We cannot be in this moment here/now
and be thinking about,
engaged with,
in,
some other moment,
past or future.

To be here/now
is to be here/now.
Period.

Empty of everything
but what is happening here/now.

How often are you ever there?
For how long?

How long can you be here/now?
Before shifting over
to some other place to be?

This moment has to be the only moment
if we are going to offer here
what the moment needs from us.

We cannot do that absent-mindedly.
We cannot be somewhere else
and do here what needs to be done,
when, where, and how it needs to be done.

Do you want your dentist to fill a cavity
while watching TV?

It takes practice
to be still, silent, and empty
in order to be here/now,
present, open, aware of
what is happening
and what needs to be done about it,
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises.

What is the nature of your practice?
How often do you practice?
For how long?

–0–

The freedom to do what needs to be done
establishes individuals
in the right to their own perceptions
and convictions
by making the individual 
the responsible party
answering the question,
"Who says so?"

Who says what is right in each situation
as it arises?
"I DO!", shouts everybody participating
in the situation.

And, there is a catch.
They all have to be right about it.

But, there is a qualification to the catch:
There is no penalty for being wrong.
The only stipulation 
is that each individual in the situation
has to use the experience gleaned from the situation
in being right about the next situation.

We are all growing up here,
one situation at a time,
in the work to be right about what is called for
and needs to be done
in each situation as it arises.

It is crucial that each individual
lives with integrity and sincerity,
transparent to themselves,
situation by situation
all their life long.

Cheating, pretending, lying,
collapses the social contract
among all people
at every point
in their life together,
and creates complexity,
noise,
confusion and chaios
where cooperation and collaboration
should be.

We all bear the burden
of being sincere and transparent--
primarily to ourselves--
in all of our dealings with one another.

Deceit, deception and duplicity
destroy the bonds of society
and throw everything into 
the "might makes right,"
and "everybody for themselves,"
scramble for personal gain
at everyone else's expense,
ending all hope for the mutual
care and concern
that is the foundation
of the human experiment,
and throws us into a situation
in which everyone 
has to look out for themselves
instead of one in which everyone
has to be responsible for themselves.

Mutual responsibility
to oneself
and one's peers
has to be the familial responsibility
borne equally by every family
in every generation.

Where that is absent,
we have what we have,
with no one to blame
but ourselves.

–0–

There are four classic texts of Taoism:
The Lao-tzu (AKA The Tao Te Ching),
The Chuang-tzu,
The Wen-tzu,
and the Lieh-tzu.

These were all put together between
500 BCE and 400 CE.

Somewhere within that period,
the following was attributed to Lieh-tzu:

"The sage Wen-tzu said, 
'Someone who knows how to withdraw
when his work is finished
is one who understands the way of heaven.
He has no quarrel with the world,
and whatever he does follows 
the natural order of things.

'Therefore, the enlightened person
does not need eyes to see the Way.
This is because the Way cannot be
grasped with your senses and thoughts.

'Look for it in front
and it will sneak behind you.
Seek it with good intentions
and it is everywhere.

'If you are insincere,
it will never reveal itself.

'Is something that you cannot 
use your intellect to attain,
and if you are not serious,
it will also escape you.

'Only in naturalness can the Way
be attained.

'And after you have attained it,
only in naturalness can it be kept.

'Knowing the truth of things
and yet not clutching to the truth,
knowing how to act
and not using effort to do it,
is the mark of a sage.

'If you pretend to know 
or not to know,
pretend to do
or not to do,
you are just like a pile of dirt.
It sits there doing nothing.
And it is also worth nothing.'"

(Quoted from "The Lieh-Tzu" by Eva Wong).

From 400 BCE.

–0–

Freedom is not the freedom
to do as we please,
but the freedom to do what needs to be done,
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises.

Will we be in bondage to our desires,
bound to do what pleases us?
Or, will we be in bondage to what needs to be done?

Can we live so that doing what needs to be done
is what pleases us the most?

Freedom is the freedom to choose
to what we will owe fealty,
liege loyalty,
filial devotion,
life-long service and duty.

The freedom to do what needs to be done
binds us to a strict regimen
of seeing/hearing/knowing/doing
what needs to be done,
moment to moment,
day by day,
all our life long.

Nothing is more necessary and essential
than this in all of the 10,000 things.

–0–

"Thin Places" is Parker Palmer's term
for "Listening Rooms,"
physical locations that have always
been recognized as sacred areas
by people throughout the ages.

Muir Woods,
Yosemite,
Boulder Beach,
Big Creek,
False Kiva,
... the list is long,
standout for me
as holy beyond words,
places where the Numen
is "right here, right now"
for those with the least bit
of sensitivity for ineffable reality.

And it isn't just physical places,
music and art are portkeys as well,
transporting us from one world
to the other world
through the experience of wonder
in the presence of the sublime.

It is important to recognize
where and what moves us beyond ourselves,
and take ourselves there often
to reconnect with the awareness
of more than words can say,
and remind ourselves
of that which is with us always
to the close of the ages--
and live in relation to it
throughout our life.

–0–