Try to stay alive one more day.

If the eye never falls asleep,
All dreams cease by themselves.
If the spirit retains its unity,
All things are of one essence.
When this essence is seen,
In an instant we are free.
We return to the origin
And remain that which we are.
- T’sen T’sang

You've got to imagine she is thinking: Oh shit!

At once, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men entered they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Acts 5:10

Sapphira took a moment to think.

What to say?

In an instant she could be free.

Truth is just like this.

Your friend is the one who calls you into question.

Once there, you must question what is presented to you. Don't be shy. Don't be indignant. Nor insulted. Your friend is the unexpected one who does not allow any set self-opinion to stand uncontested. Instead, he calls you into question. You cannot be arrogant. You must ask the question. Then you must respond to it.

The universal body of reality
Is so subtle that
You do not hear it
When you deliberately
Listen for it,
And you do not see it
When you look at it.
As for the pure knowledge
That has no teacher,
How can it be attained by
Thought or study?
- Huanglong

There are no teachers. Only learners. Everyone standing in the midst of others is always and only demonstrating herself or himself. This one is revealing himself to another. Herself to another. No teaching; only learning.

Then he said to them, ‘Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a sabbath day without hesitation?’ And to this they could find no answer.
--Luke 14: 5-6

Forget the rules. Know them, but forget them. Just do what is asking to be done in every moment.

There is no answer. There is, instead, moment to moment response to the mystery we find ourselves living each day. There is no end to it. Mystery, genuine mystery, is not solved -- it is lived.

No final word. No closing statement after which nothing more to be said.

There is always something wanting to be said. It looks to us to find it and to say it. In the same way, scripture (being alive) wants to be lived through our bodies -- not quoted and filed by our minds.

Go to church if it helps you. Grow tomatoes to put store-
bought in perspective. Listen to Elvis and Bach. Unless
you're tone deaf, own Perlman's "Meditation from Thais."
Don't look for hidden meanings in a cardinal's song.
Don't think TV characters talk to you; that's crazy.

Don't be too sane. Work hard. Loaf easily. Have good
friends, and be good to them. Be immoderate
in moderation. Spend little time anesthetized. Dive
the Great Barrier Reef. Don't touch the coral. Watch
for sea snakes. Smile for the camera. Don't say "Cheese."
(from poem "How to Live" by Charles Harper Webb, from Amplified Dog.)

The epigraph to that poem is by Sharon Olds, and reads: "I don't know how to live."

Don't know.

Just live.

It's all there.

Hear the question.

Hear friends.

Let God live through you.

Evening chill damp fog will turn to slippery surfaces as temperature falls.

Day of the dead when "pan de muerto," or bread of the dead, is eaten.

Many times the mountains have
Turned from green to yellow
So much for the capricious earth!
Dust in your eyes,
The triple world is narrow;
Nothing on your mind,
Your chair is wide enough.
- Muso (1275 – 1351)

The wide chair looks out on November emptiness. Bare limbs a sudden novelty.

Thursday Evening Conversation is currently Course in Miracles. Jack leads. New metaphors, new views.

On this mountain he will remove
the mourning veil covering all peoples,
and the shroud enwrapping all nations,
he will destroy Death for ever.
--Isaiah 25: 7

So many are so enthralled with killing and death. They are pleased Jesus was killed for them. The look forward to Jesus killing those not saved. Wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq, soon maybe in Iran, then maybe other Middle Eastern wars with Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Syria. Then to Asia. Then to Eastern Europe. The religious zealots take curious joy in, for them, the prelude to apocalypse. We are an odd people.

Anger

I killed the bee for no reason except that it was there and you were
watching, disapproving,
which made what I would do much worse but I was angry with
you anyway and so I put my foot on it,
leaned on it, tested how much I'd need to make that resilient,
resisting cartridge give way
and crack! abruptly, shockingly it did give way and you turned
sharply and sharply now
I felt myself balanced in your eyes—why should I feel myself so
balanced always in your eyes;
isn't just this half the reason for my rage, these tendencies of
yours, susceptibilities of mine?—
and "Why?" your eyes said, "Why?" and even as mine sent back my
answer, "None of your affair,"
I knew that I was being once again, twice now, weighed, and this
time anyway found wanting.
(Poem: "Anger" by C.K. Williams, from Love About Love. Ausable Press.)

