November 03, 2024 – A

1) Wanting is the source  
of all of our problems.

To be free of wanting
is the ultimate in liberation.

To be free of wanting
is to be open to what is called for
here, now.

What is it time for?
What is the situation asking for?
What needs to be done 
in the time and place of our living?

Questions that are lost 
in the wanting/getting/having/wanting...
whirl of life lived to the tune
of the latest commercial comeon
coming at us from all sides now.

It takes emptiness-stillness-silence
(One thing, not three)
to ground us in the hush of just being
who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are
with nothing to distract us
from the business of being present
with all that is present with us
waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear
so that we might know what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
in response to it
in a "chop wood, carry water," 
"when the dishes need washing,
wash the dishes," 
kind of way.

2) Life began in retirement for me.
With retirement came the freedom to live
as I realized life needed to be lived,
rather than living as someone else expected me to live.

I listened for instructions from within,
and did as I was directed by invisible sources.
And came to see over time
that my entire life had been lived that way.

I have been led,
governed by,
and cared for 
by The Mystery
from the very beginning.

"Darkness within darkness,
the threshold (the gate) 
to Mystery."

That is how Lao Tzu described the Tao.
Our life is the unfolding of the Tao
through our choices and decisions,
our preferences and our loves.

What do you love?
Go there!
Do that!
There you are!

The freedom to go there/do that
is the highest form of liberation there is.
Wanting to do what needs to be done
has nothing in common with wanting
to do what we want to do.

What we want in this light
has to do with doing what is called for
whether we want to or not!
The freedom to do that is the highest kind of freedom.

3) Jesus said, "The Father and I are one."
Paul the Apostle said, "It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives within me."

That makes Paul one with The Father.
As is all who live as the Christ,
and the word "Christian" means "Little Christ."

Insofar as Christians are who they claim to be,
they are the Christ and they are God.
And, if they are not who they claim to be,
they have "taken the name of the Lord in vain."

It's all right there in the Good Book.

4)