Everything is amazing 
to eyes that see.

Eyes that see are amazing.

To SEE is to be stunned into silence.
So, we have to not-see 
in order to get around at all.

We have to close ourselves off from wonder
to find a toilet.
Or a clothes hanger.
Which, in themselves, are aspects/extensions of wonder.

We seal ourselves up with the ordinary
and customary to have a chance.
Lost in wonder
would wreck our life.

We would forget to eat,
and sleep.

We wouldn't last an hour,
certainly not a day.

But.

We have taken survival much too far.
Being blind, deaf and clueless
is no way to carry out the business
of being human,
which is to sing
and laugh
with joy and thanksgiving
for the wonder of life and being,
and to share the wonder with everyone
all of the time,
like children at the beach,
or in the sandbox in the backyard,
before someone gets the idea of MINE!

MINE! pretty well ends the party,
and war is introduced into the scheme of things.
And hatred...
You know the story.

We quickly create a world
where wonder stands no chance--
except for wondering,
"What the hell?" all the time.

What are we thinking?!

We have to QUIT thinking,
and breathe ourselves back to wonderment
and joy.

We have to reclaim the wonder of being alive
by sealing ourselves off
from the world of noise/complexity/
drama/trauma of MINE!
And opening ourselves to the wonder of WOW!
at the very idea of LIFE and living
and tadpoles
and trampolines
and all the rest--
allowing all of it,
ourselves included,
to become, as it were,
"Transparent to Transcendence"
(Joseph Campbell),
and live in the company
of the radiance of life and being
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

"Grace" is another term for "good luck,"
"good fortune."

We all are graced by the minute,
by the second.

Everything is a coincidence,
an accident of time and place.

Every photograph is a miracle,
that we should be there, then, 
with a camera is always amazing.

What were the chances?
Who could have planned it?
Things just work out that way.

Every day is crammed with experiences
of benevolence and grace,
of place and timing.

The more aware of it we become,
the more stunned by it we are.
Who can believe it?

Yet, here is the real stunner:
We all take it for granted,
to the point where we don't see it,
where we give it no mind!

We walk through wonder,
marvels, miracles every day,
unseeing because we take it for granted!

Start paying attention to the coincedences
in a day!

To the encounters with grace and good fortune!

You will soon come to the conclusion 
that grace is the foundation of our lives.
We could not live without it!
And we do not have to!
It is everywhere all the time,
just like the air we breathe.
We are buoyed up by grace,
like corks on the water,
like leaves in the wind!

–0–

We have to learn how to be balanced and harmonized 
in the neighborhood of the clashing rocks
on the heaving waves of the wine dark sea.

The way there is a simple shift in perspective.

Life is an optical illusion.
We can look and see hopelessness and despondency,
and we can look again and see peace and tranquility
in the midst of hopelessness and despondency.

We can live in the midst of depressing circumstances
and be depressed.
Or not.

The way we respond to any circumstances/situation
can make things better or worse.

The Supreme Court has just made things 
ridiculously bad for students and gay people, etc.
The Supreme Court and Republicans/Fascists
represent the heaving waves and the wine dark sea.

Here we are. NOW what???

NOW, we adopt an attitude
that makes us impervious to the impact
of the Supreme Court and Republicans/Fascists--
by grounding ourselves in this moment
and seeking what we can do here/now
to make this moment a better place to be
by seeing what needs to be done here/now
and doing it when/where/how it needs to be done.

Sometimes, breathing is all we can do.
Breathing with our mind focused on breathing.
Breathing is the path to balance and harmony
by connecting us with 
emptiness/stillness/silence.

Breathing in for a count of five,
breathing out for a count of five,
pausing between breaths for a count of ten,
breathing in for a count of five...
for five rounds,
puts us in the presence
of emptiness/stillness/silence.

Remaining there in the emptiness between breaths,
puts us in the position of waiting quietly
for what arises/appears/emerges in the emptiness,
just waiting, just watching,
without engaging anything.

There, we are empty of all thoughts/emotions,
just watching, just waiting,
letting the noise/clutter/complexity/anxiety/etc.
pass by without allowing it to hook us into engagement.

