"Play It As It Lays" ---Joan Didion

                                                            How are we to find Beauty in the most heinous and hideous ?   E-Z  ya' -gotta believe it there to being with, and now here's one made Famous by Robert Pirsig [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]  --->   "Believing is Seeing" --  counter-intuitive for sure, but there it is, ready or not, like it or don't .

                              One of THE most Difficult Concepts to teach is 'Life IS what it IS' .   It's the same with WAR, Beauty, and Ugliness .   To just BE means to accept things and events as they are without judgement nor bias .   What complicates 'BE-Ness' as well as 'Is-Ness' is ---> Discrimination, where Discrimination 'hides behind" Discernment .  The Mind >Discerns< and that Discernment begets all kinds of both Intellectual and Emotional TROUBLE .  

                               The Late Zen Master, Seung Sahn Soen Sa taught ,   "Moment to moment everything is already correct,  moment to moment everything is already ---> PERFECT .   If we view Perfection as Beauty, we have means to accept things AS THEY ARE , as already BEING  Beautiful .

                              Consider ... .

                                                              "Tare Forward" and "Keep the Faith" .

"Rub-a-dub-dub"

                                                           Shakespeare has given us, "To be or not to be"...  perhaps the GREATEST of all soliloquy(s) .   I have struggled with "IT" to the point of self-inflicted madness that manifested as the NECESSITY to MEMORIZE the whole fucking thing, so I could transport it to my Sub and UN-Conscious where it could be assimilated to eventually surface with UNDERSTANDING .   I mean-shit- it ain't like I'm-gonna walk up to a Someone and ask, "Should I BE or should I NOT BE ?"   What does "IT" even MEAN ?????   To BE >what< ...to BE >who< ???  

                          It's madness alright, Should I BE myself ?  Should I NOT BE myself ???   WTF ???!!!

                          At various points I've been asked by my male Students, "How can I score with chicks ? "  I have tortured them with, Whatever you do DON'T "Be Yourself" .   I mean  IT'S FUNNY rite ?  

                          After the snide laughter subsided I always added ---->  JUST BE !!!    THAT my friends is the Essence of Zen ===  to just BE  .   To just BE  "Aye, there's the rub."

"I was beside myself."

                                                           That Word ---> Majesty, is-gonna give us a fucking WORLD-of-HURT ... know what we're-gonna do ?   We're-gonna (get this) "Leave it  >be<" .   Instead, we're-gonna focus on ---> "Being" which is far more Promising .

                              The E-Z-way-out is to translate Being to  make it Life ; and for sure, Majesty of Life, does satisfy our intent to gain Understanding, plus it reads well AND "It makes Sense" .   But is "IT" Enough ?????   

                               ALL of Most-of-Us, at one time or another, have heard this complaint from our Close and sometimes Intimate Others, "I just want to be ME".   It is as if the ME is a SOMEONE ELSE, a Someone Else who can't manage unpleasant Conditions, who has, somehow, gained Control over one's Mind and Body and NOT for Good Purposes ;  and there is the correlation to the DESIRE to actually BE who you REALLY are, because the Real Me is surely capable of correctly managing ANY Situation or Condition with a guaranteed superlative result .   It is somewhat commonplace to hear, "I was beside myself" .   It's like WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED ???   You were ONE person now there's TWO ????   What manner of fucking SORCERY was "at play" Here ???   Could it possibly BE that one of Me was MAJESTIC and the other ME was NOT ?????     THAT'S the Problem with Majesty of Life == Majesty of ME,  it just don't fucking "work" .   

Miss Poke

                                                          I can hear my Gentle Readers screaming ,  WHERE IS THE MAJESTY OF BEING WHEN INNOCENT SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN are MERCILESSLY SLAUGHTERED BY AMERICANS AND THEIR BOMBS ?????    And again, WHAT ABOUT SANDY--HOOK ???    It's Brutal ----- I know and it is EXCRUCIATING .

                           "IT" doesn't get any better when we look for 'Majesty of Being' in trump .   Majestic ?????   NO FUCKING WAY .    

