02
Here we are. Caught up in a pandemic, at the mercy of a crazy (As in certifiably insane) President and a GOP majority in the Senate, aiding and abetting his every move, with the world as we know it going to hell as we watch, and nothing more effective to offer than protest marches and rants on social media. The situation has exposed our lack of a foundation-- the absence of a source of guidance and direction, comfort and confidence, security and stability, balance and harmony... We are in free fall with nowhere to turn and nothing to orient us or assist us in finding our bearings, in order to make our way through a wasteland of lost hope and demolished dreams to a better perspective, and a more trustworthy life. Joseph Campbell would say there is nothing wrong with us that finding a valid myth to live by won't fix. He would also tell us not to look for someone to tell us what our grounding myth is. His two guidelines for discovering our myth are these: "Where you stumble and fall, there lies the treasure." "That which you seek lies far to the rear, in the darkest corner of the cave you most don't want to enter." He would likely add, "The treasure you seek is nothing other than the self you also are." Free-falling is a symptom of being alienated from ourselves, out-of-sync with our heart's true purposes, out of accord with the Tao of our own spirit and clueless as to who we also are and what we are called (by ourselves) to do with our life. We have lost the way, wandered away from the path, and need to get back on track, together with ourselves and our life. The prescribed ritual for accomplishing this return to ourselves/our life, to find our myth and live it, is to stop/look/listen. To sit down, be still, and wait in the silence "for the mud to settle and the water to clear," and attend what arises/occurs to us/comes to mind there. The silence connects us with the source of our own Original Nature-- which is where we find all we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done in the wasteland of lost hope and demolished dreams. But. It takes doing it to know it is so. And it takes trusting ourselves to the inclination/urge-to-action that occurs to us in the silence. We do not think our way to a myth worthy of us. We live our way there. By looking/listening within-- by looking/listening to our body and what it is revealing to us. And by working with our nighttime dreams and our flights of fantasy, to discover what we are saying to ourselves, hoping that we will pay attention, and follow where we are being led.
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01
With us: Which will be the last to go? Joy or sorrow? Jocularity or despair? Laughter or wailing? Why one and not the other? They are only a perspective shift apart. Jovial or deathly serious depends upon what? What leads us to see the way we see? To ascribe meaning the way we ascribe meaning? To say "This!" and not "That!"? What stands between us and "The icy winds howling up from the Void"? What is our solace and our comfort? Our source of resolve and resiliency? The way we see things keeps us going. Or stops us from taking another step. What governs the way we see things? How will we approach "The end of the line"?
