One thing goes out of style all of the time. Throughout the centuries. And that one thing is emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three). Which is dismissed, discounted, ignored, in favor of religion with evangelistic fervor throughout history.

Religion is a loud, rhythmic, chanting, singing, dancing, hypnotic, trance-inducing, disciple-making, emotional, mind-bending-shaping process of selling the religion’s idea of how things are to the masses in every generation. But, there have been other ideas favoring emptiness, stillness and silence from the beginning of time.

The Buddha introduced meditation as “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” And told his followers, “Don’t listen to me! Listen to YOU!

Jesus came along 500 years later, and told the crowds gathered around him, “The Spirit is like the wind that blows where it will.” And, “Why don’t you decide for yourselves what is right?” And, “Pray without ceasing!”

The wind that blows where it will cannot be codified, tamed, controlled, managed, cultivated, penned up, domesticated, walled in, civilized, trained and made to do what it is told, locked into a creed, a formula, a confession of faith, a catechism, a system of beliefs and practices called “Religion.”

To “pray without ceasing” we only need to drop into emptiness, stillness and silence (One thing, not three) and live out of that space, waiting, watching to see, hear, know, understand what arises in The Silence to enflame the impulse of our nature in seeing, knowing, doing what is called for in each situation as it arises in serving the right thing, in the right way, in the right place, at the right time–as Jesus did throughout his life, and as the Tao calls from time immemorial.

Praying without ceasing is living aligned with what needs to be done here, now, the way it needs to be done, as only we can do it with our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent intuition and our intrinsic imagination all our life long. Something children are able to do in being who they are, when they are, where they are, how they are in all times and places. So, Jesus would say, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

“Pray always.” “Turn and become like children,” are also the same thing as being aligned with the Tao in all times and places. Children do it. Nature does it. It is the way of the Way. Why don’t we do it?