WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY

"Where there is a will, there is a way" exists in almost every language, in every civilization. But nobody has looked into the psychology of it. The will creates its own way, because the will takes you away from yourself. If you ask me, I would rather like to change this proverb to, "No will, no way, and you are at home." Why go unnecessarily traveli...ng around the world? - because no way leads anywhere, no will leads anywhere except into frustration, misery, failure, even if you succeed.

There is another proverb which says, "Nothing succeeds like success." But my own experience is, "Nothing fails like success." But we are such hypocrites, pretenders. That when you succeed you know you have not gained anything; on the contrary, this stupid idea of success has taken away all your life, and all its songs, and all its poetry, and all its dances. You sacrifice yourself before the false goddess of success, and now what have you got?

But it needs courage to declare to the world, "You think I have succeeded? That is an outward interpretation of my state. My inner experience is, 'Nothing fails like success.' But all of our societies have been teaching you to succeed, to have a strong willpower, because, "Wherever there is will, there is a way." You will find the way, but those ways lead nowhere; they are dead-end streets. And meanwhile, your life is slipping from your hands.

But willpower has been supported by thousands of thinkers and philosophers without ever going into the inner reality of it. To will means you are not satisfied with yourself. It means you are not fulfilled, something more is needed, that you are not at ease. You have to go somewhere, you have to become someone. The very existence of will is against your being - it degrades your being into becoming. Then there is search and then there is longing, and naturally you will find a way, just to go away from yourself.

But this is not the right thing to do - this is suicidal; you are committing suicide. The farther you go on that way of the will, the more you will find yourself lost. This has happened to almost the whole of humanity - they have forgotten who they are. They have gone so far away from themselves that they have forgotten their home.

Drop the will, and immediately that way disappears like a dream. It has no reality of its own. The will gives its power to the way, it creates the way.

So the proverb is right, but those who follow it are wrong. One need not have any will, and one need not have any way. Then sit inside your home and play a bamboo flute. There is no need to go anywhere because you are already there, where you would really like to be.