Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
Yin-Yang is balance and harmony throughout the Cosmos. Equal and opposite forces of attraction and repulsion are bound together and make life possible. Without the bond we all fly off in different directions at once. The stupid ones among us think that if we can only get rid of what we hate, we would live happily ever-after, not realizing that our opposites balance us out and save us from exploding into the Void. The stupid ones among us hate Woke people and that prevents them from waking up to their stupidity and living life as it must be lived, at one with liberty and justice, equality and truth forever.
Atlantic Moonrise — Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina
My cognitive decline is a little like dying with your eyes open while you are disconnecting. Here but not present. Or present but not here. And it is unpleasant however you choose to look at it. I look the other way, turn the light around, and flip the switch to “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” And the mood passes, along with everything else that is passing. I let it go and move on. It is quite the ride. I wouldn’t have missed it, and am glad to have done it, and to still be doing it, keeping company with what is keeping me company. And it is keeping me company. I see my environment as a kind and gentle place, and enjoy the opportunity to share my gratitude and appreciation with all that is with me day to day.
Marsh Sundown — Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
There is That which has always been called God, and there is the God of Theology. They are not the same. That which has always been called God has been experienced, felt, known from the very beginning of life and is present in every age through the ages to here, now. The God of Theology dates back to the Jewish experience of The Chosen People and the Prophets of the Old Testament and the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ event of the New Testament.
The story of the Garden of Eden, the Fall, Adam and Eve, eating the Forbidden Fruit, the need for Redemption and Atonement and faith in Jesus who was reported to have been resurrected after his death on a Cross–which is invalidated by three Old Testament texts:
Deuteronomy 24:16, “Parents are not to be put to death for their children’s sin, nor children put to death for their parents’ sin–each will die for their own sin.
Ezekiel 18:20 “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share th guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.
Jeremiah 31:30 Whoever eats sour grapes their own teeth will be set on edge.
Leaving us with stories about God based on hearsay that have gained validity by being repeated through 2,026 years. And theology is a collection of opinions based on hearsay.
Which leaves us with the indisputable evidence of the world’s human population through 300,000 years of life on earth to substantiate the truth of That Which Has Always Been Called God for us to seek, experience, explore in the time left for living.
Wu-Wei — To accomplish without striving or forcing, pushing or insisting, like sawing with the grain, not against it.
Waiting for the appropriate time to do the appropriate thing. in the appropriate way. and in the appropriate place– and trusting ourselves to know spontaneously, naturally, what and when, and where, and how that is.
No one can hurry up and be there! Or even know where “there” is. So, we wait to see. hear. know. Understand. When and where and how to act in ways appropriate to the occasion.
Emerald Isle Sunrise, Emerald Isle, North Carolina
We have to take everything as it comes. There is no immunity. No refuge, save the refuge of peaceful abiding here, now, no matter what. Knowing that we have what it takes to find what we need to do what is called for in any situation as it arises all our life long. If we are going to take anything “on faith” let it be that, and we will be invulnerable, off limits to every catastrophe, and the complete loss of everything anywhere, everywhere, along the way. There is nothing like the right attitude for having it made.
Lake Haigler Mirror 02 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Quiet tranquility flows smoothly to peaceful abiding, here, now. To maintain that orientation upon “the heaving waves of the wine dark sea,” is to have mastered the art of having no opinion about anything.
Walks in the woods and by the water can restore us to our life like nothing else. It is the grace of the sacred at work in the life we are living. How long has it been?
Consciousness is the foundation of peaceful abiding, here, now. We have to be attentive to what’s what, and what’s called for in every here, now that comes our way. No sleepwalking! How do we maintain attentive presence throughout the day? We have to take it up as a spiritual practice, being here, now, all day every day. We can take up the practice of remembering our breath and allowing it to remind us to take body scans, looking for what our body may be trying to tell us about the needs of the moment, and allowing it to guide and direct us through the day. This is focusing on and tuning into our intuition calling for our attention and cooperation in living the way our life needs us to live it here, now all day every day. Keeping us on our toes and at the helm of our boat on its path through the sea.
The Enso is a Zen sacred circle, often referred to as an unfinished circle, or an incomplete circle, to underscore the Zen understanding of perfection and wholeness as being that which has something missing. We aren’t whole until we are one with our missing parts. Making our peace with how things are is much more important than being without blemish from birth. In walking with a limp we walk aware of what we are doing, where we are going and what it takes to get there. We are more awake, aware and alive than we would be if we were perfect. And that makes us truly perfect with our imperfections. Celebrating our holes we become whole.
The Mittens at Sunrise — Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Mexican Hat, Arizona
We are in it for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it. Not joyful? Unsatisfied? Hmmm… Let’s drop into the emptiness, stillness, silence with joylessness on one side and dissatisfaction on the other, and make inquiries. Interview the two of them. And listen to the conversation as they talk to each other. Our place is to keep them talking and to keep listening to what they have to say. Our place is NOT to think about what we have to say, but to engage joy and satisfaction in conversation about their disappointment and their expectations, asking all of the questions that beg to be asked and saying all of the things that cry out to be said. We listen, probe, inquire, seeking to understand, comprehend, know what’s what with joylessness and dissatisfaction–and inviting our dreaming self to speak to us in our dreams as we strive to get to the bottom of how things are with joy and satisfaction.
The Way of the Buddha, The Way of the Wind, and The Way of Wild Things comprise the Trilogy, The Way of the Way, exploring the mystery/miracle of Tao, Psyche, Intuition which I see as the trilogy behind, at the bottom of, the Trilogy expressing, exhibiting, disclosing, revealing the foundational Trilogy at work in the Cosmos that constitutes the Way that has no end. It is a wonder and a delight to be with all that is part of the way and the joy of sharing the ride and the Way of the Way!
Hebron Falls — Boone Fork, Julian Price Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Balance, harmony, stability, reliability… These boulders are going to be there for a while, but permanence is out of the question for anything ever. So, we embrace the permanence of impermanence as the only thing that is guaranteed to be forever, and go on with our life. Going on with our life is one of the things I like most about us. Dancing with the day, day after day is what we do best. And I cherish that as our finest attribute. Just look at all we have been through as a species! And we are still getting up to face the day! Good for you! Good for me! Let’s go see what we can do with it!
Lake Andrew Jackson Mirror — Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina
Being who we are, doing what is ours to do when where and how it needs to be done is our gift to the world. And we do not think any of this into being. We live our way into being who we are. Not by thinking about it but simply by doing it. We watch ourselves living by observing ourselves in action and not-knowing where some of our “stuff” comes from–the way stand-up comedians laugh at themselves when they spontaneously create lines they have never heard or thought of before. We have to learn to live that way. Spontaneously. Improvisationally. Every day is Life At The Improv, with us making things up that are so true to ourselves. Babies do this all of the time. Why do we stop? It is who we are and we stop being true to ourselves. Why? Let’s devote the rest of our life to being who we are here, now, no matter what! Deal?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 