01

Pace and timing, Kid.
Pace and timing.

The geese fly when it is time for flying.
The photographer takes the picture
when it is time to take the picture.

Now is always "the acceptable time"
for something.
Being right about what
is where we come in.

It is our place in the cosmos
to know what it is time for 
here and now,
and to be right about it,
and to rise to the occasion
and do the best we can
in the service of the What,
Here and Now--
and let that be that,
as we move on to the next here and now,
looking, 
listening,
for the What that needs to happen then and there.

It is always the right time for something.
Maybe a nap.
Maybe a pizza.
The possibilities are well nigh infinite.

We have to be alert to our choices
and sensitive to what is being called for,
to what we are being asked to do.
Curve ball or slider,
or a fast one on the inside corner?
It is our place to know these things.
And it is the batter's place as well.
How it all unfolds
is what we are here to find out,
in the moment-to-moment
Adventure of Being Alive.

Pace and timing, Kid.
Pace and timing.

–0–

02

"Many are called, but few are chosen,"
said Jesus of Nazareth.
Along with,
"The Kingdom of God is spread out
all over the earth,
and no one sees it."
And:
"What you seek is right before you,
right here, right now,
and people walk by it unknowing,
like it is a treasure hidden
in a field by the side of the road,
or a priceless pearl 
in the costume jewelry bin
at the local flea market,
or a stone the builder's reject."

Of course, there is a catch.
Joseph Campbell points it out
with his,
"What you seek lies far to the back
in the darkest corner 
of the cave you most don't want to enter."

The new life we long for
will eat our old life alive.

That is the reason for many being called
and few answering the call.

Do we have what it takes
to do what needs to be done?

Jesus' death on the cross
doesn't save anyone from anything.
It points the way to everyone
to the path of being fully alive
in the time left for living.

The trek to the empty tomb
takes us through the Garden of Gethsemane
and across the face of Golgotha,
into the depths of the cave
we most do not want to enter.

They don't mention that to you
in the sermons about Easter Morning.

Theology denies the very truth it proclaims.

The truth only sets us free
to do what needs to be done.
How free is that?

We want to be free
to do what we want
and have it thrill us
the way we want to be thrilled.

And that's what the truth
sets us free from
in setting us free for
doing what needs us to do it
here and now,
where what we want
only gets in the way. 

–0–

03

I will run out of time
before I run out of things to say.
And some things can't be said often enough.
So, here we go.
Again.
Some more.
As always.

Doing what needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
with the gifts, genius, daemon
(sounds like "diamond")
that come with us from the womb,
is not beyond any of us.

What keeps it from happening
all of the time?
The stake we have in the outcome.

Something is at stake in every moment.
Something is to be gained.
Something is to be lost.
Something matters to someone
more than doing what needs doing.
Someone will do anything 
to get something,
or to keep from losing something.

What needs to be done in each moment
is lost and forgotten,
ignored and overlooked,
by those who live in the service
of getting and keeping what they want.

Our own personal good--
or that of those we love--
is our highest good.
The good of the moment
doesn't have a chance.
The moment is here only for our good.
We are not here for the moment's good.

We cannot be good for the moment
because we are here for our good
in every moment.

And that is the kink in the hose.

–0–

04

That Which Has Always Been Called "God"
is the Silence at the Heart
of Life and Being--
which is also the Source of Life and Being--
which is also the Mystery of Life and Being.

Calling it "God"
and doing flips 
to get it to do our bidding
is one of the best examples
of self-deception being labeled
"self-evident,"
and passing itself off for 
"revealed truth"
in the Big Book of Tricks We Play on Ourselves.

There is only us and the Silence
and all that comes from the Silence
into the sphere of Life and Being--
eventually returning to the Silence,
and to what then,
we do not know.

All we know is right here right now.
What we make of it
and do about it
is up to us.

"Right" and "wrong"
are ways of structuring 
our experience of Live and Being,
but both are dependent upon 
the needs of the moment at hand
in conjunction with the times
that are always a-changing,
but within which it is possible
to be "ahead of the times"
or "behind the times."

To be "at one with the times,"
"in sync with the times,"
"in accord with the times,"
is to be "in the flow of Life and Being,"
and to "have it made"
as much as we can have it made
within the time and place of our living.

But that is to also be somewhat 
"ahead of the times,"
and "behind the times,"
at the same time.

And it is all a part of the dance
with the Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being.

"There is only the dance" (T.S. Eliot).

–0–

05

At some point,
we are all on our own
and have to make out 
as best we can.

That being the case,
it would behoove us
to learn how to read the Silence
and sense what is emerging,
arising,
beckoning,
calling,
guiding,
directing there,
and rely on it
as "a very present help"
in all times and places.

Our relationship with ourselves
and the Silence 
is the sustaining,
creative,
source of Life and Being
throughout our life,
and tending that relationship
is the most important/helpful
thing we can do for ourselves
in finding our way 
along the way.

Sit still,
be quiet,
and wait,
watch,
look,
listen
for what occurs to you 
in the silence--
on a regular, recurring, basis.

And decide for yourself
what to do about what happens there.

"We are the sculptor
and we are the stone"
(Alexis Carrel). 

–0–

06

What's helpful?
What works?

These are two centering,
grounding,
focusing questions
that every graduating senior
from high school,
junior college,
college,
university,
graduate school
should be required to answer
with a 200 word essay.

Comparing their answers over time
would be revealing,
and would reflect the graduate's
maturation over the course of their studies.

Very little else does that.

