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?
Sunset Charleston Harbor 12/05/2017 — Pitt Street Bridge Public Area, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
The right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence is one thing, not three, and is the source of all that follows: Seeing/Hearing/Knowing/Doing/Being (One thing, not five!) in ways that serve/exhibit/express/reveal our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy/love doing most), our intrinsic intuition-- in response to what is called for in each situation as it arises, no matter what, all our life long.
Alan Watts is clear about this.
In his book, "What is Zen," he says that in serving our intrinsic intuition, we trust ourselves to respond in ways appropriate to the occasion no matter what the circumstances are.
Trusting ourselves to know what to do where/when/how is our grounding foundation throughout our life as we rise to meet the circumstances as they develop.
He advises, "Keep your center of gravity between your feet. Stay in the center and you will be ready to move in any direction."
And adds, "It requires a certain kind of poise: If you are here, now when things happen, you always remain balanced."
Knowing what is called for and responding intuitively out of our original nature and innate virtues is the prescribed way of handling all aspects of our life.
Nothing could be simpler or more necessary!
Of course, the catch is that we cannot have our way and get what we want and do what is called for in each situation as it arises.
Sunset Charleston Harbor 01 B 12/05/2017 — Pitt Street Bridge Public Area, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
Despite the disparity it is all one.
In spite of all the hatred, it is all one.
We are different only in our perceptions and beliefs.
On every other level or measure we are identical.
Take away our racial-ethnic designations, our sexual preferences and gender orientations and their externally imposed evaluations, and there are no differences.
Digestion works the same way in all of us. Inhalation, exhalation. Walking, running. Laughing, crying.
A Jew experiences hunger the same way a Palestinian experiences hunger. Responds to love and respect. Enjoys good company and relaxation.
A black baby and a white baby have to be taught prejudice and bigotry.
We are more alike than different across all lines.
Why don't we act like it? Why the socially, culturally, imposed discrimination? Why the caste systems--official and unofficial--worldwide? Why the barriers and the divides? Why don't we live together in ways we all honor and enjoy? Where do we start turning things around?
Sunset Charleston Harbor 12/05/2017 02B– Pitt Street Bridge Public Area, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
There is only doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, when, where and how it is called for, one situation after another all our life long-- whether we want to or not, whether we feel like it or not, whether we are in the mood for it or not, for no other reason than because it is called for and needs to be done.
This makes knowing what is called for the most important thing, with doing it where, when and how it needs to be done the second most important thing.
And that makes living in accord with aligned with, at one with our intrinsic intuition-- and living to serve it above all else-- the most important thing.
Pamlico Sound Sunset, 11/02/2010 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Brooks Vance told his wife Louise, at the point in their life when they were spending more time in the hospital than on the beach, or anywhere else they might want to be, "Don't add up your vulnerabilities, Louise. It would only depress you."
"Don't think about your troubles! Have another drink!"
Not thinking about our troubles is the ground of all religion, particularly the more right-wing, fundamentalist religions, the religions of escapism and denial, and what religions aren't?
I've been saying for years, now, "Don't think/care about your chances! Just do what is called for in each situation as it arises all your life long! AS though it matters! No matter what!"
It amounts to the same thing: "Don't dwell on your vulnerabilities, just do what you can, here, now. As though it matters!"
Living as though it matters is the essential ingredient of faith in all forms throughout time. We have to believe it matters how we live, what we do.
Keep telling ourselves it matters, and live as though it does, has gotten us out of the caves to here, now. It is the only thing that matters, believing it matters that/how we live and living as though it does.
So, take that as your mantra to get you through the night, through the low places, through the "Who cares? Why try? What difference does it make?" stages of our life from start to finish.
"Who cares, who cares?" "Why not try?" "What difference does it make if nothing makes any difference?"
"Believe that it matters that/how we live-- and live as though it does!"
Laughing all the way! Singing and dancing in the rain! Even if we are singing the blues!
So what if it seems that we are kidding ourselves? We have been doing that from the start! And it works! Keep it up! Keep it going! All the way!
At the tipping point, we can go anywhere, do anything, especially the things that are called for, the things that are asked of us, required of us, in all times and places along the way.
In moments of doubt, go with what has urgency, with what is calling us, with where our interest lies.
Interest never lies. Intuition never betrays us, but remains forever true and reliable throughout our days.
Cultivate your relationship with your intuition, and go where'er she leads. No matter what.
Silver Lake Sunset 10/02/2010 — Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
How is your balance and harmony (one thing, not two) these days?
What are the sources of instability?
What part does wanting play?
Pain's greatest contributor is wanting things to be different NOW!
Where do we go to restore equilibrium?
We have to have a place of retreat where we can regain our composure and recover our grounding center-focus-orientation.
Could be a long shower. Or a walk on the beach by the sea. Or a place to sit and listen to the sound of ocean waves, or your favorite music for finding peace...
Then dropping into emptiness/stillness/silence (one thing, not three) and waiting for the eventual arising of revival, restoration, reorientation, renewal...
And back into the fray again...
Staying there hinges on finding and maintaining the right ratio between caring and not-caring about how things are and are-not.
Adrift — Penobscot Bay, Stonington, Deer Isle, Maine
If we want to do it right we have to do it in ways that honor/express/exhibit/serve Truth/Justice/Equality/Freedom.
We have to do with balance and harmony.
We have to do it in ways that honor/express/exhibit/serve our original nature, our inherent virtues--the things we do best and love/enjoy doing most, our intrinsic intuition.
We have to do it with integrity and spontaneity.
We have to do it in ways that honor/express/exhibit/serve what is called for/what needs to be done in each situation as it arises, no matter what, one after another, all our life long.
We cannot have/serve ulterior motives. We cannot live with our best interest in mind. We cannot act with our gain/advantage/profit/good in mind. We cannot live with interest in or concern for what's in it for us, what it means for us, what we want for ourselves or those we love as the driving motive for our actions.
We have to be empty of all thoughts/motives/desire/fear/duty, still and silent, and open to the "direct arising" of what is called for/needs to happen in the moment it is called for/needs to happen, in service to our intrinsic intuition in each situation as it develops.
We step aside in doing what is called for, and let that be that, without looking for recognition or impact. Just doing what needs to be done here, now, and moving on to doing what needs to be done here, now...
Anybody can be Jesus. Anybody can be the Buddha. All it takes is getting out of the way.
Jesus and the Buddha got out of the way. And were one with what was called for, with what needed to happen, in each situation as it arose, without imposing themselves-- in the form of their gain, their profit, their benefit, etc. onto the situation.
They didn't do what they did for merit of any kind. They did what they did because it was called for. Because it needed to be done.
When we live like that-- with intentions that are pure and unstained by our desire, will, good, etc., we will be them and everything will shift to the good of the whole, and everything will be better because of the way we live in each situation as it arises.
Live to be you being the Buddha, live to be you being Jesus, as only you can be the Buddha, Jesus, in each situation as it arises, by getting out of the way.
And "like that," the world is a better place for everyone to be.
Delusion is deception cast by those beyond us to bend us to their will in having us purchase their shampoo or their electric pickup trucks by having us think we are somebody if we do.
Illusion is deception cast by our own internal exegesis system explaining what's what and why to our superstitious, insecure, immature way of thinking. So that crossing our fingers brings us good luck and wearing garlic pods keeps werewolves away.
We are at the mercy of eveyone including ourselves, and our only chance is our determination to stop taking anyone's word for how things are and why, and start making our own investigations and conducting our own inquiries, asking such questions as, "What makes you think the way you think is the way to think?" "What makes you think that what you just said is so?" "What evidence do you have to support your contention that what you said is true? "Who would be most proud of you to hear what you just said?" Etc.
Do not take anyone's word for anything including your own! Get to the rocky bottom of everything. Don't leave any question unasked?
Fire in the Sky — Sunset at Abbot Lake, Peaks of Otter, Bedford, Virginia
I hate the facts that are the facts! I can't stand the way things are! I detest the truth that cannot be denied! I am abhorred by the things that happen and keep on happening!
The Civil War. Racial divides. School shootings. War of any kind. Hatred spilling over, pouring out, unchecked all around. It is a long list of the things I despise and cannot do anything about.
So I do what I can imagine to do, without caring what my chances are, or what my impact is, or what difference I am making.
I keep it up. Unrelenting. Without stopping or even slowing down.
I call it out! I say what's what! I don't let it get me down! I am energized by my abhorrence! I am spurred on by my disgust! I am the back-flow! I am the consequences! I am unrelenting in my hatred of hatred! And will take no rest nor allow the fascist to rest until the world is as it should have been from the start and everyone can live and sleep in peace with Truth, Justice, Equality, Freedom spilling over, pouring out, forever everywhere.
A Line of Cypress Trees — Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tiptonville, Tennessee
We know where we belong and where we have no business being. We know what is "us," and what is not "us." We know what is so about "us," and what is not "us."
With no idea of how we know, beyond knowing that no one told us any of it.
Yet we read "self-help" books by the gazillion, hire "life coaches," join the congregations of gurus, seek advice from an endless line of outlets and spend our life seeking who we are.
While our intrinsic intuition languishes for lack of attention, yet, continues to offer its counsel through dreams, body signals, hunches, slips of tongue, and experiences of serendipity and synchronicity.
We will never know about the ride we are missing if we don't get on board.
Under the Parkway — Blue Ridge Parkway, Aho Valley, Boone, North Carolina
Acceptance is not saying yes to all things--it is accepting the responsibility of saying no to what needs to be met with no.
Like the Buddha met suffering, and posited the 4 Noble Truths, emphasizing NO SUFFERING!!!
Equanimity is not being fine with everything. It is being fine with doing what needs to be done in every situation as it arises-- and allowing the situation to dictate what response we make here, now.
And not reading from some script, or acting mindlessly/heartlessly doing what we are "spozed" to do, when what we are supposed to do is decide in the moment what needs to be done here, now, and do it here, now and in every succeeding here, now that follows.
When Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind that blows where it will," he was saying that we cannot plot out before hand what we will do when and where and how.
We have to meet the moment free to do what is called for then and there the way it is called for then and there, without creating a tradition to serve in every moment that follows.
Do not become a slave to the past! Become servants of innovation, creativity, possibility, opportunity... Alive to the moment, free to do whatever our intrinsic intuition leads us to do--no matter what! That is equanimity! The freedom to act as needed in every moment. Not bound to act as we are supposed to in any moment.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 