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?
Lake Andrew Jackson Mirror 01 2018 — Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina
The old Taoists said "circumstances beget circumstances," and it is our place to respond to what's what here, now, in ways appropriate to the occasion.
That cannot be spelled out in advance. We cannot know beforehand what to do when and where.
We respond to every here, now, here, now.
To have any success with this process, we need a strong relationship with our intrinsic intuition, in order to "feel our way along," reading the moment, getting out of the way with our ideas of what to do, and relax into our intuition, doing what arises of its own accord in a "spontaneous arising" kind of way, so that we find ourselves acting in the field of action without knowing why, just being as pertinent and as in touch with what is going on as we are capable of being. Saying and doing what is called for as directed from within, as the moved responding to the mover.
This what intuition is for, the role intuition is expertly tuned to handle.
With a little practice in getting out of the way, we come to look forward to seeing what we will be doing next-- with a nod and a bow to the mover guiding our boat on its path through the sea.
"I don't think that's going anywhere," could be said about everything. Along with it's corollary, "Where do you think you're going?" And, "What do you think you're doing?"
These are all statements that could be at the heart of Zen.
Along with the following:
"Those who say, don't know. Those who know, don't say."
"The Tao that can be told/explained/said is not the eternal Tao."
A Zen master and a novice were walking across a bridge when the novice asked, "What is Zen?" Whereupon the master picked him up and threw him into the river below, saying, "That is water! swim in it, bathe in it, drink it, or drown-- but do not talk about it! To talk about water is to not know water!"
Those of us who know what we are doing, know that we don't know what we are doing, and sit in the emptiness, stillness, silence, waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear, so that our intrinsic intuition might guide us into doing what needs to be done, where, when and how, and then we drop back into the emptiness, etc. for another round, and so on, for as long as life shall last.
All Aboard! — Jasper, Alberta, Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies
What do you think about as you are driving trains through Canada?
What do you think about when you are not?
What do you think about?
What we think about tells the tale.
One thought tends to lead to another, particularly when we are thinking about our thinking. Being curious as to why we think the way we think and not some other way instead-- and thinking about some of the other ways available to us, and wondering why we have never thought that way.
Or thinking how the way we think is so much like the way people think around us.
Who in your family of origin thought the way you think? Who in your family of origin did NOT think the way anyone else thought?
Who has been the freest thinker you know? What books did they read? What did they do to pay the bills? What did they pay the bills to do? How was their life different from the way life was being lived around them?
How is the way you live different from the way life is being lived around you?
How is the way you think different from the way people around you think?
Crescent Beach Panorama — Ecola State Park, Oregon
Aligning ourselves with our original nature, innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), and our intrinsic intuition, puts us at "the sweet spot" of our life, on the beam, at one with our destiny, and in accord with the Tao of life and being.
You would think, that with all that going for it, more people would be faithfully engaged in centering themselves with themselves, and living with the plumb line of their personal integrity always in mind, being true to who they are in each situation as it arises all their life long.
It is an eternal puzzle that we are not.
Just sit down, shut up, and focus on what rings true.
Get up and do what needs to be done, when/where/how it needs to be done.
Repeat this process/practice throughout the time left for living.
Lake Chicot 06 2015 — Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platte, Louisiana
If you choose to go the Non-Christian/Non-Buddhist route, you get to throw out all the theology, doctrines, dogma, dharma, sutras, rituals, catechisms and creeds, and focus exclusively on being the best Jesus and/or Buddha you can be, simply by sitting in the right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence, waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear, reflecting on, contemplating, considering, exploring your original nature, your innate virtues (The things you do best and enjoy/love doing most), and your intrinsic intuition, and waiting on/watching/listening for what arises in the silence with an urgency about it that cannot be denied to thrust you into the field of action, calling you to do what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done, in each situation as it arises.
And when you see that through to completion, drop back in to the emptiness, stillness and silence, waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear, etc, just as before, throughout the time left for living.
Just like Jesus and the Buddha did it all their life long.
The key is being true to your original nature, your innate virtues, and your intrinsic intuition.
These comprise the Holy Trinity of the Non-Christian and Non-Buddhist life.
They come to life in the emptiness, stillness and silence (The second Holy Trinity), and off you go! Into the Great Adventure of Being Alive!
Moraine Lake Panorama 2009 A — Banff National Park, Alberta
Tourist time starts around 10 AM. Sunrise on the peaks begins a bit earlier. It is a question of what matters most.
