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?
Swan Lake 07/09/2019 — Swan Lake, Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
We do what is called for in each situation as it arises and drop into emptiness, stillness, silence between innings waiting for clarity, watching for what arises, emerges, appears to catch our eye and compel us to action in the service of our original nature, our innate virtues (What we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination and our intrinsic intuition. Catching the rhythm and flow of time and place, here and now, to live and to do in sync with the need of the moment and what we have to offer in the eternal dance of life and being.
Swan Lake 05 — 07/11/2019 — Swan Lake, Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
Knowing what's what, what's happening, and what's called for, and doing it when, where, and how it is called for, in each situation as it arises, is all Jesus and the Buddha ever did.
No one can do more than that!
And the path to doing that is the path of emptiness, stillness, silence, and waiting for clarity, or enlightenment, realization, awareness, and allowing our intuitive impulse to action to spontaneously respond appropriately to the situation at hand, seeing, hearing, knowing, doing as it always does in fitting with kindness and common courtesy throughout social situations worldwide.
Katahdin Range — Sandy Stream Pond, Baxter State Park, Millinocket Maine
This scene is crammed with insects, snakes, leeches, mammals and ultraviolet rays that could make our life a living hell in no time at all. The stuff we overlook, dismiss, discount, ignore in making our judgments and forming our opinions about what we see is never taken into account when we decide how we feel about a place. We don't see more than we do see regarding everything we look at. And we know that but we refuse to think about it. We do not acknowledge it, and blithely stride through each day. We live unaware of the time and place of our living every moment all the time. It is a wonder that we get along as well as we do.
We ignore what we don't want to know. Here's what we do about that: Spend 20 minutes a day in emptiness, stillness, silence and see what comes calling. Do not shut yourself off from any of it. Simply see it and welcome it into your life. Let your life take it from there. Trust your intuition to override your fear/desire in making the adjustments that take your Also Life into account. And see where it goes.
I Went Down To The River To Pray — Steele Creek, Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
The intuitive guides are reliable standards of faith and practice. We only have to be tuned into what is present with us throughout the days of our lives.
Resonance/resonation are "Yes!" Enthusiasm/vitality/energy/exuberance are "Yes!"
repulsive/revolting/disgusting/obnoxious are "No!" disquieting/apprehension/discontent are "No!"
Once we get "Yes!" and "No!" down everything else falls into place around that.
Being alert to what we are dismissing, discounting, denying/ignoring will go a long way toward keeping us centered on the beam and true to the path.
We have to make sense of our life. Who are we? What are we about? What are we doing here? Where are we going? What is going on?
We are gradually waking up over the full course of our life, and yet, we are constantly putting ourselves to sleep with the hypnotic repetition of what we have been told of the corporate story of our existence as a species and what it means to be who we are here, now.
So there is our inherited story, and the story that we make up out of our own personal experience which we work to blend together into a narrative that makes sense while blurring from time to time into utter nonsense.
Taking what we are handed and fitting that into our lived experience in a way that corroborates and affirms the steady flow of how things are comes to grief time and again upon the facts that things do not fit.
God doesn't fit. Compassion runs afoul of greed and selfishness. War comes out of nowhere, yet never goes away. We live in ways that do not support life. The lists of how this conflicts with that are endless. The Cosmos is not a harmonious, well-balanced, and mutually supporting whole that makes perfect sense. We have to make allowances and ignore contradictions and conflicts all the time, while closing ourselves off from noise, disruption, complexity and confusion everywhere we can, in order to drop into the emptiness/stillness/silence and tune into ourselves to take a reading, know what's what, what is called for, here, now.
The essence of Buddhism, Christianity and all religion is diversion, distraction, denial, pretension, addiction, delusion,hokum and nonsense, where we mostly ignore what we know in order to affirm what we are told to think/believe "for the good of the whole."
It is a collusion conspiracy that we are all a part of for the sake of the peace and consolation of ourselves. And it is running aground upon the facts, like climate change, that will not be denied forever.
No one is in charge and Trump has lit the fuse.
My advice is to trust ourselves to our intuitive sense of what's what and what is called for here, now. Do that when/where/how it needs to be done without needing to know and do more than that.
Start with learning to know and trust your intuitive sense-- which used to be called, "Listening for God's will."
