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?
Price Lake and Grandfather Mountain, 2005 –Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We trust each other to be who we say we are. And to live together in ways that honor each other's right to be who we are within normal, customary, social limits. We aren't going to trash each other's boundaries or mind each other's business. And we are all going to do our part to "just get along."
I do so wish this kind of social agreement extended to all people throughout society. I don't know why it doesn't. But, I remain aloof from strangers, and prefer being withdrawn and "alone" in public places. Yet, I hold little back here, believing in the value of saying what's what and how it is with me, and trusting you to distance yourself from me if I'm appalling and too raw for your comfort zone.
I invite you to take religion into your own hands, and create for yourselves what you deem to be reasonable and prudent ideas about your spirituality and "the invisible world" that will support you in your life and in your ability to live with balance and harmony within all circumstances and each situation as it arises-- standing with our shoulders above our feet and able to move in any direction at any time in doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, and enabling ourselves to bring our best to meet the moment and what is asked of us there throughout the time left for living.
Living our of our intrinsic intuition is our most reliable guide in determining what needs to be done here, now. And we grow in our ability to do that by spending enough of the right kind of time with emptiness, stillness, silence-- one thing, not three-- in a routine and regular way every day.
May it be well with you in that regard, now and forever!
Hatteras Morning 2004 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Once the Buddha died and his followers got their hands on distributing his teachings, Buddhism diverged into Who Says So?
I have no idea of how many variants of Buddhism there are, or have been through the ages, but a Google search will take you there.
Who Speaks For The Buddha? Who Says So?
It's like asking "Who speaks for the Christ?"
Irenaeus the Bishop (Butcher) of Lion took it upon himself to speak for Christianity and the Church of Rome, persecuting the Gnostics by burning them at the stake, and paving the way for "One Holy and Apostolic Church " and however many varieties of Christianity that have developed through the ages (Google it!).
Who Speaks for Christ? Who Says so?
People argue about the variations of Buddhism and Christianity as though there is a definitive word regarding the Absolute Truth. There is only a massive amount of opinion in the matter.
And Those Who Think They Know Best still go about declaring heresy here and there. As if they have more than a self-declared right to do so!
Who Says So? How does anyone know that they know what they are talking about?
Faith, these days, is more than faith in the Christ or faith in the Buddha. It is faith in Who Says So? And that could be anyone with a microphone these days!
Lake Chicot 04 10/27/2015 – Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platt, Lousiiana
The shift Christianity is required to make is from believing in Jesus to being Jesus, "like that."
It is a simple shift in perspective to view Jesus' "resurrection" as being coming to life in his disciples, but.
If it were as simple as changing clothes, it would have been done long before now.
It requires a change of attitude, of orientation, of focus and direction.
And our theology has to be completely revamped.
The Garden of Eden metaphor has to be scrapped entirely and replaced with the Prodigal Son's father as the way to think about what needs to be done. From, "Depart from me! I never knew you, you servants of iniquity!" To, "You were lost, and now you are found! You were dead and now you are alive!"
Or: "O Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son! O Absalom, my son!"
The Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement, has to be replaced with “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble-hearted, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Paul made the mental shift required with his, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me!" And that is all that is left for the rest of us to do.
And, "BOOM," as John Madden would say, everything is as it should have been from the start-- and would have been had it not been for Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lion, also known as "the Butcher of Lion," because of his persecution of heretics, murdering Gnostics by burning them at the stake.
Everything flows from how we see things and say what's what. And the times are calling us to change how we see things, and become who we have always been asked-- and had it in us-- to be, the anointed ones, the divine children of God.
Fall Woods at Big Creek — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville, North Carolina access
Embracing Kant's categorical imperative as knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises, and doing it without concern for profit or gain, with the gifts that are ours from birth: Our original nature, Our innate virtues (The things we do best and love/enjoy doing most) Our intrinsic intuition, puts us on the path of innocence and grace, without guile, deceit, or deception, just being who we are, doing what comes naturally to us in the service of what needs to be done in the situation unfolding before us here, now, when/where/how it needs to be done all our life long-- for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it.
It is called being the Buddha, being the Christ, just by being ourselves.
We are living to align ourselves with our life-- to express, exhibit, display, incarnate, serve, who we are and what we are about though the things we say, and do, and stand for, while living in ways appropriate to the occasion in each situation as it arises!
