PDA

View Full Version : The Source of all Power



Sara S
03-28-2011, 08:48 AM
from: 365 Tao: Daily Meditations, by Deng Ming-Dao

Wellspring of energy
Rises in the body's core
Tap it and be sustained.
Channel it, and it will speak.

The source of all power is within yourself. Although external circumstances may occasionally hamper you, true movement comes solely from within yourself. The source is latent in everyone, but anyone can learn to tap it. When this happens, power rises like a shimmering well through the center of your body.

Physically, it will sustain and nourish you. But it can do many other things as well. It can give you gifts ranging from unusual knowledge to simple tranquility. It all depends on how you choose to direct your energies.

We cannot say that a person will become enlightened solely by virtue of having tapped this source of power; energy is neutral. It requires experience, wisdom, and education to direct it. You may gain power from your meditations, but it is possible for two people with the same valid attainment to use it in two different ways, even to the extremes of good and evil. Finding the source of spiritual power is a great joy; deciding how to direct it is the greatest of responsibilities.

Dixon
03-29-2011, 04:43 AM
...Finding the source of spiritual power is a great joy; deciding how to direct it is the greatest of responsibilities.

Or, in the words of one of my spiritual icons, Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility."

meherc
03-29-2011, 09:23 PM
Or, in the words of one of my spiritual icons, Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility."


He didn't really say that first, did he?

Dixon
03-30-2011, 01:14 AM
He didn't really say that first, did he?

Well, actually, Marilyn, the version I give is a slight misquote of part of this sentence, from Spider-Man's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 (late 1962 or early 1963): "And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come — great responsibility!" And, the line is actually uttered by the narrator of the story, not Spider-Man. But in my defense, it's been 48 years since I read that story, and I think (not sure, though), that the line as I quote it was uttered by Spider-Man himself in at least one of his movie appearances.

Of course, the real originator would be the story's writer, Stan Lee, or possibly the artist and Spider-Man co-creator (with Lee), Steve Ditko. I've read someone quoting Stan Lee as having said the phrase was inspired by this Bible passage: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (Luke 12:48, King James version; line attributed to Jesus Christ).

Gotta go now. Up, up and away!