Seeing what occurs to us 
in the way of finding what needs to be done
here/now,
what we are being called to do,
then moving into action doing what/when/where/how
it needs to be done,
still disengaged from the noise/clutter/etc.,
free to be and to do
as our circumstances need us to be and to do.

In this way, we transcend the turmoil of life 
and position ourselves to live
with what must be lived with
as the vehicles of transcendence
we are capable of being--
grounded in the transcendent foundation of existence,
anchored to the adamantine essence
of life beyond life,
and living here/now as the source of hope
amid the hopelessness of it all.

This is the optical illusion
that we live to shatter
by being what we seek--
an oasis in the desert,
a shelter amid the torrential emotional storms
of life
for all those who come our way.

Breathing our way to balance and harmony,
to spirit/healing/wholeness/life beyond fear/anxiety
by just being here/now
with a smile and 
an indomitable hold on transcendent reality,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.

–0–

What is missing from our life? 
What are we seeking? 
What do we need that we do not have?

Pondering this, 
I realize that the world seeks 
release/relief from the burdens of life—
the uncertainties, 
the insecurities. 

People seek reassurance, 
companionship, 
security, 
certainty,
peace...

The ground of all religion is 
hope for the future--
some sense that everything is going to be okay.

I think that is pitiful, sad. 

So many people feel not okay. 
Not confident. 
Not grounded in who they are, 
in their life as it is,
in knowing where the next meal is coming from… 

In not knowing where to find 
the basic needs of life—
in not being able to trust themselves to life, 
to their experience of being alive.

Essential insecurity
is the common ground of the species.

The multitudes are 
“like sheep without a shepherd.” 
Lost and alone. 
At the mercy of anyone, 
any thing, promising them 
security and hope for 
today and tomorrow.

And have been that way 
from the beginning of human existence.

All of which is to say  
it is important that we 
run a "vulnerability check"
from time to time
to see what shape
our psychic foundation is in,
and keep an eye on 
what may be motivating 
our thoughts/feelings/actions/
being-in-the-world.

And take the necessary measures
to restore our soul,
and reassure ourselves
that we are stable, 
secure and capable of 
finding what we need
to do what needs to be done.

–0–

Accepting our plight for what it is,
whatever it is,
and determining to make the best of it,
far exceeds the frantic search for an escape
into bliss and happiness everlasting.

We meet the day 
and do what needs to be done there,
putting woe and "poor me" aside.

"Here we are. NOW what?
What NOW?
What is needed HERE-NOW?
How can we help with the gifts
we have to offer?"

Our place is not to think up
a response,
but to wait for the proper response
to arise/emerge from within,
surprising everyone with its
appropriateness to the occasion.

This is "Wu-We,"
"Doing by doing nothing."
Just responding properly
to what needs to be done.

A simple way to experience this
is to watch the next situation 
that develops around us,
being curious about what needs
to happen three
to establish/maintain
balance and harmony
(Become aware of how many situations
are unbalanced and adversarial--
what contributes to that,
creates and sustains that?
By refusing to support it,
we automatically,
naturally,
act to establish/maintain
balance and harmony).

From balance and harmony
come spirit,
flow,
spontaneity,
sincerity,
integrity
and life.

Which we produce
by what we don't do
to serve the forces
of unbalance and disharmony.

As circumstances balance and harmonize,
things move in a different rhythm,
spirit and flow,
and change "of themselves,"
with no one doing anything
to "make things happen like they should."

Noise is reduced.
Complexity is relaxed.
Drama and Trauma
become bored and leave
to find some action,
leaving us with peace
and well-being at last.

–0–

The saving grace about Jesus'
abject--perhaps even deliberate--
inconsistency, ambiguity, self-contradiction, obtuseness-- 
is that it recognizes/exhibits/declares/expresses
the essential nature of life, 
of living,
beyond absolutes
in each situation as it arises.

