03

God is not a fact.
God is a metaphor
for the Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being.
God is more than can be known,
or said,
or thought,
or imagined.
To say more than that about God
is heresy,
suggesting that God can be explained,
described,
told of,
said.

Heinrich Zimmer said, "The most important things
cannot be said.
The second most important things
are the metaphors we use
to talk about the most important things,
and they are misunderstood.
The third most important things
are the things we talk about."

We can only experience the most important things,
and then sing songs
or write poems,
or paint pictures,
or dance
or devote our lives to living
in the wonder of the knowledge
that cannot be said.

Ways of opening ourselves to the experience
of the most important things
include meditation/contemplation
of the mystery of our own being
and the wonder of the cosmos.

Placing ourselves in regular,
reverent,
company
with art,
music
and nature.

Conversations with other people
about their experience
of the holy/ineffable/Numen
in their lives.

Considering the abundance
of religious symbols worldwide,
we might select a few to contemplate
each week,
exploring the difference between
what the symbols connote
and what they denote--
what they imply/mean/suggest/indicate
beyond themselves
and what their literal/primary/actual
meaning is.

Exploring the connotations of symbols
is the path to realization
and awakening.

The connotations of God
go far past the catechisms and doctrines,
and open us to new possibilities
of wonder and engagement
beyond the reach of reason and logic.

–0–

02

"They cast their nets in Galilee
Just off the hills of brown
Such happy simple fisherfolk
Before the Lord came down.
Contented peaceful fishermen
Before they ever knew
The peace of God That filled their hearts 
Brimful and broke them too.
Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless, in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod,
Yet, children, pray for but one thing–
The marvelous peace of God."
            --William Alexander Percy

"The peace of God" is another term for
"The Secret Cause."
They are interchangeable
and equivalent.

There is no "peace of God"
apart from our alignment with,
and liege loyalty to,
the Secret Cause.

Just as there is no life without death.
Just as every birth is death in the making,
and every death is a threshold to new life,
Just so, our embrace of the Secret Cause
is a union with "the peace of God"
that is "strife closed in the sod,"
and a crucifixion waiting to happen.

"Yet, children, pray for but one thing!"
It is "for this we have come."

Both in terms of "What shall I say,
'Father, save me from this hour'? 
No! For this I have come!"

And: "What I do is me, for this I came!"
(Gerad Manley Hopkins)

We find what we seek
in our identification with the Secret Cause,
though it be like the moth's
identification with the flame.

The Secret Cause of our life 
is death and life and death and life...
The two are one.
It is oneness all the way down.
And up.

All of our dichotomies are false dichotomies.
Good/Bad,
Right/Wrong,
Left/Right,
Up/Down,
Black/White,
Simple/Complex...

Duality comes to an end
in the realization of oneness.
Both/And,
Either/Or--
which is it?
It is both/and
it is either/or.

Death is life,
life is death.

We die at every transition point
throughout our life,
and are born again
on the other side 
of every successful transition.
Only to die again 
at the next transition point.
And our life never runs out of 
transition points!

And the Secret Cause
is the cause of most of them!

In the service of the Secret Cause--
the Secret Cause of our life,
of the life that is our life to live,
of the purposes and meanings
that are life itself for us--
we confront the contradictions,
dichotomies,
and polarities
that bring us forth
by demanding our death
again and again.

The Hero's Journey is one long series
of deaths and resurrections.

"Yet, children, pray for but one thing:
the marvelous peace of God!"

It is Yin/Yang all the way down--
with Yin/Yang understood to be a metaphor
for the integration of opposites,
which remain oppositional
throughout their oneness,
as we bear the pain of that tension
our entire life,
by bringing them together in our life.

–0–

01

When we live aligned 
with the Secret Cause--
the Secret Cause of us,
of our life,
of the life that is to be our life--
we are at one with our destiny,
and centered in
and grounded upon
the why, what, when and how 
of our existence.

