001. We don’t know beforehand where we are better off, thus Martin Palmer can quote the Tao Te Ching as saying, “A path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path.” The path that is a path can only be known in hindsight. We cannot look ahead in our life and know the route that is right for us, but we can look behind and be amazed at how things have fallen into place and worked out so well for us. This places the emphasis on the here, now. Feeling our way into the present moment and knowing what it feels like here, now, and what feels “Yes” and what feels “No” is the surest route to doing what needs to be done. Much more so than trying to think our way forward with a dozen good reasons for doing what we do and avoiding what we do not do.
002. It occurs to me from time to time, like a flash of realization, that this experience of being alive here, now is a once in forever experience. After death there will be nothing like this, so we better be soaking this up, relishing 13 degree weather, loving everything and everyone because everything here, now is irreplaceable, unrepeatable, and more precious that we ever imagine. So, wake up! Start seeing the wonders on all sides! The beauty of all of it! Celebrate with joy the wonder of life! BE HERE NOW! While we can!
003. I am in my 82nd year and am experiencing what I call “lapses.” I have to stop on my way to the kitchen, for example, and think “What am I doing here, now” and pause while I wait for things to click into place, knowing there will be a time when they do not click into place.
I consider the wonder of what I am doing here, now, typing these words, saving them to my WordPress Blog, wherever that is, organizing things relating to this Blog so that you are able to find what I am writing and read it–and I am overwhelmed by it all, and I cannot think how it is that it happens, and trust myself to know how to work the systems that make it happen, knowing there will come a time when I cannot trust myself to do this.
And tears come to my eyes because it saddens me to know what I know. And my hope is that when I don’t know these things any longer, I hope that I don’t know that I don’t know these things any longer. But I am afraid that I will know, and miss it terribly in the aloneness of knowing, with no-one with whom to share the agony/anguish of the burden of knowing. Ultimate loneliness, I call it. which will be so much different from the experience of solitude which I so enjoy, and always have. And that deserves another tear or two. Maybe three.
004. Where do we go from here? What is called for, here, now? That is the only thing we need t be clear about. What is the occasion, the situation, asking of us? Waiting to see what needs to be done is always an appropriate response to uncertainty. If we don’t know what to do, we wait to see what we do and allow circumstances to unfold from there.
005. Awaiting clarity is always on the table. Dropping into the silence and waiting for something to arise, appear, emerge to call us into action and to direct our steps is an appropriate response to not-knowing what to do. If there are no clear guidelines, and/or if there are contradictory instructions/orders, we have to ask ourselves what we would do if it were up to us and see what we determine to be called for and do that until it becomes clear that something else is called for, and then do that until the situation is resolved to our satisfaction. When we are the authority determining what is to be done here, now, we have to act out of our own sense of what is called for and take what comes.
006. Different choices, different outcomes. The problem is that we want particular outcomes. Servants of the Outcomes is the role we want ours to be. As though we know what is best for us. We only know what we want for us, and think that is best. As children they asked us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” because it is all about wanting.
Wanting outcomes directs our choices. Only we have no idea what outcomes would be right for us and what outcomes would be wrong for us. We are flying blind, pretending we know what we are doing. We do not know what we are doing. That should be our daily mantra repeated throughout each day. “I do not know what I am doing.” That would remind us to “Seek the light.” The light being Flow, Drift, Inclination, Psyche, Tao, Intuition. Tuning within, listening to the Inner Guide. Listening to our gut. Because we do not know what we are doing.
007. Being one with that which is with us always in a knowing, confident way, is the best gift in the entire pantheon of gifts–and it is always right here, right now. What do we need here, now? We need to be aware of that which is with us always, here, now. Everything flows from there. It is the way of ducklings with their mother. The way of bees in their hive. The way of birds on a wire. Trusting themselves to here, now, and letting come what comes, confident that we will find a way to manage by dropping into the silence and breathing, waiting, open to what meets us there as comfort and guide, always present as a very present help in all times and places.
What is that that meets us there? What is it that knows? Carl Jung said, “There is within each of us another whom we do not know.” We are as those who do not know in the presence of the one who knows. We are as the moved in the presence of the Mover. What? What am I talking about? What is going on? Dropping into the silence and waiting to know what we can know–to experience what is waiting for us to wait and experience what we can of what meets us there is as close to knowing the Knower as we can get. Beyond that, The Mystery!
008. We are all one and find what we need in each other’s company to meet what needs to be met in each situation as it arises and to do what needs to be done with it, about it, here, now, throughout each day forever. It only takes remembering this to know that it is so.
009. Wanting takes priority/precedent over every other thing. Without wanting, there would be only doing what needs to be done in light of what is called for, in light of what is being asked of us, in each situation as it arises, no matter what, all our life long. Which is nature’s way. The natural world does what is called for here, now. Only human beings impose their will for the world upon the world. Everything else does what needs to be done, and lets that be good enough.
010. I sit looking out the window or reading, or working on images, waiting for something to call me to action in the field of action in doing what needs to be done here, now. Then I drop back into the silence and wait for the next thing that needs to be done then, there, and so on throughout the day. Waiting, doing, waiting… It has a rhythm about it, a harmony and a pace that is as comfortable as a warm blanket in a drafty room. My way of passing the time.
011. There is how things are, and there is how we want things to be–how we wish they were–and we have to work out the incongruities and incompatibilities among these things. Things are not how we want them to be–how they ought to be by any sane, morally balanced, standard of right and wrong. What do we do about the discrepancy? How do we live with the contraries, the contradictions? How do we make our peace with how things are, and also are?
These are the questions of the ages. They have been around from the beginning. Life is lived under their weight and in light of their incontestable nature. They form the ground of our existence, the foundation of our world, our life. The injustices surround us, encompass us, mock us, haunt us, torture us forever without ceasing.
Life eats life. Make that right! Speaking of right, there is also “Right forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne” (James Russell Lowell). And yet, and yet… Good and evil are not so easily separated, no? Who is so gifted with the purity of sight so as to know precisely where to draw that line? Good is evil and evil is good depending on our perception and perspective, and opinions vary according to what we have at stake in the determination of the outcome. How should the colonizers have divided up the land mass that was the continental United States, in a way that would be completely fair to the Native Americans? Or, would the fair thing, the right thing, have been not been not colonize at all? And then what? How do we all live together in ways we all like, or can at least tolerate? How different can we be and still “get along”?
Life itself is a terrible thing. No life at all would be the right thing to do. Life is a mixture of right and wrong, good and bad, with no one being able to agree about the ratios and the actuality of their expressions. And so, the inevitable: “There are none who do right–no, not one!” And we have to live with that if we live at all–settling for what settles out after the dust settles. What a mess. And that is the best we can do. No?
012. How do we deal with the inequities? There is no reconciling the inequalities on every level of life. So, we are left with agreeing with this assessment and living on, anyway, and any way, nevertheless, even so. Shrugging and going on, as well as we can given the lot that is ours to bear, saying, “Peace, peace when there is no peace.” And so it is throughout the ages, with everyone making out as best they can. I call that ridiculous. Absurd. We are all being carried along by a current we do not understand and cannot control. Life. Is just that way.
013. We find our own way as best we can. I think it helps–I find it to be helpful–to be open to the stirrings within, to everything that stirs within. And to sit with that, simply observing, embracing, being aware of it, and seeing where it goes. As the Tao Te Ching suggests, “Do your work and sit back, stand aside, and see where it goes.” Let it be and see what happens, do what is called for, what needs to be done even yet, even so, even here, now. And after that is done, and after that… On and on through out the time left for living. For what? We do not know.
014. There is no end to it. Our death is not an ending, but a transition, after Einstein’s realization, “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or converted.” We are all forms of energy on our way to being transformed or converted. How we experience that, or if we will experience it at all, is a part of The Mystery. We do our work and step aside.
015. Look around. Take it all in. Sit with it. This is all there is. This is how it is. What are we going to do about it? With it? What is our relationship with it going to be? What is our response to it going to be? My response is going to be doing what is called for here, now with the gifts, perspective, perception that are mine to offer each moment of each situation as it arises, as my experience alters and transforms my gifts, perspective, perception over time, and my response to my experience changes as I age. And, I notice that my judgment of my surroundings, my relatives, my life becomes harsher and not softer over time. I have less in the way of patience and more in the way of expectations–with no foundations that I can make out, more like growing tired/weary of the choices I have and the possibilities that are mine to work with, along the lines of “Is this all there is?” In the way of, “After all this time why is this the best we can do with what we have to work with?” “Why are we no bigger, no more compassionate, than this?” “Why can’t we do better than this?” I am worn out with it and find no enthusiasm for the tasks at hand. I go through the motions with no expectation of a better, or even different, outcome. Yet, I remain interested in seeing what I can do with it, make of it, anyway, nevertheless, even so.
016. Giving instruction on meditation and how to do it properly, the Buddha simply said, “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” We can drop into meditation anywhere, any time, for any length of time, simply by being here, now and taking three slow breaths, and counting to ten between breaths, allowing “the world” to fall away and experience the here, now as all we need it to be here, now, free from all intention and purpose, desire and anxiety, from everything that crowds in upon every here, now to take the present away from us and take us away from our life.
We take the present back by dropping into the moment and being here, now for three slow breaths, a wink and a smile then back to attending the moment and doing what is called for when, where and how it is called for in each situation as it arises until we drop back into the moment to peacefully abide here, now, throughout the day for the rest of the time left for living. And then what? Ah, The Mystery!
017. God as a spiritual being is a popular fiction, but That Which Has Always Been Called “God” is a fundamental, foundational principle of reality. Other names for this aspect of “God” are Psyche, Intuition, The Flow of Life and Being, Tao, The Collective Unconscious, Our Gut, Our Active Imagination, The Mystery, etc. Take all the theology away from “God” and what you have left is That Which Has Always Been Called “God.” All of the churches need to approach “God” from this standpoint. That would instantaneously be a great help for everyone in the entire world. Theology is THE PROBLEM! Dump theology and everything is better just like that (Snaps fingers)! No?
018. I threw theology away about 3 years into my ministry of 40.5 years. In the Sacrament of Communion I used the words, “The cup of suffering is the cup of salvation. The bread of affliction is the bread of life.” We don’t need the business about resurrection and atonement in a sacrament about suffering and affliction. We can keep the church in place just by changing the focus. Jesus was a reformer, not a savior. No one needs to be saved. Everyone needs to wake up. Jesus was a reformer, not a heretic. And we need a new Reformation, one that gets it right. Of course, we will need a lot of new hymns, because every hymn book is a Book of Doctrine put to music. Sigh.
Doctrine is out, personal experience is in. What do we know of God that we did not get from some other source, including the Bible? We begin our exploration with that question.”And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time” (T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”). God is The Mystery, beyond which, we cannot go.
019. How we live makes all the difference in the way life is lived around us, in the way the wold works, in how things are for ourselves and the rest of us. It matters who we show ourselves to be, who we are and how we go about being who we are in relation to one another and all others. It is essential that we believe this and live as though it is so. Because it won’t be so if we do not live as though it is. No?
020. It comes down to how we respond to how things are here, now. We respond to here, now, and here, now responds to us. It is a dance all the way to the grave. How we dance influences how here, now shifts and changes, becomes, and is. Our guiding light must be maintaining troth with ourselves, remaining true to ourselves and our insight into how things ought to be. How we live expresses who we are throughout our life. We live to serve, express, exhibit what matters most to us here, now, all our life long. And so, the importance of clarity and reflection, realization and comprehension, seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing, doing, being in light of what is called for in each situation as it arises–in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way.
021. Our relationship with what we want/desire is the determining factor in how we live our life. Are we living to get, arrange, have what we want? Or, are we living to serve, honor, align ourselves with, what is called for here, now regardless of what we want? This is the essential question deciding the quality and direction of our life all along the way. Whose side are we on? The one who wants? Or the one who serves what is needed and called for no matter what we want? Or, to put it another way, will we live in light of, and as a servant of, what we ought to want or of what we want whether we ought to want it or not? How do we live in relation to what is called for in each situation as it arises? Are we even aware of the conflict between what we want and what is called for?
022. Living to do what is called for no matter what is preferable to living to make happen what we want to happen no matter what.
In light of what do we live? This is the essential life question. The next question in line is, Whom can we trust?
If only we could know that from the start! But, no. We make our choices and take our chances, and make our best of what follows.
Making our best of what follows is what our life comes down to. And that comes down to do we know what our choices are?
023. What governs our actions? What determines what we do and what we leave undone? How do we know what to do? What is our guide? Where do we turn for guidance? How do we decide?
I drop into the silence (emptiness, stillness), and wait for clarity, being aware of everything that emerges, arises, unfolds, stirs, etc. while I wait. Being aware of all that influences me to do one thing or another while I wait. Just waiting, watching, reflecting, awaiting realization.
And, if someone asks, “What are you doing
?” while I’m waiting, I tell them, “I am awaiting realization.” And, after a certain point in the waiting process, I recall, “When you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t, be damned and be done with it,” and choose the choice that I choose to choose, taking my chances and hoping to be lucky, and going with that all the way. We take what comes and do the best we can with it. And let that be that.
024. There is no hurry, except of course when there is, as in when the house is on fire and we have to leave the premises. Waiting as long as the situation allows to determine the best course of action here, now, enables us to sit, waiting, watching, until time to act, and then we do what we feel is called for and take our chances, hoping to be lucky and going with that as though we know what we are doing, trusting ourselves to “that which knows within” to be present and directing the action, and doing what is called for in each situation that follows all the way.
025. Being lucky is a highly desirable quality and seems to me to flow from being in sync with the here, now–with the rhythm and flow of the time and place of our living. Which is about reading the signals coming from the situation at hand and adjusting ourselves accordingly to meet the demands of the moment and assist with what is called for when, where, and how it is called for, moment to moment, all along the way.
When we put ourselves in accord with the moment, aligned with the rhythm and flow of the situation, at one with the here, now, magic happens, though it may not happen in the way we would like for it to, it happens, nonetheless, and positions us to benefit in ways we might not initially take to be beneficial, but we trust ourselves to the outcome anyway and are likely to live to see ourselves blessed over the long run.
026. In every situation there is what we want to happen and there is what needs to happen, what is called for, here, now. In assessing each situation we read it for what we want and what is called for, and wait to see what we actually do in response to the moment that is upon us here, now. I am often completely surprised at what I find myself doing and/or saying. I generally act unconsciously rather than rationally, and cannot predict my behavior, which is part of the intrigue of daily life for me.
