Today we ask you to really know that you are not in control.

Some of you who are open-minded and spiritual will readily admit this to be true.

And yet still there may be a part of you that believes that if you just evolved sufficiently, you would become very powerful, in a worldly sense.  You would be able to “manifest” things.  You could manifest money, fame, and success.  Of course, you would use your powers for good.  You would be a very good wizard, a very good witch.  You would help the world with your powers.

In other words, you would be in control of reality — but for the good!  You would be on the side of good, and use your powers to oppose the dark forces of the world.

This kind of thinking will, alas, get you nowhere good.  It is really somewhat delusional.

Enlightenment is not about becoming powerful, in the external world.

Enlightenment occurs when one lets go completely of needing the external world to be different from what it is.  It arises out of a state of total love and acceptance of what is, with no desire to change anything.  It is certainly not about being a rich and famous good witch or wizard.

It is not about manifestation.  It is not about control.  Control is, by definition, of the lower, ego-driven self.

The obsession with manifestation is no different from the alchemists of old.  Such people would spend their whole lives searching for magical elixirs and spells, and trying to control spirits.  They may have wished to do good with their powers.  But really it is a waste of time.

Such people are still completely caught up in the external world.  And they are always rather dissatisfied and unhappy.  When you imagine witches and wizards hunched over bubbling cauldrons — when you imagine “mad scientists” — do they ever seem happy to you?

So don’t hunch over a bubbling cauldron, looking for the secret, trying to control reality and manifest things.  You’ll wind up with bad posture, and won’t get any fresh air or sunlight.

Let go of all of that.

Enlightenment occurs right now, in this moment, or never at all.  It cannot happen in the future.  Only now.

It comes only through going inside, into the still center within you.  There are no words, no thoughts in that place.  Instead, there is peace, calm, and acceptance.  Most of you have accessed this place at some point in your lives.  It is always available to you, no matter what is going on externally.

The most direct way of accessing the still center is to quiet the thinking mind through meditative practices.

Ultimately, in the still center of things, worldly power is quite meaningless, and the desire for it is perceived as childish.  

Such things may come to you.  But if you are lucky, they will come only after you have truly let go of seeking them.