200 More Zen Thoughts From Jim Dollar #2

What is called for in a situation trumps all other considerations. Knowing what is called for here, now is essential knowledge, and we are attuned to that from conception. We know what is called for here, now, beyond all doubt. Even though we may not be able to explain, justify, excuse, defend our choice/actions. When the dog needs to go outside, we take the dog outside. When the baby’s diaper needs changing we change the baby’s diaper. When it’s time for a cup of coffee or a nap we know it. And so on, all the way to the end of the line.
Things are not going my way, and there is nothing new about that. I relish it in that there is no better mechanism for growing up some more again than that of coming to terms with things not going our way, and growing up some more again today every day is the path to whom we are capable of being–to whom we are called to be, built to be. And I am glad for being able to square myself up with the way things are that I would deeply prefer to be different than they are, but “here we are, now what?” Answering that question as it needs to be answered brings out the best in us in each situation as it arises. And being the best self that I am capable of being in every one of those situations is that which I aspire to be in every situation always. May I be so lucky!
Speaking of being lucky, that reminds me that being lucky is the foundation of a life well-lived. Those who live well are likely to consider themselves to be lucky, and they all would be right to do so. Being lucky is the essential quality required for a well-lived life and no one can do that on their own. However, we can position ourselves to be lucky by laying our hopes, desires, plans, aspirations, ambitions, etc. aside and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done no matter what in each situation as it arises by living aligned with, in accord with, our inherent intuition no matter what that means for our hopes, desires, etc., throughout the time left for living. If we want to be lucky we have to live intuitively and allow the outcome to be the outcome in good faith accommodation to that.
I don’t care if you love me–I care about you treating me lovingly whether you love me or not. Feel about me however you feel about me, but treat me lovingly. Treat me so consistently lovingly that I would never guess that you don’t love me. And if we all do this in our relationships with one another, it will transform the world in no time at all. So replace “Love one another,” with “Live lovingly toward one another” in all times and places. And all will be well.
Living lovingly with one another is being accommodating, with kindness and compassion, gentleness and grace. The world is dying for lack of those things when we all need to be kindling them in all of our relationships. Taking the lead by being what the circumstances need us to be here, now throughout our day, throughout our life. There is nothing difficult about this, and with practice it becomes second nature. It should be first nature, and may have been for Neanderthal, hunted down and killed by Cro-magnon. Genocide from the start. Something we have been good at from the beginning, and something we evidently are unable to out-grow or overcome. Racism being evidence of who we are capable of being without shame or remorse. Fie! Fie on us all! No?
We want more than we need, have any use for, know what to do with. We have Billionaires, even Trillionaires who don’t know what to do with their money. So they buy a congressman/woman, or a Senator or two, or the entire Supreme Court. Whom they also don’t know what to do with. We have no idea of what we are to be about. Jesus and the Buddha would not known what to do with us either. We cannot be still or quiet. We cannot sit waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear. We have the means with no end in sight. What’s the point of that? We don’t know what the point is. We don’t have a point and no idea of how to find one. Or, of where we go from here. Dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence doesn’t sound inviting at all, yet is the way, the truth and the life waiting for us to be willing to discover what waiting is all about.
The next moment hinges upon how we interpret/understand/comprehend what’s what in this moment. Each moment is a springboard into the next moment. How we see, hear, understand what’s what, what’s happening and what is called for here, now determines, or strongly influences, where we go from here and what happens next. We can, at any point influence/control the future and all that flows from that into all that will be because of what happens right here, right now. How competent, capable, balanced, alert, awake, aware are we right here, right now? That makes all the difference in terms of what happens next and where we go from here, now. How tuned in are we to ourselves and our surroundings? How in touch are we with the psychic foundation of our being right here, right now? How alive are we to ourselves and our surroundings? How sensitive are we to the psychic movement of past and future of ourselves and of all things in this moment with us right here, right now? How open are we to what is happening and what is called for? How available are we to what is called for and what needs to be done about it right here, right now? How can we best cooperate with the forces, the drift and flow of life and being at work within these circumstances of this situation in order to assist it in its movement toward what needs to happen? What do we mean by stepping into any moment without being in touch with all the things this paragraph opens up for our reflection, insight, intuition to take into account and consider cooperating with?
The psychic foundation of life and being is that which has always been called God. Psyche is God. God is our interpretation, our understanding, our conception, our projection of psychic reality, which is the essence of reality in cosmological form. We experience psychic reality and interpret it, understand it, define it as God. And give this God all of the qualities and capabilities that God has come to possess over time. We drape psychic reality with all of the projections humanity has created for God and build a theology complete with doctrines and dogma to explain all that needs to be explained to our relatively complete satisfaction, but it is all imagined and made up by those who have only the experience of psychic reality to work with over time.
Psychic reality is life. Mystery enfolded in matter. And there is no getting beyond the Mystery of life, of psychic reality. That is all there is. And it calls us, asks us to live in relationship with life and being and psychic reality so that we are one with all of it and happy/content to be so, doing what is called for, what is asked of us in relation to life and psychic reality, in each circumstance, in each situation, in each here, now that arises and asks us to offer what we have to give in service to the whole, or the part of the whole that is available to us in any/every given moment in living in accord with, in tune with, in harmony with the flow of life and being in every here, now by doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long. Engaging the magic and the mystery, at one with the magic and the mystery, aligned with the Tao, always and forever. Amen! May it be so! No?
My present reality is a good-enough reality for me, and the more personal the reality, the better the reality. And I read that as the “reward,” the essence of my being available to psychic reality, moving in relationship with, in response to, the influence of psychic reality throughout my life. I have always been attuned to, aligned with, the Tao, with the flow, the current, the drift of life and being through all of the times and places, the here, now’s, of life over the entire scope of life, and have “reaped what I have sown,” without knowing what I was doing or that I was sowing anything. We are always sowing something. The more attentive we are, attuned we are to who we are and what we are doing, the better the outcomes for us over the full course of our life, without our trying to achieve any outcome at all, just doing what was called for in each time and place of our living. This is the magic and the mystery of life at one with life, which is how we all are asked to live–and it is never too late to start living that way. Here and now is always the ideal time and place to begin doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for. Doing the right thing at the right time in the right place in the right place, just as the Tao has always asked that things be done.
Not forcing. Not pushing. Not shoving. Not insisting. Not striving. Cooperating. Listening. Looking. Seeing. Hearing. What’s what and what needs to be done about it here, now. Communing with the present. Being present with the present. For the good of the present moment. The here, now. What is called for? How? When? Where? Living at one with the Tao of life and being in each situation as it arises.
Benefiting and profiting from not trying to benefit and profit. From not caring about benefiting and profiting. Being aware only of here, now and what is called for, when, where and how for the sake of doing that and only that alone. This is living innocently with a noble heart in all times and places. Doing that, living in this way is the way of living well-enough and doing well-enough in all times and places. Why ask for more than that?
I have said before here that Carl Jung said, “There is in each of us another whom we do not know.” Our place is to get to know The Other Within. Begin with thinking of The Other Within as our psychic connection, as Psyche Within, and see if The Other Within has a gender preference. Ask the question and wait for a reply. It may come instantly and it may come as a dream tonight or next week. Don’t be in a hurry, just wait. If you care to, you can also ask for an actual, physical symbol to represent The Other within and see what comes to mind, instantly or eventually. We are making psychic reality real–the imaginary becomes real, tangible, actual when we treat it as though it is, and psychic reality is the foundational actuality of the physical universe. The spiritual is physical and Quantum Mechanics would not be surprised to hear so, and has known so from its beginning. We are following the path of Quantum Mechanics in taking up the work of making the immaterial real, actual, tangible, personable, factual and undeniable.

As we become comfortable with emptiness, stillness and silence, it becomes an inner world that we can rely on to ground, stabilize, guide and direct us in an inward and intuitive way to know what is called for and needs to be done in response to our outer circumstances, and “dropping into the silence” becomes the equivalent of Jesus’ injunction to “pray always.” Living from the silence is living from our intuitive awareness/realization/enlightenment/awakening/knowing what’s what and what is called for/needed to be done about it here, now. And the imaginary becomes real “like that.”
If we think of Psyche as fundamental/foundational reality–the stuff of which everything is made, matter and spirit/life/energy–and the Tao as the flow of life and being, then Psyche/Tao is all there is. And we can participate with Psyche/Tao through consciously aligning ourselves with Psyche and Tao in doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for in each situation as it arises, not for our own advantage but for “the good of the whole,” assisting the movement of life and being along the lines of the flow of life-being-energy through the experience of here, now, as we “chop wood, carry water,” and “eat when hungry, rest when tired,” and do what it takes to “take care of business” in each here, now that comes along.
Donald Trump is the environment in which we conduct the business of assessing what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for and what needs to be done about it here, now in every situation as it arises. We the people have always been at the bottom of the social order, lacking the tools and the wherewithal to do what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done in the time left for living. While those with the tools and the wherewithal to do what needs to be done aren’t interested in doing it, preferring instead to give themselves to idle pursuits pertaining to personal pleasure.
Anyone could look around and see this isn’t getting it done. And that has been the story of life and being, of Psyche and the Tao from the beginning of life and being. It is a travesty and a sham. Those who could won’t and those who would can’t. And we waste our lives going nowhere doing nothing–and this is all we have to show for our efforts through eons of sun rises and sunsets. I feel completely justified sitting in my recliner looking out the window. And look forward to doing it again tomorrow.
No plan. No agenda. No objective. No aspiration. No ambition. Just waiting. Just watching. Just looking. Just listening. Just seeing. Just hearing. Just knowing what’s what. What’s happening. What’s called for. In each situation as it arises. And doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done. Doing the right thing, in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, time after time. So that everything is as it needs to be here, now. Then dropping back into the emptiness/stillness/silence to wait and watch, look and listen…knowing what’s what, what’s happening and what’s called for in each situation as it arises as “circumstances beget circumstances” (An old Taoist observation) throughout what remains of life to be lived. Word without end. Amen.
Knowing what brings us to life is essential knowing. Knowing what depletes us, drains us and leaves us lifeless is also essential knowing. Vitality directs us throughout our life. We go where the life is and stay away from the places life cannot be. We know what is life and what is death for us, just as we know what is “YES!” for us and what is “NO!” for us. We only have to listen to what we know to know what we need to know to live the life that is right for us and avoid the life that is wrong for us.
Here’s an exercise I recommend for you: Pray as you normally would to the god of the bible and theology, and ask that god to introduce you to the Psyche/Tao god of all and everything. And see where it goes.
Psyche/Tao envisions all we have known of God through the ages, which also serves as a mirror of the best we have known about ourselves. We are one with the god of Psyche/Tao, and when we are conscious of being one with Psyche/Tao, none of the other gods we have imagined in all the pantheons of those gods could begin to match us in terms of the positive qualities those gods represent. When we are at our best we are the best that could ever be. And if we cannot sustain it for long that is only because we have other things on our mind that require our attention and break the spell of the Holy Other that we also are, and know it in the best moments of our best days. We are what we worship, or can be when we put ourselves into the role of PsycheTao and love one another as we are capable of doing. If you spend some time with this idea, you will know it is so. No?
That being the case, all you have to do is sit still, be quiet and become conscious of your realizations to know that you are quite capable of enlightenment and awakening and of living as though you are enlightened/awakened/compassionate/etc. and doing so just by paying attention, knowing 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, which is all the Buddha and Jesus, etc. ever did. The Buddha said, “You are the Buddha!” The Christ said, “You are the Christ!” And they knew what they were talking about. When we think about it, we know it is so.
We are capable of realizing/recognizing the Buddha in the Buddha and the Christ in the Christ. If we can realize/recognize it in them we can realize/recognize it in ourselves if we would but get out of our way and see what we look at when we look at ourselves, and stop giving ourselves over to the un-Buddha-like and un-Christ-like aspects of ourselves, and thinking that is who we Really are. We are the Buddha, we are the Christ–all it takes is acknowledging/ realizing that it is so and living as though it is for it to be so. And if you are screaming “NOT SO! NOT SO!” now, I invite you to begin living as though it is so for it to actually be so. Do this for me: Live to see how close you can come to it actually being so in each situation as it arises for the rest of your life. How about it? What do you say?
Think of Psyche as the foundation of life and being. Think of the Tao as the guiding principle of the Cosmos controlling direction and flow through time and space, through when, where and how. Put them together and we have what, where, when and how. Psyche/Tao. One thing not two.
I am a proponent of living as though it matters how we live even though I realize that on a lot of levels it doesn’t matter at all. Because on some level it matters to someone, me, for instance, my children, other drivers on the highway, etc. And not just matters–it makes all the difference. So, I live in light of the difference I do make and don’t bother with it not making any difference whatsoever. Some impact somewhere is impact. No?
If you do an internet search for “What is the relationship between Psyche and the Tao?” The internet search engine will turn it over to AI, which makes AI THE internet search engine, and in about 30 seconds, you will get a readout that would take you years of research the hard way.

And you will get this for starters: The relationship between psyche (the soul/mind) and the Tao (the ultimate principle of the universe) is deeply explored in Jungian Psychology, viewing the Tao as the Self—the center of wholeness where inner psyche meets the outer world, achieved through individuation (integrating opposites like Yin & Yang), experiencing synchronicity, and finding flow (Wu Wei) for inner harmony and self-realization, bridging Eastern philosophy and Western depth psychology. And the links are also amazing.

So, I encourage to do this, which will put you in position to grasp where this inquiry leads–away from the “God of theology presumption”, to the “God is One with Psyche and Tao, and all of life and being including us, and does not require worship, only recognition, realization, enlightenment, awakening, awareness, knowing and understanding that the distance between us and God is the distance between water and H2O.

And how that changes things is the gigantic shift in perspective/perception of our way of life and its impact on each other and all of the Cosmos, and our attitude about wanting/getting/having etc., and living consciously in the service of what is called for day-to-day.

Psyche/Tao sits us down in emptiness/stillness/silence and asks us to wait for (in the words of the old Taoists) “for the mud to settle and the water to clear,” so that what’s what becomes visible, and what is called for becomes obvious, and we make the shift from wanting-getting-having-amassing-etc. to seeing-knowing-doing-what-is-called-for-in-each-situation-as-it-arises. As it is called for, when it is called for, world without end. Amen.

