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?
Cades Cove Methodist Church — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
It matters how we live our life. It matters how we treat one another. Babies matter. Children matter. People matter. It all matters. What we do and leave undone. What we love and what we hate, despise, detest matter. And it is up to each of us to live as though it is so. To live as though life matters. Even though Donald Trump and his minions refuse to do so. It is up to the rest of us to pick up their slack and to care about the way we live upon the earth Because it matters how we live with each other and all others. No?
Full Moon — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Living from the inside out is done by dropping into the silence and waiting for clarity regarding what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for, when, where and how and taking our body’s lead from there. It is called “Getting out of our head and into our body.” Not allowing what we want/desire/fear/dread enter into the conversation. It is about having no plans beyond having no plans, having no intention beyond having no intention. Merging with the here, now to the point of being one with the here, now and waiting for an impulse to action to direct us in the service of what is called for here, now, from one here, now to the next. The natural world doesn’t wake up knowing what it is going to do today, any day. It doesn’t operate out of a social calendar or a to do list, and yet everything gets done every day. Our daily role is to see how close to that we can come, day to day.
Dome Sunset — Clingman’s Dome Parking Lot, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
The phrase, “after a certain age,” is one that is used frequently in doctors’ offices after a certain age. It means “these things can be expected,” “this symptom is not unusual,” “don’t let it bother you”… Those Who Know Best don’t talk to you that way in your 40’s and 50’s, but by your mid-seventies, it’s common parlance. My experience with the experience of “after a certain age” is that things can’t be trusted to be what we think they ought to be. Our daily flow, the process of getting dressed and ready for the day, the things that came naturally, easily, falling into place in regular order like they always have becomes uncertain, irregular, new, and people who know you can’t trust you to be you. “It’s a new world, Golda.” And nothing can prepare you for it. It is a mental fog where reasoning doesn’t work like it once did, and someone needs to tell you, “First your pants, then your shoes,” frequently enough to be bothersome. Frequently enough to be concerning to the point of not being able to trust yourself to know what you are doing, saying, talking about, and you fade into the background and just try to stay out of the way. “after a certain age,” you begin to gradually disappear before you are actually gone.
I cope with it by being interested in it, attending it, the experience of fading away before my own eyes, wondering what I won’t be able to trust today. Curious about when I should stop driving before it’s too late and I should have stopped a month ago. As it is, I wake up wondering what I will not remember today. Entertaining myself that way.
Looking Glass Falls, Pisgah National Forest, Brevard, North Carolina
This is from my WordPress Blog “200 More Zen Thoughts From Jim Dollar #3”
006. Different choices, different outcomes. Sounds easy. The problem is that we want particular outcomes. Servants of the Outcomes is the role we want ours to be. As though we know what is best for us. We only know what we want for us, and think that is best. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It is all about wanting. Wanting outcomes directs our choices. Only we have no idea what outcomes would be right for us and what outcomes would be wrong for us. We are flying blind, pretending we know what we are doing. We do not know what we are doing. That should be our daily mantra repeated throughout each day. “I do not know what I am doing.” That would remind us to “Seek the light.” The light being Flow, Drift, Inclination, Psyche, Tao, Intuition. Tuning within, listening to the Inner Guide. Listening to our gut. Because we do not know what we are doing.
El Capitan Mirror — Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California
Seeing is a matter of proper looking, and that is a matter of imagining how many ways there are of seeing a scene. And that means being with the scene in a way that invites/allows the scene to reveal itself beyond its initial impact. It means being with the scene in the right kind of way. Which means taking a time with a scene, absorbing the scene, being here, now with the scene. And not being in a hurry. All of which are functions of being where we are throughout our life. Making being alive the art of seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding…
Big Creek 04-02 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville Exit Access, North Carolina
Our place in each day is not to impose our will, wants, wishes upon the day, but to align ourselves with the drift and flow of the day, doing what we can to aid and abet the day with its needs and interests. The question is not, “How can we be happy today?” but, “How can we be helpful today?” Not, “What can we get?” but, “What is called for here, now throughout each day.” We are here to do what is called for with our skill set, our talents, our knacks and abilities–for the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it. In each situation as it arises, all our life long.
Big Creek Cascade 01 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville Exit, North Carolina
Jesus came to tell us that nobody goes to hell, that everyone realizes the truth eventually and bears the pain of having taken so long to wake up to all things being the way they ought to be finally, at last, forever. The Prodigal’s father is the way God is. Drop into the silence and meet what meets you there and, and you will know that it is so. What kind of world would it be if it were not?
Early Light — The Watchman and the Virgin River — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
Being in a lot of the right places has put me in a right place, and made it easy for me to return there on a regular basis. It is a natural wonder how being in the presence of nature balances us, harmonizes us, stabilizes us and puts us back together again in a “this is how it is when we are at one with who we are and, as the Buddha said, “Peacefully abiding, here, now.”
