Words of Power: February 2015

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

A Trick of the Mind

Portrait of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Random Event Generator. Meditation Room.
San Francisco Lodge, Theosophical Society. January 2015.

It would be easier to say something like "there is a great power within you." But the truth of human incarnation would be more accurately described by saying that the story-you-tell-yourself-about-who-and-what-you-are actually exists within the power that would typically be described as existing within the "you" that is nothing more than that story-you-tell-yourself. Comprende?

It is a trick of the mind to imagine that the great power is “within you” rather than the other way around. It is a trick of the mind, and a pitfall of language. In the mirror of consciousness, we see a one-dimensional image of our multidimensional selves, and we identify with that reflection on the flat surface of the mind mirror. A simple shift in perspective reveals the nature of our lives in this universe to be quite different than what we have been led to believe by our runaway stories.

Of course, more than this simple shift itself is required; you must be fiercely dedicated to returning to it over and over again, until that new perspective becomes your default mode. You are power. You are truth. You are pure dynamism. Furthermore, this power, truth and pure dynamism that you really are can never be added to, nor diminished in any way.

It is utterly inextinguishable. It is non-augmentable.

It is the reality of all you have ever truly been or will be; it was your face before you were born. Do not cheat yourself a moment longer, with this next breath, SHIFT. In the space between this thought and the next, SHIFT. Follow your laughter to its edge, follow your song to its edge, what awaits you there, patiently, silently abiding? It is the unnameable truth of what you are.

Do not cheat yourself a moment longer. Return to this truth again and again, until the power of it consumes you. Of course, it will only seem to consume you, in reality, it is who and what you are now and always have been. Yes.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

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See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

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Thursday, February 05, 2015

Dark Wisdom

Mark Rothko - No. 4 (1964)

Grateful to have awakened into the deep wisdom of the pre-dawn darkness. Graceful to have borne silent witness to the gentle rise of the orchid light. Grateful for another day in these five bodies.

Grateful for another day of physical and psychological health. Grateful for another day of not living in a war zone. Grateful for another day to take nothing for granted. Grateful for another day of access to fresh water. Grateful for another day to lean forward with courage and love.

Grateful for another day to lean forward into the great shift that must come. Grateful for another day to lean forward into alleviation of suffering for all beings.

Grateful for another day to articulate the existential, spiritual, social, political and economic imperatives of altruism and sustainability. Grateful for another day.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

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See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

Sunday, February 01, 2015

Ursula Le Guin: "To Light A Candle is to Cast A Shadow."

Ursula Le Guin (Photo Credit: Benjamin Reed)

From the writings of Ursula Le Guin -

"True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero — really look — and he turns into a gerbil. But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you. The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him. 'You must change your life,' he said. When true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message. You must change your life." (Myth and Archetype in Science Fiction)

"I talk about the gods; I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth." (Left Hand of Darkness)

"You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow." (A Wizard of Earthsea)

"You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do... " (A Wizard of Earthsea)

"There is nothing important except people. A person is defined solely by the extent of his influence over other people, by the sphere of his interrelationships; and morality is an utterly meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fulfilling of one’s function in the sociopolitical whole." (Lathe of Heaven)

"Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass." (Lathe of Heaven)

If you resonate with the content of this site, and would like to support my work, all four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

http://facebook.com/wordsofpower
https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/

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See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller - Available Now Via Kindle (Amazon) and Nook (Barnes and Noble)

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.