02
One of my favorite questions is "What would you go to hell for?" Totally serious. It may be the most important question. There are sacred covenants that require our filial loyalty, our liege devotion. What are yours? I hope you have a long list! I will put it another way: What commitments do you honor, what activities do you engage in, what relationships do you cherish, in what ways do you spend your time, that are so precious to you, that being unable to engage in them would be worse than going to hell? What is the source of your energy, spirit, vitality, balance, harmony, LIFE that to be without it would be worse than going to hell? How often do you go there? How long do you stay?
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01
Joseph Campbell said (Quoting James Joyce, I think), "A mature person is like a wheel rolling out of its own center." I prefer to think of a wheel turning out of its own center-- a gyroscope maintaining its own balance and harmony through the turbulence of time and place. Living out of its adamantine loyalty to its relationship with-- and commitment to-- itself. It knows who it is and what it is about-- what grounds it, centers it, sustains it, feeds it, nourishes it, replenishes it, guides and directs it in and through each situation as it arises in all contexts and circumstances of its existence. There is nothing that can happen that will knock it off its foundation or keep it from its mission of seeing what it looks at, hearing what is being said, knowing what's what and what needs to be done about it and doing it with the gifts/daemon/genius/virtues that are inborn and at its disposal in each moment of its life that call it forth to meet the day, day-by-day-by-day. Our problem is how to get to that place in our life. The 10,000 things are arrayed against us. Nothing in our past experience has prepared us to deal with our present or our future-- though everything has, and we have only to realize it. To quote Campbell again, "No one is given a mission they are not ready for!" Our lives have prepared us for this moment. It is our time to step forth and be who we are-- despite all of the fear, and insecurity and excuses we could make. We have all that we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done-- we only have to know that it is so, and act as though it is-- in the strength of the Two Powers that are always with us: The Silence and The Source! Sitting quietly, seeking The Source of our Original Nature, our Essence, our Virtues, our Self our Imagination, our Ideas, our Courage, our Spirit, our Energy, our Vitality... We discover the truth that has been true from the beginning: We are not alone, and we have all that we need. Bring on the day! The key here is to step into each day "Without hope, without witness, without reward!" ( Steven Moffat, Doctor Who), like a wheel turning out of its own center, not desiring, not contriving, not scheming, not designing, not planning, not preparing... just living moment-by-moment in the service of what is called for in that moment, with nothing invested in the outcome and no profit or gain or success or motive in mind. With only the joy of being able to do what is set before us to propel us into the day. Each day.
