The Everything is the now and what is before and after the now.

The Everything is often called “God.”

As many people have particular mental associations with God, the word God is rarely used in this blog.

Yet, as many people pray to God for happiness, it may be instructive to understand the workings of God.

God is beautiful, like a shiny coin rapidly flipping in the air and reflecting light.

One side is called “heads” and the other called “tails.” The plural is used to describe each side because each time we see the same side it is different in time and space than before. The only constant is change.

At any moment, only the coin’s heads or tails side is visible. The visible side is the now and the side we don’t see is what’s before and after the now.

As God is rapidly turning, the visible side we see is vague. The details of it we think we see are created by our mind.

The heads and tails are a duality. Yet, there is no duality as all there is is one thing, a shiny coin rapidly flipping and reflecting light, with two sides “turning into one” (the etymology of the word “universe”).

While we focus our attention on the two sides, the coin also has a third side, the edge. The edge is the interconnection of the two seeming opposite sides.

Horizontally along the edge is an imaginary central axis around which the coin dances in perfect harmony. This is the “Tao” of the coin; where we don’t focus on the tangible sides as we are at peace simply watching the coin fluttering like a butterfly.

Few of us are at peace. Most are plagued with endless desires we hope will be satisfied in the next now to appear.

We pray to God to bring us luck; that the next now will satisfy our desires and bring us happiness.

“Hap” means luck. It is the root of happiness.

The soul is the center from which everything springs.

That which is closest to the center is closest to the soul. That is the heart.

Further and further away from the soul is the self. That is the head and genitalia.

The heart expresses love from the soul.

The head and genitalia express love from the self.

Love is love like water is water.

It’s all the same but its source different.

There is love from the self and love from the soul

The self expresses many emotions, including love.

The soul only expresses itself with love.

Love from the self is temporary, as the self also needs to express other emotions.

Love from the soul is unending.

Love from the self is love of specific things.

Love from the soul is love of the Everything.

Love from the self is conditional.

Love from the soul is unconditional.

Love from the self is demonstrative.

Love from the soul is ethereal.

Love from the self is as finite as the self.

Love from the soul connects us as one to the eternal now.

Love from the self is empathy.

Love from the soul is compassion.

Knowing who you are, you can make the best of your roles in life.

Knowing what you are is the best role.

Fire and water are diametrically opposite ways through life, emotional and practical.

Water people dampen the enthusiasm of fire people.

Fearing death, fire people divide water people into variously labeled pots to vaporize them.

“In the beginning…God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” —  Genesis 1:1-3

Every thing subsequently is a derivative or an illusion.

When we are grateful and love the now that is now, we are poised to be with happiness with the now that will be later.

Everything is in the now. Yet, when you miss something in the now, something is missing: you.

The messiah is here, but is hiding; yet, revealed through our acts of kindness to all, treating others as we treat our selves.

Within each of us is the messiah, hiding behind our self.

“The Great Way” to liberation (awakening and enlightenment) is like the infinite paths of light that lead to the sun. Yet, “The Great Way” is unlike these paths of lights, as it is the realization that the light that’s here is the light that’s there.

“[C]ynic…a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing…a sentimentalist…is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn’t know the market price of a single thing.” — Oscar Wilde

A cynic doubts the value of everything; hence, he accepts values based on market prices. For example, he accepts that a Rolls Royce is worth $400K because that’s the price at which a willing buyer and seller agree, regardless of the relative merits of the car or its cost of production. A sentimentalist values everything based on personal feelings and thoughts without regard to the reality of prices determined in the marketplace. For example, a sentimentalist might be unwilling to sell for $10K a ring received as a gift and replaceable for $1K.

The cynic values things empirically, it is what it is whatever it is. The sentimentalist values things based on concepts and theories that rarely comport with reality.

Successful traders are cynical. They tend to view the current price of something as the best predictor of its price in the immediate future. Thus, they buy and sell things based on price trends. As something is moving higher in price they buy more and more of it at higher and higher prices. When the price trend breaks, they liquidate their positions at whatever the prevailing prices. Thus they buy high and sell low.

Successful investors are sentimental. They believe the value of something is a function of its relative value and cost of production. That belief allows them to continue buying something as its price declines while whatever they purchased previously is worth less than they paid. In this way they buy on average at lower prices. Likewise, as prices rise they sell. They buy low and sell high.

