- Zen is what happened when Buddhism met Taoism. And there is more Taoism in Zen than there is Buddhism. Ray Grigg’s book, “The Tao of Zen,” is an excellent source for understanding the development of Zen Taoism and its place in the pantheon of religious expression and experience.
- The present moment is the pivot point, the fulcrum, to all moments that will follow. This is the only time we have to work with. What is happening? What needs to happen in response? In what ways does the future impact the now? In what ways does the past impact the now? The now does not exist in a vacuum! It has antecedents and it has consequences! All are valid in taking all things into account—in being aware of all that is to be aware of here and now. Awareness is the key. Awareness takes everything into account, and waits in the Stillness for Right Seeing, Right Hearing, Right Feeling, Right Knowing, Right Being and Right Doing to arise from the Stillness and call us forth onto the Field of Action. Here and now is where it all comes together and flows into what is next—where we repeat the process into all that is to come.
- Our work is doing what needs to be done here, now, in light of all things considered. We live in the service of doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way and in the right place. This is the Tao of being. The Yin/Yang of Life. Two things (Yin and Yang) are one thing. One thing is Two things. Not this and not that. Which leaves us where, exactly? Here! Now! What is called for here, now? Do that!
- The totality of here, now, takes into account the antecedents and the consequences of what is happening in the present moment. Past and future impinge upon the here and now, and their influence has to be considered as a part of “the totality of what is happening right now.”
- It’s always a choice, moment by moment, between the nice world that we have in mind and want to set up in our life, and how life turns out to be. No whinning, just awareness. This is not That and not This. Doing here what is called for is all that is asked of us.
- Accepting things just as they are means doing what needs to be done about things just as they are—not extending things just as they are indefinitely. Integration not segregation! Gay Rights not homophobia! We accept what needs to be done about the way things are, and do it, to make things more like they ought to be than they are. Cups of cold water to the thirsty. Bread and soup to the hungry. We act here and now in light of what needs to be done here and now. Accepting things as they are means accepting the implications that are incumbent upon us to act in the service of what needs to be done in response to the way things are. The way things are is always calling us to action—and the action may well be non-action, as we wait for the time to be right to do what needs to be done. Waiting is acting. Watching is acting. Listening is acting. Looking is acting. Hearing is acting. Seeing is acting. Biding our time is acting.
- There is no advantage to leaving things as we find them. If the baby’s diaper needs to be changed, we change the baby’s diaper. If the baby needs to be fed, we feed the baby. Just being with a crying baby is not the thing to do. Responding as needed to the crying baby is the thing to do. Doing what is called for here, now, is the thing to do.
- Seeing it is responding to it. Is doing something about it. Self-transparency is the pivot point, the fulcrum which shifts the future into place. We do not live just in the present, but also in light of the present. And in light of the past. The now transforms the not-yet, creates what is next, opens the way to what needs to happen. Seeing clearly is living appropriately in light of what needs to be done about the way things are. Seeing is doing—the right thing in the right way at the right time and the right place.
- This is the life that is perfect for us! We are well-suited for the life we are living! Here we are, now what? What does this mean for that? Let’s find out! By doing what we think needs to be done here and now and seeing what that calls for, and doing that! Which may be the opposite of what we just did! “The Spirit is like the wind that blows where it will” depending upon what is called for here, now, no matter what it just did!
- This life that we are living is the life that we are born to live, but if we have spent our life this long trying to live some other, better, life instead, we will have to make some adjustments going forward. For one thing, throwing the life that was theirs to live away in favor of a richer, finer, life is the mistake Adam and Eve made, and the moral of the Garden of Eden is “Don’t let wanting get in your way and prevent you from living the life that is your life to live!” Starting over means spending time with Emptiness, Stillness, Silence, waiting for clarity by waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear, as the old Taoists would say. In the silence, and the stillness beyond the silence (Emptiness is about emptying ourselves of our ideas, emotions, desires, and all the baggage we bring with us into the Emptiness, etc. so that we are unencumbered and free to experience what we will find there.) And we make a covenant with ourselves for at least 20 minutes of silence, etc. once a day forever.
- We live our way into enlightened living—we do not think our way there. We cannot be told it. Life is the teacher, living is the lesson. We learn how to live by being alive, with our eyes open, fully present in the here and now. Looking for what meets us to lead us along the way.
- It takes a lot of looking to be able to see, a lot of living to be able to be alive. But, we have to reflect on our experience to the point of new realizations in order for experience to be the source of wisdom. Experience is wasted without reflection and realization.
- We cannot sit quietly without facing ourselves and realizing what is too painful to bear. Too much comes up in the silence! Too many bad memories! Too many ghosts come stalking us! Too much of what we have done poorly, or what we failed to do! We cannot bear the weight of what has happened to us, or has failed to happen to us, or of what we have done, or failed to do, in response to what has happened or not happened to us! We must flee into the noise of diversion, distraction, denial! The silence is too painful! Too horrible to bear! And so we must develop the power of disengagement.
- The key word to the right kind of silence is disengagement. How disengaged can we be? How aware can we be of everything without being engaged by anything for twenty minutes once a day? How long can we live without being hooked by something? We live from one hook to another. As we learn to live disengaged for twenty minutes once a day, that ability begins to show itself throughout our life. And that makes all the difference.
- Dreams can be ways of impacting reality, of transforming reality. Everything that we see that has been produced by human beings came from someone’s imagination. Someone dreamed up everything human beings have created. Begging bowls and monk’s robes—where did they come from? Someone dreamed them up! Monks who decry that everything is illusion run into the contradiction that if everything is an illusion, then saying something is an illusion and something is not is an illusion. And if they say, “No duality!” they create a duality between “No duality” and “Oneness.” It is the nature of Koans to be contradictory. Life is a koan. We live between the hands: On the one hand this, on the other hand that. Bear the pain. Do what needs to be done, anyway, nevertheless, even so! Not This! Not That! (Wu-Wei), and doing what is called for in each situation as it arises.
- When we are meditating seeking emptiness, stillness and silence, and thoughts intrude, we simply add the thoughts to awareness as something else to be aware of in a “This, too, this, too,” kind of way. Awareness is infinitely expansive. Awareness includes all things. Everything is welcome in awareness, nothing is unwelcome in awareness. Awareness is Wu-Wei in action. To say something doesn’t belong in awareness is to be unaware of how everything belongs in awareness.
- We will never get to the place of being aware of everything, but. We can easily be at the place of being open to being aware of anything. Is there something, some area of our life, we are closed off from, unavailable to? Is there something, some place, too threatening, frightening, painful to consider—to even be aware of refusing to be aware of it? We can at least be aware of refusing to be aware of it in an “I’m not ready to go there yet!” kind of way.
- The idea of Karma being the source of reward and punishment introduces duality into the conversation. Rewarded? Punished? Really? What is “rewarded,” “punished”? Everything flows naturally from how we respond to each moment. We create the future by how we respond to the present. No rewards, no punishment! Just this, here, now. No one is keeping score! Whatever happens is just something else to be aware of and to respond to. What is bad? What is good? It is what we call bad! It is what we call good! But what do we know? We only know what we like and don’t like, what we want and don’t want! But what does liking know? What does wanting know? Wait, and bad grows into good. Wait, and good goes over into bad. Everything is a step on the way to something else! There are no steady states of being! Perspective changes over time, and changes everything with it. Things are what we say they are. Our interpretation of reality colors reality. Reality becomes what we say it is. The most objective reality has to be interpreted subjectively. We assign meaning based on our assessment, our evaluation, our opinion, our judgment of observed reality. What reality is, is what it means to us, here, now. When the meaning changes, reality changes with it. If it is meaningless, it does not exist. We cannot see anything that is completely meaningless. If we see it at all, it is because it has some meaning associated with it. We are meaning-makers. We exist to make sense of things we bump into, of things that exist in the world with us. The better we do that, the better things go for us. The more we can be aware of, the better able we are to make sense of things, and be better able we are to deal with things. There is no reward, no punishment. There are only outcomes which we interpret, which we make sense of. “Reward,” “punishment” are nonsense.
- Simply experiencing things as they are, without judgment, evaluation, opinion (to the extent that is possible)—without declaring something to be “punishment” and something to be “reward”—and doing what needs to be done about it—is the essence of a life worth living. “Not this! Not that!” “This, too! This, Too!” And laughter all around the room!
- Just being who the moment needs us to be is our practice. When we get that down there is no more to get.
- Life is always going to be exactly what it is, and we are always going to be exactly the way we are! Carl Jung said, “We are who we always have been, and who we will be.” Carl Jung also said, “There is within each of us, another whom we do not know.”
- We can all rest in the moment just as it is. We can all rest in ourselves just as we are! We can trust ourselves just as we are to respond appropriately to life just as it is! Not by thinking about how to do it, but by “just doing” it! Spontaneously! No thinking! Just doing! What needs to be done, here, now. Just like “Peaceful abiding, here, now”!
- When we refuse to bear legitimate suffering, we create a situation that cannot be helped. No one can do it for us. We must bear our own pain as it needs to be borne! Bear the pain! And do what needs to be done about it, in response to it! Maybe, in addition to walking with a limp for the rest of our life! “
- Entitlement. Now, that’s a problem! “I don’t deserve this!” Where does “deserve” come from? Where does our sense of entitlement come from? Not This! Not That! Wanting, not-wanting, wanting-not. The sources of all of our problems today. If we were truly disengaged, truly open, truly present with what is present with us in a Wu-Wei kind of way, we would be enlightened.
- Escape! Diversion! Distraction! Denial! Even the Buddhists seek Refuge from Suffering! What? How does this square with being present with what is present with us? With Seeing? Hearing? Knowing? Doing what is called for? Being who we are here, now? No matter what? Contradiction is at the heart of being. Koans are everywhere. Not This! Not That! Not Not-This! Not Not-That! Do we embrace suffering or do we deny suffering, or do we seek escape from suffering? Or do we say Yes! to everything just as it is? Wu-Wei! Peaceful abiding amidst all of the contradictions great and small! With “No Duality!” being the greatest of them all!
- We meet pain on the road we take to escape it! Wu-Wei! This, too! This, Too! No? No escape. No denial. No refuge. Just being okay with everything just as it is! Equanimity. Peace. Tranquility. Serenity. Anyway. Nevertheless. Even so.
- What life requires us to give is what is needed in responding to the situation as it arises, moment-by-moment. Doing what is called for here, now is all there is to it.
- Wisdom and compassion inform and direct our response to life as it is. What we do here and now determines, or greatly influences, all that follows. The present is the door to the future. We can only go here, now, where we have been allows us to go.
- We want things to be different than they are. Not That! Not This! It all emerges in the silence. Anger, fear, hatred, greed, shame, remorse, regret, jealousy… It takes great courage to be quiet long enough to perceive and rest in the stillness beyond the silence. The stillness beyond the silence is the source of life and being, the Great Mother of all that is. The Tao. From the stillness comes all things, including what’s next.
- Allowing life just as it is to show us what needs to be done in response to life just as it is, and to lead us all along the way, going with the flow, moment-to-moment-to-moment, no matter what. Not this! Not that! Now This! Now That! We cannot make sense of it, of any of it. Making sense of things is a thinking thing. We are asked to do what is called for, where, when and how it is called for—without being able to defend, explain, justify, excuse any of it.
- Reflection leads to realization. Seeing means seeing more than meets the eye. Seeing always has implications for those who see. “What is the meaning of this?” “What now?” “Now, what?” What is on the other side of enlightenment? “Chop wood, carry water.” “After enlightenment, the laundry.” But with a difference! Now with joy! Now with love! Now with compassion! Now with full participation on the field of action! Now we do what needs to be done with complete abandon for the tasks at hand, fully alive to the moment of our living, so that the dance dances the dancer, so that the song sings the singer, so that the work and the worker are one!
