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?
We all are looking for what works.
The tragedy is that we all know what works,
and it isn't splashy enough for us.
We want something else to work,
and spend our lives trying to make something work
that isn't going to work.
And we know it,
but maybe if we try harder...
And here we are.
Trying to have something
we have no business having,
because we don't want what is ours.
Carl Jung said,
"The greatest curse of the child
is the unlived life of their parents."
The parents' unlived life
is the life they don't want to live
because they prefer a different,
better,
finer life instead.
Look around you.
What you see,
wherever you look
is The Curse of the Unlived Life.
What you see is the shadow-side
of Better.
The good is never good enough.
"The Best is the enemy of The Good."
And we want The Best, by God.
Even God is not good enough for us.
When God steps forth as Jesus,
and Jesus declares,
"The Father and I are one,"
we kill him because
that isn't what we want in a God.
We want a God who is God
the way we want God to be God!
"Love your enemies,"
"Love your neighbor,"
"Be a neighbor to all people,
especially the poor non-white ones..."
That is totally not what a God
worthy of us would say.
What we see when we look around
is The Curse of the Rejected God.
Or, as Jesus would say,
"We are reaping what we sow."
When our idea of God
turns out to be not-God,
we have to change our mind about God.
And ourselves.
And the life that is our life to live.
It's called repentance.
Repentance is changing our mind
about what is important.
Sin is being wrong
about what is important.
Repentance puts things right.
All it takes is being right
about what is important.
History suggests that
we don't have it in us
to be right about what is important.
Whether we do or not,
time will tell.
Knowing what matters
is the only thing that matters.
We all are looking for what works,
and its right there.
Right here.
What's the problem?
–0–
02
Blueberry Bushes 10/10/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Cadillac Mountain, Frenchman’s Bay, Acadia National Park, near Bar Harbor, Maine
The church was before the Bible.
The Bible says what the church wanted the Bible to say.
The church was before theology.
Theology was the end of the church.
What you do with this is your business.
But.
These are the facts.
And if anyone would have you
take something else on faith,
it isn't faith they are selling,
but fantasy.
Day Lily 02 06/05/2021 Oil Paint Rendered — Indian Land, South Csolina
We pick up,
put down,
pass on
(in the sense of
"I'll pass on that,"
and not in the sense of
what we leave behind),
pass by.
I pass on a lot of things,
and pass by unseeing too many things,
and I've put down most of the things
I've picked up.
But I'm still
picking up,
putting down,
passing on
and passing by.
It's the template for life.
And it is a true reflection
of what matters most to us--
and that says who we are
better than words could do it.
A quick inventory
of the things
you have picked up,
put down,
passed on
and passed by,
that is a snapshot
of what you are leaving behind.
Our legacy is what we
picked up,
put down,
passed on
and passed by.
We can fool ourselves
in a lot of ways,
but that list is the truth
that cannot be denied.
We are what we pick up,
put down,
pass on
and pass by.
It’s best, I think, to make no global evaluations,
either of ourselves, personally,
or of the world/life in general.
No assessments allowed!
Should be a rule.
It will only depress you.
The best we could do as a species
is easily dismissed
by the worst we could do.
I’m ashamed to be a part of something
that can’t do any better
than we have done over
the 10 million years,
or so of our existence.
Jesus and the Buddha spend eternity throwing up.
So, we focus on the things that ground us,
restore us,
enliven us--
and ignore
to the best of our ability,
all the things that would send us
running to the wailing wall.
Despair is real
and a valid response
to the truth of
what we have done
and are doing—
to the truth of what our choices are.
Where do we have good-enough choices?
We get to choose from among unchooseable choices!
So we take it one day at a time,
and try not to think about
the things we aren’t thinking about
when we distract ourselves
with art/music,
beauty
and nature
(the natural world itself is as vicious
as we are if we look closer and see everything).
Refusing to let it get us down,
or even slow us down,
in pursuing the good as we perceive it,
and are able to embrace and to do,
is the best I’ve come up with.
We live “anyway, nevertheless, even so,”
as though what we do matters,
the way actors who are true to their art
play their part
in movies that don't have a script,
or a director,
capable of Oscar consideration.
We play our roles as they need to be played,
as they must be played,
doing what needs to be done
with the gifts we have to offer,
as best we can,
and let that be that,
given the nature of our circumstances,
and the quality of our prospects,
saying, “If somebody can do it better,
I hope they do!
But this is the best I’m capable of doing,”
and being right about it.
So press on! Press on!
We are all Sisyphus
rolling his rock through eternity.
Our attitude about what we are doing
is the main thing we do,
and is truly precious about us--
where the radiance and wonder shine through.
Roll on! Roll on!
It’s what we do!
We have to be able
to take a joke in this world,
because the joke is on us.
We think it is this way,
and it's that way.
We think we get it,
and think it's that way,
and it's this way.
Thinking that we get it
is the joke
that is on us.
We have to be able to say,
"Okay. Good one. Got me."
And go on with our life,
knowing that life is just a set up
for the next punch line.
