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?
Early Risers — Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Take away the psychological mechanism of projection (Which is our ability to imagine/make-up stories about what we experience) and nothing makes sense. We make up the sense we make of things by telling ourselves stories about them. We imagine the entire apparatus into existence. We look at this image and see it because of the stories we tell ourselves about it. A baby fresh from the womb wouldn’t be able to make sense of it at all. We have to learn how to make things up correctly in order to see the things everybody else sees in roughly the same ways they see them. We learn to agree about what things are and what they mean in order to make our way through our life. Behind/beyond the sense we make of things lies the mystery at the heart of life and being, waiting for us to perceive enough of it to make up stories about it. And all of it that lies outside of the range of our senses of perception are forever unknown and unknowable. Yet, we swagger around like we know everything there is to know. Ho, ho.
Cypress Geese — Private Pond, Down East, North Carolina I got up early enough to drive an hour and a half to be there for sunrise. Watch me do that again today, ha!
“All we ever wanted was smooth and easy,” said Ogi Overman, explaining the foundation of alcoholism. If that is the cause, the cure is simple as doing what is called for when, where and how it is called for with no fanfare, bucking, snorting moaning, complaining, whining, shouting, stomping, sobbing… Just get up and change the baby’s diaper or take the dog outside, etc., and do it well, do it right.
That’s all it takes. No kidding. Life comes down to doing what needs to be done the way it needs to be done no matter what all our life long. If we can adjust ourselves to that, we have it made.
P.S. Adjusting ourselves to that is called “Growing Up.” Growing up is all it takes.
Why is that so hard?
If MAGA members would only grow up! Right?
How many MAGA members are also members of AA? Or need to be?
The logical extension of this trend is the realization that how we see things is how things are–or may as well be for all the difference it makes in the way the world works, no?
Hidden Falls –Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
What associations do you make with this image? What does it bring to mind? Follow the train of associations as one leads to another. See where it takes you, and where your refections go.
Do the same things with the list of words below, though not in one sitting. What do they stir to life within? What paths do they open up for you to explore? Where do they take you?
Morton’s Overlook — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
If we sense our way into the rhythm and flow of our life, and trust ourselves to it completely–apart from plans, schemes and dreams–we will be placing ourselves at the sweet spot of our unfolding, not knowing or caring where it is going.
We aren’t trying to make anything happen. We don’t have any idea about what needs to happen. We are simply focused upon remaining aligned with, upon living in accord with, the rhythm and flow of our life–in a “What’s happening?And what’s called for here, now?” Kind of way.
This is to be living in sync with the Tao, attuned to Psyche. Which is the way the natural world does it every day. At one with the rhythm and flow. For what? We do not know.
We do not have a life plan. We are not trying to get anywhere, to accomplish, achieve, acquire anything. We are just living at one with the rhythm and flow.
What do we have to have to be one with the rhythm and flow?
Sunset at Charleston Harbor — From Mt. Pleasant, Pit Street Bridge Public Area
We are here to be who we are and do what is ours to do. And we know what that is, but we can be sidetracked by things that are attractive to our eye and a torch to our desires, and led far from the path that is our path to take, and come to ourselves years later, lost in the wilderness with no idea of where to go from here to find our way to where we need to be, and would have been, if only we had consulted the emptiness, stillness and silence and done what we knew to do but ignored in our quest for happiness and high times NOW!
The story of the Garden of Eden is not about sin, it is about the danger of wanting the wrong things, of caring about things that are not important at all. We have to sit with the silence in order to discern what matters and what does not matter, and give ourselves to the service of the things that are true to ourselves and express who we are and do what is ours to do. We have to know and do what is “US” and avoid doing what is “NOT US.” And that is all there is to it. But how often is it done in every generation? And here we are, lost in the wilderness, not knowing where to turn.
The way is always the same. When we don’t know where to turn or what to do now/next, turn to the emptiness, stillness and silence and wait to see what stirs, arises, appears, occurs, happens there in the way of guidance and direction and something calling our name. And do what seems to be called for. And see where it goes.
Adams Mill Pond Autumn — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
There are stability, balance, harmony, rhythm and flow. Which implies that there are also instability, imbalance, disharmony, chaos and disorder. Our place as conscious human beings is to maintain order by being aware of the destabilizing forces at work in each situation as it arises and make routine and regular returns to emptiness, stillness and silence, where we take inventory and open ourselves to what’s what and what is called for here, now, so as to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done throughout each day.
With practice this becomes second-nature and is what I am sure Jesus was talking about when he said “Pray always,” in that prayer puts us in synch with the events and circumstances of our life and places us in the position to respond appropriately to every situation as it arises, and prayer and awareness and appropriate response are one thing, not three, and the three terms are interchangeable and synonymous. And they are essential for maintaining stability, etc. throughout our life. Which is what meditation does for those who meditate, putting us in accord with Psyche/Tao, moment to moment, day by day, so that we are able to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place throughout the days, weeks, months, years that make up our life. No?
Anything can serve as a symbol of the Psyche, just as anything can serve as a symbol of anything–because the meaning of anything is the meaning we subscribe to it. It is what we say it is. This is true of everything from the beginning of things. Nothing means anything of itself. Everything means what it means to whomever is ascribing meaning. We are Meaning-Makers. And we make it up right out of our own imagination. It has always been this way.
Knowing that this is so and that it has always been so, flips things beautifully, so that everything becomes a reflection of our self/Psyche, showing us who we are in the moment of our saying what something is. We speak ourselves into our own consciousness, into our own awareness. To say “We are Meaning-Makers,” enable us to see ourselves visualizing ourselves as visualizing everything into existence. Nothing exists until we say it into being. And what we say something is says as much about ourselves as it says about the thing we say what is.
