office. Something within me kicked against this sudden travel, but a beggar has no choice, or does he? Waiting in the airport lounge, I logged in for my class – the nature of human beings, and waited for the facilitator to commence the lectures.
We began the discussion by analyzing the interplay between the will and the intellect. The intellect as the seat of reason, while the will is the seat of desire. How can this be? I have always known the will to be associated with action, but now it is limited to merely desiring. I rapidly engaged the lecturer in a brief debate on its accuracy. Her response had me thinking for a bit. “You can desire something without taking action toward it right?” This question liquidated the doubt in my heart.
As a buildup, we considered the will in more detail. What is the will attracted to? After an array of failed answers, we learnt that the will is attracted only to what is good. “This is not right,” I thought to myself. The kidnapper who kidnaps people and demands for random is not good, neither is the killer, and certainly not the baby who bites the nipples of his/her mother while she breastfeeds him/her. As my custom is, I engaged the lecturer expecting a recoil of the statement. However, in the end, I agreed that the above persons see their actions as good and perceive a kind of potential benefit if their plan is actualized.
Is “good” relative to everyone with their view on “good”? I know a lot of you are thinking about that and so did I. Good is absolute and does not change as per individual. However, our analysis of what is good can be wrong. The group of persons we looked at before think they are acting in line with what is good for them. Their analysis of what is good is wrong.
In the cases of addiction, the will is just weak for some reasons. It could be spiritual, meaning the person is possessed or emotional, that is the body has released some hormones that associate the act with a type of feeling. With this, how do we strengthen our will? We can do so through mindfulness meditation – thinking consciously and not allowing the thought to wander, rewarding our efforts, and having clear goals.
To tie everything together, we can boldly say that mankind seeks intelligent control over his/her life. This is the only way true satisfaction can be attained. The common denominator between the man who works a 9 to 5 to provide for his family and a kidnapper is the desire to control the outcome of his life. The “correctness” or morality of the former can be questioned but for now, we are focused on the underlying intention.
As I conclude, the innate instinct to control my life kicked against my sudden move to Abuja. When this control felt questioned, it rebelled. Thus, as we interact with other human beings, we must keep this baseline knowledge and accord everyone their due respect. We are all doing well.
Light, Love, and Life
#NHB #MMBA4