027. I would like for things to be what they appear to be, what they are said to be. As advertised. That isn’t asking too much. Yet, it isn’t how things are. We don’t know what we are getting when we get out of bed and leave the house each morning. And those of us who catch on to how things are reduce the scope of our life and limit the number of people we are tight with, lock our doors and install security systems because the world is just that way. No? Neither the Buddha nor Jesus were “hale fellows well met.” And both likely knew they weren’t meeting who they were meeting in all of their relationships. Always the mask, it seems, never the reality. Appearance, not truth. Who is on the other side of the handshake? And who is on this side? We would be right to wonder, no?
028. Diversions, distractions, denial constitute a way of life for some of us, substituting for an authentic what’s called for here, now and how can I help out with that using our own personal gifts that include our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent intuition and our intrinsic imagination, etc.
Taking the time to drop into the silence-emptiness-stillness and wait there for “the mud to settle and the water to clear,” in order that we might know what’s what and what’s happening, and what needs to be done about it no matter what in each situation as it arises throughout each day. This practice tunes us into the time and place of our living and puts us in touch with the rhythm and flow of the here, now each day and how we might be of help there in doing the right thing at the right time right time in the right place and in the right way.
Doing this deepens, enlarges, expands, broadens our awareness and our skills in meeting the day as the day needs to be met and helps us avoid dwelling on our wants and desires and the drift of our moods and emotions and state of mind, in order to be present here, now, ready to do what is called for, alert and able to help the day along its way as best we can, day by day.
029. The most important thing is two things, finding and maintaining the rhythm and flow of our life. It could be thought of as cultivating and maintaining the rhythm and flow of our life because we are very much a part of generating rhythm and flow by attending what is called for and knowing what works when it is working and keeping it going, keeping the coals burning, tending the flames, the traditions that need to continue and ending those whose time is up–and knowing when to do what and when to stop doing what and start doing something else that can support the momentum that needs to continue for the flow to go on and on.
030. Natural trends and shifts stand apart from artificial starts and stops under the heading of “The Rhythm and Flow of Life.” What belongs and what does not belong? What needs to be encouraged and what needs to be stopped? When is it right and when is it over? We have to be attuned to the ebbs and flows, the starts and starts, of the rhythm of life. We have to be attentive to what’s what and what is called for and what is done and must be allowed to end. How do we know? We sense rather than think. We listen to our body rather than to the advice of those who think they know. We know what we know and trust our realizations. If we make a wrong turn it will become obvious and we can either change our mind or grieve our mistake and apply what we have learned to the next fork in the road and see where it goes from here and from there.
031. At regular intervals in our life, every birthday, perhaps, we may find it helpful to do a personal inventory in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way, including a meditative reflection on, “What do I need in my life that I don’t have?” “What do I have in my life that I don’t need?” Carrying those questions with us as we go about our life over the course of weeks or months, seeing where the reflection takes us and what realizations occur and what is called for and what we do about it.
032. My father could have stopped drinking and smoking at any point along the way. He died at 64 from emphysema on a breathing machine making hand gestures of smoking, asking, so to speak, for a cigarette. My mother and three sisters were smokers, my brother and I not. I take from this that my father was a role model for us all. My brother and I taking his example in one way. My sisters drawing a different conclusion from the evidence at hand.
We make too much about the importance of a “positive role model.” We make positive or negative out of any role model. Who chooses, decides, how we interpret any role model? We model ourselves after whomever we choose in whatever way we choose. I stumbled into my own life by telling myself, “Not that! Not that! Not that! Not ….” And here I am. A composite of leftover characteristics formed over a lifetime of observation and conclusions. Along the general lines of a lone wolf, hermit, recluse, introvert…
033. Knowing or knowing that we don’t know, and not having to know, and letting all of that be just what it is without pushing, striving demanding, insisting… Just knowing what we know and letting everything else fall into place around that.
What If we didn’t judge anything? What if we allowed everything to be just what it is? How would our life be different then?
034. Just seeing, just hearing, just knowing, just understanding, just doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, with nothing to gain and nothing to lose, for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, in each situation as it arises. This is all there is to it. To all of it. No?
035. Conversation straight from the heart about things that matter is the hope of the world. Why do we talk about things that don’t matter? Stop here, now and make a list of the best questions you can ask. Keep the list going, adding to it as questions occur to you throughout the remainder of your life. Open yourself continuously to the questions that beg to be asked and the things that cry out to be said in every situation as it arises all your life long. And create conversations around those questions and those statements. Transform the world in your lifetime.
036. To be cognizant, aware, savvy always and forever in each situation as it arises, and then to do what is called for, when, where and how it is called for, for as long as it is called for, is all that can be asked of any of us in any situation ever. And it is not beyond us, but is well within the scope of possibility for each one of us in all times and places. But. We get in our own way. We live to serve, to get, to have, to do what we want, never mind what is called for. And that is the kink in the hose, the hitch in our stride, the fly on the cake of life.
037. “I am here to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, in each situation as it arises, throughout the time left for living. For the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it”
How’s that for an oath to live by? What would it take to put it into effect? To practice it every moment of every day? I think it would take emptiness, stillness and silence–one thing, not three–and our openness to, and participation in “The Silence,” or “The Emptiness,” or “The Stillness,” however we choose to call it, by dropping into it and waiting for what arises there to open us to what’s what, to what’s happening, here, now, to see, hear, know, understand, do what is called for, when, where, how it needs to be done with the gifts of our original nature, our innate virtues (what we do best and enjoy doing most), our intrinsic intuition, our inherent imagination, etc. in each situation as it arises beginning now. Our life’s work. Our life’s calling. Our thing to do. Why not?
038. We do not need theology! We need awakening, enlightenment, understanding, knowing, being/doing (one thing, not two), here/now. We need to know/understand what is called for in each situation as it arises and do it with the gifts that are ours to serve, develop and share from this moment forward. We are not here to use others for our personal gratification, advancement, benefit, etc. We are here to do what is called for and needs to be done here, now with what we bring to the situation, to the moment. All the churches could easily become Focus Missions for training in being open to the silence (etc) and aware of our gifts and how to develop them in service to others. The world would benefit in countless ways.
039. There is being alive and there is being alive to our life and being here, now in each moment of each situation as it arises, and that is being intentionally alive, conscious of being alive, here, now, and looking around at what’s what and what’s happening and what’s called for in this situation, right here, right now, and wondering how we can be of service to the moment with the gifts that are ours to serve and share, and see where it goes. Remembering the words of the Tao Te Ching, “Do your work and step back, let nature take its course.”
040. Jesus said, “Those who hear these words of mine and don’t do them are like the man who built his house on the sand, and the winds came and blew the house down. And those who hear these words of mine and do them are like the man who built his house on rocky ground and the winds came and blew against the house and the house stood firm on a solid foundation.” He said, “Love one another. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Love your enemies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And in the Gospel of Thomas we find, “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known and you will realize that you are the children of the living father. But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty.” And Jesus never said a word about believing in him and being saved from the depths of hell by having faith in him. He said, “Do what I tell you to do.” And James said (2:19) “Even the demons believe, and tremble.” Meaning, “Don’t put your faith in faith, put your faith in action, in doing what needs to be done here, now. In doing what is called for here, now. That is what Jesus did and that is what he meant when he said, “Come follow me!” That is, “Do what you see me doing! Be who I am!” Anything other than that is dust in the wind.
041. Jesus lived among us and did the things necessary for the realization of what is called for in each situation as it arises. “See what needs doing and do it! in any and every situation!” is the fundamental message of Jesus and the Buddha. “See! Do!” It is that simple, and is all that needs to be done. What is so hard about it?
042. Emptiness, stillness, silence are the foundation, the essence, the source, the core of all that is. The three words are one thing. Each word implies the other two. Saying one word is saying all three words, is meaning all three words. And three are one. The three are the source of the One, the Tao. From the One comes the Two, Yin and Yang, From the Two Comes the Three, the Heavens, the Earth and Humanity. From these come Spirit, Energy, Vitality, Creativity and all that is. So says the Tao Te Ching, chapter 42. Which is also the number of this Zen thought. Synchronicity and Serendipity work this way. No?
043. To say “Things are meant to be as they are,” is not to say there is a “meaner” who thinks every thing up. “Meant to be” is the phrase for “how things are.” Things just are as they are doesn’t mean that things were designed to be as they are, they just are as they are. To say my wife and I were meant to have missed our flight and wound up at the airport diner for a late breakfast and three children later here we are doesn’t mean everything is planned to the last detail from the beginning and are playing themselves out over the rest of time. It means “This is just how things are.” Any meaning things have for being the way they are is projected onto how things are by those who make up stories to explain how things are because they need for things to be explainable and to have meaning, but the meaning is imposed on the things from outside the process of things being as they are. They “just are.” Nothing is meaningful in itself. Everything that is meaningful is meaningful to someone which is projected onto the thing by the person for whom the thing has meaning. A cow means one thing to a boy with a milk pail, and another thing to a bull.
044. Jesus did not have the wherewithal to go up against Pilate and the Roman legions. The phrase “almighty God” doesn’t mean what we think it means. It doesn’t mean anything. We are on our own against the drift of greed, cruelty and atrocity, whether in the form of Adolph Hitler or Donald Trump. There is no deliverance coming. We protest and oppose where we are able and do what is available to us in resisting the evil rule of the evil rulers. And live as we can with the outcome of all our opposition. In our opposition we find the way of the rebel forces throughout time and do what it takes to keep resistance alive and well. We join the resistance, protest and oppose fascist stances on all levels anywhere however we are able in serving the pillars of Democracy, Liberty! Justice! Truth! Equality! as long as we live.
045. “No one can sin for another and no one can redeem another’s sin.” This was a theme at the heart of many heresy crimes and heretic’s execution. The exact words are not scriptural, but. If you do an internet search for the statement, you will likely get an AI response that includes at least four Old Testament texts from different books that basically say the same thing with different words. Original Sin and the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement is not an Old Testament assertion. And it is in the New Testament largely because the Church of Rome trolled for proof texts that would support its contention regarding salvation hinging upon believing in the saving power of Jesus’ death on the cross appeasing God for the Sin of Adam. Not so says the Old Testament. Is So says the bad theology of the Church of Rome’s version of New Testament scriptures (and its exclusion of some, particularly Gnostic, texts lending support to a different theology altogether. We believe what we believe because it is all we have ever heard and have been told we will surely go to hell if we don’t believe it. And all theology is a collection of opinions about hearsay.
046. It is a pressing necessity that we closely examine our wanting ways. They are the source of all of our problems. We can want what we have no business having. If we closely examine what our business is, it will be hard to ignore doing what is called for in each situation as it arises. How could that not be our primary business? What could we mean not doing, even having nothing to do with, what is called for in each situation as it arises? That is the obviously most essential matter facing all of us in all situations that arise. The only objection that can be put forth is that we don’t want to. We don’t want to want anything that gets in the way of our doing as we please. When the truth is that we have no business wanting anything that gets in the way of doing what is called for in each situation as it arises. Which means we have no business wanting anything that prevents us from doing what is called for here, now. What we do about that tells the tale. And you know what we will do about that. No?
047. The answer, my friend, is NOT blowing in the wind. The answer is found on the other side of silence (emptiness, stillness). The quieter we are and the longer, and more often, we are quiet, sets the tone for our future, personally, and our collective future as a species. “The still small voice” waits for us in the silence, and we have to go there and wait for it. How long do we wait in the silence? How often do we go there?
048. Theology has no benefit to anyone other than, perhaps, theologians. And, does it make them better people? If the quality of our life depends on the quality of our theology, what does that say about the fear of hell in our life? Why do we have to be scared into doing the right thing? According to whose idea of “right”? How right is the right we call “right”? How good is the good we call “good”? Whose good is served by the good we call “good”? And who can go to hell so far as we care? Churches (and theologians) don’t usually pursue this line of questioning. Who are we and who we are to be, and what we are to be about, are generally not probed to the depth required to transform the way life is lived, and why not? What is worth probing at all? In what ways does life need to be transformed? Who is asking these questions? Where would we go to find them being asked?
050. Perhaps, I do not know, knowing is magical and wanting is a curse in that we know what we want but we do not know if it is what we ought to want, what we need to want, what we must want if we want to what what we ought to want and to do what is called for and needs to be done.
And, equally perhaps, waiting in the silence (emptiness, stillness) is the way to knowing that is magical and to the wanting that is what we ought to want and must want if we are to want what is called for and to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, which is the best kind of magic there is.
So, it seems, knowing is magical and the silence (etc) is magical and if we want what we ought to want, we have to open ourselves to the magic of knowing, and to the magic of silence, and serve both kinds of magic with our life as long as we live. No?
051. Living as though we know, when we only want, is an invitation to wrong turns and dead ends, and is not the way of the rhythm and flow of life. That style of living moves in sync with the silence (emptiness, stillness) and waiting to see what emerges, appears, there to lead, guide, us into action that needs to be done in the service of what is called for here, now, no matter what, which may have nothing to do with what we want, and may have everything to do with what we do not want, yet is ours to do anyway. And so the need of the silence (etc.) and its place in our life throughout the course of our life, always and forever, amen.
052. When we don’t know what to do, the thing to do is to listen to ourselves, especially to our body, and to where our mind goes of its own accord. The mind, properly honored is like a bloodhound nosing out hidden paths, calling us to follow, examining, exploring, investigating the mind’s insistence on what is worth our time in terms of its realization potential and its meaningful parallel to what is pertinent to our life in this particular here, now.
053. We only know what we want. We only know how we want it to be. We do not know how it needs to be, or what is called for, or what is asked of us in any situation as it arises. Not that we cannot know, but that we do not want to know. We do not want anything impinging upon our desires and fondest wishes. We just want what we want, no matter what. This has been so from the start. “Just give us what we want and leave us alone!” It might as well be our wish from the womb.
But, what does wanting know? Wanting only wants. Wanting does not care to know. Wanting wants to be immune to knowing. “Give me what I want and leave me alone!” That is all wanting knows.
And it is our place to know what is asked of us and to know what we know, and to know what knowing knows, and what wanting knows, and to choose who we will be with the life we are living. In each situation as it arises. Will we have what it takes to know what we know, and to know what we want, and to choose to do what is called for and needs to be done–whether we want to or not? This is our question to answer with the life we live.
054. The more self-sufficient we are, the better off we are. Any dependency is a weakness that can be exploited by our “helpers,” no? Limit necessary help to medical professionals, bus drivers and the people who serve food to our table. Remain as independent as possible for as long as possible. Which comes down to thinking for ourselves, making up our own minds, and questioning authority on every level.
055. The people who live in the far extremes of hot and cold, wet and dry have my greatest admiration. 80 is hot for me, 50 is cold. I am of Little use to anyone above or below. I made my living as an entertainer, juggling ideas and exploring new possibilities of intellectual ideas, much like I am doing here, in a temperature controlled environment, with a cup of coffee at hand. My idea of life as it ought to be.
