Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

We have to befriend our inner resources in order to give ourselves the best chance of giving each situation as it arises the best we have to offer--which begins with "Peaceful abiding, here, now."

D.T Suzuki said the term "enlightenment" is synonymous  with "habitual intuition." How are we living to enhance our relationship with our intuition? Where are we pushing our way through life and where are we waiting to see/hear/feel our way from one point to another?

Intuition and inner peace, inner consciousness, inner knowing are of the same ilk. Time spent daily in the presence of our selves, so that we learn to know "Yes" and "No" without knowing "Why," or how we know. "Yes" and "No" can be spontaneous, instantaneous with those who are one with themselves. Having to "think about" whether something "is us" or "is not us," is an indication that our "inner light" might be burning on dim, and we might look for ways to turn it up (Something the church could have done for us instead of handing us the Catechism, but don't get me started).

PS. I asked the stock photo agency I’ve just started working with if they had an interest in bird photos. They replied that they were “very interested.”

When I retired in 2011, I spent my time at the Bog Garden in Greensboro, NC, waiting for my wife to retire in 2013, taking photos of birds because I love taking pictures of birds. Sometimes things work out that way. And if it had not worked out this way, I still got to do what I loved. No?

God is a psychic reality, not a spiritual being.
Comprehending this changes everything.
For one thing, it makes us the closest
some people ever get to God.
And it gives us the opportunity to 
remind them that they, too, are God, 
and need to start acting like it.
Without saying anything about going to hell
if they don't.

If they don't, they just regret it forever.

Living without dancing with the God they were born to be.
That is an eternal realization that beats hell 
all the way to hell and back that never ends.

Living as though we are God because we are 
makes us Jesus. Makes us psychic wonders. Everyday.
And cuts back sharply on the whining, moaning, complaining...
Jesus never whined.

If Jesus could forgive the crowd that killed him,
we can show compassion for Donald Trump.
And few people ever needed compassion the way Trump
and his minions do.

They diss the God they are every moment of every day.
The God they are never shines through.
Imagine living with that eternally.

I would like to talk things over with strangers just to get their take on things. But they don't seem to welcome my inquiries. There should be places for conversation like libraries are for books and magazines. Maybe AI will develop along these lines. 

I can imagine talking to people long dead, brought to life by their AI equivalent in Seri-form. And they wouldn't have to be dead at all. Just dial up anyone, anytime, as an AI voice on the other end of the line. This could be the next great offering of civilization. Zoom calls to people we have always wanted to talk to, without them being inconvenienced in any way. I can't wait. The potential benefits to society are enormous. And we could give AI the task of setting up AI conversations world wide, and we could buy monthly subscriptions to the service as with HULU and Prime. My first call will be to George Carlin.

Money means power and control. In the service of what? Toward what end? What is controlling the controllers?

They create chaos, noise, complexity–in the service of what? Having their way? Getting/having what they want?

They serve the joy of pushing things around, burning things down? Destroying, decimating, all things good? Anger unleashed upon civilization? A theme that runs through the ages, no?

We see it everywhere. Madness in the service of Fear, Loathing, Anger, Greed, and, you may not be ready for this but, Theology. Theology being the most insidious brand of Fear, Loathing, Anger, Greed there is. Madness in the guise of Goodness. What evil theology serves through the ages, right?

And we all are caught up in the playing out of forces quite beyond us. Psychic forces at work in the world–for what purpose? Toward what end? What controls what is in control?

And were do balance, peace, harmony, silence, emptiness, stillness, fit in? Belong? 

There was no Garden of Eden.
There was no Adam, no Eve.
There was no Original Sin.
There was no need of atonement/redemption.
There was no need for Jesus to die on a cross.
Etc.
It was all made up by people with nothing better to do.

What are we going to do now?

I recommend growing up.
Facing the truth of how things are
in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way.

Throw belief/faith into the burning barrel,
and sit in emptiness, stillness, silence,
reflecting on what we know to be so 
out of our own experience,
trusting our intuition and our intellect 
to work together at the task to know who we are
and what is ours to do with the gifts that are ours from birth:
Our original nature,
our inherent virtues--the things we do best 
and the things we enjoy doing most,
our intrinsic intuition,
our instincts and imagination,
our ability to see/sense what's what,
what's happening,
and what needs to be done about it, here, now,
in each situation as it arises,
and get busy doing what is called for here, now
when, where, and how it needs to be done, no matter what
all our life long.

It's easy and fun once we get the hang of it.

We are in the presence of something at all times.
It is hard to miss a sunrise like this,
and we have to look more closely at other things,
but. Everything waits to be seen for what it is, where it is, when it is, how it is, and that is what we are here for--
to see what we look at and know it for what it is and is capable of being. Including when we look in the mirror.

We are here to see, know, honor, respect, worship and adore what is here with us in all times and places.

Seeing things brings things forth. Knowing things for what they are and also are brings things to life. Latent possibility is everywhere all the time. It takes us to see, hear, know and understand. That is our role in life. An aspect of being who we are, doing what is ours to do.

I Googled it.

There have been 267 popes in 20 centuries. That is about 40 popes per century.

There were 4 centuries when the Church of Rome (and the other Orthodox Christian Churches which were in the background) was basically calling the shots for 400 years about what was Orthodox Christianity and what was not.

What should the Bible say? That’s what they were saying for 400 years.

I’m saying the Popes of Rome had 400 years to compose a Bible that gave the Church a solid financial foundation for its future.

“You are going to go to hell, You SINNERS, if you don’t do it like WE say do it!” Can’t beat that for the most solid of foundations, if you’re the Church, no?

That has been the message of the church forever. Based on the Bible the Church of Rome created in 400 years. The Reformation stopped too soon!

We take the wrong things too seriously, no? 
It is one of the hardest things, living in ways appropriate to the occasion.

I think that means we are in too much of a hurry too much of the time.

We jump to conclusions and rush to judgment and fail to take our time some more again every day. Or, is it only me? That's a good one--It's never me. I'm late to every party and slower than refrigerated syrup.

But, I am doing better with the things I take seriously, reducing their number and laughing at the very idea of them being somehow important.

There is much to laugh about these days, and for one who has no more power and control, or even influence, than I do, laughter is my only way of discounting the horrors of the day and being somewhat balanced and in the flow, such as it is, each day. And that much is something, at least.

Signing with the Photo Agency was my most brilliant move to date
in that it forces me to relive all the old photographs. My life with the craft began in 1997, or 8, or 9.

It began with me telling my congregation in Batesville, Mississippi, "Don't send me to the Holy Land" (Which is something congregations sometimes did to their preachers)--"Send me to Yellowstone!" Which is what they did when we left Batesville for Greensboro, NC.

The trip to Yellowstone WAS a trip to the Holy Land. And opened the way to all of the other Holy Lands in the form of the National Parks, throughout my life with a camera.

Thank you Batesville!

The Natural World is the Holiest of Lands, and all we need to be healed and whole, saved and well. Just walk through nature, with or without a camera! It will restore us to ourselves, and to one another, and to all that is. Just sit for a while in nature. It will reintroduce us to ourselves. And immersing ourselves in our photographs will bring us to life again and again--what reincarnation is actually about. And what life after birth comes down to. Being with nature is all the church anyone ever needs. Which is what Jesus would say, and did say, with the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, and "the stone the builders reject."

We all are always surrounded by just what we need to wake up to who we are and what we are about, and that is all the realization, enlightenment, anyone ever needs to be who we are, and that is all anyone is ever asked to be. No?