03
The Way doesn't get any clearer than this: Do your thing with nothing at stake in the outcome. In each situation as it arises. That is all there is to it. Or ever has been.
–0–
02
We create the future by the way we respond to our present. Each present moment-- every here-and-now-- is a fulcrum, a pivot point, shifting how things are into how things will be. If things are to be different. We have to think differently. We have to live differently. We have to see differently. We have to interpret/evaluate/understand differently. We have to be different. We have to become different. Here/Now. We tend to think we are perfect as we are, and it is our surroundings, our circumstances, that have to change. If we want things to change in relation to us, we have to change in relation to things. It starts with us. We are holding things in place by the way we respond to things. Until that changes, nothing changes (No matter how much it appears to change). If things change without our attitude changing, nothing is different, regardless of how much it changes. The changes that make a difference take place behind our eyes, between our ears.
–0–
01
Happiness is not a function of circumstance or occasion. Happiness is a function of perspective, of evaluation. Happiness is a way of seeing/being. Why not be happy? With things just as they are? Why not say YES! to life just as it is? Why not, as Joseph Campbell suggested, "participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world"? Campbell also said, "The warrior's approach is to say 'yes' to life: 'yea' to it all." And, "We are not there until we can say 'yea' to it all." And, "As you proceed through life, following you own path, birds will shit on you. Don't bother to brush it off." (Pay it no mind. Live to do what you are doing!) And, "Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance. Having a sense of humor saves you." And, "The very cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are looking for. The damned thing in the cave that was so dreaded has become the center." And, The path requires "the love of your fate. Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, 'This is just what I need!' It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment-- not discouragement-- you will find the strength is there." And, "Nothing can happen to you that is not positive." And "When we are on our own path, what we need comes along just when we need it." And, "Have a theory that if you on your own path, things are going to come to you. Since it is your own path, and no one has ever been on it before, there is no precedent, so everything that happens is a surprise and is timely... Nothing is routine, nothing is taken for granted. Everything is standing out on its own, because everything is a possibility, everything is a clue, everything is talking to you." Happiness is a function of perspective, perception and evaluation. Happiness is a function of how we see what we look at, of what we tell ourselves about what we see. We are either on the adventure of being who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are, or not. "The future is up to us!" (Enola Holmes) "Anything can happen, if you let it!" (Mary Poppins) "Whose side are you on?" (Jim Dollar)
