01

Our own instinctive/intuitive
sense of what needs to be done--
of what is called for--
here and now,
in each situation as it arises
which is evoked by the moment
eliciting our spontaneous,
sincere, 
response to the time and place
of our living in the field of action,
is as close to the experience of,
and participation in, the Tao
as we can hope to have.

And we cannot box that up
and carry it around with us,
to pull out and produce as needed,
any time, any place.

We can only sense what is happening
in any time, any place,
and get out of the way,
allowing right being/doing to come, 
or not,
according to its good pleasure.

We do not possess the experience,
create the participation,
wield it by will or whim.
We make ourselves available to it
by being empty of motive, 
desire,
interest
and opinion--
stepping aside
and allowing what needs to happen
to happen through us
to bless and grace the moment
with the appropriateness
of our response to the time that is at hand,
by doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
without knowing at all what we are doing.

This is the magic of being in accord 
with the moment
for the sake of being in accord
with the moment,
knowing there is nothing more
to seek, or have, or want, or be.

One moment at a time.

–0–

02

Contradiction,
conflict,
complexity
descend upon us
right out of our imagination
to rob us of the moment
and transport us into 
mental scenarios 
in frantic search 
of solutions to problems
that do not exist.

Or, fantasies
and flights of fancy,
take us on journeys 
through wonders
ranging from the preposterous
to the surreal
to the sublime--
robbing us of the moment
by offering us glory
beyond the best reality
has to offer
as the preferred alternative
to what reality does have to offer.

And the moment goes unlived forever.

How much time each day
is lived in our heads
and not in our life?

Living to escape our life
is not living at all.

HERE we are!
NOW what?
What is being asked of us here and now?
What is being called for?
What is it time for?
What do we need to be doing
in response to the context,
conditions
and circumstances of our life?

What do our choices serve?
To what end are we living?

Sit still.
Be quiet. 
Pay attention.
Be aware.

–0–

03

Joseph Campbell said we are often stirred
to find and do "what we absolutely must do
to be who ourselves."

We live to be true to ourselves
whether we realize it or not.

In seeking ourselves,
it is our original nature
we hope to find--
"the face that was ours
before we were born."
Before even our parents,
or our grandparents, were born.

There is a genetic urge to be
tucked away inside each of us.

We live to realize ourselves
as much as a pine tree lives 
to be a pine tree,
and a lion turns out to be a lion--
and not just any lion,
but precisely the lion it
is built to be--
within the context and circumstances,
the here and now,
of its existence.

What is the original imprint
we are called to bring forth
in the time and place of our living?

"We are who we always have been,"
said Carl Jung,
"and who we will be."

My fifth grade teacher
told my mother
in one of those parent/teacher conferences,
"Jimmy spends a lot of time
looking out the window."

I still do.
Suits me "to a T."

We are to realize and express
what "Suits us to a T,"
and enjoy ourselves immensely
as long as life shall last. 

01

Everything is waiting for the time to act.

That is not true.

In a perfect world,
everything would wait for the time to act,
and our world is far from that.

In our world,
we go to the loo
when it is convenient,
whether or not we need to go.

As if!

That is the way it would work
in our world
if it could work that way.

In our world, wait to go to the loo
long past the time to go to the loo,
because it is convenient that way.

The way it works in our world,
and the way we will it to work
are not smoothly synchronized. 

The way we will it to work
gets top billing.
And that is why it doesn't work
any better than it works.

We don't have time to wait around
for the time to be right.

And here we are.

This is what living like that
gets us.

We talk about "island time"
in a disparaging way
because it gets in our way
when we are on the island.

"Island time" was there
before there were islands.
And long before there were people
on the islands.

"Island time" knows when it is time
for what,
without caring what time it is.

"Island time" is kairos.
The propitious time.
The time tomatoes ripen on the vine,
and eggs hatch,
and babies to be born.

Chronos is clock time, 
calendar time,
time to go or be late time,
time to be there time.

