The Limitless Power Within

A noted scientist once compared people to elephants in a circus. Elephants possess enough physical strength to move objects weighing several tons. In a circus, however, elephants are restrained from wandering about while not performing in the ring, with a relatively small chain or rope tied around one ankle and secured to a wooden peg or post. If an elephant were to actually exert its utmost, it could easily break the chain that holds it. When the elephant was small, however, it may have tried again and again to break the chain, but was too small and too weak to do so. After some time, the elephant began to accept its situation, convinced that trying to break free was futile.
As the elephant reached maturity, though it possessed enough power to break away, it remained passively chained, having learned long ago that it could not escape its bonds. Thus big, powerful elephants are bound by fetters that they might easily break.

Human beings possess tremendous potential within. But unaware of this potential and convinced they are incapable; people often make no attempt to tap the power they inherently possess, allowing that potential to remain dormant. Psychologists have found that people form this tendency to limit themselves between the ages of 4 and 5. Around this period, mothers often strive to teach their children as much as they possibly can to prepare them to begin their schooling. Without thinking, the mother may become impatient and say thoughtless things to the child like, “You’re stupid!” or “You’re hopeless!” The feelings a child experiences at such times become the seeds of that child’s belief that he or she is a “bad person.” Later in life, when grades at school or promotions at work don’t go in his favor, he subconsciously concludes that this is the result of being “no good” or “a failure”.

However, Dr. Rene Dubos stated, “Because all human beings possess an innate, unseen, extremely rich potential, when the opportunity presents itself, they are able to tap this power and accomplish tremendous things.”

Human life is endowed with boundless power and vast creativity. The source of this potential can be thought of in Buddhist terms as the world of Buddhahood.

Faith in Buddhism enables us to believe and have confidence in the limitless power we possess within, rather than the limits or constraints we have placed on ourselves. Furthermore, it enables us to tap this tremendous power and challenge what we have never dared challenge before, breaking the bonds of our own limitations.