01

Live to be appropriate
in the time and place of your living.

"Appropriate" is the right combination
of what is needed in the moment
and what is allowed by the moment.
And if you are going to err,
err on the side of what is needed.

Dance on the boundary line
of what is allowed
in every situation as it arises.

Disappoint the routine,
surprise the expected,
flirt with the unheard of,
have nothing to do 
with the common and the ordinary.

Show your stuff
in an appropriate kind of way.

Don't rub it in.
Don't be flamboyant and outlandish.
Don't flaunt the exhibition of YOU.
Don't overdo it.
But don't hide your light
under a basket either.

Say what is yours to say.
Do what is yours to do.
Ask the questions that beg to be asked.
Say the things that cry out to be said.

In an appropriate to the occasion
kind of way.

And smile as you do it.
Or laugh.

In an appropriate to the occasion
kind of way.

When in doubt about what "appropriate" is,
take a chance.
Appropriately.

–0–

02

The truth of the moment
waits to be revealed in every moment
to those with eyes to see,
ears to hear,
and a heart to understand.

That is to say,
to those who make inquiries,
asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked,
and saying all of the things
that cry out to be said--
and being intently aware of it all.

It is an exhausting process
to know the truth,
and painful--
because it is not
what we want it to be,
and so the phrase,
made popular by Col. Nathan R. Jessup
in the movie A Few Good Men,
"You can't handle the truth!"

The truth asks hard things of us,
forcing us to come to grips with the truth
that the way things are
is not the way we want things to be,
and requiring us to make a choice,
whether to live a lie that we want to believe,
or embrace the truth that means
giving up what we want.

This is the conflict at the heart
of all of our problems.
We will not grow up
and deal with the way things are.

We will wrap ourselves in thick layers
of denial, diversion, dismissal, distraction,
escape and rejection
in order to live out our life 
in a world of fantasy and illusion/delusion
in order to avoid dying to our wants/desires
and living in sync with the way things 
actually are.

That is the story of humankind 
from the beginning until now.
And it is up to us
to not allow it to be our story.

We begin to do that
by getting to the truth 
of the next moment
and seeing where it goes,
committed to living truthfully
all the way
to our very last breath--
even though it means dying
to our wants and wishes
in every moment
all along the way.

o1

There is only the pain--
dancing with the pain,
bearing the pain,
coming to terms with the pain,
making our peace with the pain...

Growing up is an exercise 
in pain management.

Living is adjusting ourselves 
to the pain of being alive.

If you don't know what I'm 
talking about,
you are in denial.

Denial is our favorite way
of coping with the pain of our life.

Then comes escape,
diversion and distraction
in the form of sex,
drugs and alcohol,
and sugar.
Yes, I said "Sugar."

And pain provides
the background music
for it all.

What is the nature of your pain?

How many different versions/varities of pain
invite you to come out and play
in a day?

What is your favorite remedy
for the pain in your life?

How do you take your mind off
your pain?

How do you deal with your pain?

I deal with it with a wink 
and a grin,
and getting back to work
in the service of what 
needs to be done here and now--
accommodating myself to my pain
as best I can,
in a "This, too. This, too,"
kind of way.

I receive my pain mindfully,
consciously,
aware of where it comes from
and what it is saying to me
about me
and the way I'm living my life,
and altering my way with life
by taking my pain into account.

There is no avoiding it,
or getting away from it.
There is only increasing it
or decreasing it,
and all too often,
our efforts at decreasing it
increase it.

Through it all,
our relationship 
with our pain
is the single most important factor
determining how well our life is lived.

Mind how you go.
There is no pain-free life.

–0–

02

There is only balance and harmony
and the peace with which we go about our life.

Of course, there is a catch.
Catch-22 (Wasn't that a great idea
for a book?).
Actually, its Catch-1.
The first catch there is.
It is the fundamental catch of existence.

In order to be at peace with our life,
we have to be living the right life.
That's the catch.

