Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

The most successful life is being who we are, doing what is ours to do. It has nothing to do with what we achieve or how much money we have. It is much more about sitting looking out the window. There is a peace that comes with that. The Buddha called it, “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” Along with the peace is a knowing. Knowing what’s what and what is called for. What is being asked of us in each situation as it arises.

With me this comes out as taking photographs and writing. Asking the questions that beg to be asked, saying the things that cry out to be said. Getting to the bottom of what it’s all about. Seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding, doing, being. Not much. Nothing special. But, with me, it is everything. It is my life. It is who I am, and what is mine to do. What comes to me sitting, looking out the window.

What is it with you? Make a regular date with a window and see where it takes you.

I would like to know what our chances are of living a life we would be proud to have lived. And, I would like to know what would improve our chances. What do we need that we don’t have? What would make the difference? And, at what point would it be too late for anything to make a difference?

In my case, I think the thing that made the biggest difference for me is that I did not have too many of the wrong kind of people in my life. And, who can control that? Who can save themselves from the wrong kind of people? That is another Luck Factor item that is a matter of how the breaks fall our way, or not. There are things we can do to improve our luck, and I have posted some things on my blog, Tao, Psyche, Intuition. com, dealing with improving our luck. The essential thing is that it is a Practice, like a 12 Step program, being lucky, and we have to commit ourselves to it. Like sitting, looking out the window is a Practice without immediate results. But such practices are crucial to our long term benefit and well-being. We have to be good about the small things, the details. Doing the right things well. Over the full course of our life. And it is never too late to start.

We have to abandon religion in order to be religious. Religious is seeing, hearing, knowing, doing, being. Religion is the misguided attempt to say what Tao is, and “The Tao that can be said is not the eternal Tao.”

We are inherently religious, but not doctrinely so. “The Tao that can be told is not th eternal Tao.” This comes from the Shamans and early Taoists in northern China in the form of the Tao Te Ching, which was composed between 500 and 5,000 years before Jesus. And which also says, “Darkness within darkness, the gateway to mystery and understanding–and the “understanding” is that everything is grounded upon mystery. Christianity which is grounded upon dogma and doctrine cannot get around the mystery at the heart of it all that has to be “taken on faith.” But then goes out of its way to disparage the “Mystery Religions.”

All religion is mystery at the core. We do not know how we know what we know, and do not spend enough time–are not encouraged to spend enough time, or taught how to spend it–seeking even to know ourselves, much less explore the mysteries that lie beyond us and surround us. Yet, “Know Thy Self” was recognized as being essential knowledge, inscribed on the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo in the precinct of Delphi between around 700 years BCE.

It is to our shame that we do not honor the mysteries of existence with our attentive presence, yet call ourselves “religious” because we believe what somebody, anybody, tells us to believe “because it is so.” Nothing can be so that has to be believed to be true–it can only be said to be so. Beyond the saying is only Mystery.

Why we do what we do, where, when and how we do it, is dependent upon, controlled by, what? Thinking? Wanting? Willing? Fear? What manages, determines, our motives? What ignites our desires?

I gave these questions to Gemini, Google’s AI, and this what the response:

If thinking, wanting, willing, and fear are the surface waves, what is the undercurrent?

At a psychological and philosophical level, our motives are managed by a deeper organizing principle—an innate drive toward equilibrium, wholeness, and meaning. C.G. Jung pointed toward a self-regulating psyche where conscious intentions constantly interact with vast, unconscious dynamics. We are navigated not by a fragile conscious “I” sitting at a control panel, but by an intricate convergence of our history, our deepest internalized values, and our organismic drive to find peace and coherence in a chaotic world.

Desires are ignited not by a deliberate mental command, but by perception meeting lack. The moment we perceive a separation between where we are and where we imagine completeness lies, a spark is struck.

Ultimately, we do not so much direct the river as discover ourselves carried by it, occasionally steering against the current with our thoughts, but mostly responding to the quiet, ancient pressures of what we fear, what we value, and what makes us feel alive.

What is guiding our boat on its path through the sea? It’s complicated. No?

We are looking for balance and harmony, direction and flow, alignment and confirmation. And all of that is found in emptiness, stillness, silence. Marianne Moore said, “The sure cure for loneliness is solitude.” Solitude is where we go for balance and harmony, direction and flow, alignment and confirmation. Twenty minutes of solitude twice a day will open us to the truth of our own orientation. Our inner sense of how things are with us, what is calling for our attention, and what our body knows that it wants us to know. And therein lies all that we need to do what needs to be done. Then it is only a matter of doing it, when, where and how it needs to be done, in each situation as it arises, all our life long. Which we already know, and need only to know that we know.

God consists of words about God. We are the source of our own theology, the foundation of our own impetus and direction. We make it all up all along the way. We are the sole authority of all of our thinking, believing, saying, doing. There is no one “here,” but us! “We (ourselves and each other) are all we have! We are all we need!” All along the way!

All it takes is doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for, in each situation as it arises all our life long. What is it about that that makes it difficult to do? What we want to do? What we feel like doing?

We get in our own way. We shoot ourselves in the foot time after time. We do not have our best interest at heart. We are lazy and undependable. Why?

I wonder what the rules were determining life at Mesa Verde. How were they created? How were they remembered? How were they enforced? How were new rules added? Who said so? Who decided? What went into the decision? And so on. Not only here but in every location indigenous peoples called home throughout time. I am awed and humbled at the processes life–and life together–required from the beginning. And highly honored to be a part of that process even here, even now.

We could improve things worldwide if we simply treated everyone as though they were highly rated on the Autism Spectrum. This ranks with treating everyone as though they are dealing with a difficult life, or with heavy burdens.

We all need more help than we get. And that needs to be taken into account with everyone we encounter.

Silence is the source of all that is and ever will be. And it doesn’t get credit for anything. Silence is due a planetary holiday without fireworks. Traffic. Commercial travel. Noise. Twenty-four hours of contemplation, meditation, reflection, realization, awakening, enlightenment, world-wide. Out of reverence for the sacred nature of silence.