This is the category page holder for all the post made during February, 2021.
January 31, 2021
05
What do you do for the sake of doing it alone? Live to expand the list. When there is nothing in it for you beyond doing what you are doing for the sake of doing it alone, you are engaged in living for the experience, the expression, the wonder of being alive to life and not to get something more from it than that. This is the essence of a spiritual experience. No spiritual experience can offer more than this. When we live for the joy of being alive, we are dancing for the love of dancing, and that is all there is in the sense of "There is only the dance" (T. S. Eliot).
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04
What are your questions? Not the questions you want answered, but the questions that are yours to answer-- the question you live to answer-- the questions your life is an answer to. What are those questions? Here are mine, the ones I am aware of at this point in my life. I am aware of growing into my questions. My life lives me into awareness. I assume it is the same with you. My circumstances raise questions for me I never considered until these particular circumstances came along. My life is teaching me to live by answering the questions that are mine to answer. Maybe that is so with you as well. Fraser Snowden said, "The only true philosophical question is: 'Where do you draw the line?'" That is certainly one of my questions! And I answer it differently in each situation as it arises. In this I am "like the spirit that is like the wind that blows where it will," meaning the spirit makes it up as it goes along. The spirit isn't following a recipe book, a book of rules and ethical standards regarding what to do when. The spirit doesn't do what anyone requires to be done, or even expects to be done. The spirit does what is called for moment-by-moment. That's me and drawing the line. It all depends on what the moment calls for. This is my second question: What is the moment calling for? That also has to be answered here and now, in the moment that is being presently lived. I can't answer that from afar. I have to listen to the moment, to attend the moment, to be alive to the moment in order to know what's what and what is being called for then and there. The third question is implied in the first two: What is important? What matters most? Right here, right now? My stock answer to this one can be answered from afar, and applied across the board: Going to hell! It is important that we go to hell! By that I mean it is important that we know clearly, without ambivalence or hesitation what we would go to hell for, and going to hell for it when the circumstances require it. This means dying, symbolically, metaphorically, and, if need be, actually, literally. We live to die. What would we die for? When everything is on the line, will we know it? Will we do what is called for? Will we go to hell, if need be? If we would go to hell for it, it's important. Do we know what that would be? That's where we draw the line. And do what is called for. No matter what.
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03
Why questions should be disqualified as a legitimate means of inquiry, and left to gather dust in some museum as an artifact with a pedigree of uselessness from the start. Why questions are all answered ultimately in one of two ways: "I don't know." "Because I say so." The other questions, Who? What? Where? When? How? are all valid and helpful methods of getting to the bottom of our experience, putting things together, finding connections, and coming to new realizations and better ways of living-- particularly when we understand that the primary function of questions is to raise more questions, in the work to ask all of the questions that beg to be asked in each situation, and of every experience, as it arises. New discoveries flow from questions that refuse to stop. Why? is the search for a stopper.
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02
No matter how much better I get, I could still do better. Better, I'm talking about, on every level. In every aspect of life. Consciousness, for example. You might think that by now, I could at least be conscious. I've been practicing being conscious all my life. I'm not conscious of half of one percent of all there is to be conscious of in any moment. How's that for progress. The same thing applies to every other aspect of my life. As far as I can tell, human beings are the only sentient beings who are aware of the possibility of self-improvement, of getting better. Lions are what they are. Pine trees just do what can be done with what they have to work with and let it be. A human being who is "thus come"-- who is just who/what they are, without any interest in being different in any way, is someone I have yet to meet. Buddhists talk about the Buddha as being "The one thus come," but. The Buddha spent his entire life becoming "thus come." And so do all the Buddhists after him. Being "thus come," is an ideal to achieve, not a state of being to flaunt and glory in. Any flaunting and glorying is evidence of having yet to arrive. There is no arriving. Carl Jung thought of Individuation and an unending quest to be ourselves. He talked about "circumambulation" as the process of infinitely/eternally spiraling around the Self at the Center of our being without ever attaining integration, at-one-ness. We can always get better at being who we are, by being less concerned with perfection, and more concerned with expression-- being in each moment who we are as "thus come" as we are, as true to ourselves as we are, and letting that be that. Like a lion would do it. Or a pine tree.