Knowing what matters to us is a key piece of knowing, reflecting our original nature.
We don't know why the important things are important, we just live to serve them.
Dogs, cats, horses and people matter a lot to a lot of people, and not so much to others, reflecting the original nature of both groups.
Giving them a sense of where they belong, and where they have no business being. Essential knowing. Where our place is, and where it isn't. What we are about-- what we are to be about. And not about.
We have to honor the lines defining, expressing, doing, being who we are, and are capable of being.
That is the tragedy. That we do not know and do not bother with knowing who we are and are capable of being.
Largely because we have the wrong people in or life. People who do not know or care who they are.
Who have/had neither the time nor the inclination to sit in the emptiness/stillness/silence long enough, often enough, to listen/see/know/understand required to discover and understand who they are and not.
Wild Goose Island, St. Mary Lake, 2004 — Glacier National Park, Montana
Zen is Taoism's response to Buddhism. There is nothing Buddhist about it.
"Don't take suffering seriously, Bro! Just fold it into your life and live on! Live on!"
The Buddha could have used the insights of Taoism.
"Nothing is so bad that changing the way you look at it won't make better!"
"Why be undone about the way things are? Do what can be done about it and move on! Move on!"
The Buddha's solution was to stop thinking about it entirely. Empty mind. No mind. Untouched by it all. Being dead to the idea of dying. Ignoring things as they are disappears them altogether.
Nothing is so bad that denial can't improve, like that!
Dying to death beats death! Dying to suffering beats suffering! "Nothing can happen I can't deny by not thinking about it! So, I'm just going to not think about the things I don't like!"
Cathedral Rock Mirror — Yosemite National Park, California
Spend the rest of your life trusting yourself to the right kind of emptiness/stillness/silence, exploring your original nature, your innate virtues (The things you do well and enjoy/love doing most), and your intrinsic intuition.
And experimenting with living in ways that serve and exhibit/express these three aspects of yourself in responding to what is called for in each situation as it arises.
Bringing yourself forth in this way to meet your life. In so doing, you will be living your life in the deepest, truest, kind of way.
Live to be you-- in the service of being you-- in the right kind of way, here and now, for as long as life shall last.
Moraine Lake Mirror — Banff National Park, Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Making the world a better place is quite beyond any of us. It is out of our hands. We would do well to settle for making ourselves a better place.
That is well within our reach, but. We have to lay aside our wants, desires, aspirations, dreams of conquest and domination...
We cannot go the Adam and Eve route, striving for what we have no business having.
Living within our means and doing what can be done with our original nature, our inherent virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), and our intrinsic intuition to work with in each situation as it arises throughout the time left for living would do an amazing amount of good.
Whyah Bald Sunrise — Nantahala National Forest, Franklyn, North Carolina
Don't have to know why. Be content with what and how, when and where.
Too often, we talk ourselves out of doing what is called for because we cannot explain, defend, justify,excuse our actions.
We have to live the way our life needs to be lived without caring why.
We have to trust our life-- our intuition-- to know what it is doing, and go with our strong impulse to act, even if we never know/understand why.
And don't spend your time with people who have to know why all the time.
And in the same vein, look closer at the things that catch your eye! Explore, investigate, probe, examine, reflect on, wonder about, play with what is the attraction and what is being asked of you, suggested to you.
Open the experience up to all its possibilities.
Don't just say, "That was weird," and go on with your life.
Mabry Mill in the Rain — Blue Ridge Parkway, Meadows of Dan, North Carolina
Being a Christian the way Jesus and the disciples were Christians is to be a non-Christian in the sense of being free of doctrine, theology, dogma, dharma,creeds, catechisms, hymns (books of doctrine set to music), rituals, prayer meetings and fellowship dinners.
And being free to follow the guidance of our intuition in being who we are called to be, doing what needs to be done, in the here/now of each moment, being Jesus the way only we can be Jesus, the way Jesus was Jesus, within the circumstances unfolding day-to-day.
To be Jesus is to be a non-Christian the way Jesus was a non-Christian-- not imposing anything on any situation, in a "this is how I'm supposed to act" or "this is the way it is supposed to be," way, but in a "this is what is called for, and how I'm here to do it" way.
Being free of the image/idea of "ought to be," enables us to embrace the experience of oneness with the moment, dancing the dance that must be danced in accordance with the music of time and place, aligned with the Tao of life and being, in light of what is called for here, now.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 