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?
Hail Mary, Full of Grace 04-21-2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, Charleston, South Carolina
Here is a link
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8maYNgf_afA )
to a performance of my favorite
Bluegrass/Gospel group
who also connects me
with the Tao flowing through all things
to carry us all through “the Great Flow of Circumstances”
to balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality
at the core of life and being.
I am quite sure that I do not share their politics or their theology (As you may know, I work to have NO theology--
and am certain we all can get along better with out it)
but the core at the heart of all sentient beings
is the Axis Mundi,
the World Tree,
the Center Pole,
“The Still Point of the Turning World,”
that grounds us,
anchors us,
to that from which we will not, and cannot, be moved.
We can talk about it in different ways,
but the fundamental truth is that
“The Tao that can be said/told/explained/talked about
is not the Eternal Tao,”
which Martin Palmer interprets as,
“The Path that can be discerned as the Path
is not a reliable path.”
And we are all on our own
to find our way to the Center, to the Source,
to the Mystery at the heart of things,
and to exhibit the truth of our Original Nature
and the Virtues (The Te Power, The Virtue Power),
that are the gifts of ours from birth—
our genius/daemon/shtick/knacks/etc.,
which form our identity
and connects us
at the level of the heart/core/center
with all sentient beings—
and which separates us
and holds us apart from
all other sentient beings
at the same time in a yin/yang (pronounced “yong”)
kind of way.
It’s all Tao all the Way.
Which is my way of talking about
That Which Cannot Be Said.
I hope you like The Petersens!
And, while we are on the subject,
I will say that the featured photograph here,
speaks directly to all I have said above,
with the kneeling woman before the Cross
representing all those like her through the ages,
in cathedrals,
and churches,
and home altars,
gravesides
and ships at sea...
And we stand with her and them,
seeking the center, the heart,
the core, the source, the mystery
holding us all,
and all of the universe,
together,
making us one,
but not the same one!!!
We are One and we are Many,
each of us is different from
the others of us,
and we have to be true to ourselves,
and true to our connection-at-the-level-of-the-heart
with all others,
balancing and harmonizing yin/yang
around the circle,
in each situation as it arises
all our lives long.
It is all Tao/Mystery,
which we can know
without being able to explain,
or make sense of,
and so we live in the tension of opposites,
and dance to the music of life everlasting,
with the rhythm that knows no end.
Black Sand Sunstar 06/27/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Black Sand Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Perspective for me is one of the deep mysteries
of personality.
We have depths we cannot probe.
Things are always rising up
to surprise, shock and confound us.
Dreams befuddle us.
Instant reactions to events
catch us off-guard.
Why we see things as we do,
why we think what we think is important,
why we think what we think,
what disposes us to be the way we are,
how different can we be,
if we were living at the optimal level
we are capable of,
what would be different about us...
The questions tumble over each other
trying to get out.
The answers are hidden within a swirling mist
behind a thick cloud of black smoke,
within a cave of total darkness.
"Darkness within darkness,
the gateway to mystery,"
says the Tao Te Ching
about the Tao,
and the Tao has nothing on us!
We will be eternity
getting to the bottom of us.
I look forward to the rest of the trip!
Laziness is the original sin.
Laziness is original with the species.
Lethargy keeps us in the caves
no matter how many high rises we build.
It is easier to go to war
than to work out our differences
when that means growing up.
We will not grow up.
That's asking too much.
As the woman said about wearing a mask
and maintaining social distancing
in the early stages of the pandemic.
Exactly.
It's asking too much
to expect us to grow up
and be responsible for ourselves
and our life.
It is asking too much
to expect us to grow up
and become proficient at analyzing
each situation as it arises,
know what's what
and what needs to be done about it
and do what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
and do the same thing in response
to the reaction to what we do
about what needs to be done, etc.
throughout every situation that arises
in our entire life time,
no matter what,
for no reason
other than it needs to be done,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.
We have better things to do.
Agendas to serve.
Opinion to serve.
Plans and ideas to serve.
Besides, it's too much trouble.
Come up with the fix for laziness
and you transform the world,
except for the likelihood
that applying the fix
would be too much trouble.
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03
Smoky Mountains Panorama 01 02/12/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Our place is to live in ways
that allow our original nature
and the virtues that came with us at birth--
our Te Power, our Virtue Power--
in doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
without an agenda
or an opinion,
no matter what.
Doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
using the gifts that are ours
to serve and to share,
is to live aligned with
balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, life and vitality,
in accord with the Tao
and aligned with
that which is deepest, best and truest
about us.
And nobody can do better than that!
Not No Body, Not No How!
René Descartes' classic,
"I think, therefore I am,"
was flipped by a guy at a bar
in Minneapolis,
"I think, therefore I think I am."
Solidifying me in my already
solid opinion that there are no proofs
for verifying the reality of reality.
It's an illusion we keep afloat
among ourselves
in the absence of a better idea.
Unvalidateable assumptions
gain the reputation of being so over time.
We take a lot "on faith" that way.
It is the grounding principle of QAnon
and the Moon Walk deniers.
Reaffirming the refrain from the 60's
(Or before?),
"You can't prove that the universe did not
come into being, complete with fossils,
artifacts and memories,
fifteen minutes ago."
There is a lot we cannot prove.
And we get along fine with the assumption of reality,
assuming that we are not Chaung Tzu's butterfly
dreaming all of this into existence.
Which gets me to
"If this is so real,
why don't we do a better job with it?"
Why are we so casual with reality?
So nonchalant?
So take it or leave it?
Littering highways,
and subways,
and oceans
and outer space?
Why don't we walk around blinking
in disbelief at the reality we behold?
What are the chances?
That we would be here/now?
Pissing away each day
as though it is no big deal?
And our entire life one day at a time?
WHAT???
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02
The Lighthouse 02 09/26/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia
There is the Great Flow of Circumstances,
with "one damn thing after another,"
and there is the Flow of Life and Being,
in, around and through
the circumstantial congestion
of the times.
How to move from one to the other
is a matter of turning the light around,
flipping the switch,
looking again,
and seeing what we look at,
finally, at last,
and doing what needs to be done about it.
The Gateless Gate is the swing point
between the worlds flowing through this world
of time and place,
the place of transition/transformation
where the "doors of perception are cleared"
(William Blake)
and we know what's what:
"This is the way things are,
and this is what can/needs to be/must be
done about it,
and that's the way things are."
The future of time and place
depends upon what happens then.
Once we see, what do we do?
Upon the answer to that one
teeters all things great and small.
To know and not do,
that's big.
But, there is hope for the world
in the next moment
of each situation as it arises,
where the same scenario plays out again,
and again,
through all eternity.
What dies now
has the possibility of being resurrected
then,
and all is never lost,
merely delayed,
sometimes through all those eternal cycles
the
Buddhists like to talk about,
and sometimes not.
It all depends on here/now,
all the way down,
and how well we sync up with the right flow
and do what needs us to do it.
In each situation as it arises.
If you know what you know,
you know what I mean.
Great Blue Heron 05/18/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
Letting the situation elicit, evoke,
our response to it
instead of forcing a predetermined
way of acting on it
based on what we want to achieve
is not conducive to
the balance, harmony and flow
of the situation and its possibilities.
We cannot have a formula in mind
for producing the life we want to live.
The life we have in mind puts constraints in play
on every situation that arises,
and requires micro-management
to a degree that is impossible to achieve.
"Do what is yours to do
and step back,"
advises the old Taoist sage,
"and let nature take its course."
"Letting nature take its course"
is tantamount to chaos and lawlessness
in our book.
And we will not be a party to that!
And that kills the party.
Better to trust the situation's own sense
of pace and timing
than to orchestrate inorganic outcomes
aligned with our idea of how things ought to be.
Do what is called for,
and then do what is called for,
and then do what is called for...
in light of what needs to happen
Here/Now--
like a farmer planting his crop,
or an artist waiting to see
what the canvas wants to become,
or a dancer allowing the music
to bring the right movement to life.
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02
Sunwapta River 10/03/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
I see the picture before I take it.
I know a picture when I see one.
I am capable of being wrong.
I don't care if I am wrong.
I don't have to be right.
It all goes into the hopper.
"It's all grist for the mill."
We are milling experience
which we can draw on in situations
similar to this one
and alter our behavior to it
to better align ourselves with
what needs to happen.
We are always working to do
what needs to be done.
We screw with that
by thinking that means
getting what we want,
getting to happen what we want to happen.
