Understanding the Desire for Power & Control

When people intentionally act to instill fear in or have control over others, it rewards them with a feeling of power. But what is the nature of this reward? If we investigate this question sufficiently, we can see that such "evil" behavior is not rooted in "malice" but ultimately stems from suffering and ignorance.

The ego's purpose is to provide safety and prosperity for itself (for the organism), and therefore it desires, among other things, predictability (certainty if possible). When the ego-construct feels powerful and in control over a situation or person, it feels a sense of security, rather than anxiety (fear of the unknown) in the face of an unpredictable situation or person. For the majority of people, it is fear (the most pernicious form of suffering) that drives such controlling behavior. They consciously or unconsciously seek to control in order to reduce their anxiety. Even when there is anger involved in the controlling behavior, fear is at its root.

However, for some people, ego can become warped over time such that the exercise of power, of control, is based on pleasure instead of fear. The more often, and more strongly, an ego feels rewarded (neurochemically) through its alleviation of anxiety through controlling behavior, the more the behavior becomes motivated by the reward itself. Seeking a neurochemical pleasure response becomes the underlying (if unconscious) motivation for power and control. This is also the case for abused people who become abusers and for the very small percentage of people who are genuine psychopaths/sociopaths.

For the majority of people, controlling behavior is based on fear, whereas, for the minority it is based on a desire for pleasure. Regardless, fear and desire are causes of suffering for the perpetrator, not just for their victims. Furthermore, it is only through ignorance that people engage in such behavior at all. For psychopaths/sociopaths, the ignorance is in the form of lacking empathy due to neurological deficits they have no personal capacity to overcome. For all others, the ignorance is a lack of conscious awareness of why they are behaving the way they are, and a lack of understanding that their desire for certainty or pleasure actually cause themselves suffering and that such desire can be safely given up to attain a greater peace and joy.

If we can have compassion for such people (while of course preventing them from causing additional harm), we can motivate them to change by helping them to see into the underlying nature of their behavior and help them realize the greater reward on the other side of their veil.

Time, Consciousness, Enlightenment, & Ego

Namaskar Brethren…

My inner Stillness / Source of Being has been especially resonant in my temporal consciousness today.

I’m becoming much better at remaining in the state of “No-Mind” / mere-“Being.” This inner Source of Being/Awareness is timeless, self-restrained, infinite equilibrium.

“Time” only manifests for each Individuated Consciousness. Each experiences a different “refresh/sample-rate/frames-per-second” and the ‘dimension’ of time is a unified, bi-directional/bi-poled spectrum (past to future, future to past are both equal in the reality of how change projects “through time”). Spatial and temporal “movement” or change cancels Itself out at the infinite scale of All Existence leaving perfect, self-restrained equilibrium of all impulses.

It is humorous, in a compassionate way, that many think (as I once did) that a state of Total Enlightenment is something you “achieve” once and that’s it. Rather you must strive to ​retain​ it for longer and longer periods until you finally abide within it; kind of like how a ball must bounce to a stand still (each impact on the ground being moments of enlightenment coming more frequently and lasting longer).

After a person’s first experience of enlightenment, their ego reestablishes almost immediately, which then applies the fading enlightened perspective to their personhood and human world. This is appropriate; you are meant to utilize this received wisdom, but not attach yourself to how the wisdom manifested in that particular place in your personal time-space. It is people’s egos attaching to their perception of wisdom; which restores to prominence, and puffs up, the ego, thinking it should take credit for the perceived achievement of enlightened wisdom.

Most self-ascribed “enlightened” people are really more deeply and sophisticatedly veiled and entrenched self-deceived egos. Again, it is appropriate for you to use the wisdom that is revealed by your “contact”/reUnion with Universal Consciousness to take harmonious moral action in the world. But our choices and behaviors are most just and harmonious with the “Universe” (our True Nature of Universal Being) when the driver/impulse behind our actions flow directly from Universal Consciousness that is found at the core Source of Awareness (“Life-Force”) found within ourselves.


"One Love,"
UnityPrime