01
There is being aligned with our life, in accord with our life, and there is being at odds with our life, at war with our life. If we are in accord with the Tao, we are aligned with our life, and things are fine. Which may not be ideal, but it is as good as things can be expected to be under the circumstances. This is called optimal. Optimal puts us at the fulcrum, the pivot point between past and future, between how things are and how things need to be. That is to say at the still point between worlds. The middle way between opposing, contradictory, mutually exclusive possibilities. To be conflict ridden and storm tossed is to be out of accord with the Tao and too much embroiled in attached to, involved with our life and what is happening, or not happening, there. To be at one with our life is to be at the proper distance from our life. "Working distance," I call it. We can allow things to be what they need to be in order to do what needs to be done. When we have to have things the way we want them to be-- regardless of how they need to be-- we disrupt the flow of time and place, create disturbance and turbulence, and nurture all of the symptoms commensurate with the struggle to force our way upon our life. At that point, we have to take stock, step back, stand aside, sit quietly, enter the silence, and wait for the muddy water to settle, allowing our perspective to shift in ways that take everything into account, and allow the action that is called for to come into focus and spontaneously move us to do what needs to be done in the service of the good of the situation as a whole-- in spite of what it may mean for us personally. Following this mode of seeing/doing into the next moment, into the situation that arises from this one, situation-by-situation for the rest of our life, puts us in the current of the Tao as it courses through our days, as a blessing and a grace upon all that comes our way.
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02
Two of our fundamental experiences are with Grace and Karma (Grace is also called Tao, Dharma and Synchronicity). We don't have to believe in Grace and/or Karma-- anymore than we have to believe in yoga or acupuncture. Or wonder and awe. Or justice and love. These things, and all the rest, are part of the background, the environment, the umwelt, of our life. They are "just there." They "just happen." Of themselves. And are not to be conjured up by belief or devotion, sacrifice or superstition. They are evidence of "more than meets the eye," and serve to remind us that the visible world rests upon the invisible world, and that living knowingly between both worlds enhances the quality of our life immeasurably.