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01
The Buddhists waste a lot of time denying duality. It is just a way of seeing. A perspective. It is a doorway to being at one with everything. At one with everything is not one thing-- it is many. As many as the jewels in Indra's Net. Pick a point-- any point. How many points are there? How many points are there on the head of a pin? On the point of a pin? Let's take the point of a pin as the point we pick. Now, go to the center of that point. And make that the point we pick. Now, go to the center of that point. You see where this is going. But, you probably don't see the point. The point of the number of points there are is that there are an infinite number of points in every point. Points upon points. This is the point of the still point of the universe. The Axis Mundi. The World Center is everywhere. Hang with me here. We talk about "living from the center." Which center would that be? Our center? Great! Let's go there. As we delve down to the center of ourselves, there is the center of the center to consider. And the center of that center. When do we reach The Center? And everybody is seeking the center of themselves! When we get there, we will discover that we are at the center of everyone's center! At the center of ourselves we are one with everyone's center. We are one. We are all. There is no "I and Thou," no "You and Me." Certainly no "Us and THEM!" We all are WE. All of us are aspects of all of us. Each of us lives out the potential inherent in--and expressed by-- the rest of us. We greet ourselves when we greet each other. Namaste! When we get the point, this is the point we get. Hating me is ridiculous. I am an extension of you. At the center of ourselves, are all selves. What is true for one is true for all. Stop acting as though you are special. You are an aspect of the whole. In our duality we are one. In our oneness we are dualities. We are an optical illusion. Now we are one. Now we are many. We are one and we are all. So what? So stop acting as though there is us and them! Live from the center of the whole! Live in ways that are good for all! Thou Art That! Live as though it is so! It is so!
January 30, 2021
02
Making our peace with our life and living in the service of what is meaningful for us is a reasonable and attainable goal for each of us. Most of us want more than that. We don't know what it would be except that it would be more than that. And the distance between what we have and what we aspire to keeps us discontented and at odds with our life. The idea is to be aligned and in accord with our life. What that would take is giving up our idea of how our life ought to be. We don't know what it would take to make us happy, but we know this isn't it, and we think it has to be out there somewhere. But, we don't know where and we don't know how to know. Here's a suggestion for you: Quit thinking in terms of being happy, and start thinking in terms of doing what is meaningful, here and now. Go toward what has meaning for you here and now, and happy will fall into place around that, or not. And if it doesn't, it won't matter.
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01
The ideal I live in light of, and the purpose for which we are born, is to live out our life in the service of becoming who we are, incarnating/expressing/exhibiting all of the qualities and characteristics gifts/genius/virtues/spirit/energy/life that came with us from the womb in a balanced and harmonious way-- in communities of other people who are living in the same ways, so as to become who we are capable of being as individuals and as The Collective, over the course of our life as a person and as the species. We live on to pass it on (Martin Hägglund in This Life). That is hard enough if we were all into it, doing it. We make it impossible by the way we respond to it, in having nothing to do with it. We have our eye on bigger and better things: Fame, Fortune, Glory! Which leads us down the path to the way things are, with it only getting worse as we continue along the way. Three to five thousand years before Jesus was born, voices were raised in favor of The Way and against the trend of ignoring The Way (In The Yin Convergence Classic of The Yellow Emperor), and here we are, resolutely refusing to have anything to do with The Way, preferring instead to do it our way. While The Way waits for us to see the light, or come to the end of our rope (Which is too often the same thing) as individuals and as a species.
January 29, 2021
03
What we see is a function of how we look. How we look is influenced by our expectations and our past experience. We don't walk fresh upon anything and know what we are looking at. Reality is an extension of our expectations and our experience. We cannot make sense of anything that is absolutely new to us. We see everything in relation to something else. It is always appropriate to ask, "What influences me to see what I am looking at the way I am seeing it?" "What makes me think I know what I am looking at?" "What makes me think that what I think is so, is so?" Our opinions about things are just our opinions about them. Everything exists as opinion. Nothing exists as fact. We treat everything as fact. It would transform our life, and the world, if we started thinking about things as opinion. Of course, that is just my opinion.
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02
All it takes is being right about what is important. Being right about what is important is the best trick in the Book of Best Tricks. The first thing to know is that we do not know. The second thing to know is that there are different types of knowing. The third thing to know is that delusion and illusion are powerful forces at work in our lives, and we cannot dismiss, discount, disregard, ignore or deny the possibility that we are failing to see what we are looking at. The fourth thing to know is that what is important changes from moment-to-moment, situation-by-situation, day-by-day, year-by-year, generation-by-generation, eon-by-eon... The only thing that is static and rigid, unchanging over time is that it is important to know what is important at all times, in all places. That's it. Get the ratios right among these things and there it is: what is important, here and now. Once we know that, comes the question of what to do about it. That is the next most important thing. Know what is important, and be right about it, know what to do about it, and be right about it. That only leaves doing it-- the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done, where it needs to be done, for as long as it needs to be done. That's it. No one could do better than that.
