October 22, 2023 – A

It is the Adam and Eve Leaving Eden image
and the Garden of Gethsemane image
being played out in our lives everyday
that keeps things as they are
in the world.

The writer of the book of James (4:2) nailed it:
"You crave but do not have, 
so you kill. 
You covet but you cannot get what you want,
so you quarrel and fight." 

Having our way
and getting what we want
rule our lives
and guide our boat 
on its path through the sea.

Growing up and living to serve
different motives and goals
is like dying in Gethsemane/Golgotha.

And it is the only way
of harmonizing Yin and Yang,
balancing the contradictions,
reconciling the opposites
and living aligned with the Path,
and at one with way things are. 

It is not for everybody.
We have to be at a certain place
in our life
to be able to acquiesce to what 
is being asked of us,
and transcend our interests
in the service of a good greater 
than our own personal good.

We aren't old enough to do some things.
And that's the kink in the hose.
We have to grow up some more again today.

That is the tipping point between 
addiction and sobriety. 
Between lost and found.
Between being mostly dead and being fully alive.

Most of the world is too immature
for us to have any chance at 
"Liberty and Justice for All."
Leaving us to make out as best we can
with no choose-able choices
and no viable alternatives
to life as it is.

Making our peace with how things are
is the task of life,
and doing what must be done
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
because that's how things are,
is what is left to us
because we don't get the help and cooperation
we need 
to have a different/better world.

In order to find what we need
to do what needs to be done,
we fall back on the meditative exercise
encompassing emptiness/stillness/silence,
integrity/sincerity/spontaneity,
spirit/energy/vitality,
original nature/innate virtues/characteristics,
in seeing what's what
and what needs to be done in response to it
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

To adopt this way of responding to the world
we meet each day,
is to find the Invisible Path
and to make better what can be made better
by our manner of dealing with what must be dealt with
here and now.

And if we shave our head in protest,
laughing at the futility of protest,
who could blame us? 

(Laughter is the secret weapon
of those who know what they are up against
and don't care what their chances are)

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