Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

The knowledge we carry within
that is so much more 
than we have been told or taught
is astounding beyond words.

How do we know what we know?

What guides our boat on its path 
through the sea?

Why don't we listen closely
and trust ourselves more?

Why aren't we taught about vision quests?
And Walk-a-bouts?

Why aren't we trained
to drop into the silence
and wait for clarity,
insight, realization, direction?

Why is our spiritual "education"
restricted to telling us what to believe
and to not ask questions?

Rather than teaching us to know what we know
and how to honor our intrinsic intuition
from birth on?

We are owed so much by the people
who didn't know what they were doing either.

Civilization has taken from us what we all know
and substituted in its place what we have been told.
There should be a reckoning.
An inquisition.
And restitution.

Ruling out an Elder Wand
leaves us at an impasse 
when it comes to a quick return
to life as it used to be.

The Dark Ages had nothing 
to commend them then,
and have nothing to commend them now.

My advice is to find a group 
of the right kind of people
and make a pact to encourage
and sustain one another
over the long haul.

Individually I recommend
sitting quietly and reflecting 
on your essential gifts that got
the species through terrible times
all along the way:
Be clear about what constitutes
1) Your original nature
(The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator might help here;

2) Your innate virtues--
What are the things you do best
and the things you enjoy doing most?

3) Your inherent imagination--
Where have you/do you use your imagination
in your life?

4) Your intrinsic intuition--
Our intuition is our secret weapon/tool/force/power.
Be conscious when it is leading, directing, guiding you,
and be conscious of its influence in your life.

Make these exercises a regular part of your life,
bring you to life in your life!
Depending on yourself to be a
reliable source of help in time of trouble!

The idea is to live in the service
of what is called for 
in each situation as it arises
with the gifts we are born with
in our original nature,
our innate virtues--what we do best and love doing most,
our inherent imagination
and our intrinsic intuition.

We have to train ourselves
to know who we are 
and to trust ourselves 
to know where, when and how 
to bring forth our gifts,
in ways appropriate to the occasion.

We become proficient with our gifts
like Luke Skywalker did in Starwars,
by spending time with emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and waiting there for awareness 
and realization to deepen,
for insight and understanding to develop,
for knowing to become automatic/spontaneous,
so that we live sincerely out of our own center
in responding to the moment at hand,
time after time.

We will be living the adventure of being alive.

We are quite on our own
and get by best by choosing
the right kind of others 
to be our Community of Innocence--
Innocent in the sense of having nothing at stake
in relationship with one another beyond serving
as a sounding board for each other,
enabling all in the group
to ask the questions that beg to be asked
and say the things that cry out to be said
about life as they experience it
and responses they make to it,
so that each person might hear what they have to say
by listening to themselves say it,
and coming to know themselves better thereby,
adjusting their lives accordingly 
by taking themselves fully into account.

What keeps you going? Seriously. 
What pulls you into your life?
What are the sources of attraction?
Of interest?
Of energy, vibrance, enthusiasm, joy and delight?

I get excited about making cobbler,
a good cup of coffee
and oatmeal-raisin cookies.
Reading and writing.
Sitting quietly.
Most anything with quiet attached.
Working with photographs.
Reflecting on various aspects of life
and coming to new realizations.

Like why we see the way we see,
think the way we think,
and why so many of us don't 
think about these things.
When pondering is one of my favorite 
things to do.

For instance, I'm curious about why
that picnic table in the photo above
is still in service.

In my younger days,
I would drive back out there
just to see if it has been decommissioned.

Change anything and we change everything--
and we are changing things big time.
With no regard for the implications of any of it.
At a rate where nothing has the leisure
of a comfortable adjustment to anything.

The impact upon the intuitive structure
of the entire cosmos is incalculable, but.
It will take a lifetime of emptiness, stillness and silence
over many generations 
to approach the stability of the planet
the day before the rock hit the moon
that knocked a piece of the moon into the earth.

In the meantime,
our best recourse
is to take the time to sit peacefully,
dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence,
giving our intuition a chance to settle us into
a pattern of recovery, reflection and realization,
enabling us to be who we are,
doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises
as best we can 
with the gifts that are ours 
to serve and share
in the time left for living.

