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 Lump Overlook — Blue Ridge Parkway, Purlear, North Carolina
What do we want from religion? Eternal life?
Invisible assistance in having our way/getting what we want? The old Taoists sought to align themselves with the Tao or Way in order to assist/participate in the flow of life and being by doing what was called for in each situation as it arose--doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time time, in the right place--in the service of balance and harmony, and to promote the general wellbeing of life in the cosmos.
"The path that can be discerned as a pathis not a reliable path." This is Martin Palmer's interpretation of the line that has been rendered as The Tao that can be said,told, explained, defined, etc. is not the eternal Tao."
We cannot talk about the Tao, but we can know it in hindsight, by seeing the Way that has brought us, guided us, to where we are.
What works to get us where we are? What has led us from birth to here, now? What helps us to know what to do in each situation as it arises?
What works for me is "emptiness-stillness-silence." I drop into emptiness-stillness-silence and wait for guidance to arise, emerge, appear on its own "just as it is" "as one thus come" to light the way. And to continue to refine/adjust the way all along the way, constantly adapting to changing circumstances moment by moment to achieve the optimal flow, or movement, from "then to now." Which is the ideal "Te" or "virtue" to realize or enjoy or know as we live our life as circumstances beget circumstances all our life long.
What works for Donald Trump is bullying, intimidating, humiliating, threatening, coercing all that stands between him and what he wants at every point in his life. To hell with whomever or whatever is in his way.
So there is a wide variety of options to choose from in selecting a source of guidance and direction for our life's path.
Bog River Falls 09/01/2015 — Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, New York
There are places that restore our souls. That restore us to our souls. That put us back in the company of our souls. We should spend more time in those places.
Beauty is truth. Truth beauty. Even when it is ugly, horrible, terrible, no good. Truth does not lie or deceive and that is the beauty of truth.
We know what's what thanks to truth, and can gather ourselves for the work that needs to be done. And do it, when, where, and how it needs to be done. No matter what. In each situation as it arises. And let that be that.
We take our courage from the places of beauty and truth, and live in the service of beauty and truth, all our life long.
Spring Meadow — Another AI creation, with the sky being actualand the ground being AI generated via Photoshop’s Generative Fill
Following up on the previous post, Alan Watts makes Hinduism plain. He says, The Upanishads, the sacred writings of the Hindus, says,“The intangible non-objective ground of everything that exists is identical with the ground of you.” "And it is fundamental to Vedanta that the supreme Self is neither one nor many, but as they say non-dual. And they express that in this word advaita—a, is a negative word like non, dvaita is from dva, same as the Latin duo, two. So advaita is non-dual.” It is not one and not two, not nothing and not not-nothing.
Watts says, “The intangible non-objective ground of everything that exists is called Brahman.” And we cannot hold ourselves aloof from it and talk about it because we are it! The Hindus would say, about us and it, "tat tvam asi Thou Art That! You Are It! We are it!"
I propose that this "intangible non-objective ground of everything that exists" could as easily be called “The Psyche,” rather than "Brahman." We could say "The Psyche is the ground and substance of our existence," which we perceive/experience as “not ourselves” and call it “God.” And are at the point of understanding that "Thou Art That" applies to us!
We are the Psyche! ALL is the Psyche! The Psyche is God. We are God. Just as the Hindus would say, "All is Brahman! We are Brahman!" And theology, theologies, are imagined into existence as projections of our interpretations of reality and are not reality itself. Our theology is us pretending we are not God. But the actual truth is Thou Art That!
Providence Road Sunflowers — New Town, North Carolina
Sustaining, maintaining, regaining our balance and harmony is the key to a well-lived life.
Art, music and nature, trance states, babies and pets help to center and focus us in order to do what is called for "on the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea."
And, That Which Has Always Been Called "God."
I say "That Which Has Always Been Called 'God'" to underscore how theology has replaced That Which Has Always Been Called "God" with the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and how that does a disservice to the God of our experience and to our ability to relate to the day-to-dayness of our reliance upon the Hidden Other within and without.
The Hidden Other is one of the psychic wonders/forces that guide, direct, comfort, console all life forms throughout the Cosmos on their daily rounds, and was co-opted by the shaman-priests produced by human cultures which were, in turn, easily exploited by the shaman-priest caste to provide a comfortable way of life along with personal power and control through the ages. It is called "filling a niche" in society, which also robbed individuals of their own "God-guide within and created their dependence upon the doctrine/dogma/theology/ritual/ sacrifice/religion of appeasement to keep God or the Gods happy with them in order to guard, protect, guide them throughout the lives of their tribe.
This makes religion worldwide the scam of existence throughout time, using the inner life of all people against them in service to the power-priest types of every tribe/nationality.
But the Holy Other Within continues to thrive and carry out its business as a part of the Psychoid realm between the physiological and psychological (Filling the Hindu/Buddhist intuitive grasp of that which is neither there nor not there)--where psychology and physics meet and form the gray area between each, The Hidden Holy Other Within and Without.
Which means that living to know and serve That Which Has Always Been Called God the ground and goal of a well-lived life.