056. Speaking of ideas, I like the idea of knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises, when, where, why and how. And I think we are equipped to do a better job with that than we currently are doing, simply by learning to listen to our body and knowing how to read its signals. We are not quiet enough, long enough, often enough. We are in too much of a hurry all of the time. “Slow down, we move to fast! We have to make the moment last! Tuning into what’s going on–hearing what we listen to, knowing what we know.” And taking up the practice of attending the present that is always here, now throughout each day, yet we lose it by being somewhere else all of the time, living on auto-pilot, costing along, knowing little or nothing about where we are.
057. We all have the power to give everyone the power to be who they are. Nothing is more precious than that. Or or more benefit to the entire cosmos. The power to be who we are is the power of resurrection and redemption, atonement and eternal life. And it is all well within our reach. If we think it exceeds our grasp, we are mistaken, and need only to exercise our own power to be who we are, here, now, forever to know it is so, and to bring everyone to life with us in the kingdom that is self-replenishing throughout eternity. Making here, now heaven on earth. Actually. Really. Truly. Forever and Always. No kidding. It only takes living as though it is so for it to be so. See?
058. The power to be who we are lies latent within us all awaiting our waking up to the truth of our own being and living in ways that are aligned with the thrust of our own heart and soul. The thrust of our own heart and soul is the drift and flow, the Tao, of our Psyche/Self which is inherent within us all, calling us to wake up, see, hear, know and understand who we are and what is ours to do in the time and place of our living. This is what enlightenment, awakening, realization comes down to. We live to wake up to ourselves and bring ourselves forth in the life we are living as a blessing and a grace upon all who share the word with us for as long as we live. Amen! May it be so!
059. The foundation/essence of today’s theology was put in place during the 392 years between Jesus’ execution and the closure of the canon of scriptures that became the Bible. All of the doctrines that constitute Christian Theology were developed, primarily by the Church of Rome, which became the Roman Catholic Church, over the 2,026 years from 392 CE until today. You can do an internet search for all of this. It is how things came to be what they are.
The Church made the doctrines up in order to support and sustain the existence and authority of the church throughout the centuries from then to now. Theology is source of many, if not all, of our divisions worldwide today, and theology comes down to nothing more than a collection of opinions about hearsay. And I can say this as an ordained Presbyterian minister retired after 40.5 years of service to the denomination. The Presbyterian church has a motto: “Reformed, always reforming,” which I am being faithful to in saying that, here, now, as it was in Jesus’ day, “The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.”
The new has come in the realization that theology has no place in the church, any church. The heresies in the early years of the church were grounded in the assertion that “No one can sin for someone else and no one can redeem/atone for another’s sin.” (Googleit). Throwing out the Doctrines of Original Sin, Redemption, Forgiveness, Atonement, etc. leaves us with the essentials forming our life together which come down to seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing, doing/being those who grasp what’s what, what’s happening, here, now, in each situation as it arises and living in ways that serve what is called for regardless of what that means for us personally, moment by moment, all our life long.
We do not need to be forgiven for anything. We need only to take up the work of being who we are, doing what is ours to do, here, now, no matter what throughout our life. The church that arises from the ashes of the former church would be a place where “having life and having it abundantly” could be put into action literally and physically, developing and encouraging one another to see/be/do what needs to be done, here, now in each situation as it arises for the rest of time. Speaking of time, it is high time that we get behind this New Reformation in bringing forth in ourselves who we are and what we are about throughout the world and eventually the entire Cosmos. No?
060. Jesus and those who came before him and those who came/come after him struggled/struggle with saying what cannot be said. Parables, stories, koans, art, nature and music are all techniques the bearers of truth have used to express the inexpressible, but there is a place where verbal communication cannot go beyond paradox and contradiction. It is the experience of “You have to know what I mean in order to understand what I am saying.” We all get there eventually, and when we do, we are left with winking, nodding and laughing as the way forward, which is also known as “the long way around.”
061. We are living toward a state of being where we intuitively know what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for and what’s to be done about it where, when and how–doing the right thing at the right time in the right way and in the right place. Which is the way of the Tao through time and place.
We develop our capacity for this kind of knowing/doing by expanding our capacity for mindful awareness of our body, mind, situation, place and time which we cultivate by meditative practice, opening ourselves to the silence/emptiness/stillness and waiting “for the mud to settle and the water to clear,” as the old Taoist and Zen masters would say.
Zen is what happened when Taoism met Buddhism in China and was passed along to Japan and from there to the West by way of Alan Watts and D. T. Suzuki. Doing an internet search for both people will bring up lists of quotes by each. For instance, Suzuki said, “The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows.” And, “Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.”
062. Living opens our eyes about life. We live our way into seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding, what’s what and what’s called for and what needs to be done about it. There are no shortcuts. No crib sheets. We live to learn, to know, to do, to be. In order to do that, we have to live with our eyes open, with our ears open, with all of our senses open to what’s what, here, now. So tuned in that we don’t miss a thing.
063. Faith that cannot permit questions or launch its own investigations and explorations is too timid and frightened to risk itself to the unknown in a “Show me what you got!” kind of way, and actually is no faith at all. Why hold anything back? Why be afraid to look boldly into all of the questions and all of the possibilities? Why not welcome all forms of suggestions and inquiries? What is there to be afraid of?
064. Jesus said, “If you want to be my disciple, pick up your cross daily and come follow me.” And where was he going? To Golgotha! He was going to die. And we want to be safe! Secure! And have it made! What weenies we are! What flop-a-bouts! We are as far from Christ-like as it is possible to be! And we say we believe in Jesus! How brave of us! Jesus says, “Come follow me,” and we say, “We will sit in air conditioned and central heated comfort and wait for you to come rescue us from the satanic hoards, and sing hymns and talk about believing you! How’s that?”
065. We belong to the time and place of our living. We are not here on vacation. We have duties and obligations in line with bringing ourselves forth, being who we are and doing what is ours to do here, now in each/every situation as it arises.
What needs to be done? What needs us to do it? With the gifts that are ours from birth? The questions are guides offering purpose and direction. Inviting us to pause and consider, “Who are we? What are we to be about?”
The answers assist us in the unfolding of our life in this time, this place, here, now. Which is how we find our niche, our shtick, our Thing and do it for life, with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.
How long has it been since we lived with our heart in what we were doing? How much longer it will be until we do? It only takes turning to the silence (emptiness, stillness) and asking, “What do you want me to want to do?” Then waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear.
066. We all have a history that is ours personally and exclusively to which no one else is privy to. And we have a communal experience to which everyone else belongs. And we don’t get those two very different aspects of experience confused. We are who we are because of our personal history and our personal response to that history, and our communal experiences impact/influence who we are, and can in some instances take over who we are entirely, which we have to guard against in order to prevent the “brainwashing” that can separate us from ourselves and keep us from ever getting back what was lost. We have to guard our solitude in this regard and this is another reason returning to the silence (emptiness, stillness) is crucially important as an aid in “finding ourselves” and “being true to ourselves” all along life’s way, so that our way is Our Way and not someone else’s way for us.
067. We know where we stop and someone else starts, and we have to guard and protect that knowing. That knowing is essential knowing and is the heart of the Self that we are. The people who want to take “the Ego” away from us aren’t doing us any favors. The Best Self we can be is the self that is the truest version of who we are separate from anyone else’s ideas of who we ought to be. Who knows best what is best for us than us? What makes us and them think so?
When we drop into the silence (emptiness, stillness) and know what we know, who is to say that we don’t know what we know and should ignore what we think we know in favor of what they think we ought to know? Who are they to take what we know away from us and replace it with what they think they know?
I say, know what you know and guard it with your life. Don’t let anyone take that away from you. Live knowingly, mindfully aware of what you know, and allow that to take you where you think you need to go, trusting yourself to know when you have taken a wrong turn and trusting yourself to get yourself back onto the way this is legitimately YOUR way, the way YOU know is right for you.
068. We are to build our life on the foundation of what we know to be so about ourselves, on the basis of what we know to be true about us and who we are and who we are not. We know the difference between us and not-us. I am, according to the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory and my recognition of the accuracy of it, INFP, And I am not any other combination of initials. I can borrow certain aspects of those other initials to do what needs to be done here, now, but I am not going to be those other initials absolutely and completely for the rest of my life. I was an Introvert pretending to be an Extrovert throughout 40.5 years of being a minister in 5 congregations. I did that consciously and intentionally, and I was glad to let that go when I retired. I took a personal oath of silence and solitude and have honored that oath throughout my retirement, engaging in no social activity other than with my nuclear family, and happy to be able to do that. Being true to ourselves, and knowing when we are not being true to ourselves, is critical to our own sanity and ego development–which is to be much preferred over ego abandonment, and essential to our own life and being.
069. I want to spend what time I have left to live (I’m aiming for 20 healthy years, meaning I’ll die during year 103), looking, listening, seeing, hearing, understanding, realizing, knowing, doing what is called for with the gifts that are mine to serve and to share. Curiosity and inquiry are my favorite gifts. Asking, seeking, my favorite pastimes. Getting to the bottom of things fuels the journey. And I look forward to what remains of the ride. Aiming to do the right thing at the right time in the right way and the right place, dancing with what dances with me and laughing at the very idea of this life being my life to live. I couldn’t have imagined a better one, or one packed with more good in so many ways.
070. There is what we do to pay the bills, and there is what we pay the bills to do. That can be the same thing. The important thing is that we have a broad range of experience with life. Our experience of life IS our life, and the people who live out their lives going from the barn to the meadow and back to the barn, have such a narrow range of experience that they may as well have not lived at all.
Live to expand your experiences. Live to collect experiences. Read books that expand your experiences. Go to places that expand your experiences. See how many different things you can squeeze into a year. Good experiences or bad, it doesn’t matter. We are adding to our wealth of experience whatever we are doing, and that gives us something to think about, something to be curious about, to look forward to, to be excited about. And that is what life is good for.
071. Where would we be without theology? Seriously. How would our life be different without theology? Without hymns and church services and the doctrines of original sin, damnation, redemption, atonement, forgiveness and the virgin birth? What would we believe without something we had to believe or go to hell for all eternity? What would we think if we were free to think without thinking about sin and going to heaven or hell when we die?
072. The mistakes we feel like we are making or have made are integral to everything else–keys to the journey. We learn as much from our mistakes as from our successes and victories, probably more. So rejoice in our errors, false starts, wrong turns. Dance and sing with them. And allow them to grace us with the help w need to face all that comes your way.
073. We experience our experience by being conscious of it from moment to moment all day every day. “Consciousness” is nothing more than the experience of experience. The awareness of being aware. The mindfulness of being mindful in a “Here I am, what’s what and what is called for here, now?” kind of way.
Seeing what we look at, knowing what we know, feeling what we feel, being where we are, when we are, how we are, why we are, and doing what needs to be done about it by doing the right thing at the right time in the right way and the right place is all there is to being conscious of each situation as it arises–and that is all there is to it.
074. Life that is directed by knowing and doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, is quite different from life that is directed by wanting, and doing what wanting calls for. And it is a difference that makes all the difference.
075. In light of what do we live? In the service of what do we live? What is worth our time, our allegiance, our troth, our attention? How do we know? How do we decide? How old do we have to be in order to know what we are doing? When does our opinion actually amount to something? When do we become worth talking to? What makes us think we have something to say? What makes us think that what we say needs to be said? Before a certain time we are just contributing to the noise of life. How much consideration does it take to move beyond noise making to making sense and having something worthwhile to say?
I had to learn to be quiet before I had something worth hearing to say. And then what I had to say was dismissed by those who could not hear it. Dismissal doesn’t have as much to do with what is dismissed as it does with who is doing the dismissing. We can’t quit talking just because we don’ have an audience for what we are saying.
Let the silence be the judge! Confer with the silence on a regularly recurring basis. Listen to the silence. Take the silence seriously and become a spokesperson for the silence. And don’t stop talking if no one is listening.
076. Consciousness is reflection upon experience to the point of new realization. Consciousness without realization is unconsciousness. We have to know that we know and know what we know in order to know. And we live to know. Life without knowledge, without knowing, may as well be death for all the good living is doing. We live to be conscious of the life we are living. And to be conscious of the life that is ours yet to live–and “to live it with all our heart, and mind, and soul and strength!”We live to know what we are doing and to reflect on what we are doing in order to birth realizations and apply those realizations to the work of being alive.
077. We are here, in part, to travel all the way to the end and to report along the way regarding what we have discovered, realized, uncovered, found to be true in spite of all conviction to the contrary. What becomes of our report, or how it is received and dealt with, is not our concern. We bring the truth to light and let that be that. As the Tao Te Ching declares, “Do your work and stand aside. Let nature take its course.”
078. Everything is subject to interpretation, which makes everything up in the air, uncertain, “iffy,” up for grabs, and anybody’s guess. Making it all interesting, hopeless, pointless, futile, ridiculous and absurd. No?
079. The most objective reality must be interpreted/understood subjectively. Meaning nothing can be nailed down as absolutely certain in all circumstances. Making Jesus’ observation that “the spirit is like the wind that blows where it will” pertinent to the occasion, and raising the question, “Which spirit is he talking about?” And the game is on. No?
080. Of course, everyone wants to nail down the spirit, haul it into somebody’s favorite theology, or somebody’s favorite doctrine, or somebody’s fondest dream, and make laws, establish absolutes and have it understood by everyone that this, or that, is the utter unshakable truth and has to be believed exactly as it is hereby explained and those who have contrary ideas are doomed to hell immediately and will be executed on the spot. True Religion will never be. It is only a matter of opinion all the way, and can never be anything but.
081. It is all only a matter of opinion. What matters. Who is right and who is wrong. How would we all ever agree about any of it, much less all of it? Take a position. It is only your position, and you will never get 100% agreement about it. Disagreement drives the world. If everyone agreed what would they talk about? Argument would disappear. Comedy would cease being funny. “Without contraries is no progression” (William Blake).
082. We have an inner silent self whom we can connect with by dropping into the silence/emptiness/stillness and waiting for our inner silent self to trust us to the point of communing with us and we are able to share the experience of that communion and “catch the drift,” so to speak of our inner sense of what’s what and what’s happening here, now and what is called for and how we might align ourselves with our inner gifts in doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done (Which would be the same thing as “doing the right thing at the right time in the right way and in the right place”, which is living in accord with “the force” of Star Wars, and the Tao of Taoism, and cooperating with what is called for and needs to happen in each situation as it arises.
We can commune with, cooperate with ourselves in the here, now of our living in ways that are magical, which we experience as serendipity and synchronicity, and coincidence. But then, we flip over into trying to use “the force” in arranging/forcing/compelling/making things happen like we want them to happen and to hell with what is called for and everything “goes up in smoke,” and nothing happens as it needs to, and we miss another chance at communing/cooperating with our inner silent self in the making of miracles in the present moment of our living.