The trick is to keep showing up
without taking it seriously.
Taking it seriously
is asking for it.
So, we have to show up
as though it matters,
knowing that it doesn't matter,
but doing everything as though it does.
That is embracing the joke
and laughing along with everyone else
who is in on the game,
playing the game
as the game needs to be played
because it is the only game there is,
and to not play it
is to be dead--
either literally,
or equivalently.
So we play knowing that we are playing
the game of life,
giving ourselves to all of it
just as we need to,
without being undone by any of it,
playing at playing our part
as though it matters--
because that's what the game requires--
but without being bludgeoned by any of it
because it is only a game,
and no one's keeping score.
All that matters is
how well we play our part.
–0–
02
Sumac 03 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Being right about what needs to be done
and doing it
in each situation that arises
is a matter of paying attention--
without judgment or opinion--
in responding to what is called for,
moment by moment,
with sincerity and non-contrivance,
and without motive beyond being available
in service to the here and now,
using the tools/gifts/specialties/virtues/
traits/shtick/interests/abilities/daemon/art...
that come with us from the womb
as a part of our original nature
for the good of one another
and the species as a whole.
This is the organizing principle,
the ground,
foundation,
still point,
axis mundi,
and North Star
uniting human beings
throughout time and place
in the work of being human.
To drift away from this
is to wander in the wasteland
searching for deliverance
and salvation
without hope,
purpose
or direction,
"like a man
sitting on his donkey
looking for his donkey,"
or a woman
holding her car keys,
looking for her car keys.
When all it ever takes
is being right about
what needs to be done
and doing it,
without judgment,
opinion,
or motive,
situation by situation,
through time and place.
Our motive for most of our action
is what's in it for us.
What we stand to gain.
What we can keep from losing.
Since Adam and Eve,
we have been seeking better.
Our motto through the ages
has been:
"NOT This! THAT!"
Ambition, aspiration, incentive,
drive and desire
are the motivating forces
of humankind.
The Buddha and Jesus said,
"Enough of that!"
It didn't get them very far.
The Buddhists sold Buddhism
on the basis of
the accumulation of merit,
and the Christians sold Christianity
on the basis of
getting to heaven and avoiding hell.
Both the Father Shore
and Heaven/Hell were invented
in order to improve market share,
and provide leverage
to those hawking the advantages
of their point of view.
The Bottom Line is the only line.
It is certainly the only thing that matters.
The thing that matters most.
Increasing the Bottom Line
is the only reason for living
for too many people.
It is the way government and business are run.
Increasing the bottom line
for everyone that counts
at the expense of everyone else
is the way you get things done.
And, of course, everyone
in government and business
thinks they count
and it is okay to stiff everyone else.
I present you: The World!
My standing with the Buddha and Jesus
doesn't improve my chances.
It is a sad indication of my prospects.
I'm selling sincerity and non-contrivance
in a world grounded on polar opposites:
"Promise them anything to get what you want!"
Or:
"Promise them anything and do what you want!"
Are the mottoes of business and government.
We cannot live like that and be
fully,
wholly,
vibrantly,
radiantly,
alive.
We cannot live the life
that is our life to live
without changing our relationship
with life the way it is being lived.
And with the people who are
living that way.
"What does light have to do with darkness?"
What does life have to do with death?
We do it our way
and pay the price.
and they do it their way,
and pay the price.
We all pay a price
for the way we live our life.
How we live
in light of what
is the choice
that tells the tale.
We cannot begin to live--
as in the sense of being fully,
wholly, radiantly, alive--
until we begin to live truthfully.
Living truthfully is living aligned
with our original nature,
from a position of sincerity
and non-contrivance,
responding appropriately to our circumstances
without a motive beyond
doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
here and now
in each moment that comes up.
Living truthfully is living motive free.
We aren't trying to get anything,
gain anything,
we are simply rising to each occasion
in ways fitting to the occasion.
When we live from motives,
we introduce complexity into the situation,
and move away from the center
in striving to force our way onto the moment
instead of simply responding to the moment,
offering what the moment needs
instead of trying to get what we want.
The work to have our way
brings disharmony to life in the here and now,
as we attempt to use the moment
to serve our ends,
and do not live in the moment
as an agent of what needs to happen there
which may be apart from
what we want to happen there.
We are then "out of the flow" of the moment,
inserting our own will for the moment into the moment,
and keeping us from living "in troth" to the moment,
at one with the moment.
Two tennis players are inserting their will for the moment
onto the moment,
but they are living/playing aligned with the here and now
which calls for them to do that very thing.
They are living truthfully in the moment,
aligned with the moment,
being one with the moment--
and the better they can do that,
responding to the moment as it develops
around them,
they are more likely to win the point
than if they allow their will to win
to put them in the position of over-hitting
their shots,
or trying for a more precise placement
than may be possible in their particular situation.
Their willfulness has to be responsive to the moment,
and cannot get outside the moment,
beyond the moment,
to force something to happen
that is inappropriate to the shot
that is available at any point in the game.