How do we measure maturation
with any degree of clarity?
We can do an adequate job 
of defending a PHD thesis
without any idea of what is helpful
or what works.

But, if we are going to do much 
of a job with our life,
we have to figure these two things out,
and apply our answers appropriately,
early on.

01

Learning to be alive
in the time left for living
is a simple matter of
transforming your relationship
with yourself
and with your life.

You've been doing it all wrong.

Reconciliation is a two-way street.
We have to reconcile ourselves
to the world,
and we have to reconcile the world
to ourselves.

Here's the catch:
The world is not going to change
until you do.
When you change you,
you change the world.

And everything flows from 
the shift you make within
to begin seeing what you look at.
Starting with you.

What we see depends on
how we look.
More specifically,
on what we look for.

How much time do you spend
looking for beauty
in yourself and in the world?

What is beautiful about you?
What are your most beautiful features?
Where are you stopped and astounded by
something beautiful that you do?

Spend the rest of the day
looking for the beautiful things about you,
for the beautiful things you do.

And notice how you make this difficult
by interfering with the process
with judgment,
opinion,
disapproval
and censorship.

Seeing has to be just seeing!
Seeing beauty is seeing beautifully!
Take judgment,
opinion,
disapproval
and censorship
out of the way
and everything is beautiful.

See?

Start seeing beauty everywhere you look!

–0–

02

The problem with theology
across the board,
around the world,
throughout the cosmos,
is that God is right
and we are wrong.

In the Old Testament,
Abraham turns all of this on its ear
with his declaration:
"Shall not the Judge of the Universe do right?"
Judging, as he did,
"the Judge of the Universe."

Job should have taken the same tack.
We would all be better off.
But.
By the time Job came around
theology was firmly in place,
and held there by the power of those
who held the power of God in place
with their interpretation
of who God was/is and what God wanted,
which is always what they wanted
God to want.

The interpreters of God are God.
But.
In obeying them,
the people are not obeying God,
but who God's interpreters say God is.

Jesus said it best:
"Why don't you judge for yourselves
what is right?"
They (the interpreters of God) killed him
for that.

It doesn't pay to mess with 
Those Who Know Best!

The current ideas of God
are held in place by those
who kill those who have different ideas.

How do you think orthodoxy came to be?
The martyrs were all heretics, don't you know?
Orthodoxy torched the flames
that burned people at the stake.
Orthodoxy determined what was heresy
and what was Revealed (to Orthodoxy) Truth.

And now we have this wonderfully consistent
and systematic theology declaring who God is
and what makes God happy.
It is a miracle!
Not!
We got here by murdering the opposition
to Orthodoxy's way of seeing things.

God is who Those Who Know Best say God is.
And they say God is right
and we are wrong.

That's wrong.

"Why don't you decide for yourselves
what is right?"

How would we know?
We would begin by living out of 
the center of ourselves!
Feeling our way along!
Trusting ourselves to be corrected
by the results of our deciding
what is right and what is wrong.
Observing everything.
Forcing nothing.
With self-transparency
and self-awareness
and self-correction
leading the way,
like a "wheel turning 
out of its own center"--
a gyroscope maintaining
balance and harmony
with itself and its environment,
being true to itself
within the context and circumstances
of its existence,
reflecting its way into
new realizations
and new ways of seeing and doing
what needs to be done,
moment-to-moment
in each situation as it arises,
constantly deciding anew
what is right
and serving it with the gifts,
genius,
daemon (sounds like "diamond"),
spirit
and vitality
that come with us from the womb.

God couldn't do it better than that!

–0–

03

We need a better way of thinking about God.
Which means we need no theology at all.

We are God's way of becoming conscious of God.
We are mirrors which reflect God
to each other and to God.

This is not theology.
This is awareness dawning.
Only those who are stirred by it
to reflect and consider
their own awareness dawning
will find this helpful. 

Everyone else will find it to be heresy
or meaningless. 

The only kind of God-talk that is helpful
is the kind with a life of its own.
It cannot be argued or debated,
it can only be heard or not-heard.

Think of God as the right kind of silence.
The kind of silence that is vibrantly alive
with realization, awareness, insight, illumination,
recognition, creativity, comprehension, wonder,
amazement, vitality, fascination, and the qualities
and characteristics of life aborning.

God is life in the silence of being.

And so it is said, "Be still and know that I am God!"
And the "I am," is as much the knower as the known.

If this stirs something to life in you,
let it do its work--
allow it to work you over,
separating you from all the theology
you are weighed down under,
faithful to Meister Eckhart's observation:
"The final leave-taking is leaving God for God."

01

The fascist dream is a nightmare--
for everyone,
including fascists!

If we rid the world of everyone
not like we are,
we are left with ourselves,
and the realization
that who we hate is us!

Fascists hate themselves
and blame everyone not like them
for it:

"It's people like you
who make people like me
hate people like you
for carrying the projections
of people like me!"

That is the first part of the paradox.
The second is this:

To want to rid the world of fascists
is fascist.

And that leaves us with this:
Do not kill anyone ever
actually, literally, physically, really--
just work to change their mind
about what is important!

Here is what is essentially important:

It is all useless, hopeless, pointless,
meaningless and absurd,
and coming to a very bad end:
We all die--
and how we live in the meantime
makes all the difference!

If you are ever going to take anything on faith,
let it be this:
It matters how we live our life!
It matters that we live our life like this:
Doing what needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises!

That is all there is to it.

We don't have to want to.
We don't have to fee like it.
We don't have to be in the mood for it.
We only have to stand up and do it--
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises
all our life long!

