02

The Hero's Journey and the heroic task
await us all.

But we are always confusing metaphor with reality,
and think, "Oh, but there are no more dragons to slay!"

There were never any dragons to slay.

All that heroes ever did
through all the ages
was simply what needed to be done. 
Simply what the situation called for.

Every moment has its dragon
and is desperate for its hero
to rise to the occasion
and do what needs to be done about it.

That's where you and I come in.

To act as liege servants
with filial loyalty
in doing what needs us to do it
"Without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat).

Moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day,
all our life long.

Not what we have in mind.
We are here for bigger things
than mopping the kitchen floor
and taking out the garbage!

Come the words of Jesus:
"Those who are faithful in small things
are faithful in much."
Those who can be counted on
with the mopping and the garbage
can be counted on. 
Period.

Heroes are those who can be counted on period.

Come the words of Jesus again:
"The harvest is plentiful
but the laborers are few."
We miss the metaphor again
and think that Jesus is talking about
saying what Jesus has done to everybody everywhere.
Jesus is talking about doing what needs to be done
in every situation everywhere.

Every situation cries out for something!
"The harvest is plentiful!"
And people everywhere
are saying, "Not me, not me."
 
No one wants to do what is asked of them.
Everyone is looking for a dragon to slay
in order to make the headlines
and reap the rewards
and be accorded Hero Of The Realm!

Superheroes have better things to do
than mop the kitchen floor
and take out the garbage.

The things superheroes spit on
need real heroes to do them.
Somebody?
Anybody?

–0–

01

Nothing is wrong with us
that growing up some more again
wouldn't help.

Growing up some more again
is the solution to all of our problems today.
And every day.

Too few people world-wide
ever get beyond the third stage
of spiritual development
(As devised by the Yogis, Hindus, Buddhists of lore,
and which can be found a few days back here).
And it's a problem because no one
can grow someone else up some more again, 
or at all.
Jesus couldn't do it,
and they killed him for trying.
They always kill you in one way or another for trying.

Growing up is our responsibility.
It is really all we have to do.
If we are committed to growing up some more again
for as long as it takes,
we have everything it takes
for our life-experience (and our life)
to be as good as it can be.

Our life is never as good as we would like for it to be,
and thus, the need to grow up some more again.
But we insist that our life be what we want it to be NOW!
And it will never be what we want it to be ever.
We have to grow up some more again about it.
Which we refuse to do.

And here we are.

The only "solution" (And it solves nothing,
just makes things as livable as they can be)
is for those of us who can
to grow up some more again as we are able
throughout our life
and let that be that.

Salvation is an individual accomplishment.

Nobody can save the world.

Nobody can "make disciples of all nations"
(And Jesus of all people would have known that,
so those words were put in his mouth
by those who felt they needed leverage
for what they were doing--which is how 
the entire Bible got to be as it is,
but that is for another time).

Each of us is on our own.
Our life is our responsibility.
And growing up some more again
is all we have to do.
Everything will fall into place around that.

It is another term for the spiritual journey,
the Hero's Journey,
the spiritual Quest.
And it waits for us to take it up.
Every day.
For the rest of our life.

04

Do not have a plan.
Do not think you know where you are going.
Do not have to know where you are going.
Do not need to know where you are going.
Do not know where you are going.

Do not think you know what you are doing.
Do not have to know what you are doing.
Do not need to know what you are doing.
Do not know what you are doing.

Do not think you ought to contrive a future.
Do not think you can contrive a future worth having.
Do not contrive a future.

Do not try to figure your best move,
or seek to serve your advantage,
or strive to gain the advantage,
or think you know what the advantage is.

See what you look at.
Ask the questions that beg to be asked.
Say the things that cry out to be said.
Listen to what you hear
beyond what is said
to what is implied,
to what is meant.

Know what is called for
in each situation as it arises.
Respond with what you have to offer
out of your gifts/daemon/spirit/virtues/character
and let things fall out around that.

Let sincerity,
balance
and harmony
be your traveling companions.

Consult your creative center and source
of your Original Nature,
and allow them to lead you in acting 
to incarnate your nature
in all of the times and places of your living,
in each here and now of your existence,
in doing what needs you to do it
within the circumstances that unfold before you.

Receive your life each day
as an adventure waiting for you to live it.

Dance with your contradictions 
and bear consciously the pain that is your to bear,
always open to the joy and wonder of being alive.

And your life will teach you 
all you need to know.

–0–

03

We are minding our own business,
going about life as usual,
all our plans are in place,
meeting our responsibilities
and carrying out our duties
in serving our own sense of The Good
to the best of our ability,
when along comes a war,
or a pandemic slams the door on one future
and opens the door to a starkly different one,
requiring us to adapt and adjust in mid-stride.

Transitions are tough to negotiate
even when we see them coming.
When they are thrust upon us
out of nowhere
we have to get our feet back under us
with the world spinning around us
while free-falling through a debris field
of all that once was the world we lived in
thirty seconds ago,
they are a monster,
eating our old life alive
laughing at our prospects 
and mocking our chances.

When everything is blown away,
we have to connect ourselves consciously
with the one constant that remains steadily in place
through all the vicissitudes of time and space.

That would be us.
Carl Jung said, "We are who we have always been,
and who we will be."

We remain constantly and continually ourselves
through all that comes and goes throughout our life.

We have to remind ourselves of that,
and breathe slowly and deeply,
as we recover our sense of our own being,
reunite with our Original Nature,
check to make sure our shadow is where it should be, 
and remind ourselves of who we are
and what we bring to this moment
and every moment flowing from this one.