We don't know what needs to happen
any more than I know what a picture is,
and isn't.
We are capable of being wrong--
about what we ought to want
and about what needs to happen.
We do not know what we need to know.
We start with what we are doing.
What are we doing here?
What are we trying to do here?
What ought to be done here?
Who are we?
What are we about?
When I am looking for a photo,
I know that I am looking for a photo.
When I am not looking for a photo,
but something catches my I,
I am evoked/called/invited
to take the photo.
What evokes/calls/invites us to action?
What does that say about what we are about?
About what we are here for?
What do we think about that?
How do we evaluate that?
What does that tell us about who we are?
Is that natural?
Is that something we artificially impose on ourselves?
How do we decide what is worth doing?
How do we determine what is important?
How do we know what we are here for?
What is in charge of our choices/decisions?
What is in charge of our life?
In my studied opinion,
most of the people who are alive
and have ever lived
do/did so on the strength
of diversion, distraction and denial.
Which means they lived in the service
of sex, drugs, alcohol and money
to take their mind off their troubles
and "pass a good time"
while they waited to die.
(Here's one for you:
What does thinking about
sex, drugs, alcohol and money
keep you from thinking about?)
Take sex, drugs, alcohol and money--
including time spent thinking about doing them
as well as actually doing them--
and there is not a lot of life left
in which to do something with.
I call "Foul!"
That is clearly out of bounds!
And a complete waste of life!
We should be utterly ashamed
and ushered straight back into the line
waiting for a place in the eternal cycle
of birth and death
until we wake up enough (As if!)
to be granted an exit token
good for Nirvana, or it's equivalent,
where there is, supposedly,
something better to do.
There is something better to do Here/Now!
Nobody's interested.
It's sex, drugs, alcohol and money,
then death and rebirth,
and more sex, drugs, alcohol and money
for as long as the cycle wants to run.
This is crazy, but just try talking
us out of it.
That's even crazier!
The only alternative we have to offer
is serving our original nature
and the virtues/gifts/daemon/etc.
that come with us at birth--
being who we are
and doing what is ours to do.
Stack that up against
sex, drugs, alcohol and money,
and see what you have to show for it
at the end of the day,
any day.
Nothing competes with diversion, distraction,
and denial
in the form of sex, drugs, alcohol and money.
Not No Thing! Not No How!
Sincerity, integrity, balance and harmony,
emptiness, stillness and silence
don't have a chance.
It's a good thing they don't care
what their chances are.
Otherwise, they would be strictly
out of business.
That's S.O.O.B for those of you
born after 1950.
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02
The Fog Bank at Otter Point 05/25/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine
Christianity invites us
to dismiss, discount, ignore
so much that is blatantly,
undeniably, absolutely TRUE/FACTUAL/UTTERLY SO--
and to embrace, affirm, believe
so much that is absurd, impossible, completely not-so--
that I am nonplussed, bewildered and confounded
to report that it continues
to chug right along
as though every thing is just fine and dandy
in the world Christianity declares to be The Real World
(Solid evidence to the contrary notwithstanding).
The difference between the world Christianity lives in
and the world we actually live in
is too contrary to be balanced and harmonized,
except by those like me
who acknowledge the discrepancy
and say, along with R.D. Laing,
"Okay then, let's play a game of not playing a game!"
While all the time knowing we are just playing a game.
Why would we do that?
Well, because everybody else is doing it,
and it pays the bills (As it is still doing for me),
and it provides me with a platform
for addressing the incongruity
in an honest and straight-forward kind of way,
while working out a compromise position
that manages the dichotomy
and offers a reasonable, valid, and brilliant
display of Taoist, Yin-Yang (Pronounced "Yong")
dexterity deserving of a place among
the saints in light and the masters of lore.
We take Jesus and make a Taoist Sage of him.
Which is easy to do
because he is one.
We throw away Original Sin,
The Garden of Eden,
The Glory of the Cross
and all of the doctrines and dogmas
of classic Christianity,
and replace them with
Original Nature,
the Virtues that are ours from conception,
and the Life we are born to live
in honoring the Tao
that takes "The Great Flow of Circumstances"
(A Confucian concept)
and merges them with The Way of Life Everlasting,
going, "Wow!