Everything depends on it,
and flows from it.
And we must do it
just like our heart is completely in it.
Everything depends on it!
Everything!

Believe that with all your heart
and mind
and soul
and strength--
and DO IT!

And the world will be a better place to be
overnight!

–0–

02

All religions agree on the important points:
Do what is right
and treat each other well.

And the heart of them all is
confession,
repentance, 
atonement,
redemption.

They disagree about the fluff.

The fluff is where
the theology,
the doctrines,
the dogma,
the ways to tell who is in
and who is out,
who is us and who is them,
come in.

Religion without the fluff
is what religion is all about.

Doing what is right--
what needs to be done--
where it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done
because it needs to be done
is all the religion we need.

Believing it matters how we live
and doing our best
to be who we need to be
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises
is all the religion we need.

Living like this will include
confession,
repentance, 
atonement,
redemption.

Because that's how things are,
and it takes grace and compassion
to hold things together
and keep things going.

–0–

03

Once you know what you will go to hell for,
you are free to do what needs to be done
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises,
and no one can knock you off of that.

This is who you are
and this is what is yours to do
here and now,
and that's that.

There is nothing to match clarity
for peace, balance and harmony.

With clarity,
we are able to sit tight,
stand firm,
walk tall,
ride it out,
and do what is called for
without dropping a stitch
or losing our focus.

One aspect of clarity
is knowing what the destabilizing 
forces are
and preparing ourselves
to recognize and deal with them.

How we deal with them
is an aspect of knowing
what needs to be done,
and we do that best
by seeking out the silence
and watching for what emerges,
arises, occurs to us
and trusting ourselves to it,
and knowing how to respond
when we find ourselves responding.

Sincerity is spontaneous
in its response to its circumstances.
There is no plan or agenda
for being sincere.
There is only responding as necessary
to the situation as it develops. 

The way tennis players respond 
to what is happening during a point,
or the way football players
respond to what is happening during a play.

We dance with the moment
as only we can
and let that be that--
knowing that we will get better at it
over time.

–0–

04

The on-going, unending, task of life
is making our peace with life,
coming to terms with life,
letting life be because it is.

Always the discrepancy, 
the discordance,
between how things are
and how we want things to be.

Always the need,
the requirement,
of growing up some more again,
and letting this be how it is,
because it is,
and nothing will change it,
and there is only picking ourselves up
and getting back in the game--
living as though 
how we live makes all the difference,
because it does--
in ways we cannot begin to know
or understand.

Believing in doing what needs to be done
the way it needs to be done
when and where it needs to be done
because it needs to be done
is the essential act of faith.

Everything flows from,
revolves around,
depends upon, 
that core belief.

If you are going to
take anything on faith,
let it be this!
And live as though it is so!
Because it is!

–0–

05

Taking the Parable of the Prodigal Son
as our starting point,
questions that beg to be asked are:
What kind of God can be pissed off?
What kind of God can be pissed off
to the point of sending people to hell?
What kind of parent could get to the point
of being so enraged at their children
they they would send them to hell?

Theology has to go.
Sin is not a problem.
Jesus didn't need to die
in order to change God's mind
about us.
We don't become all pure, pristine
and ready for heaven
because we "believe in Jesus."

Jesus is one of us.
Is us.
We are Jesus.
On our best days,
we are as Jesus was
on his best days.
"Dying" is simply handing over
how we want things to be,
and doing what needs to be done,
anyway, nevertheless, even so.

It is what any parent worthy of the position
does in relation to their children,
and what any child worthy of the position
does in relation to their parents.

We all grow-up,
adapt,
adjust,
acquiesce
and do what needs us to do it
because that is what we are here for,
and the way we do it
makes all the difference.

No heaven, no hell,
just us living to make all the difference,
because that is who we are,
and everything depends on it.

Anybody can make things worse
by the way they respond to their life.
And anybody can make things better
by the way they respond to their life.

Why would we want to make things worse?

–0–

06

The silence is the interface
between two worlds,
the visible world and the invisible world,
the world of conscious, concrete,
actual, tangible,
apparent reality,
and the world of psychic contents
and processes.

We walk two paths at the same time,
and need to become aware of our place
in integrating,
balancing and harmonizing
the two worlds
in the way we live our life,
and to become the steward
of life that we are capable of being
on all levels of living.

The invisible world is talking to us
all of the time,
around the clock,
throughout our life.

We aren't interested,
and pay no attention.

If we cannot exploit it,
use it to our advantage,
benefit from it materially
we don't have time for it,
no matter what "it" is.

Conscious awareness
is the invention of the unconscious--
a hoped-for advance
that would bring the unconscious
to life in the life of individuals,
enabling an exploration
of the physical cosmos
in sync with the interests
of the unconscious.
Wholeness coming to life
throughout time and space--
dancing the dance of the ages,
at one with the music of the spheres.

The wonder of wonders,
side-tracked by the idea
of what's in it for us.

–0–

07

Sit tight,
stand pat,
is the best advice
you can get 
when it comes to 
seeking clarity
and finding our way to
the path through the
heaving waves of the wine-dark sea.

"Wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear."

Stirring up more mud
in searching for the way
is not the way.
Waiting,
with the faith
that everything becomes clear
with time,
is the preferred solution
to not knowing what to do.

Know that you don't know
and wait to see what you do.
You will likely either find yourself
doing something that is a better fit
than anything you could have thought up.

Or, a shift will happen,
and a door will open. 
Walk through!
Poof! Like that goes the problem.

