No Secret Ingredients Necessary

Last night, I needed something funny to watch and the library DVD shelves obliged with “Kung Fu Panda.”  Delightfully, the key messages in this film teach us about personal power.

MESSAGE # 1:  Follow your dreams, as they will lead you to your true destiny.

Po, the Panda, dreams of being a Kung Fu warrior.  His father is a noodle seller.  He expects Po to follow in his footsteps.  The father dreamt of being a tofu seller when he was young, but gave up his dream to follow in his own father’s footsteps.  Po is afraid to speak his truth and tell his father that he doesn’t really dream about noodles.

When Po finally speaks his truth, the universe responds and thrusts him into the roll of Dragon Warrior.

Are you following your dream?   Are you speaking your truth?

MESSAGE # 2:  Trust the inner messages you receive.

When the wise elder Kung Fu Master Oogway tells Master Teacher Shifu that Po is the one destined to receive the Dragon Scroll, learn the secret of Limitless Power, and save the village from the evil Tai Lung, Shifu doesn’t believe it.   In fact, he doesn’t want to believe it.

Master Oogway totally trusts the messages he receives and urges Shifu to trust, also.  When Shifu decides to follow his teacher’s advice, he learns the wisdom of listening to inner messages.  Of course, he learns that he must also put aside his own fears and become quite inside before he will get clear messages.

Are you listening to your inner messages?  Have you learned how to quiet your mind so that you can hear them?

Message # 3:  Let go of the illusion of control.

Master Oogway tells Master Shifu that we can only guide someone else, but we cannot control them.  We must let go of the illusion that we control someone else’s destiny – someone else’s experience of life.  We can support them on their path.  We can guide them and teach them.  But ultimately, we must LET GO.

When Master Shifu accepts Master Oogway’s wisdom/teaching, he starts to notice the qualities in Po that can be guided.  Then and only then is he able to prepare Po for his role as the Dragon Warrior.

Master Shifu has to also let go of his own limiting belief that Po is not qualified to be the Dragon Warrior.  Master Shifu has to expand his own consciousness and trust that there are no coincidences in order to  understand and fulfill his own destiny as the Teacher of the Dragon Warrior.

Are there situations and people in your life that you feel responsible for to the degree that you insist that you must control things for them?  Are these your children?  Significant Others?  Animals?  Friends?  Colleagues?

At what point would YOU be willing to give up control?  What benefits can you imagine receiving if you were willing to give up control?

MESSAGE # 4:  There is no secret ingredient.

In an ironic twist to the story, it is Po’s father who gives him the clue to understanding the message of the Dragon Scroll.  All Po’s life, his father has told him that when is he, Po, is ready, his father will give him the secret ingredient to the noodle recipe.

Finally, Po’s father tells him, “Po, there is no secret ingredient.  There is nothing to add to the soup.  Just make the soup.”

In human terms, there is nothing that needs to be added to us.  We are already Divine.

The secret ingredient is YOU!!

It’s already in there.  You are the Divine Spark and when you focus on your own inner wisdom and your own inner connection to God, the secret of your limitless power is revealed.

Are you ready to connect with your own limitless power?  If not, what’s holding you back?

Namaste,
Nedda