Words of Power: July 2015

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Only True Sanctuary

San Francisco, July 2015

On the long journey into the night of of this life, the deep, abiding embrace of Soma and Psyche is our only true sanctuary. It moves with us, wherever we go, which way we turn, and it is often simply called "Shadow." On this journey, there are treacherous mountain passes, with verdant gardens hidden within. And there are desolate wildernesses, with ever-flowing springs hidden within. And yes, traveling on, there are moments in which there is so much to say that the only way to articulate it all is to surrender to utter silence. The revelation wrapped within the veil of such moments is that this listening is the singing of that great song that cannot be sung. Yes.

Midnight. Half moon. Swiftly moving clouds. San Francisco roof top. July, 2015.

-- Richard Power, author, speaker, yoga teacher

#passionofthepoet #lifeofayogi #pathlesspath #tavernofruin #savagebeauty #notacaravanofdespair #notruthoutsidethegatesofeden #strangerinastrangeland #psyche #soma #sakti #siva #yinandyang #shadow #troubadourskilledbeforetheyreachBombay #tantrikaknows

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/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

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)

Thursday, July 09, 2015

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

Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller, Edited with an Introduction by Richard Power,
Foreword by Coleman Barks. Available now via Kindle and Nook

"I know I'm NOTHING," Joe once bellowed, "no-thing, no-thing ... just a wild-assed spark of the Infinite functioning in the finite." -- Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller (Maypop, 1993), p. 80

The legendary American sage Joe Miller was a retired vaudeville and burlesque entertainer, with an 8th grade education. He never traveled to the East. But the East came to him.

Visiting Tibetan teachers called him a "Lama" and a "Tulku." Visiting Sufi teachers called him "Murshid" (Master) and "Madzoub" (Idiot of God). Visiting Indian teachers called him "Swami" and thanked him for his Darshan. Visiting Korean and Japanese teachers recognized him as a "Zen Master." He was given numerous unsolicited titles, but never used them. Joe shared the deepest teachings for free. He said he was not a teacher, he said he was "just a friend." He never took any money from any of us, he said he lived off his "rich uncle" (i.e., his social security check). Hundreds of people gathered in Golden Gate Park every Thursday morning to take a walk with him. His only official affiliation was with the San Francisco Lodge of the Theosophical Society.

Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller is a collection of his talks and oral history. It is a powerful artifact. I composed, edited and annotated the manuscript before Joe's death and added a in-depth introduction after his passing. Originally published in print form in 1993 by friend and colleague Coleman Barks (Maypop), Great Song is now available in an electronic edition:

Some years ago, Coleman granted me the electronic rights to Great Song so that the work could live on. But I held off publishing this electronic edition of Great Song until after I had completed my quadrilogy of books on the Yoga of Primal Reality (in reverse chronological order):

This series of books offers vital context for a 21st Century appreciation of Joe Miller's message. And there is need of a Great Song for the Great Shift that we must undertake, individually and collectively.

I encourage you to dip into all five works, and share them with others.

-- 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/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

See Also

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

Sunday, July 05, 2015

True Parents

San Francisco, July 2015

Gaze into the night sky. You are that endlessness. Have you found your true parents? Mine were a Celtic raven goddess and a one-eyed Norse wayfarer. Do you feel the blood coursing through the limbs of your body? Every red drop is a distant galaxy.

You are so much more than your troubles. The five elements themselves are no less than the sealed envelope that carries the love letter that you are! Open it. Read it aloud. The silence is already astonished, having written that love letter so long ago.

#notruthoutsidethegatesofeden #strangerinastrangeland #tavernofruin #savagebeauty #sakti #shadow #pathlesspath #passionofthepoet #lifeofayogi #pearlofgreatprice #greatgoddess
#troubadourskilledbeforetheyreachBombay #tantrikaknows

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/

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Epiphanies (Samhain 2014 - Summer Solstice 2015)

Stonehenge Depicted in 17th Century Atlas (1645)

An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of sudden and striking realization. Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective ... Famous epiphanies include Archimedes's discovery of a method to determine the density of an object ("Eureka!") and Isaac Newton's realization that a falling apple and the orbiting moon are both pulled by the same force. -- Wikipedia

Joyce gave the name epiphany to certain short sketches he wrote between 1898 and 1904, and the idea of the epiphany was central to much of his early published fiction. Through his education at the Jesuit schools at Clongowes Wood and Belvedere College, Joyce was steeped in Catholic religious ideas. He even suggested that there was a certain resemblance between the mystery of transubstantiation in the Catholic mass and what he was trying to do as an artist, changing the bread of everyday life into something with permanent artistic life. In making this claim, Joyce envisaged himself as an artist/priest of the eternal imagination through whom the flesh becomes word. It’s no surprise, then, that he adapted the idea of epiphany to suit his own artistic ends. Joyce himself never defined exactly what he meant by epiphany, but we get some idea of what it means from the way in which the character Stephen Daedalus defines it in Stephen Hero, an early version of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen says that epiphanies are a sudden and momentary showing forth or disclosure of one’s authentic inner self. This disclosure might manifest itself in vulgarities of speech, or gestures, or memorable phases of the mind. -- James Joyce Center

Here are links to 22 more epiphanies. Some originated as Facebook statuses, some as Instagram posts -- in a period of time stretching from Samhain 2014 to Summer Solstice 2015.

Not every Facebook status or every Instagram post, of course. Just those I feel should be included in this ongoing Words of Power narrative. Most will also find their way into my next book.

As with 115 other epiphanies collected in Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in An Age of Global Peril (2010), User's Guide to Human Incarnation: Yoga of Primal Reality (2013) and Planetary Emergency, Personal Emergence: Path of An Evolutionary (2014).

-- 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/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

See Also

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

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.