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SHADOWS OF WOLF FIRE
themselves, they are never really clear on what it is they should be fighting for. As a result they start to fight against life around them, and in the process become petty tyrants who are quite blatant about trampling on anybody or anything that gets in the way of their distorted view of what it is they believe they are pursuing. Although such people are forever shooting themselves in the foot through their own misguided actions, they will still, like the victim, blame someone or something else for not being able to have life on their terms. NORMALLY MAN DOES NOT THINK, BUT MERELY LIVES BY RATIONALISATION. MAN ONLY STARTS TO DISCOVER THAT HE CAN THINK ONCE HE IS FORCED TO DO SO AS AN ACT OF SURVIVAL.
The only way of truly solving the riddle of the mind is for us, at some point in our lives, to be brought to a crisis of sorts that is sufficiently sobering so as to precipitate the necessary clarity for us to be able to see for ourselves that playing the blame game is going to be the death of us in some way. However, this is a concept which is not easy to grasp, so let us look closely at what is entailed here. People, generally speaking, are never aware that we are all surrounded by power, that power is constantly being generated every moment of every day, and that we are continuously being challenged by power. The implications here are that every occurrence, every event in our lives, every situation we are faced with, every interaction we have with any person or just with the world in general, constitutes a battle both for and against power. We are forever up against power in a battle for power. In other words, we are forever up against power in a battle to claim our personal power, simply because this is the way in which the evolution of awareness takes place. And it is precisely because of this fact that people are so separative and so selective in their perception, for when this fact is not grasped for what it really is, perception becomes distorted, the result of which is prejudice,
RULE OF THE FOUR: The First Insight
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either for or against. However, it is not life that gives rise to prejudice, but it is our perception of what is taking place in our lives that causes us to become prejudiced. Right here, right now, even whilst reading this book, you are face to face with power. Whether we are aware of it or not, power is present everywhere, and is always busy stalking us. We are therefore always being watched by the sharpshooters of the universe. Any one of our moves at any time can cause them to cock their arrows, and if power finds us to be worthy opponents, the arrows start to fly, and suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of a battle. Such a battle can be as simple as having a verbal interaction with another person, or it can be as desperate as fighting to keep your job, but if we are truly aware, it is always clear to see that every interaction we have with life, no matter what form it takes, is always a battle for and against power. Furthermore, the sharpshooters of the universe never miss their targets. They are deadly accurate. Some of their arrows are designed to act as wake-up calls. Some of those arrows are designed to inflict permanent change. But there are also arrows that are so designed as to be fatal. What kind of arrows we attract depends upon how impeccably we fight our battles. However, because people never see their lives in this way, they always assume that the sharpshooters of the universe is some sort of metaphor. But this is not true. The term "the sharpshooters" is a term Toltecs use in referring to very real universal forces that we would otherwise not be able to define. Therefore although the term is indeed metaphorical in its construct, that to which it alludes is most certainly no metaphor, but, on the contrary, very, very real! These forces come into play whenever we are facing a battle, irrespective of the form it may take, and any battle is always a battle against power, whether we know that or not. In order to understand this, realise that to be involved in a battle against power, means that we are being challenged by power. In other words, in order to claim personal power, universal power challenges us to measure our personal power against it. This is true even if, according to your perception, you are just having a