083. Learning to live in alignment with ourselves is old religion formatted for a new world, and creating that new world in the process of developing the experience of oneness with ourselves, with Psyche, with Tao, with the Collective Unconscious and all the names “That Which Has Always Been Called God” (But NOT the God of theology who would send us to hell if we don’t watch our step) has been experienced throughout time.
084. In living aligned with ourselves we will be living in sync with the Tao, Psyche, in doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place. But. There is a catch. We will not be doing what we want to do. We will be doing what is called for, what needs to be done, in each situation as it arises, no matter what.
This is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “If you want to be my disciple, pick up your cross and follow me.” He was going to Golgotha to be crucified. To be Jesus’ disciple–really to be Jesus–is to die to ourselves and be born into the world of doing what needs to be done no matter what. We are sacrificing ourselves in the service of doing what is called for–in being what is called for–in each moment as it arises, in each situation as it comes to pass, throughout the rest of our lives.
085. We start small and get a feel for what is being asked of us. We don’t start by “selling all we have and giving the money to the poor” and go following Jesus begging on the streets until we die. But we could begin by giving 20% or 25% tips to the service people who wait our table at breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. We could start by being generous and kind on a regular basis. And being sensitive to what is called for here, now and living in the service of that with the gifts that are ours to use. You know, like that.
086. If I were in charge of things, I would immediately put in place the following: Hatred and anger sharply reduce our ability to function in human beings and compassion and kindness sharply increase our ability to function in human beings. Simple. Essential. Why was it left out of the evolutionary equation? Because we had to kill one another to survive. That is no longer the case. Now, we have to aid and abet one another in order to survive. No? What may once have been The Way, is now In The Way. And the people who embody hate and anger are killing the people who embody compassion and kindness. Calling them “Woke.” Doing them in. And we all can see where this is going.
087. When we realize that we have lost our way, we have to drop into the silence in order to find it. Living from silence is an excellent way to avoid losing our way. And, it amounts to not having much of a way at all, and comes down to staying out of our way by allowing our way to direct us along the way, particularly through all of the places where we are likely to impose our way upon the way. The way is to be preferred over Our way in all times and places. We have to grow beyond wanting to have Our way at the expense of The way, and trust ourselves to The way, overriding our own wants and wishes in the service of what is called for in each situation as it arises always and forever. This is the story of the Garden of Eden borne out again and again in the lives of all living things.
088. When to invoke our will and insist upon our way, and when to acquiesce and stand aside are calls we make throughout our lives. When to do which? How often do we do one or the other? How congenial are we? How obstinate? Which way do we lean? Which do we prefer? How do we decide what to do when?
089. Why would we take what someone hands us and believe it because they tell us to? Particularly when they tell us we will go to hell if we don’t. And ask us, “Why take a chance?” ? Why not ask them back, “Is THIS best GOD can do?” And, “Why have anything to do with a GOD who can’t do any better than THIS? And, “How can GOD be stumped by SIN?” And, “How can GOD be undone by SIN?” And “Why can’t GOD just wave SIN off?” And, “Does anything you have just said make any sense at all to you?” And, “Why would take anything like this on faith?” And, “Why would you have anything to do with what you have just said?” And close things off with, “Faith is nothing more than an opinion that takes itself seriously.”
090. If we are going to have faith in anything it needs to be in ourselves. In our ability to size things up, to know what’s what and what’s called for in each situation as it arises and do it as it needs to be done, doing the right thing, in the right way, in the right place at the right time, with nothing in it for us beyond the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, time after time. No one can do better than that. Not Jesus. Not Buddha. “Not Nobody. Not Nohow!” And it is all that is asked of everyone.
091. We decide for ourselves what needs to be said and done, when, where and how. We are the authority over our own life. We say. We do. We know. What’s what and what needs to be done about it here, now. We do not wait to be told? Who is to say but us about things pertaining to our life? When we lay our authority for ourselves aside and allow someone else–some Guru, some Sage, some Master of the Universe–to tell us what to do, we abandon the role that is ours to play in seeing, hearing, knowing, doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, and doing it when, where and how it is called for. Which means that you have to take everything I’ve said in this book and in all the others I have written “under advisement” to be considered in your own good time and done with as you deem best for you–because you are your own voice, mind, heart, soul, guide and director, and I am here to offer my advice for your consideration.
092. The Buddha said it best: “Don’t take my word for it! Don’t listen to me! Listen to YOU!” All those who say, say only what works for them. They have no idea what works for anyone else. So don’t do it like they do it. Do it like you would do it. Like you think it needs to be done. And make alterations in ways you determine alterations need to be made. All your life long.
093. We are all here, now. We all have made good-enough decisions and choices to still be here, now. And we have been lucky enough to still be here, now. Being lucky is one of my favorite life experiences, because it takes a certain degree of awareness, enlightenment, being awake to realize when we are being lucky and to give thanks and appreciation to the turn of events that resulted in our being blessed and graced with more than our fair share of luck over time.
I know when I am being lucky. I am open to being lucky. And I cooperate with my luck and trust my luck without pushing my luck. And it’s the greatest thing, dancing with my luck, honoring and respecting my luck, enjoying and appreciating my luck, relishing and being thankful for my luck. I see the experience of being and having been lucky as an aspect and evidence of being aligned with the Tao and at one with the rhythm and flow of life. And I hope you know what I’m talking about!
094. When D.T. Suzuki came to California to lecture on Zen, he would talk about enlightenment and being enlightened. After one particular lecture, he was asked by an attendee what he ment with the word “enlightenment,” and being told it had to be experienced not defined, the person came back with, “I keep hearing that, but I want to know what you mean when you use the term. Suzuki said in his tradition when someone asks a question and persists with the question, the persons deserves a response appropriate to the seeking, and that the closest he could come with a definition of enlightenment was the phrase, “persistent Intuition.”
Alan Watts was told what Suzuki had said and Watts replied that he agreed with Suzuki’s assessment, and he added that the enlightened person would be considered by their friends to be a lucky person (Not lucky to be enlightened, but lucky generally, with good things and grace, mercy and peace coming their way).
If being lucky is a sign of enlightenment, then I am exceptionally enlightened because I have been very lucky all my life long.
095. Making the move from doing what we want to do, to doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, transitions us from one way of life to another. Our new life is what Jesus would have called, “Living in the light by doing the right thing in the right way at the right time and in the right place.” And what the Taoist would have called, “Living aligned with the Tao.” It is a life of enlightened living, from the heart, with all things considered. And, it is an exceptionally happy life, being at one with itself and glad to be doing what it is doing at every point along the way. It is also a characteristically quiet life, with no fanfare and no affiliation with noise (often referred to as “the dust of the world”). And it is not a life that we feel would justify or call for any kind of recognition or attention. We are only doing what is called for, and every member of the natural world does that all of the time every day.
096. A quiet life is a life that sees into the heart of things and knows what it knows without being taken in by any of it. Seeing things as they are leaves things as they are and is simply glad to be here, now, wherever that might be, without wishing/desiring to be somewhere else, somewhen else, just doing what needs to be done, like brushing our teeth before going to bed and making nothing of it. There is no reason to make anything of anything. Everything is simply what it is, and doing what needs to be done about it is simply doing what needs to be done, without fireworks and speeches, parades and metals of honor. Which leads me to point out that Donald Trump has so missed the point that it is nauseating and disgusting, and no one could ever help him see what he cannot comprehend at all. A blind man cannot see. Some things are just that way.
097. Rumi said, “If you aren’t here with us in good faith, you are doing terrible damage.” MAGA and the Republican Party are not here with is in good faith. They have been working to destroy democracy in the US since, when? Probably the Civil War, when the South was most certainly not here with us in good faith.
Politics is the art of good faithlessness. It is the quest for how much we can get and keep you from having. And when good faith is absent, I cannot imagine a strategy for bringing it into existence. Good faith takes goodwill, and kindness, and grace and a genuine desire to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place–and that is so far NOT the political way of getting things done the way we want things done at the expense of the way things need to be done, the way things are called for to be done, that it cannot ever lend itself to doing anything with good faith ever.
098. We wait for the door to open and then walk through. We don’t know which door will open, or what waits on the other side. But we wait, trusting ourselves to respond to each situation as it arises in ways appropriate to the occasion. All the way to the end of the line.
099. It starts with putting wanting aside. Wanting is the source of all our problems today, every day. That is the moral of the story about the Garden of Eden. No wanting, no problem. We transform wanting by shifting the goal from getting what we want to wanting what is called for in each situation as it arises, and making that the goal of our life here, now and not getting what we want because we want it. Which is a dumb life goal from the beginning.
100. The world-altering plan is to stop wanting what we want and start wanting what needs to be wanted, namely seeing what is called for in each situation as it arises and want that above all else. Living in the service of doing what is called for moment-by-moment, here, now all our lives long turns everything around and makes it all as it needs to be.
101. We don’t have any right to expect things to be different than they are. No Expectations is one of the requirements of a well-lived life. Anything can happen at any time and we have to understand that and be ready for it, able to deal with it in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way.
That being said, I do not do well with complexity and complication. The heaving waves of the wine dark sea are not my bailiwick, and I will leave it to someone else to sail merrily along through the darkness not seeing what’s coming and not knowing what to do about it. I am going to batten the hatches, secure the sails and ride it out hoping for the best.
102. I am sensitive to what is happening and what is called for here, now, and responding in ways that seem miraculous when they are merely only what is called for. And I am no miracle worker. I am just awake at times to what is happening and to what is called for.
I think we all have that knack. It is a function of our universal intuition. Everyone is born knowing things intuitively. As babies we all knew what to do with a nipple. The same source of knowledge is at work within us throughout our life. It only takes tuning in to know that it is so and respond appropriately to our knowing in each situation as it arises.
We develop our ability to know what we know by practicing in the silence (emptiness, stillness). We don’t need any instruction in the matter. We are all naturally intuitive. It only takes paying attention to our body’s efforts at communion/communication with us to know what we know and be attuned to what’s what and what is called for here, now. Then it is only a matter of doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done for us to make miracles happen all the time, when we are only are doing what is called for.
103. I’m saying none of us need a manual, or instruction by a Guru, Swami, Sage or Master on “How To Do Silence Properly.” Just drop into the silence. You don’t even have to be sitting. You can be walking in the woods, or riding your bike, or having lunch in a restaurant. You can be wherever you are doing whatever you are doing and just drop into the silence. I am certain this is what Jesus ment when he said, “Pray always.” Praying is being quiet and open to what meets us in the silence. The silence is always “right there.” We can engage it anywhere, any time. And, actually all the time in the right frame of mind.
104. There are people who are confident that the Garden of Eden had latitude and longitude, but they have to take it on faith because it cannot be proven to have ever existed. And here is the amazing thing about faith: People no sooner take something (The Garden of Eden perhaps) on faith than it instantly becomes an absolute fact and if we don’ t believe it we will go straight to hell, which is also an absolute fact. Faith turns things into facts. That had better be believed, or else.
105. Dissatisfaction is an extended state of being that is difficult to self-diagnose and remedy, and is the source of acting out worldwide. We need a wellbeing scale that measures our depth of satisfaction and provides a readout of things to do to increase our satisfaction with ourselves and our life and keep us happily immune to sudden lapses in satisfaction leading to mood changes and inexplicable swings in mood and behavior. Lacking that, we are left with reading our own internal sense of balance and harmony as we move through each day, knowing when we are on the beam and when we are off of it and what we need to do to get back in the center of drift and flow. Attending the quality of our life here, now and sensing the movement of peace and wellbeing is a meditative practice that we can drop into from time to time throughout the day, countering the impact of the day’s events and modifying their effect on our physical and emotional quality of life index. Awareness to the rescue keeps us humming along centered, grounded and intact through the impact of the day each day.
106. Our intuition knows. We need to know how to know what our intuition knows–and how to apply it in the right way. We are back to the days of the Tao and knowing what the Tao know. They who knew in those days knew that the Tao knew how to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place. That is what our intuition knows today. Our intuition reads the Tao and may as well BE the Tao for all the difference there is between our intuition and the Tao.
So. That puts us in the place of knowing what our intuition knows. The first step in that process is GETTING OUT OF THE WAY!!! This is critical. We aren’t actually interested in knowing what our intuition knows, We are interested in knowing how to get what we want. No one who ever lived aligned with the Tao was interested in having/getting their way. In having/getting what they wanted. We cannot want anything more than, beyond than, being one with the Tao. That is IT. That is All There Is! And that is what keeps us from knowing and living in sync with the Tao. But. Our intuition knows. And is waiting on us to have what it takes to know what it knows and to do what it knows we have to do. We are the kink in the hose.
107. The Buddha was dead to the world in the sense that he was not motivated by the things that motivated the people who shared the world with him then, and now. He did not care about the things normal people care about. He was not moved by the things that move normal people. He was a dead man walking and talking, and he was not connected with the people he lived among every day. They listened when he talked about eternal life and avoiding the punishment of 8,000 hells, or however many there were. But when it came to living the kind of life necessary for enlightenment, for alignment with our intuition and with the Tao, people zoned out. They weren’t going to do it then and they still aren’t going to do it now. Nobody is going to live like dead people in order to be alive.
In order to be alive, we have to transform all of our ideas of what it means to be alive. We have to die to our ideas of life, living, being alive, in order to live at one with the Tao, in the rhythm and balance, harmony and flow of the Tao. Even though all of our friends would think of us as being lucky. And they would be right.
108. We cannot tell anyone what they ought to do beyond telling them they ought to figure it out for themselves by listening to their intuition and doing what their gut/heart tells them to do. The people who know, know that’s the thing to do. There is what we do to live and there is what we live to do, and the people who know know what they live to do. That is primary knowing. Foundational knowing. Fundamental knowing. And we should be doing what it takes to put ourselves in the position to know that. And what we need to do is to GET OUT OF THE WAY with our wanting, wanting, wanting all the wrong things (Jeffrey Epstein’s island was it for way too many men–one would be too many). Wanting is in the way. Knowing is the way. We have to live in ways that do not block our knowing what we live to do.
109. We have to listen to our nighttime dreams. Carl Jung was certain that our dreams are always telling us how it is right now with us and our life–our it is in our life–what the theme of our life here, now, and leaving it up to us to evaluate that, understand it and know what that knowledge is calling us to do right now in our life. We cannot just say, “I had the strangest dream last night,” and let it go at that. Our life is crying out for us to wake up and get with the program. We are our life’s only hope. We owe it to our live to live it the way it needs to be lived and stop chasing after we want this and we want that and two or three of those things over there.
