Determining what is necessary and what is not is an individual responsibility and a personal right. You cannot impose what is necessary for you onto me, or anyone else. Our necessities/urgencies are ours alone to know and to do. Our ability to size things up and to be correct in our appraisals of what constitutesContinue reading “November 09-B, 2022”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
November 09-A, 2022
The situation has its own drift, flow, spin, direction, energy– and we aren’t likely to transform it into the way we want things to be. Neither Jesus, nor the Buddha, were able to change minds that were not open/ready to be changed. We can show up and give it our best, but if they areContinue reading “November 09-A, 2022”
November 08-B, 2022
Awareness never hurts. Seeing what we look at, and looking at everything, hearing what we listen to, and listening to what’s being said, particularly to what we are saying, is advantageous when the advantage we seek is the good of the situation as a whole. What is good for here/now? What does Truth, Justice, Equality,Continue reading “November 08-B, 2022”
November 08-A, 2022
The old saw stands the test of time: “Principles fly in the face of necessity!” If you don’t understand necessity, and talk, talk, talk about morality, and right and wrong, and good and bad, and should and ought, I have nothing to say to you that you can hear. What needs to be done inContinue reading “November 08-A, 2022”
November 07-B, 2022
The Farther Shore is never farther away than the fore-shortened distance from the canoes to the moraine. It is a matter of perspective, of “turning the light around,” of seeing with eyes that see things as they are: Oneness everywhere, right here, right now, for those with eyes to see. What do you see? LookContinue reading “November 07-B, 2022”
November 07-A, 2022
Water seeks its own level, as does every other thing. The Cosmos and all there is therein are all looking for balance, harmony, equilibrium, stability, homeostasis, oneness within and without, peace, tranquility, serenity, the Elysian Fields, the Farther Shore, the Pure Land, Nirvana, Heaven… The stable state of a gyroscope, not static, but fluid inContinue reading “November 07-A, 2022”
November, 2nd Week, 2022
Spirituality has nothing whatsoever to do with theology, and everything to do with truth– which means theology has nothing to do with truth. Bringing to the forefront Pilate’s rebuff of Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus’ missed retort is simply, “The bed you slept in last night, the world you woke up to this morning.” TheContinue reading “November, 2nd Week, 2022”
November 06-B, 2022
Meaning is the heart of the matter. What governs what something means to us? What is in charge of meaning? Who says so? Who knows so? If our life is meaningless, where does the blame for that lie? What is the most meaningful thing you could do in the next fifteen minutes? In what remainsContinue reading “November 06-B, 2022”
November 06-A, 2022
The sure way to get what you want is to change what you want. Changing our mind about what is important makes an immediate improvement in our attitude which makes an immediate improvement in our life. Most of our problems are the result of the way we think– what we think about and how weContinue reading “November 06-A, 2022”
November 05-B, 2022
No one can do better than doing the right thing at the right time in the right place and the right way. And no one can think that into place. Yet, it happens all of the time, and not nearly often enough. Because we have our mind on other things. Our attention wanders, our focusContinue reading “November 05-B, 2022”
November 05-A, 2022
Finding things to do that we enjoy doing is a high priority item in each stage of life. Reading, writing and photography have comforted/focused me through several stages over 60 years, and they remain my grounding/centering activities I coalesce around them, express myself through them, take refuge in them, and find in them my deepContinue reading “November 05-A, 2022”
November 04-B, 2022
Jesus was thrown to the wolves by the orthodoxy of his day. His disciples followed in quick succession: “Young John who trimmed the flapping sails, homeless in Patmos died, “Peter who hauled the teeming net, head-down was crucified” (William Alexander Percy). And the 13th disciple, Paul, met a similar fate in Rome. The “new thing”Continue reading “November 04-B, 2022”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 