Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

The Joy of life and being
is never more than a perspective shift away.

It resides with seeing all things
as being "transparent to transcendence"
(Joseph Campbell),
and knowing that we are capable
of realizations that transport us
to realms of joy and wonder,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so,
no matter what.

What something "is" to us
is dependent upon the weight we give it
and the place we allot it 
in our life,
which is to say in our time and attention.

Some people find their joy
and their vitality
in horses,
hammocks,
books,
music,
trips to the mountains
or to the sea...
and some people don't.

Where do you find yours?

Wherever it is,
spend more time there,
devote more attention 
to its experience
and its company,
which means giving less time
and attention 
to the things that rob you
of joy and vitality
throughout your life.

Turning the light around
is as simple as that.

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Summer is a great time  
for seeking out the essence
of vitality, 
joy,
gladness
and radiance of life--
and obliging ourselves to its experience
and service,
with liege loyalty 
and filial devotion
throughout the time left for living.

If we take the parables of the prodigal son 
and the good Samaritan seriously, 
hell has no place in our life--
and purity 
(represented by the elder brother, 
and the people walking past) 
itself is a stumbling block, 
and Christianity has no foundation
or reason for existence.

So, there's that.

And spirituality is free to develop
its own ground-of-being
in the places where we find
our own vitality,
enthusiasm,
gladness,
joy,
radiance
and life.

So that it is no longer 
fleeing from the punishment of hell
and the terrors of "an angry God"
that move us,
but the goodness of our experience
with each other
and the wonder of life and being
that provide us with the sustenance
and love of being alive.

Which the people who know
have known for thousands of years.

And we will all feel lighter
with the burden of sin
thrown out to sea. 

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Wu-We is action without deliberation.
Doing that is not agenda directed.
Spontaneous, not arranged.
Jazz isn't conducted.
"It just happens."

Living that way
is living in harmony
with the moment,
with the circumstances,
with the time and place,
conditions and context
of our living.

That said, a lot goes into
"just being."

I drove to the Smokies,
and to the spot,
where this photograph was taken.
Etc.

Nothing "just happens."
Intention and purpose
get jazz musicians together
for a jam session.
And there probably isn't
a bagpipe in the crowd.
And it probably isn't a crowd,
but four or five carefully selected musicians
with the right kind of instruments
coming together
at an agreed upon time and place.

It has "agenda" all over it.

I have a very precise Order of the Day,
which I follow regularly,
and I do not cotton to intrusions,
knocks on the door, say,
or telephone calls with sales pitches
on the other end.

I carefully place myself in position
to harvest random thoughts
and occasional realizations.

It is like yoga for the mind,
trusting something will occur to me
when I place myself in the path
of occurrences.

If you want to be hit by a train,
it helps to sleep on the tracks.

Accidental and intentional overlap,
and the things that "just happen"
have an association with sleeping on the tracks.
The things that occur to us in the shower
depend on us being in the shower.

We are more responsible than we think
for the things that we think. 

We are more responsible than we think
for the life we live
and the way it all turns out.

We can "blame it on the moon," but.
Being out at night has something
to do with it,
and if we are out every night,
it may not be the moon's fault at all. 

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We know more than we know we know, 
and we don't want to know it
because it would get in our way--
it would get in our way
of having our way.

All we want is to have our way NOW!!!

Knowing what we know puts an end to that.

Knowing what we know
means knowing what we ought to want.

That is not what we want.

What we ought to want
is not even what we ought to want,
not what other people think we ought to want
which is what they want us to want.

Everybody wants us to want 
what they want us to want.

And we want what we want,
but not what we ought to want
us to want.

Wanting the right things--
not what the culture deems to be right,
but what is truly right for us
in the here/now of our living.

In any situation--
in each situation as it arises--
there is what is right for us
and there is what is wrong for us.
Which have nothing to do with morality/ethics.
And which have everything to do with
what our heart wants,
and what the situation calls for,
and what is truly best for us long term
(And, hence, short term, too).

And we know what that is,
or have the potential to know that,
but, we don't want to know it,
resist knowing it,
refuse to know it,
deny knowing it,
and will have nothing to do with it.

And, here we are.

Nothing happens toward the good
that is truly good for us
until we open ourselves to knowing
what we know,
and doing what needs to be done
about it.

Our refusal to do that
is the source of all the noise
in our life.

