01
Heinrich Zimmer said, "The best things cannot be said, the second best things are misunderstood, the third best things are the things we talk about." That would be, news, weather, sports, gossip and drama. Lao Tzu exposed the emptiness of words with his, "Darkness within darkness--the gateway to mystery." And, "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao (Or, as Martin Palmer translates: "The path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path."). Lao Tzu would likely close this with, "Those who know don't say. Those who say, don't know."
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02
We all drink from the same spring, but our original nature must compete with desire/fear/duty, and we begin to separate from each other according to our ideas of how things ought to be, and what we can do to make them that way. Sitting still, being quiet, invites, and occasions, the return to the source, where we ground and anchor ourselves in ourselves, remember "the face that was ours before we-- or our parents-- or our grandparents-- were born," and live out of the spontaneous realization of what needs to be done, here and now, regardless of how we might want things to be.
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03
What needs to be done? What do we need to do? What is being asked of us by the time and place of our living? If you can come up with three better questions to answer, moment to moment, in each situation as it arises, have at it!
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04
As long as money has the attraction it has, for as many people as it does, it will be a hard path through desolate places for everyone. We find our way back to the land of promise by re-ordering our priorities and putting first things first. "But first things ARE first!" comes the reply. which ends the conversation. And comes the summation from the first century CE: "The love of money is the root of all evil." The attraction of money is that it will buy you whatever you want. Except the end of wanting. Money is no good for that. We have to find our way to that on our own. And it is not a matter of wanting to empty ourselves of our wanting. That is just more wanting. Wanting cannot be emptied through wanting. We end wanting by ending wanting. By simply doing what needs to be done beyond wanting or not wanting. Like sneezing and scratching your nose. Like a dog wags its tail. Without thinking about it. Just doing it-- by living sincerely, spontaneously, from the heart in each situation as it arises. Seeing/doing without wanting or not wanting, by not having a thought about serving our own interests through what we do. No exploitation. No manipulation. No capitalization. If the baby needs feeding, feed the baby. If the light bulb needs to be replaced, replace the light bulb. Eat when hungry, rest when tired. Chop wood, carry water. Be what the situation needs. In each situation as it arises. See? Like that.
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05
There is only one thing that matters, with four things that support and enable it. The one thing is doing what needs to be done in each situation as it arises. The four things that support it are: Knowing what needs to be done. Knowing when to do it. Knowing where to do it. Knowing how to do it. There is a fifth thing, knowing why to do it, but it is the same over all situations throughout time and place: Because It Needs To Be Done! All of this flows together into The Most Important Thing: Doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, where it needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, in every moment of every situation as it arises. And who says so? We do. And we have to be right about it. But this isn't a problem. All we have to do is what we think needs to be done, and see what happens. If it becomes apparent that we were wrong about any of the elements crucial to the implementation of the most important thing, we only have to make corrections and adjustments, and do what appears to us to be the thing that now needs to be done, and see what happens. Etc. and so on until we get it down. Our spiritual practice is practicing doing what needs to be done until we get recognizing it when we see it down, and then doing it as it needs to be done forever. It's a lot like riding a bull. Just keep climbing back on and telling them to open the gate.
