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?
It is up to us to do what we can with what we have to work with. I say, “Take it to the silence, no, take it to the stillness beyond the silence. And wait for some compelling urgency to rise up as the mud settles and the water clears, and call you to enter the field of action with a mission in hand to do what needs to be done there, when, where and how it needs to be done, with the gifts of your original nature, inherent intuition, intrinsic virtues–the things you do best and enjoy doing most–and innate imagination, here, now, to atone for and redeem all that has gone before to the extent that is possible, and make things more like they ought to be than they are, in each situation as it arises, throughout the time left for living.”
If that seems too much for you, just maintain your relationship with what resides in the stillness beyond the silence, and you will be just fine through all of the circumstances that come your way, doing what can be done with what you have to work with, knowing that no one can do better than that. Not Jesus. Not Buddha. Not nobody. Not no how.
Ballantyne Ginkgo Park — Charlotte, North Carolina
The power of perspective cannot be overstated. How we see what we look at makes all the difference. And how we see when we look at our seeing–at what we see and how we evaluate it, so that we evaluate our evaluations–is the most important place to examine our perspective regarding how we are seeing what we look at.
No one sees independently of all we have seen up to now. What we see tends to depend on what we have seen, and is validated by how we have seen what we have seen. It is not often that what we see here, now invalidates or calls into question how we have seen what we have seen in the past. We tend to see today how we saw yesterday, so we are seeing the same things in the same ways all our life. This is like have, say, one day of experience repeated every day from that day forward. This is particularly so if where we are living does not change over time. We see everything as we have always seen it and do not grow one bit in our ability to evaluate our seeing over time. So that having fifty years of experience is not at all the same as having one year of experience repeated fifty times–which is the way it is in so many places around the world.
Where do we learn to question what we assume to be so? What we take for granted? What we believe to be the case? When do we ever see differently? How can we be sure that we are seeing at all? Or 1 tenth of what is available to be seen? Particularly if we label what we look at the same way over time we never develop our capacity to see the people and things that are with us. That being the case, there is no way that the world we live in could ever be much different-in-a-good-way than it is.
Glade Creek Mill — Babcock State Park, Clifftop, West Virginia
Wanting, desiring, fearing, buying, spending, amassing, consuming, having to have, acquiring, striving, pushing, wanting… When does it stop? When do we sit quietly, take stock, see what we are doing? Know what’s what and what’s happening and what is called for in each situation as it arises and do that when, where and how it needs to be done no matter what, using the gifts of our original nature, our inherent intuition, our inherent virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most) and our intrinsic imagination? Wanting, etc, takes up all our time, consumes our energy, commandeers our thoughts, robs us of our life and leaves us in the company of the wrong kind of emptiness with the likes of Adam and Eve. No?
Beech Tree Spring — New Garden Friends Woods, Greensboro, North Carolina
When I threw out theology all those years ago, I had to replace it with something that could serve as the core ground of existence, the “rock solid foundation” of who we are and what we are about, the Source of Life and Being. Initially, I referred to the bedrock of all that is “That Which Has Always Been Called God,” which I thought of as being “before and beyond the God of theology.” I have narrowed this over time and now think of the Source and Sustaining Force of Life and Being as the Psyche, or the Psychic Source of Life and Being.
“Psyche” and “Psychic” are terms that Carl Jung used exclusively to refer to “That which can be experienced but not understood, and that which can be understood but not explained” (R. D. Laing’s term), and which increasingly are terms used to refer to the unconscious, or that area of our experience which we are not conscious of directly but “see” evidence of in our dreams, premonitions, extrasensory perceptions, etc. The trend popularized by Alan Watts of thinking of consciousness as the root cause of physical existence at work throughout the universe, or cosmos, is a companion theory along with Psyche as alternative ways of comprehending the origin of life in ways that supplant the God of theology (Which was invented by the Church of Rome, now the Roman Catholic Church) during the 400 years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the bible to any additional scriptures in 392 CE).