They have to "take what the game gives them,"
and make what they can of it
without overdoing it,
being "too fancy,"
or "too cute."
We have to read the time that is at hand,
and respond to what is called for
in ways appropriate to the moment,
without trying to "push the river,"
and make happen what would be out of time and place.
Living truthfully is living at one with the moment,
with no motive beyond living at one with the moment,
and seeing where that goes.
Experiment with living without a motive
and living sensitive to--
aware of--
each moment and what is called for in each moment,
noticing when you are trying to "over power the moment"
and force to happen
what you want to happen there.
Learn to dance with your moments
in ways that are truthful to the moment,
living there with sincerity and non-contrivance,
and with the good of all concerned at heart,
moment by moment.
Dancers who do that, create together something
neither dancer could manage on their own,
neither asserting their will,
but both willing alignment to drift and flow,
producing radiance and wonder,
moment by moment.
Cypress Stand 11/06/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Private Preserve, Down East, North Carolina
It is a psychological saw
that we need to stand out
and fit in,
and between those polarities
lie all of our problems.
Fitting in is being like those
we aspire to be like
(Or are afraid to not be like).
Standing out is expressing
our natural self
in the way we go about our life.
W.B. Yeats called fitting in
our "Primary Mask,"
the one handed to us by parents
and culture.
And standing out,
he called our "Antithetical Mask,"
the one contrary to the way
society thinks we ought to be.
And so begins the dance
with these two pardners,
by walking two paths at the same time.
How much can we get by with?
How unlike who we are expected to be
can we be?
We answer a question
in the way we live our life.
And, like all such questions,
we answer it best by being conscious of it,
and keeping one eye
on each path
as we choose our choices
in light of what's in it for us.
It takes reflection
to come to new realizations.
But, to think,
particularly about our thinking,
is to stand out--
something fitting in does not allow.
Already we are not being
who we are supposed to be
just by wondering if we are
and considering being "other,"
by being "I."
Where do we stop and our overseers,
exemplars, start?
Who is living the life
we walk around in?
How different can we be
and still "belong"?
How different do we need to be
in order to be who we are?
Where does the line lie
between who we are expected to be
and who we must be no matter what?
A religion worthy of the title
would help us ask and answer the question.
That would be a religion of the soul
in the deepest/truest sense.
A bringing up,
bringing out,
bringing forth who we are born to be,
and not the automaton
we become through
the imposition of social oughts.
Ah, but.
Where is what we need
when we need it?
We have to work out our own salvation,
with fear and trembling
and a sickness unto death.
Or not.
With not being a dying
worse than death.
How we negotiate the turns
between fitting in
and standing out
tells the tale.
–0–
02
Home in the Woods 05/11/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Grandfather District of Pisgah National Forest at Linville Falls, North Carolina
It is all a lost cause.
The arctic and antarctic are disappearing.
What lasts over time?
What chance does anything have?
Instead of saying, "What the hell?
Why try?"
and giving up our causes,
we should give ourselves to them
with renewed vigor,
and let nothing stop us,
or even slow us down,
like moths circling a flame,
loving every second
of a dying spiral.
We should give ourselves to our loves
because they are not going to last,
and we only have one short lifetime
to express our loyalty and devotion
to causes worthy of us.
It matters how we live--
to us, if not to eternity--
and we owe it to ourselves
to live as fully as possible
as long as possible,
giving ourselves to those things
that bring out the best we have to offer,
spending ourselves completely
in the experience and expression
of life in all its radiance and glory.
Why hold anything back?
What is to be gained by refusing
the invitation
to be alive in the service
of what matters most to us?
What matters to you?
How is that evident in your life?
Why wait to show it
that you love it?
Big Creek 03 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, NC
If you are waiting for things
to make sense,
you are standing in the wrong line.
There isn't a line.
Things do not make sense.
Coming to terms with that
positions you well
to make it the rest of the way.
Now, you only need to square yourself up
with doing what needs to be done
even if it makes no sense--
doing it anyway,
nevertheless,
even so,
whether it makes any sense or not.
If you can do what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
whether it makes sense or not,
you have exactly what it takes
to make it all the way,
no matter what.
And that is exactly what everyone else needs
as a model of how to do it.
You will be saving the world
simply by doing what needs to be done
for no reason.
Because there often are no reasons.
If anyone asks you why you are doing
what needs to be done
when it makes no sense
even to try,
tell them you are doing it
for lack of anything better to do,
and stay with it,
go back at it,
at doing what needs you to do it
whether it makes any sense or not.
Do not have to make sense!
Do not have to have things make sense!
Just do what needs to be done
for no reason--
and do it the way it needs to be done,
as though everything depends upon it,
because everything does depend upon it!
It all rides on our doing what needs to be done,
when, where, and how it needs to be done,
for no reason beyond its needing to be done,
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises.
This is the key to a life well-lived:
Do you live well anyway, nevertheless, even so?
Or do you live well only
when it makes sense?
Give it your best all the time!
When it doesn't matter!
