Author Archives: jimwdollar

An immediate side-effect of mastering the art of Caring/Not-Caring is the ability to be at peace with whatever comes up in a “So What? Who Cares? Why Would Anybody Expect Anything To Be Different From This?” kind of way. And, that enables us to laugh at everything that happens with, “Of course! This is theContinue reading “May 26-A, 2023”

We have heard of Wu-We, “Doing without striving, without intention, without agendas, plans, goals, ends, etc. There is another Wu-We-like attitude that is equally essential, and I do not know the Chinese word for it: Caring While Not Caring. Living like we care deeply about everyone and everything, while not caring about anyone or anything.Continue reading “May 25-B, 2023”

The joy of now just as it is just as we are is rarely mentioned, rarely experienced. We are striving to be somewhere else, some way else, some how different, some place better. This won’t do. The wonder of being here/now is wasted on us. I invite you to drop into here/now from time toContinue reading “May 25-A, 2023”

We see things differently and strive to impose the way we see things on each other and all others. It’s crazy from the start. Whose idea about how things are and how things ought to be is the correct idea? How do we establish who is right and who is wrong about how things areContinue reading “May 24-A, 2023”

Meister Eckhart wrote this about a realization he had: “It seemed to a man as in a dream– it was a waking dream– that he became pregnant with Nothing, like a woman with child. And in the Nothing, God was born: God was the fruit of Nothing.” Everything is “the fruit of Nothing.” Nothing isContinue reading “May 23-A, 2023”

What is your idea of the ideal Life? The model life? The life that is the way a life ought to be? The Way that everybody is always talking about is the way things ought to be– need to be– must be to make it right that we are here/now in this mess of aContinue reading “May 22-A, 2023”

Lao Tzu said (In the Wen-Tzu): “Although we speak of attaining the Tao, there is really nothing to attain, since we possess it from the very beginning. We arise from the Tao. The Tao resides in us. We cultivate ourselves from within.” “The origin of purity lies in impurity. When impurities settle in stillness, purityContinue reading “May 21 – B, 2023”

A hammock is my version of a Zazen cushion. Zen purists will have none of it, but. A Zen purist is an anomaly. A contradiction in terms. Purists have no pace within light years of Zen. They cannot accuse me of Zenlessness without establishing their own Zenlessness as well. Zen popularized the phrase, “If youContinue reading “May 21 – A, 2023”

Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” came immediately following, “Who do others say that I am?” And sets the seat of authority squarely upon the individuals he is addressing, and not upon any self-proclaimed contemporary authority, or any self-proclaimed “Orthodox” authority that might appear at any point in the future. Jesus alsoContinue reading “May 20-B, 2023”