In the meantime,
sit tight,
stand pat.

01

Our balance and harmony
are strictly contingent 
on our safety,
security
and stability--
which, in turn, rely
on our being free
from the intrusions,
incursions,
invasions and overrunings
of Those Who Know Best
And Must Be Pleased.

Balance and harmony
are generated by,
and flow from,
a life that is lived
from its own center,
doing what it needs to do,
when it needs to do it,
how it needs to do it
without any pressure or direction
from sources other than itself.

Balance and harmony
are the source 
of vitality,
spirit,
joy,
enthusiasm,
ardor,
fervor,
passion,
zeal,
vigor,
and all related aspects
of being fully alive.

And they hinge on our
being in charge of the life
we are living--
and on being right about
what is being called for
from the heart of that life.

We have to know what is right for us,
and live out of that
without having to make anyone else happy
with us and what we are doing.

The more advisors/directors we have,
the crazier and deader we become.

Who is running your life?
If it isn't you
(And if you aren't right about
what is right for you),
they are ruining your life
and taking the life right out of you.

Wake up!
Reclaim your place
as the servant of the signals
arising from the depths of knowing
within your own soul/psyche!

And begin doing what you know
needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
where and when it needs to be done.

Restore your balance and harmony,
live your life!

–0–

02

What guides our boat on its path through the sea?

Answering this question properly
takes us to the heart of the matter.
To the heart of who we are
and where the impulses of our action
comes from.

There are two options at this point:
What we want to do, and
What we must do.

If you don't know the difference
it is because your wants 
have become musts,
and you must have what you want 
right NOW!

You are being driven/compelled 
by your own wanting/craving/desiring
to have/get/possess/do.
Your sense of peace and satisfaction
disappear like dew before the morning sun.
And you must have/do the next latest thing NOW!
again.

And the horror here is 
that you are like everyone else you know
in this regard.
All we know is what we want
and this isn't it.

The good news is bad news.

There is a way out of the endless cycle 
of constantly wanting more
and being content with nothing,
but.

It is like death itself.

Jesus becomes the model here.
Not the Jesus of the Church,
every church,
all churches,
who says reliably, 
dependably,
consistently,
constantly,
"Come to me,
and I will give you
what you want forever."

That Jesus is a sales pitch
and nothing more.
The Church should be ashamed.
But.
It knows we can't handle the truth
and tells us a lie
to keep us coming back
to want and to do what it takes
to have what we want,
though we never can.

The Real Jesus 
stands before us and says:
"I am the way, the truth,
and the life,
and no one comes to the Father
but by me."
And he tells us 
to pick up our cross
and come with him
to Golgotha.

Not what we have in mind.

"Death and resurrection, Kid.
Death and resurrection!"

The life is on the other side of death.
We have to die again and again
in bearing the pain of being alive.

That is the path away from wanting/having
to doing what it takes
to be fully alive in the moment of our living.

We have to bear the pain
of not having what we want
in order to have what we want.
In order to have what is essential.
In order to be fully, completely,
totally alive.

We have to die in order to live.

This is the path from want to must.

When we do what we must do,
what we want to do is pushed aside,
becomes irrelevant,
inconsequential,
frivolous,
ridiculous,
absurd. 

Abraham Maslow said that people live for five things: Survival, Security, Personal Relationships, Prestige, and Self Development.

Joseph Campbell said,

"These are precisely not the values that a mythically inspired person lives for.

"A person who is really gripped by a dedication, by a zeal, will sacrifice all these things for the sake of his or her own passion.

"These five values are the values people live for who have nothing to live for. Nothing has seized, caught, or driven these people “spiritually mad.”

"These people, aren’t worth talking to."

These people want what they want
but don't know what to want.
And they have to allow themselves
to be gripped by a compelling must
whose origin comes from beyond 
wanting and wanting not,
which is the deep source
of what is right for us
irregardless of circumstance
and preference.

To do what must be done,
we must be still and quiet
and wait for the dust to settle
and the air to clear,
watching for what arises,
emerges, appears, occurs to us
from the silence,
beckoning us to 
take up the adventure 
of being alive
in the time left for living,
no matter what.

–0–

03

When Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will,"
He was saying that the spirit 
doesn't know what it is going to do next.
It knows what it is doing now,
but not next.

The spirit is always doing now
exactly what needs to be done,
but it will be something else next.

It will need to be done,
but it won't be what is being done now.

Now and next are different that way.
And what all is after that is 
completely beyond speculation.

Now is enough.
Or, as Jesus said,
"Today's trouble is sufficient for today."
Now is always favorable for something,
what varies from time to time.
So we have to be on our toes,
at the ready--
the wind might shift at any moment.

Those who live with the wind
that blows where it will
in their hair
travel light,
with few presumptions
and fewer agendas.
They ride loose in the saddle,
and walk light on their feet,
with their eyes always open,
and ears tuned to the silent nudges
of "the still small voice"
calling them to tend
what needs to be tended
at the time that is at hand.

01

Doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
and repeating this process
through each moment 
of every situation as it arises,
is more about listening and looking,
seeing and hearing,
than it is about prioritizing.

We need less thinking
and more realizing.
Realization comes from seeing and hearing.
Action is spontaneous,
automatic.

Look and listen.
Here and now.

Hear what is being called for.
See what is happening
and what needs to be done about it.

Do it with the gifts 
you have to share
and the daemon (sounds like "diamond")
you live to serve.

And let nature take its course.

–0–

02

Theology is the end of religion.

