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?
Three Trees in the Fog 09/26/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Conflict and contradiction
are at the heart of life.
Yin/Yang, you know.
We have to work it out,
bearing in our own body
the marks of the cross.
Our cross to bear
is the dichotomy of being alive.
On the one hand this,
on the other hand that--
and that doesn't take into account
all of the other stuff waiting in the wings.
Our cross to bear is the pain
of being alive
in a world where this interferes with that.
Adam and Eve in Eden.
Jesus in Gethsemane.
"Without contraries is no progression"
(William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell").
"All we ever wanted was smooth and easy,"
(Ogi Overman).
It ain't smooth and it ain't easy.
Coming to terms with that
is the task of being alive.
We make the peace
by standing between the opposing forces of existence,
bearing the full weight of Yin and Yang,
and negotiating our way to balance and harmony.
Time after time.
When you find yourself being overwhelmed,
torn apart,
fragmented and "at wits end,"
clarify the contractions at work
in the time and place of your living.
You can't do what because of what?
What is blocking the peace?
What are the conflicting sources
of upheaval and anguish?
Sit in full awareness
of the awful nature
of your circumstances
and wait for the resolution
of recognition,
for the shift of realization,
to put you in accord
with the things that are
out of accord,
with the way things are,
so that you are at peace
with having no peace,
and with what that means,
which is generally
a metaphorical dying
to what you want,
or to what needs to be
and cannot be...
Native Americans before the US Calvary.
People of Color before racism and fascism.
The environment before corporate greed
and ruthless viciousness in the service
of Profit At Any Price...
All of the agonies that must be borne
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so
because
"He who learns must suffer.
And even in our sleep
pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom to us
by the awful grace of God" ― Aeschylus
“If, in any situation,
there is no solution,
there is no point in being anxious.
If the forces at work
have their own momentum,
and what’s going on now is the product
of what went before,
and if this generation is not
in control of all those forces,
then this process will continue.”
– The Dalai Lama, on the Chinese occupation of Tibet
“We don’t have a right to ask
whether we’re going to succeed or not.
The only question we have a right to ask
is what’s the right thing to do?
What does this earth require of us
if we want to continue to live on it?”
— Wendell Berry
“You have to trust in something –
your gut,
destiny,
life,
karma, whatever.
Because believing
that the dots will connect
down the road
will give you the confidence
to follow your heart
even when it leads you off
the well worn path;
and that will make
all the difference.”
― Steve Jobs
Among the Cypress Trees Oil Paint Rendered — Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tiptonville, Tennessee
The plan is to be aware
of what is happening
and what needs to be done in response.
Awareness is the key
to all that follows.
Jon Kabat Zinn
and his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR) YouTube videos
are the best approach
to a mindfulness practice
that I know of.
No plans,
no agendas,
no expectations,
no opinions.
All of those things interfere
with seeing/hearing/knowing/doing
in response to what is happening
in each situation as it arises.
Plans,
agendas,
expectations,
opinions,
are instrumental
in serving what we want
and getting our way.
And are no help in assessing
what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
in light of what is called for
by the situation at hand.
This is the difference
between imposing our way
upon each situation,
and seeing what needs to happen
from the standpoint
of the situation as a whole.
Living to have our way
keeps us from being alive
for the good of the situation,
situation by situation,
and guarantees
that we will be awash
in conflicts of interest
all our life long.
When our balance and harmony
depend upon us having our way,
balance and harmony
are out of the question,
and our life is chaotic
and storm-tossed
day by day.
Living to be what is needed
is a different life
from living to have our way.
It is the kind of difference
that makes a difference.
If you know what I mean.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 09/08/2016 Oil Paint Rendered — Scenes from My Hammock, Indian Land, South Carolina
Dylan Thomas' poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Light,
Rage, Rage Against The Dying Of The Light,"
misses the point that the light doesn't die,
and our dying may well be a transition
back into the light that is our origin and our destination.
One form of energy returning to another form of energy.
Energy being that which
"is neither created or destroyed."
This is one of the qualities of God,
and now we see it is one of the qualities
of ourselves as well.
Nothing dies.
Everything is transformed.
