01

Theology comes to grief
on the rocky shoreline of truth.
As does philosophy.

Truth eats all pretenders alive.

Fraser Snowden nailed it
when he said,
"The only true philosophical question
is 'Where do you draw the line?'"

You have to be able/willing 
to pay the price
to play the ultimate game.
The price is your life
as the price of admission.

In other words, 
you do not escape with your life.

Jesus said it best:
"If you want to be my disciple,
you have to pick up your cross daily
and follow me."

The cross is not a metaphor
for dancing through fields
of fresh spring flowers.

It is the end of the line.

All truth leads to the death
of the truth-seeker.
They all die happy,
laughing,
satisfied,
at-one with the nature of the game.

The other side of Golgotha
is the Empty Tomb.
Good Friday is redeemed 
by Easter Morning.
But it's a ride that will
take the breath of life right out of you,
and give it back again.

Let me explain:
We think it is about one thing,
and it is about another.

We think it is about money,
but we only need enough money
to pay the right bills.
The right bills sustain life
and buy the tools our life requires.
Requires to live in the service of truth.
Any more than that gets in our way.

The truth is who we are
and what our circumstances call for--
what the here and now asks of us.
We only need enough money 
to be who we are 
and to do what is ours to do.

What is ours to do depends upon who we are
and what our circumstances require of us.

Who we are is our Original Nature,
our innate gifts/perspective/proclivities/
peculiarities/interests/traits/character/
virtues/disposition/daemon (sounds like "diamond")/
spirit/truth that came with us from the womb.

We betray our Original Nature shortly after birth,
opting for the shimmering,
shinning, wonders of the 10,000 things
that catch our eye
and snare our soul
with their promise of endless delight and glory.

Our story is the story of Adam and Eve.
And the story of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus was called the Christ,
which is the Greek word for Messiah,
which is the Hebrew term for 
"the one who comes to set things straight."

Here is he sad truth for you:
We all are born to set things straight.
Setting things straight 
is our Original Nature,
betrayed and abandoned at the foot
of the Tree With the Forbidden Fruit,
which opens our eyes 
to the glittering promises 
of all that fails to satisfy. 

Setting things straight,
puts us back in the Garden of Eden
by way of the Garden of Gethsemane
where we hand over our way of doing things
for the sake of doing things
the way they need to be done
by dying eternally on the crossover
between the worlds of truth and deception/
falsehood/delusion/illusion/lie/Missing The Mark.

To know the truth is to be set free
from the fantasy of happy delight forever,
and to be set free for
seeing and doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
here and now forever.

Our choice is the choice between
Dionysus and Sisyphus--
with the difference being 
that Sisyphus knows the secret
of the satisfaction of a job well done,
and Dionysus can only call for more wine 
throughout time.  

–0–

02

If we were talking,
I would ask you to tell me
about the places of complexity,
conflict and contradiction in your life.

"Where are you most conflicted?" I would say,
and sit back, listening.

Our conflicts and contradictions
and the experiences of complexity
rob us of our peace,
and take the life right out of us.

If we are going to get our balance and harmony back,
it will be by working consciously/mindfully
with the sources of conflict,
contradiction
and complexity.

It will be deciding where to draw the line
in a number of places
throughout our life.

We are going back to the two circles
touching each other externally
with a common tangent.

The two circles represent opposites/polarities,
mutually-exclusive contradictions:
You and your life.
You and your spouse/child/children/job/etc.
Or, now and what's next.

At the "T" point where the circles touch,
we live our life
to integrate/harmonize/compromise/make things work
between the circles. 

This is the place of the cross 
that is ours to bear.
The way of the cross
that is ours to traverse.

Think of the cross as the crossover point
between the circles of confusion/chaos/conflict,
where things are dark and murky,
difficult to sort out,
painful to deal with.

It's like the dark of the earth
surrounding the seed of life.
The dark of the tomb.
The dark of the womb.
The dark night of the soul
before the dawn of resurrection.

What we do with the dark,
in the dark
is the deed (seed) that tells the tale.

Here's my best advice:
At the conjunction of the two circles,
any two circles,
every two circles,
realize where you are
and know that it is your place
to walk two paths at the same time.

The path of who you are,
and the path of where you are.

What is yours to do 
is to be who you are 
where you are
when you are.
That is, here and now.

Being true to ourselves
and true to our circumstances,
here and now,
is the cross,
is the crucifixion,
is the path of transformation
and new life.

But, it will eat our old life alive,
as we work things out
between the poles
in the darkness of not knowing what to do.

The silence holds all the answers.

Sit still,
be quiet,
wait, watch,
for what stirs to life,
emerges,
arises,
beckons,
calls your name,
lights up the way,
as a naturally spontaneous impulse
experienced as the thing to do
in response to the moment at hand.

The first box to check off before doing anything
is the "Strive To Do No Harm" guideline 
that has survived the test of time.

The next thing to do is the thing that you know
needs to be done,
crazy as it may seem/be.

This formula fits all of your circles of confusion, 
and is your path to balance and harmony,
grace and peace.

–0–

03

When we are tuned in to our life,
living in tune with our life,
in accord with our life,
magic happens.

"Doors open," said Joseph Campbell,
"where you didn't know there were any doors."

Help comes from the most unlikely places.

