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?
The Buddha's first great discovery
was "All life is suffering."
It gets better.
His second great discovery
was "The way to freedom from suffering
is to not care about anything."
That's it.
Buddhism in two sentences.
Get those down
and you are as enlightened
as the Buddha was.
Or, you could just say,
"Suffering is just part of it,
don't let it get in your way!"
Or, "If you take anything too seriously,
it will rob you of all the rest!"
Or, "Finding the balance point
between too much and too little
is the trick to having it made!"
The Buddha talked about finding
the balance point.
He called it "The Third Way."
Sometimes, "The Middle Way."
And recommended living between
too much and too little in all things
great and small.
Now, you really have all it takes
to be a Buddha.
And, the Buddha would agree.
He would say, "Everybody is a Buddha!"
And he would be right about that.
It is a potential for us all, anyway.
Finding the balance point
creates harmony throughout our life,
and carries over into all the world.
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02
Big Creek Spring 04/15/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
One person's religion
is another person's folly.
Absolute truth is a very relative thing.
And so it is said
that true religion
does not take itself seriously
or impose itself on others,
and laughs at the very idea
of having the last word
about anything.
The best science,
like the best religion,
looks askance at everything
pretending to be a fact.
An absolute fact
is laughed out of the room.
The most factual thing you can think of
is factual only under certain conditions.
Put a banana in a jar
and tighten the lid.
Wait two weeks
and tell me what you have in the jar.
Things change.
That is an absolute fact.
So far as we know.
The fact of things changing
doesn't change.
So far as we know.
Everything that is so
is so
so far as we know.
So what?
So back off
and reconsider.
Sit quietly
and reflect.
See how our seeing
is impacting our life,
and look to see
what all is there.
There is how we see things,
and there is how things are.
And it is easy to think
the two are one,
and difficult to separate
the one into two.
So do the work.
And see how that changes things.
Softens things.
Moves things toward
pliability,
flexibility,
transparency,
and life.
For the sake of life.
–0–
01
Roaring Fork Oil Paint Rendered — Roaring Fork Auto Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Truth that is too true is intolerable,
unacceptable,
outlandish,
heretical,
obscene,
apostate,
blasphemous
and sentenced to death.
Examples are everywhere.
Jesus was crucified because
he spoke a truth that was too true to be true
("The father and I are one,"
for one).
Galileo was forced to recant
his declarations about the earth, sun and stars.
Darwin is still despised in some circles
for his truth about evolution.
Racial equality is anathema to white supremacists.
Climate change and vaccinations are ridiculed
by their deniers.
The list is long and incredibly sad.
How will we ever be One
when we cannot acknowledge the same truth?
Colonel Nathan R. Jessup's,
"You can't handle the truth!"
is the truest truth that has ever been spoken,
and he speaks to us all,
and to himself,
because there is a truth even he cannot handle.
"There is the way things are,
and there is the way things also are,
and that's the way things are!"
We don't want to consider the "also are."
We just want to say,
"THIS is the way things are!"
and let that be that.
But.
Yin is balanced by Yang,
and Yang by Yin.
And "Truth is found between the hands,"
(On the one hand this,
and on the other hand that,
and on the other hand, that over there...")
And that leaves us with being lenient,
kind,
receptive,
accepting,
open to
and tolerant of,
what is also true
on all levels
at all times.
And firmly opposed to
what is not true,
in all times and places.
Working that out
pushes us to the brink,
and we walk a fine line
across a slippery slope,
along a dangerous path
like a razor's edge.
The work of truth
is not for the faint of heart.
Or the narrow-minded.
Cypress Trees Oil Paint Rendered — An undisclosed location in eastern North Carolina
We have to be clear about
what we would go to hell for--
about what we would serve with our life
because it is life itself for us.
This isn't some grand principle,
"My family,"
"My country,"
"Human rights,"
etc.
This is what we do every day
because we cannot imagine a day
without doing it.
Don't tell me you have nothing like that
in your life!
That your days are empty hours
strung together with entertaining pastimes
and all the alcohol it takes to get you through
to another one!
The time we have been given
is the most sacred thing we have.
What we do with our time
is a testimony to what means the most to us.
What do you do with your time?
How much does it mean to you?
Why are you wasting your life
on meaningless activities?
What is your heart asking of you
that you will have nothing to do with?
Your heart is your internal guide,
the best guru you could hope to have!
To cut yourself off from your heart
and to go at life on your own,
without direction,
orientation,
or recommendation,
is to live without hope in the world.
Hope is not what we have,
but what we do--
because we must!
Not because it is going to work,
but because it is what we are here for!
What do you do because that is what you are here for?
Gerard Manley Hopkins said,
"What I do is me,
for that I came."
That's it!
What can you say that about?
If you don't know,
you have to stop everything
and get back in good grace with your heart!
Sit quietly
and apologize.
Rise and give yourself to the thing,
or things,
you have been rejecting as beneath you,
stupid,
unprofessional,
expensive and never going to pay for itself,
etc.
If it is playing the alto sax,
start playing the alto sax.
That won't be the end of it.
The alto sax is just the door.
Open the door.
See where it leads.
Throughout the time left for living.
–0–
03
Roan Woods Oil Pant Rendered — Roan Mountain State Park, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina
Our life together
depends on our
keeping faith with one another.
Our broken democracy
is an existential exhibit
of our failure to do that.
The promises of democracy
have not been forthcoming.
The divisions separating us
have grown deeper and wider.
Our words do not match our actions.
No one can count on being able
to depend on anyone.
