Some time back, a friend relayed to me a conversation he had recently had with a Tibetan lama, who was a teacher of his. In the conversation, my friend had been speaking of various challenges he was having in his daily life, including financial ones. At some point, Rinpoche turned to him and said, “If you can’t even figure out how to pay your own mortgage, how do you expect to save all living beings?”
This conversation has stayed with me. It serves as a gentle reminder - in moments when I’m tempted to downplay the importance of my material existence – of the importance to my spiritual practice of the more “mundane” aspects of life. It reminds me also that the Immortals possess not only Wisdom and Compassion, but also Enlightened Power – the skillful means, the capacity, to transform their aspirations into actual change in the world.
Spiritual & Worldly Power
What exactly is the relationship between spiritual and worldly power, is a question I don’t have an answer to … and I welcome any insights you might like to share! I’ve noticed, at times, a certain allergic reaction to “power” among spiritual practitioners – myself included. The source of this discomfort, I believe, has much to do with various abuses of power that we’ve all witnessed, or experienced first-hand.
Power-Over & Power-With
What has been useful to me is to make a distinction (introduced to me originally by Iris Young in her lovely essay “The Five Faces Of Oppression”) between “power-over” and “power-with” – between destructive/oppressive uses of power, and those that are co-creative and empowering to all involved. Power, in and of itself, is simply the capacity to influence. Whether that influence is positive or negative is up to us.
Qi & Blessing-Energy
In terms of Taoist practice, the exploration of this issue seems to unfold largely within our cultivation of qi - life-force energy. We learn to connect with the power of our energetic core, and exchange energy – in mutually beneficial ways – with mountains, trees, lakes, flowers and galaxies. We learn to create qi-fields with fellow practitioners: energetic matrices within which the potency of our individual practice is amplified.
We learn to ask for and receive the blessing-energy – the empowerment – of the Buddhas and Immortals, in their physical and/or energetic manifestations. In seated, standing, moving and sleeping meditation forms, we cultivate a bodymind that is not only settled and clear, but also strong and flexible. In these ways, we generate the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual power that allows us then to be of benefit to all, and to pay our mortgage!
