01
Each of us has our own talents, interests, specialties, daemon (sounds like "diamond"), gifts, genius, knacks, shtick, proclivities, nature, virtues, trajectory, path, etc. and our adventure is finding and being who we are. The culture and social order are allied against us with their "Thou Shalts" and "Thou Shalt Nots," and we have to grow up into being our own authority in recognizing who we are and what we are being called to do with our life. Living within the tension between who society/culture says we must/must not be, and who we know who we must/must not be, is the dangerous path, the slippery slope, like a razor's edge-- and how well we negotiate the passage is the tale our life tells in the living of it. The mystery we serve is the unfolding of our own unique nature, the living of the life that is right for us, and no one can tell us how to do this. We are the only one who knows what is IT for us, what fits for us, what resonates with us, what IS us. We find the way that is our way, by taking our clues where we stumble upon them to the unveiling of ourselves. This is our work. It is the work of our psychological/spiritual transformation/illumination. This is the gold of spiritual realization and fulfillment. We are the Philosophers Stone, turning our base physical body into the precious metal that is hidden away within our own heart and spirit. We transform ourselves by bringing out who we are capable of being over the full course of our life, and not resting until we are done. You are it. I am it. We are that which we seek. It's been right here with us all along! Hiding out in you and me! Now it is up to us to bring it forth, and "let our little light shine," wondering in amazement how this could be us.
–0–
02
The true church has no theology. Real religion has nothing to say. If you understand this, you have all you need to find what you need to do what needs to be done at the right time, in the right place and the right way, because it needs to be done. And that is all you need to do throughout the time left for living.
–0–
03
Heinrich Zimmer said, "The best things can't be told, and the second-best things are misunderstood, and the third-best things are the facts like news, weather and sports." The best things are experiences with the Numen, with the numinous, with the ineffable, the sublime. The second-best things are the Bhagavad gita, the Tao te Ching and the Sermon on the Mount. We spend our time with the third-best things because it is easier that way. And so, the importance of asking all of the questions that beg to be asked, and saying all of the things that cry out to be said. Anyway, nevertheless, even so. Do not be quiet just because no one gets it, or is interested! Someone is listening. Someone cares. Say what needs to be said to those who need to hear. Without pause, without letup, without ceasing, without end.
–0–
04
Carl Jung said the world is in the mess it is in because people do not have a place to tell their stories. Who listens to what you have to say? How much do you say in a week that is not a repetition of something you have said that week? How many new things do you say in a week? How many new thoughts do you think? How many new ideas do you have? How many realizations come to you? Where do you go to be heard? We do not know what we have to say if we do not have a place to be heard. We have our best chance of being heard by working to create an environment in which it is safe to say what needs to be said. We do that by listening to what others are saying to us. We do that by listening to what we are saying in response to what is being said to us. We cannot listen to others without hearing ourselves. As we begin to hear ourselves, we will attract others who can hear themselves, and, therefore, can listen to us. We create places to say what we have to say by listening to what others have to say. And everyone is better off because we started listening to ourselves listening to others. Be what you seek. It's the oldest wisdom in the book of wisdom.
–0–
05
All the Bible we need consists of: The Sermon on the Mount, The parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, and the bit about "Inasmuch as you have done it, or failed/refused to do it, to the least of humanity, you have done it, or failed/refused to do it, unto me." That's it. No theology. No doctrines. No dogma. Just straight out and to the point: "This is the way it is, and that is all there is to it. What you do about it is up to you." There is no discussion. There is no debating. There is no believing or not believing. There is only doing or not doing. What's it going to be?
–0–
06
Here is one thing we have to come to terms with: All religion has a mystical center beyond theology. "The path that can be discerned is not a reliable path" (Martin Palmer). "The Tao that can be said/told, is not the eternal Tao" (Lao Tzu). The more you say about God, the less you know about God. The Mystery/The Mystical is the heart of religion. And our task is to associate ourselves with it-- to collaborate with The Mystery at the heart of Life and Being. We have to enter the mystery in order to relate to the mystery. We have to be open to the mystical in order to recognize and perceive the mystical. Meister Eckhart said, "The final leave-taking is leaving God for God." Leaving the God of Theology and the Bible, for the Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being. Which is at the very center of each one of us. WE are the Mystery! And the deeper into us we go, the less of us we know! And the kind of knowing we are moving into is a "knowing knowing," and not a "thinking knowing." We move from a "thinking knowing" when we are learning to play tennis, or the piano,etc., into a "knowing knowing" as we master the game or the instrument, etc. Moving into The Mystery is like this. First we think our way forward, and then we move beyond "thinking knowing" into "knowing knowing." Oneness with The Mystery is a "knowing knowing" thing. Joseph Campbell often referred to The Mystery as "the Transcendent," and said that we are to "move into the Transcendent." That is what we are doing when we "leave God for God." And Campbell said, "That entails leaving the life you had planned on having, in order to have the life that is waiting on you." Discovering that life is finding the Mystery, and entering the Transcendent. And that is the adventure of a lifetime!