We celebrate the fact of each dead being today. Like the mouse running from my cleaning in the cabin into the cat's mouth. The unnecessary necessity of it.

Saskia said she cried at mass this morning. For Sylvia. For Verena.

At dawn this morning, sitting in meditation cabin, the Christ who will have no part of killing remained in silent presence throughout the sweet light coming over Sally's land.

I know. I was there. Clearly watching.

The joy of it.

All.
Saints.
Souls.

Presence God.

Few people believe their
Inherent mind is Buddha.
Most will not take this seriously,
And therefore are cramped.
They are wrapped up in
Illusions, cravings,
Resentments,
And other afflictions,
All because they love
The cave of ignorance.
- Fenyang

In this presence, no separation, no isolated self.

Be angry if you must, but do not sin: do not let your anger outlast the sunset: do not give the Devil his chance.
--Ephesians 4:26-27

Sin seeks other. Give it no chance. Chance makes possible other.

The one we call God is no other.

One another.

Souls.
Saints.
All.

It is Hallow'een -- The eve of All Saints.

Truth is being revealed as what is now taking place.

Clipping cedar branches that hang too close to roof. Standing on peak ridge pole looking out over kitchen, barn, cabin, black and white cat and dog. The afternoon is silent. Clip, saw, snap, toss to ground, climb down ladder.

Wind bells are hung on sawn branch outside small window closest to road.

Forty-some years I’ve
Lived in the mountains,
Ignorant of the world’s
Rise and fall.
Warmed at night by a stove
Full of pine needles;
Satisfied at noon by a bowl
Of wild plants;
Sitting on rocks
Watching clouds and empty thoughts;
Patching my robe in sunlight;
Practicing silence
Till someone asks
Why Bodhidharma came east,
And I hang out my wash.
- Shih-wu (1252-1352)

Earlier I ask Saskia walking snow bowl how she is praying these days. She settles on presence. Prayer of presence. That, and gratitude. Thanking everything for their presence.

Joe will be 88 just after new year. He can't walk much these days. I sit with him on way back from dentist. We conclude everything is too expensive. But he's happy. Newspapers on table. He still likes a beer at night. He's in bed by 8pm. I offer to put storm window in back door. He'll tell his wife I was going to do it. That will spur her, he says.

He's glad he grew up Irish catholic.

When the Buddha was asked how the world started, he kept silent. In the religion of Buddhism we don’t have a first cause, instead we have a never ending circle of birth and death. In this world and in all worlds, there are many beginnings and ends. The model of life used in Buddhism has no starting place... It just keeps going and going.

Now having said that... If you’re a Buddhist it’s OK to believe God was the first cause... It really doesn't go against the teachings of the Buddha, his focus was on suffering... It's also OK to believe science has the answer… Like the big bang theory, etc... Some Buddhist’s don’t even care how it all started, and that’s fine too. Knowing how the world started is not going to end your suffering, it’s just going to give you more stuff to think about.

I hope you can see that God is not what Buddhism is about... Suffering is... And if you want to believe in God, as some Buddhists do, I suppose it's OK. But, Buddhist's don't believe God can end suffering. Only the teaching's of the Buddha can help us end suffering through wisdom and the activity of compassion.

In his whole life and in all his teachings the Buddha never said anything about the One God of the desert.
(from "Do Buddhists Believe in God?" -- by Kusala Bhikshu; A talk given at a high school in Los Angeles.)

The One God of the desert has had to learn the ways of men and women of small towns and large cities far from dry sands.

Cesco walks across bridge ascending Ragged Mountain. I trail behind him. He's independent. I catch up by tow line beyond second runway of autumn ski slope. We walk up then cross over to descend. Brown yellow musty leaves cover trail. It is a joy to be alive and walking in the open.

Maybe that's what God is -- "In the Open."

It might help us when we ask where God is -- and why we don't feel God in our life.

Buddhists have nothing to say about God (perhaps) because God is the nothing we have to say about the matter.

Maybe what we call "God" doesn't matter.

Is God truth and love practicing silence in the open?

Is God mattering spirit?

