What kind of God is it 
that has to be taken on faith?

That has to be believed in
due to being apparently nowhere around?

One who is a complete fiction
created by the priests who are paid to function
as intermediaries excelling in 
talking people into seeing what isn't there!

As a viable alternative to that "God,"
I present to you: Transcendent Reality--
something everyone recognizes instantly
even though no one can say what it is,
and all are left with "Wow! Just WOW!"
as the only thing that can be--
or needs to be--said.

There is no--nor can there be--theology
of the Transcendent.
No doctrines.
No dogma.
No words.
Just seeing/feeling/sensing/knowing,
"As the Moved before the Mover."

Physical reality is grounded upon spiritual reality.
We call it "spiritual" because it has no material properties itself,
but is readily apparent through the material world
in the places and people who are "transparent to transcendence"
(Joseph Campbell)--
primarily through experiences with art, music, nature
and the right kind of conversation,
the right kind of company.

Indigenous peoples have always known the visible world
to be upheld by the invisible world,
and have always worshiped the "cracks," 
the "thin places" (Parker Palmer)
where the invisible world shines through--
places that are "transparent to transcendence."

Human beings are as close to transcendent reality
as the physical world gets
by virtue of our ability to know the unknowable
and exhibit in our way with each other--
in our company--in our conversation--
"the imminence of transcendence"
by living, as the old Taoists would say,
"aligned with the Tao,"
"at one with the flow of life and being,"
balancing and harmonizing Yin and Yang,
physical and spiritual
visible and invisible
in the way we conduct ourselves
in each situation as it arises
to make apparent what is always real
and always "right there"
but not always evident
because of "the noise of the 10,000 things."

We mediate the invisible within the visible
when we are "at our best,"
and live as "the Christ--the anointed one,"
entrusted with the task of Hermes, 
the messenger of the Gods,
living as those who are "transparent to transcendence"
in the ordinary times and places of existence.

Transforming the experience of the moment,
of the here and now,
everywhere we go.

May we all live so as to make it so!

–0–

We have to know what is holy to us,
what is sacred,
what we owe fealty to
and honor with filial devotion,
liege loyalty
and unwavering allegiance.

How long is your list?

Mornings and evenings are holy unto me.
And time.
Coffee.
Naps.
Writing.
Photography.
Reading.
Avoiding noise.
Looking out the window.
Maintaining my boundaries.
Emptiness, stillness and silence.
Being right about what needs to be done
and doing it when, where and how it needs to be done.
And not doing what does not need to be done.

–0–

The old Taoist masters knew
it comes down to,
flows from,
centers upon,
living from our original/
essential/
true/
eternal nature.

"What was the face
that was yours
before your grandparents were born?"

Why don't we know?
Why doesn't everyone know?

"Buddha Mind"
is any mind that knows who it is
and what it is about,
to the point where nothing can 
interfere with or prevent
it from being who it is,
doing what it has to do--
because it HAS to do it, in a
"I have no say in the matter.
It's the pirate's life for me, Gibbs.
Savvy?"
kind of way.

And we get there by seeing what we look at.
Hearing what we listen to.
Knowing what we know,
and have always known,
and doing what needs to be done about it
in each situation as it arises
all our life long
the way that is true to our original/
essential/
true/
eternal nature.

Savvy?

It all comes out of,
centers upon,
flows from
the right kind of emptiness,
stillness,
silence,
solitude--
living apart from,
untouched by,
noise,
complexity,
drama,
trauma.

All of which was so before 
the earliest Taoists/Buddhists/Yogis
knew it.

It is all there is to know--
and we keep having to find our way back to it,
generation after generation.

Because having our way
keeps getting in the way.

Leading us to forget about
the face that was ours before we were born.

–0–

I've written recently about the importance
of our own confession/repentance/atonement,
and there is another aspect of our sensitivity
to wrong that begs to be mentioned.

We are to bear witness of other people's refusal
to be truthful
and their failure to be good.

I'm speaking of the fascists among us.
The members of Congress,
the would-be-wanna-be next President of the United States,
the members of the Supreme Court,
the wealthy backers of Wrong Forever On The Throne,
the people who chant the slogans of the fascists,
who, themselves, are fascist to the core,
hating those who are different from their idea
of how people ought to be like them
so that the world would then be a safe place
for them to be.

