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?
Wild Goose Island, St. Mary Lake, 2004 — Glacier National Park, Montana
Zen is Taoism's response to Buddhism. There is nothing Buddhist about it.
"Don't take suffering seriously, Bro! Just fold it into your life and live on! Live on!"
The Buddha could have used the insights of Taoism.
"Nothing is so bad that changing the way you look at it won't make better!"
"Why be undone about the way things are? Do what can be done about it and move on! Move on!"
The Buddha's solution was to stop thinking about it entirely. Empty mind. No mind. Untouched by it all. Being dead to the idea of dying. Ignoring things as they are disappears them altogether.
Nothing is so bad that denial can't improve, like that!
Dying to death beats death! Dying to suffering beats suffering! "Nothing can happen I can't deny by not thinking about it! So, I'm just going to not think about the things I don't like!"
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 