Knowing is a function of being open to here, now without expectation, desire, fear, greed, etc. imposing itself upon the moment. The Buddha called this "peaceful abiding, here, now."

Being free from all influences is being open to the moment and knowing what's what in the moment, and able to respond to the moment as the moment needs to be responded to.

Meditation at its best is a self-induced trance state in which we are entirely present in the moment without aims or ambition for the moment, and are open to what is called for--knowing what needs to be done without knowing how we know. We are then imposing nothing onto the moment, but are aligned with the moment, and cable of doing what is called for, when, where, and how it is called for, without intention or interest interfering with our natural, appropriate, action.

This is seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/being spontaneously out of "peaceful abiding, here, now."

Knowing is the foundation of doing the right thing at the right time in the right way in the right place in each situation as it arises. But. It is an intuitive knowing, not an intellectual knowing. It is a knowing born of the here, now, not of the should, ought, must because someone says so variety.

Our Psyche is the source of the right kind of knowing, not our brain. We cannot think our way to doing what is called for here, now. We cannot be taught to know how to know what to do when, where, how. Instruction is in the way of the way, which waits for those who "just know."

Zen is knowing that doesn't know how it knows what it knows. Taoism is knowing the same thing. And there are Zen/Taoist "Masters" who market themselves as knowing how to teach us what we know. There are Buddhist teachers by the thousands who tell is how to know what the Buddha knew sitting under the Bodhi Tree, when the Buddha himself didn't know what he was doing beyond sitting, waiting, with "Peaceful abiding, here, now."

If we can live peacefully abiding here, now, that's it forever.

Throwing theology away clears the way for knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises without bothering to try to control matters to suit ourselves.

The is no God to help us get what we want. There is only seeing, hearing, knowing what's what and what is happening and what needs to be done about it, in response to it, in each situation as it arises. Not so that God will be happy with us, but so that we might align ourselves with what needs to be done and do it when, where and how it needs to be done throughout the day every day.

We live in the service of what matters most here, now--doing what needs to be done in light of what matters most here, now. No matter what.

We step into each day, responsive to the needs/requirements of the day, looking to serve the day with the gifts we are born with--doing what we do best and enjoy doing most for the good of all things considered. Getting, having, acquiring, amassing, possessing, owning, consuming giving way to knowing, doing, being at one with what is called for here, now each day.

What would be helpful, here, now?
I think honest conversation straight from the heart
means the most to me all of the time,
but it is not easy to come by.

Where would you go to find it?
It's mostly trite repetition where I live.
Yesterday and the day before replayed today.

Truth seems to be what everyone says is true
without much in the way of personal experience
or individual reflection evident anywhere at all ever.

Ask people what they know is true and trustworthy
out of their own experience and they will act like
they have never thought about it.

Truth is mostly hearsay.

The truth of our own life is difficult to talk about.
Too personal.
Too painful.
Better to stick with truisms and one-liners.
Or say nothing at all.

If we didn't want anything, how would we know what to do?
How do we know what is called for? 
What determines our action on the field of action?
What guides our boat on its path through the sea?

It is possible to remove wanting from our life.
Why would we do that?
To know what is called for,
and to do what needs to be done--
whether or not we want to to it,
or want it to be done.

Live without wanting and see what happens.
What impulses will direct our living with wanting out of the way?
If we have no interest in the outcome,
what will determine how we live?

Our life is an experiment with being alive. No?

We find our way by asking the questions that beg to be asked
and saying the things that cry out to be said.
Reflection, realization and recognition lead the way.
And we find our way to where we need to be, doing what is called for, day by day, all the way.

The answers reside in the questions that expose previous answers as the frauds they are ("Every answer is the step on the way to better questions"). And knowing what we need to know leads us to asking what we need to ask, and doing what we need to do, in each situation as it arises, all our life long.

What needs to be asked, known, seen, done here, now? That's all we need to know and do here, now, in every here, now that comes along. Being students of the moment makes us students for life.
Moment to moment, all the way.

This image brings to mind the quote from Captain Jack Sparrow, "It's the pirate's life for me, Gibbs, I have no say in the matter, savvy?"

That speaks for me of cameras and photography. I had to be at this place above Death Valley almost twenty years ago. The things about which we "have no say in the matter," are the things we cherish and serve because we must. And those are the things that guide our boat on its path through the sea.

I fell in love with a 35mm single lens reflex camera in the mid-sixties and have belonged to photography ever since. That is a psychic phenomenon of life-transforming proportions, and is the basis of much that passes for religious practice, and belongs to the sphere of the God beyond theology. 

The conflux of the two Gods, the God of theology and the God of psychic phenomenon, has been a source of confusion and bewilderment from the beginning of human life, with us trying to make sense of our life experience in the grip of the psychological forces of projection and superstition--representing a powerful blend and the source of emotions quite beyond our comprehension and control--which we disregard and dismiss to our own loss and dismay over the course of our life.

When Psyche wants to have a word with us, it would behove us to listen. If we have a dream that repeats itself it represents a Psychic urgency to have our attention, and we would be wise to sit with the dream to explore and reflect on until realization dawns.

All churches everywhere are enigmas, revealing and concealing at the same time, being the truth that denies the truth, right and wrong simultaneously. We have to know what we are dealing with when we are dealing with the church. God and Not-God, here, now, all at once, all of the time.

We have to know what we are dealing with when we are dealing with the church (And everything else as well). Meister Eckart put the church in its place with this telling remark: "The final leave-taking is leaving God (the God of theology) for God (The Psyche, the Source, The Foundation of all things).

God is Psychic reality, not a spiritual being.

So when Jesus said, "The Father and I are one," and "When you have seen me you have seen the Father," he was talking about God as Psychic reality. Everybody else thought he was talking about the God of theology. We can see how that might confuse things from the start. However, once we have the "Rosetta Stone," and know how to see what we look at, it all falls into place, and we get it--and comes to life the words of the poet (T.S. Eliot in "Little Gidding") "We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time."

And so, we have to know how to see what we look at, and come awake in the emptiness, stillness, silence, as those who know what's what for the first time.

Blue seems to be my color of choice. The woman who owned the frame shop I used in my early days told me, "Jim, your photographs will never sell because there is too much blue in them." She was right, and there is still too much blue in them.

Taking photos that sell when it means not taking the ones we need to take because something within has a yen for the ones we take is to betray something within, and the is the wrongest thing to do ever.

We have to listen to ourselves and do what needs to be done in the service of what guides our boat on its path though the sea.

We are here to serve That Which Knows What's What And What Needs To Be Done About What Is Called For Here, Now, No Matter What Forever. Regardless of what's selling.