Life is an optical illusion.
We live with a foot in different worlds,
on different paths.
It is like this and that at the same time.
The Buddhists like to say, "All is one."
Everyone else knows it is anything BUT one.
The Buddhists even admit it
with their, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

There is "the Buddha" and there is "not the Buddha."

They also say, "If you meet an elephant on the path,
GET OFF the path!"

There is "the elephant" and there is "not the elephant."
And it pays to distinguish between the two.

On another hand, also a dichotomy,
they would be happy to affirm Einstein's postulate
that it is all energy
(Rocks, etc. are composed of atoms
with whizzing electrons at their center) 
and "energy can't be created or destroyed,
only converted or transformed."

Which is to say, "It is all one."
"Two-ness" (Or "multifaceted-ness") is "One-ness."
And, it is also two-ness (or multifaceted-ness)
at the same time,
depending on how we look at it,
in a now you see it, now you don't kind of way,
like an optical illusion,
which is dependent upon duality to work.

Not that it matters.

Unless you like balance and harmony,
serenity and tranquility,
and enjoy the idea of oneness being multifaceted-ness
(or duality being non-duality)
the way energy is a rock
at the same time.

All we need is a sounding board.
We all need a sounding board.
Someone who can hear what we have to say
and encourage us to keep talking 
until WE hear what we have to say.

When WE hear what we have to say,
it changes everything.

So. We can write it out, as I do here,
to you who are serving as my sounding board.
I am writing as though you are listening,
and you can do the same thing
to imaginary sounding boards,
just saying what you have to say,
several times a day,
clarifying it as the day wears on,
so that you are clear yourself
as to what you are saying,
and are able to reflect on that
until you come to new realizations
which produce a shift in attitude
and orientation
resulting in mid-course corrections
and adjustments
creating mild to dramatic differences
in the way you live
just because you took the time
to hear what you have to say,
in a regular and reliable way
throughout each day.

I listen to myself at night,
ranting and writhing at terrifying
possibilities and threatening turns in the road,
saying only, "I wonder what I will do about that,"
and "I wonder how I will handle that,"
and "What will ever come of that,"
and by morning everything is all clarified
and I am ready to do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
having prepared myself for the absolute worse
throughout the night.

Makes the day a breeze,
getting it all said at night.

Wisdom is merely
a life-time from birth to death
of experience and reflection
to the point of realization
applied to here/now choices
and decisions.

What experience is
and what it means
in light of previous experience
applied to present experience--
including the cumulative exprience
of the species--is wisdom
at work in our life.

And it depends on 
the right kind of reflective use
of emptiness, stillness and silence.

It is thinking in the right way
about what's what
and what its implications are
for here, now
in each here, now that comes along,
including thinking about our thinking.

It is awareness of awareness
expanded to include all of life
throughout time.

The people who do that best
are the wisest among us.
Including "the little child who leads (us)."

I do not know many people
who are content with 
doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

Everybody has an agenda.
A plan.
An idea of how things ought to be.
They live in the service
of what's in it for them--
of what they stand to gain or lose
in each situation as it arises.

They have opinions
and a will in the service
of most of them,
either for or against.

Pushing/forcing/striving/endeavoring...

Willing even what cannot be willed.

And reacting emotionally to everything.

Living in the simple service
of what is called for
does not rank anywhere in their list
of things that are important.

Thinking is the source
of all of our troubles today,
and every day.

Our troubles disappear "like that"
when we change the way we think about them.

Thus, thinking is also the solution
to all of our troubles today.

Changing the way we think
changes everything.

See how many different ways 
you can think about the things
you normally think about.

If you sense trouble arising,
change the ways you are thinking about it.
Disappear it running toward you
in mid-stride.

A little poof here
and a little poof there,
here a poof,
there a poof,
everywhere a poof, poof,
oh, my mercy!
Changing the way we think
will change the world!

There is only being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
the way only we can do it.
In each situation as it arises.
No matter what.
What's the problem?

Oh, wait! I see!
Having our way--right?
Getting what we want,
when we want it--right?

What does thinking about 
what we think about
keep us from thinking about?

That's called diversion,
distraction,
escape,
denial.

Which is where we spend most
of our time, no?

And not being who we are,
doing what is ours to do
in each situation as it arises,
no matter what. 

Right?

People like Donald Trump
cannot comprehend the reality 
of restraints, confinements and limitations.
To them, money can solve any problem,
and they buy/threaten/force/coerce/extort
themselves to whatever they want.