We find what we need
when we didn't know we needed anything.

The cosmos is, for once, a very user-friendly place.

What is going on?
Don't pause to think about it!
Just live in wonder,
and go about doing what needs to be done,
the way you have been doing it.

Just listen,
just look,
just stay out of the way,
just continue doing nothing special
in that special kind of way,
like looking at stars
"out of the side of your eyes,"
because they blur and disappear
when you look at them directly.

See what you look at,
and look at everything.

Look closer at what 
catches your eye.

Attend your inner responses,
reactions, impulses,
and obey those impulses
that do no harm. 

Respond/react to the moment,
to the need of the moment,
to what is being called for
in the moment.

The moment is the birthplace
of soul.
Soul comes forth to meet the moment
at its most needy place,
in its most vulnerable and fragile point,
with exactly what is required,
spontaneously,
at exactly the right time,
in precisely the right way,
and then is forgotten,
except by those most moved.
It is never to be forgotten by them.

That is the dance of soul with Tao.
Evidence of the mystery
at the heart of life and being.
Available to be a part of
in every moment
of each situation as it arises,
to those with eyes to see
and ears to hear,
and hearts to comprehend.

01

We are living in crazy times--
uncertain times--
upside down times.

The landmarks are not to be trusted.
Nothing is.
What once applied
no longer applies.

It is all being made up as we go,
created on the run.
Why are we running?
What are we running to?
What are we running from?
Why run?

Sit down.
Sit tight.
Stand pat.
Be still.
Be quiet.
Breathe.
Slowly.
Deeply.
Take stock.

What is so with you?
What do you know to be so?
Pull that to you.
Surround yourself 
with what you know to be so.

What is missing?
What has been lost?
What do you long for?
What is to be grieved and mourned?
Invite that into your awareness.

Sit with it all,
just breathing,
just knowing,
just being present with
all that is present with you.

How things are is a product
of how things have been,
and an indication of how things will be
for longer than we want to be so.

In the midst of the upheaval,
floundering in "the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea,"
we crave stability,
reliability,
certainty,
confidence,
clarity,
balance,
harmony,
peace...

And all we have is what's now
and what's next.
And we are the only thing
holding those two things together.

We are what is now.
We are what is next.
What we do matters.
What we do makes all the difference.

Imagine two identical circles,
side-by-side,
barely touching.
The two circles represent
the opposites/contraries/contradictions
at work in our life.

They can be past and future,
now and not-yet,
hope and hopelessness, 
good and evil--
whatever you envision to be the most pressing
opposition in your life here and now.

And you stand at their point of contact.

Call it the "sweet spot."
Call it the place of transformation.
Call it the doorway to the future.
Call it the place of crucifixion.
Call it the cross that is ours to bear.
Call it the work that is ours to do.

It is where we are asked to act
in integrating the opposites,
in merging the polarities,
in making the peace between two worlds.

We do that by being 
the balance and harmony
we seek. 

We do that by living out of our own center.
By standing on--
being anchored in-- 
the adamantine rock
of our own foundation.

By being who we are,
living out of our original nature,
out of our innate way of being
true to ourselves
moment-to-moment
in each situation as it arises.

We are what we seek!
We have what we need!
We are "the still point of the turning world"
"where the dance is"
(T.S. Eliot)!

And it is our place to dance with
what is happening
and with what needs to happen,
at the meeting place of
"the circles of confusion."

To do that, 
we have to seek our own center.
We have to know who we are.
We have to be true to our Original Nature,
to our innate virtues/gifts/character/daemon
(sounds like "diamond),
even here,
even now,
no matter what,
moment-to-moment,
in each situation as it arises.

Our work is cut out for us.
And we are cut out for the work
that is ours to do--
that no one but us can do--
here and now.

May it be so,
always and forever!

–0–

02

At what  point do we interfere in our life, 
to direct or oppose, 
and at what point do “go with the flow”? 

These things are judgement calls all the way.
 
By what authority do we do either? 
Who knows what to do when? 
And were does our “knowledge” come from? 

Certainly not from knowing what we are doing! 

We proceed, or interrupt, 
and deal with the fallout, 
with the outcome. 

How much of a mess can we make of things 
before we start cleaning up? 

Our life is an experiment with living. 
We try things out and see how they fit. 
See how it goes. 
Decide what to do next based on 
what we did last, 
or before last. 

We write the book 
of rules to live by 
as we go. 

We live our way to knowing what to do. 
We do not think our way there. 

And it helps to sit still, 
to stand pat, 
and listen, 
look, 
waiting 
for “the mud to settle 
and the water to clear.” 

To know what we know 
and what we do not know, 
and wait to know what needs to be done. 

The silence holds all of the answers.

–0–

03

Why do we see things the way we do?
How do we know what to do?
How do we decide what to do?
What guides our boat on its path through the sea?

The silence holds all the answers.

Knowing.
Wanting.
Doing.
Being.
What is the source of these things?
What is their goal?
Toward what do we live?

The silence holds all the answers.

How do we gauge better and worse?
Good and bad?
Right and wrong?
In light of what do we live?

The silence holds all of the answers.

"It is all grist for the mill,"
goes the old saying.
What are we milling?

Who says so?
Who knows so?
What makes us think so?
On the basis of what?

The silence holds all of the answers.

