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?
Into the Waves 10-29-2008 — Outer Banks, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
He is walking into his life for the joy of it, for the thrill of it, for the satisfaction of it, and to be able to talk about it for the next 50 years.
We all should live like this everyday. Except for the talking about it part. Everyone would be talking about it. But to be able to talk about it, about doing what our life is calling us to do, the way it ought to be done, when and where it ought to be done, every day!
That would be something!
But wait! Today is right here, right now! Let's get started!
Heavy Seas 10-29-2008 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
It has taken me a long time to learn that it comes down to, depends upon, flows from, integrity, sincerity, spontaneity, emptiness, stillness, silence, listening/hearing, looking/seeing, knowing/understanding, what is called for and doing what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises, all our life long.
For the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it.
No matter what.
I see Jesus' death on a cross to be equivalent to the Buddhist monk immolating himself in Vietnam.
A protest against being ignored, dismissed, discounted, unseen, unheard in their work to turn the light around and have people realize what they were doing and do what needed to be done instead.
The light still needs to be turned around.
Ignorance and greed, hatred and fear are the four horsemen of the apocalypse, riding through the ages, leaving atrocity and devastation in their path.
Integrity/sincerity/spontaneity, emptiness/stillness/silence must rise against them. Time after time.
Dunes 04/23/2009 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
I had a sailing friend once who told me, "I became a sailor when I realized the sea was out to get me."
It applies across the board, around the table throughout the universe.
Life is out to get us. Are we prepared? Republicans are not prepared. Fascists don't have a clue. Their faith is in AR-15's and killing their enemies, at least making them suffer and stay far away.
That's what building the wall is all about. And exporting immagrants and all those who don't belong here-- which is all those who aren't fascists.
Hitler killed himself in a bunker built to keep them out. Killing himself was his final escape. That is the ultimate end of all fascists everywhere throughout time.
It is all out to get them and they have nowhere to go-- and they are terminally terrified, with no inner life that is beyond the reach of all life can do.
Talk to fascists about emptiness, stillness and silence and they blanche and retch and shoot you dead because you are Woke, which simply means you know what's what and aren't afraid of it, and they hate you all the way forever.
Woke is knowing life is out to get you and joining in the game, knowing we have nothing to lose and nothing to fear because there is nothing to want that we don't already have.
We come into the world with all we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done when, where, and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long.
Life is equipped for life-- in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way.
No matter what, we return to the emptiness, stillness and silence and wait to see/hear/know what to do about what needs to be done through all of the circumstances life throws at us.
All we need to realize to know it is so is that here we are, after all we have been through and dealt with, we are still here, now. It cannot be denied.
And we have what it takes to be here/now all the way.
Our inner resources are grounded/founded upon the realization of our original nature and the innate virtues/characteristics that are built into our DNA.
Realization is the key. We have to know what we know. This means making ourselves available to the Knower within with regular returns to the meditative state of trusting/listening/looking/relying upon our ability to find the way through the clashing rocks and heaving waves of the wine dark sea that is our life simply by following integrity, sincerity, spontaneity without contrivance or orchestration, or even knowing why, letting happen what needs to happen and doing what needs to be done in response to what is called for time after time.
Baxter Foliage 10/09/2009 — Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine
What would be most helpful to you at this point in your life?
What is most helpful to me is communion/conversation with people who are interested in the questions I am interested in-- and reading what they have written is a form of communion/conversation.
Native Americans are saying things I'm interested in. And old Taoists from 500 BCE. And Japanese poets from 1200 CE.
Life hasn't been the way people want it to be from the beginning. How they deal with that, put themselves in accord with that, live with that, interests me.
They work on adjusting their response to things they cannot impact or change, folding it into their life and living around it, with it, "anyway, nevertheless, even so."
They change themselves in relation to the things they cannot change. They change their mind, their perception, perspective, and live on as best they can, moving if need be, following the food supply, going where water is to be found, for instance, wandering, rambling, looking for some better place to be... throughout time.
And withdrawing from people who are not good for them to be around.
Mormons know about that, looking for a place to settle down where people will allow them to be who they are.
We all know about that. Looking for safe places to be. To be who we are.
