Power OR Love ??

     I've had several conversations with decent, intelligent, well-educated men who were absolutely convinced that being open-hearted in "the real world" simply doesn't work - the world would take advantage of them. What does this imply about the average person?

     "Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites - polar opposites - so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. We've got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our time."        Martin Luther King, Jr.

     Mindfulness meditation is a skillful way of becoming familiar with the depth of our being, including both amazingly positive aspects, as well as "our shadow" - our less-than-flattering egocentric tendencies. By accepting, and thus clearly seeing our shadow, we're liberated from having to "act out" our shadow, and are able to awaken to our full human potential.

Shane Gross, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com