September 3, 2020

02

What needs to happen here, now?
That is our only problem:
Here.
Now.

What is pressing in from outside here and now?

Make a list.
Pressure producing items
from near and far.

What am I going to do about the job,
about the relationship I'm in,
about not being in a relationship...
all the things that destroy our peace
and ransack our sanity.
You know the things I'm talking about.
The 2:00 AM things.
The entire list.

Now, find a quiet place
and sit in the silence with the list
becoming  fully aware of the list.

Consider each thing one at a time.
Being fully aware of each thing
and how it is bearing down upon you
demanding answers you don't have.
Become intently, intentionally, aware
of each thing
and tuck it away in your awareness.
You can keep it safe forever there.
Put it in your awareness for safekeeping,
and consider the next thing.
Do the same thing with it.
And with each thing remaining on your list.

Now, bring your awareness to rest
in the here and now.

What is this here and now,
right here, right now,
calling for?
What needs to happen right here right now?

Do it,
and move on to the next thing.
"Now what needs to happen?"
Do that,
and move on to the next thing.
And so on,
until it is just you and the silence.

Tell the silence
about the things in safekeeping
in your awareness,
and see what arises in the silence
to meet your discomfort.

May be an image.
A word.
A realization.
A feeling...

The silence is good for clarity.
A great place for letting the mud settle
and the water clear.
Clarity is the solution 
to all of our problems ever.
And we cannot force the water to clear.
But.
We can allow it to clear,
and wait for it to clear.
And simply be with the silence,
off and on,
during the interim.

The silence is the source,
the origin,
of everything.
It is always with us.
Is always happy to see us.
Is always welcoming,
gracious,
benevolent
and kind.

Who wouldn't want to be 
in a place like that? 

–0–

01

We walk through scenes everyday 
with eyes on something else.
Not looking at what is there,
not seeing what we look at.
Distracted,
allured,
captivated by,
lost in,
inseparable from,
the 10,000 things.

It has always been so for everyone.

It takes Buddha-mind--
Christ-consciousness--
to be here now.

It was realized at the time,
and through all of the ages since then,
that the Buddha was everyone
when they were awake.
It was said,
"If you meet the Buddha on the road,
kill him!"
As a reminder that we are to be the Buddha,
and not to worship the Buddha,
or think for a minute that the Buddha
is more special than,
or different in any way from,
the rest of us
and who we each are asked to be.

Jesus said, "I am in you
and you are in me!"
Which is to say,
"As I am, so you are!"
And, "Why don't you judge
for yourselves what is right?"
Which is all Jesus did.
And, "Blessed are you
if you know what you are doing!"
Which means seeing what needs to be done
and doing it--
which is all Jesus ever did.

Being awake,
seeing what we look at,
and doing what needs to be done about it,
is all there is to it.

To make any more of it 
is to miss the whole point of it,
and the importance of the relationship
we have with it,
with "it" being every moment of our life
through all times and places,
contexts and circumstances.

Seeing/doing what is right,
moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
all our life long.

We have to do something
all our life long.
Why not do what is right?
Here and now?

What is keeping that from happening?