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?
El Capitan Mirror — Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California
Seeing is a matter of proper looking, and that is a matter of imagining how many ways there are of seeing a scene. And that means being with the scene in a way that invites/allows the scene to reveal itself beyond its initial impact. It means being with the scene in the right kind of way. Which means taking a time with a scene, absorbing the scene, being here, now with the scene. And not being in a hurry. All of which are functions of being where we are throughout our life. Making being alive the art of seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding…
Big Creek 04-02 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville Exit Access, North Carolina
Our place in each day is not to impose our will, wants, wishes upon the day, but to align ourselves with the drift and flow of the day, doing what we can to aid and abet the day with its needs and interests. The question is not, “How can we be happy today?” but, “How can we be helpful today?” Not, “What can we get?” but, “What is called for here, now throughout each day.” We are here to do what is called for with our skill set, our talents, our knacks and abilities–for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it. In each situation as it arises, all our life long.
Big Creek Cascade 01 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville Exit, North Carolina
Jesus came to tell us that nobody goes to hell, that everyone realizes the truth eventually and bears the pain of having taken so long to wake up to all things being the way they ought to be finally, at last, forever. The Prodigal’s father is the way God is. Drop into the silence and meet what meets you there and, and you will know that it is so. What kind of world would it be if it were not?
Early Light — The Watchman and the Virgin River — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
Being in a lot of the right places has put me in a right place, and made it easy for me to return there on a regular basis. It is a natural wonder how being in the presence of nature balances us, harmonizes us, stabilizes us and puts us back together again in a “this is how it is when we are at one with who we are and, as the Buddha said, “Peacefully abiding, here, now.”
The way of “peaceful abiding, here, now,” is the most natural way to be–and it is anywhere the natural world opens itself to receive us and we open to receive it back. It is a good move to seek out those places and frequent them often, just to say hello, again and wander and sit for a while. Being balanced, harmonized, stabilized by peaceful abiding, here, now, again.
Bright Angel Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Sleet is on the ground, power is on, nothing is falling at the moment, fingers crossed…
We know what we like and don’t like, want and don’t want, but we don’t know where we are better off or what is in our best interest. Like and don’t like, want and don’t want, are poor guides along the way. We need a better method of finding our way along the Way. Psyche/Tao/Intuition would be the best IF we weren’t able to discount/dismiss/ignore “the still, small, voice” and go our own way without even realizing what we are doing.
It starts with our turning into mindful awareness here, now and being aware of what is going on with our attention in order to consciously focus on our openness to the inner signals. Simply concentrating on “Yes/No” and taking a reading of the inner force, seeing if we can catch an inner preference for “Yes” or “No” and going with what our inner sense seems to favor.
Practice with what you will wear each day. Don’t think about it. Feel your way into your clothing choices. Then run everything by the inner Guide. Practice reading the indicators. Filter every option through the “Yes/No” process until you can “just know” without having to ask. Becoming one with our inner companion will be a major step forward in knowing what we are doing, what’s what and what’s called for, never mind what we want. Life as two not one will be a different way of doing it, and we can keep score as to which way, Solo or Duo, we think is best.
Cathedral Rock Mirror — Yosemite National Park, California
There is what we do to live, and there is what we live to do. Occasionally these may be the same thing. There are artists who support themselves with their art, and musicians who make a living with their music. Most of us do what we love by paying the bills doing what we don’t love to do. Some teachers teach when they would prefer to be writing poetry, or taking photographs. We come to terms the best we can with the life we are living, and get up and meet the day.
I find sitting quietly to be what I’m built to do, and I don’t know of anyone who makes a living sitting quietly. So, I’ve had to work it out all my life long, and now that I am retired, I can sit quietly as long as I want, as often as I want. And, I haven’t found anything to beat it.
Sitting quietly is basically a matter of reflection. Joseph Campbell made it work for him, much like I have done, and said that “reflection leads to new realizations.” I have certainly found that to be the case, and look forward to what I will realize next all of the time.
Pondering contradictions and incongruity is particularly intriguing, and have discovered that the further we go into anything, the more oppositional it becomes. We all are our opposites and become what we are not, or find ways to express/serve who we are not, even to the point of making a living from it if we are lucky.
I was a minister for 40.5 years–an introvert pretending to be an extrovert all that time. Conducting weddings and funerals, leading worship services and attending weekly family night dinners. Who would have thought it? The opposites within are often our most intriguing aspects. The places we have the most fun. The things that “pull us out,” develop us, grow us up.
And every Yin has its Yang, as the old taoists used to say. Yin is the black, feminine side and Yang is the white, boisterous, obnoxious side. And together, they make a wonderful pair. Don’t you think so?
Bow Lake — Ice Fields Parkway, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
Where do Trump and MAGA part ways? Where is Trump not being Trump-enough for MAGA? Where is MAGA being too much Trump for Trump? Where does the line lie?