The basic systems of government providing
education,
health care,
clean air and water,
livable wages,
affordable goods and services...
are increasingly unable
to meet needs and expectations.
The presumption of good faith
has been replaced by the presumption
of bad faith,
and where is help to be found?
It gets worse.
We are all we have.
There is no Savior.
No God of the Machine
to whiz in and solve our woes.
Our agony is ours to resolve.
And we do not want to do the work
We just want to be happy.
We are about to meet the hard truth:
The work is ours to do alone!
It is the work of squaring ourselves up
with what's what
and doing what needs to be done about it.
What's what is that we have no relationship
with ourselves,
and nothing to offer in relationship
with others.
The work is spiritual to the core--
to the core of ourselves.
We are spiritually bereft,
and begin the work of growing toward
a spiritually sound foundation
by sitting still,
being quiet,
and meeting That Which Waits to Greet Us within.
This will be the Mystery at the Heart
of Life and Being.
This is The Other Carl Jung was speaking of
when he said, "There is in each of us another,
whom we do not know."
It is time we make acquaintances.
Our spirituality waits for our spirit/soul/self
to enter communion with The Mystery
from which we come,
in which we live and move and have our being,
and to which we return.
Theology, doctrine, creeds and catechisms
are of no help here.
We meet who meets us and form a partnership,
living what remains to be lived
in accord with the Mystery living within us
in service to all sentient beings,
with good faith commitment
to the best interests of all concerned.
–0–
02
Spring Path Oil Paint Rendered — Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Our life's purpose
is to be better
at being who we are
everyday.
That gets lost somewhere
along the way,
and we throw ourselves into
being better off
than we were yesterday
everyday along the way.
Personal gain,
advancement,
acquirement,
acquisition...
rank higher with us
than any other thing.
"Profit At Any Price"
is the slogan
that drives us forward.
We will sell ourselves,
our soul,
for 30 pieces of silver,
or its current equivalent,
any time.
What is a life full of silver
with no idea of who we are
and how we need to incarnate/
exhibit/express ourselves
in the way we live?
What does our life say
about who we are?
How accurate is that?
What is there about you
that isn't evident anywhere?
Today is yours to work with
in bringing that forth!
–0–
01
The Old Mill Oil Paint Rendered — Glade Creek Mill, Babcock State Park, Clifftop, West Virginia
There are people we can't do anything about.
Locking them up,
sealing them off,
is the best we can do.
They exist to kill people,
hate people,
knock things over,
blow things up.
They have no life of their own.
They live to destroy
what others create.
Theirs are the outlaw bands
that have roamed the world
throughout history.
We will always have to deal with them.
Don't be shocked and appalled.
Just pick up your cross--
the cross of life in the world
on terms we don't get to choose--
and step into the day,
everyday.
And do what we can to make it better
than it was yesterday
everyday.
Think of our task here
as the Sisyphean Task
of rolling the stone up the hill,
following it down the hill,
and rolling it up the hill
through the ages.
Making the world better every day
is rolling the rock
through all the days of our life,
allowing nothing to stop us,
or even slow us down.
It is our work.
It is what we are here for.
To build things up.
To treat people well.
To be kind and generous.
Caring and compassionate.
No matter what.
Relentlessly.
Forever.
October Flow Oil Paint Rendered — Little Pigeon River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Chimneys Picnic Area, Tennessee
Accepting our vulnerability
without allowing it to slow us down
or keep us from living the life
that needs us to live it
is the sine qua non of the Hero's Journey
and the Spiritual Quest.
Living to be safe,
to never suffer,
to avoid all pain
and refuse to risk loss and defeat
is a childish refusal to be human.
The whiny old Psalmist lamented,
"We are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward."
So what?
Pick yourself up and get back in the game!
What's with the moaning and groaning?
Life is to be lived,
not to be complained about,
lamented,
mourned and sorrowed all the way to the grave!
"When you go out into the world to seek your fortune,
you will come to a great chasm.
Jump!
It is not as far as you think."
Without that astute advice,
we would camp out on the edge of the void
bemoaning our plight
and cursing the fates,
or join the Buddhists wailing,
"Oh suffering, oh suffering!
All of life is suffering!"
Well, not all of it evidently.
A good portion of it is complaining about suffering!
Just get over it!
We are vulnerable!
What's the problem?
Accept it like you accept clouds in the sky
and raindrops on your head,
and live on!
Live on!
Without stopping,
or even slowing down!
Nothing can happen to us
that growing up (some more again)
won't make better.
–0–
02
Midnight Hole 11/03/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Big Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
It is up to us
to live out of our own center,
Following, in the words of Carl Jung,
"that will and that way
which experience confirms to be your own."
It is up to us to be right
about what is important--
about what matters most--
and to live grounded upon
that adamantine conviction
in each situation as it arises.
It is up to us
to nurture our relationship
with ourselves
and with our life,
and live with self-transparency
and mindful awareness
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
in a "Here we are,"
now what?"
kind of way.
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01
Little Pigeon River Fall 10/28/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Chimneys Picnic Area, Tennessee
If you have an agenda,
you have an ulcer,
drink too much alcohol,
prop yourself up with medication
and power shots of caffeine,
and wonder what's wrong with your life.
You have an agenda-driven life style.
You care about the wrong things.
You need to change your mind
about what is important.
But.
You can't change your mind
about what is important--
because it is crucially important.
And,
there you are.
