Here’s an interesting question from a student:
“Yesterday me and my friend got robbed luckily we had very few money but it got me to thinking that how a person can have inner power when he has someone imposing will on them and not only robbers and thieves but government, political parties, police etc. They can make you do what you don’t want to do. This goes against inner power concept.”
Not really.
You can be in complete lock down in prison and still possess a great amount of inner power. Far more than many who have complete external freedom.
Inner power is not about external freedom or doing what you want.
It’s about your own internal freedom and the connection to your own Will.
Even if you live in a free country, you can’t do everything that what you want. Nor is this the concept of inner power.
You may want to drive that Ferrari, but if you can’t afford it you won’t drive it (except if you steal it, which is also not inner power).
We all need to learn how to live with external limitations.
Some of them you can do something about (eg. if you are working on a job you hate, you can take steps to change jobs) others you can’t (eg. a serious disease, getting arrested, etc).
As a famous prayer goes, the true wisdom is in knowing the difference of what you can change and what you cannot.
You have inner power when you are living true to yourself and free of your own self-imposed limitations.
Some prisioners live freer, than others who have external freedom but are constricted in a life which feels like a prison.
With that said, some exercises of the 10 Steps to Inner Power training is related to doing what you want to do.
But don’t confuse the exercises you are training for the concept of inner power.
The 10 Steps to Inner Power training was created for regular everyday people who have a somewhat normal life. Not for those who are locked up or live in a complete totalitarian regime that completely restricts your personal freedom.
But it’s not that inner power can’t be developed in those situations. It just needs a different approach to the training to those particular situations.
The good news is that once you get inner power, regardless of the type of training you had to get there, it will stay with you even if you are locked up or your external liberty is restricted in some way.