Why haven't we thought of this before now?"
We tried, actually.
And those of us who did so
were burned at the stake.
Or drowned as witches.
Or ostracized and run out of town...
And it is in their honor,
that I stand before you
and say, "Enough is enough.
Be done with the masquerade.
Embrace the Truth.
And dance with me."
Hidden Falls 09/16/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina
We need a base,
anchoring us,
providing stability,
balance and harmony
amid the upheavals
and uncertainty
of social and political unrest.
Where do you go in time of trouble?
The right kind of emptiness
(Like the emptiness between breaths),
stillness and silence
do it for me.
I close myself off from the noise,
complexity and drama,
and return to the Source,
which I picture as an inlet
with a solid rock beach,
and as I look out at an infinite
expanse of water,
there is a rocky cliff
about twenty feet high
rising from the rock beach.
It is night, but dimly lit,
and small waves are lapping
at my feet.
I know the water is deep,
and I am completely safe there,
welcome, protected, at peace,
at home.
Simply by waiting,
I am grounded in confident assurance
that I can find what I need
to do what is needed
in each situation as it arises
by listening in the emptiness,
stillness and silence
for the knowing that guides action
beyond thinking and understanding.
I'm able to relax in that knowledge
and wait for the flow of circumstances
to call forth the action that is appropriate
to the occasion,
trusting myself to have what it takes
to do what is necessary when the time is right.
In the meantime,
I can enjoy the peace
of being grounded/anchored
beyond the purview of the clashing rocks
and heaving waves of the wind dark sea
in the other world of normal, apparent, reality.
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02
The North Atlantic from Lakies Head 10/01/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia
"The Way" people are always talking about
is the way we go about being alive,
our way of life.
How we do that makes all the difference.
The best way to do that
is with our eyes open.
With awareness.
Knowing what's what
and what needs to be done about it
in light of what.
In light of what do we live?
What directs us through our life?
What guides our boat
on its path through the sea?
What do we mean by the way
we live our life?
What do we intend?
What are we trying to do?
Who says that is worth doing?
How do we know we are not wasting our time?
Chasing wild geese?
Barking up the wrong tree?
How do we know
that what we say is important
is important?
How do we evaluate our values?
How good is the good we call good?
Good for whom?
Good for what?
What is our idea of the highest good?
Getting to the bottom of us
is the only trip worth taking.
We get there by asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked,
and saying all of the things
that cry out to be said,
and not taking anybody's word for anything.
We only know what we experience
after we have thoroughly examined the experience.
Fifty years of experience
isn't the same
as one year of experience
repeated fifty times.
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03
The Lone Pine 05/24/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Pinyon Pine, Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
Knowing what to do/what needs to be done
is different from thinking/guessing/hoping/wishing/praying/...
When you know it's time for a nap,
it's time for a nap.
When you know it's lemon ice box pie
and not a doughnut,
you know it and nobody can talk you out of it.
Knowing what is called for in a situation
is knowing what is called for.
This kind of knowing flows
from experience/intuition/instinct/seeing/hearing/understanding/...
From being Here/Now
in the fullest sense of the term.
From being Here/Now,
awake to Here/Now,
aware of Here/Now,
fully present Here/Now...
Knowing what the moment calls for
in each situation as it arises
and doing what needs to be done there,
the when and how it needs to be done--
doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way--
is to be aligned with the Tao
and at one with the flow of time and place.
This kind of knowing
comes from being present-without-purpose
(beyond being present),
with no interests to serve
(beyond seeing/doing what needs to be done)
with no agenda/plan/opinion/desire/fear/etc.
leading the way,
"just being there"
to do what needs to be done there,
watching/looking/seeing/hearing/...
waiting for the right action
to come forth spontaneously
in response to "the great flow of circumstances,"
to surprise even ourselves
with its appropriateness
and its precision.
This kind of knowing springs from
getting out of the way of The Way
and being at one with The Way.
The Way things need to be done Here/Now.
If you are going to practice anything,
practice that
in each situation as it arises,
until it becomes as natural as breathing,
moment by moment,
day by day.
Mount Robson Aspen 09/27/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Mont Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia
Something knows where to put the tripod.
Or did, back when I used a tripod.
Now, something knows where to stand,
how to compose the image,
when to take the picture.
