All the Power You Need

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I began this Power, Practice, and Peace series by thinking of power as physicists do, as work done per unit of time. Unfortunately, this technical definition fails us much of the time when talking about power. Perhaps this already occurred to you while reading my recent posts about the power of our voice. We also speak of the powers of concentration, will, forgiveness, and gratitude. And, of course, we speak of the power of love. 

But what about spiritual power? I suspect we all know some who are more spiritual than most. Perhaps they have a felt (and lived) connection to a deeper truth than this mundane reality that most of us attach to. Perhaps they seem to have tapped into a wellspring of energy, creativity, or meaning, for instance, that keeps them focused, uplifted, and resolute.


Unbloomed Tulip


To be sure, even avowed atheists can have great spiritual power. After all, the word spiritual derives from the Latin, spiritus, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “the animating or vital principle in living things; spirit, soul, or life force.” Thus, spiritual power, which we all have in at least some measure, enables us to live a richer, fuller, and more completely self-actualized life. It allows us to live a more settled, content, and meaningful life. Perhaps you don’t feel as though your spiritual power is helping you in all these areas, but I’m confident it’s helping in some, or in other ways I’ve not noted.

If you’d like to explore further what I mean by spiritual, please take a moment to read one of my earlier posts: Spirituality and Religion. For the purposes of this post, however, let me simply contrast spiritual power, as described above, with the spiritual powers that we hear so much about. Readers of the Bible will undoubtedly be familiar with gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues, and the performance of miracles. But our fascination with powers of this ilk seems only to have grown since ancient times. Anyone keeping up with the films and novels of popular culture will surely be aware of such powers as astral projection, clairvoyance, mediumship, mindreading, precognition, shapeshifting, telepathy, time travel, etc.

While I find serious contemplation of these spiritual powers both engaging and intriguing, I must admit that I remain agnostic regarding their existence. Which is not to say that I question whether those who compellingly claim to have such gifts really do have power. They do. At the very least they have the power that we give them, which can be a lot—especially if the person claiming to have or implying that they have such powers happens to be our spiritual teacher.

Spiritual teachers already have a great deal of power over practitioners studying with them, even more so with respect to very willing and eager new practitioners. Such power over relationships are fraught with danger for the practitioner, leaving them open to manipulation and disillusionment that can ultimately derail their spiritual practice altogether. Thus, I recommend reflecting critically on the words of any teacher (or anyone for that matter) who claims to or insinuates that they possess any of the aforementioned spiritual powers.

Even the Buddha (if teachings attributed to him are accurate*) was not above insinuating that he knew more than he was letting on. That finer point notwithstanding, he did make certain that his students understood that the critical lessons he had to give were already laid out before them. Answers to the riddles of the universe would not help them. Spiritual powers would not further the task at hand. Their liberation lay in utilizing their “garden variety” spiritual power to diligently walk the path already laid out for them.

“Monks,” the Buddha reportedly said, “like the leaves in my hand compared to those in the grove, there is much that I have learned, but not revealed. And why, have I not revealed it? Because it is not related to the goal, it is not fundamental to the holy life, it does not bring about contentment, dispassion, cessation, tranquility, higher knowledge, enlightenment, or Nirvana. What I have revealed is the truth of suffering, the arising of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering.” (Paraphrased from the Simsapa Sutta.)

In other words, you already have the power. Nothing special is needed. There are no secret teachings worthy of the time that you could be spending on your liberation. Don’t be deceived. Nobody has any power to bestow on you.


* It would be understandable if the first written versions of the Buddha's teachings, recorded hundreds of years after his death, began to show embellishments with regards to the scope of his knowledge and powers. After all, this is how religions grow! 

 

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This post is in the Power, Practice, and Peace series.

Find a running list of all posts in this series by clicking here.


Images

Unbloomed Tulip copyright Benjamin D. Esham via:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unbloomed_tulip.jpg

 

Copyright 2020 and 2025 by Mark Robert Frank

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