01

The forces at work in our lives
are like gravity
and love
in that they are always there
in the background
behind the scenes
holding things up,
keeping things going,
animating things,
directing things,
making possible
all that is possible,
and may yet be--
needing only cooperation
and assistance 
to make it so.

None of us knows 
what might become of us,
even now,
even yet,
even so,
just by befriending the forces
at work in our lives.

I call them "The Forces
of Life and Being,"
but no one knows what to call them,
although they have been recognized 
from the beginning.

The old Shamans all knew of them,
and visited them regularly
in their dreams and visions
and out-of-body experiences.

The Shamans were the spokespersons
of the forces,
keeping the ordinary people
aligned,
in accord,
at one
and cooperating with the forces
in balancing and harmonizing
the interests,
concerns
and needs
of the physical world
with the ways,
the drift,
the flow,
the direction,
the way
of the spiritual world,
which is the world
of the forces of life and being.

From the Shamans came the predecessors
of the Hindus in India
and the Taoists in China.
Hindus talked of Atman.
The early Taoists talked of Tao
from which they said flowed
all of the forces of life and being:
The Source,
Yin and Yang,
Heaven,
Earth
and Human-being-hood
(With "human-being-hood
being what human beings
are ideally suited for
and capable of
when they are aligned,
in accord with,
the forces of life and being).

Hindus have maintained the sense
of how long this has been at work
over time--
how many "creations" there have been.
Suffice it to say that
this is all there ever has been,
universes upon universes coming and going,
with The Forces of Life and Being
flowing through them all.

The Atman,
the Tao,
the Forces of Life and Being,
are always "right there."
Right Here.
Right Now.
Waiting.
Available.
Needing only cooperation
and assistance
to produce wonders unimaginable
through the lives of those
living in accord,
aligned,
at one with them--
even now,
even yet,
even so.

–0–

02

Along with gravity,
light,
magnetism, 
and all of the remaining forces
detectable in the physical cosmos,
I include Mind
as a primary force at work
within us and beyond us
to produce what we call reality.

We are products of Mind.
Evidence of Mind.
Vehicles of Mind.
At work within the other forces
and physical matter
to become what might yet be
during the time left for living
(And this is more than 
the time remaining in our lifetime--
it is what is left for life
in the current episode
of the existence of space and time).

What might yet be?
We have a say in that
as individual specks of protoplasm
within the vastness within vastness
of all that is.

What we do matters.

There is no greater absurdity
than saying,
doing,
acting as though
what we do matters.

And yet, and yet...
Nothing matters more
than living as though
what we do matters--
to us and those impacted
by what we do,
and to those impacted 
by what they do,
and so on...

And what difference
can that possibly make?

We answer that question best
by smiling and saying, 
"None whatsoever--and
I am going to live as though
it makes all the difference
in the cosmos!"

Then stepping, still smiling,
if not laughing,
into the next situation that arises,
and living there
to do what needs to be done,
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,
situation by situation,
for the remainder of the time left for living.

–0–

03

Living as though it matters
how we live
puts us on a certain track,
and living as though it doesn't matter
how we live
puts us on a different track.

Living as though it matters
that we do the right thing
at the right time 
in the right way
because it matters,
and doing it
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
and not to get anything more than that
from doing it,
in each situation as it arises
all our life long,
creates a certain tone for our life.

And living as though it matters
what we get, own, amass, collect, possess,
attain, acquire, achieve, accomplish
through/from every situation that arises
creates a different tone for our life.

The track we take
and the tone we create
puts us in or out of accord
with the forces of life and being,
and that makes all the difference.

01

Everyone dies.
The trick is to not die too soon.

Practically everyone dies too soon.
And are the walking dead
Jesus was talking about
(Because no one--
not even Jesus--
can talk to them.
They are quite dead,
and long past being able
to hear anything being said
to them)
with his,
"Leave the dead 
to bury the dead" line.

Don't be one of them!
I don't care how easy 
it would be--
and nothing is easier
than being dead 
before your time.

Look around you.
Everyone you see is dead
before their time.
And there is no resurrection
for them,
in spite of the fact
that a large majority of them
spend all of their time
talking about the resurrection,
and no time at all 
talking about what's what
right here, right now,
and what needs to be done about it,
which is the only conversation
worth having.

