Now

Choice is something that happens in the now. So power exists only in the now.

In the instant the choice is made, you will know whether or not power has succeeded. You will know which power forces have been dominant. It is in the choice itself, that power comes to life.

It is in the now that power succeeds of fails.

The causes and conditions that lead to the now are limitless. You can not fathom the chain of events and all the subtlies that have created the moment you are in. There is no need to try.

The future and the past just illusions.

Control is an illusion. The only thing you control is what you do right now

And it is in this moment, this now, that you make a choice. Within the process of power, the now is the only thing that is real.

Somewhere in that process, some actor has decided to try to influence your choice in some way. And in doing so they have created a situation in which their ability gets applied to your need to try to stimulate in you feelings of control, influence or seduction.

These feelings motivate you to make a choice that will somehow assist the actor. Although those feelings can motivate by tapping into fear and excitement, and although you may feel pushed, pulled and pointed, the choice remains yours.

The moment of choice does not disappear. The choice itself does not disappear. And that choice is yours.

Power is planned for the future. It builds and rises and accelerates. It requires the future. The promise or threat of the future is what makes us willing to comply. But none of that is real yet. All that is real is the now. The moment of choice arrives. And in that moment power is felt. But it is not real. It is an illusion.

It is it's confinement to the now that makes power vulnerable.

If you can see the illusion of the promise or threat, if you can see the only truth in the present moment, if you can see the true power in the moment of choice, then power remains yours.


To control others is strength,
But to control yourself is true power.

LaoTzu
Tao Te Ching

Gen "Y" Not?

Why not?

Really, why not?

The sense of powerlessness comes from being controlled and dismissed for too long.

It is true that many of our western institutions and structures are so well established that to even question them gets a reaction of harsh criticism. But that does not mean that we shouldn't question them.

You have been raised in a rich protected time. You have been given so much that you feel satiated. But in this process you have been controlled and you feel like there is no point in trying anything new. There is no value in stepping out of the box.

Everything I could want is in the box - why would I leave?

Because there is one thing that is missing - happiness.

You are not happy or you would not be running to IM's, PS2's, movies, music, sex, porn, drugs and drinks.

You think you are controlled and that any claim to change is pointless.

That is power. And the absolute truth of power is simple;

Control is an Illusion. The only thing you control is how you respond to the circumstance which is before you.

So respond.

You think that you can't make a difference so you walk away and get drunk. You go play a game. You go find someone you love and hide away having sex.

That is not responding. That is hiding. That is not living. You were born to live. Just like everyone before you. And everyone that will follow you.

Wake up! Control is an illusion.

So is your fear.

A smart man once encouraged the questioning of all things.

Not a politician. Not a rebel. Not a trouble maker. A spiritual teacher.

"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it...Or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings--that's good doctrine. Believe it and cling to it, and take it as your guide." Siddhartha Gotama Buddha



The control you feel is an illusion.

There is more to be had.

You have power.

Accept it.

Deal with it.

Gen "Y"... Bother?

Check out the link in the name of the post..


You asked...?

"Y" did you ask...?

Because deep within you there is hope and desire and you need to release it.

So here is my answer.

Y

I am Disengaged.

I want to be unique and understood.

Existing labels and world directions don't fit me. Our lives are defined for us and we wonder what we can do about it. We wonder- why try to do anything about?

Xbox and movies look so good. Better than my life. Unless, of course, I drop a little ecstacy...

Let Me Be Numb - I don't like to think about this crap.

Things in this world are bigger, better, hotter, faster, tastier, sexier and still not really enough to make me happy or motivate me to do anything about it.

Sound familiar.

AIDS, Terrorism, World Wide War, Globalization, New World Order

All things are in motion - corporations, governments, people with power - and there is nothing to be done about them. If there is something to be done about them, it needs to be done by someone else - maybe government. Maybe parents. Maybe God.

But what the hell can I do?