As energy does what energy does.
Comes and goes,
to come and go.
We need to stop thinking
as we have always thought,
and consider the options
which, as William Blake suggests are infinite,
once the "doors of perception are cleansed."
We are limited only by the way
we see things,
by the way we say that things are.
We need to re-think the entire wad.
And let it be all about energy
coming and going,
to come and go some more.
Terraces 09/27/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
We are to be about
creating an atmosphere
conducive to life and well-being.
Why is that hard?
Hard to grasp?
Hard to remember?
Hard to do?
Good/right is helpful to that end,
bad/evil/wrong is harmful to that end.
This is not difficult,
why is it hard?
What is good/right interferes with
what is good/right for us.
What is good/right for us
is often bad/evil/wrong for others.
Whose side are we on?
How good is the good we call good?
Whose good is served
by the good we call good?
In what ways do we share the good?
The wealth?
The power?
In what ways do we hoard it?
Squander it
in trying to keep it all for ourselves?
Create evil "serving" the good?
Who are we kidding?
Who do we think we are kidding?
Talking good/right,
doing bad/evil.
Nothing works like a reckoning.
Like paying attention.
Like seeing who we are and what we are doing.
Like squaring up to the truth
of how things are with us really.
Like calling BS where BS needs to be called.
Like shedding appearances
and embracing/exhibiting
the task of creating an atmosphere
conducive to life and well-being
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
Ginkgos 12/03/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Ballantyne Ginkgo Park, Charlotte, North Carolina
The human spirit
is like the wind that blows where it will--
and it must be this way
in order to catch up with,
exhibit and reflect
the wind at the heart of life,
blowing where,
boundless,
without restraint or restrictions,
alive and living
to go and be and do,
where and when and how
things need to be done.
The necessity at the center
demands/requires the freedom
of expression to be who we must be
beyond all limits and boundaries.
What is called for?
Go there!
Do that!
Free to be what is essential
in each moment everywhere
in all times and places
for the sake of life and being,
world without end!
Wendy, Dear, 09/29/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Stonington, Maine
Determining what is necessary
and what is not
is an individual responsibility
and a personal right.
You cannot impose what is necessary for you
onto me,
or anyone else.
Our necessities/urgencies are ours alone
to know and to do.
Our ability to size things up
and to be correct in our appraisals
of what constitutes an urgent necessity
varies from person to person,
and sets us apart from one another
into broad categories
of those who know,
and those who do not know,
who they are
and what needs to be done.
We march to the beat of different drummers--
that is a necessity incumbent upon us all.
How well we recognize,
accept that,
and place ourselves in accord with it,
tells the tale,
the tale that is ours to tell
with the way we live our life.
Doing what we determine to be necessary
in each situation as it arises,
what is needed,
what is called for,
what is urgent,
and what is to be done
is a reflection
of who we are
and what tune we march to.
The more we are ruled be the culture
and ways of some collective,
the less we can claim to be individuals
in our own right,
and the less human we are
and more like automatons we become.
Whose song are you singing
with the life you are living?
Whom do you look to
before deciding what to do?
Who directs your life
on its journey through each day?
Who decides what is necessary for you,
and what is not?
Ponderosa Pine 05/25/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Red Canyon, Utah
The situation has its own drift,
flow,
spin,
direction,
energy--
and we aren't likely to transform it
into the way we want things to be.
Neither Jesus, nor the Buddha,
were able to change minds
that were not open/ready to be changed.
We can show up
and give it our best,
but if they are hitting our curve ball,
it isn't going to work
to keep throwing it.
It is called dancing with the music,
and not forcing our way.
We take what we are handed
and do what we can,
and let that be that,
hoping things will be different
down the road.
Awareness never hurts.
Seeing what we look at,
and looking at everything,
hearing what we listen to,
and listening to what's being said,
particularly to what we are saying,
is advantageous
when the advantage we seek
is the good of the situation as a whole.
What is good for here/now?
What does Truth, Justice, Equality, Freedom
call for here/now?
We are responsible for the moment,
to the moment,
in terms of doing our part
to be what the moment needs us to be,
when, where and how it needs us to be.