Successful traders tend to realize greater returns over time than successful investors. Moreover, successful traders have a lover volatility of returns than successful investors. However, successful trading is simply more difficult a task than successful investing.

From a political perspective, a cynic is the capitalist and the sentimentalist is the socialist. The cynic applies a cost/benefit analysis to government programs, while the socialist considers the benefits without the direct, indirect and opportunity costs of the programs. Moreover, the cynic perceives government programs as self-serving to those espousing and implementing the programs, while the sentimentalist views the programs solely in terms of their beneficial objectives. Essentially, the capitalist is rational and self-serving, while the socialist is an emotional do-gooder. Ultimately, the capitalist is frustrated by the socialist’s inability to see what the capitalist feels is common sense (economics) and the socialist feels that the capitalist simply “doesn’t get it;” that is, we all live in a community and need serve the community (high taxes) which in turn cares for its members (welfare).

On a personal level, sentimentalists are emotional and cynics are practical; symbolically represented by fire and water. Fire hates and fears liquid water and tries to make it disappear by turning it into vapor.

The Way of the Way (WoW) is the nature of the way to awakening and enlightenment. The sound of “WoW” is made when we pucker our lips like when making a kiss.

Love that arises from the self is conditional love. Love from the soul is unconditional love.

When we love a particular person or thing, that’s conditional love; that is, love conditioned on that person or thing being who or what they are.

Unconditional love is love of everyone or thing as they are or as it is. Though there may be some people or things we don’t like, we nonetheless love them.

Cosmic love, the nexus of conditional and unconditional love, is an orgasm.

As children we need to be loved, for we will surely die without the help of others who presumably will help us because they love us.

At the end of days, we need to love everyone and everything, for otherwise we will surely die if we are not one with the everything.

It is not the fittest (most able) or the fattest (wealthiest) who are most likely to survive; it is those who are finest at identifying changing environments and either adapting to change or changing their environment.

The winners in the game of life receive grand prizes.

But, every participant gets a consolation prize: the transition to heaven.

The winners who rejoice with their grand prizes often forget to pick up the consolation prize.

It’s easy to equally divide a pie without knowing math, but impossible when you know the math of pi.

The play of life is a great cosmic joke for those who “get it.” Those who don’t are the butt of the joke.

Those who “get it” love those who don’t; for without those who don’t, the play wouldn’t be funny.

As well, those who “get it” express their gratitude and respect to the ones who don’t; for if those who don’t “get it” abandoned their roles, the ones who “get it” might find themselves recruited for the most difficult roles, the roles of the ones who don’t.

In the play of life, we are both the actors and the audience.

Wonderful entertainment for all but those who forget they are also the audience.

Someone who asks you a question wants to learn.

Someone who provides you an answer wants to teach.

Someone who asks you a question and provides you an answer wants to sell you something.

Intellectuals are undoubtedly smart, but lack wisdom when they think they are smarter than others.

“He who doesn’t see God everywhere isn’t capable of seeing God anywhere.” — Kotzker Rebbe

Desiring what we don’t have distracts us from appreciating what we have.

Those who “get it” are eternal. Those who don’t “get it” never die because they have never lived.

Talking about others, we are talking about our self; for the self creates the others.

As no one has ever complained about the night sky, the universe must be heaven and Earth must be hell.

Soulful love is the joy of feeling how someone emanating love feels.

Selfish love is basking in the love showered upon us by others.

Ignorance is bliss; temporary bliss for those who think they know what they don’t and eternal bliss for those who are curious.

We cannot choose our future, but we can choose how we remember the past which frames how we experience the future.

Enjoy your self, otherwise it might make you miserable.

In college, everyone hates the rich, but everyone wants to be rich.

Love makes all things one thing.

The rich think the poor are lazy and the poor think the rich were just lucky.

They are both right.

The key to success is luck. Those who work 40 hours/week get paid accordingly and receive 40 lottery tickets. Those who work 60 hours/week receive 200 lottery tickets. Those who work 75 hours/week receive 400 lottery tickets. As well, the rich are more conscientious in checking their tickets for winning numbers.

The soul and the hole makes us whole.

When the love of the soul and the love of the self cross in sexual union, it’s a cosmic orgasm.

Love connects us with the everything, while the self separates us from the everything.

Unconditional love is loving everything. It is peaceful.

