02

Silence is the origin of all that is.

Before there was anything,
there was silence.

We return to the Source
through the silence.

How often do you sit quietly?
For how long?

The trick with sitting quietly
is to be detached from the noise.
Silence is the nosiest place on earth!
Disengage.
Peacefully coexist.
Let the noise go on (and on) without you.
Thoughts will come along to shanghai you.
Things to do will pop up to hijack you.
Great ideas will drop by to kidnap you.

Let it all come
and let it all go
in a "That, too, that, too" kind of way.
Remember your breathing through it all.
Coming back to your breathing
is coming back to the silence.
Listen for the sound of breathing.
Breathe into your abdomen.
Watch the rising and falling of your diaphragm.  

Aim for 20 minutes twice a day.

You are nurturing the silence.
Seeking the Source.

Our Original Nature resides in the Source.
Our Original Nature
is our authentic,
natural Self.
It is who we are without the artificial affectations 
to fit us in with 
where we have no business being.

Finding our way back to the Source
is finding our way back to ourselves.
On the other side of silence.

–0–

01

We have to do the work.
This is no holiday sight-seeing tour,
no "Show up when you feel like it
and take as much time off as you like"
kind of deal.

This is the Hero's Journey,
so-called because it actually requires us
to put ourselves out
in its service.

James Joyce (as per Joseph Campbell
in A Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake
and  Mythic Worlds Modern Words--
I have to take Joyce indirectly,
with interpretation and explanation,
because reading him is like reading
a foreign language,
so, thanks be to Campbell 
for enabling me to do the work
of comprehending Joyce)
says there are two kinds of art:
Proper Art
and Improper Art.

Improper Art is pornographic
in that it either pulls us to desire to possess it,
or pushes us to abhor and be rid of it.
Our reaction to Improper Art
is Lust, Loathing, Fear and Dread.

Proper Art stops us in our tracks.
Stuns us into silent reverence.
Introduces us to awe and wonder.
Makes us forget to breathe.

"Aesthetic Arrest," Joyce calls it. 

Instead of wanting to possess it,
we are possessed by it
and are transformed forever
by our encounter with it.

We can think of religion
the way Joyce thinks about art.

Improper Religion is pornographic. 
"My God is an awesome God!"
We possess God.
We own God. 
It is "My God this,"
and "My God that."
And we give God a round of applause.
Not a standing ovation, mind you,
a round of applause.
We offer God trinkets of attention
and loose change
in return for all of the things 
we expect God to give us,
including, of course, Heaven for Eternal Life.
What a deal.
And we talk about God all the time.

Proper Religion takes all of our words away.
Turns our life inside-out,
eats our old life alive,
and transforms us forever
by the impact of the shock of its reality--
and conscripts us into its service
by taking over the direction and control of our life.

Our life becomes our work in response
to the call/command that is ours to incarnate,
exhibit,
express,
serve
and do.

What we do is our response 
to the wonder of oneness
with the Art of Religion 
exemplified in our life.

And we don't talk about it at all
because the best things can't be said,
and the second-best things can only be inferred
from the way we live,
and the third-best and lower things 
are what we talk about,
news/gossip, weather and sports.

Our life is properly spent 
doing the work that being alive
to the truth of how it is really
requires in each moment.

Life lived any other way
is life lived improperly.

03

What are the forces of destabilization in your life?
What are the forces of balance and harmony?
What serves as your grounding foundation?
What do you turn to when you have nowhere to turn?
What keeps you going?

The silence that connects us to the Source is always there.
Both are always there.
The Source is the locus of our Original Nature
which is the grounding foundation of our life
in all conditions,
contexts
and circumstances.

Being who we are
and doing it like we would do it
as an expression/incarnation
of who we are
in each situation as it arises
is all we need to know-do-be.

We are stabilized when we are being who we are.
Our balance and harmony snap into place
when we are being who we are.

What do we need to be who we are?
We need to stop.
Breathe.
Look.
Listen.
Refocus.
And redirect.
Step back into the moment,
see what is being called for,
respond as only we can
out of the gifts/genius/daemon/virtues/character
that are ours to share.

Moment-by-moment.
Situation-by-situation.
All our life long.

–0–

02

When we go off into the world 
to find our life and live it,
we do not know where the lines lie,
or where we should draw them.

We can easily care too much about the wrong things,
and care too little about the right things.

