The Ears Have It

David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.

These works are protected by the Creative Commons license.

Introduction

The following reflections were inspired by Dogen's translated writings. My thanks to Kazuaki Tanahashi, the editor of Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen (North Point Press, Berkeley, 1985). My reading of Dogen is livened by the thought underlying the psychotherapies of Morita and Yoshimoto. Such thinking may or may not reflect Dogen's meaning. I suspect that Dogen would smile on reading the previous sentence.

Reflections

You cannot expect to understand the depths of these writings without help. Please don't misunderstand; it is not my help that you need. It is the same help that inspired the production of these writings that will inspire your understanding of them. Understanding is acquired through donations of a mysterious benefactor. The benefactor goes by many names, none of which is, or even can be, descriptive. It is useless to try to stick gummed labels on air. Too many of us try to do so. Outlines and metaphors are equally futile. So just listen to the air, the space, the silent voice.

Listening is more important than speaking. Some people have the mistaken notion that they create reality with their thinking and speaking. Such ignorant arrogance is immediately exposed by an earthquake or flood or plane crash. Cancer cannot be vanquished by proper thoughts. But you can listen to cancer and what comes along with it. While utilizing proper medical arts learn from whatever comes to you. In order to learn you must listen.

When you know how to listen you won't be fooled, not even by your listening itself. Proper listening doesn't permit fooling or being fooled, although it allows becoming a fool. So sit quietly and listen. You may go to a corner of the room and corner yourself. Sometimes you will be "just listening."

All creative authors practice listening some of the time. So do creative painters and musicians and others. Without listening nothing worthwhile emerges. The difficult part is to avoid imposing yourself on the listening. The trick is to get out of the way, to dissolve into the listening. Can you hear me?

More precisely, we cannot actively listen. Something listens us. Our work is to get out of that "something's" way. So we cannot take credit for listening. Again, more precisely, we cannot even take credit for getting out of the way. Something gets us out of the way. We have to allow that activity to happen. More precisely, something allows us to allow that activity to happen. Can you see the infinite regress here? Happenings happen.

Being at peace with the world does not mean liking all of it. Being at peace with the world means accepting every bit of it--the parts you like and dislike, the parts rough and smooth, the parts you know and don't know, the parts that give joy and give pain, even the parts to which you are indifferent. Acceptance is neither giving up nor passivity. It is incorporation, merging. It prepares for and emerges from listening.

It is foolish to dislike your disliking and long for doing away with your longings. You merely pile disliking on disliking and longing on longing. Accept the unacceptable. Incorporate the whole of you that is greater than the whole of you that you might first consider. You are greater than you think.

You don't create reality--not your own reality, not the reality of anyone else. Rather, reality creates and recreates you over and over, endlessly, moment by moment. So what? So, watch the flickering projection and respond constructively, positively to it. All the while take no credit for your constructive, positive response. There is just constructive, positive flickering.

What do you know except what "appears" in this "thing" you call "mind?" What is this "mind" if not "appearances?" Such thinking is by no means original or newly discovered. In East and West philosophers have entertained this notion for centuries. Or so it "appears."

Can you see that the universe is a verb? That you are a verb? That appearing is what is happening? That now is a verb, too?

We are action verbs.

Our attitudes and perspectives do more than color reality. They are reality. They create and destroy reality, creating and destroying themselves in the process. Nevertheless, while formulating Buddhas and Christs and Mohammeds we remain locked in a single, shared reality. Such reality is not objective by degrees; it is absolute.

Words, of course, are inadequate indicators of this reality flux. But words are useful while we crawl around in the data flow. Organs of touching, feeling, looking, hearing, smelling, tasting are not instruments of perception. They are perceptions themselves, flowing midst the flow. Flow along your study of the flow.

When I talk about my past there is no possibility that my talk is anything like my past. Still, the talk is meaningful. The meaning is for me, now. That is the locus of all meaning at any time. It is the same for you. Plant your feet firmly on nothingness and sail away. Don't stuff up your nose with stereotypes.

Good habits of behavior are helpful in accomplishing some of life's tasks. But habits and routines and practice may promote blindness. There is no way to repeat a behavior exactly. Notice the edges, spot the cracks, feel the uneven surfaces. Fresh moments, fresh eyes, fresh you. You, the verb. Remember?

In this context studying together doesn't mean you study alongside me while I study. It means we study. It means reality studies. It means studying happens. Your studying includes me. My studying absorbs you. We learn truth when you study this way for us. Thank you for our effort. We are our teachers; we are our students.

Keep an eye on what your body is doing. Your hands and your eyes and your legs, for example, exhibit encyclopedias of you. Your talking is groomed. You are entangled by the word stories you tell. Your feet sometimes tell different stories. Some of your knowledge is seated in your body, not only when your body is seated. You sometimes get so lost in words that your body has trouble finding its way out. Did you ever meet someone without recognizing her?

Messages appear in your mind. Messages appear in your body. Not good or bad, better or worse, right or wrong--just messages. Pay attention. Do what needs to be done. Pay attention. Do what needs to be done.

When you focus solely on my words, when you analyze and interpret and memorize them, you both gain and lose. Reality's representatives surround you, permeate you. Words, too. It is not merely a matter of putting words into practice. It is a matter of putting practice, too, into practice. Forgetting the words is yet another way of putting practice into practice. Something transcends theory and practice by practicing. Do you want another name for reality? Reality was your name even before you were born. Can you guess who named you?

You can't put yourself into words. Have you ever tried to describe yourself to someone else and found yourself dissatisfied with the description? There is more and less to you than you can put into words. Your resume is about a word construct. So is any psychological test you may have taken. So is any biography or autobiography. You are not those words. The words are about statues of sponge soaked with meanings in the minds of others.

It may be necessary to sculpt statues of sponge at times. While doing so, know what you are about.

It is up to you to evaluate the worth of these words. Test them against your experience. Measure them against everyday reality.

Waterfall Still Rising

David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.

Here are another set of water's random reflections on Dogen Zenji's San Sui Kyo (Mountains and Rivers Sutra). The richness of these sources allows one to go back again and again for inspiration. For the following reflections I have again made use of the translation by Yasuda Joshu and Anzan Hoshin in Anzan Hoshin, Mountains and Rivers. Ottawa, Ontario, White Wind Zen Community, 1990. My apologies to Dogen Zenji. My apologies to you, as well; I'll put these thoughts together in more cogent form someday. Mountains and rivers don't try to be lilacs and clouds. Whatever you make of yourself, don't forget your riverness. Be realistic. Reality keeps changing. Your mind keeps moving. Same shifts. Tatamount transformations. Flashes flashing. Flow.

Thinking progresses forward While rewinding past thoughts. The compass needle swings Without a center pin.

You have to start from Reality. It keeps changing; so does your mind. So you may think that one or the other is changing. But they are the same, whether your mind knows it or not now. Flashes flashing. Reverse the tape of your mind and you're still going forward while thinking of the past. There is no objective center pin for the compass needle. It just swings. Flowing waters require flowing minds to perceive them. Perhaps you thought only water flows. Mountains produce "mountains," and "mountains" move on to become other mountains. Where do thoughts come from? Do we make thoughts? Do thoughts make us? Are both possibilities possible? Mt. Everest emerged from water, is composed of water. And I am wet. I am just water watering, he reports dryly. How does a solution appear from surroundings? Suddenly, it is there. Water frees itself; is already free. My knowing water makes water knowing water. Historically water has carved out the paths of sages and fools. Those who swim in the depths aren't buffeted by surface winds. Even those who swim in the shallows know there are depths. Mountains rise from the ocean deep and give dynamic form to the water.