110. You know and I know that I’m wasting my time here. I wasted my time for my entire career, 40.5 years of ministry in the Presbyterian Church USA, in five congregations spread over Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. People aren’t interested in what I have to say. Jesus would say the same thing. And the Buddha. And Lao Tzu. But we say it because we need to hear it, and remember what we are about whether it “does any good” or not, because it is doing good for us to remember and know who we are and what we are about anyway, nevertheless, even so, and give it our best, day in and day out, because that is who we are and this is what is ours to do, and we are being true to ourselves. We are our own witness, and will not allow ourselves to stuff off as though it doesn’t matter. This is all that matters. It is the only thing that matters. And we live to make that known, even if no one cares. So what if no one cares?
111. As I articulate what I have to say I see ways to say it better. I understand it better by struggling to explain it to no one. I get better at doing what is a complete waste of time, and in that I am not wasting my time. I am getting better at getting to the bottom of things and saying precisely what needs to be said, when, where and how it needs be said. I’m polishing my presentations in order to make the most of my opportunities just in case someone is ever interested. And there are people occasionally who are interested, and I enjoy talking to them, and look forward to every chance I get to say what I have to say whether anyone is listening or not.
112. To care without caring–that is what I am about. I am learning to get good at caring without caring. At living as though I care with all that is within me, and letting it go when it is done whether anyone heard or not. In this I am following Lao Tzu’s advice, “Do your work and step aside, let nature take its course.” I care and care not at the same time. It is the secret to a well lived life.
113. Paul the Apostle gets credit for imagining the idea of Jesus dying for our sins and offering redemption and atonement for our sin in Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden by dying on the Cross at Golgotha. Theoretically he did this in the three years he spend in the desert following his Damascus road experience and he developed it further in his epistles to the churches, particularly Romans and 1& 2 Corinthians. But in none of those places does he take into account the Old Testament texts which affirm “No one can sin for another or atone for another’s sin.” Samuel puts it nicely with “When someone eats sour grapes their own teeth are set on edge (Implying, “And not their children’s teeth or their grand children’s teeth, or their great grandchildren’s teeth”).
And Pauline theology neatly ignores the FACT that the Garden of Eden did not have latitude and longitude and never existed in space and time, so there was no Forbidden Fruit, and there were no Adam and Eve, and there was no Original Sin. It is only a story about the essential wrong of making wanting our highest priority instead of making what is called for in each situation as it arises our highest priority, which is valid to the core, but it doesn’t need/require redemption and atonement, it only needs/requires waking up, seeing what we look at, knowing what we know and doing what needs to be done when, where and how it needs to be done, as many of the Old Testament figures did (Moses, Elijah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc.) and as Jesus and John the Baptist and others did, and as we are all called to do.
114. If you have been with me for a while, you know that Martin Palmer translates “The Tao that can be said is not the eternal Tao,” as “The path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path.” And the trick with finding a trustworthy path is to take a step that seems to be called for here, now, and wait to see what the next step is that we deem to be called for and take that step, and wait to see what the next step is that we deem to be called for… And so on to the end of the line.
Being right about what is called for and doing that when, where, and how it is called for is to find and walk a reliable path. And that means knowing what is called for is a more reliable guide than knowing what we want is. May we all know what is called for and do it in each situation as it arises! The key to having it made.
115. Projections guide our life. Projections are what we take things to be, and have no necessary connection with what/how things are. We say, “That is good, and that is bad.” Maybe, maybe not. Wait a week or a year or two and see how right we are. Projections are recognized for what they are over time. And that means the truth is recognized for what it is over time. And that underscores the importance of waiting to see what’s what and what is called for before rushing to do what may not need to be done. There is nothing like waiting in the silence to see what’s what before acting for knowing what’s what. Wait at least that long and maybe longer in order to be reasonably confident about what’s called for before acting.
116. We don’t know what is or how things are until we hear ourselves saying what is or how things are. This is the value of psychotherapists and the value of sounding boards. It is the value of keeping journals and diaries. And it is why “I write 200 Zen Thoughts,” one after another, and if I repeat myself, then I repeat myself, and it is important to do so in order to be sure that I hear what I am saying and know what’s what at last.
117. If you and I sat together and said what we have to say to one another until we have said ourselves out, we would be amazed at the similarities in our stories. This is not to say we have the same story. It is to say that our story has recognizable connections with the other’s story. Close-enough connections for us to feel a kinship with the other. And all of the bitter animosity in the world would be softened, if not disappeared, by simply sitting together and telling our stories to one another.
118. Can you imagine Donald Trump telling his story to anyone? Can you imagine Donald Trump hearing anyone’s story all the way to being out of things to say? It takes a certain amount of compassion and kindness to be able to listen to another’s story–and to be able to tell another our story. We have to have a certain amount of compassion and kindness for ourselves in order to be able to tell our story to the point of having no more to say.
119. We have to be able to trust ourselves to know the truth when we see it, hear it, in order to find our way to the way that is the way. We have to trust ourselves to know it when we see it. To know it when we hear it. And that means trusting ourselves to know when we don’t see it, when we don’t hear it, and to keep on waiting, watching, seeing, hearing, trusting ourselves to know it when we hear it, see it. This is essential knowing. We have to be able to trust ourselves with essential knowing. To be able to trust ourselves to know bull shit from the Real Thing, and step into the world looking, listening, seeing, hearing.
120. Jesus said, “The “Father and I are one.” And, “When you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” And Jesus said, “When you have done it, or failed to do it, to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it, or not done it, to me.” He is saying, “When you see me, you have seen the Father,” and “When you have seen one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you have seen me.” Jesus identifies himself with the Father, and with the least of these.” We cannot say, “Jesus is God,” without also saying, “Jesus is me. Jesus is who I am. I am Jesus. I am God.” And living as though it is so, because it is so. Or Jesus is a liar.” No?
121. It is essential that we know where we stop and someone else starts. Copying someone else so that we walk like them, talk like them, dress like them, do what they do, etc. is to do violence to our own personality, character, identity, etc. The very popular idea that we need to get rid of Ego is ridiculous. How egotistical is it to think that we can rid ourselves of Ego? And replace it with what? Do we have that all figured out? Who we are supposed to be? That is what Ego strives to be is it not? Who we are supposed to be? Ego gets rid of Ego and replaces it with Super Ego! That is real progress, he said, egotistically.
122. I don’t know of anything more important than knowing flow when we experience it and how to maintain it, serve it, honor it, obey it in order that it might do what it needs to do in the work of balance and harmony, rhythm and stability in the here, now of life and being. When we get that down we are one with the Auummm of the Cosmos and the good of the whole.
123. We cannot stage harmony and flow. We cannot produce it. We cannot wield it as though it is a weapon for achieving our purposes and goals. WE SERVE IT! That is how the process works. And our trying to co-opt the process is the reason things are in such an utter mess world-wide. All we know is what we want to happen. We have no idea of what needs to happen, or what purposes need to be served when, where and how. And we only want to know what we need to do to control the things that need to be controlled to provide us with what we want both here and now and in every situation that arises following here, now through all the time that remains to be lived–never mind if that creates the equivalent of tsunamis and earthquakes in the flow of life and being throughout the universe.
124. We need to understand what it takes to stabilize our world and what it takes to destabilize our world, so that we might do the work of establishing and maintaining stability and harmony, rhythm and flow throughout what constitutes our world. Having what we want may well result in what we do not want. When that is the case, what do we do then? How well do we handle that situation? Can we give up what we want in the service of what we also want? Can we do what needs to be done when that runs counter to what we want to happen here, now? Can we care and not care at the same time?
125. My wife and I live in the same zip code with our three daughters, our five granddaughters our great granddaughter and our great grandson, and have established a tradition of having brunch together at a local restaurant once a week. The experience is the joy of our lives. The great granddaughter is approaching three years old and the great grandson is nearing one year old, and I think of the weekly gathering as The Blessing of The Innocents. This is a stage of life that cannot be duplicated, only experienced and remembered. Everything around the table is funny, joyful, delightful, wonderful, beautiful, sublime, revered, honored, held in highest esteem and carried in our hearts for as long as we are alive or until dementia robs us of everything.
And two things stand out about this gathering for me. One is what are the chances that we would all live so close together without anyone planning it, designing it, making it happen? It “just happened.” How does that happen? And if it had been orchestrated somehow, it would not have the wonder and awe about it that its “just being what it is” generates spontaneously each week. It is a weekly miracle that blesses us all, and that makes it a double blessing that no one is in charge of or responsible for. And I relish it so.
126. I have long held what I consider an obvious conclusion that if this (look around) is the best GOD can do, GOD should retire, quit, go out of business. And if this is not the best GOD can do, GOD should retire, quit, go out of business. It is hard to see how we are any better off with God than we are without God. And, as far as prayer is concerned, I have discovered that crossing my fingers, rubbing a rabbit’s foot and carrying a lucky penny, works as well as praying for certain outcomes.
What to do about God comes down to considering the difference between the God of Theology and the God Beyond Theology, and what we can actually expect of each God over time. I personally opt for the God Beyond Theology, which is also referred to as “That Which Has Always Been Called God,” and which may be referred to as Tao, Psyche, Sophia, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, etc. depending on our own origin, background and personal preference.
Expecting God to help us achieve our personal goals by making sacrifices and promises is well over the line in my view, and I recommend growing up and doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, and dealing with the outcome as well as we can.
127. We are on our own with our life and the circumstances begetting circumstances within the time and place of our living. We have to determine what is ours to do and how we are to do it in responding appropriately to all that comes our way, using the gifts that are ours from birth–our original nature, our inherent intuition, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our intrinsic imagination, etc. The Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, probably available online, is one way of developing our awareness of our original nature. Being mindfully aware of how we deal naturally, spontaneously, with what our life brings us gives us insight into what we can expect of ourselves in managing day-to-day experiences, what we can be confident of, where we need to strengthen our capacity to handle what’s what and do what is called for situation by situation. From there it is a matter of practice, practice, practice. No?
128. D.T. Suzuki said that enlightenment (satori) is equivalent to “habitual intuition.” Living out of our immediate, spontaneous, sense of what’s what and what needs to be done about it, when, where and how is trusting ourselves to know what needs to happen without knowing how we know or being able to defend, justify, explain, excuse what we do. It is living the way “Bless you!” follows a sneeze. It is living the way tennis players return serve. See/Do, one thing.
129. We know when we are balanced and in harmony with ourselves and our surroundings, and we know when we are out of sync and treading water on the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea. The Buddha’s “Peaceful abiding here, now” is a steady measuring rod for how things are going. With that as the ideal, how are things going? What will it take to get back to peace and serenity? It helps me to drop into the silence wherever I am and take three normal breaths, pausing for a count of five between breaths with my eyes open if I am in a public place, or driving, then move back into whatever I was doing. I call it “a break for peace and serenity.”
130. Developing long range plans like career development grows out of a sense of direction and interests that occur here, now and are realized in the silence. And that may well be aided and abetted by nighttime dreams and daytime intuitive attraction to a way of life that could transition into a career. The here, now can point the way to the then, there. My teenage intuitive affinity for a camera and a typewriter turned into a lifelong affiliation with photography and writing which opened up before me in ways I would have never been able to imagine as a teenager, but the teen years were preparatory in ways I could not have foreseen. Plans that are intellectual, rational, logical may not be able to consciously connect with an intuitive, irrational, sense of direction, yet both may be a part of growing up in ways that emerge from the wholeness of a background that prepared us for a future we couldn’t articulate as it was being developed.
131. That which has always been called God is the background music of the universe and is always available to be experienced, intuited in each situation as it arises, making it easy to confuse the God of theology with the God Beyond Theology and intertwining theology with daily experience in ways that may not pan out smoothly with this taken to mean that when this doesn’t have anything to do with that. Our openness to our experience cannot be set aside in concentrating to live sinless lives and thereby earn an after death trip to heaven. We live in sync with the flow of life in each situation as it arises, and if we think that might somehow implicate us in sin, then we have a problem that wouldn’t exist if theology weren’t in the room. Sinless living may conflict with living at one with the flow of life and being. And we have to “choose this day whom we shall honor and serve.” The flow or the Ten Commandments, for example.
132. We have to be “working the program.” We have to be meaning something, intending something, with our life. Who are we? What are we about? We have to be working on an answer to these questions. We cannot expect to just fall into a life we would be proud to live. What is our idea of a life we would be proud to live? Whom do we know who is living a life we would be proud to live? How are they doing it? We could interview them and ask how they are doing it. Is it conscious, intentional, deliberate? Or, did they just fall into it? Do they know what they are doing? Are they living well unconsciously? Accidentally? What are we doing to emulate those people? How consciously are we working to emulate in our life the qualities they exhibit in theirs?
Here is one for you: It is not about being forgiven for our sins and going to heaven when we die! It is about being who we are, doing what is ours to do, in this minute, this moment, right here, now! It is about how beautifully, imaginitively creatively, we live in this moment, right here, now. It is about who we show ourselves to be here, now. In every here, now, that comes along. It is about bringing to life in this moment, here, now, the qualities and values that enhance life, serve life, enable life here, now. What are those qualities, values? How do we bring them to life in our life? These are the questions, the answers to which bring life to life in the life we are living here, now.
133. In “Zen and the Art of Archery,” there are two observations. The first is: “One’s ability to hit the bull’s-eye, carries in inverse proportion to one’s desire to hit the bullseye.” The more we have at stake in hitting the bull’s-eye, the smaller our chance of hitting the bull’s-eye. The larger the prize for hitting the bull’s-eye, the smaller our chance of hitting the bull’s-eye. The more we want it, the less chance we have of getting it. So. We have to learn the art of caring and not caring at the same time.
What is a worthy target? That’s the question. What are we trying to do with our life? We have to live from “the still point.” Caring and not caring at the same time. Being obsessive/compulsive is to miss the point/target. Being aimless and disinterested is to miss the point as well. Who are we? What are we about? The questions require the right kind of attention and interest. The right ratio of caring and not caring.
We have to live as observers of life as we live it. Knowing what’s what and what’s happening, and what is called for here, now, and doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, within and without.
134. We have to live organically, not synthetically. Intuitively, not rationally/logically. We have to live knowing, not thinking. The process by which we pull this off is that of interested observers attending what’s what and what’s happening, and what’s called for, here, now. Allowing nature to take it from there.
135. We cannot live well thinking about what we are doing, or what we ought to be doing. When we are walking naturally, we are not thinking about walking naturally. We are trusting ourselves to walk naturally. We have to live trusting ourselves to live well, in sync with the Tao, at one with Psyche, at home with ourselves. That is the way dancers dance and singers sing. And the way tennis players play tennis. So it can be done. Go do it!
136. Phyllis Tanner-frye said, “You can look at a dandelion and see it or not see it. See?” How do we know if we see? There are two indicators, laughter and tears. We know we are in the presence of truth when we either laugh or cry. Or, maybe both at the same time. Any other reaction/response and we are kidding ourselves. We haven’t seen yet. We have to keep looking.
