If there’s one thing I have learnt from illness, betrayal and backstabbing or even heart stabbing, it’s that we must do it on our own. In my darkest moments battling epilepsy or collecting the naïve parts of myself which people destroyed, I realized one thing. There was a fierce power inside of me which was just waiting to be unleashed. Nietzsche called it the “will power” while Carl Jung named it the shadow. Jordan Peterson usually talks about incorporating the shadow to one’s persona to have full control over one’s abilities. In the next two paragraphs, I will elaborate on the will to power and the shadow from my perspective and experience.
The will to power
The only way to become strong is by overcoming adversity. Just like a muscle needs tension to develop, we need challenges to develop creativity, new skills and become useful for ourselves and our community. However, I often get asked about how to awaken the willingness in us. I usually think of two things. One is how much better my life will be if I do the things which are right for me, and I attain my targets. The second visualisation exercise I do is thinking about the most terrible things that happened to me and get pumped enough to not face such moments again. No one wants to be in a hole and we have to behave in such a way that we are not pushed there.
Everything is in the mindset and the mindset is something constantly evolving. We just need to make sure that it’s evolving in a way which is healthy to us and everyone around us. Nietzsche described the will to power as the ability to overcome, grow, explore, and expand. Hence, if we want to really grow and stretch ourselves, we should be willing to take risks, bite the dust at times, face our inner demons and face the judgements of others when we fail. Hence, a good dose of courage is important if we really want to become the better version of ourselves. Courage doesn’t mean not to fear. It means to see through the fears and sometimes embody the fear and move forward with it. One can think about Batman who takes his worst fear, the fear of bats and embodies it to become a fearless creature.
Discipline is important to build that kind of mindset. When one lacks self-discipline, one gets carried away by one’s emotions and one becomes easily manipulated by others. My zen background made me realize a long time ago that the discipline starts with oneself, by becoming aware of us and conducting ourselves in a way that is healthy for ourselves and others. There are two alternatives to life. One is having a slave morality where you doubt yourself and end up living a shadow life. The other mentality to have is to have clear goals, be very critical about the way we conduct ourselves and to obey our gut feelings and deepest ideals which are buried deep inside of us.
The shadow self
When I was low in my life, I remember consciously trying to bring back or wake up something mighty, relentless that has no pity in me to break the weak part of myself. When I look back now, I can honestly say that I hated certain parts of myself, especially the naïve parts of me which were exploited throughout my lifetime. In that sense, I can say that even hate is extremely powerful in unleashing our true power. It really is. We tend to view emotions in a divisive way, but I think that each emotion carries a unique possibility for growth in a way. The bravest things I have ever done were the ones done during the time of adversity. How can I really explain its power? Let’s say, someone stabs a knife in your heart. You’d look in the person’s eye and say go deeper. We all have that kind of power in us if we really let that shadow manifest itself and fully tame it in a way that it becomes a watchful protector in us. Nietzsche tells a story which I think points to the shadow and how it can manifest and destroy our weak interior to unleash the Overman like he really likes to call it. Here is a text below that describes the process in a story.
The sage, assuming that the snake must have crawled into the young man’s mouth while he lay sleeping, runs to his help and pulls at the loathsome reptile with all his might, but in vain. At last, in despair, Zarathustra appeals to the young man’s will. Knowing full well what a ghastly operation he is recommending, he nevertheless cries, “Bite! Bite! Its head off! Bite!” as the only possible solution of the difficulty. The young shepherd bites, and far away he spits the snake’s head, whereupon he rises, “No longer shepherd, no longer man–a transfigured being, a light-surrounded being, that LAUGHED! Never on earth laughed a man as he laughed!”
NOTES ON “THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA”
In my experience, it takes a lot of training, fear of the unknown and experimentation to fully embody the shadow. However, in this cruel world, life will always throw things which will require us to manifest this side of us so that we can be strong enough and survive this life which is good at times but also bad at other times.
Lots of love,
Geerish.
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