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?
Riding on a Dirt Road — Looking for Senes in Rural North Carolina near Winston Saleam
A woman on a black Horse has been my metaphor for my intuition guiding, directing, me through my life, from where I am here, now to what is called for and what is calling me to do in each situation as it arises. I know it when I see it, sense it, the way I knew a woman on a black horse was the photograph that needed to be taken as I sat with my wife in Tom Phillips' pickup truck driving through the desert in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
Tom was the Zen Master of Navajo photography guides in 2006 and he was driving us to the first stop in his list of "shooting locations" in Monument Valley when we met a Navajo woman riding a black horse. I didn't tell him to stop for the photograph of her on the horse because he was the one who was supposed to know these things, and because I had no idea of what the etiquette was with me taking personal photos of Navajos in their native environment, so I let the opportunity pass. And remembering it has kept it as the sole failure to listen to my intuitive recognition of the situation at hand. From that moment, I have been quick to do what I know cries out to be done. I live to get the picture no matter what. And the woman on a black horse is in every photograph I take, and she is even becoming visible from time to time to commemorate every time that she is present in my mind as the shutter clicks and the photo is taken.
What is your metaphor for your own intuitive sense of what is called for? How do you make your intuition real in the time and place of your living? Live to know these things and to serve your intuition above all else in the time left for living, no matter what!
Eno Reflections — Eno River State Park, Durham, North Carolina
Psyche and the Tao commune with each other, share a common language, and an environment that includes us in the work to be what is needed and do what is called for in each situation as it arises.
We only need to get on board with them and bring our gifts--the things we do best and enjoy doing most--to life in the here, now for balance and harmony, rhythm and flow to come to life in our life and for things to come together for the true good of all.
It only takes a quick Look around to see how far away we are from that, and know that the entire country/world is long overdue for a return to emptiness/stillness/silence and sitting there as an attentive presence tuning in to Psyche and Tao and participating in life together with them for the common good of all concerned.
This isn't woolgathering, daydreaming or building castles in the air. It is returning to the center and foundation of life together with Psyche and Tao, regaining the balance and harmony of life together with them and the time and place of our living, in order to see and serve what is called for here, now as one with each other and all others who are living as one with all others and with Psyche and Tao.
As the Buddha would say, "It only means peaceful abiding here, now."
The Tree on the Hill — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
I hired Tom Phillips, the Zen Master of Navajo Photography Guides in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. My wife and I were crowded into the only seat of Tom's pickup driving through the desert on the way to the first stop on Tom's list of "Shooting Locations," when we met a Navajo woman on a black horse coming toward us through the sagebrush. "There is the photograph!" The realization hit me like a physical blow to the body and I ignored it as we passed the rider and Tom nodded to her. This was the experience I needed to have had before our trip to Monument Valley, and what I came to Monument Valley to have and learn from.
I have carried The Woman On The Black Horse with me ever since. She has directed me to a life time of photographs, and is part of every scene I walk through, and smiles back at me from every photo I take. Here she is in this one--she was kind enough to pose from a distance and wink at me before disappearing back into my memory cache. Of course, I winked back and waved. We have a thing going. Every time she gives me an intuitive nudge, I give her a Namaste bow and do what at the situation calls for as the situation calls for it, around the clock throughout each calendar year (And we have been doing this since 2006).
I'm able to bring her into the here and now of photographic reality thanks to Photoshop's AI feature, "Generative Fill."
Create a space in an image to be filled with whatever you want placed there and type in the directions, like, "Navajo Woman on a Black Horse," and the Ap gives you three choices. If you don't like any of them, you can request three more choices. And here you are: The Tree on The Hill with a Navajo Woman on a Black Horse, both of them winking to you and laughing. My secret partners in every photograph I take.
Conservation Road — DuPont State Forest, Brevard, North Carolina
Marianne Moore said, "The cure for loneliness is solitude." Perspective shifts transform everything. Everyone thinks the way they see things is the way things are. Which makes magicians of us all. Just by changing the way we see things changes the way things are. The way we think becomes the magic wand disappearing moods and bringing amazing wonders into being. Flipping the switch was the discovery the old Taoists made for transforming their lives.
What we say. The words we use. Enflame emotions. Create realities. Produce "facts" that are no more factual than leprechauns and unicorns, but everyone believes are so because everyone believes are so. And so we have religions throughout history that are no more because they never were. Repeating lies produce what they pronounce. So be sure to be aware of what you say, and be sure to inquire, "Who says so?" and "What makes them think that what they say is so?" of everything you hear, including everything you hear yourself saying/thinking.
The ground of depression, paranoia, euphoria, etc. is nothing more than thoughts about thoughts fueled by imagination and speculation, presumption and assumption. Getting to the bottom of things changes things. No?
Cullasaja River Spring — Cullasaja River Gorge — Nantahala National Forest, Franklin to Highlands, North Carolina
It can get to be too much like that (snaps fingers), but. "It" is only a matter of perspective. All it takes is turning the light around. The trick to turning the light around is found in working with caring and not-caring, wanting and not-wanting.
