Power lies in Making distinctions. Freedom lies in destroying them.
So what is "Distinction" ?
Our experience of absolutely everything, and in every way, is a matter of distinction. Making a distinction in our experience means we can now isolate and know something in our field of awareness. A distinction can be anything, any thought, feeling, object, class, category, level, measure etc. If it is distinct from what it is not, it is a distinction.
Distinction is everything. It makes up our entire world and everything in it.
For example, a car is a distinction- it is not a bus or any other form of transport.
A rock is a distinction. What distinction is it ? It is the distinction "rock", it is the distinction of that particular rock. We may also make a distinction regarding the color of the rock, the weight of the rock, the size and shape of the rock, the substance of the rock, the temperature of the rock, and any other "piece" of information or perception about the rock. Anything else we are aware of in relation to the rock is another distinction. All together, these are what constitute our awareness of the rock.
Fear - fear is a distinction within the domain of emotions. We know the difference between fear and anger, joy and any other emotion - these are all "distinctions" in emotions.
How do you "make" a distinction ? If you are aware of something in any way, if you can think about it, perceive it, imagine it, or know it in any way, you have "made" the distinction. If not, then you cannot think about it, perceive it, imagine it, or know it in any way. It does not exist at all in your experience. It is not possible to understand anything that you do not create for yourself, and much of it must be created. Making a distinction is simply creating in your consciousness a particular awareness or experience - this is then that distinction.
We make distinctions all the time. They are what constitute our reality, our experiences, our perceptions.
When we learn something, we make new distinctions. We perceive something we hadn't perceived before. When you learn how to make a pie, you make distinctions of the different ingredients, their characteristics, the proportion to use, the temperature to bake it etc.
Whenever we make new distinctions, we have new experiences and new perceptions. And since our interactions are determined by what we experience, we can also create new abilities. Every ability to interact effectively with the world around us, or within us - is determined by the distinctions we make. This would be seen as what we know and how we know it.
How we perceive events, what we perceive in the event, and how clearly we perceive it are all functions of the distinctions we make. If we make fine distinctions in balance, for example, we are able to balance our bodies much better than if we made gross distinctions in balance. It is the same with space, distance, movements, forces, thinking, feeling, communication, and so on. Most people think there is only one type of snow (specially those who lived in the tropic). But Eskimos can distinguises tens of varieties of snows. That is why they are much more capable of interacting with their freezing environment than the rest of us. Distinction is the prime ingredient of all perception, and therefore of all interaction, and so determines the interaction. This determination governs what can and what will occur in the interaction, and so determines the level of ability anyone will have within an interaction.
When we realize the prime place distinctions play in our lives, we realize that nothing can occur or proceed without them - they constitute our entire experience and every element of it. And although all power and ability arise from the distinctions we make, we should not ignore the fact that real personal freedom can only be had through eliminating distinctions.
So there you go. We now should understand why "Power" lies in ability to make distinctions. I will expand on why "freedom" lies in destroying them in the next blog.