26. We all go our own way, and when we do that naturally, smoothly, easily, everything is in sync and Tao guides and directs effort and outcome and all is well with wu-wei leading the way. But. When we push and strive, snatching and grabbing, forcing our way with no respect for what is called for and needs to happen, the Way is disrespected and dishonored, conniving and swindling determine what’s what and what is done and left undone, and shame and misfortune carry the day.

The Way that is Tao is blocked by wanting, desiring, having to have. Adam and Eve before the Tree with Forbidden Fruit. The United States before the West. Russia before Ukraine…The list is long, no? Wanting demolishes wu-wei. And destroys our life before we have a chance of living it. We know what we want, and it is not in our best interest to have it. But, when has that ever stopped us, or even slowed us down?

27. Jesus and the Buddha had the same access to what’s what, what’s happening, what’s going on, what’s called for and what needs to be done about it that we do. This is all there is in any/every situation as it arises. The same information is “out there” and available to all who witness each here, now as it comes along. “Here we are, now what?” is all there ever is. Everyone gets the same question and has the same opportunity to “get it right” in coming forth with what they have to offer in meeting the moment and doing right by their time and place. WE HAVE EVERYTHING WE NEED!!! HERE, NOW!!! To do what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done, in every situation as it arises. SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM??? Why don’t we do a better job with responding to the moment as the moment needs to be responded to? When all it would ever take is a pause, a breath while we drop into the silence (emptiness, stillness, silence) and wait to see, hear, understand, know, do, be–which could happen instantly. All it takes is a pause and a breath, and it is precisely what Jesus meant when he said, “Pray always.” He was saying, “Be awake, aware, alert always.” And the unstated but always implied corollary is “Do not always be striving to get what you want! Be listening, looking, watching, seeing, hearing what needs to happen here, now, ready to do the right thing at the right time in the right place in the right way–and do that!” It is so simple. Why is it so hard?

28. James Joyce was of the opinion that “the secret cause” of all of our deaths is/was/will be the idiosyncrasies that make us who we are. We are ourselves because of the things that separate us from one another and identify us as us in the eyes of those who know us, and they may be able to do a better job of recognizing us than we would be able to do in describing us. And it will be those things that are behind the reason for our dying, when, where and how we die. Jim Dollar will die “just like Jim Dollar.” And so on all around the reading circle of those reading what I am writing. No?

29. Just as our death is/will be fitting to who we are, so is our life. Our life is “just like us.” No? We live the way we live as a way of being true to ourselves, as a way–THE way–of being who we are. And, to live differently would be to BE different. Which we cannot do and still be who we are. It all comes down to and revolves around who we are. Who are we? How did we get to be this way? Who is in charge of–responsible for–us being who we are as we are? Genetics and the time and place of our birth, who our parents were and what they allowed, encouraged, and how all of that shaped our choices and our personalities… And here we are. Just like ourselves. And now we are capable of observing ourselves in action and changing our behavior in light of what we like and don’t like, influenced as we are still by our environment and the people we like and don’t like, hang with and don’t have anything to do with. And becoming ourselves in spite of ourselves, and because of ourselves, all the way to the end of the line.

30. Immersing myself in the silence (Which implies emptiness and stillness as well as silence) orients, grounds, centers, stabilizes, guides and directs me. And I do not know how anyone can survive without regular retreats into the silence (etc.). Noise is distraction, diversion, denial. Silence is our refuge and our foundation, where we go to take stock, recognize/realize what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises. Without that, we are like leaves or dust in the wind. No?

31. Emptying ourselves of everything several times a day opens us to the presence of stillness and silence which opens the door to reflection, realization, recognition, awareness, enlightenment and awakening, which makes us available to what’s what and what is called for here, now, which offers us the opportunity to do what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done, and that transforms everything and makes all things new, and that has an impact for the good on all things. So. Why wouldn’t we empty ourselves of everything several times a day?

32. Psyche is the Greek word for Soul. In my view/opinion, Soul is the interface between humans and what has always been known as God. Psyche is the union between humans and what has always been known as God. Psyche is all we can know of God. But the God we call God is the God of theology. It is God as the Church of Rome thought of God in the 392 years between Jesus’ death on the cross–his execution–and the closing of the Canon when the Church of Rome said, “No more books in the Bible” at the Council of Rome in 392 CE.

Up until the advent of theology, which was the Church of Rome’s collection of theories/opinions regarding the doctrines and dogmas that make up Christian Theology, Psyche was what we experienced as God through all the years of evolution from what has been called “The Big Bang” until Jesus’ death when the Church of Rome seized the advantage and claimed for itself the position speaking for God about all things religious, Original Sin, Redemption, Atonement, Salvation, etc and so forth.

And I am at the place of righting all the wrongs that have been done to Psyche all these years by giving credit where credit is due and inviting people to recognize the place of Psyche in their life and honoring her by living out of our own individual Original Nature, our innate Virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent Intuition and our intrinsic Imagination. By aligning ourselves and our life with Psyche/Tao (Where that line lies no one knows) we do what is called for, when, where and how it is called for–doing the right thing, in the right place at the right time, in the right way, and everything falls into place exactly as it should be, world without end, finally, at last, Amen!

33. You have heard me say, or read me saying, that silence (emptiness, stillness) is the most important thing, but. In order for that to be the case, we have to be on our own side. We cannot be giving ourselves down the river. Being ashamed and fed up with ourselves, down on ourselves, up to here with ourselves. Is not going to enable the silence (etc.) to be a bit of help. Not at first. We have to start with apologizing to ourselves, seriously and with benevolent intent. And take up the practice, the program of being on our own side 24/7/12. Cutting ourselves slack. Giving ourselves break after break forever. Giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt from here on out. Once we get good at it, then we can trust ourselves to the silence (etc) a little at a time until we get good at that as well. Then the silence can be a friend in all times and places, and the place where we can trust ourselves to in knowing what is called for and doing what needs to be done.

34. This is a duplicate of my December 25 WordPress “Jim Dollar’s Photography and Philosophy” blog:

The Buddha under the Bodhi Tree is Jesus in Gethsemane and on Golgotha. And Dylan Thomas writing as his father lay dying, “Do not go gentle into that good night! Rage! Rage! Against the dying of the light!”

The last one alive is still dying. The work remains the same: Rage! Rage! Against the dying of the light!”

It is our work to do! We must do it even with our dying breath!

Socrates drank the hemlock. Hitler pulled some trigger in some dank bunker. How different they’re dying! Jesus on the cross, shouting, “Into thy hands I commit my spirit!”, having done all the could do–all that was his to do–all the way to the end was Socrates drinking the hemlock. That is the way to do it!

I will be writing and perfecting photographs all the way to the end–not caring if anyone reads or sees or gets it and dies doing their own thing the way it ought to be done, laughing, dying, knowing that’s the way to do it, or not. It is mine to do! Theirs to do! Yours to do! “Get in there and do your thing, and don’t worry about the outcome!” (Joseph Campbell on the crucial importance of saying YES! to life just as it is, on his way to death).

We are all on our own way to death! So What? That is the nature of the game that’s afoot all the time all the way! We live and we die! That is the way it is! DO IT! The way it needs to be done all the way! And when it is done, say, “Good-by, Gracie!” “Good-bye, Gracie!” Laughing and dying, dying and laughing. Getting it and rolling on the floor laughing, dying, all the way!

35. The great-granddaughter is about to be 3 and her brother, the great-grandson, is about to be 2, and they are perfect examples of how to do it, of how it is to be done. They are full of zest and joy and delight and wonder and life, discovering things learning things, loving everything, going full blast and dropping into a nap with a nap is demanded, and waking up to go at it again, living with all they have, looking forward to all that remains, not caring that they, too, will die. They are too busy living to care about dying!

And that’s the way we need to be doing it! Too busy living to care about dying! That is the lesson of children to the old and decrepit. “Get your dancing shoes on and go looking for a party!”

36. Today is Christmas Day. It should be everyone’s birthday! The day we all celebrate as our coming to life day. And we all should celebrate it together as the day we all came to life, as the day we all come to life, and live as though we are fully alive to the wonder and joy of living no matter what! It should be a pact we make again together every December 25 for as long as there are December 25’s! How about it? Are you in? I’m in! And, you?

37. Being alive comes down to loving what you love and doing what you love to do. If we aren’t doing that we may as well be dead for all the good being alive is doing us and the world. No?

38. I write to get it written. Or, as Bill Hamiltion’s friend something Stacel said about his art, “I paint like a dog wags its tail.” I have to write this in order to get beyond this to that, to whatever is next, to whatever this is leading to, taking me. I’m always writing because I’m always being led somewhere else. I’m always on the way, never arriving, and if I ever arrive I will be back where I started and it will be as though for the first time–and who said that in “Little Gidding” (Or something like that, I don’t remember. But I remember not remembering). T.S. Eliot (I googledit).

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

That’s it! It is what we are all about. Leading ourselves on a merry chase to ourselves. Writing to say what needs to be said so that we can hear it for the first time. And know what we need to know so that we might do what needs to be done that only we can do. That is the whole point of life, of living, of being alive–to know who we are for the first time. In an “Oh, Peter! There you are!” kind of way.

39. In any situation there is what is called for and needs to be done. Our place in every situation is to discern what that is and do it with the psychic gifts at our disposal: Our Original Nature, Our Innate Virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), Our intrinsic Intuition, and Our inherent Imagination. Notice that what we want doesn’t make the list. What we want is a source of noise/interference in all situations and it is up to us to empty ourselves of all distractions in order to give our full attention and our energy to the tasks of seeing and doing what needs to be done, when, where and how and doing it exactly as it needs to be done, situation by situation.

40. In the New Testament we get to pick our God, and there is a wide variety from which to choose. I’m going with the God who is like the prodigal son’s father: “You were lost and now you are found! You were dead, but now you are alive!” “I hold nothing against you–nor will I ever!” “Welcome to the hospitality of your eternal home!” That is God as God ought to be.

But, if that is too soft for you, you have other options–I’m sure you will find one to your liking. There is the Good Samaritan God, treating his enemy, a Jew, like they are the best of friends, not sworn enemies for generations. That’s a God of grace, kindness, generosity, and a lot like the prodigal’s father.

If you like your God to be a tougher sort, there is the Unjust Landowner paying his workers the same wage for working different lengths of time. Not a just and fair wage at all (And let’s see how he does, hiring workers the next day, or the next year). A harsh and ruthless landowner might have a hard time farming over time. That God is not likely to last.

Then, there is the “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” God. The far extreme of the Unjust Landowner. But quickly and easily dismissed by the hard realities of life as exhibited by the story of the wise and foolish bridesmaids: “You go get your own oil! We only have enough for ourselves! Too bad for you!”

And then there is the God who cleans out the money changers in the courtyard of the Temple–certainly not the same God who gives his servants a potful of money to invest while he is away and judges them harshly for knowing the kind of God he is and keeping their portion of the pot safe so as not to lose a penny and be punished severely upon his return. If you can’t keep this God happy, it’s all over for you. He is the far extreme of the prodigal son’s father.

We have plenty of options for the God of our dreams. And most of them don’t make the cut as far as I am concerned. How about you?

41. I would like a Do-Over from the start! We have made such a mess of things, there is no straightening it out this far into it! War was a stupid idea that never should have been. And discrimination of any sort on any level should not be ever at all! Giant Sequoia trees seem to get along just fine. I think they are the highest form of life. They are high anyway. And they don’t have any truck with the “Life Eats Life” Law of the Jungle that rules all other life forms–and is as stupid as war. We all should be Giant Sequoia Trees! The world would be better off in every way even if no one ever made it to the moon and back. What kind of achievement was that when we came back to war and hatred? Getting rid of war and hatred would have been something worth talking about–going to the moon, not so much.

42. I want more for us than this. This is ridiculous. And obnoxious. And disgusting. Look at our choices! They are not worth choosing! We need better choices! Like being able to choose a life worthy of us! A life where we could actually be the best we can be! Just look at the lives people are stuck in! Unable to come anywhere close to maximizing their potential! “Parking cars and pumping gas,” etc. all their life long. Sit with that for a while. Being born black is a curse for most people born black. Being born poor is a curse for most people born poor. And on it goes. This is utterly unacceptable! And seeing/saying so doesn’t do a thing to improve the way things are for most of the people on earth. Or anywhere else. But, I’m playing under protest. Protest and renunciation! And I would shave my head if my wife would allow it. If she dies first, I will be bald for the funeral.

43. Seeing and doing what is called for in each situation as it arises is the Taoist way. Seeing, saying, doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place is to be riding/walking/being with the Tao, the flow of life and being through time. But. Who can claim to be doing this, to have done this? And to what end? What good did it do? Has it done? The world still stinks, right? So it is only a personal good that is done at best.

The Corporate Good is a fantasy never experienced anywhere any time. Trump and his legions are the poorest example of The Good At Work in the World as any ever. Where would we go to find The Good At Work in the World? Mother Teresa? Jesus? Thich Nhat Hanh? The Buddha? Did any of them leave things better than they found them? For how long was it better? When was it good? For whom? For how long? The best of the best are dust in the wind. How good is the good that doesn’t last? Doing good means doing what exactly for how long? When, where have things been changed for the better? And how long before someone like Trump comes along demolishing and trashing, deporting and doing evil everywhere all the time? Creating weal, making woe?

Lao Tzu said the hell with it and went off to the west. Who can blame him? I say the hell with it and sit in my recliner looking out the window, refusing to let it get to me, because if I had it to do all over again, I couldn’t do better, and I could do a lot worse. So, here we are, doing what we can do in the service of the best we can imagine, and letting that be that, as it has been done before us throughout time.

The Sisyphean task awaiting all who know a little about what they are doing. Laughing as we do our thing uphill and downhill throughout our life, knowing that no one could do much better than we are doing. Being the best company we can be with each other all along the way.

44. I grew up among people who took someone else’s word for everything. Nobody thought for themselves. Everybody was trying to make someone else happy, and no one was happy. I did not know a single happy human being who wasn’t a baby throughout my childhood, even into adulthood. And I only know a few happy people now. That’s ridiculous. What are they all waiting on? If they are ever going to be happy, why not now? With things just as they are? Baby are a lot happier than adults. Babies have the right attitude. Happiness is just a perspective, just a perception, just a point of view. If we can be happy anywhere, we can be happy here, now. Why not? Why not be happy right here right now? Like a baby would be.

