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?
It comes down to being who we are, doing what is ours to do. Sounds simple enough. Who couldn't do that? I would like to know.
My hunch is that integrity, sincerity, authenticity are rare across the races over time. What's your bet for the most authentic race (And the most authentic species, while we are at it)? I would like to know, though I think authenticity comes into play only at the human level of existence. I can't imagine an oyster faking it. Or a dinosaur. Pretending to be a grizzly bear, for instance, or a great white whale.
Show time is a throughly human creation. Donald Trump is who he is all right, but not who he thinks he is. If anyone doesn't belong on Mount Rushmore, or doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, it is Donald Trump, yet he thinks he should be there, have that. Reflecting the gap between being and wannabeing.
Too many of us pretend to be something other than who we are, and do something other than what is ours to do, without having a clue. The emptiness, stillness, silence does not lie. "The Shadow knows!" And what lies in the shadows knows for sure. Time spent with silent reflection, attending what arises, emerges, appears there will lead to awareness and realization--and would right the world in time.
Being who we are, doing what is ours to do would be automatic, spontaneous, actual, true, and real for all who spent enough time in the right way with emptiness, stillness and silence. No?
Making a montage of the wisdom outlets of history produces a "single story" of what it takes to "right the world" over the course of several lifetimes. The elements required read like a spiritual recipe for "the right life."
High on the list are integrity, sincerity, authenticity, but I find the most revered quality is being content with nothing. The secret of success is complete disinterest in succeeding with personal wealth/advancement/acquisition/etc. being the mark of success. This quote comes from "Taking Lessons from Lao" by Han Fei, writing several hundred years BCE, "No fault is more miserable than desire for gain." Jesus would say, "The love of money is the root of all evil." And, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the Eye of the Needle (A Narrow gate way in Jerusalem) than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
Having no interest in personal profit on any level is the primary element in achieving perfection in "doing it right." But, why would anyone want to achieve perfection in "doing it right"? What's to be gained for someone disinterested in gain?
Being completely content with how things are here, now, is to be completely immune to fear, anxiety, worry, dread, suffering of any kind. The end of suffering is the end of the desire for suffering to end. And all of the people on the "Wisdom List of the Ages" would qualify for that. So Socrates could drink the hemlock without hesitation. As could a lot of us! No?
And that puts those of us who have no interest in personal gain at the place of being those most likely to be guides for leading the way for the kind of lifestyle that transforms life as we know it. We are the hermits, the recluses, the ascetics, the shamans, "those who know and have always known" of the ages.
We do not live to get anything, but to be who we are, doing what is ours to do, which is that which is called for in each situation as it arises, for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, day by day, our entire life long.
When that catches on, the world will be what it has been capable of being from the start. And, I believe, without war! Who would kill over nothing?
If I had everything I needed to live my life as it needs to be lived, I would do it exactly as I am doing it. I have everything I need and this is the life that needs me to live it. And it is going to carry me along the path I need to go to the end that is waiting for me. And I will be there with no regrets that were not absolutely necessary to the way and end that are mine.
What is keeping all of us from being able to say this? This is our life. And it is the way it is because we are the way we are. No? So, what's the problem? Why not love the life we are living? What is preventing us from loving the life we are living? Just as it is? Or, from changing the life we are living into the life we would love to live? This is Amor fati, "The love of fate." The recognition of things just as they are as the outcome of all that has been up to this point, and of the way things will be from this point on.
This is the Buddha's essence as "one thus come." Recognizing and embracing our "is-ness," our "here and now-ness," as our "how it is-ness," and our "this is the way things are-ness." And letting it be because it is, and if it is not the way we want it to be, we only have to "tweak our wants" for everything to fall into place and for us to be fine with the way things are.
Why allow what we want to stand in the way of our embracing how things are? Having what we want is a simple matter of wanting what we have, and adjusting ourselves to the difference in an "adjustment and acquiescence" kind of way.
"Adjustment and acquiescence, Kid. Adjustment and acquiescence."
Evening Ferry 2008 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Pamlico Sound, North Carolina
I have looked things over and concluded that I am as well off where I am as I would be anywhere I can think of. So I'm going to tuck myself into my life and wait it out right here. My regret is that we, collectively, universally, thinking, did not have what it would have taken to come to a better outcome.
Jesus and John the Baptist tried to talk Israel of their day into changing the way things were done, and were executed/ martyred for their trouble. And things wouldn't be different if they were doing the same thing today. Nothing is going to change until the people change. The people want things to be different with nothing changing. That has been the case through the ages. The law of momentum states that the tendency is for things in motion to remain in motion and for things at rest to remain at rest. Change is a difficult thing to bring about.
My recommendation for changing things is to make a habit of emptiness, stillness, silence, waiting for clarity and realization by asking all of the questions that beg to be asked and saying all of the things that cry out to be said, and listening, looking, to hear and see what emerges, appears, occurs in the silence to catch our attention and lead us along the way in the service of doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for, in each situation as it arises, all our life long.
