I just returned to Moab from a few days visit to my parents (it was my Dad's 86th birthday!).
My friend Brandon also arrived a few days ago from Seattle, and I just heard Cody and Summer just arrived in Moab today! Brandon, Summer, and Cody were part of our moneyless tribe last year. Who knows, the tribe might be resurrecting again!
We're having our first weekly Potlatch Potluck of Turtle Island this Sunday at 4PM in Rotary Park in Moab! It's a grand give-away celebration to instill gift economy! See link for details.
And I am doing my show Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out on KZMU again Sunday at 9PM to 11PM. It happens I missed doing the show the last two Sundays, and my friend "Z" filled in with his "Show of the Winds" instead. He used to live in Moab and do his show during that slot. He wanted to do it again while visiting back in Moab a few weeks, so I made room for him. But I'm set to do my show every Sunday evening now. If the above link doesn't work, try it at Streema.
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Now... on with my blogosiphizing:
Trading With the Universe vs. Unmerited Gift
A guy named Issac recently sent me some good questions and comments, which have helped me think through past things I've written, and to better clarify them for myself and for you. So I've decided to include some of his questions and comments here, with my answers. There's something magical about all this. After going through periods of great doubt, and learning to let droves of public and private criticisms roll off my back, all the sudden I see the pristine lotus rising from the mud. I feel a tingling sense of excitement that a profound truth is crystallizing more and more for me, and I hope you can sense it, too. Thanks for stimulating this crystallization for me, Issac:
Issac states:
There's also a couple of things in your writings that I'm trying to reconcile, with limited success. At some point you said something to the effect that you trade with the universe, trusting that things will work out. But somehow I would guess that you don't really think of this as trade because that would imply you're doing what you do because you expect some reward. Anyway, in a more recent article you were talking about how undeserved things happen to people, which seems on the face of it to not fit with the idea of trading with the universe. Maybe the trick is to get free of the feeling the universe owes us something or vice versa.
My Response:
It often seems that my issue is with trade.
But it's not trade that is the problem, it is our thinking we can control trade.
Everything that ever happens in the universe is trade.
This is the law of physics.
This is my point, that we don't trust that trade happens automatically.
For every force
there is an equal and opposite force.
This law of physics is stated more precisely if we say:
For every action there is simultaneously an equal re-action.
For every positive there is a negative.
For every wave crest there is a wave trough.
But we do not trust this Law of Physics!
We do not trust this law immutable and verifiable!
Call the Law of Physics God, if you like:
"Recompense is mine, I will repay," says the Law of Physics!
We do not trust that repayment happens automatically.
We do not recognize justice.
When we worry that the Law of physics will fail us,
when we worry that physics is not just,
that something or somebody will not get their just payment,
we start trying to consciously control trade.
When we think the natural universe is unjust,
this is when we become unjust, judgmental, not able to see things as they are.
This is when our thoughts become delusional
and we can no longer see reality.
Have we exempted ourselves from the Law of Physics that created us?
For every work
there simultaneously is an equal reward.
For every credit
there simultaneously is an equal debt.
Thus, according to the Law of Physics,
In the present moment,
every action of every particle in the universe
functions in perfect justice,
perfect justice,
perfectly just.
Meditate deeply on some
dictionary definitions of just:
dictionary definitions of just:
"guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness"
"given or awarded rightly; deserved, as a sentence, punishment, or reward"
"in keeping with truth or fact; true; correct"
"exactly or precisely" [e.g., This is just what I mean].
"at this very instant" [e.g., He's just arriving].
"only" [e.g., He was just a clerk until he became ambitious].
"actually; really; positively" [e.g., The weather is just glorious].
Yes, meditating deeply on all the above ways to define just,
you can sum up its definition as
One and Only.
When the action and reaction, the credit and the debt, are simultaneous,
they are instantaneously Now,
instantaneously One and Only One,
they are just.
The Just One.
The Holy One.
What is justified
is level,
is equal,
is equanimous,
is equitable,
without inequity,
without iniquity,
in perfect balance.
Realizing No Delay between Cause and Effect:
Restating and addressing Issac's second comment:
Anyway, in a more recent article you were talking about how undeserved things happen to people, which seems on the face of it to not fit with the idea of trading with the universe. Maybe the trick is to get free of the feeling the universe owes us something or vice versa.
