A moment or two now to release into a different state of mind and body.
A sigh or two now to release some tension in the neck or shoulders.
A breath or two now to begin to come home to yourself.
A thought or two now for yourself and for the gift you are receiving,
A gift from yourself.
Welcome to this place of power.
We exist within a web of power relationships.
Sometimes we hold power and sometimes we do not.
Political power,
Economic power,
The strong and weak forces,
Electromagnetism and gravity.
All the other powers or forces beyond our control knock us to and fro like pinballs in an arcade game.
For now let those forces you have no control over run like water down a drain.
And instead let us find and explore more subtle forms of power.
Our own powers,
Super,
Or we might begin with an invocation.
I am awake to the power of life,
The dynamic power of breath is renewing me moment by moment.
Our amazing bodies are constantly being renewed by the power of our breath.
Though we age and occasionally break,
Our bodies provide us with the means to exercise perhaps the only real power in the universe,
The power to create.
We hold within us the power to participate in the ongoing creation of the cosmos.
Each of our exhales provides the fuel necessary for the creation of all life.
Each feeds the cycle in which plants absorb energy from the sun,
And through their respiration and their lives create every other living thing in this world.
You have the power to create the experience you need right now.
It might not be the experience you think you want,
But it can be the experience you need.
Surrender to your wisdom and your power.
Use your power of creation to find what you need in this moment.
Revel in your power.
If you find yourself placing blame on the external world for distracting you,
You are needlessly giving away your power.
Take it back.
Start with an inhale and go from there.
Your power of creation is here without you even having to ask.
I am awake to the power of life,
The dynamic power of breath is renewing me moment by moment.
You might choose to find and to exercise the power of your intention,
The power of your attention,
The power of your speech,
The power of your thoughts,
The power of your presence.
Once you realize the power of your tongue,
You won't say just anything.
When you realize the power of your thoughts,
You won't entertain just anything.
Once you realize the power of your presence,
You won't be just anywhere.
Realize your power.
There is great power in knowing and being aware,
But there is also great power in not knowing,
Not knowing what is next,
Not knowing what to decide,
Not knowing how you will make it to where you want and need to be.
Every given moment contains within it doorways of opportunity,
And when you exercise your power to walk through one,
You make realities available to you that were once invisible.
When you do not know what is next,
You enter the realm of infinite potential and infinite creative power.
This is Sutra 44 from the Radiance Sutras.
Rivers of power flowing everywhere,
Fields of magnetism relating everything,
This is your origin,
This is your lineage.
The current of creation is right here,
Coursing through subtle channels animating this very form.
Follow the gentle touch of life,
Soft as the footprint of an ant,
As tiny sensations open to vastness.
Power sings as it flows,
Electrifies the organs of sensing,
Becomes liquid light,
Nourishes your entire being.
Celebrate the boundary where streams meet the sea,
Where body meets infinity.
Rivers of power flowing everywhere,
This is your origin,
This is your lineage.
The current of creation is right here,
Coursing through subtle channels animating this very form.
Power sings as it flows,
Nourishes your entire being.
Celebrate the boundary where streams join the sea,
Where body meets infinity.
There is power in wonder and awe,
In opening yourself to listening to other's stories,
In telling your own stories,
In finding the time and space to practice what you need to practice,
In being active and also finding the space to exercise the power in being passive.
The exercise of power is also an exercise in patience.
Moments come and go and are sometimes right for a creative power and sometimes not.
Power is tied to time.
Some things are powerful across short periods of time.
They burn brightly and then burn out,
Fire and passion.
Others are powerful across long periods of time,
Like the power of wind and water to shape rock and to create the landscape around us,
Like the power of love.
With power comes obligation and the need to take care and exercise restraint.
Accepting the consequences of the exercise of power has been a theme in our stories and speech for as long as we have records of it.
Damocles understands this when he takes the throne of Dionysus and finds himself sitting under a sword held in place by a single horsehair.
He understands that the exercise of power can be precarious.
In the Christian Bible,
Luke 12,
48 recounts Jesus' saying,
For unto whomsoever much is given,
Of them shall be much required.
And to whom we have committed much,
Of them we will ask the more.
In a Hadith attributed to Ibn Umar,
The Prophet Muhammad,
The text says that all of you are shepherds and each of you must care for their flock.
And there is the ending of the comic book Amazing Fantasy,
Volume 15 from 1962,
The comic that introduced the character of Spider-Man.
The epilogue in the last panel states that with great power comes great responsibility.
We should,
Perhaps,
Always bear a measure of fear when we exercise our power,
A fear for how that exercise might impact the people around us and the entire biosphere in which we live.
We cannot allow ourselves to be held immobile by that fear,
But it must always be with us.
Rivers of power flowing everywhere,
This is your origin,
This is your lineage.
The current of creation is right here,
Coursing through subtle channels,
Animating this very form,
Where body meets infinity.
I invite you to move towards the end of our meditation with the invocation with which we began.
I am awake to the power of life.
The dynamic power of breath is renewing me moment by moment.
I am awake to the power of life.
The dynamic power of breath is renewing me moment by moment.
