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?
Mt. Rundle Sunrise — Vermillion Lakes, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
It is ridiculous, obscene, ludicrous, absurd, to think that any of us need to be saved from the fallout of the supposed sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
All that any of us need ever is to be who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are, doing what is ours to do, in each situation as it arises, all our life long–doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place–as the old Taoists said between 5,000 and 500 years before Jesus was born.
What’s keeping that from happening? What is keeping us from being who we are, doing what is ours to do? In each situation as it arises? All our life long?
Blue Ridge Lake — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
It is easy to think that the dead are better off but. It is ridiculous to suppose so because we can’t get to the facts without being dead. And if we think the point of living is to have it made with joy and gladness all around, that is also ridiculous because there is nothing about the assumption beyond wishful thinking. The only thing we know with a reasonable degree of certainty is that here we are. And what we are going to do about it is quite up to us, here, now. Here we are, now what? That is our call to make in each situation as it arises. How do we go about making it? What are we to do with the time left for living?
We all must answer for ourselves. I propose that we not rush to conclusions about anything, but that we take our time. That we stop, here, now, and wait for clarity regarding what’s what, here, now. What is happening? What is pressing us to make up our mind and be done with it just to escape the pressure of deciding what to do next and why that matters.
Putting aside all pressure to decide what to do here, now, and waiting for clarity in the matter means waiting to know what is called for here, now and giving ourselves to its service with the gifts we bring to the moment: Our original nature, our intuition and our imagination, our virtues–the things we do best and enjoy doing most, and our ability to empty ourselves of wants, desires, fear, anxiety, uncertainty, etc., and simply wait, watching, listening, looking for something to arise to call us to action upon the field of action in the service of our truest/best sense of what is called for and give ourselves to it wholeheartedly, doing what we take to be the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place and let that be that–in each situation as it arises throughout the time left for living.
If you can come up with a better idea about how to proceed here, now, by all means, have at it!
Beech Tree Fall — Guilford College Woods, Greensboro, North Carolina
Understanding “projection,” not as a psychological defense mechanism where by we imagine others to be as we are, and see in them characteristics that are actually true of us, but as a tendency we have to project our bias regarding an entire class of people as being true of those people. Racism is a white person’s projection of personal expectations and beliefs upon people of color.
We tend to see things the way we think things are (Or, we think things are the way we see things). And we cannot stand apart from our assumptions, presumptions, inferences, beliefs, convictions, prejudices, etc., in order to see our seeing and know that we are imposing our slanted view of the world upon the world. We are victims of our own false assumptions as much as the people we project our views upon are.
Scientists have long recognized the tendency of people conducting experiments with microscopes in laboratories to discover results they expect to find in the experiments they run. We do the same thing with our lives, seeing what we expect to find wherever we look and confirming thereby what we already assume to be so, everywhere we look.
We are trapped in our own views of the world and cannot get outside of ourselves to see. Liberals see the way liberals see. Conservatives see the way conservatives see. And we are the blind condemning the blind unable to look objectively at any aspect of reality because every “fact” we look at has to be interpreted subjectively!
So what are we to do? Do not rush to judgement as the first rule. Acknowledge our tendency to see as we always have seen and never see anything new or different about the people, and/or, the things we see–and catch ourselves in the act of “being ourselves again” whenever we say things we always say about other people and other classes of people.
We have to become unceasing observers of ourselves in action, keeping in mind Rumi’s observation, “If you are not here with us in good faith, you are doing terrible damage.”
All of us are waiting to see what the next few weeks bring. The war-racked economy impacts everyone worldwide. And Trump thought he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize. He will take publicity and recognition for anything, at any time, maintaining his status as a loose canon careening around on the deck of Planet Earth, firing away anytime he feels like it. The international economy is a long time away from settling down. As goes the economy, so goes our lives. Prices, salaries, livelihoods, and a future we can count on, all up in the air.
So, where do you go to calm yourself and begin to restore your balance and harmony? I recommend Emptiness, Stillness, Silence (One thing, not three). But, of course I would! The biggie is emptying ourselves of our anxiety, insecurity, uncertainty, and fear of the worst. Take your favorite rock with you to the place you sit in the silence. Consider the rock. The rock has no fear. No concern. No worries. Become the rock. Be the rock. If you cannot carry the rock with you through the day, carry the memory of the rock with you, and allow it to connect you to the Emptiness, Stillness and Silence. If nothing else, it will break your habit of constant anguish and agony regarding our prospects. The rock has no prospects. Become the rock. Be the Rock. And smile.
Sitting quietly, waiting for what is called for by the situation at hand to urge us into action in doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, then settling back into the next thing that is called for, etc., is a routine that has little time for anxiety, fear, worry, with no room in it for anything other than seeing, hearing, knowing, doing and being ready to see, hear, know, do again, situation by situation, remembering that maintaining our balance and harmony is one thing that needs to be done all along the way.
Psyche is known best via intuition and dreams (Both nighttime dreams and day dreams). Psyche makes herself known to us in these ways, and becomes known herself. What has always been referred to as “the presence of God” is exactly the same thing as “the presence of Psyche.” I prefer “Psyche” to “God” because there is no theology to skew the experience of Psyche, or the expectations that could be built up around Psyche.
Psyche is ALL about the experience of Psyche, the knowledge of Psyche, NOT “faith in Psyche,” or “belief in Psyche,” or “theology about Psyche.” Psyche is a living entity that is available to us as a “Thou” in a much more personal way that “God” could ever be shrouded in Theology as “God” always must be.
