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?
Hemlock Islands 03 10/14/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine
"Empty your mind as you step to the line"
is an old adage regarding
shooting free-throws in basketball.
It flows from an older adage about archery
in the Taoist canon:
"The ability of the archer to hit the bullseye
varies in inverse proportion
to the size of the prize for doing so."
Or, the shorter version of both:
"No Thinking!"
Allow your response to the situation
to arise unbidden
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way.
Your body knows how to shoot free throws.
Give your body the ball
and get out of the way!
No rehearsing.
No contriving.
No forcing.
No striving.
When the fish strikes,
set the hook!
When the door opens,
walk through!
"Eat when hungry,
rest when tired."
And, try this:
Only do today
the things
you can do with
all your heart.
Let everything else
wait until tomorrow
(You may want to do this
on a weekend).
Rhododendron at Mabry Mill 05/17/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Meadows of Dan, Virginia
We cannot come to ourselves
without leaving the culture behind.
The return to Eden meant death
to those entering the Land of Promise.
That would be the death Jesus died
before his death on the cross--
the metaphorical/symbolic death
in Gethsemane,
with "Thy will, not mine, be done."
We, like Jesus, have to die
to all that stands between us and Eden,
home, the Promised Land,
oneness with That Which Has Always Been Called God.
The exit from Eden leads to Gethsemane,
which is the doorway back to Eden.
Living to ourselves
means dying to the culture--
to all the culture proclaims to be important,
to all the things Adam and Eve thought
they were getting when they left Eden.
We have to die to all of that
in going back to Eden.
Start by cutting off your TV.
Engaging emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
Finding the balance point
among all aspects of life,
and living there,
bearing the pain
of the contradictions
and the bliss of the harmonies
and the rhapsodies.
Making the trade-offs,
saying "No!"
to what needs to be "No!"
and saying "Yes!"
to what needs to be "Yes!"
no matter what
all our life long.
Sundown 10/25/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Caroina
Getting/having,
going/doing,
ignores/discounts/dismisses/disregards
what arises spontaneously within
in response to what is happening,
or needs to happen,
in each situation as it arises.
Living in response to the moment
leaves a lot of time
between actions.
What needs to happen is usually
not quick on the heels of
what just happened,
but waits for circumstances to
develop in their own time
in order to call for what needs
to be next.
Spontaneity has a lot of down time
about it.
"Island time" is that way.
Fast tempo impulsive living
has no time to consider the Tao's flow
or the moment's need.
In order to live well,
we have to change the pace
of our life.
We have to change the way
we are living.
It will take a different world
to accommodate the Tao.
Or a life that lives to the rhythm
of a different world,
and is, thereby, out of sync
with this world
and its idea of what needs to be done
when, where and how--
with no interest in
what actually needs to be done,
when, where and how.
The difference between living well
and living poorly
is easy to attain
and impossible to retain.
It is a moving, shifting, changing
balance point between
all of the extremes,
created by the fundamental absurdity
at the ground of reality:
There Is No Steady State Of Being!
"All we want is smooth and easy"
(Ogi Overman).
All we want is what we what.
All we want is to have it made...
And stay there.
And keep it.
And never lose it.
And maintain unchanging
just right,
perfectly,
completely/utterly/absolutely IT--
just as it is right now--
forever.
Growing up is coming to terms
with how things are
and how they are not
and never will be--
and living at the fulcrum,
the tipping place,
"the still point of the turning world"
between all of the polarities
in the world.
There is caring and not caring.
Find just the right amount of caring
in each situation as it arises,
and camp out there.
There is loving and not loving,
having and not having,
wanting and not wanting,
going and not going,
doing and not doing,
playing and not playing,
your best and your worst,
and on and on
at the center point
among all of the possibilities.
Our trouble is that we
care too much or not enough
etc.
in each situation as it arises.
And "just right" is a floating bubble
between the poles
on the carpenter's level of life.
Find that!
Go there!
Be IT!
That's having it truly made!
When things are not right in your life,
it's an indication
that you are off-center
on one or more
of the see-saws,
of the tetter-totters,
of the tilt-a-whirls,
of life.
Move to the center
and you have it made!
Hemlock Islands 01-B 10/14/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine
I don't care what you believe.
When people ask me if I believe in God,
I ask them if they believe in gravity
and continental drift.
It doesn't matter what we believe
about all three,
or if we believe anything.
That Which Has Always Been Called "God,"
gravity and continental drift
get along quiet well
regardless of whether anyone believes in them.
I care about what we know
and what we do about it.
