01
There are things we need to do without knowing why. When those things come along do them! Don't delay looking for reasons! Don't talk yourself out of doing them because you can't explain doing them! Having to give people "one good reason why" you are doing what needs to be done has kept more important things from being done than I care to count (I don't know why I don't care to count them). Instinct and intuition are the most underused and disvalued tools in our psychic toolbox. See what you can do about changing that. Learn to feel what your body is feeling, know what your body is knowing, sense what your body is sensing, do what your body is saying needs doing. Allow your body to take the lead, and see where things go from there. It will be the smartest thing your brain ever did, getting out of the way.
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02
"Om Mani Padme Hum" can be understood as "The jewel is in the lotus." The jewel can be understood as enlightenment/realization/light/understanding... with the lotus representing two things, the light/blossom of realization and the root/foundation in the slime at the bottom of the pond. I understand "Om Mani Padme Hum" as being one part of an antiphony, both parts of which are understood/implied in the phrase "The jewel is in the lotus," with the other side being "The lotus is in the slime (at the bottom of the pond)." "The jewel is in the lotus/ the lotus is in the slime" sums up nicely the antiphony, the contradiction, the yin/yang, the juxtaposition, the blend of opposites, the oppositional nature of reality at the very ground/foundation/heart of reality. Life Eats Life! In order for us to live, something has to die. What kind of sense does that make? Absolutely no sense at all! The jewel is in the lotus, the lotus is in the slime. We live "between the hands": "On the one hand this, on the other hand that." "Thou Art That" and "Neti, Neti" (Not this! Not That!) (Neither this nor that!). We are the "third way," the middle ground, the synthesis between thesis and antithesis. We harmonize/balance/maintain the tension bear the pain between the opposites, the absurdity, the craziness, the agony/anguish of life in the world. And it is essential that we do so in the spirit of Edna St. Vincent Millay's realization: "Life must go on/I forget just why." "Why?" is the stopper-- if we allow it to be. "Why?" has no reasonable/logical answer. Life Eats Life--Why??? stops us if we let it. Why let it stop us? Life must go on/I don't know why is as good as it gets. We do not know why we must bear the pain of opposites, of contradiction, of absurdity and suffering. It is the essence of faith in the unknown. Of trusting ourselves to absurdity, because to refuse to do so is also absurd. Why not? So, we take up the chant, "Om Mani Padme Hum," fully aware of the antiphonal responses "The Jewel is in the Lotus, the Lotus is in the Slime." "Life must go on/It doesn't matter why!" Can you do it? Is the question. Will you do it? Will you live life just as it it right out of the box? For what reason you do not know? Will you do it? Will you join me in doing it? Companions in life all the way? Because, why not?
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03
The commitment to life just as it is is the essential ingredient in a life well-lived. We have to say, "YES!" to life without hesitation or qualification. We have to know/understand/acknowledge/ assent to/acquiesce to/accept/embrace: "This is the way things are, and this is what can be done about it, and that's that-- and that is the way things are!" as the foundational agreement we make with life upon exiting the womb. We cannot live well shouting, "NO! NOT THAT! NOT THAT! NOT THAT!... We have to work with the givens and do what can be done with them, about them, within the framework of what's what, no matter how we feel about it. We can feel however we feel about it, but. We have to do what is called for in each situation as it arises no matter how we feel about it as our part in the process of life. "The big fish eat the little fish and the little fish swim through the mesh in the nets that haul the big fish to the cannery." And that's how it is. And we have to square ourselves up with the disparity between how things are and how we want things to be/ wish they were. We can imagine a better world than we can live in. We work in this world to make it as good as it can be, knowing that it will never come up to our vision/desire for it. And, we have to say "YES!" to the deal, because it is the deal, the only deal there is, and we don't get better choices than the choices we have to make. We could do better with better choices, but. Better choices are not a part of the deal. The choices we have are the choices there are, and we have to make the best of what we have to work with. Say "YES!" to that, and let's get to work!
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04
I will say it again: It is all useless, pointless, hopeless, futile and absurd-- and coming to a very bad end: We all are going to die! And. How we live in the meantime makes all the difference. This is the realization of contraries that we dance with throughout our life. On the one hand, it is stupid to go on with it. And on the other hand, so what? Why not? Every person in each generation has to assent to going on with it. It is the Human Contract that we make with life, and with each other, to go on with it. And to do it with all our heart, believing in what we are doing, and doing it with spirit, energy, vitality, sincerity and integrity-- balancing and harmonizing the contraries as though nothing matters more, because nothing matters more. And so what if "we all are playing the game of not playing a game"? It is the only game in town. In every town. In all towns. And we all depend on each other playing the game as though it doesn't matter that it is a game, which is the best game there is to play, playing it as though it makes all the difference that we play it, and that we play it well, winking and laughing, sparkling and twinkling, all the way. It is a great joke, the greatest joke, and who cares if it is on us? Just to be a part of it, to be a part of the magic of pretending it isn't a joke, and knowing that it is, and not caring whether it is or not, is the best part of the entire extravaganza. So, "Get in there and do your thing-- and don't worry about the outcome!" (Joseph Campbell's summation of the Bhagavad Gita)
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 