How alive are you to right here, right now?
That's how alive you are.
If there is nothing here, now, for you,
and you are just wiling away the hours
waiting for Jesus to come take you
to Beulah Land,
you are really only waiting 
for some coroner to make your death official,
because you have been unofficially dead
for years,
having shut Jesus out of your life
long ago with his piercing inquiry,
"Why don't you decide for yourself
what is right?"

You chose not to decide anything
for yourself
and to opt out of your life
by letting someone else tell you
what to do and when and how to do it
all your "life" long.

The first rule of life
is Be True To Yourself!
If you miss that step,
there are nothing but false steps remaining,
and here we are,
with "nothing but the dead and dying
back in (our) hometown"
(and everywhere else we have been,
and are).

So, "Don't Die Too Soon!"
is the guiding mantra
of those who are determined
to find their life and live it,
no matter what.

If you are ever going to be anything,
be one of those people,
and "get busy living"
as Red Redding might say.

–0–

02

The Buddha had it figured out.
His "release from suffering"
is simply, "Don't let it get to you!"
"Don't take it seriously!"
"Don't give it the time of day!"

This is all Buddhism comes down to.

"Put all your moaning and complaining,
whining and crying
'Like a little boy with two skint knees'
in a paper bag
and throw it in the burning barrel!
'And get busy living,
or get busy dying,' (As Red Redding might say)."

We take every thing too seriously.
Money, for example.

I once took a cross I had made
by gluing two wooden matches
(back in the day)
together,
put them in an ash tray
(still back in the day)
and torched them with a lighted match,
in a group of high schoolers
at a church I was pastoring,
and no one said anything.

I then took a dollar bill
and set it on fire in the same 
ash tray,
and everybody shouted,
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"

"Making a point," I said.
"What symbol means the most to you?"

Money counts most.
Matters most.
We take money seriously.

But. We can't eat it.
We can't drink it.
We can't breathe it.
Yet, we destroy the environment
to make money.

Go, as they say, figure.

The Buddha would say,
"Stop taking your life
and everything in it so damn seriously!"

Lao Tzu would say,
"Do your work and step back.
Let nature take its course."

But we have no idea of what our work is.
We do not know what we are here for.
And we think more money
is the answer to all of our problems.

And if you won't listen to the Buddha,
and if you won't listen to Lao Tzu,
what chance do I have?

Do you think I worry about it?

I'm stepping back.

Letting nature take its course.

–0–

03

Our symbols choose us 
the way the wand chooses the wizard.

We do not think up a worthy symbol,
we realize the truth
of the symbols that are who we are,
that represent the essence of
"who we have always been,
and who we will be" (Carl Jung).

Realizing our connection
with that which represents us
to ourselves and to the world
is a major transition point
from looking to seeing,
and aids tremendously
in finding the guides
that will lead us along the way.

The trick with symbols 
lies in their interpretation.
Any symbol can be us or not-us,
depending on how we view them.

And so it is said that
"Right-seeing is the heart
of right-doing and right-being,
although the line separating 
the three is too fine to see,
even with an electron microscope
and infinite patience.

The other trick with symbols 
is that all symbols have to be
re-interpreted over time.

That is why Christianity is a dead religion.
It's symbols are dead.
Not one has been upgraded/updated
in over 2,000 years.
And everybody can tell you what they are
and what they mean!
A living symbol reveals itself to you
in ways that cannot be said/told/explained
to anyone--
even to ourselves!

They are as true as true can be,
but we cannot say what it is exactly,
or what it means!
Which is the essential quality of all truth!

We are always working with our symbols
and seeing how they deepen and expand
with our investigation/examination of them
over the full course of our life.

It is hard to imagine how we could ever
out-grow our symbols,
but it is easy to see how we might
kill them,
with inattention
and unconcern.

01

Things are the way they are
because it is in someone's best interest
that they stay this way.

Who benefits from the way things are?
Find those who do,
and you know why things are as they are.

What to do about it is "complicated,"
as everyone who knows says.

"Complicated" means keeping things unchanged
is so important to so many powerful people
that there are no routes to transformation.

One or two people in Congress keep things 
from moving.

It is a standoff/stalemate without end
toward better.
Worse is the only available direction.
That is what "It's complicated" means.

There is nothing to be done but wait it out.
Pressure will build.
Something will happen
(Someone will have a heart attack, etc.),
and things will begin to move.
And most of us will not like that, either.

Most of us,
or almost most of us,
not liking things
seems to have become a staple
of Democracy.

