04
We owe our life liege loyalty, filial devotion and devoted service through all the times and places, contexts and circumstances of our days upon the earth. Adam and Eve failed to do this, and served their wants and desires, but Abraham, Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist, Ruth, Ester, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus, among many others, did it very well. Now, it is our turn. Our life is our destiny. To live our life with liege loyalty, filial devotion, and devoted service, is to embrace our destiny, and do what it calls us to do, regardless of the price, without any interest in what is in it for us, and no attempt to turn any moment to our advantage, gain, or benefit--immediate or eternal-- but just doing what our life requires in the time and place of our living, moment-by-moment, day-by-day our whole life long, for the joy of serving our life. To live this way is to live in accord with the Tao, and at one with our destiny.
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03
It is not a matter of thinking, or believing. It is solely a matter of doing-- of right doing-- of aligning our life with what is being called for in each situation as it arises, and doing there what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, how it needs to be done, for as long as it needs to be done, and repeating that process in the next situation as it arises, and so on, throughout our life. You can think whatever you want. You can believe whatever you want. As long as it enables you to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, how it needs to be done, for as long as it needs to be done by doing what is called for in every situation that arises. Forget ethics. Forget morality. Forget duty. Forget what your mother told you. Forget what your father always said. Just focus on what is being called for, be right about it, and do what needs to be done, when and how, situation by situation. This is called "living in accord with the Tao."
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02
Sit quietly, find the still point within between liking and not liking, thinking and not thinking, wanting and not wanting, fearing and not fearing, believing and not believing, needing and not needing, etc. And live from there in doing and not doing.
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01
Compliance with this is non-compliance with that, and vice-versa. The only free choice we can make is the choice between masters. "Choose this day whom you will serve!" is all the freedom we are allowed. Not wearing a mask is not evidence of freedom, but of bondage. The people who do not wear a mask. cannot wear a mask. They lose standing in their most-cherished community if they do. What is the value of a community that binds us to stupidity and puts us in harm's way? What is the value of anything that destroys our connection with our core and commands us to do what is contrary to our control center within? When Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but the Christ who lives within me!" he is saying he is being directed by the Knower who knows better than he knows what is called for and what needs to be done about it. He is saying what Captain Jack Sparrow said, "It's the pirate's life for me, Gibbs. I have no say in the matter. Savvy?" We have no say in the matter of what matters to us. We have no say in the matter of what we would go to hell for. We have no say in the matter of what pulls us or chases us or haunts us or pleases us. We like what we like and don't like what we don't like, but we can't choose what we like or don't like any more than we can choose what we dream at night or what the next thing will be that catches our eye. Freedom is just another word for having nothing at all to say in all matters of grave importance, so we need to stop kidding ourselves about being free, and realize who we are bowing before and taking our orders from, and who is directing our boat on its path through the sea.
