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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Personal power


If truth, love and power are our essential “soul” nature, power is something I need to learn more about. (I believe they are, and I won’t take space here to argue my case.)

Here’s what I’ve been thinking.

It is a cultural paradox that we live in a country of power (and its negative representation: arrogance), but many of us don’t know how to express power well.

What I DON’T mean by “personal power”:
- ego
- lording it over anyone
- bragging
- wanting my own way all the time
- thinking more highly of myself than I ought
- ambition
- always being a leader


What I DO mean:

- Getting rid of all the crud and clutter, the residue of this world (layers of psychological time, memories that bind, regrets, negative emotions, bad dreams, inadequacies, resentments) so a vast emptiness remains.

- Into this vast emptiness comes God/Source/Creation, whatever you want to call "it."

- When “pure,” it is the most powerful thing imaginable, expressed through you and your idiosyncrasies. Pure means clean. Clean: without the crud, without judgment of right or wrong, without limit.

- When in this state of pure personal power, you: know who you are, don’t feel inadequate even in the midst of others who are “more _______”, have amazing energy you never knew was possible, create a magnetism around you that can be confusing and mysterious to others.

- When in this state, negative emotions do not arise. There is no need for them, because you are in a state of cleanness that is guilt-free. If someone rants at you, their anger passes right through you – whoosh – because there is nothing to stick to. Even if you DID do something to hurt them, you can easily admit it and let it go!

- If you adhere to a particular religious set of beliefs, this does not go against any of them as far as I can tell. If you are an atheist, there are dynamics of human relationship that are real, even if you do not believe God is at the root of it all.

Every day take inventory of feelings, memories, regrets, pains. Let it come up, and look at it, until you understand it. Each one, one at a time, for as long as it takes. Then let it go (in whatever meditative practice that works for you). If you do this at least daily, I guarantee that you will begin to be empty, and this pure personal power will begin to feel like your normal state of being.

It is complete freedom.

11 comments:

rauf said...

Ruth I am touched.

Power is arrogance, Considering ourselves more civilised in my opinion can be called as arrogance. and we tend to impose our way of thinking on others. This imposition of philosophies has caused bloodshed in the past and it is still happening.
a truly powerful person has immense control on his power, it could be knowledge, intelligence or wisdom or sheer physical strength.
Please pardon my english Ruth, it is not my language, i think in Urdu and write in English.

The picture is very bold and beautiful, I can feel the texture, very saturated, perfect light.

Ruth said...

Thanks, Rauf. I appreciate your thoughts too. The reason I posted the daffodil is because of the chakral centers: sacral and solar plexus, which are orange and yellow respectively. The yellow/solar plexus especially represents the self, so that is also appropriate. But then, you probably already know all this.

Ginnie Hart said...

So glad you added the comment about the chakra colors, Ruth. That makes this whole post even MORE special than it already is! I like that these thoughts you've had for some time now are written down in this format. Thanks for thinking this through for the rest of us. It puts meat on the bones :)

Ruth said...

Ginnie: None of it is new really, I suppose. But having grown up under the concept of "death to self" I never knew how to think about the power of self, wasn't given the other side of it. Death of ego is not death of self, and now, when I think of what Mom always said about dying to self, I wonder if this is what she really meant . . .

Ruth said...

No, when I keep thinking about Mom, I think she didn't know how to express personal power in the context of her marriage.

Akash said...

:-)

Ruth said...

Thanks for visiting, Akash. :) How'd you get here? We sure have a lot in common according to our profiles, so I'm not surprised you stopped by.

Anonymous said...

When I think of Grandma having personal power- really, any words used to describe her personal power would fail. For me, her power was in that beautiful smile that welcomed me and made me feel special. What better way to use personal power than to radiate its beauty for others to assimilate, just as the daffodil does for us?

Ruth said...

Rachel, it's awesome that you have that connection with G'ma.

madame blossom said...

hello ruth,

love the pic of that orchird. and love the colours!

Ruth said...

Thank you, blossom e! But it's actually a daffodil. It DOES look like an orchid! I hadn't noticed that.