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?
Sunrise — East Fork Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, Mile Post 418.3, North Carolina
Psyche and Intuition are all we need–and they may be the same thing for all we know. Carl Jung said, “We can know nothing about the substance of the Psyche, when the sole means of knowing anything is the Psyche.” I think of Intuition as the Psyche’s way of guiding us through our life. Together, I see them as the source and ground of life and being. And we know nothing about them. We experience them, their reality, constantly, and we know nothing about them. We are manifestations of Psyche and Intuition. It all flows from them, returns to them, is nothing but them. Why don’t we just sit down with them, open ourselves to them and see where it goes?
Lake Andrew Jackson Mirror — Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina
“What’s the most important thing?” I asked my hair stylist. “Kindness,” she said without hesitation. “I can’t argue with that,” I said. Kindness would certainly have made a difference in our lives, and still would. So, we treated each other kindly throughout the rest of the cut, and promised to do so again next time.
I don’t know if it is the MOST important thing, oxygen and water might fight it out for the top spot. But it IS important. And easy to do. I don’t know why it doesn’t play a larger role in our life, both in receiving and in sending.
But here we are with Trump bombing Iran and Israel joining in. For what? Fear and insecurity and just wanting to show off rank high in the rationale department, I’m thinking. Pluck and Bluster rank high among world leaders it seems, along with swagger and strut. With kindness nowhere to be found.
Jimmy Carter would be the kindest world leader I can think of, and he was derided and chided for it from the start. Abraham Lincoln would qualify for consideration. And with that, I am out of candidates. And am sorry I brought up the subject. I’ll count on your kindly not mentioning it, and just letting it go.
Moose Flats — Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
I am a strong believer in trance states. Self-induced trance-states. Looking out the window. Drifting off into wool-gathering or taking a walk-a-bout to nowhere in particular. Not going anywhere and not being here, now at the same time. Aware only of what occurs to me/you, to what appears out of the mists, to catch our eye, produce reflection and perhaps, if we are lucky, realization.
We know more through reflection and realization than we know by thinking. Trance states are good for reflection and realization and not good for thinking.
Where do you go for trance states? How often do you go there? How long do you spend there? What do you know that trance states have produced for you? Have called forth from you? Have led you to realize, understand, comprehend, know?
Our trance states are vital to our life, and are life, are alive and bring us to life. Our trance states are our teachers, our gurus, our sources of knowledge, realization, truth. Doorways to knowing more than we know we know.
Sitting on the beach, or walking along the beach, being with the ocean, is an extended trance state. The ocean wakes us up by putting us into a trance. The trance makes possible a depth of realization that is kin to remembering something we have always known. And is a source of comfort and contentment reminding us that we are not alone.
Carl Jung said, “There is within each of us, another whom we do not know.” Trance states usher us into the presence of the other within–are thresholds between worlds. Inviting us to know more than we know we know, and become more than we think we are capable of being, calling us to open ourselves to what is open to us. And see where it goes.
Borax Vista — Death Valley National Park, California
We know things we don’t know how we know. If we sit quietly without thinking but being aware of the things that come to mind “out of nowhere” and following the things that have an attraction about them, we will come into realization “like a bolt from the blue.” And we will not have thought it up. We will simply have realized that it is so.
You could start with this photograph, and just sit quietly, emptying your mind of all thoughts, emotions, desires, wants, etc., and just be open to and aware of whatever associations this picture brings to mind. Don’t start thinking about them, just be aware of them and follow the associations that you find to be interesting, just going where they take you, like you might look out a window, seeing but not thinking about what you are seeing, just being drawn along by your associations to the point of realization, awareness, knowing, as though you are making a connection between the photograph, the associations and some truth you never saw coming in a “this means that” kind of way that was not something you might normally think about.
This process of drifting along with associations is one means of self-induced trance states. There are as many ways of inducing trance states as there are people. Looking out the window being one of my faves. And in the trance state, we are assessable to our intuition which is a word for our unconscious seeking an audience with us, trying to commune with us and open us to aspects of our life that we might never be aware of just by thinking.
I have mentioned here before of currently dealing with cognitive dissonance, muddled thinking, not being able to remember something I should know quite well, like what I am doing in the kitchen standing before the refrigerator, or opening a cabinet door. If I try to think in that situation, I only frustrate myself. But, if I open myself to the moment and simply wait for my unconscious to bring an association or a memory to mind it works better than a thought and, like that, I know what I’m doing there. My thinking mind is garbled, but my trance state openness to being here, now works just fine.