Our task is the same 
across all conditions and circumstances of life:
We stop,
take inventory,
assess what is happening
and what needs to be done about it,
determine what is being called for,
in each situation as it arises
and respond to it 
with the gifts/daemon/spirit/virtues/character
that came with us from the womb
and accompany us wherever we go
all our life long.

Our work is the same in all times and places.
We stand up, 
and step forward,
rising to the occasion
and meeting whatever faces us
as only we can
moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-after-day,
time-after-time--
letting things fall into place around that
and adjusting to new realities as they emerge,
responding on the fly 
as needed all the way.

Through all that comes,
we maintain our conscious connection
with the source and center
of our Original Nature,
being who we are
when we are,
where we are,
no matter what
every step of the way--
allowing the path to open before us
as we start walking,
and trusting ourselves
to the creative mystery within
guiding us through the choices and decisions
that are ours to make
as though we know what we are doing,
when in truth,
we are only doing what seems to be 
the right thing to do at the time,
and letting the outcome be the outcome--
which will be just another situation
where we stand up
and step forward to meet
and deal with as best we can.

Resting and regrouping as we are able,
and doing what can be done
about what needs to be done
all the way.

Each of us is uniquely suited 
for the adventure that is ours.
It only takes believing that
and living as if it were so
for it to be so
in every day that lies ahead.

–0–

02

We have to be able to bear the pain
of seeing what we look at
and knowing what we know.

Bearing the pain of life as it is
is the foundational step
toward life as it may be.

The catch is that life as it may be
may be nothing like
life as we want it to be,
as we wish it were,
at least not in our lifetime.
And we have to bear that pain
in doing the work that needs to be done
to make things better than they are
for future generations.

How many generations out
are we
from life as it needs to be?
It doesn't matter.
What matters is that we do the work
in our time and place
toward life as it needs to be
in all times and places--
without keeping score
or caring what our chances are.

Democracy,
equality,
justice,
compassion,
human rights...
are worth living and dying for
across time and place.

And we have to bear the pain
of service to ends worthy of us
in every time and place,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so--
because everything depends on that,
and flows from that.

Living as though, 
as if,
this were so
makes it so!

And we take our place
in the long line of those
who lived in the service of a good
greater than their own, personal, good,
in light of all that life may yet be
for all who are alive
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

01

What do you call a White Supremacist
who frequents tanning beds
and applies artificial tan
with lotions and creams?

Kidding ourselves is what we do best.
Self-deception in all its myriad forms
has characterized humanity
from the beginning.
We are always fooling ourselves,
looking in the mirror,
never seeing who is looking back.

If you are a member of an organization--
or a group--
larger than three people,
you are a danger to the rest of us.

There are Republicans who are convinced
that Democrats eat children--
literally, actually, in real time.

Witch hunts were conducted by conspiracy theorists.
Nazis and fascists were/are conspiracy theorists.
Qanon never met a conspiracy theory it didn't like.
Everything is so much better with someone else to blame
for things being the way they are.

And hatred is at the bottom of it all.

"It is people like you
who make people like me
hate people like you!"

Try making peace with people like that.
With people who just want you dead.
After inflicting misery and suffering on you
forever.

What's the fix?
How do people get to be 
the way they are?
What is going on?
"Why can't we just get along?"
How is hatred masking itself
in the things you believe?

If you aren't self-aware enough
to see what you look at 
when you look at you,
you are a danger to the rest of us.

Self-transparency--
with a particular sensitivity
to denial,
deception
and delusion--
is the solution
to all of our problems today.
And every day.

The fix is found in assuming our individual responsibility
for facing,
squaring up to,
dealing with,
handling 
and managing the truth--
particularly, as it pertains to us personally.

03

Our life will teach us all we need to know--
IF we are willing to change our mind
about what is important.

If we are locked into a certain way of thinking about/seeing reality--
married to some form of doctrine or ideology--
there is no learning from experience,
or anything else.
We are among the dead
waiting to bury,
and be buried by,
the dead.

Meister Eckhart talked about our 
having to "leave God for God."
Our idea of God gets in the way 
of our experience of God.

Our idea of how things ought to be
gets in the way of our experiencing
how things need to be.

Parents have ideas for their children,
but their children have a life of their own
(And usually, the parents never had a life of their own, 
and the parents' ideas for their children
are their own projected desires
for the life they never lived).

If we have any hope of living the life
that needs us to live it,
we have to refrain from imposing our idea
of the life we want to live on our life,
and allow our life to show us 
how it needs us to live it.

This will come as a new concept 
to too many of you,
the idea that our life has a mind of its own.
The sooner you adjust yourself to it the better.
Our life has a mind of its own.

And we are students of our own life.
Our life is the teacher.
Living is the lesson.
Our life teaches us to live
in accord with the interests and needs of our life

To live like that
is to be a Real Human Being.

–0–

02

What is the nature of your pain?

This is an exercise for meditation,
for exploration,
for examination,
for reflection,
for realization.

We have to be conscious of our pain.
We have to bear consciously our pain.
How we do that tells the tale.

Knowing how we do that 
is the unadvertised first step to--
what would you call were we are going?
Where we are aspiring to be?
The whole point of our being here?
Of our being anywhere?
Of our being alive?
What are we about,
if not to find out what we are here to do?
To be?
To become?

However you envision what we are here for,
bearing consciously our pain
is the first step we have to take on the way there--
and it is something we carry with us all along the way.

"If you would be a companion of mine,"
said Jesus.
"Pick up your cross daily,
and come with me."

The metaphor of the cross--
like all living metaphors--
has to be re-thought,
re-worked,
in every generation

(We hardly ever re-work a metaphor.
Our "metaphors"--the quote marks
indicate they aren't actual metaphors,
just pretend metaphors,
make-believe symbols,
meaning nothing more than 
what they are said to mean).