In that place, we are "immortal,
invincible,
God-only wise,"
and "though we die, yet shall we live."
And nothing can knock us off
"the still point,"
"the axis mundi"
"the center of the universe"
and "of the turning world."

We are anchored to the adamantine foundation
of our life--
of all of life--
of the entire cosmos
and whatever might lie beyond it.


We are one with everything,
and live with a confidence
that borders on recklessness,
and have to call upon the guardians
of humility and self-transparency
to rein ourselves in
and live within the situations
and circumstances of our life
as they unfold about us--
as those who have work to do
that is vital to the whole
and to the Cause.

Serving the Secret Cause
in the time and place of our living,
in the here and now of our existence,
opens us to the agony of Jesus
with his, "I have come 
to set the world on fire,
and how I wish it were already kindled!"
But, like him,
we have to submit to the times,
and trust ourselves to the secret workings
of the Secret Cause--
to the unfolding of the Tao
in its own time
and in its own way,
and remaining true to our role
of exhibiting in the moment
our gifts/daemon/virtues/character
in doing what is called for
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day
for as long as life shall last--
at one with the Mystery
at the Heart of Life and Being.

05

Each of us has a destiny to fulfill,
a life to live,
a work to perform,
a calling to serve,
a self to express, exhibit, incarnate,
a divine spark to nourish
into a flame of glory and wonder
so that no one can tell where we stop
and God starts.

Sounds a bit much, I know.
But, there is Jesus saying, 
"Come, follow me."
And, "Greater things than I have done,
you will do."

He's saying, "Get out of your own way
and be who you are!
And allow the Mystery of Being
to come to life in you
in ways that are uniquely yours
to bring forth!"

Carl Jung said,
“In the final analysis, 
we count for something 
only because of the essential 
that we embody. 
If we do not serve that, 
life is wasted.” 

Our destiny is to be who we are
at the core of ourselves,
who we are capable of being,
who we are here to be,
to become.

Jung also said,
"There is in each of us
another, whom we do not know."
This Other is "the essential
that we embody."
Whom we live to know
and to serve with our life.

We do that consciously
by paying attention to 
the unconscious clues
that are always winking at us,
trying to catch our eye.

Our life is like that of a fairy tale,
or of Luke Skywalker,
and the clues are lying all about us.
Help is on every side,
and the audience is groaning
because we won't see what is right there.


So, we have to learn to stop, look and listen.
What are we missing?
What did we dream last night?
What makes our little heart sing?
What brings us to life in a way
that makes us forget what day it is,
and not know how long we have been doing
the thing we love to do?

What keeps coming back around?
What won't go away?
What do we keep pushing aside,
only to have it pop up again in a month
or a year?
What do we find ourselves thinking about?
What do we wish we could do?
What do we keep finding excuses
for not doing?

There is a secret cause dying for us 
to find it,
claim it,
live it as our own dream
dreaming we would adopt it
as our own life.

It is our destiny.
We have to work it into our life!
We have to find ways of being who we are!
We have to honor the dream that dreams of us!

We would be most remiss if we did not.

–0–

04

We can make anything better or worse
by the way we respond to it.

That being the case,
you would think we would study up on our
response ability and how to perfect it,
becoming experts in responding appropriately
to every occasion.

You couldn't be more wrong.
Why is that?
Why don't we make a concerted effort
to live the best possible life
under the circumstances?

Why don't we all swear to the One Who Knows
within each of us,
an oath of fealty, loyalty,
allegiance and devotion,
that we will, with their help,
make our best effort
to respond to the events of our life
in ways that have the best chance
of turning things to the good
of ourselves,
our circumstances,
and all those concerned,
by simply doing what is called for
moment-by-moment
all our life long?

Why don't we do that?
I'm serious.
Why don't we? 

–0–

03

The single thing that will make
the most difference for the good
in our life 
is growing up.

The single thing that makes 
growing up impossible
is our infantile desire to have our way.

Get our way out of the way
and everything falls into place
exactly as it needs to
for our life to be exactly 
what it needs to be.

