As far as I can see, everyone has taken up the alcoholic’s quest for “smooth and easy,” (Ogi Overman’s phrase), and alcohol isn’t the only path they take in trying to find it. They take every path, and call it “bliss,” or “having it made,” or “escape from suffering…” But it all amounts to “smoothContinue reading “August 25-B, 2022”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
August 25-A, 2022
Iris DeMent’s “Let the Mystery Be,” should be required singing throughout the land. It’s all Mystery. The Mind is a mystery. Everything seems to participate in Mind. Viruses and flocks of birds and schools of fish… The people who vote for Trump are of one mind, and the people who vote against him are ofContinue reading “August 25-A, 2022”
August 24-C, 2022
My sister, Susan, was one slight perspective shift away from being alive today. She took her own life on 12/20/2021 at age 62 by refusing to eat or drink as per her living will– “No liquids, no tube feeding, nothing to prolong my life. Let’s get this show on the road!”– and under the watchfulContinue reading “August 24-C, 2022”
August 24-B, 2022
All transitions have something in common with the butterfly’s exit from the chrysalis, which, you will remember, but a step in the process of its transition from caterpillar to butterfly. And is thoroughly amazing– and not much different from our transitions through all of the stages of our own development all along the way. AndContinue reading “August 24-B, 2022”
August 24-A, 2022
What is your soul’s true joy? Your heart’s delight? What sends your little toes tapping and your little feet dancing? How often do you do those things? For how long? Why not longer, more often? My lists are long, and I generally do something on a list or two daily, and when I’m not doingContinue reading “August 24-A, 2022”
August 23-C, 2022
Rising to the occasion is a simple matter of having nothing at stake in the occasion, so that there is no pressure of any kind, because you aren’t trying to win the the prize, or gain prestige, or make a sale. This Zen observation applies: “The ability of the archer to hit the bullseye variesContinue reading “August 23-C, 2022”
August 23-B, 2022
A bad recollection of one of Issa’s verses goes: “The child, lost in a field at dark, chases after fireflies, crying.” This is an image of us at our best. Lost. Distracted. Crying. It is not wise to make life-altering decisions after 50. Maybe after 40. I’m talking specifically about selling a house and buyingContinue reading “August 23-B, 2022”
August 23-A, 2022
Climate change changes everything. And Fie! Fie! on all the politicians who were bought by the fossil fuel industry to oppose all legislation that would have made the difference for the good over the last 50 years, or so, worldwide. Given a choice between the long term good and an immediate profit, politicians will goContinue reading “August 23-A, 2022”
August 22-B, 2022
Whenever I think I need more noise and complexity in my life, I read some Buddhist texts on monastic methods and procedures for doing Buddhism right. Talk about nit-picking, legalistic, no slacking off allowed rules to live by! You dare not even think about emptying yourself of the lengthy list of do’s and don’t’s regardingContinue reading “August 22-B, 2022”
August 22-A, 2022
Impartiality cannot be a steady state of being. There are no steady states of being. And so, it is said, “It is easier to be a saint than to live with one.” Because not even a saint is a steady beam of kindness and light. As soon as we care about something we are partialContinue reading “August 22-A, 2022”
August 21-B, 2022
There is a way of assessing a person’s degree of health referred to as “ease of functioning” by two Canadian researchers working on the questions, “What is health?” and “What is the difference between good health and bad health?” “Ease of functioning” is a helpful way of thinking about what we are doing and howContinue reading “August 21-B, 2022”
August 21-A, 2022
We spend much of our life waiting. The Green Heron is waiting for an afternoon snack to swim, or fly, by. I was waiting for a Green Heron to alight on the log and pose for a photo. The secret of bird photography is to walk with a camera into the vicinity of birds andContinue reading “August 21-A, 2022”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 