Words of Power: True Power

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

True Power

Odilon Redon - Cup of Mystery (1890)

The power of the Buddha is the power of abiding in stillness even as you are consumed with fire. The power of the Christ is the power of moving forward with an open heart even as you are betrayed and forsaken. Gautama Buddha was not a "Buddhist," Jesus Christ was not a "Christian." The legends that surround those two men are not what is most important.

Furthermore, it is irrelevant that Jesus and Gautama were male. Buddha and Christ are gender-neutral terms. They are synonyms, really, for the Clear Light, for SAT (Being) CHIT (Consciousness) ANANDA (Bliss). And as such they apply to both male and female humans.

It is simple awareness and unconditional love that make you a Buddha or a Christ.

Not gender, not supernatural predestination, not the tall tales of those who make their livelihood off the legends.

In this life, each of us is called to realize our own Buddha nature, our own Christ nature, our own true nature. Are you running from your own true nature? Or groping toward it? Are you settling back into it? Or struggling to keep yourself apart from it? Are you straining to avoid the consequences of what you will see if you look unflinching in the mirror of your behavior?

The power of the Buddha is the power of abiding in stillness even as you are consumed with fire. The power of the Christ is the power of moving forward with an open heart even as you are betrayed and forsaken. Nothing more, nothing less.

Live this.

About Richard Power

Richard Power is a writer, speaker and yoga teacher. He offers workshops, classes and private instruction in yoga and meditation. He is the author of 14 books, most important are Wyrds of Power: New Languagee for A New Reality (2017), I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans (2018), and Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution (2021). For more information on all of Power's other books, visit his author's page on Amazon.com.

For much of his life, Power worked in the fields of security and intelligence. He delivered briefings and led training in forty countries, and was an adviser to governments and corporations. His views have been featured in interviews on CNN, PBS, NPR and the BBC, and quoted in mainstream news media, including Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press.

This blog explores new language for the truths of the ancient future, and reflects insights into Vajrayana Buddha Dharma, Kashmir Shiva-Sakti philosophy, Hatha and Tantra Yoga, the Shamanic path, and other aspects of the world's collective mystical heritage. It also offers commentary on art, music, literature, human rights, sustainability, independent journalism, economic justice and the Climate Crisis.