The Right Kind of Power

What led you to choose power as the subject for your latest book?

Seeing more and more the suffering caused by misuse of power by people at every level of society -- not only political and business leaders, but also teachers wielding power over students, parents over children, humans over nonhuman animals and the environment, and so on.

What is power?

Power is the ability to influence people. Everyone wants this kind of influence. When it goes together with great love, great understanding, and not a drive to gratify our own narrow self-interest, it can be a tremendous instrument for bringing love, joy, inspiration. Power in and of itself is not bad; it only becomes so when we try to force the less powerful around us to submit to our personal will. The power that goes with love and understanding, however, is something great.

How did we come to so misunderstand the nature of power? Why do you think the hunger for this kind of power is so prevalent?

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda. The crudest, the most basic form of power is brute force, the ability to physically manipulate and coerce others into accepting the agenda of one’s own ego. It is the first kind of power we learn to exercise as small children. Then as we evolve and mature, individually or as a society, we discover other, somewhat finer instruments of effecting our own will -- manipulating others by giving and withholding things they need or want, such as food, shelter, money, respect, affection, or sex.

Most of us have not had the opportunity to learn that there is a higher, more satisfying kind of power, which comes from the realization that we are much more than this small, separate self. When we do this, we see our successes and our failures are the product not merely of our individual self, but of our parents, our ancestors and many other conditions coming together. We are not proud of our accomplishments; we see we are just fortunate to have favorable conditions for success. Relating to power in this way, without begin caught in an idea of a separate self, we do not hurt others. Without seeking power, we become truly powerful.

What would you share with world leaders?

Our world political and business leaders need to have the three virtues which I have written about in this book. [Insert]

What kind of power did the Buddha have?

He had the power of looking deeply into all phenomena and seeing how all things inter-are, how they arise in dependence on each other. If he emerged as a Buddha, an enlightened being, he saw that was because the conditions were favorable for it to happen. He didn’t get caught in delusions of pride or selfishness and so he couldn’t be corrupted. The real power of the Buddha was that he had so much love. He saw people trapped in their notions of small separate self, feeling guilty or proud of that self, and he offered revolutionary teachings that resounded like a lion’s roar, like a great rising tide, helping people to wake up and break free from the prison of ignorance.

Is there a modern example of someone who exemplifies true power?

Gandhi. Mother Teresa. The Dalai Lama. Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha.

In a world where so many of us live with the wrong conception of power, how do we begin to incorporate true power into our work and our lives?

We need to cultivate the three virtues. Without trying to making ourselves “powerful,” people will notice and admire and come to us, and gradually true power will come to reside in us.

Continued on page 2: ...great ceremonies of prayer to 'untie the knots of injustice'... »