Waiting for things to fall into place is being attuned to what is called for here, now, and doing what needs to be done in the service of the time and place of our living. Tending the requirements of life as it is right here, right now is fundamental to all that follows. Just meeting the needs of the moment is the firs step into the rest of our life. Things fall into place around us meeting the moment as the moment needs to be met. What is waiting on us to act? Start there. Do that. One thing will lead to another and before we know it, things are falling into place in a wu-wei kind of way.

Appalachian Trail — Rhone Mountain, Catawba Rhododendrons, Fog

You could do a lot worse than ordering my eBook, The Way of the Buddha, from the Kindle Store on Amazon, and reading it slowly, perhaps out loud. I think it will cost you $2.00. That’s a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Happy is a point of view. A perspective. An attitude. A way of seeing what we look at. It is what we do with what we are handed. It starts with not taking anything more seriously than it deserves. And it moves into doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, when, where and how it is called for, and letting that be that. As Lao Tzu said 500 years before Jesus said, “Be like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field,” “Do your work and step back, let nature take its course.”

Striving to force our way on, through, in the world… Hammering, banging, pushing, shoving to get what we want doesn’t want the way we think it will.

See what’s what and doing what can be done about it, and letting that be that is the way of the natural world. Streams flowing to the sea sometimes dry up and have to wait for the rain to fall and fill its course with enough water to proceed along its way to its eventual destination. We have to wait for what is needed to have what it takes, or change what we want. And that means squaring ourselves up with how things are, doing what is called for and letting that be that, in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way.

Speaking of ways, the way to square ourselves up with what’s what is the way of emptiness, stillness, silence and solitude. Sitting and waiting for “now what” to become clear, that we might do what is called for in ways appropriate to the occasion throughout what remains of the time left for living.

The heart of Taoism is seeing the truth of who we are in the moment of our living. Living with nothing to want and nothing to hide, open to the here, now, free to do what is called for when, where and how it is called for. Because it is called for and something, someone, depends upon it.

What is the here, now asking for that we can provide? Why wouldn’t we ask that question and be open to its answer? What do we have that the moment needs? Why wouldn’t we provide it?

I would like to hear what my father would have to say to that question beginning around my 1st birthday. “What do you have that the moment needs? Why wouldn’t you provide it?” Answering that question throughout the birthdays of his five children and his wife. We would like to know. We deserve to know. Though we do know. We need to hear him say it. “Because I am the only one who matters here. And why aren’t you all who I want you to be?” We need to hear that from him.

Perhaps, you know someone like that?

Babies are not trying to be anything–they are simply being who they are. Why/when do we stop that and start trying to be who we aren’t? And then spend our old age becoming who we were. Enjoying what we enjoy, doing what needs to be done, here, now, without worrying about why, just knowing that. Who is the knower who knows in the baby and in the old person? Who is always there within everyone? Who is the source and foundation of who we always have been and always will be?

The Life Journey is from intuition to intellect to intuition. It could be called, “The Return To Intuition.” To knowing what we know. And trusting ourselves to it. Not for any gain, advantage, reward beyond knowing what we know and being who we are. That is the life journey. “And we will not cease our exploration until we have arrived at where we started and know it for the first time” (T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding).

We are the Knower. If we live long enough, we will discover that we have always been the God at the bottom of it all, the source of it all, only us waking up to being who we are, being what we are about, all the time living out of our own intuition, out of our own knowing, out of our own intelligence, waking up finally, at last, to the realization that there is no one here but us. Never has been. Never will be. We are the God we seek and serve. It is only us. Only ourselves. And has been from the very beginning through all of the ages until right here, right now.

“The outcome is not the outcome.” There is no point at which “the outcome” can be officially declared. Outcomes spin out and on forever like the circles created by a rock thrown into a still pond. There are no final outcomes–they just keep coming.

The old Taoists said, “Circumstances begetting circumstances is all there is.” Outcomes produce circumstances producing more outcomes and more circumstances forever. Why take anything personally, as the final word about anything? We maintain our balance and harmony by finding the right ratio here, now, between too close and too distant, between caring too much and caring too little. The dance of life and being.

Seeing requires no attachment, no judgement, no evaluation. It is all tentative, temporary. This is the way are for now and things are always changing. How can we keep score? When we respond emotionally to what is now. When we see with eyes that see, we also see our seeing, which changes how we look and what we see.

Our practice is seeing what we look at which includes how we look at what we see, and knowing what is called for here, now with our intrinsic, habitual, intuition–and following that with more of the same forever. Keeping troth with ourselves, our art through “circumstances begetting circumstances” forever. Doing “our thing” in ways appropriate to the occasion throughout time.

The idea of action “arising directly out of not-knowing” posits intuition as the source of life in the flow of life and being–being what needs to be here, now, without intention, agenda, will, desire, attachment to outcome and no interest in profit or gain. Just doing what is called for here, now because it is called for in each situation as it arises, no matter what, all our life long. This is all there is to it. Just relax into it, seeing, hearing, knowing flowing into doing and being and dancing with the circumstances of our existence day by day forever. This is not difficult. It is just not done. Why is it just not done? Starting with us. Right here, Right now?

If you haven’t done so yet, you might do an internet search for my name, Jim Dollar, and start reading from another source than this one.

Today is my 82nd April 4. And I am increasingly curious about my end of life possibilities. How many more April 4ths remain? What will I do with the time from now to then? What will be The Event that will be the turning point between life as it has been to life as it will be until my last breath? What will matter to me during however many days remain? How many realizations are left to me? I think that is my greatest curiosity. How many realizations remain?

Realization is my greatest pleasure. I fish for them with questions. Making inquiries is what I do best. How many more questions can I generate through all of the days left to live? I am driven by inquiry. What remains to wonder about? What needs to be known? I love the idea of the prospect of remaining quiet and alert to all of the questions I have yet to ask. What will pique my interest today? Through all of the days left to be lived. I hope you will be with me all along the way!

I invite you to join me in thinking of dying not as dead and gone, but as a transition state where energy, which can neither be created or destroyed, is being transformed or converted, and we are all, at that point in our life, moving on. And we won’t be gone, necessarily, but moving on to the next transition point. And we all will be transitioning throughout forever. I hope you will also join me in looking forward to it.

Doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done takes precedent over every other thing. If the entire world worked together in putting this into effect, the entire world would be a better place to live, like that, he said, snapping his fingers. And, if we act to enact it in our lives individually, it will improve our life like that, he said, snapping his fingers again.