1. The Power of
Awareness.
Open your eyes. Look at yourself. Notice the world around you. Observe life.
Study aliveness. Breathe in your raw, indivisible essence. Stare at a wall until
you find a way through or around it. Your full presence is the only state in
which you can accomplish anything worthwhile.
2. The Power of
Choice.
You don’t work for anyone other than your higher self. Other hierarchies
are just imitation. Slavery begins in the mind and it consists in choosing to
believe that you have no choice. Choice is the on/off button of our power.
Every second of our life is really, just a choice to live it one way or
another. There is no ultimate reality. We choose that reality time after time,
based on one belief or another, which we also have the power to choose or
un-choose.
The molten lava at the heart of life is nothing but raw energy. It’s up to us
the way we let it burn us.
3. The Power of
Originality.
Whatever you do, “there’s no one you-er than you.” So don’t try to be Batman if
you were bitten by a spider. Your ultimate power resides precisely in being
faithful to your own essence. You can only touch the extraordinary with your
own fingerprints. Don’t compare yourself to other superheroes. If you are here,
it means there was a universal demand for you.
Scientifically speaking you are as improbable as it gets. This type of
alignment doesn’t just happen. You are the universe expressing itself in a
unique, unrepeatable way. You haven’t happened before and you will never happen
again. Don’t underestimate yourself. You are not a rehearsal.
4. The Power of
Purpose.
We are meaning-making machines. We have the extraordinary ability to create
purpose (and pretty much everything else) out of raw energy. And this purpose
generates meaning, and this meaning helps us make sense of our life, and it
connects us to the whole and helps us realize how we fit in the bigger picture,
along with other superheroes. And this power can be used as a flashlight
too, when crawling through our darkest tunnels, because what won’t kill us,
will help us generate in turn, more purpose, meaning and more reasons to
create.
5. The Power of
Honesty.
This is a tough one, dear Hero, because it runs on courage. You can’t face your
own truth and as a result save yourself, let alone others, without the courage
to see yourself for what you are, in both your glory and your misery, your
darkness and your light, the entire, indivisible whole equation of You. Look in
the mirror. Put your demons on the table. Love what you see and use it all to
your benefit.
6. The Power of
Spirit.
You don’t have to be religious to be spiritual. There are all kinds of faith to
match each and every superhero in us. The point is, find your god. Whatever it
is, whatever form it comes in, find your holy ground. It must be greater than
you, enough to make you fall down on your knees and weep and be in awe, and
realize you’re great but small, and you cannot survive even one day without the
greater power running through your veins.
There’s vulnerability in Spirit. And there’s Spirit in you. Don’t let cynicism
eat you alive. It’s when Spirit is free to move through you that miracles are
free to happen.
7. The Power of
Beauty.
Superheroes don’t dig this one. During the first years of following their
call, they love to wear masks. They think they’re being cautious and protective
of their mission, but really, they’re afraid. Greatness is worse than ghosts.
It scares the shit out of our people. This is every superhero’s weakness — not
kryptonite or anti-heroes — but their own beauty. I know you are embarrassed to
even say the word out loud.
I wish you understood that beauty saves. Authentic beauty awakens the beauty in
others. I wish you removed your plastic face and showed me both, your dead
scars and your glory. We are liberated by contemplating our magical reflection
in other imperfect mirrors. Your not-enoughness might be good enough for me.
8. The Power of Healing.
You are your own doctor. You’d think this would be obvious by now, but so often
Superheroes like us, doubt their own powers and rely on superficial charlatans,
gadgets or artifacts to save them from themselves. A true healer helps you heal
yourself. And you do so by first becoming aware of that Self (go back to #1 —
all roads lead back to Rome). Sickness (of mind and body and spirit) doesn’t
happen by chance. It’s not natural — health and aliveness are. So if you’re
sick the first thing you should look for is the cause, not kill the symptoms.
9. The Power of
Resilience.
You can’t give up on something that your heart is still rooting for, no matter
how hard the fall is. Your heart is your ultimate master. It knows the things
the mind doesn’t yet have an answer for. It leads the way out of your darkest
moments. It’s your one and only Chief of Staff. You are built to thrive under
any circumstances as long as you use your heart as the compass. You’re not a
victim, not even a survivor, you’re a creator, damn it.
10. The Power of
Creativity.
Creativity is your operating system. It’s a free app that came with your
original superhero software. It’s your intrinsic individual ability to face and
respond to the uncertainty and mysteries of life, your essential human
birthright, your fuel for rebelling against decay, your irregular heartbeats
and your mind’s engine. It is the basic force of life, right after love. You
are creatively responsible for the effective use of all your other superpowers.
11. The Power of Love.
Yes: love. “At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that real
revolutionaries are guided by a great feeling of love,” said once El Che
Guevara. All your superpowers are worthless without kindness. If you can’t see
the God in others, it means you’ve missed it in yourself. Love is perhaps the
first and foremost superpower. We like to leave it for the end, so we remember.
(Extract from the The Buddha)