The religion that has to be explained,
defined,
elucidated,
spelled out,
nailed down,
argued
and debated
into being
is dead on arrival.

Living religion thrives
on fascination,
realization,
wonder,
amazement,
joy,
laughter,
dancing,
relishing,
exuberance,
confidence,
peace,
grace,
kindness,
compassion,
generosity,
integrity,
mindfulness,
awareness,
self-transparency,
questions,
silence,
balance and harmony,
playfulness,
mercy,
non-contrivance,
spontaneity,
sincerity,
good faith,
good will,
honesty,
truthfulness,
and on and on like this...

Religion ends
when it tries to make sense
or make disciples.

We find it with our heart,
not with our head.

We live our way there.
We do not think our way there.

Check out 
The Non-subscribing Church of What's Happening Now
at www.jimdollarsphotographyandphilosophy.com

  

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03

Insight,
awareness,
realization,
illumination,
awakening,
etc.
are the result
of seeing what we look at.

Of hearing what is being said--
particularly what we are saying.

Typically,
we see and hear
what we expect to see and hear,
what we think we are seeing and hearing,
what we assume we are seeing and hearing.

Take an object,
an old hubcap perhaps,
anything will do.
Draw a frame around it
(The frame can be imaginary),
and consider the object
in a contemplative,
meditative,
kind of way--
the way you might look at
an optical illusion--
until you see the object as it is,
and as it also is. 

Sit with the object
and allow it to reveal itself to you.

When the shift occurs,
continue looking
until you see all
that is in the frame
with the object--
until the entire cosmos 
is in the frame with the object.

This is called 
"Seeing things as they are."

Look at everything you see
in this way.

This is called "Seeing."

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04

We live to make peace with our contradictions--
to balance our extremes,
to harmonize our excesses and deficiencies,
to integrate our polarities,
to bear the pain of our conflicts
and to walk two paths at the same time.

We do that by walking carefully
along the way,
with one eye on this path,
and the other eye on the other path,
always conscious of both paths at once,
threading the needle
between Yin and Yang, 
and making our home
on the edge of the coin.

Sometimes we do it this way,
and sometimes we do it that way,
and we can never be sure
which way we will do it next.

If people demand consistency of you,
hand them a brick,
and wink.

Live playfully
in the service
of what the situation calls for,
rising to every occasion
and doing what needs to be done there--
without worrying about precedent
or tradition--
and let the outcome be the outcome
and the opening 
to the next moment
where you do the same thing,
consistently inconsistent over time,
and always in tune with the moment
and what is best suited to here and now.

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05

We cannot help how we see things,
or what we think about how things are,
or how we feel about the present situation anywhere...

My current way of thinking about these things
is to say it all depends on several contingencies:
Where we come from,
who we run with, 
who we admire,
who we dislike/detest
who we want to please...

Change any of these factors,
and we don't see the way we see,
think the way we think,
feel the way we feel...

Which is to say that
we are very much 
the product of our environment,
no matter how independent
and self-directed
we think we are.

We are where we live,
and who we live with,
and who we love,
and who we want to love us.

We want the right people
to be happy with us,
and thus,
our seeing,
thinking
and feeling.

Or we want to irritate/enrage
the right people,
and thus, 
our seeing,
thinking
and feeling.

How would we see,
think and feel,
if we were cut off
from all human contact,
and lived by ourselves alone?

Check it out.
Spend a week by yourself,
in complete seclusion,
solitude,
isolation.

No movies,
no books,
no TV
no newspapers.

Walk on a lonely beach.
Camp in the woods.
Build a log cabin.

See how that impacts
how you see, think and feel.

Or, you could just observe
yourself seeing,
thinking,
feeling.

Ask all of the questions 
that beg to be asked--
and all of the questions 
the questions beg to be asked.

Investigate your seeing,
thinking,
feeling.

Where does this come from?
Why do I see/think/feel this way?
Who do I know that would 
see/think/feel this way?
That would be happy-or-upset
with me seeing/thinking/feeling this way?

Explore! Explore! Explore!

Get to the bottom of it!

Get to the bottom of you!

And see how you see/think/feel about you!

01

We die because 
it becomes too much trouble
to keep going.

We Peter-out.
We dwindle down to nothing.

Our knees go.
Our eyesight goes.
Our teeth go.
Our hearing goes...
The list goes on and on.

And we get to the place
of saying the hell with it.

I'm suggesting that longevity
is not the point,
and that quality of life is.

The phrase "quality of life"
needs to be explored.
What does it mean to you?
What number would you give
the present level of the quality
of your life--
with 1 being next to nothing,
and 10 being beyond compare?

My best would be a 6, here and now.
I think I will blow the whistle
at 3, maybe 2.

This is my 77 April 5th.
I think 87 will be stretching it.
More like 83-84.

In the meantime, I'm going to 
devote myself to the pursuit
of what interests me,
and see where it goes.

You are, well, up to you.
What do you see for yourself?
What do you intend?
How shall you proceed?

This point of demarcation
between me and you
gets us to the heart of the matter,
two of them, actually.

The first is that we see things 
the way we do
because it is the way
someone we admire and/or
want to please sees things.
It is the way the people we run with
see things.

We aren't going to change
the way we see things
until/without changing the people 
we admire/want to please/run with.

This in the key factor 
in determining 
how different things can be
with us.

Alcoholics, for instance,
have to change the people 
they hang around with
if they want to quit drinking,
and they have to start hanging around
with people who don't drink,
or with no people at all.

Etc. regarding all of the things
you want to stop doing
and/or start doing.