This is the truth at the heart
of all good religion.

What did native Americans
mean when they said
"It's a good day to die"?
Good for whom?
Good for what?
Good in terms of what?
Certainly not in terms
of having their way!
But what else is there?
How good can not having our way be?

You see how far from good religion
we are.

Religion for us is nothing but a ploy
to get our way
(That would be heaven when we die).
We give to get in our religion.
Which isn't giving at all,
but dealing,
gaming.
Whatever we do in our religion,
whatever we give,
isn't a gift,
it is an investment,
that we expect to pay off handsomely
in the world to come.

Having our way is the only way
in our world.
Growing up will have to wait.

Forever.

–0–

02

There is within each of us
a self who knows
and a self who thinks it knows.
And it is our place to know
which is which,
and throw in with the self who knows.

This is a problem
because the self who thinks it knows,
is sure it knows.
Is convinced it knows.
Knows it knows.
But.
It does not know.
And does not know that it does not know.

It is our place to know
that one self does not know
as much as it thinks it knows.
And to make inquiries.

We are to ask the questions
that beg to be asked,
and say the things
that cry out to be said
to both selves,
and see which self
does the best job
answering and retorting.

Put the selves to the test!
"What makes you think
that what you think is so
is so?"
"What do you base your beliefs on?"
"By what authority do you say
what you just said?"
"How does what you just said
jive with what you said five minutes ago?"
With what you said yesterday?"
"What do you have at stake--
what do you have to gain or lose--
in things being the way you say they are?"
"Who would be most proud of you--
the most happy with you--
for saying what you just said?
For thinking what you think is so?"
"Who are you trying to please?"
... And on like that,
getting to what is behind
what each self "knows,"
or knows, is so.

Do not take what either self says
as truth
without exploring it exhaustively 
for its validity.
Make them say what is so 
about what they think is so.

Talk it out.
Make them come clean.
The truth will shine through
if you take the time 
to clear the window of perception
by getting to the source
of the perspective.

Your place is to investigate
what comes up from within
in knowing what each knower knows--
and does not know.
And deciding what to do about it.

–0–

01

Fear, guilt and regret
lock us into an ever-deepening
and increasingly repetitive
cycle of fear, guilt and regret.

The more fearful, guilty and regretful
we are,
the more fearful, guilty and regretful
we will be.

It is up to us to turn the haunting Cronies
away!
"ENOUGH!
I SAY ENOUGH!!!"
Turning to stare them into silence
and send them away,
we step toward our own center
and become the redeemer/savior
of our own future
and the life we have yet to live.

We have to claim that future
and that life,
and secure them against the encroaching
erosion of fear, guilt and regret.
"BEGONE!
I SAY BEGONE!!!"
Has to be repeated with force
for as long as it takes to be free,
and settled into who we are,
what we have done and failed to do,
and what may happen to take everything away.

Our work is to be
"a wheel rolling/turning 
out of its own center"
(Friedrich Nietzsche),
grounded in our original nature,
focused on seeing/doing
what is called for
in each situation as it arises
with the gifts/daemon/virtues/
character/spirit/vitality/life
that are ours to offer
throughout the time left for living.

This is the salvific orientation
that stabilizes us
and anchors us to the core
of sincerity,
balance and harmony,
and enables us to live spontaneously,
without contrivance,
in responding to the needs of the moment,
moment-by-moment
forever.

03

We have to grant our imagination
access to us.
We do that by allowing our mind
to range freely over our 
external and internal landscape,
playing with the possibilities,
turning things upside down,
inside out,
seeing things as they are
and as they should be
and as they never will be,
wondering why
how
what
when
where
about it all.

Taking things apart.
Putting them back together differently.
Getting to the bottom of everything.
Or half-way to the bottom of something.

Let your imagination wander around
with everything you have ever been told was so,
with everything you have always held to be so,
and see what you imagination has to say
about what is so,
and isn't so,
and may be so,
or not so.

