Monday, September 28, 2009

Reflections on Empowerment

Several years ago, when I began my search for empowerment, I wrote something that crystallizes the thoughts of an empowerment neophyte, "I am that person, which I am aware of being. I am neither inferior or superior, equal or unequal, but a consciousness capable of creating an infinite number of life expressions."

Most of us probably find it amusement to reflect back on how we felt on beginning our journeys. There's a lot of pain. The challenges seem overwhelming, and there are many times we want to stop, quit, and end our journeys even before we have been on them for several weeks. Such is the life of an empowerment-seeker.

There's never a day that goes by when some of us don't have regrets about making the decision to seek empowerment. And even after years of working on ourselves, it's difficult to remain committed to the goal of empowerment. It seems so far away.

To those of us unaccustomed to working long periods of time without financial compensation it's a little unnerving to continue living in this manner. Our hearts burn with intense desires for completion. We want the work to have an ending. While we yearn for an end, we constantly remind ourselves that the work will never end during our lifetimes.

Meanwhile, even the most ardent proponents of hard work, loyalty, and dedication find it difficult to accept work without some type of completion. For many of us, there's completion at retirement. While others find completion by switching jobs and careers. Nevertheless, we find it difficult to imagine work without and end.

Today, we find joy in empowerment because there's joy in the knowledge that our lives are to be lived until the end. The work we do determines the outcome. If we are working for things -- money, personal possessions, approval, and so forth -- then we might not find too much joy when we no longer have those things. In other words, our end comes from our separation from the things we believe brought us joy.

To truly understand empowerment, we must relearn the power of imaging ourselves as colorless, faceless, and formless individuals. This conception of ourselves empower us to see the world from the prism of freedom and power. There are no restraints placed on a colorless, faceless, and formless person. From this perspective we are complete.

The search for empowerment is the search for completeness. We want to feel that our lives are complete, fulfilled. We believe anything less than this represents an unfilled life. And without fulfillment, there's no end.

Whenever we think of an end for empowerment, we limit ourselves to being just human beings tattooed with societal labels of race, gender, class, religion, and so forth. Empowerment has no beginning or end. It is our perceptions of ourselves that ascribe time to our journeys. So, one person's beginning is similar to, but not the same as another persons' journey.

The truth about us is found in our reflections on empowerment. When we look closely at our journeys, we clearly see the growth from where we started to where we are now. That's what's important.

Today, I think of a quote from "Seeds from the Ashes," which I find helpful to me and some others:

"When you awaken with thoughts of grief and despair, it's time to focus on the desires that have the power to overcome the problems. Listen to the silent voices with the great power. The silent voices from your intuitive consciousness are your desires prodding you to do something with your life. Listen to them rather than the loud voices of spin doctors."

This wonderful book, "Seeds from the Ashes" will be available soon.

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