I ditched theology five years into the ministry, on the occasion of Ruth Sample’s death, and spent the next 35.5 years making sense of things without theology. The de-theologizing of religion was/is incredibly simple. Start with the basics: Your fingerprints. Your fingerprints, and your iris cones, and your original nature and your innate virtues/traits/characteristics (HereContinue reading “January 28-C, 2023”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
January 28-B, 2023
There is mindlessness everywhere I look! Our only hope is being attentive to what is going on, and to what is called for, where, when and how! Clarity combined with courage and consciousness form a union unparalleled in the field of time. The world is a wasteland waiting for, as Joseph Campbell would say, “individualsContinue reading “January 28-B, 2023”
January 28-A, 2023
Our work can be an expression of our original nature and innate virtues/traits/character, and it can be what we do to pay the bills in order to serve/express/exhibit our original nature and innate virtues “in the background,” “on the side,” “in our spare time.” Too often, we have to “walk two paths at the sameContinue reading “January 28-A, 2023”
January 27-B, 2023
The older I get, the more sensitive to, aware of, impatient with, I become regarding intrusions, encroachments, incursions into my life and my preferred ways of doing things. For instance, commercial advertisements. And non-stop talkers. Non-stop talkers are at least accessible and I can break into their monologue with clarifying questions that give them pauseContinue reading “January 27-B, 2023”
January 27-A, 2023
Joseph Campbell said the path of maturity is that of “breaking out of the psychological bondage to the culture into a self-responsible authority with the courage to accept and express one’s own thoughts about one’s own life.” We are to become self-directed, self-propelled, self-sustaining human beings in our own right. How, here’s the thing aboutContinue reading “January 27-A, 2023”
January 26-B, 2023
All we need is a sounding board. We all need a sounding board. Someone with nothing at stake in us or what becomes of us, who can simply listen us to the truth of what’s what with us enabling clarity, bringing forth realization, being, for us, the vehicle of enlightenment, satori, awakening, knowing who weContinue reading “January 26-B, 2023”
January 26-A, 2023
We live best in the service of something that is greater than we are. We live best when we are dedicated to something, owned by something, belonging to something, possessed by something, with fealty to something, with liege loyalty and filial devotion to something… Truth, perhaps. Justice, Beauty, Balance and Harmony, Integrity and Sincerity, AContinue reading “January 26-A, 2023”
January 25-B, 2023
The easiest thing in the world is thinking it is about one thing when it is about another. Clarity is the foundation of a life worth living. And fooling ourselves, no–telling ourselves what we want to hear, which amounts to the same thing– is what we do best. Truth and clarity interfere with having ourContinue reading “January 25-B, 2023”
January 25-A, 2023
Being true to ourselves is living out of our original nature, expressing/exhibiting/serving our innate virtues/traits/characteristics, in rising to every occasion and meeting each situation as it arises as it needs/deserves to be met, doing in all the here/now’s what is called for then/there, when/where/how it is called for, and being ready to do it allContinue reading “January 25-A, 2023”
January 24-B, 2023
Curves are everyday occurrences through the outback of life, and we keep thinking we have to “Be There Now!” It’s “Be HERE Now!” We all might like to be somewhere else, but the Here/Now is all there is, and the perennial call is to do right by the time that is at hand. What isContinue reading “January 24-B, 2023”
January 24-A, 2023
Our circumstances are an ever-present guide through our days. They are always calling for something. Taking care of business is a full time job even when one is retired! And, it is good practice! The practice is paying attention and doing what needs to be done. The creative individual, paying close attention to the baselineContinue reading “January 24-A, 2023”
January 23-B, 2023
Throw away the theologies, the doctrines, the dogmas, the sutras, the dharma, etc. In their place recognize integrity, sincerity, spontaneity, emptiness, stillness, silence, balance, harmony, original nature, innate virtues/traits/characteristics, spirit/vitality/life. Remove noise/complexity/drama. See and do what needs to be done here and now when/where/how it needs to be done for no reason other than itContinue reading “January 23-B, 2023”
