Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Wanting is the source
of all of our problems today.

Wanting and striving.
Striving to achieve what we want,
and to avoid what we don't want.

Get rid of wanting and striving
and it is a brand new world
just like that.

So, that is our task:
Ridding ourselves of wanting
and striving.

Our work is simple:
Live to want less today 
than we wanted yesterday.
To strive, endeavor, aspire...
less today than we did yesterday.

Want to not-want!
Strive to not-strive!

Those are the best things
we can do for ourselves and the planet
in all of the things that can be done
for ourselves and the planet!

Starting now!

Life seems to have such repetition about it, 
flowing through the ages, 
as though we all share someone else’s motivations and memories. My questing seems to be someone else’s 
forwarded to me—someone I am not related to 
in at least the two generations preceding my birth. 

The things that call to me did not call to anyone I know 
in the extended families of my parents, and their parents. 

If life never dies, 
but is passed along in ways that, 
more than span generations, 
but cut across generations… 

Well, that would support Einstein’s idea about 
“neither created nor destroyed, 
but transformed or converted.” 

As our bodies go from dust to dust, 
our spirits are “born again” and again, 
along intersecting rivers of energy and interests, 
and common experience 
to continue “the journey, 
the questing” that never ends...

We take what we find,
and see where it leads,
never entirely sure of what 
guides our boat on its path through the sea.

Which would be, I suppose, a form of reincarnation,
life moving forward, never dying
and and being always renewed
as a continuing thread binding all of us together,
making the phrase, "We are all one"
meaningful in ways we have not considered.

Netanyahu and Trump represent the failure of life,
with the Palestinians being to Netanyahu
as immigrants are to Trump:

The only way you can be safe
is to kill all your enemies.

You can't kill enough of them fast enough.

If they are going to live at all
it has to be somewhere far, far, away--
say on separate moons of Mars.

Life first appeared 3.7 Billion Years Ago.
And this is the best we can do.
Netanyahu and Trump carry the banner of life
into ruthlessness and madness,
with their mindless masses singing their praises
to their own shame forever.

For encores, we destroy the climate in our lifetime.

"Well we did land people on the moon!"
warrants no kudos at all. 

Donald Trump is a wrecking ball  
destroying democracy without taking office.
I've cancelled my Washington Post subscription
and am cold-turkeying my addiction to Amazon,
which will have no impact at all
upon the Tsunami that is pending
the outcome of the election,
but it ranks as a protest to Jeff Bezos
as owner of both the Post and Amazon
for caving to the potential power of Trump
to destroy his wealth
if he is not a loyal lapdog.

(The Post is not endorsing a Presidential Candidate
this year)

The power of power over the powerful
which is Trump's obsession
following Putin and all the authoritarian rulers,
current and deceased.

Those who vote for Trump 
are voting for ruthlessness and madness
without restraint
running rampant through the world,
laughing.

The question, 
"When/how did life begin?"
assumes a beginning point.

God, for instance, is given
"always been here" status.
Why not life as well?

We give God "no beginning no ending" existence,
but make room for the Big Bang for everything else.

We speak of THE Big Bang
as though there has been only one.
"How many have there been?" is a valid question.
How many comings and goings?

And, we know life has the ability
to "go dormant" for centuries
and to "wake up" when conditions are favorable
for its existence.
Applying dormancy to life changes things a bit.

We don't know that 
we are starting with absolutely nothing,
and we don't know what the possibilities
of dormancy are,
meaning we don't know what we are talking about.

Which is one of our outstanding tendencies.

If an asteroid ever makes landfall
with water encased,
it might expand our imagination--
particularly if the water contains
mosquito larvae.

Or a pacifier. 

We cannot hold onto anything. 
We must let go of everything.

Jesus, the Buddha, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr,
and all those like them through the ages
were able to give themselves wholeheartedly to their vision
because nothing was more important to them
than their vision.

We are here to give ourselves to the service
of what is called for
in each situation as it arises
with nothing in it for us
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

We aren't out for anything.
We aren't striving to gain anything.

We are here simply to do what needs to be done.
To do what must be done.
In the time left for living.

So what if nothing comes of it?

So what if Trump wins the day
and the champions of indoctrination
control the minds of 98% of the people worldwide?

That leaves 2% free to do the work
that is ours to do!
I love a challenge, don't you?

We take refuge in emptiness/stillness/silence
(One thing, not three),
and live from there
in the service of what is called for
in each situation as it arises--
to exhibit and express our original nature,
our innate virtues
(What we do best and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition--
for as long as life lasts!

It is the way.
Always has been.
Always will be.
World without end.

The Tao, the Way,
flows from and leads to
our intrinsic intuition.

Those who know--
and live to serve--
their own intuition
live in sync with,
aligned with,
in full accord with,
their own intuition.

That is all there is to it.

All those who have known
through out the ages,
knew and served their intuition. 

Jesus did it.
Buddha did it.
Name a knower
and they did it.

And they all were as 
the moved before the mover.
The one who knows before 
the one who is known.

We are all that close
to being who they were.

We only need to open ourselves
to the one who waits to be known,
and say, "Let's go!"
and mean it.

And in the emptiness/stillness/silence
(One thing, not three)
there will arise an awareness
of what is called for here,now.
And it may only be that we do the dishes.