When it makes no sense!
When no one cares!
For no reason!
For the lack of anything better to do!
This is also to say,
do what your little heart loves to do
for no reason!
Do your thing
for no reason!
Do what you love to do
for no reason!
Serve your gifts,
your specialties,
your talents,
your virtues,
your daemon (sounds like "diamond"),
your shtick,
what you are here to do,
for no reason!
And don't have to have things make sense!
Be good for nothing!
Do all that you do for nothing!
And do it like you mean it!
Do it like it matters!
Whether it matters or not!
It matters!
–0–
02
Sumac 02 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
"Live Like It Matters!"
Should be a bumper sticker.
And a tee-shirt slogan.
And what we all do around the clock,
in season and out of season,
for no reason,
especially when it makes no sense.
Do not have to make sense!
Live like it matters
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so!
Be different that way!
All the time!
"Live Like You Mean It!"
That's another one.
Bumper sticker.
Tee-shirt slogan.
What we do around the clock,
in season and out of season,
for no reason,
especially when it makes no sense.
What does "making sense" have to do with
what we do and why we do it?
Why does it have to make sense?
What's the reason we have to have a reason?
Who says so?
How do they know?
Tell them they need to start
doing what needs to be done
for no reason!
And get back to living like you mean it
for no reason!
Look around and you can't help wondering,
"Why try?"
"Who cares?"
"What difference does it make?"
"What good will it do?"
"What's the point?"
And concluding,
"It's all useless,
hopeless,
pointless,
meaningless,
futile
and absurd--
and coming to a very bad end
(We all are going to die!)!
So why try?"
The answer to that, of course, is
"For the lack of anything better to do!"
Which is to say,
"Who cares if nobody cares?"
"What difference does it make
if nothing makes a difference?"
"What good does it do to insist
that everything be good for something?"
"What's the point
of having to have a point
to everything we do?"
(A corollary to that one is
"What's the point of ice cream?")
("Or baseball?")
And,
"So what if it is all useless
hopeless,
pointless,
meaningless,
futile and absurd,
and coming to a very bad end?
"Why should what I do
and how I do it
depend upon any of that?
"Now, excuse me,
I have work to do!"
And get back to doing what needs to be done
when, where and how it needs to be done
because it needs to be done
no matter what!
–0–
03
Big Bay Creed Panorama Oil Paint Rendered — Edisto Island, South Carolina
Our life is faith-based
in that we live grounded on things
we take on faith,
without being able to prove,
verify,
explain,
justify,
define,
validate, etc.
And these things always remain
a matter of faith,
and never become facts,
never pretend to be facts.
Not so with the things all religions
take on faith.
No sooner does religion
take something on faith
than it becomes instataneously
an absolute fact,
beyond question,
and necessary for the eternal salvation
of the entire cosmos.
Wait, wait...
faith is faith
and facts are facts,
and faith doesn't make anything factual.
I take it on faith
that it matters how we live,
but that will never be a fact,
although it can be substantiated
in a number of ways.
How we all ought to live
will never be a dogma upon which
eternity depends.
I take it on faith
that doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises
is all that needs to be done
to live balanced and harmoniously in tune
with ourselves
and the context and circumstances of our life.
That will never be a fact
that anyone could go to hell
for not embracing,
though they might all create hell on earth
by refusing to honor it with their life.
Religion with its false claims to facts
that are not factual--
and cannot be factual--
adds unnecessary complexity
to our existence
and encumbers us with rules
and conditions that have no basis
in reality,
distracting us from the necessary work
of seeing what's what,
and what needs to be done in response,
squaring ourselves up to life as it is
and stepping forward to meet it
with the gifts,
talents,
virtues,
characteristics,
specialties,
shtick,
daemon (Sounds like "diamond"),
and our original nature--
all of which came with us
from the womb
(Think Original Nature!
Not Original Sin!),
in doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
in every moment
throughout our life.
No one can do more than that,
and everyone needs to be doing it
for the sake of themselves
and of all the cosmos
(Which is not factual statement,
but a faith-based one).
A Path Through Wonder Oil Paint Rendered — Trail to Rough Ridge, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
There is a price to be paid
for doing it--
and for doing it
the way we do it.
Whatever "it" is.
Democracy carries a price tag.
"Freedom isn't free,"
as the popular catch phrase goes,
though the people saying it
rarely apply it to themselves.
It applies to wearing masks
during pandemics
as much as it applies to
serving in the armed forces
during times of war and times of peace.
It means doing our part
to serve democracy to the best
of our ability
around the clock.
Democracy is
Freedom/Liberty!
Justice!
Equality!
Truth!
Too many people think democracy
is making as much money as you can,
as fast as you can,
any way you can.
They make a big deal about
"Standing For The Flag,"
without standing for the things
The Flag stands for--
Freedom/Liberty!
Justice!
Equality!
Truth!
They want to be free
to do whatever they want,
when they feel like it,
for as long as they feel like it,
without being bound to anything
by being free.
Freedom isn't free.
