April 29, 2022

01

It is perspective all the way down,
and Mystery at the bottom.
Or, as Lao Tzu liked to say,
"Darkness within darkness,
the gateway to mystery."

We will never make sense of it.
All the explanations and theories
get in the way of enjoying 
the experience of Mystery.

Once we get that it is all Mystery,
we can't quit going, "Wow!"
and laughing out loud for no apparent reason.

And that reminds me of the story of the guy
going into a cafe in the deep south
and ordering "Coffee, cut the cream."
And the waitress replies, "That'll have to be milk,
Honey, 'cause we don't have any cream."

Don't try to make sense of it,
just laugh a lot.
And look forward to more. 

–0–

02

The only difference between a bad day
and a good day
is a shift in perspective.

Flipping perspectives is the role
of the Gateless Gate.

The essential act of turning the light around
is the back-and-forth,
"edge-of-the-coin"
optical illusion transition
from rational/logical/left-brain seeing
to metaphorical/symbolic/instinctive/intuitive/right-brain seeing.

If you can master that vantage point,
you will be straddling the Gateless Gate,
looking right and left,
or left and right,
and seeing different worlds
"without leaving home."

That puts you "at the still point
of the turning world" (T.S. Eliot),
at the fulcrum between worlds,
able to shift one world into the other
just by changing the way you think about
what you are seeing.

Nothing is only what it appears to be.
Everything can appear to be something else
just by the way we look at it.

Practice it on your parents,
and on your children,
on everyone you meet.

Become proficient in seeing everything
"from all sides."
And don't let anyone get by with 
one-way-only-seeing--
particularly yourself!

–0–