Comes a war, 
comes a hurricane,
comes an earthquake,
comes a baby...
goes the Tao
amid the dust and travail.

The Tao comes and goes.
That is the Way of Tao, 
of the Way.

We find our way back to the Way
through the right kind of emptiness,
stillness,
silence,
and waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

When the sister-in-law comes 
for a two-week visit,
it throws everything up in the air,
and it takes me a month
to get my grove back.

I am "ticky" in a lot of ways.
My balance and harmony are finely tuned.
When I lose The Silence,
I'm lost for a while.
And I have to wait,
knowing it will take time
for things to come back into focus
and for stability to reappear.

Restoring the Tao
is always a matter of time
spent in the right kind of way
for the right amount of time.

–0–

The Tao is doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way.

Anything that assists that
is "in accord/sync with the Tao."
Anything that interferes with that
is "out of accord/sync with the Tao."

Balance and harmony flow with 
the requirements of Tao,
chaos and disruption clash with
the requirements of Tao.

All things will mesh with Tao in time,
but.
Within the harmonious smoothness 
of an asteroid's (Or a galaxy's) orbit,
the harmonious smoothness
of a Black Hole's orbit
intersect with an impact
that puts the clashing rocks
and the heaving waves
to shame.

And, that too, is in accord with Tao.

There are discordant harmonies
at work in the world,
with "Everything in its own time,"
and "What goes around, comes around,"
serving "All things work together for good,"
on the large scale eventually.

Which is to say that the Tao
does not lend itself to anyone's
efforts to contrive/scheme/co-opt/commandeer
for their own benefit/profit/advantage/interest
at the expense of the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way,
of other interests and needs.

Whose interests and needs are supreme?
"The highest good of all concerned!"

The Black Holes hold all the cards.

–0–

All true religion is grounded
on knowing what to do when, where and how.

Those who know,
know the same things 
over time and space.

Here is a link to the way that happens:
https://ts2.shop/en/posts/your-consciousness-can-connect-with-the-whole-universe-scientists-say

Resonance, vibes, in-sync-ness, etc.
really is a matter of "being on the same wave-length"!
And the path to doing that 
seems to be spending time 
in the right kind of emptiness/stillness/silence
and waiting for realization/knowing 
to occur to us
"out of nowhere."

The right kind of emptiness/stillness/silence
is the adamantine foundation of all true religion.

Call it "prayer" if you want to.
Or "meditation."
Just know it has nothing to do with "faith"
or "believing,"
just knowing how to be empty, still, and silent
in the right way.

And we do that through practice, practice, practice.

–0–

It is the Adam and Eve Leaving Eden image
and the Garden of Gethsemane image
being played out in our lives everyday
that keeps things as they are
in the world.

The writer of the book of James (4:2) nailed it:
"You crave but do not have, 
so you kill. 
You covet but you cannot get what you want,
so you quarrel and fight." 

Having our way
and getting what we want
rule our lives
and guide our boat 
on its path through the sea.

Growing up and living to serve
different motives and goals
is like dying in Gethsemane/Golgotha.

And it is the only way
of harmonizing Yin and Yang,
balancing the contradictions,
reconciling the opposites
and living aligned with the Path,
and at one with way things are. 

It is not for everybody.
We have to be at a certain place
in our life
to be able to acquiesce to what 
is being asked of us,
and transcend our interests
in the service of a good greater 
than our own personal good.

We aren't old enough to do some things.
And that's the kink in the hose.
We have to grow up some more again today.

That is the tipping point between 
addiction and sobriety. 
Between lost and found.
Between being mostly dead and being fully alive.

Most of the world is too immature
for us to have any chance at 
"Liberty and Justice for All."
Leaving us to make out as best we can
with no choose-able choices
and no viable alternatives
to life as it is.

Making our peace with how things are
is the task of life,
and doing what must be done
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
because that's how things are,
is what is left to us
because we don't get the help and cooperation
we need 
to have a different/better world.

In order to find what we need
to do what needs to be done,
we fall back on the meditative exercise
encompassing emptiness/stillness/silence,
integrity/sincerity/spontaneity,
spirit/energy/vitality,
original nature/innate virtues/characteristics,
in seeing what's what
and what needs to be done in response to it
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

To adopt this way of responding to the world
we meet each day,
is to find the Invisible Path
and to make better what can be made better
by our manner of dealing with what must be dealt with
here and now.