If we aren't at peace,
we are also out of balance
and awash in disharmony.

Every good thing depends 
on our living the right life.

All the churches,
all the religions,
of the world
need to throw away their 
theology and their doctrines
and transform themselves 
into places where people
are assisted in the work
of finding and living their right life.

This is spiritual work
in the fullest sense of the term.

"Spirit. Energy. Vitality"
Flow from balance and harmony,
emptiness and silence,
sincerity and integrity,
courage, virtue, resilience,
compassion and caring--
all of which are characteristics 
of living the right life.

Stop what you are doing,
sit down
and don't get up
until you are getting up
to begin living your right life.
The life that is right for you.
Everything is waiting 
to fall into place around that.

Make finding and living 
your right life
the organizing principle
of your life.

When people ask you what you are doing,
tell them you are looking 
for your right life,
and ask them if they have seen it.
And then ask them 
if they are living their right life.
If they are,
ask them for tips you might use
in finding yours.

It will be a far better conversation
than any of the others
you have in a day.

–0–

03

We have to be stripped of everything
before we can access the Numen,
before we can stand in the presence
of the Source of Life and Being.

We cannot get there by seeking an audience
and looking for the right spiritual practice,
the proper rituals,
the prescribed path.

We are not transported there by motive
and/or desire.
The way is via the one thing
we dread the most:
Emptiness.
We get to numinous reality
by way of the Void.

It can be thrust upon us by life experience,
or we can open ourselves to it
by self-abnegation
and emptying ourselves of all 
our void-avoidance techniques and behaviors.

And sit empty 
in the stillness
and the silence
waiting for something to stir,
arise,
emerge,
appear.

How empty can we be?
For how long?

That is the way
to The Way
that is the Source of Life and Being.

01

We maintain our balance and harmony
by being aware of it
throughout each day.

Pausing to take a
Balance/Harmony Inventory
from time-to-time
will be a great addition to your schedule.

Simply sit quietly,
focused on your degree
of balance and harmony,
and allow yourself 
to become aware 
of the wobbly nature of the world
and your life,
focusing on the things
that are destabilizing forces
especially impacting you here and now.

Just observe what arises 
in the silence
without being hijacked
and carried away by any of it.

Simply refuse to react emotionally
to anything that comes to mind.
Check it in
and tuck it into your awareness,
and return to watching what emerges
in the stillness.

That's it.
When your allotted time 
for the exercise expires,
take a deep breath
and return to your life in the world,
trusting your own psychic forces
to distance you 
from the upsetting realities,
as you do your part
in remaining emotionally distant
from all of the terrors of the day
(and night).

Notice when your balance and harmony
shift back toward the normal range,
and look forward to your next
"Time Out For Sanity
(Balance and Harmony)."

–0–

02

The primary source of the pain of life
is our emotional response
to the experience of being alive.

We wail over everything.
Cut off the water at the tap!
Pick yourself up!
Dust yourself off!
And get back in the saddle!

What's with all the whining, 
crying,
pouting
and complaining?

Shake it off
and do what needs to be done!

Nursing our wounds
doesn't heal our wounds.
Healing happens
as we grow beyond our woundedness.
We grow beyond our woundedness
by not feeding our resentment,
not giving vent to our anger,
not soaking in our disappointment,
not stoking our bitterness,
not rehashing our grievances,
not counting our losses,
not remembering our sorrows,
not bearing our grudges,
not plotting our revenge,
and not seething with fury...

What needs to be done
is waiting for our willful devotion
and attention.

And what needs to be done
has nothing to do with our 
having been slighted.
It is what the moment is calling for
beyond our feelings at the moment.

Find that and do it,
and let that be that.

All the Buddha needed to say.

01

It's the quiet life for me.

In preparation, perhaps,
for my eventual return
to the eternal silence,
from which we come
and to which we belong.

Just being, I suppose,
with what we have done,
and what we have failed to do,
in the time that was ours
to show/discover/make our peace with
our stuff.

