“There’s something just as inevitable as death. And thats life. Think of the power of the universe… turning the Earth, growing trees. That’s the same power within you… if you’ll only have the courage and the will to use it.” Charlie Chaplin
money gives the illusion of power, but choice reflects the true essence of power. the greatest power of all is willpower. what’s interesting to me is that it’s not the kind of thing where you either have it or you don’t. your soul, your consciousness IS willpower. your spirit IS willpower because you are a product of creation and further still, a creator as well. the soul spark inside you is the will of all creation and behind it all is the greatest power in existence.
you are not a mere weakling. you are not a mere anything! if you choose to open yourself up, you will see that you are undeniably a great and powerful being. just “being” alone, with intention, uses and exudes extraordinary amounts of energy. wielding energy takes power and great will, letting your energy be wielded by outside forces weakens you by means of you not wielding it yourself.
— are you here reading this on purpose, or did you just happen upon it?
— did you stay up late dickin around last night, or did you get the sleep you need to feel good today?
— did you plan ahead to know what you would eat so that you aren’t forced to pick something up in a pinch?
— did you land here because you were brought here or by your own free will?
consider weakness to be a willful choice not to use power. if you’re tired and weak and can’t hold yourself up, is it because you used great amounts of energy by your own willpower and need to recover or because you’re taking it easy, exhibiting lack of willpower, so that hard things become harder as you become weaker?
have you allowed a situation to bind you so that it feels your freewill is restricted? remember it was your willpower that made the choice to allow it to begin with.
were you dealt a shitty hand in life so that it feels, despite your will, that you inevitably fall victim to your circumstances no matter what? everything you think, say and do is an opportunity to use your power to make shift happen—shift your perspective and you inevitably shift your circumstances. it’s not a quick and easy thing, it’s a life-long affair dancing with fear and love. the stronger your will, the more powerful your love.
an interesting dichotomy that exists for humans is that you’re meant to simultaneously figure shit out alone while you realize that you are not separate from anyone or anything else. you are tragically in charge of this complex human life but you are beautifully equipped with grace, intelligence and virtue provided to you by your soul. you just have to use your willpower to be what you are, choose what you do and live with what turns out.
but the truth is “just using your willpower” has become very very difficult. say we are each like lotus flowers born buried beneath the mud underneath tons of water. the world we live in, the society and what not, is like the mud. it’s thick, and dark, and very very difficult to push through. and not only mud but there are roots and other vegetation on top of you and there is no clear path to freedom. there are schedules, and norms, and money, and grocery stores, and socially acceptable rules, and trends, and money, and stories, and shame, and conveniences, and expectations, and money and a bunch of shit in your way to finding a path to freedom, to the light, to heaven.
i’ve made a choice to believe that heaven and hell are on earth, not separate from it. they are earthly words and as far as i’ve witnessed, they both exist right here on the ground. BUT, what’s crazy is, they exist in our own minds as well. i believe when you die, and become free from your mind, you are also free from this human heaven and hell.
back to the lotus. a lotus doesn’t have a human mind. it has nature’s instinct to push upward, to grow, and pull from all that is within and around it to thrive, and to then die naturally without a fight. having a human mind IS the challenge that gets in our way as we reach to the surface. your human mind looks at the obstacle in front of itself and then chooses how to proceed. the lotus proceeds without any sight at all. the mind can think and ponder a way to navigate the mud and the roots and all the things in the way and come up with a plan of how to get through this mess. but the mind feels and learns pain along the way, realizing that pushing forward is painful. and with the great willpower behind all that the mind is capable of, it’s easier to choose to be comfortable. if you don’t push forward, you don’t have to get stuck, you don’t have to get tangled in the world’s web, you can just lay low, living in the mud you were born into, never exhausting yourself with the fight for freedom, for light, for heaven.
but … within you is that soul spark that originates from the conscious will of creation. it is the will of all living beings to grow and thrive and reach the highest possibility of existence. that spark is what pushes the lotus flower through the journey up to the surface to bloom. no matter how comfortable you become with complacency and living in the mud as well as being trapped in the webs of the world, the conscious will of creation is within you burning. if you so choose, your mind, body and being are available to become conduits for the conscious will of creation to flow through you. also though, if you so choose, you can allow your mind to get stuck, tangled in the webs and mud unable to feel deeply, unable to see clearly, unable to bloom. you can choose to close yourself off from the fire of your will, you can choose to let the world smother your flame and all but put it out.
even if you’ve allowed your willpower to be consumed by the world around you, know that there is never a time when you cannot begin again to open yourself up to that power within you. the simplest way to begin again is to use your god-given power to think, speak and act with intention.
choose with intention
… the words you read
… how much time you need to sleep
… what you put in your mouth
… your aim, right this second
have the courage and the will to live on purpose. respond to the tragedy of life with grace. remember that ultimately, you and earth and all of the earthly beings are not separate. your shit is their shit. “inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit” is a good saying cuz our minds are full of bullshit but “inhale the bullshit, exhale the good shit” makes better sense here. take in all of it, the good and the bad. process it, transmute the bad within yourself to something honest and true viewed through a lens of love. then, do everything in your power to push all that good in you out into the world.
use the power you’ve been given to go on a fantastic ride and listen to soulful music along the way to keep that fire raging inside you.