Noise, complexity, drama, trauma
constitute "the heaving waves
of the wine dark sea,"
and prevent us from
the emptiness, stillness, silence, solitude
necessary for knowing what we know.

All those Vision Quests and Sweat Lodges
are about opening ourselves
to the stillness and silence
emptiness and solitude
which are the doorway
to knowing what we know,
to realizing what's what
and what needs to be done about it
which is the heart and soul of enlightenment.

We aren't enlightened until we know that.
And do it.

But.
We had rather talk about it
than do it--
than know it and do it.

And, here we are. 

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If we live long enough,
we all come to the same realizations,
the same truth.

Those who know,
know the same things.

Those who don't know
are lost in the world
of their own aspirations
and desires,
their wants and their will,
incapable of perceiving what's what
and what needs to be done about it
for the true good of the whole,
bent and focused as they are
on their own way and having it, or else.

The "or else" extracts a heavy price--
in their own life time,
and over the eons and ages
of life on earth,
to the detriment
of the best interest
of all concerned. 

Profit--that is to say,
"My Profit NOW"--at any price
does that over time.

Ah, but. 
In the meantime,
"Let the good times roll!"

Bread and circuses now--
what do we care about the future?

The epitaph of the planet.

Apparent to anyone
with eyes to see.

As it is with the palms and pines,
so it is with the high rises
and the skyscrapers--
with Miami,
Charleston
and New Orleans
among the first to go. 

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Playing it straight up,
living from the heart,
no contriving,
conniving,
scheming,
lying,
deceiving,
pretending,
not being true to ourselves...
is something we have to live
our way into being
truthful from the inside out.

We cannot be truthful from the outside in--
because someone tells us to.

We can only be truthful because we are,
because we have lived long enough
to know it is the only way to be.

Truthful:
integrity,
sincerity,
spontaneity,
straight from the heart,
because we must be
because we know so
and not because someone,
our parents, say,
told us so.

We have to live our way
to knowing so.

What we know for sure,
for certain,
for always,
is what we know in our bones.
In our stomach.
In our heart.
In our body.
Because we have lived our way there. 

It is what we are living for.
It is who we are living to be.

Our live will lead us there,
if we live long enough.

And, may we all! 

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Everything falls into place around clarity.

Clarity is the product
of emptiness,
stillness, 
and silence--
and the relentless practice
of asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked,
and saying all of the things
that cry out to be said
in each situation as it arises.

This brings to light
all of the conflicts,
contradictions,
dichotomies,
and polarities
that have to be recognized
and reconciled,
or borne consciously
as mutually exclusive,
antithetical contraries,
forever sources
of the legitimate agony of life
that is our lot to carry
with grace and compassion
throughout our days upon the earth--
thus reconciling ourselves
to the irreconcilable facts of existence,
letting it be because it is,
and going on with our life,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so,
without allowing it to prevent us
from doing what needs to be done,
when, 
where
and how it needs to be done,
every day,
all our life long.

Our parents are always our parents,
for example,
our background is our background.
How we live with that,
how we deal with it,
and what we do in spite of it,
tells the tale
we are here to tell
with our original nature
and the virtues/specialties/gifts
that come with us from the womb,
in being who we are,
no matter what,
here/now
always. 

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We all need to go
sit down in a quiet place
and wait for realization/awareness/enlightenment. 

Enlightened beings do not do "it"
the way we do "it."

Seeing things changes things.

We are stuck where we are
because we do not look
and wait to see.

We are all pin balls 
looking for a flipper.
And anything will do.

Nothing can be done for us
in our present state of chaos.

Upheaval and disarray 
characterize our day,
and we are not pleased
with anything for long.

And there is nothing wrong with us
that the right kind of reflection
and realization won't transform
into the way things need to be--
which is always at the expense
of how we want things to be,
because everyone has to grow up
against their will.

Once we grasp this fundamental fact
of existence,
everything is instantly transformed
in an "Oh. Okay, then," kind of way. 

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We cannot see,
or be shown,
what we cannot see.

We all have "blind spots"
due to our assumptions
and expectations,
beliefs 
and convictions.

Our psychic configuration
can shut down 
our physical abilities.

We are possessed by
forces we cannot comprehend.

People who have been
"brain washed,"
or hypnotized--
and where does that line lie--
lose their ability
to function appropriately
in the world of sense experience.

