Author Archives: jimwdollar

Money means power and control. In the service of what? Toward what end? What is controlling the controllers? They create chaos, noise, complexity–in the service of what? Having their way? Getting/having what they want? They serve the joy of pushing things around, burning things down? Destroying, decimating, all things good? Anger unleashed upon civilization? AContinue reading “August 10, 2025”

There was no Garden of Eden.There was no Adam, no Eve.There was no Original Sin.There was no need of atonement/redemption.There was no need for Jesus to die on a cross.Etc.It was all made up by people with nothing better to do.What are we going to do now?I recommend growing up.Facing the truth of how thingsContinue reading “August 09, 2025”

We are in the presence of something at all times.It is hard to miss a sunrise like this,and we have to look more closely at other things,but. Everything waits to be seen for what it is, where it is, when it is, how it is, and that is what we are here for–to see whatContinue reading “August 08, 2025 – B”

I Googled it. There have been 267 popes in 20 centuries. That is about 40 popes per century. There were 4 centuries when the Church of Rome (and the other Orthodox Christian Churches which were in the background) was basically calling the shots for 400 years about what was Orthodox Christianity and what was not.Continue reading “August 08, 2025”

We take the wrong things too seriously, no? It is one of the hardest things, living in ways appropriate to the occasion.I think that means we are in too much of a hurry too much of the time.We jump to conclusions and rush to judgment and fail to take our time some more again everyContinue reading “August 07, 2025”

Signing with the Photo Agency was my most brilliant move to datein that it forces me to relive all the old photographs. My life with the craft began in 1997, or 8, or 9.It began with me telling my congregation in Batesville, Mississippi, “Don’t send me to the Holy Land” (Which is something congregations sometimesContinue reading “August 06, 2025”

Reflection leads to realization. This was Joseph Campbell’s Buddha impersonation. The heart, soul, foundation of enlightenment is reflection leading to realization.Enlightenment is not a steady state of being. It is one step after another all the way to here, now. There is no destination. There is no place to be other than here, now. OnceContinue reading “August 05, 2025”

Our presence can be restorative, healing, uplifting, encouraging, comforting, etc. just by the way we carry, present, share ourselves with the world.It isn’t a matter of trying, but of being–without being aware of being any way at all.”Just being ourselves,” “present as one thus come,” as the Buddha and Jesus did it. But this meansContinue reading “August 04, 2025”

This is a photograph of a postcard I took in the mid-eighties when we were living in Amory, Mississippi. Amory was built as a railroad town, halfway between Memphis and Birmingham, with a wheel house for repairs on locomotives, and it had a train flair with postcards and train fare in restaurants and shops, andContinue reading “August 03, 2025”

As extensions of The One,we all are The One,and can easily rely upon the power of The One to be all we needto rise to meet whatever comes our wayalong the way.The power of The Oneresides in such thingsas good luck,curiosity,humor,good faith,resiliency,forthrightness,perspective,attitude,perception,projection,assumption,observation with detachment/disengagement,emptiness-stillness-silence,knowing where/when/how to draw lines,set limits,restrict unwarranted intrusions into our space/life,knowing whereContinue reading “August 02, 2025”