And if we shave our head in protest,
laughing at the futility of protest,
who could blame us? 

(Laughter is the secret weapon
of those who know what they are up against
and don't care what their chances are)

–0–

Our primary concern needs to be
living as good stewards of our health.

Health is not to be taken for granted, 
as though we can live anyway we want
and eat anything we like
anytime we feel like it
and be healthy.

What changes do we need to make
in the way we live
to live a healthy life?

That has to be the first question
we answer correctly
in living the best life we are capable
of living.

Sit down with your health
and what you are willing to do
in order to improve it.

The discipline required to improve our health
is an example of the kind of discipline
we are going to be required to get our life
aligned with what is good for us
throughout the scale of daily acts and deeds.

Time spent with the right kinds of
emptiness,
stillness
and silence is on the list.

Time spent being aware of our
perceptions and perspectives
is also on the list.

Time spent developing our curiosity,
interests, 
our capacity for wonder and joy,
reverence and awe...

We have to consciously, 
deliberately, intentionally
place ourselves in the presence
of the kinds of people and things
that call forth the best that is in us,
and reduce the amount of time
spent with people and things 
that play to the worst that is in us.

Health is a matter of awareness
and discipline.
Knowing what is called for 
and doing it,
reliably, dependably, relentlessly
is the theme of life lived well,
lived abundantly.

No one can do that for us.
It is up to us all the way.

–0–

If we were to build a church without theology
(And why don't we?),
we could do it basted upon personal experience.

The ground/foundation would be
the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence.

The touchstone components
for maintaining/deepening our attachment
to the core/center/source of life and being
would be 
integrity/sincerity,
spontaneity,
balance/harmony,
spirit,
energy,
vitality...
As each of us understand these terms to be
in our own life.

We would gather to explore our original nature
and the virtues/specialties/characteristics
that come with us from the womb--
and how we are exhibiting/expressing/serving these
qualities 
in the here and now experiences of our life.

In so doing,
we would be balancing/harmonizing ourselves,
in our work to experience, 
engage,
explore
ways of better being ourselves 
in our daily engagements with our life.

The thrust would be how to better who we are
for the good of each situation as it arises,
and not how to have our way
and get what we want
as much, and as often, as possible
before we die.

The process would be more on the order
of a 12-Step group
that that of a religious service.

It would center on hearing what we have to say
rather being told something
someone thinks we need to hear.

We all could start a small group of this type,
with 3, 5, or 7 people,
and learn with experience what size is the optimal size
for everyone to be able to say
what they need to hear
in the time allotted for saying what needs to be said.

Additional accompaniments,
singing bowls, 
chants,
music,
readings,
silence,
etc.
could be experimented with
and worked out over time.  

No one is going to come along
and hand something like this 
out to us.
It will become a reality,
only by us doing it ourselves.

Namaste

–0–

The day is here
to be seen,
and heard,
and understood,
comprehended,
attended
and served.

We are here
to do right by
each day.

To size things up,
know what is called for
and do what needs to be done.

Some days demand that we go back to bed.
Some days require us to go for a walk
with a camera.

Or write a piece about days gone by.

We have to ferret out 
what each day is offering to us,
asking of us,
and be the day's observant servant
in all things great and small.

We don't need any theology to do that,
or a doctorate in philosophy
or psychology.

We only have to have eyes that see
ears that hear,
hearts that know what's what,
what is needed,
what is to be done,
when,
where
and how it needs to be done,
and do it.

In all circumstances that come along
and in each situation that arises 
within all of them.

But lethargy and laziness
have a hard time finding a place
to prop up their feet.

Oh, look!
Another day is upon us!
Let's see what we can do with it!

–0–

The Hum at the foundational center 
of the universe 
is the gravitational remnant 
of the destruction of hundred, 
or thousands, of galaxies. 

AUM is the triumph of Black Holes, 
and the wail of unimaginable devastation. 

Israel in Gaza.
Hamas in Gaza.

This is where we live. 
How we live with what we live with 
is up to us.

Our response-ability
to the here/now
of each situation as it arises
is what we say,
what we do.

And say-not,
do-not.