Our "metaphors" come packaged
with definitions so that we can remind ourselves
of what they mean,
because they are meaningless
and have no connection with us 
and our life.

We breathe new life into old, 
dead,
metaphors,
by re-working them anew in every age.

The cross is more than it is reported to be--
as are all metaphors that are alive and vibrant.
It is not something Jesus died on to save us from our sins.
That is a narrative invented by the Church of the Holy Roman Empire
and burned into the minds of the people
by burning at the stake all the heretics who knew it was a lie from the start.

The people who understood what Jesus meant
about carrying their cross daily
knew their cross was nothing Jesus could bear for them
and it had nothing to do with sin,
but everything to do with living in a world
where life eats life,
and everything comes with strings attached,
and we give up this to get that,
and there are no free lunches,
and no free rides,
and we are damned if we do
and damned if we don't,
and that's the way it is.
And the cross we carry 
is the pain of being alive.
And no one can carry it for us.
We have to do that on our own.

The Buddha said, "Life is suffering."
Jesus said, "Pick up your cross and let's go."
And I say, "What is the nature of your pain?"

We have to bear consciously our pain.
We have to be clear about the nature of our pain.
And we have to know how we carry it,
how we manage it,
how we deal with it,
and what symptoms we have because of it--
or because of the way we are denying it,
escaping it,
hiding from it,
or trying to.

Our pain and how we relate to it
are among the basic truths about us and our life.
We don't take one step toward where we are going
(Which I understand to be becoming Real Human Beings)
without changing our relationship with our pain.

That changes our relationship with our life,
and with ourselves.
And that transforms everything.

So.
What is the nature of your pain?

–0–

01

Forrest Gump is the metaphor for our time.
If you were going to advise Forrest Gump, 
what would you tell him?
Sit with that.
Ponder it.
Meditate on it.
Play around with it.
What would you say to Forrest Gump?
What did/does Forrest Gump need to know?

Imagine that you are Forrest Gump.
What do you need to know?
What would help you the most?
If you could ask The One Who Knows
what you need to know,
what do you think he would tell you?

If you were Forrest Gump,
and I were The One Who Knows,
I would tell you,
"Forrest, be right about what you believe is so,
and live as though it is.
Live as if it were.
In every moment
of every situation as it arises,
all your life long."

And, you being Forrest Gump,
would likely ask,
"But how do I know what is right to believe in?"
I would tell you,
"Your life will tell you what is right to believe in.
Live with your eyes open,
seeing what you look at,
looking at everything.
Your life will teach you all you need to know."

And, you being Forrest Gump,
would likely say,
"Ah, I already knew that!"
And, I would say,
"Everybody does.
But only you are living as if it were so."

And, you being Forrest Gump,
would likely say,
"Well then, what do I need you for?"
And, I would say,
"Everybody already has all they need
to find what they need,
to do what their life needs them to do,
but only you and I and a handful of others
know it is so,
and live as though it is.
We are all like you, Forrest.
But only a few of us know it.
And it is good for us to be together
from time to time,
and pal around.
Why don't we find some popcorn,
or go for a run?"

03

Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell said two things (apiece)
that pertain to us and our work
of transforming our relationship with ourselves
and living a life in accord with who we are.

Carl Jung:
"There is within each of us another, whom we do not know."

"We are who we have always been, and who we will be."

Joseph Campbell:
"Where you stumble and fall, there lies the treasure."

"What you seek lies far back in the darkest corner
of the cave you most don't want to enter."

These four statements constitute
the full scope of the work that is ours to do,
which is, transforming our relationship with ourselves
and living to incarnate/bring forth The Other,
who is our True Self,
The Face That Was Ours Before We Were Born,
within the context and circumstances of our life
in the world of time and space--
the here and now of our normal, 
day-to-day, existence.

Your assignment is to meditate,
ruminate,
contemplate,
consider,
reflect on,
play with,
dance with,
muse on,
walkabout with,
live with...
these four statements
in your imagination,
and let them take on a life of their own,
leading you down paths you would never think 
to explore,
showing you what they have to offer,
and what they have to ask of you--
just allow your thoughts to run off with you
and follow along, 
not knowing where they are going...

Do this over a long period of time.
Come back again and again to these four statements
and what they have to show you 
that you have yet to see.

The statements will not run out of things to say to you,
to show you,
to ask you,
to require of you.
And they will always be a doorway, a threshold, to you
through all the stages of your life.

–0–

02

Our opinions are killing us.

We have opinions about everything.
If physicians allowed their opinions
to color their living
the way everybody else does,
everybody else would be better off
staying away from physicians.

Police are now partisan in New York.
If you don't wear a MAGA hat,
don't expect police to be much help there.
And if you wear a Black Lives Matter tee shirt,
you are soon to be in need
of a physician without opinions.

We got here by being asleep at the wheel.
By being Absent Without Leave from our life.
By not being aware of how our opinions
were carrying us away,
kidnapping us,
hijacking us,
commandeering us,
shanghaiing us
and making us captive
to their narrow point of view
and their absence of grace and kindness,
compassion and bigness of heart.

And we became snarly,
surly,
grouchy,
crotchety,
bad-tempered,
ill-natured
and unsafe to be around,
like that (snaps fingers).

All because we have opinions 
about everything.
And, with us, opinions are facts.
The way we see things
is the way things ARE!!!
And everything SHOULD BE
the way we want things to be
RIGHT NOW!!!

OR ELSE!!!

You can look this up,
or trust me when I say,
opinions (ours and everyone else's) are the cause
of all of our troubles yesterday,
today,
tomorrow
and forever.