                            In Hermann Hesse's Brilliant Masterpiece, NARCISSUS AND GOLDMUND there is a punishing scene where Goldmund finds the Love-of-His-Life dead, a victim of the Black Plague .   He stares incredulously -- his SORROW Untold .   But then his Mind "breaks" .  He begins to see the colors on the corpse, the patterns of decomposing skin and its texture, he sees rainbows ...  He has the thought, "How BEAUTIFUL..."    A rotting decaying Corpse, seen as >Splendor< .   I mean, I had to put the Book down to gather myself, to collect my thoughts ~~~~~~  I've seen corpses, "made-up" of course, they don't look so good, let alone Beautiful .   But can you see it ???   Dr. Campbell's Majesty of Being" manifested in a sickeningly hideous corpse .   To actually BELIEVE that there is Beauty in Death, on the surface it ain't Human, but COSMICALLY it is INFINITE --- and we can conclude that it requires something of SUPER-HUMAN Effort to see such Beauty .   

                            From the backseat of the family sedan restless children cry-out   "ARE WE THERE YET?"    Close ... 

Solve-ation

                                                           Yesterday when I pulled away from my machine I didn't feel good .   Completing my Effort with a quote from Shakespeare I THOUGHT would be sufficient closing .   I was rwong* .    While eating b-fast I remembered a better quote and it was from Dr. Joseph Campbell .  Here it is : 

                                                     "The Problem of the Hero going to meet the Father is to open his Soul beyond terror to such a degree that he will be ripe to understand how the sickening and insane tragedies of this vast and ruthless cosmos are completely validated in 'Majesty of Being' .  The Hero transcends life with its peculiar blind-spot and for a moment rises to glimpse the Source . "

                                  The Ability to "open one's Soul" --- what does that even MEAN ?    And Further, what, exactly, is "The Majesty of Being" ??    MANY years have elapsed since I began studying Dr. Campbell's Work, shit I would NEVER even DARE to question has arrived .   I can preach that, as Planetarians, we MUST be able to "Open OUR Souls" but exactly HOW the fuck DO WE DO that ?   And, as far as "Majesty of Being" goes is there some Definition to aid Us in our Efforts to bring each one of US >>TOGETHER<< that we may Experience "Shared Commonalities" and Tread on "Common Ground" ?   How are we to Solve the Problem of the Hero ???????

Shakespeare

                                                           I submit what follows for Your Consideration :

                                    "... but when the blast of WAR blows  in our ears,   /    Then imitate the action of a Tiger :  /   Stiffen the sinews , summon up the blood,  /   Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage:  /   Then lend the eye a terrible aspect :  /  ------------   Now set  the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, hold hard the breath and bend up every Spirit to its full height !"   

                                    ...and to Shakespeare's I add,  "Harden thy Heart" .

                                                              "Tare Forward: and "Keep the Faith" .

Miss Hit

                                                            I draw the Attention of my Fellow Planetarians, Global Citizens and of course my Gentle Readers to the word "hardened".   It's military definition is precise, to incrEASE defensive fortifications to Protect existing armaments .    I need to add that 'hardened' must also include OFFENSIVE Capability .    We have heard, "The BEST Defense is a GOOD Offense, not only is "IT" the same in American Football, in ALL Pro and amateur Sports, and even Sword'sMan-ship employs  Defensive techniques as an Offensive Weapons, meaning, "The Defense IS the Attack".   "IT" is both Subtle and BRUTAL at the exact same time . 

                              HOW are to manage the GROTESQUE Realities of War (?)  which begs for the Question, How are we to manage the GROTESQUE Realities of LIFE ?    

                              OBVIOUSLY we must >Endure< but what exactly is the Nature of this Endurance ?   I contend that this Endurance rests on our Ability to "Harden OUR Hearts", since it is OUR Hearts that FEEL the Pain of Suffering .   "IT" is IMPOSSIBLE   NOT to Feel deep and Profound Sadness when we are exposed to INHUMAN CRUELTY --- We Wail   HOW CAN THIS BE ???   But we MUST Avoid succumbing to this CRUELTY--- to do so PREVENTS >>>>ACTION<<<< .   We find ourselves WALLOWING in the shit and mud of SORROW, indeed, we hear "DROWN ourselves in Sorrow" .   Hardening OUR Heart is to PROTECT it by steadfastly AFFIRMING OUR Resilience, meaning, that we MUST TRY to Understand that the Divine Infinite will NOT impose upon Us a Suffering that cannot be Endured, because the Divine Infinite is LIFE AFFIRMING, and to KILL one of It's Own is fucking IMPOSSIBLE .   I hear You  WHAT ABOUT WAR ???  Isn't the Divine Infinite RESPONSIBLE  FOR THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS ?????   I say NO, it is HUMAN-KIND that is Responsible .