Everybody wants to be happy. What does wanting know? Without wanting, everybody would be happy like that (Snaps fingers). Wanting is the source of our problems. Suffering is a perspective. It is the result of the way we see things. Sift the perspective, and POOF! goes the problem. The art of perspective shifting is the solution to all of our problems. Most of the time, we aren't even aware of our perspective. "This isn't how I see things!" we think, "This is how things ARE!" It can be snowing, but snowing isn't the problem. It is what we think about the snowing that makes the problem. It is what the snowing means. And what anything means is what we say/think it means. Nothing means anything as it is. Snowing is just snowing. It is what snow means that is the problem. What it means to us. Thinking is the source of all of our problems. And wanting. But then, wanting is a way of thinking. Get rid of thinking and we get rid of problems. How we think is where perspective comes in. How we think about what is happening, or failing to happen, IS our perspective. To change how we see something is to change how we think about it. Is to change our relationship with it. Become interested in your dominant perspective. What is it? Where does it come from? Who in your life is responsible for the way you see things, think about things? Who controls your thinking? How free are you to think differently about things than you think? Who would be most unhappy with you if you changed the way you think about things? Become curious about your perspective. Go where that leads. Be brave. Be aware. Be bold. See what you discover along the way.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 