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?
Swallowtail Butterfly 08/07/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
The super weapons we all possess
are our perspective,
perceptions,
awareness,
clarity,
instincts,
intuition,
sense of timing,
awareness of the path,
accord with the flow of vitality/life,
our original nature
and innate virtues/specialties.
Trusting ourselves to these inner quailities
and sensitive to the coincidental alignment
of outer circumstances,
we are well-equipped to find our way
through the labyrinth of our life
in the service of that which needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
and allowing nature take its course.
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Sunwapta River 01 09/21/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
We live looking for diversion/distraction/entertainment--
anything to pass the time
with nothing worth our time to do.
The same old same old gets boring fast.
There is nothing in any of it
that interests us,
enthuses us,
captures our attention
and our presence
so that we lose track of time
and can't believe it is next month already,
shocked at how time flies
when you are intent on what you're doing.
How long has it been?
Intent on what we are doing?
When did we lose interest?
What would it take to ignite it again?
What piques our creativity,
imagination,
enthusiasm for life/living/being alive?
What keeps us in place,
not caring, not looking, not wondering?
What makes anything beyond
the same old same old
too much trouble?
Internet searches are no trouble at all.
Ferret out the similarities and differences
between Gnosticism and Alchemy,
and what the Holy Catholic Church
and heresy trials/persecution
had to do with the demise of both--
and see where that leads.
The idea here is to just start walking/looking.
The Alchemists had a saying:
"One book opens another."
One door does the same thing.
Open a door, anywhere, to see what is there,
and, more importantly, to see what other doors
that door opens.
Live in the service of your interest
in being alive,
and let it take you where it will.
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Security and stability are the two big ones
when it comes to the necessary foundation
for a life well-lived.
We have to be able to pay the bills
and not worry about where to spend the night
or if we will eat the next day.
After that comes #3:
We have to incur the right bills!
The bills that are necessary
for us to buy the tools required
to live the life that is our life to live.
That is #4.
We have to know what life is our life to live.
It is not what we want to do that matters,
but what is ours to do,
what we must do,
what we are compelled to do,
what we are obliged to do,
what has both a sense of vitality about it,
so that our heart is in it,
and also a sense of urgency about it,
so that we don't put it off indefinitely,
but know that we have to be about it NOW.
Writing has always been in the mix for me,
and a camera.
I have never known what that meant,
and have slowly worked it out over time,
writing whatever seemed to need writing,
and photographing whatever seemed to need photographing.
I'm still following that paradigm.
The ministry was a good fit,
and gave me enough time of my own
to read what I wanted,
take whatever courses/seminars/retreats
that caught my eye,
and here I am,
by accident, one might say,
but also by design,
or better, perhaps,
that I could not have designed it better
than it has worked out for me,
just by following my interests
and being true to what had my name on it.
Having the first three items on the list in place
enabled me to live in the service of the fourth
over the course of my life,
saying, "Yes," to whatever needed saying "Yes" to,
and saying "No," to whatever needed saying "No" to.
That seemed to come easy for me,
knowing what was "Yes," and what was "No."
Like what book to read next,
and what books to not read at all.
What movies to watch
and what movies to have nothing to do with.
Everything flowed for me out of "Yes," and "No."
I don't know how it will be for you,
but I trust you to find your way,
just by being interested in seeing
what attracts you,
interests you,
compels you,
calls your name.
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Sandy Stream Pond Reflection Oil Paint Rendered — The Katahdin Range, Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine
We live to balance the contradictory forces of life
in our life and world.
We live for the sake of balance and harmony,
avoiding the extremes,
honoring the flow--
which includes the ebb and flow
of circumstances
and situations as they arise,
keeping an eye on our inner harmony
within the outer requirements
and needs
of when/where/how things are
and what is needed here/now
throughout each day.
We understand there are no
steady states of being,
that all things dance
with all things
in the constantly moving
scale of life,
with everything/one playing its/their part
in the jazz/jam session each day produces
out of what/who shows up
in the moment at hand
to blend with the flow and the beat
of what's happening now
and produce the wonder of being alive
in the present experience
of every day.
And all the children sang,
"Yea! Amen! May it be so!"
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What keeps us from being
what the situation is calling us to be?
Lack of awareness/clarity.
Lack of interest.
Desire--there is something we want,
are more interested in--
than what the situation needs/is calling for.
Fear--we are distracted by concern
for our interests.
Sloth/laziness/lethargy--maybe tomorrow,
some other time, later, one day.
Ignorance--we have no idea what
the situation is calling for,
or why we should care.
And we have no idea of how
to tune into the moment,
read the situation as it arises,
know what's what
and what needs to be done in response,
or how/when/where to do it...