Who you run with makes all the difference.

The second is that the way things are
is just the way things are.
It is easier that way.
Streams take "the course of least resistance"
on their way to the sea.
Don't we all?

There is no reason for it.
Saying "God's will" is saying
"It's just the way things are."
Ask, "Why is it God's will?"
Or, "Why does God want things the way they are?"
Gets eventually to, "That's just the way things are!"
So, "cut to the chase"
(Take the course of least resistance)
and go straight there
with no "beating around the bush":
"That's just the way things are!"

What are we going to do about it
is the question.

"This is the way things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."

What are we going to do about it?
That's the question
that only we can answer.

We better be quick deciding.
It will be too much trouble to fool with
before long!

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02

There is our life
and there is how we live it
and that's that.

What do we mean by the life we are living?
What do we intend?
What are we doing?

What is our life's work?
Our "body of work" consists of what?
What are we about?
What are we up to?
Who are we showing ourselves to be
through the way we go about
living our life?

If we were to "do better,"
what would we do?

Does it matter?
Does it matter to us?
Why does it matter?
Why doesn't it matter?

What are we doing here?
What are we going to do
with the time left for living?

Drink more beer?
See the sights?
Party hearty?
Look for some action?
What???

We answer that question
whether we mean to or not.
Why not mean to?
Why not give it our best effort?
Why not live the life
we would be proud to have lived?

Too much trouble, you say?
Great epitaph.
"I woulda done better
but it was too much trouble."
You'll be proud to live with that
for eternity.
You should have a tee shirt made up,
wear it around the beach.
Drinking beer.

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03

"Live the questions."
"Dance with the questions."
What questions?
All of the questions!
Find out for yourself
what questions are your questions
to explore/answer
through the way you live your life!

Our life is the answer
to the questions we are living--
and to the questions we are failing to live.
Refusing to live.
What are those questions?
The ones we have nothing to do with.
What are they?

I'm living to discover
the place of silence, stillness,
solitude, reflection, experience
and questions
in my life.

What are the questions 
that are important to me?
I'm living to discover them.

I am my own experiment
with silence and introspection.
Can we find a reliable guide
through our life
just by attending what arises,
emerges, appears, occurs to us
in the silence?

Is silence a source of direction
that is trustworthy,
valuable, reliable
in leading us into a life
we would be proud to live?

What is the source of the silence's wisdom?
Direction?
Guidance?

How does the silence know what it knows?
What knows beyond the silence
that uses the silence
to commune with us/me?

What is the source of my life--
of my vitality--
of me?

Are we all connected to each other
by being connected with the silence
or with what is beyond the silence?

In communing with the silence,
are we communing with ourselves
and with each other?

Is there a collective "mind" directing,
enthusing, vitalizing all of us?

Are we all "plugged into" the same source?

Are we capable of being choreographed,
harmonized, united, formed into
one universal/cosmic being?

Are we violating some sacred principle
when we break the silence
and presume to speak for 
That Which Is Beyond The Silence?

Would it be better--
in sync with That Which Is Beyond The Silence--
to simply be quiet
and see what arises
without saying how things are 
and ought to be,
but just wait,
and see?

No authorities?
Just servants?
Of the silence?
Just the silence?
And us listening?
Waiting?
To see what emerges?
And doing what needs to be done
about it?

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04

Hermits,
recluses,
solitaries,
loners,
and unsociable sorts
have the benefit of silence
going for them.

Not that they can't create
their own noise
and distractions,
but they have the opportunity
to avail themselves
of the grace of the moment
that is upon them
in every moment.

Whether or not they 
take advantage of it
is on them.

I don't know that hermits, etc.
are any more centered, focused and grounded
on and living out of
their own, original, nature
than the rest of the population,
and I think balance and harmony
require "the other side of the coin"
to be upright and intact
and operating on all levels
at peak performance
with a good disposition
and no impeding deficiencies.

Where to draw the line
between too much and not enough
of anything 
is the perennial dilemma.

We have to be aware of the importance
of walking two paths at the same time
between the Yin and Yang--
the contradictions and contraries--
of our life throughout our life.

We balance the opposites,
integrate the polarities,
bear consciously the pain
of our conflicts
and make things work
as best we can--
as best they can--
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises,
and let that be that.

There is no solution
to the adamantine truth 
of Yin/Yang.
We negotiate and compromise
and "walk with a limp"
all along the way.

Minding how we go,
and seeking the guidance
of silence
as we are able
every day.

01

When you are thinking,
also be thinking about your thinking.

To not be thinking about your thinking
is to be swept away 
by your thinking,
carried off,
into emotional fits of rage,
or terror,
or remorse and guilt--
possessed by your thoughts
and your feelings about your thoughts
to the point of losing all control
of your actions in response
to your thoughts/feelings--
or a robot responding mindlessly
to the direction of those who are 
telling you what to think
and how to feel.

When you are thinking,
think about your thinking.
When you are feeling,
think about your feeling.

Put reflection between you
and your thinking
and your feeling.

Observation and reflection
put you in charge
of your thinking and feeling.

The more you can observe and reflect
without emotional reactivity,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just being aware
of your thoughts and feelings
without being shanghaied by them,
the more capable you are
of making inquiries--
of asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked
by your thoughts and feelings--
of seeing into them
and where they come from
and how they are automatic
and recurring,
and what their origin is
and what the source of their
ready presence in your life is.

Why are these thoughts
and these feelings
your go-to thoughts and feelings?
Who says this is how you ought to think
and how you ought to feel?
Who is in charge of what you think
and what you feel?