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01
Marriage is the easiest thing in the world. All it takes is cooperation. If you aren't getting the cooperation promised at the start, you can't be married no matter what you do. All cooperation takes is doing what needs to be done regardless of how we feel. People who don't feel like being married and let cooperation go kill the marriage by breaking the first rule of marriage: Doing the right thing requires you to do the right thing whether you feel like it or not. It is no different with marriage than it is with anywhere else in our life. Wherever we are, we are asked to do what the situation requires whether we feel like it or not. In this sense, being married is just like being alive. Our life asks us to do what life demands: To live like we mean it, whether we fee like it or not! This is the foundational commitment to marriage and to life. We can think of our life as being married to our life, and living our life as it ought to be lived, is practice for being married the way we ought to be married. Doing one helps us with the other, and it is practice either way. The practice of being alive is doing what needs to be done, the way it needs to be done when it needs to be done for as long as it needs to be done whether we feel like it or not all our life long. Get that down and we have it made wherever we are. And, in marriage, our partner has to be doing it, too. No one can be married by themselves. It takes cooperation. And we take up the work of cooperating with one another in producing the miracle of marriage at the very beginning, by taking our vows seriously, and living to carry them out no matter how we feel. In this, marriage is a lot like the Velveteen Rabbit, becoming real over time, and once it is really real, nothing can take it from you. It lasts forever.
January 28, 2021
03
I thought I wanted to be a therapist for about fifteen minutes. Not quite as long as thinking I wanted to be a third-grade teacher. But with the same outcome: A quick and permanent end to thinking those things. Reality is all the guide we need. Ever. With the therapy thing, it became clear that everybody wants to feel better, and nobody wants to get better. Everybody wants everyone else to change in relation to them. Everybody wants to know how to get their way. Forget about giving up their way. They are going to have it or make the world real sorry for not giving it to them. Getting better is changing our relationship with ourselves, and with other people. Getting better is changing our mind about what is important, and being right about it this time. Getting better is changing the way we think, the way we see, the way we act. Getting better is changing. No one wants to change. No one ever grows up without changing. Everyone who grows up, grows up against their will. Therapy is not holding hands in a circle and passing love around the circle. Or attracting positive energy and becoming wealthy by deserving money. The My Way Now movement fuels the Prosperity Gospel movement and the If-You-Want-It-You- Ought-To-Be-Able-To-Have-It mentality which spills over into You-Ought-To-Get-It-Now, and that's where we are as a country and as a world. The Dali Lama said, in response to the Chinese takeover of Tibet, “If, in any situation, there is no solution, there is no point in being anxious. If the forces at work have their own momentum, and what’s going on now is the product of what went before, and if this generation is not in control of all those forces, then this process will continue.” And if "this generation" is actively aligned with "those forces," it will be a long time before reality grinds the truth into their pores and they realize the lie they are living. In the meantime, we wait for "those forces" to play themselves out and for people to wake up to what fools they have been.
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02
I regret 10,000 things that I am too ashamed of to mention, much less, talk about. You will have to take my word for it. I am comforted by Joseph Campbell's confession of a similar burden of his own past. His view was that one of the ordeals of growing older is the task of continuing to grow up by confronting our failures and the missed opportunities of our youth, and coming to terms with them in a "Okay, I will take from them what they have to offer in helping me be aware of what I am doing here and now and making better choices/decisions in the time left for living," kind of way. We have much to wish we had done differently, or not at all. But. Here we are. And we are here by virtue of all of the choices/decisions we made along the way from birth to here and now. Our work is always to apply what we have learned in living the remainder of the journey, in hopes that our worst errors lie behind. I am also glad that retirement gives me fewer opportunities to stumble over myself in finding my way through each day.
