We are (Get ready for this,
as ridiculously unbelievable as it is)
vehicles of transcendence. 

We are transcendent reality writ large,
spilling over,
pouring out.

Along with Jesus,
we all can say,
"The Father and I are one!"

Except but...
If only...

We are at once,
transcendent wonders
and the slime at the bottom of the pond.

"OM Mani Padme Hum"
was produced for us
about us.

Except but...
If only...

We all are one slight shift in perspective
away from knowing
and being
it is so.

That slight perspective shift
is called "Enlightenment."

It is realizing what's what.

It is knowing and being what's what.

It is acting/living as though what's what
is what,
thoroughly,
completely,
absolutely.

We are one slight perspective shift
away from it all being so.

Except but only...

What? Except but only what?

What is standing in the way?
Keeping us from seeing/knowing/
understanding/being
what is so? 

Don't let life get in the way!

–0–

We generate noise in 10,000 ways,
along with complexity,
drama
and trauma.

We could compensate for that,
if we will,
with emptiness,
stillness
and silence.

In order to maintain our balance and harmony,
remain in the flow of life
through all situations and circumstances,
and live in the way 
of life everlasting
in each moment as it arises.

Meeting the moment
as it needs to be met
with the right action
in the right place
and the right way
at the right time
just like we knew what we were doing--
but we don't.

We are just living spontaneously
in response to the needs of the now,
doing what comes naturally,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction
of having done it.

Loving our life and enjoying 
the wonders of being alive.

–0–

We live looking for things that catch our eye
and be alive with the radiance,
the splendor,
of the sublime,
and divine.

Transcendent reality grounds us,
steadies us,
anchors us,
reminds us
that "this"--the everyday world
of normal, apparent, reality--
is not all there is,
or even a sizeable percentage.

We are wonders ourselves,
from wonder
on our way back to wonder,
stopping by here
to remember who we are
and where we come from
and what we are made of
and for.

This world snaps us awake 
to the wonder of wonder,
the essence of the other world,
the invisible world
that primitive peoples
have always known to ge
the foundation of this world.

This world calls for enlightenment,
recognition,
realization,
remembrance,
thanksgiving,
gratitude for
the occasional "cracks
where the light shines through"
"hallelujah!" 
(Leonard Cohen).

So we live looking,
starved for,
the things that catch our eye. 

–0–

We wade into our circumstances
bent on conquest and annihilation!
On "Shock and Awe"!
On triumph and subjugation!
And for all of the bluster,
here we are.

We who would be Champions of the Way,
are lost, adrift and astray.
Without direction or incentive,
vitality or hope,
with only the wasteland
to call home.

All because we don't know 
what to do with circumstances
unfolding before us,
sweeping us away
like so much dust and ashes,
laughing,
taunting us with disgust and derision
for being so blatantly clueless
for all our talk of glory and treasure.

Circumstances hold the key,
but it will not be taken by force,
or surrendered by threat or demand.

Circumstances, and their hand servant,
situations, 
come at us one after another 
throughout each day,
inviting us again and again,
to start with any of them,
looking/seeing,
listening/hearing,
knowing/doing/being.

But we do not again and again,
stop, look, listen!

All we do is force our way
in the service of what we want,
never mind what is needed,
necessary!

Do not have a will!
Do not have a way!
Do not have even an opinion!
Or an expectation!

And do not think ever 
of using your circumstances
to advance your agenda,
achieve your goals,
realize your plans,
die with the most toys
and WIN! WIN! WIN!

Take the words of Jesus to heart:
"If you would be my people,
pick up your cross daily,
and follow me,"
he said, on the way to the cross.

Circumstances are not about winning,
but about dying--
again and again--
to the things that are a delight to the eyes,
and pleasing to the taste
(As the Forbidden Fruit was for Adam and Eve).

Our place is to be what is called for,
to do what is needed,
to offer what is necessary
to the unfolding of situations
in the service of the true good of circumstances,
and let that be that--
"Without hope,
without witness,
without reward" (Steven Moffat).

Our place is to place ourselves
in the service of our circumstances,
with filial allegiance
fealty
and liege loyalty,
doing the right thing,
in the right way,
in the right place
at the right time.

Regardless of what it means for us personally.
This is the meaning of the cross--
doing what is right no matter what,
because it is right  never mind what the cost is!

This, and only this, breaks the curse 
of the wasteland
and ushers in the time of vitality,
delight, joy, enthusiasm, wonder
and abundant life.

Obi Wan Kenobi advised,
"Listen to the force, Luke."
Lao Tzu advised,
"Live aligned with the Tao."

They were saying,
"Find the flow of circumstances
and trust yourself to it 
through all of the trials and conditions
of your life."

