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?
A hammock is my version of a Zazen cushion.
Zen purists will have none of it,
but.
A Zen purist is an anomaly.
A contradiction in terms.
Purists have no pace within light years of Zen.
They cannot accuse me of Zenlessness
without establishing their own Zenlessness as well.
Zen popularized the phrase,
"If you meet the Buddha on the road,
kill him!"
The same applies to Zen purists.
Zen is where you find it
and how you practice it.
Sitting Zazen came into vogue
as a way of controlling adolescent practitioners of Zen
who were placed in monasteries
along with a sizeable financial donation
by wealthy parents hoping the monks
would be better parents than they had time or desire for.
Now everybody thinks sitting Zazen is a thing
Zenites do,
when it is only a thing
people seeking emptiness/stillness/silence/solitude do.
And hammocks work well in that regard.
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The Ghost Trees of Boneyard Beach 01/16/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Botany Bay Heritage Wildlife Preserve/Refuge, Edisto Island, South Carolina
Jesus' question,
"Who do you say that I am?"
came immediately following,
"Who do others say that I am?"
And sets the seat of authority
squarely upon the individuals
he is addressing,
and not upon any self-proclaimed
contemporary authority,
or any self-proclaimed "Orthodox"
authority that might appear
at any point in the future.
Jesus also left unasked the obvious
follow-up question,
"Who do you say you are?"
which is equal in every way to his,
"What do you think about me?" query.
We are the authority!
What we say about who Jesus is
and who we are
stands before us throughout our life
as the model guiding us
through all situations/circumstances
in a "This is who I am,
and this is what I do,
and what I leave undone" kind of way.
Who Jesus is and who we are
are not far apart.
If Jesus can do it, we can do it.
We are the authority, remember.
If we decide to cast away sin,
and replace it with seeing,
so that realization becomes
more important than repentance and redemption,
we have the prerogative to do that.
And if we are challenged by orthodoxy
at any point along the way,
we can declare that we "Take it on faith"
that self-determination is as much our right
as it is a right of the orthodox
to determine what is proper and what is heresy--
not only for themselves but also for everyone else.
And if they call it heresy,
what of it?
We are in charge of our life
from birth to death.
To hand that position over
to someone else is a dereliction of duty,
and a failure to comply with the
requirements of being a human being
at the deepest level.
We cannot be bullied into living
like someone--anyone--else
declares that we should live.
Be true to what is the inner you,
and live in sync with the guides within.
Who do you say that you are?
Live in light of that always,
in all matters great and small!
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Swan Lake 07-05-2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Trumpeter Swan, Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
Faith is always faith in someone else's faith.
Belief is always believing what someone else
tells us to believe.
Bringing to mind Lao Tzu's observation
in 500 +/- BCE,
"A path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."
It is someone else's path.
And we have to find our own way
to the Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail represents
our own life--
what is true life for us
is that which brings us to life,
that which vitalizes and enraptures us alone,
which we alone recognize as worthy
of our devotion,
loyalty
and allegiance
and must do because we alone
are gifted/graced/prepared to do it.
And no one else can tell us what that is.
When Jesus said, "You shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free,"
he was not talking about faith or belief.
The truth we know to be true
sets us free from the faith and beliefs
of all others,
and puts us on the path to our own bliss/rapture/amore,
which no one knows but us.
Our faith is in ourselves,
in what we know to be true for us
and in what we know ourselves
to be built for, capable of,
in a "Give me the ball!" kind of way.
And if this doesn't ring true for you,
"leave no stone unturned"
in your search for what does!
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Great Blue Heron at Swan Lake Oil Paint Rendered — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
I understand that there is
a direct relationship between
pancreatic cancer
and an elevated blood sugar count.
Googleit.
Reducing our sugar intake
reduces our chance of developing
pancreatic cancer.
You might think this information
would be more of a thing.
But what would that do to the economy?
Particularly the sugar industry,
and the soda industry,
and the wine industry,
and all of the industries
sugar supports and sustains.
What would our life be if we quit sugar?
Maybe pancreatic cancer isn't so bad
after all.
Oh, and then there is diabetes.
How much does sugar mean to you?
How addicted are you?
How addicted are your children?
Your grandchildren?
How addicted is the culture
to its sugar habit?
How addicted is the world?
What's important?
What matters most?
What do we serve with liege loyalty,
filial devotion,
unwavering allegiance,
all our life long?
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Smokies Sunset Panorama Oil Paint Rendered — Clingman’s Dome Parking Lot, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cherokee, North Carolina
Coming to terms with the day--
with our life--
means seeing the day (our life)
just as it is,
and allowing that to be that
without any more emotional response
than that associated
with letting a tree be the tree it is,
or letting a cloud be the cloud it is.