Yeah, this is paradoxical, at least in our own minds (judgments).
Our minds can only see cause-and-effect as actions and reactions as delayed events in time.
Here's how the conventional, modern mind sees it: Sow a seed, and you'll get a reward later as fruit.
Or, pull a raspberry from a bush, and we see the bush as the "giver" and the harvester as the "taker."
But the mind that can see only this way is deluded, clouded by its own thoughts.
It cannot see that the action and the reaction are exactly simultaneous in the present moment. The raspberry bush receives exactly what it needs simultaneously in the moment when a you take a raspberry from it!
If both you and the bush are living in truth, not in judgment, you realize the bush needs you to take the berry as much as you need the berry.
The giver is also the taker
and the taker is also the giver,
simultaneously.
The giver is also the taker
and the taker is also the giver,
simultaneously.
For example:
When you poop, you need to poop as much as the soil needs your poop.
The soil simultaneously gives you a service as much as you give the soil a service.
Yet, normally, the thought doesn't normally enter our minds that we give anything when we poop,
and this is why pooping is such a holy act,
for our pooping is without ego, without thought of credit and debt!
Our pooping is Holy because it is only pooping,
Our pooping is Holy because it is just pooping.
Our pooping is just.
No thought of deserving or undeserving.
Everything just is. Everything is justice.
To the just, all things are just.
"To the pure, all things are pure."
To the holy, all things are holy.
Everything just is. Everything is justice.
To the just, all things are just.
"To the pure, all things are pure."
To the holy, all things are holy.
Indeed, when we give up our judgments of "good" and "bad",
when we give up thoughts of "credit" and "debt",
we see everything as it is,
without judgment,
and we "enter" the world of Perfect Justice.
Actually, we never enter it because it is already here,
just here and nowhere else.
In reality, everything that happens is "deserved",
until our minds try to wrap themselves around "deserve" and "undeserved".
When we realize that credit and debt are one and the same in the present moment,
not delayed, they cancel each other out in perfect annihilation;
thus, there really is no more credit and debt,
no more "deserved" and "undeserved"
and everything is Gift.
Everything is just a gift,
One and Only One Gift.
Everything is realized as Grace.
Everything is received in Gratitude,
both the unmerited favor and the unmerited suffering.
This is when we realize that
unmerited favor and unmerited suffering have canceled out each other
in perfect annihilation of One and Only One,
unmerited favor and unmerited suffering have canceled out each other
in perfect annihilation of One and Only One,
Just One
Wholly One
Holy One
The Vow is the Paying of the Vow
Holy One
The Vow is the Paying of the Vow
Our modern world is founded on verbal and written vows.
Our modern world is founded upon delusion.
To make a verbal or written promise of payment in the future is to enter into debt,
to enter into delusion, to create harm in the world.
To make a verbal vow for the future is to enter debt,
To make a verbal vow for the future is to break the vow of the present.
Only the worried mind, the controlling mind, the possessive mind, the egotistical mind,
can make a verbal vow for the future.
Such a mind has already broken what the Present has joined as One.
The mind that makes a verbal vow for the future
has already broken its vow.
The mind that makes a verbal vow for the future
is already divorced from the present,
divorced from everybody in its presence.
Be debtor to no one, except to love one another.
Love itself, not verbal promises, is the only true vow, the vow already paid right now.
There is absolutely no delay between a true vow and paying the true vow.
There is no delay between the promise and the keeping of the promise.
If there is even a split-second delay in repaying your vow, your vow is false.
If you don't understand, take this example:
What mother needs to make a verbal vow to her baby?
What baby can understand a verbal vow?
See for yourself:
the mother's vow of assurance, of commitment, to her baby is love itself, and only love.
If she has to make a verbal vow of commitment, she is not a real mother but a hireling.
If you need a contract to stay with somebody, you are not a lover but a prostitute.
The only true vow is the vow of doing.
The only true vow is love itself.
All other vows are broken the very moment they are made.
Yes, any contract that needs verbal or written vows is already broken.
Any marriage that needs verbal vows is already divorced,
already invalidated, already broken.