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01
Everyone is born to die. Everyone dies. And everyone is in charge of their own dying, and the circumstances that lead to it. Our dying is always the result of who we are in conjunction with our circumstances. And everything up to our dying is the result of the same mysterious/secret-- The Mysterium Coniunctionis-- between ourselves and our circumstances. The "mysterious union"is not so much between man and woman, or yin and yang, but between us and our circumstances. The relationship of us with our circumstances, is roughly the relationship of the stream with its channel, of the ocean with its shoreline, and its bed. We are all where we are, here and now, as the result of how we have responded to where we have been. Given who we are and what we have been through, and what we have done about it, we could not be anywhere else but where we are, here and now. And that will remain true everywhere we are between now, and, including,the moment of our death. We are living to arrange our dying, without being aware of what we are doing. But--being aware of it would simply be another aspect of it, leading to it. Jesus' death on the cross was a direct consequence of the larger circumstance he created by being who he was in relation to the moment-to-moment circumstances of his life. There is an inevitability to our living as well as to the fact of our dying. Our living is the precursor of our dying. "The secret cause" of our dying. Carl Jung said, "We meet our destiny on the road we take to avoid it." What I'm saying is: Embrace that! An live the life that is yours to live-- moment-to-moment, situation-by-situation, day-by-day-- doing in your life, with your life, what is yours to do, exactly as you would do it, being you as only you can be you, as best you can, and die when it is done as the hero going to meet her, going to meet his, final test. How we live is how we die. "Where we stand is where we fall" (Steven Moffat, Doctor Who). Do that consciously, knowingly, intentionally, willingly embracing the cross at the end of the road-- in a "This is what I am going to do even if it kills me!" kind of way! Knowing what we would die for, and dying for it, is a very important thing to know and to do. Don't just die! Die with a purpose! By living meaningfully on the service of that which is worthy of us! As a knight in filial/liege service to his Lady/Lord-- or a Lady/Lord in filial/service to her/his calling/duty.
January 27, 2021
03
The single most important thing you can do to improve your chances of living well upon the earth throughout the time left for living is to become accomplished in taking "No" for an answer. By "accomplished" I mean taking "No" for an answer when, where, and how it needs to be done the way it needs to be done every time it needs to be done, with grace and aplomb in the moment and over time (That means no pouting, sulking, resentment or keeping score). Begin practicing by asking people ridiculous favors, knowing they will have to say "No," and taking it like the Ace you are working to become!
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02
Doing what is not-meaningful better be supporting what is meaningful by providing us with the wherewithal to do the things that make our little heart sing and our little toes dance with the rest of the time that is ours left to live. If we are doing what is not-meaningful in order to do what is not-meaningful, we have to sit ourselves down and have a come to your senses and get your feet under you and start living from your center talk. And, if you don't know what your center is, remain seated until the mud settles and the water clears and you know beyond doubt or hesitation what is and is not your center, your still point, your adamantine foundation stone upon which you and your life are anchored. Your life is your responsibility. What you do with it is up to you. Waiting for some magical motivation to pull it all together for you is waiting for Godot, who doesn't exist and will never arrive. Stop living magically, and start doing what is meaningful to you. That is all the magic anyone needs to live the life that is waiting to be lived!
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01
I wish Republicans would tell me what the good is they call good, and what the evil is they call evil. One-on-one, I mean. Not some senator speaking for all Republicans everywhere. I want to know from the people who are proud to be Republicans what they are so proud of. What values/principles/standards are guiding their boat on its path through the sea? And, while we are at it, I want to know what yours are. I want to know how clear you are about them, how well thought out they are, and how they are reflected in your daily life, how they impact the people around you. In what specific, concrete, tangible ways do they guide your boat through each day? How would I know they are important to you by watching you live your life? What is the good you call good? The evil you call evil? Good for whom? Evil for whom? Whose life is better for it? Whose life is worse for it? And, while we are at it, I'll say that the good I call good is best described by the terms Freedom! Equality! Justice! Truth! And by the principle of doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, moment-to-moment, situation-by-situation, day-by-day. I can't do better than living in ways which serve those terms and that principle. And I endeavor consciously, willfully, intentionally, deliberately to do that in the way I live every day.
January 26, 2021
01
The ideal human being, from my point of view, does what is theirs to do, and steps back, letting nature take its course. The ideal human being would not see money as the path to power-- asking, "Power over whom? In the service of what?"-- but as a means of providing the tools necessary to do their work. The ideal human being would not impose anything on anyone, but would assume good faith on the part of everyone, and would trust everyone to do their part in serving the good of the whole, with sincerity, non-contrivance, balance and harmony being the highest interests of culture and society. They would spend their time in devotion to their cause of integrating opposites by being present with, and aware of, their current circumstances, living from their center, which is the center of the whole, and doing their thing in response to the needs of the moment, in each situation as it arises.
