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Our balance and harmony are strictly contingent on our safety, security and stability-- which, in turn, rely on our being free from the intrusions, incursions, invasions and overrunings of Those Who Know Best And Must Be Pleased. Balance and harmony are generated by, and flow from, a life that is lived from its own center, doing what it needs to do, when it needs to do it, how it needs to do it without any pressure or direction from sources other than itself. Balance and harmony are the source of vitality, spirit, joy, enthusiasm, ardor, fervor, passion, zeal, vigor, and all related aspects of being fully alive. And they hinge on our being in charge of the life we are living-- and on being right about what is being called for from the heart of that life. We have to know what is right for us, and live out of that without having to make anyone else happy with us and what we are doing. The more advisors/directors we have, the crazier and deader we become. Who is running your life? If it isn't you (And if you aren't right about what is right for you), they are ruining your life and taking the life right out of you. Wake up! Reclaim your place as the servant of the signals arising from the depths of knowing within your own soul/psyche! And begin doing what you know needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, where and when it needs to be done. Restore your balance and harmony, live your life!
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02
What guides our boat on its path through the sea? Answering this question properly takes us to the heart of the matter. To the heart of who we are and where the impulses of our action comes from. There are two options at this point: What we want to do, and What we must do. If you don't know the difference it is because your wants have become musts, and you must have what you want right NOW! You are being driven/compelled by your own wanting/craving/desiring to have/get/possess/do. Your sense of peace and satisfaction disappear like dew before the morning sun. And you must have/do the next latest thing NOW! again. And the horror here is that you are like everyone else you know in this regard. All we know is what we want and this isn't it. The good news is bad news. There is a way out of the endless cycle of constantly wanting more and being content with nothing, but. It is like death itself. Jesus becomes the model here. Not the Jesus of the Church, every church, all churches, who says reliably, dependably, consistently, constantly, "Come to me, and I will give you what you want forever." That Jesus is a sales pitch and nothing more. The Church should be ashamed. But. It knows we can't handle the truth and tells us a lie to keep us coming back to want and to do what it takes to have what we want, though we never can. The Real Jesus stands before us and says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me." And he tells us to pick up our cross and come with him to Golgotha. Not what we have in mind. "Death and resurrection, Kid. Death and resurrection!" The life is on the other side of death. We have to die again and again in bearing the pain of being alive. That is the path away from wanting/having to doing what it takes to be fully alive in the moment of our living. We have to bear the pain of not having what we want in order to have what we want. In order to have what is essential. In order to be fully, completely, totally alive. We have to die in order to live. This is the path from want to must. When we do what we must do, what we want to do is pushed aside, becomes irrelevant, inconsequential, frivolous, ridiculous, absurd. Abraham Maslow said that people live for five things: Survival, Security, Personal Relationships, Prestige, and Self Development. Joseph Campbell said, "These are precisely not the values that a mythically inspired person lives for. "A person who is really gripped by a dedication, by a zeal, will sacrifice all these things for the sake of his or her own passion. "These five values are the values people live for who have nothing to live for. Nothing has seized, caught, or driven these people “spiritually mad.” "These people, aren’t worth talking to." These people want what they want but don't know what to want. And they have to allow themselves to be gripped by a compelling must whose origin comes from beyond wanting and wanting not, which is the deep source of what is right for us irregardless of circumstance and preference. To do what must be done, we must be still and quiet and wait for the dust to settle and the air to clear, watching for what arises, emerges, appears, occurs to us from the silence, beckoning us to take up the adventure of being alive in the time left for living, no matter what.
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03
When Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind that blows where it will," He was saying that the spirit doesn't know what it is going to do next. It knows what it is doing now, but not next. The spirit is always doing now exactly what needs to be done, but it will be something else next. It will need to be done, but it won't be what is being done now. Now and next are different that way. And what all is after that is completely beyond speculation. Now is enough. Or, as Jesus said, "Today's trouble is sufficient for today." Now is always favorable for something, what varies from time to time. So we have to be on our toes, at the ready-- the wind might shift at any moment. Those who live with the wind that blows where it will in their hair travel light, with few presumptions and fewer agendas. They ride loose in the saddle, and walk light on their feet, with their eyes always open, and ears tuned to the silent nudges of "the still small voice" calling them to tend what needs to be tended at the time that is at hand.
