It's always been up to you, as an individual, to decide. How to spend your cash as a going concern. What cash? Consciousness. What to practice paying your attention to. What matters, of course, is what will bring the greatest return. Is it greater to give than to receive? That is the question. Some have said it is more profitable to give away all that I have than to receive riches as my own. These two approaches differ dramatically. Just cannot do both. Which?

NO CHANCE FOR A FICTION

There is no chance for mankind, a fiction, but 

there is a chance that never expires for an 

individual. Every attempt by people to create an 

organization among men and women is absent 

truth. It is like a farmer trying to grow a crop with 

soil and water in the absence of seed. Things are 

on Earth as they are. Only the meek get it, so, we 

don't get away with nuthin'.

Wherever there is wisdom lurking about, no matter what the circumstance, there is always an answer to be found. 

A rut and a grove. Same thing and yet so different. It's a mystery. How can it be so? What is it makes so much of a difference that cannot be found with the most sensitive instrument? You look at a living creature and proclaim, There is life here! If you were asked to find the life you speak of and show us, could you? I once heard a learned physicist reveal that an equation that he works with to try and explain the Universe is not alive. It is a dead thing. It just lies there. One can command it to sit up and walk or fly, but it just lies there. What gives it its juice? A mystery?

Take music. Same thing. What makes us dance? Where is it? Where's the rhythm? We do not doubt its existence, too much obvious evidence. But where is it?

And where is the true God? The Power that believed in you? It believes in you still. How do I know that? You breathe, for one thing. That's what I want to talk about.

A man or woman can be in a penitentiary wearing a prescribed drab uniform under armed guard always inside a fence taking orders about every detail of the day's activities and yet BE FREE. Another living person can be the owner of several mansions overlooking stunning views complete with lots of large closets of designer clothing and drive five automobiles anywhere and anytime he wants and spend money in unlimited amounts be rich and famous and BE A PRISONER. A rut and a groove. What really matters to you?

A teacher once told of searching for poverty. His journey took him to the slums of India. Seeing a little boy in the slum who wore only a torn shirt, no pants and no shoes, laughing as he ran rolling a tire down a dusty road with a stick the man knew he witnessed joy. And he asked me, Where is the poverty? A rut and a groove. It is important is it not to understand this world we live in? To live in mystery and be secure is an art. Wherever there is wisdom lurking about, no matter what the circumstance, there is always an answer to be found. Can you trust a mystery? As a mystery? No explanation necessary? I, myself, have experienced a slum dwelling wherein I bathed in light and joy. Do you know of such a thing as that? I bet you do. Dig in. The art lies hidden. Look beneath the surface of things.

I heard about a man famous for building bridges all over the world. He was proud of his work to join cities, he said. As I see it, we need to be about the business of building another kind of bridge. Such a building as that is not done with plans and drawings and heavy machinery. A building that is done in stillness, listening to and watching nothing, connects what has been disconnected by the building of bridges that connect cities. Have you noticed how the bridges between cities can actually divide us and facilitate invasion then war?

This morning while listening to a song about Bob Dylan fighting with his twin, the enemy within, I glimpsed a ray of light new to me. Who is that twin we all know about? If one is made of thoughts, well, it is the antithesis of every idea you have adopted as to who you are. It cannot be helped that when I say I like chocolate I also create a thought that I do not like it. These thoughts come like a wildfire at times, all day long and into the night and even when I dream. So, I am building two identities constantly. Opposites. And it is like one of them is considered to be normal me and the other is shunned, rejected and in some way sentenced to remain in a cellar within me where I keep monsters. That one is not about to behave willingly. It wants to live to violate my rules against it. This struggle is normal for anybody who thinks he or she lives inside a society with a name. Why? One must believe one is created by thought as a prerequisite to choosing membership in a society that is definitely created by thought.

I write only to suggest to those who experience what is discussed above that you may not be made of thought. Actually, you can find out for yourself whether it is so. Do not take my word for it. Years ago, someone suggested to me that I really do not end at the surface of my skin. It was told that the farthest part of me extends beyond the farthest star in the Universe. What I know is that upon hearing that I experienced a feeling that I would describe as infinite. It lasted only a brief time and was gone. Now, many years later, I experience it daily when I am willing to sit still and simply be for an hour.

So, if I am correct in my suggestion, then the so-called science of the mind is all dedicated to the study of who we are not. It (who we are not) is in a war, within and without. We feed it pills to ease the pain of living that way. Is that foolish? Find out.

Unconsciousness. What is it? We think. We think of many things. Someday make a list of the things you think about. I bet it will be a long one. But one thing will be missing from the list for you never think about it. What is it? The only answer is that it is the one thing you never think about. Know what that is?

There is the empty space out of which thoughts arise. It exists. Do you doubt its existence? It is impossible to doubt, is it not? Stop even for a moment your thinking. Thinking, you learn, comes and it goes. It is and it is not. That which can be taken away is not real.

Let's play a game. You are a man. Pretend for a moment you are in a financial crisis. You are very worried. Afraid. Upset. You pull your hair. Curse God. Hate everybody. Then a beautiful woman comes into the room where you are who walks seductively to your table and asks a simple question of you. Just a small favor. Something you know you can do for her easily and well. She has the most appealing smile you have ever seen. You fall in love instantly.

You have no financial problem. Whatever can be erased like that is not real. Nothing that can be thought is real or true. Only what everybody agrees upon is true. Argument is a waste of time and effort. There is one problem, it is the father of all the others you have. In a place where there are no problems you arose. While there you were without troubles of any kind. You left. When you left the place where problems are not you found where problems abound. You stayed one day too long there. You forgot home. I am to remind you.

True meditation, and there is a lot that goes by its name that is false, is simply a visit home. There is a discovery to renew and renew daily. What is it? It is the understanding that nobody is meditating. Nobody, that is, who can be named or even thought about. A real no-body in other words. You know it better than you know anything else. Perhaps, even, it is better said that it is all you really know. You are the sum of all that is true which includes all things and is greater than the sum of all things. Do not even try thinking about it. Behold instead a swan!

It seems I have spent a great deal too much time these days in the company of people who talk about freedom but go home to their jail cells and enjoy the lace curtains and 50 new channels of entertainment the warden installed to make them happy prisoners. They call this “my new way of life” and say they are grateful. Hmm.