Just because the words "Lord" or "God" or "Yahweh" or "Allah" or even "Brahman" and "Holy Spirit" are used, we have something more to consider. Consider the absence of that which is evoked. If there be absence, we still continue to engage and encounter the reality of our lives as well as the suffering of everyone in the world.

Nothing we say is substitute for kindness and compassion shown our brothers and sisters -- and all sentient beings -- sharing this earth for the time being. Not title, not formula, not incantation intended to make occur the inconceivable to resolve all conflict and animosity. Instead, the fact, act, and mattering spirit of loving-kindness and simple-compassion is the grace of awareness and presence.

We must be the embodied act that takes place in time and space as invitation or response to another's presence. That embodied action is presence -- it is being in the world as we would have love, truth, or spirit be in the world.

No one can do it for us. Not live for us. Not die for us.

Nor is there any substitute for wholeness and incarnation. Our human realization -- a realization of no otherness -- is the intersection where wholeness and fragmentation cross, where embodying act and spiritual intention marry.

If you ask someone if they are married, or why divorce is so rife, they will have to consider the meditation on intersection and embodiment.

No one can do it for us.

But...with us?

When will God appear? When is the Second Coming? When will Manjushri break silence?

Anyone?

Clothespin?

One to one is loving equation. It's where the notion of church meets the notion of the individual human heart. I say "notion" meaning "a general inclusive concept, a whimsical idea."

Thomas Keating eulogized a fellow monk by pointing out how bringing oneself to nothing one will find out who he is. We look for the great grace of diminishment of self. To sacrifice into gradual humiliation and powerlessness, the healing and purification of whatever talents or specialness into the ordinariness of mere human being.

The teaching of the mind ground
Is the basis of Zen study.
The mind ground is
The great awareness
Of being as is.
- Fayan

We are as we are. Whether in health and vigor -- or, in weakness and diminishment -- we are pilgrims on a journey through emptiness and darkness into what we absurdly trust to be the incorporating inclusion of Christ mind and body.

Gratefulness enables us to find peace in all circumstances by freeing us from resentment. As long as we are merely thankful, we give thanks for what we perceive to be beneficial, yet we retain the lurking fear that something harmful may come our way instead. To be grateful is more. It is our courageous trust that life itself – kind or harsh, happy or sad – is good, if only we receive it as gift. The gift is the opportunity either to fully accept or to change what the moment brings.
The moment we trust in this truth, we are at peace. A person at peace will serve as an agent of peace in the world.
Activism for peace is necessary. Yet no matter how sincere and how admirable, it will have no effect unless our own heart is at peace, because gratefulness has made us fearless.
Since fear is at the root of all that is wrong with our world, we start healing the world by overcoming fear through gratefulness.
(-- from gratefulness.org)

Mongers of fear are not grateful people.

We need not listen to them. They frighten because they are frightened. If we know this, we then are able to listen to fear-mongers -- with compassion and forgiveness.

Peace is how fear is forgiven.

There is much to forgive.

Compassion is our way through.

Bob and Tommy drink coffee. Shop door closed. Flag in. Sign turned. Myles upstairs. Dusk comes early.

I explain to you matters
Pertaining to enlightenment,
But don’t try to keep
Your mind on them.
Just turn to the ocean
Of your own essence
And develop practical
Accord with its nature.
- Yangshan

Man with orange hat is looking for Ray McGovern talk in town. We know nothing of it. Chairs and tables are piled onto Tommy's truck. Myles ties down. Bob drives off.

To be – for this he created all;
the world’s created things have health in them,
in them no fatal poison can be found,
and Hades holds no power on earth;
for virtue is undying.
--Wisdom 1:15

Wood stoves in cabin and kitchen warm. Practice will begin. Offload into barn.

Sunday begins in Belfast church. Ends with film Prairie Home Companion.

Muffins and bread from Chase's Daily. Hugs from Kristen.

No wisdom, no trust.

What I point out to you
Is only that
You shouldn’t allow yourselves
To be confused by others.
Act when you need to,
Without further hesitation or doubt.

People today can’t do this
What is their affliction?
Their affliction is in
Their lack of self-confidence.

If you do not spontaneously
Trust yourself sufficiently,
You will be in a frantic state,
Pursuing all sorts of objects
And being changed
By those objects,
Unable to be independent.
- Linji (d.867)

It is a shame that no trust remains for the current government.