What is our Original Nature?
Our innate disposition?
Our psychological "type"?

What are our gifts/preferences/
proclivities/interests/
virtues/character/daemon
(sounds like "diamond")?

Start there.
Living to bring forth
who we are--
who we are capable of being--
within the terms and conditions,
context and circumstances,
of our life here and now.

Simply seeing.
Simply hearing.
Simply doing what needs to be done.
Moment by moment.

Knowing 
the silence holds all of the answers.

01

If you are not essentially happy
with yourself and your way with life,
you need to transform your relationship
with the way things are.

If you think you are not happy enough,
think that you ought to be more happy
than you are,
spend time thinking about your level
of unhappiness
and your desire to be happier,
you need to transform your relationship
with the way things are.

If you are thinking that no one could be happy
in a stinking old life like yours is,
living where you do,
with chances that alternate between fat and slim,
and prospects that are even worse than that,
you need to transform your relationship
with the way things are.

Specifically, you need to stop thinking 
that your happiness is dependent upon
and flows from the way things are,
and start thinking that your happiness
is dependent upon 
and flows from the way you think
about the way things are.

Change your way of thinking
and you improve your happiness quotient 
just like that (snaps fingers).

Step #1 is to stop thinking at all.

In order to do that,
we first have to slow our thinking down.
We do that by thinking about our thinking.
Sit still.
Be quiet.
Watch your thoughts.
Count the thoughts you have
over a span of sixty seconds.
This will be your reference marker.

Continue to watch your thoughts
and categorize them--
and as you categorize them,
notice what emotions are connected with them.
Which categories of thought
create,
or come with what emotions attached to?
Notice the instantaneous connection
between thoughts and emotions.

Become curious about that.
About the relationship between thoughts
and emotions.

What are your predominant emotions
throughout each day?
What thoughts generate those emotions?

Take up the work of separating
thoughts from emotions.
Practice having thoughts with no emotions attached.
Notice how changing your thoughts
changes your emotions.
Think of your breathing--
count your breaths to ten,
and start over if you think about something else,
and notice how your emotions change
just by focusing on your breathing,
paying attention to your breath,
and counting the breaths you take.

Notice how when you are not in the grip of emotions,
when your emotional level drops to nothing,
the default, residual, emotion is peace.

Peace is the absence of emotion,
and the foundation of happiness.
And it is strictly dependent upon
the type of thinking you do.

Step #2 is to think without judgment or opinion.

Think about the things that stir you to intense emotion.
And think about separating your thoughts
from your emotions.
Think the thoughts without judgment or opinion.
Do not judge or form opinions about having the thoughts.
Think them with no judgment or opinion at all,
on any level.

Take up the practice of thinking without judgment or opinion.
Think neutrally.
Think without taking sides.
Think without being shanghaied, 
kidnapped 
and held hostage
by your thoughts.
Think without judgment or opinion.

And let peace like a river carry you away
from the intensity of emotional involvement
with your thoughts
to the blessed place of having thoughts without 
emotions attached.

The more you practice separating your thoughts
from emotions,
the more peace you will experience
and the happier you will be.

The more you give yourself over to emotional thinking,
the less peace you will have
and the more unhappy you will be.

The Jon Kabat-Zinn YouTube videos
(Shortest ones first)
on Mindfulness Based Stress Reductiopn
are excellent sources
for learning to distance yourself
from your thinking
and from the emotions your thinking arouse. 

At this point in the program,
I turn you over to you.

01

The work is to live aligned
with our life.
To put ourselves in accord
with the Tao.
And see where it goes
and what is being asked of us
moment-to-moment
in each situation as it arises. 

Our original nature--
which has nothing to do with 
what we want/desire,
and everything to do with
our natural impulses
and propensities
toward one thing
and away from another--
it a trustworthy guide,
a reliable pilot
for our boat 
on its path through the sea.

We are not alone on the journey,
and have everything we need
to find our life and live it--
to know what's what
and what is called for
in each situation that develops
over the course of our life,
but must maintain regular
and reliable connection with
the silence and 
with the source of
life and being
in order to know what we know
and do what needs to be done.

This is the way of living from 
the center,
with balance and harmony,
sincerity and serenity,
without contrivance or exploitation,
spontaneously responding to the moment
and rising to every occasion
with what is appropriate 
and necessary for the time and place
of our living.

To do so is to live successfully
as a free and independent human being
with liege devotion
and filial loyalty
to our gifts/genius/daemon
and our place in "the great scheme of things"--
at one with the cosmos
and in sync with the AUM... of existence.

–0–

02

We are always Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In every moment we are faced with their choice:
To seize the moment,
assume control,
take our life in our own hands,
and throw ourselves into doing
what appears to be in our own interest
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
in each situation as it arises--
contriving to turn every opportunity
into its best possible outcome,
exploiting each occasion to serve
our desire du jour 
and live happily ever after,
or until the next moment,
whichever comes first.

The alternative to The Garden of Eden is,
of course,
The Garden of Gethsemane,
with it's "Thy will, not mine be done."

This is the redeeming, atoning, option--
and the Return to Eden--
if we could only see it as such.
But the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve
have their own idea about what is good (for them),
and so, we opt again and again,
for The Way of Eden
and not The Way of the Cross.

