I highly recommend imaginary conversations
with anyone you would like to talk to.
And the more surprising what you say
and what they say
the better.
Surprise gets us to the heart of the matter,
which is always our perception
of what's what.
If our perception isn't changing,
we aren't changing.
If we aren't changing,
we aren't seeing things as they are.
We are seeing things
as we have always seen them to be.
This goes for our real life conversations
as well.
If we say the same things,
so that this conversation
is the same as last week's conversation,
we need to find new people to talk to--
and if we talk to them
the way we talk to the old people
we always talk to,
we need to sit down
and have a heart-to-heart
with ourselves.
We are stuck,
and not budging
in the way we perceive the word
and what's worth talking about,
and what we have to say.
What is the newest thing we have said?
If we aren't calling into question
the things we always say,
have always said,
we are wasting our time,
and may as well have died
all those years ago
right after the last new thing
we have realized came upon us,
or out of us.
(That's what conversation is for,
eliciting from ourselves things
we have never thought of,
never said).
So sit down right now
with Jesus, say,
and ask him,
"Jesus, what were you thinking about?"
And see what he says.
And see how long the conversation runs
before it broaches something
you have never considered.
If you aren't saying/thinking new things,
you may as well be dead
for all the good to yourself and others
you are doing being alive!
–0–
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
My feeling about “the newest thing we have said”…
The more we have tried to explore the nature of our reality, the truth of our existence, including the world and all people in it- the more we realize that there is nothing new under the sun. Humans are smart, clever, intelligent species and there have been many-many wise people who have done all this before us, and found gems and said whatever was worth saying in all possible ways and words already. We have access to all that knowledge and understanding at mental/intellectual level…there is nothing new left for us to stumble upon.
But, the real understanding of any value does not come from borrowed knowledge, it comes from knowing within ourselves. This is always like a discovery and feels new, at least like a recognition of something. This is what I understand from intuition. This is said and expressed in words by anyone who finds it ‘new’ but can sound as ‘already heard/read’ to others who have come across that as ideas, but may not have experienced themselves.
So, my feeling is, instead of chasing new ideas, we should contemplate in silence, what we think we ‘really know and understand’, dig deep within what is our own, and follow its trail to reach anywhere worth reaching. If we go after new concepts and ideas proposed by others, we should make sure we make it our own experience, and understand it for ourselves. Otherwise we may forever be lost in the enormous forest of concepts and ideas propagated by mind, but never find the true meaning and tranquility behind any of them.
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Realization is an inside job! No one can give us realization. We stumble upon it ourselves.
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Realization feels new. Then, we express it in words, and those who have not yet realized find it old as in ‘heard that/read that before’. But once someone has realized it, they always find it ‘new’…so it is a matter of perspective! From outside it looks old, from inside it is new 🙂
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