We bear witness to them all
and attest to their rancid souls
and their careless way with words and deeds,
spewing their wrath and their spite,
their malice and their malignancy
unto all who are not like them,
and living to make them pay dearly for daring
to be as they are,
people of color, immigrants, destitute, homeless, gay,
female, disabled, with nothing in common
with the fascist supremacists except all of the things
that make us human 
and cry out to be honored and revered by us all. 

We bear witness to their rejection of our common duty
to be simply human to one another.

We see.
We hear.
We know who they are.
And we will not forget
or allow it to go unacknowledged.

–0–

Carl Jung said that a hermit
is a primitive person
who trusts their unconscious.

I would have used the term "Natural"
instead of "Primitive."

A natural person who trusts their unconscious
is a rare sight in any age.

And a natural person would naturally
trust their unconscious.
There is no other way.

Living naturally is expressing
in our life
the leading/guiding/directing influence
of the psyche, the unconscious.

Who we naturally are
is who we are apart from cultural influences,
social expectations,
religious instruction
and all of the rules to live by
that we have spent a lifetime learning
and applying.

We learn the rules governing behavior,
and then live beyond them
in sync with the Law of Sincerity and Spontaneity,
offering in the moment
exactly what is called for,
no matter what the culture and society may expect.

Jesus was called "a glutton and a winebibber,"
which was in those days the same as saying
that he was "beyond parental control."
Or that "no one can do anything with him."

He lived beyond culture and society and religion
in saying and doing what needed to be said and done,
and left that behind as a hermit's legacy
to all who would follow him
in responding to each situation as it arises,
and to each moment within each situation,
as it needs to be responded to,
regardless of what culture/society/religion
have to say.

We cannot live like that and care what our chances are,
but we do live like the spirit-wind,
blowing where it will.

–0–

What do you like to do?
What are the things you do best?
Could be crossword puzzles.
Or picture puzzles.
How long has it been since you've done 
the things you like to do
and the things you do best?

They are likely to be the same things.
Maybe not.
Tying my shoes is one thing I do best.
I do it every day.
Sometimes I like to do it.

I'm really good at a lot of things
I don't particularly enjoy doing.
But the two things belong to me,
separate me from you
and everyone else in the room/world,
set me apart,
make me me.
Bring me forth.
Wa-La.
Here I am.
There you are.

So do what you love to do,
and do what you do best,
and let those things take you
to who you are
and what is yours to do.

Trust them as one might trust
a faithful guide
through all of the circumstances of life.

Take your guidance and direction
from the things you love to do 
and the things you do best.

Give yourself to them
and see where they lead,
where they take you,
where you go in their service.

I love to write.
Look at me.
Here I am.
Doing what I love to do.

I love to take photos,
and to work with them and Photoshop.
Look at me.
Here I am.
Doing what I do best.
Showing off.
Having fun.

How long has it been
since you showed off?
Had fun?

Need I say more?

–0–

We all stand in need of atonement
which cannot be administered by another
or by faith of any kind,
but only by dying ourselves
the death that Adam and Eve had to die
to get back into Eden--
the death that has nothing to do with
one's last breath
and the cessation of mobility
and the coroner confirming our passing
with "I hereby declare thee DEAD!"

The kind of death that atones for 
all that we have done and failed to do
that requires atonement
is that called for by knowing full well
what we have/have not done
and bearing the full burden of our failure
to be who/what was needed in the moment of truth,
unable to say anything other 
than "I am the one."

We bear the weight of that confession
and walk with a limp
because of it
for the rest of our days.

We don't have a proper ceremony for confession
and admission of failure to be 
who we have been asked to be 
by our circumstances.

The pissy little prayers of confession
in the Liturgical Orders of the Lord's Day 
in Christian churches
are much too easily read
and much too quickly dismissed
with a flighty little "I declare to you
that we are forgiven!"

A wave of the hand
and a "There, now. That's done."
Helps no one.

I'm talking about the need for atonement
that goes beyond anything Jesus could do
with his death on the cross.
Even Jesus declared this to be so with his,
"If you would be my disciple,
pick up your own cross
and follow me,"
as he walked the path that led to Golgotha.

Everybody dies in that man's service,
as everybody must
in squaring ourselves up with who we are
and what we have done and left undone.

Need I mention what we did to native Americans?
Need I put before us slavery and the awful wrong 
that was and is still to this very day?
Need I bring homelessness to our attention?
Global Warming?
Hiroshima?
Nagasaki?
The US Japanese interment during WWII?
   
