You have power. You are training. Your power is increasing.
More power does not mean more happiness. Power can be used well or badly. Power can be used to help or hurt people.
If you look good, you have power. Strong? Intelligent? Wealthy? Talented? Those are powers. They give you influence.
The more power you have, the more responsibility you have to use it well. Misused, power causes pain. To the victims and to you.
To use it wisely takes presence of mind and skill. You need to know the difference between right and wrong.
Here at the dojo, you are in a group. The dynamics in a laboratory environment like the dojo will be replicated in every group you are in. At work, school, on sports teams, in military units, in professional life, community groups, religious organizations, and families.
Learn here. Apply it there.
If you cut yourself off from the people around you and only cultivate higher ranks, you will end up on your own. You will be unable to lead, only to follow.
If you disregard seniors and only connect with lower ranks you will not be up to the task of leadership. If you are distant from your peers, you are off the team.
If you take care of the people under you, collaborate with your peers, and assist the seniors you will be recognized and appreciated. More opportunity, more authority and more power will follow. That is not calculating. It is good. Any healthy organization, based on merit, works this way.
If you find yourself in an unhealthy organization, one which operates based on other rules, get out before you compromise your power, your honor and everything you have worked for.
Use your power well. It may go against the flow of the culture. But, difficult as it may be, it will be the best way. Any other course of action will lead to disaster.
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Post copyright © 2023 Jeffrey Brooks
Featured image by Israel Torres via Pexels
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Read True Karate Dō –
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling.
Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners.
A splendid achievement.”
— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series
— Co-author, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams.
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