The Willow Oil Paint Rendered — Country Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Returning to the silence,
seeking the center,
harmonizing ourselves
with the disharmony on all sides,
making our peace
with the complete absence of peace
in our life,
putting ourselves in accord
with the complete lack of accord
anywhere we look,
is walking on the water
of the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea,
between the clashing rocks,
and through the dark night
of betrayal and remorse.
Grief and mourning,
deep loss and sorrow,
too must be embraced.
There is no escape
from the ebbs and throes of life.
We bear it by bearing it,
receiving it
as one might welcome any fact
unfit for human company,
but here nonetheless,
with nowhere else to go,
and no one but us
to deal with it
as it must be dealt with
for as long as its time shall last.
Here we are,
now what?
Live on!
Live on!
Doing what must be done,
even here,
even now,
even with this,
oh, why this?
Why not?
Here we are.
Return to the silence,
seek the center,
harmonize ourselves
with the disharmony all around,
trusting balance to return
in time,
and the gyrations to subside,
and the still point
to come back into focus,
and our feet to find the foundation,
and spring to come at last.
–0–
04
The Grandfather Mountain Variations 03 08/07/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
What are your virtues--
not in terms of morality,
but in terms of your personal qualities.
The characteristics
that characterize you--
the gifts,
talents,
abilities
that set you apart
and make you you.
That constitute your identity,
are foundational to your make-up
and define you
as do your fingerprints
the color of your eyes
and the cones of your irises.
These are the aspects of your Original Nature
that came with you into the world,
and are yours to bring forth in your life
as your service to the world.
What are they?
Sit still,
be quiet,
wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear
to make plain your ground and foundation,
your center and your core,
that nothing can knock you off of,
or take from you
because it IS you,
and no one but you
can exhibit them
the way you can.
And only you can keep that
from happening.
Why would you not be who you are?
–0–
03
Cades Cove Methodist Church Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
Some things never change.
What was true at the beginning of time
is true today.
The old Taoists,
from before 2000 years BCE,
were talking about Yin/Yang,
and the work of Integrating The Opposites,
and our Original Nature,
and the Virtues that are ours
from before we were born,
and Balance and Harmony,
and the essential importance
of Sincerity (Non-Contrivance)
and Spontaneity
in being in accord with the Tao
(Doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
throughout our life).
And, after all these years,
nothing has changed
in this foundational formula
for living well
and having a meaningful life.
And all of the things that have
opposed the embodiment--
the incarnation--
the exhibition/expression--
of this way of life
through the ages,
are still at work in the service
of disharmony and chaos
in our life
and in the world.
Our work remains the same forever.
Ours is the Sisyphean Task
of rolling the rock
up the hill,
following it down the hill,
and rolling it up the hill,
to follow it down the hill,
throughout time.
Being in accord with the Tao
through all that disrupts the flow
with clashing rocks
and heaving waves
on the wine-dark sea--
up the hill
and down the hill
and up the hill
forever.
Got it?
Go to it!
Go do it!
Day-after-day-after-day!
That's all there is to it!
–0–
02
Blue Ridge Pastoral Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
What is your work,
your life?
What do you need to do it,
to live it?
What are the tools you need
to do your work,
to live your life?
My work/my life
is looking/seeing,
listening/hearing,
and getting to the bottom of it all.
I am a spiritual scientist.
I explore the Numen,
the ineffable,
the Tao,
the unnamed Source
of life and being,
of light and darkness--
the Mystery at the heart of everything.
My tools are a camera
and a keyboard.
And books.
I write to hear what I have to say.
I read to hear what I need to hear.
I look to see what's there.
I make inquiries
because there are more questions than answers,
and "an answer is just a step on the way
to a better question."
What about you?
What's your schtick?
Your Thing?
Your energy source?
Your life source?
Driving you on?
How do you feed it?
How does it feed you?
What are the tools it requires
for its service?
Answering those questions--
and the ones they lead to--
are all you need for a meaningful life.
And what do you need
beyond a meaningful life?
–0–
01
Big Creek Boulder Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
The lesson of the Buddha under the Bo Tree
is: "Do not be impressed by anything!"
Which is also stated:
"Do not need anything you do not already have."
We come as complete human beings from the womb,
packed with all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
A baby has exactly what they need
to get what they need.
And that remains true with the baby
throughout their life.
Insecure/unstable babies
think they need more than they need,
and cannot get enough
of what they do not have.
Secure/stable Buddha-babies
are confident in their ability
to sustain themselves
simply by finding what they need
here and now,
and living on
by making do.
What did Gandhi have ever?
He wore a diaper and was bare-footed forever!
And he was a rock--
immovable,
unfazed,
unimpressed by anything.
Jesus was the same way.
What did Jesus have?
He went without whimpering
to his crucifixion.
Do you think Donald Trump could do that?
Or any of his minions?
Any of the 73 million MAGA-GA-GA's?
Not one of them can stand alone
and be who they are,
knowing they have what they need
so that no one can buy them,
or frighten them,
or threaten them.
They are afraid of everything,
and need guns and walls
to protect them from the threatening world
that will come for their guns
at any time.
There is no such thing as a secure fascist.
Insecurity, uncertainty, fear and emptiness
are the bedrock of fascism.
Being a Buddha-baby
is their worst nightmare.
Democracy is for people
who have what it takes
to be who they are
in each situation as it arises
without ever being impressed--
for better or worse--
by anything.
Big Creek Fall 11/07/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
Living out of our center,
listening to our imagination,
and trusting ourselves
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done,
is a day-by-day task of life,
no matter what is going on around us.
We have as much as anyone has ever had,
and that got us to this point.