Chronos is "What time is it now?"
Kairos is "What is it time for now?"

We know all about chronos.
Our world runs on chronos.
We know practically nothing about kairos.
And care even less.

And here we are.

–0–

02

Our work is to align ourselves physically
with what it is time for spiritually.

This is the essence of balance and harmony.

We wait for the time to be right for action.

Right action at the wrong time is wrong action.

The ancient word understood
that the visible world
rests upon,
and is upheld by
the invisible world.

Life in the visible world
is governed by the time for acting
which is the province of the invisible world.

When the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote
"There is a time to be born
and a time to die...
and a time for every matter under heaven,"
everyone understood that to be the case,
and they knew that to act "out of time"
was to invite the wrath of the Other World.

Planting time
and harvesting time
were carefully observed.
Only to be trashed forever
by the Semites pouring in
from the desert to overturn
and destroy all that was 
in their way.

This was the Clash of the Ways.
The people of the land
observed a Way 
that was not the Way of the invaders
from the steppes and desert.
Their Way was the Way they said
was the Way.
And they had the will and the might
to force their Way upon the Way
of the natural world
And the "Fill the earth and subdue it" theme
became the operational ground of existence
from then to now.

But the propitious time bided its time,
and things went from bad to worse with time,
and here we are,
having to find our way back 
to the recognition of the importance
of the time that is at hand
while there still remains time
to turn the light around,
and live in accord with the right time
for doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises--
individually and collectively,
before time is up.

–0–

03

Knowing what it is time for,
and doing it--
where it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises,
is the essence--the sine qua non--
of existence.

We are here to do that!
And to do it
"Without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat, "Dr. Who).

That is the key to all that follows!

And, it is the heart-and-soul of the Tao.

Living in full accord with--
aligned with,
with filial allegiance 
and liege loyalty to--
the times that are at hand
in each situation as it arises,
is the best we all can do
exactly what we are capable of doing,
and what we have absolutely
no regard for at all.

And that is the kink in the hose.

–0–

04

We live to harmonize ourselves
in relation to ourselves,
other people, 
and the context and circumstances
of our life--
to balance the opposites,
integrate the contraries,
maintain the creative tension
between the mutually exclusive contradictions,
and walk two paths at the same time.

We can do that only by
sitting still,
being quiet,
and paying attention
to all that arises in the silence--
looking for what resonates with us
in the present moment of our life,
and seeing how we might
incorporate that in the way
we go about living here and now.

To do that,
we have to empty ourselves
of the profit motive
and dispense with concerns
for our advantage,
our benefit,
our gain,
our way
and what's in it for us,
and simply open ourselves
to what the situation is calling for--
for what needs to be done,
when and where and how,
and how we might comply with that
using the gifts/daemon/shtick/specialties/etc.
that belong to our original nature,
for the joy of doing it,
and the satisfaction of having done it.

And on to the next situation,
where we repeat this process
throughout the time left for living.

The complete lack of appeal
for this approach to life
leaves us where we are,
and where we have been,
since Adam and Eve left Eden.

01

Rumi said,
"Darkness is the cradle of light."

The Jewel is in the lotus,
and the lotus is in the slime.
In time, the Jewel is in the slime--
IS the slime.
And the slime brings forth the Jewel.

In the far extreme lies
the opposite extreme.

The more different we become,
the more alike we are.

Thou Art That. 
Neti-Neti--Neither this nor that.
Both this and that!

Yin is Yang
Yang is Yin.

In the Other
is that which we are.

Namaste!
Namaste!

Our contradictions
reveal who we are
and also are.

Our work is to balance and harmonize
the opposites within.
And to wink at our opposites without.

–0–

02

We live between how things are
and how things need to be.

We are the fulcrum,
the pivot point,
the swing point,
the sweet spot,
levering Is into Ought To Be.

How's it coming with that?