That is because the majority does not rule.
Money rules,
and most of the people have no money,
thus, most of the people 
are going to be unhappy most of the time.

Those who are happy
are those making money
off the way things are.

It simplifies the "complication."
to say "Wealthy people like it this way,
and they don't care what anyone thinks about it."

The Dalai Lama said,
regarding the Chinese Communists'
takeover of Tibet,

“If, in any situation, 
there is no solution, 
there is no point in being anxious. 
If the forces at work 
have their own momentum, 
and what’s going on now 
is the product of what went before, 
and if this generation
is not in control of all those forces, 
then this process will continue.” 

"This generation" is most of the population.
"The forces at work" 
are those profiting from "this situation."

And "this process will continue."

See?

–0–

02

If you were starting from the start,
I would ask you to contemplate/meditate/reflect
on one question:
"What does wanting know?"
And all the questions this question begs
to be asked and answered.

For example, "How does wanting get to be the
go-to guide determining how we live
and what we do?"

Etc.

This is preparation for all that follows.
Questions lead the way.
There are no bad questions 
as long as you keep asking the questions
that beg to be asked by your answers.

KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS!!!
Particularly, the questions that beg to be asked
by your answers,
and by other questions!

As you get to the bottom 
of "What does wanting know?"
you will begin to cast about
for an alternative guide for 
your way through life--
and I just happen to have it
all lined up for you:

Your Original Nature!

It turns out that you are the best guide
available to you.

'Cept, but, only--you come with many
voices within,
and only one knows what it's talking about.
How do we make that one
The Real Go-To Guide?

By sitting still,
being quiet,
and waiting for "the mud to settle
and the water to clear."

Return To The Silence!
That's the mantra
for the rest of the way.

The Silence is the source
of all that is.
Learning to listen to The Silence,
to wait in The Silence,
to wait for The Silence,
to wait for what arises
in The Silence...
Is the art and the ground
of a life well-lived.

That Which Knows
meets us in The Silence,
and goes with us
the rest of the way.

01

Things are in sync
even when they are out of sync.

Exploding stars are the kettle drums
in the orchestra
creating the music of the spheres.

You might love Yellowstone now,
but you would not enjoyed being around
when it was formed.
Much of the park is the caldera 
of a super volcano.

Terrible catastrophes
and stunning wonders
have a lot in common.

We look, and it is one way,
and look again, and it is another.
Which way is it really?
It depends on when we look!

Everything is in flux.
Movement is the essence of life.
The essence of movement is change,
transformation,
alteration.

There are no steady states of being.

And we get out of sorts
if the bus is late.

How we see what we look at
keeps us one with the flow.
Okay, this.
Okay, that.
Gives us flow.

Not this!
Not that!
Gives us no flow,
and life flows on without us.

Why should we expect things
to be different that they are?

How can we fold into things 
just as they are?

Saying "Yes!" to life just as it is
is the art of being alive
to the dance of life
in rhythm with the music of the spheres.

Our practice is saying "Yes!" to life
right out of the box.

–0–

02

My comeuppance is making room in my life
for people who take my life over.
Who increase the noise level,
and quadruple the complexity
with no compensating benefits and blessings,
and about whom the phrase,
"the pleasure of their company"
would never be said,
and whose place in my life
is to eternally
call me forth
and grow me up.

Growing up should be worth more than it is.

Which is something else
to grow up about.

I love this about my life.
The little gifts,
the unwelcome deliveries,
the agonies and the wretched afflictions.
Delivered at just the right time.
Dependably, predictably,
without pause or hesitation.

"Here! Take this
and see what you can do with it!'

I wonder who it was
for Jesus and the Buddha.
The pebbles in their sandals.
The weevils in their rice.

Who is it for you?

Whomever it is, they keep us grounded,
focused, awake, aware, alive--
and we owe them a special reverence for that.
For being the mirror they are,
reflecting our depths for our inspection,
examination,
adjustment and correction.

They require us to bring forth our best
in making them welcome,
and creating a safe place
for them to sully and stain.

I do it with a smile--
winking at my life,
with a nod of gratitude
for the joke that is squarely on me,
and the sense of humor
that I find to be just grand.

–0–

03

What do you do
for the sake of doing it alone?

How central is the place
those things have in your life?

Are they what you pay the bills
to be able to do?

Or, are they more of an aside,
something you work into your life
as opportunity allows?

How far are you from building your life
around the things you do
for the joy of doing them alone?