Mountains neither ignore nor acknowledge humans. They trudge and skip and amble along adhering to mountain principles and mountain purposes. Water causes you to consider these verses, is you considering these verses, is you considering yourself considering these verses. You are self-centered, knowing that you are such, knowing that you know the one who is such, knowing the one who knows this truth. Deep water is still water (in both senses of "still"). A lake and a stream are both water--different and the same. A lake and your eyelid are both water--different and the same. It is not that your eyelid is made up of water. It is water. Heaven is built on water; heaven consists of water. Because heaven is fluid it can flow anywhere at anytime. Even when it freezes it remains water and flows. The seconds drip from the clock. Can you see time flowing? Can you soak yourself in it? Already you are saturated. The sparkling waves dance differently to different eyes, to different waves. We all ride the waves. Surf's up! Each wave curls and breaks in unique fashion. Depending on the lay of the beach some waves look remarkably similar. Select a beach carefully to find the right surf. The waves keep coming. The drops fall from our drenched hair. Those who walk on water feel the spray on their faces. Those who swim in the water feel the currents press upon them. Those who seek to climb out of the water are confronted with rain. Even the deserts are wet. Water bears no scars. Water leaves no gaps. Water fits itself to its circumstance. It warms and cools and quenches and drowns. Just ordinary water. Water delights in our swimming. Water responds to our scrutiny. Water cares about our fluidity. We are a means by which water makes wetness.

Wandering Within Wisdom: Reflections on Dogen

David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.

These reflections emerged as I read Thomas Cleary's translation of Dogen's Shobogenzo-zuimonki. As usual, in my reflections on great works of religious writing I have aimed to pull out meaning that is not based on Buddhist or Christian or any other faith. Dogen was writing for Zen monks, but we can find underlying principles for all of us. What truths can we find here for an everyday constructive life? My commentary here sometimes appears to parallel Dogen's thought and sometimes appears to challenge it. I heartily recommend that you read the original Shobogenzo-zuimonki, in Japanese or in Cleary's fine translation, and compare Dogen's thought with these reflections.

Book 1

1. When your religious beliefs form the basis for making others your enemy then you are a caricature of a believer. Excluding others from worthy humanity locks you alone with your icons in a tiny, dark closet. Worship, however diligent, in a tiny, dark closet is not as valuable as opening the closet door. Proper worship should lead to open doors and open behavior.
   
   Some people take pride in their appearance of holiness. They are particularly difficult to educate because they receive such benefits from their public appearance. They suffer from the difficult task of maintaining a hidden life in order to keep up the show.
   
   There is value in aspiring to excellence in life. There is value in working toward such excellence. There is value in studying the meanings of excellence and the ways suggested for achieving it. There is value in recognizing your successes and failures on the path to excellence. Acknowledge well-directed effort, whatever the results.
   
   
2. You live in a culture with generally-accepted rules and practices. It is foolishness to ignore them, but it is equally foolish to be a slave to them. Study the culture-game and play it skillfully, thoughtfully. Automatic play may be safe and restful, but it is not necessarily the best play.
   
   As times change we interpret traditions differently, fitting the rules and practices to our current situation. This flexibility is necessary to avoid abandoning what is still useful. We can recycle tradition in new forms.
   
   
3. Sometimes rules need to be broken. Reasons for breaking a rule must be clear and circumstance-dependent. The reason may not be vague or solely feeling-driven. Consider the basis for the rule and the costs and benefits of breaking it before taking action. Consider for whose benefit you break the rule. Consider who will pay the price for your rule-breaking. Consider the potential effects of your modeling the breaking of this particular rule.
   
   
4. You were born with specific built-in potentials and limitations. You can learn about them by observing what you do. Test your capabilities and calling with action, not merely imagination. Give yourself fully to your calling. Do what you are called to do well. Feelings will swirl around you. Purposeful behavior will anchor you amidst the gusts. Your calling determines major purposes to guide behavior. Don't forget to zip you pants back up when leaving the bathroom.
   
   
5. It is impossible to be an expert about everything. Those who burrow into books and computers but fail to develop well-rounded lives are like blind moles. Those who pile up the books they have read to make a platform from which they boast of their learning are like screeching peacocks. Those who learn about living well and apply that learning to their life each day benefit most of all. They are teachers by example.
   
   
6. Look, reality is the way it is; reality happens the way it happens. We try to make sense of it; then some unexpected occurrence causes us to seek new explanations that satisfy us until the next unexpected happening occurs. All the while, reality keeps on happening. Explanations are constructed with words.
   
   Whatever we believe or desire we are locked into reality. However we describe reality with words, the words remain only word-reality. Certain words serve to define good and bad, right and wrong. They add a dimension of valuing to that which simply occurs. Being able to separate the real-happening from the word-evaluation is a good thing. Do you see what I just did? Was it a good thing?
   
   Can one do wrong before knowing what is right and wrong? It depends on who is talking.
   
   Young children and visitors to a foreign country may be both innocent and guilty. Definitions are taught to us at various times. Clear and consistent definitions are preferable, but all definitions are invented and not inherent in reality. It is possible to seek word-explanations of the origins of word-definitions of the words "right" and "wrong". All the while, reality keeps happening.
   
   However you define right and wrong, it is better to do right and to apologize when you do wrong. Services done in secret and apologies made in public are particularly "beneficial". The words keep piling one on another. Please forgive me. More words are on the way.
   
   
7. Leaders, too, must treat others with respect. When anyone deserves to be corrected or punished, do so with as much kindness as possible. When correction is necessary, let it be in the form of considerate teaching whenever possible. Those in authority have the responsibility to lead with integrity and compassion. Being old and having held office in the past does not necessarily imply wisdom in leadership. No leader, however chosen, owns his or her followers.
   
   
8. Leaders, know the limits of your authority. Do not trespass beyond your boundaries. Followers, you have limits, too. Don't engage in thoughtless criticism of your leaders.
   
   
9. Whatever your status and role in society, just do your task well. Don't mistake financial rewards and high status for the satisfaction that comes from doing any task well. Whatever others may have elected you to do, you do it in your way, leaving your footprints and fingerprints on the world. Eventually, you leave all your possessions, too.
   
   
10. Don't get aboard the ego-train to prove you are right. When someone disagrees with you, note the difference of opinion and go on with your talk. When listening to another's speech don't eagerly seek chances to publicly display the speaker's mistakes and show off your own knowledge. Notice differences in perspective and outright errors, but know your purpose and control your behavior so that victory and defeat are not part of any response.
    
    
11. You know very well that you shall die. So while you are alive you should use your time well. Don't spread your attention too widely over many subjects. Don't neglect the study of living life well. Practicing what you learn of that subject will affect any other study in which you engage.
    
    
12. Your purposes guide your actions. Your actions determine your life. Whether you hold public office or collect garbage or face a computer all day use that position to serve others in concrete ways. Doing so will save your life.
    