No one has ever yet or ever will stay together in love because of a verbal vow.
People who need verbal vows to bind themselves together for the future are untrusting, possessive, delusional, gone from love, already divorced.
The to make future promises is to divorce oneself from the Present.
The Present is the only reality, for no one but the imagination can ever, ever leave it.
Nothing real can ever be divorced from the present, ever.
Only what is false, only the thought and imagination of the mind, can be divorced from the present.
May 2000 years of marriage lunacy end.
Doesn't the one who says not to divorce say in the very same breath not to make vows?
Doesn't the one who says not to divorce say in the very same breath not to make vows?
All Arises Today,
Just Now!
Just Now!
For example, look at a snowflake. One arm of a snowflake does not arise from the other five mirroring arms of the snowflake, but arises from the center. Is any arm of the snowflake even aware of any of the other five arms of the snowflake? Are snowflakes so common we don't realize this miracle? Every particle in the universe, born spontaneously from an unseen center, mirroring other particles, and returning to annihilation is a mystery perceived by Quantum physicists, religious prophets and mystics, and Zen sages.
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| Virtual Particles |
The universe is created and annihilated every moment.
When you look at a river, you see a different river, a completely new set of molecules, every moment, though each river form mirrors its previous and future form.
Basically, you are a river.
All the universe is a river.
In the natural, undeluded world, the Right Hand does not know what the Left Hand is doing, but receives its entire sustenance and direction from the Center. This is the secret to Taoist Marshal Arts.
On the ark of the covenant, the left cherub and the right cherub do not focus on each other, but on the Center Unseen. The moment one cherub focuses on the other cherub, he is Lucifer falling from Grace.
When, for example, marshal artists, tight-rope walkers, dancers, or piano players start thinking of balance, trying to control the balance of Right and Left, the balance of Credit and Debt, they stumble and fall. They lose faith in the Center and stumble. They become un-centered. You know this in yourself.
The Medieval Japanese Zen Master Dogen Zenji perceived this concept, that all arises not from anything else, but from This Moment:
It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no-death. Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.
--Zen Master Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253)
Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I have proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, 'My idol has done them...
. . . . I have made you hear New Things from This Moment,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
They are created Now
and not from the beginning;
And before This Day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, 'Of course I knew them.'
--Prophet Isaiah (48:5-7)
They reach the goal before taking the first step.
They complete the speech before their tongue moves.
Even if they have had foresight long before,
the origin of the road lies away ahead of their foresight.
-- Zen master Wumen Hui-k'ai (無門慧開)(1183–1260)
Which is the leg, my leg or the donkey's?
It has already made a step even before lifting its leg.
-- Zen master Wumen Hui-k'ai (無門慧開)(1183–1260)
The Creation of the Universe is Now
Simply look around can see Creation happening right now. You don't need scriptures or a science textbook to see this:
Isn't light coming into existence right now?
Aren't light and darkeness being separated right now?
Isn't atmosphere is being born right now?
And bodies of water are forming right now.
The earth is bringing forth plants and animals right now. Stars are being born right now.
And we ourselves are being formed from the molecules of soil, right now.
We ourselves are being created right now.
There is no delay in the word of creation and creation itself. All of creation is the Word, spoken into existence. Every creature itself is the Speaking of the Word. The "Gospel" is already preached to every created thing in the universe because every created thing is the preaching! The Word never ends, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
But we have replaced the Word which is itself with words that mean something else! We have replaced the vow that is its own payment with the vow delayed in payment, the vow separated from its payment in time and space. We have replaced the Word which is itself with a damned book and have become the wretched People of the Book who bicker and fight over nothing but words, illusions, idols, even as we ignore Reality, the True Word.
Genesis Now, End Now
And all is being destroyed right now
For every creation there is a simultaneous equal destruction.
Okay, I was going to keep writing, delving into the Genesis Creation, something I've been flirting with for years, something blowing my mind. But this would turn into an in-depth essay too much for this blog post.
So it'll have to be a "Part 2", or else a whole separate essay for the website, or even a book.
In the mean time, be here now, always,
the only way we can know anything that can ever be known,
the only way we can ever realize love,
the only way to realize Perfect Justice,
the Genesis of all.
