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?
The Buddha said, “Don’t listen to ME! Listen to YOU!”
Jesus said, “Why don’t you decide for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:57)
This leaves us listening to ourselves and doing what we know is called for, and doing what we know needs to be done in each situation as it arises. No?
The cover to my latest eBook on Amazon Kindle. I am having trouble uploading the cover file there, but it is a snap here. Things can be funny that way. And settling into the way things are and doing what is called for even so puts us on the way of redeeming what can be redeemed and doing what can be done, and making what can be made of everything, anywhere, all the time. Why not?
Alan Stacell said, “I paint like a dog wags its tail.” What do we do that way? What is ours to do the way tail wagging is a dog’s to do? My father smoked and drank burbon and Coke. Not quite the idea but, as close as he could come to it. I look out the window, and take what comes with that kind of self-induced trance state. Looking, waiting. It is like fishing in a way, baiting a hook and wating. And knowing a keeper when you see one. I hunch that Alan Stacell knew a keeper when he saw one. And the others he may have viewed as steps along the way. Dogs don’t grade their tail wagging, or get down about theirs not being as good as the dog’s next door. The things that set our tail to wagging are beyond critique. And we have to give ourselves to them because our tail says so–and we could do worse than letting our tail lead the way.
The following is an excerpt from my “Jim Dollar’s Daily Posts” blog on WordPress
If you have been with me for a while, you know that I recognize the importance of talking about two Gods: The God of Theology, the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, etc. And the God before and beyond Theology, which I think of as Psyche and Intuition, and which enjoys a plethora of other names throughout history and is known essentially as a way of knowing that knows what’s what, and what’s happening, and what’s called for, when, where and how, etc. without knowing how it knows, but, it is evidence that we know more than we know we know, or how we know. Which makes knowing what we know a fascinating way to spend some time. And making room for more than one God is also a fascinating way to spend time, with wondering amid amazing possibilities keeping us going.
The entire length of Dugger’s Creek is replete with nondescript falls similar to this one. You can take my word for it or go to the trouble of seeing for yourself, but I wouldn’t do that if I were you, and instead, take up the search for a restaurant that serves Lemon Ice Box Pie. I think that would be well worth your time, but it would be time consuming for sure, and you might be better served to make your own, that way you would at least be guaranteed to enjoy the entire pie in the privacy of your own home in your lifetime, which would be better by far than having them find your body in the bottom on some ravine, having driven off the road in heavy fog in your search for a restaurant serving Lemon Ice Box pie in the wee hours of the morning on some back road tracking down rumors of sources for Lemon Ice Box Pie.
Self-induced trance states are nature’s way of knowing more than reason, logic and thinking know. Entrancement takes us into a zone beyond the ordinary and open us to the realm of poetry, music and dance where we might engage the Muse and benefit from an association with More Than Words Can Say.
Thus, the Native American practice of stomp dancing and sweat lodges, and the Australian Aborigines walk-a-bouts, and self-hypnosis as a medium for deep awareness and knowing more than we know we know.
Hyper-knowing transports us beyond ordinary reality into the world of sensory abundance, realization and artistic inspiration. When we drop out of the ordinary world of reason and logic and into the extraordinary world of sensory perception, we know what the Gnostics knew with their “secret knowledge,” which is the source of artistic creativity worldwide.
Finding how things ought to be and aligning ourselves with it can be difficult from time to time. Wait, what? And now what? Aren’t always clear. Like when Daylight Savings Time goes into effect and you are the only one who doesn’t realize it. What time is it? Can be difficult under those circumstances. Ordinarily, everyone knows what time it is. Occasionally, everyone but you knows what time it is. That can be disconcerting. The world is seemingly out of sync when it is actually only you. Once that becomes clear, everything clicks into place and things are as they should be once more. What’s simple can be amazingly difficult, and then it is simple again. And such a relief. Once we know what’s what, and what’s called for, and how things need to be.
Thinking this image was taken from Clingman’s Dome, when it was actually taken from the Clingman’s Dome parking lot could be a problem if you were tryiing to duplicate the photograph from the wrong view point. Thinking we know what we are doing, and actually knowing what we are doing are quite different things. And how we get the world back under our feet can be simple and amazingly difficult. And quite out of our control until realization dawns and awakening occurs.
Realization is always like that. We don’t know until we know, and then it is so simple, why, of course! And at any point–at every point, actually–a number of people are walking around not knowing what time it is, or where to stand to take the photograph we want to take. Finding how things ought to be and aligning ourselves with it can be difficult from time to time.