- The point of it all is living the life that is our life to live within the life we are living! We are not going through the motions of living, we are not doing this with our mind on something else—we are here, now, living the moment the way the moment needs to be lived, the way it needs us to live it, the way we need to live it, anyway, nevertheless, even so! Nirvana! The Yonder Shore is right here, right now! In living our life as it needs to be lived, as it needs us to live it, in doing what is called for here, now.
- We spend most of our time trying to set life up in a way so that it will be make sense; when, contrariwise, the joy of our life is just in totally doing what is at hand, and just bearing what must be borne, in just doing what has to be done. The way it needs to be done! Without being able to explain, justify, defend, excuse any of it!
- Feeling our feelings and being one with it all, in a “This too! This too!” kind of way! Without allowing that to stop us from seeing how things are and doing what needs to be done in response. Maybe what needs to be done is to grieve! “Tears are grief’s way of saying what words cannot say, yet must be said.” There is a place for a Wailing Wall in everyone’s life!
- Being in right relationship with all that is going on is all there is to it! That transforms everything! And that requires that we be living in right relationship with emptiness, stillness and silence and that we be peacefully abiding here, now in each situation as it arises.
- Being present with what is present with us in each moment and doing what needs to be done in response to what is called for in each moment is the practice that transforms the world one situation at a time.
- Our life has a mind of its own! We do not direct our life. We do not know what we are doing or what needs to be done about any of it. We do not know where we are going or where we need to go. We live moment by moment, doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, with no outcome in sight. We are feeling our way along from one situation after another, amazed at all that has happened and all that has been done about what has happened to produce the life we have lived up to this point—with our not being in command and control of any of it. Our life is an amazing wonder and all we have done is what has been called for, all that has been asked of us, moment by moment to here, now. It is a miracle and realizing that is enlightenment, awakening to the experience of being here, now in this life just as it is.
- We cannot be intimate if we will not be vulnerable. We cannot be present if we will not be vulnerable. Awareness entails awareness of our vulnerability and being OK with that. We cannot be aware of what we are not OK being aware of.
- Growing up is coming to terms with the discrepancy between how things are and how we want them to be. We grow up some more again in each situation that comes along. OK, now this. OK, now that… And our experience is visceral—of the body, knowing—not intellectual, thinking. It is experience that leads to reflection and new realizations.
- Are we OK with having to do what we don’t want to do? With having to deal with what we don’t want to deal with? If we can do that, we have it made—as much as we can have it made in a world with circumstances like these to throw at us 24/7.
- If we are willing to be as we are with other people being as they are in the world as it is and being OK with all of that, this is the way of a true human being. Of a Bodhisattva! Of the Buddha/Christ among us!
- When we accept that we have to do what has to be done in response to how things are, and do it as it needs to be done, when and where it needs to be done, this is the Tao at work in our life. And, we grow up some more again.
- This too, this too… Everything is coming or going. Moods change. Feelings change. Perspectives change. Perceptions change… If we sit, watching, long enough everything changes, and all we did was watch!
- We cannot make anything into our idea of it, for it, and we have no business trying. But. We can turn things that have no business being away from being that way toward being a different way. We can stop things from happening that have no business happening. A cup of cold water, for instance, to one who is thirsty. A bowl of rice to one who is hungry. Alms to the poor… We are not helpless before the storm! We have the power of response to our circumstances—limited though it may be! We have the power of responding to the limited nature of our response, and act to the best of our ability, anyway, nevertheless, even so!
- Our growing changes our experience—changes how we experience what we experience, and changes what we experience. We impact our experience by experiencing it, and doing what needs to be done in response to it. When, where and how it needs to be done.
- Our emotional responses to our life are indications that we are being asked/called/required to grow up some more again.
- It is all ebb and flow, wax and wane… The rhythm of the universe. Now we have it, now we don’t. So what? Here it comes again! There it goes again! The sun is shining. Now it’s raining… There is little that is “Steady as she goes” about our life, about being alive. We have to adapt to not having things our way. Being truly okay with that is the Bodhisattva among us kind of thing.
- When life is not as it needs to be, we work to change it! Cool water to the thirsty! Rice to the hungry! Alms to the poor! Etc. If things can be improved, improve things! If you need to be helped, you should be helped! If you can help, you should be helpful! Why bother to be enlightened if nothing changes? Why bother to take the next breath? Taking another breath is refusing to settle for life as it is! Breathe on! Live on! In the service of the way life needs to be! Life always needs to be better than it is in 10,000 ways! Lao-tzu stalked off the job in protest of the way things were, seeking a better life! The Dali Lama left Tibet seeking a better life! He teaches “Compassion! Compassion! Compassion!” to this day, seeking a better life! Leaving things as they are is to fail things that need our help!
- Just being with things as they are is our Practice. This is what being here, now, is all about—being with our life just as it is here and now, and doing what that asks of us here and now. Maybe to just sit. Maybe to get up and prepare dinner, or do the laundry.
- What are we not willing to have continue about our life? I am not willing for things that need to be done to go undone! If I need to go to the bathroom, I am going to the bathroom! If I need to chop wood, I am going to chop wood! If I need to fetch water, I am going to fetch water! Etc. So, Being unwilling for things to be as they are is not a bad thing. It is an essential thing. We are here to make things more like they need to be than they are. Food for the hungry, for instance. Etc. across the board, around the world.
- There is no reason for our experience to have to be what it is! Alms to the poor! Help to the helpless! Compassion! Compassion! Compassion! Live in the service of what needs to happen! That is the way it is! And is to be!
- Appreciation for life as it is leads to life in the service of how life needs to be! Life is always moving, and needs people to serve its movement from how things are to how things need to be—and this is how things are! The flow! The movement! There is no steady state of being! Life does not stand still! The river flows to the sea! Water runs downhill! Only the dead are static, stationary, unmoving, uncaring, lifeless, dead to the world! The living do what needs to be done here, now.
- Doing it is just the thing that enables us to see what we are doing! How will we see what we are doing if we do not do it? Once we see what we are doing, we will do something else, as it needs to be done, in its own time, in its own way.
- To experience the reality of our life just as it is and to do what needs to be done about it, in response to it is the way of being who we need to be here and now in each moment of each situation as it arises. We are here to experience things as they are and to change the way things are in the direction of making them more like they ought to be than they are. If the baby’s diaper needs changing, change the baby’s diaper!
- We live toward what needs to be done in each situation as it arises! Toward the response that needs to be made! I am in motion! I am growing up some more again! I am the stream flowing downhill!
- We live to see things more clearly and to do what needs to done about them here and now. How to see more clearly how things are and what needs to be done in response, in service to how things need to be! Eat when hungry! Rest when tired!
- We have to reconcile ourselves with the work that is ours to do. When do we allow things to be what they are, the baby’s diaper needs changing, for instance, and when do we do what needs to be done to make things better than they are, changing the baby’s diaper, for instance. When things need to be done that we can’t do anything about, we have to accept it and grow up some more again.
- Awareness of who we are and what are about guides us to wise decisions in each here, now of our life. We live out of who we are and what is ours to do. We live to be true to ourselves within the circumstances defining each situation as it arises, and how we, with our gifts, with what we have to offer, may be helpful in the situation. Meaning we have to be clear about the gifts of our original nature. The Myers/Briggs Personality Inventory sees me as an I-N-F-P and I concur with that. “These personality types tend to be quiet, open-minded and imaginative, and they apply a caring and creative approach to everything they do.” Sounds about right to me. Throw in my intrinsic virtues, the things I do best and enjoy doing most, my innate imagination and my inherent intuition and my ability to tune into these things and allow them to guide me and assist me along life’s way and I find that I am clued into what’s what and what is called for waiting only for clarity to emerge from the emptiness, stillness and silence to sense what is called for in each situation as it arises and to act in light of that in each situation as it arises.
- Knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises just leaves finding the courage to do it for things to flow with the Tao with balance and harmony all along the way.
- Willing to be vulnerable and trusting ourselves to respond on the fly to circumstances as they change about us requires the confidence that comes from knowing there is more to us than meets the eye, and that we have all we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done in each situation that arises—that is, we have a connection with the center and the source, the Great Stillness beyond silence, from which guidance and direction arise as needed all along The Way. When we nurture the connection and live from the Source, we have nothing to fear.
- To live our life just as it is and not to manipulate and exploit life to our comfort and satisfaction forever is the problem Adam and Eve failed to work out. It seems that we have only what we want to guide us, and what does wanting know? Wanting only wants what it wants—it does not know what to want, or how to un-want what it has no business wanting. When we are seized by a mythic, a mythological, vision—a vision of mythic/mythological proportions—we are hurled into doing what needs us to do it past all wanting or willing. We are driven by liege loyalty to the service of more than we understand. Then manipulation and exploitation are out of the question, and we must obey the calling beyond all reason to the end of our days. How to arrange the mythic, mythological, vision is the trick. It helps to be quiet on a regular basis.
- The mythological vision picks us out of life as it is and plops us into life as it should be, and we live to serve another “whom we do not know” (Carl Jung). Living on the edge of mystery and exploring psychic possibilities puts us in the center of life’s possibilities in the world of more than words can say. And that is a very cool place to live.
- Nothing special is transformed by a shift in perspective into the field of action where we serve what calls us to go and do according to its good pleasure. To those who do not see, we are doing nothing special, but we know we are bringing ourselves forth in ways that are astonishing, astounding and amazing. We can begin to explore our psychic side simply by dropping into the silence and asking for a vision of what might serve as a symbol to us of psychic reality, and waiting to see what might arise out of the silence as a gift to us for asking. From that point, “The Game Is On!”
- It is certainly possible to find in the stillness the source of life, and grace and being! Ask questions and wait for the response to appear. Probe and explore, trust and rely. Psychic reality is as near as our curiosity and our trust in the presence of More Than Words Can Say.
- When we open ourselves to whatever we are called to do, whatever we know we must do because it is ours to do and no one but us can do it the way we can do it, the Way will open before us, and, as Joseph Campbell would say, “Doors will open where we did not know doors existed. And help will come from sources we never imagined would be helpful.” There are no replaceable people! We are not interchangeable! We are unique and essential to the wholeness, fullness and completion of The Way! When we realize that and begin living as though we are unique and irreplaceable, we will be led along the way that we did not know was a way.
- Mindfulness solves the problem, whatever the problem may be, by seeing it, recognizing it, and holding it in awareness without acting on it. Solutions have a way of appearing out of nowhere.
- Doing what is“Most fruitful” to the situation at hand is what needs to be done. In any situation, there is what needs to be done, whether it bears fruit in that situation or not. It may appear to be a complete waste of time, or the entirely wrong thing to do, but if it needs to be done, we do not reason why. We do it, trusting the Source that is with us always to the close of time and space.
- We have our ideas, and our ideals. Our Ideal Self is not our Invisible Other Within. The Other is the stone the builders reject. When we lay aside who we think our Ideal Self ought to be, and simply trust ourselves to the Invisible Other Within, we open ourselves to possibilities and opportunities to making all things new that will bring vitality and enthusiasm to life within us and make living a joy.
- Our life has a mind of its own. Always the recipe: Listen to your Body—to your Heart, your Belly and your Bones. Listen to your nighttime dreams. Listen to your experience. Listen to the Stillness Beyond the Silence. And talk to the Stillness Beyond the Silence and trust yourself to its responses.
- Facing up to how things are and squaring ourselves up with it, coming to terms with it, letting it be because it is, and doing what needs to be done in relation to it, in relationship with it will transform everything.
- We are attached to our opinions! How would we ever live without opinions? That is the life that waits on the far side of practice! Being here now. Attending the moment, moment-to-moment-to-moment carries us into new ways of thinking about who and where we are.
- What would life be without our attachments? That is the life that waits for us to begin living it. What are the attitudes, beliefs and opinions we cannot part with? Ask the question in the emptiness, stillness and silence, and wait for the response.
- Mindful awareness of the moment and where our thoughts go in the moment, coming back to our breathing and watching when we lose sight of our breathing because our “mind wandered,” and coming back to our breathing… Watching what comes and what goes. Becoming enamored by the drift of our mind as we watch.
