August 24, 2020

02

Develop an intense curiosity
about what meets you in the silence.
And how you react to it.

Everyone who has thought about it through the ages has said
there are only three things
that impact us throughout our life:
Desire
Fear
Duty.

How we live is how we live in relation
to the mixture of these three elements.
Once we come to terms with them,
it is clear sailing
with "fair winds and following seas."

In the silence, 
you have ample opportunity
to study your response to 
Desire, Fear and Duty
over the course of your life
to this point.
Therein lies the key
to living differently
over what remains of your life.

You will also get all the help you need
from your nighttime dreams.
Our dreams are always coming to our aid,
and we are always saying,
"Honey, you won't believe the stupid dream
I had last night!"

And, stepping back into our traditional ways
of dealing with Desire, Fear and Duty.
Our traditional ways of dealing with them
has us exactly where we are.
Time for review and redirection, don't you think?

That begins with you developing an intense curiosity
about what meets you in the silence.
And how you react to it.

–0–

01

Sincerity is the core value--
the essence of being human.

Sincerity is non-contrivance.
We aren't trying to get anything by it.
We aren't trying to get anything.
There is nothing to get,
or have,
or own,
or possess,
or want,
or desire,
or do,
or be
beyond being sincere.

If you are going to be anything,
be sincere.

If you think there is anything more than sincerity
to achieve,
acquire,
admire,
aspire to,
go back to the womb
and start over.

If you understand 
the central place of sincerity 
in our life,
live so that everyone understands
that you understand that.

Sincerity is the basis of humanity,
the ground of both The Individual
and The Collective.
We cannot be an "I"
until we are sincere.
We cannot be a "We"
until we are sincere.

Most of the "We's" we are a part of
require us to leave our "I" at the door.
We have to scrap our sincerity to join the commune.
We have to say "we believe" what everybody believes.
To be sincere is to be a heretic.
To blaspheme.
To "go rogue."

Give me a We that is sincere--
particularly about not-knowing
what it doesn't know.
"What's best," for example.
"What's right," for another example.
"How things ought to be," for another.

Give me a We that doesn't say,
or imply,
"Our way or the highway!"

Give me a We that says,
"You are welcome here!
We are a place where everyone listens
everyone else to the truth
of what they are saying--
which is the truth of who they are--
where everyone is glad to be in everyone's company,
and to be blessed by everyone's presence,
without telling anyone who they ought to be,
or what they ought to believe/think/do.
So, come in!
You will know whether you belong here
within five minutes."