And the long list of all that is wrong about us
and the way we live,
and move,
and have our being--
including allowing ourselves to be relieved 
of the guilt of all these things
by a hand raised above us
and a declaration of forgiveness?

Death is the only thing that will do.
A metaphorical death.
A symbolic death.
Tears in the shower.
Eyes wide open through the night.
Knowing, knowing who we are.
What we have/have not done.
Confessing again and again,
"I, I am the one!"

With thankfully none to wave their hand
and glibly utter, "You are forgiven! Amen!"

–0–

There is what we do to live,
and there is what we live to do.

What do you live to do?
How does who you are come alive
in doing what you live to do?

We bring ourselves to life
in/by doing what we live to do.
If we are mostly dead,
it could be because we are 
doing the wrong things with our life.

We get to the right things
by seeing what we look at
and hearing what we listen to.
And knowing what we are dismissing,
discounting,
ignoring.

"The stone the builders rejected"
was exactly what they were looking for,
but they missed it 
because they had eyes for other things.

If we hope to see what we are looking at,
we have to do it via emptiness,
stillness
and silence--
and paying close attention 
to what is happening there.

We get--finally, at last--to emptiness,
stillness and silence
by having no opinions,
no agendas,
no plans,
no expectations,
no desires,
no fears,
no bitterness,
no shame,
no striving,
no forcing,
no contriving,
no scheming,
just breathng
and being as empty
as the place between breaths.

The place between breaths
is the being place,
the seeing place,
"the still point of the turning world."

Everything leads to that,
flows from that,
revealing there is nothing but that
for those with eyes that see,
ears that hear
and a heart that understands/comprehends/realizes/knows.

Enlightenment is knowing what we have always known.
Waking up to what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
and doing it when/when/how it needs to be done--
in each situation as it arises--
for nothing more than the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

What we live to do
is just that way.
"Always well within our reach,
yet exceeding our grasp,"
because we were/are looking for something else.

Ain't that the way it is though?
Ain't that just the way it is?

–0–

Our nature knows how to express itself
and find its own way.
We do not have to tell it anything,
or direct it in any way.

We all got here/now
without intending to be here/now,
without knowing what we were doing,
or where we were going,
but here we are, 
right now.

Something not us got us here.
It was the drift and flow of our life
through the circumstances of living.

One thing led to another,
and here we are,
right now.

It does not matter where we think we are going.
It is how we get there that matters.
We get there by allowing our nature
and our innate virtues/specialties
to take the lead.

We let our interest guide us.
We follow our heart.
If something has vitality for us,
if something sparks our interest,
calls our name,
it is right to give ourselves to it
and see where it goes.

What do we do wholeheartedly?
Without having to?
Stay with that!
See where it goes.

I asked a young person what she 
thought she might do with her life.
"Well, I like to snowboard," she said.
I hope she stayed with snowboarding.
It may have been "It" for her,
or it may have lead her to what was "It."

We get passed along like that
from one thing to another 
all our life long,
following what is "It" for us all the way,
as it passes its "It-ness" on to the next thing,
and we wake up somewhere that is here/now,
wondering how we got there--
that's how.

Passed along from one thing to another.
Handed off to what is "It" now.
From one "It" to another.
Our life is lived from "It" to "It"
if we stay out of the way
by staying on the way
and following our heart's lead all the way.

It's tricky, listening to our heart,
and there is nothing to it
all at the same time.

And it beats doing what someone else
tells us to do all the time.

–0–

This is today's post on "July 6, 2023 - B

And this is today's post after applying Photoshop (Beta)'s Artificial Intelligence "Generative Fill" filter to it, expanding the size of the original image right/left/up/down.

Using the AI filter means that every landscape photograph now has the potential of being both the enlarged landscape and the detail.

And, it means that I could add a red canoe/kayak, or a Corvette convertible, etc., anywhere in the scene. And, it means I could completely transform the original image into a barn and a cow and a pasture with very little effort.

The implications and possibilities are limitless. Artificial reality is the new reality. Which means we are beyond the boundaries holding things together in terms of what we can trust, assume, take for granted. And, we are having to find our way around in a new world that changes as we watch, and have no business exposing ourselves to the magic of media and need to increase the amount of time we spend in the natural world, and with emptiness, stillness and silence, processing, reflecting, listening, looking, asking, seeking, knocking, wondering what's what and what needs to be done in response, all the time, everywhere. Because we are at the point of nothing being as it appears to be, and certainly not as we presume that it is. 