Mastery is the art of the Nine Terms.
Understanding what is at stake in them,
and aligning ourselves with them,
living in accord with them
swings what can be swung
from "this" to "that,"
though, I have to tell you,
there isn't much in it
for me and for you.

Doing what needs to be done--
what needs us to do it--
is not going to make us
rich and famous,
and bring fortune and glory our way.

It is only going to transform the world,
and the world won't know whom to credit,
or even know what has happened.

If we are cool with that,
we have what it takes
to meet the moment 
on the moment's terms,
and turn the light around
before the moment sees what's coming
and gets out of the way.

Here they are:

Silence and Emptiness.
Sincerity and Integrity.
Balance and Harmony.
Spirit, Energy and Vitality.

Live these words out in your life,
and nothing will be
what it would have been
if you hadn't.

–0–

03

The solution to all of our problems today,
and any day,
is being right about
what needs to be done
here and now,
and doing it.

Doing what needs to be done 
in each situation as it arises
is the fastest and surest way
to return to balance and harmony,
get our feet under us,
get things back on track,
place ourselves in consonance 
with the flow of our life,
return to our original nature,
and stabilize the world.

Congruity and amity are established
by being attuned to the moment
of our living,
and responding to what is called for
with the gifts that are ours 
to share and serve throughout our life.

The preferred way of dealing 
with all of our issues and difficulties
is to sit still,
be quiet,
see what's what and what needs to be done about it,
and act when the time is right
to do what is ours to do,
moment by moment,
all our life long.

01

What needs to happen
in a situation
becomes apparent in time.

If we wait too long to be sure,
however,
it becomes what should have happened there.

The time to act is a tight window,
and we have to be attentive
in an interested kind of way,
and not in a panic-driven, 
obsessive/compulsive kind of way.

It is like having an interest,
but not having anything at stake,
in what needs to happen.

I think of it in terms of fishing,
like I used to do as a child,
with a cane pole, a cork,
and a hook with a worm on it.

You have an interest,
but you don't have a pressing need.
The time to set the hook
depends entirely upon the fish.

So it is with determining 
what needs to be done in a situation.
We have to wait to see,
but it is actually a matter,
not of seeing, 
but of sensing.

We put ourselves in neutral,
in a very present and much attentive
posture,
and watch to see what we do
and when, and how, we do it,
without being the one to tell
ourselves what to do when and how.

We don't know what to do when or how.
We are waiting on "the fish" to strike--
for the time to be at hand.
And time for what,
we do not know for what, 
but are waiting to see,
watching, 
in an alert and interested way,
for what we do,
when and how.

It is all very magical/mystical,
how the right action,
at the right time
in the right way
happens of itself
exactly as it needs to
through no effort of our own,
though we are very much
a willing participant
in the making of a miracle.

This is the old Taoist idea
of Wu-Wei, of doing
without meaning or intending,
but acting when the time is right
with someone, or something, else
doing the directing and the acting.

We can't explain it,
we can only experience it,
by being present and interested,
and waiting for the fish to take
the cork under.

–0–

02

Carl Jung said, "There is so much
trouble in the world
because people don't have a chance
to tell their story,"
or words to that effect.

Everybody talks.
Nobody listens.
So people quit talking
and start shooting up schools.

Telling our story,
saying what we have to say,
is such an intimate,
vulnerable,
way of exposing ourselves
and risking ridicule
and humiliation
that few of us are willing 
to open our mouths.

Journals are a worthy substitute,
but.
How many of the earth's population
have access to paper
and something to write with--
or know how to write?

Collectively,
we have so little of what 
we need
to do what needs to be done,
that it is a wonder
that any of us keep going.
And most of us do not go well
into the next moment
and all of those following.

Because we do not get
to tell our story.

We don't even know we have a story.

People stop caring
after a very short while
of being ignored,
and social media is what it is
because of the apparent platform
for getting attention
and finding acceptance--
except that the reality
can be rejection and exclusion,
or a sad form 
of "Hey, Look At Me Now!"
that says nothing about who we are,
or what our story actually is.

