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?
When we wake up, we do what needs to be done in each situation as it arises with the gifts that we have to serve and share all our life long.
Jesus did no more than that. Nor did the Buddha. Being who we are "as those thus come," wherever and whenever we are, here, now.
This is not difficult. It only takes seeing/hearing/knowing what's what and what is called for moment to moment and responding to the occasion with the gifts we bring with us into every room we enter-- original nature, innate virtues (the things we do best and enjoy doing most), inherent imagination, intrinsic intuition-- doing what needs to be done with what we have to offer.
A child could do as much-- and does as much in each situation as it arises. So, Jesus could say, "All you have to do is become childlike." (Or words to that effect.)
Walking Down A Country Road — Backroads, North Carolina
We are on our own when it comes to living a meaningful life.
No one can tell us how to do that. No one knows but us what is meaningful to us. No one can tell us how to find that. There are no books to read to tell us what will constitute "our bliss." We find that by ourselves. We are alone when it comes to the essential knowing that forms the grounding foundation of our life.
What has been meaningful to you in the past? What are the most meaningful things you do presently? Start there in seeking out--homing in on--places to find meaning in your life here and now.
And if you have been with me for a while, you know that I am going to recommend emptiness, stillness and silence as your go-to place for everything related to seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/being all your life long.
Take all of your questions there, and "wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear," in order that realization/understanding/enlightenment/insight might emerge/occur/arise to catch your eye, call your name, and provide guidance and direction, winking at you and disappearing around a corner or down a rabbit hole.
What you seek resides within, and it takes listening/looking to see/hear what is waiting to be found as the treasure of lasting value, which, of course, has nothing to do with riches and wealth, and everything to do with the elan vital--the vital energy that will fuel your life in its service throughout the time left for living.
Your intuition leads the way via nighttime dreams and the "felt sense" that you can be conscious of in your body, along with "slips of the tongue," and synchronistic coincidences that can guide your boat on its path through the sea.
All of which happen most frequently to those with few stipulations to impose on their journey to the heart of their own personal truth which is ours to experience and to serve throughout the time left for living (whether we know it/acknowledge it or not).
Two Buds at Sunset — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Intuition is the way to the Way. There is no thinking, no believing, only seeing/hearing/knowing, spontaneously the way we know when our heart is in something and when it is not.
Living intuitively is living spontaneously, is living wholeheartedly, is seeing/hearing/knowing what's what and what is called for in each situation as it arises-- not in a rational/logical/intellectual kind of way, but in a see/do kind of way.
Something happens and we know what to do in response. Intuition at its best.
Our responsibility is to pay attention to what our heart/body is telling us, to what our intuition is saying to us, and to go where it is telling us to go, to do what it is urging us to do.
And to not resist, demur, refuse, because we don't want to, because we don't feel like it, because we aren't in the mood, because we have a better idea...
What does wanting know? Intuition KNOWS! When wanting trumps intuition we are off the path, we have lost the way, and are wandering in the wasteland where one direction looks as good as another.
When that is the case with us, the thing to do is sit down, shut up, be quiet. Is to drop into emptiness/stillness/silence and wait "for the mud to settle and the water to clear."
With clarity comes seeing/hearing/knowing what's what and what is called for and it is being/doing that that gets us back in the saddle and on the way the is the Way.
Until the next thing that we don't want to do...
Our best move is to let wanting go and to do what our intuition tells us what is called for and directs us to do about it.
Charleston Harbor Sunset — Pitt Street Bridge Recreation Area, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
It comes down to and flows from us and our intuition rising to meet each situation as it arises, here, now and moment-to-moment, day-to-day, in the world.
That is all we have and all we need to see/hear/know/do what needs to be done and be who we need to be through all that comes our way.
And we have emptiness/stillness/silence (One thing, not three) to rely upon and return to in order to refuel, refresh and redirect here, now all the way.
When we take the time to know what we know, we know what's what and what is called for in order to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, in aligning ourselves with the flow of life and being throughout what remains of the time left for living.