What is your stuff, by the way?
How are you doing with it?
What are you doing with it?

The time is coming, you know,
when time's up.
And what's done is done.

What we do with what remains 
of our time in the meantime
can be an extension 
of what we have done with it
up to this point,
or an expansion,
an evolution,
an exploration
of possibilities unconsidered
up to here, now.

Whatever we do with what's left of it,
my recommendation is that we allow it
to call us forth,
to bring us out,
into what still might be--
by being quiet
and listening/looking
for what stirs within
and emerges, arises,
to lead us into the adventure
of discovering what more there is
than we ever thought could be.

–0–

02

It is easier to find and do what is wrong
than what is right.

What is bad than what is good.

Where not to be than where to be.

Where we have no business being 
than where we belong.

Where do we belong?

We can't be in such a hurry to find it
that we jump for anything.

It takes time to know what we know--
to know what clicks,
what resonates,
with us
on a level beyond appearances
and presumptions,
and wishful thinking.

Where do we belong?
What belongs to us?
Where have we been
that was "IT"--
or close to IT?

If we were looking for it,
where would we go
to pick up the sent,
to find traces,
to be in the presence of where it was
once,
perhaps not long ago?

It is worth every minute it takes
to find and be with 
what is right,
what is good,
where to be,
where we belong.

It is the most important thing.

Everything falls into place around that.

What do you have to do
that matters more?

01

I want you to make peace
with your life--
while being true to your original nature
in conjunction with 
the context and circumstances
of the time and place
of your living.

I want you to live truly,
to truly live,
to live truthfully
in light of all that is true
in a "This is the way things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that"
kind of way.

No despair.
No hopelessness.
No remorse.
No desperation.
No anger/fury/hostility.
No resentment...

Recognition.
Acquiescence. 
Acceptance of the fact
that the way things are
is the way things are,
and that how that impacts us
is up to us.

With filial loyalty
and liege devotion
to the essence--
to the truth--
of who we are
no matter what
all the way
to our final breath.

Now, I recognize that 
you probably want more than this,
and I'm not going to be
much help to you
in doing/being more than this.

I can offer what I have to give,
and whether it is worth your while,
is for you to say.

And whether we are together,
or apart, for much, or all, of the way,
I say, "Happy trails to both of us,
to all of us, all the way!"

And, speaking of Happy Trails,
my deep faith is in the validity--
in the truthfulness--
of The Way,
The Path,
in the sense of Martin Palmer's phrase,
talking about the Tao,
"The path that can be discerned 
as a path
is not a reliable path."

Our allegiance is to The Path,
The Way, The Tao,
that winds through all of this experience
we call Life,
for the sake of being fully alive
in the time and place of our living.

Remaining steadfastly true to ourselves
and true to the path
is the part we play,
after that, it is out of our hands,
and we say "YES!" to whatever that may be.

That's what I mean when I say, "Happy Trails,"
trusting, as I do, that it will be so,
always and forever.

–0–

02

We have to believe/trust the path we are on
to lead us to the path we need to be on--
which means that the path we are on
IS the path we need to be on,
and we need to walk it with our eyes open,
seeing what we look at,
hearing what is being said
(including what we are saying--
to ourselves and to others),
asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked,
and saying all of the things
that cry out to be said,
feeling what is to be felt,
thinking what is to be thought,
doing what is to be done,
with mindful awareness
of all that is going on,
receiving it all
in emptiness and silence,
watching for what emerges/arises/appears
of its own volition,
and following what needs to be followed,
and doing what needs to be done,
and letting that lead us wherever it goes,
trusting ourselves to the process--
to The Way--
all the way.

–0–

03

In every situation,
there are the way things are,
and the way they need to be,
and the way we want things to be,
and the way we wish they were.

Our questions to answer in each situation are:

In light of what do we live?

What guides our boat
on its path through the sea?

Where does our liege loyalty
and our filial devotion lie?

To what do we plight our troth?

To what do we award our undying devotion?

What do we serve with our life?

