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?
I don’t know why I went from Greensboro, North Carolina to Deer Isle, Maine to take a photograph of the full moon. Or to take any photograph. In the grip of inspiration you don’t ask questions. That is also the difference between our sixties and our eighties. I am quite content to sit by the still waters and watch the days go past. I don’t have to have anything to show for it. Or do something worth while. It is worth my while to sit, watching the days go by. If I want to write something, I write it. Speaking of writing, if you haven’t read what I have to say on the parable of the prodigal son, I suggest you read it. You will find it at jimwdollar.com under The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It will be the end of Christianity as we know it if enough people read what I have to say. Then Christianity will have a choice, to hang it up or to turn the light around and begin living, not to believe in Jesus, but to BE Jesus. Or, as he put it, “Turn and become as little children.” It is the same thing, as Jesus would be quick to say.
Aspen 03 — Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
We are our own light. Our own authority. Our own guide and Guru. We are all we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done with the time that is ours on the earth, and the task that is ours to do. All it takes is making regular visits to the emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) and waiting in the silence for what arises, emerges, appears, meets us there as the Knower within, AKA our Intuition. Our intuition knows. And Psyche, Tao join her as our three sources of balance and harmony, insight and understanding in the here, now of every situation as it arises.
Recurring visits with our inner Trinity qualify us to see, hear, know, understand, what’s what and what is called for and how we might do what needs to be done, when where and how it needs to be done as circumstances beget circumstances, and we respond to the urgency of the times that are upon us with what it takes to meet the moment with the gifts of our Original Nature, our Innate Virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our Inherent Intuition and our Intrinsic Imagination, bringing what we have to offer to bear on what needs our attention throughout all that meets us on the Journey that carries us all along the Way of Life and Being–which we remain prepared for by dropping into the silence and renewing our acquaintance with the Force that is with us always to the end of the age. Amen! May it be so!
The Willow in the Rain — Country Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
I am glad to have no idea of how things ought to be beyond being quiet and waiting to see what is called for in each situation as it arises and entering the field of action to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time and dropping back into the silence until the next thing that is called for comes around and keeping the flow going through circumstances begetting circumstances as long as life lasts. May it always be so.
I give credit to the experience of emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) over time to be at the place of experiencing frustration without beingfrustrated, for example. This is the way of experiencing a situation without being consumed by the situation. We can observe a situation and be immune to the situation. This is the way of emergency room personnel being able to take whatever comes through the door and do what needs to be done. When, where and how it needs to be done. We can practice being here, now while not being here, now, every day. We can become immune to the inescapable things in every here, now, in the service of doing what needs to be done in the right way, at the right time, in the right place. And be open to the joy and pleasure of being able to offer ourselves in that way to what is asked of us throughout our life.
I wish I could be there with the Sunday River in Newry, Maine until I was ready to be somewhere else. What this image means to me is peace, silence, quiet, solitude, etc. All of which I take to be the solid gold foundation and the essential necessities of life. But. For the most part our lives, our life, consists of noise, complexity, distractions, complications, disruptions… I don’t know how we do it.
I do not remember it happening, or when it happened, or how it happened but. Tao, Psyche, Intuition came to live with me as essential factors to be taken into account, noticed, felt, experienced, embraced, welcomed, perceived, comprehended, understood, etc. as That Which We Cannot Live Without. They are as essential as air and water. And it is our place to know that, realize that, and live with them front and center in our lives.
When did I start writing about them? It has a recent feel about it, as though it were only yesterday. And this image of the Sunday River and the Artist’s Bridge in Newry, Maine would be a good symbol reminding us of their place in our lives. We cannot hope to live well without them, front and center, in our lives. What do we do to give them that place and bestow upon the the devotion the place of the sacred deserves in our lives. For they are sacred. Beyond theology! Without theology! With nothing but experience–the lived experience of the day-to-day to ground and center them in the place of highest honor and devotion in our life day-to-day.
We could start with noticing our intuition at work in our life. Intuition is the most readily available experience of the three (The REAL Holy Trinity!). And is, to my way of thinking the source of all of our imagining about God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost–All of that came to be out of our early forebearer’s experience with their Intuition. Inner experience is founded upon emptiness, stillness, silence–and that is all there was in the early days, in the earliest days. Ample time to be aware of and in relationship with Intuition and its wonders. And those wonders became stories, became ritual, became religion, as “we” projected our inner experiences outward into the vast imagined world of invisible beings, gods and ghosts and all of the invisible world that we created to comfort and terrify ourselves over the course of history from then to now. It only was Intuition at work in our life.
And Intuition is the interface between ourselves and Psyche. Psyche is the foundational knower/doer/be-er of life. Psyche IS Life. IS the Life Force of every living thing throughout the Cosmos. Connecting all of life. Overseeing all of life. Tending all of life. The vital source and foundation of life. And she has a central role to play in all of life. The more we are able to move our connection to, relationship with, Psyche from Unconscious to Conscious through our interaction with Intuition, the more aware we can be of the place of Psyche in our life, the more fully we can be aligned with, directed by the Intuitive/Psychic connection, the more satisfying and fulfilled, joyful and delightful our experience of life will be.