I don't think about any of this.
I simply listen for "Yes/No,"
"Here/There," "Now/Later"...
It all begins with what catches my eye.
I have no say-so at all in the matter.
My eye is caught of its own volition.
My eye is not "mine" at all,
but belongs to something "other than me."
Something catches my eye,
and I'm onto it just like that.
Looking closer,
looking for a clean (no powerlines etc.) composition,
looking for the best lighting,
deciding on the best time of day,
whether it's a sun shot or a cloudy day shot...
I'm not "thinking" about any of this,
just knowing.
Knowing is automatic,
spontaneous,
essential.
I know when the picture is "there,"
and when it is "not there."
Who is the "I" that knows?
We all have one.
Do we listen, is the question.
Do we know what we know, is the question.
Are we paying attention, is the question.
But, back to the matter at hand...
There has been a carryover of this
approach to photography
into my life.
Or, it was already my approach to life,
and it carried-over into photography.
I don't know which way it is.
I know there is something that knows,
and I generally wait to be prodded
into action--
or, I wait for action to be evoked
by the flow of circumstances
within the situation.
I don't think about it.
"Now? Now? Now?"
I just act and deal with the response
to my acting.
Sometimes, I'm right,
and sometimes, I'm wrong,
but I don't keep score,
or a running tab on how I'm doing.
I just keep showing up where
I think I need to be
and participate in what's going on
in ways most appropriate to the occasion--
with nothing to gain and nothing to lose
and nothing on the line.
This approach keeps the noise level down
in my life,
the complexity level low,
and the drama level non-existent.
All of which I find to be most enjoyable.
I have no trouble being still and quiet
in ways appropriate to the occasion.
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02
Anhinga 09/25/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
People who are against abortion
and against gun control
give me the heaves.
Seriously.
I'm throwing up all over the room
just thinking about it.
About the gross inconsistency
of their lives.
About their refusal to grow up
and bear the pain
of their own incongruity,
laziness,
blindness
and irresponsibility.
It's like this.
To be against abortion
and for guns
is the biggest non sequitur
in the Big Book of Non Sequiturs.
It makes no sense.
It doesn't connect.
It is a blatant contradiction.
Guns are for killing.
If you want to do target shooting,
a BB gun or a slingshot would do that.
Guns are for killing.
And the right to own/carry a gun
gives you the right
to kill whomever you decide needs killing.
A gun gives you the right
to perform a retroactive abortion
on whomever you decide is a threat to society.
You might be against abortion,
but you are ready to make exceptions
if the situation calls for it.
You make the call.
That is all women are asking for.
The right to make the call.
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03
Sundown on Pamlico Sound 10/24/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Jesus lived a life
that led to his death,
like John The Baptist before him,
and 10,000 martyrs after him.
Like Socrates and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Like Lao Tzu
in his self-appointed exile
and death "in the west."
Like all of the Native Americans
who declared, "It is a good day to die."
And died that day.
Like everyone who knew/knows what is important,
is right about it,
and lives a life commensurate/aligned/in accord with
what they know to be so.
Living like we mean it,
means living like that.
Means we are going to live
in the service of doing what needs to be done,
and if we die, we die.
What are you serving with your life?
What do you know needs to be done?
If you have any hesitation here,
sit for a while
in the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence,
and see what appears unbidden,
of its own accord,
spontaneously arising,
to stir you to action
in its service,
no matter what.
If nothing happens,
you aren't ready for the adventure,
and have to do the preliminary work
of coming to terms with the ways
you deny/dismiss/discount/ignore
the significance of your original nature
and the virtues/daemon/genius/shtick/etc.
that came embedded in your DNA
from before you were born.
When you get to the bottom of you,
there you are,
and the life you live expresses/exhibits/incarnates/
reveals that
for all the world to see.
Which is all Jesus and the rest of them
ever did.
And all any of us need to do.
Just be natural,
as "one thus come."
And the path unfolds before us.
And if we die, we die.
Amen.
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04
Badwater 03/21/2007 Oil Paint Renered — Death Valley National Park, California
We have this fantasy/illusion/delusion
that we would be better off
somewhere else.
Call it "The Garden of Eden Syndrome."
It is endemic to the species.
And, it is the root of all of our troubles.
Trying to improve our lot
makes things worse
as it makes things better.