We live in The Wasteland all our life long,
with Paradise one slight perspective shift away
throughout our days upon the earth. 

Understanding the "Thy" in the Gethsemane formula
to be "Our Life As It Might Yet Be,"
or, as the ancient Chinese understood the term,
"The Tao of Life and Being"
flips the switch,
"turns the light around,"
and transforms the Wasteland to Paradise
before our eyes.

Submitting to The Tao,
acquiescing to the need of the moment
for the right action
done in the right way
at the right time,
here and now,
moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises,
is the miraculous transition from 
My Way to The Way,
and the Return to Eden
and to Life As It Needs To Be.

Eden or Gethsemane?
Death presenting itself as life,
or death as the doorway to life?
Which will it be
here and now
every day?


   

–0–

03

We perceive what is important--
what matters most--
moment-to-moment
in each situation as it arises.
And do it.
Here and now.
The way it needs to be done.

Finding--not forcing--the way.
Listening--not imposing.
Looking--not insisting.
Like a butcher holding the knife,
but allowing the knife to show him the path
between gristle and meat,
bone and bone.

Moment-to-moment
all our life long.

–0–

04

Happiness is being at peace with the way things are.
Unhappy is being out of sorts with the way things are.
Letting the way things are get to you
is the way of happiness.
Refusing to let the way things are get to you
is the way of happiness.

People who let the way things are get to them
think they have no choice in the matter.
It is automatic with them.
There is no distance between them
and the way things are.
They do not know how to distance themselves
from the way things are.
They do not know where they stop
and where the way things are start.
They need to enter the silence
and wonder about these things.

People who do not let the way things are get to them
know where they stop
and where the way things are start.
They know what they can do about the way things are
and what they cannot do,
and they understand that their place
is to adapt themselves to the way things are,
not to force the way things are to mesh with their wishes
for how things ought to be.
They grasp the saying:
"This is the way things are,
and this is what you can do about it,
and that's that--
and that is the way things are."

The people who let the way things are get to them
will not accept this fundamental fact
about the way things are.

Our happiness depends upon our being able to
accept this fundamental fact
about the way things are.
Until we do that,
we are going to be unhappy
when things don't go our way.
And when they do go our way--
because then we will be worried about
how long it is going to be before 
they stop going our way.
And the very idea of that
will make us unhappy.

01

Live from the center--
seek the source.

To have any idea of what
I am talking about,
you have to sit still,
be quiet,
enter the silence,
and wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

How long that will take
depends on how open you are
to the silence.

How attentive you are.
How present you are.
How alive you are.
To the silence.

The silence is the doorway--
the portkey--
to life and light and peace,
inner peace,
the peace required
to live from the center
and to seek the source.

How much silence can you take
before the monsters there
chase you back 
to the bright lights
and loud noises
of the real world?

We meet everything in the silence.
The silence is not silent at all.
In addition to the monsters
are the memories,
the shame,
the fear,
the guilt,
the remorse,
the anger...
arising from what you have done
and failed to do,
and from what has been done to you
and not done enough, or at all...

And beyond the din of confusion and chaos 
is "the still small voice,"
which may not be a voice at all,
but more like recognition,
realization,
awareness,
insight,
illumination,
enlightenment,
knowing...
how things are
and what needs to be done about it,
in response to it.

Something is being asked of you,
and you are seeking clarity
regarding what that is,
and the courage to do it.

Sitting it out in the silence
takes courage.
And patience,
and curiosity,
and playfulness,
and good humor,
and hope,
and trust,
and faith--
in what, we do not know.

And it doesn't matter "in what."
Trust in the silence.
Faith in the silence.
Trust in you.
Faith in you.
Start with that.

Everything comes down to this,
and flows from this,
and falls into place around this:

Sitting still,
being quiet,
and waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

In order to live from the center,
and seek the source.

–0–

02

I play Orr to your Yossarian,
and you play Orr to my Yossarian,
and we dance together through all eternity.

Conversation is communion in the making.

We have to talk.
To each other.
To the point of hearing what is being said--
what we are saying
and what the other is saying--
and understanding what it all means,
and being right about what is being called for,
and doing it,
the way it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done.

Self-transparency is essential.
We cannot be kidding ourselves.
Particularly about our good-faith,
our sincerity,
and our openness to all that is going on
within and without
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises.

Candor is essential.
Trust is paramount.
Liberty, Justice, Equality, Truth are foundational.
No contrivance, no exploitation, no hidden agendas
are entry level requirements.
No judgment, no opinion, no emotional reactivity--
just listening, just hearing, just looking, just seeing,
just seeking together who we are,
what we are about,
what we have to say,
and how we can help each other
find our life and live it.

The making of a Community of Innocence.
Innocent in the sense of 
having no designs on the other
beyond seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding,
being and doing
what needs to be done
to improve and sustain our life together over time.

What do we have to say that needs saying?
That's what we talk about
throughout the time left for living.

No arguing.
No debating.
Just saying.
Just listening.
Just hearing.
Just knowing.
Just understanding.
Just being.
Just doing
what needs to be done
to improve and sustain
our life together over time.

01

Everything waits for the right thing
to be said,
done,
in the right place,
at the right time,
in the right way.

Every situation is dying 
for a dose of the right thing.

How long has it been
since the right thing
came your way?