From the start,
we should have been coached
as to how to attend our life
and live attentively to our life,
our circumstances,
our situations...
How to be aware of
and present with
what is happening within and without,
moment by moment,
and to know what to do with/about
the information that is present with us
in each moment.
But.
We were born into a world
that was as clueless as we were
fresh from the womb.
And we live in a world
that is as clueless as we are
about what's what
and what needs to be done about it.
We are all starting fresh off the tree,
and no one knows,
no, not one.
Except, of course, for the old yogis,
Taoist sages and Zen masters
who knew all this beginning around 1,000 BCE,
or earlier.
And were ignored because their knowledge
had no practical application--
you couldn't use it to become wealthy
and powerful,
only useful and helpful,
contented, peaceful,
joyful with ease of life
and well-being.
Things money cannot buy.
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Day’s End 03 10-27-2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks North Carolina
Living well is about alignment, accord.
Integrity, sincerity, spontaneity.
One with how things need to be,
inner with outer.
Being aligned with your core
and the flow of life/vitality
day to day.
Joseph Campbell like to say,
"We know when we are on the beam,
and when we are off it."
Being on the beam is the place to be,
the being place,
inner with outer,
core with the flow of vitality
in our life.
Where do you go--
what do you do--
to put yourself in the flow of life/vitality?
What has vitality for you?
What brings you to life
when you are doing it?
Riding a horse?
Sitting by the ocean?
Reading poetry?
Listening to/playing music?
Everyone has their "Being Place,"
or several of them,
where they can "just be"
and "let things be"
as they are for a while
or forever.
Places where we restore our connection
with our heart and soul,
where we are who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
and all is right with our world.
And then, there is that
which takes all of that away.
What knocks us off the beam?
I cut newspapers and television
out of my life
and am better off for it.
I have reduced the amount of time
I spend in crowds and traffic.
Noise, complexity, drama, trauma
do me in,
so I leave them out.
Emptiness, stillness, silence, solitude
restore my heart/soul connection,
so I seek them out.
We have to draw our own lines,
set our own limits,
create our own space
for life, vitality, heart, soul.
And, it is essential that we do that,
and live with allegiance, loyalty
and devotion
to life, vitality, heart, soul.
And let things fall into place around that.
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How far away from who we are
can we live
without developing symptoms,
incurring the wrath of the neglected life
and being lost in the wasteland
of endless discontent?
And, when we are born into a cultural
and social ecosystem
which denies there is an Axis Mundi,
or "center pole/axis,"
or "essential identity,"
for each of us
around which we are designed/built to live,
and provides us with no help
or direction
to guide us along a reliable path
to finding ourselves,
what are our chances?
We all opt for desirable substitutes,
built around having our way
and getting what we want,
when, as it turns out,
those are the things that get in our way
and lead us farther into "the gathering gloom"
that is our future,
decreasing exponentially
whatever chances we ever had.
There are no systems designed to come to our aid.
All of the available systems
fail to provide what we need
in terms of awareness, realization/recognition, clarity.
We are on our own.
But there are guides from the past,
if we are lucky enough to stumble upon them
and have the good fortune to listen
to what resonates within
to what is going on without,
there IS a chance, though small,
of finding the connections
that make the link with how things are
and what needs to be done about it,
and leads us to light arising
from emptiness/stillness/silence
to seeing/hearing/knowing/understanding/doing/being
that is the path to who we are
and what is ours to do
past all of the false hopes
and empty promises
to our heart's true song
and our body's true home
of our original nature
and innate virtues/specialties
that form our identity
and produce the life that is ours to live,
if we but trust ourselves to the path
and start walking.
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Yosemite Falls 04/27/2006, Oil Paint Rendered — Yosemite National Park, California
What's your point?
What are you here for?
Why are you here?
What are you doing here?
Your point is to laugh at these questions,
and on on about your business
without caring what your point is.
What's the point of a moose?
Of a daffodil?
Of a dew drop?
Of a snow flake?
Of the universe?
None of these things know or care
what their point is or may be or should be.
But they all know what their business is,
and take care of it.
"Rhiannon Giddens has won the 2023 Pulitzer in Music for 'Omar,' her opera about a Black Muslim scholar," wrote Nancy Mclaughlin
of the Greensboro News and Record.
Rhiannon Giddens knows what her business is: Music
but she doesn't care what her point is.
Or what the point of music is.
Her business is giving herself to music
and letting the outcome be the outcome.
And she has won at least two Grammy's,
is a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient,
and is allowing the road to open before her
as she takes care of business.
Lao Tzu said, 500 or so BCE,
"Do your work and step back.
Let nature take its course."
Know what your business is and take care of it,
and let the outcome be the outcome.
