On my walk around our local park this morning (taking in the joyous dog mosaic en route) I listened to a podcast about the International Court of justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change[1]: to mitigate, repair and compensate for the destructive practices that have caused the climate crisis. The ICJ ruling is the victorious climax of a long, tenacious battle for justice, driven mostly by the Pacific Islanders.
This proceeding had the highest ever level of participation with over 150 written submissions, and public hearings with presentations by 96 States and 11 international organisations. The Court adopted today’s Advisory Opinion unanimously — only the fifth time in its nearly eighty-year history that it has done so. In their summing up the ICJ judges concluded with these words: “Above all, a lasting and satisfactory solution requires human Will and Wisdom – at the individual, social and political levels – to change our habits, comforts and current way of life in order to secure a future for ourselves and those who are yet to come.” (my emphasis). [2]
I bold and capitalise these words because as I heard them I was hit bodily by the thunderbolt of the fundamental and the blindingly obvious. YES! At bottom this is the total sum of what we all need to live, work and love well – for everything: will and wisdom. And we know it.
It made me reflect on the foundations of our Spirit at Work transpersonal programme, based on Roberto Assagioli’s transpersonal psychology of Psychosynthesis. Assagioli placed Will at the very core of the human, along with Awareness. These two energies constitute the ‘I’. Unlike Freud’s hardworking id, ego and superego, Assagioli’s ‘I’ is our enduring essence, a centre of energy and light, not content or conscience. In a sense the ‘I’ is the conductor of our orchestra of selves – the multiple ways our personality shows up in the world. Awareness widens and sharpens our perception and Will enables us to make choices, not just be driven by desire or fear.
In transpersonal psychology the ‘I’ draws down energy from what we call our ‘Higher Self ‘– if we learn to listen to it. Of course our distracting world does everything to give us cloth ears. But eventually, through life’s inevitable crises and turning points, the Self comes knocking at the door. It is the Self that brings wisdom to our choices and – if we allow – guides how we choose to act in the world. So Will is less about will power and more about being willing – to listen, to be aware, and to direct our actions as wisely as we can. Spirit at Work teaches practices to work with the I and the Self proactively, consciously and practically, to invite it in rather than wait for it to break down the door.
Assagioli maintained a lifelong loyalty to an optimistic and life enhancing view of human beings. He believed we can cultivate our Will – our strong, skilful, especially our good-will – to act for the good in small, large and daily ways. This combination of Will and Wisdom feeds everyday spirituality in action.
All this was on my mind when in the afternoon I visited the National Gallery in central London to see the Millet exhibition, just one small room with the painting above, The Angelus, as its centrepiece. A man and a woman pause in their potato picking to recite the Angelus, a prayer which commemorates the annunciation made to Mary by the angel Gabriel. The painting, said Millet, is based on a childhood memory that his “grandmother, hearing the church bell ringing while we were working in the fields, always made us stop work to say the Angelus prayer for the poor departed”.
The painting has attracted many different interpretations. Whether it memorialises a childhood memory or glorifies the simplicity of peasant life, socialism or religion, it remains universally captivating, perhaps for the very reason that we can read into it our own dreams and yearnings.
To me the painting is a prayer in itself: in the luminescence and stillness of the rising dawn, a pair standing together yet alone in a muddy field, far from the church of organised devotion, pause in the midst of labour to raise their spirits from the repetitious task. The painter treats the scene with respect and a tender brush. The couple stand rather than kneel and bow their heads in, I like to think, contemplation and communion, not submission. It is the intimacy of this simple act, its dignity and meditative calm that cause us also to stop and pause awhile.
With the rhyme of will and wisdom still murmuring in my thoughts, today I also saw this as a small act of will: the choice to infuse a life of toil with the spiritual. An act that draws no doubt on religious custom, but also on the wisdom that all work, especially when it is hard, endless or overwhelming, must include pauses to connect with beauty, with quiet reflection, and with the sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself, something beyond the sores and sorrows of our own lives. This is everyday spirituality. We too can learn practices to enable us to act with will and wisdom. This work lies at the heart of our Spirit at Work programme.
[1] International Court of Justice Press Release. Accessed 26.08.25. This is the highest level of participation in a proceeding in both the history of this Court and that of its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Court adopted today’s Advisory Opinion unanimously — only the fifth time in its nearly eighty-year history that it has done so.
[2] Dugal M (July 25 2025) ICJ Advisory Opinion. Earth.Org. Accessed 26.08.25.
