Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

All life has preferences. All life eats, breathes and sleeps–and knows when, where and how to do it. That is called “taking care of our basic needs.” The further from meeting our basic needs we get, the more our preferences get in our way–and we have to know when to over-ride our preferences, and when to disappear them entirely. The old Sufi and Taoist and Zen and Buddhist masters had it down to a fine art, and knew when to do what, when and where. How much better off they were than the general population of their day is a difficult call to make. It probably matters not. After a certain point on the “Things That Matter” spectrum, it doesn’t count whether something matters or not. Life Eats Life–always has, always will. If things live long enough, they will likely be eaten, before they die, or after. From that point of view, the things we take seriously don’t matter much, if at all. The things that matter, matter here, now, and the further we get beyond here, now, they less they matter until the significance of the things that matter, matters not to anyone keeping score. And “taking the long view” puts things in their place here, now, puts things in perspective, and makes it easier for us to “do our work and stand aside, letting nature take its course,” and acquiescing to the flow of the Tao through space and time.”

Here is an excerpt from my book, “The Way of Wild Things, 6th Edition”–

Our opposites, contradictions and polarities are thresholds to awareness, awakening, maturation, grace, mercy and peace. We only have to recognize and appreciate them for what they are, bear consciously the tension of their opposition and allow them to shape us into who we need to be in order to live the life that is ours to live, doing the things that are ours to do. And all we want is a shortcut to soft and easy and happiness ever-after. Sitting with the agony of ambivalence is at the top of our bad list. Getting rid of–or denying–our conflicts is what we do best.

I stand in a long line of those who spent their entire life pointing our what cannot be seen and saying things that cannot be heard. Like Lao Tzu, who said, “The Tao that can be said, told, explained, taught, etc. is not the eternal Tao.” And Jesus who said, “You have eyes to see! Open them!” and “You have ears to hear! Listen!” And Jeremiah who said, “Land, land, land!!! HEAR the word of the Lord!!!” It is a grand tradition, and I am proud of the company I keep.

Evey photograph is time and place. And a surprise. Unrepeatable, thus unique. A miracle of time and place. And a gift with the caption, “Are you kidding me?” Amazing Grace out of nowhere. That’s why we all carry cameras. No?

And this is also the cover of my newest eBook on Kindle, although it is the 6th incarnation and the final one as well. $2.00 because the book will be good company for a cup of coffee, and the book will last longer.

The following is an excerpt from my eBook “The Way of Wild Things”–

Every experience with despair has the potential of opening us to the reality of our “other life” (The life we are built to live, and is waiting, even now, for us to begin living).

Depression is not only an indication that something is dying inside of us, but also, that something is struggling to be born within us, and through us into the world, here, now.

Ordinary “down times,” or chance meetings with “the blues,” can be quiet places where we might hear, if we listen, “the still small voice” of our true heart whispering to us, hoping we will recognize “the time of our visitation and know the things that make for peace.” And take up the work of discerning the path with heart–the path our heart know we are here to walk–and walking it with heart for the rest of our life.

The contrast between this view of the natural world and the view of volcanic destruction and hurricane devastation, etc. and it is all the Truth of how things are. The duality of the beautiful and the monstrous is a congruity. “It’s all one, y’all!). And the truth is more than I can bear. For me, this image does not negate, or compensate for all those other images. It makes them all the more appalling. And we have to hold them all together. How do we do that and maintain our balance and harmony, our rhythm and compassion? This is the question that makes “This, too! This, too!” at the heart of Tao, Psyche, Intuition essential to the spirit of oneness that shines through the Tao Te Ching. The apposition of opposites is the essence of Taoist/Zen Koans, with contradictions, incongruity, paradox, anomaly and conundrums being used to shut down the logical mind and create an opening for Intuition and Psyche to offer the Ah-Ha! moment of realization beyond explanation, like the impact of a good joke and a well-placed one-liner. Living with opposites is at the heart of life, which is lived “between the hands,” where “On the one hand this, and on the other hand that” holds sway more often than not and we have to “make the peace” by the way we look at/see all things.