45. My message to you is to stop worrying. Stop trying to arrange things so that you don’t have anything to worry about. Relax. Drop into the emptiness/stillness/silence (One thing, not three), and focus entirely on aligning yourself with your Original Nature, your Innate Virtues (The things you do best and enjoy doing most), you Intrinsic Intuition and your Inherent Imagination, so that you know what’s what, what’s happening, and what is called for in response in each situation as it arises, giving yourself to doing that where, when, how it needs to be done, trusting yourself to know what you need to know to do what needs to be done and allowing the path to open before you and, as Joseph Campbell would say, watch as doors open where you did not expect to find doors, and assistance coming from places you never imagined would be helpful, as though your life is rising up to take care of you and things are falling into place all around you. Relax into your life and live it as it needs to be lived throughout the time left for living.

46. Having done it is it. No one living–no living thing–has done it without having toughed it out somewhere, if not all the way, along the way, and they get stile points for having toughed it out with style and with grace and with Pizzazz along the way. Style points are icing on the cake. They are what sets us off as individuals worthy of applause and curtain calls, and bring out the show-off in us all.

It’s what we bring to the moment, that we get out of the moment. It’s the tune, the melody, the rhythm, the harmony… That we bring to life in our life. It’s what they remember about us when we are gone. What we leave behind. What stands out. What sets us apart. We showcase who we are in a thousand ways throughout our life. That’s it. What life is all about. Daisies and sunflowers waving in the breeze. Showing off.

The old Taoists knew all of this. Style points are all there is. The old Taoists talked about Wu-Wei, doing it without doing anything, getting it done without breaking a sweat, without moving a hair. Yin/Yang. Same thing. Being who. you are and who you are not at the same time, in the same place. Doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for in each situation as it arises by doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place with everyone grading us on the smoothness of our movements in not moving a muscle, without breaking a sweat, without doing anything and yet everything is done precisely as it should be, as it needs to be done.

Zen is what happened when Buddhism met Taoism and the Bodhisattvas became the masters of doing-while-not-doing, but it was Taoism that they were “doing,” not Buddhism with its Dharma and its ten thousand rules about how to sit correctly and be quiet precisely in order to get it done properly, but the Bodhisattvas “just did it” all, spontaneously, automatically, naturally, being perfection without trying, without doing anything out of the ordinary. So that “Nothing special” became the mark of a true master of life for both male and female.

And that is what life is all about, across the board, around the circle throughout the universe: Doing it the way it ought to be done, when, where, and how from start to finish, from beginning to end, living like it ought to be done, with just the right touch. No?

47. Frasier Snowden said, “The only true philosophical question is ‘Where do you draw the line?'” And, I would add, it is the only thing that matters, and it is what sets us off from one another, around the world, and throughout the Cosmos over time. Carl Jung’s emphasis on “individuation” comes down to drawing the line where, when, and how we would draw the line. Only we know that. Only we can do that. No one can draw our lines for us. We have to draw them for ourselves. Learning to draw our own lines, where, when, how is the sum total of growing up. Once we get that down, we have done it, and are ready to move on. No?

48. At this point in my life, the word “pathetic” stands out as the descriptive term of choice that I would use to sum up “the whole catastrophe” (Zorba the Greek). I see it all as being pathetic. Sad. Pitiful. And it is salvaged, redeemed, atoned for by our recognition of it for what it is and embracing it fully, living it “to the hilt,” as those who are proud to be a part of it just as it is. Saying “YES!” to it all and throwing ourselves into it fully, completely all the way, being wholly pathetic, as pathetic as the role we are called/required to play all the way through the pathos to the pathetic end of the line.

We know it is pathetic and we know there is nothing we can do to change that–the more we try to change it, the more pathetic it becomes. So, we smile, chuckle, laugh at our helplessness and embrace it, playing our part to the fullest, so that we deserve an Oscar for our effort and take our place among all of those bowing to the applause of the ages, having done all and “arriving at the place of our beginning and knowing it for the first time” (T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding).

49. Despair is out of the question unless our role calls for despair. Despair as our judgment upon the role we are asked to play with our life is taking our role too seriously, as though some roles are more worthy than others, whereas all roles in all scenes in all lives are of equal importance to the impact/outcome of all lives “across the board, around the table, throughout the Cosmos.” And individual actors can’t be disparaging their part in the greatest movie/play of all times. All parts are required to make the whole the greatest of all time.

50. Sex, drugs, alcohol and money are the noise makers of our day, with acquisition, accumulation, power and control being the things money is mostly used for. Together, they serve to divert and distract us, consume our time and disrupt our attention. Preventing our immersion in emptiness, stillness and silence, and keeping us from knowing or caring about what is called for by consuming us with the need for achieving our goals and gaining what we want–in a “Those who die with the most toys win” kind of way.

Psyche/Tao has no concern for sex, drugs, alcohol, money or the things money can buy. Noise in all forms interferes with seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises and having what it takes to rise to the occasion and do the right thing at the right time in the right way in the right place to maintain harmony and flow, serve “peaceful abiding here, now,” allow the dust to settle and the way to be clear at last.

51. Maintaining our balance and harmony, direction and flow is to be at one with Psyche/Tao on the Way that is Truth and Life, knowing fully, in the words of Martin Palmer, “The path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path.” Meaning, I take it, that the way can be best discerned as hindsight, confirming that we are indeed at one with the path and need only to “keep her steady as she goes,” through the clashing rocks and crashing waves of the wine-dark sea for as long as need be. World without end, Amen!

52. What has life for you? Meaning? Purpose? Enthusiasm? Zest? What do you live to do? The camera and the typewriter (Keyboard) stand out for me. I would be just fine with a camera and a keyboard for the rest of time. And I did not search either out. They came looking for me. I was rocking right along in my life at the time and out of nowhere I was whammed with a camera and a keyboard (typewriter). The typewriter came first when I was a junior in high school. Of course, I had no idea what to do with it, and just plinked around and things developed on their own. The camera came along when I was a sophomore/junior in college. And again, no idea of what it meant, so I started fooling around with it, reading about photography, following my interests to see where they would lead. In a sense, I couldn’t make a living with either, but, in another sense, I did make a living with the typewriter/keyboard, and made a life with both the typewriter (keyboard) and camera. And it has been the best life I could hope for, with me doing nothing but following the way that opened up around being thrown to the ground by a typewriter and a camera and living to find out what that meant. I’m still making discoveries.

53. We are waiting for the connection. Sitting in emptiness-stillness-silence, waiting for the connection between ourselves and our life. Our life is not something we think up. It is not the result of careful 5-year Planning. It is the outcome of being who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are in each situation as it arises, perceived/conceived in the silence (etc) and lived out on the field of action.

The connection/perception/realization, awakening/enlightenment occurs in the silence (etc) and is executed/expressed as the movement of the Tao in the here, now of our life as knowledge being unveiled moment-to-moment, day-to-day in a “This is who I am and this is what I do” kind of way. We grow in the darkness and we bloom in the light, having made the connection between who we are and what we do. Without thinking anything out. Without planning a thing. Just knowing/doing spontaneously, automatically, Wu-Wei unfolding, the Tao coming to life here, now.

54. We are here together with nothing better to do than to be who we are, dancing together around the center of the circle that includes all of life held together by the energy of life and the still point at the center of the circle of life–knowing as we do that “There is only the dance!”

55. Being who we are is no more difficult than dropping into the emptiness-stillness-silence (One thing, not three, implicit in the single word “silence” for all who live knowing that the silence is at the heart of life, and we all live knowing what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises–and doing that with the gifts we have from birth: Our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent intuition and our intrinsic imagination).

Everything flows from there like the Tao through all living things by way of the Psyche that grounds and establishes us as the essence of Psyche/Tao at the heart of here, now, eternal and everlasting, world without beginning or end–is now and ever shall be!

56. There is only knowing what we know and doing what is ours to do in each situation as it arises for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it–doing the right thing in the right place at the right time in the right way, here, now always and forever!

57. I heard the owl call my name: Who? Who? Who are you? What are you about? What is called for here, now? What will you do about it? How can you be sure that is what needs to be done? The way it needs to be done? Where and when it needs to be done? How do you know you are right about all of that?

It is easier with photography. I can look at a photograph and see what it needs, or if it is perfect and stands on its own just as it is. People, myself included, come with so many nuances attached, it is hard to be “perfectly personed” just as we are.

Where would we stop making adjustments? When would we be “just fine exactly as we are”? There is always something else to get right. No? Something else that needs to be done differently, better, all the time.

At some point we have to be who we are here, now and let it be just as it is because it is and this is it. Just walk away from the mirror and let it go! They can take me or not exactly as I am! I, I, I can take me or not, just as I am!!! Even perfection has its down side! Right?

58. The remainder of my days upon the earth could be spent between walking through scenes with my camera, or sitting, looking out the window with my computer in my lap, writing what needs to be written here, now, or reading what someone else has written about things that are important to me–that currently being Psyche and Tao and how they relate and are connected, and may be the same thing. I think Psyche/Tao is/are all that is, with everything else being some aspect of Psyche/Tao/Awareness/Enlightenment being experienced/expressed in some particular way. And I experience/express that with photography and writing/reading–and call that “Getting the most out of being alive.”

59. Starting with the word “unprecedented,” how can we be sure? Perhaps everything is “unprecedented” in some ways on some levels, no? Perhaps everything is made up fresh everyday, including memories. I know that is ridiculous, but where does “precedent” start? And how can we be certain that it doesn’t start somewhere else? Who is to say? What does it matter? How factual/actual does precedent have to be? Who says so? How can they be sure? What exists today that did not exist yesterday, or ever before, and will not exist tomorrow, and what does it matter? What does it matter how dogs know when their owner/master is coming home? How would we use that information in making a better world? How often do we, or other life forms, sense that something is about to happen? How often are we right? How often are we wrong? What does it matter? What would need to change about our perceptions regarding how things are to make a difference for the better in the way things are? What would change things for the better across the board, around the table, throughout the cosmos? When does “better” go over into “worse” on some level somewhere? How can we be sure we are not making things worse thinking we are making them better? When better for something is worse for something else? Or when better and worse are true for everything all of the time? More or less? Where in our experience has an answer not raised more questions? Making answers the source of all of our questions?

60. Psyche and Tao are the actual source of all of our questions. They are the actual source of everything. The old Taoist said “Circumstances begetting circumstance” were the source of all that is. They should have said that about Psyche and Tao. And the line between the two is probably impossible to recognize, so give it to one or the other and that would be accurate. For what purpose, no one knows. I cannot imagine how it would matter. Jung said synchronicity was “meaningful coincidence.” Who is to say whether a coincidence is meaningful or not? Whether a coincidence matters or matters not? What is the source of everything? How does knowing help anything or anyone? Where does life come from? Where does it go? How do we know? How does it matter?

61. What does matter? Living aligned with ourselves, in sync with ourselves, at one with ourselves, true to ourselves, with intentional, deliberate and conscious integrity, awareness and realization. This is the key to everything that follows. Seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing who we are and what we are about, and living to do/be that in the world in an “I am who/what I am” kind of way. Letting come what comes and doing what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises.

62. Meaning is projection. Everything is. Nothing exists apart from our projecting meaning onto the thing. We speak it into existence by declaring “This is this and that is that,” upon everything we look at. Until we name it, it does not exist. We are the Namers. We make it all up. We have made it all up. Look around. Everything you see exists because we named it. Who called the moon “The Moon” first? And so on with every other thing. Who designated everything? That is how things came to be what they are. Human beings are the projection casters. Nothing means anything until we say what it means. Everything is invisible until we declare it to be what we say it is. We are the meaning makers. We bestow the gift of being upon all that is.

63. The psychic ideal–the way it is all supposed to be–is the Taoist ideal: Doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place. What, how, when, where. The Taoists even when so far as to say how to go about doing What, How, When, Where: Wu-Wei, roughly translated as “doing without striving, pushing, forcing. compelling, or making anything happen.” Just allowing things to be as they are. Assisting things in being what they are. The way of the seed in the earth, the yeast in the dough. Doing without doing.

And Jesus is no savior. Jesus is just one of us. Doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place. Reforming the way things were thought and done in the first century CE, and being executed for his efforts. Just because it is the right thing, etc., doesn’t mean it will be popular. But it does mean it needs to be done, popular or not.

64. Our life comes down to our response to being alive. To our interpretation of what’s what and how things are. To how we see things. To how we see what we look at. To how we look at what we see. To how we think about how things are. To what we make of things. To our response to the impact the experience of being alive makes on us. Our response to the impact of life determines the impact of life. We are the swing point, the turning point, the determining factor of our life experience. “We cannot remake ourselves without suffering, for we are both the marble and the sculptor” (Alexis Carrell). We are the stone, the chisel, the hammer and the artist of our own becoming. We are up to us. Every day. All the way. We are up to us. No?

65. All of the trauma and the drama of our life is our own doing. We are in accord with, in harmony with, at one with Psyche/Tao or not. We drop into the silence (emptiness, stillness) and “wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear,” or not. And in that moment, in that here, now, resides all of the outcomes that have led to this moment, this here, now. And where we go from here, now is entirely up to us and what we do next. It would be wise if we “slow down, we move too fast, we have to make the moment last, feeling groovy” (Simon and Garfunkle). And, we think there is more to it than that. And, here we are. No?

66. We are emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) away from being at-one with, aligned with, in accord with, in harmony with Psyche/Tao in all times and places. And this has been known, dismissed, discounted, denied from the start. Because we want what we want and not what we need to want, ought to want, should want in each situation as it arises always and forever, just like Adam and Eve.

67. Drop into the silence (etc.) and notice what you are ignoring, dismissing, disregarding. Pay attention to what keeps coming back and what you keep pushing away. Become aware of the coming back, pushing away dance and how that becomes the primary theme running through your life. And how maintaining that arrangement keeps things as they are. And remembering “We cannot remake ourselves without suffering…” Remaking ourselves means suffering. Refusing to remake ourselves means suffering. We make the call and live with the circumstances. No?

68. Our choices tell the tale. They reflect/determine the nature and course of our life, and are the cause of our death. We live and die by the accumulated impact of our choices over time. Everything would be different with different choices. What are we serving, trying to arrange, with the choices we make? What is the theme, focus, direction of our choices? Toward what are we living by way of the choices we make?

69. My thinking consists of being aware of the implications of what I’m thinking–of what it means that I am thinking “this” and not something else instead. I am also aware in conversation of simply responding naturally, spontaneously, to the flow of conversation without trying to force or direct the conversation toward a particular outcome. I’m just talking to see where it goes, to see what I will say in response to what is said. I speak in response as an observer-participant. Perhaps also being aware of wishing I were somewhere else doing something else. I don’t think or converse in the service of manipulation and control, but in the service of observation, awareness, recognition, realization.