    
13. You already know a lot. Others may know something different, not necessarily more. Inspect their knowledge with an open mind, without prejudice. Those who allow feelings to govern their learning squeeze their minds unnecessarily. Don't wring out your mind to die of thirst. There are streams all around you. Drink up!
    
    
14. Trying to know everything about everything is a waste of time. Burrowing into esoteric expertise can be a waste of time, too. Both focused study and scatter-minded flitting can be used to keep from looking at relevant reality. No one ever runs away from reality. There is no escape from what is, no matter how you use your mind. So pick a subject worthy of your time and effort and invest yourself in it.
    
    
15. When you find your calling devote yourself wholeheartedly to it. Whether healthy or sick, in fortune or famine, encouraged or discouraged, keep up the doing. There is nobility in such persistence.
    
    
16. Don't make a show of your sacrifices. Don't make public your strong efforts and admirable resolutions. Just continue to give up your life doing what you know to be right.
    
    
17. Everyone's livelihood depends on others. Everyone is a beggar, aware of it or not. Wealth comes and goes, swirling about us only to vanish with our last breath. So pick a livelihood that offers more than money or fame. Pick a livelihood that offers more than poverty, too, because poverty drains the resources of society needlessly. Pay your way, even though your debt cannot be repaid.
    
    Take good care of your body, it is your main tool in achieving your objectives. If you mistreat it you will cause trouble to yourself and others.
    
    Everyone has personal tastes and preferences. Everyone has skills and talents. How you use yourself is up to you. However you use yourself gravity and oxygen and photosynthesis will continue to work for you. You may not recognize the specifics of your support at first, but keep your eyes and mind open. You may not use your abilities fully at first, but keep progressing and developing, even when it is not easy or fun. As part of this panorama of Reality you are valuable and worthy of respect. Your effect on the rest of Reality is greater than you might think. You create the panorama.
    
    
18. What you talk about influences your thinking and your emotions and your behavior. You would do well to avoid frivolous, empty talk. Keep your talk on worthy subjects so that your mind doesn't slither or float or erode.
    
    
19. Ordinarily we get extra social credit for letting others know about our good deeds, and we avoid punishment by concealing our bad deeds. I recommend doing good deeds and giving gifts in secret and confessing to others one's bad deeds and mistakes. Don't limit your secret services to those you consider deserving or able to repay you someday. Your reward is already in the doing itself.
    
    
20. We care about what others think of us. We want to be liked and respected. Don't let such considerations interfere with doing what is right. We have a mysterious ability to know what is appropriate to do in a variety of situations. When a proper objective appears, work to achieve it regardless of how you may imagine others will respond to you. You are the one who determines what is proper and what is improper for you to do.
    
    
21. Hiding your mistakes and exaggerating your goodness creates an imbalance between how you appear and how you know you really are. Keeping up the fictional mask of propriety requires energy and attention to avoid dreaded slips that would reveal the charade.
    
    Consider what is right and helpful to others, then do it. Considering only your own convenience is not worthy of your best behavior. Provided you are not doing wrong, fit your actions to the local customs and current time frame and probable consequences of your actions.
    
    
22. Please get your values straight. Self-focus, whether it be on your possessions or your body or your mind, is too narrow a perspective. Sacrificing yourself to accomplish some greater purpose actually allows you to incorporate a broader perspective and a broader definition of self.

Book 2

1. Allowing feelings alone to determine behavior is untrustworthy. Holding to the limited purpose of creating and maintaining a good reputation is unacceptable.
   
   
2. Even if what you do appears to be wrong to others hold to your purpose of helping those in need. But beware; don't hurt people in order to help others and don't put aside riches or reputation for yourself while helping others. Your acts of kindness may not result as you wish; the long-term effects may be unpredictable. Nevertheless, do kindness now.
   
   
3. Those who are criticized while doing well are worthy of praise. Those who are praised while doing wrong are worthy of criticism. If you continue to do the good that needs doing that doing is itself all the reward you need. Doing good becomes you.
   
   
4. Material wealth and worldly success and fame are not necessarily indicators of having done the good deeds that needed doing. If others know of your purposefulness and aspire to be like you and actually make good effort to imitate your behavior then your purposefulness has made a laudable social impact.
   
   
5. The definitions of right and wrong are culturally and personally fabricated. You would do well to explore a variety of definitions of these concepts. Please ask yourself "For whose convenience (in whose interest) am I about to act." This basic question will help you maneuver through the tangle of competing definitions.
   
   Doing what is right may cause you pain and distress beyond the ordinary pain and distress that comes naturally in everyday life. Enduring pain and distress while doing good brings also satisfaction and confidence in your ability to put feelings in their proper place. Feelings are informants, not generals.
   
   Situations and circumstances change. Notice when good behavior turns bad or inappropriate or meaningless. Fit yourself to the needs of the situation. Lose yourself in the service of reality's representatives. And when you show momentary failure don't give up. Just go back to what needs doing next.
   
   
6. Doing life well isn't merely a hobby. Don't consider it something you do on the side while making your living in some other fashion. All of life is your life. You can't afford to define your life so narrowly that you lose it thoughtlessly. When you eat a meal alone with no one else around, what would a camera show?
   
   
7. No one fully earns life or repays daily debts. When you buy a gift for another you use money given to you. When you work to earn an income you use a job and skills given to you. When you raise a child, the child and time and resources to raise the child have been given to you. You have never done anything on your own. You are a redistributor of abundance. It is wise to refrain from ignorant boasting.
   
   There may be times when the abundance you receive is not as obvious and bountiful as you wish. In rough times please don't give up on doing your best. Your conduct may influence the young and the watchful. Many people may be fooled into seeking lots of money and power and social acclaim. Those acquisitions don't guarantee a life lived well. Keep moving toward worthy goals, no matter how your efforts turn out or whether your efforts are recognized by others.
   
   
8. It is not necessary to make effort to widely promote a constructive life. Publicizing this way of life can be a trap of self-aggrandizement. Others may be naturally drawn to your modest accomplishment of everyday life. Or they may not. Our task is not to make this path broadly adopted; it is to make it available. It is not important that we be remembered or revered. It is important how we live right now.
   
   
9. Cleverly written lies are still lies. Literary fluff is still fluff. Popular trash is still trash. Use your reading to search for truth. If a film fails to teach you something important it is not worth viewing. Your life is bounded in time and should not be wasted on empty fashion. Sometimes unpolished communications contain vital lessons. If you spend more time formatting documents and email than on creating content, then you are afloat on the surface of triviality. Dive into life.
   
   
10. It is said that we read history so as not to make the same mistakes again and again. But we do. Whether we read history or psychology or sociology we make our own mistakes, much like the errors of those who came before us. Do not expect education to solve all the dilemmas of everyday life.
    
    
11. You don't really know what rock stars and movie idols and politicians and religious leaders do in their everyday lives. You receive a groomed version of their behavior that may impress you. It is just fine to appear ordinary while going about living life well. Learn to get along with others even when you sense your distance from them. Lose your self-consciousness by throwing yourself into your purposeful behavior. Keep looking for what needs doing next.
    