Only those who are grown up,
and growing up,
have what it takes
to pay the price of freedom.
"We pay the price to ride the ride."
Tell some people that
and they don't want democracy any longer.
They want nothing to interfere
with their ability to live their life
the way they want to live it,
no strings attached.
No unwanted consequences!
No unwanted implications!
No unwanted anything!
They want the freedom to have what they want
without paying any price at all.
Freedom isn't free.
Tell them that for me, please.
They quit talking to me years ago.
–0–
02
Cedar Scene Oil Paint Rendered 05/02/2021 — Charlotte, North Carolina
Jesus had a plan.
So did John the Baptist.
It was the same plan.
It called for the reformation
of religion as it was being practiced,
and society as it was being done.
They were missing a plan
for the implementation
of their plan,
and had no way to negotiate
its adoption
by the controlling powers
of their day,
which "disappeared" them
the way authoritarian regimes
have "disappeared" opposition
throughout the ages.
And that was that.
Life went on the way
life always goes on,
tilted toward the rich and powerful,
and away from everyone else.
Integrity and good faith,
compassion,
kindness,
justice,
equality and truth
have such a hard time of it
in every generation.
You would think they would all give up
and throw in with
greed and ruthlessness--
which somehow manage to
rule the day,
every day.
It is a strange world
in which people pay homage
to "Liberty and Justice for All,"
and live in ways which deny
liberty and justice to all
who aren't deserving
the way the favored ones
define "deserving."
And there has always been
a voice crying out:
"In the wilderness of this world,
Prepare The Way Of The Lord
Of Liberty! Justice! Equality! Truth!"
The idea won't go away,
and its realization is always
as far away as ever.
What do you make of that?
How do we implement the plan
for "Liberty and Justice for All"
within the "Might Makes Right"
nature of the world as it is?
How do we get everyone on board
in doing the right thing
in the right way
at the right time
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises,
no matter what,
all our life long?
How do we even get ourselves
to do it--
whether anyone else
joins us or not?
–0–
03
Big Creek 11 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
What is your art?
Your specialty?
Your shtick?
Your joy?
Your life?
Seriously.
What do you do best?
What do you enjoy doing most?
What do you have to do right--
the way it needs to be done?
In what ways do you honor that?
Celebrate that?
In what ways do you exhibit
your liege loyalty
and filial piety and devotion
to it?
In what ways do you accord it
the central place in your life,
letting everything else
fall into place around it,
and serving it with your time
and attention?
If you have assigned it
to the shadows,
and are living your life
in ways that dismiss it,
discount it,
disregard it,
denigrate it,
ignore it,
you are paying a terrible price
for your neglect--
and it would be a really good move
for you to apologize,
and give it the attention
and the place in your life
that it deserves.
Whether there is any money in it or not.
Money is not the highest value.
Your heart is the highest value.
If your heart isn't in what you are doing,
money can't buy what you are missing out on.
All you need is enough money
to do what you do best,
what you need to do most.
Wake up and get with the program
that you have rejected for too long.
Big Creek 12 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, NC
It is best to wake up slowly,
gently,
over a long period of time.
There is no hurry,
and the transition is
life-changing.
The transition is part
of the process.
Waking up requires us
to completely transform
our relationships with
our life,
our self,
other people--
and we do not do that overnight.
We have to shift into
a new mode of operating,
with new values,
new response patterns,
new purposes,
goals,
and ways of doing things.
It takes time to settle in
to all that new.
And gentleness,
kindness,
and compassion,
especially with ourselves.
We have to become more reflective--
no matter how reflective we were
at the start.
Everything is a source of meditation,
reflection,
realization--
and we walk in wonder
through radiance on every side,
making connections
and seeing all things
as different and as one
at the same time,
amazed at the beauty
and the sacredness of life and being.
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02
West Prong 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tremont, Tennessee
Ideally, we would live
to serve the values of
Liberty! Justice! Equality! Truth!
with compassion,
and without judgment or opinion.
It is easy to see this
as a natural extension of
Jesus' words about,
"Inasmuch as you have done it--
or failed to do it--
to the very least
and most inconsequential
segment of humanity,
your have done it,
or failed to do it,
to me."
Everybody qualifies to be treated
lovingly,
with respect
and concern.
But.
Everybody doesn't think so.
And the discordance,
the dichotomy,
between those who understand
and apply
the concept of "love thy neighbor,"
and those who comprehend it,
but reject it,
have inhibited the expression
and shared experience
of the radiance and wonder of life
among the living
throughout the ages.
Life is much less than it might be
because of that.
And what is to be done about it?
Mourning and lamentation,
I'm afraid,
mourning and lamentation,
is the best we can do.
Because our life together
is a good faith operation.
And, as Rumi said,
"If you are not here with us
in good faith,
you are doing terrible damage."
And the ones who are not,
do not care how much damage
they do.
They seem to enjoy doing it,
and relish every opportunity
to do it again and again.
We mourn and lament
the refusal of our brothers and sisters
to live in good faith
with the rest of us--
and do what we can imagine doing
to compensate for their failure
to be who they are needed to be.
