Tai Chi notes: On Power

People seek to be powerful. They seek the feeling of power so they can take, so they can push and not be pushed. Seeking power limits power. Power exists already, you are power.  Feeling is power, not feeling of power. If you feel power, you are feeling too much. Somewhere in your body you are holding to feel such a push, such pressure. To feel power is to feel power over, and what are you desiring power over.  Yourself? This is a strain. It assumes limits. Real power is the power to give, to hold, to wait, to have no intention but to be present. The abundant mind, changes the frame and aligns the body. The spirit of giving is not a weakness, it is a strategic advantage. Giving space comes from abundance, holding ground comes from the ego, which is afraid to give up, which is afraid to lose something it does not have. Control. The Giving advantage allows for movement and stillness.

Something you have to push by definition isn’t meant to be moved. It desires to rest.  Using force to change things reduces your energy. I am forcing nothing, I am allowing and filling the empty space. This costs me less energy. You not wanting to move, to hold your space that is the ego trying to control. This comes at an unnecessary cost in time and energy. Control requires thought, one must device, design multiple ways to remove resistance. Giving there is no other strategy, it does many things by doing nothing that does not want to be done. It does not try to move things that do not want to be moved, and it does not try to stop that which needs to move.