September 14, 2020

02

People have been missing the point forever.
Thinking they/we are the point,
and that everything here is
for our benefit and enjoyment--
to "fill the earth and subdue it,"
party hardy
and pass a good time.

We plop out of the womb
figuring the angles,
calculating our chances,
contriving,
conning
scheming,
planning...
always with an agenda in hand
and an angle in mind.

God can't get us out of his mind.
His day revolves around us,
who is in and who is out,
keeping score,
writing everything down in the Book of Life
(So he won't forget?).

We are the point.
And, thinking that, 
we miss the point.

How much silence can you take
before you have to find something 
to relieve your boredom,
which is concealing something much worse:
Realization.

In the silence,
we catch the scent of emptiness
stirring in the darkness,
and must lose ourselves
in the noise of our lives
to avoid the truth of nothing.

We are afraid there is nothing there.

That comes with missing the point.

And that gets us to where we are:
Needing to face the truth of nothing to it,
of the Void
and the Abyss,
in order to find our way
to "the still point of the turning world"
(T.S. Eliot).
And know the Other within
whom we do not know
(Carl Jung),
and discover our place
as the Moved to the Mover,
the Seeker to the Knower,
and begin again,
this time in right relationship
with the Heart of Life and Being.

01

"Live with sincerity,
in the service of your original nature,
and follow your heart."

This old adage from 
the Age of the Taoists
sounds helpful
until it is read
in light of those stating:

"We grow up against our will."

"The last leave-taking
is leaving ourselves for ourselves."

"If you meet the Buddha on the road,
kill him."

"That which you seek
lies far back in the darkest corner
of the cave
you most don't want to enter."

"It took the Cyclops
to bring the hero
out in Ulysses."

"The only thing standing
between us and the treasure we seek
is us."

"The people who don't take the time
to appreciate,
honor,
and dance with
the contradictions
aren't worth talking to."

"The slippery slope,
the dangerous path,
the razor's edge
require us to pick up our cross daily,
dying to ourselves again and again,
and bearing the pain of the journey joyfully
all the way to the end of the line."

And the ultimate contrary
of them all:

"The Path that is discernible
is not a reliable Path."

It is called The Hero's Journey
for a reason.

Realization comes with a price,
paid only by those
who can laugh
shout "YEA!"
and participate wholeheartedly
in the wonder of it all,
seeing the incongruities
and dichotomies,
as antiphonies--
and joining in round after round,
all their life long.