I am only one person... and me and my friends don't even talk about this stuff.

We talk all the time though. We have cell phones and four kinds of IM and text messages. We see each other in the morning by 8 and we stay in touch till we crash at midnight. Then get up and do it all again. We talk all the time about the same things over and over. Never about change, cause things don't change - do they? They have always been this way.

All that history shit is behind us. It's just history.

There are too many people who have control.

We are told to let other people worry about it. We are told to go to school - sports - dance clubs - whatever...as long as we stay out of the way. When we do stay out of the way, we get stuff - lots of stuff - tons of stuff - so much stuff I have no idea what I have...anyway - I have what I want and I hope nothing really horrible comes down. I couldn't handle it.

Really dude, why bother?

Because the world is no less yours than anyone elses and everybody up to this point has fucked it up good. It's your turn. :)

Difference is - you are probably smarter and have more resources than anyone before you. You could probably fix it if you really wanted to.

But you have forgotten that.

You have forgotten that you have as much power as anyone ever had. More really. But you don't see it.

But here it is.

Here is your course on having power.

Hope you do it better than those before you.

"Y" Bother?

Cause it's yours now - and you can't make it any worse can you?

True Love

Click the title of this blog for quotes on true love...

How does power help us find true love?

It doesn't. In fact it leads us away from it.

I can't tell you what true love is.

I believe I have had it. Lived it. Revelled in it. Been crushed by it.

I think I would know it if I saw it.

True love isn't perfect or always pleasant... but it is true.

But to answer the question I don't think I need to be able to describe the mechanics of love. I don't even think that is possible. Love - true love - is that which is beyond this life - this physical experience. True love is that which permiates all beautiful, joyful things. It is ever present and available to come into our lives.

However this life is something that must be accepted and lived. It is to be learned and overcome. Available in this life is an abundance of love.

Also within this life there is an abundance of power relationships.

I do know power.

I know the source of all power is need.

I know we all need love. We seek it. We yearn for it. We fight to get it. We cling to it. We pine for it when it leaves. We require it. We desire it. And we are attached to it.

I know that the promise of true love - deep unlimited and unconditional love - love of the soul - love that goes beyond the here and now of this life - love that brings the ecstacy of the beyond - love that is the purest of connections - that love, is probably the greatest mechanism of power there is.

There is really nothing we want more than that kind of love.

The promise of that love will control, influence and seduce us like nothing else.

And we know it will have the same effect on others.

Power is the exploitation of another person's need to gain some advantage.

True love will take joy in the happiness of all people. Not just the happiness of the actor.

To use power to find true love, to use power to motivate others to help us find it or to give it to us, is like using a pin to find a balloon.

You know you found it when you have destroyed it.

Power destroys trust.

We would trust nothing more than true love. We trust no one more than those who truly love us.

Unfortunately, we seek true love without the ability to describe it unless we are looking at it. And we use power everyday, even in our most loving relationships.

I am sure we have all used power to pop the balloon of true love a few times without meaning to. And we have suffered the pain which follows.

I can offer two things I've learned.

First - sometimes we use power when we don't want to. This is just a bad habit that is hard to break. We need to be gentle and forgiving with others and ourselves. And just because someone used power on you doesn't mean they don't love you. It sounds paradoxical, but in that same use of power on you, they used it on themselves. They hurt themselves as much as they hurt you. That is hard to forgive.

Second - you can never have love if you chose to use power. True love requires true power.

True power is the complete self-control of your own needs so as to depower all others. It is the ability to see through the illusion of your needs and rise above. No one will have power over you because you do not have any need that you do not understand and have the ability to control. Because of this ability, not only will you never be a subject of power, but you will never act like an actor.

True power is the ability to be free of all power.

True love is not about needing someone. True love is to take joy in someone. Joy that sees and accepts and loves the weakness, flaws and failures of that other. It sees the beauty of the flaws and failures. It sees the struggle and the quest and the inability to attain perfection as the best reason to love perfectly. It holds the realization that loving them is never a cost to us. It is always a fulfillment. It is always good to love - even when it hurts.