Let your imagination play with your life!
And join in the game!
Playing along!

–0–

02

We need all the help we can get.
We are here, in part, to help one another.
The government is the extension 
of ourselves into an organized body
of helpfulness,
providing all people access
to what they need 
to live fulfilling,
productive,
creative,
satisfying lives.

The government is our collective way
of assisting one another
in the task of finding our life
and living it.

But, the government has been shanghaied
by corporate money and power
to serve corporate greed
at the expense of the people's need.
"Profit At Any Price"
is the motto of rampant capitalism
gone rogue.

The government has been taken over
by capitalists
who are out for their own idea
of the good
and use the people as means
to their ends.

The capitalists turn the people
against themselves
by demonizing labor unions,
and collective bargaining efforts,
and social programs,
and civil rights endeavors,
and environmental movements,
and anything that the capitalists
perceive to be a potential threat
to their ability to increase their wealth.

The capitalists own the government
and the media
and the social/cultural institutions
that keep the people living
well below their potential
or their optimum level of functioning--
and incite jealousy, hatred and fear
of each other among the people
to keep their own interest in
and allegiance to,
Profit At Any Price
serving them well in their pursuit
of increasing their wealth
for the sake of increasing their wealth
throughout the rest of time.

Capitalists need to wake up,
grow up,
and get a life
that is centered on their 
self-development as persons,
as human beings,
without thinking that is in any way
connected with their net worth. 

Money is just an easy way out
of doing the work required
to become a full/complete/actualized
human being.

Money is a diversion/distraction
from the work of being who we are
in the service of the true good of the whole.

We only need enough money
to buy the tools we need
and provide the wherewithal 
to do what needs to be done
with the gifts/daemon/character/
virtues/vitality/interests/
enthusiasm/heart and soul
that are reflected in our 
original nature
and come with us from the womb
and are at our disposal
in the work to find our life 
and live it
in being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

How to do that
is more of a problem
than it needs to be
because people are out for themselves
at the expense of everyone else.

Greed is driving the world.
Compassion is a much better choice.
See what you can do about 
putting things right
in the time left for living.

–0–

01

It takes more than the will to live.
It takes willing to live
beyond being 98.6 and breathing.
It takes willing to live 
as self-directed,
self-aware,
self-sacrificing
human beings,
in the service
of That Which Is Greater
Than They Are,
and Knows More Than They Know,
in doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
with no interest in,
or regard for,
their own personal advantage,
gain,
benefit,
good,
interest,
or boon,
but with the sincere
devotion to the good of the whole
and loyalty to That Which is Greater
Than They Are,
and Knows More Than They Know,
leading the way,
supplying their motivation,
and driving their effort
day-by-day.

A bit more on That Which Is Greater
Than They Are
and Knows More Than They Know...

In The Hero With A Thousand Faces,
Joseph Campbell says, talking about the Hero--
which is to be understood as 
every person through time--
"There is everywhere a benign power
supporting him in his superhuman passage."

And later:
"This is the power known to science as energy,
to the Melanesians as mana, to the Sioux Indians
as wakonda, the Hindus as shakti, the Christians
as the power of God... Its manifestation in the
psyche is termed, by the psychoanalysts as
libdio. And its manifestation in the cosmos as
the structure and flux of the universe itself."

This is the power that is known to the Taoists
as the Tao.

This is the power that is at the heart of all
religion everywhere.

We all, at various points in our life,
have experienced something beyond
ordinary, apparent, reality
at work in our life and in the world.
That "something"
is The Mystery At The Heart Of Life And Being--
about which we can say no more than
"It Is!"

But, if we cooperate with it,
if we collaborate with it,
if we "throw in with it,"
place ourselves "in accord with it,"
live "aligned with it,"
there comes to pass in our lived experience,
a sense of peace and well-being
unsurpassed by anything money can buy.

03

Grounded in, 
and living out of,
our original nature 
and that which is ours to do,
we are invincible,
untouchable,
beyond reach,
and cannot be knocked off
dead center
no matter what comes along.