- Notice everything, engage nothing. Be aware of awareness being aware.
- Break the engagement, the being engaged with our thoughts. Come back to awareness. Seek the stillness beyond the silence.
- Noticing what our thoughts are doing, and bringing ourselves back to simply being aware of the moment, attending the moment, breathing in, breathing out. Going off, coming back…
- We need to move toward that which makes our little heart sing, which catches our eye, which stirs our soul, which calls our name. We also need to live in the service of our gifts, not just follow some order of the day, doing chores, meditating, blah, blah, blah… What quickens our pulse? Enflames our passion, our joy of life, our vitality, our libido? Serve THAT!
- Living our lives fully goes well beyond meeting the demands of the day! We enter here the spiritual dimension of finding and serving the thing that is ours to do above all the other things that command our time and attention. Joseph Campbell talks about the Primary Mask and the Antithetical Mask. I think of them as callings rather than masks. Our Primary Calling is to meet the duties, requirements, obligations and the like of the culture and society, paying the bills, being a good father/mother/spouse/partner, son, daughter…, doing what we are supposed to do whether our heart is in it or not, living the life we are expected to live whether it fits us or not. The Antithetical Calling is the calling with our name all over it. It is the thing we individually and personally are best suited to do. We can never live our lives fully without embracing the Antithetical Calling and serving the thing we are built to serve, beyond all reason. This is the world of the mythical/mythological vision, and off we go on the adventure of our life! That is to be fully alive!
- The Primary Calling provides us with a stable foundation for our life, paying the bills and that kind of thing, but it cannot offer anything in the way of enthusiasm for life or joy of life. Those belong to sphere of the Antithetical Calling. That points us in the direction of being who we truly are! Doing what is ours to do!
- Being who we are here, now, meeting the moment, facing the moment, knowing what is called for and doing that, when, where and how it is called for is all there is to it. What is interfering with that? Preventing it? Whose permission do we need to be who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are, why we are?
- Listening to our body’s signals and aligning ourselves with the messages coming from within is the essential connection with the Psyche and the world of That Which Has Always Been Called God. Psyche is God and has been God from the beginning. Psyche is life and life communes with the living, and the living call that “God.” And build a theology around “God” with sin and atonement and heaven and hell and the entire array of nonsense imagined to explain the messages of our body to our mind. There are only life/Psyche communing with our body with messages about living in accord with the Tao, with the flow of life and being in the here, now of each situation as it arises.
- It comes down to accommodating ourselves to the way things are in order to live in accordance with the Tao, the flow of life and being. We have the ability to synchronize ourselves with the movement of life/Psyche through the here/now as it extends throughout the situation as it arises individually and collectively, from the local to the national and the international and the cosmic. We are connected with it all, and live in light of everything, here/now.
- We are learning to attune ourselves to “the music of the spheres.” We are the individual learning to be at one with the corporate worldwide and universally. It is not “just about us.” And we are born with the mechanism in place to enable us to take our place within the larger framework of life/Psyche. We are one with it all, with everything, and only need to listen within to know how we need to blend with the without in each situation as it arises all our life long.
- Lao Tzu asks in the Tao Te Ching, “Do you have the patience to wait until your mind settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?” Can we be quiet for a moment, until the right words are spoken by themselves? This is being attuned to the Cosmos—living aligned with the Way that flows through all things for the true good of the whole. Can we live with the Whole in mind? In each situation as it arises? Asking, “What is called for here/now in light of the true good of the whole?”
- Aligned with the Tao, the stillness beyond the silence, the right worlds arise and right action appears in the here/now of each situation as it arises. The Tao is doing what is called for here/now, when, where and how it is called for. Aligned with the Tao, all is well on every level throughout the here/now of cosmic reality.
- When we are aware of ourselves and our circumstances, attuned to the here/now of life/Psyche and at one with what is happening and what is called for, we are at one with the Tao and with the flow of life and being throughout the Cosmos.
- When we act with kindness, we are extensions of the Tao in the here/now of life/Psyche. The Tao expresses itself through us in acts of kindness. We are at one with the Tao when we are kind to ourselves and to others.
- As we experience our experiencing, know what we are doing, when, where and how we are doing it, we are at one with life/Psyche in the here/now of our existence. Awareness tunes us into life/Psyche, here/now.
- We need only to drop into the silence and listen to, experience, the stillness beyond the silence, emptying ourselves of all resistance to experiencing the here/now, and waiting “for the mud to settle and the water to clear, in order to know what’s what and what is called for here/now. Then it is only a matter of doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises.
- Not wanting things to be what they are, or wanting things to be different than they are, is perfectly Zen-like: “Eat when hungry, rest when tired.” We live in response to the way things are in each moment. And the way things need to be. When we are cold, we wrap up or start a fire. When we are hot, we seek the shade, or the air conditioning. Who lives with things as they are when they can make things better? We “chop wood, carry water,” in anticipation of needing wood and water in future moments. We do not wait until the need arises to meet the need. We do what the moment calls for, moment-by-moment-by-moment. We meet the moment as it needs to be met. Letting things be what they are means letting what is direct our actions toward what needs to be, doing what needs to be done to do right by the moment of our living. Everything moves toward better, away from worse. The Dali Lama fled the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The Dali Lama’s bodyguards carry automatic weapons. There is better and there is worse. Sensible people opt for better. No?
- I seem to be constructed around what I call “The Essential ‘I’.” And what the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory would call “The I-N-F-P. And what Popeye The Sailor Man would call “I yam what I yam!” And what Joseph Campbell (from #78 above) would call The Antithetical Self. There is a “core I” within each of us who knows, as Joseph Cambell would say, “When we are on the beam and when we are off it.” I view this Core I to be a function of, and evidence of, The Psyche, or the Psychic Source of life within us. It is not just “any old life” that we are living, but the individual, particular, one-of-a-kind-life that fits us like our fingerprints and our Iris Cones fit us. We are one of a kind regardless of the similarities that make us “one” with each other. And our “calling,” we might say, is to live aligned with who we are at the Source/Core level–which gets us back to the central place Psyche, or our Psychic Core, plays in forming/shaping our essential identity. Which we might think of as the Tao within us, so that when we are “on the beam,” we are at one with, aligned with, in accord with the Tao, in the flow of life and being, as Yin and Yang are in the flow of life and being as they produce the flow they are a part of. And it is our place, our role, to consciously, deliberately, intentionally live in ways that are true to our central self with all of our choices, decisions and actions.
- When I sit quietly, ideas begin to appear, things I have never thought dance before me, waving their hands, saying, “How about me?!”, “What about me?!” “Over here!” Opening ourselves to the possibilities for life and being apart from doctrine, dogma and threats of bad Karma and essential dharma, etc., brings us to the threshold of new worlds beyond the boundaries of the old ways of thinking and doing. “The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come!” Again!
- The disruption/destruction of life under Trump’s imposition of ICE raids, arrests and deportations will impact for the worse all of life in the US and throughout the world. There will be devastating impacts that MAGA could not have anticipated when they voted for a bold new MAGA life under Donald’s sure to be wonderful rule. Well. Let the Truth shine forth to the tune of “We got what we wanted and it did not turn out like we expected it to be!” Silent reflection to the point of new realizations is such a simple matter of taking a seat and opening our eyes to the possibilities that exist and the actions that are called for here, now in each situation as it arises throughout what remains of the life left for living. Meditation, contemplation, reflection lead to realization, enlightenment, awakening–as they always have, and always will. No?
- If you are taking something “on faith,” you are making it up and deciding it is so. Declaring it to be so. If you are taking something “on faith” that someone else has taken “on faith” and told you to do so as well, you are believing something to be so that someone else made up and decided was so. Faith is nothing more than a collection of opinions about hearsay. There is not a single fact anywhere to be seen. And what to do now? See things for what they are and “turn the light around.” Start with these two passages from the Old Testament: Psalms 49:7 — “No one can redeem the life of another, or give to God a ransom for them.” Deuteronomy 24:16 — “Parents are not to be put to death for their children’s sin, nor children put to death for their parents’ (sin) — each will die for their own sin.” Now decide what you are going to do about these two texts in light of all that you have heard all your life about sin, redemption, atonement and salvation. You probably know that I am a retired minister with 40.5 years of ministry in the Presbyterian Church USA in my past, and I did not leave the church in disgust. I lived out my life there, preaching from the pulpit every Sunday, and saying things you probably have never heard in a church. There is plenty to say that has nothing to do with repentance and faith in the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement. And I talked about those things, and continue to talk about those things here and in my eBooks on Amazon. So, take heart! And “turn the light around!” By seeing that our place is to wake up to our own responsibility for seeing things as they are, knowing what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises, and doing what needs to be done here, now with the gifts of our intrinsic intuition, our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), and our inherent imagination–and doing it when, where, and how it needs to be done throughout the time left for living. I preached that for 40.5 years, and am still preaching it! Can I get an Amen!?
- Wanting, desiring, fearing, buying, spending, amassing, consuming, having to have, acquiring, striving, pushing, wanting… When does it stop? When do we sit quietly, take stock, see what we are doing? Know what’s what and what’s happening and what is called for in each situation as it arises and do that when, where and how it needs to be done no matter what, using the gifts of our original nature, our inherent intuition, our inherent virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most) and our intrinsic imagination? Wanting, etc, takes up all our time, consumes our energy, commandeers our thoughts, robs us of our life and leaves us in the company of the wrong kind of emptiness with the likes of Adam and Eve. No?
- Noise and complexity arise out of boredom, lethargy and laziness. Such seems to be the circle of life, stemming from not having anything worth doing to do because it would be too much trouble, and would be no fun at all. No trouble and great fun are our stipulations for the right kind of activity, which generally means some combination of drugs, sex and alcohol. As far as I can tell, this is a standard characteristic of human beings worldwide. I do not find any evidence of it among humpback whales or coral reefs.
- We are born with everything we need to see what is called for in each situation as it arises and to respond to it in ways appropriate to the occasion, including finding what is needed to do what needs to be done, here, now, in every moment of every situation that comes our way. There are, of course, plenty of occasions/circumstances/ situations about which nothing can be done, but it is always possible to do what can be done about being helpless to do anything about the things that are called for and need to be done. We can build a Wailing Wall, for instance. We can shave our head in protest and renunciation… The list is long of creative options to ways of doing what needs to be done in situations in which nothing can be done. It only takes dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence and waiting there for ideas to begin appearing out of the stillness and for things to begin happening.
- What is Buddhist about Zen? It couldn’t be Dharma. Zen would have nothing with the right way of doing something, anything, being imposed by a tradition of rules and recipes, shouting “Do it THIS WAY! NOT THAT WAY! Zen is Taoist in this way. And it isn’t Non-Duality. Zen is Taoist in embracing Duality in a Taoist kind of way, saying Yin and Yan are two things which come together inseparably as one thing. Two is one in Zen. Twoness is Oneness and Oneness is Twoness. This gets us back to Wu-Wei being Not That! and Not That! Duality is Two things that are one thing. Black and White. Right and Wrong. We cannot have one without the other. We cannot have one without two. Good and Bad. We cannot have Good without Bad. No one can be rich if no one is poor. No one can be poor if no one is Rich. The opposites make each other possible. One and One make Two. Two is not One but Two. Buddhism says No Duality. Zen says Nothing But Duality. We cannot have one without two.
- What is Buddhist about Zen? It couldn’t be talking all of the time about anything, about everything. Buddhism has something to say about all of it. Buddhism is never quiet because it is always talking about the importance of being quiet. And the importance of being mindfully quiet. And it couldn’t be the abundance of Sutras discussing all aspects of being Buddhist. Zen is much too laidback to bother with lists and details about the proper method of doing Zen. “Eat when hungry, rest when tired,” is as specific as it gets with Zen. Doing it like the Buddha did it is high on Zen’s list of ways to NOT do it.
