2) Prayer is the soul’s orientation to truth, to the truth of its own experience, to the articulation of its experience of truth, to saying what it is to be alive in this time and place, to the expression of its experience of life.
3) Jesus is an ink blot and God is an optical illusion. So is the Tao—an ink blot and an optical illusion. What we see depends upon how we look. Now you see it, now you don’t. Now it’s like this, now it’s like that. Everything is a mirror, showing us ourselves. Projection, reflection, it’s all the same to eyes that see.
4) Don’t think that you can say anything about the Tao, or Truth (not that they are separate things) that won’t be reversed by something else you say about the Tao, or Truth (not that they are separate things).
5) Truth is true only so far as it goes. Nothing is so true that it never clashes with a contradictory truth (Not even this statement is that true). “Yes, but…” is always the response by those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that understands. And, if you are one of those people, you are saying “Yes, but” about now.
6) When our heart is in what we are doing, we are one with the center. But, mind can change heart, and we see things with new eyes, and do things differently. There Is not one way to do things over time. Things do not stay the same forever. We do not think the way we have always thought, do what we have always done. Those who see things clearly, see things differently over time.
7) To see what needs to be done and do it in the way it needs to be done at the time it needs to be done is to be “on the beam” and “in synch with the deepest source.”
8) We interfere with this kind of seeing by having and imposing our plans and agendas on our lives. By willing what cannot be willed, by wanting what we have no business having. Ah, but. How are we to know?
9) When we cannot be trusted to know what is right and do it in the situation as it arises, we can only do what was thought to be right in a similar situation in all situations that follow it no matter how different they are.
10) When we enter into, or create, situations that have never existed before, we have nothing to guide us in knowing what to do and avoid the discomfort of not-knowing by making up rules and policies that don’t fit, and saying what nice rules and policies they are, and forcing everyone to abide by them.
11) There is “in synch,” and there is “out of synch.” There is a trick, however: Out of synch is in synch with ultimate synch-ness. Harmony, oneness, is everywhere. It just takes a while for it to be apparent sometimes.
12) If the sage does things as they should be done, then there are things which should not be done, and there are things to be preferred and chosen over other things, and impartiality is out of the question. The whole point of being privy to sagacity is to know what is to be preferred and chosen. Wisdom is to be preferred over folly, and partiality is the way of things.
13) Don’t worry about it. Just live your life, the life that is yours to live, and let that be that. Let your detractors be your detractors, and your critics be your critics, and your supporters be your supporters, and your fans be your fans. Let those who are against you be those who are against you, and let those who are for you be those who are for you, and don’t be undone, or impressed, or distracted by any of it.
14) We work with the givens in doing what needs to be done, which is sensed by those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that understands in each situation “as it arises.”
15) It takes a lot of looking to be able to see, a lot of listening to be able to hear, a lot of asking, seeking and knocking to be able to understand. It takes a lot of living to be able to be awake and alive.
16) Stepping aside and letting life have its way with us is a test of faith, of our capacity to trust ourselves to life unknowing, confident only that stepping aside is the right thing to do.
17) Oneness is the fundamental presumption. As is emptiness. As is nothingness. Quick! Which is it?
18) It is said “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” And, those who DON’T live by the sword will die by the sword, or by those who wield the sword. Existence is violent. “Life eats life.” How’s that for violence?
19) What is this “No!” to violence from those who say “Everything moves in oneness,” and “Nothing is the world is separate, unworthy, or lost”? Violence, harmony, impartiality, indifference… What is to be embraced? What is to be rejected?
20) The sage doesn’t worry about it. What does the sage care?
21) What is the value of being undisturbed and peaceful in a world where “Everything moves in oneness” and “Nothing in the world is separate, unworthy, or lost,” and “The stone and the jewel are honored as equals”?
22) Respond to your circumstances by doing what is called for “in the situation as it arises”!
23) What do we want? What is it that we cannot get enough of? What is the need that goes unmet and sends us forever crashing into the limits of our lives? What are we after?
24) Trying to have more than we can have, or have any business having, ravages countrysides.
25) When do we have what we need? When can we be content, be satisfied, rest easily, not worry, trust ourselves to our lives, assured that we will always have what we need?
26) The way is not the way to what we want.
27) To have all that we want is to have more than we have.
28) Harmony Is not the highest good. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We live in the service of what needs to happen without preconceived notions of what that might be. It is ad lib all the way, and we are surprised to find ourselves doing what we do, having done what we have done.
29) The sage doesn’t have to have things be different than they are, but has the eye to see what is possible, and assists in the movement-to-the-good that is a potential in every moment. We live toward the good “in the situation as it arises.”
30) Some futures are better than others. Some things are to be preferred over others. All things are not equal. It matters how we live.
31) Those who are alive are alive to the time and place of their living. They see what is possible and do what needs to be done in the service of a good that is greater than their own good. They do what is theirs to do without thinking about what they stand to gain or lose, or who is watching, or who is keeping score. Whose advantage is served in doing what is right, now?
32) Some things have no business being. The child molester cannot be himself. The alcoholic, the psychopath, cannot be allowed to be “who they are.” Control and interference have their place, else why try to control the controlling power of those in control, or interfere with the interference of those who interfere?
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