Do not require a great mission,
dismissing all others.
Merely listen, look,
see, hear
and do what is bidden,
when, where and how it needs to be done.

Time after time throughout the rest of time.

And that will be enough.

Should you ever feel as though
you are at a dead end,
trust the dead end
to point the way,
to be the way to the way,
to be the way
that looks like the end of the way.

And trust your intuition all of the way.

The cross must have seemed to be
the deadest of all dead ends, no?

No one can be anything.

The list of things I cannot be
rivals anyone's,
and all of us have an incredibly long one.

I cannot be an opera singer, for instance.
Or a ballet dancer,
or any kind of singer or dancer.
I can't ride a bull
or shoe a horse.

Play football, baseball, soccer, ice hockey...

You get the idea.

But.

Everyone can be who they are.

And that is all Jesus and the Buddha did.

They were who they were capable of being.

And we all can do that.

We all can be Jesus and the Buddha.

If you are saying, "No, not me,"
I'll be quick to ask you where you got that notion.

And if you say, "The best me is the worst Jesus and Buddha,"

I'll ask you to prove it 
by being the best you you can be.
And let the quality of your life
from this moment forward
be the proof of how close to Jesus and the Buddha
you can be--
But.
Don't hold anything back.

BE WHO YOU ARE!!!

Like this:
Focus only on your original nature
(Do you even know what that is?
Or, are you always finding fault 
and making excuses for your natural proclivities--
your inclinations, dispositions, propensities...?)

Your innate virtues--the things you do best
and enjoy doing most. Do you know what they are?
Or, are you always excusing and dismissing these things?

Your intrinsic intuition--the things you know
without knowing how you know, and the things you refuse
to trust because what would people think,
and you would be ashamed and embarrassed to trust yourself
to your intuitive urges and callings.

Yes, those things! Give yourself whole-heartedly 
to the things found in these three groups of things,
bringing more of them to life in your life each day!

You are keeping Jesus under wraps
and hiding Buddha from the bright light
of his incarnation in you.

And you have done both of these things
long enough.

Everybody wants to be happy.
Donald Trump plays that to the hilt.
He tells them the Democrats
will make them unhappy
in all the ways he tells them
the Democrats are for everything
Real People are against:
Immigrants,
Sex-changing,
Homosexuals,
High grocery prices
and raising taxes.

He doesn't ask them how happy they were
during his Presidency.
He tells them how unhappy they will be
under Kamala Harris.

I say, "What does happy know?"
Happy only knows what it wants
and doesn't want.

What does wanting know?

Does wanting know what it takes?
Does wanting have what it takes?
To do what it takes?
To tend the infrastructure
that takes care of the needs
of the Republic?
That guards, defends, allows, enables
Liberty and Justice for ALL???

Highways!
Lead-free water!
A living wage!
An end to hunger
and homelessness!
Medical insurance!
The freedom to be in charge
of our own personal healthcare!
An environment that honors the climate!
A government that works to serve
things like these worldwide!

Jesus put getting what we want
and being happy 
in service to doing what needs to be done
and doing unto others
as we would have them do unto us
even if it means picking up our own cross
in living as he did all day every day
with liberty and justice for all.

Something Trump knows nothing about!

Dementia has several phases.
I wonder what form mine will take,
looking out the window,
watching the days come and go.

I am curious about a lot of things,
most things, actually.
I've always been that way,
and enjoy it the most.
I wonder what I will wonder about next,
waiting for some form of dementia
to carry me off
(I wonder where I will be then).

I accompanied parishioners drifting away,
and am familiar with the possibilities.
Slats Rainey had me confused with a Coca-cola
delivery man from a time long past,
and he always talked to me 
as though I were that person--
and I talked to him as though I were that person,
sharing his memories, 
as he remembered them,
and laughing as though I knew
what we were talking about.
It was time well spent,
though it was completely meaningless
except for the communion it afforded
during the length of our visits.

When dementia consumes us,
we remain able to enjoy our 
communion with one another's company
regardless of the nonsense
of our conversation.

The sacred things remain intact
through it all.

Taking our time 
and paying attention
would reduce our problems/difficulties
considerably.

Why is it so difficult
to take our time
and pay attention?

We live in the tension
between "Yes" and "No"--
with the contingency 
of having to pay the price
of riding the ride,
of doing what we want,
without doing what we don't want
in order to do it.

The benefits we enjoy
come with a cost to enjoying them.
And we want the joy
without the cost.

And coming to terms with the costs
of life's benefits
is called "growing up."

We all grow up against our will.
And that is the kink in the hose.

And so it is said,
"Truth is found between the hands."
"On the one hand this,
and on the other hand that,
and when do we give up that
in order to have this?"

Which is also called,
"Paying the price of being alive."

Making our peace with the price
that has to be paid
for living the life we want/need/have to live
is on-going, 
never-ending.

Being fine with that
is having it made.

This is also called
"Getting up and doing 
what has to be done
regardless of the cost involved."

Understanding the price to be paid
to do what is called for
and being glad to pay it
is all it takes to be happy
to be here, now,
wherever and whenever we are.

If we don't have what it takes
to do what is called for,
or don't want to pay it, 
we have to pay the price
of not paying the price
and that is how the great majority
of living beings live out their lives.

No?