Observe, reflect, explore, inquire.
This four-pronged response
to thinking about your thinking
and thinking about your feeling
will insert some distance between
you and your thinking/feeling/reacting,
and change the way you think/feel,
and invite you to think/feel differently,
and eventually to think without feeling
automatically,
predictably,
at the mercy of emotionally-charged
actions wreaking havoc on your life.

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02

Believe whatever it takes
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises.

For instance, I believe
that it matters how we live.
I take that on faith.
There is no factual basis for 
believing it.
All the evidence is to the contrary.
But.
It enables me to "Get up and do
what needs to be done"
with the power and sustainability
of Powder Milk Biscuits.

I believe nothing is more important,
essential,
necessary
than doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
for as long as it needs to be done,
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

This is my foundational belief,
the rock upon which I stand
and am anchored,
in an adamantine kind of way.
You can't knock me off this.
It is my essential truth
and I am not forsaking it,
betraying it,
renouncing it,
abandoning it,
deserting it,
etc.
ever.

I'll go to hell for this belief.
A million times over.
You can't talk me out of it,
or bribe it away from me.

It has a corollary:
Every time is the right time
for something.

Our place is to align ourselves
with what is right for this occasion
and live to serve it here and now
in every situation that arises
all our life long.

Which means we have to know what
is called for in each here and now
and serve it with our life,
by doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
etc.
every moment.

We have to live attuned to,
attentive to,
aware of,
in service to,
with liege loyalty
and filial devotion to
what the moment is calling for
in every moment that comes along.

Believe whatever it takes to do that.
And don't let anything keep you from doing it.

The basic test of any belief,
of any system of belief,
of any faith system,
that comes along
is this:
Does it enable me to do what is called for
in each moment?
To do what is right for every occasion?
To be who I am needed to be here and now forever?
If it does,
believe it with all your heart, and mind,
and soul, and strength.

If it doesn't,
keep looking for something that does.
Or make it up
right out of your own imagination.
Which is where all belief/faith systems come from,
right out of someone's imagination. 

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03

We have to get to the end of our rope
before we can change our minds
about what is important,
and some of us had rather die
than change our mind.

This is the important thing:
Something must die!
What will it be?

We will either die actually, literally,
or we will die figuratively, metaphorically.

This is dilemma at every transition point
in the work/task of growing up,
which is what the spiritual journey entails.
The Hero's Journey is nothing more 
than growing up,
shouldering all of the developmental tasks
and surrendering what must be surrendered
in doing what must be done
to meet the demands of the journey,
of this developmental task along the way.

We will die to what we have always believed is so,
to all we ever wanted to be so,
in changing our mind,
and embracing what is truer 
than the truth 
we held to be true--
or we will die to our life in the moment of our living.

Hitler killed himself.
So did Jesus and Socrates.
Helen Keller squared up to her choices
and died to what she wanted to be so
in embracing what was so.
As have billions of people worldwide
through the centuries.

We give up this to get that,
to make that possible,
to do that--
for the sake of a good
that is better than our own,
personal good.
We die to ourselves
and live in the service
of the good of the whole,
of our family,
of our nation,
of our world,
of the cosmos...

It's called "growing up."

We grow up when we change
our mind about what is important,
about what is true,
about what is right,
about what is incumbent upon us--
and do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
without exploiting the situation
for our benefit,
our gain,
our good.

Just doing what is good,
what is right,
what is called for,
moment by moment.

And the world is better for it.
Every time.

01

The impulse of our original nature
comes to us in the silence
of watching, listening--
which characterizes the Aborigines' walkabouts,
and the Native American vision quests,
and our own search for the source
of life and being--
to guide our boat on its path through the sea.

"The path that can be discerned
is not a reliable path,"
said the old Taoist Sage.
Such is every path through the sea,
and the way of every life lived
in accord with the Tao.

"The spirit," said Jesus,
"is like the wind that blows where it will."
Not knowing itself what it will do next.

Thus, we wait and watch,
listening, looking
for the impulse of our original nature
to signal what is needed now, here,
one situation at a time.

This is prayerful living--
praying without words,
by being quiet
and listening for "the still small voice,"
which is more of something occurring to us
than something talking to us--
something being realized,
not something being said.

And off we go,
with the wind that blows where it will,
and no idea of what's next,
and then what,
and where it's all going.
It is enough to ride with the wind
of the Tao
propelling our boat 
on its path through the sea.

The adventure of a lifetime
from one moment to the next.

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02

Being centered,
grounded,
at one with ourselves
and the moment, 
balanced,
in harmonious accord
with here, now,
waiting,
listening,
watching,
for the propitious
time to act
in the service
of what is being called for,
of what is needed--
the right action
in the right place
and the right way
at the right time--
spontaneously arising 
in us and through us
without thinking of ways
to exploit the occasion
for our gain/good,
or figuring out the best course
to some achievement,
accomplishment,
end
we have in mind--
just seeing,
just knowing,
just realizing,
just doing,
here, now,
moment to moment
situation by situation,
day by day,
one at a time,
all our life long.

Dancing with time and place 
and Tao
all the way.

Who could do more?

"Do your work and step back,
let nature take its course,"
said the Sage,
doing his work,
and stepping back.

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03

The Tao can be summed up as:
"The Flow of Pace and Timing, Kid,
the Flow of Pace and Timing."

Some people are naturals
at the flow of pace and timing.
They live in accord with the Tao
without knowing what they are doing.