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

I practice "active imagination"
with conversations with Jesus and Buddha, and others
from time to time,
and recommend it to you and your own
meditative moments.

One of the things that "come through"
(From where, who knows) regularly, with Jesus
in particular,
is what a child of innocence and purity he was,
with no guile or inauthenticity about him,
and "Shocked, I tell you, shocked,"
at the disingenuousness of others.

He did not belong to this world
(Neither did the Buddha).

This comes through for me in Jesus' interview 
with Herod,
where he held back and did not step forth
in his own behalf, as I wish he had done,
but he couldn't.
It wasn't who he was at the time.

And I look back at my own life
and the times and places where that was so with me.

I wish my foundation had been then
as it is now,
but it took all 80 years and counting
for me to be here, now. 

There is no way I could have been then
who I am now.
But the Truth of me here, now,
was the Truth of me then, there,
I just did not have the chutzpah 
to "put myself out there"
(And good for me that I didn't,
in seminary, for example, saying,
"Theology is only a bucket of opinions
about hearsay!" I would have spent my life
selling shoes!)

But we are who we are always and forever,
and grow into being ourselves over time--if
we cooperate with ourselves and grow consciously into 
who we are to be, like an oak tree from an acorn.

Being what the moment needs
is being present with what is 
present with us
so that we see, hear, understand,
know, do, be
who we are needed to be
by what is called for here, now.

That is the ideal for each of us,
all of whom are distracted 
by "The Dust Of The World,"
and doing well just to have our clothes on.

But the process calls for practice,
practice,
practice...

You know the routine:
Dropping into emptiness, stillness, silence,
waiting for clarity,
watching, listening for what arises,
emerges, 
appears,
to catch our attention
and direct us to action
upon the field of action
as an impulse to engage the moment
and do what is called for,
where, when and how it is called for
with the gifts we have to serve and share
here, now, and 
throughout the time left for living,
in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way.

There are connections between 
what happens to us 
and what we do about it,
between what is important to us
and what we do about it.

The response determines--
or strongly influences--
everything that follows.

The range of our response-ability
determines--
or strongly influences--
the outcomes of our life.

We wield tremendous power
over the course and direction 
of our life
by the ways we respond to
the events and circumstances 
of our living.

How conscious we are
of what we are doing
about what is happening
tells the tale.  

We need more help than we get,
leaving us to make do with what we have 
more often than not,
and fantasies of the Elder Wand abound--
Or those of an Almighty God capable of being
cajoled (With the right kind of sacrifice
and attention) into showering us with special
consideration and gifts in return.

This is shamelessly called "giving to get"
by churches not above prostituting themselves
for the goods and services of answered prayers
from on High throughout the year.

It's a con racket hawked by those 
who believe God can be bought
without worrying about the implied mafia boss nature
of a God reputed to be all loving and kind.

Desperate times lead to desperate measures,
and generate theological quagmires and quandaries 
over how to get what we want without over playing 
our hand.

If we live long enough,
we will live with our "backs to the wall,"
out of options, with nowhere to turn,
up against it "between the devil and the deep blue sea."

Jesus went to Gethsemane and Golgotha
when his back was against the wall. 
That is always the choice of honor and integrity--
and where honor and integrity often lead.

Knowing that from the start
and willingly paying the price
of a life lived as it ought to be lived,
with eyes open all the way
and a heart equal to the task
of doing what needs to be done--
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
no matter what,
leaves things as they ought to be
in a world where we need more help than we get,
time after time.

When the world goes to hell 
it is important to not go to hell with it--
maintain our focus,
and continue doing what needs to be done 
in each situation as it arises
as though nothing is out of the ordinary.

Sustaining our balance and harmony
has a carryover effect
and our presence has a "seems like" effect to it
allowing things to settle back into feeling as though
they are near normal.

It's the AA model of "faking it 'til you make it"
back to sanity, which will help with the sobriety.

"Just say NO!" to fear, anxiety, hopelessness and depression.
And focus on maintaining our balance and harmony
by meeting the day as it needs to be met.

And do something normal throughout each day.

It's called "doing the things that make for peace"
in all times and places.