We can care too much about the wrong things. We can want too much of the wrong things. When our life revolves around, is built upon caring/wanting, we are stomp dancing on thin ice.
So.
We have to stop.
The problem is that we have lived our life on the wrong foundation from the beginning, and we don't just stop that and start over on a better, more reliable, basis than the one that has gotten us to here, now.
Moving in with not-caring and not-wanting is not smooth and easy. It is very much intentional and deliberate, and based on attentive diligence concerning what we are wanting/caring about. That is the portal to mood swings and the Deep River Blues.
Keeping our eye, either eye, on our caring/wanting is the goal for the remainder of our days. We have to care just enough about the right things and not at all about the wrong things. The same goes for wanting. We have to want to be free of self-destructive thoughts and tendencies and we have to want to not-want addiction and obsession/compulsion directing our life.
We have to walk the line between caring about the right things and not-caring about the wrong things. Between wanting the right things and not-wanting the wrong things. Walking that line is the key to good health, physically, mentally, emotionally and the end of the line in abut 10,000 different ways. Savvy?
Looking Glass Falls — Pisgah National Forest, Brevard, North Carolina
There are "will," "want," and "desire," in terms of having/getting our way on our way through our life.
And there is living aligned with the drift and flow of life in cooperating with the situation and circumstances of the here, now using our natural interests, skills and abilities to do what is called for without any concern for, or interest in, personal benefits and privileges.
When Jesus said, "Pick up your cross and come with me," he's saying do what needs what you have to offer and don't worry about the outcome." Which is a very Taoist thing to say. And a book on "The Tao of Jesus," is something I should write or maybe have written, I don't remember.
It would certainly be worth reading and applying, and would be a helpful guide for Christianity as it moves away from sin, repentance, redemption and atonement and into simply being/doing what is called for in each situation as it arises for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it all our life long.
That is the future of the church being the church, which the church will have nothing to do with because of its fascination with doing God's will and going to heaven when we die.
But those few who have ears to hear and eyes to see will get along just fine. As they always have. Happy trails to you who know who you are!
Marsh Scene — Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina, Looking From the dunes to the Sound
The old Taoists were right about it all. "Circumstances begetting circumstances," was their explanation for everything being what it is.
Circumstances call for what needs to happen next. And we are called, by our circumstances, to size things up and determine what is called for here, now, and do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, and the right place, trusting that to be "The next right thing" that leads us to the right thing after that all the way that is the way that unfolds before us through time.
That is a lot better than waiting for Godot, or for Jesus to come back with a vengeance and unleash Armageddon to make everyone really sorry for what they have done and make the righteous finally happy at last.
The people that created that scenario formed the Church of Rome during the four centuries between Jesus' death and the closing of the Holy Scriptures that say what's what and what better be done about it.
Would that the Taoists had held sway.
But, circumstances being what they were, the Holy Church in its wisdom made up what passes for revealed truth, and here we are.
If this is the best God can do, God should be ashamed, no? And if this is not the best God can do, God should be even more ashamed, no? Better to be done with "the whole catastrophe" and start over with circumstances begetting circumstances and dropping into the silence to see what we can find there that might work something like democracy only without money calling the shots and running the show.
Money is the kink in the hose.
Money was the end of Taoism all those years ago. Zen is what happened when Taoism met Buddhism rolling in from India into China and Japan with its new way of thinking/doing and making converts by the thousands and raking in the money. So Taoism evolved into Zen in order to claim market share, as circumstances created circumstances some more and here we are. With money calling the shots and running the show, to the good of only those with money.
How can we hope to do the right thing at the right time in the right way and the right place with money in charge, and "what's right" is what makes the most money for those deciding what to do here, now?
When what's right is determined by what makes the most money it all goes to hell in short order. No?
Huntington Beach Sunrise — Merrill’s Inlet, South Carolina
I once drove long distances for sunrises and sunsets, moonrises and moonsets. Not so much anymore. I trust them to perform on their own. They seem to have it down, and take care of business quite handily without my assistance.
It is a comfort to know that things can manage complex sequences and show up on time, ready to go, again, day after day. With no complaining or delays, throughout time. No? And I can't get the horizon straight. But, there is a fix for that.
Would that all things could be as easily corrected. No? Again. And if there is a bit of overcompensation, what of it? Nature does it perfectly every day. No? Again.
The Skeleton Trees of Boneyard Beach — Botany Bay Historical Preserve and Wildlife Management Area, Edisto Island, South Carolina
It isn't being dead that bothers me. It is the dying I would like to avoid. More specifically, it is the lingering incapacity, the dwindling, the not-dead-yet-but-maybe-a-little-deader-today-than-yesterday-it's-hard-to-tell that I find to be tedious and unnecessary.
I would like to be surprised, and yet, I like to think that I'm ready to die at any time, prepared, and looking forward to the experience of transition--being there, hoping to not be disappointed with any aspect of my passing.
