Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

01

We cannot have a living mythology
without a close personal relationship
with the Mystery at the heart
of life and being.

If we cannot honor the Mystery
with fealty,
filial devotion
and liege loyalty,
we are spiritually dead
beyond the hope of resurrection.

Spiritual life
flows from what we know
without knowing how we know,
and without being able to explain
what we know.

Words do not go where 
the spirit lives.

Talk, talk, talk
cannot say what silence can reveal.

Awe, wonder, radiance, splendor, fascination...
carry us beyond words
into the presence of Mystery,
beyond which we cannot go.

But, we must be able to go 
at least that far
to have a sense of more than words can say.
The beginning of understanding.

–0–

02

What means the most to you?
Start there.
Live in ways that enhance
your relationship with that.
Allow your relationship with that
to lead you into what's next,
all along the way.

What means the most to me are:
Sincerity
Integrity
Fealty
Devotion
Loyalty
Affection
Compassion

And spending time in the presence
of those exuding/exhibiting/expressing
those things.

Just finding people like that
is more difficult than it ought to be.

So I live seeking
what's worth living for.

Don't we all?

"Be what you seek" is the best
guidance I've found.
That's hard enough.

–0–

03

It takes too long to grow up.
By the time we are at the point
of living out of what we know to be so,
instead of what someone else
tells us is so,
we are too old to do much of anything,
and can't remember where we put the car keys,
or the checkbook.
Some good maturity does us.

We need more time
with our faculties up and operational.

It's hard to find anyone to talk to
who knows what they are talking about.
Everybody is saying what they heard
someone else say.
You hardly ever hear anyone 
talking about what they know to be so.

It's all about what they believe to be so.
Opinions are everywhere.
God is an opinion.
A large collection of opinions.
Heaven and hell are opinions.
Hearsay.
We have people parading around as experts
on God, heaven and hell,
saying what they got from someone else,
who got it from someone else,
who got it...

Here's what I know to be an absolute,
incontestable fact:
It's nothing but chance
all the way down,
and nothing but Mystery
at the bottom.

If anybody tells you anything different,
they are just making it up.

–0–

01

Everybody has a way
and everybody wants to have it their way.
Everybody has to grow up first,
before anyone else does.

It is amazing how Tabloid Journalism 
has taken the country to the psyche ward
with everyone having something more 
outlandishly absurd to say than anyone else.
But.
Here we are.

And a lot of these people control state legislatures,
and are bent on taking over the US House and Senate
along with the Presidency. 

"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, World" came out on 1963. 
The current world is soooooo much more of a madhouse
in real time.

I don't know of anyone who can turn things around,
flip the script,
and have people begin acting out of good faith
and a genuine concern for the best interests
of all concerned.

The general public needs to be sent to their room
until they learn to behave in public
the way they are supposed to behave in public,
with their grown-up face on.

And, that isn't going to happen.

Someone would say that violates their right to free speech,
and that they can do anything they want to,
and no one can stop them.

This crowd has not heard of self-restraint and self-discipline.
And that suggests it is going to be 
an awful, terrible, no-good, very bad summer even at the beach.

No one has the answer to this situation. 
Each person is responsible 
for seeing what they look at, 
interpreting it correctly 
and doing what must be done 
in ways appropriate to the occasion--
and no one can know beforehand 
what that will be. 

Each day is its own test. 
Our weapons for the journey 
through the days are 
emptiness, 
stillness 
and silence. 

No agenda. 
No opinion. 

Just seeing. 
Just knowing. 
Just doing. 

If we see clearly 
and know properly 
and do what truly needs to be done, 
that will be that, 
and all will be well with us. 

Sincerity, 
Original Nature, 
And the Virtues 
that are ours from birth 
are our helpers along the way. 

With the three weapons 
and the three helpers, 
we have all we need 
to find what needs to be done 
and do it in each situation 
as it arises 
through all the days that lie ahead.
 
Take heart! 
Mind how you go! 
Peace be with you!
All along the way!

–0–

02

Without a grounding,
organizing,
motivating,
directing
cultural mythology,
we are lost,
at loose ends,
with only money
as our reason for living.

Money for what?
We don't know.
All we can come up with is
for making more money.

Maybe we will go into space.
For what?
What is there?
Nothing.
So we just zoom around a bit
and come back
in order to talk about it.

We have to have something 
to talk about.
So we go big game hunting,
do drugs,
do sex
and talk about it.

