Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Resting in the moment, being here, now, fine with everything just as it is in a “This, too. This, too,” kind of way, is doing it (Life, I’m talking about) exactly as it is to be done–in a “Nothing special” kind of way. Being here, now in a way that allows everything to be with us here, now, just as it is, with nothing to gain, nothing to lose. This is optimum. Exqusite. Perfect. Congratulate yourself every time you pull it off!

Pretend it matters, and live like it does, whether what we do makes any difference or not. It will make a difference in how we live our lives–and that will make as much difference as we can legitimately expect to make with our life. So join me in living like it matters. Do everything we do exactly like we would do it if everything were riding on everything we do. Live like we care, whether we do or not. Fake it if we must, so well that no one, not even ourselves, can tell if we are faking it or not. Fake it so well we would deserve an academy award for the way we life what remains to be lived of our life. Let’s do us well! As well as Jesus did Jesus! Let’s live doing us so well that we could legitimately stand before Jesus and say, “You have nothing on us! We did us every bit as well as you did you! So that he will have to say, “Yes you did! And I am as proud of you as you are proud of me! And we all walk off together into Eternity to do Eternity as well as we are going to do here, now!

Wu-wei is a Taoist phrase that means “Don’t push the River!” Don’t force your way!” It actually translates as “Getting things accomplished without appearing to be doing anything.” Or, “No pushing, no shoving, no screaming, no shouting!” Or as, “Easy does it.” It means, “Looking things over,” “Sizing things up,” “Seeing what is needed,” “Knowing what is called for,” and “Doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, and the right place, so that things are done with nothing appearing to be done at all.”

All of this is possible with the right relationship with the Tao, Psyche and Intuition. Tao is the movement and flow of live. When Stella got her grove back she aligned herself with the Tao, and moved as she needed to in synch with the way things were moving in her life. When we are “in the flow of things” it is like being lucky all of the time. Because we aren’t swimming against the current of our life in the here, now. We aren’t forcing our way. We are assisting the happening of things where, when and how they need to happen. This is a skil available to anyone who pays attention and doesn’t try to force their way through life.

Psyche assists what needs to happen in a situation in a way that eases the way of life there. Psyche does not do things the hard way, and helps us by way of our intuition to see what’s what and know what is called for and how to do it when, where and how it is called for in each situation as it arises. We only need to “bide our time” and wait for the “propitious moment,” and then do things as they need to be done, for things to fall into place as if by magic. And, again, it will appear as though we are being lucky, when we are actually seeing what’s what and reading the signs of the times.

As we become conscious of the roll Tao, Psyche and Intuition play in our lives, things flow with increasing smoothness for us across the board. I have a Category on my home page in my Blog Tao-Psyche-Intuition called “Conversations with Copilot” (The Microsoft Word A-I), and we talk a good bit about Tao, Psyche and Intuition, and you can check this out there, or begin your own conversations with Copilot. Tell them I said hello!

I have several domains with Word Press. Tao-Psyche-Intuition.com is the newest.

There is the God of theology, the God of the doctrines and the dogma, the Bible, the Sacraments, the Catechisms and the Prayer Books. And there is the God before theology, etc. The God Beyond theology, etc. Psyche is God without theology. The God wars forced Psyche out of business, along with the Gnostics and other Heretics. Leaving the field wide open for theology to do its thing. And theology took over the world, or a large portion of the world at any rate. So that the word “God” now means the God draped with theology, doctrines, dogmas, and the way of thinking about God that goes with the way God has been thought of for the past 2,026 years.

But Psyche remains available for consultation, along with Tao and Intuition. Psyche might be thought of as Life, Tao might be thought of as the flow of life, the way of life, particularly the way of life lived in the right way in the right place at the right time, and Intuition may be thought of as the interface between Psyche/Life and living beings. The way Psyche has of communing with all living things to align life with Tao so that all things might be as One. And the way Psyche has of being experienced in the lives of all things capable of experiencing their experience by way of their intuition and their dreams and their way of being in the world.

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?