They cannot experience 
their experience.
They are cut off from themselves,
and live as zombies or robots
among those who see what they look at
and know what they know
and what they do not know.

Ideology does that to its adherents.
Fascism is a way of seeing
that does not see, hear, comprehend
the world it cannot see, hear, comprehend
because its ideology blinds it to reality.

Arguing with a fascist,
or a religious fanatic,
is a lost cause.

Asking them,
"Who says so?"
about everything they say,
and "How do you know 
they know what they are talking about?"
and, "How can you be sure 
that you are right about that?"
and, "What would it take to convince you
that you are wrong about that?"
and, "What would it take for you
to change your mind about that?"
and, "When did you come to your present
point of view?"
and, "What convinced you that your former
way of seeing was inadequate?"
are ways of shifting the focus
from what they declare to be so
to how they came about their convictions
and how they might examine their convictions 
in light of something other than their convictions.

They are locked into a tight circle
of believing what they believe
because they believe what they believe
is the only possible thing to believe,
and they cannot get outside of how they see
to see what they are looking at.

We have to see our seeing
and ask all of the questions that beg to be asked,
and say all of the things that cry out to be said, 
if we hope to see anything at all.

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An immediate side-effect   
of mastering the art
of Caring/Not-Caring
is the ability to be at peace 
with whatever comes up
in a "So What? Who Cares?
Why Would Anybody Expect
Anything To Be Different
From This?" kind of way.

And, that enables us to
laugh at everything that happens
with, "Of course!
This is the way things are
in a cosmos where nothing is assured
and anything can happen at any time!"

We are all just lucky to be here
as we are every day!
We are upheld and sustained
by the grace of existence
all of the time!

Russia can invade Ukraine,
fascists can take over 
the Supreme Court,
Congress
and the White House
and destroy democracy over night,
and it all can go quite to hell
in our lifetime.

And if/when it does,
our relationship to it
will not change one bit.

We still will have to get up,
face the day and what happens in it,
seeing what is called for
and doing what needs to be done about it
with the resources we bring to the moment,
moment after moment
in each situation as it arises
all day long
every day.

Our circumstances can be altered
in 10,000 ways,
but our place remains the same
in all of them--
seeing what's what 
and doing what needs to be done 
about it
to the best of our ability
all day long
every day.

And we do that best
when we are emotionally
balanced and in harmony,
spiritually/mentally/physically
in a "So what? Who cares?
I'm doing the best I can
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
no matter what,
through all the cirumstances
that may arise!" kind of way
all the time.

We are here/now.
Why not live as a blessing
and a grace
upon everything and everyone
who comes our way?

How can anyone do better than that
in the best of circumstances?
Why would anyone do other than that
in the worst of circumstances?

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If you are a subscriber and get the photo associated with each blog entry but not the text, it is because there is a hitch in the code that causes text to appear as white on a white background. Until that is corrected, the work-a-round, suggested by sandync 28704, is to click on the date of the blog above the photograph and that should link you directly to the blog (And if there is neither image nor text, assume the powers in charge of such things know about it because I have told them, and will either correct things or not as time goes by).

We have heard of Wu-We, "Doing without striving, 
without intention, without agendas, plans, goals, ends, etc.

There is another Wu-We-like attitude 
that is equally essential,
and I do not know the Chinese word for it:
Caring While Not Caring. 

Living like we care deeply about everyone
and everything,
while not caring about anyone
or anything.

Live caringly with all things and people,
so that they can't tell the difference
between being cared about
and not being cared about.

Care about living your life as it 
needs to be lived--
as it needs you to live it--
when you don't want to get out of bed,
answer the phone,
go to work
or do anything that needs to be done.

Stand up and meet the moment
in the way that is appropriate
to the occasion
when you want to walk away
in the opposite direction.

Care while not caring.
Act like we mean it
whether we mean it or not.

If we get that down
in conjunction with
doing/not-doing,
we will be offering the world
exactly what it needs
in every situation as it arises,
and all will be blessed,
including ourselves.

And our blessing may be
the greatest of them all.

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If you are a subscriber and get the photo associated with each blog entry but not the text, it is because there is a hitch in the code that causes text to appear as white on a white background. Until that is corrected, the work-a-round, suggested by sandync 28704, is to click on the date of the blog above the photograph and that should link you directly to the blog.