Send up the Cyclops!
And Medusa!
Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes!
It doesn't raise a sweat.

We are invulnerable when we are 
being who we are,
doing our heart's sure things.

The way is clear before us:
Align our conscious identity
with our unconscious original nature,
and cast off all motives,
desires,
ambitions,
incentives,
aspiration--
and live connected with our heart
and its sense of what it needs to do.

Letting our heart
and our original nature
lead the way, 
is to be on the way
across the slippery slopes,
the dangerous paths
and the razor's edge--
with nothing to fear,
and the next adventure
to look forward to.
  

–0–

02

Mindful living is being aware
of the present moment
with compassion for,
and acceptance of,
the "is-ness" of what is,
without judgment or even opinion,
on every level 
for as long as the moment lasts--
and then being present 
in the same way
in the next moment,
and so on, 
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

Jon Kabat-Zinn has some valuable
YouTube videos that will help
with the process.

Watch the shortest ones first,
and change your life
one moment at a time. 

–0–

01

No one can tell us 
what our Original Nature is.
That is ours to ferret out for ourselves.

Each of us is unique
in a special kind of way.
Our Original Nature
is like an emotional/psychological fingerprint.

We also differ by the sonic patterns
of our voice,
the coloration of our eyes,
the cones of our irises.

Not to mention our idea
of a good pizza.

We are as different as different can be.
We all are alike in that way.

We are different and we are the same.

The tide comes in,
the tide goes out,
the tide turns around...
Which way is it?
The tide is all those ways at once.
If it is not coming or going
it is turning around.
That's the tide for you.

Our place is to say "Yes!"
to everything.
But everything includes "No!"
We say "Yes!" to "No!"
and say "No!" to things that are out of place,
or out of time,
or out of place and time.

"Everything in its own place
and in its own time!"
"Nothing in the wrong place,
or in the wrong time!"

"Yes!" can become "No!"
"No!" can become "Yes!"
depending on the time and place,
the here and now,
the situation that is at hand.

The Dalai Lama's bodyguards
carry automatic weapons.
That is "Yes!" being prepared
to say "No!"

Shiva is the Lord of the Dance,
among other things.
He dances with time and place,
with here and now,
and is always exactly what he needs to be
in each time and place of his being.

Which means, of course,
that Shiva contradicts Shiva,
as all God's worthy of the title do.

Yahweh is a God who hides
in thick darkness 
sometimes,
and is said to be The Light of Life
in whom there is no darkness at all
sometimes.
Which way is it?

The tide comes in
and the tide goes out
and the tide turns around.

The only God worth having around
is the God who sacrifices God,
who kills God,
who bears the cross of contradiction
all the way to death,
to be resurrected/reborn as God.

Birth and death,
coming and going and turning around,
forever.
This is the dynamic of life,
of eternity,
of the way things are. 

There is no static state of being.
Rigid,
static,
unbending,
unmoving,
unchanging...
is death, not life.

Life is becoming
by dying
and being raised from the dead
to new life,
which is becoming...

When something becomes,
something else dies.
Dying is the prerequisite of becoming.
We are born to die again and again
in the process of becoming who we are,
of maturation,
of developing wisdom and grace.

This life.
Life is the way of dancing 
with the time and place of our living,
being what is called for here and now,
and being something else then and there.

Always moving,
coming, going and turning around.
Dying again and again,
coming to life again and again,
metaphorically and actually
(Where does that line lie?),
on and on.

Never stopping.
Never quitting.
Never arriving.
Always moving on.
Dancing with time and place,
being what is needed here and now,
doing what is called for forever.

World without end. Amen.

03

When this all started,
there were no natural laws.
No law of gravity.
No law of inertia.
Laws and rules hadn't been invented.

Then there was this really big BANG,
and everything started flying in all directions
at once,
and it took several years
for it to get sorted out
and into stars and planets,
constellations and galaxies.