- My favorite Zen story goes like this: A Zen master and one of his students were walking across a bridge when the student asked, “What is Zen?” Whereupon the master pushed the student off of the bridge and into the water and said, “You are now in the water. Drink it, swim in it, play in it or drown–BUT DO NOT TALK ABOUT IT!!! TO TALK ABOUT WATER IS TO NOT-KNOW WATER!” The student immediately broke into laughter, became enlightened, and spent the remainder of his lengthy life pushing people into lakes and ponds, rivers and streams. Buddhism talks about Buddhism to no end. Zen tells stories like this one.
- I consider myself to be a non-Buddhist, and the thing that I most do not like about Buddhism is the talk, talk, talk that goes on with all Buddhists everywhere, making me want to cry out: “Who told the Buddha what he needed to know?” The Buddha achieved enlightenment by sitting quietly, waiting on clarity and the realization that came from the stillness beyond the silence. And the Buddha explained his experience as originating from “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” That is open to everybody all of the time! What is with all of the “Teaching, teaching, teaching, talk, talk, talk???” Just drop into the emptiness, stillness, silence and “wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear.” A very Zen thing to do, no?
- When in doubt we listen to our body. Our body is a reliable source of guidance and direction. Our body knows. We listen to our stomach, to our heart, to our bones–and heed what they have to say. Our body is an outlet for our intuitive sense of what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises. D.T. Suzuki said “Enlightenment means habitual intuition.” Implying that Enlightened people live in sync with their intuitive drift of what is called for and needs to be done here, now.. What could be easier or more Zen-like? And who would know more about Zen than D.T. Suzuki?
- One of my favorite questions is “Who says so?” For instance, “Who says the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God?” Applying “Who says so?” to ZaZen Practice, for instance (And I will point out that Zazen when sought in completely Zen settings, not “Zen-Buddhist” settings, will be quite different, and probably be nonexistent or very difficult to find. The line between Zen and Zen-Buddism is not always clear and sitting is not always a Zen thing). Who makes the rules? And when the Buddha said, as he is said to have said on more than one occasion, “Do not listen to me! Listen to YOU!”, what does he mean? If he means, “I make up my own rules to guide my practice and you make up your own rules to guide your practice,” That is quite different from asking some teacher to tell you what your guidelines should be, no? Where do all the people who say so get the idea that you could never figure things out by yourself, though they would be quick to say, “Everybody is the Buddha,” and “Everyone has “Budda-mind,” but then tell us we cannot be trusted to think for ourselves, thought the Buddha thought for himself, and said, “Do not listen to me, listen to YOU!” Hmmmm…
- This poem by Yoshida Ryusui (1691-1758) captures for me the essence of Zen, simple, yet complex, binding our mind to a scene unforgettable in three short lines,
for over 400 years and counting:
A lost child crying,
stumbling over the dark field…
catching fireflies.
- Our fate is what happens to us. Our destiny is what we do with it. Itta Bena, Mississippi, and all that implies, is my fate. Charlotte, North Carolina, and all that implies, is my destiny. My father who did not kill my mother, and in so not-doing, killed her, is my fate. I am my destiny. And my fate. In that what we do with what happens to us becomes what happens to us. And there is no escape from doing what we can with what happens to us. It is the. circle of life over time. My father was also furious with me for not being able to spell Minneapolis in the fourth grade while he smoked, not-knowing or caring that second-hand smoke interferes with short-term memory. And I am a witness to that thanks to long-term memory being unaffected by second-hand smoke. Fate and destiny work their way out in our life over time–lost as we are in a dark field, crying, chasing fireflies.
- And what kind of support does Ukraine lose by Thanksgiving if they don’t sign the “peace” agreement being pushed on them by Donald Trump? Ukraine has no support from the United States. Donald Trump has seen to that. And remains safe forever in his eternal designation as the World’s Worst Human Being Throughout Time. No?
- There is what we control and there is what we do not control. It is important that we know where that line lies. And stop wasting our time trying to control what cannot be controlled. The key to tranquility and serenity over time. Over the remainder of time left for living.
- MAGA has the mentality for the ultimate destruction of humanity. If they can’t have their way, they will fix it so nobody has their way. It’s Make America Great Again (As WE determine what “Great” is) or ELSE! It is a kidnapping with an ultimatum they have worked out with the United States being both the hostage and the people charged with the hostage’s release. We are witnessing the ultimate in CRAZY TO THE CORE. When we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t, the most sane alternative is to be damned and be done with it. If we are going down, we are at least taking MAGA with us! And hoping for a better outcome with evolution’s next try. Raising the question, “How many tries has evolution had up to this point?” and “How many more will it take to create the right kind of environment to reproduce itself successfully forever?”
- In order to be helped, we have to be capable of being helped. We have to be open to help, available for help, a candidate for help. And there are a number of places where it is our place to help helpers help us. We have to cooperate with our own assistance and comply with the stipulations required by the situation at hand in order to be helped in the ways we need to be helped.
- Carl Jung said “The development of personality means fidelity to the law of one’s own being” Fidelity to the law of one’s own being is being true to our Original Nature and living that truth out within the context and circumstances of our life. Buddha nature is our original nature, but we each are one with ourselves, just as Buddha was one with himself—but not one with all selves in an indistinguishable mass of humanity, or being. “We are one but not the same one,” —author unknown
- Jung said, “There is no balance, no system of self-regulation, without opposition. The psyche is just such a self-regulating system.” The psyche stands in opposition to our agendas, desires, self-interests, will, aims, ambitions, etc. And is forever calling us back to our Original Nature, to serve the cause of the self-realization of our own virtues, the self-expression, self-exhibition, of the truth of our own being—who we always been and who we will always be—in the moment-to-moment reality of the circumstances comprising each situation as it arises, all our life long. We live to bring ourselves forth in the life we are living, to know and be who we are, who we are capable of being in the service of what is called for here, now, in each situation as it arises.
- Jung said, “Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.” Buddhism prides itself on being “the end of suffering,” but we cannot serve the truth of who we are without suffering the pain of the realization of who we also are. Bearing the pain of polarities that cannot be reconciled/integrated, but must remain in eternal suspension, with the individual standing in full awareness between the two opposites that are mutually exclusive and both true expressions of how things are: This is how things are and that is also how things are and THAT is how things also are! For instance, I want to be the best father in all the world and I do not want to be a father at all! Make sense of that if you can! We are a bundle of contradictions and must come to term with that and live in light of it in being true to ourselves in the time and place of our living.
- If we live to serve the Psyche and do what is called for here, now with the gifts of our original nature, innate virtues, inherent intuition, intrinsic imagination, capacities, interests, etc., we will have to bear consciously the pain of contradictions, polarities and internal/eternal opposition between who we are and who we also are. That which we do not square up to consciously will come forth unconsciously in the form of symptoms, and inconsistencies between who we are and who we say we are throughout our life as the Psyche’s way of calling us back to the conscious realization of the opposites at work within.
- Carl Jung put Psyche forth as the guiding force in our life, whose purpose with us is to assist in our aligning ourselves with the Tao, with the swings and flow of our life as we develop into the self we are built/called/ment to be. Jung’s ideas about “individuation” is about us becoming who we are, the person we are born to be, “the antithetical self,” as opposed to “the Primary Self, or as he calls them, the Antithetical Mask,” with “the Primary Mask” with the “Primary Mask” being who we are supposed to be/expected to be by parents and society, and “the Antithetical Self/Mask,” being the person we authentically are called/ment to be. Our place is to know and be who we are. Jung’s idea of enlightenment/awakening would be knowing and being who we are, and his word, “individuation” was his idea of our task in being alive, that is to say, becoming who we are. And Psyche is with us to assist us in the work to live out of our true identity in our life. And I am interested in knowing how best we might do that in the time left for living. Jung would say we do that by attending our dreams and our symptoms and the swings and flow of our life in light of doors opening and shutting and events happening and opportunities coming our way, and where we are lucky and where we are not lucky with the trends and tendencies of our life over time.
- Our work, in light of Jung’s suggestions and leading, is to help Psyche help us in living toward our authentic self in doing what is called for when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long. The clearer we can be about how to do that will be very helpful to us over the full course of our life.
- Zen’s recommendations, “Eat when hungry, rest when tired,” and “Chop wood, carry water,” are clear and to the point, and far beyond the dharma and the sutras in terms of what it take to make those who are watching happy with what they see about us. Buddhism attempts to achieve the same thing with it’s declaration that there is “nothing special” about the things we are asked to do on our way to enlightenment, but it’s fixation on the right way to do everything belies its wanna be laid back approach. Getting enlightenment right here, now, is the Buddhist way in spite of its protests to the contrary.
- We aren’t to be like the Christ or the Buddha. We are to be like ourselves, true to ourselves, authentic individuals true to the unique truth of who we are, as with our fingerprints and the cones of our irises. When we do that we are one with the Christ and the Buddha.
- If you could be you for the rest of your life what would you do?
- We seem to live from pastimes and diversions to distractions and dreams of “fortune and glory, Kid, fortune and glory.” I think of these things as fillers between the times of immersion and engagement in the field of action. There are moments in which we are completely lost in the act of creation, doing what is called for and must be done. These are the times when we are fully here, now, and completely, utterly alive in doing what we are doing. Maybe we are building a bird house, or writing a paragraph in a letter to a loved one, or solving a problem with the lawnmower. It could be anything that we are doing with our full attention to the moment of our living, where we are vibrantly alive and live to be.
- We live “between the times,” waiting to come to life in the time and place of our living. I come alive plundering scenes for their photo-worthy compositions, and writing things that need to be written, working to find the right words to communicate what I am trying to say, so that I my hear it for myself and know what I’m talking about and needs to be said. Doing this, right here, right now. And you?
- I write this knowing its chances of ever being read are very small. I don’t care what my chances are! I’m not writing to be read! I am writing to say what needs to be said, to get it said so that I can go on to the next thing that needs to be said. And I repeat myself a lot because it needs to be repeated. Which makes no sense at all in the world of logic and reason but is exactly at home in the world of psychic reality, mystery and mythic wandering. I know where I belong and live to be there, doing what I’m doing and needs to be done–without being able to defend, excuse, explain, justify on any level. I write for my own balance and harmony, to say what must be said, to hear what must be heard, here and now. If it needs to be said/heard again tomorrow and again next week, so be it. I will write it again.
- The conscious recognition of the work to be ourselves here and now, doing what is called for the way we would do it, all things considered, is the challenge for all of us between birth and death. Here we are, now what? Who says so? What is called for? What do we do about it? We build/create the foundation for who we are talking about when we say “I,” “Me,” “Mine,” over a lifetime of mindful awareness observing ourselves in action through all of the experiences in that lifetime.
We know who we are and who we are not by watching ourselves responding to all of the situations of our life over time. So, I could take a vow of silence and solitude when I retired because I knew who I am and had the freedom of retirement in which I could keep the vow. We know what is me and not me over time. And we live to be “me” and not “not me.” This is the “antithetical self” we are bringing forth in our way with what remains of our life at any point that we start living in the service of the antithetical self–which is also living in the service of the Psyche, teaming up with the Psyche to create/produce the antithetical self. As Jung said, “Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.”
So our work now, from now on, is teaming up with the Psyche in order to bring ourselves forth in the situations that arise throughout our time left for living. I write about steps to take to do this–which comprises the full scope of the nature of the church’s work once it throws out the God of theology, and theology, and doctrine, and starts over as it would have been the day Jesus died.