Where does the line lie between the wrong things
and the right things?
Where does the line lie between too much
and too little?

Time will tell.

We can trust ourselves to time
and to our life experience over time
to reveal all we need to know
about finding our life and living it.

In the meantime,
there is only taking our time
and paying attention--
seeing what we look at,
feeling what we feel,
sensing what we sense,
knowing what we know
about what's what,
what's happening,
and what is being called for
in each situation as it arises,
reflecting and reassessing
all along the way.

It helps to have little in the way
of judgment or opinion--
no more than, 
"Oops. Wrong turn!
Back up. Try again,"
would be just fine.

–0–

01

It all hangs by a thread,
turns on a dime,
It's all just a product
of chance and time...

And yet, and yet...

I was always going to be a writer,
and a photographer,
a seer seeking expression,
a knower wanting to know.

Carl Jung was never more correct
than when he said,
"We are who we always have been,
and who we will be."

There is nothing accidental about us.
Time and chance don't stand a chance with us.

We are going to be who we are!

The pine tree is tucked away in the seed.
The oak is never going to be a weed.

Who we are is right here with us all along.
It only takes looking to see,
knowing to know,
paying attention to understand.

So sit with yourself in some quiet place.
Invite reflection.
Await realization.
Consider the thread of you
playing out over time.
Who have you been showing yourself to be
all along the way
from the beginning to now?
What's your shtick?
There you are.
Simple.
Now--go be you!
Do what you do!

03

"Comfort, comfort my people," says the Lord to the prophet (Isaiah)
"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and tell her that her hard times are past..."

"But do not under any circumstances
say 'Peace, Peace' when there is no peace!"
says the Lord to a different prophet (Jeremiah).

The Bible says opposite things,
top to bottom
all the time.
Because times change.
There is no Word of the Lord for all times and places.

The Word of the Lord
is like the Spirit
that blows where it will.

One time it is like this,
and another time it is like that,
but always and forever it is of the times.
Pertinent,
timely
and uniquely suited
to this here,
this now.

The Word of the Lord is context sensitive.
Situational.
Provisional.
Conditional.
Temporary.

Sometimes it is like this,
and sometimes it is like that.
It all depends.

Which means we can't count on it
to be anything more that what it is--
what it needs to be--
right here, right now.

And that puts us on the spot.
We are always in the position
of determining for ourselves
what Word of the Lord is apropos
and applicable
right here, right now.
How do we know?

By being attuned to right here, right now.
By being tuned into right here, right now.
By seeing what's what,
hearing what is being said
and knowing what needs to be said in response,
and what needs to be done in response,
and what the situation is calling for,
and doing it,
right here, right now.

The Word of the Lord comes 
not just to the prophets, 
but to all of those clued into the moment 
of their living.
We are all prophets.
A prophet is someone who sees and hears
and knows and understands
what's what
and what to do about it.

And everyone is capable of that.
All it takes are eyes to see,
ears to hear,
and hearts to comprehend.

We all have eyes, ears, hearts!
What is the problem?
Could it be that what we 
desire,
want,
fear,
loathe,
despise
are in our way?

And that the only thing standing 
between us
and That Which Has Always Been Called God
is us?

–0–

02

Living sincerely,
transparent to ourselves,
without contriving to land a better deal
moment-by-moment-by-moment
would make the world a better place instantly.

Living transparent to ourselves
would make us "transparent to transcendence"
(Joseph Campbell),
create occasions of "aesthetic arrest"
(James Joyce),
and open the way to The Way
for those capable of finding it worldwide.

And we don't have to buy something 
we don't have to do it.
We have all we need
but the one thing required.

Turning the light around.

–0–

01

Bringing ourselves forth
to meet the time and place
of our living,
moment by moment,
situation by situation,
day after day,
is becoming who we need to be
to provide what we have to offer
to the times
as they swirl,
change,
transform
around us,
is becoming who we are.

Becoming who we need to be--
who we are called to be
by each situation as it arises--
is becoming who we are.

There are no steady states of being.
Living is becoming.
Is transitioning.
Is life.
Is being transformed by life.

Accommodation and adjustment, Kid!
Accommodation and adjustment!

In becoming,
we are one with the Flow,
with the Flux,
with the way of The Way--
offering what is needed
when it is needed,
the way it is needed
time after time,
throughout time,
through all times.
And places,
conditions,
contexts
and circumstances.