January 25, 2021
04
If heart could be coached, everyone would be LeBron James. Books on how to play chess, and tennis, and on like that forever, are published and sold every year. Books on how to play anything (or live) with heart, are hard to come by. What is it with heart, that only a few people get, and everybody else wonders about? Well. I don't know. I take photos with heart. I work with photos in Photoshop with heart. I read and write with heart. And, by that I mean, nothing is going to stop me. "Not no way. Not no how" (The Wizard of Oz). And, I would bet you $20, if I still did that kind of thing. That each one of you has something no one can talk you out of or scare you away from. I would bet there is something you all do with heart. But not everything. LeBron James doesn't do everything with heart. Probably a lot of things. So, rather than tell you how to live with heart, I'm going to ask you to be aware of where in your life you live with heart. And suggest that you increase the amount of time you spend in those places, doing those things. The more time we spend with things that are meaningful to us-- the things we do with heart-- the happier we are and the happier other people are to be around us. It works out well for everyone! Let your heart tell you what to do and you will catch yourself smiling for no reason throughout the time left for living.
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03
I wish the people I was born into had known what they should have known-- and that I had grown up knowing what I should have known-- and that even now, I knew what I should know, just by virtue of being alive, and having been alive, all these years. Why don't I know what was there to be known from the start-- and at every step along the way from then to now? Why don't I know all I do know, right now? Like what I don't know, for example. Why don't I know what I don't know? Everything would be better with some mindful awareness, with some attention to what's what, with some attentive presence in every moment of every day. We are all somewhere else most of the time. We all think we would be better off somewhere else, and drift away from here into what we dislike about here, and how we wish we were there, no there, no there-over-there... I ache to just be here. Fully here. Fully now. Fully present to life as I am living it. To be there. Not here.
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02
I have to orient myself in time and space, moment-to-moment. In a "Here I am, now what?" kind of way. I have to get my feet under me, remember who I am and what I am about, find my foundation stone, live from the center, again and again throughout the day. There is no carry-over from one moment to the next, from one situation to the next. I cannot live from my memory of how I just did it. I have to start all over, begin anew, as though I just plopped out off the womb, and have to find my way through the first moment of my life from the very beginning. I have been taking photographs seriously, that is intentionally, consciously, with purpose and knowledge of how to do it for over twenty years. And I step into every scene, and it is the first scene. I have forgotten everything-- or all of the important things-- since the last scene. I am assuming that because I just did it, this scene will be just like that one, and I don't check the focus. Etc. Back in the film days, I would forget to put film in the camera starting out. Or the film wouldn't "catch" on the clip, and I wouldn't remember to see if the rewind knob on the camera was turning as I advanced the film. You can't miss a detail! I don't know what the equivalent of film in the camera, loaded and working properly, is for you, but I know there is one. There is one for everybody. We cannot do it, whatever it is, like we have always done it, and do a very good job of doing it. We have to do it as though we have never done it, ever. We have to be new at it. This has to be the first time. We have to live as though this is our first day on the job. We have to see with fresh eyes. Hear with fresh ears. Be alert to our assumptions and inferences, and expectations, and all the things we are taking for granted. The world is new in some sense every moment. We cannot sleepwalk through our life.
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01
How to be in the moment. How to do right by the moment. How to live for the sake of the moment. These are the lessons of life. You think it is about getting somewhere. About attaining something. Everybody is out for what they can get. What they can get is determined by what they want. They don't know what to want. They want everything. They are kids at the candy counter. What does wanting know? What informs wanting? Where does wanting come from? What are we hungry for? Starving for? Dying for? What is it going to take to satisfy us? Wanting drives us through life searching for what we want, for what is worth wanting, for what is worth our time. No one can tell us. No one knows. It is all up to us. Enter The Silence. Seek The Tao. They work in tandem. Together. I think they are the same. They are on the same side of the coin. The other side of the coin is Yin and Yang. They also work together. They also are the same. The coin is The Source of what we seek. The coin is what we seek. We live to serve the coin. We belong to the coin. Silence. Tao. Yin. Yang. In possession of the coin, we are possessed by the coin. We are the coin. "The Father and I are one" (The Mother and I are one). There is only one. We are it. It is we. For what? For Life! It is all about being alive-- but more than that: Being alive to being alive! Living at one with all things! Particularly ourselves! Living at one with ourselves! Moment-by-moment. Situation-by-situation. Day-by-day. If you think that's easy, give it a spin. First, we have to get out of the way. We don't even know what that means. We think there is only us here. How could we be in the way? Kidding ourselves is what we do best. No. Lying to ourselves is what we do best! No! Telling ourselves what we want to hear is what we do best!! NO! Shooting ourselves in the foot is what we do best!!! We excel in sabotaging ourselves. In being in our way. We are not even one with ourselves. Where do we start? What do we do? Enter The Silence. Engage/Live in accord with the Tao. Integrate Yin/Yang. Live with sincerity, balance and harmony. Know what you know. See what you look at. Be transparent to yourself. Which makes you transparent to transcendence. And one with all things. Alive to the moment of your living. Alive to being alive. To the wonder of being alive. To the wonder of all things. The work of a lifetime. Begins here and now.
