Darkness and Vastness

Mahakali, Vajreswari Temple, Kangra, India

Maya doesn't mean "illusion," it means something more like "things are not what they seem."

Darkness and Vastness are lovers.

From them, all light is born, and within their embrace, all life is played out.

Darkness is your friend. We call her "Darkness" but her true name is "Radiance."

Her healing touch awaits you moment by moment.

Just close your eyes, and she will hold you to her breast. Within that embrace, you realize that all is radiance, and that light is not separate from her.

Vastness is your friend. We call him "Vastness" but his true name is "Power."

He is always at your side. Just take one gentle breath into the space of your heart, and his clarity will disintegrate all resistance to what truly is.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Boldly, Joyously

Rene Magritte - L'Eloge de t'espace, trans. "Adulation of Space" (1928)

Lean forward. Love boldly.

Live joyously. Die well.

Repeat.

Lean forward. Love boldly.

Live joyously, Die well.

Repeat.

Lean forward. Love boldly.

Live joyously. Die well.

Repeat ...

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

This is the Moment.

Gustav Klimt - Bewegte Wasser (1898)

This is the moment. All love flows from it.
All inspiration flows from it. It is waiting for you, but it can't last for forever.

Oh yes, there will be another moment. But it won't be this one.

This moment will have been irretrievably lost, and something exquisite will have slipped, unacknowledged, into the crack that runs through the center of the world.

So please, enter the truth of this moment. All love flows from it. All inspiration flows from it.
It is waiting for you, but it can't last for forever.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

The Trail of Love Ends Here

Nicolas Roerich - Black Gobi (1928)

There is a wilderness within the heart.
An utter silence envelops it. A terrible beauty pervades it.

The trail of love ends in this place.

This wilderness only reveals its truths to those who willingly relinquish control over what happens next. And it only bestows its treasures on those willing to lose everything (again).

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Fear is One of the Great Doorways

Andy Warhol - Skull (1976)

Life is adventure. There is fear at every turn.

And fear is one of the great doorways; it is not to be fled from, it is to be entered.

The adventure is all that matters in the end. And adventure demands that you fight for what you desire, win or lose, and that you allow desire to sit on throne of your heart.

At whatever cost.

There is no love without loss, there is no joy without sorrow. It is all a transaction.

And the greater the treasure the higher the price.

When you embrace the adventure fully, all of it, you come to identify even the value of bitterness, and cherish it and store some of it for medicinal purposes. Sorrow, bitterness, pain - all have properties that can be extracted and mixed into tinctures for great healing.

I am grateful for the life I have lived; I am grateful that I have lived it as a warrior, striving for impeccability, at both my best and my worst.

I am grateful for the raging storms, and I am grateful to have kept the fire of love burning in the torrents. I am grateful for the harshest of the deserts, and I am grateful to have kept the water of the inner spring flowing on those burning dunes.

Spiritual truth is not trying to dwell in desirelessness or non-attachment (they are impossibilities); spiritual truth is simply being open, present and authentic for every twist of the blade that IS living.

The adventure tells you when to hold on, and when to let go. You have to listen to it.

You have to be willing follow your truth into the unknown.

You have to be willing to let go of that which you want, if you ever want to see it again; and you have to be able to hold on to what you want while letting go of it, otherwise there is no possibility of seeing it again. Yes, it is a paradox, a divine paradox. And to be an adventurer is to live inside of that divine paradox, and make it wholly yours; to be a warrior is to know that there will be moments in life when the only weapon you have is the fact that you live inside that paradox, and that therefore you understand it from the inside out.

Life is adventure. There is fear at every turn.

And fear is one of the great doorways; it is not to be fled from, it is to be entered.

The adventure is all that matters in the end. And adventure demands that you fight for what you desire, win or lose, and that you allow desire to sit on throne of your heart.

At whatever cost.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

"We Undertake That We Too Will Do What We Can to Contribute to the Renewal of Our World ..."

Mandela's Prison Cell on Robben Island (Photo Credit: Paul Mannix/Wikipedia)

Mandela Day

By Richard Power

July 18th is Mandela Day.

Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the force that leads you into and through the fear.

Hope is not the absence of despair, it is the refusal to condemn the future to the rule of the past.

If you doubt me, read Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Here is an excerpt from the great man's 1993 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech and a photo of the prison cell on Robben Island, in which he survived for DECADES.

"We do not believe that this Nobel Peace Prize is intended as a commendation for matters that have happened and passed. We hear the voices which say that it is an appeal from all those, throughout the universe, who sought an end to the system of apartheid. We understand their call, that we devote what remains of our lives to the use of our country's unique and painful experience to demonstrate, in practice, that the normal condition for human existence is democracy, justice, peace, non-racism, non-sexism, prosperity for everybody, a healthy environment and equality and solidarity among the peoples. Moved by that appeal and inspired by the eminence you have thrust upon us, we undertake that we too will do what we can to contribute to the renewal of our world so that none should, in future, be described as the 'wretched of the earth.'"

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at Words of Power and Primal Words of Power, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

Infinite Power

Edward Steichen - Flatiron Building (1904)

There is infinite power available to you, at every moment, and in all circumstances.

It is the very substance of the universe. It cannot fail you.