Well. Money can't buy weather.
Or shutdown volcanoes.
And paying our enemies to not attack us
has not worked for anyone throughout time. 
There is a limit as to what money can do.

But limits don't sit well with Donald Trump.
He takes to yelling a lot
and telling people, "You're fired!"
As if that can keep the oceans from rising
and the desert from taking over Texas.

Better for us all to learn to take "NO!"
for an answer,
and live with what needs to be lived with
for the true good of all.

If sound advice could be heard and applied
by those with a will to power and control,
the world would be a safer, saner place
for all through time.

It isn't that we don't know 
how life should be lived.
It is that we don't care for anything,
anyone, other than ourselves--
as in the story of the Garden of Eden.
The theme of the ages,
apparent from the beginning.

We have to do our own work,
live our own lives,
assisting one another
with our work and our life
as we are able
in light of the corporate good
and see what happens
and what we do about it
in service to our sense
of what is called for,
and see where things go over time.

Conversations regarding the corporate good
are essential to the cooperation 
of each other toward that end,
and that's where it gets sticky.

Groups and individuals will tend 
to develop wealth and power
that is disproportionate to that of the whole,
and will tend to run things in their best interests,
to the disadvantage of those with less wealth and power,
and the corporate good will be lost
in the service of individual/personal good,
and here we are.

Equality, equanimity, justice, freedom, well-being,
and the best interest of all concerned,
where everyone has what they need
and no one amasses more than they need
is the ongoing effort in the cause of balance and harmony
that has been lost in the production
of massive wealth over the past 150 +/- years.
And no one is in charge of evening out the scales.
Individual honor, restraint and service to others
is an easy casualty in the contest for wealth and privilege,
and there are none to right the wrongs in society and culture.

We are left with "circumstances begetting circumstances,"
and things having to work themselves out through wars and 
power struggles with environmental necessity limiting
what can be done and not done over time.

Welcome to the kingdom of greed in the land of the blind
generating conditions requiring individuals to find their 
own way and shape their own life within the givens and requirements they are handed as best they can.

It is up to us to find communities of like-minded people who support and encourage one another through the options and choices of our lives toward peace, serenity, tranquility, balance and harmony in light of our original nature, our inherent virtues (What we do best and enjoy doing most) and our intrinsic intuition for the good of ourselves and each other all our life long.

We are seeking communities in the service of the common good, and the internet is the most likely place to start looking--or to begin creating one "just like that" out of the ether.

Making sense of things 
is a full-time job.
And we can't ever be sure
we've been successful.

We take everything on faith
in this world.

We trust ourselves to our intuition
and take our chances.
Our biggest chance is being right
about how we read/understand our intuition!

Too often, it seems, she says 
exactly what we want to hear.
Which is to say our thumb is on the scale of truth,
tipping the outcome in favor of our wishes/want/
desires and fears.

We aren't even truthful with ourselves!
And our intuition never abandons us
or leaves us bereft.
But is always there
as the hills from which our help comes,
hoping we will be receptive 
to what she offers.

May it always be so!

We come equipped with three guides
to lead us along the way.

There is what we do best.
And what we enjoy/love doing most.
And there is our intrinsic intuition
as our ever-present help
in all times and places.

Our place is to know what we do best,
and what we enjoy/love doing most,
and to develop our relationship
with our intuition
by simply watching/listening
for what arises 
in the emptiness, stillness and silence
as realization/awareness/knowledge.

In the company of the three guides,
we are ready to meet every situation
as it unfolds before us
with the confidence of those
who know we have what it takes
to do what is called for
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

What do you have to say?
How are you saying it?

What is yours to do?
How are you doing it?

Who is it yours to be?
How are you being it?

What we say--
what we do--
who we are--
are ours to say-do-be
in the time yet left for living.

How are you going 
to get it done?

When are you going to start?

Let your intuition lead the way!

There is a rhythm and flow
to our life and to all of life.
When we cooperate with that rhythm and flow,
all is well.
When we co-opt that rhythm and flow
and try to direct it toward ends
that are pleasing to us,
it all goes to hell.

Cooperating with the rhythm and flow of life
begins with our looking to our intuition
for guidance and direction
and help with what to do now.

Our place in response to our life
is to understand that we are the moved
living in response to the mover.

Our intuition is the mover.

Aligned with our intuition
and living in accord with her wisdom
and her grace,
we are one with life,
and all is well.

May we embrace that as our work to do
and live so as to implement that in our life
through each situation as it arises
as long as life shall last.