Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

We are living to align ourselves
with our life--
to express, 
exhibit,
display,
incarnate,
serve,
who we are 
and what we are about
though the things we say,
and do,
and stand for,
while living in ways
appropriate to the occasion
in each situation as it arises!

Integrity!
Spontaneity!
Sincerity!
Vitality!
Authenticity!
Congruity!
Balance and harmony!

We do this by being best friends
with our intrinsic intuition,
our original nature
and our innate virtues
(The things we do best
and enjoy/love doing most)--
and by spending time regularly
and reliably 
with emptiness, stillness, silence
(One thing, not three!),
and allowing our life to flow
from our association with all these things.

AA proposes: "Acceptance is the answer
to all of my problems today."

I think it is "Growing Up."

All of my problems are generated
by the refusal of everyone, including me,
to grow up.

If my parents had been growing up,
consciously, intentionally, deliberately,
all of their life
what a difference that would have made
in my life.

The same goes for their parents,
and their parents...

Everyone was blaming something else 
for all of their problems.
No one was squaring up to their need
to grow up,
face what needed to be faced
and do what needed to be done about it
with their own personal gifts
that were always at their disposal.

And I think the culprit at the bottom 
of it all was/is bad religion.
And all religion is bad religion.

Religion teaches that we are evil,
worthless, no count, no good
and that there is nothing we can do about it.
How's that for the basis for terminal immaturity?

Of course, growing up
would mean the end of religion as we know it,
and probably the end of religion of any variety.

When we become the responsible agent for our life,
who needs a god to pray to for blessings 
and deliverance and life everlasting?

And that would upend the world as it has come to be.

Which means that it is up to us
to walk away from religion
and take up sitting looking out the window,
reflecting on the current state of our affairs,
and what we need to do what needs to be done
about it.

Start with stopping all our thinking
about everything that prevents us from 
seeing/doing what needs to be done
about the current state of our affairs.

What we spend our time thinking about
keeps us from thinking about
what we need to think about
to do what needs to be done.

We spend out time with addiction,
diversion, distraction, denial,
projection, delusion, illusion,
escape, evasion, avoidance...

Anything to keep from growing up
and doing what needs to be done
about things as they are.

Like rejecting "that old time religion."

Our real best life unfolds 
in the moment of living it,
one situation at a time.

Knowing what is called for here, now
is all we ever need to know.

And that knowledge arises spontaneously
out of our lifelong relationship
with emptiness/stillness/silence
(One thing, not three),
and trusting ourselves to read
the signs of the times
and know what's what
and what is asked of us
moment-to-moment,
all along the way.

Faith in ourselves
like this
is the true test of faith.
Believing in our relationship
with our intrinsic intuition
to the point of death on a cross
is to enter into the laughter
of those who discovered
they didn't have anything to lose
anywhere along the way.

If we want to know God,
we can't do it by hearing about God,
or reading about God.
If we want to know God,
we have to live in godly ways.

We have to live aligned
with the divine within
by honoring our original nature,
our innate virtues
(The things we do best
and love/enjoy doing the most),
and our intrinsic intuition
(That which knows what needs to be done,
when/where/how
in each situation as it arises,
without an eye out for what's in it for us,
without knowing what we stand to gain
or lose,
without caring about what's in it for us,
without serving our plans or agendas,
without having anything at stake
in any outcome,
all our life long.

To know God,
we have to BE God,
through all of the circumstances
that come along.

Whales do it.
Rocks do it.
Giant Sequoias do it.
Pigs and eagles do it.

The natural world has it down,
and is waiting for us
to get with the program.

It's a little bit out of hand.
The only people with a chance
of bringing balance and harmony
back into play
are the American voters--
assuming the election is held as scheduled
and systems are functioning normally.
But who can count on that?
Who can count on anything?

Well.
The silence is still there,
and we are still capable
of finding our own fulcrum
and living from there to right our world.
Shoulders above our feet,
steady as she goes.
In a world that is depending on us
to take on the forces of destabilization,
and say "NO!" to crazy and "Yes!" to sane.

May it be so all the way back to 
the normal distribution curve worldwide!

The Divine Spark within
comes alive as we live in ways
that are true to our heart,
our original nature,
our innate virtues (the things
we do best and love/enjoy most)
our intrinsic intuition,
in doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
when/where/how
(One thing, not three)
it needs to be done,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction 
of having done it, 
no matter what,
all our life long.

We bring God to life
in our lives this way.

