The Power of One is a philosophy of life and a movement of people who live by that philosophy.

During my philosophy major, I concentrated on ethics because I desperately wanted to know how to become a better person. I didn’t think that following rules or looking just at consequences could truly grow me as a person, so I homed in on virtue ethics.

Virtue ethics is less about rule-following or weighing consequences than it is about building character. The essential question of virtue ethics is, How do we become the type of person who flourishes and creates flourishing for the world around us?

I would describe The Power of One philosophy as a foundation for building communities that flourish. As such, there are four foundational principles and four pillars. The foundational principles are:

1. Wisdom rooted in Nature and growing into the Transcendent.
2. Courage to speak and do what is challenging.
3. Balance and integration of opposites.
4. Justice for all, grounded in both Truth and Love.

The four pillars, building on the foundational principles, are:

1. Trust – Trust in the ultimate goodness of Life.
2. Hope – Hopeful vision-casting for the future.
3. Love – Loving presence and attention to The Sacred.
4. Generosity – Active listening and dialogue.

The Power of One philosophy is an ethical framework and a spirituality. I don’t mean spirituality in the sense that one must belong to this or that religion. I understand spirituality as the integration of the vertical, that is, what is greater than ourselves, the Sacred, and the horizontal, the details of our daily life and our incarnation as human beings.

I speak on this blog from my perspective, as a Catholic interested in the esoteric, those truths hidden in plain sight. The Scriptural text integral to my spirituality as a lover of wisdom is:

May God grant that I speak with judgement and have thoughts worthy of what I have received,

for he is the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise.

For both we and our words are in his hand, as are all understanding and skill in crafts.

For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,

to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;

the beginning and end and middle of times,

the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,

the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,

the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts,

the powers of spirits and the reasonings of men,

the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;

I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,

for Wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.

Wisdom 7:15-22

As someone of both European and Asian descent, my very being is the marriage of traditions, Western and Eastern. At the center point is the teaching of a Near Eastern itinerant preacher, of Jewish descent, named Yeshua ben Yosef. From my explorations into Hermeticism to my interest in Zen, my perspective grows from the mustard seed sown in my heart by Yeshua.

Part of my hope in sharing this unique perspective is to help others who find themselves alienated in the current spiritual milieu, who cannot find solace in mainstream churches or in New Age thought, neither allied with atheism nor with fundamentalist religion. The person who will be drawn to this blog is someone who loves Wisdom, no matter where they find Her.

This makes The Power of One a wisdom blog building a wisdom community.

The symbol of the blog is inspired by the Camargue Cross, the anchor lowered into the heart, hope grounded in love. There is so much suffering and chaos in the world. I think many of us are finding ourselves asking what we can do to alleviate the brokenness we see. The symbol of The Power of One signifies the aim of the blog and the community, to raise up transformed people to be the light that transforms the world.

We need more people doing the work of transforming themselves and their communities. Only through the alchemical process of self-transformation can we hope to affect the broken and sick societies we find ourselves in.

Welcome to the blog, and I hope you find something here that resonates, inspires, and encourages you!