Big Creek 13 Oil Paint Rendered — Big Creek District, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
The movie "Groundhog Day" is my template,
pattern,
model,
for waking up.
We all wake up the way Bill Murry/Phil Connors
wakes up.
Murry's/Connors' advantage in the movie
is that nothing changes until he does.
With us, everything is changing all the time,
and we have something else to see
before we have seen that last thing.
We don't get 400 years
to learn to play the piano.
We have to learn everything at once,
or close enough to once
to make it complicated.
But our advantage is that
the complications are--or can be--
eye-openers,
waking us up by forcing us
to take the contradictions
and polarities
into account.
The complexities are here
to wake us up.
And what they wake us up to
is/are exponentially increasing complexity.
"Simple" is extremely complex.
(And the movie, "Being There"
with Peter Sellers/Chauncey Gardner,
is a great presentation of
the complexity of simple).
The more we see,
the more we see
the depth and scope
of what we do not see.
The more we see,
the more there is to see.
Waking up is eternal and everlasting
in its unfolding.
We are never awake,
enlightened,
illumined.
We are always waking up,
being enlightened,
becoming illumined.
There is no end to
what we don't know.
And, knowing that
is where we all start
the process
of knowing more
than we knew
when we walked in.
And we see
by saying what we see
and asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked
about thinking we see
what we are looking at.
Questions complicate the situation.
Complication is good
in that it doesn't allow us
to get by with simplifying the process.
Questioning everything
gets to the bottom
of no bottom to anything,
only more questions
about more things.
And that's good.
It forces us to look closer,
to listen more carefully,
and to know that knowing more
is what knowing is all about.
Knowing in the service of what?
Is another question
inviting us to explore
what we think we are here for
and what we are trying to get
through the process of asking questions
and seeking clarity.
What are we going to have
when we get there?
"Full realization"
is going to do what for us exactly?
There is only going on
past "full realization"
to "fuller realization."
And to laughing at the idea of graduation.
What do you think a plausible,
acceptable, reasonable,
end would be?
Where does AUMMMmmmmmm... stop?
Then what?
HUMMMmmmmmm...?
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02
Unity Presbyterian Church Panorama 01-17-2018 Oil Paint Rendered — Fort Mill, South Carolina
No one ever changed anyone
by telling them what they need to hear.
People change by being listened to,
heard, understood--
not by being told.
When people are listened to--
and pushed/encouraged/invited
to explore what they are saying--
to say more than they have ever been
asked to say--
so that they get out of their
repetitive liturgy of their life
and are forced to search for what they mean
and how that relates to what they also mean--
magic happens.
Realization happens.
Growth occurs.
Telling me how you see things
and how that relates to
how you see other things,
and how you hold it all together
by refusing to see what things,
produces an inner conflict--
perhaps a conflict of values,
a conflict of interests--
that requires you to adjust
the way you see things.
Adjusting the way we see things
changes the way we see things.
Changing the way we see things
is all that growing up consist of.
We do not grow up until we change
the way we see things.
And we change the way we see things
by seeing the way we see things
in light of the ways we see other things,
all things.
When we listen to people,
and ask the questions that beg to be asked
about the way they see things,
and how that relates to the way
they see other things,
we introduce complexity into their life,
and force them to take into account
things they normally deny,
dismiss,
disregard,
ignore
about their own seeing/positions,
and require them to reconcile
the contradictions within their own constructs
of reality/truth/facts
and that is where the shifts happen
that cleanse "the doorways of perception"
(Aldous Huxley),
and that changes everything.
Reconciling our own opposites
forces us to grow up against our will
and transforms our life
and our relationships with ourselves,
one another,
and our way of living.
Making all things new.
By being listened to
and thereby required to hear
what we are saying
and how that relates
to what we are also saying.
The people who believe in freedom
want to kill/purge/destroy
those whose idea of freedom
challenges them to expand their idea of freedom.
They want to be free to ignore
what freedom requires,
and how being free binds them
to the requirements of freedom,
which extends to everyone
the freedom they want only for themselves.
Freedom is never freedom from responsibility.
Freedom is freedom for responsibility.
We are all free to the extent
that we are responsible
for guarding the freedom for everyone,
and giving everyone the opportunity
for exploring their freedom for expression
and the responsibilities freedom imposes
upon all who would be free.
My right to be free has to respect/honor
your right to be free,
and we are both responsible
for guarding the freedom of each other,
which restrains and restricts each other,
and forces/requires us to be free
within the legitimate/necessary
limits of freedom.
What are the limits of freedom?
Freedom from what?
Freedom for what?
Freedom from imposed restraint
has to be freedom for self-imposed restraint.
Unrestrained freedom is bondage to want/desire/
irresponsibility/greed/ruthlessness/
and life beyond the boundaries
necessary for life.
We can't tell people that,
but we can listen them to that,
by finding the contraries
that require us to live within
the tension of mutually exclusive opposites.