And, I would like to out-live everyone I have ever known and cared about knowing. To be the one to turn off the lights and shut the door. Wrap things up and go home.
"Home" has a nice ring to it. And fits smoothly with my idea of life being more of a psychic experience than a test, or a burden, or a duty. A "Let's see what we can do with this," kind of thing. A pass-time. A hobby.
I have found seeing things and thinking about them to be quite my thing. Photography and writing are two things I do quite spontaneously, automatically, all of the time, either doing it or thinking about doing it some more again every day. And two things I will most surely miss about being alive. Two things that "life" means for me.
And that leads me to say that life for me is experiential, not intellectual. I do it and think about having done it, as in reflect on having done it more than explain having done it. The only thing I can think to say about life is "Do It! All the way to being dead!" May it be so said of us all!
Lake Haigler Fall Mirror — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Ms. Unglesby was my fifth-grade teacher at Georgia Tucker Elementary in Monroe, Louisiana, who told my mother in one of those Parent/Teacher conferences, "Jimmy looks out the window a lot."
Jimmy still does. He carries the window with him wherever he goes. And takes photographs of what he sees to share with those who couldn't be there, then.
And, as with the image above, he mostly sees tranquility, serenity, peace and harmony, because that is what attracts him and what he looks for, because he doesn't have enough of those things in his life and goes in search of them to stabilize his world and enable him to find his way to who he is and what he is to be about.
Jimmy has discovered that he shares this, you might say "Schtick," of his with the Buddha, who summed up Buddhism with the simple and easily remembered phrase, "Peaceful abiding, here, now."
That's all it comes down to. This is where all living things come to life, by peacefully abiding, here, now. It is what we all are looking for, hoping to find. And it is all "right there" for those with eyes to see, looking, as we do, out the windows of our life, that we might be safe and serene, here and now, at last. No?
Lake Haigler Fall Mirror — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Experience is required to know/understand/comprehend. It cannot be said, told, explained, defined… Psyche is leading us to knowing throughout our life. We are not old enough to get it until we are old. And then it takes talking to/with people who are consciously seeking to grasp Psyche’s attempts at communion. Waking up. Enlightenment–is Psyche breaking through, which does not, cannot happen until the time is right. All of the Taoist, Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, Chang Tzu, etc. are about waiting, not pushing, forcing. And so the importance of looking out windows, of silence, stillness, emptiness, waiting, waiting, waiting, all of which goes against the culture, but not against nature, which waits for the right time to act before acting, or misses breakfast, lunch and dinner again.
Psyche is behind everything. At the bottom of everything. There are only us and the worlds of consciousness and unconsciousness, of reason, logic, intellect, and the artistic, painting, poetry, singing, psychic feeling, sensing, knowing without knowing how we know, and we have to consciously live in both worlds at the same time, knowing, sensing the movement from one to the other.
The wanting/desiring is identified in the metaphor of the Garden of Eden as being the source of our problems. Jesus picks up on the theme with “It is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle (A tight passageway in Jerusalem) than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” And his “the spirit is like the wind that blows where it will” is his condemnation of 5-year plans and scheming, planning our way to the goals we have in mind for ourselves. Not-knowing is the way to knowing, but it is not a kind of knowing that would be of value to those seeking “fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory.”
And this “gospel” doesn’t preach any better today than it did in Isaiah’s day with his, “Land, land, land! Hear the word of the Lord!” (Or was that Jeremiah?), and Jesus, with “You have eyes to see and ears to hear! Use them!” But words are useless when addressing the ways of Psyche. Only silence, stillness, emptiness works over time.
And I’ll have to keep writing because that is the only way I see/hear/understand. I’m writing to myself to hear what I have to say to me. And I repeat myself all of the time, because I’m slow to get what I “know” psychically, so my writing is Psyche’s way of trying to get me to hear what I am saying and need to hear. How do you hear what you have to hear?
Those who know, know the same things. There are no secrets. There is only what we all know. ‘Tis quite the pity we haven’t done more with it than we have. No?
Day’s End — Blue Ridge Parkway, West Jefferson, North Carolina
Participating in the rhythm and flow of life here, now--seeing, hearing, knowing, doing (One thing, not four) what is called for in response to what is happening in each situation as it arises is all there is. "Peaceful abiding, here, now" is seeing/doing this very thing, situation after situation, all our life long. In sync with the Tao, aligned with the moment, doing the right thing at the right time in the right place and the right way. Synchronistically, coincidentally, harmoniously, beautifully, perfectly--without imposing anything on anything or anyone. Without forcing, without compelling, without pushing/pulling, shoving, demanding, insisting--just flowing with the moment here, now all along the way.
What is keeping that from happening? What is needed for that to happen? Seeing what we look at. Hearing what we listen to. Doing what needs to be done in response to what is happening in light of what needs to happen. Of what is called for. Here, now.
No opinions. No agendas. No plans. No expectations. Spontaneously. Unconditionally. Unilaterally. See/Hear/Know/Do.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 