We know what's what with diet and exercise.
What do we do about it?
I know what's what
with emptiness, stillness and silence.
What do I do about it?
We all know more than we know that we know.
What are we doing to know what we know?
And to do what needs to be done about it?
What we know and what we do
matter every day--
in each situation as it arises.
It is crucial that we know what's what
and do what needs to be done about it,
in response to it--
without judgment, opinion, expectation,
plans or agendas.
Just seeing. Just knowing. Just doing.
Moment by moment.
That's important.
That's the most important thing.
Into the Light 06/09/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
What do you need to know?
How will that change your life?
How will it change your relationship
with your life?
How will it change your idea
of what is important?
How will it make you better able
to assess what needs to be done
and do it
when, where and how it needs to be done,
with the gifts of your original nature
and the innate virtues/traits/characteristics
that are yours from birth?
If it won't do those things,
what makes you think you need to know it?
We have to be seeking what we need to know
to bring us forth in our life,
seeing and doing what needs us to do it
in the time and place of our living.
If we aren't doing that, what???
Waiting on somebody to give us what we want
for the low, low, price of wanting it?
That seems to be par for people in the world today.
Waiting to be handed what they want,
never mind whether it is worth wanting.
If it weren't for endlessly wanting,
what would our life consist of?
How often do we buy things
that do not help us in any way
do what is needed--
do what needs to be done--
in our life?
How often do we step into a situation
looking for what needs to be done there--
without any reference as to how that
would impact us?
How often do we look at our life
without what we want in mind?
What do we think about
that has no association
with what we want?
We live in a culture
driven by wanting.
Capitalism depends on
selling us what we want.
That means Capitalism depends on
creating wants in everyone
worldwide.
Incessant wanting
is the capitalistic dream.
And, it is the end of life
as it needs to be lived,
free to see and do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
uninfluenced by what we want
or don't want.
The only reason we do anything
is based exclusively
on what we want or don't want.
What do you need to know
that doesn't have anything
to do with that?
Two Ducks in Flight 02 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
Do not try to do anything.
You cannot try to be hungry.
You cannot try to go to sleep,
or stay awake.
You cannot try to remember
something that is "right there."
But.
You can be hungry,
go to sleep,
stay awake
and remember.
But #2.
The doing is not
connected to the trying.
We try all the time
and get nowhere.
Stop trying.
Right action has to arise
of its own accord.
"Mutual arising" is the need
with the response that spontaneously
meets the need.
They are as one.
You have experienced it
throughout your life.
No trying at any point.
Just knowing/doing.
With the right action
appearing at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way,
of itself.
We cannot aim for that.
But #3.
We can participate in that,
by simply being loose in the saddle
and light on our feet.
Just being free and easy.
Not looking to do anything in particular.
Not conniving.
Not striving.
Not trying.
Just being there,
ready for anything,
with nothing in mind.
When the moment calls your name,
respond as needed.
When the door opens,
walk through.
That's all there is to it.
Just being present
and doing what is called for.
Anybody can do that.
Everybody ought to.
Isolation? Loneliness? SOLITUDE! 01/11/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Jeanette and Fog, Greensboro, North Carolina
Marianne Moore said,
"The cure for loneliness
is solitude."
Ortega y Gasset said,
"A bore is someone
who fails to provide companionship
while robbing you of your solitude."
When I retired,
I took a monastic vow
of silence and solitude,
which means "Nothing social."
With "social" meaning
"anything other than family."
The best part is no parties.
No, the best part is
looking out the window
when I'm not on my way
somewhere else.
Solitude allows me
the privilege of
being where I am.
And it reduces the amount of
noise,
complexity
and drama
considerably.
Increasing the time available
for emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
The foundation of balance and harmony.
The doorway to life
and light
and peace.
But.
It does not prevent
the DMV
from intruding into your life.
And.
It helps to have people
honor your wishes.
Reminding me of my favorite
of the Biblical commandments,
and this one did not make
the Top Ten:
"Thou shalt not remove
thy neighbor's landmark!"
Hemlock Islands 02 10/11/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine
We have each day that is left to us
to work with--
not to see what we can make happen there
but to realize what needs to happen
in each one,
and to see how we may assist the birth
of what needs to be,
day by day,
until the end of our days.
Our work is without plan or agenda.