Since you brought it forth
with word and deed?

Each day dawns
hoping for the right thing
somewhere
today.

How many days die
without the right thing
coming forth as blessing and grace
anywhere.

So many people everywhere
living in the service 
of the wrong thing.
Living as stewards
of the wrong thing.
Living as devoted disiples
of the wrong thing.
Saying and doing wrong
everywhere they go.
Not caring.
Happy to be being wrong
for every situation they meet.

Who is there to offset their influence?
To introduce the right thing
into the circumstances of their living?
To be right for the time
that is at hand?
To care about the things
that need to be cared about?
About the people languishing
for a kind word,
a gentle presence,
offered at the right time,
in the right way?

Who is there to nudge the world
back to the right way
of being present for the good
of the whole
and all of its parts,
with the right word
and the right deed
in the right place
at the right time
in the right way?

–0–

02

Sit with it.
With everything.
With each thing.
Sit with it.

Rushing past this to that
keeps us from squaring up
to any of it.
From being aware of it.
From seeing it.
From seeing what is called for.
From orienting ourselves to it
in the right way
and coming forth 
with the right response.

Riding our default reaction
from this to that
throughout the landscape
litters the land 
with missed opportunities
for the good to fall
like welcome rain
on a parched and dying world.

Sitting with it
opens the wellspring of living waters
pouring out,
spilling over
as grace and hope
for what might yet be.

Sit with it 
and see what emerges
to redeem the moment
and light the path
to the next sitting place
and the next miracle
hoping to be birthed
with the right response,
at the right time,
in the right way.

–0–

03

Do what needs to be done
because it needs to be done
as best you can
whether it does any good or not.

Be good for nothing.

As best you can.

In each situation as it arises.

All your life long.

No one can do better than that.

–0–

04

We say "God" as though we have said something
when we say "God."

We can get into fits and rages arguing about "God,"
and no one knows what they are talking about.

We are talking about "ideas" about "God."

Whose ideas? It depends, but all we know of "God"
is something somebody else said.

We also talk about "life" as though we know 
what we are talking about,
but no one knows what "life" is,
or where it comes from,
or where it goes,
except that some of us are certain that 
"life" comes from "God"
and goes back to "God."

"Electricity," "microwaves," "radio waves," "death,"
The list is long of things we do not comprehend.

"Conscious," "unconscious," "self," "soul," "love,"...

We are awash in mystery
and we haven't been astonished or astounded all day.

Which is something else I can make no sense of.

01

Living from the center
of our Original Nature,
seeking the Source of Life and Being,
embracing the Mystery at the heart of it all,
we become the Messiah,
The Anointed One,
come to set others free
to live from the center
of their own Original Nature,
seeking the Source of Life and Being,
embracing the Mystery at the heart of it all...

And so it is passed
from one to another,
the secret of doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
in each moment
of every situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Living well is responding well
to the circumstances of life
day in and day out,
with nothing in it for us
beyond living our life 
as it needs to be lived
one moment at a time.

See what you look at,
listen to what you are hearing,
know what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
and do it.

Time after time.

"Without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat, "Doctor Who").

Smiling.
Laughing.
Because it needs to be done.
Because it needs us to do it.
And here we are.
Why not?

–0–

02

We have four problems:
Knowing what is happening,
Knowing what needs to be done about it,
Knowing what we can do about that,
Doing it.

That's it.
Everything falls into place around 
these four things.

In order for these four things to happen,
we need a perspective
that takes itself into account,
and enough distance between ourselves
and what is happening
to allow observation and reflection
to the point of realization,
and from there,
it comes down to courage.

My own, personal, path to being courageous
is to tell myself,
"I owe it to myself to find out
if I have anything to be afraid of."
Which means doing what I am afraid of.

The only way to know if our ghosts and goblins
are real
is to walk up to them
and spit in their eye--
prepared to deal with any outcome,
and trusting ourselves
to know what to do,
and do it,
no matter what happens.

Knowing what to do comes from
living from the center of our Original Nature,
and letting whatever happens happen,
continuing to live from the center
of our Original Nature
through it all.

We build up a very strong bond
with our Original Nature this way,
and with that as our anchor
to the rock of who we are,
we take the position of Ulysses
in being able to declare,
"I will persevere and endure.
And when the heaving sea
has shaken my raft to pieces,
then I will swim!"

The ghost and goblins will have
met their match.
And we will be reliably who we are
in each situation as it arises.
That is the optimal position
from which to live our life
through what remains of the time left for living.

Be there.
Do that.

–0–

03

There are at least two things 
about the Dalai Lama that are instructive
and helpful at this point in our collective life.

The first reflects the Zen saying,
"If you meet an elephant coming toward you
along the path--
GET OFF THE PATH!!!"

When China invaded and destroyed Tibet,
the Dalai Lama got out of town,
out of the country,
and took refuge in Pakistan.
The Dalai Lama saw what was happening
and knew what to do in response.

That is the first thing.
The second thing is like unto it.

The Dalai Lama is the shinning light
of compassion wherever he goes.
He has never said a disparaging word about China,
or the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
His demeanor is one of loving-kindness and humility.
He espouses love for one another and all others
all of the time.

And yet, and yet...

The Dalai Lama's bodyguards carry automatic weapons.