It will keep us going.
Martin Hägglund says
living on is what we do best.
I’m all for it!
We owe it to ourselves,
our ancestors,
and each other
to keep it going!
Live on!
Live on!
(With your eyes open,
in tune with the Tao!)
–0–
01
Athabaska Valley 09/15/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
How we see what we look at
strongly influences everything that follows.
What influences how we see what we look at?
The 10,000 things!
The culture we live in
and the people we run with,
where we have been
and what we have lived through,
the entire scope and weight
of our life experience up to this point...
The list is long of the things
that cant us toward seeing the way we see.
The big thing on the list
is failing to see ourselves seeing.
Seeing in ways that do not take our seeing
into account
guarantees that we will see everything
with a "jaundiced eye."
When it comes to seeing what we look at,
nothing beats seeing our seeing--
which means seeing in ways
that take our seeing into account.
A perspective that is self-reflective
is the most important acquisition
we can add to our life.
It will completely transform the way we live
by enabling us to "look at life from all sides now,"
which will avoid the rush to judgment,
jumping to conclusions,
assuming,
inferring,
conjecturing,
surmising,
and making a fool of ourselves.
Seeing what we look at
is seeing ourselves seeing,
is the foundational step
toward self-transparency,
which is the essential feature
of a life worth living.
You might think someone
would have told us about that
before now.
Maybe, constantly,
without pause,
all our life long.
An Afternoon at the Beach Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
If you have been with me
for a while,
you know that one of the central
features of my faith
is the crucial importance
of knowing what you would go to hell for--
being right about it being worth
going to hell for--
and being willing to go to hell for it.
Now, the catch is being right about its importance.
How do you know that what is important to you
should be important to you?
We all know people whose judgment is suspect.
We would not want them
looking after our children,
or taking care of our lawn,
or choosing our desert.
There is general agreement
that they don't know what is important.
And we know people whom we admire
for their tastes
and the quality of their life.
They live with grace and kindness,
and have a firm sense of direction
and do not waffle on matters of grave importance.
They know what they are doing,
and do it well.
They would all be on our list of admirable people.
So there is common agreement among us
as to what good judgment is and is not--
as to what is important and is not.
We all know what should be important,
and what should not be important.
How do we know?
Cultural cues perhaps.
We have a common culture.
We know how it is to be done in our culture.
We know how "we do it" here.
Put us in a different culture,
and it probably wouldn't go so well for us
until we learned the cues.
Until we learned how they do it there.
Then we could fit right in.
What is important is a cultural preference.
We think it is an individual choice,
but we are children of our culture.
Our culture can just be the group we run with.
What is important to us is important
to everyone in our group.
We take our cues for living from them.
We do it the way it is 'spozed to be done
within our sub-culture.
It still isn't an individual choice.
Cut off from others,
we don't have a clue about what is important.
We would go to hell for anything at all.
So, who composes our culture?
Who are the people we look to for guidance?
Who do we want to be like when we grow up?
Or just when we wake up each day?
Who do we try to please?
Who would be most happy with the choices we make?
That is who calls our shots,
directs our life,
guides us along the way.
And we talk about being free.
Being ourselves.
Making up our own mind.
But our mind is made up for us
by the people who are important to us.
The important thing to us
is keeping the right people happy with us.
That is what we would go to hell for.
Think about that.
What makes us think that the people we run with
know what is important?
How do they know?
What makes them think so?
How free are they
to decide for themselves
what is important?
Or, are we all tricking ourselves
thinking someone knows more than we do
about what matters most?
And, if so, where would that leave us?
Going to hell for what?
–0–
04
The Watchman and the Virgin 95/20/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
We live with a foot in different worlds.
There is the world of rock-solid,
tangible,
concrete,
factual,
weigh-able,
measure-able,
see/feel/touch/taste reality,
and there is the world
of numinous,
ineffable,
instinctive,
intuitive,
unconscious (because we are not conscious of it),
undetectable,
imperceptible,
undefinable,
inexplicable,
unsay-able reality beyond words.
It is our place to know more than words can say,
and to live in this world
of normal, apparent, reality,
as the incarnation,
expression,
exhibition,
living proof
of a reality that cannot be told.
–0–
03
Alligator Lake 05/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Santee State Park, Santee, South Carolina
Liberty! Justice! Equality! Truth!
Are the four corners of democracy--
and the essential rights of human development.
We have to be free to live our own life
without the constraints of injustice
and discrimination,
while honoring one another's right
to their own life.
That is what it takes to be true to ourselves
in the work
of finding and living our life--
an opportunity and a calling
that we have squandered and wasted
on entertaining pastimes
and addictive escapes
in avoiding our responsibility
to be who we are
in ways that incarnate/express/birth/exhibit
ourselves in service to the good of the whole.
It is time we stepped back
from our rush to wealth,
privilege and power
in the service of greed
and get to work
transforming our relationship
with ourselves
and living to answer the question,
"What should we do with the time left for living?"
With what we want being restricted to
doing what is called for
with the gifts that are ours
to serve and to share,
moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises,
whether we feel like it or not.
–0–
02
Six-mile Creek Road 07/12/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Lancaster County, South Carolina
Martin Hägglund has written
This Life--Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
in which he says,
"Our time together is illuminated
by the sense that it will not last forever
and we need to take care of one another
because our lives are fragile."
His is a beautiful book
offered precisely at the right time,
with exactly what we need
to gather ourselves
and find our way forward,
individually and collectively--
and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
This is our time on the earth.