137. What are your questions? Your recurring questions? Your on-going, still here, questions? Sit with those questions. What are they asking of you? How are you endeavoring to answer them? In what ways are you living in their service? What other questions do they raise?
138. One of the things that may help us with what we are up against (Knowing who we are and what we are to be about) is the Communion Table, of all things. Bear with me here. We have to “turn the light around.
The bread and the cup sit before us as metaphors of our life, of everyone’s life, of what is asked of us, expected of us, of how it has always been and always will be.
The bread is the bread of affliction and the bread of life.
The cup is the cup of suffering and the cup of salvation.
Affliction and life, suffering and salvation, all wrapped up together as one thing, inseparable, indivisible. Life is tucked away in death, and death in life. The empty tomb is the Siamese twin of the crucifixion. We find what we are seeking when we stop looking under the street light and open ourselves up to the darkness, to the difficult, to the cold, hard agony of our lives.
Joseph Campbell said, “That which we seek lies far back in the darkest corner of the cave we most do not want to enter.” We find what we seek–the life that is our life to live–in the depths of vulnerability, insecurity, uncertainty, doubt, anguish and pain.
We cannot do what must be done. And, instead of letting that stop us, or send us into the death spiral of addiction and depression, we might simply acknowledge it with a smile and a nod, and get back to the work of being who we are, doing what needs to be done when, where and how it needs to be done by dropping into the silence and opening ourselves to what meets us there to guide us back into the here, now and what is called for with the gifts we have to serve and share: Our original nature, our innate treasure (the things we do best and the things we love to do most), our inherent intuition and our intrinsic imagination in order to do what is called for here, now and allow that to lead us through each situation as it arises all along the way.
139. A Zen koan is “What was your face before you were born?” A Zen description of the futility of trying to find the way is, “It is like a man riding on his ox looking for his ox.” In the search for our “true selves,” we are like a man riding his ox in the search for his ox. We are right here, right now! What is true about us is true about us in every moment of our life! We don’t have to go to India “to find ourselves!” Who we are is right here, now! We only have to open ourselves to what is deepest, truest, best about us here, now!
The way to the Way is not a matter of knowing something we don’t know. It is a matter of knowing what we do know. And that is a matter of openness, observation, awareness, reflection, meditation, articulation, communion–all without judgment. Just seeing. Just knowing. How things are here, now.
We know when things are on track and when they are off. We know when things are right and when they are not-right. We know where we belong and where we have no business being.
So all we need to do is sit down, shut up, be quiet, become completely non-judgmental and be aware of who and how we are. Drop into the silence, stillness, emptiness and “wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear.”
140. I said this on 04/13/2003. I was still preaching then. I said it from the pulpit, or close enough to it (I walked around talking, not standing in the pulpit):
The best way to think about God is to ignore the doctrines and the theology that has been soaking in brine for Two Thousand Years, but to poke God, prod God, make God jump! Walk around God. Walk up to God. Sock God really hard in the chops just to see what God will do. Tell God you’ve had it with pickled theology and hand-me-down doctrines. Insist on the latest information. Demand some first rate state-of-the-art Godstuff. Tell God you want an idea about God that you haven’t heard before–that nobody has ever heard before. Something to chew on, mull over, walk around with in your pocket, something you can pull out when the conversation lulls and you can see what your friends think.
Your friends will probably think you are crazy as hell and going to hell as well. Find yourself some new friends who are as crazy as you are and go to hell together. And invite God to come along and bring the hotdogs. It will be a party and that will be the end of hell.
141. Nothing is more important than knowing what is important, and being right about it. We cannot be focused until we are clear. Achieving clarity of purpose is the Great Work of our lives. And being with the process of figuring it out is the second Great Work of our lives.
142. Our lives are uniquely equipped to carry us to The Way, but we have to be open to the experience of our life and able to explore our experience in the company of those who are exploring their experience with their life together in a regular and routine kind of way.
It is important that we talk about our experience of life with those who are talking about their experience of life. As we articulate our conclusions and connections, our reactions and responses, we expand and elaborate, deepen and transform our conclusions and connections throughout the group, and the larger more varied the group, the wider the range of conclusions and connections and the greater the possibilities for understanding, comprehending and imagining different ways of incorporating our interpretation of our experience and expanding, deepening, enlarging our range of experience and how we might incorporate that into our lives.
We have to experience our life in the company of those who are experiencing their life and talking about our experiences together. This is the way to the Way. We find the Way by being alive to the experience of being alive.
143. I had two classmates as a junior in high school who were dating and had a baby, setting themselves up for a series of choices and decisions they would have preferred to not make, but. The Dad avoided a tour in Viet Nam because of his status as a father, and may have avoided something much worse than changing diapers and making ends meet with a baby to care for.
Unanticipated and unimaginable outcomes keep us guessing and invite us to remain open to unforeseeable possibilities all along the way.
We take what comes and do our best with it and see where it goes, refusing to make any judgment calls at any point from where we are to where we are going. Just seeing what is called for here, now and doing what needs to be done about it all the way to the end of the line.
144. We get out of the way by grounding ourselves in the here, now. By being physically connected to the moment of our living. We might do that by counting our breaths, or biting our tongue, or drawing an abstract design modeled on something in our environment. Anything that focuses our attention on the time and place of our living allows messages, contact, influence from “the other side” to break into our awareness with exactly what is needed here, now to enable us to do what is called for here, now, in a way that is magical, mysterious, marvelous, and cannot be explained logically, rationally, intellectually.
When we open the way for intuition to connect with us, we facilitate a. visit from the source and ground of life and being. And everything is blessed by the blessing.
145. This world becomes transparent to that world when we lose ourselves in connection with this world–by opening ourselves to the wonder of a bird’s song, or a waterfall, or a starry, starry night… This world becomes a doorway to that world when we get out of the way by attaching ourselves consciously to some “portkey” that transports us from here to there by shifting our attention from logic to intuitive receptivity, enabling us to be receptive to the world beyond this world, here, now.
146. If there were a God things would have to be different-better, don’t you think? What kind of God would walk through this world and think this is exactly the kind of world that is the best of all possible worlds? And why would God put up with a world that was not the best of all possible worlds? These questions call into question the entire Christian premise and raise the question, How does taking something on faith immediately turn it into a fact? Something believed on faith remains a belief. It does not become factual just because it is believed. All Christian theology, doctrines, dogmas, creeds and catechisms are presented as facts but they are only beliefs, and need to be recognized as such by all parties engaged in the conversation.
147. Joseph Campbell said, “Our life evokes our character.” We don’t know who we are or what we are capable of until we see ourselves living in response to our experience, and reflecting on our experience of our experience. We surprise ourselves.
Jacob Bronowski said, “If we want to know the truth, we have to live in certain ways. We have to live truthfully. Which means, “No kidding ourselves.” “No lying to ourselves.” Which means, “Knowing who we are and what we are about.” Raising the questions, “Who are we? What are we about?”
147. Everyone has some idea about God. They could do a true/false exam on the character and qualities of God without hesitation. They know who God is. And isn’t. Where did they get their information? How do they know what’s what with God? Who is right about who God is? How does anyone know who is right about who God is? How can they be sure? What does it matter?
148. Arguing about who God is and who is going to heaven and who to hell is an eternally inconclusive waste of time. Faith is a collection of opinions that take themselves seriously. We could accomplish as much with the proposition, “Prayer Changes Things.”
149. God’s plan for our life is for us to be like a stream flowing downhill. Every stream is confident that it has what it takes to get to the sea. Nothing can stop a stream. As the stream goes it gets better at what it is doing. If the stream hits a stretch of dry weather and dries up, it is no problem to the stream. It waits for the rains to return and picks up where it stopped, and flows on to the sea. We are the stream flowing to the sea. And this means that God is also the stream and God is who we are, and we are who God is. And we are all flowing together to the sea. God is also the sea.
150. Our idea for the path makes it difficult for us to be on the path. We have a hard time becoming the path. We think the path will be advantageous to us. We think we will benefit from being on the path. We seek the path for what is in it (on it) for us. Everything is considered in terms of what it means for us personally–in terms of the implications it has for our lives–in terms of the advantages it has for us and our life. We seek the path in order to be blessed by the path. And wander off the path in search of elusive wonders. We have to BE the path we seek. There is no path for those who are not one with the path, inseparable from the path.
151. Being in the flow connects us with the Mystery. We experience the marvel of being part of something that is more than we are. It is a dance, a rhythm, a symphony of being. Coincidence, Synchronicity, feels like Providence at work in our life. We move in accord with something–what? Miracle occurs, magic happens, our lives are transformed, turned inside out in an instant, and then, it is gone. We are out of the flow and back in the game of trying to think our way forward.
But, the memory lingers. We know there is something at work in our lives–beyond our lives–at work in life–that we connect with from time to time, which is like nothing we could dream up, or produce on our own. Being in the flow of life grounds us in the Mystery of Being, provides immunity to the cynical estimation that “this is all there is,” and seals us in the realization that there is more to living than meets the eye.
152. We find our way to the Way by being aware of what attracts us and repels us, by what enthuses us, enthralls us and propels us forward. We have to have the strength of our own convictions, the force of our own passion, if we are to find our way to the Way. We cannot take another’s word for what we should love. We have to know for ourselves what we DO love, what is worth our time and our life, our heart and soul. Being grounded and centered in the way is being grounded and centered in ourselves, in who we are and what we are to be about.
153. Our way is the way to The Way, and the way away from it. Our way is the access ramp to The Way, and the exit ramp off of it. When we make too much our way, we block the way to The Way, and circle endlessly around the things we think should be important, without ever finding the things that are important, that are worth our time and our life.
The idea is to allow our way to carry us onto The Way which branches and meanders, wandering, sometimes without apparent purpose, to amazing outcomes, astounding ends. Our way always carries with it the possibility of intersecting The Way, if we do not insist too adamantly on having what we want, or walk too directly toward our aims and ambitions. What we intend has the potential to produce more than we imagined, if we do not force our way, but permit our way to be altered by The Way, transformed into The Path we could not have foreseen.
154. Heart is terribly inefficient. The Way does not run straight and true to the source and goal of life. It meanders lazily along. It wanders and ambles, dawdles, dallies and pokes. The Way does not understand “hurry.” It has no time table, no schedule to keep, no place to be. It is quite content to be what, when, where and how it is, and enjoys the full experience of every moment as though it is the last moment, the only moment, ever. And, in a way it is.
The only moment that matters is this moment, here, now. If we cannot be open to this moment, to this experience of life, we will be cut off from the possibilities tucked away in the moment–in each moment. We find our way to The Way one simple “now” at a time.
Finding our way to The Way, walking The Path with our name on it is merely a mater of being open to the here, now of our living. When we receive the moment with openness, gratitude, appreciation and awareness, we position ourselves to perceive its possibilities, and intuit what is being offered to us, asked of us. We position ourselves to respond to the moment out of what we have to offer to the moment, out of who we are in the moment, out of our uniqueness and integrity of being.
When we live in the moment to assist the moment toward the good of the moment; when we live in the moment to be open to the moment and do right by the moment; when we live in the moment to find and assist the way of the moment, we place ourselves on The Way, and are carried along through an opening in time to be one with The Eternal Here, Now to the experience of being transparent to transcendence, the wonder of mind and time.
155. Where is the life in our lives? We come alive in the presence of what? Where is our vitality to be found? Does horseback riding do it for us? Our mother’s lemon icebox pie? A trip to the beach? Where do we go to come alive? To be alive? A walk in the woods does it for me, particularly a walk in Muir Woods in Marin County, California. But getting there is a problem. So I drop into the silence and go there in my mind. And arise refreshed and alive.
156. I am not interested in what we believe. Faith is only an opinion that takes itself seriously. I am interested in what we know. We know where we come alive. We know what we love. We know where we belong, and where we do not belong. We know where our vitality is found. Etc. I’m interested in where our knowing comes from. How do we know? What all do we know? How do we honor what we know? How do we serve what we know? How well do we attend what we know? How often do we dismiss, discount, disregard, ignore what we know? My hunch is that when we love, adore, relish, worship, tend, esteem, respect, attend and treat with high regard what we know, our life will take an immediate swing toward the good, and everything will fall into place around that.
157. Our self, soul, heart know what they want, and they wait for us to be still enough long enough to get some sense of what that is. And, in truth, we probably know more of what that is than we allow ourselves to know we know (Because we may not think very highly of it. Because it may not fit our image of us. It may not take us where we want to go. It may not work well with the life we are living. Maybe, if we ignore it, it will go away).
158. Joseph Campbell said (In the Power of Myth), “The spiritual quest is the quest to find the inward thing that you basically are.” He adds, “If you never do a thing you wanted to do in your entire life, that’s a person who never followed their bliss.” And, “Go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, the impulse, trust yourself to it and don’t let anyone throw you off.” But, he also advises that we “use our heads” and don’t go to Vegas and bet everything on Red!” We have to know what we are doing and maintain our balance and harmony, avoiding “the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea,” which are a threat to too much enthusiasm for taking chances and too much interest in playing it safe. “What a dangerous path this is! It is like a razor’s edge!”
159. There is great power in being okay with the manger and the cross. So, sink into the heart of your vulnerability, and smile.
160. What is happening here, now? What is trying to happen here, now? Our awareness of what is going on here, now, is crucial to our being able to assist the unfolding of the moment in direction of the flow that is already moving in harmony with what is developing within the context and spirit of the situation that is at hand–and we have to be attuned to that in order to come in on cue and play our part to perfection in order to assist things on their way in the production of magic, wonder and perfection generated by our participation in doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place.
161. We are the mid-wives of the Divine. We are Mary the Virgin, bringing God to birth, to life in the world in this moment here, now. We are the Christ, living to exhibit the truth, the reality, the realness of God with us in the tiny details of each moment of our lives. We are the bearers of God, listening, looking, for ways of aligning ourselves and our gifts, and virtues, and intuition, and imagination with The Way, in order to make it apparent “in the wilderness” that all people might take courage, and find their place in the miracle of God becoming one with us all by becoming, ourselves, one with God here, now in each situation as it arises. No?
162. The importance of waiting and watching with intention, awareness, acumen and presence cannot be over emphasized. Our place is always that of looking, listening, seeing, hearing, knowing, doing what is called for here, now in aligning ourselves with the moment and what is coming to life there/here/now. It depends on our being able to sense the flow of each here, now, and step into it, and be carried along with it, in becoming what the moment needs us to be and doing what is called for when, where and how it is called for–for the mutual benefit and good of all things concerned.