What sends us forth to do its bidding?

How do we decide what to do?

01

I wish people were transparent.
At least as transparent 
as dogs and horses. 

There is no lying with dogs and horses.
Or cats.

We know where we stand with plants and animals.
They all are like the Buddha,
as one "thus come,"
just as they are,
straight from the womb,
or the acorn.

We rarely ever are that way.
We kid ourselves.
Think about that.
Kidding ourselves 
is what we do best.
Think about that.

We can't be transparent
even with ourselves.
With us NOTHING is as it
appears to be!
Ever!

Kidding ourselves about God
is our highest achievement
at self-deception.
But that applies only in the west.
The people in the east
don't kid themselves about God.

There is no Original Sin
in the east.
People aren't born guilty
of pissing God off,
so that God has to kid even himself
by offering up Jesus as a sacrifice
to himself
in order to say,
"Ah, never mind. Ya'll come on in."

In the west, self-deception
goes all the way to the top.

We are born into a culture
where God is assumed.
We are born into a God-milieu, 
and everybody is awash
in some quasi-theology from birth,
and everybody knows it's all so
because that's all they have ever heard,
so of course it's so.

Even the people who don't believe in God
know exactly the God they don't believe in,
and carry that God around with them,
in a negative kind of way,
wherever they go.

We all are kidding ourselves.
And we are kidding ourselves
about not kidding ourselves.

How do we step away from the game
of self-deception
in order to be transparent?
Even to ourselves?
Especially to ourselves?
Ever?

We die not-knowing who we are.
Who we would be apart from the lies.
Who we would be if we stepped away
from the lies
in order to be who we are
straight-up.

–0–

02

Our original nature
is here to be realized,
in the sense of our realizing 
what it is/who we are,
and in the sense of being made real,
brought forth,
exhibited and expressed
in our life.

We have to live in ways that 
are true to ourselves.
When we don't,
there are symptoms,
and issues,
and indications
that something is amiss
all our life long.

We are off balance,
out of harmony,
out of tune,
off key,
and it shows.

It is time for a meeting
of the minds.

Our conscious mind
has to sit down
with our unconscious mind,
and reach agreement
about how we live together
going forward.

We have to integrate Logos
with Mythos.

Our logical, rational, intellectual, analytical mind
has to be integrated with our
instinctive, intuitive, imaginative, creative mind.

The work of growing up
is the work of maturation
is the work of dancing 
to the music embedded in our bones,
and becoming "The Youthful Immortal"
(Benjamin Hoff) we are capable of being.

–0–

01

The forces that keep from happening
any of the things that need to happen
are firmly in place
and nothing can happen
that ought to happen.

The Good always needs champions,
but none are currently available,
and all that might have taken the role
are complacent and compliant
servants of The Way Things Must Be Done,
which is a laughter
in times such as these,
with no guardrails,
and no oversight,
and no enforcement,
and nothing but reasons
for not doing anything
everywhere.

We need a hero
and we get people 
who go out of their way
to play by the rules
that were written
for a different time,
when good faith could be assumed,
and cooperation could be counted on.

Which leaves the rest of us
at a loss as to what to do
about the mess we are in.

You have to answer for yourself,
but I am going to wait it out.

It may take a while,
but I can't think of anything better to do.

Things are well out of my hands,
which is what Jesus said,
when the Romans hauled him off,
and that was 2,000 years ago and counting,
and with climate change
about to take over,
with all that implies,
it may be a while
for the shipping backlog
to be sorted out,
the mail to be delivered,
the trains to run on schedule,
and the Good to come out of exile.

–0–

02

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
it was clear what needed to happen.
By the time we dropped atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
it was not at all clear that needed to happen.
and still is not.

Clarity is the essence of right action.

There is much too little of it in evidence
these days.

"Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,"
is the primary recommendation
of Taoism,
and its spinoff, Zen
(Zen is what happened when Buddhism met Taoism).

A similar recommendation goes,
"Wait for the door to open
before stepping through."

