All power, all forces, all aspects of what actually goes on in reality, are simply emanations of energy. At the core, they’re absolutely neutral. Existence does not deal in ‘good’ or ’bad’. That’s an entirely human interpretation, a mental calculation; it’s an add-on. Energy is neutral. How could it be otherwise? How could the most elementary operation of consciousness, of all the cosmos, of all of existence, of all dimensions and all realms, of all and everything there is – be somehow fundamentally based on an applied value judgement?
Life is neither good nor bad. Life just is. No rose considers itself more beautiful than a daffodil. That’s just human ego, the everyday human mind, insisting on continuing to indulge the sitting-in-judgement habit. But energy itself, without any spin, can only be neutral – the same way the sun can only shine exactly the same way on saints as it does on sinners. Don’t hold onto fairy tale versions of universal truth. No one has any difficulty understanding that the same energy that can be used to make an atomic bomb and blow up a city, could also be harnessed, instead, to power that same city and give everyone a more comfortable or affordable material life. In both cases, it’s the same energy. It just depends how you use it.
So understand: what matters is not the thing itself, but rather, your attitude toward it, and what you do with it.
Everything you have (or will) ever experience, is a ‘situation’. Your direct individual assigned part in every single situation, specifically involves whether or not: 1] you actually handled it (adequately vs. excellently is not the salient point here); 2] handled it poorly (what particular degree or version of ‘poorly’ doesn’t matter much either); or 3] avoided it altogether (ignorance is not bliss). These are the broadest ways in which things typically sort out. And what are these ‘things’? What are we actually talking about? What’s the real topic here? The topic is power.
Even every dictionary, will in some wording or other, define ‘energy’ as ‘power’. But unfortunately, most folks have been taught a whole lotta nonsense about power, full of clichés and misguided views (promulgated most, it often seems, by those who’ve never learned any of the finer arts of power). If you don’t learn about power in the right way, you’re pretty guaranteed to handle many things poorly (whereas you could have made a meaningful positive contribution, instead).
Don’t be afraid of power. Don’t be afraid of conflict. Don’t continue to think that these things are what you’ve been told they are, or that they only work the way you’ve been told they work. You’ve likely been told untruths, so when you look at situations, you’ll essentially be hallucinating: seeing (imagining) something along the lines of what you expect to see. And of course, that’s not seeing at all! You have to go with brand new eyes. You have to look objectively, and be willing (usually for a goodly while) to be a genuinely impartial observer, one who draws no conclusions and is simply watching how things work.
Worldly people believe old saws like ‘power corrupts’, or some similar mistaken notion that power is in some way dangerous or evil or bad. Spiritual people need to reject these false denigrations, and understand that all power is spiritual power – just energy. Worldly people (and all of us start as ‘worldly people’) have been schooled that power means ‘power over’. Spiritual people have to reject such oversimplifications, and understand that power means ‘power to’ and ‘power for’ and ‘power of’ – not ‘power by’.
Everyone alive has power (and even some who are dead, e.g., Thomas Jefferson, the Virgin Mary, Elvis, Queen Eliza…. oops, jumped the gun on that last one). To say power is bad, is like saying that sunshine is bad or breathing is dangerous. Power is just a fact of life: the power to walk and talk and move and think and act, and so on and so on.
Would you like to learn how a watch works? If so, you’ll have to look at many watch mechanisms, not just one. You’ll need to open up the back and really look: hmmm, that little wheel is doing this…. and this thing is connected to that…. and so on. Obviously, you can’t just look at one watch, and presto! – now , you’re a watchmaker. You have to look again and again, and be willing to have something new explained to you, shown to you. You will have to observe attentively, carefully, with alertness, with an open mind – not based on some foregone conclusion or prior supposition. You have to see what’s really going on. Learning how a watch works, isn’t much different from learning about power. You’re just familiarizing yourself with the inner workings, the mechanisms, of what makes things tick. Spiritual people benefit from learning about power (not just for their own sake personally, but also because, otherwise, we’re letting those who are most lost in the materialist mirage, pull all the strings, make the most significant collective decisions).
To learn about power requires learning (and mastering) the politics of power. All power between people, is power politics. And the right understanding of what ‘politics’ actually means (not the conventional definitions and associated ideas, which typically represent the very opposite of the real meaning) is the more metaphysical understanding: ‘politics’ just means ‘effective communication’, ‘right relating’. It doesn’t have to imply persuasion or coercion or trying to convince anyone of anything. It especially doesn’t automatically suggest controlling others and/or manipulating outcomes. Everything we do as human beings, is an expression of a sort of politics, and the use of a kind of power. And both the politics and the power of every human life, every human being, are just inherent – or in other words, simply going on, whether or not we recognize them for what they are. Further, both are directly and irrevocably related to our deepest and truest intentions and motives. Intentions always precede the effects of our actions, and in that sense: it’s more our intentions (not as much our actions themselves) that sow the seeds of our karma, and inevitably determine our destiny.
Certainly anyone can misuse power. But you should recognize that you already have power, that you’re frequently being offered power, and that this includes countless chances to use it for the good of all, and even in ways you may not yet recognize. And when you’re refusing power, you’re refusing your natural ability to be a force for good. You’re literally refusing to be more powerful. And if you learn about your inherent power, and the optimal ways to navigate the built-in politics of human relating – if you do all that objectively, successfully – you will see that power and politics are unavoidable and in no way intrinsically inimical to anything. If you continue, eventually, you may even find the biggest surprise available in that particular grab-bag: that power and politics are, in fact, entirely related to love! So from now on, at all levels, you can think of all forms and activities of politics, and you can relate to any and all forms and expressions of power, by asking yourself this elementary and undemanding question: does it favor love? – or does it favor unlove? (And if you insist on the entire explanation, here ya’ go: anything favoring unlove is sourced in ignorance, fear, or both.)
We all intrinsically have, and are routinely being offered, power in a variety of forms. And if, based on the conventional notions, you look (mistakenly) at power as something you don’t have and don’t want to have and don’t want to learn about, then without realizing it, you’re saying that you don’t want to learn how to get better at love. You’re unwittingly saying, ‘I don’t want to learn how to be more compassionate; I don’t want to learn how to be a bigger person’. Of course, that can’t be your real approach, so obviously, a misunderstanding would have to be afoot.
I know, because that’s what I used to say in my 20’s & 30’s: ‘I’m not interested in learning about power’. And of course, I wasn’t alone; this is quite common. And we alI see people every day, refusing power. And when we do, we’re seeing people who, without their knowing it, are in essence saying: ‘I don’t want to learn more about the inner workings, and the true mechanisms, of love in this world’ – which is what we’re saying when our idea is that ‘power is bad’ and therefore, we should resist or avoid opportunities to learn more about it.
Don’t refuse power. Don’t refuse to learn more about power, when the fortuity is offered. Don’t misunderstand politics. Don’t trivialize good intentions, or stubbornly refuse help. Don’t refuse money. And don’t refuse love. And if these are difficult for you to do (as they definitely were for me, and as some still are), at the very least, be willing to learn.