My life is a meditative experience in the service of enlightenment, awakening. I seek silence. I avoid noise. Always have, I think in response to the environment of my birth, which did not invite my input but rejected my input in favor of the way I was supposed to respond/speak/act. I was not free to be me, so I became me in the silence where I was safe and out of harm’s way. I wonder who I would have been in a different, friendlier, environment. My father was not a safe place to be, I think because he was afraid of how my behavior would reflect on him, not only as a father, but also as a human being. My father’s insecurities produced my introversion and my intuitive response to life in general, always reading the world, seeking safety because of my own insecurities.

70. What do we serve with our choices and our life? Observing our choices, introspectively considering our outcomes and our life, leads to what realizations regarding what we are serving, what we are striving for, what we are seeking, what we have achieved, what we are doing and have done with the life we have lived and are living? Drop into the silence (etc) with these questions and see what comes and where it goes.

71. I am about to step into my 82nd year, and at this point in my life, I care more about the quality of life than I do about the length of life. I’m going to take hot showers because I am cold natured and enjoy the warmth of hot showers, though it may be drying out my skin and leading to medical conditions in the future.

I am going to be quiet, introspective and introverted, not a gregarious “hale fellow well met.” I am going to be slow and easy, not in a hurry to be somewhere else and angry because it is taking so long to do anything. I am going to find things to enjoy where I am and spend time being aware of where I am and of what is happening here, now.

I am going to look forward to dying and seeing what is on the other side. And hoping it isn’t going to drag out for the sake of one more breath when the whole point of breathing was passed long ago.

72. Our life unfolds according to its own pleasure. Our role is to know what’s what, what is happening, here, now, and what is called for in each situation as it arises and do that where, when, and how it is called for, for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, no matter what as long as we shall live. And the most important thing about this entire process is to have no opinion in the matter, but to allow ourselves to be carried along by the forces (the force) at work in our life from one here, now to the next, saying yes and no to the choices/opportunities, that open before us according to our sense of what is happening and what is called for in that present here, now and letting that be that–relying on what we know to be so with our body and our feel for the moment without any need to defend, justify, explain, excuse our actions beyond, “I don’t know why I am doing this beyond knowing that this is what needs to be done, and we will see where it goes and “I have no say in the matter. Savvy?”

73. The Great Enemy is opinion that is created, formed and justified by wanting, craving, having to have. Our guiding light that is fueled by wanting leads to the dark night of the ever-deepening and expanding wasteland after the manner of Adam and Eve. True guidance is grounded in simply knowing what is ours to do and what we have no business doing, or even considering, at all. I have no business owning a horse, taking up farming, singing and dancing or doing standup comedy, for a few examples of attempting to do what is Not Me At All. I am going to sit looking out the window and waiting to see where that goes. I spend most of my time seeing where it goes, with nothing at stake in the matter beyond interest and curiosity.

74. In turning to the silence (emptiness and stillness) and waiting for what arises there, it is our place to see with awareness, comprehension, recognition and realization what we are looking at, waiting for a “There you are Peter!” kind of moment. We don’t just settle for the first thing that appears. We wait for the arrival of what we know we are waiting for, though we do not know what that is until we see it, like the Lost Boys waiting for Peter’s return in the movie “Hook.”

And we sit with what we were waiting for, absorbing the meaning it has for the here, now of this moment in our life, and how we apply it and live in light of it in the moments that follow this one, and seek the long term meaning this moment has for the rest of our life. An Epiphany is never lost or forgotten, but remains with us like a Witching Rod to point the way and remind us of who we are and what we are about through all of the times and places of our living. Never leaving us bereft, always by our side.

75. “The Way, The Truth, And The Life,” is the Psyche/Tao sensed as The Flow, The Force, The Charge compelling us along a path of action with an urgency and a sense of direction that cannot be ignored, dismissed, discounted, over-looked or denied. I fell in love with a camera in this fashion, and was adopted for life by a typewriter which morphed into a keyboard somewhere along the way. And there was no escape from either. They claimed me as their own, and so it has been through all the years from then (in my late teens) until now, and beyond now, into the Great Beyond encircling always and forever, world without end. And I trust that you know, or will live to know, what I am talking about! May it be so for all of us! World without end!

76. Wanting and striving to have what we want and living in the service of our wanting, seeking, striving to have, is to lose the way, wander from the path into the far reaches of the wasteland. Wanting is at odds with the Tao. Striving has no place in the world of Wu-Wei and “Peaceful abiding, here, now.”

Living at one with Psyche/Tao is devoting ourselves to the movement of vitality and life directing us along a path that cannot be seen, only sensed and felt, not physically, but psychically, psychologically, spiritually. Life with Psyche/Tao is life on a different level, lived in silence (Emptiness, stillness). Sensing, feeling, knowing without knowing how we know and cannot say what we know, and must live in light of what we know, anyway, nevertheless, even so. The Tao Te Ching says it well: “Darkness within darkness–the gateway to Mystery.” The Way, the Truth and the Life!

In order to understand what I am saying, you have to know what I mean. And you do know what I mean, and will know it, if you sit quietly and wait for realization that waits for your waiting.

77. What would make the biggest difference for good in our life that is in our ability to effect? The one thing I can think of that would apply to all of us is emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) regularly applied frequently throughout the time left for living. Just sitting still, being quiet, watching without engaging the things that arise in the silence, making room for that which needs to be attended to make itself known, seen, heard.

Opening ourselves to our inner world–realizing that we are not alone, but are a part of a life-long partnership with what I think of as Psyche/Tao, a presence that knows what’s what and what is called for, needs to be done, in relationship with it in each situation as it arises always and forever. We have a guide who has our best interest at heart but is often at odds with what we want and asks us to ignore what we want in favor of what is called for here, now, day to day, all the way.

When we become partners with that presence, we come to life in a way that has nothing to do with getting/having what we want and everything to do with getting/having what we need. But it will require waking up, seeing what’s what, knowing what to do in response to it and doing it where, when and how it needs to be done here, now, forever. And all of this becomes increasingly clear to us by way of time spent in emptiness, stillness, silence being aware of what is present with us there and allowing nature to take its course.

May it be so for us all. The rest of the way. I am confident this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Pray always,” and what the Buddha had in mind when he said, “Peaceful abiding here, now.”

78. Ambition, aspiration, desire, aims, goals, plans, agendas, schemes, missions, etc are all in the way. They are distractions, diversions, intrusions, obstructions, hindrances, etc. Abandon them all and sit quietly. “Peacefully abiding, here, now.” Present with the silence and aware of all that arises within without engaging any of it. Just waiting quietly with no interest in anything beyond being aware of it all as it comes and goes, waiting for something to appear with a particular charge, energy, attraction, appeal, pull, force, enchantment, fascination, etc. that draws us, propels us, to action. Go there, do that, and see where it goes–with no concern or interest in what we stand to gain from it, but doing it when, where and how it needs to be done, and letting that be that.

We rise to the occasion and do what is called for, doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way and the right place, and letting that be that, returning to the emptiness, stillness, silence and waiting for the next thing that needs to be attended arise in the silence and lead the way into action all along the way.

79. We give ourselves over to Psyche/Tao (One thing, not two) in the silence (etc.), and wait “for the mud to settle and the water to clear,” and what’s what and what is called for in response to appear inviting us onto the field of action and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done with the gifts that are ours from birth, being who we are, doing what is ours to do, here, now in each situation as it arises, all our life long. It is all here, now, there in the silence (etc), waiting to unfold with us in the life that is waiting to be lived, even yet.

80. Forget trying to make it to the big time. Knock it out of the park. Bowl them over. Be a success. The trick is to content ourselves with doing what we do well. To know when it is done. And to move on to the next thing that needs doing. Our place is to know what needs doing. To know what is called for here, now. And to do it well.

81. Take care of the details and let that be that. Return to the silence emptiness, stillness and wait “for the mud to settle and the water to clear.” So that we know what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for here, now and do that when, where and how it needs to be done. Do it with the gifts at our disposal (Our original nature, our natural virtues–the things we do best and enjoy doing most, our inherent intuition, our intrinsic imagination. Do it well and return to the silence, emptiness, stillness. And wait… This is the program for the rest of our life. Do it as it needs to be done throughout the time left for living and let that be that.

82. What now? What’s next? Where do we go from here? How do we know? What guides our boat on its path through the sea? Listen! Look! Hear! See! Hush! Be quiet! Drop into the emptiness-stillness-silence! Become “the still point of the turning world!” Waiting for what we do not know but. We will know it when we see it, hear it, feel it there in the darkness, waiting for the light to shine. For the epiphany to arrive. For the vision to arise. The Divine Aha. Saying, “Come! Follow me! Here I am! Do this!” Guidance from within. Hidden-buried beneath years of Not this! Nope! Not this either! And Not That! And most certainly not THAT over there! No’s know, no? What do no’s know? How do we know no’s know? What makes us think no’s know? That they know more than YES! By all means! THAT’s IT? How do yes’s know? What makes them so sure? And here we sit in the darkness thinking we will know it when we see/hear/feel/sense it. So, we make a pact with ourselves not to move until something moves us. And wait “for the mud to settle and the water to clear,” which is what the Old Taoists said. It worked for them. It will work for us. No? And what alternative do we have? We have to trust our Psyche to know what she is doing–and sit waiting for Psyche to nudge us into action in the moment of knowing for sure this is it! Without knowing how we know. With everything riding on knowing what is called for here, now. And refusing to move until we know, unless we have to move–and then we will come back, dropping into the silence (emptiness, stillness) again to wait again until we know what is called for and do it in what we know to be the right time, and the right place, and the right way in the flow of the Force and the Flow of the Tao and the Psyche. We wait to see, hear, understand, know, do, be what needs to be here, now always and forever!

83. When we disagree about how we are going to do it…when we disagree about what is important…when we disagree about what matters most…how do we proceed from there? Take a vote? If we take a vote on gerrymandering, and the vote is gerrymandered, what kind of solution is that? Who runs the country? “Of the people, by the people, for the people”? What do the people know with indoctrination and propaganda in charge of what the people are told? (And we can gage our degree of indoctrination by the number of questions we will not allow ourselves to ask–or permit other to ask) Who is in charge of a democracy? Who determines what is done in a democracy? What causes a democracy to crumble and fall apart? Dishonesty. Deception. Deceit. Denial. Greed. Hatred. Fear. The list is long. But it comes down to how difficult it is to function as a democracy in good faith throughout time. Calling to mind Rumi’s observation, “If you are not here with us in good faith, you are doing terrible damage.”

84. We would do well to follow these rules for life: Do not live from a script! Do not live a scripted life! Live from the heart in every scene. Ad-lib each situation. Dance with the music as it changes moment to moment throughout each day. Do not know what we are doing. Do not know whom is in charge. Do not know where it is going. Do not have anything at stake in any scene: Nothing to gain, nothing to lose. Live each scene as though it is our last one. Live as though everything is riding on our having nothing on the line anywhere, any time, and can be completely free to rise to every occasion without any concern for how well we are doing. And dance with every moment as though it is our last one. And dance every moment as though we are not being graded in any moment.

85. When we live carefully, self-consciously, as though everything is riding on now well we handle ourselves here, now, we live with more concern for how we are doing than for what the moment calls for. We have to trust ourselves to dance with the music with no thought on the outcome and no concern for what anyone thinks of our performance. We are not performing. We are simply living the scene as the scene needs to be lived, like a baby fresh from the womb. What does the baby care? The baby is at-one with its role: being the baby the baby is here, now. We are to be at-one with our role: being whom the moment needs us to be here-now exactly as the moment needs us to be without any thought regarding how well we are doing. Just live the moment without any ideas for the moment, moment to moment. And let the outcome be the outcome. That is as Zen-like as it is possible to be.

86. I am as rigid and rule-bound as anyone I know, and I think the same could be said for Jesus and the Buddha and Lao Tzu. Which is the polar opposite of being flexible and easygoing, taking everything as it comes with no expectations and no opinions, riding lose in the saddle with nothing to gain and nothing to lose, taking it all as it comes without demands or requirements for anything. I draw hard lines everywhere and live outside the lines all the time. Make sense of that if you can. But it does make me utterly unpredictable all of the time, which I take to be my most outstanding and predictable characteristic.

87. Dropping into the silence (emptiness and stillness) and simply observing what is there, what comes up, what I’m aware of without being engaged, captivated, consumed, carried away by any of it, but just watching, waiting for something to come along, come up, with a particular charge about it that I recognize as “IT” and explore “IT” in depth by writing it out in the form of one of these Zen Thoughts, or as one of my daily submissions on my other WordPress blog.

The emptiness, stillness, silence is a fertile ground for realizations that need to be explored, examined, investigated, deepened, expanded, pursued… And off I go, writing what needs to be written, seeing what needs to be seen, saying what needs to be said and allowing Psyche-Tao to “guide my boat on its path through the sea,” with one thing leading to another, and “one book opening another” (As the old Gnostics liked to say). And here we are, on our way to whatever is next.

88. The Tao and Psyche are to be experienced, not defined. And they are experienced as forces, as flow, as being with the unfolding of the moment, of being one with the moment that is one with us. Our doing is being, doing/being. When we do what is called for, when, where and how it is called for with nothing to gain and nothing to lose, just one with the moment, applying the gifts of our original nature, our inherent virtues (the things we do best and enjoy doing most), our intrinsic intuition and our innate imagination in the service of what is called for here, now. Experiencing the magic and wonder of being fully alive, doing/being one with ourselves and with the time/place of the here, now. Relishing the meaning of being alive.

89. Keeping things clear between us and Psyche/Tao is our highest priority and places emptiness/stillness/silence our primary concern throughout each day, clearing the way to see, hear, know what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises in order to understand how to respond with the gifts of our original nature, etc. in doing what needs to be done, where, when and how. Maintaining clarity and being aligned with the Tao/Psyche regarding what needs to be done here/now will do it, and that is all there is to it. No?

90. How many world leaders have been madmen? Leadership seems to favor viciousness and cruelty in a “right forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne” kind of way. The Buddha, the Christ, and those of their ilk had no interest in leading the world, and were quite content to do what was right, when, where and how it was right to do so, with no personal ambition at stake anywhere along their way. Personal ambition is Trump’s driving force, and the driving force of all those who revere him as Lord. They will have to excuse me if I fail to bow, or send me to the scaffold.