It is all we have to work with.
We are the only ones here to do the work.
It is all up to us--
the present and the future
hang in the balance,
waiting for us to stand up
and be who we are.
There is no one here but us.
No one is going to rescue us.
No Savior is going to deliver us
from the work that is ours to do,
from the times that are ours to live.
Fred Craddock said,
all those years ago,
"The message of the Messiah is,
'THERE IS NO MESSIAH!!!'"
There is only us.
And we have to make the most
of the time that is ours to live.
Beginning right here.
Right now.
Hägglund writes:
"My freedom require3s that I ask myself
what I should do with my time.
Even when I am utterly absorbed in what I do,
what I say, and what I love,
the possibility of this question
must be alive in me."
And, as with him, so with us all!
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01
Smoky Mountain Winter 03/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Nothing can change
until something else does.
That is what keeps things
as they are.
Waiting for things to change.
We have to change what can be changed
in order for anything to change.
We start with changing nothing
but our awareness
of the situation
in each situation as it arises.
Awareness doesn't change anything,
but it is the foundational change
that changes everything.
Sit still and become aware
of sitting still.
Center yourself sitting still
in the present moment.
Realize that sitting here, now,
you are the center of the universe.
Breathe in the truth
of your being here, now,
at the center of all things.
Be aware of your breathing.
Control your breathing
by taking a slow, deep, breath
in through your nose
to the very bottom of your lungs.
Watch as your diaphragm expands
and your belly protrudes
to allow that to happen.
At full lung capacity,
release your breath slowly
to a full exhale,
contracting your stomach
to expel the air completely.
Between breaths,
pause for a slow count of five,
and repeat this process five times.
At the end of the last, sixth, breath,
focus your awareness on your sitting
and the space around you.
You have distanced yourself
from the world
of normal, apparent, reality
for the space of six breaths.
This distance is the space required
to observe the situation
without attachment to the situation.
detached awareness observes
without investment/involvement/participation/
judgment/concern/caring/opinion/etc.
Just watching.
Just seeing.
Just observing.
Just breathing.
That's all.
For six breaths.
Repeat this exercise
as frequently as you are able
throughout the day,
each day,
for the rest of your life.
Just sit.
Just breathe.
Just be aware of the moment,
sitting, breathing.
You will be transforming the world.
One breath at a time.
You don't have to believe it.
Just. Do. It.
What are we doing with our life?
What are we doing with our time?
How do we know it is the right thing to do?
Who says it is right, or wrong?
How would we know whom to believe
in case of a disagreement?
How do we know what to do with our life?
With our time?
"The answer, my friendis lying deep within,the answer is lying deep within!"
And we are back to my favorite
Joseph Campbell quote:
"That which we seek
lies far back in the darkest corner
of the cave we most don't want to enter."
That cave is deep within ourselves.
We seek what is seeking us,
and we don't want to have anything
to do with it.
It takes getting to the end of our rope
before we can change our mind
about what is important.
Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear
is the worst kind of waiting
there is.
What are we going to do
with our life and with our time?
What is going to inform our living?
What is going to guide us along the way?
"The answer, my friendis lying deep within,the answer is lying deep within!"
Get your spelunking clothes on
and sit quietly
in the silence,
listening to, watching for,
experiencing,
all that arises from within.
You are listening, watching, for
what resonates with you,
for what picks you up
and propels you into your life
with an urgency that cannot be denied
or delayed.
You could call this a vision quest.
We never outlive the need for one of those.
We are waiting to be snared by a mythic vision
and hurled into our life
on a mission of meaning and purpose.
And all that is required of us
is that we sit still and be quiet,
watching and listening.
As often as we can,
as long as it takes.
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04
Along Cane River 01/30/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Our imagination is the source
of everything we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
We have all we need
to live our life as it needs to be lived
every moment of every day.
All we have to do is access it.
And be aware of it
when it attempts to access us.
When we have an imaginary conversation
with God, say,
or anyone, living or dead or fictional,
Yoda or Obi-wan Kenobi,
we are having a conversation
with our imagination,
with ourselves!
We are all we have,
and even when we talk to other human beings,
we are talking to our projection of them,
we project ourselves onto them,
and hear ourselves saying
what we need to hear.
We cannot hear what we do not need to hear.
We have to hear what we need to hear,
knowingly,
so that our need to hear it may grow beyond it,
and, knowing what's what with us,
grow to need to hear something more,
something different,
so that realization "dawns" on us suddenly
over a gradual period of time.
To put this another way,
we have to keep listening to what
we do not need to hear,
and can make no sense of,
until we need to hear it,
and then it is like, "Of course!
Why didn't I see this before?"
Everything we need to hear
is already "there" within each of us,
waiting for the opportune time,
for the time we become capable of hearing it,
in order to welcome what we have to say.
In order to do our part
in growing ourselves to readiness,
we have to begin paying attention to--
being aware of--
all the ways "we" are trying to commune
with ourselves.
Our Unconscious, our Psyche, our Mind,
is always talking to us
with dreams,
hunches,
nudges,
insight,
ideas,
realizations,
instinct,
feelings,
urges,
urgencies,
resonances,
pulls and pushes, etc.
It is our place to tune into
what is going on
and stop, look, and listen
to what is being said,
and know what is going on.
Our imagination is our guide!
We have to open ourselves to it,
trust ourselves to it,
and allow ourselves to be led
along the way,
finding our life and living it,
with the help of our Invisible Friend.