We have to have something to show for it.
For having lived.
We live for nothing.
We can't talk about nothing.
So we talk about each other.
Juice ourselves up hating each other.

It is almost like being alive.

We are drowning in the wrong kind of emptiness.

It is the emptiness of being filled
with dread, hatred, anger, anxiety...
It is not emptiness at all.

We are afraid of the right kind of emptiness.
There is nothing there.
We are terrified of nothing.
But, nothing is our last hope.

If we can sit still
in the silence
and open ourselves to
the experience of nothing
long enough,
something will stir to life
and call our name
out of the Mystery
on the other side of nothing.

That is the beginning
of the construction
of our own personal mythology.

Whereof the Mystery?
What's there?
The Mystery is the Ground of Being--
where we come from,
where we return to.
We are extensions of the Mystery,
aspects of the Mystery.
We are the Mystery ourselves.

Being open to the Mystery
is the great adventure of being alive!

Being closed to the Mystery
is having to make up our own reasons
for being alive.

Money is all we can come up with.
Money for what?
For making more money
is all we can think of.

Sitting on the Mystery,
we count our coins
and call it really living.

We are really living now, aren't we?
Isn't this the life, though?
Look at all this money!
Isn't this something?

It is nothing.
And we are filled
with the wrong kind of emptiness
because we won't open ourselves
to the Mystery,
the Wonder,
the Radiance,
at the bottom of it all.

Because we are afraid there is nothing there.
Clutching nothing,
we huddle in fear of nothing.
When nothing is our only hope.

–0–

03

Confronted with the Mystery,
we have no choice 
but to construct a mythology
to explain,
to make sense of,
the Mystery.

That mythology has to take everything 
into account--
has to see and say
how this connects with that,
flows from that,
leads to that,
and here we are.

A mythology that works today
to settle us into the world we live in
as servants of the Mystery,
here and now,
has to speak to us in ways
that harmonize us with all we know to be so.

The old mythologies worked fine in their day,
but Copernicus and Galileo and Einstein 
and their ilk 
laid all those mythologies to rest
without offering an up-to-date mythology
in their place.

And, worse than that,
they declared "There is no Mystery!
It is all nothing more than facts
waiting to be discovered!"

There are no facts 
that aren't mysteries
waiting to be perceived!
Honored!
Revered!
Mythologized!

Mystery is the Ground of Existence and Experience!
Mystery is the Heart of Life and Being!
It is Mystery all the way down!

It is our place to recover the lost sense
of awe and wonder,
reverence and radiance,
in response to the realization
of the Mystery
of who we are
and why we are here, now.

And create a mythology 
that honors it all.

–0–

04

Our mythology has to incorporate
our own personal story
within the story of the world
up to right here, right now,
encompassing where we come from
and where we are going--
with particular emphasis upon
our original nature
and the virtues that are ours
to serve and to share,
and their origin being our origin
in the Mystery
out of which we come
and to which we return.

We are here to tell the story
that we write
with our life--
with all of our lives
fitting together
as the story of the species,
to be told and retold
around campfires,
or their equivalent,
through eons to come.

We start with who we are
and what is ours to do,
issuing as they do
from the source 
that brings us all into being
with, "Here you are,
and this is what you have to work with--
see what you can do with it
in the time that is yours to live!"

How we balance our original nature
and our virtues
and live in harmony 
with one another
within the context and circumstances
of our life
is the story that is ours to tell/live out
as it unfolds before us
in each situation as it arises
day by day
throughout our life.

Our mythology is what we tell ourselves
about our life experience
to make it all possible,
to organize our life,
guide and direct our boat
on its path through the sea,
sustain and motivate ourselves
through the trials and ordeals
that must be surmounted 
all along the way.

Who are we?
How do we know?
What is ours to do?
How do we know?
What is deepest, truest, best
about us?
How do we incorporate,
exhibit,
express,
that in the life we live
within this context
and these circumstances
every day?

What helps/enables us
in the work that is ours to do
with the virtues that are ours
to work with?

Our answers to these questions,
and all the others
that beg to be answered,
constitute our mythology,
the things we say to keep us going
in light of our experience
of all that is.

What say you?
How do you articulate what is you
and yours to do
within your experience
of being alive?

Saying what needs to be said
and asking the questions 
that beg to be asked
constitutes the work 
of mythologizing our life
and our reason for being.