The absence of caring
because we lack being cared for
is epidemic.
Not caring is not caring what we do,
or what happens if we do it.

Because no one ever said,
"Hello in there--hello.
How is it with you today?"

Notice someone today.
Ask them how it's going.
See where it goes.

–0–

03

First, we empty ourselves,
then we open ourselves to the silence.

Emptying ourselves is becoming aware
of our fullness--
of all that fills us,
that goes on within us,
non-stop all the time.

Stop and listen to,
look at,
what is there,
all of the time,
without letting up
or slowing down.

The feelings,
the moods,
the words...
and then become aware
of what is going on 
in your body.

How is your body reacting/responding
to your situation-in-life?
What does it feel like in your body?
Where does your body carry its tension?
When does your body ever relax?
Where is the tightness?
Where is the pain?
How does your body "talk" to you?
How often do you listen?

And then, there are your dreams--
your daytime fantasies
and your nighttime dreams.
What are they?
What are they saying?
How do you understand them?
When do you ever listen to them?

Spend time being aware of all of this.
How do you bear it all?
How can you stand up under it?
How do you release the pent-up power
of your inner world?

Awareness is release.

Jon Kabat-Zinn's YouTube videos
(The shortest ones first)
are an excellent resource 
for developing awareness
and managing the whirling impact
of the world within.

Start there.
And learn to let it go,
to be empty of it,
by "tucking it into your awareness,"
and "returning to your breathing,"
and "listening between breaths"
to nothing at all.

That "nothing at all"
is what emptiness sounds like.
Keep practicing being empty
until you can maintain
"nothing at all"
for two breaths,
then three...

When you are able to be empty,
open yourself to the silence,
and sit still, be quiet.

And pay attention
to what arises in the silence,
particularly to what resonates with you,
catches your eye,
calls your name,
just by emerging
appearing,
arising,
occurring to you
unbidden
from within the silence,
“of itself”
as a gift to you from the silence.

Look closer there.

See where it goes.

The right kind of silence
and the right kind of emptiness
are the keys 
to the right kind of response
to the context and circumstances of our life.

And that transforms everything over time.

01

Resonance leads the way.

Reason, logic, thinking, planning, scheming...
not so much.

Wanting?
Not at all.
We can want what 
we have no business having.

How do we know?
We don't know how we know!
Knowing WHAT we know
is all we need to know!

Sit still.

Be quiet.

Pay attention—-

to what arises in the silence
that resonates with you, 
winks at you,
catches your eye,
calls your name.

Look closer there.

See where it goes.

The way to approach 
each situation as it arises
forever.

It is also the way 
to deal with your conflicts
and contradictions.
Your fear and uncertainty.
Your compulsions,
obsessions,
and "issues"...

Take them all with you into the silence.

Sit still.

Be quiet...

–0–

02

We carry our future with us
into each situation
as it arises.

What we do here and now
determines,
or strongly influences,
what happens next,
and the buildup over time
creates momentum and likelihood,
produces karma,
guiding us increasingly
toward inevitability
and "Duh!"

Which is to say
that we need to be
increasingly open 
to what is called for,
and unlikely to impose
our usual way of dealing
with similar situations
on the present situation.

Step out of your routine!
Listen anew in each moment
to what the moment is asking of you,
offering to you!
Be alert to the possibilities,
especially to the nudges,
hunches,
inclinations
and invitations
that are part of the background,
largely ignored,
but crucially important
to the rhythm
and movement
throughout each day.

Each moment opens to a different future,
depending on how much of that moment
is "of the past,"
and how much is "of the future,"
and which we assist,
and which we resist.

We are responsible for the attitude
which shapes our world.

–0–

03

Cooperating with what needs to happen
in each situation as it arises
transforms everything. 