Which leaves Tao as the flow of time, circumstances, events, experiences, etc. through both physical (material) and spiritual (invisible) strata of existence and experience. When Stella got her grove back, she got back in alignment with Tao. To live at one with, in synch with, in tune with the Tao is to be at “the sweet spot” of life and being, and everything is humming along, on schedule and in balance, harmony and rhythm with the timing and the patterns of the Cosmos. When the Force was with Luke Skywalker, the Tao was strong in him, with him through out time and space, physically and spiritually, visibly and invisibly. We cannot talk about it, define it, explain it, but we can know it, and not know it, and be lost without it. The old Taoist of The Rainmaker is a metaphor for Tao, as is this illustration: A Zen master was walking with a student when they came to a bridge. The student ask the master, “What is Zen?” Whereupon the Master pushed him off the bridge into the water below, saying, “That is water! Wade in it, swim in it, bathe in it, drink it or drown! But DO NOT TALK ABOUT WATER! To talk about water is to not-know water! To talk about Zen is to not-know Zen. To talk about Tao is to not-know Tao. To know when we are in the flow, in the balance, harmony and rhythm of the Tao is to know as much of the Tao as we will ever know. To know how to be in the flow of Tao is not to be told how to know. It is to know without knowing how or what we know. The experience is its own teacher. And we live to know what we can know of Tao, Psyche, Intuition–and our life will be better for knowing, and it will be worse for not-knowing. And that is all that can be said about that.
Hanging Out on Hanging Rock — Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury, North Carolina
I don’t see prayer as having an impact on anything in the cosmos. If prayer worked there would be no cemeteries, or hospitals, or poverty…and so on forever. What does work is emptiness, stillness and silence (One thing, not three), being here, now, present with, and conscious of, what is present with us, here, now, in a physical and spiritual way (I using “spiritual” to cover all that is beyond our physical senses. If we don’t/cannot know it is there, it is spiritual, like high and low frequency’s and what is going on with Tao, Psyche and Intuition (I have written books on these things, might check them out. They are all priced in the range of a cup of coffee.)
Spending time with things spiritual is a fine way to spend time, actually, the best way to spend time. Dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence, is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” The silence is home to everything spiritual, and is a great way to hangout. Call it meditation if you want to, or prayer, just go there a lot and become aware of what is with us there. Knowing what meets us in the silence is the kind of knowing that changes the material world in the way that prayer does change things. Beyond question. Without a doubt.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises, being right about it, and doing it is all that can be asked of anyone, ever, throughout time. Even if they don’t believe in God. Even if they don’t believe they ARE God.
Fall Pond — Anne Spings Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
My idea of love, as in “I love you,” is no expectations, no requirements. I have come to this point by being told, “I love you,” by family members from birth to the present day, and those older than I am had plenty of expectations and requirements, my father especially. Out of that ages long experience, when I say, “I love you,” I mean, “You are free to be you, no strings attached.” If the Spirit can “Be like the wind, blowing where it will,” surely we can follow suit as it suits us to do so.
All we have to work with comes down to ourselves and our good looks, each other, our collective ingenuity and Psyche, Tao and Intuition. That’s all there is when we plop out of the womb, and that remains all there is throughout the time left for living. You might think that Psyche, Tao and Intuition would play a larger role in our life than they currently do, but. They get no respect and practically no playing time at all. You might think that we would devote ourselves to their tender care and the development of our relationship with them throughout our life, but. We use Psyche to talk to the dead, take our intuition to the roulette wheel in Vegas, and mispronounce Tao at every opportunity. Not exactly what we would call making the most of our chances, eh?
The Katahdin Range — Sandy Stream Pond, Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine
The secret of photography is to be there when the picture is no matter what the price. That is the only thing that sets photographers off from people with cameras. Everybody has a good enough camera these days. But everybody is not there when the picture is. And these days, I am not there when the picture is.
A reporter asked Carl Jung if he believed in God. Jung said, “I don’t believe. I know.” And the reporter did not follow up with, “What do you know? How do you know it?” And in failing to do so, the reporter failed us all. But there is enough here to encourage the rest of us to make our own discoveries in throwing away belief and digging deeply into knowing. Ask! Seek! Knock! Turn the world upside down until we KNOW what needs to be known! That’s the way to do it. And sitting with our intuition is a big help along the way. Intuition doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. And the Psyche has been reduced to talking to the dead. There is more to Psyche than telling fortunes, and more to intuition than knowing when it will rain.
We can make a regular appointment with our Intuition and with Psyche (Intuition is the interface between us and Psyche, and it would not be too far wrong to think of Intuition as Psyche’s interpreter.) Dropping into the silence and asking Intuition about knowing, not as conviction, but as experience, and anything else you would like to talk about with your Intuition. Ask and sit quietly, seeing what comes to mind. As we practice this practice we will develop a perceptive depth that we might not have without it.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 