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Our place in "the great scheme of things" is to recognize and maintain the proper working/living distance between ourselves and our life. This is to say that we are to take everything with the degree of seriousness that it deserves-- and it deserves that which is warranted by the situation as it arises. What now? is always an appropriate question to answer as is warranted by the situation. We have to learn to read the situation. We have to know what's what. We have to see what's happening. We have to hear what is being called for. We have to be empty and quiet. How long has it been since you have been empty and quiet? How do you go about being, and remaining, empty and quiet? How can you hope to see what you look at without being empty and quiet? We cannot expect to live well without being empty and quiet. We have to keep a running tally going in the background at all times, weighing, measuring, gauging, adjusting, optimizing, the Nine Priorities (Also called "The Nine Guides"): Emptiness and Silence. Balance and Harmony. Sincerity and Integrity. Spirit, Energy and Vitality. With these in place, everything flows. We see, hear, understand, know, do, and are in accord with the Tao of Life and Being. Until then, it is pretty much what we have, just as it is, every day. Everything changes when we take stock and get to work, being and remaining, empty and quiet, etc.
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02
Jesus said, "You have heard it said, but I say unto you..." "Who do you say that I am?" "Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?" Jesus is saying: Stand on your own two feet! Live out of your own authority! Listen to your own heart! Do what you say is right! If you make a mistake, it will become clear in time. When it does, stop doing it! Do something else instead-- whatever you determine needs to be done! If you are wrong about that, stop doing it! Do something else instead-- whatever you determine needs to be done! Got it? Do it! There are no steady states of being. There is no static state of life. Movement is the rhythm of the cosmos. What is right in some circumstances is wrong in different circumstances-- and the circumstances are always changing. What we do in response to the circumstances must change in response to the circumstances. Nothing is suitable for all occasions. We dance with the music of NOW! We do what is called for HERE! Who is to say what that is? WE are! We say what needs to be done, here and now-- and we have to be right about it! How do we know what is right? We do something and see what happens, and adjust what we do according to the outcomes of what we are doing. And we determine what to do here and now by seeing what we look at and listening to what is being said on all levels-- particularly the level of our heart and our body. Let your heart and your body be your guides, and you will never stray far from the path. Listen to your heart and to your body as much as you listen to your head. Our heart and your body are co-collaborators with our head in determining WHAT needs to be done, Where, When, Why and How They come alive in emptiness and silence, and come together to shape our life and guide the way. Logos is good for analytical thinking. Mythos is good for instinctive and intuitive feeling. Integrating mythos and logos is what knowing and doing what is right consists of, allowing for the changes and adjustments required by the time and place of our living, over the full course of our life. Got it? Do it!
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03
My recommendation is that we die with cookies in the oven and crumbs on the plate. Live all the way to the end! Die in mid-sentence! In mid-book! In mid-stride! Doing what you love to do! Why spend one non-work-related minute doing what we take no pleasure in? Which means finding the pleasure in the chores and tasks of life, and doing them as they need to be done. Which means getting our attitude turned around! This is the hidden element in doing what needs to be done the way it needs to be done! We don't do that without an attitude adjustment! The AA slogan, "Fake it 'til you make it!" fits in here. Act like you like it whether you like it or not! And play the part so well not even you can tell that you don't like it! Deserve the Academy Award every time you step into action! You will make the world a better place just by stopping all of the complaining and pouting!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 