The first spiritual law
is Throw Away Theology
And Stand Naked Before The Worst Life Can Do!

What do you fear the most?
Smile, and ask it to dance!

Allow  your fear to show you
what it has to reveal.

Joseph Campbell said,
"What you seek lies far back
in the darkest corner
of the cave you most do not
want to enter."

Your refuge is yourself.
As you truly are.

Your essential nature
and your innate virtues
are all you need
to face what must be faced
and to do what needs to be done.

But, there is a catch.
You have to live with nothing to gain,
not caring what your chances are.
Seeking only to find your life and live it,
doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
no matter what--
and allowing things to fall into place
around that--
knowing, "The path that can be discerned
as a path
is not a reliable path,"
and living "like the wind
that blows where it will,"
in the service of what needs to happen,
here/now,
which you determine,
not by thinking
or believing,
but by feeling/sensing/intuiting/
instinctively knowing
and being attuned to the moment
of your living,
"without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat, Doctor Who),
and letting that be that,
in a "Do your work and step back"
(Lao Tzu)
kind of way,
all your life long.

If you are willing,
"the game is afoot!"
(Sherlock Holmes),
Be off and into the moment
that awaits!
The door is closing,
squeeze through!

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We have to work out the ratios
between our thinking brain
and our feeling body.

The solution, of course, 
is our being mind.

The mind/body connection
is as much a mind/brain connection.

Mind is nothing more than connective tissue,
with "tissue" having no physical attributes
at all.

The good stuff is all spiritual.
We call it "spiritual"
because it is "of the spirit,"
invisible,
like life itself,
IS life itself.

Life is a spiritual phenomenon.
And it has nothing to do with theology.
Theology is of the thinking brain.
Religion is of the feeling body.
Our being mind is at the bottom of it all.

Holding it all together.
Making it all one.
Enabling us to articulate
what cannot be said/told/explained/understood,
only known/realized
through enlightenment/illumination/satori/awakening...

(But we cannot market satori,
so we create theology
and "make disciples,"
and churches/denominations/insanity
because if a profit can be made,
a profit will be made,
and that quickly becomes
"Profit At Any Price!",
and here we are...)

Leaving our being mind with 
waiting it out,
while it works behind the scenes
(The spiritual stuff is all indirect),
to articulate what cannot be said/etc.

And so, art in all its forms.
Art is the language of religion at its best,
of truth,
of spirit,
of spirituality...

And music.
Music is the language of the spirit,
of religion at its best,
at its truest.

Until you get to hymns.
A hymnbook is a book of doctrine
put to music
to co-opt the being mind
into the thinking brain
and sell religion at its worst,
by saving souls,
and making disciples,
and money,
to build churches
to save souls
to make disciples
and money.

And the being mind has to wait some more.
For people to sit down,
shut up,
wake up.
And turn the light around,
by working out the ratios
between our thinking brain
and our feeling body.

–0–

Trials and tribulations
are not to be taken more seriously
than they deserve.

I am not aware of a book
better than "Drive Yourself Sane,"
by Susan and Bruce Kodish,
now in its 3rd edition,
for making out what's what,
keeping things in their place,
and speaking accurately
(even to ourselves) about them.

Seeing our situation--
and each situation as it arises--
as it is
is the most important step
in knowing what to do about it,
in response to it.

And that is the most important step
in maintaining our balance and harmony
as we do what needs to be done
within the situation
for the good of the situation
and all sentient beings.

Seeing/hearing is knowing is doing,
with integrity and sincerity,
naturally,
spontaneously,
truthfully,
here/now
in each moment that comes along.

Neither Jesus nor the Buddha 
could do better than that.

And it is a possibility
for each of us
all our life long.

Why wait to start being
who/what our life needs us to be,
when, where and how
it needs us to be?

Seeing clearly 
and responding appropriately 
to what is happening 
in each situation 
as it arises 
is the sine non qua of living well. 
Why have any other goal in life?

–0–

Serenity,
peace,
equanimity,
connection,
affirmation,
at-one with the flow of things,
with the way of things,
no striving to make something
be what it is not,
what it has no business being...

At home in the natural world,
with the natural way of things.

Nature does that for us,
gives that to us,
invites us to slow down,
stay for a while.

How long has it been?
Since you spent time
with nature?

As a species,
we spend more time
disturbing nature
than communing with nature--
exchanging scenic vistas
for parking lots--
making progress.

Progress doesn't do
what nature does.
Does not restore our souls,
restore us to our soul.
To our heart.
To The Way.
The natural way of being in the world
by being with the world,
with the way of being with the world.

Step away from noise and complexity.
Find your natural way of being 
with the world.
Discover the face that was yours
before you were born.
The who you have always been,
and will always be,
waiting for you to wake up,
slow down,
and make acquaintances.

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