September 25-A, 2022

Bog River Falls 01 09/29/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Adirondack State Park, Tupper Lake, New York
I have two books to recommend,
that everyone should read at least three times
over the course of their life,
with five years or so between times.

The first is by S.I. Hayakawa,
"Language in Thought and Action."
Because nothing is more important
in knowing what's what 
and what to do about it
than language--as we use it
and as it is used by others
in relation to us.

I read it the first time in 1979, 
in Amory, Mississippi,
when I was just a sprout of a guy,
and it has been of immense importance
in helping me find my way.

The other book is the fourth in the series
of "The Masks of God," by Joseph Campbell.
It is titled, "Creative Mythology,"
and is about the work of individuation,
Carl Jung's term for becoming who we are
and doing what is ours to do.

(While we are talking, if you are into
the history of religion worldwide, 
Campbell's third volume in the Masks series
is "Occidental Mythology, and is beautifully done)

We are on our own when it comes to finding our life
and living it.
What passes for religion
is about believing in Jesus
and waiting for heaven when we die,
which makes it worse than useless,
in that it actually interferes 
with our efforts to get to the heart 
of the matter
while we are still able 
to do something about it.

Campbell is a worthy guide,
and "Creative Mythology"
is an excellent place to begin.

–0–

September 24-C, 2022

Overcast At Steamboat Landing 11/17/2013 Oil Paint Rendering — Edisto Island, South Carolina
Jesus put an end to theology
and all of its stepchildren,
doctrine,
dogma,
dharma
and hymnbooks--
all of which are clandestine 
books of doctrine set to music--
with his,
"The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."

The spirit, bound to theology,
can't move,
locked in as it is 
by chains of thought
and shut away in dungeons of belief
and standards defining the way
things are to be thought and done.

The spirit, blowing where it will,
is a terminal threat to the church
and its theology and traditions
its forms of government
and its death grip on
"Is now and ever has been,
world without end, Amen!"

Jesus came saying,
"The old has passed away,
behold: The new has come!"
Which the church quickly recorded
in red-letter editions
of the Holy Bible,
and remembered with chants of,
"Tell us the old, old story!"
Allowing nothing to be added or taken away
through the long years of its
Stewardship of the Word and Sacrament.

According to the church and its theology,
Jesus has come and gone, like that (Snaps fingers).

One of the early stories
circulating in the years
following Jesus' death
was that in dying,
Jesus was released
from the constraints of the body,
and became one with the spirit,
going into Galilee and all the world,
calling those who would,
to join them in riding the wind,
still blowing where it will.

–0–

September 24-B, 2022

Parker’s Creek 01 10/19/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island,
North Carolina
Jesus wasn't big on believing.
He never said,
"If you don't believe
what I'm saying,
you are going to hell."
He said,
"Blessed are those who
hear what I'm saying and do it."

Jesus was all about doing.
Not believing.
Not thinking.
Only seeing/hearing/doing.

"Love your enemies."
"Love your neighbors."
"Love yourself."
"Live in loving ways
in all that you do."

And in all of this,
love is not what we feel.
It is what we do.

Get the doing down.
Believe anything you want,
but get the doing down.
Live so lovingly
that no one would ever guess
you didn't feel loving.

Jesus knew feelings follow action.
So he said,
"Do the loving thing
no matter how you feel.
And you'll be my disciple."

–0–

September 24-A, 2022

Around Bass Lake 04 10-12-2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
When Jesus said,
"Wisdom is known by her children,"
he is saying,
"Time will tell."

The way we read and respond to
the situation as it arises
will be validated or invalidated in time.
And that will inform
how we read and respond to
similar situations in the future.

We learn from experience 
only when we reflect on experience
to the point of new realizations.
We have to do the math.
Connect the dots.
Make the connections.
In order to see better what we look at,
and know better what to do 
in response to what we see.

Jesus did not possess anything we don't have.
He processed what he experienced
in light of his sense 
of how things needed to be.

His measure of compassion
and his sense of justice
allowed him to take the side of the poor
in calling for people 
to "do unto others
as you would have them do unto you,"
and in saying,
"In as much as you have done it,
or failed to do it,
to the least of my brothers and sisters,
you have done it, 
or failed to do it,
unto me."

Experience read right in the light of time
corrects us all,
and puts us on track
to live well 
in the time left for living.

