Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

"We are all One, but not the same One."

I wish I remembered who said that.

We are one in our individuality,
in our personal identity,
which is as different for each of us
as our fingerprints
or the cones in our iris.

Different in our sameness.
The same in our different-ness.

Seeing the same things differently.

Each of us being who we are,
the same yet different,
different yet the same.

Owing it to each other to be 
as different as we are capable of being--
trusting that to make us 
the same as everyone else.

And each of us allowing the rest of us
to be as different as we are,
winking at our differences,
knowing that makes us the same,
laughing at those who try to make all of us
exactly the same in every respect
(The Fascist Way, little Hitlers all).

Honoring our right to be different--
honoring each others' right to be different--
is the primary human obligation.

We owe it to each other--and to ourselves--
to be who we are,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.

Minding our own business,
knowing where to draw our lines,
and trusting others to do the same,
and working things out
situation by situation
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

It starts with "Yes" and "No,"
and being right about when to say what,
and flows from there
through all of the circumstances of life
to form a reliable identity
and establish our individuality,
shaped by our original nature
and the innate virtues/specialties
that are with us, 
and are us,
from birth.

When Jesus said,
"Let your 'Yes' be yes,
and your 'No' be no,"
he was talking about the importance
of speaking clearly from the heart
about matters we know we are right
to say "Yes" to or "No" to.

It is important to know "Yes" and "No,"
without holding back
to see where the advantage lies,
and which gives us the best chance
at having our way
and getting what we want.

Wanting complicates "Right" and "Wrong."
If we have a stake in the outcome,
we might well say "Yes," 
when "No" was clearly the right way to go, 
or say "No"
when "Yes" was our body's preferred response
except that our mind gets in the way,
over-riding the body's signals (again),
and creating circumstances we regret
for the rest of time.

"If only we had known," we say,
overlooking the truth that we
could have easily known
if we had taken the time to listen
to our body's signals.

"Creating a space"
to be empty of thoughts and emotions,
"like the place between breaths,"
and open to the stillness
and the silence,
waiting to see/hear/feel
what arises within
as an unmistakable message from our core
regarding "Yes" or "No."

But fear and desire get in the way (again),
and "For want of a 'Yes' an opportunity was lost,"
or vice versa with a "No,"
and here we are.

Not looking,
not listening,
not knowing
but always wishing
that we had looked,
and listened,
and known.

When to say "Yes,"
and when to say "No." 

Which is what life is all about--
being right about when to say what.

–0–

We have to develop our own eyes!
We cannot allow anyone else
to do our seeing for us!
Yet, how many of us "see"
with other people's eyes?!

The entire thrust of Christianity--
and all other religion--
is to talk us into
allowing "those who know best"
to do our seeing and our thinking for us.

We have to take our eyes back!
And cultivate minds of our own!

The church that is really the church
would enable that
in an
"Inclusive, open-minded and home for your soul"
kind of way.

The trouble is that kind of insight
can rarely be passed along 
from generation to generation,
and each generation has to learn 
to see for itself
in a "Who do YOU say that I am?" kind of way.

And those who know
are hardly ever
those who boast and brag about knowing,
and burn at the stake all those
whom they say do not know.

Knowing is a very personal--
and individual--thing,
and those who stumble upon it
are few.

More often than not,
those who say they see
are "the blind leading the blind"
straight onto the meandering 
pathways of the wasteland.

We have to learn to see for ourselves,
listen to ourselves,
know and trust ourselves,
and what else is living for?

How are you coming along
with seeing, hearing, knowing and trusting
yourself on the field of action?

Everything is practice!
Practice, practice, practice!

It is the way!

–0–

Fraser Snowden said, "The only true philosophical question is
'Where do you draw the line?'

It is a bigger question than that.

Knowing where we draw the line,
and drawing it,
is owning our own "Yes" and "No."

When we own our "Yes" and "No,"
and draw lines commensurate
with our decision,
we are establishing our identity,
our individuality,
our person-hood 
and our place in the world.

Nothing is more important than knowing--
and living in light of--
who we are
and what we will and will not do
in all of our relationships
in each situation as it arises.

Out of that position
flows our alignment
with ourselves,
and with the Tao,
because when we are one 
with our original nature
and our innate virtues/specialties,
we are one with the Tao
and in tune with the Yin/Yang 
of the circumstances
as they swirl around us
through each day.

Never at a loss of what to do
in light of who we are being asked to be
here/now
because we are anchored
to the adamantine source of knowing and doing
in what we say "Yes" to and "No" to 
and in where we draw the line.

–o–

Jason Garret, when he was coaching
the Dallas Cowboys,
said, "It comes down to this:
Handle the success of the game
and keep playing.
Handle the adversity of the game
and keep playing."