However we choose to think about the origin of existence, simply sitting quietly, empty of thoughts, emotions, memories, etc., and opening ourselves to the experience of silence and what may be stirring to life itself in the stillness beyond the silence, the adventure of being alive takes on a powerful new meaning as we imagine the possibilities and the paths that open themselves to us free from the burdens and restraints of theology and all of the things we must not allow ourselves to think, or say, or ask and step into new opportunities for thinking and being.
I have posted a work in progress on my WordPress Blog, “Jim Dollar’s Published Works,” with the title, “Zen Thoughts.” An internet search should bring it up. It will sound a lot like you have heard from me already.
We are on our own when it comes to living a life worth the effort, and the older I get, the greater the effort on all levels. The compromises and trade-offs make walking to the mail box more of a chore than it once was, and just sitting in this scene and those like it becomes preferable to walking through them taking pictures.
Absorbing the wonders. Relishing the joys. Becoming one with the beauty here, now, and being in no hurry to move on, move on, make the moment more of a treasure than they ever have been. I sit enjoying the breeze beneath a Carolina blue sky, and see no reason to move on, move on.
I slow every day down to my speed in this way. Taking my time to see what I’m looking at, and hear what I’m listening to, and taste what I’m eating (The amazing apple cobbler I made yesterday with lactose-free ice cream qualified for the highlight reel) are the kind of things I’m talking about when I say we are on our own when it comes to living a life worth the effort.
Looking closer, feeling deeply, absorbing the value of each moment, not allowing life to slip through our hands without intense delight at the experience of being alive to this here, this now throughout the day every day. And there is always the wonder of the music I’m in the mood for coming through my ear buds thanks to YouTube at any point in the day.
The right kind of silence is the one thing that will make the most difference-for-the-good-as-we-determine-good-in-our-life-over-time.
Silence rights the boat that is our life. Guides the way. Grounds us in the way that is the way for us. Uncovers the truth of who we are and what we are about. Restores us our balance and harmony. Connects and re-connects us with what matters most here and now. Puts us in sync the Tao, in the flow of doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done.
A day without a minimum of twenty minutes of silence in our life is a day in which we failed to tune in, turn on, wake up, realize what is called for and serve our destiny as it needs to be served.
And no one ever tells us that. Just like no one ever instructs us in how to facilitate the right kind of silence. Which is the foundational reason the world is in the mess it is in--and which is the only way out of the mess "to the land of gentle breezes where peaceful waters flow" (Anne Murray).
The key word to the right kind of silence is disengagement. How disengaged can we be? How aware can we be of everything without being engaged by anything for twenty minutes once a day? How long can we live without being hooked by something? We live from one hook to another. As we learn to live disengaged for twenty minutes once a day, that ability begins to show itself throughout our life. And that makes all the difference.
The Star Spangled Banner — The perilous fight goes on and on it seems, no?
There seems to be confusion regarding what the flag stands for. The Bill of Rights spells it out, but the Constitution itself is out of vogue these days. What’s with that? Who spits on the Constitution and supplants it with whatever he’s in the mood for? How did that attitude get to be President of the United States? How can 77 million people vote for that? Embrace that? Shout YES to that? Who stops the President from tearing down the White House? Why isn’t he stopped anywhere ever? The system of checks and balances failed spectacularly. No? No is a word without referent these days. A meaningless word. A word not in the vocabulary of those who cannot take it for an answer and do what they feel like doing anyway, nevertheless, even so. They wouldn’t have ended slavery. They wouldn’t have opposed fascism. They wouldn’t have stood for anything the Bill of Rights would espouse. Who are these people with no love of/for Justice! Freedom! Equality! Truth!? Where did they come from? They are disgusting Boors who do not belong!
Ballantyne Ginkgo Biloba Park — Charlotte, North Carolina
How do we know what to do when? How can we be sure that the way we see things is the way things are? Why do we see things the way we see things? What guides our boat on its path through the sea? What makes us think that what we want is the best thing for us to want here, now? Where do our ideas about how things ought to be come from? Who would be most pleased with the way we do things? How often do we examine our choices and evaluate the way we are living our life? What evidence do we consider in determining that the way we do things is the way to do things? What leads us to believe we are right about the things we believe are right? When is the last time we changed our mind about anything? How often do we take questions like these into consideration?
