Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Buddhists worldwide throughout time
have been of the opinion
that we all have Buddha-nature,
we just don't know it.

What if we think of Buddha-nature as intuition?

Intuition will never lead us to do something
Buddha-nature would be opposed to us doing.

What's the harm of calling Buddha-nature "Intuition"?

The Buddha was intuitive from the Bo Tree
to just before the plate of bad pork.
That's all that separated him from everyone else,
and all who became intuitive after him
were held to be high-up in the ranks of his followers.

Intuition is at the heart of all good things.

Jesus? Intuitive.

And so on through all of time.

Intuition is the secret power uniting us all.
All we have to do is get out of the way.
Stop thinking.
Stop believing.
Start intuiting.

We are all one on the level of our intuition.

Governments world-wide 
are a front for money.
Are a front for the International Mafia.
It's a joke.
A farce.
A nightmare.
Nothing is what it purports to be.
Leaving us with the Wailing Wall
as the symbol of truth in these times.

The Buddhists among us have a saying,
which is a chant:
"The Jewel is in the Lotus
and the Lotus is in the mud
at the bottom of the pond."

Om Mani Padme Hummmmmmm...

Shortened it goes: "No mud, no lotus."
It is the Buddha's way 
of living in the shit that is life
as those who are awake to their situation.

The wisdom of the Blues,
which is that of black men and women
in the Deep South,
goes like this:
"If you ain't cryin' you're lyin'
And if you ain't laughing you're dyin.'

It is The Way of living in 
the stark contradiction
between life as it is
and life as it needs to be/ought to be,
Wherever life is being lived.

Those who see
don't have a chance
of effecting/doing what must be done
to bring forth life as it needs to be lived
in the life they are living.
So what?
What difference does that make?
So what if it doesn't make a difference?

It calls out the lie!
Jesus called it, "Turning the other cheek!
Going the second mile!"
Do it as it needs to be done no matter what!

The way out of suffering
from the Buddha's standpoint
and from the standpoint of the Blues
is: Don't let it get you down,
Don't take it seriously.
And don't stop living life
As it needs to be lived
In each situation as it arises--
Even though it won't do any good!
It IS good!
And that's all that ever matters!
Being good for nothing!
Doing what is good
whether it does any good or not!

Being the lotus in the mud 
at the bottom of the pond. 
Forever. 

It's all about perspective,
don't you see, 
and how we choose to see
what we look at.

Life, the world, the cosmos, existence,
experience is all an optical illusion,
now we see it, now we don't.
Now it is like this, now it is like that.

See?

Inukshuk is an Intuit language term for "like a human being"
and dot the tundra to show the way, mark fishing places, hunting grounds, evidence that someone else has been this way
and left this to say "Hello," as a gesture of encouragement.

Suffering from "modernization," they have devolved to the level of graffiti--becoming just another way to clutter up a natural landscape.

So I erected this for the photograph and carried it back home with me as a reminder of natural landscapes in suburbia. 

Everything is always better
with someone to blame.

Conspiracy Theorists excel
at finding/inventing someone
to blame.

Donald Trump and his Congressional
hit squad
are great at blaming
their Woke enemies for everything.

And Trump's steady theme
of "I'll save you from THEM!"
plays around every clock
on all media outlets,
transporting the country
back to Hitler's Germany
and their hated enemy "The Jews."

It is amazing what
non-stop propaganda can do.

We can gauge our degree of indoctrination
by the number of questions 
we don't allow ourselves--
or permit others--to ask.

Who among the Trump legion
are asking questions of Trump?
The WOKE enemy idea is assumed by all
and questioned/explored/investigated
by none.

Their indoctrination is complete,
and on-going.

And the vulnerability of the entire country
to the proliferation of media driven lies
increases daily,
with Russia and China joining
the internet driven alternate reality production
to create a world
no one can trust to be what it is said to be.

My recommendation it to quit listening to anyone.
Me included.

Intuition has a mind of her own,
and a single line song running through her life
and ours:
"If you knew what you were doing
you'd be listening to me
instead of you, honey."

And the entire audiance
shouts a loud, AMEN TO THAT!

We know what we know too late
to avoid all the wrong turns and dead ends,
but. 

Here we are with what we have left
of the life to be lived,
why not give her a chance
to show her stuff
while the light lasts?