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
Luke 6:12

It is the mendacity and misconduct that stuns.

I withdraw.

We really do want to see.

The question clear,
The answer deep,
Each particle,
Each instant a reality.
A bird call shrills
Through the mountain dawn:
Look where the old master sits,
A rock in Zen.
- Sodo (1841-1925)

To see is to root oneself. To see is also to follow.

Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see." Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
--Mark 10:51-52

Follow where?

Follow on the way.

Where?

Just now -- where are you?

Go your way...on the way!

Soon, people will be trying to break into prison. The world will be crazy. The sky will fall. Chicken Little will be feted. Ice shelves will melt. Oceanfront properties will begin 2.8 miles inland. Madness will be a desirable fate. Rapture cheerleaders will close their eyes and click their heels three times.

So taken with
The faultless face and radiance
Of an alluring moon,
My mind goes farther, farther
To reach remote regions of the sky.
- Saigyo (1118 - 1190)

Maybe Elmer Fudd had it right -- maybe the cwazy wabbit needed to be run out of town. Who's to say. We've been at war now for too many years. The next war will be against bad thoughts. We already know the enemy's weakness -- his mind.

He it was who formed the mountains, created the wind, reveals his mind to man, makes both dawn and dark, and walks on the top of the heights of the world; the Lord, the God of Hosts, is his name.
Amos 4:13

We still long for a God who will toss in the towel and say, "I choose you -- you are my favorite." The hell, we say, with everyone else. I am worthy. I am saved.

I give up.

Vote for anyone.

I have to go and pack.

My flying saucer must be nearly here.

There is no using God anymore.

"As a scientist, I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect" (p. 284, in The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins )

Thomas Merton said we need a new language of prayer. That prayer will have a difficult time pointing to a God that is not completely, wholly integrated with what is present and who we are.

We explain our existence by a combination of the anthropic principle and Darwin's principle of natural selection. That combination provides a complete and deeply satisfying explanation for everything that we see and know. Not only is the god hypothesis unnecessary. It is spectacularly unparsimonious. Not only do we need no God to explain the universe and life. God stands out in the universe as the most glaring of all superfluous sore thumbs. We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But, like those other fantasies that we can't disprove, we can say that God is very very improbable. -- Dawkins, "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God," in The Huffington Post)

No God? Or, no other God? There's an important distinction. Has biblical theology and sacred scripture been moving toward an understanding of Creator as a constant contemporary within creation's unfolding? Have we been reluctant to enter this creation in the same way that Christ entered creation? Do we hold ourselves apart from existence in ways that our spiritual wisdom reveals that God does not? Is our consciousness finally ready to surrender to the mystery of divine love -- the unveiling sacred consciousness belonging to each thing and every being in union with God Itself? (Here, the "Itself" stands for "God.")

Life is living Itself through us.

What we are, where we are, is not other than what God is, where God is. The question is: Are we ready to face the incarnation? Are we prepared to look out as the creation? Will we soon take to heart the most profound revelation mind presents us with -- mere and utter gift -- namely, sacred promise and presence formulating the words "I am with you always."?

What we call God, the One we long for, the undivided reality proclaiming our unity and non-separate familiarity with one another -- is what is now taking place with gracious and loving interdependence in, with, and as, all that is here.

The old notions of God are dying away.

The real presence, the life force, the loving substance and energy of That Which Is Itself -- is now our inquiry, is now our practice.

We learn this new language.

Moving through.

Word by word.

Attentive act.

"As" prayer.

Fruits.

Breaking fast. Ramadan done. Would you care for some cakes?

Hold to forgiveness, command what is right; but turn away from the ignorant." [Holy Quran 7:199]

We must always hold ignorance forgiven.

Whoever kills another one without justifiable cause, surely he is killing all of humanity. And whoever saves the life of another one, surely he saves the lives of all of humanity. [Sura Al Ma'aidah: Ayah 32]

In our hands, in our sights -- the fate of the whole world.

The cookies, the ice cream, the cake bar -- may all delight in feeding one another!

What is prayer seeking?

What-is!

What is this?

Look!

Word-itself, as is, reveals.