Conditional love is loving some things and not others. It is more intense than unconditional love as it’s preceded and followed by other emotional states.

All emotional states, other than love, are a form of selfishness. Love too is selfishness when it connects us with some things but not every thing. Soulful love is love of one thing: the everything.

No one is getting out of here alive, but those who realize they are the everything.

Many a thank you is heard in the Rewards Department.

Many complaints in the Complaint Department.

God runs the Rewards Department and the Devil runs the Complaint Department.

In the past and future are an infinite number of things. The now is only one thing.

Those who rejoice reflecting the brightest light are often oblivious they cast the darkest shadows.

Fake artworks are real, but real artworks are often fake.

Fake artworks are real, tangible.

Real artworks are also tangible, but often trade at fake prices when they are priced multiple times higher than fake artworks that provide an experience indistinguishable from real artworks.

Awakening dispenses with boredom, as every moment is unlike another.

Life is a play; at times a drama, at times a comedy. Upon realizing it’s a play, dramas are funnier than comedies.

The mind can be a dark place, when we don’t open our eyes and see the light.

Some things are less perfect than other things which themselves are not quite perfect. Only the now is perfect, as there is nothing else.

Money is a beautiful thing as it equates the value of all exchangeable things. Yet, money is often ugly in the context of our personal relationship with it.

Unsolicited advice might come from the heart, but often debuts as a bowel movement; a relief to the provider, but a put-off to the recipient.

The goal of a man of wisdom is to make food of happy memories to feast on at the end of days.

When you recognize God in every thing, that’s who you are: God.

The mind is like a hand, only open when it lets go of whatever it holds tight.

The mind is an addicting medicine. It’s good for solving problems, but in doing so it creates other problems.

Love expressed by the soul is unconditional, unlike love expressed by the self which is conditional.

Love from soul is gold, while love from the self is fool’s gold. A simple acid test can determine whether love comes from the soul or the self.

The test is how do we feel when someone we love engages sexually with someone else. If our love is from the soul, we are happy for them and for whomever they were intimate, as how can we not be happy with the thought of people enjoying themselves. If our love issues from the self, we are angry, jealous, sad or have other unpleasant states of mind.

Love is love. From where it issues is of little immediate matter as love is love.

However, over time, love that flows from the self is temporary; at times running dry as it transitions into other emotional expressions. Love that flows from the soul is eternal, as the only emotional expression of the soul is love.

Moreover, love from the self is conditional, while love from the soul is unconditional.

Love from the self is proclaimed with “I love you.” Love from the soul is expressed as “We love you.” “We” are the gods. Those who don’t recognize everyone is god cannot love unconditionally.

That upon which we focus our attention is seemingly real and in turn makes us oblivious of everything else about us. However, the seemingly real is but an illusion, as it is but a facet of the infinite and everchanging faces of one thing: God.

Religions are like sheep.

Their wool warms and protects us.

Their bodies provide us sustenance.

But, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

They may make us feel comfortable and safe,

but their only interest is to sustain themselves.

There is a nameless place; before time begins; before we are born; before things become the now; a place of infinite possibilities.

While no one ever speaks badly of this nameless place, we often curse what comes from it. By doing so, we are not encouraging that place to send us something we will cherish.

We don’t need to worry about the future as that will be what it will be. However, we need to worry about the past, what we remember and how we remember it, as that will frame how we experience the present.

Those who appreciate life are on the way to happiness. Those who focus on trying to understand life may lose their way.

The luckiest are those who recognize they have been lucky, for they will recognize other lucky opportunities that come their way.

The universe is made up of matter. Our world is made up of stories.

The self and the soul have a symmetrical relationship, laughing at each other.

As the self cannot see the soul, the self laughs at those who identify with the soul; thinking they are fools.

As the soul sees people taking seriously the illusions created by the self, the soul laughs.

But, as the self is temporary and the soul eternal, the soul has the last laugh.

Much of what we undoubtedly think we see as reality is just a movie projected from our mind. To see reality we need to close our mind and open our eyes.

In a world in which we can have innumerable pronouns, we’re allowed only one ideology.

“According to the survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, 44 percent of those aged 25-34 think “referring to someone by the wrong gender pronoun (he/him, she/her) should be a criminal offense,” versus just 31 percent who disagree.” — Newsweek

My purpose each day is to create the sound of people laughing, with me or at me. Either way, we are harmoniously connected and the world is a safe place.