He was saying, "Deal with it and go on.
Without making a big deal of it."

The old Buddhists thought Dharma
came down to the "non-attachment
to name and form."

In order to allow all that obscures
"The complete essence of everything"
to fall away
so that we might become
increasingly familiar with our own
original nature.

Living our of our own original nature
allows us to "Deal with it and go on,
without making a big deal of any of it."

We meet the day,
doing what is called for in the day,
as only we can do it,
and "keep playing."

Not getting lost in the day,
in winning and losing,
in having and possessing,
with no goal in mind
beyond doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
and playing on,
playing on,
in the only game there is.

The game of life and living well,
day to day.
Doing what is called for here/now
and playing on, 
playing on. 

–0–

Step into any theological/doctrinal/dogmatic debate
with only one question
and you will be the last one standing
when all the others have left the room.

"Who says so?"
Is all you need ask,
and keep asking.

"The Bible says..."
"Who says the Bible knows what it is talking about?"
"All of Christendom throughout the ages!"
"Who says all of Christendom knows what it is talking about?"
"The saints on high! The angels and the very Mother of God!"
"Who says the saints on high...?"
Etc. for on and on.

And at the end of the process the only response left is,
"I say so! I declare it to be so! I am the one who knows!"
"And how do you know?"
"I take it on faith!"
"Which means you don't know.
And all of the pomp and bluster through time
is groundless wishful thinking
passed along by those who don't know
to those who don't know,
And everyone is their own authority
which has to pass the test of its power
to meet the burdens of life head-on
and sustain those possessing it
through all of their trials
on the strength of their own ability
to face their lot
and to do what needs to be done with it.

And if it won't do that,
then we have bet everything
on the wrong horse,
and have nothing but the ragged tatters
of a tale not worth being told.

So, we better have a tale worthy of us
as we step into our life 
with what we say by virtue of our own authority
is valid and able to sustain us
through the long nights and endless days
of the Sisyphean task of meeting 
one situation after another,
and doing in each one
what needs to be done,
when/where/how it needs to be done--
without hesitation or delay--
because WE SAY SO! 

–0–

There is on the path
and there is off the path.

There is seeing what we look at
and there is not seeing anything at all.

There is knowing what we know
and doing what needs to be done about it
and there is diversion, distraction, denial.

Also known as entertainment
and letting the good times roll
along with drugs, sex and alcohol,
grounded on refusing to bear
the legitimate pain of being alive.

The foundation of life and being
is saying "Yes!" to life as it is,
seeing/knowing what's what
and meeting it the way it needs to be met
in each situation as it arises.

This is the fundamental requirement
of being alive,
of growing up,
of enlightenment and realization.

When we wake up and see,
we see what's what
and do what needs to be done about it,
when, where and how it needs to be done
moment by moment,
day by day,
throughout the time left for living.

Which includes asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked
and saying all of the things
that cry out to be said,
which opens the way to knowing what we know
which implies doing what needs to be done about it,
when, where and how it needs to be done.

Theology, dogma and doctrine
are other forms
of diversion, distraction and denial.

Drugs, sex and alcohol for the puritans among us.
Anything to avoid seeing/knowing what's what
and doing what needs to be done about it
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long. 

–0–

Our psyche seems to be the source of all things.
It is the invisible world
that serves as the foundation
of the visible world.

We have access to both worlds,
live in two worlds at the same time,
and project/imagine the psyche
to be a world apart,
heaven,
where God and the angels,
and all the good dead people live. 

Projection/imagination--
the ability to project/imagine--
is our greatest gift (I think).
It enables/produces everything
we have created 
in the 10,000 or so years
since the last ice age
when the weather warmed up enough
for us to be able to show our stuff.

We have a lot of stuff.
We are absolutely amazing.
And dreadful, as well.

I think of the psyche 
as being a body/brain thing.
We are just a bundle of psychic energy
in physical form.

We are born with potential
and become who we turn out to be
by way of our engagement with,
reaction to,
the conditions/circumstances
of our life.

Change our point of origin
and the world that awaited our birth
and we would not be the same person
because we would have used different
combinations of perception/response,
developed different strengths/capacities,
and a different self.

The better able we are to play
with the various aspects of ourselves,
the more of us we bring to life,
and the deeper, fuller, broader, etc.
we become.

Playing is the foundation of civilization
and achievement as a species.

The more playful we are,
the more capable we become
of a wide range of responses
to the conditions/circumstances 
of our life.
The more responses we are capable of,
the more ways we can see/interpret
our experiences,
the better our life will be
(In terms of getting the most
out of the time available to us--
and what we "get" is awareness,
understanding, comprehension,
realization, enlightenment).