Dancing with the times.
Dancing with eternity.
Being one with the times over time.
Being one with ourselves in all times.

Nobody can do more than that.
That is all that can be asked of any of us.
To want more than that is to miss it.

Just be who you are becoming who you are
in response to the times of your living
in the place you are now,
no, now,
no, now...
always and forever,
amen.

We take who we are--
who we are capable of being--
in one hand,
and what the situation is asking of us--
is asking us to be--
is calling for,
in the other hand,
and we get the two hands together,
time after time over time.

Over the full course of time that is ours to work with.
Changing by becoming who we are yet to be
in response to the times
all of the time.

We are called forth by our circumstances,
and bring ourselves forth 
by rising to meet every occasion
all our life long.

This is the way of The Way
living in us,
living through us
throughout time.

By becoming who we are without ceasing,
we bring something new into the world
all the time.

We break the cyclical cycle.
The old has passed away,
behold the new has come,
every day,
throughout the day,
each day,
just by being who we are,
becoming who we are.

Making all things new.

02

We stand before the Cyclops
in any one of his multitudinous manifestations
and recite the mantra
of the hopeless and forlorn
throughout the ages:

"Why take another step?
What good do we think it will do?
We are wasting our time!
What's the point of even showing up?
Who cares?
What difference will it make?
Why go on with the farce?"

And the Cyclops grins again,
red eye flashing hatred and rage,
stepping forward 
to claim his prize.

But, with a slight shift of perspective,
we turn the light around,
and step forward ourselves
to stop him where he stands:

 "Why take another step?
What good do you think it will do?
You are wasting your time!
What's the point of even showing up?
Who cares what you do or say?
What difference do you think you will make?
Why go on with the farce?
You are not scaring us off!
We are in this in spite of the best you can do
for as long as the work 
needs to be done!
We are not quitting!
We don't care what our chances are!
We are locked into what is called for!
We are solidly grounded in service to the Good
whether it does any good or not!
We are glad to be good for nothing!
If you want to tangle with us, come on!
We aren't stopping--
or even slowing down!"

The Cyclops depends on hopelessness
and dejection
doing his work for him.
When we find what is worth doing
"without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat),
there is no reason ever to quit,
or even slow down.

When we know what we would go to hell for,
we know what we will do no matter what,
and are free to live life 
as it needs us to live it,
without bothering to even keep score.

–0–

01

Nothing is just what it is.
Everything points beyond itself
to the 10,000 things.

In any situation,
the 10,000 things are present,
and 10,000 things are going on
representing "the stuff"
each person--
and each living entity--
bring to the situation
out of their/its own lived experience.

It is a complicated world.

Complexes,
memories,
associations,
interests,
desires,
resentments...
Mix,
clash,
tangle,
collide,
collude,
color,
influence,
impact
and create
everything that happens
and happens not
in each situation as it arises
across the board,
around the world.

Try getting a handle on that.
Try controlling that.
It is always a wonder
that things aren't
in more of a mess 
than they are in.

Moment-to-moment-to-moment.

Balance and harmony, Kid.
Balance and harmony.
Starts at home.

Begin here, now.
Stop.
Sit still.
Be quiet.
Breathe.
Listen.
Look.
Until you see,
hear,
what's what,
what's happening,
what's going on,
what's being called for,
what needs to be done about it,
right here,
right now...

Awareness is our only tool.
Our only chance
at balance and harmony.
"This too, this, too."

Reflection leads to realization.
Realization leads to
"Thou Art That."

Seeing our own disparate, 
discordant,
dissonance,
disconnection
and dislocation
allows us to be cognizant of others'
and opens the way
to an "I and Thou" reckoning,
and a "What now?" dialog,
with compassion and peace
companions long absent from the conversation
present at last in the room.

02

How do we know what is important?
How do we decide what matters
and what doesn't?
How do we know we are right?
What makes us think we are?
How often do we evaluate our evaluations?
Against what do we check our plumb?
The accuracy of our circle?
The squareness of our square?
We declare we are right,
but.
How do we know that we are right?
How often do we even ask the question?

–0–

01

How do we know what to do when?
Fear could guide us.
Or desire.
Or loathing,
anger,
hatred,
dread...

We could live at the whim 
of emotional reactivity.

But.

What do our emotions know?

Reason and logic have their place.

But.