- More quotes from Carl Jung:
In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential that we embody. If we do not embody that, life is wasted.” — Carl Jung (“The essential that we embody” is our Original Nature, the “Face that was ours before we/our parents/our grandparents were born.” – Jd)
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”— C.G. Jung
“Is there anything more fundamental than the realization, ‘This is what I am’?” — Carl Gustav Jung. (More life-giving? More vitalizing?—jd
“To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is.” — Carl Jung
Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” — Carl Jung
“Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide.” — Carl Jung
“We only gain merit and psychological development by accepting ourselves as we are, and by being serious enough to live the life we are entrusted with.” — C.G. Jung
- Jesus was a reformer, not a savior. There is no one to save. There was no Garden of Eden, no Adam and Eve, no Original Sin, no need for redemption, atonement, salvation. The story of the Garden of Eden is a metaphor about the wrongness of wanting the wrong things and the essential goodness of wanting the right things. Which Jesus picked up on with his dialogue with The Rich Young Man and his observation that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the Eye of the Needle (A narrow alley-like passage way in Jerusalem) than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
The reformer Jesus was called a heretic because the difference between a reformer and a heretic is how the person in question is viewed by their fans and their critics. The reformer Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son to call out the ridiculous nature of all efforts to please God in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
What would the Prodigal have had to have done to cause his father to tell him to “Get out of my sight you Sinner! You Good For Nothing! Go back where you came from! NO! Go straight to hell and stay there in agony forever!” The father would have never said that. He said, “You were lost and now you are found! You were dead, but now you are alive!” Calling to mind the scene with David and his son Absolem who led a revolution against his father King David, and lay dead in David’s arms, “Oh, Absolem, Absolem, my son, my son! Oh my son, Absolem!” Compare that to the popular way of envisioning God sending his sons and daughters to hell for their sins and offenses against God, and we get an idea of how Jesus the Reformer would have turned the world inside out and upside down if he had lived to develop his vision of the Kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.
Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son was his vision of the Kingdom of Heaven, which the Church of Rome torched with their theology and their proclamation to all of the Christians and would-be Christians of every day saying, “You all are going to hell and suffer forever if you don’t believe what we tell you and do what we say!” Jesus would never have said that. Yet the Church of Rome and all the churches that followed its lead declared to be so: “Do it our way or go to hell!” A travesty and an apostasy! No?
- What is real? How do we know? What is reality? Who says so? How do they know? We spend a lot of time making things up that we say are real and constitute reality. If we make things up when we are drunk are they less real than the things we make up when we are sober? Which things do we take more seriously than other things among all of the things we make up? How much of our world is made up by us? Or by others who convince us that they know what they are talking about and we had better take them seriously? Where do we draw the line? Why there and not somewhere else? I have heavy dark lines among my memories of my experiences. Completely subjective dark lines. How do I know they are valid? They are my memories of my experiences–what makes me think they can be trusted? That I can be trusted?
Let’s bring the psychological mechanism of “projection” into the conversation. How much of my experience and my memories of my experience can be attributed to projection? And/or “repression”? How much of what I experience/remember can I trust as being what I experience/remember it to be? Who can say anything authoritatively about anything? What makes us think so? Why should we trust what anybody thinks is so? It is all perspective! It is all perception! Everything we say about what we take to be reality is perspective/perception/projection/repression, yet we talk about “it” as though it exists quite apart from “us” and remains as “it” is, as we take it to be, when “it” is apart from us, like horses in a field or shoes in our closet. Yet “It” exists in our mind as it was when we “put” it there initially, and we expect “it” to be now what it was then, as though our perspective/projection, etc., of reality remains stable over time–when it is all in our mind, whatever that is.
I’m asking how we can know anything for certain, for real, for true? Yet we do it all the time. We make up things about things and assume it to be so, and treat it as though it is so. But. It is all perspective, perception, projection, repression… We live in a dream world, do we not? Make believing it is all so. Saying it is all an absolute fact. How do we keep getting by with it?
- I have my experience, my perspective of my experience, my perception of my experience, my projections of my experience and my repressions of my experience… And I call it all “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” We are all, as R.D. Laing said, “Playing the game of not playing a game.”
- I conduct regular vitality checks with my inner world. I call it “Communing with Psyche.” To see where the energy for life is leading me, directing me. It is as though I am divining for water with a divining rod in the silence of my meditative inventory, seeking the compelling urgency for my attention here, now. Some times it is a book title that comes to mind, or an internet search of some kind. Occasionally it is a photo excursion, or an email or text to write. I am open to whatever arises in the stillness beyond the silence to call me to action in the field of action. Mindfulness is a divining rod honing in on the vitality of the moment and what is called for here, now.
- Carl Jung is all over my/our/the Psyche being at work with us to align us with what Jung called our “antithetical self,” as opposed to the social self that we are expected to be in taking our place within family and society. Jung thought there is a self we are to be and other “selves” we are not to be, and that that the/our/my Psyche is at work throughout our life to bring out our “real self” at the expense of our inauthentic self, and how would we go about cooperating with the/our/my Psyche? Listening to our dreams and our symptoms would be Jung’s answer, and to the swings and flow of our life, the doors that open for us and the doors that close to us. Trying to read Psyche’s direction/guidance in all that we do is probably not too much different from trying to discern “God’s will for our life,” except that I feel Psyche to be more “me” than God, who is out to send me to hell if I don’t mind my step. My embrace of silence and “the stillness beyond silence” is in the service of aligning myself with Psyche, knowing/doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, and being sensitive to the drift, swings, and flow of my life day to day, moment to moment, reading the signs and doing what is called for in the situation at hand–doing the right thing in the right place and in the right way at the right time, as the Taoists would say, puts us on the beam and in the flow.
- Finding the tipping point between the way things are and the way things need to be is on-going everyday. Vigilance, mindfulness, alertness, diligence, and acumen keep us steady as she goes upon the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea. Lethargy, languor, laziness, etc. maintain the slack incompetence calling for attention to duty and the needs of the moment in every moment of every day. No?
- We need ways of reminding ourselves–of remembering–of honoring the mystery and wonder at the heart of life and being. Altars and runes should be everywhere as reminders of the importance of living aware of the unknown and inconceivable concealed in the routine and everyday experience of the here, now. Our flip, glib, shallow way through life is evident in the ways we go about living with little or no tie for, or appreciation of, who we are, where we are, how we are and why it matters to know and revere “more than we can ask, or think, or imagine,” as a regular companion and duty incumbent upon all who exist throughout our existence. No?
- You know the things we know without knowing how we know? Be aware of that kind of knowing when you know it. Look closer. Sit with it in the silence. See what emerges from the stillness beyond the silence. You are in the presence of intuitive awareness, which goes beyond mindful awareness to the very essence of “mind.” To the foundation of “mind.” To the boundary separating Psyche and “mind.” To the experience of Psyche informing “mind.” Serving as at the ground of “mind.” Psyche becoming “mind.” At the place where we, ourselves, become cognizant of Psyche, Mind and Self. The three that are one. The Real Holy Trinity. No?
- Knowing without knowing how we know is the interface, the borderline, merging mind and psyche by way of intuitive awareness.. It is the origin of “God.” What we interpret as “God.” The place where we experience “God.” And begin to project, imagine, fantasize and create theology, doctrines, dogma, dharma, sutras, catechisms, beliefs, religion. At the bottom of all religion is the ground of knowing without knowing how we know where mind meets Psyche via intuitive awareness.
- There is more to us than meets the eye. Including our own. And so, the emptiness, stillness and silence–and our nighttime dreams–where we go to see ourselves seeing, and know who we are and also are.
- Intuitive knowing is the knowing that knows it knows. Store-bought knowing is the kind of knowing that comes from some source other than ourselves. Teachers and books, preachers and our parents are good for that kind of knowing. We have to think about that kind of knowing, and remember it, unless our parents were abusive and then we can’t forget it and live burdened by it forever–unless we found refuge in the silence, etc. and were saved by our deep self, our intuitive self, our intuition. People who have been saved by their intuition can be trusted to know what’s what and what is called for here, now and to do it without thinking because they know it is the right thing to do. And they do it at the right time, in the right place, in the right way. They live in the flow, aligned with the Tao, knowing what they know without knowing how they know, being one with time and place, here and now. At one with themselves. “Peacefully abiding” wherever they are.
- What is the difference between a heretic and a reformer? Who is to say what is heresy and what is reformation? Get rid of thinking and know what we know. We don’t think about when to sneeze. We know when we are going to sneeze. When we find ourselves doing what needs to be done without thinking it out before hand, we will be living like we sneeze, trusting ourselves to know what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done, and letting that be that. No?
- In any situation, I think I would live in the service of stability, balance and harmony, that my aim, goal, purpose is stability, balance and harmony. I like that as an idea to guide my choices in so far as I know what my choices are. And I don’t know if this idea would actually be borne out over time. It is as worthy a guide as I can imagine here, now in response to the question, “How do we know what to do, when, where and how?” Stability, balance and harmony are the best I can do. Here, now. And apparent stability, balance and harmony are indistinguishable to me from actual stability, balance and harmony. “Is it real or is it Memorex?” How would we ever know? It comes down to “the luck of the draw.” Which is to say that life is beyond our control. No?
- When Carl Jung was asked if he believed in God, he replied, “I do not believe–I know!” That’s what we are looking for! Not a God to believe in, but a God beyond all question and doubt. What do we know to be so without knowing how we know? That kind of knowing comes straight from our association with, cognizance of, Psyche! When we live on the borderline between Mind and Psyche, we are at the sweet spot of life, at one with the Tao, aligned with who we are and what we are about, at one with the universe, the cosmos, and God–and perfectly at peace with all of it here, now. As the Buddha described it: “Peacefully abiding, here, now.” That is it. That is all there is to it. Knowing this is as enlightened, as awakened as one can be. And nothing can knock us off this place, the ground of life and being.
- Life is simultaneous with Psyche, and Psyche with Life. They are one thing along with consciousness. And with That Which Has Always Been Called God. What is life? What is Psyche? What is consciousness? What is God? We don’t have answers to any of these questions. We live in mystery and wonder. Feeling our way along. Living our way along. Being aware of not-knowing, of knowing what we don’t know, ignites our curiosity and opens us to possibilities and invites us to take up the game of experiencing our experience, connecting the dots and imagining the relationships among all aspects of perception and inquiry–which comprises the fields of science and religion, exploring the same things and coming up with the same answers. No?
- We have to toss aside everything we think we know and embrace not-knowing, as in being unable to explain our experience, which is basically a combination of projection, assumption, presumption, perspective, inference, impression, conjecture, speculation, imagination, supposition, reckoning and guesswork. Everything we think we know awaiting confirmation, validation, verification. We hunch our way along, looking for proof, evidence, corroboration. Either that or we declare that we know what we are talking about and live as though we do.
- The achievement, accomplishment, attainment has nothing to do with conquest, subjugation, seizure, and everything to do with simply meeting the day, doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for in each situation as it arises our entire life long. It is the Sisyphean task one thing after another, with each one done well. It is doing the right thing in the right way in the right place at the right time, over and over and, over. And the response, “But that is so boorrriiinnnggg! Where is the adoration, the accolades, the acclaim in that??? Where is the fortune and glory in that??? And in that protest, we reveal ourselves for who and what we are. No?
- Who in our collective experience deserves the Taoist Achievement Award for doing the right thing in the right way in the right place at the right time over time? In my personal experience, we are lucky to have done it accidentally, sporadically, momentarily, if at all, ever. We keep getting in our own way, with ideas, desires, jealousy, resentment, etc., sidetracking us into the wasteland of lost chances and missed opportunities, all because we were somewhere other than here, now, all our life long. Serving, perhaps, our idea of how things ought to be instead of simply doing what was called for through all the situations and circumstances that came our way.
- Sitting in the silence, stillness, emptiness, waiting for clarity regarding what’s what and what is called for here, now, in each situation as it arises, and doing that when, where and how it needs to be done is all it takes throughout time. What is difficult about that? What would Adam and Eve say? What would the Buddha and Jesus say? How is it that some people seem to get it and some people never do?
- Psalms 49:7 and Deuteronomy 24:16 speak in support of the heretical declaration in the early days of the church: “No one can sin for another, and no one can redeem or atone for another’s sin!” We are regular witnesses to the ease with which the Trump/MAGA propaganda machine grinds away at the truth of democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. The early Catholic Church did the same thing in its work to establish theology and doctrine in support of the Church’s idea of how things should be ecclesiastically and unilaterally in the creation of one universal/Catholic Church, justifying its persecution of the Gnostics and other heresies at odds with how the Church of Rome wanted things to be. A truly universal church would support individuals in their own work to perceive and affirm what their sense of Psychic presence was leading/calling them to be and to do. Which was the very tack the Gnostics were taking, making them anathema to the Church in the early centuries which set the tone for how things are today.