91. In any situation there is what is called for (Or, what needs to be done), and there is what we want to do (Or, what we want to happen),
and there is what we do not want to do (Or, want to happen).
The more grown-up we can be in any situation, so that we do what needs to be done, when, where, and how it needs to be done, whether we want to or not, sets the tone, the flow, the movement within the situation influences the outcome toward better and away from worse. Attitude, spirit and participation here, now make all the difference in what follows.

92. Our place/role is to cooperate with our life. To say YES! to life in the here, now, in the moment of living in doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for with good faith in and compliance with the process of doing what needs to be done here, now throughout the movement of our life from beginning to end. May it always be so!

93. To do what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, in each situation as it arises is to live life as it needs to be lived–with the gifts of our original nature and the innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most) that come with from the womb, and that is not asking too much of any of us. It is what we are equipped to do, and when we refuse to do it, we are failing ourselves and our place in life. May it not be so said of any of us ever.

94. The God of theology has nothing to do with the God of our experience. The God we are told to believe in has nothing in common with the God we know to be God. Who is the God we experience as being God? That is the only God there is! The God of Theology is the God the Church of Rome made up in the 392 years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the Canon when the Church of Rome decided it had all it needed to close the book on the God of its imagination and claim the absolute authority in explaining the concepts of Original Sin, Redemption, Atonement and Salvation, and any other doctrine it has made up (In the form of the Holy Catholic Church) through the years.

And then, drop into the emptiness, stillness, and silence and ask yourselves what you know to be true of God that you did not get from some other source, including the Bible. Then consider the differences between the God you know to be God and the God you have been told to believe in as the Only True God of Faith and Practice.

95. I wait in the silence (etc.) for an urgency to arise and propel me to write what needs to be written, often coming as dictation, and sometimes just as an idea that needs to be expanded. The experience of an urgency is a undeniable connection between me and Psyche/Tao, reminding me again of the undeniably of The Other Within, and confirming our relationship of mutuality and delight in one another’s presence over time.

96. The 50th anniversary of Fritjof Capra’s book The Tao of Physics is available and underscores again the connection between scientific experiments and meditative realization revolving around the fundamental realization that “Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence, and are nothing in themselves.” This stems from the interplay between classical physics where the properties and behavior of the parts determine those of the whole and quantum physics where it is the whole that determines the behavior of the parts.” And what we see depends entirely on how we look.

97. The old Taoists held that existence throughout the cosmos is the result of “circumstances begetting circumstances.” And here we are. All of our outcomes are what they are stimming from the outcomes of all that occurred that produced the outcomes that produced here, now over the long stretch of time. Without intent. Without purpose. Without point. Without meaning beyond what we read into all of it. What anything means is what it means to someone, some thing. All meaning is personal and imposed upon the event in question, projected onto the event in question, by those impacted by or simply observing, the event in question.

98. “May the Force be with you always,” isn’t the same as, “May you be with the force always.” The force is always with us in the sense of being “right there,” waiting for us to wake up and join forces, so to speak, with the force that is always “right there,” waiting for us to wake up and become one with the force.

It is our place always to “read the times” that are upon us, to sense the flow and movement of what’s what, and what’s happening, and what is at work in the moment, in the here, now, in the time that is at hand–to know what is called for and position ourselves in the service of what is being asked of us in the time and place of our living, aligning ourselves with the Tao, being at one with how things are and where things are going, regardless of whether that is what we desire, but doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, no matter what, in the best interest of the situation as a whole.

When we do that, magic happens, though it may not be what we want to happen. This is called “growing up.” May it be said so of us all!

99. The here, now is always asking, wondering, where we are in relation to the here, now. Are we here, now? Or, are we some place else, somewhere else, with our mind on something other than what is happening here, now and needs our assistance, our service, in applying our Original Nature and our innate Virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), and our inherent Intuition and our intrinsic Imagination in doing the right thing, at the right time and place, in the right way, here, now all our life long?

Being here, now, is always placing ourselves in the service of the here, now, for the good of the here, now, all our life long. We are here to do what is needed, not to get what we want. But to do what is called for in every situation as it arises for as long as there are situations arising.

100. Catching the drift of each situation as it arises, knowing what’s what and what is called for is essential knowing. Then there is only the matter of aligning ourselves with what is being asked of us and doing what needs to be done, when, where and. how it needs to be done, regardless of what it may mean for us personally, with “all our heart, and mind and soul and strength,” one situation at a time for a long as we are alive. May it always be so!

101. What is going on? What is being asked of us? What is called for here, now? What is the direction and flow of the moment? What has the momentum and the drift of time and place? Aligning ourselves with the movement and motion of the moment and living in accord with what is happening and what is required is the basic requirements of life from start to finish. This is being at one with the Tao and serving the needs of the time that is at hand. No one can do more than this, and all of us are asked to do at least this much throughout the time left for living.

102. I have two ponchos, one wool and one fleece, that I alternate for inside warmth and comfort throughout the winter months. They are exactly what I need to keep the chill at bay, which is to say, away. And I hunch that “Assisted Living” will have nothing like this to offer. So, I am devoted to living out what remains of my life in ways that keep me self-sufficient all the way to the end of the line. And, I wonder what the people standing in the way of physician assisted suicide think they are doing.

103. When we live out of our own sense of what is called for here, now, and do it here, now, and follow that with what is then here, now for as long as there are here/nows, we will be living in accord with the Tao by not thinking, just doing, spontaneously, naturally, automatically, like a baby straight from the womb. All babies are at one with the Tao until they learn to think about what they are doing so as to make someone like mommy and daddy happy, and then it’s all over for them and the Tao is removed from their life and they grow up to be automations, thinking before they do anything to be sure they are doing the right thing, which is the thing somebody else determines to be right, with everybody trying to make somebody, sometimes themselves, happy. A baby fresh from the womb isn’t confused about whether they are or are not happy, they are just doing what needs to be done and letting that be that.

If we all could get back to just doing what needs to be done and letting that be that, we would be aligned with the Tao and everything would be fine just as it is.

104. Saying YES! to something is saying NO! to something else. What are we saying NO! to when we say YES!? When I say NO! to complexity and confusion which I equate with NOISE, I am saying YES! to solitude, emptiness, stillness and silence. I don’t do NOISE. Or noise. Never have. Never will. But, I had to be old before I had the degree of self-awareness necessary to know what needs to be NO! and YES! and devote myself to saying both when appropriate moment to moment all my life long. Which makes it great to be old.

105. To be gripped by an urgency that cannot be dismissed, discounted, denied is one of the most self-directive experiences of being human. This is a full-body five alarm fire attention getting necessity that cannot be ignored, and we remember it for the rest of our lives. It is like falling in love only more intense and insistent, and is a certain encounter of the moved with the mover. Which is a very interesting phenomenon, and a comforting reminder that we are not alone but under the watchful eye of an intuitive presence who will not abandon us at any point along the way.

106. There is success that can be measure monetarily, and there is success that can be measured by good faith and wellbeing. One from doesn’t necessarily rule out the other, and we have to make our own peace with the shape our life takes. There isn’t enough money to pay me to do live a life that is not alive for me, and I haven’t capitalized financially from sitting in my recliner looking out the window, but that has been an avenue to “having life and having it abundantly” for 81 years, and I’m still “cashing in” without making any actual cash at all.

107. Life will make us crazy if it matters to us. And the more it. matters, the crazier we become. We have to let things be the way they are without striving to make them like we want them to be. The ebbs and flows even all things out over time. It helps to keep that in mind and take things with no more seriousness than they deserve. Hitler is in his grave and Trump will be in his. Everybody is two generations away from being dust in the wind.

108. Caring about the outcome is ridiculous. We are all going to die. We put it off as long as we can, but. The outcome is inevitable. So, we make our peace with it by not caring about it. We let it be. We may even look forward to it, to seeing what is on the other side of death. Will we know it when we see it? Will we see anything? Will we know anything? Will consciousness just disappear? Will it be altered in anyway? We will find out sooner or later. Or maybe it just won’t matter at all, and we won’t find out anything because it doesn’t matter. It is not important. So what is important and how do we know? It is all projection. What we tell ourselves is so is a projection of our ideas, our opinions, and has no actual existence except in our own mind. If we could withdraw all of our projections, what would be left? Where would that leave us? I think it would be mostly blank, maybe like looking at a wall. And we would have to imagine some projections to maintain our sense of here, now, and tell ourselves stories to calm ourselves down. Perhaps death opens us to endless stories about the hereafter to keep ourselves sane, which would be the same as being alive still. If it is all projection on this side of death, perhaps it is all still projection on the other side of death. And everything is mental to keep from going mad.

109. Observing ourselves observing our life modifies the way we live our life. Becoming curious about everything changes everything by changing the impact everything has on us. This is the observer interfering with the experiment by observing the experiment. By observing the experiment/experience we change our relationship with it by altering our experience with it. Observing ourselves step into the day. Observing how the day impacts us and how we respond to those impacts. Makes the day different from yesterday. Changes us ever so slightly just by being aware of ourselves in action as we deal with the day. Perhaps for the better. Who is to say? How do we determine “better” and “worse”? Something else to be aware of as we go through each day.

110. Who says so? How do they know? What makes us think they know so? Who has authority for us about things that matter? Who says they matter? Who says they ought to matter? What makes us think they know what they are talking about? Why should we care what they think/say? Why should we take their word for it? Why should we trust our life/ourselves to them?

111. How do we know what we know? Like what it’s time for, a cup of coffee or a glass of water, or milk? Or a nap? Or a shower? Or a walk in the woods? How do we know what is called for here, now? Who is the knower who knows? Who is the knower who guides our life through each day? Who guides our boat on its path through the sea? Who knew/knows that photography and writing were my things to do/be? What lunch needs to be? Or needs NOT to be? Who knows these things? Why aren’t we more curious about this than we are? Who is the “I” who says, “I know what I am doing!” (talking about ourselves)? How do they know? How do we know they know what they are talking about? Who are we trusting with our life?

112. I go into “glide mode” and wait for instructions. Like now. I’m sitting in my recliner typing what is called for on my computer, hitting a comma or a period when that is appropriate, with no idea of where this is going, beyond one word, one keystroke, at a time. At some point, I will put the computer aside and have a sip of coffee, and visit the toilet, and walk into the kitchen for a bite of something to eat, and so on throughout the day. In “glide mode” the entire day. Taking instruction. Doing what I am directed to do. And I project/suspect that it is much the same with you. Who is directing our life? Who is in charge of us, of what we do and how, when and where we do it? Psyche/Tao? It is a mystery. The mystery of life and being. “Darkness within darkness. The gateway to mystery” (Lao Tzu).

113. Allow everything, everyone that/who catches your eye to become an object of reflection/meditation. Be aware of the associations that you make between the person/thing and you. See what comes to mind, reminds you of, and follow the chain of associations to see where they take you, what they open up for you, and explore all of the connections between you and the field of observation/inquiry the object/person initiated in your soul/mind/psyche, searching for what your soul/mind/psyche might have in mind for you to explore and become aware of at this here, now of your life, and see where it goes–following “That Which Knows” into knowing what it wants you to know and doing with it what needs to be done. Our life is not our own. We are here to serve something greater than ourselves. Our place is to live as “the Moved in response to the Mover” (Perhaps, Joseph Campbell).

114. The everywhere now and the always now constitute the Fifth Dimension and await us on the other side of death. We transition from the four dimensions into the fifth dimension and exist there in the Eternal Now, a state of being perfectly expressed by the Buddha’s “Peaceful abiding here, now.” With nowhere else to be and no when else to be and no how else to be. Only here, now. “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, eternal and everlasting without end.” Like an on-going, “Aaaauuuuummmmmm…” without end.

115. The Gnostics were early followers of Jesus who were persecuted as heretics by the church of the day which accused Gnostics of bad theology. The Gnostics refused to believe what the Christians believed about what it took to be a True Disciple of Christ. Well. Who is to say? By what authority? The early church based its beliefs on what the original Disciples of Christ said about what Jesus said and did. But. As we might imagine, there were differences of opinion about what Jesus said and about what he meant by what they said he said. Disputes were settled by a consensus of early disciples and apostles who claimed to have known Jesus or those who knew him and staked their authority on saying what those closest to him said. Which comes down to flipping coins and rolling dice, and settling on whatever makes us happy.

The Gnostics based what they knew of Jesus on their “secret knowledge” (or gnosis in Greek) that was held by them to be “direct revelation” that was available to anyone/everyone who was blessed by the Holy Spirit as being True Disciples of Christ. Today, we would call their “secret knowledge” intuition, but in those days it was held to be a mystery of personal revelation, and since anyone could say anything and claim it to be direct revelation, which was a challenge to the early church’s claim to be “the sole authority regarding faith and practice.”

The early church, particularly the Church of Rome, which became in time The Roman Catholic Church, still a force to be reckoned with in the world today, took issue with the Gnostic’s claim to personal authority in determining right and wrong, designated Gnosticism as a heresy and persecuted them with torture and killing them by burning them alive “at the stake.” Which resulted in the disappearance of Gnosticism as a force to be reckoned with, but remaining alive and well through the centuries to here, now, knowing what needs to be done and not done in tune with our intuition and true to our inner sense of direction and purpose throughout our lives.

I think of our “inner knower” as our “Gnostic within,” and imagine her as an extension of Psyche/Tao, guiding our way through the mass of choices and decisions to the life that is ours to live on the basis of our own authority, here, now, day to day.

116. My Gnostic within is teaming up nicely with Psyche/Tao to offer clarity and direction to the here, now aspect of my life. I only have to wait quietly with attentive presence here, now for whatever appears with an urgency that sets it apart from the normal dust of the world kind of thoughts and images that blow across my field of view to summon me to the cradle of possibility to see what I might do with what I find there with my particular blend of Original Nature, Innate Virtues (What I love to do and What I enjoy doing), Inherent Intuition and Intrinsic Imagination. With all those things swirling around the cradle wheels begin to turn, turn, turn, churning out ideas with compelling odors and enticing sounds, and before you know it, “The Game’s afoot!”