The trick is that you must decide how to shape the inner vessel with which to receive this power, and of course, you must also have a vision of what you will use it for.

It is impossible to undo what has been done, or erase what has been written.

But if you draw on the infinite power of the universe to discern the reality of what is, and thereby align yourself with that reality, then you will see your choices clearly, and be free to live from within the ceaseless current of that power for as long as you draw the breath of this life, and yes, of course, beyond.

This is not something that you have to turn to any teacher for.

This is not something you have to pay for, or work toward. This is who and what you are now.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

In This Wilderness

Diego Rivera - Subterranean Forces (1926-1927)

There are so few footprints here. Seekers rarely find this place. It's just so hard to read the signs.
And yet the trails that lead here are accessible at every turn.

You should stay here with me, for awhile. We can climb up to where the silence nests, and listen for the hatching of her nurslings. There is savage music everywhere.

There are grottoes here, with deep pools. If you gaze into the murky emerald water of those deep pools, you will see the shimmering rainbow scales of serpents, as they slither in and out of their tunnels. Time tunnels. These rainbow serpents are oracles. Ask them a question, and the answer will arrive instantaneously - in your own mind. But since they emerged from their time tunnels before the beginning, and have already witnessed the end, they only offer revelations about the here and now.

There are flowers that only blossom in the secret places of your own nakedness. Their fragrance can only be experienced here. Their color and texture can only be truly discerned by one who knows you in a way that the world does not. We can eat these flowers, like a sacrament of the desert, and they will bloom again miraculously in a matter of minutes or hours.

If you follow the roots of these flowers, you will arrive on the other side, at the eyelashes of the great goddess, and there you will see tears of joy roll down her cheeks. She is feasting on the vision of two spirit animals discovering the mysteries of becoming some third animal by fusing themselves together with rapture. In this wilderness.

There are wolves that roam these Steppes, howling into the night. Even the indigo skin of space shivers at the fierce beauty of their song.

There are so few footprints here. Seekers rarely find this place. It's just so hard to read the signs. And yet the trails that lead here begin at every turn.

You should stay here with me, for awhile.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Agni

A single candle lit in fierce awareness and boundless love is equal to the greatest bonfires of the Western forest or the most hallowed altars of the Eastern temples. 

Wherever you are, whoever you are, whenever you remember. The Agni (divine fire) is within you, it was lit before the beginning, and it will blaze beyond the end. 

Remember, when you kindle the fire, and tend to it, with your will and your breath, you are simply holding a mirror up to that divine fire already burning within you. It is the Goddess, burning your life from inside out. 

This is my Agni altar. A single blue candle given to me by two young friends. 

This candle knows my heart's desires. And it knows that I turn those desires over to Agni, which will deal with me and my desires ruthlessly, and I embrace it all, whatever the outcome. 

Praying with fire, as opposed to playing with fire.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Of Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Photo Credit: Ben Richards, 1947.)

I met Wittgenstein once.

On a ship. In dry dock.

On a moonless night.

I stepped into it, to watch the darkness shine through the gaping holes in its hull.

So had Wittgenstein.

He nodded, as if he expected me.

Gazing into nothingness, he said:

"What does the word 'darkness' mean if only light discerns meaning? Perhaps 'darkness' is actually the self-discovery of light? And if so, then neither of them is what the other imagines it to be."

I owe a lot to Wittgenstein.

And he never asked me for anything in return.

Here are four of the many jewels he unearthed during his years in the mines of Philosophia:

"People are deeply imbedded in philosophical, i.e., grammatical confusions. And to free them presupposes pulling them out of the immensely manifold connections they are caught up in." -- Philosophical Occasions, Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination." -- Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of our language." -- Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein

"My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) " -- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein

P.S. Wittgenstein told a friend that Kierkegaard was the most profound author of the nineteenth century and a saint.

P.P.S. Born in Vienna into one of Europe's wealthiest families, Wittgenstein gave away his entire inheritance.

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Of Kierkegaard

I love Kierkegaard. Sort of like a kid brother. Nietzsche and I would hit the mean streets of Philosophia, looking for trouble. And my kid brother Kierkegaard would tag along. He wasn't like us, he wasn't spoiling for a fight. He just enjoyed our company. And of course I had to keep an eye out for him, and make sure he got home safe, so he probably saved me - indirectly.

It's all love, Kierkegaard knew this.

Here are powerful excerpts from three of his masterpieces ...

"The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

“What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

"Most people live dejectedly in worldly sorrow and joy; they are the ones who sit along the wall and do not join in the dance. The knights of infinity are dancers and possess elevation. They make the movements upward, and fall down again; and this too is no mean pastime, nor ungraceful to behold. But whenever they fall down they are not able at once to assume the posture, they vacillate an instant, and this vacillation shows that after all they are strangers in the world. This is more or less strikingly evident in proportion to the art they possess, but even the most artistic knights cannot altogether conceal this vacillation. One need not look at them when they are up in the air, but only the instant they touch or have touched the ground–then one recognizes them. But to be able to fall down in such a way that the same second it looks as if one were standing and walking, to transform the leap of life into a walk, absolutely to express the sublime in the pedestrian–that only the knight of faith can do–and this is the one and only prodigy." ― Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

-- Richard Power

Power's eighth book,  Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril , is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.