–0–

Find a place
in image form
or actual life,
that is for you
a fine place 
for engaging the truth
of what's what
and how things are,
and finding what you have
to bring forth
in adjusting to it
and doing what needs to be done
in response to it.

Just sit there,
or walk around,
waiting to see 
what arises,
emerges,
occurs to you
in the way of responses
you might make
out of the spontaneity
of your original nature
and the virtues/traits
that are yours to work into your life.

This could be your listening/hearing,
looking/seeing place--
your place of knowing
what is called for
and how best to comply
through all the situations 
and circumstances of your life,
now and forever more.

–0–

No one has ever had the solution
to war/hatred/evil.

Makes it easy to think no one ever will.

Leaves us with wringing our hands
and staring at the wall,
weeping.

The best among us never did any more than that.

Buddhist monks self-immolation in Vietnam
speaks to the futility of "nothing better to do."

Flash forward to Hamas and Israel and the Gaza Strip,
and the "Armed Republic: Nothing But Christ"
(Of all things)
idea for peace everlasting in our own country,
and it seems that the solution to war
is, as always, to kill everyone not like "us."

Takes me back to the Butcher of Lyons,
AKA Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons,
and his treatise "Against Heresy,"
where the solution to heresy is to kill the heretics.

Killing everyone not like us
is the ultimate fix for all of our problems with "them."
Only, "they" never go away.

Which means that "we" have to "die"
to our idea of how things ought to be,
grow up and allow "them" to be how "they" are
no matter what that might mean for "us."

It is never going to happen, is it?
"We" are going to move to The New World,
raise an army,
kill the British
and then kill the Native Americans,
and then kill everyone else
who gets in "our" way.
Forever.

Killing one another is just what we do.
A stalemate is the best we can hope for,
only that never lasts for long,
because there are always people
who just like to blow other people up.

Which leaves us with wringing our hands
and looking at the wall,
weeping.

Wondering "Why can't we just get along?"

–0–

During the heresy hunts and murders,
people were compelled to convert
to something
that can only be taken on faith.
And faith cannot be forced.

The core/foundation of my faith is
the essential/utmost importance
of doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
and in the right way.

I believe that is essentially important
for itself alone
whether it "does any good" or not.

Trying to force anyone to take that
as the ground of their faith
would be the wrong thing to do.

The grounding foundation of our faith
is our business alone,
and no one can decide/declare
that we are right or wrong about it.

It is entirely ours to conceive,
embrace,
articulate
and serve.

Jimmy Buffet believed
it's five o'clock somewhere,
and, as far as I know,
was faithful to his convictions
as long as he was alive.

Which is more than can be said
for a lot of people
whose professed beliefs and life
have no apparent connection at all.

–0–

We all need a sounding board.
A sounding board is all we need.
In world of balance and harmony,
we all would be our own sounding board,
sitting down with ourselves
on a regular basis
in a dependable kind of way
to talk things over
and think things through
in order to see what we look at
and do what needs to be done about it,
day in and day out
all our life long.

We have within a tuning fork of sorts,
and the capability of harmonizing ourselves
with ourselves
within the circumstances of our life,
if we but take the time to check in
and check things out
and find our way back to who we are
and what is ours to do.

Resonance is our most dependable state of being.
Resonating with ourselves 
and what is ours to do
keeps us on track,
in focus,
in tune,
on the beam,
at one with who we are
and what is ours to do
within the circumstances
of time and place
here and now
all along the way.

Right relationship with ourselves
enables right relationship
with those who are capable
of right relationship with themselves,
and makes things as right 
as they can be,
given the nature of life in the moment of living.

The ground of right relationship
is loving/trusting ourselves day-to-day,
and being worthy of love/trust
is to be capable of love/trust
with ourselves and one another.

Love/trust is not a feeling,
not an emotion,
so much as it is an attitude,
a state of mind and being.

It is founded upon listening/hearing,
looking/seeing,
knowing/not-kidding
ourselves or one another
about who we are and what's what
and what we will do and not do about it all.

Truth.
Living truthfully.
Lovingly.
Trustingly. 
Keeping good faith
with ourselves and one another.

Enables us to remain on track,
in focus,
in tune,
on the beam,
at one with who we are
and what is ours to do
within the circumstances
of time and place
here and now
all along the way.

We are what we need
if we will but do what we need to do
to realize/remember it/tend it/serve it
all along the way.

–0–