What is right,
what is good,
what is wrong,
what is evil,
shifts and changes
from moment to moment,
from situation to situation,
and we cannot say/know
what should be done
always and forever no matter what
contingencies may develop in the future,
even the near future,
that we cannot possibly anticipate
here and now.

We do not know what we will do when.
What is important now
may not be important then.

Things change over time,
and we have to be able to do
what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
in light of what is called for 
in that situation--
and not imposed upon the situation
as that which is to be done
always and forever in every situation
regardless of prevailing circumstances.

We have to be free to determine what is important
and live in its service
here and now
regardless of what has gone on before,
or what the ramifications may be
for future situations.

"Here we are, NOW what?"
Is always the pertinent question,
with each NOW standing apart
from every other NOW,
with needs peculiar to itself,
and our being called upon
to read the times
and do what they are asking of us,
no matter what,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.

That is the way Jesus did it,
in honor of the spirit
"that is like the wind,
blowing where it will."

And it is the legacy he leaves us,
calling us to have the courage
to live out of our own authority
in doing what needs to be done,
here/now,
always and forever.  

–0–

I recommend having nothing to do with the Buddha
or with Jesus. 

The Buddha hated women
and abandoned his wife and child
in order to "seek enlightenment."
How enlightened was that?

He opposed women having leadership positions
over men,
and it was due to strong opposition
by his male monks 
that they were welcomed at all
within the Buddhist ranks.

Jesus didn't know whether he was coming or going.
He contradicted himself at every turn
and canceled himself out at every opportunity.

For instance there is "Do not think I have come
to destroy the Law and the Prophets."
And, "You have heard it said,
but I say unto you."

He forgives a guilty woman "taken in adultery"
(What about the man?),
and he curses an innocent fig tree
for not having figs out of season.

He says, "Depart from me!
I never knew you Evildoers!"
and he says, "Father, forgive them,
they know now what they do."
And, he says, "If you know what you are doing,
you are blessed,
but if you do not know,
you are cursed as a breaker of the law!"

He tells the parable of the prodigal son
where the son's father welcomes him home
and holds a feast for him 
because he was "Lost and now he is found,
he was dead and now he is alive."

And he tells another parable about a man
holding a feast and inviting everyone to come,
and then kicking out a man for not 
wearing the right party clothes.

He says, "Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you,"
and then lauds the wise bridesmaids for having
enough oil for their lamps
and not sharing it with the foolish bridesmaids
who didn't think to bring extra oil for their lamps.

He says, "Be a compassionate neighbor to everyone,"
and then tells a story about an unjust landowner
who pays workers the same amount for different
hours of work, saying, "Can't he do as he wants 
with what is his?"

And this in direct contradiction to the terms
of justice established by Abraham with his question 
to God, "Shall not the judge of the universe do right?"

It is all too contrary to worry with trying to figure out!

My recommendation is to
live out of your own authority,
squaring yourself with your own
determination of right and wrong,
so that you are a light to yourself,
aligned and in sync with yourself,
true to yourself and transparent
to who you are and how you live,
and let that be that.

If you can do better than that,
by all means, do it!

–0–

See what we look at.
Hear what we listen to.
Know what we know.
Say what needs to be said.
Do what needs to be done.
All there is to it.

Derailed by wanting what we want.
Refusing to maintain balance and harmony.
Being awash in opinions,
assumptions,
presumptions,
inferences,
projections,
fear,
desire,
hearsay,
noise,
complexity,
drama,
trauma...

And here we are.

Start with balance and harmony.
And the forces of destabilization.
Notice how your mind
can serve balance and harmony
or destabilization--
how we can be the source
of balance and harmony
or the source of destabilization
by the way we react/respond
to our circumstances.

Cut out the alcohol.
Square up to life just as it is.
Feel what we feel.
Let things be as they are.
Develop our capacity for
emptiness,
stillness,
silence.

Embrace no control
no contrivance.
No plan.
No agenda.
No opinion.
No expectations.
Nothing at stake
in any outcome.

Preferences without 
obsession/compulsion/addiction.

Just seeing what happens
and what we do about it
in each situation as it arises,
trusting our original nature
and innate virtues
to lead the way.

