03-10-2010, 12:00 AM
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Very nice, NLW!
I'll take a stab at it...
What we refer to as "power" is simply our attentive capacity, or our ability to be in awareness of our world of experience at any one moment. The more all-encompassing our awareness, the more it can include in terms of our world of experience, the more power. Attention - power: same thing.
Power is very important. All tools that aid in accessing awake mind are energized through power, or attention. Power is not a "thing" or an energy even. It is simply our ability to be in awareness at any time.
To say "personal power" implies that there may be something like a "person" who can have some "power." But there is no such thing, as such. There is awareness, and there is the power implicit in that awareness, but there is no single entity (such as an "I") that wields that power.
If you see what I am saying here, then you see that it's pretty radical. This should actually make no sense at all to a person that has not looked very closely at what is going on in any single moment of experience (i.e. done a lot of sitting meditation or recapping).
"What do you mean there is no 'I'? I'm right here right now and I know it!"
At this point I can only say, "Please show me who is here right now." And of course, when we 'look', we find nothing, though it takes a lifetime of 'seeing' to even begin to be convinced that there is really 'no-thing' here to be called an "I".
My two cents worth
Kris
Very nice, NLW!
I'll take a stab at it...
What we refer to as "power" is simply our attentive capacity, or our ability to be in awareness of our world of experience at any one moment. The more all-encompassing our awareness, the more it can include in terms of our world of experience, the more power. Attention - power: same thing.
Power is very important. All tools that aid in accessing awake mind are energized through power, or attention. Power is not a "thing" or an energy even. It is simply our ability to be in awareness at any time.
To say "personal power" implies that there may be something like a "person" who can have some "power." But there is no such thing, as such. There is awareness, and there is the power implicit in that awareness, but there is no single entity (such as an "I") that wields that power.
If you see what I am saying here, then you see that it's pretty radical. This should actually make no sense at all to a person that has not looked very closely at what is going on in any single moment of experience (i.e. done a lot of sitting meditation or recapping).
"What do you mean there is no 'I'? I'm right here right now and I know it!"
At this point I can only say, "Please show me who is here right now." And of course, when we 'look', we find nothing, though it takes a lifetime of 'seeing' to even begin to be convinced that there is really 'no-thing' here to be called an "I".
My two cents worth
Kris