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?
When "the world is too much with us late and soon"
(Wordsworth),
where do we go to recover,
regroup,
revitalize,
revamp,
renew?
Emptiness,
stillness
and silence
are always right there.
A return to silence
is always in order.
Giving ourselves a time-out
can be the best choice
available to us
in a lot of situations.
Sometimes, I think I create
intolerable messes
just so I will call time-out
and sit gathering myself
in the stillness.
I excel in taking care of myself
in that way.
And recommend it to everyone
whenever I get the chance.
The difference between good and bad religion
is the position each takes on the question,
"Whose side is God on?"
Bad religion declares,
"God is on our side
when we love and obey God."
Good religion declares,
"Whose side is a rainbow on?
God is a rainbow
to be relished and enjoyed
for the sake of the wonder of God alone!"
Getting and keeping God on our side
is the essence of bad religion,
and all the participants
in bad religion
compete with one another
for the prize of the glories
of eternal life
with different lists
of ways to please God
and make God happy.
Good religion thinks it is ridiculous
that a rainbow could be delighted
or seething with rage
and goes about its business
of being rainbow-like
in the lives of others
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it alone.
Bad religion and good religion
have as much to say/reveal about their adherents
as they do about God,
disclosing what they think matters most,
and what they will do to celebrate it
and live in its service.
Our religion is a mirror
reflecting our heart and our spirit
for all who have eyes to see.
Our circumstances call us forth
in response to what is being asked for there.
Our relationship to our circumstances
ranks in degree of importance
equal to our relationship with ourselves
and to our relationships with other people.
We would do well to do an internal evaluation
of our relationships with these three aspects
of our life
in a recurring and regular way.
What is the quality of those relationships?
How much effort do we extend
exerting and maintaining control over them?
What are we conscious of trying to achieve
in each of them?
What are we trying to achieve in our life?
How do we know how we are doing?
I do a balance and harmony check
several times a day,
and keep an eye on my emotional fluctuation
throughout the day,
examining the cause, the degree,
the nature and the history
of the emotion I'm experiencing,
and what that has to say about
my stake in the situation at hand--
and how that serves as a mirror
reflecting me to me and enabling me
to make adjustments and alterations
in my desires and expectations,
assumptions and needs,
and what changes that implies
for the way I live
in maintaining my balance and harmony
and my ability to respond appropriately
to my circumstances.
The things we discover about ourselves
by simply watching how we respond to
the day, each day, leads us along the way.
You can't be against abortion
without being for gun control.
If you are against gun control
you are for killing children
of all ages
(An 80 year-old man is somebody's child).
Being against gun control
is being for killing children,
or anybody else the gun owner
deems worthy and deserving of death.
A gun license and a concealed weapon permit
grant the owner the right
to kill whomever she/he thinks needs killing.
The people who elect people
who vote against gun control--
or against even having a gun control measure
come up for a vote--
are complicit in the murders
of children in classrooms
and people in churches, etc.,
all across the land,
and are accessories in the crimes
gun owners commit.
Voters against gun control
are guilty of providing owners/possessors
with the weapons they use
to carry out their missions
of murder and mayhem.
Every child's death by gun shot
is on the conscience of those
who vote to keep guns in the hands
of those do the shooting.
You can't be thinking you are doing
anyone a favor
by making it easy to put guns
in the hands of everyone who wants one.
Responsible gun ownership
begins with being for gun control,
including adequate background checks
and a long-enough time between gun purchase
and gun possession
for the back-ground check to be completed.
No military-style weapons sold or possessed/owned.
No high capacity magazines sold or possessed/owned.
No bump stocks sold or possessed/owned.
If you are against these things,
you are for anything a gun owner does
irresponsibly in the service
of killing whomever she/he pleases--
and guilty of being complicit
or not caring,
and of being an accessory to whatever
they do with the guns they possess/own.
Wake up to what you are doing
in allowing what is done to be done
and to continue being done.
And stop doing it!
Ocracoke Lighthouse Oil Paint Rendered — Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina
Thinking about getting/having/achieving/succeeding/etc.
misses the point.
