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?
Adam’s Mill Pond BW — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolinai
The plan is to be who we are, doing what is ours to do, in response to the situation and what is happening here, now, and what is called for in light of everything that is impinging upon the moment. We can rise to every/any occasion with what we have to offer from the gifts we are born with: Our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent intuition, our intrinsic imagination, etc., and allow one thing to lead to another just by doing what is called for here, now, where it is called for, how it is called for in one situation after another all our life long.
Wanting and caring shape themselves around what is needed/necessary in light of the true good of all concerned. We don’t think about it so much as find ourselves doing what is called for, carried along by “circumstances begetting circumstances” from one situation to another, trusting the Knower within to be our companion and guide along the way that is the way, day by day.
The Garden of Eden did not exist. Adam and Eve are not real people. The story is about the danger of wanting the wrong things, of caring about things that do not matter. It is a great story. And terrible theology. All theology is terrible. Theology is a collection of opinions about hearsay. There is factual evidence supporting evolution–“we have found the bones.” But theology requires us to take its pronouncements “on faith.” Why not take something else on faith? Like, for instance, we are born with all we need to find what we need to live a life of integrity, generosity, meaning, purpose, etc.? Why don’t we take that on faith? Many of us do, spontaneously, naturally. Good for us!
Carl Jung, on his own, recognized that he had two personalities, his ego, wanting, liking, desiring, etc., and The Knower within who knew the Way of the Tao, we might say, though Jung never, to my knowledge, used that term, but it would be natural to do so because the Tao, call it what you will, is the source of our knowing what is right in any situation, what is called for, what is required, needed and necessary that is beyond what we want or what we are told we should do. The knower within knows what is called for, what is the right thing to do, and the right time to do it, and the right place to do it, and the right way to do it, and our ego is right to tag along, doing what needs to be done, when where and how it needs to be done.
Those of you who have been with me a while know my story about knowing. When I was a junior in high school I knew I needed a typewriter. I bought a used Remington typewriter when I was a freshman in college. When I was a sophomore in college, I lived at home, and was walking through the living room with the old black and white TV on with a made for TV movie with Robert Wagner playing a private detective. The scene was a swimming pool with a pool table and a 35 mm camera on the table. I saw the camera and fell in love with it instantly. I felt the attraction in a “have to have that” kind of way physically, in the core of my body. And writing and photography have been the core of my life from that era until now. That Which Knows dwells within.
More than one person have told me as they were getting a divorce, “I knew it wasn’t going to work when I married him/her.” We know. And we know that we know, but we do not always listen. Life is learning to listen. And to do what is called for in each situation as it arises, when, where and how it needs to be done.
We can seek out the Knower within and live as their partner in life, and do just fine. Self-induced trance states are perfect for communing with the Knower within. Prayer is a good way of observing what we have to say to the Knower within, and a good way of listening to the Knower within. Self-induced trance states can be writing as I am doing now. I’m taking dictation right now. I’m not making any of this up. I’m merely writing it down. The Knower within is doing the dictating. Painting, playing the piano, long-distance running, or just running, anything where it is just you and the thing you are doing, puts you in a trance-like state of receptivity where you are not directing the action only being aware of it. All indigenous peoples have ways of inducing trance states and communing with the Knower within. It is a Thing worldwide throughout time. Without theology, though a ton of theology is based on the experience with the knower within.
The psychological mechanism of Projection is all we need to turn our experience with the Knower within into a religion based on God this and God that. We are making it all up and transferring it, projecting it, onto “God.” Whatever. We are at the bottom quite capable of living a life without theology finding our way along the way of Tao to doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, as we have done as a species throughout time from the earliest moments of the species to here, now. By knowing what we know and doing what is called for here, now. No?
We cannot help how we see things, the way we think about things. We can change our mind about how we see and think about how things are, but not by force of will–only by growing up, some more, again.
It is almost as though we can’t be held accountable for the way we see things, the way we think about things. We can’t help it, It is “just the way we are,” and we don’t do anything trying to be that way–we “just are that way.” And it changes as we grow up. And it never changes if we do not grow up.
Growing up seems to be a magical force all its own, having to do with the interchange with the events and experiences of our life, but some people have the same experiences without being changed for the better, and are still doing, being, thinking the way they did when they were 13 all their life long.
And everything hinges on changing the way we see and think on our way along the way. There is no help for those who do not do that.