162. The Real World is intangible. It is the world of spirit and values, heart and soul, intuition, insight, realization and recognition, awareness and kindness, goodness and truth…The Real World is seeing, hearing, knowing, being doing what is called for and needs to be done, when where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises, all our life long, not matter what–for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it. World without end, Amen! May it be so! Amen! Amen! That is all there is to it. All that ever has been to it. And all there ever will be.
163. We can believe anything we want as long as we live in certain ways. The Truth is never about what we believe or how we think. It is always about how we live, what we do. Living truthfully is living aligned with what we know to count, matter, make a difference. We do not tell the truth. We live the truth. “Go and do likewise,” said Jesus, which meant “Go and show mercy,” following the story of the Good Samaritan. It is never about believing with Jesus. It is always about doing the right thing, in the right time, in the right way. Which makes Jesus much more of a Taoist than a Christian.
164. We can imagine a better world than we can live in, and have to settle for less than we can dream of having. And we have to come to terms with these things. We have to make our peace with them. And live as well as we can under the circumstances, anyway, nevertheless, even so. Because that is just how things are.
165. The Spiritual Journey is the quest for the experience of the presence (the realness) of God. I contend that there are two different Gods in the Christian Pantheon. There is the God of Theology, which is the God of doctrine and dogma, creeds and canons and catechisms. And there is the God of personal experience which is also That Which Has Always been Called God and has the Two Thousand (Or however many) Gods of all the religions and personal faith/belief through all of the ages around the world.
And all those Gods get tangled up in knots that cannot be untied and kept separate, and it creates a substantial spiritual mess that no one knows how to clean up and straighten out. And the Spiritual Journey is the quest for the reality of that which can be known as God. Or, we could call “God” the quest for life, or the quest for the experience of being alive. Or the quest for the Self, or the Inner Self, or The experience for who we are built to be. Now, it is all the same quest.
Joseph Campbell said that the spiritual quest is about the yearning for life, for the experience of being alive. The journey is about the search for what he called “The life beyond life” (NOT “life after death” but the Real Life that is a possibility within this present world of normal, apparent, reality, yet is lost within the hypnotic swirl of requirements and demands which must be met in order to make a living and participate in the culture of which we are a part. Living can take the life out of us and we ache for that which we have lost and strive to find our way back to it–and that is the spiritual journey.
166. Campbell said that the spiritual journey is the quest for that which we are–for the true self the authentic self, the unrealized, unactualized, self we are capable of being. We search for the “me” within the “I.” We seek that which is trying to come to life within us, and through us, into the world.
Each of us is a unique configuration of gifts, and interests, and preferences, and talents, and propensities, and potentialities, and skills, and abilities, and predispositions, and it is our task to bring the self that we are capable of being to life in the world. But, the catch is that the world into which we are born has its own ideas for us and doesn’t want us daring to be who we are by living an authentic life and being true to ourselves… And so, there is a conflict. The culture needs us to be who it needs us to be, and will gladly define for us the goals it wants us to serve with our life. Yet the life the culture wants us to live is not the life that we are created to live.
Campbell calls the life the culture wants us to live “The Primary Mask,” And he calls the life we are born to live “The Antithetical Mask.” And the quest is for who we are carried out against the culture’s efforts to shape us into who it needs us to be. And Campbell calls this clash of interests, “The Hero’s Journey,” which is the Spiritual Quest taken to a deeper/higher level.
167. Campbell said that the body is “a vehicle of consciousness,” and that the trick is to identify with consciousness and not with the body. The body is going, he would say, but consciousness is hanging around. To focus on the body is to narrow the scope of consciousness and to fail to be as conscious as we might be of the experience of having a body and being alive.
We can get up with concerns about the body aging and worry about dying and refuse to open ourselves to the conscious experience of aging and dying–and are cutting ourselves out of a wealth of interesting material that is covered, we might say, by the course called “Living an
If we spend our time resisting this and pursuing that, without being aware of ourselves resisting and pursuing, without being conscious of our efforts to have one thing and avoid another, we will have lived, but we will not have been very much alive. To be alive, we have to open ourselves to the full experience of life. It is all a part of the picture, of the experience, and we cannot close ourselves off from any of it, or focus on some aspect of it to the exclusion of the rest of it, without missing the point and failing to fully develop the inward capacity for orientation, direction and perception which come wrapped up in the package of life, but which are easily overlooked because they don’t have the snap and pizzazz, the glitter and sheen, of the physical aspects of existence.
But the important things are not the physical things. The physical things point us beyond themselves to the metaphysical, suggesting depths of meaning that is “more than we can ask, or say, or imagine,” which is to say, “more than we have words to use to talk about the things we sense and experience.” We cannot talk about spiritual reality because the vocabulary does not exist. Making tears and laughter our primary method of communication.
When we fail to understand the physical universe as a metaphor for things deeper and truer, we mistake the shadows on the wall for reality itself. When we try to possess, and hold onto, the physical, rather than seeing the physical as a “vehicle of consciousness,” as an avenue of perception, as a doorway to enlightenment, understanding, wonder and joy, we miss the point, and confuse “the finger pointing to the moon with the moon itself.”
168. Every author says the same thing in every book they write. I am re-upping things I wrote in 2003 and 04 because they weren’t published then, but were only a part of the journal I kept and because they are amazingly pertinent to this place in the unfolding realizations of how things are and what needs to be done about it here, now. On-going reflections deepen, expand, enlarge early realization, opening up an infinity of connected implications and related conclusions in a “one thing leads to another” kind of way, or an “if then, therefore” drift of heart and soul. It is called growing up by following the thread of implications down all the roads they suggest need to be explored. Ideas kindle ideas and the journey never ends, only expands forever.
169. Curiosity and no ulterior motives are the two character requirements for the exploration of spiritual reality. We aren’t in it for anything we can get out of it. We are simply wondering what’s what and what’s called for and what might happen in an if, then, therefore kind of way. It is called being open to life as it winks at us and unfolds before us for the joy of the experience alone. We aren’t in it for what we can get out of it. We are in it for the wonder of the Mystery alone.
And the best thing about it is the inability to say anything of it. There is no vocabulary for wonder of knowing what’s what and what’s called for and doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, only laughter and/or tears. It can’t be said, told, explained, taught, only done, here, now as determined by the situation at hand.
Meaning we have to be attuned to, attentive to, aware of what’s what and what is called for, here, now all of the time. And that means we cannot allow what we want, desire, fear, dread impact our life in any way at any time. We have to be open to what needs to be done in each situation as it arises and be ready to step forward with the best we have to offer with nothing on the line or anything to gain beyond the joy of doing what is called for and the satisfaction of doing it throughout the time left for living.
170. Jesus did not bother with believing anything. His faith was in himself and his ability to respond appropriately to each situation as it developed without having to consider or think about what to do when, where, how and why. Jesus lived spontaneously, from the heart to everything that called for a response from him to what was happening here, now without needing to defend, explain, justify, excuse his actions to on-lookers and fault-finders. He simply dropped into the silence and waited for the intuitive urge to arise and lead the way to doing the right thing, in the right place, at the right time, in the right way and trusting that to be exactly what was needed then and there throughout his career.
Belief and believing did not carry much weight with Jesus. He said, “Blessed are those who hear these words of mine and DO them!” (Luke 11:28 and Matthew 7:24-27). And DOING Jesus’ words is a matter of getting the importance of compassion and kindness and trusting ourselves to naturally, automatically, spontaneously live here, now in every situation as it arises out of a kind and compassionate orientation and letting that be that. It is not a matter of “obeying the commandments,” but of doing what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done.” Which harkens back to the Tao Te Ching, composed about 500 years before Jesus was born and underscored the importance of doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way and in the right place. This is all that is asked of any of us, of all of us, and how could anything more than that be asked of anyone ever?
171. Living spontaneously, being who we need to be when, where and how we need to be, in each situation as it arises is the essence of human perfection in action. It is in deed, the best we can do and all that is asked of any of us. And this is an intuitive response to the moment of our living. Martin Palmer translates the phrase in the Tao Te Ching, “The Tao that can be said (told, explained, defined) is not the true/authentic Tao,” as, “The path that can be recognized as a path is not a reliable path.” The reliable path is the path we sense/feel/intuit in each situation as it arises. That is the path we are to trust with all our heart, and mind, and soul and strength. The one we just make up as we go. But not just “make up,” but the path we KNOW/TRUST to be the path, here, now in each situation as it arises. And we have to have faith in ourselves to trust ourselves to ourselves in this way, with no hesitation or second-guessing. Just seeing/knowing/doing from one situation to the next all our life long.
172. The good, or what to do here, now, is not static and cannot be predicted, told, directed in advance of here, now. The situation here, now is a new situation and has to be read, interpreted, understood in ways appropriate to this situation here, now.
No situation can be understood in a “one size fits all” kind of way and imposed onto every situation, all situations, everywhere always. “The good” is as evolutionary, as revolutionary, as the future. We live our way into the good here, now, as surely as we live our way into the future. “It’s a new world, Golda,” all of the time! And we have two see it as such, know, understand it as such, and live as though here, now is not that, then. And that means we invent, create anew what it takes to meet each new moment and do the good there, then. We do not know what should happen apart from our engagement with what needs to happen here, now, which is different from what was needed in the last moment and different from what will be needed in the next moment. And we learn as we go, dancing with the time and place of our living, keeping up with the music of life as it changes and flows through each situation as it arises all the way along The Way.
173. We do not change what awaits us on the other side of death. How we live here, now throughout all of the here, nows that combine to form our life, does not impact what awaits us after we die. This has been so throughout the experience of life upon the earth. What awaits us when we die is exactly what has awaited all who, all that, has died through the entire span of time from the first death all the way to our death. And what awaits on the other side is pure speculation, imagination, that we have conjured up to fill the time we have spent waiting to die. We make it up. We do not know. And it would be time better spent if we devoted it to doing what we know is called for and needs to be done here, now in each situation as it arises. That is what we are here for–to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, with the skills and virtues that are ours to serve and to share–the things we do best and enjoy doing most–on this side of the grave–and letting be what happens on the other side of the grave be what happens then, there.
174. The only ought that we can apply to every moment is that we ought to live there with our eyes and heart open to the truth of that moment, to the truth of this here, now. Being awake, aware and alive to the truth of each moment will enable us to perceive and live toward–to live in the service of–the good of that moment, of that here, now–and to do that again in the next moment, in the next situation as it arises. And that is all that can be asked of, expected of, each of us in every moment
175. The Blackfoot Indians in Montana would trek to Chief Mountain where the Wind Spirit was thought to dwell and wait there, perhaps for a long time, waiting for a vision that would direct them through their future. Now, that is the way to do it! Drop into the silence, emptiness, stillness, and wait there for a vision to arise and direct our actions, maybe just for here, now, and maybe for the rest of our lives.
The emptiness, stillness, silence is necessary for us to get out of our egocentric tendency to know and do what we want for ourselves and our future. We have to distance ourselves from our wanting to get a sense of what is called for, of what we are being asked to do, of our mission, of what is ours to do, here, now, and perhaps for the rest of our lives.
The silence is a buffer between us and our wanting/desiring, between us and our idea of what we want our life to be. Our life may have ideas of its own, and we owe our life the respect of providing an empty space in which it might contact us, call us, to step into and live the life that needs us to live it, perhaps one situation at a time, beginning here, now.
The silence connects us with our intuition, with our intuitive sense of what’s happening now and what is called for in response, in order to see/sense where things will go from there into the far reaches of the distant future, intuiting what direction to take, what action is called for, here, now through all of the here, now’s of The Way that waits for us to find it and give ourselves to it through all of the days that lie ahead.
176. When we are dealing with what is truly important, what is existentially essential, we have to be quiet and wait for it to grab us. We have to place ourselves at its disposal and wait for it to make the next move. We have to show up everyday, sit quietly, and wait for something to stir to life in the silence to catch our eye and call our name with an unmistakable sense of urgency, compelling us to take up the task that we know to be ours as a vision, a seizure, a possession, and be taken over by, and taken up into, the work we know to be ours for the rest of our days upon the earth.
We all have to realize and know that, in a spiritual sense, we are, everyone of us is, camped out on the flanks of Chief Mountain, waiting.
177. Let’s start with grace, compassion and kindness and see where it goes. If we are going to be anything let’s let it be gracious, compassionate and kind. Let’s see how far into each day we can go exhibiting grace, compassion and kindness before we become surly, short tempered and inconsiderate. And see if we can go further into tomorrow before we run aground. How about it? Are we all on board with this? Starting tomorrow? Or, maybe the remainder of today?
178. No matter where or when or how we are, traditional principles always apply. Grace, compassion and kindness are three such principles. They are always in vogue. Listening and hearing what we listen to are extensions of grace, compassion and kindness. The traditions of awareness and attentive presence are extensions of the others already mentioned. Good humor, patience, understanding and empathy are others. We grow toward clarity, depth and wisdom. We grow toward being who we say we are, and living as we know life should be lived. And this gets us to the political nature of spiritual reality. Read on…
179. The matter of grace, compassion, kindness, etc. are essentially political and social matters. We cannot be spiritual without being political and social. Spirituality has implications for the way society is constructed and how it goes about its business and the way it gets things done. We cannot live graciously, with kindness and compassion without being agents, servants, of kindness, grace and compassion within political and social arenas. So that it is all one thing. Spirituality is political and social and it all is concerned with what we do and how we do it.
It is all life. And life at its core is political, social and spiritual. Living well is knowing what’s what, what’s happening, what is called for here, now in each situation as it arises and doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done on political, social and spiritual levels in political, social and spiritual ways. And we make the three ways into one way by the way we blend the elements of life into our expression of life via our participation in life. Which we do unconsciously, spontaneously, naturally without thinking about it on an essential spiritual level beyond logic, reason and intellect, by feeling what is right and what is wrong and doing the right thing in the right time in the right way in the right place–and keep doing it throughout our lives, in each situation as it arises.
180. We change our minds all the time about everything. We are not who we were as a fifth grader, or a junior in high school, or a college graduate, or a 40 year old, or an 80 year old. We have changed throughout our life. Things that were important “then” are not important “now.” And we did not change deliberately anywhere along the way. We lived into a different way of life all along the way. And that is the way it is done. Knowing that we are becoming different instead of thinking everything ought to be the same forever, enables us to make the transitions that are necessary along the way of life throughout life. It is the way of life to become different, with different tastes and interests and abilities throughout life. And knowing that makes it better throughout the experience.
181. We need a place to say what we have to say. And we need to be able to hear what we are saying. That means no judgment. No evaluation. No opinion. It is like looking in a mirror and seeing what we are looking at with complete acceptance of what is there. Can we consider ourselves with complete acceptance? Can we allow ourselves to be who we are, and also are? Who are we trying to please? Who has to be pleased with us in order for us to be pleased with ourselves? Does anyone give us the feeling that we are not worth being around? If so, why do we give weight to their opinion instead of dismissing them outright and having nothing to do with them from this point forward?