This is “simultaneous arising” that the Buddhists like to talk about. We speak ourselves into existence as we speak whatever we are seeing/visualizing into existence. Everything is a mirror reflecting ourselves into being, into reality, exhibiting who we are to ourselves and all others who may be listening to us, though they will be expanding us to fit their understanding, interpretation, realization, projection of who we are, just as we are fitting our own understanding, interpretation, realization, projection of who we are. Making projection the foundation of reality. Everything we see is our projection of what we take it to be. We don’t see anything, only our projection of everything.
There is no “objective” reality. It is all “projective”–filtered through our associations and presumptions, assumptions, conjecture, surmises, etc. that happen to be the case with us in the moment we perceive whatever we are looking at in the moment we are looking.
So we have to take it all “with a grain of salt.” Which means we have no business taking anything more seriously than it deserves to be taken. And how will we ever know that? I take THAT to mean that we have no business taking anything seriously. Unless, of course it happens to be an elephant walking along the path toward us. In that case, it behooves us to “get off the path.”
There is no quit in a Dandelion. And no stopping them. They come up in the cracks of sidewalks and through the roadways of hot asphalt. Smiling and waving in the breeze. They have wanting and caring figured out. They know it is possible to want the wrong things for the wrong reasons in the wrong ways. And that it is possible to want the right things for the right reasons in the right ways. That comes down to Right Wanting and Wrong Wanting.
They understand the same thing about caring. It is possible to care about the wrong things in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons. And it is possible to care about the right things in the right ways for the right reasons. Right Caring and Wrong Caring make all the difference in our lives and in the world. Right wanting and Wrong Wanting make the world what it is and what it can yet be.
If we live in the service of the right kind of wanting and the right kind of caring, we will be aligned with the Tao of Life and Being, and we will spend our life doing the right things in the right ways, at the right time, in the right place, and that is all it takes to make the world a better place, so why waste another minute not doing it that way? Not even a Dandelion can do better than that!
December Moon — Lake Brandt, Bur-Mil Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Striving to make things better makes things worse in a lot of ways. The moral of this story is to sit it out. Ride it out. Bear the pain. And the best way to do that is to develop a sense of humor. The people in the worst pain rarely have anything in the way of a sense of humor. And just because comedians kill themselves doesn't mean they they had a sense of humor and it didn't do them any favors. There are comedians who make their way laughing at other people, never at themselves. The joke is on us more often than we can bear. Gets to us after a time. Having enough is all it takes. Having a short fuse is not a good start to a long and happy life. So, where do we go to get the right attitude? Everybody thinks the way they see things is the right way to see things. No one thinks the problem could be with the way they see things. Take the people with money, for instance. The multi-billionaires whose problem is that they have more money than they know what to do with, and they think, "Why am I miserable with all of this money lying around?" And they start thinking of ways to buy happiness, and begin, say, with a few Supreme Court justices. And maybe a few members of Congress. That ought to do it. The problem is that they have confused having what they want with being happy. There is no correlation at all. But they cannot understand that. All their life they have confused having what they want with happiness everlasting. That's the way they see things. And that's the way they think things are. If you want to be happy everlasting, start with the way you see things. Change that first. Everything falls into place around that. Just sit down and start changing your mind about what is important and keep doing that until happiness everlasting moves in with you. It probably won't take long. Of course, it will be longer than you want it to be, but nowhere near as long as you are afraid it will be. Everybody owes it to themselves to find out how long it takes sitting it out, riding it out, bearing the pain before happiness at last comes calling. Patience comes to those who wait.
From the Foothills to the Piedmont–An overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina
We build a life around ourselves simply by doing what needs to be done in each situation as it arises, when, where and how it needs to be done.
The key in being able to hold the line against diversions, distractions and denial is maintaining our focus on the twin keys of wanting and caring.
We can want what we have no business having. We can care about the wrong things in the wrong ways. There is wrong wanting and right wanting. Right caring and wrong caring. Once we are capable of discerning right from wrong in the spheres of wanting and caring, there is only maintaining our focus on right and wrong the rest of the way.
Emptiness, stillness and silence (One thing, not three) is always at hand and is a "very present help in time of trouble." Taking refuge in emptiness, stillness and silence, and waiting there for reflection to lead to realization and insight is one of the best ways to spend time there is.
With the right kind of emptiness, etc. at hand, it is Psyche, Tao and us all the way to the end of the way, which is the endless adventure of being alive.
If I were the/my/our Psyche, this is how I would present myself to the public. Without explanation. I call this image "Essence of Psyche." Without explanation. How would you present your/my/our Psyche to the public? Present yourself and this question to your/my/our Psyche and see what comes.
Sunrise at Penobscot Bay — Stonington Harbor, Deer Isle, Maine
Construction presupposes destruction. Destruction implies construction. Construction/destruction are not two things but one. Yin and Yang are not two things, but one. Light and dark. Right and wrong, Good and bad. All dualities are unities, combos, partnerships. It’s all one big mutuality seeking its partner in the dance of life and being.
What help do we need to be who we are? I need silence for reflection and examination. I look for ways opposition is also assistance, remembering Mike Stanley saying, “Jim, the only way I can be quiet is by playing the drums.” Playing the drums is a way of engaging the art of a self-induced trance state, which is the essential element in all silent reflections. How can I take noise and find silence? By allowing it to disappear into the background and become the essential element in here, now. It is only a matter of focus and concentration and I can enter into contemplation wherever I am.
I see this is an aspect of what Jesus may have had in mind when he said ”Pray always.” And can “drop into silence anywhere, just by shifting from opposition to cooperation, “Letting be what is,” “Going with the flow,” “Being here, now,” “Peacefully abiding, here, now,” and “Seeing where it goes.”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 