What guides them through their
carefully plotted deliberations?
How do they know what is best for us
or our situation?
"Best" in terms of what?
In light of what?

How good is the good
reason and logic call good?

"Well," they would say,
"If you want this,
here is the best path to that end!"

But.

What does wanting know?
How do we know what to want?
How we know what we should want?
How do we want what we ought to want?

How do we know what needs to be done
without contriving our way to a future
where we have no business being?

Where do we belong?
How do we know?

We have to go all the way back
to who we are
to find out.

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

Living in ways that incarnate,
exhibit,
express,
reveal and make known
who we are
in each situation as it arises,
regardless of contexts,
conditions
and circumstances
is being true to ourselves
and to our place in our life
throughout our life.

It is to work out the conflicts
and contradictions
between who we are 
and where we are
through negotiation and compromise,
adjustment and accommodation.

What do we need to be who we are,
where we are, 
when we are,
here and now?

It takes sitting quietly,
in stillness and silence,
to find the way
to The Way of Being Who We Are
Here and Now.

Stop.
Breathe.
Look.
Listen.
Wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

Listen to your heart
(What makes your little heart
sing and dance?).
Listen to your stomach
(Those gut feelings).
Listen to your "bones"
(What you "know in your bones").
Listen to your nighttime dreams.

Ask the questions that beg to be asked.
Say the things that cry out to be said.
Reflect on the things 
that have always been true about you
over the full course of your life--
they will always be true about you.
What does that tell you about where and how
you need to be?
About where you belong,
and belong not?

Watch what you find yourself doing
absentmindedly,
unintentionally,
directing yourself to what needs to be done.

See how your sense of direction
forms itself around,
and flows from,
the stillness and silence
of mindful walk-a-bouts.

02

Scary times.

Made scarier by the fact
that we aren't in control of what happens.
But.
What's new about that
is that we have lost access
to our comforting illusions
and ready escapes near at hand.

We have never been in control of what happens.
The best we have ever been able to hope for
is controlling our response to what happens
in light of what is being asked of us
here and now,
in this present moment of our living.
And that remains the case right here, right now!

What is being called for here?
Now?
Respond to that as best you can!

Forget the "big picture,"
the "long term"!

Right here! Right now!

Here we are, now what?

What is necessary right here, right now?

Do that.

The long term is a different matter.
We have to settle ourselves into that,
and make our peace with having to deal with it
for the long term.

We have to grieve what must be grieved,
and bear what must be borne.

We have lost so much--
so much has been lost by so many!
We all have to--must--bear consciously the pain
of all that we/they have lost!

Bearing consciously the pain
of our grief, loss and sorrow
is crucial to our life--
to our ability to live--
over the long term.

We have to feel what must be felt,
grieve what must be grieved,
mourn what must be mourned,
see what must be seen,
know what must be known,
and fully face it all
without discounting,
dismissing,
ignoring,
denying any of it!

Sob, cry, throw-up, scream...
Do. Not. Hold. It. In.
Do. Not. Pretend. It. Away.
Face it!
Feel it!
Vent it!
Express it!
Know it! Know it! Know it!

Several times throughout the day,
for as many days as it takes.

In order to treat our grief well,
we have to master the age-old art
of walking two paths at the same time.

We have to do now what needs to be done now,
and we have to grieve our losses,
feel our fear,
and face the reality of a new world
without the comfort of safe guards and shelters.

We are on our own
like few of us have ever been before.
Well.
Our ancestors have all been here,
where we are,
before us.
We have their genes. 
Our Psyche comes from them.
We have built-in to the system--
into our system--
a reservoir or time tested archetypes
for meeting whatever life throws at us.
We only have to find our way back to
our Original Nature to know that it is so.

We do that by trusting it is as I say it is
when I say, "There is more to us than meets the eye."
All of us.
Every one of us.
And when I say, "We have what it takes
to rise to the occasion--
every occasion."

We come from good stock.
We are built to take it,
and to find what it takes
to do what it takes
about whatever is before us,
and whatever needs to be done about it.

To find our Original Nature,
we have to "turn the light around"
and seek what we need within ourselves,
and not in our external environment.

To do that:
Stop.
Breathe (Slowly, deeply pausing between exhale and inhale).
Look.
Listen.
Wait ("For the mud to settle
and the water to clear").
Remember your breathing.
Watch for what begins to stir
in the stillness,
in the silence,
showing you,
reminding you,
who you are,
and always have been,
and will always be--
the core truth of your very own being.