What say you?

–0–

05

It is our place--
our work--to perfect ourselves,
not in light of some moral ideal,
but in service to our original nature
and the virtues that are ours 
to serve and to share
throughout the time left for living.

Our challenge is to be who we are,
in sync with that which is
deepest, truest and best about us,
in conjunction with the time and place,
context and circumstances,
of our living.

We are rarely welcome to be who we are,
but, without resistance/opposition,
we would never come forth
by rising to the occasion
and doing what calls us to action
on the field of action.

Joseph Campbell said,
"It took the Cyclops
to bring out the hero in Ulysses."
It takes our life 
to bring out what we are capable of doing.

We would never think that into being.
We have to live ourselves into 
our essential self--
birthing ourselves all the way to the grave.

This means integrity is the ultimate value,
not wealth.

Success means aligning ourselves with ourselves,
understanding that when we are
transparent to ourselves,
we are "transparent to transcendence."
That when we are our natural self,
we are as the Buddha was,
"one thus come"--
one fully come--
as the Christ was,
and can say about ourselves
as Jesus said about himself,
"The father and I are one"
(Substitute "the Source" for "the father,"
and you say all that can be,
or needs to be said).

Our work is our life:
To be one with the Source,
with the Mystery at the center of us all,
and to live in ways that make that plain.

–0–

01

Returning to the silence
in a regular,
routine,
rhythmic kind of way,
establishes us in a practice
incorporating emptiness
and stillness,
along with the silence
in establishing
and maintaining a connection
with our original nature
and the virtues that are ours
from the beginning--
equipping us to meet
each day's deliveries
in the strengths
that are ours to use
doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
day by day.

We have what in takes in the gifts
that are ours to use,
but we have to take the time
to remember that
in order to avail ourselves of it,
and draw from it what we need
for the work of being who we are
within the context and circumstances 
of the day.

The right kind of silence,
stillness and emptiness
link us with the resources
and the resolve
for meeting what waits
along the way,
and serves as a wellspring
ever-flowing throughout our life.

–0–

02

We get to our original nature
by being clear about what is "me"
and what is "not me,"
what is our "primary mask,"
and what is our "antithetical mask,"
what is authentic about us
and what is affectation.

What is "just us,"
and what is "the me we wish we were"?

Our authentic self
is awash in our original nature,
and reeks of the virtues
that are ours from birth,
exhibiting "the face that was ours
before our grandparents were born."

Our authentic self
waits for us to relax ourselves
into all that "we always have been,
and what we will be."

Why the resistance? 
Why even any hesitation?

Relaxing is being natural.
And in itself alone,
adds years of congeniality 
and cordiality to our life.

Why wouldn't we go for that
the rest of the way?

It is the truest thing
there is about us.
Why would we run from that?

The Gateless Gate reminds us
that we are only a slight perspective shift
away!

–0–

01

The silent places call our name.
Speak to our hearts.
With a message from our soul.

Shh!
Listen!
Past sound
For what emerges,
appears,
arises
out of nowhere
to evoke our action
within the field of action
with the right deed
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way,
leaving us with the 
wonder of its passing,
and the longing
for its hoped-for return. 

–0–

02

The Wasteland meets Beulah Land,
as it always does,
at the edge of the coin.

It is perspective all the way down.
Now we see it,
now we don't.

We think it is like this,
and it turns out to be like that.

We know exactly what we need to know,
and we don't know what we need to know,
because we don't know what we know.

This sounds "foreign, an enigma, a veil,"
until you stop thinking about it,
and just see that it is so.

We argue about what's what
as though it matters what we say it is.

What size shoe do you wear?
I wear a 10.5 or an 11,
depending on the shoe.
Should we argue about which shoe size,
yours or mine,
is the right shoe size?

How is that different 
from arguing which religion,
including no religion at all,
is the right religion?

Or which political party
is the right political party?
Or which point of view 
is the right point of view?

My shoe size depends on the shoe!
I can't even be right about 
my shoe size!
Only the shoe knows for sure!

So, what am I doing arguing about anything?
What are you doing arguing about anything?
IT IS PERSPECTIVE ALL THE WAY DOWN!
And even that is a matter of perspective!

We find our own way,
knowing that our way actually finds us
if we let it,
and we have no business telling it
what it ought to be.

Our place is to listen,
to look,
and to go with what calls our name,
no matter what that might be.

Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss!"
He didn't say it would make us rich,
successful,
the envy of the world.

If money, success and the envy of others
are our bliss,
we are fooling ourselves
and missing the boat.
The boat to the farther shore.
And there is no farther shore.
And there is no boat.

There is only here and now
and what's next.
What flows from here and now.
What calls our name?
We have to be right about it.
Nothing matters more than that.

What we think is important
carries us to the Wasteland
or to Beulah Land.
They both are right here, right now,
depending on our perspective.

Everything depends on that.

–0–

03

Jesus did not say,
"Do what makes you happy!"

Jesus said,
"Do what is worth living for--
and die for what you believe in!"

He actually is quoted as saying,
"If you would be my friends,
pick up your cross daily,
and follow me."

He was going to die.
He was going to die
for what he believed in.

It had nothing to do with atonement,
forgiveness, redemption...
It had everything to do with integrity.

Jesus lived to be who he was
even if it killed him,
and he calls everybody to live like that.

The cross in those days was not a trinket,
a tattoo,
a decoration,
a pendant,
graffiti,
or a lucky (as if) charm.
It was an instrument of death.
Period.
To pick up your cross was to die
in the service of what you believe in.

What is worth living for
is worth dying for.

What are you living for?
Will you die for it?
Doing it?
Being it?

Is money something to die for?

What is really yours to do?
To live for?
To die doing?

If we are going to be right about anything,
let it be that.

May we all die doing what is ours to do!
And may we do it all our life long!

–0–

01

Mature individuals 
are the salvation of the world.

We should make maturity--
not money--
the primary goal of life.

My paternal grandparents
(Sophie and Silas)
were the most mature people I knew
growing up,
and the list hasn't gotten much longer
over the full course of my life.

Everyone seems to be awash
in desire, ambition, fear and anxiety,
wanting this and not wanting that,
drama here, drama there,
drama, drama, everywhere...

Where are the rocks,
the anchors,
the foundations
and still points?

Who can bear well the pain of life?

Who can live without anger
and knee-jerk reactivity?

Where are the deep flowing rivers?
The safe harbors?
The oases,
sanctuaries,
refuges,
asylums,
havens?

We are lucky to have just one in our life.
What does it take to be one?
How do we become one?

It is a perspective shift
leading to a different way of seeing,
of evaluating,
of responding,
of being at one with ourselves
in accord with our original nature,
unmoved and unmovable
through flood,
earthquake,
wind and fire.

And well within our reach
if we are interested 
in making the effort.

We can practice being grown-up every day.

–0–

02

In what ways do you need
help with your life?

Reducing the noise,
complexity,
drama?

Finding the right kind of 
emptiness,
stillness,
silence?

Trusting yourself 
to your original nature
and the virtues that
distinguish you
and live within you
as the stone the builder rejects?

Knowing where to draw the lines?

Following the drift of your life?

Doing what the moment calls for?

Asking the questions that beg to be asked
and saying the things that cry out to be said?

Knowing what you know?

Doing what is yours to do?

How do the people closest to you
help you with these tasks?

How do they interfere with them
and make it difficult for you
to even remember what they are?

–0–

01

Knowing where we belong,
and what we belong to,
and where we have no business being--
and being right about it--
are important boundary markers
for our life journey.

Finding our life and living it
is also finding our place and staying with it.

Knowing what's what 
and what's called for
in each situation as it arises,
is knowing what our virtues are
and where they will be well-received,
and where they will be entirely unwelcome.
Is knowing who our people are,
and who they are not.

It is said that alcoholics
can spot one another in any crowd.
How do we know things like that?
How do we not-know it?
How can we fail to know what we know?

Instinct and intuition have to be nurtured,
honored, respected, trusted, utilized and relied on
all along the way.

We know more than we know we know.
We have to do a better job
of paying attention.

–0–

02

The key to balance and harmony
is living in accord
with our original nature,
serving and sharing the virtues/gifts/genius/daemon
that are ours from birth
in doing what needs to be done,
when, where, and how it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

This is also called "doing what we love,"
and "following our bliss,"
even when we aren't in the mood
and there is nothing in it for us
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

This "flips the switch,"
"turns the light around,"
transforms our perspective
and is equivalent to
passing through the Gateless Gate
of the Tao/Zen tradition
(Zen is what happened
when Buddhism met Taoism,
and is far more Taoist than Buddhist)--
by changing our motivation/guidance/direction
from knowing and finding and serving
what we want,
to being and doing who we are.