Christ is written as we are read.

All dharmas are like a dream: this is what all the saints have taught. Consequently, deluded thoughts are originally calm and the sense-spheres are originally void. This void and calm is numinous, aware, and never dark. This void and calm mind is precisely the pure mind which was transmitted by our predecessor, Bodhidharma. Whether deluded or awakened, the mind is fundamentally self-aware.
- Chinul 1209

An awakened life is worth, living.

[A]nyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life... --Mark 10: 44-45

Why use bible as a weapon? Let's be word of love, of truth.

[Paul] did not worry whether his churches were "biblical" or "relevant," but whether they were faithful, showing themselves to be "letters from Christ...written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor. 3: 1-3).
As French social philosopher Jacques Ellul reminds us, "Faith consists in heeding God's questions and risking ourselves in the answers that we have to give." The Bible should "read" and interpret and question us, for it is we, not the prophets of old, who are in the dark.
Sadly, too many of us either imprison Christ between the pages of our Bibles, bound by the letter (and our favorite modern translation), or we yank him out of God's history altogether by turning him into some image or construction of our own making, exalting and trumpeting our own unique brand of spirituality. In either case, Christ is not Lord and his word cannot speak.
Obscure passages aside, few of us want to be held accountable to any word other than our own. In fact, we want the last word, not because we don't understand, but because we refuse to surrender our autonomous wills and obey. Kierkegaard once wrote, "What is the New Testament? A handbook for those who are to be sacrificed." This is what we don't want to do. We're happy to receive a "biblical insight" but not the sword that cuts and convicts. To quote Kierkegaard again:
Can't we be honest for once! We have become such experts at cunningly shoving one layer after another, one interpretation after another, between the Word and our lives (like a boy putting padding under his pants when he is about to get a spanking). And we then allow this preoccupation to swell to such profundity that we never come to look at our lives in the mirror. All this interpreting and re-interpreting is but a defense against God's Word.
It is all too easy to understand the requirements contained in God's Word ("Give all your goods to the poor." "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left." "Count it sheer joy when you meet various temptations" etc.). The most ignorant, poor creature cannot honestly deny being able to understand God's requirements. But it is tough on the flesh to will to understand it and to then act accordingly. Herein lies the problem. It is not a question of interpretation, but action.
-- from the Bruderhof Communities - "The Two-Edged Sword" by Charles Moore, http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti86492.html

Not dull, but quick, witted.

Word. Itself. Cuts away that which is separating ego; lets remain that which is alive with quiet joy; suffering what-is-truth-alone dwelling in the name of the one who was, is, still to be.

Each is sign to be read.

Don't fret the bible; embody, word-itself.

If we wish to read, to be read as well, incarnate way.

What is most true has become human.

This...is what prayer seeks.

What is this?

Yes.

What-is this!

Being alone is sacred gift -- if received as such.

Every day priests minutely examine the Dharma
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters
Sent by the wind and rain,
The snow and moon.
- Ikkyu (1394-1491)

I listen to the words spoken.

‘To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no mere. (Luke 12:5)

Unless word is alive, no sense the creation.

Word alive, life complete.

Human being is where the one we call God shows up as completing consciousness.

Pray the more and less unfolding.

Every day priests minutely examine the Dharma
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters
Sent by the wind and rain,
The snow and moon.

- Ikkyu (1394-1491)

Seven years ago tonight my sister exhaled. Then, she departed.

Empty yet aware, the original light shines spontaneously; tranquil yet responsive, the great function manifests. A wooden horse neighing in the wind does not walk the steps of the present moment; a clay ox emerging from the sea plows the springtime of the eon of emptiness. Understand? Where a jade man beckons, even greater marvel is on the way back.
- Hung-chih

No, I don't understand. Speak plainly.

Let's put it this way: Suppose a woman sees a straw man in a field. Should she bale? Or does she pick out a jacket for him? See! You think yourself so smart.

A shadow crosses everything in our sight.

Lord, what is man, that you should take notice of him?
The son of man, that you should give him respect?
For man is as nothing,
his day is like a shadow that passes.
(from Psalm 144)

Every truth will be unearthed.

That's the last straw.

Without breath the lamb and wolf die.