    Freedom does not lie in abandoning social norms and ignoring the values of others. Criminals are not free; they are locked away in their selfishness (whether jailed or not). Rebels, too, should be aware of the needs of other humans. There is no excuse (religious or otherwise) for becoming a parasite who returns nothing for favors received.
    
    
12. Having the reputation of being a wise teacher is not as important as teaching. Students make us into teachers. Teachers cannot teach without students. Because we are so indebted to our students we must aim to offer them our best instruction. Do not pretend to teach what you don't know. It is just fine to answer a question with "I don't know." As much as possible offer wisdom confirmed by your own experience. Don't try to con people with scholarly words or esoteric talk or academic degrees and commendations. Trust reality to correct your mistakes in teaching and your students' mistakes in learning.
    
    Academic study, like wealth and fame, can be a way of escaping from the effort of living everyday life well. The content of one's learning is more important than currently-fashionable formatting. However, it is important to present wisdom in the simplest clearest manner possible, so you cannot ignore current fashion completely.
    
    These principles apply to more than mere scholarship.
    
    
13. However much we may deny it we all care about what others think of us. We would prefer to be liked and respected, even loved and revered. Yet however much we deserve respect we cannot acquire it on demand. So it is better to construct our lives on doing what we ascertain needs doing rather than doing what we think others want us to do in order to seek their affirmation and respect. The more time you invest in thinking about what might be on the minds of others, the more you drift about in indecision. Stick to what you know to be right. You do know what is right.
    
    
14. What people do when alone, in private, reveals much about them. The burden of two standards of behavior, one conducted in private and another conducted in public, is wearying. Eat and play and work and rest with the same propriety and attention whether alone or with others. There is a boss watching you all the time, and he/she is both within and outside of you.
    
    
15. It isn't necessary to be exceptionally intelligent or to have extensive learning in order to live constructively. One need not try to develop a mind that is determined or earnest or sincere. The desire to live well grows naturally as one lives well. Just keep doing life as well as you can, noticing the reality that surrounds you (is you) and the purposes that emerge from that reality. Continue to act in accord with good purpose, knowing that your ability to act at all does not continue forever. As the days and years pass feelings will ebb and flow, passions will peak and subside, perspectives and attitudes will shift. Use whatever is at hand to judge what needs doing and do it well.
    
    No external teacher or guide can live alongside you during all your waking hours. No scripture or text can be in your mind every minute of every day. It is up to you to monitor your desires and judgments and actions. Although the spotlight of your attention is limited, every tiny bit of reality in this moment is important.
    
    
16. There are no perfect teachers. There are no teachings without error. There are no interpretations without flaw. Whether your name is remembered for generations or not is of no importance. What is important is what you are doing now. That doing is you. The you that may be talked about in years to come is not this you now. It will be a myth, as unreal as the past you now carry in your mind. Eternal bliss in the future is nothing more than bait aimed at luring you into a cage now. Don't allow yourself to be bound by fantasies of past and future. Just do now well.
    
    
17. Reality brings you only this chance in this moment. A similar chance may recur but there is no guarantee. So what you do in this situation determines who you are in this situation. We are composed of situated selves, selves that keep changing according to the circumstances in which we find ourselves (or are those circumstances, from another perspective). Often we have no absolute control over the circumstances that present themselves, so it is our response that defines us. So do not hold back wishing that this moment were other than it is. Use what comes along to accomplish the worthy tasks you have chosen.
    
    
18. Because you do not know exactly when you will die it is worth your effort to consider what needs doing now. Of all possible actions choose those with meaning to you. Everything you do has eternal consequences.
    
    
19. Motivation is murky. Despite a plethora of psychological theories no one knows why we do what we do. We sometimes surprise ourselves. Do not waste time on guessing games aimed at discovering hidden motives. Do not engage in stories about behavior in order to excuse it. We are responsible for what we do, and we must live with the consequences of our behavior. Live realistically.
    
    
20. You owe your parents for your existence. Gratitude is a feeling and so cannot be produced on demand. You may or may not feel gratitude toward your parents. But you owe them, nevertheless. Your parents represent all those whose efforts continue to sustain you in this moment. Those who produced your food and clothing and shelter, those who taught you to speak and read, those who clean up after you, and others who you may or may not even recognize nurture you daily. You owe all of them.
    
    How will your repay this host of supporters? You must find your own way here. Words of thanks, gifts, money, sacrificial service directly or indirectly passed along to others, a smile and nod--you must select your acts of appreciation. Knowingly or unknowingly, you have caused trouble and extra work for these people. It is up to you to apologize and make restitution whether you feel repentant or not. Whatever our contributions we are all takers and recipients of reality's bounty and burdens on reality's resources. Who would have thought it?
    
    
21. Something causes us to evaluate and plan and react. However little formal education one may have these capacities are built in to human functioning. Something invites us to do what we know to be right. Heed that inner voice. It cannot speak when you can no longer act.
    
    
22. Everyone has preferences. There is food we like to eat, clothes we like to wear, words and music we like to hear. Preferences, like feelings, are worthy of notice without being the sole determinants of behavior. To give life to people and things we must sometimes dismount from our favorites and ride the mundane.
    
    
23. Please realize that everything you do creates you. Studying develops and cures you, but so does taking out the trash or sewing on a button. However, if you take out the trash in order to develop or cure yourself you miss the point of your action. The "realized" actualization of worthy purpose is already enlightenment.
    
    
24. Just because a custom is popular you are not obligated to follow it. Examine the meaning and purpose of popular customs and choose thoughtfully among them those you wish to follow. Such advice is applicable to so-called spiritual groups as well as secular groups. Do not push your personal customs willy-nilly on others.
    
    
25. Those of you who govern have special responsibility because your actions affect your citizenry. You should select assistants who share right goals and methods. Those who work diligently for fellow humans are worthy of respect whether they collect trash or plant gardens or teach school or make laws or entertain.
    
    You get no extra credit for abusing your body unnecessarily in your work. However, do not let your desire for physical comfort distract you from doing what needs doing. I write these words in an unheated car with frost on the windows at five o'clock in the morning.
    
    
26. Parents, please teach your children to act steadfastly on worthy purposes. Model good behavior and require it from your children. Give them opportunity to learn by experience that endurance and perseverance are necessary to achieve some of life's greatest satisfactions. Praise is more effective than punishment, but sometimes a stern approach is necessary.
    
    
27. Rather than trying to fix your mind, let your body behave properly. Rather than attempting to create mental decisions and commitments and resolutions and equilibrium just act simply and well. If you need to write something, take your body to a desk and face the paper or computer. If you need to clean your room, take out the cleaning gear. If you need to make a phone call, move yourself to a phone. There is no need to try to psyche yourself up to do a task. Just do it. Your body will carry your mind along with it.

Book 3

1. We all live by faith. We trust oncoming drivers to stay on their side of the road. We trust that power lines won't fall on us. We trust food producers and food handlers to keep their products free of poison. We trust our words to make sense to others. We ordinarily trust our bodies and families and fellow workers and scientists and others to give us honest information.
   
   To recognize our dependence on other people and things is to challenge our belief in our independence and self-made success. Similarly, to question the myths of unconscious motivation and hidden feelings and psychotherapists with mystical mindreading powers and the overwhelming influence of childhood trauma and Santa Claus and endless unconditional love and the like involves challenging some previously unexamined assumptions about the world.
   