That's how it has always
been done.
And, we cannot do it 
by thinking about it!
It is spontaneous,
automatic,
natural,
arising independently
of reason, logic, laws
and regulations
to be exactly what is appropriate 
to every occasion
from those who are aligned with
the flow of life and being
through the circumstances of existence
in all times and places,
true to themselves
and to what needs to be done.
World without end!

"There's nothing to it but to do it!"
(Maya Angelou).

If we leave right now,
we may get there 
before we die!

But.
There is no time to lose!

Seeing things as they are
will give you vertigo.
You will be throwing up forever.

Things as they are
is not as steady state of being!

Equanimity is absolute denial!

Sheldon B. Kopp said it first,
and best:

"Some things can be experienced,
but not understood,
and some things can be understood,
but not explained."

William Alexander Percy said it first,
and best:

"They cast their nets in Galilee,
Just off the hills of brown;
Such happy, simple fisherfolk,
Before the Lord came down,

Contented, peaceful fishermen,
Before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts
Brimful, and broke them too,

Young John, who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head down was crucified,

The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod.
Yet, let us pray for but one thing:
The marv’lous peace of God!"

If we get that,
what are we
going to do with it?

That is seeing things 
as they are!

Then, what?

We have to know when and where
to draw the line.
When to take "NO!" for an answer,
and when to give "NO! for an answer.
Being savvy is listening to our intuition
all the way.

When we think we know what we are doing,
it is time to sit for a while
in the right kind of emptiness/stillness/silence
(One thing, not three!)
until the mud settles and the water clears,
maybe after we sleep on it
and see what our dream-maker has to say
in the matter.

It is an all too easy matter for
intention and incentive to take over
the controls from intuition.
When that happens,
things take a turn for the worse
"like that."

And so the rule:
Always act out of the silence,
never in the heat of the moment!

How many wars could have been avoided
just by listening to that one!

We have to give intuition a chance
all along the way!

The real Holy Trinity
are: 

Our Original Nature,
sometimes called our "Buddha Nature,"
or our "Christ Nature."

Our innate virtues--

I'm breaking here to quote Alan Watts in The Way of Zen: 
"When we have learned to let our mind alone so that it functions in the integrated and spontaneous way that is natural to it, we begin to show the special kind of "virtue" or "power" called te. This is not virtue in the current sense of moral rectitude but in the older sense of effectiveness, as one speaks of the healing virtues of a plant. Te is unaffected or spontaneous virtue which cannot be cultivated or imitated by any deliberate method. Lao-Tzu says, "Superior te is not te, and thus has te. Inferior te does not let go of te, and thus is not te. Superior te is non-active (wu-wie) and aimless. Inferior te is active and has an aim." Or, to translate: Superior virtue is not conscious of itself as virtue, and thus really is virtue. Inferior virtue cannot dispense with virtuosity, and thus is not virtue."

--the things we do best and enjoy/love doing most.

Our intrinsic intuition which knows the truth and leads us in the way of truth through all situations and circumstances all our life long.

Living in everlasting service 
to this Holy Trinity
puts us squarely in the company
of the Christ, 
the Buddha,
and the Saints in Light,
and opens the way to eternal life,
joy and the peace of enlightenment,
liberation, realization and wonder
always and evermore.

Living as though it is so
reveals that it is so.

Do you believe in God?
It's a trick question.
Do you think Jesus believed in God?
Or Moses?

People who know God
don't have to believe in God.
Particularly people who know 
God dwells within.

God has always dwelt within.
God is nowhere "Out There!"
God is entirely and "forever "In Here!"

It is only when we recognize
the divinity that dwells within
that we are able to consciously
take up the work of identifying ourselves with
and intentionally aligning ourselves with
and serving the Holy Other within.

The Holy Other is the I Am we deny,
discount, ignore, reject, desecrate
throughout our life.

Our original nature,
our innate virtues--
the things we do best and love/enjoy doing most--
and our intrinsic intuition
are the divine characteristics
living in everyone,
waiting to be realized, recognized, embraced
and consciously/intentionally incarnated/embodied
in us all.

The gifts listed above
are holy and sacrosanct in everyone,
yet revered in only a few--
the Christs and the Buddhas, 
the saints and the "gifted"
who live as evidence of blessings and grace
in every generation,
yet concealed,
waiting to be revealed, 
in us all our entire life long.

"Who ME? I could not possibly be
confused with GOD!"
Because we have been told we are sinners
deserving only hell forever throughout our lifelong.