Now is a great time to say,
"Show me what you got,
I'm on your side at last!"

And get out of the way.

I would like to spend
the rest of my life
improving my relationship
with my intuition,
and letting her
take it from there.

And that would have been
my desire from birth.

I would like to see
how much more she could have done with me
if I had been her intentional
saddle pal from the start.

And I am honored
that she has hung around
this long.

She will have my best 
from here on out!

This is who we are
and this is what we are about!

Decide for yourself what constitutes "this"
in both of those statements,
and to what extent it applies 
to the larger group that comprises the "we"
you consider yourself to be a part of.

And live to make that clearly evident
in your life,
individually and collectively
in the time you have left to live--
so that everyone who knows you
knows who you are
and what you are about.

I think I know where I would be better off,
and trust myself completely
in directing my life to that destination,
the trouble is that the situation keeps changing.
The conditions become unpredictable. 
Better is a shifting mirage 
in a wasteland of empty promises
and lost dreams.

Where to we go to find better?
How long will it last?

My advice is to have nothing to do with despair
and hopelessness/helplessness.
Look to the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and to the intrinsic intuition 
that is a part of our makeup
from the beginning of life.

Spend time there, with that,
as the source of hope, courage,
guidance and direction,
as "the still small voice" within
in all conditions and circumstances.

Be still.
Be quiet.
Be empty of all thoughts and emotions.
Trusting the silence and our intuition
to lead the way 
through the times that are upon us
as long as that might be.

All forms of religion are ridiculous.

In Buddhism there is no duality,
but there are eight fiery hells and ten cold ones.

In Christianity God's love is unconditional
and God will send you straight to hell
if you don't believe it.

In Judaism you are to do unto others
before they do unto you.

In Islam it's one thing for you
if you are a woman
and another if you are a man.

In all of them, 
believers are asked to believe incredulous things
as though no one will notice the absurdities
because everyone else is believing them.

Why don't we just stop it?

It seems to be stopping it 
is a choice for an increasing number
of drop-outs and never-mind-its worldwide.

There are better things to do,
and more interesting things to think about.
What's the appeal of self-duping religion?

I think it's a keeping up appearances thing.
It's expected of us.
Easier to go along winking and nodding
than not.
Especially if it is the cultural and political
thing to do.

If Trump is elected,
evangelical Christianity
will be the official state religion
and I will be on the run.

Reflection and realization, kid.
Reflection and realization.

This is the sum total of the spiritual life.

Taking vision quests.

Sitting in the emptiness/stillness/silence.

"Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear."

Asking, seeking, knocking.

Thinking about our thinking.

Seeing our seeing.

Feeling our feelings.

Holding everything up to the light.

Turning the light around.

Flipping the normal and customary
to see what we may be missing
in what we are taking for granted.

Being curious about it all.

Questioning everything.

Taking Joseph Campbell's observation,
"Where you stumble and fall,
there is the treasure,"
to heart
and opening ourselves to the truth
of our experience in all times and places
in a "What am I missing here, now?"
kind of way...

Reflection and realization, Kid.
Reflection and realization.

Our best hope of influencing the future
is how we respond to the present.

What we do here has an impact there.
The quality and degree of impact
is determined by countless factors
at work within the circumstances of the moment,
but.

We increase our chances of a future better
that it would otherwise be
by the way we live 
in each situation as it arises.

The old Dharma/Tao concern for right action--
doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right place,
and the right way--
being the surest method of achieving
the highest good of all concerned
remains the case through all eternity.

Taking care of the moment impacts infinity.

And if it doesn't,
it doesn't harm anything to be found there.

When we are being swept along
by circumstances,
it's best to go with the flow
and attend our intuition
so that we know when a door opens
and we can walk through.

At times such as these,
just waiting it out 
makes as much sense 
as anything else.

It helps to wait it out
in the company of the right people.

And it is not unusual
for people in similar situations
to keep their heads down for years.

Making a run for it
presumes having a place to run to
where we would be better off
than remaining where we are,
and that is a dicey call to make,
in times such as these.

Settling in and staying in touch
with family and friends
is a strategy for the long haul,
perhaps longer than any of us might imagine. 

We will never keep better company
than our own intrinsic intuition.
Making a pact to remain close
could be the best deal we ever make,
short or long term.

Being forever best friends with our intuition,
puts us in good stead for as long as we have left!