Being clear about who we are
in terms of our original nature
and innate virtues/traits/characteristics,
our specalities
and our interests--
and open to/aware of
each situation as it arises,
attuned to what is happening
and what is being called for,
positions us to be who we are
and to offer what is needed
out of the gifts and talents
we bring to the occasion.

We follow this situation up
with the same approach 
to every situation
that makes up a day,
a week,
a lifetime--
as we live to serve who we are
and what we have to offer
to the time and place of our living
throughout the time left to be lived.

This leaves no room for boredom,
aimlessness,
malaise, 
tedium
and nothing to do.

Noise,
complexity
and drama
are forces of destabilization
and loss of direction.

Emptiness, 
stillness
and silence
return us to
"the still point of the turning world,"
for reorientation 
and redirection,
helping us to remain on track,
aligned with the way
and at one with the flow
of life and being. 

–0–

Our practice consists of 
living in the service of
our original nature
and our innate virtues 
(traits, characteristics,
the things we do best),
in creating
and maintaining
an atmosphere,
orientation,
demeanor
which exemplifies
emptiness, stillness and silence,
balance and harmony,
sincerity, integrity, spontaneity,
spirit, vitality, life,
and avoids
noise,
complexity,
drama,
in doing what is called for
when,
where
and how,
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

Put that in place
and magic will happen.

–0–

We could talk about
"God's will for our life,"
and we could talk about
"Our life's will for itself."
And we could wonder,
"Where does the line lie
between That Which Has Always Been Called 'God,'
and us?"

And I would say,
"There is no line!"

I would also add,
"We are as close to God
as it is possible to be."

And,
"We are extensions of God,
God in human form,
just as Jesus was,
and all human beings have been
since the beginning of human beings."

And,
"We are put here
to do what needs to be done,
when/where/how it needs to be done,
and to let that be that,
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
as our gift of self
to other selves
and all sentient beings
in all times and places."

And, 
"How do you think we are doing
with that?" 

–0–

What's your specialty?
The things you do best
and enjoy most. 

My specialty is looking out windows.
And articulating what's what.
I earned a living 
with the articulating part,
but that doesn't happen
without the windows part,
so, there is a sense
in which I earned a living with that, too.

Puts me in a special category of lucky.

It all hangs by luck. 
Luck is another term for grace.
Where would we be without grace/luck?
Wouldn't get out of the delivery room,
most of us.
A lot of us, anyway.

We don't spend enough time
being aware of that--
of how lucky we are,
and have been,
just to be here, now.

Too many of us make too much
over not having
and not being better off,
and not knowing how to arrange it.
The first thing we need to know
about arranging it
is to not try to arrange it--
just look for what needs to be done,
here/now,
and do it.
That's all there is to it.

One thing leads to another,
and before you know it,
we are better off,
through no scheme of our own.

Schemes always seem to have 
some fatal flaw about them.
We can get around that by not scheming.
Just living with genuine,
authentic,
sincerity and integrity,
and doing what needs to be done
works magic somehow,
and doors open that would not open
for anyone else,
and we have something else
to be thankful for.

Genuine authenticity pays off
for those who aren't in it to be paid off,
who are just genuinely authentic,
and fine with whatever they have.
How many people do you know like that
these days?

If you are one of them,
you know at least one.

Make genuine authenticity your specialty
and you'll be just fine,
whether you get a different kind of pay off
or not.

–0–

This is the third way of representing/presenting
the same scene (Refer to the two previous images
in this series).

Which way is it really? 
None of the three!
The "real scene" was entirely different,
related only by being in the same 
general area at the time I was there.

My point is the multiplicity of ways
there are to apprehend "reality."

And we argue about all of them.
Excommunicate/exile/execute/persecute/prosecute/etc.
people who don't see as we do--
as though we see what we look at
any clearer than anybody else does!

Thomas Aquinas was writing his Opus,
Summa Theologica,
when he had a revelation
that led him to say, "All is straw,"
and quit writing.

We don't know what he saw,
but I have an idea.
He saw that we cannot say what is
because it is also not what we say it is--
it is more than can ever be said.

Lao Tzu saw the same thing,
and said, "Those who know don't say
(Because it cannot be said),
and those who say, don't know."

Heinrich Zimmer picked up on this insight
and said,
"The best things cannot be said,
and the next best things create confusion
by trying to talk about the best things,
which leaves us with the third best things
to talk about, 
which are news, weather, sports and gossip.

The Buddha saw the same thing
Aquinas, Lao Tzu and Heinrich Zimmer saw,
and said enlightenment consists
of seeing what he saw the way he saw it.

He called it "No Duality!" because
everything is one
in the sense that everything
is much more than one
and is united by being capable of
a multiplicity of ways to be seen/
said/understood.
Nirvana is seeing the allness
of it all
and letting it be because it is
"just that way."  

Which leaves us with the responsibility
of knowing we don't know what we think we know,
and of stopping the foolishness
of shoving/forcing our view
of things on everyone else.

Because life is an optical illusion,
and we are capable of seeing what we look at
and interpreting it in number of different ways.

How are things "really"?
They really are many different ways at the same time.
So be cool with that,
and let it be,
because it is.

Being cool with that 
means not taking the way you currently see things
with more seriousness than it deserves
(Which is practically no seriousness at all,
in that the way we see things 
is merely a convenient way of managing
our way through the optical illusion
that is our life). 

–0–

Responding to the occasion
in ways appropriate to the occasion
opens the way to being
at one with the moment,
in sync with the time and place
of our living,
aligned with the rhythm and flow
of life here/now,
doing what is called for,
where,
when
and how it is called for--
the essence of peak experiences
throughout the world,
and it can be nothing more
than changing a diaper,
or feeding the cows in the barn.

This is called
"Living at the peak of the ordinary,"
and it is well within our reach
in each situation as it arises.

We miss it by looking for something better,
something finer,
something more.
Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Living in paradise,
wanting something else.

It is all in how we look at 
what we have,
where we are.

In how we understand the importance
of rhythm and flow,
of what is called for,
necessary,
needed,
required
by the circumstances
defining this time,
this place,
right here,
right now.

And that is contingent upon
how often and how long
we spend being empty
of all thoughts and emotions
in stillness and silence,
just being present 
with what is present with us,
with no expectations,
no opinions,
no judgment,
no fear,
no desire,
just being awake,
aware,
alive,
to all that arises unbidden
in the silence,
without engaging it,
being attached to it,
aroused by it,
just waiting,
just watching
to see/hear what is called for,
asked of us
by the conditions of our life
in the situation of our living.

It starts with receptive awareness
and goes where it needs to go,
as we work out the details
regarding balance and harmony,
compassion and integrity
in compliance with what is asked of us
all along the way.

–0–