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?
Drop out of the world crumbling into madness and absurdity without boundaries or values, and drop into the world of our own solidarity and trustworthiness. Seek out our own heart and the truth of what matters most to us here, now. What would that be? Emptying ourselves of the noise of the world and the fear/anxiety within, and waiting in the silence to see what arises to comfort and console and lead the way into reliance upon, and confidence in, “the still point of the turning world” that holds things together even as things fall apart. Finding the center. Remembering the ground. Knowing the truth of the force of the flow of even so, nevertheless, n matter what, and taking courage in the possibility of “peaceful abiding, here, now,” we look to see in every situation that which is called for with the eternal presence of our own original nature, our innate virtues of what we do best and enjoy doing most. The eternal things that never abandon us or leave us bereft, but always wait for the right time, and place, and way, to be and do what needs to be done here, now in each aspect of every circumstance where it is always appropriate for us to who we need be and do what can be done of what needs to be done in response to all of the occasions of our life, all our life long.
The Beaver Pond — Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Beaver’s have a way of life that runs afoul of Park Rangers and that was the end of beavers along the Parkway. If you are in the way, you are soon to be out of the way, just for doing what you are built to do and what you have always done. Life is that way. Those in charge and in control do it their way.
And this segues nicely into the Tao and the way of doing what needs to be done be done, when, where and how it needs to be done being the way nature does it throughout the Cosmos, and how when we cooperate with nature natural things have a better life than when artificial rules are imposed to satisfy appearances or preferences that have nothing to do with honoring and maintaining the natural order of, say the tides and the routes of rivers and the migration patterns of elk and rain deer and the habits of beavers and honey bees.
When money decides how things are done, things take a turn for the worse for the ways of nature, and eventually for the ways of everything else, because “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” For the good of those with money and power and a yen for having their way NOW!
The Beech Trees of Guilford College Woods — Greensboro, NC
Treason and sedition from within were responsible for the Civil War and threaten the end of the Republic to this very day–lead by people who hate people not like they are and think money and power are the solution all of their problems.
The old Taoists knew it all came down to doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place and that was 500 years B.C.E. Truth denied, denounced, decried is still the Truth, and will always be the Truth, hated and rejected by those who refuse to grow up and do what is called for in each situation as it arises no matter what forever.
Adjustment and accommodation, Kid. Adjustment and accommodation. Over time. From birth to death. Is required of every living thing. Aging well is the art of adjustment and accommodation. Everything is changing as we watch, and what we do in response is t fit in and make it work. I am about to step into my 82nd year. I’m still getting out of bed and finding my way to the bathroom unassisted, but it is only a matter of time before assisted living comes to my rescue. We all would like to put that off as long as possible, but. If we live, we disappear before our eyes. Coming to terms with that and allowing it to be because it is, is part of our compact with life, and we say YES! to that as we have done with the ten thousand other things we have acquiesced to over the years.
Living asks hard things of us. It has always been hard. Meeting our life as it needs to be met has been a daily affair from the start. And there is no alternative. Growing up is letting go of some things and making room for others. And doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place is the on-going, never-changing, requirement of Psyche/Tao in response to what is called for here, now in each situation as it arises from birth to death.
Death? Did someone just say, “death”? What a coincidence! I was just thinking about death! Since we don’t have a clue about what happens when we die, we may as well make up something that we can live with, no? I can live with seeing death, not as an ending, but as just another transition–an energy transference where we shift from one mode of consciousness to another, trading physical existence for dark matter, perhaps, or light rays, or something eerie and grand. I hope to observe the entire process as long as mindfulness, adjustment and accommodation remain options.
What would make the biggest difference for good in your life that is in your ability to effect? The one thing I can think of that would apply to all of us is emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) regularly applied frequently throughout the time left for living. Just sitting still, being quiet, watching without engaging the things that arise in the silence, making room for that which needs to be attended to make itself known, seen, heard.
Just opening ourselves to our inner world–just realizing that we are not alone, but are a part of a life-long partnership with what I think of as Psyche/Tao, a presence that knows what’s what and what is called for, needs to be done, in relationship with it in each situation as it arises always and forever. We have a guide who has our best interest at heart but is often at odds with what we want and asks us to ignore what we want in favor of what is called for here, now, day to day, all the way.
When we become partners with that presence, we come to life in a way that has nothing to do with getting/having what we want and everything to do with getting/having what we need. But it will require waking up, seeing what’s what, knowing what to do in response to it and doing it where, when and how it needs to be done here, now, forever. And all of this becomes increasingly clear to us by way of time spent in emptiness, stillness, silence being aware of what is present with us there and allowing nature to take its course.
May it be so for us all. The rest of the way. I am confident this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Pray always,” and what the Buddha had in mind when he said, “Peaceful abiding here, now.”
Redundancy is my shtick. Repetition keeps me on track. I know who I am by reminding myself of where my boundaries lie and what’s still what, slowly adding to the collection of life-long revelations over time. I cannot think of the last new thing, and have no idea of what that next new thing might be, and I look forward to finding out. The analogy that comes to mind is that of turning over a compost pile so that light and air might assist the process of decomposition and produce a ripeness that furthers realization always on the verge of coming to light from the depths of reflection and rumination. So that every one of these “walk abouts with Jim” is an exploration into what we know, have known and may yet come to know in a how many times do we have to say something before we finally get what we are talking about kind of way.