Like a tree in the forest,
a flower on a hill.

–0–

What is right?
How do you know?
Where do your boundaries lie?
Who lays them for you?
What is the truth about you?
Who told you so?

There are things that define us
that we have nothing to do with.

They are just there.

We just are the way we are.
We just know the things we know.

Where do we go to talk about those things?
To explore them?
To discover what all is there
that we had nothing to do 
with putting in place?

We are more than we know.
Why don't we do the work
of finding out who we are?

And working together with ourselves
to know and be who we are,
and do what is ours to do?

To find our life and live it?

What have we always dismissed,
discounted,
ignored?

About us?

"The stone the builder rejected
becomes the chief corner stone."

–0–

We all experience the same things
that have always been experienced.

"The way of a snake upon a rock,
the way of a ship at sea,
the way of a man with a woman."

All of our experiences are universal experiences.
They differ by the quality and degree
of the expectations, assumptions
and opinions that we bring to the experience.

We experience the same things,
but we interpret/understand them
in quite different ways
dependent upon our background
and the way we have learned to see/decipher the meanings of
the things we experience.

Religion is merely a way of understanding,
interpreting,
explaining,
our experience.

If we can find our way back
to original experience,
that is,
experience without the burden
of previous experience
and the weight of explanations, etc.
that have gone into biasing 
the ways we see what we look at/experience,
we can free ourselves of the doctrines
that we have inherited,
either religious,
cultural,
politidal
or scientific,
and simply be with what is
without prejudice or presumption.

When I do that,
I discover grace to be 
a primordial experience of experience,
and the foundation of all religions,
which exist to explain,
and attempt to control,
the experience of grace in our life.

Grace is good luck,
good fortune,
and is offset 
by the curse
of bad luck, 
bad fortune--
that is, things either going,
or not going,
our way.

Religion claims to be a hedge
against bad luck
and the font of blessings and grace,
or good luck
throughout our existence.

Original experience sees it all for what it is
without expectation or opinion.
When we do that,
we do not need religion of any form.
Just seeing is enough.

"Well, there is this, and there is that,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's the way it is."

Beyond grace,
there is also the primordial experience
of balance and harmony.

We all have that experience 
from time to time,
and strive to hang on to it
with pharmaceuticals and alcohol,
but balance and harmony
are immediately lost
by trying to sustain/maintain them indefinably,
while striving to have our way
and get what we want.

Can't be done,
but. 

Balance and harmony come and go,
but can be cultivated
by the attitude we take 
to living life generally
according to the prescription 
applied to grace:
"This is the way it is,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."

Not pushing,
not striving,
not forcing
not trying to have/avoid
what we want/don't want,
but just seeing,
just knowing,
just doing what is called for
and just being fine/okay with that
is the foundation of a life
that is as good as it can be,
and to want/insist on having more
stirs up forces
that lead to the heaving waves
and the clashing rocks
in no time at all.

The concept of "stirring up forces"
needs to be explored.
It is another of the primordial experiences.

There appear to be forces at work in our life,
arranging things according to a pattern,
making things work as they do.

We have all experienced that,
and it is another purview of religion
to claim to control those forces
and to put us in the flow of good
and out of the reach of evil.

We protect ourselves,
not with prayer and votive offerings,
but with seeing/knowing/doing/being
and allowing things to be as they are
as we respond to the way things are
by doing what is called for 
in each situation as it arises--
without contriving/conniving outcomes
(creating good luck)
and escaping others
(avoiding bad luck).

This is known as "The Drift of Circumstances."

Circumstances are the building blocks 
of the universe and all that is therein.
Circumstances are as God is said to be:
"Infinite, eternal, almighty, all powerful, etc."

Circumstances always are,
always have been,
and always have been,
world without end, amen.

There is nothing but circumstances.
And "The Drift of Circumstances"
is inherent in the way of things,
just as "one thing leads to another,
and "one book opens another,"
"as surely as the day is long,
and day follows night
and the tides come in and go out."

It is the way things are.

