06
Our place, as conscious egos, is to live as guardians, protectors, defenders, and servants of the Source, the Origin, of our life and being. If I asked you to "Go to the Source," where would you go? If I asked you to describe the location, what would you say? If I asked you to rank the strength of your connection with the Source, what would it be? When I contemplate the Source/Origin of my life and being, I can't get closer than what I think of as a symbol of the Psyche/the Unconscious/the Soul-Self the Hindus call "the Atman." That symbol, for me, is a subterranean ocean that would fill an infinite number of universes. It is "deep and wide." It is dark there, but I can make out a shoreline disappearing off to my right, and ending at a rocky outcropping extending into the sea to my left. I can see and hear waves gently lapping on the shore near my feet as I stand looking out to what would be the horizon but for my vision being limited by the darkness about fifty feet from where I stand. The Source. I go there for sustenance and courage and instruction in the form of things stirring into my awareness, things to do, things to consider. The Source is the source of ideas and images, the source of imagination and visions, the source of all that is. Hindus think of the Atman as the essence/true self/the is-ness/am-ness of every living thing. "The face that was ours before we were born." And Joseph Campbell says, "This power, which transcends all thought, is the very essence of your own being. It is Transcendent and it is Immanent, right here, right now, everywhere!" We are "one with the Father!" We are the Avatar! We incarnate the Atman! We exhibit/express/bring forth the divine! And our role, our task, is to live "transparent to transcendence" (Joseph Campbell)-- by living consciously in accord with our Original Nature without contrivance, and with sincerity and spontaneity! That's divinity! That is who we are! And, to get there, to that point, we have to establish, maintain, develop, deepen our relationship with the Atman, the Self/Soul, the Source, the Origin of our life and being. Seek the Source. See where you go, and what happens there.
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05
Joseph Campbell said, "The first duty of human beings is to play their given role as individuals--as do the sun, the moon, the various animal and plant species, the waters, the rocks, and the stars--without fault; and then, if possible, so to order as individuals, their mind as to identify it with the inhabiting essence of the whole." So that we, individually, understand ourselves to be one with all things, as "the still point of eternity, around which everything--including themselves--revolves, and everything is perceived to be glorious and wonderful just as it is." This, he says, was the primary understanding of shamanistic religions, which evolved into Taoism and was translated over into Zen, and constitutes the ancient basis of all mythology, understanding of the universe as "not progressing toward any end, but rendering manifest to the contemplative mind, here and now, the radiance of a divine power, which, though transcendent, is yet immanent in all things." Our individual destiny, then, is to realize and express, to embrace and exhibit, to recognize and incarnate the wonder of being at one with all things in the miracle of being together as one while still being separate enough to perceive "Thou Art That," "I And Thou," "Yin And Yang," with enough separation to know that we are different yet one-- transcendence and immanence, here and now, realizing itself in the wonder of the radiance of its reality. That. Is. It.
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04
It would be wrong for you to go to your eternal reward
without reading Joseph Campbell’s books, “Thou Art That,”
“Pathways to Bliss,” and “The Joseph Campbell Companion.”
The truth is, that by reading them, you would be activating
your eternal reward within the temporal world of the here and now,
which is the gateway to understanding/eternity in each moment.
We are never more than a perception shift away from our eternal reward, which is why it is referred to as “the eternal Now.”
The benefits are immediate and everlasting.
And the Kindle folks have an App that allows books to be read
on any computer or tablet. It’s fancy that way.
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03
Wanting is of the devil. All of the plights known to human beings throughout time have wanting at their core. Wanting is the bane of human existence. We can want what we have no business having-- and do. All the time. And this is what we get from it, for it (Looking around, palms up). We think wanting is our infallible guide to happiness everlasting. We think if we only could have what we want everything would be perfection and delight without end. We cast about, moaning and wailing, lose ourselves in addictions and other forms of idiocy, because we cannot have what we want, or do not know what we want, but this isn't it, and we are stuck with doing what we want whether we want to or not. And all we have ever wanted is happiness at the end of Smooth And Easy Street. Here's the truth for you: Happiness isn't smooth and happiness isn't easy and happiness isn't all it is cracked up to be. The sure path to happiness is doing what needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done, whether we want to or not, whether we are in the mood for it or not, whether we feel like it or not, whether it is raining or not, whether anything comes of it or not, whether we gain anything by it, or get anything out of it, or not, for no other reason than because it needs to be done right here and right now and it needs us to do it. This is called "living in accord with the Tao." The Tao is the right way of doing something. Anything. Everything. Everything we do, or fail to do, creates the future. We are creating some future in every moment. Moment-by-moment we create the future by the way we live in, respond to, the moment, right here, right now. That being the case, why not create the future that needs to be by doing what needs to be done right here, right now? Moment-by-moment, situation-by-situation, all our life long by simply doing what needs to be done the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done? That is all it ever takes. Spontaneous sincerity responds to the moment the way the moment needs to be responded to, for no reason beyond giving what is needed to the time and place of our living. Without seeking to gain from it in any way, the gain from it is immeasurable. World wide. You don't have to believe it. Just do it. The cumulative effect of doing so will validate the value of doing so in undeniable, irrefutable ways over time. Everyone who knows anything knows it is so.
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02
Here is the introduction to my WordPress site “The Church of What’s Happening Now,” because, why not?
Flip Wilson had a comedy routine built around “The Reverend Leroy and The Church of What’s Happening Now.” The name of his church captures perfectly the essence, scope and calling of every church since the invention of churches–to exist beyond theology and doctrine, dogma and creed, catechisms and systems of belief as the servant people of what’s happening now.
Jesus said “The Spirit is like the wind that blows where it will,” which implies that not even the Spirit of God knows what it is going to do next–and the people of that Spirit have no business codifying and systematizing commandments, rules and organizing principles governing the manner in which they are to go about their way of life and being in the world.
Jesus responded spontaneously to each situation as it arose. The woman taken in adultery, the question from the lawyer about “Who is my neighbor,” the crowd asking for a sign… Jesus did not had out tracts or ask people to memorize the books of the Bible in order, or give them catechisms, or tomes of doctrine to study and re-study.
Jesus said, “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” and called each person to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” He expected people to be open to the moment of their living, and to do there what was called for with the gifts of their original nature as their tools to work with in the day-to-day events of their life.
Jesus, and the Buddha, and everyone who has known since the beginning of knowing have understood the essential nature of the importance of doing what needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done–and doing it with sincerity and spontaneity–and letting that be that.
Which is, of course, called “living in accord with the Tao.” And it is never more difficult, or more important, than that.
The Church of What’s Happening Now is the only church there is, and the church all churches need to be. This page is a collection of supporting posts for becoming that kind of church in the daily happenings of our own life throughout the time left for living.
I am glad you have found your way this far. You can trust yourself to find your way all the way the rest of the way. You are all you got. You are all you need. And the ideal community consists of individuals just like you who are finding their way alone together.
Welcome to The Church of What’s Happening Now!
01
You don't have to want to do what needs to be done the way it needs to be done. You don't have to feel like it. You don't have to be in the mood for it. You don't have to care about it. Your heart doesn't have to be in it. You can explain/defend/justify/excuse not doing what needs to be done the way it needs to be done in 10,000 ways. You just have to do it. Everything depends upon it, flows from it. You create the future in every moment anyway. You may as well create the kind of future that will be the way the future needs to be-- by doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, the way it needs to be done here and now, moment-by-moment for as long as you have to live. This is called "living in accord with the Tao." And it is the only thing that matters.