Integrity! Spontaneity! Sincerity! Vitality! Authenticity! Congruity! Balance and harmony!
We do this by being best friends with our intrinsic intuition, our original nature and our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy/love doing most)-- and by spending time regularly and reliably with emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three!), and allowing our life to flow from our association with all these things.
Canadian Pacific 9677 at Castle Mountain — Banff National Park, Alberta, Canadian Rockies
AA proposes: "Acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today."
I think it is "Growing Up."
All of my problems are generated by the refusal of everyone, including me, to grow up.
If my parents had been growing up, consciously, intentionally, deliberately, all of their life what a difference that would have made in my life.
The same goes for their parents, and their parents...
Everyone was blaming something else for all of their problems. No one was squaring up to their need to grow up, face what needed to be faced and do what needed to be done about it with their own personal gifts that were always at their disposal.
And I think the culprit at the bottom of it all was/is bad religion. And all religion is bad religion.
Religion teaches that we are evil, worthless, no count, no good and that there is nothing we can do about it. How's that for the basis for terminal immaturity?
Of course, growing up would mean the end of religion as we know it, and probably the end of religion of any variety.
When we become the responsible agent for our life, who needs a god to pray to for blessings and deliverance and life everlasting?
And that would upend the world as it has come to be.
Which means that it is up to us to walk away from religion and take up sitting looking out the window, reflecting on the current state of our affairs, and what we need to do what needs to be done about it.
Start with stopping all our thinking about everything that prevents us from seeing/doing what needs to be done about the current state of our affairs.
What we spend our time thinking about keeps us from thinking about what we need to think about to do what needs to be done.
We spend out time with addiction, diversion, distraction, denial, projection, delusion, illusion, escape, evasion, avoidance...
Anything to keep from growing up and doing what needs to be done about things as they are.
A View of the River — Yellowstone River, Yellowstone Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Our real best life unfolds in the moment of living it, one situation at a time.
Knowing what is called for here, now is all we ever need to know.
And that knowledge arises spontaneously out of our lifelong relationship with emptiness/stillness/silence (One thing, not three), and trusting ourselves to read the signs of the times and know what's what and what is asked of us moment-to-moment, all along the way.
Faith in ourselves like this is the true test of faith. Believing in our relationship with our intrinsic intuition to the point of death on a cross is to enter into the laughter of those who discovered they didn't have anything to lose anywhere along the way.
Sunset at Clingman’s Dome — Clingman’s Dome Parking Lot, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina/Tennessee
If we want to know God, we can't do it by hearing about God, or reading about God. If we want to know God, we have to live in godly ways.
We have to live aligned with the divine within by honoring our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and love/enjoy doing the most), and our intrinsic intuition (That which knows what needs to be done, when/where/how in each situation as it arises, without an eye out for what's in it for us, without knowing what we stand to gain or lose, without caring about what's in it for us, without serving our plans or agendas, without having anything at stake in any outcome, all our life long.
To know God, we have to BE God, through all of the circumstances that come along.
Whales do it. Rocks do it. Giant Sequoias do it. Pigs and eagles do it.
The natural world has it down, and is waiting for us to get with the program.
The Canoe at Fish Creek 09/27/2012 — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine
It's a little bit out of hand. The only people with a chance of bringing balance and harmony back into play are the American voters-- assuming the election is held as scheduled and systems are functioning normally. But who can count on that? Who can count on anything?
Well. The silence is still there, and we are still capable of finding our own fulcrum and living from there to right our world. Shoulders above our feet, steady as she goes. In a world that is depending on us to take on the forces of destabilization, and say "NO!" to crazy and "Yes!" to sane.
May it be so all the way back to the normal distribution curve worldwide!
Bog River Reflection — Adirondack Park, New York, 09/29/2014
The Divine Spark within comes alive as we live in ways that are true to our heart, our original nature, our innate virtues (the things we do best and love/enjoy most) our intrinsic intuition, in doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, when/where/how (One thing, not three) it needs to be done, for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, no matter what, all our life long.
We bring God to life in our lives this way.
That's how it has always been done. And, we cannot do it by thinking about it! It is spontaneous, automatic, natural, arising independently of reason, logic, laws and regulations to be exactly what is appropriate to every occasion from those who are aligned with the flow of life and being through the circumstances of existence in all times and places, true to themselves and to what needs to be done. World without end!
"There's nothing to it but to do it!" (Maya Angelou).
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 