January 24, 2021
05
If you cannot be vulnerable, you will be symptomatic all your life, and crazy as well. We are surrounded by vulnerabilities! There is no way we can be protected from them all! Everything worthwhile about us and about our life is strictly dependent upon our vulnerability threshold. The more vulnerable we can be, the more mature we are capable of becoming, the more relaxed and natural we are able to be in relation to the world, and the more capable we are gong to be in responding appropriately to each situation as it arises throughout our days upon the earth. If you are going to take anything on faith, let it be your capacity to be vulnerable and be just fine with whatever life throws at you. Practice raising your vulnerability quotient by deliberately putting yourself in situations you don't control, letting yourself be free to make it up as you go. Like dancing to tunes you have never heard, or finding your way around in a strange city, or driving down unfamiliar roads to see where they go.
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04
Living in accord with the Tao is listening to our unconscious, is immersing ourselves in a situation, waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear, and seeing what emerges as the way to respond to what is called for over time, as we tweak our response to take additional information into account, balancing and harmonizing the contraries and contradictions, complexities and contingencies, as they become apparent in the eternal dance with what can happen and what needs to happen through the ages throughout eternity. There is no steady state of "peace at last." There only/always living in the moment in light of what needs to be done there, in light of what is called for, in light of what can be done there, in light of what we need to do what is needed there, all our life long-- all life long. Growing up is adjusting ourselves to the requirement of having to adjust ourselves to something all our life long. If we are not growing (up), we are dead.
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03
In the story of the woman taken in adultery, Jesus takes a time-out, squats and draws in the dust with his finger, then he rises and says, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone." Beautifully done. Rising wonderfully to the occasion. Responding to the moment directly, without consulting the authorities, taking a poll, or asking his mother what he should do. Jesus speaks from the source of sincerity, balance and harmony. "Like the spirit blowing where it will." Who knows what it will come up with next? And, in order for it to happen then and there, Jesus called time-out, and sat drawing in the dust. He was withdrawing from the moment of action, to center himself, put himself in accord with the Tao, listen within, open to the wisdom of the heart/soul/unconscious/psyche waiting for the shift that urged him to rise and speak out of the truth of what was called for in the time that was at hand. In order to do that, he had to have been there before. Going there is called "prayer." It is also called "meditation." "Reflection." "Contemplation." "Connection." "Communion." If you don't know what I'm talking about, sit still, be quiet, and watch what happens. And repeat this over time. "Over time" being regularly for the rest of your life. And stop trying to cover all of your bases by carefully thinking things out in advance. Trust yourself to know what you know in the moment that is calling for it, to be known, by listening through some equivalent of drawing in the dust.
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It's a snap to think the wrong things are important, to leave the path, stray away from the way, and have nothing to do with the things crying out for us to do them. Being clear. Being focused. Being grounded and centered. Being present and accounted for. In the service of what is ours to do. Is not a snap at all. We have to be awake and mindfully aware at all times. Self-transparent. In accord with the Tao. Attuned to the moment and to ourselves. Alert to what is happening and what is called for moment-by-moment. Caring so much about being who the moment needs us to be that we distance ourselves from all other concerns in order to act sincerely, without contrivance, spontaneously doing what is appropriate to the occasion one occasion after another all our life long and being right about it every time. Doing the right thing. At the right time. In the right way. All the time. Is not a snap. And, if we aren't doing it, we are letting ourselves and each other down. All the time.