And, if you think that is just my opinion,
well, that's YOUR opinion.
 

–0–

01

The work is always the same
over time and place.

Wherever we are,
whenever we are,
there is the work to wake up,
be aware,
see what is happening,
do what is called for
in incarnating our Original Nature,
within the context and circumstances
of our life,
with sincerity,
balance and harmony,
energy, spirit and vitality,
in the service of justice and equality,
compassion and peace,
grace and kindness
all our life long.

The old saw goes,
"When Good stands up to be Good,
Evil stands us to be Evil."
It is an unending cycle of life,
like the coming and going of the seasons
and the rise and fall of the tides.
It means Good cannot quit being Good
just because it is tired
and needs a vacation.
Evil doesn't sleep.
Good has to be on its toes.
All the time.

We can rest in peace
when we are dead.

03

Returning to the practice of Active Imagination:

We either stop the experience,
or allow it to reach a natural stopping point.
And there begins the next phase of the exercise. 

We have to reflect on it to the point of new realizations.

Active Imagination is a daytime,
waking,
dream.
A daydream of the highest order.
And requires that we approach it
as though it were a nightdream--
understanding it to be our psyche's way
of getting our attention
and showing us things about ourselves
that we need to assimilate/integrate/embrace/incorporate
in our way with life.

Our psyche is always showing us how things are with us
and asking what we are going to do about it.
Inviting us to grow up some more again,
and make the changes that are necessary
for us to live in accord with the life that needs us to live it.

The Taoist symbol of Yin/Yang is  asking 
to be worked out in our life.
How much of this?
How much of that?
Where is the balance point?
What needs to happen for harmony to come forth
as blessing and grace?

Our place is to be quiet
and take stock.
To assess our current life situation
and see what is happening
and what is being called for.
To know what needs to be done and do it.

We feel our way forward
by way of reflection
and realization,
awareness and "Aha!"
Integrating opposites (Yin/Yang)
and creating wholeness
by way of our response 
to the situations and circumstances 
of our life.

The trick here is to have nothing at stake in the matter.
What needs to be done in light of the true good of the whole?
In light of what?
Whose good is served by the good we call good?
How good is the good we call good?

If the baby's diaper needs changing
change the baby's diaper.
If the dog needs to go for a walk,
take the dog for a walk.
Like that.
Throughout our life.
It doesn't matter what we want,
or what we don't what,
or what we feel like,
or what we are in the mood for...

What is being asked of us here and now?
What is called for?
What are we going to do about it?
We don't just decide.
We wait.
We wait for the mud to settle
and for the water to clear.
We wait for the necessary action
to act itself through us.
Without doing anything
more than waiting to see,
to hear,
to know what's what
and what is called for.
And BOOM!
Like that,
the right action is obvious.
Of course!

–0–

02

Joseph Campbell talks about
Carl Jung's idea of "Active Imagination"
in Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor,
and says," One way to activate the imagination is 
to propose to it a mythic image for contemplation
and free development.
Mythic images...speak to very deep centers of the psyche...
without strict game rules defining the sort 
of thoughts you must (think),
letting your own psyche
enjoy and develop (the image),
you may find yourself running into imageries,
experiences, and amplifications 
that do not fit exactly into 
the patterns (you expect or are comfortable with).
What are you going to do?
Are you going to let yourself go, following your own
activated imagination?
Or are you going to cut the run short
at some critical point?
...The world of life speaks within us
when we let the active imagination function."

We can engage our Active Imagination
with any image,
or any situation, 
or any idea,
letting our psyche take over 
and wander where it will. 

For instance, you could imagine yourself
standing on a beach,
looking out to sea,
and just stand there,
watching,
waiting
to see what will happen,
that you don't intentionally will into being.
Just look out to sea
and see what happens next...

At some point,
when your psyche takes over,
you may get to a thought or an image
that so shocks you,
you have to take control
and get yourself out of there now.

If you have ever frightened yourself
with some of the things that come to mind
over the course of a life,
and quickly assumed control of your thoughts
and changed the subject, 
you know what Campbell is talking about.

Do we risk seeing what we have to show ourselves?
Say to ourselves?
Or will we dutifully follow the course laid out for us
by society and the culture
and the expectations and duties
that shape, form, limit and restrict
the kind of path we can allow our life to take--
to the point of not even allowing ourselves
to think thoughts that are prohibited by
and anathema to the time and place of our living?

What are we afraid of?

"That which you seek is found far back
in the darkest corner
of the cave you most don't want to enter"
(Joseph Campbell).

What do we do?

–0–

01

Transforming our relationship with ourselves
is our life-long task.
The Hero's Journey.
The Spiritual Quest.
Our Opus.
Our Great Work.

We are seeking ourselves
along every path we take.
And, are running from ourselves
at the same time.

So comes to bear upon us
the words of Carl Jung:
"We meet our destiny 
on the road we take to escape it."

And the words of Joseph Campbell:
“We find what we seek
far back in the darkest corner
of the cave we most don’t want to enter.”

Damn if we don't!
So why make it hard on ourselves?
Why not just cut to the chase?
And save ourselves the trouble
of getting all the way to the end of our rope?

"Okay!"
Why don't we just stop and say,
"Okay! I know where this is going!
I understand inevitability when I
can no longer deny it!
What do you want with me?
What will it take to make you happy?"?

I can tell you The Four Things Required,
but it is up to you to put them in play,
and you are on your own from this point.

The First Thing is Sincerity.
How long has it been?
No contrivance.
No games.
No seeking your own advantage.
No looking for what's in it for you.
No feigning interest when you couldn't care less.
No duplicity.