   Exploring any new perspective involves risk and the accompanying resistance to possible loss of the familiar. Yet taking a chance will be rewarded if the effort produces a mind with a closer fit to reality. Becoming realistic has special value.
   
   
2. You get to choose your life. Life doesn't choose you. Whatever your sex, age, ethnic origin, educational level, economic status, you receive just one now at a time. How you use that now is up to you.
   
   Different roles and different circumstances require different responses. Carefully choosing from the variety of possible responses act so that you fit yourself to the situation in the best possible way. A moment of death awaits you in the future. Your every act prepares you for that moment.
   
   Why take on a new name to signify a changed you? You already have a million names, all different.
   
   
3. Modern life isn't so complex as some make it out to be. We don't really know the variety of choices in the past, so we believe we are engulfed in many more choices than existed in any earlier age. It may be merely that the choices we face are different. Certainly they come piped through one moment at a time, as they always did. And, as always, they come with the queries attached "For whose convenience? Who benefits and who pays if I behave in this way now? Who or what will be troubled or inconvenienced or hurt by this behavior?"
   
   Don't be fooled. Everything we do causes trouble somehow; at the very least because anything we do now prevents us from doing everything else good at the same time. I can't hand water a vacationing neighbor's plants and spoon feed a nursing home resident simultaneously.
   
   Aiming to do good with a pure mind and aiming to do good without thought of personal profit is fruitless and meaningless. Just do good, and do good in such a way that public recognition and private reward are not inevitable outcomes of your actions. Don't dabble in attempting to untangle possible motivations in an ever-changing mind. Doing good, of course, is the proper reward itself. Reality notices.
   
   
4. Wealth and societal affluence have benefits and costs. We invest much of our lives in protecting, increasing, and transporting our possessions. Unless we use our wealth to repay our daily debts and minimize the troubles we cause others then the prosperity is misused and a hindrance to constructive living.
   
   If you spend much time thinking about profits and financial interest then you have stolen that time from more worthy causes. Riches can become a seductive distraction from ordinary righteousness. Wealth used properly supports those in need, reduces one's own need for social welfare support, enhances the environment, allows efficient use of tools and skills and time for work, eliminates financial debt, permits gift-giving and so forth.
   
   As always, the concern here is not with fundamental goodness or badness, but in how the matter (in this case, wealth) is used in one's behavior. It is the behavior that is either good and/or bad in some degree.
   
   
5. Fame, too, is neither good nor bad. The key is in how it is used. Working for fame is simply not worth the effort. You can use your time and skills better just mastering what you do well. If fame results, that cannot be helped, and the fame must be used correctly.
   
   
6. Who do you think you are? You are not a being superior to those who wash cars and dishes for a living. No matter how many degrees appear after your name or how full your wallet or how many appreciating looks you get as you walk through the mall you still must eat and sleep and defecate like all other humans. You still depend on the grace and efforts of many other humans for your very survival. Can you count the ways?
   
   Please keep in mind your inherent dependence on others when you interact with them. Use your words carefully and gently; avoid coarse criticism and yelling. Decorate your speech with praise and support. Encouragement is more effective than scolding, having positive effects on both hearer and speaker.
   
   
7. Owning property can get in the way of doing good. But so can seeking to be one who does only good. What you do about your wealth, what you do about your aspirations, what you do about your everyday life is what matters. What you do is the heart of the matter. Don't be deceived; poverty is just as dangerous as wealth. Taking pride in either one is a silly mistake. What have you been doing today?
   
   
8. Are you in any position to be critical of others? Criticism involves a comparison-either with yourself or some other person or with some standard. Comparisons are dangerous because you don't have all the information necessary to make a valid comparison. Rather than criticize see if there is something you can do to help. Rather than criticize see if there is some quality you can find to praise and encourage.
   
   When you are criticized accept the information gracefully. Thank others for praise and for criticism. You need not feel grateful, but you may benefit from the information you receive. At the very least, you learn something about the one who criticizes you.
   
   
9. Aim to see the good in things. It is easy to dismiss people and things when they are not perfect. Compared with the polished and edited visions we see on television and films the everyday people with whom we come in contact appear blemished and unfinished. Rather than pick at the imperfections you will find life more satisfying if you look for aspects worthy of appreciation. The crudest works of art may represent hours of effort. Your child's drawing need not be perfect to pull from you a smile and praise. Probe for the praiseworthy.
   
   Criticizing others is a useful prologue to excusing ourselves. In comparison we appear fine. Please don't build yourself up at others' expense. Supporting others is the natural response to being supported yourself. In fact, supporting others is supporting yourself.
   
   
10. What is a true reward? If you act in order to receive a reward then your reward is diminished. If you act in order to do well, then you are rewarded whatever the outcome of your action. Of course, we all hope for good fortune and good results from our efforts. But there are no guarantees. Life isn't always fair. So you had better build your life on doing well whatever needs doing. The process, then, is already the compensation.
    
    
11. A simple life is desirable, but it must fit your cultural and personal situation. Do not simplify to the degree that you cause unnecessary trouble to others. A life of elegant riches requires much attention and effort for upkeep. Sustaining social status requires showy charades. A plethora of possessions require space and work to maintain orderliness and neatness and control. Keep your life clean and lean.
    
    
12. Something keeps giving us air and food and ideas. Someone washed our clothes and bodies when we were little children. Somehow our wounds heal and our exhaustion fades. Sometimes we smile and appreciate our undeserved bounty. Embraced by the sumptuous surfeit of life we muddle along. Why, do you suppose? What is it that keeps looking out for us even when we fail to look after ourselves satisfactorily? The least we can do is notice and appreciate and give thanks. Who, what, and how do we repay?
    
    
13. Certainly, you would prefer to be liked and respected. Surely, you don't desire harsh criticism. However, those who drift about on others' opinions are bound to have many miserable moments--even if the others in question are members of a beloved family or religious group or political faction or neighborhood or faculty. We all need a sturdier standard than our image in the eyes of those around us. Eyes blink and tear and lose focus.
    
    The standards by which others judge us vary considerably. Although reality is one, the perspectives are many. Don't slosh yourself around in someone else's washing machine.
    
    
14. Goals exert a powerful force on us. The purposes connected with goals pull effort from us. So it is very important to select goals and purposes carefully. Another aspect of goals is that seeking one may preclude seeking another. It is unlikely that one can become a professional sports figure, a physician, an FBI agent, and a banker at the same time. Again, select your goals carefully. You not only choose some course; you simultaneously exclude other courses with your choice.

Book 4

1. Never be satisfied with what you understand. Always seek more knowledge, deeper understanding. Even the wisdom of great traditions is suspect. So are the words you read here. Keep updating your understanding so that it keeps fitting with your immediate circumstances. Already there is a lot you believe, with or without awareness. Continue to scrutinize your assumptions so that you can correct them with fresh information. To do so keeps life interesting and realistic.
   
   
2. You can learn a great deal from ordinary people. One need not be highly educated with many degrees to possess information worth learning. Everyone is immersed in reality, so all humans become experts on the situated reality about them. Do not forget that "about" has two meanings here.
   