That's the way moose do it,
and daffodils,
dew drops,
snow flakes,
and the universe...
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Wayah Bald Oil Paint Rendered — Nantahala National ForestWayah Bald, Nantahala National Forest, near Franklin, NC
Every day,
we seek the silence,
the emptiness,
the stillness,
out of which awareness and clarity come.
With awareness and clarity,
we know what's what
and what is called for
in response to it
in each situation as it arises.
Then, it is only a matter
of doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
from situation to situation
all day long.
To be repeated tomorrow.
No time here for plotting our next move
to achieving our goals,
having things go our way,
getting what we want,
relishing the admiration of our friends
and the envy of our rivals.
We only have time and attention enough
for following the flow of the day
through the circumstances
come to bear upon us within it,
maintaining our balance and harmony
with integrity and spontaneity
original nature and innate qualities,
moment to moment,
one day after another,
without recording wins and losses
or keeping score.
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Day’s End Again 10/27/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks North Carolina
Awareness and clarity
are the solutions
to all of our problems today
and every day.
Seeing is knowing is doing is being
is looking is seeing is knowing...
We look but don't see
because we don't want to see,
because seeing has implications for us
and the way we want things to be.
Those who see are not welcome
in the company of those who see not,
and have been persecuted
through the centuries
for seeing and saying what's what.
Those who see in the land of the blind
are crucified,
or ignored,
ridiculed,
tared and feathered
and run out of town.
It does not pay to try to
show others
what they do not want to see.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
is just one example
of what seeing gets the seer.
The advantages of not seeing
are many,
the chief one being changing nothing
about the way life is lived.
Changing our mind about the way things are
changes the way things are
and changes us by having to live
in an ever-changing world.
"That's asking too much!"
We like our traditional ways of doing things,
thinking about things,
our routines,
our ruts,
our lives just like they are forever.
Growing up means changing our mind
about what is important
through all of the stages of life--
which most of us refuse
between 15 and 20,
remaining adolescents for life,
as evidenced by the way we spend our money
and the way we spend our time.
Leaving awareness and clarity
as unused solutions to any of our problems
today or any day.
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Day’s End 02 10/27/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina
Circumstances give rise to circumstances--
an ancient Taoist principle
that is the foundational law of the universe.
There is no static way of being.
Everything is in motion,
ebbing and flowing,
dancing, singing,
echoing the eternal AUM of existence,
whether inert or vital,
just being is to be moving,
away from something,
toward something,
carried along by circumstances
giving rise to circumstances
without purpose, goal or agenda,
but with meaning that is imagined
and imposed by consciousness
when it comes along
by the process of circumstances
begetting circumstances,
producing outcomes
that produce other outcomes,
without intention or direction,
but generating its own flow,
awareness and self-reflection
over time
where seeing is perceiving/imagining patterns
and making connections
and organizing systems and structures
as though it is all there for our own purposes--
whether the "our" is human,
or invertebrates,
sponges or worms,
"we" make use of it
as if it were created for us,
as if we were created for it,
a mutual arising produced by awareness
and passed along to offspring
as the story of the species,
made up by the species,
for the species,
from the species,
becoming part of the background
of existence
from time immemorial,
as the truth of how things have been,
all from circumstances giving rise to circumstances
over time.
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Dawn Silhouettes 01 12/06/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina
One of my problems with theology
is its readiness to refuse all questions
that cannot be answered
by taking every assertion on faith.
"This is so because I take it on faith,"
is a declaration demanding
that everyone within hearing distance
of the speaker
walk away.
Intellectual inconsistencies become
"great paradoxes"
that have to be taken on faith
because there is no way to square them
with the facts of existence.
Here is my solution to all things
metaphysical: Ariadne's Thread.
With a twist.
Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of thread
to unwind as he traversed the Labyrinth
to slay the Minotaur
so he could find his way out.
I take it to be a magical Thread of Inquiry
that leads us into the maize/labryinth
in search of truth/realization,
which, when found,
opens to another maize/labyrinth,
and to another,
and another...
Truth/realization leads to
truth/realization on a never-ending
journey along The Way
following the magical Thread of Inquiry.
It works like this:
Ask all of the questions that beg to be asked
of all of the statements that cry out to be said.
One question leads to another statement,
one statement leads to another question.
Questions lead to questions.
Statements lead to statements
which lead to questions.
That is all there is forever.
There are no absolutes.
There is no end of the line
of questions/answers/questions/answers...
"An answer is a step on the way
to a better question."
I don't know who said that first
but it remains valid over time.
Theology is the end of all questions.
It is a labyrinth without a thread.
It goes nowhere.
Just walk away,
following your questions and answers
wherever they take you.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 