We all have access to the Source of who we are,
of our Original Nature,
and the Source of life itself,
to stabilize us
and ground us
upon the adamantine foundation
of what is unshakable about us--
and to orient us,
guide and direct us,
sustain and encourage us,
in facing what must be faced
and doing what needs to be done about it.

In the presence of the Source,
and possessed by our Original Nature,
we are never alone,
and have all we need
to find what we need
to do what is ours to do.

Return to the Source on a regular basis.
Know what is true about you
in dealing with what is true about your life,
and living appropriately 
in response to your circumstances
moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

01

We live to turn things to our advantage.
As though we know what that is.
Is it better to win or to lose?
Is it better to get what you want,
or to get what you don't want?

Only time will tell.
And then, time will tell again.
And again...
When do we ever know for sure?

We know for sure that we are better off
in some places than in others,
but which places are which,
and for how long "better" lasts,
we do not know.

And yet, we live to turn things to our advantage.

You might think,
that by now we would have come up with
a different strategy for having it made.

I suggest we start with
forgetting about having it made.
Having it made is such a time-limited matter.
We are going to die!
There is no such thing as having it made
when it is only a matter of time until we die!
You can call it having it made--
I call it dying!

How are we going to live until we die?
That is our only question!
Not, "What is to our greatest advantage?"
Not, "What is the shortest route to having it made?"
But, "How can we live the best life we are capable of living
within the conditions and circumstances 
that define our environment
until we die?"

Living to answer the right question makes all the difference.
What questions are you living to answer?

02

There is what happens,
and there is what we do about what happens,
in response to what happens.
And then, something else happens.

And that's the way it goes all the way. 

With luck, we learn from what happens
when we respond to what happens,
and we get better at what is ours to do.

But we must never, ever,
close our eyes to the truth
of what's happening!

Our only chance is seeing what's what,
knowing what our choices are,
and trusting ourselves to know
how to make the right ones over time.

The national park motto always applies:

Your Safety Is Your Responsibility!

We come into the world with all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation that arises.
It is up to us to learn to use 
what we have to work with--
the gifts, genius, daemon, virtues, character
that are unique to us,
and are our Super Powers,
unique to us,
and ready to help us find the way
through all of our trials and ordeals.

Trust yourself to what comes built into you,
and let yourself show you what you can do!

–0–

01

I don't know where the line lies between 
intimacy and vulnerability.
I don't know if there is a line.
I think it may be one thing.
I don't know what to call it.

I don't know where the lines lie among
psychic 
and psychological
and physical
and emotional
and spiritual.
I don't know if there are lines.
I think it may all be one thing.
I don't know what to call it.
"Me," perhaps.

But then, where does the line lie between
"me"
and "you"?

I don't know where the line lies between
intellectual,
rational
and logical.
Or if there is one.

It feels like it would be easier 
to draw lines separating these last three entities
from the others,
but there is mutuality among them all,
and we all sort ourselves out
along a continuum containing all people
from all times and places
in a way that enables us to recognize one another
and not confuse ourselves with any one.
We all are different but remarkably similar.

And how trustworthy are the lines
separating these aspects of ourselves
within ourselves,
and separating ourselves
from all other selves?

How do we "get it all together"
in all of these ways,
as individuals,
without being "together"
with one another, 
with each other,
throughout the continuum of humanity?

And, could it be,
that the things that keep us separated
into categories of "me" and "you,"
and "us" and "them,"
also keep us separated/cut off/isolated/apart from
all of these aspects of ourselves
within ourselves?

So that the more we identify ourselves 
as "us" and not "them,"
the less integrated and whole we are
within ourselves--
and the more whole we are 
within ourselves,
the less able we are to think of ourselves
as "us" and "them"?

And that we will not be safe,
individually or collectively,
without being whole 
individually and collectively?

So that the work to be safe and secure
in an environment that is trustworthy and dependable,
is the work of becoming healed and whole and one within?

Until we can be an "I"
we cannot be a "We"?

What do you think?

Could it be?

That the work of being safe
is the work of leaving home
and finding our father
and our mother
within ourselves
through the trials and ordeals
of life on our own
in the world?

That growing up
is developing all of the tools of life
mentioned above
in order to be who we are
and be okay
with not knowing 
where any of the lines lie--
or even if there are lines?

What do you think?