Your heart has to be in it all the way.
No! Your heart has to be leading the way all the way!
If your heart isn't in it,
you are wasting your time.

Liege Loyalty.
Filial Devotion.
Go and learn what these things are.
Require.
It is called "Sincerity."
That's The First Thing.

The Second Thing is like unto it: Good Faith.
No bullshit.
No chasing after something better
when something better comes along.
No quitting when things get hard.
No changing your mind.
No waffling.
No demurring. 
No trying to re-negotiate The Deal.

You are owned by your Word.
You are bound by your Word.
Jesus said, "No one who puts their hand to the plow
looks back."
Or to the left.
Or to the right.
Or up or down.
A Good Faith commitment to the task at hand 
is The Second Thing.

The Third Thing is a Spirit of Play.
Playing is serious business.
Playing is getting yourself out of the way.
Playing unfolds according to its own direction.
Its own inclination.
Its own spur-of-the-moment urgency.

No one plays by the rules!
The Rules kill play!
And suddenly you are back at work.
Keeping the rules.
"All games have their rules!"
Okay, then. 
The rule of this game is "No Rules!"

We play by playing,
and that means Getting Out Of The Way.
No winning.
No losing.
No keeping score.
No concern for how well we are doing.
No worrying about "Are we there yet?"
We are just lost in the game,
playing our way along the way.
That's The Third Thing: A Spirit of Play.

The Forth Thing is The Third Thing.
The Forth Thing is not The Third Thing.
The Spirit of Play is the Third Thing.
The Forth Thing is a different Third Thing.
Play along here.

The Third Thing is a thing,
anything,
that is oblique to the Journey.
The Task.
The Quest.
The Third Thing
 has nothing to do with what we are doing.

The other two things are You
and What You Are Doing
(Seeking to transform your life
by transforming your relationship
with yourself).

The Third Thing has nothing to do with that.

The Third Thing could be anything.

Oatmeal cookies.
Sit down with actual oatmeal cookies,
or with the idea of oatmeal cookies,
and see where it goes.
See what you do with oatmeal cookies.
Let oatmeal cookies take over your life.
Write an essay on oatmeal cookies.
Write a letter to oatmeal cookies.
Bake oatmeal cookies.
Experiment with the recipe.
Make the best oatmeal cookies 
that have ever been made.
Play with oatmeal cookies.
See where they take you.
Watch how oatmeal cookies open doors
you never expected oatmeal cookies to open.
Doors you never knew existed.
Leading to places you would have never ever
gone on your own.
Oatmeal Cookies become your Guide.
Follow the leader.

The old alchemists had a slogan:
"One book opens another."
Oatmeal cookies are that way.
The Third Thing carries you away like that.
To what, and what else, and where that will go,
you will discover in good time.

Oatmeal cookies don't have to be your Third Thing.
Sit quietly and wait for your Third Thing to appear
in a compelling kind of way,
as if to say,
"Let's play."

Whoowhoo!
Hang on for the ride!

04

Sincerity is the foundation of our personality.
Sincerity is the end of duplicity.
Of contrivance.
Of manipulation.
And deceit.
And deception.
Fraud, trickery, artifice...
And all that is the bane of relationships
and the essence of bad faith
worldwide.

Sincerity is the solution to all of our problems today.
Everyday.

It is the only thing required for Real Human Being-hood.
The only thing necessary for community and well-being worldwide.

The only thing that highly developed,
spiritually mature people have
that other people don't have.

People who are sincere
are treasures upon the earth.
They grace us with their presence
and leave us with the memory of their passing,
and the dream of their hoped-for return.

–0–

03

Personality is the key to everything. 
Who we are is how we respond to our life. 
Is what we do in the here and now,
in the time and place of our living,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.

And if it is not--
if what we do is not a reflection/expression/incarnation
of who we are--
if how we live is some twisted, 
skewed,
distorted,
misshapen,
macabre, 
perversion of who we are,
in the service of motives
and desires
that are devouring us
as we pursue them,
like some deranged Ouroboros
gorging itself on itself,
then we only have ourselves to thank
for abandoning our soul
to pursue dreams of everlasting glory.

Everlasting is our Original Nature
brought forth in response
to the circumstances of our life.

When our Original Nature is exhibited
by our personality,
we are a wheel turning out of its own center,
guiding itself by its own inner sense of direction
to ends worthy of its allegiance
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.

Personality leads us all along the way.
Reveals us.
Unfolds us.
Expands us.
Develops us.
Brings us forth.
Establishes us.
Makes us known as the Real Human Being we are.

Our relationship with our personality
is our primary relationship,
enabling us to be who we are 
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
and birthing us anew
again and again,
all along the way.

–0–

02

There are: 
our Original Nature,
the Source of our Original Nature,
and the Source of the Source.

When we connect with,
live out of
and express
our Original Nature
within the context and circumstances
of our life, 
we are connecting with
and exhibiting,
the Source 
and the Source of the Source.

We are one with all things.

In accord with,
aligned with,
in harmony with,
balanced by,
the rhythms
and flow
of nature and life.

What interferes with that,
prevents that,
sabotages that,
keeps it from happening?

Caring about the wrong things.
Not-caring about the right things.
Willing what cannot be willed.
Wanting what we have no business having.
Thinking the wrong things are important.

Our orientation and direction.
Having purposes at cross-purposes with our Purpose. 
Living with too much noise in our life to hear.
Living opaque to ourselves.
Turning off, tuning out, shutting down.

What is the fix,
the cure,
the antidote?

Hitting the solid rock wall of reality sometimes works.
Getting to the end of our rope may do it.
Having nowhere to turn
and nowhere to go could do the trick.
Running out of answers might be the answer.
Seeing what we look at
and knowing what we know--
and what we don't know--
is always a reliable path back to the path.