The way of “peaceful abiding, here, now,” is the most natural way to be–and it is anywhere the natural world opens itself to receive us and we open to receive it back. It is a good move to seek out those places and frequent them often, just to say hello, again and wander and sit for a while. Being balanced, harmonized, stabilized by peaceful abiding, here, now, again.
Bright Angel Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Sleet is on the ground, power is on, nothing is falling at the moment, fingers crossed…
We know what we like and don’t like, want and don’t want, but we don’t know where we are better off or what is in our best interest. Like and don’t like, want and don’t want, are poor guides along the way. We need a better method of finding our way along the Way. Psyche/Tao/Intuition would be the best IF we weren’t able to discount/dismiss/ignore “the still, small, voice” and go our own way without even realizing what we are doing.
It starts with our turning into mindful awareness here, now and being aware of what is going on with our attention in order to consciously focus on our openness to the inner signals. Simply concentrating on “Yes/No” and taking a reading of the inner force, seeing if we can catch an inner preference for “Yes” or “No” and going with what our inner sense seems to favor.
Practice with what you will wear each day. Don’t think about it. Feel your way into your clothing choices. Then run everything by the inner Guide. Practice reading the indicators. Filter every option through the “Yes/No” process until you can “just know” without having to ask. Becoming one with our inner companion will be a major step forward in knowing what we are doing, what’s what and what’s called for, never mind what we want. Life as two not one will be a different way of doing it, and we can keep score as to which way, Solo or Duo, we think is best.
Cathedral Rock Mirror — Yosemite National Park, California
There is what we do to live, and there is what we live to do. Occasionally these may be the same thing. There are artists who support themselves with their art, and musicians who make a living with their music. Most of us do what we love by paying the bills doing what we don’t love to do. Some teachers teach when they would prefer to be writing poetry, or taking photographs. We come to terms the best we can with the life we are living, and get up and meet the day.
I find sitting quietly to be what I’m built to do, and I don’t know of anyone who makes a living sitting quietly. So, I’ve had to work it out all my life long, and now that I am retired, I can sit quietly as long as I want, as often as I want. And, I haven’t found anything to beat it.
Sitting quietly is basically a matter of reflection. Joseph Campbell made it work for him, much like I have done, and said that “reflection leads to new realizations.” I have certainly found that to be the case, and look forward to what I will realize next all of the time.
Pondering contradictions and incongruity is particularly intriguing, and have discovered that the further we go into anything, the more oppositional it becomes. We all are our opposites and become what we are not, or find ways to express/serve who we are not, even to the point of making a living from it if we are lucky.
I was a minister for 40.5 years–an introvert pretending to be an extrovert all that time. Conducting weddings and funerals, leading worship services and attending weekly family night dinners. Who would have thought it? The opposites within are often our most intriguing aspects. The places we have the most fun. The things that “pull us out,” develop us, grow us up.
And every Yin has its Yang, as the old taoists used to say. Yin is the black, feminine side and Yang is the white, boisterous, obnoxious side. And together, they make a wonderful pair. Don’t you think so?
Bow Lake — Ice Fields Parkway, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta
Where do Trump and MAGA part ways? Where is Trump not being Trump-enough for MAGA? Where is MAGA being too much Trump for Trump? Where does the line lie?
The core at the heart of both is genocide. They both want to kill everyone not white like they are. White Supremacy is actually White Exclusivity. No? It is impossible to be too white for either Trump or MAGA. The “G” in MAGA is really a “W.” No? Everyone else must die. A terrible, awful, horrible death. Right? Why all of the pretending that isn’t at the heart of things running this show? All the mincing of words and sleight of hand are ridiculous. Just come out with it! “WE HATE EVERYONE NOT WHITE LIKE US!!!”
Canoes and Paddle Boards for Rent on Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
There are people who would throw a rock into the middle of tranquility because that is who they are. They don’t know why and they don’t care. They just know what they like and what they don’t like, and are compelled to do what they like.
I don’t know why we see things a we do, or who is right and who is wrong, or if it matters. I like the idea of being in accord, of one mind, smooth and easy. Being at odds with one another all of the time is exhausting for me and I have to withdraw and sit quietly to find the balance and harmony, rhythm and flow apart from those who are throwing rocks into the middle of tranquility because they like it that way.
And there are people who would accuse me of throwing rocks into the middle of tranquility by saying there is no Original Sin, no Garden of Eden, no need for Substitutionary Atonement theories, no need for atonement or redemption. We only need to realize how we all need the companionship of one another the way Yin needs Yang to be who each is by being whom both are “with liberty and justice for all.” And kindness, mercy and compassion all around the circle. With hatred, rancor and acrimony tucked away and nowhere around, and nothing but “peaceful abiding, here, now.”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 