And this completely disses any sense of personal interest or gain or profit, etc. There is nothing in it for me beyond the joy of doing whatever is called for and needs to be done, and the satisfaction of having done it–when, where and how it needs to be done. This is the formula for the creation of our life, not from a “what do you want to do” standpoint, but from a focused interest in serving what needs to be served with my particular gifts and seeing where it goes. This is the search for the Philosopher’s Stone, or the Holy Grail–what I am about and what I am to be up to in the time left for living–It is the Hero’s Journey opening up one day, one here, now, one day at a time.

117. My plan is to not have a plan. To sit, watching, waiting, looking, seeing, listening, hearing, knowing, doing, being. Knowing what’s what and what is called for, doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, with the gifts I have to offer, being awake, aware, alive, sitting, watching, waiting, looking, seeing… Etc. from start to finish. Like all of the contemplatives before and after me, being nobody, doing nothing–being everyone doing everything as it is called for in its own time, in its own way.

118. My way is to leave people alone and trust them to find their own way. People whose way is to want to do “it” the “right way,” are looking for someone else to tell them what to do and assure them that they are good and doing things the right way, the way they ought to be done. The way things need to be done has to take into account who is doing them and what their limitations/restrictions may be, so that the doer and what is done are one thing, but the dancer and the dance will be different as individuals are different, and the teacher cannot expect the dancer to dance the dance the way the teacher wants it done because the dancer is not the teacher. And the teacher has to get out of the way and let the dancer find her/his own way of dancing the dance, which will be the student’s dance and not the teacher’s dance. I do not teach people to dance. I get out of the way and encourage them to dance their own dance in ways that are commensurate with who they are. “Do not listen to me!”, said the Buddha. “Listen to YOU!”

119. In order to know who people are, we have to read how we are reading them and know who is standing before us without knowing how we know. We have to be with them in a way that enables us to realize who they are, what they are capable of and the extent to which they can be trusted to be who they are in all situations and circumstances. Are they self-confident? Compassionate? Caring? Aware? And all of this is to be recognized instantly, spontaneously, without thinking about it. We have to practice knowing what we know until it becomes natural and immediate.

120. We realize what we know by waiting in the silence, trusting ourselves to know what we need to know when we need to know it. We cannot co-op what we know with logical, rational, intellectual efforts like a six-step plan for knowing what we need to know when we need to know it. We simply wait, trusting ourselves to gnosis, Psyche, Tao, and allowing things to be what they are without meddling, interfering, forcing things to be what we want them to be, when, where and how we want them to be. Wanting, pushing, striving is the enemy of waiting, trusting, knowing. Knowledge comes in its own way, in its on time, and is not to be rushed.

121. Joseph Campbell noted that reflection leads to realization, which calls for more reflection, and we can entertain ourselves indefinitely that way, which may fuel all the aboriginal walk-abouts and lead to the great awakenings worldwide as people pick up a thread of thought and follow it out just see where it goes, amazed at what they come across along the way.

122. Gnosis/Psyche/Tao constitute the base/foundation of the Self. Of each of us. Of everyone. Of life itself. We can think our way to the base/foundation of the Self, of ourselves, and that’s as far as we can go. There are no words for anything beyond that. No vocabulary. And we can barely experience what we cannot say. It is a gray zone for me, or maybe it is grey. I don’t know where that line lies. It’s like the line between Gnosis/Psyche/Tao. I can’t find it because I can’t say what it is.

We can call it Gnosis/Psyche/Tao/Gray/Grey and that is as far as we can go. Beyond that, there is only sitting and wondering, waiting, for what arises in the silence. And something always arises in the silence. We can count on that. Being quiet enough long enough brings things to life. Something arises, emerges, appears, occurs and we see where that goes. And we cannot force it to go where we want it to go. The things that arise in the silence have their own purpose/goal/direction. We are not in charge of ourselves. We are here to observe, reflect, realize and to follow our realizations wherever they take us. We do not direct the show. We serve our realizations, and see where it goes.

123. What we do with the day depends on what’s what and what is called for in meeting the moment, here, now. The day holds all of the cards and we follow the day’s lead one situation at a time. What we do is a spontaneous response to Psyche’ s (Gnosis,’ Tao’s) reading of the moment and our complying with what needs us to do it. Our plans and desires fade into the background as the here, now takes priority over all other concerns. The present moment is always the most important moment ever in our life. Our ability to recognize that and meet the moment as the moment needs to be met makes all the difference in what happens next and where things go after that.

124. Clarity regarding what is called for here, now reduces considerably the amount of noise and complexity in our life. Reducing the amount of noise and complexity in our life produces considerable clarity regarding what is called for here, now. How quietly we live determines how well we live. How well we live depends on how quietly we live. It always has. It always will.

125. The silence knows. To know what the silence knows, we have to be quiet. And listen. Stand waiting at the fringe of stillness, empty of noise and complexity. To know what the silence knows. And to do what is called for here, now, with the gifts that are crafted for the moment and the time that is at hand. Time after time after time…

126. Swept away in MAGA madness is a tidal wave of mindlessness sweeping over the country–for what? The billionaires are shark-feeding on More Money Now! When they cannot spend what they have. Money for what? They already own the Supreme Court and Congress and the Justice Department, and soon the Pentagon! And all they can think of to do with these toys is self-destruction and suicide, taking the rest of the USA with them. A Trump-led demolition machine wrecking what was created in 1776 in less than a year. The Bane of Trump will last longer than democracy did. And what will have been learned? There is no redemptive lesson for the insanity driving the return to lawlessness and madness. It is a wasteland like the genocide of Native Americans and the atrocity of slavery, forever reflecting the ignominy of what we are capable of, and the utter pointlessness of the phrase, “Never again!”

127. Creating a place in our life for knowing what we know is as simple as making room for regular and recurring experiences with silence. Consciously “dropping into the silence,” for twenty minutes or so, were we do nothing but become intently aware of being quiet and observing without engagement all of the things that “pass in review” before our awareness, letting come what comes and letting go what goes, “waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear,” as it will if we avoid emotional connection with what we find there in a “there’s that, and that, and that…” until the infinite reflection is noticeably jarred by realization which comes out of nowhere to startle and jolt us with clarity and a calling to get up and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, and “the game’s afoot” and we are off in possession of gnosis, Psyche/Tao, Intuition breaking into our life and commandeering us for a mission that only we can do with the gifts that are uniquely ours, and all of the angels in heaven bend low to see if we have what it takes to stand up and be who we are in the service of what is ours to do here, now, for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, with wonder and amazement and anticipation for our next “mission if we choose to accept it.” Having discovered for ourselves a new world without end…

128. Having no plans beyond planning to have no plans. Having no wants or desires beyond wanting and desiring to have no wants or desires. Having no mission beyond the mission to have no mission is to be at “the still point of the turning world.” Ready and able to pounce on any wandering situation that might happen by in need of exactly what we have to offer in doing there what is called for here, now, the way it needs to be done. This is called “A miracle of time and place–being what is needed exactly when and where and how it is needed.” All times and places are in need of that very thing, and it is everyone’s calling to be exactly that in every here, now that comes along, and that happens all of the time. Wow! What an amazing coincidence! Every moment is a coincidence waiting to happen! What are we waiting for?

129. The Tao Te Ching can be interpreted/understood as “The Way and its Power.” Cept, but only, “Power” doesn’t mean what we might think it means: Having/Getting our way and getting what we want in all situations and circumstances. The secret to having it made and happiness ever after. When has having our way and getting what we want led to happiness ever after? But, that’s what power is for, right? It is certainly Trump’s idea of power, and when has he been happy once in his sour, sorry, twisted and bitter little life?

The Taoist understanding of Power is the right interpretation or understanding of what is called for in each situation as it arises and the ability to align ourselves with what is needed so that we do that with the right attitude, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place in each situation as it arises.

It is the power to live in accord with what is asked of us moment by moment in each here, now throughout what remains of the life left for living. Not the power to have/get our way, but the ability to subjugate ourselves to what is asked of us in submitting ourselves to what needs us to do it throughout our life. To live in service to our circumstances all our life long.

THAT is the way of the WAY. The path of gnosis, Psyche, Tao, Intuition. It is the power of surrendering ourselves to the service of our circumstances in each situation as it arises forever.

That is the way of Jesus. The way of the Buddha. The way of the Tao. The way of life everlasting. And it is not in the way we have in mind for ourselves and our life. It is the way of not having a way. Not the way of getting our way!

Do you think that has a chance of catching on? Becoming a Thing? Being popular? Transforming the world for the better? The Tao has been in circulation from between 1,000 and 500 BCE. And it hasn’t transformed the world for the better in that length of time. What are its chances for, say, the next 50 years? “The power of submission and service” is not likely to draw many followers–but it is the way to peace and serenity and “Peaceful abiding here, now.”

130. All of our wanting is a distraction keeping us from the goal of being who we need to be in the service of doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, the way it is called for, when it is called for, where it is called for, for as long as it is called for. We cannot change the baby’s diaper and say fifteen minutes later, “Hell no! I just changed your diaper and I am not changing another one this soon after I changed the last one!”

We have to adjust our own attitude and submit to what has need of us here, now, in each situation as it arises. No matter what.

131. We are impatient and want “Serenity NOW!” We want OUR WAY NOW!!! And do not intend to wait for anything. Instant everything is our idea of happiness ever after. Think it, have it is what we have in mind. And so, it is a stand-off. And we are no closer to peace and harmony at the end of the week than we were at the start. We gage the quality of our life with our degree of satisfaction at any point in our life. And lip service is as close as we get to daily practice with Emptiness, Stillness, Silence. We can’t be quiet. We cannot reduce the amount of noise in our life. We cannot stop and sit down and be silent, calm, at peace. There is too much out of control for us to be silent, calm, at peace! And thus the importance of taking up the practice of sitting silent, calm, at peace every day. Pushing, pushing, pushing for Our Way Now is not the idea. Not having a way beyond not having a way is the idea.

132. We don’t know what is coming, or what will be called for, or what we will do about it. Gnosis, Psyche, Tao, Intuition doesn’t work that way. We can’t get a read-out a week ahead of time. What’s what here, now is the deal. What is called for here, now is the question. What we do about it here, now is known in the act of doing. What happens next waits to be seen.

133. The moment calls for action in the moment. Spontaneity is Gnosis, Psyche, Tao, Intuition’s speciality, art, genius. “The path that can be recognized as a path is not a reliable path” (Martin Palmer). The flow of life is like water running downhill, not like a map with designated routes, or a guidebook with places to shop and eat and things to do and see spelled out beforehand and always on hand to consult and plan for years ahead of actually being there, doing that.

134. We live best moment by moment, not having things chiseled in stone or spelled out long in advance, and not knowing beforehand what we will do having carefully considered all possible scenarios and their most preferred outcomes so that there are no surprises and everything unfolds like a stacked deck of cards just like it is suppose to and everyone is well pleased with the outcome. Not-knowing where it is going or how it is going to turn out is the way of Gnosis, Psyche, Tao, Intuition, where everything is always a surprise and a wonder, a mystery and a creative work of art.

135. We put too much effort into designing the ideal life and not enough time “flying by the seat of our pants.” And it shows by the degree of our dissatisfaction and the absence of amazement, thrills and wonder. We have a boring, over-thought existence made bearable with addiction and psychotherapy and little more than momentum to keep us going. Replacing sex, drugs and alcohol with emptiness, stillness and silence will put us in touch with alternative possibilities that may well transform our outcomes in surprising, life-giving ways.

136. The plan is to see what is called for here, now by dropping into the Emptiness, Stillness, Silence and waiting for what’s what and what needs to be done in response to be clarified and get up and do it with the gifts at our disposal in each situation as it arises all our life long.

137. Steven Weinberg said, “The more we learn, the more pointless it seems.” And that doesn’t matter at all to humpback whales. Or countless other organisms. The more we know the more meaningless it becomes. How/what would we have it be? We don’t find meaning. We make it up. And we make up stories about what we declare to be meaningful. All of our stories/explanations about what we find to be meaningful are projections imposed upon our musings to pass the time. They don’t mean a thing beyond what we say they mean. Talking to whomever is listening, passing the time.

138. Everything we see is a projection reflecting back to us a combination of all of our past experiences, memories of all of our “befores” with things that remind us of the thing(s) in question. We live within our associations of everything within our field of vision. And what we say about the things we see is but a reflected memory of things we have already seen. There is very little new about us. We are our stored projections of our experience.

139. How do we get in the flow, maintain the flow, be and remain one with the flow? Stripping ourselves of intention, purpose, and desire. Not having to have the flow return. Waiting with respect and devotion for the experience of flow. Knowing that the flow comes and goes and turns around, to come and go and turnaround of its own accord, and cannot be hurried or controlled by our intention, purpose and desire. We are the Moved in response to the Mover, and the roles will not be flipped. So we wait, trusting the time to eventually be right again.

140. I would say, “Empty ourselves of our wanting. Relieve ourselves of our needing. Absolve ourselves from our having to have. Liberate ourselves from our bondage to making ourselves happy with our life. Put down our burden and listen within. See what arises, emerges, appears and do that, regularly, repetitively, over time.”

141. Jesus wasn’t a Christian, but he was a Gnostic. And all of his teachings came straight from his Secret Knowledge in the here, now of his time and place.

Gnosis , Psyche, Tao, Intuition–the terms all mean the same thing: Secret Knowing. Everyone who knows who has ever known, knows the same things. Jesus spoke to the people as one who knows and told them what they had never heard, but what they all had always known without having the words to say it out loud. He said it for them, to them. And they said, “Who is this who teaches with such authority and tells us what we have always thought is so?”

What we all have always thought is so has been with us always as Gnosis , Psyche, Tao, Intuition. We have always been Gnostics like Jesus and did not realize it until here, now. And now we know we cannot deny it, and that it will be true forever. No?

142 . We are stuck with Donald Trump until he dies, and he is stuck with the idea that with enough money, he can do anything he wants, and he wants the stupidest things. And that sums it up. Here we are, waiting for something to happen to shift our present circumstances enough to bring new possibilities to life in our lives. The Buddha’s recommendation applies to our present situation: “Peaceful abiding here, now.” While we wait for things to change for the better.

143. “The Tao that can be said, told, explained, defined is not the eternal Tao.” This can be translated as, “The path that can be perceived/recognized/understood as a path is not a reliable path.” “To understand what I am saying, you have to know what I mean.”

It is said that an alcoholic can recognize another alcoholic across a crowded room. This is the Tao at work within the alcoholics in the crowded room. No one can know how it happens. But they know it when it happens. We all know it when it happens.

