Author Archives: jimwdollar

01 What is your foundational mode of operation, organizing principle, way of finding your way to the Way through the jungle? How do you go about living? Thinking or feeling? Primarily? I think (or feel) (I can’t tell which most of the time) (So I don’t know if I am Thinking/feeling, or Feeling/thinking) (But IContinue reading “December 23, 2021”

01 It is all so wondrous, amazing, complex and absurd! We have to accept it just as it is, and say, “Wow!” a lot. The idea that we can somehow manipulate “the system” to our advantage is the most on-going, never-ending, raw absurdity in the entire gamut of absurdities. That we can tilt the tableContinue reading “December 22, 2021”

01 We can start anywhere. That’s the coolest thing about finding our way. It always begins right here, right now, where we are. And with letting that be that. Too much of the time we want to be anywhere but where we are. Where we are is what brought us to wanting to be anywhereContinue reading “December 21, 2021”

01 All of us are confronted with the truth of the life we are living– and of the life we are refusing to live– in our dreams every night all our life long. And most of us are addicted to some form of diversion, distraction, denial in our waking hours to give us something toContinue reading “December 20, 2021”

01 Winning for me comes down to being right about what needs to be done in each situation as it arises and doing it with the resourses available in the situation and in our own original nature. This doesn’t mean we will win the game, particularly if the other team is better at doing thisContinue reading “December 19, 2021”

01 Our relationship with what is meaningful to us is the most important relationship in our life. We owe fealty to what is meaningful to us. Liege loyalty and filial devotion. We cannot be loose and lax with meaningful. We cannot loose sight of meaningful, or allow it to wander away. We must hold fastContinue reading “December 18, 2021”

01 We have to do our part in keeping ourselves in the middle of the path by returning again and again to the basics. Like a singer doing scales, or a runner running laps, we have to build a practice around mindfulness of the moment, being right here right now, siting, standing, walking in emptiness,Continue reading “December 16, 2021”

01 Things are the way they are because of two things: The Pain! Oh, the Pain! And the Terror! Oh, the Terror! The Pain of the Terror! The Terror of the Pain! That’s it. Disappear our pain and our terror, and life worldwide transforms instantly. What is the nature of your pain? What is theContinue reading “December 15, 2021”

01 What keeps us going? The next thing! We have no idea what it will be, or how we will respond to it. The possibility of new and innovative is never farther than the next thing away. The next thing stands before us as the Cyclops stood before Ulysses. Joseph Campbell said, “It took theContinue reading “December 14, 2021”

01 The Hero’s Journey is not to be distinguished from The Spiritual Journey, or from Growing Up. It’s all the same thing. And it is as simple as knowing what your interests are and serving them with your life. Which isn’t simple at all. Our interests are the first things to go. When we areContinue reading “December 13, 2021”

01 It is difficult to progress without digressing or regressing at the same time. Things balance out that way, so that the amount of function/dysfunction remains the same over time. There is something about balance and harmony, synchronization, stability, equilibrium, homeostasis that everything in the cosmos likes a lot. Everything is trying to reach aContinue reading “December 12, 2021”