Judging someone reveals less about who they are than who we are.

Though it is ever-changing, the universe is always perfect. When we see it as flawed, that’s a reflection of who we are, not it.

An extraordinary genius is successful and celebrated by society. A true genius is happy whether or not they are successful or celebrated.

Life is a play, an opportunity to play. If it’s work and not play, you are not living.

Those who are happy have limited empathy for those who are unhappy as it’s difficult for the happy to understand unhappiness. But the happy have unlimited compassion, sharing their happiness with everyone.

Intelligence makes things interesting. Wisdom makes things funny.

People are always funny when they take seriously the meanings and stories their minds create. But what they do to themselves and others  is often not funny.

What feels you’re without is within.

A peach is a big opportunity. Its pit is a small risk. Focus on the risk and you’ll have many opportunities.

A wealthy man has made his wealth. A wealthy boy has inherited it. That makes it difficult for the boy to become a man.

Having more questions than answers is energizing.

Having more answers than questions is tiring.

Those who claim their success came from luck are able. Those who think their success came from their abilities are bound to be unlucky.

When we closely hold tight to who we think we are, we cannot be open to what we are.

The time before and after we are alive must be a happy time as no one has ever complained about it.

The time we are alive is infinitesimally small relative to the time before and after we are alive.

So odd that we focus on the infinitesimally small about which we often complain.

Awakening is the realization that all times past were a dream.

Those who want to work seek work.

Those who don’t want to work seek jobs.

Artworks are made to entertain us. Yet, the art market is more entertaining than artworks.

As the price of an artwork has little to do with its quality, the tail is wagging the dog.

When we identify someone as of our kind, we treat them with kindness. When we identify with the universe we treat all with kindness.

Your life is a fascinating story. Perhaps you could imagine a better one, but then you would miss out on your life.

To live a life of compassion and wisdom, best to avoid those who lack compassion and their friends who obviously lack wisdom.

Apocalypse is the complete and final destruction of the world as described in the Book of Revelation. While most of us will not be around for the world’s collective apocalypse, each of us will have our own apocalypse/revelation, the end of our days in unitary bodies.

Apocalypse and revelation are used interchangeably, but are different. The etymology of both words is to “uncover, unveil.” However, apocalypse is more about the destruction of the world as we know it and revelation is about what’s revealed by what remains after the destruction.

Apocalypse/revelation is like the lifting of a bride’s veil to reveal her face before the groom kisses her to consummate their marriage. After the kiss, the groom’s unitary existence is over as he is now one with the bride. Likewise, at the end of our days we realize that we are no longer unitary beings; we are one with all that heretofore seemed other than us.

Apocalypse/revelation is when the truth is revealed about consciousness and reality. The veil represents our personal consciousness; the meanings, generalizations and stories we create that mask reality. When the veil is lifted, we see reality as it is: the nothingness that everything is before and after it is what it is whatever it is.

That’s who we are: The nothing that everything is before and after it is, one with everything.

For those who know the veil is illusory, the veil is translucent; allowing them to see reality. Thus, as they know they are one with everything, they treat others as themselves (compassion) and are able to see the world from many perspectives (wisdom). Moreover, when the veil is lifted, apocalypse, it is the time for revelation; to revel with laughter as the illusions are now clearly absurd.

However, for those who think the illusions are real, the veil is opaque. They live as unitary beings and when the veil is lifted the revelation is frightening as hell. Not a surprising outcome as taking our personal consciousness seriously is at times hellish, even before the apocalypse. Unfortunately, it is fear of reality than keeps us from seeing through our personal consciousness which is the foundation of our fear.

While a lie may initially hide the truth, when the truth is revealed the lie ultimately reveals more than it hides.

Only when we shed our clothes are we ready to make love. Likewise, only when we shed the self that covers our soul are we ready to love everyone.

At birth, babies cry as they transition from being one with the Everything to being a finite being in a challenging world.

Upon their natural death, many are relieved to transition to again be one with the Everything.

Curiously, people are joyous and when a baby is born and saddened when someone dies.  Perhaps misery loves company.

Why I loved my father is why he hated me. I thought it was funny when he got angry, but he didn’t get the joke.

The pursuit of happiness is a fool’s errand. Happiness is like a mouse, it comes to those who sit quietly with a piece of cheese by their side.