Living in neutral,
without an investment in the outcome,
with nothing at stake--
nothing to gain,
nothing to lose--
unattached to self-interest
or personal concerns,
frees us to respond to what is happening
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
in light of what is being called for,
here and now
in the situation as it arises,
just as it is.
Expectations,
assumptions,
inferences,
tradition
and precedent
can be set aside
in favor of the merits of the case
and the needs of the moment
"thus come."
This is the way to take a photograph.
And it is the way to live
in each scene throughout every day.
The scene calls for the approach to the scene.
We cannot decide beforehand
how the photograph ought to be taken,
or bother even with wondering
how it is supposed to be done.
It is supposed to be done
by seeing what's what
and responding in ways
fitting to the time that is at hand.
Just breathe.
Just see.
Just hear.
Just take it all in.
Allow the mud to settle
and the water to clear,
and wait to see what you do
free to do what needs to be done
in the moment that is here, now,
spontaneously,
sincerely,
with everything on the line,
and nothing personally
to gain or lose--
like the archer before the target
before the arrow flies.
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02
The Grandfather Mountain Variations 02 Oil Paint Rendered–Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We see the way we see.
We think the way we think.
We feel the way we feel.
We believe the way we believe...
Why?
What sets us up to see,
think, feel, believe...
the way we do?
What makes it easy for us to see,
think, feel, believe...
the way we do?
How do we know that the way we see things
is the way to see things?
Or that the way we think about things
is the way to think about things?
It is just "spontaneous," isn't it?
We don't know why we do it the way we do it, do we?
We don't think about any of it, do we?
Why not?
Why don't we think about it?
Examine it?
Inspect it?
Make inquiries?
Get to the bottom of it?
How much time do we spend looking into
the way we see things?
How much effort do we put into
seeing differently?
Who do we live to please
with the way we see things,
think about things,
feel about things,
believe?
Who do we live to displease
with regard to these things?
Who would be most happy with us
about the way we see things, etc.?
Who would be the least happy?
Who influences/controls
our seeing, thinking, feeling, believing?
How would we go about deciding for ourselves
how to see, think, feel, believe?
Who is in charge of who we are?
Who will not allow us to be different?
We experience something
and respond to it in some way.
All the time.
Everyday.
Seek the source of the response.
What creates our way of responding
to the experiences of our life?
Our entire history of responses
have a theme running through it.
What is the nature of that theme?
How do we always respond to similar situations?
How do we never respond?
How do the ways we respond
perpetuate the responding environment
we have created and live out of,
insuring habitual responses
day after day?
How much awareness/reflection of our response
is included with each response?
How self-aware are we?
How self-transparent are we?
How often do we wonder why we respond the way we do?
Or why we never respond the way we never respond?
Do we ever talk to anyone
about our response pattern?
Do we ever think about it?
Do we ever change it?
How does alcohol fit into our response pattern?
Marijuana?
Inquiry into the nature of our responses?
Examination of the elements involved?
Experimentation with different ways of responding?
How thoughtfully do we live?
How mindfully aware?
How much do we know about
what outside of us
triggers what is within us?
What flips the switch that sets us off?
What is the origin of "the switch"?
How did it come to be?
How would we have reacted
before "the switch" was formed?
How does the process of "switch formation"
continue to work in our life?
How much time do we spend in a week
getting to the bottom of who we are?
What goes into our being the way we are?
What do we regret about the way we are?
How do we wish we were?
What are we doing to assist the transformation?
Where do we go from here?
Fillmore Glen 10/03/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Fillmore Glen State Park, Moravia, New York
We are the center and ground
of our own existence.
We interpret our experience (reality)
to suit ourselves.
What we say goes.
We are our own authority.
Our own God.
We see all we look at,
all we experience,
in light of all we have looked at,
experienced,
and how we have responded to all of it
up to now.
Past experience influences present experience,
and we cannot get outside of,
or away from,
what we have experienced to this point,
in order to experience things afresh,
with no assumptions or expectations,
here and now.
We see here and now,
from the perspective gained
then and there--
and we guide ourselves forward
based on the impact,
and our interpretation,
of our past.
We live in a bubble
generated by the assumptions
and expectations
flowing from the past interpretation
of our experience.
Our life is as we say it is
based on the way we have said it was
from our beginning
to our here and now.
We cannot see any way other
than the way we have seen--
until we begin to see in ways
that take our seeing into account.
When we begin to see our seeing,
we become free-enough
to talk about "hypotheses"
based on our assumptions
regarding "reality,"
and "see more than meets the eye,"
by bringing ourselves into the picture
as the origin of the projections
we bestow upon the world around us
and all that is therein!
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01
Blue Mailbox 11/17/2013 Oil Pant Rendered — Botany Bay Heritage Preserve, Edisto Island, South Carolina
Living well comes down to two things:
seeing what is happening
and doing what needs to be done about it.
This is difficult
because we interfere
with both the seeing and the doing.
Interpretation is everything.
Right interpretation is everything!
Right seeing and Right doing are everything!
Learning to see our seeing/doing
is the primary task of the Hero's Journey.
Self-transparency,
self-examination,
self-realization,
self-correction,
are the four steps
in self-direction.
And we generally have
more important things in mind.
Which makes being right
about what is important
the most important thing.
We are all sure we are right
about what is important.
We are all sure we are right
about what is right
and what is wrong.
What is right
is what we say is right.
What is wrong
is what we say is wrong.
How do we know what we are talking about?
We "take it on faith"!
Everything hinges on how right we are
about the things we take on faith!
Whether we live in the Wasteland
or in the Promised Land
depends on our being right
about the things we say are right.