And that changes everything.

This is religion without theology,
and truth without doctrine--
and we have to go no further
in validating its validity
than the right kind of emptiness
(The right kind being empty of everything,
all fear/desire/anxiety/duty,
like the space between breaths
when all you are aware of is breathing),
stillness and silence.

It is the foundation of enlightenment
(Which is merely knowing what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
in response to it,
moment by moment)
and the boat to the Farther Shore,
and the key to being here, now.

And I'm glad to be able to point the way
to the Way,
which is also the Way.
It only takes seeing
to see that it is so.
See?

–0–

03

It comes down to seeing what's what
and doing what needs to be done about it
with our original nature
and the virtues that came packed in our DNA.

Seeing what's what is the tricky part.

We only know what we think we know,
which is a sprawling collection
of assumptions, presumptions, inferences, projections,
conjectures, surmises, fancies, suspicions,
theories, suppositions, extrapolations
and hearsay--
with only the vaguest kind of connection
with What Is To Be Known.

S. I. Hayakawa popularized Alfred Korzybski's
work in General Semantics,
and brought into focus the questions
that beg to be asked
about everything we think we know--
and never caught the attention
of the Adam's and Eve's among us,
within us,
on their way to certainty, conviction
and self-assurance
regarding the absolute correctness and value
of our personal opinions.

And here we are,
Fascists and Woke
relentlessly attacking one another's point of view
without ruthlessly (Or even absent-mindedly)
examining our own.

What makes us think the way we think
is the way to think?
How did we come to think the way we think?
Who do we think knows more than we do
about what we think?
How do we know they know what they are talking about?
How much of what we know hangs on the 
conviction and personality of who told us what we know?
Etc.

Seeing what's what is the tricky part.

–0–

01

What are you doing
when you lose all track of time,
and it could be yesterday
or tomorrow,
and you aren't sure of the month?

You need to do more of that.

And, if you don't know
what I'm talking about,
you need to completely revamp
your relationship with yourself
and with your life,
take up the practice
of the right kind of emptiness
(The emptiness between breaths
when you are concentrating 
on your breathing),
stillness
and silence,
and follow your inclinations
and impulses more often.

–0–

02

Living at the mercy of our 
curiosity,
intrigued by the incongruous,
the out-of-place,
the incompatible,
the strange,
obtuse,
opaque,
foreign,
an enigma,
a veil--
yet, somehow, attractive,
inviting,
engaging,
compelling,
fascinating...
is our hope
and our salvation.

–0–

01

"We are who we always have been,"
said Carl Jung.
"And who we will be."

It's a declaration discounting
the value of free will,
and dismissing the prospect of progress
and human development.

But it affirms the resilience 
of the rhizome,
and speaks of the hope
that we might yet find and be who we are,
in the old Taoist sense
of being true to our original nature,
and to the virtues/daemon/genius/gifts/etc.
that are built into our DNA--
realizing the perfection that is pre-existant
in the genome of each of us,
lying latent, waiting for the right combination
of external stimuli 
to call it to life
and enable our response to the time and place
of our living
that is just right,
exactly what is needed,
then, there and how.

If only we get out of the way
and assist its coming forth,
the way the Buddha and Jesus,
Socrates and Gandhi (etc.) did 
in meeting the times that were theirs to meet. 

We determine the meaning of Jung's statement
in our own case
by the way we live our life out
in the time left for living. 

–0–

02

Jesus said, "Look for those 
who can hear what you have to say,
and don't waste your time with 
those who cannot."

Those who can hear what we have to say
are those who already know the truth of it
before we begin to talk.

Resonance is the path to enlightenment--
which is never more than seeing
what is right in front of us.

But it flows naturally
from person to person, 
and from person to place
and to time.

It cannot be artificially produced
or created.
It is either there or not.
When you "don't feel it,"
move on.

You are looking for where you belong,
for what you belong to,
and that is a resonance thing,
not a "sales-pitch thing."

When you do not resonate
with the person talking,
or with what the person has to say,
move on.

Resonance is as much when and where
as it is what.

We can resonate with something 
at a particular time and place
in our life,
and not resonate with the same thing
at a different time and place.

It all comes down to the chance 
of pace and timing.

We are ready for different things
at different times and places in our life.

And we "can't hurry the river."
We have to wait for the time to be right
before we can hear what is being said
and know what to do about it.

