April 08, 2022

01

It comes down to perspective. 
It is all about perspective.
It is perspective all the way down.

How we look at what we see
determines everything that follows.

We cannot change what we are doing
until we change how we see--
how we look at, how we think about--
what we see when we look.

This is what The Gateless Gate is doing in our life.
It is saying,
"You aren't going to find what you are looking for
until you change how you are looking!"

Or, as someone said not long ago,
"Get out of your thinking brain!
And get into your perceiving/intuiting/sensing/instinctive brain!"

Until we change our perspective,
the world is going to look like it always does.
And we are going to act like we always have.

Nothing is going to change 
until how we see what we look at changes.

–0–

02

We have to see what we look at
and be right about what we say we see.

We have to be right about it.

Being right about it
is a collaborative endeavor
among all of our virtues/gifts/daemon/genius
that we bring to the task of seeing and doing
throughout our life.

Right perception is a team sport.

We have to see and listen at the same time,
all the time--
knowing that things are not always
what they appear to be.

Emptiness, stillness and silence 
are the rule of the day
every day.

Take a walk,
or a nap,
look out the window,
consult the muses,
wait to see with right seeing,
to hear with right hearing.

Realization comes with a bang sometimes,
and with a whisper on other occasions.
Eschew the noise of evangelical conviction.
Embrace the still, small, smile
after the earthquake, wind and fire.

We have to be right about it.
Knowing takes time.
How much time do you have?
Use it wisely.

And when you are damned if you do
and damned if you don't,
be damned and be done with it
on the side of compassion 
for the least of our brothers and sisters.

Stand with those who have no advocate
against the power of money and greed.
Shut down the fossil fuel industry.
Give the earth a chance.

–0–