The Dalai Lama is no fool.

The Dalai Lama is the living example 
of the importance of embodying Yin and Yang
in our daily life.
Integrating the opposites.
Harmonizing the contradictions.
Balancing the dichotomies.
Living out of the tension of the polarities.
Dancing with the contraries.
Bearing the pain of incompatible truths.
Maintaining the peace and serenity of the center
"between the hands"
(On the one hand, this, and on the other hand, that).

These two things are how it is to be with us.

We harmonize, balance, keep the peace 
between opposing forces.
And bear in our body the marks of the cross--
the cross of irreconcilable poles,
treating the important things
as though they are important
without taking anything seriously.

Find that balance point
and you become the source of harmony
the world is dying for.

And you find that you are able
to do what needs to be done
when and where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done, 
With equanimity, balance and harmony,
homeostasis and equilibrium--
like a gyroscope turning out of its own center,
stabilizing all the world.

–0–

04

Which would you prefer:
to be loved,
or to be treated lovingly?

Think of Jesus' command
to "Love your neighbor
as you love yourself"
in this light.

Jesus doesn't care how we feel
about your neighbor.
Jesus cares about how we treat your neighbor.

When white supremacists say,
"I don't hate black people,"
but black people can't tell the difference
between being hated and not being hated,
they may a well hate black people
for all the good not hating them does them.

The idea is to treat all people of color lovingly,
along with all other people.
So they cannot tell whether we love them or not--
and don't care.

Believe whatever it takes
to treat all people lovingly.
That is as much theology as anyone needs.

01

Think of Karma as the other side of Tao.
Living in accord with the Tao
creates good Karma.
Living out of accord with the Tao
creates bad Karma.

Living in accord with the Tao
creates balance and harmony.
Living out of accord with the Tao
creates complexity and chaos.

We add complexity and chaos to our life
by living out of accord with the Tao.
When we diss the Tao,
dismiss the Tao,
disregard the Tao,
deny the Tao,
fail/refuse to respect and honor the Tao,
we build bad Karma
that spills over into generations yet unborn.

The world has been building bad Karma
for as long as there have been people in the world.
The story of Adam and Eve symbolizes 
all people through the ages.
They live in Paradise
and think they can improve it.

People have their ideas for making things better.
Wealth was our worst idea.
The world will never get over that one.
That one is destroying the planet.
And is capable of destroying the cosmos.
Wealth frees us from the constraints 
built into the system,
and expands our power for creating
complexity and chaos exponentially.

Before wealth,
the world slogged around
in opinions and preferences.
Things were bad,
but they were not capable 
of the total destruction
of the self-correcting system
of Karma and Tao.

With wealth,
things quickly got out of hand.
Wealth is a tsunami of destruction
whipping around the world,
building speed and power
over generations.
It is the bad Karma it creates.
Bad Karma creating bad karma by the moment
leaves no room for recovery.
The Tao is trashed.
Good Karma is a distant memory.
Bad goes to worse and the worst is at the door.

Which gets us to us,
here and now.
It is incumbent upon us,
here and now,
to put ourselves in accord with the Tao
and live in ways which honor Karma,
by seeing what needs to be done
and doing it the way it needs to be done
in each moment of each situation 
as it arises--
with sincerity and spontaneity,
without contrivance and exploitation--
to be good for the moment
for the good of the moment,
with nothing else in mind.

To live like this is to live truthfully
and prayerfully--
it is to be the prayer we would say,
doing the things we would ask to be done for us.
We now ask them to be done through us,
and engage the power of prayer
by initiating the work of prayer
in lives aligned with the Tao
for the true good of all concerned,
with humility and compassion for every living thing.

Will you do that to the best of your ability,
day by day--
"without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat, Doctor Who)?

That is the hope of the world.

–0–

02

We are primarily motivated by fear, anger and desire.
We live to get, acquire, possess, have, own, amass
and to keep from losing anything.
Ours is a foraging, aggressive, ambitious, driven stock.
We are from the steppes and the deserts,
invading, ransacking, pillaging, destroying, laying waste--
never satisfied, never quiet, never at peace.
Always looking for triumph and victory,
to vanquish and conquer,
plunder and loot.
Outer Space is just another booty source
awaiting our corporate takeover.
It isn't just about the money or the fame.
It is about taking their women and their horses
and leaving them hanging by their necks,
twisting in the wind.

Take that bent and try to civilize it,
and you get pretty much what you see everyday. 
The dregs of Viking raiders 
with no seas safe to sail.
It's all gone to Mafia Bosses
and their organizations running the world
behind a facade of life as it ought to be.

"Promise them anything and do what you want!"
reads: "Take their women and their horses
and leave them to the wind!"

Where is the Sherif that isn't on their payroll?
The Judges that aren't on the take?
The presidents and the princes/kings
not in their little black books?

Leaving the people with what?
Protest and Truth!
We all are Alexei Navalny!
It is all that is left to be!
We shepherd the Tao
and live as stewards of Dharma--
seeing and doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
here and now,
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises.

Simple acts of kindness and compassion,
grace and mercy,
peace and love
as servants of Protest and Truth.

Our Sisyphean Task for the rest of time!

–0–

03

Theology robs us of our role as truth-bearers
by telling us what to believe
and what to do.
That is our place to determine
and to effect.

