So what the hell is ‘Power Over Yourself’ then…
Well its the best damn thing ever, the best drug in the world, without it you are nothing, little more than an animated vegetable, acting out the same shit, different day, every bloody day…
Now I don’t mean this to be harsh, but it has to be said, you are a seeker now…
Secret No 1: Your problem is that you are weak and stupid, and that has turned you into a slave. It’s not your fault you are weak and stupid, but it is your problem and you have to deal with it. And if you are spiritual, with a little of the ‘sand’ you need for the Left hand path, then the best, if not ‘only’ way to do this is through the spiritual rite of ‘Power Over Yourself’, be a Boss and dominate yourself, NOT be dominated BY yourself. So, just figure out what ‘weak’ and ‘stupid’ actually mean for you, then get less weak and less stupid, FAST. Deal with your problems FIRST, then changing, growing and adding to yourself will be a hell of a lot easier.
Ultimately this is the same for everyone, same for you, for me, for everyone.. at the start.
See, you are just a slave – you think about everything you are scared off (like a slave), you do what you are told (like a slave), you live a tenuous, ‘struggling’ existence (like a slave), you use, and are ‘used’, by sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll to give you a short term thrill (like a slave), you sneak around with your secret life just in order to cope (like a slave) and you have no peace of mind, no character, no sense of real morality (like a damn slave). You have become cunning, small minded and nasty just to get on (like a slave), you have no voice, no sense of yourself, you are a just a machine (like a slave), you give your time, effort and ideas to others for some coin to live (like a slave) and your entire fecking existence is focused on just getting some small time off, living for the w/e, your next break, to relax and zone out (LIKE A SLAVE). Get it..?
See, YOU ARE A SLAVE TO YOURSELF, to the crap in your head, to your moods, emotions and sensations. All this crap in your life is just one big, endless projection of that ongoing, never ending, progressively getting worse.. personal slavery.
So, maybe you would like to change that…? Or is someone else going to do it for you, you will get a better job, get promoted, get married, get kids or you can retire soon? But it never happens…. see even when you catch a break or 2, YOU are still there, happy as a clam to fuck it up soon as you get the chance….
Ahh well, I guess when you are dead you won’t have to think about it, ehh?
Know this for certain… the only person whose job it is to SAVE you from yourself is YOU. Not me, not your next self help book, not the state, not your healthcare provider, not prescription medication, not social media influencers, not even the latest ‘guru’ series on Netflix. And not your god or belief system, cause that’s total crap at worst and an emotional band aid at best…. You have to believe in you, NOT IN ANYONE ELSE.
Understand… for the spiritual people of the world the start of the path is one, big stand up fight, with yourself, cause ‘you’ are going to fight against it… Terrible irony of real Spirituality is that its for hard, determined people – part timers fail, broken people just want hope, but bad assess get way further down the road, particularity when the shit hits the fan as they cope better than most. So be one, be ‘enthusiastic’ but most of all, MOST of all… Feel POWER OVER YOURSELF.
Ahhh, ok, you are here for some help, some guidance.. So, know that ‘weak’ means you have little or no spirit (in every sense of the word), no willpower over yourself, no ability to focus your intention, no magical imagination, hell you can’t even think straight and you just accept it as normal. You have no power… ‘Stupid’ means deluded by your ego = Ignorance, that your ego is sabotaging and attacking you, making you forgetful, fearful, clumsy, fooling you and much more besides. You suffer from Ignorance… Bad news, they are connected and feed off each other. Good news is all of that is fixable with the power over yourself that comes from the doing the Ride.
To use the go-to East Asian analogy, you are a fish swimming in a sea of delusion you can’t escape because you simply don’t know the water is there, you just don’t ‘see’ it, no matter what I or anyone else says. So without some continual, attractive, fun form of motivation to MAKE YOU try, change, be different, you are simply going to keep right on swimming…
See, to try and think your way out of it is hopeless, at the beginning. That’s why it’s only the lost and broken who are motivated enough to take it all on ‘faith’, believing something that is not self evident because they are, well, desperate. And yes I do accept that there are other tiny categories of believers out there, the ‘priests’ who do it for a living, the wannabe superheroes or Harry Potters, or the people born into organised religion – all the ones who see spirituality as simply a vehicle to some personal goal, but frankly that is even worse.