I recommend taking up the practice of tuning out of the here, now by opening up to the here, now, not by thinking, but by drifting off into “just being” and seeing what comes to mind by way of associations, or “wool gathering” or just watching whatever images or memories may arise and going along with them wherever they go, waiting for realization, for knowing, to come out of nowhere “just like that.”
We do what is called for in each situation as it arises, And let that be that Until the next situation arises. Throughout the time left for living. And that is all there is to it. Why make it any more difficult than that?
Sitting quietly between situations is an excellent way to spend the time.
The newest book is up on the Kindle Store. #2 and #3 are written and need only to be proofed and uploaded. What a trip this has been! Oh, the price is a quite affordable $1.50. Why should the truth be expensive? This makes number 11 for my books on Kindle. I never guessed I would have so much to say!
Price Lake Sunset — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Knowing what is called for in a situation and doing what needs to be done about it, when, where, and how it needs to be done is done trusting ourselves to our intuition and allowing, in the words of the Tao Te Ching, “the outcome to be the outcome.” This is the crux of the matter throughout our life. We live our way to knowing what is called for and meeting the moment as the moment needs to be met or turning away at the last minute for lack of verve, and never getting another chance at that moment–and living with that all our life long.
Jesus in Gethsemane did not flinch. Jesus did the right thing, in the right way, at the right time and in the right place. And not enough has been made of that over time. The Church of Rome gave Jesus the place of Savior, doing for us, in our place, the deed that was ours to perform–still is ours to perform. In saying Jesus the Savior died for us, The Church of Rome took us, and itself, off the hook, and all we have to do is believe. Our doing comes down to believing. Jesus’ doing came down to dying. And that is what our moment comes down to as well.
We live to know what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises here, now–putting our life on the line in the service of what is called for in doing what needs to be done when, where, and how it needs to be done, time and time again, in each situation as it arises throughout our life. Or not. As time will tell.
And we do not run out of situations and opportunities until our life is done. Which gives us plenty of time to practice the art of doing what needs to be done, here now. No?
Moraine Lake Mirror — Banff National Park, Alberta –This image was made with Photoshop’s Generative Fill Filter to create the reflection
Is it real or is it AI? The line is becoming increasingly impossible to recognize, making disclosure significantly important in those situations where it matters, and how can we be sure where that is? Perhaps we should simply assume that nothing is real/actual/true/for certain and take it for granted that the House of Mirrors is where we live, and treat everything with the degree of seriousness we think it deserves. Which perhaps would have been a good idea before AI.
Moraine Lake 02 — Near Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta
What is called for here, now? Being right about that and doing it where and how it needs to be done is all there is to it, moment by moment. When we get that down, we have it made.
Mt. Moran in Oxbow Bend — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
I don’t put much stock in what someone else says, so I don’t expect anyone to put much stock in what I say. What we have to say is more help to us than to someone else, I think, in that it reflects us to ourselves, like looking into a mirror, so that we know who we are at that particular time and place, and can reflect on it, examine it, inspect it and see if it is an accurate expression, exhibit, of what we think and where we stand and who we are at that particular time in our life, giving us something of a time-place marker for our way through our life. And perhaps benefiting us from a future vantage point as a way of gauging our progress or just reminding us of who we were “back then” and comparing that to “who we are” in the future.
I have finished three volumes of the “200 Zen Thoughts by Jim Dollar” series posted on my WordPress site, and they will stay up there until I publish them on Amazon Kindle, when I will have to take them down as a part of my author deal with Amazon.
Hammock Creek — Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
I’ve been hobbled by a complete lack of sophistication all my life–a spinoff of the Puer Aeternus syndrome of never growing up and always being surprised that life turns out to be this way. (Of course, I don’t see how any of us could have ever seen THIS present state of affairs coming.) And needing to call a Do-Over from birth to now. Do-Overs would be a nice touch, I think, particularly if they were infinite and eternal, where we could play each scene over and over until we got it right. Or perhaps a specific memory eraser so that we didn’t ever wake nights ashamed and aghast over Remember This? Dreams that don’t allow us to forget anything. It can be a humbling experience having to deal with who we are, but it is also affirming that we can still be going after all these years with an exterior that appears to be none the worse for wear, and you would have had to have been with me all the way to know who I really am.
Mt. Moran in String Lake Mirror — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
What do you have to say that needs to be said? Write it out. Saying what needs to be said will open the door to what else needs to be said, and that will open you to all that needs to be said all of the time. Say it by writing it out.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 