We have to bring solitude to the fore, and refuse to become lost in the crowd, any crowd--in the noise, any noise. And work to be aware of and maintain/sustain our balance and harmony in each situation as it arises, from one moment to the next, every day.

Being aware of being aware. Being here/now. Seeing ourselves seeing, listening, looking, hearing... Not getting lost in unconscious sense perceptions. Remembering that we are being blinded, or blind-sided, by what we are looking at, and have to learn to live as blind people finding their way through a world
that is overwhelming their senses at every turn.

And you can't trust any of my photos any longer to be only what they appear to be. They are likely to be so much more.

The tragedy is 
that tragedy cannot be averted.
Or avoided.

I'm talking about fascism here,
and homelessness,
and unwanted pregnancy, etc.

In 2014, my acupuncturist told me,
"Jim, alcohol isn't helping your knees any."
I had my last glass of wine
(and all other varieties of alcohol)
on July 27, 2014.

Which means I have an anniversary 
coming up this month.
Nine years.
It seems much longer than that.
It seems like I have always been alcohol-free.

One of the things I've noticed about people
as I walk around,
paying attention
to what I see and hear,
is that people do not listen to their physicians.

Particularly where diet and exercise and alcohol
are concerned.

This ties right back into fascism,
homelessness
and unwanted pregnancies, etc. 

And the tragedy that tragedy cannot be averted.

The world is over-populated,
and becoming more so every day.

The fascists say that is because 
there are too many of the wrong kind of people
in the world,
and if we got rid of all those immigrants
there would be more room for the rest of us
(And when a fascist says "us"
they are talking about fascists,
except they overlook the fact that that means
no one would cook their meals and wash their sheets.
They leave out the implications 
of having a world full of people like themselves.
Here's one for them: It would not work.).

There are just too many of all kinds of people in the world.
And there are more of us every day.

That is the tragedy: Nothing works.
Not like we want it to.
Not like it should.

If you want to fix something,
fix that.

It won't touch fascism,
homelessness
and unwanted pregnancy.
Just to mention three things it won't touch.

Here is the best we can do,
and all we have any right to hope for 
and expect:

We can help ourselves be lucky,
by listening to our physicians, for example.
And that means we cannot do anything
about anyone else.
They have to help themselves be lucky.
By listening to their physicians, for example.

(Even physicians do not listen to their physicians!)

Being lucky is what it it "all about."
We have to live so as to improve our chances
of being lucky.

By, say, listening to our physicians.
Seeing what's what and what needs to be done about it
and doing it when/where/how it needs to be done
every day for the rest of our life.

And that won't do a thing
about fascism,
homelessness
and unwanted pregnancy,
just to mention three things
it won't do anything about.

Which gets us back to where we came in:
The tragedy about tragedy
is that it cannot be averted.
Or avoided.

Another way of saying this 
is that old Southern stand-by:
"You did it to your own self"!
(By refusing to help your "own self" be lucky!) 

–0–

Our ghosts are not out to get us.
Everything inside is on our side.
Our ghosts represent things
we need to clean up,
change our perspective about,
turn the light around concerning,
and remind us of things we needs to change.

We call the things that are calling us to grow up,
"evil, horrible, bad, terrible, etc."
because they interfere with our having our way
and getting what we want.

Having our way and getting what we want
are the worst things that can happen to us,
and a quick inventory of our past will likely
unveil how the worst things that happen to us
are the best things that happened to us,
and the best things that happened to us
are the worst things that happened to us.

Everything that happens to us
is another opportunity to grow up,
square up with how things are
and what is being asked of us,
stand up and do the necessary thing.

I take the things I most do not want to do,
and work with them
until I can transform them
or work out a compromise with them,
generally built around the theme
of making the best of what I do not want to do
by guarding what is important to me
while doing what needs me to do it.

There are two sacred/holy/sacrosanct aspects 
of every day,
morning and evening.
I have nothing at stake mid-day,
and can generally work in a nap
of about 30 minutes
between 1 and 3 PM.

So, I guard my mornings and my evenings,
and use mid-day to barter with what 
wants me to do it that I don't want to do,
often by taking it to lunch.

I'm sure I could be a crabby old man
if it weren't for doing the things I don't want to do
that need me to do them.
Just saying, "No!" would not be good for me
over the long term.

I understand that 
and say, "How about lunch tomorrow?"

–0–