And the journey from the Wasteland
to the Promised Land
is how long it takes us
to change our mind about what is right--
and be right about it.
Crabtree Falls Panorama 05/30/2008 Oil Paint Rendering — Blue Ridge Parkway, Little Switzerland, North Carolina
What is the organizing idea
of our life?
The original Oomph driving
our original nature?
We are here to do what?
What drives us?
What shapes our life?
What does our particular constellation
of interests/abilities/knacks/proclivities/
virtues/characteristics
equip us to do?
What calls us forth?
Leads us on?
What fascinates us?
Attracts us?
Spellbinds us?
What is the theme running through
all that we are enthusiastic about?
What brings us joy?
What is the spark that lightens up our day?
And leads us along the way?
Sit with these questions.
See where they lead.
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02
McMullen Creek 12/28/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — McMullen Creek Greenway, Charlotte, North Carolina
Native Americans have a saying:
"It's a good day to die!"
That means,
it is a good day to die
in the service
of what needs to be done--
in the service of what needs us to do it!
There is only us
and what is ours to do--
beyond what we want to do,
beyond what we feel like doing,
beyond what we are in the mood for,
beyond what we are interested in,
beyond what is on our agenda
beyond our idea of how our life
is to be spent...
Who are we?
What are we about?
What are we to be about?
We only have to be who we are,
and be about what we are to be about.
That is all that is asked of us ever.
But, we have our mind on other things.
We have the time left for living
to find our life
and live it.
And we are burning daylight.
What???
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01
The Grandfather Mountain Variations 01 10/15/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
There are those
who cannot bear the world
as it is,
as it is becoming,
as it needs to be.
Jesus said about them,
"Leave the dead to bury the dead,
and you go find your life
and live it!"
Native Americans said about them,
to their young leaving home
to find their way in the world,
"As you go to seek your gifts
and the things that need
what you have to offer,
the birds of the air will shit on you--
do not pause even to wipe it off."
We are born with a mission,
with a purpose beyond all of our purposes,
with a calling to go and be who we are,
and let the outcome be the outcome.
We leave the womb
and enter the world
of 10 billion distractions,
10 trillion diversions,
and 1 better idea
of what would make us truly happy forever
after another
for as long as we are alive.
And our task is to find our life
and live it.
How are you doing with that?
Here is the test for knowing:
How often can you sit still
and be quiet
for how long?
The silence reveals
who we are
and who we are not
and what is ours to do
and what is not ours to do.
How long can you be quiet?
How often do you seek out the silence?
Balance and harmony
come to those who wait quietly
for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.
And all of that,
and all that follows,
is up to us.
Around Bass Lake 10/13/2014 07 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
When the Commander in Chief assumes no responsibility
and incites riot and rebellion,
the Commander in Chief has to be relieved of duty.
This is fundamental "how to do it" procedure.
The problem is that those who would
initiate the procedure
themselves need to be relieved of duty,
because they are incapable of doing their job.
This is where the country is
between now and January 20.
That is an interminable amount of time
for bases to be not covered
and things to be not done
that cry out to be done--
for aimless wrong
to run the nation,
untethered,
unrestrained.
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02
Abbot Lake 09/27/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Bedford, Virginia
My childhood was spent amid people who were
careful to be who they were supposed to be,
doing what they should be doing,
thinking what they should be thinking,
believing what they should be believing,
saying what they should be saying,
being a walking, talking, contradiction
to who they were.
Authenticity, creativity and originality
were nowhere to be found.
Genuine human beings lived somewhere else.
Each day's conversations were repeats
of the day before.
My grandfather prayed
the same prayer before every meal.
Our Heavenly Father
was watching every move we made,
making notes,
keeping score.
There was nothing new under the sun.
And no one was enjoying
anything they did.
I have lived my life
redeeming the sins of my ancestors.
I rise every day thinking,
"What will I go to hell for today?"
Looking forward to finding out.
If you don't have something
in your life
that you are willing to go to hell for,
why not?
We have today--
at least we have this present moment today.
What is worth living for here and now?
Regardless of whom is taking notes,
keeping score?
My ancestors had nothing worth living for.
They were all living to stay out of hell.
They should have been living to go to hell,
and to make the sentence worth their time.
As it was, they might as well have been in hell
all their life long,
for all the good living was doing them,
or anyone else.
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01
Around Bass Lake, 10/13/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Taking care of ourselves,
taking care of the moment,
taking care of one another...
That's about it, isn't it?
The entire scope of our lives
comes down to
these three things
and how well we do it,
and how right we are
about what taking care
of these three things
asks of us.
Taking care of people,
for instance,
without making invalids of them.
Taking care of the moment
leaves a number of things
ignored and neglected in every moment.
Taking care of ourselves
means growing up
and getting over it
more often than not.
The common thread running through
all of the three areas
of our personal responsibility
is listening and looking,
seeing and hearing,
knowing what's what
and what is going on.
Tuning in and turning on
to the here and now,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
means being present
as a full participant
in what is happening
and what needs to be done
in response.
It means being awake,
aware,
alert
and alive
to who we are
and what we are about
in all times and places.
It means knowing what
makes that difficult,
or rules it out altogether.
What keeps us from being
here, now?
Hold it in your awareness,
and attend what needs to be attended.
In each situation as it arises.
No one can do more than that.
Baxter Creek Bridge 04/15/2009 Oil Paint Rendering — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville, North Carolina
Today is the first day of my 77th year.