I relish the company of those who allow me to be who I am. And are glad to find a place in my company that allows them to be who they are.
The craziest people I have known couldn't allow themselves to be who they were. Who couldn't fit their idea of who they ought to be. Who were never "good enough" to be acceptable to themselves.
We all have to make peace with ourselves before we can make peace with our life and our place in life. Everything flows from there to wherever it is going.
And we just tag along, looking for a safe place to be, that is comfortable enough to stay for a while.
To find favor with the king is no mean thing-- for it, we will go to war. We will lay down our lives and sacrifice all we ever loved, and more. But, the king's broad appeal only manages to be real because of those who call him, "Lord." His great personal power disappears in the hour the enchanted ones perceive the fraud.
Good-bye and good riddance is only a matter of time. And, time is on our side. We can wait you out. The clock is ticking.
Dunes 04/23/2009 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
How many Elder Wands would it take to straighten this mess out?
I'm thinking specifically about the Texas Supreme Court affirming no abortion ever under any circumstances, Mike Johnson declaring himself to be Moses, Donald Trump displaying certifiable traits of insanity on a regular basis, etc.
Which leads to the next question: How do we plan to survive the compete loss of bearings on all sides until the freefall into absurdity eventually subsides?
I suggest that you: choose your inner circle wisely, and lean on each other throughout the madness on every side.
Consciously tend your balance and harmony, integrity and sincerity, original nature and innate virtues/characteristics-- your inner YOU-- with grounding rituals (A cup of coffee, a hot shower, a walk through the woods or by the sea...) reaffirming your own grounded-ness from which you live in responding to the Next Crazy Thing in the world beyond your own personal space.
Maintain your relationship with emptiness, stillness and silence on a regular basis.
Reduce the amount of noise/complexity/drama/trauma in your life as much as possible.
Explore ways other cultures/people (Native Americans, for example) have dealt with the Complete Loss of Everything, and borrow from their coping methods.
Immerse yourself in art, music and nature, and in honest conversation straight from the heart with your Inner Circle.
Consciously grieve, mourn, and express your sorrow/sadness/loss in ways that give physical expression to emotional angst (A communal Wailing Wall would be a great idea).
Write, wail, sing, dance, play the piano, paint, draw, cuss, stomp dance, scream, cry, rearrange the furniture, rearrange it again, make your peace with having to make your peace with atrocities beyond imagining...
And go through the motions of living until life returns finally, again, at last.
Kicking Horse River 09/27/2009– Field, British Columbia, Canadian Rockies
It comes down to, flows from, revolves around perspective, perception, projection, point of view, view point, outlook, opinion, way of looking/seeing, attitude, frame of mind, interpretation, understanding, presumption, assumption, conjecture, ...
People go to war over differences in the way they see things.
They see things according to the stake they have in things. According to what they think they have to gain or lose.
The most objective fact has to be interpreted/understood subjectively.
A cow means one thing to a rancher, another thing to a boy with a slingshot, and another thing to a bull.
Meaning comes down to what something means to whomever is looking at it.
We argue about who is right about how they are seeing something.
Seeing is ascribing meaning and that is a very personal undertaking.
We see according to how we look how we look is a function of who we are, where we have been, what has happened to us, and the way we interpreted/understood that.
Trying to get to the bottom of all this is trying to get to the bottom of us. There is no bottom. It is all a swirl of perspective, perception, projection...
Mt. Rundle Sunrise 07 09/25/2009 — Banff National Park, Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Today is Pearl Harbor day. In 1941, The Japanese navy bombed Pearl Harbor. That's 82 years ago. We will vote next year for the next President of the United States. 83 years from Pearl Harbor, we could vote to end democracy.
I cannot imagine it, but it is real.
Donald Trump has boasted that he will institute a dictatorship the day he takes office.
Why would he lie?
83 years ago, we were fighting for democracy, at home and around the world. Next year, we will vote to save democracy, at home and around the world.
This is no joke.
Democracy is at stake.
"Oh, Joe Biden is too old!"
DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE!
Do not be flip about this! Do not dismiss this! Do not toss this aside as though it is nothing!
Democracy has not been this close to extinction in 246 years!
