In my last two posts we explored our Inka Seed, which is an energetic structure within us that contains our potential to develop every human capacity to the highest level. We can develop ourselves consciously until we are seventh-level beings, which means godlike here in the human form. I like to use Sri Aurobindo’s phrasing to describe what each human being is: we are where “God-Spirit meets God-matter.” We have the potential to express our God-Spirit right here on Earth in this singular human lifetime.

Building on this concept, in this blog post we will examine personal power. Developing ourselves means acquiring more personal power: the power to love ourselves just as we are now, the power to be resilient no matter what challenges we have faced or will face, the power to know and express our unique selves, the power to bring our gifts to the world and appreciate the gifts of others, the power be of service and to allow ourselves to be served, the power to be the influence our own destiny, the power to dare to be divine.

Power. Power. Power. Just what do I mean by personal power?

Not dominance, control, authority, or supremacy over others. Not muscle, clout, toughness, brawn, or force.

Personal power is our ability to take responsibility for ourselves without excuse. Personal power starts with knowing ourselves, but it expresses itself in how we bring ourselves to the world moment by moment, day by day. As don Juan Nuñez del Prado said, at a minimum personal power is “being able to do something regardless of the circumstances around you.” At a maximum, as don Juan also said, it is “being able to do anything—but through ayni. Personal power is in service to yourself and others.” That is an important point: personal power through ayni (reciprocity) is never just about ourselves, but about how we use our power in relation to others. We benefit ourselves and others.

Our karpay is our personal power. Karpay means a transmission or sharing of energy—in this context the sharing of who we are according to our current state of being. You could say that we are what our personal powers are, for we cannot bring to the world what we have not yet become of the owners of within ourselves. Two of the most egregious errors we can make are underplaying and giving up our personal power. As novelist Alice Walker said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

We each certainly have power. However, we may not be aware of our power, which, at heart, means we don’t have clear consciousness of our current capacities. Most of us woefully underestimate our capacities. If we cannot or will not acknowledge our full capacity at the current time, then why should anyone else? If we do not claim our power, we not only sell ourselves short, but we also purposefully reduce ourselves and limit what we can bring to the world. We should make no excuses for our present state of grandeur. And I do mean grandeur! That is a word—along with “glorious”—that I purposefully use with my students, because that is what the training in Andean mysticism is all about: growing our grandeur, becoming more and more glorious. We should have no false humility about what we have far so developed within ourselves. Taking responsibility for ourselves means truly owning all of who we are while also being honest about how much more there is within us that remains to be developed and expressed.

Personal power is both what is inside us and how we bring ourselves out into the world. As don Ivan Nuñez del Prado tells us, “Karpay is your capacity to share your power with another person.” And since our power equates to our available personal capacities, we have to know ourselves, be ourselves, and express ourselves as we are right now. For, as don Juan says, “the only thing we can share is our personal power.”

In the training, the very last practice is that of raising the amaru (anaconda). By doing so, we consciously externalize our personal power. Our amaru is outside of us, but it represents what is currently inside of us. It is the energy of making our karpay available to others and to the world. It is knowing ourselves perceptually and being perceptive of other people and the larger world around us. Where our perception of the inner and outer meet is an integration point from which we marshal the will to act in the world. As don Ivan explains, “With don Melchor, in the last step of the training—when you build the amaru outside yourself—that is the tukuyllank’aynioq. That is the power of the magician to be able to generate and feel energies outside yourself and address them—make them do things. That is the amaru.”

The tukuyllank’aynioq is the total owner of action. To become the “total” owner of our karpay means that moment by moment we know what we want to do, assess whether we have the personal power to do it, and then act or not according to that knowledge and assessment. Don Juan has said time and time again that our practices help us to “accumulate personal power.” This means developing more and more of the capacities held within our Inka Seed—turning what was only potential into actuality. However, using our personal power effectively requires that we know how to “measure” our power so that we can be realistic about our capabilities.  The mystical capacity we use is qaway: clear-seeing. If we want to do something, but fail to realize that we do not have the power to do it, then we not only frustrate or disappoint ourselves, we will likely fail.

Hesitation, procrastination, or fear about doing something are normal human emotions under certain conditions, and they do not have to reduce our power. We can feel them even when we have sufficient personal power to take action. Not having power means something different: it means that despite what we feel, we have not yet developed the capacity to realize a desire or fulfill an intention. We lack the requisite abilities.

That said, I think most of us will agree that we have a lot more power than we think we have. And, we will not discover if we do have a particular power until we try to use it. If we fail, no problem, because if we are motivated, we can use that failure to adjust or course correct. That is how we learn to develop new abilities. The tragedy of the self is when we have untapped powers and never dare ourselves to risk their realization. Our will is in our Inka Seed, the same energetic structure that holds within it this potential power that is waiting to be unleashed. We do not have to wait for other people’s approval or for outer circumstances to align on our behalf before we dare ourselves to express more of our grandeur. Our readiness comes from inside. For, as the novelist Eudora Welty reminds us, “All serious daring starts within.”

For me, among the most important forms of “daring” is to resist any impulse to keep ourselves small: to not capitulate to what others want us to be or expect us to be, to not question how our culture asks us to conform to its norms, to not bring self-inquiry to the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves that restrict our full measure. Daring asks us to see and know ourselves as Taytanchis (Creator) sees and knows us. Taytanchis sees and knows all of us: our current abilities and our potential to be Creator’s ranti (equivalent) while here in this world in human form. So, I suggest that even as we realistically measure our current karpay, we also dare ourselves to look in the mirror to see our glorious potential. If we don’t see ourselves as Taytanchis sees us, then we must keep looking, and looking, and looking . . .