Around Bass Lake 01 2014 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Who is in, who is out, who gets to say? All are in, none are out. Let's make that the order of the day! And live as though it is the way! Why not? What would happen if we did? Why not anyway? What could happen that would be worse than saying some are in and some are out and some lives are worth more than others? Worth more what? Who says so? Whoever, okay, Whomever, it is, is just making it up!
I do not know where the line lies between MAGA, White Supremacy, White Nationalism and Christian Nationalism. I think there is no line. And, I think that what creates the need for a line is their hate and fear of all people on the other side of the line.
Hate and fear are the source/cause of nearly all of our problems throughout time. Who was it that said our troubles stem from our inability to go quietly about our business, or words to that effect?
And that leads me to this: Hermit-hood is the solution to all of our problems worldwide.
“The secret cause of suffering,” from James Joyce and Joseph Campbell, resides in the arc of our own life and our propensity for seeing/interpreting (and we cannot see without interpreting) things as we do.
We bring our suffering (and death) upon ourselves by way of our living/seeing/interpreting the events of our life in the manner that is idiosyncratic to us. One person’s suffering is another person’s inconvenience.
Dying is inevitable, but the time and place and apparent cause of our death is also idiosyncratic to us and our way with life.
We bring it all on ourselves by the way we see/interpret/think about/respond to the events and circumstances of our life. There is no “freedom of choice.”
We are bound by our way of seeing/interpreting/responding to what happens and what we say is called for in light of what we encounter and the innate way we respond to it in each situation as it arises throughout our life, from birth on.
The way we respond to things is idiosyncratic to us, to our way of seeing/interpreting/thinking about the events and circumstances of our life.
We are the common denominator holding our life together and creating the life we are living by the way our proclivities require us to respond to all that is happening.
Why “this is always happening to me” is because of the way we always deal with it every time it happens. Nothing changes until we do.
The United States and Israel vs. Iran and Russia. Nobody can back down, and nobody can advance. Everybody else will be pressured to take sides.
It took the Trump administration to get this to happen. Trump, who always blames someone else for all of his blunders, and there be many, has no one to blame but himself, again.
I am intrigued by the possibilities here. None of which leave the world better off than it was before Trump was elected. Which is a truth the MAGA world will never shake or outlive.
This is what White Supremacy/Nationalism is good for. All it is good for. Denial is the only thing that keeps the movement going.
This is a meditative icon, which every image is, with all art being the doorway/threshold between worlds, inviting us to behold the wonder of moving from one world to another in perceiving the wonder of the art object and its ability to transport us from world to world.
The water fountain is a Portkey, carrying us from this world to worlds beyond this world in the way that all art objects work to engage our imagination, call forth our meditative powers, and bring us to life by asking us to ponder the moment presented to us here, now, and see where it goes.
The fountain, the stones, the moon, and the viewer.
The four pillars of TRUTH.
With imagination being equal to water, rocks and moon in ushering us into the mystery--and inviting us to behold--the mystery of life and being here, now, in contemplating, experiencing, the radiance of all of it together in this time and place, and of everything that played a part in bringing us together here, now, to see, know the awe of the all, the whole, and the parts. One with the all, the whole, the parts--always and forever. World without end. Amen.
The still point of the turning world. The wellspring of living water. The water of life. Reviving our body. Renewing our spirit. Restoring our soul. A quiet pool. In a green space. A place of rest and wellbeing. Now and forever always.
Fall Tree — Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We have to make our peace with our life from start to finish. And "beyond a certain age" life holds all of the cards. My wife and I are making the requisite concessions and maintaining our spirits and sense of humor, while awaiting The Event (The fall, the stroke, the diagnosis, etc., that announces Assisted Living to one degree or another. But we realize the inevitabilities our place in life invites, suggests, implies, and face the future with that in mind.
Death presents no problems for me, I look forward to the experience in anticipation of what's there. It is getting there that is the problem! Being able to count on physician-assisted suicide would be such a relief.
Absent that, I take solace in emptiness, stillness, silence, and find there the solace and consolation--the reassurance that I have all the help anyone in my place could hope to have. With the foundation in place, I ease into tomorrow without expectation, anxiety, opinion, fear, uncertainty, confident that I will do what I am able to do about what is called for, knowing no one can do more than that.
I am also comforted with my "Inner Companions," my original nature, innate virtues, inherent imagination and intrinsic intuition. The time spent developing my communion with these "inner others," has proved to be of value beyond all imagining, and enables a sense of humor shared around the invisible circle throughout each day.
The Democrat platform forever needs to be Liberty! Justice! Equality! Truth! Health Care! Child Care! Jobs! Livable Minimum Wages! Education (Including Reasonable Student Loans)! ... You know--like that! This is not hard. People need help with their lives. Government is here to help people with their lives. With Fascism and White Supremacy (The same thing) out of the way, helping people with their lives should be an easy thing to do. Republicans who do not want to do that should not be elected to office. I am an old stupid dumb guy and I know this much.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 