The universe figured it out
by letting things bang around 
until order appeared,
and now we have clocks and calendars,
physics and chemistry,
scientists and mathematicians.

It's amazing what can happen
just by letting things happen.
That is pretty much what happened 
with each of us.

None of us knew what we were doing,
most of us still don't,
and not one of us planned to be where we are,
or got here by making all the right moves.

We are here by virtue of the same process
that got the universe here.
We knocked around,
got knocked around,
and here we are.
Still getting knocked around,
and are on our way to somewhere else.

We don't comprehend any of it.
It is all such a mystery.
Yet, we pretend everything is well in hand
and completely under our control.

We are masters of our destiny, you know.
Captains of our ship.
And all that.

We are the biggest mystery of it all.
And we think getting what we want 
is all it takes.
What we want is our way,
at all times,
in all places.

That is such a laughter.
Give us our way--
we don't know what to do with it!
We find our way to where we need to be
by taking one wrong turn after another.
And, poof, like that,
we wind up in exactly the right place.
Or not.
Either way, it's a mystery how it works out.

It is as though something
knows more than we do.

But, how could that be?
It's a mystery.
There is no one here but us,
but there is more to each of us
than meets the eye.
Even our own eye.

WE are the mystery!
You might think 
we would be more interested
in getting to the bottom of us
than we are.
But we are more interested
in watching re-runs of sitcoms.

And that's another mystery.
Mystery is everywhere!
And we are the biggest one anywhere!

–0–

02

Living in accord with the Tao
is laying aside all ambition,
all aspiration,
all agendas,
all aims,
all purposes,
all goals,
all objectives,
all desires...
other than and contrary to
living in accord with the Tao.

It is trusting the Tao,
trusting ourselves to the Tao,
beyond all logic and reason,
with liege loyalty 
and filial devotion,
doing what is called for
with complete sincerity,
spontaneity
and non-contrivance,
in each situation as it arises
moment-by-moment
all our life long--
with the Tao understood to be
doing the right thing
in the right way
at the right time
and being right about
what is right--
living so in tune with the here and now,
the time and place of our living,
that we are at one with what is happening
and what needs to happen in response,
that we do what is called for
without hesitation
and without thinking,
time after time after time.

Like a stream flowing downhill,
adjusting its flow 
to take boulders,
fallen trees,
cattle in the water,
and dams being constructed
into account on the fly
on its way to the sea--
and being right about
what needs to be done
in every moment of the journey.

–0–

01

Fine is the balance,
thin is the line,
between having it made,
and having nothing at all.

Everything about democracy
depends on the willful cooperation
of all those involved in the work
of democracy.

Depends upon the good faith 
of those promising 
to "preserve, protect and defend
the Constitution against all enemies,
foreign and domestic."

If those so promising 
are themselves Domestic Enemies
of the Constitution
and Participatory Democracy,
well Who Is Going To Stop Them
from initiating a hostile takeover
of the government from within
the government?

The GOP has succeeded in placing
itself in the position
of destroying democracy
without a shot being fired.
Vladimir Putin has bought himself
a country
for less than one air craft carrier
would cost.
Talk about a coup!

All Trump has to do between now
and January 20, 2021
is fire all of the government workers
--the head of the Department of Defense 
was the first to go--
who might be disloyal
and replace them with "acting" loyalists,
and have them all refuse to obey
the norms and procedures
for transferring power to Joe Biden.

The government then would obey Trump.
Democracy would be kaput.
And the take-over would be complete.
Then it would just be a matter 
of cleaning things up,
with the ouster and martyrdom
of all of his political enemies,
at home and abroad.

Sweet.
Smooth.
Easy.
Simple.
What could go wrong?

That's the question that turns the future.

And however the future turns out to be,
it is sickening
that the fortunes of democracy
depend upon the willing and willful compliance
of all the people doing what is truly right
in upholding the principles of democracy
throughout the long generations of people
taking their oaths of office
and serving the country to the best of their ability
so help them God.