Author Archives: jimwdollar

As a photographer, if the weather doesn’t go your way, you look for photographs anyway. And that is a good carryover to the rest of life. Why do we make such a thing over having our way? It is eventually going over into, “Okay, now what?” anyway. Why not just switch what we want intoContinue reading “April 17, 2026”

What to do here, now is always a poser, making emptiness, stillness and silence all the more important. Joseph Campbell liked to point out that reflection leads to realization, and that is the aim of meditation and the essence of enlightenment. How much quiet, reflective time do we have in a day? Emptying ourselves ofContinue reading “April 14, 2026”

Scientists have observed particles emerging from empty space (Googleit). Particles attract particles, circumstances beget circumstances, give it enough time, and here we are. No creation, no “plan of salvation,” no fall, no redemption, no being lost, no being saved… It’s all projection, imagination, made up, fabricated, like ghosts and goblins, heaven and hell. “Energy cannotContinue reading “April 13, 2026”

When I don’t know what to do, I wait for clarity by dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence until something shifts and everything falls into place permitting the Way to become apparent, waiting for me to shift into the flow and circumstances take it from there. Being aligned with the flow of things means sensing/knowing what’sContinue reading “April 12, 2026”

We need a financial buffer/cushion so that we are not on edge all of the time, anxiety ridden over how to pay the bills each month–and how to manage that is out of reach for a large percentage of the world’s population. Jesus could talk about the love of money being the root of allContinue reading “April 11, 2026”

Waiting for things to fall into place is being attuned to what is called for here, now, and doing what needs to be done in the service of the time and place of our living. Tending the requirements of life as it is right here, right now is fundamental to all that follows. Just meetingContinue reading “April 10, 2026”

Appalachian Trail — Rhone Mountain, Catawba Rhododendrons, Fog You could do a lot worse than ordering my eBook, The Way of the Buddha, from the Kindle Store on Amazon, and reading it slowly, perhaps out loud. I think it will cost you $2.00. That’s a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Happy is a point of view. A perspective. An attitude. A way of seeing what we look at. It is what we do with what we are handed. It starts with not taking anything more seriously than it deserves. And it moves into doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, when,Continue reading “April 09, 2026”

The heart of Taoism is seeing the truth of who we are in the moment of our living. Living with nothing to want and nothing to hide, open to the here, now, free to do what is called for when, where and how it is called for. Because it is called for and something, someone,Continue reading “April 08, 2026”