Acts of true will

The establishment of this true Will is a half-way stage in the formation of magnetic centre.

Learning to practice the use of that true-Self-Will until it reaches the point where it is established as a true habit replacing the habits of false wilfulness.

The establishment of this true Will is a half-way stage in the formation of magnetic centre.

Shown as the small central point in this diagram, the True-Self-Will developed in the formation of Magnetic Centre represents the beginning of activity arising from the real self, which until now has been passive. (In icons, this passivity is suggested by the swaddling bands on the infant Christ, and the winding sheets on His body in the tomb before the Resurrection: signs that he is not then active in this world.)

This moral instrument is moulded by the traditions of the surrounding milieu and family. From birth onwards it is further modified by education. So Personality is not natural or innate, but in every case it is an artificial structure. Without this instrument, created by society and at the same time largely responsible for the form of that society, the organisation of social life in all its forms is unthinkable. Yet because of its uncontrolled internal nature and the repeated interaction of contents laid down to all intents at random, it can give no guarantee that human conduct will be good and equitable. It is because of this that, in order to ensure its own existence in times of peace, human society has always been obliged to have recourse to constraint and the application of penalties. These remedies are necessary because this kind of mechanical morality will never be strong enough to curb the extreme and anarchistic tendencies of which the Personality is capable.

In fact, the undeveloped Personality lacks that kind of moral conscience that the practical teachings of both the Jewish and the Christian religions describe as the fear of God. This ‘fear of God’ is described by Palamas as follows: