Life itself is the burden,
the agony,
the trauma,
the torment,
the affliction,
the pain...

Why should we have to live
with Donald Trump
and the Trump-Ettes,
and the Trump MAGA Billionaires,
and their mirror images
around the world,
Putin in Russia,
Xi Jinping in China,
Kim Jong Un in North Korea,
Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel
and all the others everywhere???

It is an unending line 
of viscous hatred, 
rancor,  
bitterness
and greed
that has no rightful place
in a world desperate for
liberty,
justice,
equality,
kindness,
peace,
truth,
good will
and well-being!!!

So what's with all the crap?
Seriously.
What is it doing here?
Why does 50% of humanity think it's just fine?
We have been here for 2 million years,
and can't do any better than this?
WHAT?

Jesus had no impact.
The Buddha had no impact.
The list is long of good people
who wasted their time.

Who are we kidding
when we tell ourselves 
it is going to get better with time?

I'm taking life to the Wailing Wall,
and living what's left of it
under seething objection.

I am going to shave my head in
renunciation and protest
as soon as my wife grants her permission.

The Tao,
the Dharma,
and our Intuition
are all as one
when it comes to declaring
that it comes down to
doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right way,
in the right place--
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction 
of having done it.

And, beyond that,
there is nothing in it for us.

So, why would we do it?
Because that is what matters most!

And the profit motive goes up in smoke
before the requirement
of right living for no reason
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

If you are looking for reward and glory,
refer back to the line,
"Because that is what matters most."

What matters most
has nothing to do with reward and glory,
but only with what needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises.

All our life long.

The amount of noise in our life
is the degree of distraction in our life,
is the measure of the amount of life in our life.

The noisier we live
the less alive we are.

Our life is one distraction/diversion
after another.

And we hate silence
because we don't know what to do with it.
And we have to have something to do
to take our mind off how empty our life is
without noise taking our mind off our emptiness.

Emptiness, stillness, silence
are the essence of life.
They are the ground of reflection,
which is the source of new realizations--
which are the heart of life.

We live to be alive.
To be energized with enthusiasm
ardor, fervor, passion, zeal, gusto...

How long has it been?
What is in charge of your life?
What are you living for?
Where do your interests lie?
What shape does your service
to your interests take?

Where do you go to consider these things?

It all starts with,
flows from,
leads to,
emptiness, stillness, silence
as the heart of life and being.

We cannot be really alive
without being really quiet
on a regular and recurring basis.

We know that intuitively
and reject it passionately,
desperately.

No?

I am against things 
that introduce noise 
into the equation.

People are always introducing noise
into the equation.

All equations.

It is as though everyone thinks
life has to be loud to be alive.

I see noise, not as life,
but as complexity, drama, trauma.

And, I see silence--
the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence--
as the womb of life, living, being alive.

We return to the womb in this sense,
to be reborn again and again.
And I see the Wailing Wall in this same sense.

The Wailing Wall becomes a womb,
not that it is quiet,
but that in its essence,
the Wailing Wall is about the right kind 
of emptiness, stillness and silence.

At the heart of our utter devastation
is rebirth.
Again and again.
In dying the right way,
we come to life.

Letting go is letting come.
Holding on is death forever.

And the lesson to be learned
at the Wailing Wall
is not holding on
but letting go.

In letting go,
we let come what is,
and what may yet be.

And the key is to learn to live
like it matters
and, at the same time,
to be able to let it go,
and to walk on, walk on, when it does go.

Returning again and again to the Wailing Wall,
to let go again and again,
and be reborn again and again.

Like the tide going out,
and turning around,
and coming in.

The flow of life
is the ebb and flow of life.

And I see noise as the denial of all this,
as diversion/distraction.
As in changing the subject
like we might change channels on the television set,
or stations on the radio.

Noise is death 
pretending there is no such thing
as death.

I am against things 
that introduce noise
into the equation.

And, I see silence--
the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence--
as the womb of life, living, being alive.

We don't get there by trying,
and we don't get there by trying not to try.

We get there by responding naturally,
automatically, without thinking about it
to the situation as it arises,
doing what is called for
with the gifts at our disposal:
Our original nature,
our innate virtues/virtuosities
(What we do best and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition--
doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
with nothing in it for us
but the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
and then dropping like the Buddha under the Bo tree,
and waiting for the next situation
to call for what we have to offer...

And like that for the rest of our life.

When The Right Thing To Do
loses consensus nationwide,
we no longer can boast of 
"One nation under God
with liberty and justice for all."

All it took were malcontents
with conspiracy theories
broadcasting the endless ways
democracy was unfair to them
and their kind,
for "What about ME?" and
"When is it going to be MY turn?" 
to expose the fragile nature 
of good faith working 
for the best interest of all concerned
when the loud and the vicious/atrocious
are committed to creating chaos unending
with their grievances and objections
against any system that does not 
cater to their desires which will always
be contrary to the true good of those 
they hate,
making getting along together
forever out of the question.

Creating turmoil is their only joy in life,
destroying democracy is their only goal,
and employing Guerrilla warfare 
on a political/social/cultural level
is their only means to effecting their end
of ending democracy in their lifetime,
and to hell with the good of anyone not like them.

If you are waiting for your losses
to be made up to you,
you are standing in a long line
with other losses accumulating
while you are waiting for
the original ones to be redeemed.

Better just to let them go
and let it be.

Some parents are better than others,
and some kids get the good ones,
and others get the rotten ones.

It is called being lucky
and being unlucky.
There is nothing to be done
but make the best of it,
and don't let your deficits get you down.

We do what we can with what's left
of our life and let that be that.

We leave our sorrows at the wailing wall
and walk on, walk on,
with only our perspective, 
attitude and outlook
between us and the clashing rocks
and the heaving waves of the wine dark sea -- 
"And when the waves have shaken my raft to pieces,
then I will swim!" (Odysseus in The Odyssey) 

“God” does not have to be, need to be, 
posited in any of it. 

In “God,” we find a well-developed projection of ourselves 
(Our idea of our “best self”) 
that is “believed to be ‘Out There’” 
but is actually only faith in faith. 

We could as well consider it to be faith in ourselves. 

There is no reason or need to posit “God”! 
And it is self-deception to do so. 

“How then shall we live?” 
is ours to determine for ourselves. 

And “saying, ‘Yes!’ to Availability and Vulnerability” 
is a very fine way to live! 
Which we are quite capable of determining on our own, 
out of our own contemplation, 
reflection and realization—
without the need of a source 
beyond our own awareness 
of our own Body-Mind connection. 

We have all it takes, 
all that is required, 
to realize/know and do 
what needs to be done, 
when, where and how it needs to be done, 
just by sitting in the right kind of 
emptiness, stillness and silence, 
waiting for clarity 
and watching for what 
emerges within 
for our consideration and implementation. 

No?

I had a dream last night
driving home the point that 
I have no idea of what I'm doing--
I have a chant that goes:
"I do not know what to do,
I do not know what to do (Repeat)--
and am stuck eternally with trusting
my intuition to find the way,
the path,
The Tao,
through the darkness of the time and place,
the here/now of my being,
and hoping bit by bit
to know how to do that
with an increasing degree of competence
over the time left for living.

And I am somehow certain
this is a lot that I share with all of you.
Taking heart in the fact that we 
are in this together
and can find mutual consolation and courage
in being up against it with each other
and our collective intuition,
pondering now what?
All along the way, path, Tao,
in very good company.

Ghetto Economics will be Trump's calling card
if he is re-elected,
stealing from the poor
and giving to the rich.

The Billionaire foundation paving Trump's way
is composed of people in a Money Bubble,
aware only of what they stand to gain
with Trump in office,
and oblivious to what the people
outside that bubble stand to lose.

That would be,
for all practical purposes,
everything. 

Me, for instance.
Trump has promised
to take away my Social Security--
taking away what I amassed over 
40 years and 6 months of salary deductions,
but which, nevertheless,
Trump declares to be an "entitlement program,"
when the actual entitlement program
is the tax cuts going to the people
and corporations already afloat in the Money Bubble.

Trump will take away my Medicare,
and with that goes my healthcare.
He will take away family benefits
necessary for food and medicine
and financial encouragement
to people he never notices,
knows about
or cares about outside the Money Bubble.

The catch is that the welfare
of the people inside the Bubble
is directly connected
to the welfare of the people
outside the Bubble.

The people inside the Bubble
live under the illusion 
that their money makes them secure.
The truth is that their money
is completely without value
everywhere but in their imagination.

When the people outside the Bubble
are crushed by Trump's "entitlement" attacks,
and cannot meet their obligations
or pay their bills,
who is going to prepare the food
and serve it, etc,
in the restaurants where
the people inside the Bubble go
to celebrate their wealth?

Etc., throughout society and culture and world.

We will have a Money Bubble
with no means of support.
Money cannot buy what isn't there.
And money cannot produce what Trump
will destroy in order to make more money
for his friends.

There is a tipping point Trump ignores.
You have to feed those who serve you,
and take care of their basic needs 
by creating an environment that enables
them to take care of their own needs.

Destroy that environment
and you light the fuse
that blows up your Bubble,
or makes it valueless,
which has the same effect.

Creating a worldwide Ghetto
in which no one can thrive,
and few will be able to survive.

Ghetto Economics.
That's what you are voting for
when you vote for Trump.

It comes down to
revolves around,
flows from
listening to our intuition. 

There is never,
was never,
never will be,
any more to it than that.

The people who listen to their intuition
are who they need to be,
doing what needs to be done,
when/where and how it needs to be done.
And the world is better off for them.

Our calling is to live the remainder of our life
being one of those people.

The world is dying for us 
to be who we are
in lifelong service to our intuition.

It is up to us
to spend the rest of our life 
doing that.

And it is essential that we do.

Intuition guides us along the way,
past the withering exits 
to the Wasteland,
disguised as shortcuts
to Happy Ever After,
beyond the off ramps
to All Our Dreams Come True,
through the darkness
of lost hope
and bitter disappointments,
to the realization
of oneness with balance and harmony
and the best we have to offer
aligned with the heart of life and being
through the situations
and circumstances 
as they arise upon the path.

Intuition is the way,
the truth
and the life,
and no one gets to the end
of the journey
except by being true
to their own.