April 11, 2022

01

A life worth living 
is the life we are here for. 
Where do we find it?
It is best to let the life find us!

Like "the wand chooses the wizard,"
our life chooses us.

Where have we said "No,"
is the question.
What are we saying "No," to right now?

And where have we said, "Yes, but"?
And what are we saying, "Yes, but" to right now?

We are "spread too thin,"
as the old saying goes.
We are living too many lives at once.
We are in a spin
with too much to do
and not enough time in which to get it done,
and none to even visit the Loo.

So what to do?

Work stopping into our schedule!
Take up the practice of
the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence,
and turn off,
tune out,
shut down
every day
for as often 
and as long as we can bear it,
until we begin to look forward to it,
and then increase the regularity
and the time spent
being quiet.

–0–

02

Alex Carrel said that 
we are the sculptor and we are the stone.

That being the case,
what do we need preachers for?
Or gurus?
Or mentors?
When do we call in Obi-wan Kenobi?
Or tell Yoda a thing or two?

When does anyone in that group
ever quit asking questions?
Or examining themselves?

If you said, "Never!",
you're making my point for me
and I can go sit by the fire,
and look out the window.

(We see everything,
looking out the window)

Point is, we are our own critic.
Our own guide.
The pilot of our own boat
on its path through the sea.

Who guides the birds
on their path through the sky?
The birds find their own way
to where they are going!
If a bird can do it,
we can, too!

If we keep the two commndments
of the Way:
Ask all the questions that beg to be asked!
Say all the things that cry out to be said!

That is all there is to it!

No one ever lived in accord with the Tao
without doing those two things
every step along the Way.

That is all the advice and guidance
anyone needs for the Journey,
and everybody discovers it
for themselves right out of the gate
(That's the Gateless Gate I'm speaking of--
and they discover that, too).

–0–