01

Adam's and Eve's sin
was not some 
"want of conformity unto,
or transgression of,
a law of God,"...

And we will pause here
to allow me a side soliloquy
on this phrase, "want of conformity into,
or transgression of,
a law of God,"
saying that it came to my attention
as the prescribed answer 
to the Westminster Shorter Catechism's
question, "What is sin?"

I memorized the words at my Aunt Lois'
encouragement,
without having a clue as to what 
these words meant.
A condition I shared with every 
5 or 6 year old child in the country,
politely doing what some adult considered
to be good for their soul
and their eternal well-being.

It was apostasy.
Committed by the well-intended
at the direction of the misled
because no one called attention 
to the absurdity of a God 
who can't create any better
than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
having any right to blame anyone
for his (as the story goes) own shortsightedness.

I could go on, but I will return
to the thesis that got us to this point:

...but their betrayal of themselves
and their own original nature
in pursuit of what they took to be
their true joy and delight
in their knowledge of profit and gain
in the world that was theirs to fill 
and subdue.

Betraying ourselves and our original nature
is the secondary sin.
The profit motive is the primary sin.
We will sell anything 
for thirty pieces of silver,
or it's modern-day equivalent,
in our pursuit of Profit At Any Price.

And whether God takes offense or not,
we do it to ourselves
and have only ourselves to blame.

The way back to Eden
always wound through the Garden of Gethsemane
and across the face of Golgotha
well before Jesus came along.

We have always had to die to our own idea
of the life that is ours to live,
and submit to our life's idea for itself,
in order to be alive in the fullest sense
of the term
in the time left for living.

That's the rule from the start.
We had to die to get back to Eden.
There are thousands of ways to die
and still be 98.6 and breathing.
And it isn't a literal death that is required,
but a metaphorical dying,
a handing over of the life we have in mind
in favor of the life our life has in mind.

That what it has always taken.
That is all it ever takes.

The catechisms and the doctrines
miss all of this in a very big way.

And by the time we figure it all out
for ourselves, we need a Mulligan,
and a do over
to make a real game of it.

We waste a lot of time,
getting started.

–0–

02

Allow me the honor
of telling you what you 
are looking for,
and how to know it when you see it.

The words all mean the same thing: IT!
You are looking for IT!
And you have to weed out a lot
of NOTIT!NOTIT!NOTIT!NOTIT!...
to find IT!

The words I'm talking about are
on the order of "radiance,"
"resonance," "magnetism," "pull,"
"flow," "light," "attraction,"
"in love," etc.

We know IT! when we see IT!
And, too often, we dismiss IT!
because IT! doesn't meet 
our qualifications
or expectations.

And we then spend our life trying 
to get back to IT!
While 10,000 other IT!'s
in various disguises wink at us
unnoticed in our infatuation
with the first IT! 
that got our attention
in the beginning.

IT!'s like this:
You walk into a bookstore--
no, wait, some of you
would never walk into a bookstore.
That's a clue for you.
But then, you probably
would not be reading this
if you would never walk into a bookstore,
so never mind...

You walk into a bookstore,
or a library,
and go to some sections,
and stay strictly away
from others.
What are they?

Or you stand before a magazine rack,
and peruse some types,
and avoid some other types.
What are they.

We are constitutionally
attracted to some things in our life
and repulsed or "turned off"
by others.

What are they?
They are clues to your journey
back to IT!
Spend your time with the things
that resonate with you,
and give no time at all 
to the things that repel you.

In so doing,
you are bringing YOU to life.

Explore this experience.

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

Who/how have you always been?
What has always been true about you?
What do people say about you
that holds up over time?
What would other people say
that your specialty is?
What would you say that 
your specialty is?

Deepen your association with it,
and begin your association with IT!
in the process.

For what?
For the LIFE of IT!
For the JOY of IT!
For the ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM of IT!

And allow IT! to bring you forth
into your life in amazing
and surprising ways!

–0–

03

Celebrating the wonder of existence,
through all of the levels
and experiences of existence,
is the whole, entire, absolute 
point of existence.

What more could there be than that?

To be there is to be at the very heart
of Tao--
is to be Tao--
life relishing life
in all of its myriad aspects!
Through all of its dualities,
opposites and contradictions!

Saying "YES!" to it all,
just as it is,
with no alterations and improvements
that aren't a part of the entire
matrix/tapestry/mix!!!

The experience of the experience
is more than words can say!
"Darkness within Darkness,
the gateway to Mystery!"
"Light within Light,
the gateway to Wonder and Delight!"

