April 24, 2022

01

Enlightenment is a flip in perspective.
It is changing our mind about what is important.
That is the only difference between
seeing what's what
and not seeing what's what.
If we are going to see what we look at,
we have to be able to change our mind about what that is.
It is not that we don't see.
It is that we have so much at stake
in seeing the way we do
that we cannot change how we look at things.

There is nothing sacred about how we see.
How we see keeps us from seeing 
what is to be seen.

We have to be willing to change our mind
about what is to be seen.

We have to be willing to change our mind.

How many times have you changed your mind today?

How many times have you called into question
how you see things today?

The world isn't going to change
until we change our mind 
about what we see 
when we look at the world.

Start looking at your children differently.
And at your parents.
And at your spouse/partner.
And at your dog/cat/chores/job/etc.

Call it your spiritual practice,
and start looking differently
at everything you see.

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02

The life of your dreams
is a simple matter of adjusting your dreams.

Or, to put it another way,
of changing your mind
about what's important.

Nothing is more important
than being right about what's important--
and living in its service.

We all think we know what's important.
How many of us are right about it?

Growing up is about 
changing our mind about
what's important--
to the point of being right about it.

Maturity is being right
about what's important,
and doing what that implies,
requires.

It's a function of time
spent in the right way.

Enlightenment is the outcome
of time spent in the right way,
so that we see (at last)
what is important and do it.

This is also known as salvation,
changing our mind about what matters most,
and being right about it,
and paying fealty to it
all our life long.

This kind of change of mind
is the function of the Gateless Gate 
in our life.

Everybody lives to have what they want.
How do they know what to want?
How many of us want what we ought to want?
How many of us care about
what we ought to want?

There are things we ought to do
that have nothing to do
with what the culture/society/duty
say we ought to do.
We ought to do what our life
wants us to do
whether we want to or not.

This is the battle of the oughts.
We ought to do what is ours to do--
what needs us to do it--
whether or not anyone agrees
that it ought to be done.

We live to know what is important,
to know what needs to be done,
to know what ought to be done,
and to do it,
even if society calls us a heretic 
and burns us at the stake.

–0–

03

Everything depends on our making the connection--
the Mysterium Coniunctionis--
between "this" and "that."

For example, there is "the task,"
and there is our enthusiasm for "the task."
What is the connection?
Upon what does our enthusiasm for the task,
any task,
depend?

Everything depends upon that!
Everything depends upon our enthusiasm for the task,
no matter what task it might be.

If it needs to be done,
that should be all that is necessary
to evoke our enthusiasm for doing it.

But we know it doesn't work that way?
Why not???
Upon what does our enthusiasm for the task depend?
We think we have to care about the task,
as though the task elicits our response to the task.
If it is a task we deem to be worthy of us,
if we are drawn to it as a moth to the flame,
well fine, of course, we will do it,
gladly, exactly as it needs to be done.
We do not do lovingly any task
that does not inspire love within us for it.
We wait for a task we can feel like doing
with all our heart.

But.
Why hold anything back?
Why not love everything just as it is?
"Do not judge," said Jesus.
"Live as though you love your neighbor
as yourself, whether you do or not,"
said Jesus.
"Live so lovingly with your neighbor
that your neighbor can't tell
if your love her/him or not!
Live so lovingly with your neighbor
that YOU can't tell whether you love
him/her or not!!!" said Jesus.

Get it?

The mystery in the Mysterium Coniunctionis,
is how we disappear in acting
as though there is no contradiction
involved in doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done.

We disappear in doing the deed
that needs us to do it.
This is what we were born for.
This is who we are.
What do we mean by holding anything back?
Whose side are we on?

Get it?

We step through the Gateless Gate,
and disappear.

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