We do not need anyone’s permission to be who we are. Our primal allegiance is to ourselves. To be true to ourselves is our ultimate obligation. That means living in devoted service to our intuition–to our sense of what is right for us to do, for whom it is right for us to be–above all other concerns or duties. To deny ourselves is the ultimate betrayal. Thus, our call from birth to death is to be who we are, doing what is ours to do. And our next obligation in line is to help/assist others in being true to themselves, by living in ways that serve and express who they are and doing what is theirs to do.
May we spend what remains of the time left for living in devoted service to these sacred imperatives to the best of our ability in commitment to ourselves and to each other. Amen! May it be so!
In my eBook, The Tao of Jesus, I wrote, “When we find our life and live it, everything falls into place around that. To do it, to find our life and live it, we follow the pattern of all the heroes on all of the journeys throughout time. In doing that we have to put desire, fear and duty in their place, and live beyond them, beyond desire, fear and duty. Which is to say without desire, fear and duty, in order to find our life and live it.
This is to say that we have to simply give ourselves to the work of doing the things that need to be done no matter what–no matter what it means for us personally, or for those we love.
Which snaps us bak to Jesus and his declaration about austerity: “Those who would follow me have to leave father and mother, brothers and sisters, and take up their cross daily in finding their life and living it.”
This is asking all would be followers of Jesus, “Do you have what it takes to stick with it? To do what is required of us, asked of us, in each situation as it arises? Day in and day out? Whether we feel like it or not, want to or not, are in the mood for it or not? For not other reason than because this is what is ours to do, and go go on doing, throughout the time left for living, no matter what?”
“No matter what?” means we have to find our life and anchor ourselves to it with an adamantine declaration of allegiance and fidelity that puts liege loyalty and filial devotion to shame.
This is what all of those old love stories are about. They aren’t about boy and girl finding each other and swearing their troth to one another forever. They are about men and women finding their life–their life together and their individual lives apart–and doing living together in ways that enhance their ability to be who they need to be through all of the situations and circumstances that arise in their lifetime, together and apart.
It is not about finding the right person meant for them, but about finding the right life for them, the life they are meant to be living, together as a couple, and apart as individuals, through all their years of being married.
Can each person find the life partner who will aid and assist them in living their own life? This is the question at the heart of all of the boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl stories. Can we be good for each other in bringing the other forth and helping the other live their life to the fullest possible extend in the time left for living?”
Find the person who can join you in creating this kind of mutual environment, and stick with them throughout eternity! We are here for the life that is ours to live! And for helping on another find and live the life that is theirs to live! And nothing can knock us off our mission!
We have to learn how to read the signs, to know what the symbols refer to–the symbols that catch our attention eye, that speak to us. We have to know what they are saying. Our task is to learn how to live symbolically, metaphorically! In doing what is ours to do and in being who we know ourselves to be throughout the way that is The Way.
What language do swans (And all of nature) think with? Hunger, for instance, must make an impression, create an awareness, that spurs them to eat. Fear inspires escape behaviors. Mating means a host of things resulting in cygnets… When they answer the call to migrate with the seasons, do they wonder what is going on? Do Australian Swans migrate in Australia? If so does that make them crazy in South Carolina? And is that another reason their wings are clipped to keep them from flying off and getting lost? So many questions. So much to know.
Listening to our body, knowing what our body knows, allowing our body to guide us on our path through the sea, is a savvy choice for finding our way along The Way.
Our body talks to us all of the time. Instead of listening, we opt for Over The Counter remedies to over ride the wisdom of the ages and impose our idea of how things ought to be on the life we are living.
The life we are living fails to take our best interests into account in favor of what we want when, where and how we want it.
Ignoring what our body knows in the service of Having Our Way Now is not the best response to doing what is called for in each situation as it arises–especially when that which knows what’s what and what’s the best response to the options available to us here, now is right here, right now waiting to take the lead if we will only sit down and listen to what it has to say all along the way to The Way.
There is benign neglect and there is benign devotion, and the difference is indecipherable. If we treat people lovingly, they won’t be able to tell the difference. And neither will we. If we treat everyone lovingly, the world will be a better place and we will be better people, so why not? We may as well treat everyone as though we care about them whether we do or not. It has been a long time since some people have had a kind word spoken to them. Uplift their spirits! Increase the world’s kindness quotient! Make an indecipherable difference in the way life works!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy