These are two of the metaphors
guiding and undergirding my life,
and serving as sources of reflection 
and realization
in my work of establishing
and maintaining 
right relationship 
between head and heart.

The Gateless Gate is my image 
of the old Taoist phrase
that was the title of one 
of two collections of koans
used by Taoist and Zen practitioners
(Zen is what happened when 
Buddhism met Taoism in China)
(The other collection is called
"The Blue Cliff Record").

A gateless gate is an oxymoron,
a contradiction in terms,
which sages used to stop novices
from overthinking
and drop down into their heart/instinct/intuition
to make the connections necessary 
for finding the path
that cannot be designated as "the path."

The gateless gate is the moment of realization,
of Aha!
of understanding/enlightenment,
that happens as a lightening bold
with a shift in perspective.

For me, the gateless gate is a metaphor
suggesting that we are all
one slight shift in perspective from seeing
what's what
and doing what needs to be done about it
(Seeing is doing--
a shift in perspective is a transformation of life).

The unfinished circle is a wabi sabi symbol
reflecting the Taoist/Zen understanding 
of the nature of truth,
and of true human beings.

We are all a bit off course,
out of alignment,
"simple, imperfect, impermanent,
and therefore beautifully irreplaceable
perfection just as we are!

The unfinished circle is the gateless gate.
The gateless gate is the unfinished circle. 

It only takes seeing to know that it is so.

–0–

We have the power of right response.
It is a Super Power
available to every one of us.

We do not control what happens to us,
but,
we exercise considerable control
when it comes to what we do in response
to what happens to us.

Our amount of control over our response
is directly dependent upon 
how much time we spend
with emptiness, stillness and silence,
developing our relationship
with "the ten-million year old person within"
(Carl Jung),
deepening our mindful awareness,
reducing our inclination toward
expectations,
opinions,
agendas,
and the degree of importance
that having our way NOW
plays in our life.

Our capacity for emptiness, stillness and silence
creates working distance
between ourselves and what happens to us,
reduces the impact of life upon us,
and provides us with room for reflection
and contemplation
in which to consider our options
and feel our way into what seems to be
the best available choice
of what is called for
and the right way, time and place
for it to come forth.

We lay the groundwork for all of our future responses
by the way we spend our time
in the present moment of our life.
We prepare today
to deal with tomorrow,
by being conscious of what is truly important,
and how well we are serving that with our life
here/now.

Awareness leads the way
to the way--
which is an extension of the way,
and is, itself, the way,
right here/now.

–0–

We have to sanctify the holy within
by listening to our body
and living from our heart
in all that we do.

We have to take our life back
from the things that do not matter,
and give ourselves 
to the things that do matter--
to ourselves and those whose life
is impacted by our life.

We have to reclaim our life
and put our body and our heart
in charge of how we spend our time,
aligning ourselves with the things
that feed our soul.

The spiritual quest is the search
for what is meaningful--
for what causes our little heart
to sing
and our little toes to tap,
and our little legs to dance
far into the night.

The Upanishads proclaimed as early
as the tenth to ninth centuries BCE,
"Thou Art That!"
"You are the one who knows what is meaningful!
What needs to be done!
What needs you to do it!
Why aren't you listening to yourself???
Why aren't you going and doing 
where and what yourself 
recognizes as being vital to your heart
and your life?"

Why aren't we?

–0–

Joseph Campbell said, "In the end,
psychotherapy is about 
aligning the head with the heart
so that the transcendent energies
can come through.
Only when this occurs
can you be 'transparent to transcendence.'
This implies yielding to nature,
putting yourself in accord with nature--
which is the main aim of most of the
mythologies of the world.

Nature is regarded as a manifestation
of something that is basically
divine and marvelous and miraculous,
and by putting yourself in accord with it,
you participate in that glory."

The old Taoists referred to this as
"being aligned with the Tao."

It is telling that Christianity
and Western civilization
see nature as something 
that is to be "subdued."

The snake is evil,
the Devil, 
and must be trod under,
whereas, in the east, the snake
sheds its skin as the moon sheds
its shadow,
and is a symbol of eternal life.

Good is evil, 
evil is good
just by the way we see things,
by the way we are taught to see things,
and has nothing to do 
with the things themselves.

It is a long way
from where we have been
to where we need to be.

We better get started!

–0–

Individuals living "transparent to transcendence" (Joseph Campbell) 
would transform the world
in our lifetime.

Of course, transformation
would turn the world upside down,
upset the normal order,
and wreck the economy.

Which is why individuals
and not corporations and governments
have to lead the way.

People have to stop living 
in the service of what they are told
is important,
and start living in the service
of what the people know to be important.

Being right about what matters most
and serving it with our life
are all it takes
to set the world right
and put ourselves right with the world.

What is keeping that from happening
in your life?

Seriously.

–0–