The core at the heart of both is genocide. They both want to kill everyone not white like they are. White Supremacy is actually White Exclusivity. No? It is impossible to be too white for either Trump or MAGA. The “G” in MAGA is really a “W.” No? Everyone else must die. A terrible, awful, horrible death. Right? Why all of the pretending that isn’t at the heart of things running this show? All the mincing of words and sleight of hand are ridiculous. Just come out with it! “WE HATE EVERYONE NOT WHITE LIKE US!!!”
Canoes and Paddle Boards for Rent on Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
There are people who would throw a rock into the middle of tranquility because that is who they are. They don’t know why and they don’t care. They just know what they like and what they don’t like, and are compelled to do what they like.
I don’t know why we see things a we do, or who is right and who is wrong, or if it matters. I like the idea of being in accord, of one mind, smooth and easy. Being at odds with one another all of the time is exhausting for me and I have to withdraw and sit quietly to find the balance and harmony, rhythm and flow apart from those who are throwing rocks into the middle of tranquility because they like it that way.
And there are people who would accuse me of throwing rocks into the middle of tranquility by saying there is no Original Sin, no Garden of Eden, no need for Substitutionary Atonement theories, no need for atonement or redemption. We only need to realize how we all need the companionship of one another the way Yin needs Yang to be who each is by being whom both are “with liberty and justice for all.” And kindness, mercy and compassion all around the circle. With hatred, rancor and acrimony tucked away and nowhere around, and nothing but “peaceful abiding, here, now.”
Yesterday, here, I put to rest the doctrine of Original Sin and the need for the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement, or any need for atonement as a way of helping God get over the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which never existed at any time anywhere in the history of the planet Earth. If you missed yesterday’s post, look it up. It will be worth your time.
I’m moving on today to get rid of the need for any kind of atonement entirely. It is absolutely absurd to posit God as angry with us to the point of sending us to hell for violating any and all supposed covenants between humanity and God as though we owe God eternal and everlasting allegiance and obedience or it is hell to pay.
I present my case by calling up two witnesses for the prosecution, Jesus and the father of the Prodigal Son. In telling the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus was eradicating all references to Eden as the cause of God’s dissatisfaction with humanity and God’s justification for sending any of us to hell. Jesus was saying, about the Prodigal’s father, “THIS is how it is with God! For now and evermore!”
In two days here I have dispensed with Original Sin and any need of Atonement, Redemption, Forgiveness, which constitute the foundation of Christianity, and have laid the foundation of a completely different and viable approach to living with an understanding of the spiritual foundation of existence that will be an ever-present renewal of our life and spirit in dealing successfully with the ebbs and flows of existence in each situation as it arises from now throughout what remains of time. And I look forward to sharing as much of that time as possible with each of you, beginning now!
No one can sin for another, or atone for another’s sin.
Psalms 49:7 — No one can redeem the life of another, or give to God a ransom for them.
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 the guilt or the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.
These three Old Testament texts disappear the Doctrine of Original Sin and the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement, and the need for atonement, redemption, forgiveness and the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Just like that, Christianity is disappeared from the League of World Religions. Good riddance, I say. It was ridiculous from the start.
Disappearing Christianity opens the way to flipping Christianity into a new version of its old self just by re-imagining all of its doctrines and its theology and transforming its offerings from “How to Avoid Hell and Get To Heaven When You Die,” to “How to Live a Life Devoted to Being True to Ourselves in Doing What Is Called for Here, Now, The Way It Needs To Be Done Forever!” Changing out the hymns will be the biggest problem–and a great opportunity for song writers and musicians.
Out of the Fog— Bass Lake — Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Liz Sisson died when she was 16 in a nighttime single car crash that two of her friends walked away from. Eddie Stanton died when he was 28 in a private airplane crash because the plane was overweighted and didn’t make it over the trees at the end of the runway. Several of his fellow passengers walked away from that scene. Eddie was a childhood friend of mine in Itta Bena, Mississippi. Liz was the daughter of members of my congregation in Amory, Mississippi. And I grieve their loss. All of us who have survived this long, to this point, carry with us our own private Wailing Wall at which we mourn and commemorate the deaths of those who died too soon, doing our part in bearing witness to their life and the loss their death had on us, carrying their memory with us throughout our life, doing our part in not forgetting them, as they would have not forgotten us had we not been among those who walked away.
Jesus wasn’t a Christian, but he was a Gnostic. And all of his teachings came straight from his Secret Knowledge in the here, now of his time and place.
Gnosis , Psyche, Tao, Intuition–the terms all mean the same thing: Secret Knowing. Everyone who knows, who has ever known, knows the same things. Jesus spoke to the people as one who knows and told them what they had never heard, but what they all had always known without having the words to say it out loud. He said it for them, to them. And they said, “Who is this who teaches with such authority and tells us what we have always thought is so?”
What we all have always thought is so has been with us always as Gnosis, Psyche, Tao, Intuition. We have always been Gnostics like Jesus and did not realize it until here, now. And now we know we cannot deny it, and that it will be true forever. No? (141 of “200 More Zen Thoughts from Jim Dollar #1 on my WordPress Blog)
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