Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Drop into the emptiness/stillness/silence
and wait to see what meets you there
every day for the rest of your life.

Treat what comes with the highest degree
of honor and respect as though it is a visit 
from your intuition with insight regarding
what's what and what is called for in the near here, now,
and reassurance about being with you with what is needed
along the way.

I have hitches and lapses which give me pause,
and lead me to wonder why annual physicals
don't come paired with annual psychologicals.

We all could use evaluation and correction
across the board at leas annually.

And that realization led me easily into 
wondering how long it has been since Donald Trump
has had a psychological appraisal.
I've never know a more certifiably insane person
to be anywhere close to what Trump oversees.
He sneezes and the stock market drops 500 points.
Why are not candidates for the presidency given 
the usual battery of psychological exams people
are subjected to for menial positions of employment?
How does Trump get by with the things Trump gets by with?
And why do 77.3 million people think that is just fine?

We make of it what we can.
We have a stake in our life.
We are invested in the time we have to live.
It is our chance to see what we are made of--
to see what we can do in the time left for living,
even now, even yet, even so.
What haven't we done that we still might do,
or do more of?
Why hold anything back?

Take this into the emptiness with you.
Sit with it, waiting for clarity 
regarding what is called for, here, now.
What is sitting with us, saying, "Ahem"?

Being who we are is our life's work.
It requires listening in the silence
to be clear about what's called for
and rising to do it when, where and how it is called for
in each situation as it arises
as only we can do it with our original nature,
innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
our inherent imagination
and our intrinsic intuition
throughout our life.

Attending/serving our intuition
with our other gifts of being
is the secret to being ourselves
as those thus come,
with integrity and authenticity--
the ethos of spirituality and character
coming forth in our life
when we live as only we can.

Why not?

Here is the blurb that goes with the book:

A Handbook for the Spiritual Journey II lays out for the interested reader the nature of the path which was first stated in Deuteronomy 30:12-14--"This commandment that I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven that you should need to ask, 'Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?' And it is not beyond the sea that you should need to ask, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it that we may obey it?' But the word is very near you--it is in your mouth and your heart that you may obey it." 

We already know what we seek. No one has to tell us what we are looking for. The spiritual journey is simply a matter of dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) and waiting "for the mud to settle and the water to clear," that is to say, for the clarity required to see, hear, know and understand what arises, emerges, appears, and becomes clear in the emptiness (etc), namely, what is called for here, now, and needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, in each situation as it arises, moment by moment. No one needs to know/do more than that. Jesus and the Buddha could not do more than that. That is all there is to it. So, go! Do it!

Who are we? What are we about?
Answer those questions correctly  
and you go to the head of the class.

Joseph Campbell said,"We know when we are on the beam
and we know when we are off the beam."

A-buzz with addictions is a good sign 
of being off the beam.

Being listless, lethargic, disinterested, not present,
are also giveaways.

Being alert, energetic, enthusiastic, vibrant,
with a "The Game is ON!" orientation screams 
"Beam Time!" for all to see.

We find our way to the beam by having an eye-to-eye
with ourselves.

How long has it been since you have done something
you love to do?

What used to make your little heart sing
and your little toes dance?
Why don't you do that any longer?
When did you lose your gusto?
What can you do to get it back?

Everybody needs the right kind of friend.
What happened to those who used to be yours?
What potential candidates exist for you to 
talk with about the things that matter most?

Without friends/family to trust and enjoy,
that leaves you with writing about the things 
you would like to talk with someone about.
Write and toss, write and toss...
You aren't writing anything to save,
unless it's something you would like to revisit,
deepen, enlarge, expand...
The point is to address the issues that need to be addressed.
Regularly. All the time. And see where it goes.

Jesus and the Buddha were about 500 years apart.
Jesus and I are nearly 2,000 years apart.
And I think we could go back about 6,000 to 8,000 years
to the Shaman who got things rolling when the last ice age
reseeded enough to make things livable.
It is shameful that the species has made no more spiritual progress than it has over that length of time.

That's some bad preaching going on!
But where did people have to go to learn to think for themselves?

The Buddha and Jesus took to the wilderness and pondered things for themselves.
And Jesus argued with the scribes and Pharisees of his day--
and his "You have heard it said, but I say unto you"
bespoke an authority that came from within that others admired.
And the Buddha recommended "Peaceful abiding, here, now."

We would have been saver alone than being subjected to
all that bad preaching.

What are you doing, have you been doing,
to develop your thinking for yourselves?

Keep it up. It is the best practice I can recommend!

I hope I spend my remaining years like I have spent my recent years. Which is to say that things are fine as they are. Content. Comfortable. At peace. Or, as the Buddha might say,
"Peaceful abiding, here, now."

I may have plenty to be anxious about with Trump at the helm,
but it's quite out of my control or even influence,
so I'm concentrating my energy on doing the things I enjoy
and letting time pass according to its own good pleasure.

I'm five chapters into my next book,
and I'm interested to see if I finish it in what remains to be lived. After that, if there is an after that, I will trust the road to carry me where it will. There has been plenty to like up to now, and I have no reason to expect the future to be much different that the past. And if it is, maybe I can find something to like there anyway.

I look forward to sharing the way with you all--lets see what we can do with what comes along!

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

And he also said, "There is within each of us,
another whom we do not know."

And it is our place to be who we are
in the time left for living.

For me that can only mean spending copious amounts of time
in emptiness, stillness, silence,
waiting to see what meets us there, 
and going where we are led,
knowing that "The path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path" (Martin Palmer),
meaning, I take it, that the path can be seen only in hindsight,
and that we trust ourselves to our intuition
in finding the way that is the way for us--
which is what the Buddha did under the Bodhi Tree,
and what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane,
and see where it goes.

Truth is a perspective. Actually, an opinion. Temporary, distorted and subjective. Presenting, not only a point of view, but also exposing what some interested party has to gain or is afraid of losing, and revealing what they have at stake in some future outcome, inviting examination, inquiry, investigation, along the lines of "Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Here? Now?

Every assertion/accusation/statement by Trump/Musk/DOGE/and friends presents opportunity for excavation and exposé by those interested in getting to the bottom of everything pretending to be truthful in the spirit of taking no rest and giving them no rest until what can be known is known and nothing remains to be poked and probed, following the dictum: "Don't Take Anything At Face Value--Everything Is More Than It Seems!"

Spring comes when it needs to

and stays until it's done.

Spring knows its business and tends it.

I wish people worked like that.

And stayed out of the way

until needed.