01
It matters what we do and how we do it. That may be the only thing that matters. Get that down, and what remains to be done? Too many people are wrong about what they think is right. As long as people can be wrong about what they think is right, we will have problems determining what to do. At least, most people are still stopping on red and going on green, and four-way stop intersections are flowing smoothly with everyone keeping up with who's turn it is. They are continuing to observe the most democratic self-governing endeavor known to humankind, queuing up and standing in line. Round-a-bouts work. No one is leading protests over having to use postage stamps. I don't see anyone driving off without paying for their gasoline. What's with all the vitriol? The rancor? The hatred? It matters what we do and how we do it. It is the only thing that matters. When we refuse to make a good-faith effort to be right about what we say is right, we contribute to the collapse of culture and society. But we continue to stop at stop signs. Why not carry that over into all of life? What is so hard about that? It matters how we live wherever we are, whatever we are doing! Treat everything as though it were a line at the theater! And be right about what you say is right!
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02
It is enough, just being who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are, why we are, what we are. We don't need more than a perspective that takes it all into account, and lets it be because it is. Just by being who we are-- true to our original nature-- glad to be alive as an original, natural, human being-- we redeem it all by knowing it all and how it is and what it is and what, and how, it could have been, might have been, if it had been as content to be itself as lions and whales, and cedar trees, etc., are content to be themselves, without aspirations and agendas which include killing all who get in our way. We redeem the insanity by bearing it consciously and shamefully, sorrowfully, with us through the days, saying, "This, too. This, too. Must be seen, acknowledged, borne." We cannot escape who we are, and who we also are. And we who can live to redeem we who cannot, by seeing and saying, doing and being, what is good and what is not. What is right and what is wrong. And living as witnesses to the difference between the way things are and the way things might have been, could have been without aspirations and agendas getting in the way.
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03
The wrong kind of emptiness is what people have in mind when they say, "I feel so empty!" Which generally means they are not in love and wish they were. No one in love feels empty in this sense. when it is all dark and dismal, hopeless, meaningless, sad, dreary, gloomy, depressing, fear and anxiety ridden, and a generally terrible place to be. That is the wrong kind of emptiness. It is not empty at all. It is full of all the things we dread and hate, and want to be rid of and far away from forever. Enter the right kind of emptiness. The right kind of emptiness is filled also, with nothing. The right kind of emptiness is empty of everything, even the desire to be empty. No emotions, no duty, no desire. Nothing. You can experience this kind of emptiness by breathing normally for three rounds of inhale and exhale. Then, with the fourth inhale, draw it in deeply to the bottom of your lungs, extending your stomach and fully expanding your diaphragm, then release it slowly, drawing your stomach in toward your spine to expel all the air, pause for a count of seven before inhaling. Repeat this process for two more breaths, making a total of three. On the third breath, when you pause for a seven count, your mind will be empty in the right kind of way. None of the normal noise that clogs your thinking will be in your way. You are in the silence between breaths. Your work is to expand that quality of emptiness beyond a count of seven. When you get to the point in your practice of being able to drop into emptiness just by dropping into emptiness at any point throughout your day, you will have achieved the distinction of being able to be empty in the right kind of way, which is the position of power in that it opens you to stillness and silence which form a holy trinity of emptiness, stillness and silence which is the waiting posture for apprehending insight, realization, awareness, stirring to life and springing to mind from the unconscious regions, offering you content for reflection and meditation, and creating possibilities for adventure unlike anything available on infomercials and travel brochures.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 