Our psyche's interaction with 
the terms/conditions/circumstances
of our life
produces our way of life,
our way of living our life,
who we are,
and who we are capable of becoming.

Our place is to become conscious
of our unconscious,
to be cognizant of our psychic-side
and capable of communing with
the invisible world
accessed by our mind/body interaction.

There is more to us than meets the eye,
and it is our business 
to know as much of us as we can
and to live as fully alive as possible
in the time left for living.

Why waste any time not exploring
our inner world?

–0–

Looking back,
I see that all of my yes's and no's
were spot-on.

Even when I said yes to something
I should have said no to,
and no to something that should have been yes,
they were exactly proper and fitting
for what they led to 
and what happened next.

For instance,
I said yes to deer hunting
long past its appropriate-to-me-ness,
but it took every hunt
to cement me in the wrongness
of what I was doing,
and provided a quality of clarity
that would not have been there
if I had said no straight away.

My yes's and no's grew me up
to the extent that I have grown up,
and that is, after all,
what we are all about--
growing ourselves up
over the full course of our life.

If enlightenment doesn't do that for us
it is wasted on us
and we are no better for it
through all the years of fooling ourselves
into thinking we are all grown up now.
Which is exactly the problem
with all of the adults who crowd into
bars, and churches, and sporting events
throughout the world.

Thinking we are grown up
and enlightenened
when we don't have a rock's insight
into what is going on
and what needs to be done in response.

What is going on is the adventure
that is unfolding about us
in and through our yes's and no's,
and we are too dense to recognize
what is happening 
and what it has to do with us.

We are all in the middle 
of the story of our life,
and we are lost in news/sports/weather/opinion,
refusing to wake up
and see what's what
and what is being asked of us
and what we have to do with/about it all.

–0–

We walk through our days
looking for what catches our eye,
calls our name,
invites us to tag along
for a trip through wonderland.

We seek that which moves us
and fills us with a sense of
vitality and enthusiasm,
life and purpose,
so that we live in its service
with filial devotion
and liege loyalty--
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction
of having done it,
knowing that we found the secret
to abundant life
in doing that which
engaged our essential nature
and our innate virtues/specialties,
brought out the best in us
and provided us with joy and gladness,
radiance and bliss
all our days upon the earth.

And, if we haven't been living
toward that end,
today is a good day to start.

–0–

Each of us sees things in ways unique to us.
The way we see things is how they are to us,
and they are not that way to other people.

My guess is that the way we see things
is as distinctive to us as our fingerprints.

And, we are not in charge of the way we see things.
The way we see things is in charge of us.

We don't decide how to see things,
we just see things how we see things.

And then we get into arguments and shoot-outs
over who is right about the way they see things.

It's blatantly ridiculous.
To my way of seeing.

And we all huddle together in groups
that see things in similar ways, 
but even in those groups we do not see things
in identical ways.

We may use the same words to talk about how we see things,
yet, how do we know we all mean the same things
by the words we use?

I am no longer taking anything seriously
about the way I see things,
or about the way anybody else sees things.

I'm just going to settle on asking questions
about everything anybody, including myself,
says they see.

What makes it easy for you to see that way?
How do you know it is so?
What makes you think it is so?
Why not see some other way instead?
What is so holy about the way you see things?
How many times have you been wrong 
about the way you see things?
How many times have you changed
the way you see things?
Yet you are all overwrought and seething
about the way you see things now?
How do you know you won't see differently tomorrow?
Etc. forever. 

–0–

We live with what there is to do,
with what we will do with it,
with what we have done,
and what we have failed to do.

The ultimate doing
is making our peace with all things.

Balance and harmony
require us to make our peace
with all things.

"This is the way things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."

Squaring ourselves up
with the difference between
the way we are
and the way we are asked to live,
and what we are being asked to do,
in each situation as it arises
is the big destabilizing factor
in each day.

We reduce our vulnerability
by limiting our exposure,
yet, even monks,
even hermits,
even recluses,
come to the crossroads
and have to give up this
to have that.

Balance and harmony
come and go
with the situations
and circumstances
of each day.

No one can sit zazen forever,
and why would they if they could?

Life calls us onto the field of action!
Doing what needs to be done,
when/where/how it needs to be done,
moment to moment throughout the day.

Which makes for a lot of squaring up
and making our peace
with the disparity
between how things are
and how things need to be.

Awareness and attentiveness make for clarity,
and clarity calls for coming to terms with
"This is the way things are,
and this is what can be done about it,
and that is the way things are!"

All day long.
Every day.

–0–