We can feel/sense being “in the flow” and “out of the flow.” We know when we are “in the flow” and when we are “out of the flow.” And we know that trying consciously, deliberately to remain one with the flow knocks us out of the flow “like that.” Trying consciously, deliberately to get back into the flow, keeps us out of the flow. Flow is not a thinking thing. But it is a thing. It is a Psychic thing. We can align ourselves with the psyche by emptying ourselves of the desire to be one with the psyche. By not caring about ever being at one with the psyche. By focusing instead on a stream of water flowing downhill. By getting a feel of the water flowing, becoming one with the flowing water, and by living as though the flowing water is our life. By seeing how the flow of our life is equivalent to the flowing of a stream of water. Our life flows from one circumstance to another. And we can become one with the flow of our life by not-wanting to do/have/achieve/acquire anything and caring only about being one with the flow of our life–with nothing at stake in being one with the flow beyond enjoying the experience of flowing with our life.

We cannot manipulate the flow. We can only flow with the flow for the sake of flowing with the flow alone–trusting the outcome to be good but not caring what the outcome actually is. Flowing with the flow is no way to get what we want. In order to flow with the flow, we have to give up the idea of getting what we want. Living to get/have what we want is antithetical to flowing with the flow.

144. I don’t know why we see the way we do. I see it as one of the great mysteries of existence. We look at at the same thing, say, Donald Trump, and I say This, and you say That, or someone says That to our This, and that’s that.

How we see what we look at tells the tale. Why do we see the way we do and not some other way instead? Our perspective about the way things are is unique to us. We don’t do anything intentional and deliberate to see the way we do, but we all see the way we do. It might be instructive if we got to the bottom of who, of all the people we know or have known, would be most pleased about the way we see things. Whose way of seeing things is most like the way we see things? Who influenced our way of seeing the most?

I’m sure that I have been most influenced by people I do not know personally. Joseph Campbell has been highly influential. And Carl Jung. Martin Palmer. Rachel Remen. Jean Shinoda Bolen. The list is long. The way I see things leads me to people who see the way I see things. I am proud of the company I keep.

145. What is the basis/foundation of our choices and decisions? What guides our boat on its path through the sea? In light of what do we live? How do we know what to do, where, when and how? Where do we turn for guidance and direction?

Emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three), are my answer to all of the above questions. And “Not knowing how we know what to do, where, when and how.” Which means not knowing what guides our boat on its path through the sea. Having no idea of how we got here, now–or where we will go next. And being comfortably okay with that, in a “Looking forward to finding out” kind of way.

146. What makes us think that what we think is so? Is our faith in our faith? In our assumptions?

Do we know where our projections begin and we end? Can we discern what is projection and what is opinion?

How do we know/determine where any of the lines lie? What makes us think so? Between good and evil, say, or right and wrong, or should and should not? Who says so? How do they know? What is our authority in saying, doing, thinking, believing, knowing anything? Who are the authorities that guide our living? And who interprets what our authorities have to say? How much of what we say and do amounts to nothing more than “dust in the wind”?

147 . When we are at peace with ourselves and can relax in the in-between state of detached awareness open to the realization of the power within to address and orient us toward that which needs our attention, and consider what is called for and how to approach the matters that are at hand. It is the perfect vantage point for attending the here, now and waiting to see what might emerge, arise, make itself known and where that may lead.

148.

No one can sin for another, or atone for another’s sin.

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.

Ezekiel 18:20 — The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt or the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

These three Old Testament texts disappear the Doctrine of Original Sin and the need for atonement, redemption, forgiveness and the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Just like that, Christianity is disappeared from the League of World Religions. Good riddance, I say. It was ridiculous from the start.

149. Disappearing Christianity opens the way to flipping Christianity into a new version of its old self just by re-imagining all of its doctrines and its theology and transforming its offerings from “How to Avoid Hell and Get To Heaven When You Die,” to “How to Live a Life Devoted to Being True to Ourselves in Doing What Is Called for Here, Now, The Way It Needs To Be Done Forever!” Changing out the hymns will be the biggest problem–and a great opportunity for song writers and musicians.

150. I retired in February of 2011 as a minister in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A after 40.5 years of service to 5 congregations in 3 states. The motto of the PCUSA, and of Presbyterianism since its inception is “Reformed and always reforming.” I have been about the business of reforming the church, not just the PCUSA, but the Church Universal since my ordination in the First Presbyterian Church of Ferriday, Louisiana (The home of Mickey Gilley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmie Swaggart, and Howard K. Smith, no kidding) in 1970.

Reformers have always been seen as heretics in the eyes of those who want things left alone because they are just fine as they are throughout the millennia. And the line between reform and heresy is nonexistent in that the two are one depending entirely on the point of view of those who are clear about the distinction. It is a matter of opinion, going back to the beginning of opinions and points of view.

So, I have had my detractors all along the way, and take solace in the fact that Jesus had his own detractors and told those who were his benefactors, friends and companions to “Pick up your own crosses and come follow me.” I have been glad to do so, being, as it were, so-called from birth to “ask, seek and knock,” in questioning everything in the work of spotting contradictions and incompatibilities, reconciling dichotomies and incongruities and making things more like they ought to be than they likely would ever have been without me. Which has always been problematic with those who like things just fine as they are.

And now I have come to the place of disappearing Christianity as it has been throughout the ages because it cannot bear the strain of its own inconsistencies, and must, therefor bear its own cross in ceasing to be at odds with itself and become true to itself and its calling to see, hear, understand and know what’s what in each situation as it arises in order that it might be who/what it is needed to be here, now in ways appropriate to the occasion throughout the time left for living.

The Church has to die to what it has become in the service of living into who/what it is called to be, here, now, world without end. May it always be so!

151. The Death and Resurrection theme is as old as humankind. It plays out again again over the course of our own life, the big one being dying to our own desires in order to grow up and live the life that is waiting for us to live it as mature, compassionate, caring and kind human beings. We are rarely grown up enough and must relive death and resurrection in a metaphorical, symbolic kind of way throughout our life.

152. When our work is done, sit down, drop into the silence and wait for what arises, appears, emerges, appears with an urgency about it to call us into action and do what is called for, trusting it to find its own place in our life at the appointed time, though that be years, or weeks, away.

We spend most of our time waiting between things for the time to be right for the next thing. There is no hurry to get things done. All is done in its own time, in its own way. There is no time table, no schedule. There is only here, now and what needs to be done, when, where and how. Then we will wait again to see what’s next.

153. The Bible interprets the Bible. For instance, Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son sets forever aside all the biblical references to God being displeased with human beings to the point of sending them to hell if they don’t repent and believe in the atoning, redemptive death of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus holds up the Prodigal’s father as the everlasting model of who and how God is. Psalms 49:7, Deuteronomy 24.16, and Ezekiel 18:20, erase forever the doctrine of Original Sin and the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement, plus any need of the execution of Jesus to be understood as being redemptive/atoning in any way, ushering the way for the Prodigal’s father being the way it is between human beings and the eternal ground of their spiritual experience and existence.

154. The Bible interprets the Bible and we are the one who says what’s what. We are the sole authority in comprehending, understanding, saying what’s what when it comes to the Bible and everything else. We are the absolute authority in determining what’s what to us and our life. Jesus said, “Who do YOU say that I am?” Which is the only thing that matters. Who Jesus said he was has to pass in review before our interpretation/understanding of who Jesus is to US. We can’t take anyone else’s word for anything. WE say what’s what and what is called for and what is to be done about it, when, where and how! That is our role in our life. That is the part we must play. We cannot allow anyone else to tell us what to do, think, say, believe. We make up what we take to be so and live as though it is all our life long. It is our place. Our responsibility. And we are uniquely shaped and prepared for our responsibility. If some waitress asks us if we would like some more coffee, we are of all people most qualified to answer her question.

155. We are the authority determining how our life is to be lived. I recommend that we consult Grace, Mercy, Peace, Compassion, Good Will, Kindness, Generosity, Sincerity, Spontaneity, Decency, Tenderness, Gentleness, Warmth, and Wellbeing, and live in light of and in service to these qualities and ways of being all our life long.

156. Why do we all see the way we see? What makes us think we are right about seeing the way we see? Where do our opinions come from? How do our opinions transform into absolute certainty “Like That”? It is only the way we see things. It is only how we think about things. Yet, we take it to be the “Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth.” And then we don’t want to say that we are the authority determining how our life is to be lived. What’s going on here? What is the deal? Get to the bottom of this if you can.

157. “Who says so?” This is the question to ask of every assertion made by everyone over time. If they say, “The Bible says so,” the question then becomes, “Who says that the Bible knows what it is talking about?” And if the reply is, “Every believer throughout all the past 2,500 years says so,” the question then becomes, “Who says that every believer throughout the past 2,500 years knows what they are talking about?” Keep following every answer with this question and you will at last get to the place where the person who initially said so has to say, “I SAY SO!” and at that point you can decide what you have to say in the matter and let that be the final word base on your own personal authority in determining where you stand here, now.

158. Everything about our life is transformed for the better once we realize what is most important here, now, and are right about it being so, and begin to live as though it is so.

159. What is most important here, now? What do we need to do in the service of what is most important here, now? This is all we need to know and do in each situation as it arises.

160. In order to know and do what is most important in each situation as it arises, we have to stand apart from what we want/desire/have to gain In each situation as it arises and observe everything that is going on as a completely disinterested observer with nothing to gain or lose and nothing invested in any outcome, in a completely unperturbed by and divorced from all that is going on in the moment, thus absolutely free to do what is called for here, now in each situation as it arises.

161. Here rises the catch in all situations: Where does the observer end and the participant begin? At what point do we begin to influence the experiment/experience just by being aware of it? “Aware” becomes
“invested” Just Like That (Snaps fingers)! And we have something at stake, something to gain and to lose, without knowing what is going on. We have been kidnapped by the occasion, and are being held for ransom, no longer knowing where we stop and the experience starts, and are incapable of doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, just because it needs to be done, with nothing influencing us one way or another, because we are emotionally hooked/involved/interested/etc. and cannot help it.

162. Peace and serenity are much easier to arrange alone and far from disruption and disharmony. The louder and more boisterous the crowd is, the more likely things will get out of hand, heat up and break out into rage and violence. Which never happens when I’m sitting alone in my recliner, looking out the window. Or in the library thumbing through magazines.

163. The louder my surroundings, the less likely the chances of me being there long. Church services are usually loud affairs unless they are held in a Quaker Meeting House, which has a lot in common with a quiet stroll through woods alongside a brook on its way to the sea. We all seek out favorite places to be, and our list is an accurate reflection of who we are and what we are about, exhibiting how we would represent heaven and how we would depict hell.

164. I while away the hours in reflection to the point of new realizations by way of making connections between/among theories, concepts, ideas, possibilities, experiences heretofore unrelated and separated from any type of interaction, like a chocolate coated dill pickle, for example, or a cold shower before going to bed. Not that there is any particular gain to be had through such associations, but the entertainment value alone is reason enough to wander regularly among the options–and who knows where such woolgathering might lead? It is an ongoing preoccupation to find out.

165. Thinking about what matters most here, now in any situation is a worthy mental game to play. What is called for? Knowing and doing that would immediately, spontaneously, transform all situations everywhere. Being cognizant of what matters most here, now is tantamount to doing what matters most here, now, and that is a wholly new approach to any situation. Living in the service of seeing and doing what needs most to be done here, now, where and how it needs to be done completely changes everything about the way life is lived one moment at a time. For better and for worse. Talking about rocking boats and upsetting apple carts! That would certainly do both! In each situation as it arises! How long, I wonder, before it would completely change the world and how things are done worldwide?

166. It is the business of water to flow to the sea, and to hydrate the land, the plants and life along the way to the sea, to fill up the creeks and river, lakes and ponds in maintaining the cycle of life on land and in the water. And if something interferes with the flow of life, you might say, water finds a way around, over, under or through (as in bursting through levees and dams) in order to get where it is going. Water here is to do what needs to be done in any situation that may arise until it merges with the sea.

Water never quits or gets discourages. It never even takes a day off, lies back and takes a nap. It is dependable and determined to do what it has to do all its life long. And it finds a way no matter what. And when push comes to shove (Whatever that means), water evaporates and becomes airborne in the form of clouds to fly over obstacles and rain itself back into runoffs and streams, continuing its journey to the ocean. Without opinions, pouting, groaning or grumbling, focused on and content with getting the job done.

That’s the spirit! We are are to see what is called for and do it, without allowing anything to deter us or force us into quitting. The old Taoists would say, “Become the water and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done–doing the right thing in the right way, at the right time, in the right place. And when our work is done, we let that be that and turn our attention to whatever is next. The plan for the rest of our life. And after that, we will see what is called for then and what needs to be done about that.

167. The rule of enlightened life is to see what is called for in each situation as it arises and do that when, where and how it is called for–doing the right thing in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, and to let that be that until the next situation arises and repeat the process again and again throughout what remains of life to be lived. Once we get the rhythm and flow down “there is nothing to it but to do it,” as Maya Angelo would say.

168. Finding our way is about not thinking about it, but relaxing into it and knowing it by knowing what it is and isn’t. We feel our way along the way playing the “Yes/No” game all along, often day-to-day. Start with what you wear. Do not think it, be aware of it, feel it. Look at your top options and your bottom options, and say “Yes” or “No” with your top choices and then your bottom choices, waiting for an actual “Yes” feeling for each. Do this with your menu choices, with your route choices, throughout the day. Feel your way. Don’t know what you are doing beforehand, unless today is an obvious, certain soup day or bagel day or doughnut day… Let your life come to you, through you, instead of being imposed by you upon the day without even asking for your life’s permission anywhere throughout it.

Look for confirmation with every decision/choice. No pushing! No forcing! No taking your life for granted as though you are the only one–and the conscious you at that–that matters!

169. When it is too much for us we have to call time out. Sit quietly. Empty ourselves of all anxiety, fear, confusion, complexity, pressure, etc. Of everything that is causing us to experience imbalance and disharmony. And sit in the stillness and relax into the silence, grounding ourselves and waiting for peace to settle in with us. Simply breathing and waiting in the silence for balance and harmony to return. Collecting ourselves and reflecting on what happened that was too much to handle. Explore it from the standpoint of the silence. Pinpoint the exact source of our dis-ease. Be curious about that and see what comes to mind. What does this remind us of? What do we need to face our circumstances? What would be helpful in doing what needs to be done? Sit quietly with the question and wait for what emerges, appears, comes forth from the silence as comfort, guidance, direction, and a very present help in sensing what is called for here, now, and doing it when, where and how it needs to be done, and seeing where it goes from there.

