control vs. manipulation

.. well for me, it is just as marston says.

Agreed, people thing they can create things out of thin air such as fire, which they can not, can only work with it.

See, the thing is that even in altering the flow of energy, or attempting to, you cannot necessarily determine the exact course that it takes.

You may dam up a stream, but the water may still change course over time, or otherwise make holes in your dam, etc.

The control is a brief illusion, and nothing more.

True enough, AwakeTooLong, but in terms of directing energy, we can only control or manipulate our own, even if it's short term.

-sigh-

Nevermind..Stoney is right about wasting time.

Nah, Spirit. I'm in agreement. Was just trying to offer a different perspective on the same thing due to an apparent lack of understanding. But... so it goes.

entropy, quit trolling. what the heck does that have to do with what spirit posted? >.<

Well a few of us actually get your point spirit_horse, so it is not a total waste of time. Do not let a few of the ignorant ones keep you from making a valid point :)

The only thing in life you can control is yourself, and at times even the wisest practitioner can have problems with that.

I agree.
You can not 'control' external energies or elements.
The word 'manipulate' bothers me a lot.
I work with energies.
I work with elements.
I do not control or manipulate either of them, unless it is my own, in which case, I am just controlling and manipulating myself.
Thank you for the post.

if they want to control fire the buy a lighter, if its air play a woodwind instrument, if its water get a water gun, and if its earth go get a shovel.

and as for the words control and manipulation, just think of a string puppet thing, you control the strings and it manipulates the puppet. now that sentence doesnt make sense right? well just switch the words. you have to manipulate to control.
blessed be