It is called,
"Shooting ourselves in the foot."
Sometimes, it is "in the head."
And there is no fix for it.
No solution.
It's a part of the way things are
that we have to take into account
and live around,
knowing that we do not know
where we are better off,
and noticing when we are pushing
for something different,
maybe better,
and sit for a while
in the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence
to see what arises "on its own"
and how that might address
our situation.
It is called, "Listening before we
do anything potentially stupid."
"No pushing,
no striving,
no forcing,"
is a good rule of thumb.
But it is okay
to force a window open
if you are in a house on fire.
All rules are to be understood
in light of what is
appropriate to the situation.
Anything might be called for
at any time.
Making the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence
an essential practice
all along the way
(And all along the Way, as well).
The beginning of 480 single family dwellings plus a condo or two and all that comes with it, 40 feet to the north of where I live. Woopie.
This machine is a tree-eater. It pushes trees over and grinds them up. It can eat the forest in a couple of days. Money can do anything except buy the things money can’t buy. And it can destroy those. Yippie.
Still Life With Sun And Pilings 10/31/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Silver Lake, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore
We don't see anything just as it is.
Everything carries our projection of itself
"as it is to us"
for us to inspect,
examine
and admire,
or detest,
in a "Just as I thought" kind of way.
We see what we expect to see,
and are rarely surprised,
merely affirmed.
And the few surprises
are easily folded into our expectations
by expanding our theory regarding them
to include the apparent exception,
that is now understood as a "predictable aberration,"
and all is comfortably familiar as before.
"There is nothing new under the Sun."
Just more of the same old same old.
And we never have to get outside
of our prejudices, biases, assumptions
and inferences
in order to actually see what we behold.
And when somebody,
say like Jesus,
comes along saying things
that cannot be dismissed, discounted, ignored,
we crucify him,
or burn him at the stake,
or lynch him
and are done with him
like that.
It doesn't do to upset the apple cart,
rock the boat
and refuse to be who we say you are
and ought to be.
We rather like the world
we say we hate
and will not allow to change.
"The path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."
This is Martin Palmer's interpretation
of the Lao Tzu's "The Tao that can be explained
is not the eternal Tao."
No maps.
No words.
No linear, sequential, step-by-step way
to the Way.
Teachers and masters are useless,
except for being able to say
"Teachers and masters are useless."
And, "Don't listen to me!
Listen to YOU!"
And, "In listening to YOU,
listen past all the noise
to the core/center/source
of you.
"Empty yourself of all that
interferes with knowing yourself,
hearing yourself,
listening to yourself,
which means emptying yourself
of everything--
even the desire to be empty.
"Be the emptiness between breaths!"
With that much instruction,
we have all it takes
to be on the way to the Way,
which is, itself, the Way.
"The Way to what?"
To seeing, hearing, understanding,
knowing, doing, being.
"Understanding" means understanding
there is nothing to understand,
nothing that can be explained,
defined, spelled-out, made clear...
We are living out of our experience
of what is here/now.
Not out of our heads.
The world is run out of heads.
Everybody lives out of their heads.
Thinking, thinking, thinking.
Wanting, wanting, wanting.
Striving, striving, striving...
This situation that we all are now in
is the result of that.
That is the Wasteland.
We are looking for the Gateless Gate
that is the exit from the Wasteland
to "the Land of Gentle Breezes/
Where the Peaceful Waters Flow"
(Anne Murray, "Snowbird").
The Gateless Gate is the transition place,
the fulcrum, the pivot point,
between not-seeing and seeing,
not-knowing and knowing,
striving-but-not-doing and wu-wei.
Between the Wasteland and Home.
At Home, we live out of a spontaneous response
to our experience of here/now,
where there is very little thinking/planning/scheming/
conniving/striving
in the service of advantage/gain/merit/payoff/wealth/
privilege/status
and only living/seeing/doing
in balance and harmony
between "the great flow of circumstances"
and "The Way of being in accord with the Tao,"
which is seeing/knowing
our experience of here/now
and responding to it in ways
that are appropriate to the occasion,
in each situation as it arises.
Doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right way.
And letting that be that.
Spontaneously,
in tune with the moment.
Situation by situation.
Period.
This is the perspective
that is the Elder Wand
which transcends
and transforms the world
one situation at a time.
