Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Loneliness--Aloneness--
comes about by being unseen, 
or, seen and unaccepted,
for who we are.

Too many of us hide,
conceal,
mask,
deny
who we are
in order to avoid
the isolation
of being rejected
and labeled "Unacceptable."

I make it a part of my practice
to see and accept people
for who they are,
how they are,
when they are,
where they are,
why they are.

The gift of recognition/acceptance
is a powerful affirmation
that we belong
just as we are,
and is a reminder to everyone
who is capable of being reminded
that the Buddha came 
as "one this come,"
and Jesus spoke of himself
as "the son of man,"
that is to say,
"one of you,"
"a plain, ordinary, human being
who is nothing special
by any reckoning"--
and said,
"Inasmuch as you have done it,
or failed to do it,
to one of the least 
of my brothers and sisters,
you have done it,
or failed to do it,
unto me!"

What made the Buddha and Jesus
the Buddha and Jesus
is the same thing 
that makes you, you,
and me, me.

And, anybody who doesn't know,
or care,
about that,
is afraid--or ashamed--
of being who they are.

A terrible, tragic, sad, thing
to be afraid, or ashamed, of.

Do your part in turning the light around
by seeing and accepting,
affirming and celebrating,
who you look at--
and look, smiling, at everyone,
unless doing so 
puts you in harm's way
(And that, too, is a stigma
upon who we have become as a culture,
a world).

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How satisfied (1-10, poor to great) are you
with your life?

How dependent on (How often do you use?)
drugs and alcohol are you?

How high/low is the status of your 
balance and harmony?

The degree of your energy, spirit, vitality?

The amount of joy you find in each day?

The quality of the meaning you have
in your life?

How much heart do you have in what you do?

How often you find yourself smiling
for no reason throughout the day?

What do you look forward to in each day?

What keeps you going?

What do you turn to
when you have nowhere to turn?

Based on your responses to these questions,
how important is it 
that you transform 
your relationship with your life?

If you were going to transform
your relationship with your life,
how would you go about doing it?

How often have you transformed
your relationship with your life
up to this point?

I find that everything flows from
and leads to
emptiness, stillness and silence.

We only have to trust ourselves to it,
do what needs to be done about it,
and re-evaluate the outcomes
all along the way.

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We spend our lives looking for meaning,
living in a wasteland. 

The definition of a wasteland
is "No meaning anywhere."

We have to move.
We can't bear the thought of moving.
We belong to the wasteland.

Joseph Campbell would say,
"In the wasteland, 
nothing is as it appears to be.
Nobody is who they say they are.
Everything about the wasteland 
is inauthentic to the core.
There is no core in the wasteland,
no heart, no soul.
It's all smoke and mirrors,
pretense and charades,
put-ons and play-acting."

Everybody in the wasteland
is doing what they are supposed to do,
what someone else tells them to do.
They all are the way they are expected to be.
There is no escape.
The counter-culture
is merely a sub-set of the culture,
a culture in-and-of itself.

To do it deliberately not like anybody else
is to do it like somebody else
not doing it like anybody else.
Orange hair and tongue piercing 
are just another way of being cool.

It's all from the top down
and the outside in.

We take our cue for living,
for the way we arrange the furniture
of our life,
from the way someone else is doing it.

Individuality is a group affair.

Carl Jung said,
"A hermit is a primitive person
who trusts their unconscious."

Lao Tzu said,
"A path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."

Joseph Campbell said,
"The Grail knights thought it would be a disgrace
to go forth in a group.
so each entered the forest 
at a point that he, himself, had chosen, 
where it was darkest, 
and there was no path.”

On the final page of his 
four volume masterwork 
on the history of religion/mythology, 
"The Masks of God," Joseph Campbell said: 

"The free association of men and women of like spirit
...is in the modern world, 
the only honest possibility 
with each the creative center of authority 
for themselves

The individual must anticipate and activate 
in themselves 
the centers of their own 
creative imagination, 
out of which their own myth 
and life-building "Yes!" may then unfold.

In the end, the guide within 
will be their own noble heart alone, 
and the guide without, 
the image of beauty, 
the radiance of divinity, 
that wakes in their heart amor--
the deepest, inmost seed of their nature, 
at one with the process of transcendence, 
and live 'as one thus come.' 

And in this life-creative adventure 
the criterion of achievement 
will be, 
as in every one of the tales 
herein reviewed, 
the courage to let go of the past, 
with its truths, 
its goals, 
its dogmas of 'meaning,' 
and its gifts: 
to die to the world 
and to come to birth from within."

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People talk all the time.
Words do not do it.
Feeling/sensing/intuiting 
instinctively/knowingly 
does it.

The Quakers have it down.

Spending time together quietly
waiting/watching
to see what arises/appears/emerges
from the silence.

That's the way to do it.

Ah, but.
There is a catch,
not even the Quakers are savvy about.

In order for silence to work
as it needs to work,
first, there has to be emptiness.

We have to empty ourselves
of all the noise
we carry with us all of the time.

Our inner noise drowns out our inner wisdom.

Worrying,
fearing,
desiring,
remembering,
planning...

We walk around too preoccupied
with the noise within
to listen to anything.
To hear anything.

Emptiness is the prelude to silence.
The prerequisite to silence.
We cannot hear anything
until we empty ourselves 
of everything.

First, comes emptiness.
Then, comes silence.
Then, comes knowing.

That is the process,
and has been from the beginning.

And no one can do it for us.
We have to do it for ourselves.
And that is the kink in the hose.

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How we see things
creates what we see.
Changing how we see things
changes everything.

Seeing is also not-seeing,
keeping us from seeing
what we do not see.

What we see
is how we see
what we are looking at.

A shift in perspective
transforms the world.

Control how we see
what we look at
and you control 
what we do.

The future depends upon
who sees what how now.

Who is in charge of 
how you see what you look at?
Your future belongs to them.

Practice seeing how you see.
Notice what governs/influences
your seeing.
Become super-sensitive
to how people use the media
to cant your seeing
by the way they talk about
what they want you to look at.

Become curious about how you get
your point of view.
Where does it come from?
Who would be proud of you
for seeing/feeling
the way you see/feel?

How do you know 
what you think you know?
Who says so?
Who agrees with you?
Whom do you agree with?

Assumptions and inferences
enable us to see
what isn't there--
force us to see
what isn't there.

Get to the bottom of everything.

Ask all of the questions
that beg to be asked.

Say all of the things
that cry out to be said.

Notice what you are not asking,
are not saying.
Ask and say those things.

Every day.
In every situation as it arises.
Forever.

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