- Are we going to listen to ourselves in knowing what is called for and doing what needs to be done in each situation as it arises–and doing it with the gifts of our original nature, innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), intrinsic intuition, inherent imagination, etc., for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it? Or, are we going to let someone else tell us what to do and how to do it? Stillness, emptiness, silence (one thing not three) has no place in a world run by those who know best and have to be pleased? Intuition or command and control? What did the Buddha and Jesus do?
- We live from our center, from our foundation, from our sense of what is called for and what needs to be done about it here, now, in each situation as it arises. Spontaneously. Instantaneously. At one with the moment. Without thinking about it. Just knowing. Just doing. Like hitting a curve ball. Or returning a serve. Or moving with the music. You know, like that.
- Where does thinking belong? Where do logic and reasoning fit in? When is intuition unnecessary? In the way? We have to dismiss intuition when we have to please someone else. The more people we have to please the less intuitive we can afford to be. We cannot rely on knowing what is called for when we have to do what we are told. The military cannot be run by intuition. Building a house has to be done according to the blueprints. A jam session is not an orchestra. Feeling our way along to an apple cobbler will not have the same outcome as following a recipe. We have to know intuitively when to do what is called for by the situation as it arises, and when to do as we are told.
- Knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises is a function of being open to the stillness beyond the silence, empty of emotional noise arising from the complexity of our life. That complexity is compounded by our tendency to will what cannot be willed about our circumstances, and to want what we have no business having. Impatience and desire create noise and complexity and we have to empty ourselves of all of that in clearing the way for silence and stillness to connect us with the way beyond our way in order that we might be clear about what’s what and what is called for and what needs to be done about it here, now, with the gifts of our Original Nature, our Inherent Intuition, our Intrinsic Virtues–the things we do best and enjoy doing most–Our Innate Imagination, etc. We have a lot of work to do just to be quiet and trust ourselves to the force/power of the invisible word beyond normal, apparent reality. There is living to get our way and there is living to trust ourselves to the way of the drift and flow of life through all situations and circumstances in knowing and doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for, with no guarantees or assurances that things will be better then than they would be with our pushing and shoving, demanding and insisting in the service of doing and having what we want, when, where and how we want it in every situation that arises, now and forever. So, what are we going to do? Are we going to trust ourselves to the force/power of the invisible world beyond normal, apparent reality, no matter what, or not?
- If we trust ourselves to the force/power of the invisible world, that means surrendering our way and consciously, deliberately trusting ourselves to the drift and flow of life no matter what in each situation as it arises and seeing where it goes. We do what is called for as circumstances beget circumstances and let nature take its course. This is the way of the Tao–The Way of the Way and its Power through all situations and circumstances no matter what. “Darkness Within Darkness, The Gateway to Mystery and Wonder.”
- The trick with love is being loving. That is to say, treating people so lovingly that neither we nor they can tell the difference between our loving them and our not loving them. If we treat one another lovingly enough it doesn’t matter whether we love each other or not. So, forget loving one another and start treating everyone as though we love them so that they cannot tell the difference between our loving them and out not loving them. It is impossible to force ourselves to love everyone and ridiculous to try. But we can treat everyone lovingly, as though we love them, to the point of not knowing whether we love them or not. And, at that point, it doesn’t matter whether we love them or not.
- How would we determine if our life is working or not? Is “working” the same thing as “being happy”? Can our life be working if we are unhappy with our life as it is? Could we be unhappy with our life as it is because we don’t have the things we think we ought to have, or don’t have the things that would make us happier than we are? Can we have all the things that we think would make us happy and still be unhappy? Upon what does our happiness depend? Can we be “just fine” with how things are and not be particularly “happy” about our life as it is? How would our life have to be for us to be happy with our life? I am perfectly happy with my life as it is and would be instantly less happy if my life became more complex, complicated, noisy, uncertain, cluttered, insecure and out of control. For instance, if I suddenly became incapacitated and placed in assisted living, because of a stroke, say, or an accident. I am at a “happy medium,” and would be “just fine” if things remain exactly as they are forever, and I have been that way for as long as I can remember. I think I have always been this way. I can’t remember being “absolutely miserable” with my life as it is/was. I think my life has always been “working” well enough to suit me. And I wonder what the key to that is. I wonder if some of us just have the capacity to be content with how things are and some of us are cursed with being discontent no matter how things are. I would like to get to the bottom of that and know what’s what, and what’s that all about.
- We need some articles of social engagement and rules of social intercourse, commensurate with the military’s Rules of War and Articles of Engagement.
We cannot have Trump calling anybody “Garbage.” The President, members of his cabinet, and members of Congress need to conduct themselves with decorum and propriety. We can’t have garbage calling people garbage in the halls of government, or anywhere else in the land. No?
- If prayer worked there would be no cemeteries, hospitals, medical schools, nursing homes, funeral homes, war or standing armies. Where does that leave us? With seeing what’s what, letting be what is and doing what needs to be done about it where, when, and how it needs to be done, with the gifts that are ours to work with: Our Original Nature, Our innate Virtues — the things we do best and enjoy doing most–Our intrinsic Imagination, our inherent Intuition, when, where and how they need to be employed in each situation as it arises all our life long.
And changing our mind about what prayer is and how it works from asking/getting what we want from something called “God,” to understanding prayer as a mode of being in right relationship with all that is by seeing, hearing, understanding what’s what and how things are and doing what needs to be done about it by doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in all situations and circumstances and letting that be that no matter what, letting nature take its course and repeating this process throughout the course of our life in alignment with the drift and flow of life and being, caring only about what needs to be cared about, when, where and how all our life long.
- Martin Palmer translates the Tao Te Ching’s “The Tao that can be named/explained/said is not the eternal Tao,” as “The path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path.” And that is all the Tao we need to know because everything else about the Tao flows from that understanding of the Tao. The more discerning we are, the less knowledgeable we are. And there we are. Where do we go from here? Settling into seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing, doing, being what can be seen, heard, understood, known what is called for in each situation as it arises and doing what needs to be done about it, when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long, and being happy with that, knowing it is the best anyone can do. Neither the Buddha nor Jesus could do more.
- We do not have to have a plan. We do not have to know what we are doing beyond here, now. Doing here, now well, as it needs to be done, is all that is called for. Doing what is called for is all that is called for. “Five year plans” are a laughter. “Lifetime goals” are even more so. In light of what do we live? Toward what do we live? Away from what do we live? What guides our boat on its path through the sea? What is called for here, now? Our answers to these questions depend upon what? What was the Buddha’s question under the Bo Tree? What was Jesus’ question in Gethsemane? What is called for here, now? In light of what? Who says so? We say so. There is no one here but us, here, now. What do we say is called for, here, now? In light of what? Toward what do we live here, now? Our answer determines–or strongly influences–everything that follows.
- In light of what do we live? How do we know it is worth living for? What does it matter how we live? I like curiosity as being the ground of my life and being. I am curious. I don’t know why. That makes me curious about my curiosity. And is the ground of my life and being. And I am curious about how many of us are equally curious about everything. I think curiosity is the foundational foundation of most of us, all of us. It is who we are, what we are about. The primal state of being of life itself. The essence of life. The primary characteristic defining life. If something is not curious, it is not alive. It is dead. The primary characteristic of which is no curiosity whatsoever.
- There is more to see than meets the eye–any eye, ever. The moral here is, “Do not take anything on face value.” Do not assume that things are as they appear to be. Make inquiries. Examine your assumptions, your suppositions, your projections. Seek clarity. Ask. Seek. Knock. Do not stop until you have overturned every stone, being sure not to forget that “The stone the builders reject becomes the chief cornerstone.” Probe, poke, get to the bottom of everything, always asking what you are overlooking, not seeing, missing, ignoring, taking for granted…
- All living things–all sentient beings–recognize, know, respond to being received and treated lovingly. But, don’t take my word for it. See for yourself.
We make too much over love. Forget love. Forget “I love you.” Treat all of life lovingly. Treat everyone lovingly whether you love them or not. Treat everyone with such loving tenderness and thoughtfulness that they can’t tell if you don’t love them–and, even better, you can’t tell yourself!
And understand deep in your bones/body that is how our Psyche treats us: lovingly, whether we are worth being loved or not. The way the Prodigal’s father treated the Prodigal.
As you surely know by now, I have thrown God as a spiritual being quite completely away, and have declared myself to be an extension of the psychic depths of life and being, and as an expression of that, I am sworn to treating everything, living or not, lovingly throughout what remains of this experience called “being alive.” And, I invite you to join me if you feel like it for the entire remainder of all that is before us.
- Wait for the rhythm and the flow and go with that. What is the movement? Where is the energy? The vitality? The life? Don’t just “do something”! The Buddha recommended “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” That is the solid gold standard for what to do when we don’t know what to do. This is also called, “Wait to see.” Wait to see what happens, what door opens, what comes along, what catches our eye, attracts us, calls our name? There is no rush, no hurry. Catching the rhythm and flow is the essential secret to being aligned with the Tao, in accord with the drift of life and being.
- Listening/looking/hearing/seeing are the pivot points between here/now to then/there. We listen/see our way from here to there, from now to then. We wait our way into the future that is waiting for us. Being in a hurry, in a rush, in a tizzy ushers us into a different future than the one that is waiting for us to wait. Waiting is the key to everything that follows–which would be our life. Those who can’t wait have a different life than they would have had if they had waited. The things that come to those who wait are different than the things that come to those who can’t/don’t wait.
- There is wanting, and there is guessing, and there is thinking, and there is knowing. Knowing how to know what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for, what needs to be done, where, when and how is the Philosopher’s Stone. The Way of living aligned with, in accord with in tune with, the Way, the Tao of Life and Being.
But. There is a catch. Knowing is not the way to getting what we want. Knowing is the way of doing what is called for and needs to be done.
Letting the Force be with us is submitting to the requirements of the Force for rhythm and flow, drift and direction. The Way is THE Way, not just any way. Not every way. Not OUR way. Can we surrender OUR way in service of THE Way? Can we acquiesce to–give our ascent to–concur with–say YES to–comply with–embrace whole heartedly–yield to– submit to–declare our allegiance to–serve and adore–THE Way to the exclusion of all other ways, always and forever, no matter what, Amen?
This is The Way of the Christ, the Buddha, the Tao. Do we have what it takes to lay OUR Way aside in declaring our liege loyalty and filial devotion to THE WAY always and forever, no matter what, Amen?
Doing so is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “If you want to be one with me, you have to pick up your cross daily and follow me.” And, it is what he ment when he said, “Pray always.” Being aligned with the Force is dying to ourselves and our idea of how things ought to be in knowing/praying OUR way into eternal oneness with THE WAY, now and forever no matter what, Amen.
That is the catch.
- Taking the old Taoist explanation of the Cosmos as being the result of “circumstances begetting circumstances,” and thinking about life and consciousness, not as products of the Cosmos, but as characteristics of the Cosmos, like gravity and the speed of light, or light itself, and we free ourselves from the burden of theology, doctrine, dogma, dharma, sutras, etc., and create possibilities of/for existence that invite/call us into spheres of exploration and wonder that open the way for questions and theories that will keep us awake and wondering far into the future. And there is no reason to think of death as an end to these processes, but as simply another aspect of them, to be discovered, experienced and explored in its own time. I am glad to be a part of whatever it is that I am a part of!
- There is nothing in it for us. No profit. No advantage. No benefit. And we cannot care what our chances are. We are here to do what is called for in each situation as it arises–not for our own good but for the good of the whole, all things considered. We are here to do the loving thing–to live in loving relationship with the Cosmos. With Psyche. With psychic reality, whatever that is. To live lovingly upon the earth during the time that is ours to live. To be alive is to be loving, to live lovingly, no matter what that means for us personally–for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it. Our place is to adjust ourselves to this being the way it is. To realize this as how it is. And to do what needs to be done about it it doing what is called for moment by moment, circumstance by circumstance, situation by situation all our life long.