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01
From prison, John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?" Jesus replied, "Go and tell John, 'I am who I am, doing what is mine to do-- no one can do better than that!'" What would it take for us to be who we are, doing what is ours to do-- And letting the outcome be the outcome? Not trying to pivot ourselves into some luxurious, privileged, glorious ever after-- but just meeting the moment, moment-by-moment, doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, just being who we are, doing what is ours to do throughout each day, throughout our life?
January 23, 2021
02c
Living to do what the moment needs us to do is to put ourselves in the service of that which is greater than we are. It is the most spiritual thing on the planet, serving the moment, being alive to the here and now, being aware of the here and now, being present to what is present with us. Mostly, we pass through the here and now, on our way to somewhere else-- somewhere more important, more interesting, a better place to be. We are either alive now or not. If not now, when? When are we ever alive? When are we ever doing what the moment needs us to do? It is always something else. Something else is always in the way. Of being here, now, looking, listening, attuned, aware, alive to the moment and what it needs from us.
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01
Living in each moment as though it is the most important moment ever would radically transform the world. We throw moments away, looking for the moment we have been waiting for. And we miss all the ones that had been waiting for us. Showing up and living truthfully isn't about the Boy Scout Law. It is about being present and seeing what's what-- what is happening and what needs to be done in response, and making the response the moment is calling for out of our repertoire of gifts/genius/virtues/character/etc. that come with us from the womb. Think of it as practice for the Big One when it comes around-- and treat all of the little ones as though they are the ones that matter. Offer what is needed when it is needed where it is needed the way it is needed for as long as it is needed moment-by-moment, and everything will fall into place around that, and the difference will be amazing.
January 22, 2021
03
Living to be what the situation is calling us to be-- doing what it is calling us to do-- would flip our life around. Turn it inside out and upside down, kill us and resurrect us in one reality-transforming instant. As it is, we live to get the most out of every situation that comes along. "What's in this for me?" is the question that guides our life. "How can I get what I want, here and now?" To think that the situation has needs of its own that we can meet out of the goodness of our own little heart, with nothing to gain, get, acquire, amass... Well that's an unconventional thought! And one we are not inclined to consider! You can see how religion was invented to keep us safe from the intrusion of The Mystery of situational neediness into our happy (Or soon to be happy, the minute we get what we want and have our way throughout eternity) life. Religion makes no claims upon us and our time. We genuflect, make the sign of the cross (Or their equivalents across all religions) and go on about our life, none the worse for wear. But to throw us vulnerable and at the mercy of every situation for as long as our life lasts is just a monstrosity of a concept! It's like an invasion of vampires from Mars, maybe worse! Forget it! We are not going there! Ever! And The Mystery settles down to wait us out.
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02
Growing up is caring in the right way, at the right time, about the right things. Nobody can tell us how to do that. We live our way to right assessment, right interpretation, right perspective, right view point, right seeing, right hearing, right knowing, right understanding, right doing, right being. The key is self-awareness, self-reflection, self-examination, self-exploration, self-transparency, self-correction... all along the way. This is where Dharma comes into play. Dharma is Right Duty. It is doing what is called for in the time and place of our living-- doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, all our life long. We should/ought/must always do what needs to be done-- what needs us to do it-- in each situation as it arises, all our life long. And we cannot know what that will be, or should/ought/must be, prior to the moment as it unfolds before us. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said, "The spirit is like the wind that blows where it will." The spirit doesn't know where it is going, or what it is doing next. It responds to the circumstances as they develop in ways that are appropriate/fitting to the occasion, and it never knows-- it cannot know-- what that will be before the time for acting. In precisely that moment, we act, the spirit acts, our spirit acts, without contrivance, without concern for our own welfare, our own profit, our own gain, our own benefit, to do what is called for with the gifts we bring to the moment, right here, right now. And do it again in the next moment flowing from this one. Sometimes that means taking a nap when it is time to take a nap.
