Zen is what happened
when Taoism met Buddhism.

The essence of Zen
is the essence of Taoism.
Their differences are insignificant
compared to their essentials.

For instance, the place of zazen 
to either is "Take it or leave it,
it is up to you.
If you like it, fine,
if you don't like it, fine."

As far as enlightenment goes,
"To seek it is not to find it,
and to find it is to realize
there is nothing to it.
You still have to mow the lawn
and wash the dishes,
and pay the bills."

Enlightenment is seeing,
and seeing is seeing what needs to be done
and doing it,
in each situation as it arises.

It is not getting, owning, possessing,
having,
any advantage, gain, benefit, position, etc."

There are no billionaire/millionaire/wealthy
Zen masters or Taoist sages.

Zen and Taoism are not the way 
to anything other
than the way of seeing/doing,
with no interest in the outcome
beyond seeing/doing
what needs to be done about it
with no interest in anything
beyond seeing/doing here/now.

"For what?" you wonder?
For nothing beyond 
the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it--
and the opportunity 
to see/do it again, 
here/now!

"Why would anyone bother?"
There are  no reasons to bother
with Taoism/Zen/Enlightenment!
If you do not care to see/do, fine.
If you care to see/do, fine.
What do you care to do?

Both Taoism and Zen fell on hard times
when they became popular
and their monasteries ceased to be places
older people could go
practice seeing/doing
and enjoying the community
of each others' company,
and became places where well-to-do parents
sent their children to become enlightened
masters/sages
because "It would be good for them."

Sitting zazen then became a way of
instilling discipline 
and passing time--
in other words, "busy work"
to keep the kids still and quiet.
And everything went to hell
at the same time political fortunes fell,
and persecution of Taoist/Zen monks 
destroyed much of the foundation
of the practices,
and gunpowder disappeared the value
of the martial arts
(Another way of passing the time,
instilling discipline),
and that was pretty much that.

All of which is to say
"A fish is only a fish,
and when you make too much of it,
you lose the whole point of it."
(Robert Ruark).

Enlightenment is a fish
by another name.

–0–

There is mindlessness everywhere I look!

Our only hope is being attentive
to what is going on,
and to what is called for,
where, when and how!

Clarity combined with courage and consciousness
form a union unparalleled 
in the field of time.

The world is a wasteland  
waiting for, 
as Joseph Campbell would say,
"individuals living authentic lives
out of he spontaneity of their own hearts--
when that heart is a noble heart
and that spontaneity is based on compassion,
rather than conquest and possession."

In the moment of their awakening,
they are linked by their original nature,
innate virtues (traits, character)
and essential identity
with the very life that is necessitated 
by the circumstances of their existence.

Just as "it took the Cyclops
to bring forth the hero in Ulysses"
(Campbell),
so it takes the occasion of our present moment
to bring us into the full flowering
of our possibilities and potential
in meeting the moment of our living
as those who will not be put off
or misdirected,
or sat aside
by any combination of fear,
hatred,
anger
and desire
from our task of seeing and doing
what needs to be done
and needs us to do it
in each situation as it arises--
no matter how useless or pointless
it appears to be--
through all of the situations
that will yet arise,
in the cause of being faithful to ourselves
and alert to what beckons in the dimension of action
through all the days of our lives.

May it be always so!

–0–

The older I get,
the more sensitive to,
aware of, 
impatient with,
I become regarding 
intrusions,
encroachments,
incursions into
my life 
and my preferred ways
of doing things.

For instance,
commercial advertisements.
And non-stop talkers.

Non-stop talkers
are at least accessible
and I can break into their monologue
with clarifying questions
that give them pause
and shift things into areas
they evidently have never considered
and brings our mutual humanity to life,
if only momentarily.

I don't do social without breaking the mold
and making inquiries about what matters most
and how they know,
and how anyone else would know
by the way they honor it in their life.

Time is precious to me
because there is not as much left
as there once was,
and everyone lives as though money 
is important
when it is what we do with money
that is important,
and everyone seems bent on
doing the same things with it
with nothing to indicate that 
any of it is important on any level,
except that it generates more money
to be spent on nothing much at all.

And, if I don't call attention to that,
who will?

Calling attention to discrepancies 
and dichotomies is one of my specialties,
and I use social occasions 
to explore them
the way some people use social occasions
to say the same things they say
at every social occasion.

And if that works to provide me 
with little in the way of a social calendar,
what's the harm in that?

–0–

All we need is a sounding board.
We all need a sounding board.
Someone with nothing at stake
in us or what becomes of us,
who can simply listen us to the truth
of what's what with us
enabling clarity,
bringing forth realization,
being, for us,
the vehicle of enlightenment,
satori,
awakening,
knowing
who we are and how it is with us
in the here/now
of our life.

You do this for me.
In revealing myself to you,
I reveal myself to me,
and step with understanding
into each day.
More balanced and harmonious,
at one with the Tao
and aligned with the flow of life
than I could ever be without you.

Thanks for that.
Where would I be without you?
It would be a darker,
colder,
place,
for sure!

Yours is the place of a really good therapist
in my life,
enabling me to get to the bottom of me,
look around,
take stock,
acknowledge the how it is,
examine the what to do about it,
and put things together
in a way I could never do it on my own,
without you.

So, whatever you find here
that you can use
is where you and I are alike
in ways that reflect each of us
to ourselves,
and serve as common ground
on our mutual journey
to the truth of who we are,
and what the implications are
of that for the way we live our life.

To Truth!
To Life!
Together!
Along the Way!

–0–