What we read into that,
and say about that,
determines--or strongly influences--
what follows
"as surely as the day is long..."

And that is the spawning grounds
for the presumption/assumption
of "forces at work in our life."

It is The Drift of Circumstances
that is at work in our life.

As we sense that and work with it,
align ourselves with it,
live in accord with it,
as one might with the Tao,
or with God's will,
we increase our chances
of experiencing the flow of forces
at work in our life,
by being at-one with The Drift of Circumstances.

Reading the circumstances at work
in each situation as it arises,
and doing what is called for
in light of what is happening
and has been happening
and what will likely continue to happen,
positions us to see/know/do/be
what needs to be here/now
and to live accordingly.

And that is as close to being always
graced, blessed and lucky
as it is ever possible to be.

May it be so for us and everyone!

–0–

Human beings are good for laughter,
playfulness,
poetry,
music
and art.

War,
violence
and sex trafficking...

I'm sure the natural world
would be better off without us,
but here we are,
and the trick is to 
make the best of it--
not in terms of what 
we get out of it,
but in terms of what 
we add to it,
living in ways 
that make things 
better than they 
would be without us.

Living in ways that make
each day better
than it would be without us.

Taking care of our business
in ways that bring 
the light to life
in the world
of the same old same old.

Being a source of life,
and joy,
and peace.

Every day.

This is enlightenment.
Living in ways 
that make the world
a better place
than it would be
without us in it.

It begins 
with being where we are,
seeing what we look at,
and doing what needs
to be done about it,
in response to it.

We are witnesses
invested in the role
of seeing/doing 
truthfully,
rightfully,
for no reason other
than the importance--
the essential Mustness--
of seeing/doing
truthfully,
rightfully.

Jacob Bronowski said,
"If you want to know the truth,
you have to live in certain ways."
We have to live truthfully--
not kidding ourselves,
not deceiving ourselves,
being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
anyway,
nevertheless, 
even so.

Because it is who we are.

That is all it takes
to be what is needed
here/now
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Just seeing.
Just doing.
In response to what's what.
The way it ought to be seen/done.
Here/now.
No kidding. 

–0–

What's good for the antelope
is bad for the lion,
and vice-versa.

So what's good? Or bad?
Who's to say?
How do they know?

Good and bad all depend on who's talking
and what they have at stake in the matter.

Good and bad are always good or bad
from somebody's or some thing's point of view.

Take all of the points of view out of the universe
and there is neither good nor bad in the universe.
There just is.
What's what is then all there is.
No judgement.
No opinion.
No right or wrong.
Things just are what they are. 
Period.

Which means that nothing means anything
if there is nobody and no thing
for meaning to exist.

Meaning is always what we say something means.
It is like right and wrong,
good and bad,
meaning depends upon some point of view.

This or that means this or that
to somebody or some thing.
There is no meaning if there is no body and no thing.

Which gets us to this:

I would like to say that crazy
is being unable to,
being incapable of,
seeing/finding the humor in a situation--
in any situation.

But.

That gets us to comedians who kill themselves.
They must be bad comedians, right?
And to crazy people who laugh at everything.
And my idea of crazy being incapable of humor
makes no sense in light of the evidence,
which, I think, is grounds for laughter.

When nothing makes sense,
laughter is all that is left.
If we can't laugh about the joke
being on us
for expecting things to make sense
because we need for things to make sense,
to fit together,
to explain why and what for,
then what is laughter for?

And we have to laugh about that
because it is all absurd and ridiculous,
and we should be ashamed for expecting
things to be different than they are--
for wanting/needing things to be different
than they are--
but, we aren't ashamed,
and we do expect things 
to be different than they are,
and that is hilarious.

Where do we get the idea that things
can't be what they are?

Who are we to say so?

Things make no sense!
Why do they have to make sense?
Why can't we nod in agreement,
laugh about the dichotomy
of insisting that things make sense
when things make no sense whatsoever,
and get back to doing what needs to be done,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so?

For no reason than because it needs to be done?
Like feeding the baby
and changing their diaper,
and letting the dog go outside to pee? 

–0–