Psyche is ALL experience. We encounter her at every turn. The flow of life and being was called “Tao” between 500 and 5,000 years before Jesus was born. Experienced as the movement of life, the way things move, happen, occur, and. how the way we live, our life itself, can be experienced as having a life of its own. And if we play with this experience with our imagination, our life itself can take on a sacred, holy, Divine, aspect that would not be too far from what Jesus was talking about with his “The Father and I are one.” And, “When you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” And his statement, “When you have done it or failed to do it to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it, or failed to do it, unto me,” identifying himself with all of us and identifying himself also with God. Easily done from the stand point of our own experience/imagination of ourselves experiencing our life as having a life of its own which we do not direct consciously but experience unconsciously as the work of Psyche all the way.
The world is filled with places that have no more promise or hope than this scene at the end of a dirt road in North Carolina. But. For all its forlornness and its forever going no-where-ness, I find it to be beautiful, serene, centering, grounding, and an invitation to sit and stay for a while.
There is a sense of divine/sacred okayness about it that comforts me and brings up a smile, making this photograph my grandest piece of art I have ever produced, awaiting a wall in some museum for the lost and broken, going nowhere, good for nothing–except for butts that sit and eyes that see, then there be blessings and grace galore and gladness that life has lasted long enough to bring us here, now and bless us with the truth that comes with seeing what we look at and knowing what we know. There is promise and hope aplenty for those that can do that wherever they are.
Mississippi River Sunset 2019 — Vicksburg, Mississippi
Wanting is the biggest block to being there is. Being simply drops into emptiness, stillness and silence and waits for clarity about what’s what and what is called for and what needs to be done about it, when, where and how. Does it, drops into emptiness, stillness and silence and waits for clarity… In each situation as it arises. And that’s that. What does wanting know? When is wanting satisfied? Wanting is a distraction. A sidetrack. A diversion. Emptying ourselves of wanting is a regular routine before moving into stillness and silence.
Moose Pond — Adirondack Park, Bloomingdale, New York
Getting up and doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, in each situation as it arises is just what we do. If we go on vacation, we do what is called for, where, when and how it is called for even on vacation. There are no days off. We go to the Loo every time we need to go to the Loo, even on vacation. We do what is called for all of the time.
Once we settle in to it, it is just a matter of stepping into the moment, here, now, and doing what is called for, just like we breathe every moment all of the time. We don’t get tired of breathing and quit, so we keep doing the right thing at the right time, in the right place, in the right way. It is who we are. It is what we do. ALL THE TIME!
Big Thicket Swamp — Big Thicket National Preserve, Kountze. Texas
It requires emptiness, stillness and silence to find our way to our intuition. Emptiness is achieved by disengaging ourselves from everything we meet in the stillness and silence. When we sit quietly, we immediately begin to generate internal noise that we escape only by drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. All of the escapes, diversions, distractions that we generate for ourselves are attempts to get away from what we hear, remember, fear, dread, agonize over when we are quiet. Disengagement is essential. We get there by emptying ourselves of everything and refusing to go where usually wind up with nothing to take our mind off the ghosts that haunt us in the silence. We just shut the door. And turn our full attention to “the still small voice” of our intuition–“The Other within,” which we engage by seeking help in shutting out the internal noise by seeking, “What would you have me be aware of here, now?” And focusing in the silence for the awareness stirring on the edges of emptiness, intent on seeing where it takes us with guidance and direction to matters that need our attention and assistance with the gifts that are ours to serve and share in the field of action at the present moment in our life.
I fell in love with a camera when I saw a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera on a pool side table in a black-and-white made for TV movie as I walked through our living room on my way to the kitchen when I was a Junior in college. I felt the attraction throughout my body, and could not have dismissed, discounted, ignored the experience–my most memorial impact with intuitive knowing–although it took several years for me to explore its meaning and make photography the central aspect of my life throughout my life.
I think of intuition as an extension of Psyche, and of Psyche as “the other” in Carl Jung’s statement, “There is in each of us another, who we do not know.” Time spent coming to know, explore and serve “the other who lives within” is the sole purpose of being alive, and it is a travesty that we spend so much time with religion and trying to get to heaven when we die instead of doing what it takes to be alive in the time left for living in the life we could be living if we would only wake up and seek out The Other within. Why we are not told this early on and led in the way of inner knowing is the gravest failure and greatest injustice of humanity’s refusal to train its young in the ways of heart and soul. We could do better even yet.
For instance, we could intentionally teach our children about the importance of using self-induced trance states as a pathway to The Other’s world, so that playing a musical instrument, or drawing, painting (even painting houses), reading, writing, etc. put us in “the zone” of being available to The Other’s influence and leanings, so that our communion is established and the reality of The Other within leads to the central place of “The Muse” in our life throughout our life, and the transformation of life and the world as we experience both.
El Capitan Mirror in Merced River — Yosemite National Park, California
This gives me 13 eBooks on Amazon Kindle, and each one is going to be the last one from here on out. I will be interested to see what that number comes to. And the hoot is that I have never written any of them in terms of banging away, working hard at it. I just show up and start writing. Each book has written itself. So, I don’t charge much for them. They came to me for nothing, may as well go from me for nothing.
Writing these last three books on Zen Thoughts has helped me see, understand, know Zen better than I did when I started. Trying to say what we mean helps us to understand what we are attempting to say a lot clearer than when we started.
The main thing I came away with about Zen is the result of being who we are. The closer we live to express, exhibit, be who we are, moment to moment, in each situation as it arises, the more Zen like we are without having to jump through any hoops, or take up any special practices. We just live our life exactly as we would live them and let that be that. Lao Tzu couldn’t do it better. Neither could the Buddha.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 