Our work is to grow up and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, and let that be that, and let nature take its course, and let the outcome be the outcome. Our work is to square ourselves up with our work, and, as Joseph Campbell would say about the meaning of the Bhagavad Gita, “Get in there and do your thing and don’t worry about the outcome!”
- The brilliance of Buddhism is not wanting anything more than “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” When peace and quiet are all we want, we are at home with ourselves and happy to be here. Now. Then, there is nothing but namaste bowing and people sitting silently everywhere all of the time. Something is out of kilter, though, when India and China can be nuclear powers and be home to more Buddhists than any other nation. There should be an investigation. No?
- We are all born with what we need to find what we need to know what is called for and to do what needs to be done. This is so of every living thing. From Flying Squirrels, to Humpback Whales, to Giant Sequoias, to Chimpanzees, to me and you. The catch is that this doesn’t have anything to do with being rich and famous or getting our way and having what we want. If we can understand what the deal is, square ourselves up with it and be fine with it just as it is, we have it made, as the process comprehends “having it made.”
- I think loving-kindness is the most important thing, and the thing I would like to be known for, but. The right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence are the source of loving-kindness. We don’t just automatically get out of bed and exude loving-kindness throughout the day every day. We have to have the right kind of relationship with emptiness, stillness and silence to live lovingly with kindness for life generally. If we cannot be quiet in the right way, we probably aren’t worth being around.
- When Jesus said, “Pray always,” he was saying, “Live in the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence always.” He was saying “Live out of the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence always.” In order to do that, we have to live in ways that cultivate the right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence. We cannot live noisy lives over flowing with complexity and “the dust of the world.” We have to have a place of refuge to which we can retreat on a regular basis in order to consider what’s what and what is happening and what is called for and. how we might best respond to all of it in a way that demonstrates “peaceful abiding, here, now.”
- I have to live out of a certain quality of solitude in order to know what is called for and what needs to be done about it. I have to cultivate a certain quality of solitude in order to meet the day as the day needs to be met. For instance, an alarm clock going off is no way for me to meet the day. I have to ease into it, a little at a time.
Solitude affords me the luxury of communion with emptiness, stillness and silence, which are the true Holy Trinity at the foundational source of life and being, and provide the guidance, direction and perspective required to deal with situations and circumstances as they arise without warning as is their way in a normal order of the day. Dropping into, and living out of, my connection with emptiness, stillness and silence is my understanding of Jesus’ directive to “pray always,” and is the best advice, in my opinion, that he provided in his short tenure upon the earth.
- I consider plants to be the highest form of life in the Cosmos. They live on sunlight and water and do not have standing armies, though invasive species are a problem. While Rodney King did not say, “Why can’t everyone just get along?”, giving him credit for it is not too far over any line, and it applies even to the plant world. And it is the one thing that I find most disgusting about life. “Life eats life,” as Joseph Campbell liked to say, and if God can’t do better than that, God should be ashamed. No?
- We ought to be able to live lovingly with one another–to live as though we love one another whether we do or not. Treat one another well. Why can’t we do that with all others? Do right by one another. Why can’t we do that? Even Jesus cursed the fig tree and the Buddha abandoned his wife and children. “There is not one who does what is good all the time, no, not one.” Why not?
- We have to come to terms with our inability to come to terms with the way things are. Things are not the way we want them to be. And they will not be the way we want things to be until we change the way we want things to be. Changing our mind about what is important is the solution to all of our problems. But that is to change our mind about how we want things to be. And that is changing our mind about what we want. It is not wanting what we want, but wanting something else instead. As it is, we spend too much of our time wanting what we have no business having. If we spent our time doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, instead of trying to impose our will for the situation upon the situation, things would change immediately for the better, but we probably would not like them at all until we change our mind about what is important and want that instead of what we do want. As it is, we want the wrong things. What are we going to do about that?
- What is meaningful? Each of us knows what is meaningful to us, for us, and what is not. What is meaningful today may not be meaningful tomorrow. What is meaningful here, now? Go there. Do that. See where it leads. Following meaning throughout our life, from one here, now to the next, is the best, surest, way I know of being true to ourselves and living with integrity. Following the path of meaning is the way to the Way, and that makes it also the Way. No?
- “Assisted living” is a misnomer. Assisted living is as much Hindered Living, Hampered, Impeded, Obstructed (As the dictionary expresses it) Living, as it is “Assisted.” The system’s idea of assisting me gets in my way, shuts me down, rejects my interest and my needs in favor of its ideas of assisting me with my life. It is separating me from my life in the service of its schedules and its preferred ways of assisting me as it believes I need assistance. Deliver me from “assisted living”! Ask me how “assisted living” might be helpful to me, here, now!” Allow me to tell you how you might be of assistance! That would be helpful!
- The idea of paying “more attention to (our) preferences, to the things that attract us, catch our eye, call our name” is the essence of being able to be aligned with the way, with the Tao, the flow and drift of our life. We dismiss, discount, ignore the signs pointing the way, and fail to be who we are and who we are capable of becoming. The Way is opening before us in all times and places, but we are focused on what we want, or what we think we ought to want/have/do, and the opportunity is missed again…
The things that catch our eye, call our name, draw us into their orbit, make themselves known to us with urgent and acute summons are not to be dismissed, etc., but are to be acknowledged, honored, heeded, served–without our being able to explain, defend, justified, excused. We respond to the call as needed, knowing that we are doing a great work and cannot be deterred from it just because we have no idea why we are doing it, only that it must be done, here, now, no matter what. Knowing trumps understanding. We must do what we know needs doing, when, where and how it needs to be done. It is the Way.
- “Be here, now,” is an invitation to live in the moment, of the moment, for the moment, moment-to-moment. We read the moment for a sense of what’s what, what’s happening, what is called for and what we might do best in response to it with the gifts that are ours from birth. In order to pull this off successfully in each situation as it arises, we have to be at-one with our Psyche from the start. This is what “Pray always” means. “Be at-one with the psychic spirit at work in us and through us in every moment, and ready for anything.” We get to the place of being able to do this by taking up the practice of being one with our Psyche in all times and places. Stand-up comedians are masters of this “spur of the moment” dialogue-or-monologue” performance. They turn themselves over to their Psychic Other, to the Knower Within, and say whatever comes out, trusting themselves to their Inner Other 100% all the way. They come up with their best lines by handing themselves over and getting into the flow/rhythm/spirit and seeing where it goes.
- Our frame of mind makes all the difference. Matters most. Is the key to all that follows in each situation as it arises all day every day. Our frame of mind sets the tone of our life from day to day. It alone determines, is in charge of, is in full command of, the way we respond to everything that comes our way. It is our place to know what The Right Frame Of Mind is and bring it forth to meet the day with us. My right frame of mind is cool with whatever is. I am not resentful, angry, sad, wanting my way, or anything other than the right frame of mind, which is for me, cooperative, inquisitive, interested, curious, eager to see what we (me and the Knower within, my Psyche-Self) can do with the time and place that are ours to work with here, now. Tally-ho! Here we GO! (Meaning whatever my Psyche-Self is for, I’m for).
- Photography chose me. Writing chose me. I had nothing to do with either. I was compelled by both. The ministry was more of a convenience than a compulsion. It was a way I could explore, express, my compulsions of writing and photography. A way to say/do/investigate who I am. Interest and curiosity were my driving forces. I went where interest and curiosity led. Questions were/are my reliable companions. Getting to the bottom of things. Knowing what’s what and what is called for, and who says so, were/are the driving force of my life. I will step into my 82nd year in a few days. Negotiating aging is waiting for The Event. The Fall. The Stroke. The Diagnosis. Etc. that will stand as the doorway, the threshold from what has been to what will be in a “That was then, this is now,” kind of way. I am waiting for “the old to pass away and the new to come,” in the form of doing everything in a new way, and I am not looking forward to it. I see myself as preparing for the New Age by consciously deepening my relationship with my psychic side–with the me that is deeper, wiser, kinder and able to ride “the heaving waves on the wine dark sea” than I would be on my own. I am not on my own! That for me is the saving realization of Old Age. And I never have been. I have always been tendered and kept safe by psychic forces from birth to here, now, and will be for the duration, which I take to be eternity, never-ending in Einsten’s law of energy way, “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted or transformed.” And life is energy. The Journey is just beginning.
- There is wanting and there is knowing. There is wanting what we have no business having and there is knowing we are wanting what we have no business having. And there in not caring that we are wanting what we have no business having. This is the plight of Adam and Eve. Common. Everyday. Universal. All the time. We can take refuge in knowing simply by dropping into the emptiness/stillness/silence (One thing, not three) and waiting there for clarity, realization, awareness, enlightenment and acting/living in accord with what we know, which is the same thing as living aligned with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is being at one with knowing/doing/being. At one with the flow of life. At one with the ought-to-be, with the needs-to-be, with the is. Knowing and caring about what we know puts wanting in its place. We can want to know. and care about what we know, and do what needs to be done, here, now. And that is the idea from the start. Knowing and caring about what we know and doing what is called for here, now, when, where, how it is called for, world without end, amen.
That is the process and the practice, and the Way. The Tao. World without end. Amen.
- It comes down to being who we are, doing what is ours to do, when, where and how it needs to be done. And we get there by way of the emptiness, stillness, silence. Dropping down. Turning on. Tuning in. To what arises, emerges, appears to greet us there as a gift from the Knower Within, for us to embrace, divine, and connect with in being/becoming who we need to be to see, hear, understand what’s what and what is happening and what is called for and what needs to be done in response–in each situation as it arises throughout eternity. This is our work, our practice, the way, the Tao. And all that enlightenment amounts to.
- Theology is a collection of opinions about hearsay. Somebody believes something and says it’s so and other people either follow the believer or burn them at the stake for heresy. Or ignore them and go their own way. People take their religion seriously without any grounding foundation at all. When anyone believes something, they are merely expressing an opinion about something, as I am doing here, now about this. In the world we have opinions and direct knowledge about things we know to be so. A hot stove will burn your hand if you touch it. This is not an opinion. It can be verified by independent observers around the world. “God will send you to hell if you don’t believe in the salvific power of Jesus Christ who died on a cross to redeem us by making atonement for our sins” is an opinion that cannot be verified by anyone anywhere. Preachers and insurance salespersons make their living by convincing others that what they say is so. Violating the Old Testament commandment, “Thou shall not remove thy neighbor’s landmark.” Evangelistic visitations knock on doors removing landmarks throughout the world. Religion is founded upon seeing what we can get away with.
- Authority is the Great Unknown. Who says so? Who says they know what they are talking about? Who makes and enforces the rules? Who decides what the rules are? What the truth is? What gives them the say so? I am declaring us to be our own authority in determining our boundaries, in setting our limits. We say so! Out of our own authority to know what’s what and what is called for and what to do about it. In knowing what is good for us and what is bad. What is right and what is wrong. We submit to local laws in obeying speed limits and paying our taxes, etc., but we make our own choices and decide our own way and run our own show the way we want to run it. This flashes back to Frasier Snowden’s observation that “The only true philosophical question is ‘Where do you draw the line?'” Are we free to draw our own lines? Or, are they imposed upon us from above or without? What say Thou and by what authority?
- The single most important miss-connection anywhere is in the Gospels where Jesus says, “The Father and I are one,” and everyone says, “Ah! Jesus is God.” Jesus also says, “In as much as you have done it, or failed to do it, to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it or failed to to it, to me.” And no one ever says in response to this, “Ah! Jesus is ME and I am Jesus!” And everyone misses the essential thing. Jesus identifies himself with the Father and with humanity whom he calls his brothers and sisters. Making us one with God and one with Jesus. We need to start there and see where it takes us.
