What's the first thing we see when we hear news that runs counter to what we want? The evidence suggests we don't really "see" anything at all; instead, our attention is seized, absorbed by a familiar negative reaction whose only wish is that the unwanted moment just go away. This resistance acts within and upon our consciousness as a "blinding" and binding force, so all we can "see" is our own negativity over what we wish wasn't happening! In moments like these we are literally looking at what we don't want to be there. Let's clarify this fascinating idea with some common examples.
- Whenever someone hurts us with a pointed remark, what we see isn't whether or not there's truth in their words; all we see is our wish they hadn't said anything at all!
- When expectations get dashed, we don't see new possibilities unfolding; all we see is the way things should have gone.
- We don't see what is with all of its positive possibilities; instead we see only the negative... what is not.
What these discoveries reveal is as startling as it is promising: the only reason we feel powerless is because we have become the captive of a mind resisting itself, an involuntary prisoner of a mind struggling to escape its own negative images. And there is nothing but powerlessness in this resistance because by law whatever we resist... persists!
We must validate for ourselves this next insight if we wish to know the freedom it foretells: whenever we find ourselves feeling like a powerless captive of some condition, it's because we grabbed onto the false power of worry, fear, anger, self-loathing, self-pity, to lend us strength. You name it: all negative states are a waste that waste our lives whenever we embrace their empty promise of empowerment.
What is real power? Here's a whole new definition for it: Real power is knowing we already possess everything we need to succeed in the moment, as we would wish it.
Real power lifts us above challenging circumstances; it shelters us from those fears that want to drag us down into troubled thoughts about tomorrow. In a word, real power is the quiet but certain understanding that everything that comes to us works for the good of us, no matter what it is. The one who realizes that the only power negative states have is to create the illusion of self-command enters into relationship with another kind of power altogether. And this new awareness, like the power it grants, is failsafe.
How do we enter into relationship with such pure power?
We can practice this true, new power anytime we wish to have its strength and safety as our own. We start each time by remembering that ours is the power to choose what we will and will not give our power to. The following examples reveal this new and higher possibility:
- Rather than live with the pain of a thousand regrets, we can realize that no number of visits to a painful past can change it. The light of this new awareness empowers us to start over.
- Rather than look to anxious thoughts to help us through some fearful situation, we can see that anxiety serves fear -- so how can it free us from it? The light of this new awareness empowers us to let go of both these imposters.
- Rather than defend our mistakes by finding excuses for them, we can understand that our refusal to learn the lesson at hand ensures we will meet that lesson again, along with its misery. The light of this new awareness empowers us to accept what life would teach us, and the truth sets us free.
Can we see the difference in these three life cases? On one hand, negative states want to convince us we are powerless in the face of what frustrates us. But we have seen the truth: this false perception is actually produced by a dark state that would have us turn to it for the power we need to make things right. And so now we can do something radically new: rather than give ourselves over to the habitual reaction of resisting the moment, we remember the truth that sets us free; ours is the power to live from the power of our choosing. Said slightly differently, but equally true: we are created with the power to surrender our sense of powerlessness and, in exchange for this sacrifice, realize a life without stress and strife.
We can start practicing this new kind of power over feeling powerless whenever we have a pain or a problem that seems greater than our ability to deal with it. These moments are actually "wake-up calls" -- invitations to remember our relationship with an indwelling and Divine order of ourselves that is the same as our True Nature. This new action on our part, this conscious realignment born of higher self-awareness, is the same as our rescue. Our sense of being powerless is replaced by releasing the misunderstanding over who we really are. Now the words, "Let go and let God" take on new meaning for us. We have come to understand what must be done in order to let the Divine Light do for us what we can't: to know true power, we must release all claims upon it.