"Why don't you judge for yourselves
what is right?"
Jesus puts it to us exactly as it ought to be.

We are to see what is right and do it.
Moment-by-moment 
in each situation as it arises.

We cannot even be thinking,
"What would Jesus do?"
What will WE do is the question?
"Who do YOU say that I am?"
What do WE say is right?

We are the authority governing
how we live and what we live for.
No one can do that for us.
Not the theologians.
Not the preachers.
Not the popes, cardinals, bishops...

We are on our own.
How shall we proceed?

Prayerfully!

Only prayer as it ought to be,
not as it is.

Living prayerfully is living truthfully!

Prayer is openness to truth.
Truth is realization born of experience.
Prayer is openness to the truth of experience
with everything on the line.
What is happening here, now?
What is being called for?
We step into each moment
out of our experience 
with each preceding moment,
alert to what those moments
can show us about this moment
and how we might best respond to it.

Prayerful, mindful, reflection and awareness
guides our acting on the field of action.

Prayer is more than Thanksgiving, Intercession,
Petition, Confession and Praise.
Prayer is Looking/Listening/Seeing/Hearing/
Knowing/Understanding/Being/Doing.

Living from the place of this kind of prayer
is living from the center of what matters most,
from the source of Life and Being,
from the Mystery at the heart of who we are.

We live to be who we are 
within the context and circumstances of our life.
Jesus couldn't do more.
We are born to do as much.
We do it prayerfully, truthfully,
with self-transparency,
sincerity
and spontaneity,
balance and harmony,
and the virtues, gifts and daemon
(sounds like "diamond")
that came with us from the womb.

Deciding for ourselves what is right,
here and now,
and what to do about it,
all our life long. 

–0–

04

How do you know what to do?
Seriously.
How do you decide what to do?

We are doing constantly
throughout the day
every day.
What leads us to do one thing 
and not another?
What is the process by which you decide
when to do what and how?

We are here, now,
by virtue of the decisions/choices we made
from birth to here, now.
What guided us in making those decisions/choices?
How did we know what to do?
Why that and not something else instead?

What leads you to do what you do?
When to do it?

Sit down with these question
and all of the questions they raise,
until you stir realization into being.

What guides your boat on its path through the sea?

What alternatives can you imagine?
How might you go about changing 
the way you make decisions about what to do?

Are you willing to experiment?
To try new ways of deciding?
If not, why not?
What are you afraid of?
What keeps things as they are in your life?

Search out the answers.
See what you find!

–0–

05

Harlan Howard's line that 
"country music is three cords and the truth,"
begs the question,
"How truthful is truth that conceals truth?"
"That denies truth?"
"That pretends what is 'Also Truth' 
doesn't deserve a spot on the charts?"

Flip through those country music charts
for the truth about racism,
homosexuality,
trans-gender men and women, girls and boys,
misogyny,
sex-trafficking...
the list is long.

The themes propounding "The Truth"
are few,
and worn,
and recurring--
because that is all 
anyone cares to hear.

Truth is the least popular item
in any genre on any day.
"You can take your truth and shove it"
sounds like the title
to a hot country song. 

–0–

06

See what needs to be done
and do it.
Nothing to it.
Then do it again.
And again. 
To The End.
That’s all there is to it.

Loneliness gets to be a problem,
particularly with the realization
that it is all up to us.
But it is always all up to us.

Marianne Moore said,
"The cure for loneliness is solitude."

The work is transforming our relationship
with ourselves.
With our Original, Innate, Nature.
We are more than capable
of seeing what needs to be done
and doing it.
We all have what it takes to do that.
We have made it this far,
we can make it all the way,
just by seeing what needs to be done
and doing it.

And by relying on our Original Nature
to be with us
as Guardian, Guide and Friend
all the way.

Work on making the Other You
a real and present force/friend in your life.

Pay attention to her/his presence,
her/his reality,
her/his dependability,
her/his caring, devoted, help--
your "very present help in time of trouble,"
and all other times as well.

The Other You is always there,
and will always be there.

Find ways of connecting with
this side of yourself,
become real to you.
Trust yourself to be what you need
in all times and places.
And you will never be alone again.

01

Genghis Khan lamented 
that conquering and governing
were two different ways of life,
and mutually exclusive.
Conquers cannot govern.

It is the difference between 
ruthlessness and kindness.

The Genesis command
to "fill the earth and subdue it"
is not a call to be
stewards of the earth
but a directive to conquer the earth
as though it were booty 
and not home.

Laying waste to life
is no way to honor and revere life.
The desert nomads 
had no experience with 
tenderness and mercy.
They could win the victory,
but then what?

The Tao te Ching speaks to
the futility of war,
saying, in essence,
"To win the war is to lose the point."

The point is living together
in ways that benefit everyone
by taking everything into account.
"Do your work and step back,
letting nature take its course."

Our work has to be done in the right way,
at the right time,
and serve the true good of all concerned.

No contrivance.
No exploitation.
No seeking personal advantage,
profit,
benefit,
gain.

Subduing and conquering miss the point.

And subduing and conquering 
are all we know.

Police subdue and conquer.
And everybody suffers
from their refusal
to govern with compassion and grace.

We need stewards of life and property.
Not bullies with guns and choke holds.