True love and true power require the purest of compassion.

Then no matter what happens, no matter what we get, no matter how they love us back, all is joy.

Ya, easily said...

It's an incredible, intimidating, heart-breaking quest...

Compelling and fleeting...

But what else are we here for?

Are you there?

Consider it my need.

Consider it your power over me.

If you are reading this, please do two things.

First, post a short comment. Let me know you are there.

Second, if you see something here that is worth thinking about, share it with someone. Send this link to a friend that may benefit from thinking about power.

Cheers

People Need People

The Source of Power is Need.

Overcome Need, and you overcome Power.

Living this however, is not so simple.

Sometimes we just need others.

A kind word. A loving embrace. Someone standing behind us just in case....

No one wants to be alone all the time.

No one can do everything for themselves.

No one can satisfy all of their needs by themselves.

It is good to control your needs. To be clear about what you really need.

Understanding that which is a requirement or a desire. Seeing how we are attached to people and ideas. Recognizing how how our attachments hurt us and create the suffering we live. This is a good start to overcoming power. It is how we will get power out of our relationships. It is how we find true love and compassion. It is how we live in peace.

However...

Needing others is real and necessary.

Yet it is not the needing that is wrong. It is the way we need. The way we insist on our needs. The way we are attached to our attachments.

Overcoming power is overcoming need. But that does not mean living as an insensitive hermit.

One can still hold a need and have overcome it.

People need people.

It is being too attached to just one or two that leads to pain.

People are wonderful.

Nothing comes to us except through other people.

But there are a good six billion out there to chose from.

Go crazy...

Fear and Terrorism

So on the day I decide to discuss fear, we have a terrorist attack in London.

Here is a power based analysis of Terrorism.

Terrorism is all about power.

Terror. Fear of a possible random imposition of pain or death resulting from an act of violence by a perceived enemy.

Terror can be used as a type of power interaction to affect the choices made by others.

Usually it is targeted at rulers or those with the ability to make decisions which affect the terror user. Therefore they can include heads of corporations.

Remember – power is personal. It is not abstract. It is about people by people.

However like any power dynamic, the power comes from the emotional response to a help or hinder ability on the part of the actor against the need of the subject. That help or hinder ability does not have to be actual and executed. It is sufficient if it is applied in degrees or not at all. It can be no more than a believable threat or promise.

And the help or hinder effect does not have to be direct to the subject. It may be applied to someone the subject is attached to or is competing with.

Therefore, terror can generate feelings of control, influence or seduction when it is nothing more than a credible threat to hurt the basic requirement of life in someone the subject cares about.

And we can care about those we do not know.

A politician has as great an obligation to care for those they do not know as they do to those they do know. Heads of corporations can care about many people whether or not they are shareholders or customers.

Along with the feelings of power, - control, influence and seduction, - there will be feelings of anger as well as feelings of fear. Fear is created when the power dynamic is anticipated.

Fear is a strong motivator. It focuses on Requirements. Those are the Needs which are about human survival and avoidance of pain. These are Needs we are compelled to satisfy without thought or intention. Our instincts and reflexes will typically be sufficient.

Hence we can understand why our immediate reaction to terrorism is with fear, violence and usually some small amount of compromise.

Terrorist. One who has the ability and willingness to impose a random act of violence resulting in pain or death of a targeted enemy. Typically we see them as the Actor in the power dynamic. They are ones who have decided to use power to get what they are looking for.

The BiPolar Nature of the power dynamic tells us that they are using power because they want something from the Subject. They want to have some control, influence or seduction over something the Subject may do, say or think. That is their need. That is their motivation to use power.

So we see terrorism as an act by an actor against the needs of us, the subjects, to get us to choose to do something differently and ultimately in their benefit.

