Power to Decide 
   The power to decide Sometimes, I'm not so much faced with a choice between truth and falsehood, as with having to balance competing aims or priorities in deciding on a course of action. There's huge value in getting this right, because poor judgment can entangle me in consequences from which it might take years to recover. If I'm deflected because of my attachments or desires, I'll lose my ability to decide accurately.
   Understanding myself as a soul, and keeping my heart full and free through relationship with God, puts me in the best possible position to judge correctly. I'll be like the statue of Justice, wearing a blindfold as she carefully weighs the evidence: free from prejudice arising from superficial appearances, above the influence of situations and the emotions and opinions of others, perfectly centred, she is optimally placed to sense the right way forward.
   The power to co-operate In India, there is a saying that when everyone gave a finger of co-operation, the mountain of sorrow was lifted. If we look with open eyes at the world of today, and at current social financial and environmental trends, it's clear that there is widespread suffering and sorrow, that it is likely to get worse, and that to remove it will be a task like lifting a mountain. Meditation ignites a conviction that the task will be done. Although we have such different backgrounds, cultures, personalities, and so on, meditation takes us to a place of understanding from which it becomes easy to share our resources, work together, and give our own finger of cooperation in the task.
   The way meditation achieves this is interesting. Look at the other side - at what prevents co-operation: it is ego, where I am in a state of self-aggrandizement, hungry for personal praise or fame, and not concerned about the team. In ego, I think I am the only one who can do a task, the only one who knows, the one who is right. Ego kills cooperation. Ego is closely connected to body-consciousness. An enormous 'I and my' factor comes in when I think of myself as this body, and lose sight of the soul. My race, my colour, my gender, my physical appearance, my education, my family, my job, my position, my possessions - all these become part of the build-up of ego. Working with others, who may at any moment challenge my ego with their own distinct agendas and needs, becomes stressful.
  The more I practise meditation, and develop and live with the consciousness that I am a non-physical soul, a being of light, the quicker the ego associated with all those physical factors melts away. Colouring myself with God's company, I see others as the children of God. I know myself as part of the family of human souls who have the same original qualities as me. In soul-consciousness, there is no way I can feel superior to others, though I'll value their specialities. We are brothers - equal, yet distinct.
   In this consciousness, a natural humility develops a genuine respect for each other. There is a strength and happiness in the awareness of being a child of God, but I'll see others as the same. There is neither the ego of feeling superior, nor the inverted ego of an inferiority complex. I am not negating myself, I am recognizing the value of the self, but I'm also appreciating the value and qualities of all others around me.