December 28-B, 2022

Mistaya Canyon 01 09/26/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
An antiphon/antiphony is "a short chant
in Christian ritual"
based on the "call and response"
alternation" between singers.

It doesn't have to be set to music.
It doesn't have to be sung.

It is a fundamental structure,
not only in Christianity,
but in all religions.

It is grounded upon an unspoken reply,
or completion,
to a statement either sung or said.

The most popular one is "God loves you,"
as the call,
with the unsung/unsaid extension/reply/response being:
"If you do what I tell you to do,
and if you don't 
you will go straight to hell."

God doesn't love us
if we don't believe God loves us
and don't do what we are supposed to do
as the spokespersons for God define that.

This is the God Scam
that has been running
from the beginning of human existence,
and maybe before,
since we can't be sure 
of what goes on 
within any other species.

"God is real 
and will do what we want God to do
if we will do something nice for God.
And if we don't,
there is hell to pay."

That is the fundamental religious
approach to life and living.

It is based on people getting 
other people to do what they want
by telling them what God wants,
which is always beneficial 
to the people doing the talking,
or behind the people doing the talking.

Hold this thought
while I explore with you
the alternative.

The alternative is drugs/sex/alcohol.

Because we do not know
what to do with our time,
and left on our own
without some structure
telling us what to do,
we quickly go over into 
stress reduction behaviors
which comes down to drugs/sex/alcohol.

The stress we are trying to reduce
is brought on by having years
of unstructured time on our hands.

We can get a job,
but then what?
How will we entertain ourselves?
We still have time to kill,
yes, kill,
between shifts.

Enter sex/drugs/alcohol.
The God Scam was invented
to give us something to do
between shifts.

Pray/Bible study/evangelism.

Because we are lazy
and lacking in self-direction/
determination/development/etc.

Somebody has to tell us what to do
or it's sex/drugs/alcohol,
because there is nothing else
that we want to do
with time on our hands.

And that is why things are as they are 
here and now.

The church orders our life
because somebody has to
because we can't be counted on
to order it for ourselves.

Six million years or so 
of human existence declare emphatically
that this is the way it is.

Changing it requires us to 
embrace in good faith
the three guardians and guides:
Emptiness, stillness, silence,
with our original nature
and innate virtues (Te),
and allowing that to lead us
along the way (Tao).

What's it going to be?
Where we go from here
is solely up to us.

–0–

December 28-A, 2022

Knife Edge 10/26/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Katahdin Range, Sandy Stream Pond, Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine
If it is not helping you,
be done with it.

If it is not helping you,
it belongs to the category of
noise/complexity/drama.

If it is not helping you,
it is hurting you.

Take an inventory.
Divide your life into
the things that are helping you
and the things that are not helping you.

All the external things that promise
to be of such great help to you--
how many of them are of any help to you at all?

Practically all of the truly helpful things
are internal.

Courage.
Devotion.
Loyalty.
Creativity.
Ingenuity...

All of the things that help you 
rise to the occasion
and do what needs to be done
are there within you.

In a situation in which you need something,
it arises of its own accord,
and you have exactly the word,
the insight,
the vision--
you know exactly what to do,
when, where and how to do it,
spontaneously arising at the moment it is needed.

Nurture that.
Nourish that.
By spending time with that.
In emptiness,
stillness
and silence.

Spend time with what is helpful.
Not with what is not.

–0–

December 27-B, 2022

Into the Shute 02 09/24/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — New River Gorge National Park, Lansing, West Virginia
By 600-or-so BCE, the Old Taoists
had it figured out.

When Yoga and Buddhism came to China,
between 200 BCE and 250 CE,
Taoism folded in the best of both,
and settled into "practice, practice, practice,"
while the rest of the world
stumbled around in the Waste Land 
of 10,000 mutually wasteful opinions--
with things being pretty much today
where they were then,
in terms of having things figured out
and put in place,
with the Waste Land
and wasteful opinions
being everywhere,
and those who know not saying
(Because what is known 
cannot be said),
and those who don't know
talking non-stop all of the time.

The Taoist way is to wait it out,
knowing, as it does,
that nothing can happen before its time,
and that those who know
are jolly well capable of knowing each other,
and winking across the room
with a smile,
as a way of mutual encouragement
and recognition of the Way
that remains the Way
through all of the ages and epochs 
and states of being
there may be.

–0–

December 27-A, 2022

Graham Cabin 09/25/2017 Oil Paint Rendered — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
It doesn't matter what you want.
It isn't about getting what you want
and having your way.
It is about growing up
and doing what needs to be done
whether you want to or not.

It is about doing what you know
you must do.
It is about making every sacrifice
to do what you know has to be done
because it is an inner drive
to go and do that will not go away.

"I have no choice in the matter, Gibbs.
It's the pirate's life for me.
Savvy?" (Captain Jack Sparrow).

What do you have "no choice in the matter"
about?