The old Buddha
and the old Taoists
knew the point is seeing clearly
what's what
and what needs to be done about it
in each situation as it arises,
no matter what.
If we are going to collect something,
let it be situations
in which we have risen to the occasion,
been what the moment called for,
time after time,
knowing that is what is important--
not the recognition
and the awards,
not the "fortune and glory,"
or the accolades and the fame.
But the seeing and the doing,
the knowing and the getting it done.
How many moments are in a day?
See how many you can rise to
and be right about what needs to be done,
and do it!
Day after day!
Dories at Rockport Harbor 09/25/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Rockport, Maine
Our daily practice begins
with clearing a space
where we can relax
and be present
with what is present with us.
If we can sit still and quiet, fine.
If we cannot, fine.
We can still ourseves
and be quiet
in any environment.
All it takes is being aware
of the environment
and of our body.
And relaxing ourselves into
our environment
in a "Here we are,
what's it like to be here, now?"
kind of way.
Paying attention to here/now
in a relaxed-as-much-as-appropriate mien
is to be open here/now
to what is here/now,
and that is all that is needed
to be with whatever is with us
on all levels.
Watching our body/mind relax
into here/now,
seeing/hearing/receiving/accepting
places us in the position
of being able to respond fittingly
to anything that happens
in each situation as it arises
throughout the day,
every day.
Start there.
Do that.
Blowing Rock Side Street 05/20/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The four distractions are:
Drugs/Sex/Alcohol/Money.
The three disruptions are:
Noise/Complexity/Drama.
These combine to form
the seven enemies of The Way.
The Way is simply
seeing/hearing/knowing/doing
what needs to be done,
when/where/how
and being one with our original nature,
our innate virtues/specialties
and the flow of the energy of life
in each situation as it arises.
Our circumstances are the matrix
in which we come forth,
do our thing,
and step back
as additional circumstances are created,
in which we come forth,
do our thing,
and step back
as additional circumstances are created...
etc., throughout the time left for living.
Through this process,
we deepen/expand/clarify
our relationship with ourselves,
with our original nature
and our innate virtues/specialties,
becoming more like we are
than we were when we started,
and being sources of blessings and grace
within the here/now of each day.
So, our life is not about
getting/acquiring/amassing/having/
owning/succeeding/etc.
but about seeing/hearing/knowing/
doing/being/becoming...
Our life is our practice,
our practice is refining
our alignment with The Way.
Our circumstances are where we
be and become who we are.
We are all babies in some womb
being born again and again
in succeeding moments
over the full course of our life.
We are all rookies
learning the game
as we play it.
Batter Up!
Bow Lake, Num-Ti-Ja Lodge Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta
I never stayed in the Num-Ti-Ja Lodge, but.
I would like to have stayed there,
and in all of the lodges in the Canadian Rockies,
and to have discovered all of the tripod positions there,
and to have taken all the photographs that could be taken there,
through all of the seasons of all of the years they have been there.
And will be there.
My eternal quest is for what I cannot have.
Probably, I think, you know what I'm talking about.
We want what is just over the horizon,
out of sight.
Out of reach.
Beyond reason.
But, certainly desirable.
We all want what we can't have.
What we have no business having.
But, being a cowboy isn't on the list for me.
Being a cowboy is on my mind
because last night I dreamed
I was eating a biscuit of shredded wheat,
the large kind
that came in a box separated by small sheets of cardboard
to keep them from crumbling in shipment,
and the cardboard sheets weren't blank,
but had comic book type stories printed on them
for young boys to read while they ate their breakfast.
I don't know what the girls would read.
My world was sexist from the start.
And one of the most popular storylines
had to do with a cowboy,
we will call him Rex Rider
because that is probably close,
so I woke up thinking of shredded wheat biscuits
and cowboys.
And I would not want to eat a dry shredded wheat biscuit
or be a cowboy.
Then I come in here and open up my computer,
and see that legislators in Texas,
and probably those in Florida,
are voting down school vouchers because
preachers in those states
don't want the wrong kind of religion
taught to the children of their congregations.