Waiting for anything 
is anathema for most of us
most of the time.

Impatience is what we do best.

Even when we don't know what to do
it's "Let get this over with,
and worry about it later!"

Let's not, is a better choice.

Waiting for clarity.
being clear about what needs to happen,
is the proper foundation
for everything that follows.

Then doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
can lead us into the next situation
without the need to undo/redo
what happened in the last situation.

And that is an open door 
for every developing situation.

01

We rise and meet the day,
every day. 
And do there what needs to be done.
When it needs to be done.
Where it needs to be done.
How it needs to be done.
Because it needs to be done.

Each day has its own rhythms,
and occasions,
and times.
Its own movement,
and motion,
and actions
that are called for
by the day.

Being aligned with the day,
in sync with the day,
attuned to the day,
is a large part
of our balance and harmony
throughout the day.

If we are not one-with-the-day,
we are out of sorts with our life,
and things do not go smoothly
or flow well.

Belonging to the day,
and doing what the day requires,
is quite different from
seizing the day
and willing what happens,
when, where and how.

You know how you feel
at the end of a day 
you have forced into an agenda
in the service of a program
that is imposed on you 
by Those Who Know Best And Must Be Pleased.

And you know how you feel 
on a weekend that has its own pace
and direction,
with no schedule
and no set time for anything to happen.

We are built for days like that.
"Island time" allows things to happen
when they happen,
and to not happen if they don't happen.
Maybe the plumber comes on the island,
and maybe he goes fishing.
If he goes fishing,
maybe he will come tomorrow.

Work more Island Time into your weeks
and into portions of your days.
Your soul will like that,
and your body will benefit greatly.

–0–

02

Our original nature 
guides our boat
on its path through the sea.

We work to balance and harmonize
our original nature
with the context and circumstances
of our life
in each situation as it arises--
always guided by who we are
and how that has to be negotiated
with the forces at work in our life.

Our context and circumstances
are here to grow us up.
Against our will.

Our original nature
grounds us,
centers us,
in the work to remain 
true to ourselves
within the time and place
of our living.

To be too much who we are
is to remain immature
and undeveloped forever.

To be not enough who we are
is to be separated from ourselves
by the world in which we live
and lost to wander the wasteland forever.

It is our place,
our responsibility,
to strike a happy balance
by harmonizing ourselves 
with our life.

We have to be true to ourselves
and true to our station/place in life.

This is the relationship between
the Original Mask (The mask the culture
requires us to wear)
and the Antithetical Mask (The mask
our original nature requires us to wear)--
Y.B. Yeats' terms for the work
that is ours to do
in getting back to 
"the face that was ours before we were born."

We live in the service of balance and harmony,
and do our best to make it work,
living at the center of the bell-shaped curve.

How are you doing with that?

–0–

03

Our reason/motive/purpose/intention/goal/etc.
for living
has to be revised/transformed/corrected/altered/etc.
in light of A: How well/poorly it is working,
and B: What is going to happen if we don't.

Simply stated: We can't keep this up.

Look around.

This is what living in the service
of the good we call good is good for.

We keep thinking if we try harder
we will have a different outcome.

Working harder in pursuit of the wrong ends
is going to produce exactly 
what we have been producing:
An ever increasing standard of living
and lives that aren't worth living.

We have developed the means
to get us where no one has any business being.

The best the wealthiest among us 
have to show for their life
are fleets of yachts 
and private jets
and a ride to the edge of space.
They have nothing better 
to do with their money. 

Time to re-think what we are doing
and why we are doing it.

We have to find our way
back to "the face that was ours
before we were born,"
and live in ways which
express/exhibit/bring forth/serve/
reveal/make manifest/etc.
our original nature.

Who are we?
What are we to be about?
What is ours to do
with the time that is our
upon the earth?


We have to bring Mythos 
back into the conversation with Logos,
and integrate instinct/intuition/imagination
with logic/reason/intellect/analytics.

And see where we go with that!