And so, "the circumambulation of the self"
(Carl Jung's term for "individuation,"
another Carl Jung term
for becoming who we are)
takes a lifetime of walking around
our original nature
in an ever narrowing spiral
as we get closer to being who we are,
but we cannot rush it
in a straight line fashion.

We grow into being ourselves 
over the full course of our life.
Nobody--not Carl Jung and not Jesus--
can speed things up for us.

We hear and see in our own time,
in our own way,
waiting to resonate with 
what is being said and done,
that we might wake up 
and come to our senses.

In the meantime,
we keep walking,
keep listening,
keep looking,
waiting for something 
to "catch our eye,"
or to "strike a cord" with us
that we have always known to be so,
waiting to see/hear it
to realize what is forever so.

–0–

03

The sin of Adam and Eve
had nothing to do with eating forbidden fruit
(Give me a break!),
and everything to do with looking for a better deal--
and being more than willing to sacrifice 
their integrity
to find/have it.

THAT is the propensity present in
every one of us
that prevents us from seeing what's what
and doing what needs to be done about it.

"What's in it for us?"
cuts us off from our original nature
(Think "original nature,"
not "original sin"!),
and delivers us to the Wasteland of Our Discontent.

The profit motive is the only sin.

We find our way back to Eden
by "dying" to our own wishes and desires
for more than we have any business having,
and living with filial devotion and liege loyalty to 
our original nature,
and fealty to the virtues/gifts/genius/daemon/etc.
that came with us from the womb
("The face that was ours before we were born"),
and living to serve and to share 
what we have to give
in doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
with nothing in it for us
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

Living like that saves the world.

That's what Jesus came to say.

He also said, "Do it daily and pass it along!"

–0–

04

Taking the Sermon on the Mount,
the Parable of the Prodigal,
the Parable of the Good Samaritan
and the bit in Matthew 25
about "Inasmuch as you have done it--
and failed to do it--
to one of the least of my brothers 
and sisters, 
you have done it, and failed to do it, unto me,"
as the summation of what Jesus had to say,
we can summarize it even further in this:

"You--YOU--are the neighbor! Be one!"

The Buddha said the same thing. 
And Gandhi. 
And Hafiz. 
And Rumi. and the prophets, and Eddy Cantor…

It is the final solution.

–0–

01

Integrity requires
that we live to be who we are.

That we live aligned with that which is
deepest, truest, best about us--
serving and sharing the virtues,
genius,
daemon,
spirit,
shtick,
gifts,
etc.
that came with us from the womb.

That we are right about what is important
and live in ways that express it,
exhibit it,
honor it,
revere it
with devotion and loyalty
in all of our coming and going.

In order to do this,
and live in this way,
we have to reduce the noise,
complexity
and drama
in our life,
and increase the emptiness, 
stillness
and silence.

Developing and maintaining 
our relationship with what matters most
and with who we are,
and getting the two together
within the context and circumstances of our life
in each situation as it arises,
day by day.

It is never any more difficult than this,
and this requires intention,
attention,
awareness
and focus.

Comprising the work
of being an original human being.

–0–

02

Our original nature is packed 
with just what we need
to meet the moment as it arises,
and do what needs to be done
when, where and how it needs to be done
for no reason other than it needs to be done.

How long has it been 
since you did that?
Using only the virtues 
that came with you from the womb?

Just you.
Just as you are.
As one thus come.
Without motive.
Without agenda.
Without plan.
Without design.
With nothing to gain.

How long has it been?

What are you waiting for?

–0–

03

Pay attention to the things you do
for no reason,
without thinking about it,
or being able to explain,
defend,
justify,
excuse it
on rational,
understandable,
grounds.

Where did the motive for that come from?
What was the origin of the action?
Spontaneous,
automatic,
natural,
instinctive,
intuitive
responses to our environment
come straight from our psyche/soul.

From the source of who we are
and who we are asked to be.

From the heart of life and being.

At the very bottom of it all,
we know what we are doing.
We know what needs to be done.
We know when and where and how to do it.

But something gets in the way.

Call it "The Profit Motive."

We live in the service of the gain,
the benefit,
the profit,
the advantage...

What's in it for us?

Ask somebody what they want,
and it is always the same thing
for everybody:
"MY WAY NOW!"

What does wanting know?