Wake up! Wake up! BE WHO YOU ARE!!!

Start with your intuition.
"God's voice within."
NO! GOD within!
From the earliest, 
human beings have known things
no one could know--
where water could be found, 
where to find safety,
when and where to take refuge,
when it was going to rain,
when to go to high ground to escape flooding...
All ascribed to the God Above.
All derived from the God Within.

We worshiped and made sacrifices to
the God Without
when we only needed to honor
and attend through emptiness, stillness and silence,
the God Within.

As it always has been,
so it always will be.
And it is time we tune into what's what,
and live as servants to the holy aspects
of ourselves
for as long as life shall last. 

Buddhists say they don't believe in God.
But.
They believe in karma.
They believe in merit.
They believe something/someone 
is keeping SCORE!!!

The Score Keeper is sacrosanct.
Everybody believes in the Score Keeper!!!
And lives to keep the Score Keeper happy
in order to get what they want.

Buddhists have prayer beads (and flags).
But no God.
Well, who is keeping score?
The Score Keeper is God by another name.

Everybody believes how they act
impacts what happens.
Impacting what happens
is the baseline factor
in all superstition,
which is religion by another name.
"Mojo" is another name for "God."

My name for "God" is "Intuition."
I say if we live in right relationship
with our Intuition
everything will be as good as it can be.

I embrace emptiness, stillness and silence
as one thing,
and turn to it often--
several times a day--
as other people turn to prayer,
endeavoring to align myself
with my Intuition
and live in accord with my Intuition's
will for my life.

Lao Tzu thought of the Tao
in the same way.

Everybody is trying/striving
to get something from someone/something.

We are all trying/striving to get what we want.
And think we need all the help we can get.
Gaining merit is the game.
Garnering the Payoff is hitting the Jackpot.

We are all in that line.
Rubbing some Lodestone,
carrying some Rabbit's Foot
(If that is lucky,
it certainly didn't do the rabbit 
any good!).

And we are kidding ourselves
if we pretend we are not.
By not living to get what we want
we are laying the foundation
for having what we want.

And believe someone/something
("The Universe")
is keeping score.

All Donald Trump is good for
is hate and fear.
If you are going to vote for Donald Trump,
it is because he has filled you
with hate and fear,
and continues to do so
every time he speaks.

Donald Trump is a pumping station
for hate and fear.

Fear and hate are mutually arising emotions.
They play off of each other.
They validate each other.
They need each other.

Reduce your hate
and your fear quotient drops.
Reduce your fear
and your hate quotient drops.

Try this experiment for me.
Don't listen to anything 
Donald Trump or his Assigns say
for two days,
and don't think about Donald Trump
or about anything that fans
your hate and fear during that time.
Spend all of you available time
during that time
in emptiness, stillness, silence.

Emptiness means emptying yourself
of all of your emotions, thoughts,
memories, impressions, beliefs, convictions,
certainties, etc.
so that there is nothing to stir-up
your hate and fear.

You are creating a space for yourself
that is as empty as the place between breaths.
To get to that place,
inhale for a count of five,
exhale for a count of five,
pause your breathing for a count of ten.
Repeat the process.

Do this as often and for as long
as you need to 
to establish and maintain 
an inner environment of 
emptiness, stillness and silence.

Spend two days creating,
maintaining, sustaining,
emptiness, stillness and silence.

Being aware of your thoughts,
but disengaged from your thoughts.
You can do this and still carry out
your business as usual,
but with distance between yourself
and what you are doing,
separate from all of it.

This is a meditative space
between you and your life,
separating you from all that is going on.
So that you are just aware enough to function,
but not so aware that you are on the cusp
of not functioning at all as a human being
and becoming a robot gorging on hate and fear.

You are creating a seeing/hearing/knowing/observing
place for yourself within your life.
Becoming aware of how your life impacts you
and turns you into an automation,
an automaton,
a functionary,
a robot,
a thug.

Trump turns all of his followers
into functionaries, robots and thugs
by feeding them a steady diet of hate and fear.

It is what Hitler did with the German people
in turning them against the Jews,
by filling them with hate for and fear of the Jews.

The right kind of emptiness, stillness and silence
frees you from the power of those who would
control you by telling you they will save you
from what they make you hate and fear.
They won't save you from anything.
Only you can save yourself
by turning off, tuning out, staying away from
hate and fear,
and embracing emptiness, stillness and silence
on a regular basis
throughout what remains of life left for living.

May it be so!