Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Projection, properly understood and diagnosed, is the end of religion. We are seeing things that are not there by being coerced into taking everything on faith. "It doesn't exist until you believe it does! Then it becomes an absolute fact like that! It is magical and miraculous and proof that God is REAL!!!)

It is projection.

I ask you to take up the hobby of exploring projection. Read everything the internet has to say about projection. Examine your own projections--How you want to project yourself as being, and how you presume that others are. How you want to be seen and how you see others as being.

It will transform your life.

How long will recovery take?
Nothing Trump is doing will reduce that time.
And, if we think about recovery worldwide,
from The Amazon, to Gaza, and Palestine...
the time frame just gets ridiculous.

Why do we live in ways that do not enhance life?
What are we living for in ways worldwide
that do not enhance life?

What are we seeking short term
that destroys life and life's joy long term?

I am living what remains of my life in protest
and renunciation. 

I'm going to sit in my chair and look out the window
in protest and renunciation.

Which will be completely futile.
Exactly as everyone else's life will be.
Which is the point.
I call it "Calling Attention To Futility
By Living Futilely."

God comes to life in us and through us
in ways and in places 
where it might be said that
we are "One with the Tao of life and being."

One with the Tao
and one with God 
are the same thing.

Alive to the time and place of our living.
In tune with what's what and what need to be done
in response, 
when, where, and how it needs to be done.
God and the Tao dance together through us
in the here and now of our living.

Jesus got it.
Adam and Eve didn't.

This story has nothing to do with sin
and redemption.
With being lost and found.
And it has everything to do with
our being alive to the time and place of our living.

Alert to and aware of what's what,
and what's happening here, now,
and what's called for,
and doing it with the gifts that are ours
to serve and to share--
our original nature,
our innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
our inherent imagination,
our intrinsic intuition,
our psychic powers connecting us
to the entire Cosmos.

We are who Jesus was.
And bring God to life through the way 
we live our life 
every day.

Or not.
Why not?

We pick up and go on anyway, nevertheless, even so.
And that is as close to forgiveness as we need to get.
Grave transgressions against us change things forever.
It will never be as it was.

"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15 f)

Rachel has been scandalized. Betrayed. Appalled. Outraged.
Who is going to suggest to Rachel that she should forgive 
the great wrong and get back to tending her business? That
would add to her burden!

It takes time to get our feet back under us. To recover some sense of balance and harmony. Laughter may return on its own,
depending on the severity of our loss. But our goal need not
have "returning to normal" be a part of our restoration. It is enough to step forward to meet another day. Where it goes from there is day by day. 

The Wailing Wall is not for nothing. It is for the duration.
That will have to ease in its own time. In the meantime, we grieve the lost spring to our step as we carry on, carry on,
though we may need to be forgiven if we forget "just why."

Do me a favor and stop right now and do an internet search for
father greg boyle, and watch some videos. Come back when you are ready.

Greg Boyle is who God would be if God could be anyone God wanted to be. Which, of course God cannot be because God is the projection of everyone who believes in God and of everyone who doesn't believe in God. Which makes God the product of everyone's imagination. The projection of everyone's idea of God. Which is, of course, my own projection of God. So, there's that. 

Trusting ourselves is not trusting our thinking mind,
but trusting our feeling intuition.
It is about sitting down, shutting up, and waiting for clarity
by recognizing an emotionally charged sense of right direction
when one arises.

Trusting ourselves to know the way when the light comes on
is essential trusting.

And we just wait to know,
knowing that we will know when we know.

Sometimes it comes as a flash of insight,
and sometimes it comes as a growing sense of surety.
Knowing it when we see it, feel it, is a felt sense of certainty.
And I have complete confidence in the validity
of the felt sense of certainty.
Though it rarely comes as quickly as I would like.
So I sit and wait some more.

We have to not care what our chances are,
or what the odds are,
or what our outcomes are.
These things cannot matter to us at all.

Our filial loyalty and our life-long devotion
have to be to who we are,
not to what we achieve,
or what difference we make.

We all live and die,
and who knows who we were or what we did
or did not do two generations hence,
much less 100 generations hence.

We live for here, now,
with the gifts we have to offer:
Our original nature,
our innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
our inherent imagination,
our intrinsic intuition
and our unique psyche,
in the service of what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
whether any one is watching or not,
for no reasons other than the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

One situation after another
all our life long.

Got it? Do it! That's all there is to it!

Instead of the word "prayer,"
I prefer and propose the word "communion."
We commune with the Holy, Hidden, Other
when we drop into the silence and wait
for realization, recognition, comprehension, knowing...

"Prayer" suggests to me a grocery list of needs and wants,
and the more people we have praying for us,
the better our chances of getting what we need/want.

You can run your own test in the matter,
but I have found that crossing my fingers
works as well as praying for my team to win the World Series.

Communion works every time when
understanding "works" to be immersion the presence of 
the Holy Other with the vision and courage
to know and do what needs to be done.

On one hand, 
I would like to be able to say
that I am not going to kill anyone intentionally.

On another hand, I recognize
that there are people who need killing,
and, given the right circumstances, 
I could and would do the job.

That opens the door to the contradictory essence
of good and evil--
that good has to be able to do what would be evil
in some circumstances,
and evil has to give itself to the service of good
in some circumstances.

We live between contradictory realities
all our life long.
And need to be able to do what is called for,
when, where and how it is called for,
in each situation as it arises.
No matter what.

Doing what is called for,
when, where, and how it is called for
is the highest good,
making the right thing the wrong thing
from time to time.
And we are here to make it happen,
exactly as it needs to happen.

We get up and meet the day every day.
The day asks things of us,
and we find treasures and joy scattered throughout the day.
Perspective,
expectation,
attitude,
balance and harmony
impact the day's impact on us
and help to make things better or worse
throughout the day.

For me, fatigue and nutrition/hydration
are the primary factors determining
how I react to and deal with 
what the day brings my way.

Being mindfully aware of the flow
of what's called for
and what's coming and going
helps maintain my readiness
for what's next
and lets me know when it is time
to call time out for rest and recovery
in order to regroup and carry on.

Reflection and evaluation at day's end
helps me gauge my response-ability
situation-by-situation
and provides insight and adjustments
in preparation for what's coming
in the days that lie ahead,
which my nighttime dreams also help with
in my on-going work to be/do what needs doing
day-by-day all the way.

We do what is called for
when it is called for,
where it is called for,
the way it is called for,
anyway, nevertheless, even so--
whether we feel like it or not,
whether we want to or not,
whether we are in the mood for it or not,
with the gifts that are ours to serve and share:
our original nature,
our innate virtues--the things we do best
and enjoy doing most,
our inherent imagination,
our intrinsic intuition,
for the joy of doing it, 
and the satisfaction of having done it,
because we are who we are
and that is what we do.