December 25-B, 2022

We generate circumstances.
Circumstances generate circumstances
through us.
We collaborate--
willfully, accidentally, unintentionally,
helplessly--
with our circumstances
to produce circumstances
which result in how things are
at any given point in time and space.

We are the victims of the circumstances
we generate, create, produce.

There is no one to blame here but us,
and those like us,
through the ages.

The Old Taoists recognized all of this,
and formulated two principles at work
making things as they are.

"The Great Force Of Circumstances--
The Tao"
"The Virtue Power Of Individual Character--
The Te" (Ray Grigg).

The Tao Te Ching,
the Way of Tao and Te,
the Way of Circumstances and Character/Virtue.

How things are 
and who we are
come together 
in each situation as it arises
to interact
and produce/create/generate
harmony or disharmony,
or things as they might be.

In this, we exercise influence,
not control.
We live best when we live 
in harmony with the flow of life--
of circumstances--
in the moment of living.

To do this,
we have to be sensitive/alert to/aware of
the way of things,
of what's what and what is being called for,
of what is happening and what needs to happen,
in each situation as it arises
and do the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
in the right way
and get out of the way
so that Yin and Yang
might engage one another,
balancing and harmonizing
the moment
and blessing all with grace and peace
here/now.

All of this is quite beyond our ability
to contrive/orchestrate/choreograph/stage/manage.

We can only collaborate/cooperate,
which we manage by
"sitting with blank mind--
the still place at the center of consciousness--
producing a synchronistic accord between 
Te and Tao,
and living harmoniously within the bounds 
of natural order by becoming one with it"
(Ray Grigg).

Emptiness/Stillness/Silence are the way to the Way,
and are the way of generating/serving
balance and harmony,
life, spirit and vitality,
via Tao and Te.

It is the Way.
Created/generated/produced moment-by-moment,
one situation at a time
in the dance with life and being
over time.

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