The sock monkey as alone or, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

What is spirituality? Being spiritual is the pursuit of what is sacred. What’s sacred is what’s holy. What’s holy is what sanctified what s sanctified is what matters to god. Let me start this off by saying you can’t expect me to speak for god. All I know is what I have learned through trial and error to understand my place in the little corner of my universe I call my home. Were only going to use my personal experience because it’s practical. Your not writing this I am. I’ve known success and I have known failure but when we go to sleep at night that’s enough so why should death be any different
emptiness is form, form is substance and freewill tells us what we are made of. We are all guilty before gods holy law. No matter what we do our works can’t save us. It only through grace that we are saved. So why should we try to keep the law? Because we have nothing better to do, Or because the commandments are the only guideline we have to what the skillful behavior of this life is. Zen has a concept of skillful and unskillful behavior and that is normally all we have to go by, there is the practical common since chain of cause and effect, but when something disrupts the natural chain of cause and effect things become more complex. I have schizoid effective which means sometimes I hallucinate, but what is so strange about my hallucinations is that they all more general common since suggestions like lose weight don’t jerk off, and treat god with a little respect. One time I was hallucinating and talking to my radio when I asked why did what Jesus do for us matter. The voice of my radio changed and told me “oh what Jesus did for us was sacred “ and that was enough for me to change my life.

                   The ten command
1. You shall have no other gods before me 2. You shall not make yourself a graven image. 3 you shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain, 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother. 6 you shall not kill 7. You shall not commit adultery 8.you shall not steel 9. You shall not lie 10 you shall not covet

    what’s sacred is what matters to god and the first five commandments tell us what we need to know. And that is take god serious and don’t project a image of god that is different from scriptures. And the later five are a context for who god is, most of them are fairly common since and can be surmised by what would be the eleventh commandment “love your neighbor as you love yourself. “ this all seems so simple till we look at the context of the ten commandments in light of the fact David and Samson break them left and right implying you can wicked and righteous  at the same time, but there is no guarantee were doing the will of god without a direct commandments from god, Abraham was righteous when he offered his son as a sacrifice to god. Breaking most of the commandments in the process. Hallucinations or not scripture is so subjective that any experience of god is so personal as to be subjective except in the context of Jesus with the promise that all we have to do is believe with clean faith and a open heart getting us as close as we need to be to the finish line. I have my doubts as to what god want me to do but I scratch away with writing this, with the hope writing is one of them . The secular practice of zazen is the another confusing part of it for me because it says our works can’t save us but zazen was never about getting to heaven it’s about building patience and character two things god esteems as worthy in the bible. When we do zazen the goal is to arrive as a sort pure effort or as a goal that is goalless, or zazen is the goal itself, to be here right now with no confusion as to what the task is. Having a goal, is the goal, be here right now since all truth literature is a reduction of reality the closest we can come to experiencing the truth is through zazen practice.

    Zazen is hard and life is hard. Zazen can be secular, just like our life can be I’m nervous about calling zen holy but patience is sacred.  If you don’t know how to do zazen go look up zen meditation it’s on the web so google that , but after you have looked that up the most important thing to learn is patience. Let us wait for a day when the truth is revealed. Heaven may exist right now in every breath but the nature of how the bible was written implies something will change whether we go to the spiritual equivalent  of Amsterdam  or if heaven was just a symbol living a good life or living a bad one none of can say, all we are left with is trying too live a decent life with guidelines or plain rules and regulations about the ultimate fate of our soul. Charity will edify where doubt builds it’s strong holds. I can say first hand trying too live by the ten commandments has made my life better. Whether I got rewarded in the next life or not. Pure effort is the most spiritual thing there is with every religion being a living example of the living power of faith. Believing that things work out builds character filling us up as a living sacrifice to our heavenly father with the power of discernment and a loving kindness for fellow travelers we call living in the real world.
    
     Pain is vehicle to understanding with the lesson being learning never ends. There is only the satisfaction of desire and the death of it there is no other thing more important then this bhuda and Jesus spent all of there lives trying to understand the balance between desire and the ideal world there is no shortcut with desire you spend the rest of your life struggling with what you want and how you go about getting it I wish I could tell you something profound that would change your life, I wish I could tell everything is going to be fine , but I can’t take responsibility for your life anymore then anyone else can. Be resilient, be strong, and be faithful.

   There are three forms of worship prayer, fasting and meditation prayer is simply asking god to take a active roll in our life fasting is humbling ourselves before the lord and meditation is feasting on the lord be it his words or through the practice of zazen slowly coming to terms with reality. Mediation is finding peace with what will never change and through drawn-out effort of this practice we find maturity knowing how share our reality with other people who are the fellow prisoners of our lord Jesus Christ. I don’t feel right without my daily zazen even if I find the practice harder then any other form of worship. Zen meditation is like dieting for the soul. We find peace in worship and understanding that all true effort is a celebration of god.  Be like the sock monkey go with every change of the breeze with a unchanging moral character. No one is looking out for us except for the possibility of unfailing love from the father and his son Jesus.

   May every circle be unbroken with patience and hope being the foundation of our faith that the grace of our lord Jesus Christ being with those who need it. If we say we are without sin we call god a liar and it is impossible for god to lie.



                                                      The epilogue

     If I have learned anything it’s that god doesn’t need anything which should make us unnecessary information. But he died for our sins both symbolically and literally. Which means the gospel is emotional not logical, all we can do is be here right now waiting patiently for the revealing of the gospel, with the knowledge that god is the one laughing even when the joke is on him. So don’t cross a line unless you know where it is.







                                              A variation on the lords prayer

                    Our father who is in heaven hollowed be your name.
                    Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
                    Forgive me of my sins as I have forgiven those who are indebted to me.
                    And my bad manners as I have forgiven those who have disrespected me.
                    Day by day give us our daily bread when we need it.
                    And do not allow us to be lead into temptation but deliver us from evil.
                    And would you please heal my soul because I have sinned against you.
                    You know all that I desire and only god can provide it.
                    So we trust on you for mercy.
                    Because you are the power the kingdom and the glory forever, amen.