May it be so for each of us
all the way along the way!
--0--

September 23-B, 2022

Sandy Stream Pond Rocks Oil Paint Rendered — Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine
I live in the service of reducing
noise and complexity,
seeing/hearing/understanding/knowing/
doing/being,
and letting nature take its course,
letting things fall out around that,
waiting for the door to open
and walking through
to more of the same.

The things that strike me
as a good idea change over time.
In light of changing abilities
and interest.

I am not in charge of my abilities 
and interest,
or what a good idea is or isn't.

I am in charge of the way I see things
to the extent that I am aware of it,
call it into question,
hold it up to the light,
and I change my mind as needed
all of the time.

Mine is not a model/template for doing it,
except for the part about working it out
on my own over time,
and not living to make anyone happy
with the way I do it.

I don't have much room in my life
for "Why?"
I don't know why.
And don't care why.
I cannot defend/explain/justify/excuse
anything I do or leave undone.

It is possible that everyone
has lived/is living their life
better that I have lived/am living mine.
I am not in it for prizes and recognition.
I just meet the day as best I can
and dance with it into tomorrow.
And do it again with another day.
And let nature take its course.
When it is done,
that will be that.
And I will regret 10,000 things,
things I wish I had done better,
hoping for another chance
to get it right.
All the way.

I know I could do better
with more time,
and less noise.

September 23-A, 2022

Autumn Branches 10/28/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Upper Pond, Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway,
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We live to have our way
and get what we want.

We live seeking the advantage,
the gain,
the profit,
asking "What's in it for me?"
and, "When is it my turn?"

We have no interest in what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
or what needs to come forth from within
in expressing/exhibiting/incarnating
our essential nature
and the innate virtues packed into our DNA.

We are here to be served,
not to serve,
and to rack up all we can
at the expense of whomever is in our way,
in a "Profit At Any Price" rampage through our life.

Talking us out of it is absurd.
Jesus tried talking us out of it.
The Buddha tried talking us out of it.
How well did that work?
The world is more like it is now
that it was when they were doing their thing.

So, I say, "Swing for the fences!
Maybe you'll be lucky
and grab the gold ring."

And then what?
Hmmm?

September 22-B, 2022

Sunrise at Nags Head Pier 06 10/24/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Outer Banks, North Carolina
Our work--
what we pay the bills to do,
not what we do to pay the bills--
is simple: Finding our life and living it.

All of our nighttime dreams
are about finding our life and living it.

The theme running through them all
is: "LOOK! THIS is what you are doing!!!
Is THIS the best you can do???
Is THIS what you think you are here to do???"

Our dreams are trying to wake us up,
and guide us along the way.

During the day,
we try to shift the subject
from what we need to be doing
to anything other than what we need to be doing.

Generally, our distracting thoughts
take the form of sex/drugs/alcohol/money/
or some other alluring pastime.
Anything to keep from thinking about
finding our life and living it.

But, the life we need to be living
is always right there,
winking at us,
beckoning to us,
hoping we will wake up
and devote ourselves to
incorporating The Elements of Real Life
into our order of the day.

Beginning with Emptiness,
Stillness and Silence--
Which are threatening to us
and we don't want to go there
because that's where the truth breaks in.

We are back we go to the Campbell quote:
"That which you seek 
lies far back
in the darkest corner
of the cave you most don't want to enter."
Emptiness, stillness and silence qualify.

In addition to the First Three,
the Second Three consist of
integrity, sincerity, spontaneity.

The First Two are
our Essential Nature
and our Innate Virtues.

The Second Two are
Balance and Harmony,
which let us know how well we are doing
in dancing with the contradictions and dichotomies
--the Yin/Yang--
of our Life and our Other Life.

Blending the Elements Of Life together
and maintaining the right ratio
is called "Finding Or Life And Living It."

It is also called
"Living On The Anchor-Rock Of Life And Being."

Daily fare for Children of the Way.

–0–

September 22-A, 2022

East Fork Overlook 04/12/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Brevard, North Carolina
We can live to get our way 
and we can live to do what needs to be done,
and needs us to do it,
with the gifts of our essential nature
and innate virtues--
even though that would interfere with 
getting our way.

We can live with our good in mind,
and we can live with the good
of the situation as a whole in mind.

Whose good is the good we call good?

How good is the good we call good?

Who besides us says it is good?