Seeing things as they are
and letting them be as they are
is enlightenment in its essential form.
Enlightenment is knowing what we know
and letting that be that--
and knowing what the implications are
and letting that be that.
The implications of anything
come down to the way we live
in light of the way things are.
It means what we do
in response to things being as they are.
It means doing what needs to be done
in response to the way things are.
When it is cold outside,
we put on a coat.
Seeing/knowing/doing/being
is living an enlightened life.
Enlightenment has nothing to do
with wanting/getting/having/possessing/owning/wanting...
How much of our life do we spend
living to get what we want
and avoid what we don't want?
How much of our life do we spend
doing what needs to be done
regardless of what we want?
Can we even separate what the situation
is calling for--
what the situation needs to be done--
from what we want from the situation--
from what we want to be done within the situation?
Can we let things be what they need to be
no matter what we want?
Is what we want what we need?
Do we impose what we want upon the situation,
or live in the service of what needs to happen
in spite of what we want?
There is no difference between living
an enlightened life
and growing up.
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Washed Ashore Oil Paint Rendered — Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina
I need the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence.
I am waiting on the next realization.
Enlightenment is realization.
We are enlightened one realization
at a time.
There is no absolute state of enlightenment.
There is no end to realization.
We all are waking up to what's what
and what needs to be done about it
all of the time.
Situations and circumstances
produce conditions that have never existed.
The old is always passing away.
The new is always coming into focus.
The here and now is being transformed
as we watch,
and lasts only as long as it takes
the next here and now to emerge from
the old one.
"It's a new world Golda" (Tevya) every second.
If you ever think you are enlightened,
have a conversation with your grandchildren.
They live in a world
you can't visit,
much less comprehend.
And, the Buddha would be even more lost
than we are!
Enlightenment is a frame of mind
that expands by the moment.
Always catching up,
always falling behind.
Always needing the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence.
Always waiting on the next realization.
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Watch Out Little Mouse! 06/17/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Barred Owl at the Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
All my heroes are one-dimensional
as far as I can tell.
The Buddha was "One thus come,"
with no airs about him.
He gave up the multi-dimensional life
for a begging bowl,
and was happy just being who he was.
Everybody who knows what's important
is that way,
and they don't stray far from the center
of what matters most.
And I aspire to be as they are
in my declining years.
Sitting alone,
looking out the window
suits me just fine--
because that leaves ample room
for reflection,
which is the pathway to new realizations.
There is always something more to see
for those who know how to look,
asking all of the questions that beg to be asked,
saying all of the things that cry out to be said,
digging away to get to the bottom of everything
which gets deeper and wider
the farther we go,
so that there is no end to the journey,
and laughter is an eternal companion of the way.
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Water Rock Knob Sunset 03 09/02/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Maggie Valley, North Carolina
What's it going to take
for us to make peace with our life?
To square up with how things are
and what that means for us here and now
in each situation as it arises?
Our parents are our parents,
our point of origin is our point of origin,
our choices have been our choices,
our options have been our options,
what has happened to us is what has happened to us,
what has failed to happen to us has failed to happen to us,
what we have done about it all
is what we have done about it all,
and here we are--now what?
All that has happened has prepared us
as well as we can expect to be prepared
for what will happen to us.
What do we need to be better prepared
to face what is likely
and what is possible?
What do we need to do to resource ourselves,
equip ourselves,
for dealing appropriately
with a future that is unfolding
situation-by-situation as we watch?
What would be helpful?
What can we do to avail ourselves
of the help we need?
What can we do to assist ourselves
in finding/having what we need
to do what needs to be done,
situation by situation?
What would it take for us to be able
to square ourselves up with all of this
in a "This is the way things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
even now, even so, even yet," kind of way?
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White Egret 02/08/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Martin Swamp, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
Everything spins according to
the outcome we want to achieve.
It's the Rorschach applied to dreams
and life.
What do we see when we look?
At whatever we look at?
What do we see when we look again?
What do we want to see?
What do we want it to be?
What we look at.
What do we want it to be?
We write the script.
We control the narrative.
We say what's what
and it becomes so,
like that,
just what we say it is.
But, what is it beyond our spin?
What is it to itself?
According to its own spin?
People of color
carry the weight of the white people's spin.
White people cannot see people of color
apart from white people's spin.
White supremacists,
racists,
will never see people of color
as anything other
than what the supremacists/racists
say they are.
