DonInChelsea


May 10th 2006

copyright© don oddy

~ stairway to heaven ~

“Real power and authority are not power and authority over others, but over the self.”

As we are growing we learn about power from our family and society. We learn what it is to have power over us as we are kept safe. We accept authority over us and power because this is what we learn. We are given good and bad life experiences with power. And there is something inside us, which determines just how we will develop our power behaviour, in our nature and enables how we use power by our nurture. Is power a bad thing or a good thing? I guess we can always ask the question when we feel we need to. But our learning is so subtle, through life we often don’t question power too closely, unless it is an issue we cannot resolve. We assume often that others can have power over our lives, because that is just the way it is. We assume we are powerful to an extent, because we believe we are. Our powerful relationships with this world require complex understandings and permissions we learn as we grow. Sometimes we are hoodwinked and schooled to accept our power and the power of others over many of our life experiences. We forget to challenge for fear of what might happen. We live in times where there is much abuse of power and authority, and it is not always because society is bad, it is because we have become accepting of norms in our lives. And we need rethink our power relationships. Most obvious is power between men and women. There is no reason in this world that either sex has more power than the other, especially when it comes to human rights and equality. Nothing but prejudice can make any distinction. And similarly between the power relations between any groups in society. Power and control can shift to those who need to have it in various roles they may have, that does not mean they have power over all aspects of life or that power can be kept beyond the activity or situation. Humans though are reluctant to let go things which make them feel strong and confident. And sadly ego can make anyone susceptible to awful abuse of power. Our history is littered with tragedy and power. We need be careful we recognise our own power. We have the power to feel and think and develop our living. We have the power to take more power for our own lives and then extend it, most often mistakenly to have power over others. When we realise our mistakes in these matters we live free with great power, when we make dominion and assume power we lose our freedom and enslave ourselves as surely as we enslave others. We are lost to time. For the time it takes for our folly and duty to wear down and make foolish our self imprisonment to old notions and duty bound constraints. Our lives are free when we develop our interdependent powerful selves, where we understand duality and acceptance of our world. Never mistake the intent with the pragmatic, for those who would hold freedom to ransom will perish with ego’s touch resting on their shoulder and a cold heart of justification. Being held to account by oneself is far more a transition than by some myth of judgment beyond this mortal interlude. We take our place in the universe as we move on, and we never skip a step on the road to enlightenment, how else would we move on? We can’t buy our stairway to heaven…

~
Copyright © Don Oddy



don's daily


principles