Suffering is a perspective, a way of interpreting things not going our way. Flip the perspective and you have maturation, wisdom, knowing, seeing, understanding— enlightenment. Which doesn’t care what its chances are, and is here to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, no matter what, anyway,Continue reading “December 26-B, 2022”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
December 26-A, 2022
The missing ingredient in the lives of present day citizens of the United States is the study of the arts! Music, Poetry, Dance, Song, Pottery, Sculpture, Drawing, Painting… Wordless, intuitive, instinctive, knowing/doing the right thing at the right time in the right place in the right way! Learning to listen to the voice of silence,Continue reading “December 26-A, 2022”
December 25-B, 2022
We generate circumstances. Circumstances generate circumstances through us. We collaborate– willfully, accidentally, unintentionally, helplessly– with our circumstances to produce circumstances which result in how things are at any given point in time and space. We are the victims of the circumstances we generate, create, produce. There is no one to blame here but us, andContinue reading “December 25-B, 2022”
December 25-A, 2022
There is a place for pushing. Like when the house is on fire and the door is stuck. But. Pushing as a way of life, as the first reaction, as the go-to option, as the only thing we know to do, is the cause of things being as they are everywhere we look. Pushing ourContinue reading “December 25-A, 2022”
December 24-B, 2022
The Old Taoists asked, “What do we get from enlightenment?” The Old Buddhists replied, “Escape from this world of suffering and sorrow!” The Old Taoists responded, “Om mani padme hummmm!” And walked away laughing. “Om mani padme hum” translates as “The jewel is in the lotus,” which is a call with the unstated but impliedContinue reading “December 24-B, 2022”
December 24-A, 2022
Everything in this image is doing its thing, living from its heart, being true to itself within the context and circumstances of its life. The circumstances call everything forth, set the terms and conditions under which everything lives, and nobody complains, moans, whines, contemplates suicide… Everything jumps right in, doing its own thing, living fromContinue reading “December 24-A, 2022”
December 23-C, 2022
The spiritual quest is the search for what matters– across time. The foundation of knowing is emptiness/stillness/silence, avoiding noise/complexity/drama. What matters is emptiness/stillness/silence. What doesn’t matter is noise/complexity/drama. How much emptiness/stillness/silence is in your life? How much noise/complexity/drama is in your life? With noise/complexity/drama come distraction/diversion/interference. Instead of advising medication to control ADHD Syndrome, whyContinue reading “December 23-C, 2022”
December 23-B, 2022
It is up to us to develop our own practice, devoting ourselves to emptiness/stillness/silence, paying attention to our attention in each moment, seeing what we look at, knowing how desire and fear can carry us away like that, and making certain that they do not. Monitoring the ratio of head-to-heart at work in the wayContinue reading “December 23-B, 2022”
December 23-A, 2022
In “The Jersey Boys,” Frankie Valli said, “They ask ya ‘what was the high point? The hall of fame, sellin’ all those records, pullin’ Sherry outta the hat?’ It was all great. But the first time the four of us made that sound, our sound, when everything dropped away and all there was, was theContinue reading “December 23-A, 2022”
December 22-B, 2022
Where do you go to reconnect with yourself after you have been shattered and scattered by impact with the world? One of my granddaughters said, “I have to find water. A puddle of rainwater will do. I have to be with water.” She is well on her way to a graduate degree in self-care. WaterContinue reading “December 22-B, 2022”
December 22-A, 2022
These are two of the metaphors guiding and undergirding my life, and serving as sources of reflection and realization in my work of establishing and maintaining right relationship between head and heart. The Gateless Gate is my image of the old Taoist phrase that was the title of one of two collections of koans usedContinue reading “December 22-A, 2022”
December 21-C, 2022
What I know about creating flow is built around emptiness, stillness and silence, and requires us to have no attachment to any outcome, which implies no opinions, no expectations, no restrictions, no demands, and being like a cork on the water– or like the water itself, which has no association with liking or not likingContinue reading “December 21-C, 2022”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 