And is the alternative
to life as we know it.
Waiting for us to
take up the search for the Holy Grail
from the Wasteland to Home
by the way we respond to here/now,
one after another.
The Mystery of Yin-Yang,
of Living/Being/Seeing/Doing
by not doing anything special at all.
Just ordinarily going about
business as usual
in a very unusual way.
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I interrupt this program to bring you a word from our sponsor… Not really. We don’t have a sponsor, but we do have a companion blog site that coincides nicely with this one, and if you aren’t tuned into it, you are missing out. You can find it at: https://jimwdollar.wordpress.com/2022/05/03/05-03-2022/
Who Cut Off The Lights, Locked The Door, Walked Away? 02/11/2008 — Rural North Carolina
What is stopping us
from becoming
neglected,
abandoned,
betrayed?
We are the guardians of ourselves.
We are the champions of our bodies,
our lives.
We owe fealty to our original nature
and the virtues that are ours from birth.
No knight in shinning armor's
oath of liege loyalty
and filial devotion
was greater
than ours should be
to serve and protect
our nature,
our virtues,
our life.
How are we doing with that?
How might we do better?
Why not do it?
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02
Beulah Land 64 Oil Paint Rendered — Road to Botany Bay Historical Nature Preserve, Edisto Island, South Carolina
The only thing standing between us
and everlasting joy and satisfaction
is a slight shift in perspective.
Perspective is a superpower.
The Elder Wand.
It transforms everything.
Nothing is so bad that
it can't be made better
by changing the way we look at it.
Our relationship with ourselves,
our life,
one another
and the world at large
can be renewed,
reshaped,
reformed
simply by changing our perspective
about all these areas.
We don't have to see things as we do.
We don't have to think about things as we do.
We don't have to feel about things as we do.
We do not have to threat things as we do.
We can change our mind about everything.
And change everything in so doing.
We hold the power of the gods.
How we use it tells the tale.
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03
Beacon Heights 10/02/2018 Oil Paint Rendered Detail — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We do not get good-enough choices.
What we do about that tells the tale.
Stay away from all organized forms of religion
is my best advice.
They are selling you something
you do not need to buy.
You have to trust yourself to know
what is best for you,
even when you have no idea.
Here is how it works:
The best we can do in any situation
is always right there.
All we have to do is do it
in one situation as it arises
after another,
and we will get better at it over time,
until, eventually, we are smoking cigars
and reveling in the good we are doing,
by doing nothing more
than trusting ourselves
to do the best we can
with what we have to work with.
Of course, there is a catch.
It has to be truly the best we can do.
And there are always two things
standing in our way,
keeping us from doing the best we can do
in every situation that comes along.
Make that three things.
Fear.
Laziness.
Greed.
Fear, laziness and greed are why we are
where we are today.
Are why the world is the way it is today.
Are the only things standing in our way,
preventing things from being better than they are.
What we do about that is up to us.
What we do about that tells the tale.
Will we trust ourselves to do all that can be done
with what we have to work with
time after time?
Will we do it?
At this point, the three tools/weapons
and the four companions
are waiting to be relied upon and utilized:
The right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
Our original nature,
the virtues that are ours to serve and to share,
sincerity,
integrity.
Up against
fear,
laziness
and greed.
Should be no contest, but.
You know how we are...
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04
Fence and Clouds 01 05/08/2009 BW Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
Look.
It's like this:
There is our original nature,
and there are the virtues that came with us
from the womb.
That is what we have to work with.
We violate our nature
by being who we are not,
and by refusing to be who we are.
We violate our virtues
by ignoring/denying/despising
the gifts that are ours to serve and to share.
By having big ideas,
and living to serve them
at the expense of the things
that are legitimately ours to serve (and share).
This, you see, or will if you look,
is the story of the Garden of Eden.
We are born,
here and now,
with this and that,
and we want to trade it for something better.
Something different.
Something more.
And we spend a lot of time
coming to terms with who we are
and what is ours to work with.
Sometimes we waste our entire life
not wanting anything to do with who we are
and what is ours to work with.
That is called "Too bad for us."
So it comes down to what Red Redding had to say,
"We can get busy living
or get busy dying."
What's it going to be?