The flow of circumstances is the flow
of your heart and being 
in the service of what is truly you,
and truly yours to do,
no matter what.

What can you do--
what do you do--
wholeheartedly?

Do it!
"In season and out of season!"
All your life long!
In accord with the circumstances
of each here/now that comes in a day.

Without forcing,
without pushing,
without contriving,
without conquering...

Just seeing, just doing,
with your whole heart.

This is Buddha Mind.
This is Tao.
This is The Force.
This is Jesus embracing the cross.
This is embracing the circumstances
of our life
and doing what we can with them--
doing the right thing,
in the right way,
in the right place
at the right time.

World without end!
Amen!

–0–

I'm interested in where opinions originate
and how they proliferate,
and what they do on their days off.

I've noticed that they are everywhere people are,
and that everyone has more than they need,
so they keep trying to give them away
to anybody who will relieve them of the burden,
but nobody wants more opinions,
and never heeds them
or pays them any attention,
but attempt to return the favor
by offering up their own,
which generates more opinions
just by being aired.

So I have devised a theory,
that may, itself, be "nothing more 
than an opinion"--
Which is another thing,
opinions are always decried
as being "nothing more than an opinion,"
when everybody has nothing else to offer.

Why don't they get themselves some facts?
And argue about them?
But, that gets us into
how anyone could argue about facts?

If we had more facts and fewer opinions,
the world would be a lot quieter place,
with everyone having less to say
and being quite content with the facts
at hand,
but that gets me back to my theory
that opinions are generated/created/manufactured
by being stated
in a ping-pong ball being dropped onto
mousetraps holding ping-pong balls kind of way,
and like that opinions are flying in all directions
spontaneously/instantaneously.

They are self-generating, eternally-perpetuating,
constantly-birthing-propagating-spawning-breeding
themselves into being by word of mouth!

We get rid of them by not saying anything.

And if that means we have nothing to say,
we will be able to explore the silence
and discover what we have been missing
all these years!

–0–

What guides our boat on its path through the sea?

What idea of how things ought to be
do we live to impose upon each situation as it arises?

How do we know that is how things ought to be?

How does how we want things to be
impact our actions in each situation as it arises?

What is the origin of our wants?

What does wanting know?

How does what we ought to want
impact what we do want?

How do we know what we ought to want?

Who says so?

We live in the service of some idea
of how our life needs to be lived--
where does that idea come from?

How valid is it as a directing influence
on our life?

As a guiding impetus in each situation as it arises?

What are we living to do, to get, to have, to be?

What guides our boat on its path though the sea?

–0–

Being right about "Yes" and "No"
is the most important thing to be right about.
We can't go by what someone else says.
It is our own call all the way.

We can only trust ourselves 
to know what we are talking about
when we have more than a casual acquaintance
with emptiness,
stillness
and silence--
and can recognize the "click" within
when we are right about "Yes" and "No."

The inner "click" doesn't get enough press.

"Follow the 'clicks'!"
"Let the 'clicks' lead you!"
"Go without hesitation
wherever the 'clicks' take you!"
do not rank among the best advice ever given--
and that is why things are as they are
wherever we look.

No one has time for the "clicks."

Adam and Eve never waited for the "click!"

And, here we are.

If it is appealing to the eyes,
and arousing to the senses,
we don't bother with
taking it into the emptiness/stillness/silence
and listening for what it has to say.

If we want it with all our heart,
that's enough for us,
neverminding that the heart 
can be tricked in 10,000 ways.

Take the heart into the emptiness/stillness/silence,
and see what it has to say.

Adopt the practice of listening looking,
hearing seeing,
in the emptiness/stillness/silence
in regard to everything that comes your way.
If it "clicks" with you,
take it for a spin,
always looking for the follow-up "clicks"
at every fork in the road.

Too bad Adam and Eve
didn't know bout the "clicks"
at every fork in the road.

–0–

"We are all One, but not the same One."

I wish I remembered who said that.

We are one in our individuality,
in our personal identity,
which is as different for each of us
as our fingerprints
or the cones in our iris.

Different in our sameness.
The same in our different-ness.

Seeing the same things differently.

Each of us being who we are,
the same yet different,
different yet the same.

Owing it to each other to be 
as different as we are capable of being--
trusting that to make us 
the same as everyone else.

And each of us allowing the rest of us
to be as different as we are,
winking at our differences,
knowing that makes us the same,
laughing at those who try to make all of us
exactly the same in every respect
(The Fascist Way, little Hitlers all).

Honoring our right to be different--
honoring each others' right to be different--
is the primary human obligation.

We owe it to each other--and to ourselves--
to be who we are,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.

