Volume
Vol. 1, The Purpose of Life
| Heading
4. The Desire for Power
|
Sub-Heading
Outer Power
|
Vol. 1, The Purpose of Life
4. The Desire for Power
Outer Power
Whatever power is gained by outside efforts in life, however great it may seem for the moment, it proves fatal when it comes to be examined.
Even such great powers as the nations which existed just before the war, took no time to fall to pieces. There was an army, there was a navy, there was property, a state. An empire such as the Empire of Russia, how long it took to build it! But it did not take one moment for it to break up.
If the outer power, in spite of its great appearance for the moment, proves fatal in the end, then there must be some power hidden somewhere, a power which may be called worth-while; and that power is hidden in man.
A person in the intoxication of outer power that he possesses overlooks the cultivation or the development of inner power, and, depending upon the power that does not belong to him, one day becomes the victim of the very power that he holds. Because, when the outer power becomes greater and the inner smaller, the greater power eats up the inner power. So it is that the heroes, the kings, the emperors, the persons with great power of arms, wealth or outer influence, have become victims to the very power upon which they always depended.
|