Backroads Gold — AI produced image (The Purple Ornamental Plum Tree is from my neighbor’s back yard, everything else is produced by PhotoShop.
Projection, properly understood and diagnosed, is the end of religion. We are seeing things that are not there by being coerced into taking everything on faith. "It doesn't exist until you believe it does! Then it becomes an absolute fact like that! It is magical and miraculous and proof that God is REAL!!!)
It is projection.
I ask you to take up the hobby of exploring projection. Read everything the internet has to say about projection. Examine your own projections--How you want to project yourself as being, and how you presume that others are. How you want to be seen and how you see others as being.
Celebrating Yellow 11/08/2018 — Ginkgo Biloba Park, Charlotte, North Carolina
How long will recovery take? Nothing Trump is doing will reduce that time. And, if we think about recovery worldwide, from The Amazon, to Gaza, and Palestine... the time frame just gets ridiculous.
Why do we live in ways that do not enhance life? What are we living for in ways worldwide that do not enhance life?
What are we seeking short term that destroys life and life's joy long term?
I am living what remains of my life in protest and renunciation.
I'm going to sit in my chair and look out the window in protest and renunciation.
Which will be completely futile. Exactly as everyone else's life will be. Which is the point. I call it "Calling Attention To Futility By Living Futilely."
God comes to life in us and through us in ways and in places where it might be said that we are "One with the Tao of life and being."
One with the Tao and one with God are the same thing.
Alive to the time and place of our living. In tune with what's what and what need to be done in response, when, where, and how it needs to be done. God and the Tao dance together through us in the here and now of our living.
Jesus got it. Adam and Eve didn't.
This story has nothing to do with sin and redemption. With being lost and found. And it has everything to do with our being alive to the time and place of our living.
Alert to and aware of what's what, and what's happening here, now, and what's called for, and doing it with the gifts that are ours to serve and to share-- our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination, our intrinsic intuition, our psychic powers connecting us to the entire Cosmos.
We are who Jesus was. And bring God to life through the way we live our life every day.
Roaring Fork Falls 09/01/2012–Pisgah National Forest, Little Switzerland, North Carolina
We pick up and go on anyway, nevertheless, even so. And that is as close to forgiveness as we need to get. Grave transgressions against us change things forever. It will never be as it was.
"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15 f)
Rachel has been scandalized. Betrayed. Appalled. Outraged. Who is going to suggest to Rachel that she should forgive the great wrong and get back to tending her business? That would add to her burden!
It takes time to get our feet back under us. To recover some sense of balance and harmony. Laughter may return on its own, depending on the severity of our loss. But our goal need not have "returning to normal" be a part of our restoration. It is enough to step forward to meet another day. Where it goes from there is day by day.
The Wailing Wall is not for nothing. It is for the duration. That will have to ease in its own time. In the meantime, we grieve the lost spring to our step as we carry on, carry on, though we may need to be forgiven if we forget "just why."
Do me a favor and stop right now and do an internet search for father greg boyle, and watch some videos. Come back when you are ready.
Greg Boyle is who God would be if God could be anyone God wanted to be. Which, of course God cannot be because God is the projection of everyone who believes in God and of everyone who doesn't believe in God. Which makes God the product of everyone's imagination. The projection of everyone's idea of God. Which is, of course, my own projection of God. So, there's that.
The Beaver Pond at Schwabacher’s Landing — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
Trusting ourselves is not trusting our thinking mind, but trusting our feeling intuition. It is about sitting down, shutting up, and waiting for clarity by recognizing an emotionally charged sense of right direction when one arises.
Trusting ourselves to know the way when the light comes on is essential trusting.
And we just wait to know, knowing that we will know when we know.
Sometimes it comes as a flash of insight, and sometimes it comes as a growing sense of surety. Knowing it when we see it, feel it, is a felt sense of certainty. And I have complete confidence in the validity of the felt sense of certainty. Though it rarely comes as quickly as I would like. So I sit and wait some more.
Jim at Baxter Creek — Screen Shotfrom Zoom with my original photograph of Baxter Creek and my original self
We have to not care what our chances are, or what the odds are, or what our outcomes are. These things cannot matter to us at all.
Our filial loyalty and our life-long devotion have to be to who we are, not to what we achieve, or what difference we make.
We all live and die, and who knows who we were or what we did or did not do two generations hence, much less 100 generations hence.
We live for here, now, with the gifts we have to offer: Our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination, our intrinsic intuition and our unique psyche, in the service of what is called for in each situation as it arises, whether any one is watching or not, for no reasons other than the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it.
Great Blue Heron 05/11/2019 — Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, Noxubee County, Mississippi
Instead of the word "prayer," I prefer and propose the word "communion." We commune with the Holy, Hidden, Other when we drop into the silence and wait for realization, recognition, comprehension, knowing...
"Prayer" suggests to me a grocery list of needs and wants, and the more people we have praying for us, the better our chances of getting what we need/want.
You can run your own test in the matter, but I have found that crossing my fingers works as well as praying for my team to win the World Series.
Communion works every time when understanding "works" to be immersion the presence of the Holy Other with the vision and courage to know and do what needs to be done.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 