We are seeds in the earth
with no grasp of what manner of seed we are,
and no idea of what must be done
to see ourselves becoming ourselves,
able only to cooperate with the process
at work within us
by sensing what needs to be done,
what is being called for,
moment by moment--
responding by getting out of the way
and seeing what we are capable of
without knowing how we know
or how we do what we do,
as miracle workers
being spun into being
by mysterious forces
tucked away in sunlight and rain,
at the command of a script
written into our DNA,
created especially for a day like today
and a set of circumstances
just like these.
Each day that is ours yet to see,
looking for what calls for our
gifts in each one.
There are people in, amongst, around
wild places throughout the world
who don't appear to be
any better off for it.
Nature is everywhere,
and the world has been in a mess
from the start.
Nature has as much to say
as it ever has had to say,
and who stops to listen?
And what does their listening do?
There have been sages,
masters,
yogis,
oracles,
hermits,
wise ones,
etc.
forever.
Abraham,
Moses,
Jesus,
There are people in, amongst, around
wild places throughout the world
who don't appear to be
any better off for it.
Nature is everywhere,
and the world has been in a mess
from the start.
Nature has as much to say
as it ever has had to say,
and who stops to listen?
And what does their listening do?
There have been sages,
masters,
yogis,
oracles,
hermits,
wise ones,
etc.
forever.
Abraham,
Moses,
Jesus,
the Buddha,
all the Bodhisattvas,
all the Dali Lamas...
And, for all the difference
they have made,
would we have missed
any of them?
It is clear that none of them
were in it
for what they could get out of it
or give to it.
Poof, they are gone,
so what?
The So What? question
stands as solid evidence
of their worth,
and the validity,
the truth,
of what they
had to say
and were about.
They were about it
because of it--
in the service of it,
true to it,
for no reason beyond it,
whether it did/does any good or not.
They did not care what their
chances were.
They did what they did
because they knew it must be done,
whether it did any good or not.
Theirs was a holy obligation,
a divine obsession,
a dear and glorious compulsion.
And they could not help
but honor it
and serve it with their life.
They are the proof we seek
of the value of what they did.
Because of them,
we have all the reason we need
to be as they were,
with a wink and a smile,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so,
all the way
along the way.
Take heart!
Take heart!
Carry on!
Carry on!
Wetlands Geese 01/11/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Guilford County near Summerfield, North Carolina
Taoism is not a religion.
No gods to please or displease.
No theology.
No doctrine.
No ecclesiastical hierarchy.
No organs.
No hymnbooks.
No Bible studies...
But one thing it shares in common
with all religions
is an utter incompatibility
with Capitalism in all forms.
The profit motive is the original sin.
Adam and Eve were in Paradise
and sought a better life.
One of the Lost Sayings of Jesus goes,
"If you are in it for more than you have,
you are never going to get there."
The second pillar of Capitalism is,
"There is always more than you have,
and you can never have enough."
Capitalism fosters greed,
ruthlessness,
viciousness,
rapacity,
craving,
envy,
jealously,
discontent,
the wrong kind of emptiness
and wandering soullessness.
Knowing when we have what we need
and being content with that
is nature's way.
Nature has no need of banks
and stock markets.
And Capitalism
has no need of nature,
as the lessons of history
have shown.
Two Sunflowers 03 06-20-2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells, South Carolina
No one told me the importance
of guarding/protecting/shepherding/stewarding
our vulnerable/defenseless inner-self.
Everyone in my world was swinging away at it,
within me and everyone else.
Attacking sarcastically any hint
of weakness,
compassion,
empathy,
sensitivity
and grace.
Everybody had to be mean,
tough,
shrewd,
rude,
coarse,
uncaring
and indifferent.
I look back on that world
and wonder
how I ever survived.
A lot of us did not,
and took our consolation
in whiskey,
gin,
vodka
and cheap red wine
(This was before pot,
cocaine
and fentanyl).
How much drug abuse,
and how many suicides,
could be prevented
by recognizing
and guarding/protecting/shepherding/stewarding
our vulnerable/defenseless inner-self?
It is a sick world
in which the question
needs to be asked.
We have a tender side.
And we are responsible
for tending it,
nurturing it,
nourishing it
and developing our relationship
with it
over the full course of our life.
We will discover
that it will return the favor
ten-fold
as the source of vitality
life,
interest,
enthusiasm,
radiance,
joy,
bliss,
wonder,
love
and delight.
We need to tell our children
early-on
about the importance of their tender side,
and of walking two paths at the same time,
fostering their noble heart
as well as their warrior spirit,
so that they are capable
of meeting the world
as it needs to be met
in each situation as it arises,
giving mercy
and taking no quarter
as the occasion demands,
honoring the "time and place
for everything" reality
over the full course of our life.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 