Which is all that can be asked of any of us, any time, any place. Neither the Buddha nor Jesus could do more.
Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
Projection and denial are two of the psychological defense mechanisms that are most responsible for things being as they are.
It is a solid irony. Things are as they are because projection and denial prevent us from seeing things as they are.
If we knew what's what without projecting onto it what we fear and what we wish, what we dread and what we desire, we would be much better positioned to deal with what faces us and do about it what needs to be done about it.
Or maybe not.
"What needs to be done about it" depends upon our orientation and intentions.
There is "What needs to be done about it" from the standpoint of the situation as a whole.
And there is "What needs to be done about it" from the standpoint of our self-interest, ambition, desire, fear, dread and what it means for us personally.
If we look at the world selfishly, in terms of our perceived best interest, we strive for a certain outcome.
If we look at the world from the standpoint of benevolence, compassion and good will, we strive for a different outcome.
What do we have at stake in what we face? What do we stand to gain and lose? And what part do projection and denial play in our thinking about what we stand to gain and lose?
The people killing democracy in this country and in the world know what they want and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it.
And they aren't willing to do anything to make the world a better place for all people to live. The part projection and denial play in them being the way they are likely aren't as great as utter selfishness and willful indifference to the needs of others.
Lake Haigler — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Being true to ourselves is being true to our original nature, to our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination and our intrinsic intuition.
Drop into the emptiness, stillness and silence and reflect on where you are failing to live truthfully engaged in these aspects of you.
Where are you saying NO where it would be more truthfully "you" to say YES? And saying YES where it would be more truthfully "you" to say NO?
Live to get YES and NO in their right places, and things will fall into place around that, to the truthful expression of you in each situation as it arises. No one could do more!
Adams Mill Pond 02 — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
We offer ourselves to each situation as it arises, arising ourselves to offer our best to the moment in a mutually arising kind of way, and letting the outcome be the outcome, without attitude or opinion, simply doing what is called for, where, when and how as only we can do it, and doing it again in the next situation as it arises, all our life long.
Emerald Lake — Yoho National Park, Field, British Columbia
What is called for, when, where and how?
Silence is always in play.
When we don't know what else to do, sit still, be quiet, wait to see what arises in the silence, what opens up, what stirs to life, what winks at us and calls our name.
We can always drop into the silence and see what meets us there.
The silence depends on nothing coming with us there. No wants. No plans. No agendas. No schemes.
We are not here to get what we want!
The Buddha said it best, 2,500, or so years ago. "Peaceful abiding, here, now."
No wants, no desire, no fear.
Just sitting still, being quiet, seeing what arises with an urgency about it, asking us to do what is called for, with our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination, our intrinsic intuition.
How do we need to put ourselves in play for the good of the time that is at hand? When the mud settles and the water clears, stand up and do what needs to be done!
And when it is done, drop back into the silence, waiting to see what's next.
Jesus saying, "The Father and I are one," and "In as much as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me." And Paul saying, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
Sets the table for us to realize we are one with Paul, one with Jesus, one with God, just as we are, as much as the Prodigal Son was at one with his father, and his father with him.
The entire atonement, redemption, forgiveness, etc. angle is a road best not taken, and we need to be working on being one with ourselves so that we might be one with each other, Paul, Jesus, God and the entire Cosmos.
We work at being one with ourselves by aligning ourselves with our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination and our intrinsic intuition.
When we are one with those things-- when we are being who we are and serving/exhibiting/reflecting these aspects of ourselves, in the work of doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, never mind what we want, the world changes, and we are living in ways that are inseparable from what Jesus called "The kingdom of God."
This is our work to do-- consciously, mindfully, deliberately, intentionally, day in and day out for the rest of our life.
There is nothing about any of this that is too hard for us, too difficult, impossible.
Children can do it-- and do it all of the time. So Jesus said, "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
Being one with themselves is what children do best. They all are "as one thus come," which is to say, being themselves, being who they are, being Paul, being Jesus, being God, showing us how to do it, only we have eyes on other things.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 