They come in on cue
and depart
when their work is done.

They read the situation,
sense what is called for,
respond with what is needed,
and are known for making things right
wherever they are.

There is an air of grace and peace,
balance and harmony,
about them,
and they are a blessing 
upon all who come their way.

At the far extreme,
there are those who create
disturbance and chaos 
in every situation they enter.

One group is sensitive to,
and live as servants of,
the flow of pace and timing,
and the other group
lives to demolish and destroy
anything resembling it.

This is yang and yin in real time.

In a world of yin,
yang comes along
as the gift it is,
and people relish 
the experience of its presence,
and dream of its hoped-for return.

01

The natural world is "Thus Come,"
just as it is,
without pretensions
or aspirations,
looking only for what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
and rising to meet the occasion
with what it has to work with,
letting the outcome be the outcome,
situation by situation,
day by day,
for as long as life lasts.

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02

Love is not what we feel.
Love is what we do.
Love is how we act.

We cannot be commanded to feel.
We can be commanded to act.

Jesus' command to 
"Love your neighbor,"
is to be understood as
"Treat your neighbor lovingly
in all times and places."

He is saying,
"Do what is loving,
when it is called for,
the way it is called for,
as long as it is called for,
moment by moment,
day in and day out,
in each situation as it arises,
your entire life long."

We know what is loving
by asking
"How would I like to be treated?"
and extending that treatment
to all people everywhere.

We have no trouble recognizing
when we are being treated well
and when we are being treated poorly.
We only have "questions"
when it comes to how we treat others.

Strive to treat others as well
as we would like to be treated.
All others.
Every other.
All the time.

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03

Squaring ourselves up with how things are
is the first order of business
in each situation as it arises.

Our ability to do that
hinges on our having few,
and not very strong,
opinions regarding how things ought to be.

Being able to operate
out of a perspective
whose foundation is
"Okay. Here we are. Now what?"
provides us with the attitude
necessary for
letting come what's coming
and letting go what's going,
as things come and go
throughout our life.

How we live in response to our life
is the determining factor
in determining how well we live
with-and-through all of the ebbs and flows
of our days.

What is your default reaction
to the things that come your way
(and go away)?
How close is it to
"Okay. Here we are. Now what?"?

We live to close the gap
between our default reaction
and the preferred reaction.
We do that consciously,
with mindful awareness
of our need to be a certain way
and the chances of that being the way
things are,
moment by moment,
day by day--
and living toward the position
of being able to let come what's coming
and to let go what's going.

–0–

04

            A Good Friday/Easter Meditation:

The Suffering Servant of Isaiah
was co-opted by the early Christian church,
and used as a prophetic model of Jesus,
missing again the point of both
the suffering servant and Jesus.

"Surely he has born our griefs
and carried our sorrows,
and upon him was the chastisement
that made us whole,
and by his wounds we are healed." 
(Isaiah 53: 4&5)

What does he have to do with us?
What does his chastisement
and his wounds 
have to do with our peace
and our healing?

It works like this:
"Thou Art That!"

Any symbol is only as good
as our identification with it is.
The symbol is not "like us,"
The symbol "IS us!"
Any symbol.
Every symbol.

God is dead to the extent
that God no longer symbolizes
the best of us.
God is dead to the extent 
that the symbol of "God"
does not awaken within us
any aspect of godliness,
and becomes an external "Thou"
on a level we can never attain--
as "The Wholly Other."

To awaken the symbol--
any symbol,
every symbol--
we have to be able 
to identify ourselves 
with the symbol,
and understand how we are it,
and how it is who we are.

And that requires a meditative,
contemplative, prayerful,
reflective openness to possibilities
and actualities 
we normally don't want to take the time
to consider.

How is the Suffering Servant and Jesus
you, me?
In what ways are we the Suffering Servant
and Jesus?
How are we interchangeable?
How are we identical?
How are we one with each of them--
and with each other?

We are asked to make this identification
with Jesus
in the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement,
where "Jesus became as we are,
so that we might become who he is,"
but we are never encouraged to see
that we are who he is right now,
without believing anything about sin,
redemption, faith, and atonement.

We have to "turn the light around"!

We are Jesus.
How are we Jesus?
In what ways are we Jesus?
How can we become increasingly conscious
of being Jesus in the normal course
of our life?

Two days ago,
approaching the checkout station
at a local nursery, 
the clerk at the register
noticed that my wife and I were 
having trouble corralling 
the four plants 
we were carrying to her.
She left her station,
came to us,
and carried our purchases 
to the counter.
Jesus could not have done it better.

Over the course of our life,
we do thousands of things
as well as Jesus could do them,
and some things we do better
than Jesus could do them--
all without thinking about Jesus at all,
or ever wondering "what would Jesus do?"

Could Jesus hit a curve ball?
Could Jesus throw a curve ball?
Perform open heart surgery?
Etc.

Thou Art That!

This is the fundamental,
foundational,
realization.
Everything points to this
and flows from it.

We are what we seek.
We are what we love.
We are what we hate.

How?
How is it so?
In what ways is it so?
How can we see ourselves
reflected back to us
in the things we admire
and detest?
In what ways does the phrase,
"Thou Art That" apply to us
and everything?
What connections can we make
between ourselves and "That"?

It takes meditative,
contemplative, prayerful
reflection to see all the ways
"Thou Art That."
And it is essential
that we take up the practice
of enlarging our vision
to be able to see what we look at
and how it is us looking back at us.

This is the challenge
and the calling
of Good Friday and Easter morning!