It has taken me 76 years to get this far--
and everything I have experienced,
felt, done, believed, thought, etc.
was essential to my being here, now.
What I want you to know
is that what is becoming of us
is the most important thing.
And we have to assist in the process
of our own development
by not saying "NO!" to any of it,
but saying, "Okay, now what?" to all of it!
What is happening is the matrix
of our own becoming--
and that is what we are about!
We are birthing ourselves
by the way we respond to what is happening,
and what we do with it,
and what we allow it to do with us.
There are no dead ends
that we don't make so
by the way we respond to
what appears to be a dead end!
We are never more than a slight
shift in perspective
away from seeing doors
where before there were no doors--
from seeing exactly what we need
where before there was only
nothing at all that could be
of any use to us.
What I'm saying is,
Stop! Look! Listen!
See what you look at!
Know what you know!
What are you assuming to be so
that isn't so?
What are you not seeing
that is right there?
Sit still,
be quiet,
and wait--
"for the mud to settle
and the water to clear."
And pay attention to all
that occurs to you in the silence,
looking for what is new,
for what is calling your name,
again,
still.
And give the right things a chance.
We have to be born anew
again and again,
and every birthing
is a dying.
Death and resurrection, Kid--
death and resurrection!
All the way down!
Don't quit too soon.
Don't quit at all.
See what's next.
See where it goes.
Believe in yourself.
Trust in what got you here, now.
Give yourself to the journey
with all your heart,
and soul,
and mind,
and spirit.
There is more to us,
and to all of it,
than meets the eye.
Any eye.
So what
if we are making it all up
as we go?
Keep going!
Keep going!
We owe it to ourselves
to find out if it is
as hopeless as we are afraid it is!
Keep on having birthdays
and asking questions!
There are things
that haven't been thought yet!
Make it one of your goals
to think them!
The only way to do that
is to live your way there
with your eyes open
all the way.
To the Journey!
To the Way!
Come on!
Come on!
Let's go!
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01
East-bound at Morant’s Curve 09/24/2009 Oil Paint Rendering — Banff National Park, Alberta
We are born into a cultural context
that is our second womb,
which serves for many of us
as a death shroud,
keeping us forever
from the life that is ours to live
by insisting that we live the life
our context requires us to live.
No one tells us about our other life,
the one that came with us from the womb,
they only talk to us about
the life that was waiting for us upon exit.
Except that everyone waiting for us,
in and just outside of,
the delivery room
is caught in the same web
that catches us,
fighting for life within
a cultural context that is death itself.
Not knowing what they are doing,
or what the problem is,
or why they can't just fit in
like everyone else seems to be doing,
when everyone else is having the same
fight for life,
and nobody knows what is going on.
And so, the symptoms.
The psychosis,
the neurosis,
the alcoholism,
the drug abuse,
the affairs,
the escapes/diversions/distractions/
denial
that forms the cultural sheath
as much as it screams in protest
against it.
It is one crazy damn world
we are born into.
And no one is there to help us
with our second birth,
and everyone treats us as though
something is wrong with us,
while the same thing is wrong with them.
Joseph Campbell called the cultural mask
"The Primary Mask."
That is the Death Mask those who wear well
are dead wearing
because it has cut them off
from their inner identity/truth
that they were born to realize/incarnate/
exhibit/express/serve/be/become--
which Campbell called "The Antithetical Mask,"
because it is antithetical/contrary/opposite
to all that is expected of us by the culture.
We are born the first time as Yin
cast into Yang.
We are wet, warm and wild,
and Yang is bright with light
and right ways of doing everything--
a desert world,
a wasteland,
that we enter as a child of darkness
and life.
What chance do we have?
The odds are not favorable from the start,
but, there is the secret knowledge within
that is our hope and our salvation.
We are all born knowing
"This ain't right!"
What we do about it tells the tale.
What are you doing about it?
The path of doing about it
what needs to be done about it
is the Hero's Journey.
It is the journey from our head
to our heart,
along the path of reflection,
observation,
experimentation,
awareness,
inquiry,
curiosity,
imagination,
determination
that leads to new realizations
and more searching/seeking/questing
all the way to the truth of who we are
and what we are about.
It is a path of metaphorical
death and resurrection,
of growing up and growing beyond
and growing into and growing on
that is never completed,
never done.
How are you coming?
Along your path from death to life--
dying and being born again,
to die and be born again,
all along the way?
However it is going,
I am glad to be a part of it with you,
offering what I have found to be helpful,
"as one beggar tells another
where they have found food"--
and look forward to seeing
what is next for all of us,
and where that leads,
and where we going...
The Swimming Hole 11/06/2006 Oil Paint Rendering — Midnight Hole, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville, North Carolina
There is the kind of winning
that takes place on tennis courts,
and football fields,
and golf courses,
and chess boards,
and poker tables,
where somebody wins
and somebody loses.
And there is the kind of winning
that takes place
in a small circle of jazz
or bluegrass musicians
making music in ways
that everybody wins
and nobody loses.
Winning does not require losing.
But that requires people
who know how to play
without keeping score.
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01
October Corn Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Oconaluftee Visitor’s Center Farm, Cherokee, North Carolina
Do you know noise and static?
Stillness and silence?
In sync and out of sync?
Pace and timing?
Place and time?
Rhythm and flow?
Smooth and easy?
Movement and rest?
Peace and at-one-ment?
Sincerity and spontaneity?
Security and stability?
Balance and harmony?
Center and ground?
Source and goal?
And how to move
from where you are
to where you need to be
without moving at all?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 