The two orbs, spheres, balls represent all that is. They are symbols/metaphors for the mystery of being and non-being. They are different sizes to represent the duality that is oneness but not sameness. All of which is of no significance (importance) to anyone but me. These two orbs, spheres, balls represent to me all that is, enabling me to have an actual, physical, visible object (The two are one remember) to ground and center me in my relationship/association with reality and my place within reality. They remind me of how things are and also are, orient me in time and space/place, and assist me in taking all of it with no more seriousness than it deserves–enabling me to smile and get back in the business of the Sisyphean task of rolling the stone up hill and following it downhill throughout each day.
The two orbs, spheres, balls are the stone I/we all roll up and down the hill of life and being throughout our life. They are the mystery of existence and non-existence, about which we can say nothing more than we can say about Tao or Psyche. And, in reminding us of that, enable us to take up our task of doing what is called for, asked of us, in each situation as it arises and letting that be that, as Lao Tzu advised all those years ago, going back to the beginning of our awareness/realization/recognition/enlightenment regarding how things are and what we can do about it–which is all we need to do what needs to be done here, now, and enabling our “peaceful abiding,” throughout the time left for living.
Early Risers — Jennette’s Pier, Nags Head, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Take away the psychological mechanism of projection (Which is our ability to imagine/make-up stories about what we experience) and nothing makes sense. We make up the sense we make of things by telling ourselves stories about them. We imagine the entire apparatus into existence. We look at this image and see it because of the stories we tell ourselves about it. A baby fresh from the womb wouldn’t be able to make sense of it at all. We have to learn how to make things up correctly in order to see the things everybody else sees in roughly the same ways they see them. We learn to agree about what things are and what they mean in order to make our way through our life. Behind/beyond the sense we make of things lies the mystery at the heart of life and being, waiting for us to perceive enough of it to make up stories about it. And all of it that lies outside of the range of our senses of perception are forever unknown and unknowable. Yet, we swagger around like we know everything there is to know. Ho, ho.
Cypress Geese — Private Pond, Down East, North Carolina I got up early enough to drive an hour and a half to be there for sunrise. Watch me do that again today, ha!
“All we ever wanted was smooth and easy,” said Ogi Overman, explaining the foundation of alcoholism. If that is the cause, the cure is simple as doing what is called for when, where and how it is called for with no fanfare, bucking, snorting moaning, complaining, whining, shouting, stomping, sobbing… Just get up and change the baby’s diaper or take the dog outside, etc., and do it well, do it right.
That’s all it takes. No kidding. Life comes down to doing what needs to be done the way it needs to be done no matter what all our life long. If we can adjust ourselves to that, we have it made.
P.S. Adjusting ourselves to that is called “Growing Up.” Growing up is all it takes.
Why is that so hard?
If MAGA members would only grow up! Right?
How many MAGA members are also members of AA? Or need to be?
The logical extension of this trend is the realization that how we see things is how things are–or may as well be for all the difference it makes in the way the world works, no?
Hidden Falls –Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
What associations do you make with this image? What does it bring to mind? Follow the train of associations as one leads to another. See where it takes you, and where your refections go.
Do the same things with the list of words below, though not in one sitting. What do they stir to life within? What paths do they open up for you to explore? Where do they take you?
Morton’s Overlook — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
If we sense our way into the rhythm and flow of our life, and trust ourselves to it completely–apart from plans, schemes and dreams–we will be placing ourselves at the sweet spot of our unfolding, not knowing or caring where it is going.
We aren’t trying to make anything happen. We don’t have any idea about what needs to happen. We are simply focused upon remaining aligned with, upon living in accord with, the rhythm and flow of our life–in a “What’s happening?And what’s called for here, now?” Kind of way.
This is to be living in sync with the Tao, attuned to Psyche. Which is the way the natural world does it every day. At one with the rhythm and flow. For what? We do not know.
We do not have a life plan. We are not trying to get anywhere, to accomplish, achieve, acquire anything. We are just living at one with the rhythm and flow.
What do we have to have to be one with the rhythm and flow?
Sunset at Charleston Harbor — From Mt. Pleasant, Pit Street Bridge Public Area
We are here to be who we are and do what is ours to do. And we know what that is, but we can be sidetracked by things that are attractive to our eye and a torch to our desires, and led far from the path that is our path to take, and come to ourselves years later, lost in the wilderness with no idea of where to go from here to find our way to where we need to be, and would have been, if only we had consulted the emptiness, stillness and silence and done what we knew to do but ignored in our quest for happiness and high times NOW!