- There is how we see things, and there is how things are. And that’s it. Everything that is is as it is coming out of the tension, the dynamics, the conflict, complexity, contradiction between how we see things and how things are. The Tao requires us to realize, recognize, comprehend, understand how things are and adjust how we want things to be to allow us to shift how we see things to accommodate ourselves to the Tao of How Things Are and live at one with the requirements of the here, now in aligning ourselves with the needs of the moment in seeing and doing what is called for by the circumstances emanating from and revolving around from how things are in each situation as it arises in order to be what the moment needs us to be regardless of our interests and desires, here and now, moment to moment, forever. This is called Enlightenment, Awakening, Growing Up.
- Experience = maturity = growing up IF we have the wherewithal (That is to say, “What it takes”) to experience our experience, explore it, examine it, inspect it, ponder it, reflect on it, take it to heart, understand it, comprehend it, study it, “get it,” and know what to make of it. Otherwise, it is wasted on us and we may as well have stayed in bed all those days for all the good they are in growing us up and enabling us to grasp what’s what and what is called for and rise to every occasion in offering what we have to give (which would amount to basically nothing) in the service of what needs to be done, when, where and how in each situation as it arises all our life long. If we don’t have what it take to experience our experience and make what is to be made of it, we are simply killing our time and waiting to die. Which is, I take it, the plight of most people on the earth at any given time throughout the millennium. No?
- The Buddha and Jesus came offering what they had to give to those who were looking for soft and easy and a short cut to having it made, and were not interested in Enlightenment, Realization, Awakening, Knowing What’s What, and Doing What Is Called For, Where, When and How It Is Called For, In Each Situation As It Arises All Their Life Long. If it is not about Drugs, Sex and Alcohol don’t bother, unless it is about Money. Then you will have their undivided attention until you stray from the subjects they are interested in. When, POOF! Like that they are off looking for soft and easy and a short cut to having it made. The people barking out the Prosperity Gospel understand the rules and talk about what the people want to hear every time the doors are open.
- Perspective is how we see what we look at. Perception is how we have seen things over time. Perspective and perception have to take themselves into account. We have to see our seeing, listen to our hearing, examine our knowing and know how that is different from our assumptions and our suppositions. And we have to take all of this into the silence with us and sit with it in emptiness, stillness and silence. “Reflection leads to new realizations,” said Joseph Campbell. Dropping into the silence is dropping into reflection, waiting for realization, which is also enlightenment, awakening, awareness, knowing, which lead to doing/being. We cannot say how things are until we live with them for a while. How long is that? It varies. It depends. It is hard to say. Don’t be in a hurry! We have to take our time. Wait to see over time. There are currently 24 different types of physics. How can we ever hope to be sure we know what we are talking about?
- We discover who we are, what we are about, by making inquiries. We start with what we like and what we don’t like. What is meaningful for us and what is meaningless for us. We begin there in the search for the source of who we are and what we are about until we have discovered the force behind what drives us to love what we love and do what is meaningful in being who we are and doing what is called for here, now, to the best of our ability in each situation as it arises all our lives long!
- How do we comprehend, understand, perceive the source of the force guiding, directing, producing the way things are and the way things need to be through all of times and places, situations and circumstances of the Cosmos to here, now? How do we experience it? Conceive it? Serve it? Commune with it? Cooperate with it? Know it? Live at one with it? Become it? Do it? The way to the Way is found in emptiness, stillness, silence, which makes it the Way. Inquiry and examination, Kid, Inquiry and examination!
- If Jesus had been rich, how would things have turned out? If he had possessed the equivalent of ten billion dollars, say? Or a trillion dollars? How different would things be? The Buddha was wealthy. He threw it away. Because, I think, money is much too noisy for the spiritually elite. A diversion, a distraction, competing for our attention and a place in our life. What if he hadn’t thrown it away? What if he had used his wealth in the service of his vision? What if he had paid his disciples to be quiet? Is wealthy quiet different from/than poverty quiet? Does money mess with our mind? With our morals? IS money “the root of all evil”? Can a wealthy person be a good person? As good as Jesus or the Buddha? Can we see as well with money as we can without money? Can we do as well? Does money get in the way? How much money is too much money?
- What is our perception of our perspective? What is our perspective of our perception? Where do we draw the line? Throw presumption and projection into the mix and see what becomes of truth then! What governs our perception of truth? Our perspective of truth? How does clarity resolve the matter? Does any of this matter? Who says so? To whom does it matter? How do we know. what matters and what makes no difference at all? Who cares? What is worth caring about? Who says so? How do they know?
- Wanting to be happy is a common experience. What would it take to be happy? I think not wanting to be happy would do nicely. This is called “Being happy by not wanting to be happy.” Being completely content with the way things are by not wanting things to be different than they are could easily be confused with being happy. Being just fine with everything as it is, no matter how it is, is the key to happiness everlasting. What keeps that from happening? The radical acceptance of everything just as it is only requires a slight shift in perspective. What makes that difficult? “I am going to be just fine no matter what.” Why is that hard? We never more than a slight perspective shift away from being just fine with how things are, and happy to be here, now. No?
- Getting what we want is not as important as wanting what needs to be wanted. As doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, whether we want to or not. Joseph Campbell put it succinctly with, “That which you seek lies far back in the darkest corner of the cave you most don’t want to enter.” Compare that with the old saw, “We meet our death on the road we take to escape it.” We don’t do ourselves any favors trying to have what we want. “Just do what needs to be done and let the outcome be the outcome,” as the old Taoist advised.
- Drop into the silence which is actually and always emptiness/stillness/silence–emptying ourselves of all that weighs us down, drags us down, haunts us, depresses us, the fear and the hatred, the hopelessness and the futility, the negativity and the lostness, the burdens and the absurdity… Leave all of that at the door. If any of it stirs to life in the silence, tell it to get back where it belongs. Revere the silence as off limits to all noise and complexity. Worship the silence as a refuge from the clashing rocks and the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea. Revere the silence as the home of mercy and grace, of kindness and compassion, and keep it safe from the intrusion of all that threatens our peace and solitude. And embrace the stillness as the true home of our soul, where we are safe from all that is the enemy of serenity and tranquility, and always the essence of “peaceful abiding, here, now.”
Drop into that silence and wait for what meets us there as a blessing of wellbeing and a comfort to our inmost being–and as guidance and direction, flow and confirmation of all that is good and right, essential and fundamental, here and now, always and forever. The gift of silence is the sense of what’s what and what is called for and how we are equipped to do what needs to be done about it, in response to it, with the gifts that are ours from birth: Our Original Nature, our Innate Virtues (What we do best and enjoy doing most), our Intrinsic Intuition, and our Inherent Imagination, etc. So that we might rise and enter the field of action in doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place in each situation as it arises, time after time.
- As we do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, we will be aligned with, in tune with, at one with, in sync with, the flow of Tao, the movement of life through time and space. And isn’t that the idea? To live at one with life? Here, now, always and forever? Isn’t that what giant sequoias do? And humpback whales? And the whole of the natural world throughout the Cosmos? As Joseph Campbell might say, “We get in there and do our thing, where, when and how it needs to be done, and let that be that, and let nature take its course, and let the. outcome be the outcome, which will lead us to do the same thing again in a new here, now throughout time. No?
- We are here as a result of the national drift into delusion and denial. We prefer conspiracy theories to truth. We will believe anything presented with power and conviction. Billy Graham led the way with revival preaching based on an emotional, loud and persuasive message urging people to believe what they heard and do what they were told–not to think about what was said. Politicians picked up on the method and Fox News carried things to another level with around the clock programming geared to indoctrination, not information. And here we are. Waiting for somebody who “knows” to tell us what to do. How dare we not know ourselves any better than this? How dare we not trust the inner voice of our own personal authority. Two-year-olds have more confidence in themselves than we do! They trust themselves to go up against parental authority is saying/demanding things like, “My want banilla ice cream!” or “My don’t want to go Potty!” What happens to our two-year-old side that allows us to “grow out of it,” to be led through the rest of our life by people who tell us what to do when, where and how as though they know more than we do? When, where, do we die to ourselves and let ourselves be led by someone else throughout what remains of the life left for living?
- How do we learn to trust our own inner voice? How do we learn to listen within? To the place where dreams come from? When do we stop listening to, or even remembering our dreams? When do we shut ourselves off from our inner other. Carl Jung said, “There is in each of us, another, whom we do not know.” How many of us know that? How many of us are aware of our Inner Other? How many of us live out of our relationship with The Other Within? Are best friends with Our Other Within? Think it is healthy to be thinking about these questions?
The Physic Ground of Life and Being is that from which we come and in which we live all our life long, connecting us with each other and with all forms of life–which Native American spirituality knows quite a bit about. A Native American spiritual assignment is this: Go to a wooded area near where you live–a public park, a state or national park, and allow yourself to experience being drawn to a particular tree. Walk into the presence of the tree and stand before it with reverence and admiration for the tree as a living being of value, and ask the tree for permission to touch it, and wait for its response. Observe your inner process of waiting for and knowing how the tree responds. Observe how this experience impacts your life throughout your future.
- It takes a lot of looking to be able to see. That is because seeing our projections is a very tricky proposition. In any situation and in every moment of that situation, there is reality, what’s there, and there is our take on reality, our perception/perspective of what’s there. And where does that line lie? The line between our experience and our interpretation of our experience? Seeing is actually saying. We are seeing what we tell ourselves is there. We cannot see what we do not have words to express. What we see is limited by the vocabulary we use to declare it to be so. And the vocabulary we use expresses our understanding/interpretation of what we experience when we look at what we behold. And how many different ways are there of looking at, “seeing,” whatever we perceive? The rush to judgment is the source of many of our problems with life. No?
- Emptiness, stillness and silence are the solution to many of our problems with life.
Emptiness is emptying ourselves of all that we carry with us, emotions, assumptions, memories, past experiences, projections, conclusions and false conclusions… etc. forever. When we empty ourselves of all that we bring with us into every situation/experience, we start every here, now, anew, truly ready to meet whatever we face.
Stillness is the source of all of our possibilities. Out of the stillness comes everything we need to see what we look at, hear what we listen to, know what we know and do what is called for in each situation as it arises with the gifts we bring with us into every moment, occasion, circumstance that opens before us every day.
Silence is moving beyond “the noise/dust of the world,” in order to perceive with clarity what’s what, what is happening, what is called for here, now, and what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises, with all of the gifts we bring with us into each moment of our life, in order to evaluate all that comes to us out of the stillness in stepping forward to meet the moment.
And all of this happens in the flash of one here, now after another. Ready or not.
- Consideration is reflection is realization is comprehension is understanding is knowing is doing is being. We are what we do. We do who we are. Socrates’ observation, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” is stymied by the quick retort, “The un-lived life is not worth examining.” And where does that leave us? Looking, seeing, listening, hearing, what’s what, what’s happening, knowing what is called for and doing it when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long. No?
- Conquest begets colonialism which begets colonization which begets conquest… And this is humanity’s gift to the world–and to the cosmos–all based on the need for consumption, exploitation and wealth based on the Adam and Eve premise that happiness depends on having our way and getting what we want no matter what. Which is the movement that fuels historical development and gets us where we are. We have to have what we want and are never content with what we have. This is the story of civilization. Striving to have more of what does not satisfy gets us where we are today, with more of the same tomorrow for as long as there are tomorrows. As with all invasive species, success is self-destructive. And everyone knows it, and no one can do anything about it. The epitome of insanity and the circle of life eating life. Making tropical rain forests the highest life form, self-perpetuating all the way forever.
- I am amazed at how much there is to say. And how much we know that we ignore in our lemming-like rush to the sea. We are all going our own way with nothing to show for it and no end in sight. Who are we kidding? That would be ourselves, no? We are living as though there is some end to the pushing to get and the striving to have where we will all be happy ever after at last. I write as though there is someone who reads what I have written, and re-read it myself as though for the first time. “And the end of all our exploring,” said the poet, “will be to arrive at where we started, and to know the place for the first time” (T.S. Eliot in “Little Gidding”).
Published by jimwdollar
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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