02
My beef with Buddhism is its not-caring solution to suffering. The Buddha's big idea was to not-care. To call suffering an illusion, and have nothing to do with it. I much prefer Jesus' solution to suffering, which is to suffer! To bear the pain of caring and to care even if it kills you. That's more like it, I say. Both Jesus and the Buddha would be quick to say that it is easy to care too much about the wrong things, and that it is easy to care about the right things in the wrong way. Caring is tricky, and that's what I like best about it. Life is tricky. I love that about life. There is no formula for living. No recipe for getting it right. Now we have it, now we don't. We keep getting up and going back at it, hoping to do better this time than last time, or the time before last. I love that about us. The thing I love best about us is completely out of our control. It is an unconscious, spiritual, thing: Our ability to resonate with some things. We can fall in love. We can see eye-to-eye with others. We can sing in tune and on key. We can harmonize. We can vocalize. It is magical. We are magical. I love it! And I can't get the Buddha's not-caring about any of this! If you are not going to love deeply what is to be loved about life, WHAT??? You are wasting your life! We have to embrace life totally! The wins and the losses, the suffering and the celebrations, shouting YES! to it all! Bearing the pain of it joyfully! Relishing the honor of being able to love something with all our heart and soul, and mind, and strength-- to love it enough to die for it! To go to hell for it! That's living! Why hold yourself back? Why hold anything back? This is our one chance at living life the way it needs to be lived! Get in there and do your thing, and don't let anything stop you, or even slow you down! "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!"
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01
Where does your fear thrive? Where are you forcing things to be what you want them to be? Where are you willing your way through your life? Where are you meeting opposition? Where is there conflict? Where are the contradictions most apparent? What are your symptoms? What are your dreams telling you? How long has it been since balance, harmony and flow were companions in the journey through your days? What is more important: Having your way, or finding your way, or taking the way that opens before you, calling your name? How long has it been since you gave up your way and followed the impulse of your nature?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 