03
We don't have to be right about the meaning of life. We only have to know what is meaningful to us about our life-- and live in ways which serve it to the best of our ability. And we have to be right about it being to the best of our ability. Doing our best in the service of what means the most to us will put us on the path to what is truly meaningful. Meaning has a way of leading us to meaning. Meaning grows us up, transforms us, brings us to life. Start anywhere with what is most meaningful to you, and you will wind up somewhere else. Actually, you won't "wind up" anywhere. You will always be "on the way" in the service of what is most meaningful to you at the time, and, over time that changes in the most amazing ways. At one time, fishing was the most meaningful thing I could think of. But, as the old alchemists would say, "One book opens another," and fishing led to nature photography, and nature photography led to experiences with ineffable wonder, and that led me to explorations into mythology and religion, and philosophy, and meaning, and now I am awash in things to explore. All because I liked to fish. We start somewhere, with something, and take off, not knowing what we are doing, or where we are going, or where it will lead, or what will be next. It is an adventure that unfolds before us as we start walking. It is called "Being alive to the life we are living." If you can find something better than that, do it!
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02
We are here to live our best life possible under the circumstances, understanding that our circumstances are necessary to bring us forth in utilizing all of the gifts/genius/daemon/spirit/virtues/character that we bring with us from the womb, because we are fundamentally lazy and lethargic, and will opt for the course of least resistence in all matters great and small, and have to be challenged to bring forth our best in all the times and places of our living. So we are here to do what we can with our circumstances. That is just the way it is. Every time we want to quit because it's just not fair, and besides that it's hopeless, pointless, futile and absurd, we have to remember that we are born for this, and cannot refuse to be--and go on being-- who we are and do what is ours to do just because it's hard and we don't feel like it, or aren't in the mood for it, and are tired of it and want to lie back and rest until we die. And then, get up and do what needs to be done. The way it needs to be done. When it needs to be done. For as long as it needs to be done. Because it is our place to do it, and if we don't do it, it won't be done, and we will have failed in our mission, and everything depends on us doing our part. (Whether it does or not doesn't matter-- we have to live as if it does and that it all goes to hell if we don't, in order to get up and go meet the day every day, and it is important to those who depend on us that we live like it matters that we live because it matters to them! And, besides, bringing our best to bear on our circumstances gets our best out there, and who knows what will happen in response to that?)
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01
The word "occult" simply means "hidden," and is an aspect of our experience that we label as "paranormal" or "metaphysical," meaning that it lies beyond the range of rational, logical, Aristotelian (A is A and not Not-A) categories. Religious and mythological symbols bridge the worlds so that when Jesus, for example, talks about death and resurrection, or dying in order to live, or when Buddha talks about oneness and the illusion of duality, they are talking about the same experience, using metaphorical language to communicate something that cannot be said directly. Sheldon Kopp said "Some things can be experienced, but not understood, and some things can be understood, but not explained." In the presence of those things, we can use the approach of poetry and metaphor to say indirectly what cannot be said directly, implying "like," or "as if," or "as though," so it is "like/as if/as though" we die yet live or move from a world where duality is the foundation of reality and things are either/or, and into a word where duality disappears and things are both/and and all are one. Something can be true paranormally that is false normally, and it is a shift in perspective that makes it so. Walking two paths at the same time, or living with a foot in both worlds at once, is the task of the artists and poets, the seers and prophets who bridge the worlds, and speak to us in this world of that world, bringing the hidden things to light and to life in this world of normal, apparent, reality. What is true here is not so much true there, and what is true there is not so much true here, but to get the most out of this world, we have to learn to live as if/as though the other world is as real as this one is, and bring the other world to life in this one as fully as possible-- and that means laying aside the goals and values of this world which lay waste to the goals and values of that world. Ancient people lived in this world in light of the other world. Their sacrifices acknowledged their dependence on the other world for balance and harmony, but they were sacrificing the wrong things. They killed their first born sons and their virgin daughters in order to live the way they wanted and have what their hearts desired, instead of sacrificing their wants and desires and living in ways that honored oneness and decreased duality. We talk of equality and justice and of living in ways that honor the natural world, and we live in ways that destroy the natural world and make a mockery of equity and justice. And the other world is not to be mocked, or tricked, or fooled. We are living in ways that work against the things that enable us to live together, enjoying one another and all that life affords-- and our life is anything but joyful and abundant. Because we try to create abundance through buying, spending, amassing and consuming instead of sharing and restraining our insatiable appetites. And the other world is not to be mocked, or tricked, or fooled. Balance and harmony, spirit, energy and vitality are the products of oneness, not duality. All of the old manuscripts say so. They knew what they were talking about in the old days. No one was listening. And here we are.