   What you feel you feel. What you do not feel you do not feel. You are the expert on yourself. And there is a lot you still don't know about yourself that you would do well to learn. Discard beliefs that you discover to be based on misinformation. Don't burden yourself with unrealistic mental baggage. Pay attention!
   
   
3. Surely you understand that your body is not the whole of you. What happens to your body affects the stream of awareness that is you. So it is wise to take care of your body. Do not abuse it with alcohol or tobacco or other drugs. Exercise and rest and feed it reasonably. It makes common sense to serve well what serves you well. However, to be obsessed with the body is to miss other aspects of reality. You know what will eventually happen to your body. What happens to your stream of awareness you may or may not "discover."
   
   
4. Choose your companions carefully. You become like your friends and spouse and co-workers. You absorb their characteristics as you fit yourself to them in interaction. Reality molds you one way or another, just as you are molding reality. Molding happens.
   
   
5. You have the ability to understand these words. You have the ability to practice these principles. In fact, they are based on your natural capabilities. They make a certain common sense to you. They are your birth language whatever words you speak.
   
   It is easier to live in this manner when others around you do so, too. However, do not give up even if it appears that you alone practice these principles. Continue to apply them steadfastly. Polish yourself to a soft glow with them.
   
   
6. Keep your values aligned properly. Don't let greed or laziness or sexual passion distract you from working toward worthy goals. You will likely encounter pain and loneliness and discouragement and sorrow at times in your life. They, too, need not distract you from holding to your purposes and acting on those worthy purposes. Your life is yours alone to do as you do.
   
   
7. All you have is mind. You are mind. So are trains and steering wheels and roses and mountains and stars and bodies. So are words in a roundabout sort of way. God, too, if you wish. So don't get caught up in an overly narrow view of self. Don't depend on an overly narrow view of God or reality either. Grip this wider view and persist in doing good as you see it. Feelings will come to narrow your vision and obscure some aspects of reality while highlighting other aspects. Acknowledge the feelings and look through them so you don't miss anything else important.
   
   
8. Keep studying this way of life. Study on your own and by reading and by apprenticeship and by discussion with your fellows. Reality always offers much to learn. When you think you have mastered this constructive life then you are sure to be off course. When you fail to behave constructively note that reality and do what needs doing next. Something keeps sending you fresh moments so that you can correct and improve your behavior.
   
   You cannot really be like anyone else, no matter how much you admire them and attempt to imitate what they do. It is meaningless to try to become someone's equal. You are not in competition with anyone, including yourself. The players in this game keep changing so fast that no one can win or lose or even grasp the game fully. Just this move now.
   
   
9. Words mold you mind, so use them carefully. Take particular care with absolute workds such as "always," "never," "terribly," "kill," "none," "everyone," "nobody," "everywhere," "nowhere," "die," and the like. Give your mind some leeway by tempering your speech.
   
   Refrain from crude and vulgar language so as to avoid demeaning listener and self. Thos who delight in shocking others by their speech merely for their own pleasure are selfish and shortsighted.
   
   Honest speech reflects a proper concern with reality. Say what is true and necessary from your perspective.
   
   
10. Think carefully before taking any action, including speech. You cannot know for certain the results of your spoken or written words, but you should be aware of your purposes in communicating them. Your words construct an image of you (and those individuals and groups with whom you are identified) in the minds of others and in your own mind.
    
    Listen with full attention. Listening changes both listener and speaker. Interrupt politely and only with good reason. It is difficult to hear when interrupted; unspoken words are backed up in the mind.
    
    Heated passion may bring words to mind best left unspoken. Monitor your speech closely when you are upset. The action itself helps one to see the broader reality beyond the narrow focus prompted by emotion.
    
    
11. Sometimes it is difficult to know what needs to be done now. "Should I speak about the matter or not?" "Should I study or take a walk?" "Should I clean the kitchen or the bathroom first?"
    
    The general principles formatted as questions are:
    Does the action do harm?
    For whose convenience or benefit?
    What and for whom are the costs and rewards involved?
    Does the action fit the situation?
    Is there something better to do?
    
    Even after examining an action in the light of these questions you may not know what to do. Within you is a small voice of reason and right. It tells you what needs doing. That voice, too, is a gift from somewhere. Listen to it.
    
    Some people become paralyzed by all the behavioral options confronting them. So they sit or lie down for long periods trying to decide what is best to do. They do not realize that they have already decided what to do. They have decided to sit or lie down. They need to move their bodies. Just starting up movement will help them return to the rhythm of constructive action. Resting unnecessarily for long periods makes one good at resting unnecessarily.
    
    
12. Putting off and giving up will let you down. Habits of procrastination and resignation lead to missed deadlines and failure. If circumstances permit it is wise to complete even unpleasant tasks and put them far behind you. Otherwise, they keep peeking over your shoulder. You are capable of doing what you need to do. This moment's doing is momentous, whatever the results. Success blossoms in the doing itself.
    
    
13. Sharing common purposes pulls people together. Working and struggling together toward a common goal builds mutual concern and affection. Knowing that someone else is like you in this way creates a unique bond. Shared suffering, too, creates cohesion, especially when members share a common path aimed at overcoming the suffering. So it is easier to make friends while working together as volunteers or studying together for a class than it is while trying to make connections at a cocktail party or bar.
    
    Praise the good deeds of others over and over (even when they are imperfect), even after many years together. Criticize others' behavior only when necessary and then only with humble words and indirection such as humor, confession of similar faults, modeling proper behavior.
    
    
14. More important than building a fortune is developing a reality-tuned life. Satisfaction comes from well-placed action, not from a big bank account. Simplicity, poverty, wealth, challenge, status, and sacraments--none of these is essential for realistic living. There is nowhere to start other than where you are now.
    
    
15. Worrying about tomorrow and next week and next year is a waste of your time. Quite often circumstances don't turn out exactly as we expected. New possibilities arise. Unforeseen but vital behaviors become necessary. Of course, planning may be useful, but plans should be flexible and realistic. Don't plan yourself into a corner of misery. If all your expectations are unquestionably negative then question them. Doubt your doubts. Seeing only a shadowed future is always looking at the shallows. Look deeper.
    
    
16. Examine your responses to criticism. If you immediately strike back or hold a grudge, then you create more resentment. It is difficult to think of what is best for your accuser. It is difficult to avoid defending yourself when verbally attacked. Look forward to the chance to show that you can do well that which is difficult.
    
    
17. Kindness is easy to show to a good friend or patron. Allow yourself more kind moments than those easy ones.

Book 5

1. Give yourself completely to your purposes. After you have carefully thought out your goal, lose yourself in effort to reach it. Half-hearted effort is unworthy of your life. It is not a matter of whether or not lack of effort prevents you from reaching your goal. It is the loss of self in constructive action that is important. Reality requires it of you. You must return what was given to you freely. How could you have thought it was yours alone?
   
   
2. What is the reward for walking this path? If you think it will make you holy or successful or wise or cured or powerful or admired or popular or rich or peaceful then you are already on another path. The reward for living this way is living this way. Whatever else comes along, comes along. So why bother to live this constructive life? Yes, why indeed? Some do; some don't.
   
   
3. To become skillful at anything you must devote yourself to it. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by success or accumulations of wealth or power. Whether you become well known for your skills or not is irrelevant. Just keep developing your abilities with full attention and effort. The involvement itself is valuable. And who knows where it might lead?
   