Too many in law enforcement
have agendas at odds with
their mission of peacekeepers. 
Being peaceful themselves
is the first step.

Force is to be the last resort,
not the first impulse.

Help me pass the word.

–0–

02

We have to be ready for anything.

We can have our plans and agendas,
but life is always 
coming along to carry us away
to a place quite different
from anything we had in mind--
or would ever imagine--

Our place is to be carried along.
That's how we got here.
It is how we will get 
to wherever we are going.

We may think we are achieving,
accomplishing,
succeeding,
triumphing,
conquering...
but all the while,
we are being carried along
by forces we cannot comprehend
through times and places 
we cannot make sense of
to where we do not know.

There is no destination.
"There is only the dance"
(T. S. Eliot).
Which makes this moment
the only moment,
the most precious moment.

Now matters most.
How do we do now?
That is the question 
from here on out.
How do we do this,
right now?

How we do this, now,
leads to all that follows.
Doing this well--
the way it needs to be done--
has implications 
for the rest of our life.

We hold eternity in the palm of our hand.

There is no destination.
There is only here, now.
What's next is only an extension,
no matter how different it is,
it is just another here, now.

We practice doing that well
by doing this well.
Here, now.

–0–

03

Look around.

We would prefer for a lot of things
to be something other than they are,
but we have no reason to expect anything
to be different than it is.

Flip a coin.
It's going to come up heads or tails.
Why go off on it being one and not the other?

If things were different than they are
how much of that do you think 
we would want to be different still?

It doesn't matter how things are,
we have to work with them however they are.
Our work is the same no matter what.

We look around, see what needs to be done,
and do it as best we can
with the gifts, genius, daemon (sounds like "diamond")
knacks, virtues, interests and qualities
that came with us from the womb.

We bring our Original Nature to bear upon
our circumstances in each situation as it arises.
And that's that.

It doesn't matter what our circumstances are
Our Original Nature remains the same,
and our work in integrating our Nature
with our circumstances remains the same.

Our place is to see how things are and get to work.
Heads or tails.
It's all the same to us.
Why get bent out of shape by it?
Just get to work!
Doing what needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises,
all day,
every day.

This is our Sisyphean Task
throughout our life.
How we approach it makes all the difference! 

01

Nothing is more important than
being right about what is important,
and serving it with your life
through each situation
as it arises
from beginning to end.

The same thing goes for what matters most.

Human beings throughout time,
have been famous 
for missing the point of their life,
striving for the wrong ends,
using means inappropriate to the occasion
and barking up the wrong tree.

For not having a clue about what's important.

We have done what everybody else was doing
in the service of what everybody else
said was important.
Or done what somebody else 
told us was important.
Lived to please the wrong people,
and spent our life doing the wrong things.

Jesus said it best:
"Why don't you judge for yourselves
what is right?"

What is right?
Who says so?
What do you say?
How do you know if you are right
about what is right?

Take up the quest
to discover who guides your boat
on its path through the sea.

Who tells you what is right
and what is wrong,
what is good, 
what is bad,
what is important,
what matters most.

And what makes you think
they know what they are talking about?

Or, do you just not want 
the responsibility yourself,
and don't care if they know
what they are saying or not?

If you were all alone in the world,
how would you decide/know what to do?

–0–

02

The Bible is a collection of writings
from people about what they thought
was important,
collected by people who thought
what they had to say was important.

It belongs to, 
and needs to be read
in conjunction with,
all similar writings by other people
throughout time,
as a source of reflection
for our own ruminations
regarding what is important,
and a pathway to realization
as we make connections,
find similarities,
uncover themes and trends,
ask all the questions that beg to be asked
(And all the questions their answers
beg to be asked)
in forming our own idea 
about what matters most,
finding our own center,
anchoring ourselves onto our own foundation,
and living in light of,
and in service to,
what we know to be important
out of our own experience with life
and our own observations
of life being lived around us.

What is helpful?
What works?
What is guiding our boat
on its path through the sea?

–0–

03

Every single thing in the cosmos
(And anywhere else)
strives for homeostasis,
for balance and harmony,
for equilibrium, 
equanimity,
peace,
smooth and easy.

That is the first thing.

The second is this:
Flowers turn toward the sunlight,
bees search out the flowers,
ants find the picnics,
cats land on their feet,
and water seeks its own level.

Every single thing in the cosmos
(Etc.)
has its own innate nature,
its own original nature,
its own way of doing things.

Roots go downward,
limbs and branches go upward.
Geese fly south in the fall
and north in the spring.

And nothing knows why.

That is the second thing.

This is the third thing:
How does this pertain to you?
What does this have to do with you?
How do you fit into this picture?

How do you find your balance and harmony?
What is your original nature?
How do you assist with--
or work against--
yourself?

How is this going to impact 
your way with life
going forward?

–0–

04

Where do you take refuge?
Where do you find solace?
Where do you go to restore your soul?
What are your sources of comfort and courage?
What keeps you going?

It is important to know these things,
and to consciously,
deliberately,
intentionally,
willfully
and regularly
avail yourself of their balms 
and salves,
their peace and consolation.

We aren't much without the sustaining retreats
to "the land of gentle breezes
where the peaceful waters flow"
(Anne Murray, Snowbird).

Know where to go when you need to,
and go there!