The catch is that no one can do it for us.

The return to our Original Nature
as liege servants swearing 
filial loyalty and devotion forever
is up to us.

–0–

01

Our meanings are the most personal things about us.

What something means to us 
sets us apart
and makes us unique among
the rest of humankind.

Or disappears us entirely,
and renders us indistinguishable
from all the others
wearing our collective team's colors
and cheering them on.

Where does meaning come from?
How do we know what is meaningful?
How do we decide "This is,"
and "That is not"?

Getting to the bottom of meaning
and what it does for us,
how it grounds us
and establishes us,
defines us 
and gives us our place in the world,
opens us to the depths of existence,
and the doorways of realization.

What means the most to you?
Your life is formed and shaped by what?
Do you live for football?
Ice cream and apple pie?
Your children?
Daddy's approving smile?

Make a list.
Add to it as things occur to you.
Call it your book of meaningful things.
Carry it with you through all times and places.
How long will it be by the end of the week?
How many meaningful things
do you count in a day?
What do you do that is meaningful every day?
What makes them meaningful?
What/who do they connect you with?
What/who do they protect you from?
What does your association with them 
do for you?
What gives them their place in your life?
How do new things get to be added to the list?
What is the newest meaningful thing there?
What are your guides to new meaningful things?
What is your guide to meaning?
What does your collection of meaningful things
tell you about who you are?

Upon what does your life depend?

03

Musing on our Original Nature,
our Virtues,
and our Character
opens up pathways of reflection
that lead to new realizations.

What are the things that make us us,
that separate us from the crowd,
that stand us apart
and identify us as distinct
from every other person--
that are to our psyche
as our fingerprints are to our soma?

Would you recognize yourself
if you heard someone else
describing you?

Would you say,
"Hey! That's me you are talking about!"?

Do you know you well enough
to see you through someone else's eyes?

How do you enhance,
deepen,
broaden,
expand,
your relationship with your psyche-side?

How do you come to recognize 
the qualities you possess?

If you were to deliberately 
act like yourself,
what would you do?
If you were going to over-emphasize 
those things that are characteristically you
(The way you would
if you were doing your best John Wayne imitation),
what would you do?

What qualities,
characteristics,
virtues
are you particularly proud of?
How do you bring them into play
in your life?

Musing on our Original Nature,
our Virtues,
and our Character
opens up pathways of reflection
that lead to new realizations.

–0–

02

Original Nature leads the way.

Relying on our Original Nature to guide us
is simply falling back on who we are
in meeting the requirements of each here and now--
after Carl Jung's quote:
"We are who we always have been,
and who we will be."

That is all we need to do
all we need to be,
wherever and whenever we are--
with this caveat:
"In ways fitting to the occasion."

We cannot impose ourselves
on our circumstances.
We are here to honor Yin/Yang,
to bear the pain of our contradictions,
to bear the pain of the tension
of mutually exclusive opposites,
and incarnate the truth of who we are
within the hostile circumstances
of our daily life.

This is what Jesus did
and it killed him.
Whether we die literally as Jesus did,
or metaphorically as working parents do daily,
as working people do daily,
doing what it takes to pay the bills
in order to do what we pay the bills
to do.

It is a contrary that pushes us to the limit,
and William Blake reminds us,
"Without contrary is no progression." 
Dancing with our contraries
all along the way of life,
is the way of life,
and the way to life.

We live to be who we are
within the time and place of our living,
working to make where we are
more like it ought to be than it is,
becoming ourselves
more like we are than we are yet--
taking our place in the long line of our ancestors
who rose to the occasion every day of their life,
and made things better by the way they lived,
and were a grace and a blessing
upon all who came their way.

–0–

01

The people who don't care
about the impact of their actions
are a threat and a danger
to the people who do care
about the things the people who don't care
don't care about.

It takes caring about things working
for things to work.

But, there is a catch. 

Just as we can care too little,
we also can care too much.

Caring is a tricky act
of balance and harmony.
Thin is the line
and fine is the balance
among not enough,
just right
and too much.

If we are going to care,
we have to care enough
to get it right.

That means monitoring the moment,
moment-by-moment.
Seeing the nature of our impact
on what's happening
and what needs to happen,
and adjusting our influence
to moderate/adjust the effect
we are having 
on the time and place
of our living.

We have to know what we are doing
and what that is doing,
and what we need to do about that.

We have to pay attention,
we have to be aware,
we have to be alert,
we have to know what's what
and what has to be done
in response to it,
moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day.

And we learn as we go.

The way we live
will teach us how we need to live
throughout our life.

Throw away the rules and the recipes,
and simply see what you look at,
and know what you know,
and let that be your guide
as to how to respond to what is happening
over time.

It's like learning to ice skate,
roller skate,
walk
and ride a bike.

We don't find "the sweet spot"
and rigidly remain in place.
We wobble a lot.
Now we have it,
oops, now we don't,
ah, now we do...
Controlled wobbles,
all our life long.

But.
We have to care enough
to care at all.

03

The energy to be engaged
comes from tending our relationship
with the Source of Rapture,
Ecstasy, 
Euphoria
Awe,
Wonder...
that characterize the impact beauty has on us
in art,
music
and nature--
though it also can arise from particular encounters
with The Tao of Grace and Synchronicity.

Whether there is such a thing as the Source of those experiences,
I do not know.
But I do know that if we live as if there is,
it makes all the difference in our life.

All people everywhere have experienced
these things
from the beginning of people, 
and they have all seen what they have experienced
as issuing from God, or The Gods,
by whatever name they have called
"That Which Has Always Been Thought Of As God."