So what can you do to motivate yourself, you are not desperate, you have no faith or no personal goals? Simple.. you have to ‘feel’ it. Now.
The Ride is a simple physical and mental technique that you use as a ‘hook’, a method that makes you feel something that is priceless, not only its value both to your motivation and your progress, but also in your everyday existence, a technique that makes you feel ‘Powerful’, the most addictive feeling the world, and used correctly, one of the most effective for spiritual progress.
The feeling of Power, or more precisely the ‘Will to Power’ (to give Nietzsche his due recognition) is the one thing that works for everyone, for the saints and sinners, the clever and the fools, the happy and sad, for the emotionally rich to the folks who are dead inside. Everyone, cause at its centre the REAL feeling of power is the feeling of your life force itself, that is the ‘name’ we have given it, but its a lot more than that in the real world of spirituality.
Now there are many successful and focused people out there, with no spiritual awareness at all, that mainline this feeling every damn day if they can, through some external means. Its there continual 24/7 mood state, they organize their whole bloody lives around maintaining it… However, without the correct guidance, they focus on being powerful over the external, over people particularly, and eventually become co-dependent, become narcissists or tyrants, rather than being powerful over THEMSELVES.
Maybe you are even one them, but don’t worry as that’s as good a place to ‘start’ as any… indeed most of the highly gifted people I’ve ever met, who had no guidance or spiritual traditional where proper bad bitches in themselves, looking for a way out. But, to add a big note of caution here…. really is amazing to see just how many such people eventually dissolve into needy puddles of self-love, energy vampires as a new ager would say, before going completely bat shit crazy. Kind of ironic, really – without this experience you have to start to work up the experience of power from scratch, and that’s a learning curve, yet the bad people of the world get a head start almost gifted to them, they can use the memory of the feeling (will to power) to good effect.
See, as I may have mentioned previously, the Left Hand path is kinda for bad assess, sort of made for them really…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending the darker elements of this, even the more public versions like ‘asceticism’ – no need to starve yourself or hold one arm up 24/7 for the rest of your life to develop power over yourself. Yes I get that asceticism is the whole front end of historic Buddhism, and that it can be very effective, but it can be deadly, as taken to extremes its SUCH a powerful drug like state that it simply takes over the meaning and stops everything else happening – most eating disorders are based on this mechanism.
But the feeling, that wonderful expansive buzz, being in control, faintly amused by everything, there is nothing else comes remotely close in everyday life…
Just remember, please you have to teach yourself to do the Ride all the time, as often as you can, without time off for good behaviour.. cause the Ride IS good behaviour.
Summary: You. Have. To. Do. It. You have to work on developing Power Over Yourself ALL THE DAMN TIME. This seeker lark is NOT A HOBBY, not a class you go to once a week, a church you attend on Sunday, or a book that ‘interests’ you. Being a seeker is full time gig boys and girls, it has to be ‘on your mind’ all the time, so you are going to need to kick it up a notch. Life is not about being comfortable, about relaxing with a screen, about more time to zone out anymore, THIS is your leisure time now.
Lastly, there is a lot to say about Power Over Yourself, as I have said…, BUT is really important at this early stage NOT too intellectualise it. You FEEL this power as a visceral skin thrill, you experience it as real, as a growing sensation. Thinking about it will NOT help, indeed over thinking about this will delay you, and that’s a bad thing. Big discussion to come later mind..
Quote to end as always.. this time my 2nd favourite of his, as thought I would try you folks out with something a little edgy, a little more ‘left hand path’, just a bit anyway.. my 3rd favourite of his would be way too edgy for you.. yet.
‘A heart full of courage and cheerfulness needs a little danger from time to time, or the world gets unbearable.’ – Friedrich Nietzsche
Laters..
TOB