Our biases show us how we see.
How do we get away from our biases
in order to see what we don't see
when we look with the spin of our biases
blinding our eyes?
I recommend highly distancing ourselves
from ourselves.
Meet everything we say with questions.
Don't take anything we say as the truth,
but as spin.
We spin everything.
We live in a spin show.
If we are going to see,
we have to see our looking for what it is,
our spinning for what it is.
Vet everything we say,
everything we believe,
everything we think...
Get to the bottom of what makes you think it is so!
Do not quit until you see your seeing for what it is--
A spin show.
Spinning everything
to support your biases,
to save yourself the trouble--
the pain--
of changing your mind
about all of the things you think are so
without thinking about what makes you think so.
Emptiness, you know.
As empty of thought and emotion
as the place between breaths.
Breathe in for a count of 5,
out for a count of 5,
pause between breaths for a count of 5.
Be empty like the pause between breaths.
Stillness.
Silence.
Listening.
Looking.
Asking the questions that beg to be asked
of everything you hear and see.
Saying the things that cry out to be said
of everything you hear and see and ask
of everything you hear and see.
This is a meditation on spin.
Getting to the bottom of you.
If it becomes too much,
return to your breathing.
In for 5,
out for 5,
pause for 5,
as many rounds as it takes
to become calm and balanced,
working on getting to the bottom of you
and the world as you spin it,
hoping to just see,
just hear,
just know,
in order to just respond to what is happening
with what needs to be done,
without getting in the way
with spins and scripts and narratives,
spun, written, spoken with biases in charge,
in control,
in command.
We are taking ourselves back
one round of 5 breaths at a time.
Letting our biases take a walk
away from our life
for what remains to be lived of it.
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Wind Waves in the Sand Detail Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
It is all coincidental.
Coincidence.
Synchronicity.
Accident.
And what we do with it.
Nothing is intentional.
Intended.
Planned.
Plotted.
Meant to be.
It just seems that way
because it is all so perfect
how could any of it be accidental?
We see what we look for.
We see what we project onto
what we look at.
Things appear to be what
they seem to be
to those who make it all up--
who tell themselves stories
to support their conclusions
about the world they live in.
What is the greater miracle?
That everything is planned out
and put in place by some wonderfully
magnificent cosmic mind--
or, that nothing is?
And that what we do with it,
about it,
makes all the difference?
We make up the story of our life
by the way we respond to
random sequences of events
and circumstances.
We are all free radicals
looking for patterns,
imposing patterns
on the stars
and tea leaves
to suit our fancy,
and make it all make sense.
Finding patterns that aren't there,
imposing order to satisfy our need for order,
are what we do best.
We bring order to the universe,
with our periodic charts
and our Dewey Decimal Systems.
But it is merely our way of arranging things
to soothe ourselves
about living in a world
where anything can happen
at any time,
when it is always our response
to what happens that matters most.
It is not what happens
but how we respond to it
that produces the life we live
and the story we tell thereby.
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Swallowtail Butterfly 08/07/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
The super weapons we all possess
are our perspective,
perceptions,
awareness,
clarity,
instincts,
intuition,
sense of timing,
awareness of the path,
accord with the flow of vitality/life,
our original nature
and innate virtues/specialties.
Trusting ourselves to these inner quailities
and sensitive to the coincidental alignment
of outer circumstances,
we are well-equipped to find our way
through the labyrinth of our life
in the service of that which needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
and allowing nature take its course.
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Sunwapta River 01 09/21/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
We live looking for diversion/distraction/entertainment--
anything to pass the time
with nothing worth our time to do.
The same old same old gets boring fast.
There is nothing in any of it
that interests us,
enthuses us,
captures our attention
and our presence
so that we lose track of time
and can't believe it is next month already,
shocked at how time flies
when you are intent on what you're doing.
How long has it been?
Intent on what we are doing?
When did we lose interest?
What would it take to ignite it again?
What piques our creativity,
imagination,
enthusiasm for life/living/being alive?
What keeps us in place,
not caring, not looking, not wondering?
What makes anything beyond
the same old same old
too much trouble?
Internet searches are no trouble at all.
Ferret out the similarities and differences
between Gnosticism and Alchemy,
and what the Holy Catholic Church
and heresy trials/persecution
had to do with the demise of both--
and see where that leads.
The idea here is to just start walking/looking.
The Alchemists had a saying:
"One book opens another."
One door does the same thing.
Open a door, anywhere, to see what is there,
and, more importantly, to see what other doors
that door opens.
Live in the service of your interest
in being alive,
and let it take you where it will.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 