The Divine Gifts

The Body
As temple,
The nesting place.
The Mind
As clever protector
The survivalist.
The Soul
As pure consciousness
The living Truth.
These three gifts
Combined in gentle balance
Beautiful beyond words
Immersed in the love
Of a limitless world.
And yet,
We struggle
We blame
We go astray
We forget
Who we really are.
Now is the time to
Awaken
See once again
With mind’s eye
The eye of the I
This is
The Promise
This is
The Purpose
Of you.

Ego and Personality

I use these words interchangeably. In psychological terms they may be different, but to me these are distinctions without a difference. The personality is who you became after socialization. It is not who you are in truth, it is who you are in society.

When we use the word ego, we typically mean big ego, someone who is full of themselves. Again, this is who someone is in societal terms not who someone is in truth.

Dogen Zenji said everyday we swim on the surface of the ocean, yet our feet can walk across the bottom. This suggests that while our daily lives seem superficial, our true na-ture has great depth.

Finding who we are in truth is understanding our true nature, this is enlightenment. We then will reset our priorities, shed previous thinking and habits, and understand how we fit in the world. This is the purpose of our life.

From the time I was a child

I was amazed by how everything seemed to come together. I would sit by the front door and watch the milkman deliver fresh milk and eggs, the bread man deliver their fresh goods (early 1960’s Virginia), followed by the dads leaving early for work. How did it all happen? How did they all know what to do? Why did it all seem to be so perfectly orchestrated by some invisible conductor? What was the purpose of all this activity? Later, in elementary school, I wondered whether we were really better off now or in some earlier time when we actually had leisure time, sitting around the campfire, looking out into the night’s sky, weaving gigantic tales about the constellations. Fifty years later, I still feel the same. Why have we made ourselves so busy? Why have we ceased to wonder? Why have we failed to appreciate our many blessings?