The Old Taoists said it all with the Tao, Wu-Wei, and Carl Jung expanded it with synchronicity and Psyche and the collective unconscious, and we keep the realizations coming by continuing to reflect on “Who am I? What am I about?” Which delivers us into the open arms of what’s what and what is happening and what is called for here, now and what we can do about it with the gifts that are ours in the form of our original nature, etc. and doing it for the pure joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises no matter what all our life long. And laughing, dancing, knowing that’s all there is to it, ever has been and always will be, world without end… Yippie Whoray all the way. Amen.
Happy New Year! The blessing raises the question, “What is in charge of our happiness? Upon what does our happiness depend? Generally, upon things going our way. Raising the question: How flexible is “Our way”? How pliable? Supple? Malleable? Amenable? Accommodating? Adaptable? How easily do we “Make do” with how things are? With what we have to work with? With what it takes to be happy? What does it take to see happiness as an outlook? A perspective? A way of looking at things? A way of seeing what we look at? A way of being in the world just as it is? What would it take to “take things in stride” and to be happy with things just as they are? Saying, “YES! To life as it is every day–no matter what?
Finding our way starts with where we are here, now, and with what we perceive our options to be. What are our assets? Our liabilities? Our choices? We might drop into the emptiness/stillness/silence with these questions and wait to see what occurs to us out of the silence. I am retired with no pressing responsibilities so I can wait indefinitely for something to come along that requires my attention. Finding my way can wait until my circumstances make demands, then I will choose from among my choices, and take it from there. My tomorrow will be much like my yesterday for as long as I can envision. If something needs to be changed, I can wait until that becomes apparent. My circumstances will call for some action, which will lead to other circumstances, which will carry me on to the end of my days. Finding my way will be one thing at a time until I run out of time. Where I am is pretty much where I will be, and I am fine with that. I am stable and able to dance with my options as they reveal themselves to me, and in a better place than anywhere in my past in terms of flexibility and opportunity.
T.S. Eliot’s poem Burnt Norton, a part of The Four Quartets, presents us with two metaphors worthy of us. He says “We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.” And he also says, “Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
I take these images and merge them, blend them, so that the dance becomes our exploration, and the still point becomes the center around which everything revolves, making sense and falling into place when we “arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time.” And what do we know when “we know the place for the first time”? Can we put it into words? Will we be able to say what we know? And what it means that we know it?
According to Joseph Campbell, Heinrich Zimmer said, “The best things cannot be said (The Taoists would say, “The Tao that can be said, explained, defined, is not the eternal Tao), and the second-best things create confusion because people cannot agree when they attempt to say what cannot be said, which leaves us with only the third-best things to talk about, news, weather, sports and gossip.”
What we know cannot be talked about, discussed, debated, only known. And that, then, becomes the still point around which we live our life. What we know–not what we believe or how we at told to think–is the heart of the matter, and we cannot talk about it. We can only know it and live our life centered on what we know and doing what our knowing calls for us to do here, now in each situation as it arises. And let that be that.
This also exists as 57 of my WordPress Blog, “200 More Zen Thoughts From Jim Dollar #1”
I heard the owl call my name: Who? Who? Who are you? What are you about? What is called for here, now? What will you do about it? How can you be sure that is what needs to be done? The way it needs to be done? Where and when it needs to be done? How do you know you are right about all of that?
It is easier with photography. I can look at a photograph and see what it needs, or if it is perfect and stands on its own just as it is. People, myself included, come with so many nuances attached, it is hard to be “perfectly personed” just as we are.
Where would we stop making adjustments? When would we be “just fine exactly as we are”? There is always something else to get right. No? Something else that needs to be done differently, better, all the time.
At some point we have to be who we are here, now and let it be just as it is because it is and this is it. Just walk away from the mirror and let it go! They can take me or not exactly as I am! I, I, I can take me or not, just as I am!!! Even perfection has its down side! Right?
Christmas Shadows 03 — The Promenade, Charlotte, North Carolina You will not find this scene in reality. I used Photoshop Generative Fill to disappear the houses surrounding The Promenade. The trees, stones and the shadows are actual.
Removing the diversions/distractions of cars and houses brings for the wonder of light and shadow. I enjoy walking with a camera through the world as it is without the additions of civilization intruding, neverminding and overlooking the additions of my cellphone camera, my coat and my shoes. Which brings up the matter of contradiction, opposition, the other side, and “without contrary is no progression.” All of which is also an essential aspect of how things are. I recognize, and even relish, the “yes/but” of “Yin/Yang,” rounding things out and introducing complexity and tension to life and providing us with factors we have to work out in doing what is called for here, now in each situation as it arises.
Christmas Shadows 06 — near where I live on Christmas Morning 2025
How we see is a function of how we look, is a reflection of who we are, and a mirror of our soul. Soul is our deepest, truest self, carrying our values and our cherished ways of being in the world and expressing the truth of what we honor most. This photograph and all those I take and post here is/are an expression of my soul on exhibition. And the way you respond to it/them is an exhibition of your soul responding to my soul. We see/know each other and ourselves just by seeing our photographs. Our spirituality is on display in the galleries displaying our favorite images of the world in which we live. We are seen in what we like to look at and in the ways we express that to the world.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 