The story of the Garden of Eden is not about sin, it is about the danger of wanting the wrong things, of caring about things that are not important at all. We have to sit with the silence in order to discern what matters and what does not matter, and give ourselves to the service of the things that are true to ourselves and express who we are and do what is ours to do. We have to know and do what is “US” and avoid doing what is “NOT US.” And that is all there is to it. But how often is it done in every generation? And here we are, lost in the wilderness, not knowing where to turn.
The way is always the same. When we don’t know where to turn or what to do now/next, turn to the emptiness, stillness and silence and wait to see what stirs, arises, appears, occurs, happens there in the way of guidance and direction and something calling our name. And do what seems to be called for. And see where it goes.
Adams Mill Pond Autumn — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
There are stability, balance, harmony, rhythm and flow. Which implies that there are also instability, imbalance, disharmony, chaos and disorder. Our place as conscious human beings is to maintain order by being aware of the destabilizing forces at work in each situation as it arises and make routine and regular returns to emptiness, stillness and silence, where we take inventory and open ourselves to what’s what and what is called for here, now, so as to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done throughout each day.
With practice this becomes second-nature and is what I am sure Jesus was talking about when he said “Pray always,” in that prayer puts us in synch with the events and circumstances of our life and places us in the position to respond appropriately to every situation as it arises, and prayer and awareness and appropriate response are one thing, not three, and the three terms are interchangeable and synonymous. And they are essential for maintaining stability, etc. throughout our life. Which is what meditation does for those who meditate, putting us in accord with Psyche/Tao, moment to moment, day by day, so that we are able to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place throughout the days, weeks, months, years that make up our life. No?
Anything can serve as a symbol of the Psyche, just as anything can serve as a symbol of anything–because the meaning of anything is the meaning we subscribe to it. It is what we say it is. This is true of everything from the beginning of things. Nothing means anything of itself. Everything means what it means to whomever is ascribing meaning. We are Meaning-Makers. And we make it up right out of our own imagination. It has always been this way.
Knowing that this is so and that it has always been so, flips things beautifully, so that everything becomes a reflection of our self/Psyche, showing us who we are in the moment of our saying what something is. We speak ourselves into our own consciousness, into our own awareness. To say “We are Meaning-Makers,” enable us to see ourselves visualizing ourselves as visualizing everything into existence. Nothing exists until we say it into being. And what we say something is says as much about ourselves as it says about the thing we say what is.
This is “simultaneous arising” that the Buddhists like to talk about. We speak ourselves into existence as we speak whatever we are seeing/visualizing into existence. Everything is a mirror reflecting ourselves into being, into reality, exhibiting who we are to ourselves and all others who may be listening to us, though they will be expanding us to fit their understanding, interpretation, realization, projection of who we are, just as we are fitting our own understanding, interpretation, realization, projection of who we are. Making projection the foundation of reality. Everything we see is our projection of what we take it to be. We don’t see anything, only our projection of everything.
There is no “objective” reality. It is all “projective”–filtered through our associations and presumptions, assumptions, conjecture, surmises, etc. that happen to be the case with us in the moment we perceive whatever we are looking at in the moment we are looking.
So we have to take it all “with a grain of salt.” Which means we have no business taking anything more seriously than it deserves to be taken. And how will we ever know that? I take THAT to mean that we have no business taking anything seriously. Unless, of course it happens to be an elephant walking along the path toward us. In that case, it behooves us to “get off the path.”
There is no quit in a Dandelion. And no stopping them. They come up in the cracks of sidewalks and through the roadways of hot asphalt. Smiling and waving in the breeze. They have wanting and caring figured out. They know it is possible to want the wrong things for the wrong reasons in the wrong ways. And that it is possible to want the right things for the right reasons in the right ways. That comes down to Right Wanting and Wrong Wanting.
They understand the same thing about caring. It is possible to care about the wrong things in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons. And it is possible to care about the right things in the right ways for the right reasons. Right Caring and Wrong Caring make all the difference in our lives and in the world. Right wanting and Wrong Wanting make the world what it is and what it can yet be.
If we live in the service of the right kind of wanting and the right kind of caring, we will be aligned with the Tao of Life and Being, and we will spend our life doing the right things in the right ways, at the right time, in the right place, and that is all it takes to make the world a better place, so why waste another minute not doing it that way? Not even a Dandelion can do better than that!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 