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?
Price Lake Canoes — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The way of wild things is always what it needs to be, how, when and where it needs to be.
Wild things do not interfere with what needs to happen, with what is called for in each situation as it arises, by inserting their own agenda, plans, wishes and desires into the mix and insisting on their way NOW regardless of the impact and outcomes.
It took civilization to make that possible.
And, now that it is possible, it's anyone's guess about how long it will be before someone with the power at hand uses it to blow up the world just because they can. People are that way.
Mabry Mill, 10/30/2019 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Meadows of Dan, Virginia
Time moves on, what are we going to do? Whatever is called for in each situation as it arises without interfering with what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done.
This is called doing our part, and keeping up with the times that are at hand!
Black Australian Swan 07/05/2019 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
We need a consultation with ourselves on a regular basis in order to maintain our balance and harmony, our direction and flow, and our life line with our intuition, original nature, innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), and our inherent imagination.
How often do you do what you love to do? When is the last time you did it?
Regular consultations with ourselves keeps us on track. On the path. At one with the Tao. In service to what is called for in each situation as it arises.
Which is all Jesus ever did. You can look it up.
Jesus was one with himself, and that made him one with God. Same goes for us. When we are one with ourselves, we are one with Jesus and one with God.
We are Jesus and God!!! At least, you can't spit on the difference.
True to ourselves is true to Jesus, is true to God.
Jesus' prayer, "Thy will, not mine, be done," Was a prayer to his intuition. And to God. Our intuition is the voice of God within. To be one with God is to be one with our intuition.
Jesus was true to himself, true to God True to his intuition.
And all of that is right there for us to do as well. "There's nothing to it but to do it!" (Maya Angelo)
The Patriarch’s Last Fall — Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We walk through death and dying all the time. We should be accustomed to it by now. We should be paying homage to it every day. We should honor the sacred scenes being enacted all around us.
Life is sacred! Death is at the door! Do not miss the holy moments as they come upon us! Pause with the acknowledgment of gratitude and appreciation, of wonder and respect for what has come, has been and is going as we watch-- as we are going as we watch-- and be thankful for it all!
Tupper Lake Sunset 2015 — Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, New York
The natural world just happens according to the rhythms and circumstances of nature, with everything settling into its role commensurate with its needs and its possibilities.
The "civilized" world is prone to war, revenge, revolt, renunciation, repudiation, getting even, paying back, making sorry and being in control.
The foundation and thrust of Taoism/Zen (Zen is Taoism with appreciation for enlightenment) is the return to doing things naturally.
One Taoist spokesperson, Zhuangz, said, “To be free, individuals must discard rigid distinctions between good and bad, right and wrong, and follow a course of action not motivated by gain or striving. When one ceases to judge events as good or bad, man-made suffering disappears and natural suffering is embraced as part of life.”
Winter Panorama A-1 — 01/26/2025, Just Down The Road
I retired after forty years and six months in the ministry (And that was nearly fifteen years ago.) My thing was and is hermeneutics. I'm still going at it. You can't retire from your thing. You can't quit. No vacations. No escape. It's wonderful. We are here to do our thing. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm saying, "Find your thing and serve it with your life!"
The thing you can't help doing. The thing you can't stop doing. The thing you are about. You know, that thing.
My thing is hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is about knowing and saying what's what, and getting people together with the truth of their life. Even though nobody cares, onderstands, Or knows what you are talking about.
I'm talking about crucial matters, and they are looking for Billy Graham and Joel Osteen.
It doesn't slow me down.
Who we are and what we are (to be) about are the only things that matter. Being who we are doing what we are (to be) about, are the only things that matter. That is who I am and what I am (to be) about.
Hermeneutics.
Saying what's what and what we are (to be) about.
Generally, what we are about is diversion, distraction, denial, escape, addiction. That has to change. The way we change it is to quit wanting. Wanting has us where we are. Quitting wanting cold turkey is the solution to all of our problems today, everyday.
Live without wanting by flipping the switch, turning the light around-- and start living in service to what is called for in each situation as it arises, no matter what-- which means: Never Mind What You Want!
I've been saying this for a thousand years, it's time people started listening.
Lake Crandal Mirror 11/06/2018 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
What would it take for Donald Trump to be happy?
His chronic dissatisfaction and his propensity for finding scapegoats everywhere keeps everything up in the air with nowhere to land.
Everything is somebody's fault. And Trump is going to make them pay.
His fans adore him because The Trump Show takes their minds off their own malaise-- and their inescapable ultimate realization that their life is their own fault.
The same thing, of course, applies to Trump. He is the witless victim of his own life. And can't stand it. And the world pays for it. Just by being there.
Heron Overhead — 11/05/2017, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocrracoke Island, North Carolina
It would be a reasonably close approximation to say that Taoism was being developed by Shamans in and near China by around 1500 BCE, and that Lao Tzu was credited with writing the Tao Te Ching about 500 BCE, and that the Buddha was stirring around in India about that same time.
And that about 206-220 CE Buddhism was being introduced into China from India, and introduced as Ch'an (which became Zen) into Japan about 552 CE.
All of which is to say that we have been handling, refining, interpreting, reinterpreting, passing around religious ideas for over 3,000 years and we do it as though we know what we are talking about.
Here's the rub with Buddhism and Zen: Classic/Traditional Buddhism is strict, by the book (the Dharma) and insistent on doing it like it is supposed to be done-- which is like someone else (Buddhist teachers) says it should be done.
Zen is intuitive, not rational/logical, and is to be experienced, not explained.
Zen is what happened when Buddhism met Taoism. Taoism took what it liked from Buddhism, the experience of enlightenment, doing Zen like they intuit it ought to be done, and threw away Buddhism's scriptures, doctrines rituals, and practices and called itself "Zen Buddhism" in 625-705 CE.
If you don't like what you read here, I invite you to do your own research, making internet inquiries to your complete satisfaction.
Lake Francis Mirror 01 11/01/2018 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Authenticity is spontaneous, unintentional, automatic, from the heart, "as one thus come," like a baby pooping in the bath tub, or a cat playing with a ball.
Live not-thinking, just responding to the here, now, doing what is called for unconscious of anything other than doing what is called for.
Be what is needed in the moment, at one with the moment, moment after moment, unaware of anything beyond the moment.
Like stopping on red and going on green.
Live to not-know what you are doing, and to not-grade yourself on how well you are doing that.
Graveyard Beach 2018 — Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina
We ground ourselves, orient ourselves, recover our balance and harmony by dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence and waiting for clarity regarding what's what here, now, what is called for and how we need to respond to it out of our original nature, innate virtues (What we do best and enjoy doing most), inherent imagination and intrinsic intuition.
Then, it is only a matter of standing up, meeting what needs to be met, and doing what needs to be done.
At one with ourselves, we can do whatever the situation requires. Any time, anywhere.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 