03 The Stages of Spiritual Development The Old Yogis/Hindus/Buddhists held there to be seven stages of spiritual development. Stage 1 is Living Without Being Alive. Jesus advised leaving the dead to bury the dead. The people at this stage are dragons (Joseph Campbell), Dragging themselves around. They are just hanging out, barely making it throughContinue reading “August 8, 2020”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
August 9, 2020
01 Absorbed and engaged are the soul’s idea of having it made. It gets to be a problem if we are only absorbed and engaged drinking beer at the beach, sitting before a slot machine in Las Vegas, smoking pot, gorging on one of sugar’s ten thousand delivery systems, or lost in any one ofContinue reading “August 9, 2020”
August 10, 2020
03 Look at everything as a Rube Goldberg device that our soul has put together to wake us up. Everything that has happened, and is happening, and will happen is as it is to wake us up. To shake us awake. To stir us to life. So that we might be consciously alive in theContinue reading “August 10, 2020”
August 11, 2020
03 We don’t have to be right about the meaning of life. We only have to know what is meaningful to us about our life– and live in ways which serve it to the best of our ability. And we have to be right about it being to the best of our ability. Doing ourContinue reading “August 11, 2020”
August 12, 2020
01 Facts are not always what they appear to be. Seeing things changes things. What was good in our grandparents’ day may not be good at all today. Truth itself is on the block. What truth means changes with the clock. Ortega y Gasset might say, “True and false meet at the edge of theContinue reading “August 12, 2020”
August 13, 2020
02 The Hero’s Journey and the heroic task await us all. But we are always confusing metaphor with reality, and think, “Oh, but there are no more dragons to slay!” There were never any dragons to slay. All that heroes ever did through all the ages was simply what needed to be done. Simply whatContinue reading “August 13, 2020”
August 14, 2020
04 Do not have a plan. Do not think you know where you are going. Do not have to know where you are going. Do not need to know where you are going. Do not know where you are going. Do not think you know what you are doing. Do not have to know whatContinue reading “August 14, 2020”
September 2, 2020
01 We can make too much of anything. Sincerity and authenticity, for instance. What is called for is the question, and “Always do it this way!” is not always valid, or fitting to the occasion. “Always do what is called for!” fits every occasion. It is the only thing that does. I have gay friendsContinue reading “September 2, 2020”
August 15, 2020
03 Our life will teach us all we need to know– IF we are willing to change our mind about what is important. If we are locked into a certain way of thinking about/seeing reality– married to some form of doctrine or ideology– there is no learning from experience, or anything else. We are amongContinue reading “August 15, 2020”
August 16, 2020
03 Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell said two things (apiece) that pertain to us and our work of transforming our relationship with ourselves and living a life in accord with who we are. Carl Jung: “There is within each of us another, whom we do not know.” “We are who we have always been, andContinue reading “August 16, 2020”
August 17, 2020
03 Returning to the practice of Active Imagination: We either stop the experience, or allow it to reach a natural stopping point. And there begins the next phase of the exercise. We have to reflect on it to the point of new realizations. Active Imagination is a daytime, waking, dream. A daydream of the highestContinue reading “August 17, 2020”
August 18, 2020
04 Sincerity is the foundation of our personality. Sincerity is the end of duplicity. Of contrivance. Of manipulation. And deceit. And deception. Fraud, trickery, artifice… And all that is the bane of relationships and the essence of bad faith worldwide. Sincerity is the solution to all of our problems today. Everyday. It is the onlyContinue reading “August 18, 2020”