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05
Split-rail Fence 11/13/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolilna
People can look at the same thing
and see something different.
This is the power of projection
at work in our life.
We cannot just see what is there,
we see all of the things we read into the thing
we look at.
Everything brings something up in us,
connects us with something else
that it triggers within us.
Everything triggers something.
We remember everything
and associate past things with present things,
and see everything
when we see anything.
Emotionally.
We feel it.
We can say,
"This is not that,"
but we react to "this"
as though it were "that."
Can't help it.
It is automatic.
Built into us from the beginning.
How we see is who we are,
where we have been,
what has happened to us,
and failed to happen at all.
We can look at the same sunset,
and not see the sunset before us
for all the sunsets it represents.
And all that it means beyond sunsets.
It is a wonder we can see anything
for all the things that are in the way.
Almost There 05/24/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Crabtree Falls, Blue Ridge Parkway, Little Switzerland, North Carolina
Curiosity is a super power.
Asking all the questions that beg to be asked,
saying all the things that cry out to be said,
getting to the bottom of things
that have no bottom,
seeking,
searching,
knocking,
inquiring,
following hunches,
looking for clues,
sniffing out possibilities,
seeing answers
as the source of better questions,
leads us to the radiance and joy
of the ineffable,
the numinous,
the mystery at the heart of life and being.
Curiosity is the Philosopher's Stone,
turning base metal into precious gold--
metaphorically speaking--
and leading us down paths
we did not know were paths,
through doors we did not know were there,
into strange places
and far-off lands
that you wouldn't want to miss for the world--
because it is better than any world ever.
Guardians from the Sea Oil Paint Rendered — Brandon Beach, Oregon, May 26, 2009–From the Wasteland Collection
It all depends upon
and flows from
our doing the next thing
that needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
for the simple joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
with no gain,
advantage,
benefit,
profit,
merit
or reward
to be realized for our effort.
Not just once,
but in every moment
throughout the day
in which something needs doing.
If you can do that,
Jesus will return in you,
the Buddha will enter the world
through you.
The old will pass away like that (Snaps fingers),
and behold!
The new will be bestowed upon all who dwell
upon the earth.
If you do not believe me,
just do it!
You'll see!
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02
Beulah Land 63 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Boone, North Carolina
Taoism started as an individual devotional practice
helping people in China meet their world
and find their way through the day
by aligning themselves
and their wants/needs/desires/wishes/etc.
with The Way that was right for them
and their place in time.
It was the original formulation of
"Thy Way, not mine, be done!"
This was about 5,000 years BCE.
In those days, people were up against it
in ways we cannot imagine.
They needed all the help they could get,
and they turned inward
in their quest for safety,
stability,
support,
succor,
direction,
guidance,
protection,
well-being,
balance,
harmony,
etc.
It was them
and The Way That Was Right For Them
every day--
the origin of the phrase
"day by day"--
because their circumstances
would not allow them more
confidence and self-assurance than that.
"Maybe yes, maybe no,
we'll see,"
was all the planning ahead
they could do.
Time passed.
Things changed.
The religion of the people
evolved with the people,
and with social stability,
the Silk Road,
emperors,
war,
history
the people encountered foreigners
who had their own ways of meeting the day,
with beliefs and practices
that made their private devotion
to The Way
seem provincial and behind the times,
so most of the traded up
for a religion that promised
prosperity and easy living
and life of splendor and delight
on the other side of death.
And Taoism got with the times
with esoteric forays into alchemy
and yoga, herbs and Iching,
Confucianism, Buddhism
and a world full of ways to get what you want.
All in an effort to gain market share
among those looking for personal advantage and gain.
Classic Taoism remained sacred
to a few followers of "The Way and its Virtues"
(As the "Tao te Ching" may be translated),
but its vitality as a "system of belief and practice"
waned and teetered on the edge of the periphery
of "darkness upon darkness/the gateway to mystery."
Where "advantage and gain" never meant anything
more than "Finding the Way that is right for you."
And there it remains today.
A devotional orientation to
living from the heart,
aligned with our original nature
and the virtues/gifts
that are ours to serve and to share,
with nothing in it for us
beyond finding our life and living it
as it needs to be lived
in doing what needs to be done
and needs us to do it,
for the fulfillment,
joy and satisfaction of having done it,
world without end, amen.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 