What Kind of Emperor Are You to Yourself?

More than two thousand years ago, a king united a world surrounded by the sea, the high mountains and the deserts after hundreds of years of chaos. Since his realm was larger than any other kings had ruled, he felt the title of king was not great enough for him. So he gave himself the title of emperor. Thus he became the first emperor in this part of the world.

In order to make his empire strong and ever-lasting, this first emperor did many great things. Writing system, money, weights, wheel-gauge and measures were unified throughout his empire. Imperial highways were built from the capital to numerous important cities. These things lasted for extremely long time. Actually, the people in this part of the world still use the writing system unified by the first emperor. He was surely great in these aspects.

On the other hand, he introduced the strictest control over every aspect of lives of his subjects. He levied heavy taxes and imposed forced labour on peasants for many state projects including his gigantic place and tomb. In order to ensure all these civil duties to be observed, a very strict and lengthy penal code was introduced.

He put an extremely strict control on thoughts, too. Books other than the ones approved by the state were banned and burnt. Hundreds of philosophers who criticised the emperor were buried alive.

Do you want to live in such a world?

This reign of terror remained intact while this great yet horrible emperor was alive. But people’s discontent continued to brew… This mighty empire fell just three years after the first emperor’s death. The entire dynasty lasted only for fifteen years, much shorter than any other dynasties that reigned the whole empire later.

So the first emperor of the new dynasty reversed many of totalitarian policies that the previous dynasty had implemented. The penal code was cut to the minimal and tax was not levied in the early years of the new dynasty so that people could recover from the oppression of the ancien regime and from many years of war. Free thinking flourished. And this much more benevolent dynasty lasted for more than 400 years!

Well, this is what everyone in this part of the world knows… But we can apply this history to how we treat ourselves.

You are actually ruling yourself like an emperor. Are you constantly forcing yourself do something you do not want and suppressing what you want in order to make yourself strong and great? Or do you listen to the needs and wisdoms that come from deep inside of you and treat yourself well?

If you are experiencing uneasiness or sudden surges of emotion time to time, then you are a tyrant to yourself, just like the first emperor. But you can feel happy if you change yourself into a ruler of virtue, the one like the first emperor of the second dynasty.

And you can start changing yourself by heeding to the small voice from your soul. It’s very easy so I believe you can do this (only if you are willing)!