   Use the resources that come your way to further your important purposes. Don't allow resources to seduce you away from purposeful behavior. If you inherit a fortune or enjoy business success just use the resources for useful purposes. Both resources and purposes are borrowed gifts.
   
   
4. How one goes about telling the truth is a matter of importance. It is not enough just to be honest. The words we use to convey truth should fit the level of understanding and situated needs of those who kindly listen to us. If our purpose is to impress or subdue others with our words, then honesty becomes merely a vehicle for pursuing our self-centered goals. Knowing when to speak truth and when to speak nothing at all is a skill one can learn with long experience.
   
   There is nothing more realistic than silence. There is nothing that can go further from truth than words. Always carry a little doubt when dealing in words. No matter how carefully I choose these words, some of them are wrong. And all of them only approximate real life.
   
   
5. Once you grasp the general principles of a constructive life is it necessary to continue learning about it? The answer is undoubtedly "Yes." As we flow from moment to moment we sometimes remember this path and sometimes forget it. Continued study keeps returning the mind to this practice, reminding us of the specific applications in everyday life. Habits of behavior developed through thoughtful repetitions help us to stay on track even when our minds wander. Studying itself is, of course, something you decide for yourself that needs doing or not in any given moment. Perhaps there is something else that needs doing now.
   
   
6. What in the world is really mine?
   
   I didn't make this computer. I bought it with money given to me by others for work I did. The methods for the work I did were taught to me by others, and others invited me to do the work. I used a body to do the work; this body was given to me by my parents and grandparents and others. This body grew on food raised by others and prepared by others and bought for me by others, and so forth.
   
   So when I accept a gift or service from someone, I do so as a sort of representative of the efforts of multitudes of other people. I am just a kind of marker of the expenditure of energy of a lot of other markers. There is merely more marking as I give a gift or service to some other marker, too.
   
   So what can I do except say "Thank you"?
   
   
7. There is a time for debate and a time to shut up. As usual, it all depends on purposes. Don't waste your time showing off your skills in argumentation. Why create opponents unnecessarily? When asked your opinion about a matter it is often useful to find out why your questioner wants to know your opinion before replying. An honest response can be formatted kindly and concisely. When invited, do not hesitate to tell others about this path; take as much time as they need. To teach others well it is necessary to learn from them.
   
   
8. Some people blame their parents for all their problems, all their suffering. Others blame society or their spouse or their race or their poverty or their education level or their illness or their children or their addiction. Whatever situation we find ourselves in we have the opportunity to merge ourselves with it constructively. Excuses distract us from the requirements of the moment. Complaints focus our attention on misery and alienate others.
   
   Just be about reality's way of getting done what needs doing now.
   
   
9. Self pride is just a matter of ignoring lots of benevolent reality. Self pride is based on the misconception that success depends only on one's own efforts. No one "makes it" on his or her own. Success is a result of inherited genes and nurturance and many fortunate circumstances (beginning with not dying before or during birth).
   
   So whatever people may think of you, good or bad, (without ignoring that information) nevertheless, keep on doing your best. You decide what that best is. No one else understands your circumstances as you do.
   
   
10. You need quiet time by yourself, although you are never alone. Solitude is a kind of fiction that is worth your while to cultivate. Slowing down the flow of what appears to be external stimuli helps you recognize flow as flow. It is your life. Step into it or sit into it.
    
    
11. Unless you have firmly anchored values every current of fashion sweeps you off your feet. It matters not whether those around you prefer ostentation or simplicity. Know why you have chosen your preferences. Have good reasons for owning something or going somewhere or meeting someone. And recognize that your reasons, too, are all borrowed.
    
    
12. Life has barriers, detours, gravel and a dead end. So you need to be clear on where you want to go. Keep heading in the right direction on vehicles that are roadworthy. The roadmap printed here views the terrain from a great distance. You are up close and on the move. Where are you going?
    
    
13. You have a mind for a reason. You are capable of evaluating the truth and usefulness of what is taught to you. You have no obligation to believe everything you hear from anyone else, including a renowned teacher. Testing what you hear with your own experience may involve some cost to you. Failing to test may also be costly.
    
    Truth and falsehood are yours to evaluate. You have only this life to evaluate and apply. Truth need not be pleasant or complimentary to you. However you wish to interpret it, reality is truth. However much you are pleased or disgusted or saddened by it, reality is truth. As its representative, so are you.
    
    
14. Our preferences keep changing with our circumstances. Our tastes vary over time. Praise and criticism are equally fickle. So don't lock onto some values as though they were permanent--even these values. All the while, keep doing what is right.
    
    
15. Choose your associates carefully. This advice includes those with whom you associate when reading, watching, or listening to their works--authors, scriptwriters, journalists, correspondents, songwriters. You become like those with whom you share your mind. If you spend enough time with bad people, then bad begins to look good. How simple are these words!
    
    Remember that change is built into the system of life. So movement from one set of associates to another is always an option. Use your options well. Find people you respect and invest time with them.
    
    
16. Certainly the mind is intimately connected to the body. Yet they are not the same in one way, and in another way they are. When the body becomes ill the mind will be affected. The body will respond to a mind that keeps on about its purposes as much as possible. Minor physical problems are best left to take care of themselves while you continue with physical activity as usual. Obsession with minor aches and pains merely magnifies them. Of course, medical advice is sometimes necessary. Do not forget that medical advice is advice. You have primary responsibility for the body that is presented to you moment by moment.
    
    
17. To complain about others makes one feel superior in comparison temporarily. But such complaints can create enemies and guilt. To complain about one's health directs attention to misery and so increases it. Furthermore, complaining alienates those who must listen to the complaints.
    
    Sometimes listening to complaints about others cannot be avoided. In that case you should respond to the speaker with positive remarks about the one criticized or confess that you have caused trouble to both parties in the past. Even if you agree with the facts of the matter it is better to offer a noncommittal or positive response than to express agreement.
    
    
18. We all have preferences, likes and dislikes. Nevertheless, we must accept all of reality as it is whether it appeals to us or angers us or disgusts us. Reality is the way it is. It is fine to go about attempts to change what is, provided that you keep accepting reality as you go along. Don't get hooked on your desired outcomes. What turns out turns out and simply brings something else that needs doing in that moment.
    
    Please do good in order to do good. Please talk well in order to talk well. Please dwell in the process of doing. Obsession with results will leave you sometimes gleeful and sometimes disappointed and always abstracted from this moment's doing.
    
    
19. We are what we are. No matter how hard we work to make ourselves perfect, moments of imperfection and misery remain. Built into the human condition are elements we would prefer to avoid. Death, loss of loved ones, illness, failure, computer crashes, flat tires, and rejections appear to be unavoidable. So, facing this reality, we do what we can.
    
    
20. Maxims and sayings may offer good advice, but they cannot tell the whole story because they are short and they are words. When quoting a maxim consider what has been omitted, consider exceptions, consider its opposite. While doing this exercise don't forget to appreciate the wisdom the maxim contains.
    
    A favor given in order to get something in return is not a favor given. Words get us into trouble, and out of trouble, too. Showing off one's skills can be disastrous. Thinking of others' convenience is sainthood. Thinking of one's own convenience is satanhood. Investment interest does not equal successful completion of a job. Don't allow yourself to be distracted from your main goals--even by small successes. Please consider the above sentences carefully.
    