–0–

04

Here's how it works:

See what you look at
in each situation as it arises,
and look at everything.

Hear what you listen to
in each situation as it arises,
and listen to everything--
including listening to yourself.

Ask all of the questions
that beg to be asked--
and all of the questions
the questions that beg to be asked
beg to be asked.

Hold everything in your awareness
and wait "for the mud to settle,
and the water to clear."

That's it.

With clarity comes direction,
with direction comes action,
with action comes a new situation
which you approach in the same way
throughout what remains
of the life left for living.

If they had only told us this
in the fourth grade!

–0–

01

The world does not care
about doing what is right.
That leaves it up to us,
as individuals.

The flow of the world
is against the flow of Tao,
which is about
doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
in the right way
because it is right so to do.

But there is no payoff involved,
so there is nothing in it for anyone,
and who does anything in this world
that is of no benefit to them,
that cannot be exploited in any way
for their good, gain, advantage?

It is up to individuals
who are able to sacrifice 
their own good 
for the good of the times,
of the situation,
of the here and now
in a "thy will not mine be done,"
kind of way,
with the "Thy" being 
what needs to be done,
moment to moment, 
no matter what,
for no reason other
than because it needs to be done,

Will you do it?
Let's do it!
Starting now!

–0–

02

We are here to find out who we are
and what we are capable of doing
with each situation as it arises.

We are not here to get,
gain,
acquire,
amass,
accumulate,
have,
own,
accomplish...
but to see and to do
what needs to be done
when it needs to be done
the way it needs to be done
because it needs to be done
no matter what.

But what is that?
Who says so?
We do.
And if we are wrong,
we use that 
to see and to do better
in the next situation as it arises.

With us,
it is always to be,
"Here we are--
now what?"
And we live to be right
about it.
That is all.

What could there be beyond that
to want
or amass
or achieve
or accomplish?

Just see what you look at
and do what needs to be done about it.

A baby can do that much.

Can you?

–0–

03

See what you look at,
hear what you listen to,
know what you know,
do what needs to be done about it.

In each situation as it arises.

How could it be easier than that?
Or more difficult?

It is easy and difficult.

Being in accord with the Tao
is easy and difficult.

Being at one with ourselves,
or each other,
or the moment
is easy and difficult.

The noise of the world,
you know.
The dust of the world.
The hum and rumble 
of the 10,000 things.
The clashing rocks.
The heaving waves
of the wine dark sea...
make it very difficult.

The hardest thing is being quiet
and being empty.

That is one thing.
There is no quiet without empty.
There is no empty without quiet.

From the kind of silence that is empty,
from the kind of emptiness that is silence,
comes all things
in their own time,
in their own way,
to those who are ready
and able
to deal with them
as they need to be dealt with--
to do right with them
as they need to be done.

Living from the silence of emptiness,
from the emptiness of silence,
allows us to meet our life
on its terms
as one friend meets another,
and do right by it.

And that is all there is.

It is easy and difficult.

The best things are that way.

–0–

04

Time and place,
place and time,
are all we have to work with.

Things would be different.
Maybe better,
maybe worse,
with another time,
another place.

It is ours to do what we can
in the service of 
what needs to be done,
here and now.

In each here and now 
that comes our way.

We cannot be dismissing,
discounting,
disregarding,
this time and/or this place
because it isn't 
what we have in mind.

It is where we are.
What does it have to offer us--
what do we have to offer it--
that might be of mutual benefit
to each,
to both?

We have to be alive
to the moment of our living
to know how to answer this question.
We have to see what we look at,
hear what is being said,
know what is going on,
be where we are
to have a chance 
of doing right by the moment
we have to work with.

And getting walked out of there
may be our best option--
in the spirit of knowing
"when to hold them,
knowing when to fold them,
knowing when to walk away,
knowing when to run."

Staying past the time for leaving
is not in the best interest
of anyone.

Ever.

01

The truth is who we are,
and how well we exhibit that
in each situation as it arises
throughout our life.

We are here to bring ourselves forth.
To be who we are.
Within the times and places of our living.
All our life long.

How well we are doing that 
is evidenced
by our balance and harmony,
our sincerity and integrity,
our spirit, energy and vitality.

The people who are mostly dead
long before they die,
who are one cliché after another,
whose life is a habit,
who never do a spontaneous thing,
who never do anything new,
who do what they have always done
are the people who need to be
reincarnated
to come back and do it again
until they get it right.

