June 27, 2023 – B

We all experience the same things
that have always been experienced.

"The way of a snake upon a rock,
the way of a ship at sea,
the way of a man with a woman."

All of our experiences are universal experiences.
They differ by the quality and degree
of the expectations, assumptions
and opinions that we bring to the experience.

We experience the same things,
but we interpret/understand them
in quite different ways
dependent upon our background
and the way we have learned to see/decipher the meanings of
the things we experience.

Religion is merely a way of understanding,
interpreting,
explaining,
our experience.

If we can find our way back
to original experience,
that is,
experience without the burden
of previous experience
and the weight of explanations, etc.
that have gone into biasing 
the ways we see what we look at/experience,
we can free ourselves of the doctrines
that we have inherited,
either religious,
cultural,
politidal
or scientific,
and simply be with what is
without prejudice or presumption.

When I do that,
I discover grace to be 
a primordial experience of experience,
and the foundation of all religions,
which exist to explain,
and attempt to control,
the experience of grace in our life.

Grace is good luck,
good fortune,
and is offset 
by the curse
of bad luck, 
bad fortune--
that is, things either going,
or not going,
our way.

Religion claims to be a hedge
against bad luck
and the font of blessings and grace,
or good luck
throughout our existence.

Original experience sees it all for what it is
without expectation or opinion.
When we do that,
we do not need religion of any form.
Just seeing is enough.

"Well, there is this, and there is that,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's the way it is."

Beyond grace,
there is also the primordial experience
of balance and harmony.

We all have that experience 
from time to time,
and strive to hang on to it
with pharmaceuticals and alcohol,
but balance and harmony
are immediately lost
by trying to sustain/maintain them indefinably,
while striving to have our way
and get what we want.

Can't be done,
but. 

Balance and harmony come and go,
but can be cultivated
by the attitude we take 
to living life generally
according to the prescription 
applied to grace:
"This is the way it is,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."

Not pushing,
not striving,
not forcing
not trying to have/avoid
what we want/don't want,
but just seeing,
just knowing,
just doing what is called for
and just being fine/okay with that
is the foundation of a life
that is as good as it can be,
and to want/insist on having more
stirs up forces
that lead to the heaving waves
and the clashing rocks
in no time at all.

The concept of "stirring up forces"
needs to be explored.
It is another of the primordial experiences.

There appear to be forces at work in our life,
arranging things according to a pattern,
making things work as they do.

We have all experienced that,
and it is another purview of religion
to claim to control those forces
and to put us in the flow of good
and out of the reach of evil.

We protect ourselves,
not with prayer and votive offerings,
but with seeing/knowing/doing/being
and allowing things to be as they are
as we respond to the way things are
by doing what is called for 
in each situation as it arises--
without contriving/conniving outcomes
(creating good luck)
and escaping others
(avoiding bad luck).

This is known as "The Drift of Circumstances."

Circumstances are the building blocks 
of the universe and all that is therein.
Circumstances are as God is said to be:
"Infinite, eternal, almighty, all powerful, etc."

Circumstances always are,
always have been,
and always have been,
world without end, amen.

There is nothing but circumstances.
And "The Drift of Circumstances"
is inherent in the way of things,
just as "one thing leads to another,
and "one book opens another,"
"as surely as the day is long,
and day follows night
and the tides come in and go out."

It is the way things are.

What we read into that,
and say about that,
determines--or strongly influences--
what follows
"as surely as the day is long..."

And that is the spawning grounds
for the presumption/assumption
of "forces at work in our life."

It is The Drift of Circumstances
that is at work in our life.

As we sense that and work with it,
align ourselves with it,
live in accord with it,
as one might with the Tao,
or with God's will,
we increase our chances
of experiencing the flow of forces
at work in our life,
by being at-one with The Drift of Circumstances.

Reading the circumstances at work
in each situation as it arises,
and doing what is called for
in light of what is happening
and has been happening
and what will likely continue to happen,
positions us to see/know/do/be
what needs to be here/now
and to live accordingly.

And that is as close to being always
graced, blessed and lucky
as it is ever possible to be.

May it be so for us and everyone!

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