And I will take that!
The only good religion is MY kind of religion,
and I don't want any of YOURS rubbing off
on MY children!
What a world.
But, I will take it because I don't want religion of any kind
being pushed onto children before the age of discernment,
which I think, these days, is about 85,
or, maybe, 1,000, because everybody dies before they get there.
The only kind of religion anybody every needs
is completely devoid of theology.
It is the kind of religion that sees the world
as being transparent to transcendence (Joe Campbell's phrase),
seeing the wonder of what is there all about us all of the time,
and being amazed by the radiance everywhere.
We can't teach or be taught that.
We either see it or we don't.
But, we can be taught to not see it.
And, that has us where we are today.
Not seeing.
Not hearing.
Not knowing...
And afraid of everything.
Baxter Creek Bridge 01 11/02/2008 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville, North Carolina
We know when the cobber is done
and when it is over-done
and when it is not done.
We know when we are on the beam
and when we are off it.
We know when our heart is in
what we are doing,
and when it is not.
We have all it takes to find the paths
with our name on them
and forsake all others.
What. Makes. That. So. Hard?
We have a better idea.
Adam and Eve had a better idea.
And here we are.
Refusing to put 2 and 2 together,
connect the dots,
see what we are looking at/
dealing with,
and do what needs to be done about it.
It isn't that we cannot do it.
It is that we don't want to do it.
And that's the kink in the hose.
Mossy Cascade Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Listening for what needs to be done
includes listening for what needs us to do,
and for what needs us to do it.
We have a life to bring forth!
We have an original nature
and innate virtues/specialties
we have to honor/express/exhibit/deepen/expand!
We are not here just while away the hours,
casting about for something to entertain us
and help us pass the time.
We are not here to pass the time!
We are here to do the work
of doing what needs to be done
with our skills/interests/knacks/abilities...!!!
If the time calls for taking a nap,
then take a nap--
like you mean it!
We have to tune into the times,
know what they are asking of us,
and comply with the best we can do!
We have to tune into ourselves
and know what is ours to do
and what is ours to not do,
and not waste our time
on pursuits that we
are not capable of managing.
There are no Renaissance women and men.
We all have our specialties
and our incompetencies.
We do best with things
that fall in the center
of the bell-shaped curve.
Even there, there is plenty
we qualify for.
Find that!
Do it!
When/where/how it needs to be done!
In each situation as it arises!
And eating pizza is always in the mix!
Curtis Island Headlight 09/19/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Camden, Maine
Each day means something different
to every one of us,
and something different
to each of us throughout it.
It is amazing how many different
levels of awareness are possible
to all of us every day.
And how few of those levels
we are attuned to.
Aware of.
Right seeing.
Takes it all in.
Right doing
responds to it all
in the right way.
It doesn't take much knowing
to know
that emptiness,
stillness
and silence
are the foundation
of right seeing
and right doing.
Turn off the noise,
the complexity,
the drama--
and turn on the seeing,
hearing,
knowing,
doing,
being
here/now.
Right here.
Right now.
Why not?
What do you think is better
than seeing,
hearing,
knowing,
doing,
being
right here,
right now?
Stonington Harbor 09/28/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine
There is nothing wrong with us
that having a trustworthy sounding board
wouldn't fix.
Clarity is everything.
The Buddha's Eight Fold Path
can be reduced to two:
Right Seeing and Right Doing.
Clarity enables both of them.
Of course,
the Buddha's word for clarity
is Enlightenment.
Enlightenment is clarity,
is realization,
understanding,
comprehension,
knowing...
The only thing wrong with us ever
is that we lack clarity.
Which makes a sounding board--
and emptiness,
stillness
and silence
essential to Right Seeing
and Right Doing.
The church,
any church,
every church,
all churches,
could throw out its theology
and take up the work
of becoming a place
where everyone is a sounding board
and everyone practices
emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
It is an idea whose time came
during the life of Jesus,
and we are still waiting
for the light to go on,
and people to wake up
to what has been with them
all along.
Could be any day now.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 