Minding our own business,
knowing where to draw our lines,
and trusting others to do the same,
and working things out
situation by situation
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

It starts with "Yes" and "No,"
and being right about when to say what,
and flows from there
through all of the circumstances of life
to form a reliable identity
and establish our individuality,
shaped by our original nature
and the innate virtues/specialties
that are with us, 
and are us,
from birth.

When Jesus said,
"Let your 'Yes' be yes,
and your 'No' be no,"
he was talking about the importance
of speaking clearly from the heart
about matters we know we are right
to say "Yes" to or "No" to.

It is important to know "Yes" and "No,"
without holding back
to see where the advantage lies,
and which gives us the best chance
at having our way
and getting what we want.

Wanting complicates "Right" and "Wrong."
If we have a stake in the outcome,
we might well say "Yes," 
when "No" was clearly the right way to go, 
or say "No"
when "Yes" was our body's preferred response
except that our mind gets in the way,
over-riding the body's signals (again),
and creating circumstances we regret
for the rest of time.

"If only we had known," we say,
overlooking the truth that we
could have easily known
if we had taken the time to listen
to our body's signals.

"Creating a space"
to be empty of thoughts and emotions,
"like the place between breaths,"
and open to the stillness
and the silence,
waiting to see/hear/feel
what arises within
as an unmistakable message from our core
regarding "Yes" or "No."

But fear and desire get in the way (again),
and "For want of a 'Yes' an opportunity was lost,"
or vice versa with a "No,"
and here we are.

Not looking,
not listening,
not knowing
but always wishing
that we had looked,
and listened,
and known.

When to say "Yes,"
and when to say "No." 

Which is what life is all about--
being right about when to say what.

–0–

We have to develop our own eyes!
We cannot allow anyone else
to do our seeing for us!
Yet, how many of us "see"
with other people's eyes?!

The entire thrust of Christianity--
and all other religion--
is to talk us into
allowing "those who know best"
to do our seeing and our thinking for us.

We have to take our eyes back!
And cultivate minds of our own!

The church that is really the church
would enable that
in an
"Inclusive, open-minded and home for your soul"
kind of way.

The trouble is that kind of insight
can rarely be passed along 
from generation to generation,
and each generation has to learn 
to see for itself
in a "Who do YOU say that I am?" kind of way.

And those who know
are hardly ever
those who boast and brag about knowing,
and burn at the stake all those
whom they say do not know.

Knowing is a very personal--
and individual--thing,
and those who stumble upon it
are few.

More often than not,
those who say they see
are "the blind leading the blind"
straight onto the meandering 
pathways of the wasteland.

We have to learn to see for ourselves,
listen to ourselves,
know and trust ourselves,
and what else is living for?

How are you coming along
with seeing, hearing, knowing and trusting
yourself on the field of action?

Everything is practice!
Practice, practice, practice!

It is the way!

–0–

Fraser Snowden said, "The only true philosophical question is
'Where do you draw the line?'

It is a bigger question than that.

Knowing where we draw the line,
and drawing it,
is owning our own "Yes" and "No."

When we own our "Yes" and "No,"
and draw lines commensurate
with our decision,
we are establishing our identity,
our individuality,
our person-hood 
and our place in the world.

Nothing is more important than knowing--
and living in light of--
who we are
and what we will and will not do
in all of our relationships
in each situation as it arises.

Out of that position
flows our alignment
with ourselves,
and with the Tao,
because when we are one 
with our original nature
and our innate virtues/specialties,
we are one with the Tao
and in tune with the Yin/Yang 
of the circumstances
as they swirl around us
through each day.

Never at a loss of what to do
in light of who we are being asked to be
here/now
because we are anchored
to the adamantine source of knowing and doing
in what we say "Yes" to and "No" to 
and in where we draw the line.

–o–

Jason Garret, when he was coaching
the Dallas Cowboys,
said, "It comes down to this:
Handle the success of the game
and keep playing.
Handle the adversity of the game
and keep playing."

He was saying, "Deal with it and go on.
Without making a big deal of it."

The old Buddhists thought Dharma
came down to the "non-attachment
to name and form."

In order to allow all that obscures
"The complete essence of everything"
to fall away
so that we might become
increasingly familiar with our own
original nature.

Living our of our own original nature
allows us to "Deal with it and go on,
without making a big deal of any of it."

We meet the day,
doing what is called for in the day,
as only we can do it,
and "keep playing."

Not getting lost in the day,
in winning and losing,
in having and possessing,
with no goal in mind
beyond doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
and playing on,
playing on,
in the only game there is.

The game of life and living well,
day to day.
Doing what is called for here/now
and playing on, 
playing on. 

–0–