It got us to this point. It is well-suited to take us the rest of the way.
Steele Creek 08-03-2019 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Authenticity and affection are the two missing qualities in wannabe knights of the realm throughout time and place. The heroic characteristics in the comic book hero's left out by artists and authors who themselves are amiss of insight and knowhow, and are carried away by the culture's captivation by power and might, authority and control.
The Buddha and Jesus and those of their bent caught the drift of the flow of the way, however, and lived with hearts of integrity and compassion and eyes on the essence of what matters most.
Cone Flowers 08/03/2019 — Pike Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina
Drop into the emptiness/stillness/silence and wait to see what meets you there every day for the rest of your life.
Treat what comes with the highest degree of honor and respect as though it is a visit from your intuition with insight regarding what's what and what is called for in the near here, now, and reassurance about being with you with what is needed along the way.
I have hitches and lapses which give me pause, and lead me to wonder why annual physicals don't come paired with annual psychologicals.
We all could use evaluation and correction across the board at leas annually.
And that realization led me easily into wondering how long it has been since Donald Trump has had a psychological appraisal. I've never know a more certifiably insane person to be anywhere close to what Trump oversees. He sneezes and the stock market drops 500 points. Why are not candidates for the presidency given the usual battery of psychological exams people are subjected to for menial positions of employment? How does Trump get by with the things Trump gets by with? And why do 77.3 million people think that is just fine?
Blue Ridge Sunrise — Transylvania County, North Carolina
We make of it what we can. We have a stake in our life. We are invested in the time we have to live. It is our chance to see what we are made of-- to see what we can do in the time left for living, even now, even yet, even so. What haven't we done that we still might do, or do more of? Why hold anything back?
Take this into the emptiness with you. Sit with it, waiting for clarity regarding what is called for, here, now. What is sitting with us, saying, "Ahem"?
Being who we are is our life's work. It requires listening in the silence to be clear about what's called for and rising to do it when, where and how it is called for in each situation as it arises as only we can do it with our original nature, innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination and our intrinsic intuition throughout our life.
Attending/serving our intuition with our other gifts of being is the secret to being ourselves as those thus come, with integrity and authenticity-- the ethos of spirituality and character coming forth in our life when we live as only we can.
Blue Ridge Sunrise — The latest book cover, on Amazon Kindle
Here is the blurb that goes with the book:
A Handbook for the Spiritual Journey II lays out for the interested reader the nature of the path which was first stated in Deuteronomy 30:12-14--"This commandment that I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven that you should need to ask, 'Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?' And it is not beyond the sea that you should need to ask, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it that we may obey it?' But the word is very near you--it is in your mouth and your heart that you may obey it."
We already know what we seek. No one has to tell us what we are looking for. The spiritual journey is simply a matter of dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) and waiting "for the mud to settle and the water to clear," that is to say, for the clarity required to see, hear, know and understand what arises, emerges, appears, and becomes clear in the emptiness (etc), namely, what is called for here, now, and needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, in each situation as it arises, moment by moment. No one needs to know/do more than that. Jesus and the Buddha could not do more than that. That is all there is to it. So, go! Do it!
Swamp Denizen — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Summerton, South Carolina
Who are we? What are we about? Answer those questions correctly and you go to the head of the class.
Joseph Campbell said,"We know when we are on the beam and we know when we are off the beam."
A-buzz with addictions is a good sign of being off the beam.
Being listless, lethargic, disinterested, not present, are also giveaways.
Being alert, energetic, enthusiastic, vibrant, with a "The Game is ON!" orientation screams "Beam Time!" for all to see.
We find our way to the beam by having an eye-to-eye with ourselves.
How long has it been since you have done something you love to do?
What used to make your little heart sing and your little toes dance? Why don't you do that any longer? When did you lose your gusto? What can you do to get it back?
Everybody needs the right kind of friend. What happened to those who used to be yours? What potential candidates exist for you to talk with about the things that matter most?
Without friends/family to trust and enjoy, that leaves you with writing about the things you would like to talk with someone about. Write and toss, write and toss... You aren't writing anything to save, unless it's something you would like to revisit, deepen, enlarge, expand... The point is to address the issues that need to be addressed. Regularly. All the time. And see where it goes.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 