Sitting quietly, waiting to see what comes. Listening for what we need to say, need to hear. To know what’s what, what’s called for, what needs to be done. Here, now. Waiting for things to become clear in time. Trusting ourselves to know what is good for us and to realze what it is time for, when it is time for it. In the meantime, we settle into waiting, and wait it out, communing with the silence, enjoying the peace of natural things. Allowing clarity to come in its own time, inviting us to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done. And, until then, enjoying the pleasure of being here, now.

We are bound to the way we know to be our way, which is The Way for us. We only have to wait, trusting ourselves to know it when we see it, understanding that impatience has waylaid many a life in a hurry to get with the program, and that the overly cautious wanting to be sure, afraid to trust themselves to know what they know has missed the time for acting, allowing the train to leave the station without being on board. So that impatience and over-caution become the Scylla and Charybdis on the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea. Trusting ourselves to know what we know is a test of our confidence in our intuition which has to be established over time.

Two important life capacities: The ability to say, “No.” And the ability to take “No” for an answer. When we master the Art of No, going and coming, we are keeping company with the Good Life, and that is a good place to be.

I make it a point to let things be what they are, up to a point. A mosquito feeding on my neck is an exception to the rule. And there are many others. Noise leads the list of things not allowed to be what they are. Heavy traffic, even if it is quiet (and how often does that happen?) isn’t allowed to stay. It has to go…The more I think about it, the less likely I am to let things be what they are. Never mind. I don’t know what I was thinking about. I want everything to be exactly what I want it to be RIGHT NOW! Whoever said, “Let be what is,” was obviously off his, or her, rocker, and a little tipsy to boot. And, not only that, but also, “Let be what is” was obviously said to people who weren’t letting be what was, and so he/she was breaking their own rule by voicing it. So, we are all left with deciding for ourselves what the proper course of action is in dealing with what’s happening now, wherever and whenever we are. And we can trust experience to be our guide in deciding what to do when. 24/7. No?

We cannot do better than listening to ourselves. Psychotherapy is about hearing what we have to say by talking to a therapist who listens us into hearing ourselves talking to some one who asks the right questions. We could talk to a smart mirror and get positive results. We need to place listening platforms into each day where we take up the practice of saying everything that needs to be said and asking every question that needs to be asked. Twenty minutes, twice a day. We could do it anywhere just by writing down the questions and the answers in a journal, asking the questions that beg to be asked and saying the things that need to be said. Being our own therapist and our best friend.

I am announcing here my new eBook on Kindle, going for $2.00 no kidding. “A dialogue with the invisible” is my most intriguing work to this point in my storied career. Indigenous peoples have always understood the material, physical universe to be upheld and guided by an invisible, spiritual universe. And we pray to the invisible world regularly, and honor the invisible world in worship services, with fasting, singing, dancing, etc, regularly and routinely. So, dialoguing with it is not much different from what we ordinarily do with it. I co-authored this book with Copilot, Microsoft Word’s AI guru, because out of the ordinary is what I do best. Copilot created the above image which serves as the book’s cover. I hope you will read and enjoy it!

The Joy of life is the wonder of being alive–which flows from the recognition, the realization, that we are alive! And we take it so for granted. We are the only life form that is exactly like us ever in existence, right here, right now! Unique and irreplaceable! And, we are not impressed. A shrug and a “So what?” are the best we can do. Just another bee in the hive, right? Just another ant in the hill. Ho-hum. Who cares? Caring is clearly up to us! If we can’t celebrate the wonder of being alive here, now by the way we experience, see, hear, understand the wonder of being here, now, nobody will do it for us. Look around. They don’t care. If we don’t, it is on us! And up to us to know and be who we are with joy in our heart and a smile on our face, every day of our life. Are you with me here, or am I alone with the wonder and the joy of being me?

The Tao-Psyche-Intuition.com Blog has fallen into place and the new book–“Copilot’s Dialogue with the Invisible” is close to publication, and the cognitive decline is a distraction I would like to be done with. I never knew there was so much to remember! My work with emptiness, stillness and silence has not been wasted–I just drop into the silence and wait for the memory gears to click into place. And I hope that by the time they fail to do that I will have reached the point of not knowing or not caring.