170. Truth. Justice. Freedom. Equality. These are the four pillars of the American Revolution. They are who we are as Americans. We are American only to the degree/extent that we embrace and exhibit Truth, Justice, Freedom, Equality throughout our life, in all of our dealings with everyone. Even Fascists. Fascists have the right to be Fascist. But they don’t have the right to force their views onto anyone. Or to mistreat anyone who isn’t Fascist. Or to mistreat anyone who is Fascist. Americans honor all people and grant them the right to be who they are without forcing their way onto anyone.

171. Everyone needs to know when they are balanced, in harmony and at peace with themselves. I call this “being at rest.” We need to spend our time “at rest” most of the time. We need to know what the sources of destabilization are in our life. What constitutes noise and complexity for us? What knocks us off center? Disrupts, demolishes, destroys our tranquility, serenity, calm? Our “peaceful abiding, here, now”? We need to avoid those things, and live to enhance and sustain “peace at last.” How would we (do we) do that?

172. “The Sage knows what’s what in their gut and is guided by their intuition and not by what their eyes want.” — Tao Te Ching, Chapter 12.
When what we want guides our boat on its path through the sea, the clashing rocks and heaving waves smile when they see us coming because they know the game’s afoot, and good times lie ahead.

When has wanting ever known anything worth knowing? Why trust what we want with our life? What does knowing know? That is where we have to look for what is called for here, now and what needs to be done in its service.

173. What do we know without knowing how we know? We need to sit with that and listen, exploring where that comes from and how we might access that on a regular basis. This is how water finds its way down hill and across the deserts and over the mountains to the mouth of the river that opens before the sea.

Our intuition has been finding its way like the water across the deserts and over the mountains for longer than we can imagine. Why not consult the Knower if we want to know something? Why don’t we go where the Knower lives and wait for the blessing of presence and grace? If I were me that’s what I would do. Every day. All the time.

174. The Tao Te Ching says in Chapter 13, “If you can put yourself aside, you can know what is called for in each situation as it arises that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with what needs to be done then, there, in that situation. And it is only a matter of leaving yourself aside and doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done. No one could do better than that, or have a greater impact for the good in the time and place of their living.”

175. In Chapter 16 of the Tao Te Ching, we find, “The Sage lives from the purest motives, relying completely on quiet and inner peace.” Waiting for the mud to settle in any situation is only a matter of being patient like a farmer waiting for rain, or a boy waiting for a fish to take his baited hook. People everywhere wait all the time for things to be right before they act. So what is the problem?

176. Life without theology is life as life needs to be: Here, now. What’s what? What’s happening? What is called for? When? Where? How? What does our Inner Guide prefer? What is our spontaneous, initial, tendency/reaction? What are we missing? Sit still. Be quiet. Listen within. Feel what we are feeling. Know what we know. Wait to see what we do.

177. We could take up the practice of allowing our body to take the lead. We could wait to see what we do all of the time. We could take our body’s lead as an experiment to see what would happen if we listened first to our body all along the way. That’s the way nature does it, no?

A flight of birds, a school of fish, turning as one, instantly being/doing what they need to do, be. How do they do that? NOT by thinking about it! They do it by doing it all together at the same time. They know what their body knows. They do what their body does. They live tuned into what? Into their body, and it is though they all have the same body. How do they do that? They know by not knowing how they know–and by not thinking about it.

If we turn our life over to our body and truly “go with the flow” of our body, what will happen? Let’s do it and see!

178. I saw a photograph of a bull moose sanding in the center of a pond with a pack of wolves spaced equal distance from each other around the edge of the pond looking at the moose. That is nature’s way. Life eats life. And there is nothing we can do to improve the situation. This visual standoff is a perfect representation of how things are with life throughout the cosmos. And when the wolves eat the moose, as they surely will, they will kill the moose in the process of eating it. Nature is efficient but it is not concerned about etiquette, decorum or civility. The big fish eat the little fish and the little fish swim through the mesh in the netting that haul the big fish to the cannery. And that’s the way it is. Like it or not like it, ignore it and don’t think about it, but like the wolves around the pond, it is not going away. Squaring ourselves up with how things are. Making our peace with it. And taking our place within the scope of natural processes is what we are to do. And letting that be that. It is the way.

179. This concept of making our peace with the way things are and letting that be that–and allowing that to point us in the direction of where things are likely to go from here, now, and what we need to do about it here, now, in order to do what we can to shape our future in ways that are as comfortable as we can make them carries us into aging and the realities that sit like wolves around the edge of the pond, waiting their turn.

180. Those of us who know what’s what and know what needs to be done but lack the power/force to do anything about it would be grateful for a psychic connection with each other that could be a physical/material force operating in the world to neutralize hatred, anger, rage, animosity, and all similar emotional expressions before they had a chance to be expressed–“nipping them in the bud” so to say. And keeping the world safe from their impact. If Mary Poppins is listening in I hope she will do her magic and turn this idea into a working reality.

181. Finding the path and staying on it is not a problem for those who are past wanting things to be different than they are and are open without prejudice to what is called for here, now, in each situation as it arises, where this means that and not Not THAT, and Not THAT OVER THERE! What is called for is simply what is called for always and forever no matter what. If we cannot do that we cannot be trusted to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, reliably, dependably, absolutely always and forever in each situation as it arises. Which is all that is ever asked of each of us all our life long.

182. “Security Forces” are Death Squads in other countries. It is no different with ICE in our own country. Death Squads, Terror Squads, it’s all the same. Hired by the government to deal with enemies of the government NOT the enemies of America! Killing American citizens in the name of enforcing the law is a lie and an outrage. And I look forward to living long enough to see a modern Nuremberg called to order and empowered to do its job as the entire world looks on. May it certainly be so!

183.

Living simply, not looking to gain–how hard is that? What does it take to do what is called for in each situation as it arises? What is required to have nothing to gain and nothing to lose? What more is asked than to be what is needed here, now? Why want more than that? To be what is needed? To do what is called for? Here, now? In each situation as it arises? What is the problem?

184. How hard can it be to be true to ourselves? How difficult is it to know when we have turned from the path and left me for not me? What are we seeking that we do not have? What do we want that will complete us and make us whole? What do we lack? What is its name?

185. Be plain and natural and the Way will recognize you as belonging to the Way. And you will recognize the Way as being the mirror to your own way of being. Where could we be more at home than with who and how we are?

186. What could be more natural than liking what we like and doing what we enjoy doing? We are one with what we love, no? Who knows us better than we know ourselves? Why worry about what other people think? Why worry about what to do? Why not just wait to see what we do? It won’t be long before we find ourselves doing something. It’s automatic. Natural. Liking what we like and doing what we enjoy doing.

187. It takes listening to ourselves to know who we are. I fished a lot as a teenager and young adult because it was parentally approved and it got me out of the house. I never liked catching, killing, cleaning, cooking, eating fish. When a camera came into my life I put fishing aside and it stayed there.

A camera is authentically me. And a keyboard. If my environment had been more friendly, I would have figured that out earlier on. Our environment has a lot to say about who we turn out to be, and how genuinely, authentically, natural that actually is.

188. The importance of our environment is the degree to which it is cooperative, supportive, friendly, encouraging to us and our inherent needs. We all could do better with the right kind of environment. And the absence of that kind of environment is a burden we carry our entire life–and more unconsciously than needs to be the case. Being aware of what we lost would enable legitimate grief to be recognized and expressed as the hitch in our stride that it actually is. Who we might have been if we had had the chance is the question that haunts us all. I don’ t think I would do it over just to find out. I consider myself lucky to be who, where and how I am. How many abused children feel that way into their eighties? Too many, I’m betting.

My tendency to prefer my own company to that of others reflects a natural leaning toward, and preference for, introversion abetted by environmental encouragement in that direction. I have been shaped by circumstances in the form I was genetically built to assume, so the curse became a blessing, and “I yam who I yam,” and happy to be so at along last.

189. We live toward “the good-enough,” and settle into that, striving to avoid making things worse by trying to make them better. I think that is as balanced as we are capable of making our life situation–where we live, who we live with, how we live–into a “this is how it is and we can live with it as it is” kind of way. Trade-offs and making-do characterize what we settle for, leaving perfection for “just fine as it is,” and “leaving well-enough alone.”

190. The impact of our environment on us is difficult to determine with accuracy and assurance. I don’t know where I end and my environment begins. To make an “educated guess,” I have to consider what is impacting me here, now. To what am I responding with my body and emotions? Is that actual, physical? Emotional, mental? Is some present event triggering a distant memory and am I responding here, now to the memory and not the event? It takes awareness and reflection to know what is causing my current reactivity throughout the day, every day. And this means, for me, turning to emptiness, stillness and silence in order to attend and listen to what’s what within and without, and what balance and harmony require here, now in the present moment of my life. And so on and so forth all my life long.

191. Jesus came to tell us that nobody goes to hell, that everyone realizes the truth eventually and bears the pain of having taken so long to wake up to all things being the way they ought to be finally, at last, forever. The Prodigal’s father is the way God is. Drop into the silence and meet what meets you there and, and you will know that it is so. What kind of world would it be if it were not? “Peaceful abiding here, now.”

192. The most important thing (ask anybody) is letting things play out according to their own drift and flow over time. Don’t be intervening for the good out of time. That is getting in the way. Assist things in going the way they need to go by taking the time to know what’s what and what’s happening and what’s called for here, now before we act like we know what we are doing and make a mess of things which will create momentum that continues the mess making in all directions when what needed to be done initially was to assist what needed to happen and let that be the way to the way of what needed to happen next. Which would have made all the difference.

193. We come to know who we are by listening carefully to what is going on within. What’s what? What’s happening? What’s called for? Who in there thinks they know what they are doing? What makes them think so? Get to the bottom of how things are with them. Interview them. Talk to them. Get their story. Ask all of the questions that beg to be asked. Say all of the things that cry out to be said in your conversation with the one who thinks they know what they are doing within. Don’t leave anything unasked or unsaid. Take as long as it takes.

194. Start with balance and harmony. Add emptiness, stillness, silence. Allow the three to become one, which I will refer to as “the silence.” Sit (or stand, or walk, or lie, etc.) in the silence, waiting for what arises, emerges, appears there as awareness of what’s what with you here, now, and what is called for with the gifts of your original nature, your innate virtues (The things you do best and enjoy doing most), your intrinsic intuition, and your inherent imagination. Carry the silence with you as you return to the world of normal, apparent reality, and see what can do there with the gifts that are yours to share in the time left for living.

195. We live to discover and serve who we are and what we are about in the time left for living. Let plans, dreams, schemes and visions go and see what is called for in each situation as it arises and what you can do about it with the gifts that are yours to share, spontaneously, naturally, automatically–for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it alone, with no concern for what you have to gain and no interest in what you want or don’t want. Simply be aware of what is called for and what you can do about it with the gifts you have to share. In each situation as it arises.

196. Let’s start with Adam and Eve and Original Sin. Eve’s sin was eating a fig, or a pomegranate, or a pear, or an apple, something tasty that she was told not to eat. Adam’s sin was joining her in eating “the fruit of the tree” as well. It is a little murky regarding how Cain and Abel (The two sons of Adam and Eve) became entangled in sin, but Cain killed Abel in a jealous rage and it spread out from there. Exactly how sin became so prominent and universal is assumed to be genetic, like a Sin Gene, passed from parents to children, but that can’t be it according to the Bible. Jeremiah 31:30 says, “Whoever eats sour grapes, their own teeth will be set on edge.” The Biblical view is clear: No one can sin for another and no one can redeem another’s sin. Adam’s and Eve’s teeth can be set on edge, but they can’t infect their children, and certainly not their children’s children. So how is it passed around? It isn’t. Original Sin is a hoax. Invented by the Church of Rome in the four hundred years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the scriptural canon (the Bible) in 392 CE. The Church of Rome invented theology during that time, along with Atonement, Redemption, Faith (Believing what the Church tells us to believe), Heaven and Hell. We can’t find any of that in the Old Testament. And Rome had to oversee the genocide of heretics to make their story stick in New Testament times. Christianity needs to make amends. And who speaks for Christianity if not the Pope of Rome?

197. Finding the flow, the rhythm, the grove of the way and maintaining our balance and harmony in the “sweet spot,” the “still point of the turning world,” is the art of being alive. But, we aren’t content with humming along, we want to own the show and determine how we want things to go, and what we want to achieve, acquire, own, possess, command, control… And it all goes to hell like that (snaps fingers). Pushing, striving, forcing, insisting, demanding our way NOW destroys the magic at the heart of life at its best as we “pave paradise and put up a parking lot” (Joni Mitchell).

198. I am devoting myself to being warm and not minding when I’m not over the next 19 years (Which will make me 101 and I think that is long enough) in doing the work of whatever is called for in each situation as it arises, using the gifts of my original nature, my inherent intuition and my intrinsic imagination to meet my life and the world as they need to be met and doing what needs to be done when, where and how it needs to be done, no matter what. Sounds doable and I’m sure it will keep me out of trouble. I certainly hope so. I have lived this long without being hand-cuffed and hauled off in a police car to a jail cell–and I would hate to have that on my cumulative record when I’m making my case before the angel with my Book of Life in hand and heaven and hell lying in the balance.

199. We choose our choices and let that be that. Maybe we would be better off if we made different choices. We only get one lifetime, so far as we can tell, which means we do not get unlimited choices. We cannot choose to be married and have children and then choose to do it over an not be married with children. And, even if we could there would be things we enjoyed about one and other things we enjoyed about the other, and might not be able to decide ourselves where we were better off, and this doesn’t consider the 10,000 other combinations of choices we could make living out a lifetime. Living a life we are well-suited to live is, for me, a good-enough way to live a life. So we make a choice that fits our demeanor and desires well and let that be that.

200.

I have taken enough photographs of sunrises and sunsets, moonrises and moonsets. And all of the landscapes and sea scapes in between. I wouldn’t get up early or stay out late again for another photo of any of it. It was good to do, I am glad I’ve done it, and I don’ t need to keep doing it. I feel the same way about scrambled eggs and eggs over medium and coffee and lemon icebox pie…and everything else that goes into living a life. Now, I’m looking forward to what’s next, certain that something is–even if it isn’t. I’ll keep an eye out for you, whatever that might mean then, there.

200 More Zen Thoughts From Jim Dollar #2

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