    
21. What does it mean to throw away your mind? Immerse yourself in reality so deeply that only happenings happen. Spread yourself so thinly that the film covers all, seeps into everything that presents itself. Diffuse the beam of the spotlight of the self.
    
    You can make a show of paying attention and doing good. Others may notice and praise you. But if you take that turn you are still locked into your old stride on the up-and-down path. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but Reality never.
    
    How strange to hear that the constructive path doesn't lead to cure of neurosis or peace of mind or self-improvement. It just leads to more fresh moments like any other path. If you follow it for any other reason than to follow it well, then you are likely to disappoint yourself. Yet this path is well worth the walk. Such scenery!
    
    
22. We all depend on others for our food, even those who grow their own. The asking for and receiving of food may be masked by purchasing it with money, but all consumers are beggars. We starve without the efforts of others.
    
    In the same manner we go naked if not for the clothing provided for us by others. We are so steeped in receiving that we seldom notice the largesse. The flavor of taking permeates us.
    
    
23. It is unkind and dangerous to make a show of one's wealth or knowledge or position. It is equally wrong to attack those who do so, I'm sorry to say. Rather than picking away at others' errors, please praise their goodness and pick away at your own faults. I naturally expect the best from your fine efforts.
    
    
24. Make time for quiet reflection. Do not let business or pleasure distract you from that time. Thoughtful silence puts other experiences in proper perspective. Certain kinds of writing involve meditation. So does driving an automobile and preparing dinner.
    
    Bringing attention back to one's focus again and again is meditation. So reading is a kind of meditation, too.

Book 6

1. You can't be loved and respected by everyone. Choose your actions well so that you are likely to be loved and respected by those who matter, those whose attitudes and values and behavior are realistic. Listen well to the evaluations and advice of such people. Then do what you decide needs doing.
   
   
2. It is possible to delegate most of your time, attention, and effort to taking care of your own body. You can burrow yourself into a tunnel of health care and never emerge. On a larger scale it is possible to make every moral and social problem into a medical one. Obsession with health simply distracts one from other pursuits. Do not ignore your body's needs, but don't expect vitamins and medicines to solve all your problems. Medical advice about actual illness is often right, sometimes wrong. Physicians are humans, too. Don't put all your eggs in the health care Easter basket.
   
   
3. Consider how food and clothing come to you. Consider not food and clothing in general, but the route by which this banana and that belt came into your hands. Don't waste food on your waist or elsewhere. Don't close your closet on abandoned clothes. Use things kindly and well and thoroughly.
   
   Words, too, are consumables. Use them with consideration of their benefit to self and other. Don't toss out words carelessly.
   
   
4. We make up stories about people in far lands and about people in earlier times. We make up stories about relatives and neighbors and clients and ourselves. We actually believe many of these stories even though all stories are fiction of one kind or another. However, the stories may be useful at times for organizing information and anticipating events and endorsing our own preconceptions.
   
   Here I give you another pillow to reach for in the night.
   
   
5. Our tendency is to accumulate wealth while thinking that society is in decline. We talk about the purer days of our youth, the days of honor and trust and righteousness. So talked our parents and grandparents; so will talk our children and grandchildren.
   
   To make the case for possibility we invent past actuality. Whatever the reality may have been, just do well what needs doing now.
   
   
6. To read or hear that a constructive, purposeful life is possible is the first step. To try this life and see that it is possible at times is the important second step. To practice it regularly is the third step. No one camps on the third step. We all climb up and down the stairs.
   
   
7. Behavior is the locomotive pulling your train of thought. Keep behavior straight and feelings will follow. Fake righteousness and constructive living until they become real.
   
   If you find a worthy model to emulate, your task is easier. Keep your eyes and ears open for such a person. Until such a model appears keep doing your best to emulate your imagined model of a realistic person.
   
   
8. Don't put off living well. Each fresh moment is a gift with no guarantee that the next will emerge. Promising yourself that you will straighten out your life next week or next month or after marriage or after you become well or after that business deal closes or after you become sober or after your children are grown or after retirement or after anything else only robs you of the use of the now.
   
   No one controls the outcome of efforts. Things turn out as they do. What you do now is up to you.
   
   Your body deserves proper care. It is the means by which you act on the world. It is also the means by which you become you. Treat your body well without neglecting other important actions.
   
   
9. If you think that all your life problems will disappear by living constructively then you are in for a surprise. Now I have a cold, so my life is mainly tissues and phlegm. Reality remains as it is. The difference lies in the response to and the merging with reality. Blowing your nose well is also worth attention and effort.
   
   Called "constructive," I actually offer you ordinary living. Perhaps you think it is yours already. But do you know it? Are you aware of the generosity of the ordinary? Do you see the extraordinary potential of it? Do you realize the effort involved in being knowledgably ordinary?
   
   
10. Behavior is pulled by purposes. Our own purposes may be unclear, much moreso the purposes of others. Aim for noble purposes that fit each moment's reality. Only you can best decide what you need to do.
    
    
11. Within the bounds of truth, fit your speech to the level of the understanding of the listener. That effort, too, is fitting yourself to reality. Look for the reality behind fine clothes and titles and popularity and good looks and wealth. Discover the levels within levels.
    
    Present yourself in such a way that you project depth without arrogance, wisdom without showiness. Keep pointing yourself and others to reality.
    
    
12. Often we begin to prepare our reply before a speaker has finished talking. Some people work so hard to appear to be listening that they forget to listen. Listening carefully is a gift you can give to a speaker. Pondering a speaker's words before replying is another gift. And, who knows? You might learn something.
    
    
13. Use what you possess well. Of course, all your possessions are on loan to you. Give fresh life to older things by using them in new ways or by giving them away. Repair and reuse what can be repaired realistically. Minor cosmetic faults are not sufficient reason to abandon something.
    
    Can you see that things, too, are serving you? They are partners cooperating with you in accomplishing your purposes. Don't forget to thank your computer and oven and eyeglasses.
    
    
14. It is often useful to bring forth honest questions again and again. However, don't ask questions in order to show your knowledge or to challenge or attack someone.
    
    Sometimes it is better to sit silently with your question until reality shows you an answer. Some questions have no satisfactory answers. Some questions have no real answers at all.
    
    
15. There are hierarchies of purpose. You can't do everything at once. So it is important to be clear on what matters most right now. I cannot tell you what matters most for you now. Something helps you to decide. Better yet, something decides; deciding happens. Become the reference point of purposeful decision. Do what needs doing.
    
    
16. We are all sometimes stupid, foolish, and selfish. At times we all ignore the needs of others to satisfy ourselves. Fortunately, we keep receiving fresh, clear moments with the potential for good deeds no matter how bad we have been. The past cannot be rewritten. But the future is written in the now. Just do your life well now. That is enough. That is all there is.
    
    
17. As you read these words associations came to your mind. You agreed and disagreed. You expanded an idea and clipped an idea down to size. You considered examples and exceptions. You reacted.
    
    There is meaning in these words that only you can extract. There is actualization of these words that only you can accomplish. I don't want to create an echo. I want to hear your voice. Reality speaks with many voices that are one chorus.

The end