Don't seek fame or fortune,
Glory or prosperity.
Just pass this life as is,
According to circumstances.
When the breath is gone,
Who is in charge?
After the death of the body,
There is only an empty name.
When your clothes are worn,
Repair them over and over;
When you have no food,
Work to provide.
How long can a phantomlike body last?
Would you increase your ignorance
For the sake of its idle concerns?
- Tung-shan

The letters and sounds fall from my name.

Start off now, but remember, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
--Luke 10:3

Luke had his way with words.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Try not to think.

My hut isn't quite six feet across
Surrounded by pine, bamboos, and mountains,
An old monk hardly has room for himself
Much less for a visiting cloud.
- Shih-wu (1272-1352)

Instead, just look.

Jesus had just finished speaking when a Pharisee
invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at the table. The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, "Oh, you Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness. Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too? Instead, give alms from what you have and then indeed everything will be clean for you."
--Luke 11:37 - 41

No inside, no outside.

100% correct relationship with each itself.

Pass the dish detergent, please!

Cesco hikes Ragged. Old dog has heart. Even with many wrong turns over 2 1/2 hours.

The day is quiet.

In the still night by the vacant window,
Wrapped in monk's robe I sit in meditation,
Navel and nostrils lined up straight,
Ears paired to the slope of shoulders.
Window whitens; the moon comes up;
Rain's stopped, but drops go on dripping.
Wonderful,the mood of this moment-
Distant, vast!
- Ryokan (1758-1831)

Mud puddles and trail markers on winding mountainside. Pilgrim's prayer adopted: Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful with us.
"With" -- equivocal invitation.

When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
-Galatians 5:1

Unless we come to appreciate the word "with" we are yet enslaved.

Are you with me?

We are being written.

So often, not feeling fully the scripting line rolling out ourselves in curving cursive, we consider ourselves lost.

I is not the author of life.

I Am authors.

You and I are, at best, lines unfolding from point of contact to emerging placement on page. Sometimes, rising from the page, we are editors and characters in the play.

Our skill is in the willingness to see the manuscript as a whole and not as our possession. Our practice is humility. Our gratitude is in being humbled by the shift from I to Am. Our joy is in the correspondence surrendering and surrounding I Am.

My writing and judgment are not that bad
but an unfit body receives no post
examiners expose me with a jerk
they wash away the dirt and search for my sores.
--Han-shan, 9th cent

A man in prison (call him Joe) considered an event in his life. One night he saved another man from a burning car and possible death. At the time, though, after initial instinct to check to see if man was ok was scorned, he thought his objective was to roll the man, easy pickings, as the man was passed out late at night in a car. Engine raced and smoke poured out from under hood. Circumstances, curiously, dictated another script. The car burst into consuming flame and Joe's immediate response was to surrender to saving behavior. He does. Man is saved. A woman cries calling him hero. When police and firemen arrive there is the requisite indignity of dismissal as local authorities command scene. He is recognized from other pages, but not recognized in this daily script being written. Ambivalence through years when he tells the story -- leaving out (what seemed to be) his intent at the time to rob the man.

What man intends wrong but does good? What man intends good but does wrong?

Prophet Nathan said to King David, "That man is you!"

We are not the author. We are the late realization that we are being written. Yet we are uncertain about what is really going on in the confusing matrix intersecting external reality, internal thought, soulful intent, and physical act. We are the suffering Job and suffering Jesus and suffering every-person dwelling in this existence in-the-world.

Author writes this being through this Being.

I prayed, and understanding was given me;
I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
I esteemed her more than sceptres and thrones;
compared with her, I held riches as nothing.
I reckoned no priceless stone to be her peer,
for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand,
and beside her silver ranks as mud.
I loved her more than health or beauty,
preferred her to the light,
since her radiance never sleeps.
In her company all good things came to me,
at her hands riches not to be numbered.
-- Wisdom 7:7 - 11

Joe catches up with something in his past here in his present.

He will be Defender of the Faith.

Faith -- that profound trust rooted at center that what is taking place is grounded in loving acceptance of What-Is, Placing-Itself.

Faith, for Now, is trusting openly What-Is Placing-Itself.

Where are we now? This is our question.

Faith needs no defense.

Write this.

(Ready?)

The author is no-other.