Freedom is bondage to the requirements of freedom.
How do we understand "this"
in light of "that"?
Questions lead to reflection
which leads to realization.
And questions require conversation.
Not yelling.
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03
Electric Peak 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Yellowstone, National Park, Wyoming/Montana
If I could go back as a consultant/guide to myself
I wouldn't.
I wouldn't know what to change
without changing something
I wouldn't want to change.
We have to find our own way
through all of our circumstances/situations,
learning as we go,
as best we can,
to the extent that we are able,
and let that be that.
What would we change about our life
that wouldn't change everything about our life?
How different does our life need to be?
Making anything better
would make what worse?
And how would that impact the lives
of all others who interacted with us
over the course of our living?
What is better?
What is worse?
How fine is the balance?
How thin is the line?
Between how things are,
and how things need to be,
and how things might have been?
How do things need to be?
Who is to say?
All we have to work with is how things are,
and what needs to be done here and now
to make things as good as they can be
within the context and circumstances
of the situation at hand.
How good can this situation be?
How can we help it be so?
What influence do we have upon
the good of this situation,
all things considered?
Good for whom?
How good is the good we call good?
How do we decide what to do?
When to do it?
How it is to be done?
In light of what do we live?
What outcomes are we striving for?
What is acceptable?
What is ideal?
When do we stop meddling
and simply let things be?
When do we allow things
to unfold according to the
way of their own becoming?
When do we permit nature to take its own course?
How do we shape our life?
The lives of our children?
The lives of those around us?
How do we know what to do?
What do we think we are doing?
How do we evaluate the effect
we are having?
I believe in light touches,
and gentle nudges.
And relying on instinct,
intuition,
and spontaneous sincerity
in the service of our natural inclinations
as the most reliable guide
along the way.
And if living in these ways
gets us into a mess,
we have to trust that
continuing to live in these ways
will get us out of it--
and allow how things work out
to just be how things work out.
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04
Falls Pond 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Kancamagus Hwy North Conway New Hampshire
Seeing things the way we do
is the place to start.
Everything flows from there.
What makes us think
that the way we see things
is the way things are?
Is the way TO see things?
Is the way things ought to be seen?
Is the way everybody should see things?
How do we know that what we say is so,
is so?
What makes us the authority
on how things should be seen?
On how things should be done?
What makes us the authority
on saying what is authoritative
and what is not?
And if we are the authority on
saying what is authoritative,
doesn't that make us THE Authority
governing how our life is lived?
Governing how all life ought to be lived?
And isn't that a bit arrogant?
And self-deceiving?
What exactly do we know that is worth knowing?
And how do we know it is so?
Assumption is the foundation
of much that is called "knowing."
It is the same "knowing"
that declared
the earth to be flat
and that the sun goes around the earth.
And refused to look through a telescope,
saying it was a "delusion."
How we see things
may have nothing to do
with how things are.
Start there.
And see where it leads.
Two Barns 08/10/2019 Panorama Oil Paint Rendered — Kershaw County, South Carolina
We live to increase our net worth annually.
It would be better for all concerned
if we lived to maintain our balance and harmony,
in the service of our original nature.
We think nothing of sacrificing
balance, harmony and original nature
in the service of our net worth.
And wonder why we are not happy
with our life
and at peace with the world.
What robs us of our peace
and happiness?
What destabilizes our life?
What unbalances and disharmonizes us
and cuts us off from
our original nature?
Do we even know?
Do we even notice?
How long has it been?
Since we were balanced,
and living in harmony with
our natural self?
Being true to our natural self
requires us to be centered,
focused,
aware,
alert,
to all that intrudes,
disturbs,
disrupts,
upsets,
unsettles,
threatens,
impedes,
obstructs
and interferes with
our equilibrium
and our connection
with the flow
of the current
of our life.
What resonates with us?
How long has it been
since we resonated with our life?
When we live at odds with
the life we need to be living,
we develop symptoms and twitches,
spasms and convulsions--
and know that something is wrong
without stopping what we are doing,
and finding our way back into the flow
of life and being.
We medicate ourselves with an assortment
of the 10,000 addictions
and disappear into a fog of distraction
and disorientation.
When all we have to do
is get back to the truth
of our original nature,
and live a balanced life
(no excesses or extremes)
in harmony with who we are.
Babies fresh from the womb
know how to do as much.
And so the saying,
"Unless you turn and become
as children,
you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven"
(Which is the state of balance and harmony
in accord with our original nature).
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02
Curtis Island Lighthouse Oil Paint Rendered — Camden Harbor, Maine
Everyone is welcome just as they are.
People exclude themselves
based on their refusal to be welcomed
and welcoming.
Compassion is the key to community.
The key which turns every lock,
opens all doors,
ushers in the kingdom,
Nirvana,
The Father Shore,
Awakening,
Illumination,
Realization,
Human-being-hood...
We get compassion
by being compassionate.
By acting compassionately,
we become compassionate.
Kindness and compassion
are learned traits.
We act our way into being.