Sit with the question
if you cannot answer it instantly.
See if you can remember the time
you knew the answer
before the adults in your life
robbed you of your life
with ridicule and laughter.

Get your life back.

–0–

Winter Months, 2022-2023

Goodale 11/11/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Adams Mill Pond, Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Ray Grigg says that real human beings
are Taoist sages,
"Living peacefully and unnoticed among others. 
(They are people) 
who belong everywhere and nowhere, 
(People who seem) deeply ordinary 
and yet subtly different, 
(inner outcasts following) 
some unknowable wisdom of great grace."

They know what they know
without knowing how they know,
and not knowing,
or even wondering,
about it.

Their knowing "is just there,"
like knowing when your hair is combed/brushed,
and you have had enough to drink or eat.

They know what is happening
and what needs to be done about it/
in response to it,
and of that,
what is theirs to do.

And they do it when, where and how
it needs to be done,
which is what, when, where and how
they need to do it.
Like combing/brushing their hair,
and eating and drinking.

Every situation asks something
of each of us,
and very rarely the same thing of all of us.
When we know what that is and do it,
we are being Taoist sages,
whether we know it or not.

We make the world a better place
by doing what is ours to do,
what needs to be done,
what needs us to do it,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
and letting that be that
as we go on to the next situation as it arises
and do there what needs to be done,
and so on,
all our life long.

This is so simple
children can do it,
and are doing it--
Taoist sages,
every one of them!

–0–

December 26-C, 2022

Horseshoe Falls 07/23/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Musgrove Mill State Historic Site, Clinton, South Carolina
Ray Grigg said,
"Our everyday life 
should have the same single-mindedness 
as sitting (in meditation):
To cook or fix some food, 
is not preparation; 
it is practice.... 

Whatever we do, 
it should be an expression 
of the same deep activity. 

We should appreciate what we are doing. 
There is no preparation for something else."

We are not doing "this"
in order to make "that" happen!
We are doing "this"
so "this" will happen.

There is never anything more to it
than seeing to "this" happening
when, where and how
it needs to happen.

One thing at a time
in each situation as it arises.

Doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right place
in the right way.

And typing this
while drinking coffee
and listening to the fire
in the fire place 
sizzle and pop
is one thing.

And getting up to get more coffee
is an extension 
of this one thing.

When the phone rings
and I answer it,
that is another thing.

Our days consist of things happening
causing other things to need to happen,
and our tending all of them
in the way they need to be attended
and assisted
all the way to tomorrow.

This is not beyond us
and it only asks for our attention
to needs and situations
arising throughout each day,
one day at a time.

Doing what we can
as only we can do it.

That is all there is to it.

Wanting to has nothing to do with any of it.

We do what is ours to do
as only we can do it.
Day after day.

–0–

December 26-B, 2022

Schweinitz’s Sunflowers 09/13/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Huntersville, North Carolina
Suffering is a perspective, 
a way of interpreting things not going our way. 

Flip the perspective 
and you have maturation, 
wisdom, 
knowing, 
seeing, 
understanding—
enlightenment.

Which doesn’t care what its chances are, 
and is here to do 
what needs to be done, 
when, 
where 
and how
it needs to be done, 
no matter what, 
anyway, 
nevertheless, 
even so. 

Jesus in Gethsemane,
saying okay to death, 
rising from the dead, 
laughing on his way to Galilee. 

Doing what is called for 
all the way to the next thing, 
and the thing after that… 

All the way.

That is the way!

We think it is about having our way,
getting what we want.

That is NOT the way!

The way that is the Way
is seeing what needs to be done
and doing that
when, where and how it needs to be done,
and then doing the next thing after that, 
and so on.

All the way.

That is the Way!

–0–

December 26-A, 2022

Get Off The Tracks!!! 07-24-2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Union County, South Carolina
The missing ingredient in the lives
of present day citizens of the United States
is the study of the arts! 
Music, Poetry, Dance, Song, Pottery, Sculpture,
Drawing, Painting...

Wordless, intuitive, instinctive, knowing/doing 
the right thing 
at the right time 
in the right place 
in the right way!

Learning to listen
to the voice of silence,
guiding,
leading,
directing,
suggesting...

How do the moved
live so as to place themselves
in the service of the mover?

Knowing that
is the place of the arts
in our life.

We are all artists
of one stripe or another.

We knew that when we were 
two years old.
Then, somebody told us we weren't.

Everyone has a camera phone.
Begin to photograph the world!
Bring your inner artist to life!
While the light lasts!

–0–

December 25-B, 2022

Morant’s Curve Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta 
We generate circumstances.
Circumstances generate circumstances
through us.
We collaborate--
willfully, accidentally, unintentionally,
helplessly--
with our circumstances
to produce circumstances
which result in how things are
at any given point in time and space.

We are the victims of the circumstances
we generate, create, produce.

There is no one to blame here but us,
and those like us,
through the ages.

The Old Taoists recognized all of this,
and formulated two principles at work
making things as they are.

