When asked, “Is there a God?” the Buddha answered according to the need of the person. For one person his answer was “No, there is no God.” For another, the answer was “Yes, there is a God.”. And yet a third person asked, “What can you tell me about God?”. The Buddha closed his eyes and the person closed his. After a half hour of silence. The person got up, thanked the Buddha and left.

Ananda, after witnessing all three answers, asked what is the Truth. The Buddha said the first was a believer in God and if it was confirmed there is a God then his spiritual journey to liberation would have ended. The second was an atheist and if it was confirmed that there is no God then his spiritual journey to liberation would have ended. So, they were told what they needed to hear. The third person held no beliefs or preconceived ideas. So they spent the time together in meditation.

So, not so much as in surrendering to God as to be present and enjoy the moment. Take for example the story of the man who was chased by a tiger to the edge of a cliff. He jumps down to a branch and holds on. Then he looks below and sees another tiger looking up at him. The man now looks at the branch and sees a fruit. He grabs the fruit and eats it. And with that he smiles. Be present in the moment, Enjoy what you can.

The first Noble Truth is that there is suffering.

The second is that there is a cause of suffering.

The third is that there is an end of suffering.

And the fourth is that there is a way leading to the end of suffering: The Eightfold Path

Dear James: your post right above brought the first smile to my day 😊 ✨

Anytime you choose to post your thoughts, ideas.. feelings, your humor, I will be happy to read from you!

Hi Everyone

“When you realize that eternity is right here now, that it is within your possibility to experience the eternity of your own truth and being, then you grasp the following: That which you are was never born and will never die.” – Campbell

“If you think you’ve nailed down the self, you’ve missed the joke. The self is the dance, not the dancer.” – Watts

Both Campbell and Watts point to the same insight through different lenses. Campbell reminds us that eternity is not a distant realm or something that begins after death, it is a dimension of the present moment, a quality of being that reveals our essence as timeless: never truly born, never truly dying.

Watts, with his playful metaphysics, frames life as a cosmic game of hide-and-seek, where the universe forgets this truth in order to rediscover it through us. Forgetting means identifying with the separate self, bound by time and mortality; remembering is awakening to the dance, the realization that the self is not the dancer but the dance itself. In this way, both voices invite us to see that eternity, which is timeless and not a measurement, is here and now, and the game is not about escape but rediscovery.

For fun I thought I’d have Campbell and Watts join the dialog

Setting: A dimly lit circular room with mirrored walls. Four chairs face each other. A candle flickers at the center. The air hums with quiet tension and curiosity.

CHARACTERS:
Ariadne – poetic, intuitive, speaks in metaphors and fluid language
Theo – analytical, precise, favors definitions and logical clarity
Campbell – mythic, calm, speaks in archetypes and timeless truths
Watts – playful, irreverent, dances with paradox and cosmic humor

Ariadne: The self is a shimmer, a ripple in the stream. Try to grasp it, and it slips through your fingers. We are illusions dreaming of permanence.
Theo: Illusion implies something false. If we are to speak meaningfully, we must define what we mean by “self.” Is it consciousness? Memory? Identity?
Watts: Oh, definitions! Lovely toys. But don’t mistake the menu for the meal. The self is a role in the cosmic play. You’re not a noun, you’re a verb. You are the universe experiencing itself.
Theo: That’s poetic, but dangerously vague. If everything is everything, then nothing is anything. We need boundaries to think, to speak, to be.
Campbell: Boundaries are the bones of myth. But the truth lies beyond them. That which you are was never born and will never die. The hero’s journey begins with identity and ends in transcendence.
Ariadne: So, the game is to forget and then remember. To lose the self in the labyrinth and find it again in the center.
Watts: Exactly! And the punchline is there was never a labyrinth. Just the dance. Just the music. You took the game seriously, and that’s the joke.
Theo: So, all this… these realizations, these awakenings… they’re just… games?
Campbell: Yes. But sacred games. The myths we live by are not lies; they are metaphors pointing to truths too vast for logic.
Watts: And the best part? You don’t have to win. You just have to play.

Together, Campbell and Watts whisper: “Eternity is not later. It’s now.” – “You are the universe pretending to be a person.” – let us hold these words lightly.

Living isn’t about slaying dragons or finding treasure. It’s about waking up to the fact that you were never separate from the treasure to begin with. That the game was always rigged in favor of joy, if only we stop trying to win and start playing.

Today, I wonder what if. What if I try to live as if I were never born and will never die. What if… I dance. I play. I remember.