DO NOT LET IT HAPPEN!
Vote as though you were enlisting to fight in World War II! It is as though you are enlisting to fight in the service of democracy in 2024! Democracy needs every one of us at the polls, voting our hearts out for democracy! For the Democrat! Against the Republican!
Do not think otherwise! Vote like you mean it! FOR Democracy! FOR Liberty and Justice for All!
Vote like Democracy means everything to you!
Our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, fought for Democracy 82 years ago, and many of them died.
Vote for Democracy 83 years later as a way of declaring that they did not die in vain! That we will keep their hope for Democracy alive and well throughout our time upon the earth, and keep the United States of America the Home of the Free and the Brave!
Castle Mountain 02 09/23/2008 — Bow River, Banff National Park, Alberta
How do we know what needs to be done that is different from obsession/compulsion? That flows spontaneously/naturally from the situation that arises, like "Bless you!" follows a sneeze?
How do we live so attuned to the moment, so aware of ourselves and what is happening, that we are like a dancer with the music, or a tennis player with the ball?
How do we live with nothing at stake? Free from contriving an outcome, or turning the occasion to our advantage, or getting what we want where, when and how we want it? How do we live free from wanting what we want NOW!
This business about seeing what's happening, knowing what is called for, doing what needs to be done at the right time, in the right way, in each situation as it arises flips us into a different way of life!
Having our way and getting what we want no longer guide our boat on its path through the sea!
Now, everything hangs on seeing/knowing what's what and what is called for-- not by thinking it out, but simply knowing what response to make, like a parent reading the cry of their child, or the behavior patterns of their dog.
We develop a meditative approach to each day, and carry looking/seeing, knowing/doing, with us into each scene every day.
We become observers rather than arrangers. Responders rather than directors.
And trust ourselves to know what, when, where, how. Through all of the circumstances of our life.
Sunwapta River 09/27/2009 — Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canadian Rockies
The Rites of Passage require/enable us to consciously adjust ourselves to the here/now-ness of our life as it moves through the stages from birth to death, in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way.
We are regularly asked to let go of what's going and let come what's coming, in adjusting, adapting, acquiescing to what's what.
It is called, "Growing up some more, again everyday."
Ageing is about living within our means not only financially, but also physically, mentally, emotionally... Squaring ourselves up with our abilities and "letting be what is" all the time.
"Willing what cannot be willed," and "Wanting what we have no business having," have to be paired with "Seeing what we can get by with," in "Living fully and realistically" with what we have to live with all along the way.
Awareness and accommodation are our life-long companions in the day-by-day-ness of "the days of our lives."
Elk 07 09/23/2009 — Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Aeshylus wrote, He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
Wisdom is the result of reflection upon experience.
The wise are often old because it takes a long time for wisdom to accumulate through years of reflection upon experience.
And, like it or not, people are often just not old enough to understand what is beyond being explained, defined, spelled out, made clear... and have to live longer with their eyes open to have a clue.
Too many people only know what they have been told. Having never reflected on any of it in light of their experience, and have never, therefore, experienced anything, particularly anything that would dispute what they have been told.
Telling them to sit down, shut up, and listen to their own reflections on their own experience every day their whole life long, may work, but I have my doubts.
Some things like the right kind of reflection have to be innate or stumbled upon.
Wisdom is not, it seems, for everybody, only for those who are able to pay the price.
Banff Depot 09/17/2009 — Banff National Park, Alberta
If you want to engage, evoke, experience, encounter the Numinous, Ineffable, Transcendent, spend your time in the company of Art, Music and Nature, and in the practice of Emptiness, Stillness and Silence.
These things compose my idea of True Religion and have been seen as such throughout the ages.
No Theology. No Doctrine. No Dogma. No Creed.
The moral, ethical, just and noble foundation of True Religion is lodged in seeing what's what and doing what needs to be done about it, in response to it, when, where and how it needs to be done, with the gifts of our Original Nature and the Innate Virtues (Specialties, Characteristics) that are coded into our DNA, without thought of personal gain, for no reason beyond the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it, in each situation as it arises for as long as we are alive.
And when we "die" we are simply transformed back into the light from which we came.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 