Weddington 04 — Sunflower field near Weddington, North Carolina
Prayer is communion by way of our intentionally shared presence with the source of life and being. It does not consist of words so much as the experience of being with That Which Is More Than Words Can Say, which is also That Which has always been called God.
If you have been with me for a while, you know that I contend there are two forms of God, the God of theology and the God before and beyond theology, which has been experienced as God long before theology was invented by the Church of Rome, which is now the Roman Catholic Church, in the 400 years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the Canon, when the Church declared there would be no more scriptures allowed in the Bible, and also declared that it had the authority to do so because of its uninterrupted line of apostolic succession with those who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew at least one disciple who knew Jesus, or so they said. That is how the Bible came to be. Leading me to conclude that theology is a collection of opinions about hearsay. And, of course, there is no one to dispute this with facts because the Church, then and now, is grounded on Faith not Facts, with Faith being believing that what someone has said is so.
However That Which Has Always Been Called God is not taken on faith, but is experienced as That Which Has Always Been Called God through inward, spiritual, experiences of outward, physical, events and circumstances.
The God of Theology is believed to be so, while the God Before and Beyond Theology is known to be so on the basis of the conviction of one’s own experience, as can be attested to by all of the religions of the world throughout the existence of the world.
And prayer is a medium of establishing, confirming, substantiating, deepening and sustaining our on-going connection with That Which Has Always Been Called God. And we do that with prayer beyond words, grounded in and upon our intentional shared presence with More Than Words Can Say, which is also That Which Has Always Been Called God.
Exploring ways of experiencing the presence of That Which Has Always Been Called God is the foundation of Spiritual Development with experimental approaches to More Than Words Can Say, and I find that the simple act of dropping into emptiness, stillness and silence (One thing, not three) and waiting for something to emerge, arise, appear with a compelling urgency that sets it apart from ordinary ways of thinking or reflecting, and seeing where that encounter/experience leads is always available without need of external accessories or paraphernalia. We can drop into the silence anywhere, any time and commune with what communes with us for as often and as long as that proves to be helpful.
The flow between how things are and how things need to be is the sine non qua for life in the Cosmos. When the flow is in sync between Mover and Moved, all is in harmony, balanced and at peace. At the far extreme, there is discord and division, chaos and dismay upon "the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea." And yet, if we step back far enough, everything comes together as the stars in the heavens on a "stary stary night," beautifully "at one," though more apparent than real. This is the work of Yin/Yang--the underlying tension keeping all things together though apart like ice skaters on the ice, seemingly coordinated though each is doing their own thing.
This makes life and being optical illusions from beginning to end. Look and it is This. Look again and it is That. Is it This Way or That Way? It all depends on who is looking, when and where. The creative tension is at work in all things--breathing in and breathing out, movement never ceasing, all things in process, being and becoming and ceasing to be, while the only constant thing is the flow between things, making being in the flow the ideal place to be at all times, in all places, world without end. Yet, who can maintain a balance that fine? Only nature without trying without striving, just being the flow at work in all things at all times, humming along with the AUM of universal being and the harmony of the spheres, at the optimal distance from everything, wanting nothing more than being at one with all that is here, now. Here, Now. HERE, NOW... Always and forever. No? Yes!
Adams Mill Pond — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, BW
Peace, serenity, tranquility, silence, calmness, equanimity... offsetting the noise and dust of the world. That is the role I have claimed for myself from the beginning. Which I take to be the case with all peacemakers everywhere throughout time. It is who we are. How we are. Why we are. "Peaceful abiding, here, now." Is the theme we exist to serve, express, exhibit all along the way. I expect the same is so with you in the way of like attracting like, and alcoholics being able to pick each other out in a crowded room. It is good work that we are doing, and it will always need to be done, so take heart and know we are not as alone as it sometimes seems. Draw strength from the emptiness and stillness between breaths. And know that we are all there with you throughout the day, every day. We meet in the silence between breaths, drawing strength from each other's presence for the work that is a blessing and a grace upon all those who share the world with us, as long as life shall last.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 