jimwdollar

March 11, 2022

01 The Gateless Gate is to be found in every landscape, in all situations. It only takes remembering this is so for it to be so, standing before us to turn the light around, bringing perspective and perception to bear on this here and now, transporting us, shifting us, from the rational, physical world ofContinue reading “March 11, 2022”

March 10, 2022

01 Know what you love. Do what you love. If you can’t pay the bills doing what you love, do what it takes to pay the bills, AND do what you love. If your heart isn’t in what you are doing, start doing things you can do with all your heart. Heart leads the way.Continue reading “March 10, 2022”

The Gateless Gate

01 Q: What is more useless than a gate to a butterfly? A: An entire book of “gates”! “The Gateless Gate” (Like “The Blue Cliff Record” before it”) is a collection of Zen (Zen is what happened when Buddhism met Taoism in China) Koans, or conundrums, like, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”,Continue reading “The Gateless Gate”

March 09, 2022

01 Realization springs to mind, seemingly out of nowhere, but it is cultivated through awareness and relaxed contemplation, mulling things over, sitting still and taking a walkabout. Or actually walking about in the same stillness that sitting can produce. Realization dawns on us as we hold contradictory thoughts in mind, without being troubled by opposites–polarities–Continue reading “March 09, 2022”

March 08, 2022

01 We aren’t here to get anything out of it, to have something to show for it. We are here to bring the best we have to offer to bear on the context and circumstances of our life. What we can enjoy while doing it is entirely up to us. And there is a lotContinue reading “March 08, 2022”

The Jesus Sutras

In 635 of the Common Era, a Christian mission to China, probably from the church in Persia, arrived in Chang-an (Now Xian), the capital of the Tang Dynasty. This was likely a mission of the Church of the East, whose beginnings can be traced back to Thomas called “The Twin, one of the original 12Continue reading “The Jesus Sutras”

March 07, 2022

01 Some problems have no solutions. There is no happily ever after as a steady state of being. There are no steady states of being. Which means sadness and sorrow are not everlasting. It is all coming and going, ebb and flow, rise and fall… And we learn to let come what’s coming and letContinue reading “March 07, 2022”

March 06, 2022

01 In 635 of the Common Era, a Christian mission to China, probably from the church in Persia, arrived in Chang-an (Now Xian), the capital of the Tang Dynasty. This was likely a mission of the Church of the East, whose beginnings can be traced back to Thomas called “The Twin, one of the originalContinue reading “March 06, 2022”

March 05, 2022

01 Enlightenment is knowing what’s what and what is called for, and when and where and how to respond to that call with the gifts, genius, daemon, shtick, creativity, imagination, virtues, etc. that came with us from the womb. Our original nature comes complete with all we need to do what is needed but. WeContinue reading “March 05, 2022”

March 04, 2022

01 Beulah Land is a fictional land flowing with milk and honey where everything is perfect, finally, at last, forever– commensurate with Nirvana, Heaven, The Farther Shore, The Happy Hunting Ground, Elysian Fields, and every religion’s idea of where we are going when we die. Where we are going when we die is fading backContinue reading “March 04, 2022”

March 03, 2022

01 There is no reason for things being as they are other than the things that happened that led to things being as they are. Or, to put this another way: What is the greater miracle– that everything has been carefully arranged to be exactly as it is here and now by some Master PlannerContinue reading “March 03, 2022”

March 02, 2022

01 Making our peace with the way things are seems to be the perennial task of our existence. It comes down to comforting ourselves about the circumstances of our life by telling ourselves whatever works to keep us going. We can’t make sense of it. Contradiction and paradox– yin and yang– and the mystery atContinue reading “March 02, 2022”