Our need to be free of random acts of violence, our need for survival, our need for avoidance of pain, is the source of the power the terrorist has over us.

That something that they want from us – the reason they are using power – is our source of power over them. Their need is our source of power.

So what do they want and how can we use it?

Unfortunately we do not conduct this analysis. We stop thinking at the imposition of their violent act and respond with violence of our own. Thus we actually lose the opportunity to have power over them. We rely on their need for survival and avoidance of pain – direct or indirect – as means of creating power. Unfortunately, they are willing to lose their lives. They are willing to sacrifice for their real goal. They willingly suffer pain to get what they really want.

So what do they want?

A more important question is why don’t we spend time answering this question rather than responding with meaningless and ineffective violence of our own?

Our responsive violence is not working. In fact it obviously only makes it worse.


Terrorist Act. The imposition of random violence intended to create fear. Usually motivated by political, moral, cultural or financial goals on the part of the Actor.

The Bipolar nature of the power dynamic tells us that they want something. What is it that they want? They are motivated by moral, cultural, political and financial needs.

Of course those who are on the other side of this power dynamic see it differently. They don’t see themselves as the Actors. They see themselves as the Subjects. They are subjects responding to the power imposed upon them.

They say that foreign governments wanted to control their geography for military reasons. Foreign governments wanted to have free access to their resources at less than fair market value. They say that foreigners wanted to sell their goods in our markets without concern or care for our culture and heritage.

They say as a result of these wants of foreign governments and the willing greed of a few in their home land they have been subject to cultural decay, wars, revolutions, coups, immorality and non-democratic governments bought and installed by foreign powers.

They want this to end. They will use power if it is necessary.

Power is bipolar. Power is about needs and abilities and choices and feelings.

Terror doesn't just happen. It comes out of an already existing power dynamic.

When we start listening and respecting, the terror will end.

Isn't that obvious?

Fear, Time and Power

I want to thank Russell, Gunther and Lex for their feedback and questions. This post is generated by their thoughts.

Time is like a funnel. All things must pass through it. The opening is small and there are no other paths. If you want it to go faster it cannot. If you want it to go slower it cannot. No matter how much there is to go through, only so much can pass through at a time. When it is your turn to pass though, you have no option but to go as all the matter above you is pressing its way through. The future pushes the present into the past.

Time makes our typical experience of life linear. It is the thread that is followed. It restricts and limits the flow of our lives into a continuous stream of moments of Now.

Time is the context in which we experience needs.

Needs always exist. They rise and fall in their presence or priority in our mind, but they never go away. When one is fulfilled another follows in its place. We are constantly grasping and clinging and seeking and searching.

We experience our needs within the flow of time. Time forces us to prioritize our needs. We must answer the question – Which need is most important right now? Time not only forces us to, but facilitates our ability to, place our needs in an order or sequence of satisfaction. Living within the realm of time has taught us that. So much of our life is spent in the juggling of needs. The rest is spent in the addressing of needs.

Power uses needs.

Power is the exploitation of ones’ needs to motivate a favorable response. An actor uses the needs of a subject to get what they want. But the mere existence of needs is not enough to create power. There must be an ability on the part of the actor to help or hinder that need. This is a mechanism of power. The Actor uses a mechanism of power against a need to create an emotional state in the subject that requires resolution within that moment. That resolution the actor seeks is a response favorable to them. Power is created when a subject is forced to chose according to the wishes of the actor.

Power uses emotion.

The feelings of power are control, influence and seduction. The Push, the Point and the Pull. This is our experience when we are subject to power dynamics of others. These are the feeling we wish to generate when we use power ourselves.

These feelings of power are always accompanied by the feelings of motivation. Usually we will feel fear or anger or excitement when we are within a power dynamic. Often we will feel all three or a combination of two.

