Hey Gunther

A long time ago Gunther asked about compassion.

I didn't answer him. I have been away. But on a Sunday morning and afternoon many thoughts came together and I offer this not as an answer so much as just a thought.

Gunther asked,

Is compassion really the opposite of power? Can't it be used for power? Compassion is a powerful thing that we can use as a mechanism to influence people. Then is compassion really the opposite of power?

There are those who are powerful because they use what others need to effect their choices.

There are those who appear powerful because they are what others want to be. They give of themselves in a way that creates admiration and a desire to emulate and therefore motivate behavior in a positive way. The difference is intention.

Can using compassion be a mechanism?–A means toward having power. Yes. But it is a question of intention and application not one of automatic power and choice manipulation. If someone needs compassion we can use it as a means of producing power.

Or we can just give it without a demand for a choice that serves us. If we offer compassion without any desire attached to it – it is simply compassion. If we offer affection, understanding and comfort only because we know we can use it to get what we desire – then the intention is not compassion. It is power. Compassion and power are intentions as much as they are phenomena. They are not just the result - they are the purpose. They are not just manifestations they are intentions.

Does that mean power has to be intentional to be power? No. But intending a result isn't always intending power. And if the result is not a compassionate thing, then it must be insome form Power. If the intended result may not be power but if it isn't based in a love of all for the good of ALL then it is power and needs were used to attain a result.

Power.

We use power to build up the self. It is the belief that we are unique and separate individuals who are in competition with all the other individuals in the quest to fulfill our desires. It is the belief that our life purpose is to fulfill desires and all others in the world are here to assist in that pursuit. Others are nothing more than tools for our use.

In truth we are all manifestations or expressions of the great consciousness that flows within and is the essence of all. We are all one. We are all expressions of life that are interconnected and interdependent and are ALL on the path back to that great source.

We are all walking the path. Everyone’s success in that journey is everyone else’s. We, as one great wave of life, are here - free to play within this world of expression.

But we are mislead by the distinctions between things. Those distinctions are creations of the mind and illusions. The distinctions between us are not real. We are al the same and all connected.

Each of us is so reliant on all the others. Each must – and does - support and provide for all the others. It is so obvious we miss it. Where does the matter that makes up our being come from? It comes from the rest of the earth and the living things within it. Soil, rain, worms, sun, animals, other humans. Fire, earth, water, air, chi. The cycle of water. The cycle of matter. The cycle of life. Flowing from one entity into the next. Changing from one form into another.

It is as obvious as our birth. One human being comes out of another. We are all connected and cannot exist without each other. Yet we are convinced that we are in competition and racing for the chance to control each other so we might have what we want.

There is nothing on the earth we can’t have. Each of us can have everything. This is a world of plenty and we are beasts of great ability and talent. Yet we are fixated not on what we want, but on what others want. Our success is not measured in having everything we want but in having more than others have.

We do not want to be great. We want to be better.

We don't want to be happy. We want to be happier.

We are fixated on the others. We want to control them and defeat them and to ultimately have so much more than they do.

This human desire to control others and be better than others is what has fascinated me for decades now. That is why I am so obsessed with power.

I don’t want to control others. My God, what kind of responsibility would that entail? I am afraid of even influencing others with my writing. What if I am wrong? What if all I do is show people how to go around and control each other? That's not why I am writing this stuff.

That’s why I am afraid of publishing these ideas. I am afraid of the responsibility attached to influencing people.

I simply want to help us all release from this painful pursuit of this false sense of self.

I am so completely shocked at people's need to to control other people.

That has been my focus. That is why I want to understand power and explain it. That is why I want all of us to be able to see through it and over come it. That is why I want to explain it so all could have it. Once we are all as power as each other, then there is nothing left but an acceptance that we must all survive or we must all die.

I don't want people to use compassion because it is powerful. I just want them to stop wanting to control others.

All that is left is compassion.

Yes little brother, compassion - like anything that some wants or needs - can be used as a mechanism of power. Anything can be a mechanism of power. It is all a question of intention.