Too often, we strive to force our way
onto the moment
instead of assisting the moment
in becoming what the moment needs to be
as a part of the larger sweep of things.
Being attuned to the moment,
aligned with the here/now,
seeing/knowing/doing what is called for
is our contribution to the unfolding
of life in each situation as it arises,
And awareness never hurts
(Although it can require us to die
again and again
in sacrificing ourselves
in the service of what needs us to do it,
but you know that).
Englehard Mooring Reflection 10/30/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — The Outer Banks, North Carolina
The old saw stands the test of time:
"Principles fly in the face of necessity!"
If you don't understand necessity,
and talk, talk, talk
about morality,
and right and wrong,
and good and bad,
and should and ought,
I have nothing to say to you
that you can hear.
What needs to be done in a situation
is the only thing that needs to be known
in the situation.
And need trumps good and right
in every situation.
Morality and ethics have no place
at the table
where necessity sits.
And, if you have never borne
the burden for indispensable
goods and/or services,
you don't belong there either.
We cannot talk about good and right
without understanding necessity
from a lived it, done it, know it
point of view.
Canoes on Moraine Lake 09/23/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta
The Farther Shore is never farther away
than the fore-shortened distance
from the canoes to the moraine.
It is a matter of perspective,
of "turning the light around,"
of seeing with eyes
that see things as they are:
Oneness everywhere,
right here,
right now,
for those with eyes to see.
What do you see?
Look again!
There is more to everything
than meets the eye.
All it takes is looking
in a different way
to see that it is so.
How we look limits what we see.
Expectations and opinions
prejudice the judge and the jury.
Seeing without expectation or opinion,
judgment or conviction,
transforms the world
by letting in the light.
Walking in the light
is seeing like that.
It takes a lot of looking
to be able to see.
Along Eagle Nest Trail 08/13/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Higgins Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Water seeks its own level,
as does every other thing.
The Cosmos and all there is therein
are all looking for balance,
harmony,
equilibrium,
stability,
homeostasis,
oneness within and without,
peace,
tranquility,
serenity,
the Elysian Fields,
the Farther Shore,
the Pure Land,
Nirvana,
Heaven...
The stable state of a gyroscope,
not static,
but fluid in a controlled,
well-managed sense,
always within the normal range
of operationally necessary wobbles and rolls,
steadily on the beam,
in accord with Yin and Yang,
aligned with the Tao,
doing our thing in ways necessary
to the good of the whole,
of the entirety
of which we are a part,
true to ourselves
and to the collective--
at one with ourselves and all else--
in each situation as it arises
forever,
is the ideal
for which everything strives without end.
We do not know why.
It is who we are.
"Our hearts are restless
until they rest in Thee,
and Thee, and Thee..."
World truly without end, Amen.
Bridge to Rough Ridge 03 10/13/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Spirituality has nothing whatsoever
to do with theology,
and everything to do with truth--
which means theology
has nothing to do with truth.
Bringing to the forefront
Pilate's rebuff of Jesus,
"What is truth?"
Jesus' missed retort is simply,
"The bed you slept in last night,
the world you woke up to this morning."
The color of your eyes,
the shape of your nose,
your unique finger prints,
and way of sizing up situations,
and knowing what is called for there,
and way of assessing what is important
and unimportant,
your evaluation of the value
of everything you walk past every day...
An on, and on, like that,
down to the minute details of the day to day.
Meaning.
Purpose.
Direction.
Hope.
Love.
Despair...
Truth which cannot be denied
because it is so.
Spirituality thrives there
in the ever-present preserve of truth,
pouring over, spilling out,
revealing, expressing, exposing, exhibiting
who we are and what we are about
and what it means that we are alive
and what we are doing about it.
Theology is a pure pastime,
the purview of opinions and viewpoints,
talk, talk, talk,
blah, blah, blah,
about things incapable of being
known/decided/evaluated/weighed/measured/verified/
and agreed upon.
Truth, on the other hand, is exactly what it is
even as it becomes something more/less/other than
what it is.
And spirituality is able to dance with truth
over the entire span of experience
through time and space forever,
world truly without end, Amen.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 