Wielder of Forces

"By not wanting, there is calm,

 and the world will straighten itself.

When there is silence,

 one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself."

   - Lao-tzu, the Tao

The Sun and the Wind were having a contest of power. Which of them can make that guy walking there take off his jacket? The Wind brags, look at my power, I can blow and blow and blow! The guy wraps his jacket more tightly around himself.

 Yes, I am a wielder of forces. All my life, I have gone around assuming that to navigate around in this place, I have to be forceful. I am forceful!

Yeah, and this works! People flee when they see me coming. I and my force field am strong. I am like king Midas with his touch of gold. He could surround himself with shiny metal, but he could never again have the soft touch of his lover.

This is a dilemma of our age. We wear cars and sunglasses; we carry little personal power worlds in our pocket. We are such paradoxical little vortexes of private twisted up love. We run around with little lazer guns of projected personal force, shooting them off all over the place, generally creating a lot of confusion.

I have been noticing that soft power is different. It gently suffuses like sunshine around the guy out walking, and he gets so warm that he takes off his jacket. He thinks it is his idea, the Sun smiles to the Wind.

Soft power penetrates down like water, gently, effortlessly but unremittingly. Cultivating an awareness of soft power is an art of love and requires practice, but its results are transformative and lasting. I intuit that this soft power is the key to the changes of mind needed at this time of crisis on planet Earth.

"An integral being knows without knowing, sees without looking and accomplishes without doing." -Lao-Tzu