"The Great Force Of Circumstances--
The Tao"
"The Virtue Power Of Individual Character--
The Te" (Ray Grigg).

The Tao Te Ching,
the Way of Tao and Te,
the Way of Circumstances and Character/Virtue.

How things are 
and who we are
come together 
in each situation as it arises
to interact
and produce/create/generate
harmony or disharmony,
or things as they might be.

In this, we exercise influence,
not control.
We live best when we live 
in harmony with the flow of life--
of circumstances--
in the moment of living.

To do this,
we have to be sensitive/alert to/aware of
the way of things,
of what's what and what is being called for,
of what is happening and what needs to happen,
in each situation as it arises
and do the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
in the right way
and get out of the way
so that Yin and Yang
might engage one another,
balancing and harmonizing
the moment
and blessing all with grace and peace
here/now.

All of this is quite beyond our ability
to contrive/orchestrate/choreograph/stage/manage.

We can only collaborate/cooperate,
which we manage by
"sitting with blank mind--
the still place at the center of consciousness--
producing a synchronistic accord between 
Te and Tao,
and living harmoniously within the bounds 
of natural order by becoming one with it"
(Ray Grigg).

Emptiness/Stillness/Silence are the way to the Way,
and are the way of generating/serving
balance and harmony,
life, spirit and vitality,
via Tao and Te.

It is the Way.
Created/generated/produced moment-by-moment,
one situation at a time
in the dance with life and being
over time.

–0–

December 25-A, 2022

Cloud Bank at Sunset 10/31/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
There is a place for pushing.
Like when the house is on fire
and the door is stuck.

But.

Pushing as a way of life,
as the first reaction,
as the go-to option,
as the only thing we know to do,
is the cause of things being as they are
everywhere we look.

Pushing our way on everyone
has become the way
too much of time.

Nothing is wrong with sitting for a while
reflecting,
waiting to see what might occur to us
in the meantime.

Like, maybe, a shift in perspective.

Perspective shifts save the world.

Perspective shifts are the solution
to all of our problems today.

They are certainly worth
waiting for.

–0–

December 24-B, 2022

Ferry, from Springer’s Point 10/28/2011, Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
The Old Taoists asked,
"What do we get from enlightenment?"
The Old Buddhists replied,
"Escape from this world of 
suffering and sorrow!"
The Old Taoists responded,
"Om mani padme hummmm!"
And walked away laughing.

"Om mani padme hum"
translates as
"The jewel is in the lotus,"
which is a call
with the unstated but implied 
response being,
"The lotus is in the slime
at the bottom of the pond.

There is no escaping the world just as it is.

The Taoists know that in a visceral way,
the Buddhists recognize it in an intellectual way.
Buddhists can talk about knowing.
Taoists know without talking about it
in a "Those who know
know they cannot say what they know"
kind of way.

Conversations among Taoists
amount to a lot of silence
with occasional outbursts of laughter.

Conversations about theology
draw the most laughter.
Then come conversations about morality
and ethics.

It is like this:
The Dali Lama talks about compassion
and his body guards carry automatic weapons.
What is said is negated,
or heavily restricted,
by what he is prepared to do.

All religion is burdened with this same
canceling out of talk with actions.

Churches talk about "Alms for the poor!"
and spend more money on organ repair
and parking lot expansion
than on help for the poor.

Contradiction is inherent in language.
Words and action cancel each other out.
So Taoists do and don't say.
And what they do is a natural,
un-thought, un-planned, un-contrived,
response to the unfolding situation 
in the moment,
in an "eat when hungry, rest when tired"
kind of way.

Taoism cannot be taught,
it can only be "caught,"
and lived out moment-to-moment.

The best book I know on the subject
of "No books, just seeing, just knowing,"
is Ray Grigg's "The Tao of Zen."
I understand he is still laughing
about having written it.
I laugh every time I read it,
because it can't be and is.

–0–

December 24-A, 2022

Cypress Slough 02/07/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Big Thicket National Preserve, Kountze, Texas
Everything in this image is doing its thing,
living from its heart,
being true to itself
within the context and circumstances
of its life.

The circumstances call everything forth,
set the terms and conditions
under which everything lives,
and nobody complains,
moans,
whines,
contemplates suicide...

Everything jumps right in,
doing its own thing,
living from its heart,
without expectations,
fear,
desire,
opinions,
conditions...

Nature is just that way.
The "suchness" of nature
is just this way.

Nature is always as "one thus come."

There is nothing to be negotiated.
Nothing to be "bought" or "sold."

Every day in the natural world
is just what it is,
and everything in the natural world
jumps right in,
doing its own thing,
living from its heart,
doing its best all the time.

As close as we come to this
is a jam session of jazz or bluegrass
musicians
giving what they have to offer
for the wonder of what they can 
create
with everyone doing their own thing,
living from their heart,
doing their best all the time.

I wonder what would happen
if we tried living 
as though it were a jam session...

–0–