Anger is that feeling of encroachment. We are wanting something we cannot have. Someone is taking away our ability to chose what we want. Be it a desire, a requirement or an attachment, when we are subject to another’s ability to help or hinder the satisfaction of that need, we are usually angry. And usually it shows. It is a residual emotion because it is linked to one of the feelings of power. We are angry because we are being controlled or influenced or even seduced, into making choices we would not otherwise make.

Anger is the encroachment of the self by the will and ability of another.

It is a dangerous emotion and only useful if we use it as a marker of power dynamics. It is the sign that tells us power is happening.

Fear is the first of the anticipation feelings of power. The other is excitement. Fear is negative anticipation; excitement is positive anticipation. Fear usually creates feelings of control. Excitement usually creates feelings of seduction.

In that emotional state of fear, we can see the imminent failure of our wants and needs and we must react to keep it from happening. We expect that the actor will have the ability to hinder our needs, or help others attain their needs at a cost to us. We are afraid that our requirements of survival or avoidance of pain are at risk. We fear that our desires cannot be met, or will be restricted in their success by another person who is using their ability to impact that desire. We are concerned, in varying degrees, about those things, people and ideas to which we are attached. Fear is the awareness that our needs will be somehow compromised or hurt by the ability of the actor, so we prepare ourselves to be subjected to those feelings of control, influence and seduction.

Fear gets us ready to respond to power.

Fear is the anticipation of the encroachment of the self by the will and ability of another.

Excitement is the enjoyable feeling of anticipated power. It is the anticipation of getting something we require or desire or are attached to. It is the sense of impending satisfaction and pleasure. It is the awareness of coming closer to our dreams and wishes. It is the arousal of appetite and desire. It is the imminent satisfaction of the self. It is the knowledge that the actor has the ability to help us. It is the knowledge that the actor is about to satisfy our need.

However it is a conditional satisfaction. There will be a price. Excitement often overcomes the any sense of cost. That is exactly why excitement is motivating. Excitement overwhelms our rational self with its own desires.

Excitement is the anticipation of the fulfillment of the self by the will and ability of another.



Power uses time.

Anger, fear and excitement are the emotions of power which are triggered by time structures of our life

These are the emotions that when coupled with the limiting and demanding effects of time, force a response.

All we experience is a single moment at a time – the Now. In each of those moments are choices to make. The choices are being demanded by the circumstances and the events of those circumstances. A powerful person will respond to those circumstances by applying a mechanism against a need you are experiencing in that moment. Sometimes the need is already there and present in that circumstance. Sometimes that need is not part of the circumstance but is brought forward by the words or actions of the Actor. Whether the need is present or brought forward, the application of the mechanism to the need generates emotions in you. Usually it is a feeling of Control, Influence or Seduction and that feeling of power is accompanied by a feeling of motivation. Maybe fear, maybe anger or maybe excitement.

These feelings are pushed through the funnel of time by time. They must go through and they must be addressed.

Power is a recipe of Need, Ability, Time and Emotion. All brought together as a technique to satisfy the needs of the actor.

Power comes from the exploitation of need by an ability within a moment of time creating an emotion that motivates a choice.

And it is all an illusion.

Control is an illusion.

Fear is an illusion

Excitement is an illusion.

Anger is an erosion of the soul based on an illusion.

It is all illusion.

Choice never goes away.

Time will see to that.

For we only live a moment at a time. No one can really take away the moment. No one can really take away the choice.

Power is a very effective illusion. It only exists in the emotion of the moment.

Remember that fear, excitement and anger are emotions resulting from stimuli. They are feelings. And like all of power they are not real. All of this is amplified and stirred by the flow of time. Less time results in more power. More time results in less power. The more the time allowed the more likely we will find another option or overcome the pressing nature of the need. With time we can recognize power and address it.

That is why the method requires a pause, a step back, a detachment from the immediate and an analysis of the dynamic.

Conquer the emotion so that you can conquer the need. In that act of will and self control, free choice is revived and power is defeated.