It doesn't matter if we care
about people
as long as we pretend that we do
convincingly.
Act like you care in such a way
that no one can tell you don't--
including you!
Fool yourself!
And then forget that you are fooled!
Why? you say?
Because it is our Dharma/Duty!
Compassion where compassion is called for,
when it is called for!
And kindness!
That is the very least
that is expected of us all.
The result will justify the action.
And the behavior will be
self-sustaining over time.
White-fringed Phacelia 04/18/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
It all starts with
and flows from
our being in balance and harmony
with our life,
meaning our situation in life,
our circumstances,
our context,
our here and now.
Being in balance and harmony
with here and now,
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises,
is the most important thing.
That positions us to see/know
what is happening
and what is called for,
and to respond to it
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
out of our genius,
daemon (sounds like "diamond"),
gifts,
talents,
specialties,
proclivities,
interests,
etc.
bound up in our original nature
which comes with us from the womb,
in doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
in the right place (here and now),
with sincerity and spontaneity,
without contrivance,
manipulation,
exploitation,
and an eye on what we stand to gain
in so doing.
We live from the heart,
being true to ourselves
and the time and place of our living,
and let things fall into place
around that.
And it all starts with balance and harmony.
What is disrupting,
disturbing,
your balance and harmony?
What are the forces of distraction,
destabilization,
complexity and contradiction,
anxiety and uncertainty
at work in your life?
For instance,
can you pay your bills?
Are you physically well,
that is do you enjoy
"freedom of function,"
able "to will and to do,"
to "plan and achieve"?
And, can you square yourself up
with "your lot in life"--
with how it is with you here and now,
in a "This is the way things are,
and this is what I can do about it
(Can be done about it),
and that's that" kind of way?
Too often, most of the most important
aspects of our existence
are out of our control.
Can we make our peace with that,
and let it be so because it is so?
Can we maintain our balance and harmony
and be out of control
at the same time?
Controlling our response
to being out of control?
Continuing to do what we can
about the things we can do something about?
Which always includes
the way we respond to our circumstances,
no matter what they are?
This is our work
every day
for the rest of our life.
Maintaining our balance and harmmony
by the way we respond
to the context and circumstances
of our life
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
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02
Zen Essence 05/06/2007 Oil Paint Rendered
Making our peace with
the way things are
is the perennial task of life.
"Okay. Here we are. Now what?"
is a recurring daily exercise
throughout existence,
for all living things.
Nothing remains stable and secure
for long.
"Time and chance happen to us all,"
is the way the Bible puts it.
We make our peace with that,
let it be because it is,
and do what we can with it
in responding to what the day
is asking of us
over the full course of our life.
How are you doing with that?
What would help with it?
A Wailing Wall would help with it,
and a Community of Innocence--
innocent in the sense
of having nothing to gain
from being our sounding board,
our oasis,
our retreat and sanctuary,
where we can "recover from the past
and store up for the future"
(Robert Ruark)--
would make all the difference.
We need a place where we can
say what we have to say
(And hear what we are saying)
to those who can receive it
with grace and understanding,
helping us articulate and bear
the pain of life over time.
Articulating the impact of our experience
is the essential step
in coming to terms with--
making our peace with--
the reality of our experience.
This is the therapeutic exercise
of saying what needs to be said
that is critically essential
to maintaining our balance and harmony
throughout our life.
We have to speak the truth
in order to hear the truth,
realize the truth,
and square up to the truth.
Most of our social network exists
to deny the truth
and will not allow the truth to be said.
It responds to truth
with a litany of catch phrases
and truisms as a way of
stifling the expression of truth
and changing the subject.
Not what we need.
We need a Community of Innocence
that is capable of being both
a Wailing Wall
and an adamantine,
anchoring,
rock of our salvation,
reminding us by its presence
with us that,
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
we have what we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
about every circumstance of life.
Our Community of Innocence
doesn't need to be more
than two or three people
who understand their place
in our life
(and our place in their life),
and join us in creating a space
where we all can say what we have to say
and hear what is being said
in balancing and harmonizing us
and squaring us up to the reality
of life in the world
throughout our life in the world.
If you do not have that kind of place,
take up the work of forming one
by "being what you need,"
in listening to others
and being a place where they can
be safe and accepted
in speaking the truth,
and join you in creating
what we all need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done.
We are not here to get what we want
and live the life of our dreams.
We are here to put our gifts,
our genius,
our daemon (Sounds like "Diamond"),
our shtick,
our art,
our heart's true love,
our specialties,
our interest,
our knack
to use in the service
of that which has need
of what we have to offer--
and stay out of the way.
Staying our of the way
is the really hard part.
And it is really important
that we stay out of the way.
And not try to manage things,
or exploit things,
or manipulate things,
or coerce thing,
or force things,
or compel things
to our advantage, gain, benefit or good.
This is our Dharma/Duty,
to stay out of the way
and let our little light shine.
If we can do that,
we can save the world,
or at least make a real difference
in our part of the world.
And that would have an impact for good
on the rest of the world.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 