Freedom comes from freeing ourselves from the burden of burdensome opinions–our own and everyone else’s.
182. We are to live so as to know what is important, what counts, matters, makes a difference and then to live in ways that express, serve, honor, do what is important, counts, matters, make a difference.
We are to live so as to know what’s what, and what’s happening, and what is called for in each situation as it arises and to do what is called for here, now, where, when and how it is called for, doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place and letting that be that. We are here to do our work, which is doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, and let that be that. Situation after situation, all our life long. I repeat these words because our life is about repeating what the words are saying in each situation as it arises, repetition, repetition, repetition, because that is what is called for, time after time. That is all there is to it. And we do not understand how important that/this is.
183. God is a term that has no referent. A word that cannot be defined. Like “Tao” as in, “The Tao that can be said/told/defined/ explained is not the eternal Tao.” And so it is with God. Which leaves us all with understanding the term God the way we understand it and no one can tell us we are wrong and give us their understanding of the word to replace our understanding.
My understanding of God is that it is internal to the same degree, extent, that “Tao” and “Psyche,” and “Intuition” are internal, though we have no idea where any of the referents for these words “are.” And are probably not anywhere, but are terms we use to refer to various experiences that we have but cannot explain, define, etc. We can experience things we cannot talk about. And God is one of those things. And all that has been said of God through the ages say nothing of God, but of something that cannot be said.
184. We are here to support life, enable life, bring life forth, make life possible. The Way is the way of mutual respect and admiration, of affection, compassion, grace, mercy, peace, caring and concern. The way of loving one another, loving our enemies, loving ourselves the way we all need to be loved. How far from doing that is the world we live in? What are we doing about that? We are here to do life the way life needs to be done. Where do we score high with that? Where do we score low?
185. Look around. People are going through the motions of life, living, being alive all the time, everywhere, on all sides. People are jumping through hoops put in place by their jobs, their social circles, their circumstances, etc. How many of those motions, those hoops, that activity, actually serve a purpose beyond “fitting in,” “making a day”? We can “fit in,” “make a day,” without once bringing to life that which is dying to live within us and through us. How alive can we be without doing that? We can “fit in,” “make a day,” without being who we are, without loving what we love, without bringing our perspective, our vision, our sense of what matters most, our feel for what is called for, our vision of how things need to be, to life in the world.
We can do better. And we have the rest of our lives in which to do better. Doing better begins with our knowing who we are and what we are about. It begins with realizing what’s what and what’s happening, and what’s called for, and what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises–and doing it 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, for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it throughout the time left for living.
And if I have said all of this before, it is because it cannot be said often enough, and needs to be said all of the time, so that we might remember who we are and what we are about and why we are here, and do it, do it, do it in every here, now for as long as we are alive.
186. “The still point of the turning world” (T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton) for me is the emptiness, stillness, silence–one thing not three, which I call “The Silence.” Dropping into The Silence opens the way to The Way, to seeing, hearing and understanding, so that we know what’s what and what is called for here, now so that we might do it when, where, and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises. From the still point comes the dance, “And there is only the dance” (T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton).
187. God is no longer the Great Enemy of the people who must be satiated and appeased with sacrifices and atonement in order for the people to have a chance with their lives. It is no longer a matter of “getting right with God,” because God will “get us” if we don’t and reward us with prosperity and privilege if we do.
God is no longer the Almighty Dispenser of Blessings and Curses who “creates weal and makes woe,” depending only on how carefully the people toe the line and keep God happy with them.
We have passed the point of being able to think of God in terms like these–but people have thought of God in terms like these. And now it is up to us to think up new ways to think of God.
How people think of God is always dependent upon their time and place, and upon the culture in which they live. Our ideas of God are culturally based and biased. We can only think what the culture enables us to think, allows us to think, permits us to think–but we must push cultural permission to the limits, and think all that we can think, without restricting our thinking to what was permissible in previous cultures and previous centuries.
If God is to be viable today, we have to be open and alive to the images and concepts and ideas that bring God to life here, now, that enable us to connect with the Divine, to sense the ineffable, and become ourselves, “transparent to transcendence,” by responding with all of our being to the wonder of being, to the joy of being alive with God, as God in the experience of the Eternal in the here, now, in the present moment of our lives.
188. Where are we going to go to find a political framework that reflects and expresses the best we can imagine and intuit on a spiritual level? It is as though spirituality can only exist within a very narrow range of political activity. Beyond that, it becomes a threat to the state and is incapable of running the state and governing the people, or of peacefully co-existing with other states. The Dali Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh could flow around and above the political fray, but give them a government to run and see how long they last. They probably couldn’t have run the Water Department at the local level without violating some of the sacred principles of Buddhism. It isn’t easy making the world fit our ideas for the world. It is impossible without transgressing our ideas of the sacred in the process. How long would Jesus have lasted as mayor of Jerusalem? Or president of Israel?
189. Joseph Campbell said there is a great deal of difference between being born into this life and the willful decision/commitment to fully participate in the experience of life on its terms. All of the quests, all of the hero’s journeys, entail making the shift, the transition, from being born into this world to living in it as determined, fully engaged participants in the experience of being alive. The great realization is that we have what it takes, that we can bear the pain, that we can meet life full on and deal successfully with the entire scope of what it means to be alive, that we can look life in the eye and do what is required of us day after day of doing what is called for here, now, no matter what.
190. We see ourselves–we find ourselves–in what we take to be beautiful and in what we find to be not worth our time at all. In where we draw the line. We become who we are because of where we have been and how we have responded to being there, then. The determining factor in our being who we are is our experience with the “out there” and its interaction with our “in here.” The mystery is what determines our response. What is it within us that compels us to respond the way we do to what is “out there”? Here we are without words, experiencing more than words can say.
This is the experience of spirituality in the best sense of the term, pulling us out of ourselves and connecting us with transcendent reality which infuses us with spirit, wonder, awe and empowering us with the willingness to live on toward the best we can experience in a place that is “transparent to transcendence.” We grow toward more than we are, toward more than we think we are capable of being. And we don’ t find this in books, or lectures, or sermons, but in the experience of the ineffable, the inexpressible, for which no vocabulary exists, nor can exist, and which memory will not likely ever forget.
191. Our lives are shaped and defined by what we say Yes to and what we say No to. By where we draw the line. When we are done, all the counts is what we have said Yes to and what we have said No to. Yes and No are our own tools. We construct a life, build an existence, create our world based on the judicious or carless use of Yes and No.
My high school sweetheart told me she had had enough of me and needed to date other guys and that led to the future I had from that point until now, and cut me off from the future I might have had, who knows? And here we all are. And that’s the way it works. A little Yes here and a little No there, here a Yes, there a No, that is all it takes to get from there to here and from here to there all our life long. So, be careful what we say Yes to and what we say No to because it is our life we are shaping all along the way.
192. The moment, this here, now, has its own rhythm and flow, its own pace and timing. The moment will disclose to us what it needs from us IF we take the time to drop into the silence, empty ourselves of all emotions, memories, wants, desires, expectations, interests–all noise and complexity–and listen, look until we see and hear and know what’s what and what’s happening and what’s called for here, now, and do it when, where and how it needs to be done in this and every situation as it arises all our life long.
Living spiritually attuned to life in the moment of our living opens us to the time and place of our living in ways that allows us to see individual moments as proving grounds for soul and spirit as we live to intuit what is being offered to us, asked of us, here, now, and sense, feel, what it might mean to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place in this and every moment that follows this one in every situation as it arises all our life long. This is the Zen comprehension of the Tao applied to life in the moment in every moment.
193. As we grow in our ability to intuit and embrace, express what is truly important here, now in each situation as it arises, and to live aligned with it, in sync with it, attuned to it, we become sources of transcendent reality/creativity in the world, avenues of epiphany, expressions of grace, evidence of more than words can say. We participate in miracles of redemption and transformation one moment at a time. And it doesn’t come about through thinking and planning, reason, logic and intellect, but through hearing and seeing, realizing and knowing, playing and dancing in close proximity with “the still point of the turning world.”
And, where is the still point of the turning world? WE are the still point of the turning world! Dancing at the still point of the turning world! When we drop into the emptiness, stillness and silence and wait to see, hear, know, understand, what’s what and what is called for here, now and do it at the right time in the right place, in the right way, in each situation as it arises, no matter what throughout the time left for living.
194. Joseph Campbell said, “Either we can take it or we cannot take it.” Either we have what it takes or we don’t. Either we stand up and meet the day on the day’s terms or do not. Either we do what is called for here, now in each situation as it arises or not. What’s it going to be?
Can we stand toe to toe with life as it is right out of the box and look the Cyclops in its ugly red eye, catch a whiff of its stinking breath, and without hesitating, flinching or looking away, stand firm and say, “Give me the best you got!”?
Life will test us without mercy, often without letup. Campbell said, “It took the Cyclops to bring out the hero in Ulysses. As with Ulysses, so with each of us. We have to earn the blessing. We have to pay the price of being fully, completely, alive. We live our way to the heart of life, to the realization of the wonder of being alive. That is the payoff of the Hero’s Journey.
We become the Hero by meeting the day on the day’s terms every day. By meeting with a glint in our eye what shows up every day. We don’t turn away from any of it. We feel what must be felt, see what must be seen, think what must be thought, face what must be faced, do what must be done. The price of being alive is the impact of the experience of life. And carrying that impact with us throughout the time left for living. Most of us walk with a limp to the finish line, with mixed feelings about what we have lived with along the way. The scars and the nightmares are the marks of having done what was called for, when, where and how it was called for, anyway, nevertheless, even so.
195. Spirituality in the best sense of the word pulls us out of ourselves, beyond ourselves, and engages us, connects us, with Transcendent Reality which inspires us, enables us, to grow toward the best we are capable of being.
There are no beliefs to believe to make us spiritual. No books to read. No rites to perform. No doctrines to embrace. No catechisms to memorize. No examinations to pass. Being spiritual isn’t a matter of becoming someone we are not. Nobody can give us who we are. No one can tell us where our passion lies. Or what we must do to be true to ourselves. The door to spirituality is locked from within. Spirituality is about releasing the bolt. Turning the key. Opening the door. Stepping through. And walking the path with our name on it, doing what is called for in each situation as it arises as it needs to be done, when it needs to be done done, where it needs to be done, doing the right thing in the right way and in the right place at the right time, and letting that be that until the next situation arises and then repeating the process then, there, throughout the time left for living.
It is never more difficult than going where we need to be and doing what needs us to do it, when, where and how. And what book or sermon or lecture can tell us that?
196. People are always talking about the importance of doctrines, dogmas, sutras, practices, rituals, routines, guided meditations and ways of doing things the way they need to be done in order to be spiritual. When people approach you in any of this ways, I recommend that you ask them, “What experience has led you to that conclusion?”
197. In order to be spiritual we have to be alive. What brings you to life? What raises the level of your vitality and keeps it at a high level throughout the day? What do you do to bring yourself to life? Riding a horse, perhaps? Walking in the woods? Going for a swim? Running cross country? What activities do you pursue for their ability to bring you to life? How often do you pursue them? For how long at a time?
No one knows better than us how to live our life. No one knows better than we do what brings us to life. If we are going to trust our life to someone, we can’t do better than trusting it to ourselves. We know what we need to be fully, vibrantly alive. With me it is not playing poker or going fishing. But walking through a natural scene looking for a photograph would do it every time.
198. Spiritual practice is the practice we take up to be who we want to become. What is our idea of who we need to be? Of what we need to be capable of doing? What is standing between us and who we need to be? What qualities do we need to exhibit in order to be a spiritual person? What is our vision of ourself as a spiritual person? What would we be doing as a spiritual person that we are not doing now? In my case, to be spiritual I have to take things less seriously and laugh more. I have to say the things that cry out to be said and ask the questions that beg to be asked. In every situation as it arises. For the rest of my life. And you?
199. We cannot screw this up! We have no choice but to be who we are, where, when and how we are. We cannot be someone else, anyone else. Authenticity does not come with many options or possibilities. We will be ourselves or not-ourselves. That’s it. We can only be who we are. Writers have to write. They cannot throw steers or rob banks. It is inevitable that we will be true to ourselves. That we will shine through. I cannot dance and you would not want me singing at your next wedding. I cannot fake being who I am not without everyone knowing I’m a sham at whatever I’m doing. So be who you are. Do what you love to do. We cannot change any of this to become a better self that we are capable of being, but we can be exactly who we are capable of being–so let’s do that! Let’s spend the rest of our life being exactly who we are capable of being–and being happy to do that every day all along the way!
200. Spirituality comes down to two things: Be Awake! Be Alive! And the two things are actually the same thing. We cannot be awake without being alive, and we cannot be alive without being awake. Whatever wakes us up and brings us to life serves our spiritual development, and if we want to know how spiritual we are, we only have to ask how awake and alive we are.
We talk about being awake and alive, but it is hard work being either and especially hard work being both. And we have our escapes, diversions, distractions and addictions to numb us to the truth we cannot bear to turn off the light and keep us snug and warm and cozy. We get by with a little help from our friends and our friends help us through the night whispering, “Hush now, be quit, I’m right here and tomorrow we will go shopping and I will buy you what you want to make everything all right.” Our friends are those who help us sleep through that harsh light. Spirituality doesn’t have a prayer.
Or, for spirituality to have a prayer, those who would be spiritual have to pour a different foundation for life than the one the culture puts in place. Cultural reality and spiritual reality are two very different realities. The culture promises to give us whatever our heart desires and makes its aim that of supplying our wants and giving us more to want every day. “Buy! Spend! Amass! Consume!” shouts the culture. “Serve the economy above all else and the economy will bless you forever! Be good consumers and you will prosper to unending heights of wealth and be able to consume even more! Such is the path to true contentment and delight (And do not mind the poor an disenfranchised or the occasional rumbling of discontent within yourselves, just drink this potion and take these pills and you will live in total bliss forever!”
The culture deals in delusion and denial. The spiritual deals with truth apparent in emptiness, stillness and silence and waiting to meet us there in disclosing what’s what and what’s happening and what is called for that can be cared for with our original nature and our innate virtues which we we bring to life, serve and share in doing what we do best and what we enjoy doing most, along with our intrinsic intuition, our inherent imagination and other specialties that we are blessed to serve and share in being who we are and doing what we are well equipped to do in each situation as it arises, all our life long.
And so it waits wondering where it might go from here, as we might wonder ourselves in considering our options and choosing the path that opens before us. My advice is to remember Martin Palmer’s rendition of the Tao Te Ching; “The path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path.” And sit quietly in the silence at the edge of stillness, “waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear.”
Jim Dollar's Published Works 