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01
What is your response? That is where you exercise your only control in each situation as it arises. We are in charge of our response. We are responsible for our response. "It's people like you who make people like me hate people like you," is missing the point of "people like me." The point of each of us is to not be yanked around by "people like you," or by any aspect of our life, and made to do what is against our will and purpose, but to live from our own center, with balance and harmony in offering what is being called for moment-by-moment out of the gifts/genius/talents/abilities/etc. that we have to offer the circumstances of our life in the time left for living. We are here to be ourselves in response to our life! To incarnate ourselves anew in each moment of each day. We do that by the response we make to each moment of each day. What is your response? You dream a dream. What is your response in the dream to the dreamed situation? What is your response outside the dream, as you reflect on it? Your response, in the dream and out of it, is what your dream is about. We dream ourselves into responses worthy of us. We grow up-- we grow ourselves up-- by examining, studying, exploring, investigating, the responses we make to our dreams and to our life throughout our life. Every situation asks something of us. How do we respond? What response do we make? The first proper response in each situation, is to slay the dragon whose name is Thou Shalt! (Joseph Campbell) and live in the moment fresh from the kill, free to be exactly what the moment needs us to be, however foreign to the shoulds, oughts, and musts at work in every situation to keep us from responding appropriately to the needs of the moment as it opens before us. What response will we make? That is our question to answer in each moment of each situation of each day for as long as life shall last. In light of what do we live? Moment-to-moment?
January 21, 2021
04
What is worth doing for itself alone? Start there. Give yourself to the actions that are their own fulfillment and reason for being. Horseback riding, perhaps. Walking on a foggy morning through the woods. Reading stories to the grandchildren. Surely, your life is filled with things that you do for the joy of it! Do those things with clarity, willfulness and attentive presence! These are the things you live to do! These are the sources of meaning in your life! Do them with reckless abandon! LIVE to do them! Work them into each day! Do not be bashful or apologetic! These things are who you are! Look to expand their number, to increase their presence in quantity and frequency in your life! You are here to do what you love to do for no reason beyond loving to do it! Do not be slack in doing what you love! Your life will love you for it!
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03
There is a right way to do anything, and a wrong way to do it. Mozart wrote his symphonies with the right way to do it in mind. This is not to say that someone wouldn't/couldn't come along with an interpretation that would blow even Mozart away. Even though 10,000 people might present interpretations that would leave him lamenting that he wrote it at all. There are ways of responding to the moment of our living that are so right everyone witnessing it would respond with a standing ovation. And ways of responding that are so wrong that everyone hearing about it would writhe in shame and dismay. We stand between-- and offer some variant of-- right and wrong in each moment of every situation that arises, all our life long. We could be more consciously aware of that than we are. We could listen intently to what the moment is calling for, realize with clarity what our role in the moment requires of us, and offer it without seeking to exploit our opportunity for our good/gain/profit/advancement, but seeking simply to offer what is needed, when it is needed, the way it is needed to be done and let that be that. Without merit or applause, and nothing arising from it beyond the next moment, in which we respond with awareness and behavior appropriate to the occasion. Moment-by-moment, situation-by-situation, day-by-day all our life long. This simple way of living is well within our reach, and yet it exceeds our grasp, day in and day out, all our life long. What is that about?
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02
It is always right before us. The Gospel of Thomas says Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is spread out over the entire earth, and no one sees what they are looking at." The stone the builders reject. The pearl of great price lost among the costume jewelry at the flea market. The treasure buried in the field people walk past every day. The man sitting on his ox looking for his ox. The woman with her glasses on her head, looking for her glasses. What can you do with people like that? Jesus is born anew in every generation. No one sees him. Most of the time he doesn't see himself. John the Baptist sent his people to ask Jesus, "Are you the one? Or shall we look for another?" If you have to ask, maybe you ought to change your expectations. In order to see what is right before you. And then, there is the Buddhist take on things: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" Because you are what you seek! Get it? So be who you are! Without trying! What could be simpler? Or more difficult?
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Our life has a life of its own. Our place is to find it, align ourselves with it, and live out our days loving our life and enjoying it forever. The clues to finding our life and living it are bread crumbs of meaning-- and by "meaning" I mean the things we enjoy and do for themselves alone, and not because they will lead to something else. In other words, our life consists of doing what is meaningful and letting nature take its course. What is meaningful about your present life? Do more of that! Next question? Seriously. What are your questions? Don't tell me--tell yourself! Make a list of your questions. Everything flows from there. Answers mean nothing. Questions mean everything. Let your questions guide you to a life worth living! Let your questions lead you to a life worth having! We know more when we know what our questions are than we would ever know knowing what the answers are. Ask your questions, and the questions they beg to be asked! That is the way to all things wise and wonderful! You are wasting your time talking to people who have the answers. Talk to people who have the question-- especially the right questions! They know what's what, and what's not. What are your questions?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 