Knowing what needs to happen
in any/every situation,
and assisting it 
by doing what is ours to do,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
and stepping back,
allowing things to fall into place
as they will
around that,
is the way of balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality,
and the solid foundation
of a life well-lived.

If you want more than that,
Adam and Eve and their ilk,
might have some advice to offer.

Be that as it may.

It comes down to this:

Throw away all of the theology,
all of the doctrines,
all of the dogma,
all of the answers 
to all of the catechisms ever,
all of the rituals,
sacred and profane,
and settle on
being right about what needs to be done
here and now,
in each here and now there is,
in each situation as it arises,
and do it,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
for the simple joy of doing it,
and the satisfaction of having done it,
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

And let that be enough,
because it is.

01

In every situation
there is what needs to happen,
what can happen,
what will not happen,
and what happens.

What determines what happens
is a matter of time and chance,
which the good book says
"happens to us all."
What it doesn't say is
"all the time."

We are here, now,
by virtue of powers
quite beyond our control.
And what happens next
is likely to be within the normal range,
but even that isn't a sure thing.

There is more that we don't know
than we do know,
and that should be encouraging 
to those of us who are sure
it's all going to hell
in our life time.

We don't know as much 
as we think we know.
About anything.

The people who make a big show
of being against abortion
and pack guns
to right to life rallies
don't know what they think they know
for sure.

They are solidly against abortion
in every possible case,
and are solidly for their right--
they say it is a Right, now--
as in the RIGHT to bear arms
(And bearing arms implies 
the RIGHT to use them
in ways the user deems good and proper)
in committing--COMMITTING, I say--
retroactive abortions
anytime they deem it to be necessary.

A pregnant woman cannot ever
deem it to be necessary,
but Right To Lifers 
can shoot anyone they decide
needs shooting, 
any time, any place, 
as often as they like.

They are oblivious to their own
contradictions
and swagger about under the illusion
that they have no illusions,
and no contradictions whatsoever.

We don't know half as much
as we think we know.
Not even 1% as much.

Bear that in mind,
the next time you 
start to swagger around
about anything.

Humility and awareness
are good for the soul.
And doubly good for everyone else.

–0–

02

"Yin and Yang" are terms identifying
the foundational nature of contradiction
at the heart of life and being.

Life Eats Life!
How's that for the fundamental contradiction
at work in life itself?
Everything lives (Even vegans)
at the expense of something else.
Everything lives because something else dies.

The whole of life is energized
by the fact of opposites.

Gravity exists as a function 
of oppositional forces.
Take away mass or momentum
and what do you have?

Relax the tension holding things in place
and everything disappears
like that (snaps fingers).

We are defined and identified
by the contradictions that hold us in place.

Life is lived "between the hands,"
and truth is found there.
"On the one hand, this,
and on the other hand, that!"

Purity exists by virtue of denial.
So much does.
If it weren't for denial and pretense,
where would any of it be?

Being who we are is always a matter
of being who we also are,
which makes it a matter of pretending to be
who we are not,
and pretending not to be who we are.

Being who we are AND who we also are,
with full awareness of both at the same time,
would slow us down,
bring us to a stop,
and have us contemplate the opposites within
in each moment of every situation as it arises.

Which would be very helpful
in a lot of, if not all, cases.

It would raise the level of sincerity
and integrity, for sure.

It would allow us all to know
what's what and what is also what
about ourselves,
smooth out our complexes
and inconsistencies
and make us responsible for living/acting
in concert with our "other side"
in all matters great and small.

Living in full awareness of ourselves
in action
would bring about some compromises
and negotiated settlements
that would transform the ways we live.

And I'm all for that.

Which is why I hardly ever do anything,
tied up as I am by my opposites
that require acknowledgement
and their balance due.

01

We are built for a certain way of life.
Our integrity
and our sincerity
depend upon--
and therefore require--
our being aligned with,
and living in accord with,
the life that we are built to live,
the life that waits on us to live it.