We have to be able to look ourselves in the eye.
Integrity and sincerity demand it.
Balance and harmony require it.

Start there.
Let everything else 
fall into place around that.
Balance and harmony.
Integrity and sincerity.

The foundation of a good life.

–0–

September 21-C, 2022

Beidler Forest 12 11/22/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Audubon Four-Hole Swamp Wildlife Refuge, Harleyville, South Carolina
It is easy for me to see
that slavery should never have happened,
and that "manifest destiny"
was a slogan carved out of capitalism
as an excuse for taking the entire country
from the indigenous people
who were clearly the "destined"
"owners" of the land,
its waters and minerals and oil, etc.

It is wrong what has happened.
And now there should be restitution.
And it is wrong that there is none,
and will not be any.

And I am ashamed of this country
and its prevailing attitude.
Of this planet
and its prevailing attitude.
And of the people
and their institutions
who popularize the attitude
and serve it with their life,
as though to say,
"If I want it,
it is my right to have it!"

I am a witness against them
through all eternity.

I am coming for them all. 

Do you stand with me,
or with them?

–0–

September 21-B, 2022

Cove Hardwood Panorama 02 04/11/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Cove Hardwood Nature Trail, Chimney Tops Picnic Area, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Jesus came saying things
people did not want to hear,
so they killed him.

It is the way.

"We can't handle the truth."
Col. Nathan R. Jessup was right about that.

Jesus' words to those who follow him
have nothing to do with the Eucharist,
where he is seen as "dying for us."

No one can die for another.
Dying is an individual/personal affair.
We all die for ourselves,
in the service of our own life.

That is the way.

When Jesus said,
"Take up your (own) cross
and follow me!"
he was going to die.
He was inviting us to come along
and die ourselves
in the work of being alive.

The work will kill us
and bring us to life.

We live for the work
that is ours to do.
Doing what must be done.
Saying what must be said.

The cup of suffering
is the cup of salvation.
The bread of affliction
is bread of life.

Entry level stuff.
Basic Spirituality 101.

The path "will fill our hearts brimful
and break them too"
(William Alexander Percy).
We could talk to Mary about that.
And all the others.

Living truthfully is the only way to die!
That is what Jesus came to say,
and to do.
The model for how to do it.

"The message of the messiah is,
'There is no messiah!'"
(Fred Craddock).

We have to do the work our life
calls us to do
on our own.

It is the way.
The truth,
and the life.

We know it is so.
There is only knowing what we know
and getting to work!

Saying what needs to be said!
Doing what needs to be done!

In each situation as it arises.
Every day.

–0–

September 21-A, 2022

Silver Lake Sunrise 02 11/01/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Projections are to facts
as dreams about drowning are to water.

When we talk about things "out there,"
its coming from "in here,"
and it would be helpful--
to us and to others--
if we qualified that by saying, "To me,"
after every evaluation/opinion
of some person/place/thing "out there."

When we say something or someone "is"
we could let that be a red flag waving,
reminding us to say "to me,"
or "as I see it," when we complete the statement,
keeping things "within the normal range"
by owning the opinion
and not allowing it to roll around
as an absolute fact
like a loose canon
on a pitching deck.

–0–

September 20-C, 2022

Heron At Sunset 01/25/2013 Detail Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Brandt Greenway, Bur-Mill Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
The heart of Buddhism is
"You have to know what I mean
before you can understand what I am saying."

It is called "Buddha Mind,"
by which Buddha communes with Buddha
by way of the connection which is there
before he speaks.

Thus, Mahākāśyapa smiled 
when the Buddha held up a lotus flower,
because his understanding was evoked
by the sight of the flower,
and it was there to be evoked
before the flower was raised.

"You have to know what I mean
before you can understand what I am saying"
is entry level stuff for all spiritual teaching.
"When the flower opens,
the bees appear,"
because the bees know what's what,
and no one has to explain it to them,
or tell them what it means that the flower is open.

Anyone who asks, "What does it mean?",
as many of Jesus' disciples did
("Lord, how can we know?"),
is to not have what it takes to understand,
because explanations and definitions
can never communicate what is beyond words.

And we are back to Heinrich Zimmer's observation
that "the best things cannot be said,"
because there are no words to say
what can only be intuited/sensed/known--
which leaves us with talking about
what cannot be said,
and getting nowhere.

–0–