A word that you may well drop from your vocabulary is the word "why". Of course, it is not the word so much as the concept. Why this, why that? Why did this happen and not that? Why to me? As if there is a cause you must identify and give a swift kick to.

Why does not matter. You have been looking for cause and effect all your life, trying to figure life out and extricate yourself from it. What does why have to do with it?

There is only is-ness.

Looking for reasons all the time is tantamount to counting numbers for no reason at all. It is a kind of rote. How many ersatz reasons can you count? And you lull yourself off from the present. And you only wind yourself up in strings. You do not untangle. You tangle more.

Too much time looking for cause and effect.

Unless sequence of cause and effect is obvious, forget about it. You do not dwell on the matters that are already clear to you. You already know that striking a match will light it. But you dwell on those matters whose sequence you cannot possibly discern. There is not a straight line for you to follow. Furthermore, it is closer to the truth to say there is no cause. No cause, only occurrence.

If your car runs out of gas today, you know it didn't have gas in it. That is what you know. Perhaps you can determine that there is a leak in the tank. More likely you simply ran out of gas. Beyond that, asking yourself why you didn't fill up the tank yesterday, or why were you careless, why did you forget, why did you risk it, or why don't you know better… all of this is fruitless. To ask anyone else why is also fruitless. Pick the best of reasons, and it still doesn't move you forward.

Try this one thing today: It is a Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not try to figure out why something happened or didn't happen.

The word to substitute for "why" is "now".

Now is a more useful word. Or, when something happens, even just say Oh, and then go on. This applies to why the things that you like happen as well as the things you don't. Or say Hmmm and go on.

Looking for reasons why is dwelling on the past.

Looking for reasons why is skirting the issue.

Now, on the other hand, reminds you where you are and what is. Now is the pool you swim in. Now is your fortune. Now is your wisdom, and now is your grace.

Why do I say these things to you? Why is immaterial. What I say and what you hear matter. Take what I say to heart and not why I say them. Do you see now how looking for reasons is a form of eluding yourself from the present?

Give up figuring out. Whatever occurred has already been figured out. It occurred, didn't it?

There is no reason for you to seek for why. We are talking about life, not a recipe to follow. Maybe you leave an ingredient out of a cake you bake, and next time you will remember. Maybe the temperature of the oven was too high or too low, and next time you will do better. But life is now, and you are already better. Meet life as it comes to you, and go on. Do not try to keep all the traces from the past. Get on with the present.