We cannot live just any life,
and fit,
and belong,
and mesh with the things
that life calls for.

You wouldn't want me to sing 
at your next wedding.
The list is long of things 
I have no business doing.

The same goes for you.

How well do we fit the life we are living?
How much do we belong there?
The people we run with?
The things we do in our spare time?

What is it about us that is right for our life?
What is it about us that is wrong for our life?
What is it about our life that is right for us?
What is it about our life that is wrong for us?

How might we begin living in ways that increase what is right
and decrease what is wrong 
about the "fit" between us and our life?

Sit with the questions in the stillness and the silence.
See what stirs to life there,
what emerges, arises, occurs to you as realization
and possibility.

And see where it goes.

–0–

02

Joseph Campbell said,
"Where you stumble and fall,
there lies the treasure."

Jesus said,
"The stone the builders reject
becomes the chief cornerstone."

Joseph and Jesus are saying the same thing.

We have to mine the metaphors 
to get to the gold.

"Where you stumble and fall."

What trips you up?
You are likely stumbling over
"the stone the builders reject."

"The builders" would be you.
"The stone" would also be you.

Shooting ourselves in the foot 
is what we do best.
NO! Telling ourselves what we want to hear
is what we do best!
NO! Refusing to examine our expectations
and assumptions
is what we do best!
NO! Not seeing what we look at
is what we do best!
...The list is long,
and it all amounts to the same thing:
We trip ourselves up
every time we fall.

We sabotage ourselves all of the time.
But--we are only trying 
to get our attention.

We start digging
where we stumble and fall
by asking the questions that beg 
to be asked,
and saying the things that cry out
to be said,
and following all of the clues
to the truth they reveal.

Which will be the truth of who we are
and also are.
The truth of what we are doing
to hide from,
conceal,
deny,
ignore
the truth of our original nature,
and how we are failing/refusing
to be true to ourselves
within the present context
and circumstances of our life.

In becoming/being ourselves
in ways that are commensurate 
with our circumstances
(Balancing and harmonizing Yin and Yang
endlessly, daily, throughout our life),
we discover that the truth
we live to deny
is "the chief cornerstone"
of the life that needs us to live it. 

And there we are.
Needing to repeat the process
the next time we trip over ourselves,
stumble and fall,
on our way to trusting ourselves
to be who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are,
no matter what,
forever.

–0–

03

The revelation is on-going,
unending,
everlasting:
Who we are and who we are becoming.

We are called forth
by each situation as it arises,
like the Cyclops calling forth
the hero in Ulysses.
Or the circumstances
calling forth the Christ in Jesus.

We undergo the baptism of new birth
every time we dare to 
meet the day on the day's terms,
seeking to find the way through the day
without applying the formulas,
the creeds,
the dogmas,
the doctrines,
the maps,
the rules,
the procedures and processes
guaranteed to produce results
and provide the pleasure
of smooth and easy
without going to the trouble
to see what we look at
and know what's what
and what needs to be done in response
here and now--
no matter how similar this is
to then and there,
and who cares anyway.

The old Taoists would remind us:
"The path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."

And Jesus would say,
"The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."

Calling us all to stand apart from 
our assumptions and expectations,
plans and agendas,
and step empty and unarmed
into each moment,
seeing/sensing what is happening
and what is called for,
and allowing our original nature,
with its gifts/shtick/specialties/daemon/
virtues/penchants/knacks/abilities...
to rise to the occasion
with sincerity and spontaneity,
surprising us with its the appropriateness
of its presentation,
and blessing all there with its timing and grace.

What new thing is this?
Where did it come from?
“Traveling on every path, 
you will not find 
the boundaries of soul by going; 
so deep is its measure" (Heraclitus).

And we are capable of more
than we are capable of fathoming,
or believing.
We only have to trust that it is so,
and live so as to find what our limits
actually are--
by stepping into each situation,
and seeing what we can do there
that needs to be done.