Billionaires have no reason for not having
"MY WAY NOW!"
How many of them are happy,
well-grounded,
content and at peace with themselves and their life?

MacKenzie Scott is the only one I can think of.

The rest are all are striving to not pay taxes
and to gain more of the advantages,
and to be wealthier than anyone else
in the Group of the Rich and Lost.

The Wasteland is home to them all.

So, don't have to know what you are doing.
Don't have to be smart.
Don't have to be contriving some outcome.

Live to see what you do next.
What you do now.
Without having to have anything
come from it.

"Just because."
"For no reason."
"Just as we are."
"As one thus come."
Fresh from the womb.
Innocent as a lamb.
Doing just what needs to be done.
Without knowing why.
Or caring about it.

Why not?

–0–

04

We have to devote ourselves
to a practice that brings us forth
if we want to see.

I no sooner say that
than you begin to think,
"What would that be?"
Stop it.
You will never think of it.

If we want to see,
we have to move beyond 
the boundaries of thinking.

Look around.
Everything you see
is the result of thinking.
THIS is what thinking can do.
THIS is all thinking can do.
The best thinking realizes
thinking isn't the way,
and stops thinking.

When we stop thinking,
we open ourselves
to that which is beyond thinking.

The world beyond thinking is the world
we call "The Unconscious,"
because we are not conscious of it.

It is the world the ancient peoples
called "The Invisible World,"
because they could not see it
using their eyes.
But, they could see it using 
the eyes of their heart.

The Invisible World is the foundation,
the ground,
the source
of the Visible World.

We are to live in this world
of visible, concrete, normal,
apparent reality,
as extensions,
expressions,
evidence
of that world of invisible,
intangible, 
immaterial,
unapparent reality.

The good ideas come from nowhere.
The bad ideas come from
the rejection of the good ideas.
From having a better idea.

Our story is the story 
of the Garden of Eden.
The Story of the Better Idea.

It has never worked out so well,
but that doesn't stop us,
or even slow us down.
We know what it takes.
We know where True Value is found.
It is always More Of What Has Never Been Enough!

And no one can talk us out of it!
So, here we are.
Having to devote ourselves 
to a practice that will bring us forth
in order that we might see.
And we can't think it up.

We have to empty ourselves 
of all fear/desire (even the desire to be empty)/
anger/hatred/jealously/duty-dharma/etc.,
and wait in the stillness 
and the silence
to see what arises/emerges/appears
out of nowhere
to call us, inspire us, compel us
to take up the practice that brings us forth.

"Darkness within darkness--
the gateway to mystery"
(Lao Tzu).

That's the Gateless Gate he's talking about.

–0–

01

A life worth living 
is the life we are here for. 
Where do we find it?
It is best to let the life find us!

Like "the wand chooses the wizard,"
our life chooses us.

Where have we said "No,"
is the question.
What are we saying "No," to right now?

And where have we said, "Yes, but"?
And what are we saying, "Yes, but" to right now?

We are "spread too thin,"
as the old saying goes.
We are living too many lives at once.
We are in a spin
with too much to do
and not enough time in which to get it done,
and none to even visit the Loo.

So what to do?

Work stopping into our schedule!
Take up the practice of
the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence,
and turn off,
tune out,
shut down
every day
for as often 
and as long as we can bear it,
until we begin to look forward to it,
and then increase the regularity
and the time spent
being quiet.

–0–

02

Alex Carrel said that 
we are the sculptor and we are the stone.

That being the case,
what do we need preachers for?
Or gurus?
Or mentors?
When do we call in Obi-wan Kenobi?
Or tell Yoda a thing or two?

When does anyone in that group
ever quit asking questions?
Or examining themselves?

If you said, "Never!",
you're making my point for me
and I can go sit by the fire,
and look out the window.

(We see everything,
looking out the window)

Point is, we are our own critic.
Our own guide.
The pilot of our own boat
on its path through the sea.

Who guides the birds
on their path through the sky?
The birds find their own way
to where they are going!
If a bird can do it,
we can, too!

If we keep the two commndments
of the Way:
Ask all the questions that beg to be asked!
Say all the things that cry out to be said!

That is all there is to it!

No one ever lived in accord with the Tao
without doing those two things
every step along the Way.

That is all the advice and guidance
anyone needs for the Journey,
and everybody discovers it
for themselves right out of the gate
(That's the Gateless Gate I'm speaking of--
and they discover that, too).

–0–