We are here to birth ourselves
anew everyday.

The people who are so 
absolutely opposed to abortion
aborted themselves long ago,
and continue to abort themselves
every day
in denying themselves the right to life
by having an original though
or expressing their original nature,
or allowing anyone else to
in any situation as it arises.

Living by the Book, 
any book,
is the wrong way to do it.
Throw the book away,
and step into the next moment,
looking only for what truly needs to be done there,
and do it when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done
because it needs to be done,
and not because somebody else says so--
without any regard for what is in it for us,
our how well it meshes with our idea
of how things ought to be.

Things ought to be how they need to be,
and we ought to be able to know how that is.
Not because we have thought about it,
but because we see it and know it,
and trust ourselves to be right about it,
without having to take our cue 
from someone else.
Anyone else.

If we are waiting for someone else
to tell us what needs to be done,
we are aborting ourselves
denying someone else's
necessary abortion.

–0–

02

No one lives without dying.

Maturation is the on-going process
of dying to one way of thinking,
to one way of life,
and coming to life in another.

Over the course of our life,
we die and come to life
again and again.

Changing our mind about
what is important
and allowing our life
to fall into place around that
through all of the stages
of our development.

To not do that is also to die--
a death from which there is no
return to life,
just an eternal refusal
to be alive ever.

Jesus died in Gethsemane,
and in his conversation 
with the Syro-Phonecian woman,
and his encounter
with the woman taken in adultery,
and at every turn in his path
toward Jerusalem
and Golgotha.

And he calls us to take up our own cross,
and step into our life
as he stepped into his,
and die all the way 
to life pouring out,
spilling over,
flowing freely
from one death to the next
in 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,
and no one can do it like we can,
no matter what.

–0–

03

We are always making corrections.
Which means, we are always making mistakes.
Which means, we always 
are in the position
of needing to sit still and be quiet,
empty of all judgment and opinion,
open to the experience 
of "just here, just now,"
and able to respond as needed
to what comes into our awareness.

Awareness is continuing and ongoing. 
We hold everything in our awareness,
and add to it as time goes by,
allowing it to guide our response
to each situation as it arises,
without judgment or opinion,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just making corrections
and adjustments
to maintain our balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality
in the service of what needs to be done
moment to moment,
day by day.

01

What it is going to take 
is sitting still,
being quiet.

We find in the silence
all we need
to meet the moment,
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Sitting in the silence--
being able to sit in the silence--
means emptying ourselves
of all the noise in our life.

Noise is an inside job.
Silence is also an inside job.
In order to be quiet,
we have to quieten
the noise within.

Start with the source.
All of the noise within
has it's origin 
in our orientation
and our philosophy
and our driving motivation.

Our entire culture is driven,
pushed, shoved, compelled
by the My Way NOW!!! craze.

We fume and boil
upon the raging sea
and the heaving waves
of the My Way NOW!!! craze.

We are consumed with 
having our way,
and with other people
not having their way,
and the very idea 
that those people over there
are doing their best
to have their way
and trying to keep us 
from having our way,
and how those people over there
won't let us have our way at all,
and what we have to do
to get our way at last!
And keep it safe and secure forever!

Sit still, be quiet,
and watch how all of this
begins to churn and roll within.

We have to empty ourselves 
of having our way
before we can be open
to the silence.

It is not the only thing.
Having our way is at the heart
of all we do,
but it is concealed in ways
that make it invisible
and undetectable.

It is the operative force
behind Fear/Desire/Duty,
the Big Three hindrances
of both the Buddha under the Bo Tree,
and of Jesus in the wilderness.

It all starts there for each of us.

Sitting still, being quiet
brings up Fear, Desire, and Duty,
with having our way
being the central feature of each one.

We have to empty ourselves of it all.

Nothing changes until we are empty.
Empty even of wanting things to change.

You are looking for a much quicker fix
than this,
which makes this good-bye in all likelihood--
so, mind how you go,
and may you come to realize
that what you are looking for
is not what you need.  

–0–

02

What are you living for?
What are you serving with your life?

Keep those questions in mind
as I pivot to these:

What is your driving motivation?
What fuels your way through each day?

And to these:

What ignites your energy?
What inflames your enthusiasm?

In what ways are your answers
to these questions connected?

Would your answers to these questions,
including the last one,
be obvious to anyone observing your life?