"God" comes entangled, 
enshrouded,
bound up in,
theology
and doctrine,
creeds,
dogmas,
beliefs
and assumptions
that go far afield from the Source of Awe and Wonder.

The Source of Awe and Wonder
is all we can say about the Source of Awe and Wonder.

Awe and Wonder happen to everybody everywhere.
No one has to believe any particular thing
or behave any particular way.
We all just go about our life 
and are Whammed out of Nowhere by Awe and Wonder.

Positing that as evidence of a Source,
puts us in position to develop our relationship with said Source
by meditating on the experience of Awe and Wonder,
and tracking it to all of the occasions resulting in Awe and Wonder.

One of those occasions is simply ourselves,
and the fact that we could be moved by such experiences
as those which move us.
And the more we explore ourselves,
the more we are open to being moved 
by the experience of being moved.

At some point, 
we track onto our Original Nature--
"The Face That Was Ours Before We Were Born."
Who is responsible for that?
How do we come to be who we are?
What an Awe and Wonder that is!

And all of this tracks back to the supposed Source of it all.
However, if we choose to stop here, fine.
We can recognize the Knower Within as The End of the Line.
If we track back to the Source,
the Source will also be recognized to be the Knower Within,
and we will be recognized to be One With The Knower AND with The Source.

So how do you want to count to ten?
By ones?
By fives?
By halves?
We can get to ten in ten thousand ways.
Well, a lot of ways anyway.

Same with the Source.

And improving our relationship with the Source 
is a matter of realizing all of the things that bless us
with the Grace of Awe and Wonder--
and putting ourselves on the path to be so graced
on a regular and recurring basis.

Simple! As! That!

–0–

02

Awareness and imagination are our primary tools.
They have been with us from the beginning,
and will be the last things to go.
Whether I'm right about that is unimportant.
What matters is that we live as though, as if, it is so,
and let everything fall into place around that.

Awareness takes everything into account
and sees/knows/apprehends what is happening.
Imagination kicks in to figure out what to do about it.

Awareness and imagination are all we need
when combined with the most essential tool in our kit:
Bearing the pain of seeing what is to be seen,
knowing what is to be known,
and doing what needs to be done about it.

Courage gets a lot of hype,
but courage is just another word
for bearing the pain.

Bearing the pain is the ultimate test 
of our will and our spirit.
Do we have what it takes to bear the pain?
No matter what?
For as long as it takes?
Whether we feel like it or not?
Whether we are in the mood for it or not?
For no other reason than
because it is called for here and now?
Again-some more-still?
Anyway?
Nevertheless?
Even so?

If we can pick up our pain--
the cross of our pain--
every day and carry it all day long
the way it needs to be carried,
in doing what needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises,
we can count on our awareness
and our imagination
to provide us with all we need 
to make it from the jungles and the caves
through all the traumas of all the ages
to right here,
right now--
for as long as there are here's and now's 
all the way to the last ones
at the end of the line.

–0–

01

There is only one thing
standing between you
and having it made,
as much as anyone can have it made,
living in a world where life eats life,
and what we want prevents us from having
something else we want,
and our inner conflicts and contradictions
make it impossible for us to have our way
and enjoy our life.

The one thing missing is this:
You have to be able to bear the pain 
of living in a world where life eats life,
and what we want prevents us from having
something else we want,
and our inner conflicts and contradictions
make it impossible for us to have our way
and enjoy our life.

You have to be able to bear the pain
of seeing what you look at
and knowing what is called for
in each situation as it arises
and having what it takes
to do what is needed
without worrying about
what it means for you personally
and letting the outcome be
whatever it is
and trusting everything to fall 
into place around that,
and trusting yourself
to have what you need
to find what you need
to do what needs to be done
in the next situation that arises
all your life long.

If you can do that,
you have it made.
as much as you can have it made...
as long as you can bear the pain
of being alive.

If you can do that,
the rest is a snap.

02

There is how things are.
And there is how we wish things were.
And there is how things ought to be.

Our place is to be right
about how things are
and how things ought to be,
put aside how we wish things were,
and work diligently at the task
of making things more like they ought to be
than they are
throughout our life.

We work with the tools we have--
our Original Nature,
the gifts/genius/daemon/spirit/virtues/character/vitality
that came with us from the womb--
with sincerity, compassion and good faith,
without contrivance or deceit,
seeing what we look at,
asking the questions that beg to be asked,
saying the things that cry out to be said,
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

Doing that much will change the world.

Prove me wrong!

–0–

01

There is nothing wrong with us
that changing our mind about what's important
won't correct.

But.
There is a catch.
We have to change our mind about what's important
until we are right about it.

Being right about what's important
is the solution to all of our problems today.
And tomorrow.
Forever.

Why is it so hard to be right about what's important?
I was hoping someone would ask that question!
Simple.
It is because we want what we want
and not what we ought to want.
Hint:
What we want is not important.
I knew you were not going to like that.

Being right about what's important
is not pain free.
But.
It is the right kind of pain.
It is the kind of pain that pain is all about.

Carl Jung said,
"Neurosis is always a substitute
for legitimate suffering."
He also said,
"There is no coming to consciousness
(Waking up)
without pain."

We experience pain by denying or escaping pain,
and we experience pain by embracing and accepting pain.
But.
It is a different kind of pain.

We have to bear the right kind of pain--
the pain of consciously bearing our pain--
the pain of knowing and doing what's important,
no matter what.

Our life revolves around escape from pain.
Once escaping pain is no longer our primary diretive
and motivation,
everything changes for the better,
But.
We are not pain free.
Pain is just no longer important.
It is only the price we pay for being alive,
and doing what needs to be done.

People who are alive 
and not doing what needs to be done
may as well be dead,
and are dead
to all that is life-giving
and vibrantly alive.

Now.
What you know needs to be done
will probably not be what your mother/father/etc.
thinks needs to be done.
And this is where we came in:
"Being right about what's important
is the solution to all of our problems today..."

We have to be right about what is important--
about what needs to be done--
about what needs us to do it--
and do it.
No matter what our mother/father/etc. thinks.

Joseph Campbell talked about The Primary Mask
(The one our mother/father/etc. thinks we ought to wear),
and The Antithetical Mask
(The Face That Was Ours Before We Were Born--
the mask we are built to wear,
being right about what is important and doing it).

Being right about what is important 
is not pain-free,
but it is the kind of pain that frees us
from the kind of pain that is killing us.

There is the pain of death and dying,
and there is the pain of life and living.
Bearing the right kind of pain
is dying the death that leads to resurrection
and life everlasting on this side of the grave.
Refusing to bear the right kind of pain
is being sentenced to "bear" the wrong kind of pain
(By trying to escape all pain),
and that is to be dead, dead, dead on this side of the grave.

Being right about what is important and doing it is life--
regardless of the price we pay.
We get to be alive all the way to the end of the line.

The kind of life we live
determines how alive we are.
How alive we are,
determines the kind of life we live.

02

Faith-as-belief is another word for denial.
Belief discounts,
dismisses,
disregards,
ignores
facts
in favor of a different perception of reality.
We believe ourselves out of one world,
into another.

Keeping faith with ourselves,
on the other hand,
enables us to live in this world
exactly as it is,
as those who are not disabled by it,
but are focused on bringing ourselves forth,
on doing-right-by-ourselves,
within the context and circumstances
of each situation as it arises.

Keeping faith grounds us 
in what is deepest/truest/best about us--
our Original Nature,
The Face That Was Ours Before We Were Born,
Who We Always Have Been
And Who We Will Be--
integrated/whole/at-one-within
in the work of incarnating
our gifts/genius/daemon/spirit/virtues/character/vitality
moment-by-moment-by-moment
day-by-day
throughout our life.

So, what do we mean by "faith"?
Something we believe?
The doctrines and creeds of organized religion?
Or something we do
in living faithfully to the core and purpose
of who we are?

What do we mean by "being faithful"?
Faithful to someone else's idea of who we are supposed to be
and what we are supposed to do?
Or faithful to our inner nature
and true to our sense of what is called for
and what we need to do in response
out of our realization of what is asked of us
in the moment of our living?

The one thing Jesus did not do, 
for instance,
was to stop and ask what somebody else would do
in the moment of his living.

Faithful to our own Original Nature,
we are free to live spontaneously,
extemporaneously,
improvisationally,
here and now 
in light of what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
in the this time and this place of our living.

And that is the kind of faith 
that transforms the world.

–0–

01

Faith-based religion is like an AA meeting
in which everybody declares they are not an alcoholic.

"I'm Jim, and I am NOT an alcoholic!"
"My father was an alcoholic and I wouldn't touch the stuff!"
"I've been a tee-totaler all my life!"
And they pay the preacher to tell them they are all drunks.
Drunk on denial.
And they deny it.

Every church is a denial factory.
Churning it out.
Passing it around.
Giving it away.

You can't make sense of it.
It defies belief.
The best you can hope for
is to walk away,
shaking your head,
muttering to yourself.

You cannot make people see
who think they see just fine.
Who think you are the one who can't see.
People who see in the Land of the Blind
are crucified.
Or ignored.

There is no solution. 
Leave the dead to bury the dead,
and go off into the west
to live out your life among the forests
and mountains.
At one with the natural world
that is just as it is.

01

When too much comes at us
too fast,
too often,
we need to go "where the wild things are,"
or at least read "The Peace of Wild Things,"
by Wendell Berry.

We need to immerse ourselves in the natural world.

We were born into that world.
We are a part of that world.
We belong to that world.
And when the artificial world
we have constructed
to take the place of that world
and keep us comfortable and safe
becomes unlivable,
we have to regain our balance and harmony
by reconnecting with the rhythms and wonder
of the natural world.

Two things we will notice
are the silence and the noise.
The silence and the noise
transport us from the artificial world and its reality
to the natural world and its reality.
Step willingly into the silence and noise
of the natural world
and wait.

You are waiting to be enveloped by the natural world.
To make the transition.
To belong.

You are waiting for the shift in perspective
that opens your eyes
and makes all things new.

If we spend our time in the natural world
can't waiting to get back to the Real World,
we are wasting our time
and our opportunity.
We have to learn the trick of being there.
It is the trick of being wherever we are.
Being there is the best trick in the book
(And one of the best movies in my experience,
but that's for another time).

Being there/here transports us to the place of power--
to the pivot point between past and future,
to the fulcrum,
"the still point of the turning world"
(T.S. Eliot)
where everything waits,
holding its breath,
to see where it all goes from here
with everything hanging on what we do
and how we do it.

When too much comes at us
too fast,
too often,
it is because we have lost the perspective
of The Eternal Now,
where time is suspended
and nothing is happening
because we are present
with awareness and compassion,
seeing all,
and waiting.

Meanwhile,
the tide is coming in,
or going out,
or turning around.
And will continue to do so
until it finds itself doing what it is doing then,
coming in, 
going out,
our turning around,
in its own time,
in its own way,
when it suits it to do so,
when the time is right,
and things happen as they need to happen
of their own accord,
with nobody doing nothing.

That is the way of the natural world.

Nothing happens there before it time,
or after its time,
or out of time,
out of sync,
out of place.

That's the schtick of the Real World.