Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

I think of the people just getting by
in Long Lake, New York,
and Tupper Lake,
and Rangeley Lake, Maine
and throughout the United States,
and the entire planet,
and the cosmos,
and wonder why they do it.

What is their motivation?
Their motivating force?
Why do they get up and face the day?

Let's see what good we can do today!
For the joy of doing it,
and the satisfaction of having done it!

And the Buddha?
and the Christ?
Born to die for the privilege
of having lived--
like everyone who came before them
and after them.
To see what good they could do today,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

It is the only motive
for everyone ever always.

We do it to see what good we can do today,
for the joy of doing it,
and the satisfaction of having done it.

For the wonder of it all.

And we would do it again if we had the chance--
for ten thousand billion lifetimes.

To see what good we can do
for the joy and satisfaction
of having done it,
and never having done it enough.

Those who know,
know it is so.

Forever always!

Fold it all in.
Incubate it.
Reflect on it.
Allow it to work its magic within,
transforming us into those
who care without caring,
and do without doing,
and accomplish without striving,
living in the service
of what is called for
without ambition,
intention,
expectation or opinion.

Just seeing,
hearing,
knowing,
understanding,
responding
to what is needed
in each situation as it arises
out of our original nature,
innate virtues
(What we do best and enjoy doing most),
and intrinsic intuition,
for the joy of doing it,
and the satisfaction of doing it,
like chips off the old block,
like the Buddha and the Christ,
spontaneously, 
sincerely,
appropriately,
time after time,
all our life long.

PS, I recommend my other site on WordPress for keeping up with What’s Happening Now, and it will save me from posting additional “Latest things that need to be said on this site. You can find me there here:

I wish I had devoted myself
to the moment, 
this here, this now,
all my life long--
being what the moment called for
doing what the moment needed
to be done,
when, where and how it needed
to be done.

I wish someone had explained 
to me how utterly important that is.
I lived among people who did not know
themselves how important it is.
No wonder I am the way I am!

I threw every moment to the wind.
I trampled every moment underfoot.
I redrew every moment to match 
my idea of what the moment should be,
serving my interests,
meeting my needs,
being as I wanted it to be.

I was the master of every moment.
I am ashamed to say.

I want a re-do.
Another go.
Let's start over.
Beginning now.
I will honor every moment
from here to the end of the line
as the wonder it is,
a gift for me to open carefully
and to serve with all my heart
as it needs to be served,
the rest of the way.

We are all we have--
we are all we need!
But.
It takes realization,
awareness-attention
to make it so.

There is no father-god out there.
The God we seek is in here:
In our body,
mind,
intuition,
virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
original nature.

We laugh "and say "No way!"

YES WAY!!!

All it takes is waking up
to know that it is so.

We all know that it is so,
and are afraid that it is so.
Afraid because that leaves it
all up to us.

We do not want the burden--
the responsibility--
of being holy, sacred divine!

Who would?

So here we sit.
Waiting to be rescued
by a squad of UFO's.

If that isn't sad,
I don't know sad.

We all have the power of God
and don't use it 
because we are afraid.
And want to believe in a God
who gives us things
and takes care of us
so we pray to the hills
from which comes our help,
and refuse to help ourselves.

Of all the things in the cosmos,
we are the most to be pitied. 

"They were of God--
and refused to help themselves
or each other!"

The epitaph of the ages.

Bringing to life the holy within us
and living as the divine in human form
puts us in the league with the Christ
and requires the same of us
that was demanded of him,
namely that we live without concern for
profit or gain,
advantage and advancement,
exploitation and prosperity...
and simply do what is called for
in each situation as it arises
with the gifts of our original nature,
innate virtues
(The things we do best 
and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition,
in the service of what needs to be done
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it
throughout the time left for living.

Amen! May it be so!

We have to drop into emptiness (stillness/silence)
on a regular basis
to just breathe
and wait for "the mud to settle and the water to clear,"
and to see what meets us there.

To see what arises there
to catch our eye,
get our attention,
and send us back into the field of action
with a sense of what is called for
to live in the service of what needs to be done
in each situation as it emerges
from the circumstances of our life
with the gifts of our original nature,
our innate virtues (What we do best
and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition.

To live this way, 
dropping into the silence (emptiness/stillness)
and rising up into the field of action,
is to follow the path of Tao
in living aligned with the flow of life and being,
at one with who we are
and what is ours to do.

This is balance and harmony,
integrity, sincerity, spontaneity,
without any interest in what is in it for us,
beyond the joy of living like this
and the satisfaction of having done it.

Living at one with the time and place
of our living.

One day at a time.

Things have to get worse 
before they can get better.

An entire generation of greed-fueled 
dumb-asses has to die off
in order for intuition to have its say.

As the old Taoists said,
"Circumstances create circumstances."

War, weather and disease are circumstances'
three favorite tools to use
in crafting something better
out of something worse.

All it takes is time.

And it takes time all the time
because memory is short
and greed is everlasting.

Trust your own intuition
to show you the way
in each situation as it arises.

IT. IS. THAT. SIMPLE.

It is hard to tell how old
a rock is.
Not that it matters.
No one cares.
Not even the rocks care.
We all have more important
things to do.
Well, maybe not the rocks.
Caring doesn't count with rocks.
Everything is equally insignificant
to a rock.

Leaving me to wonder
at what point do things
begin to take on significance for us?
And fade into insignificance?
What leads us to rank things as we do
on our own personal/private
significance scale?

How do we determine what is important
and what is unimportant?
Who says so?
Do we say things are important
that don't matter to us at all?
And we say they are 
because we are supposed to
in order to please someone
to whom they are important?

Who would be pleased with us
for saying some things are important
and other things are not important?
Is it important to us
that we live to please someone other than us?
Who(m) are we living to please?
What makes that important?
Who says so?
How do we know what is important?
How do we come to value what we value?

Who(m) are we living to please?

The things that interest us.
The things that ignite our enthusiasm.
The things we enjoy doing.
The things that are meaningful to us.
Are the things that bring us to life.

Without them we are dead,
just whiling away the hours
until the county coroner makes it official.

I was born into an atmosphere
where everyone was dead,
going through the motions of life,
waiting for the declaration affirming
what had been the case for years.

You may know what it is like
being a baby,
then a child,
among the dead and dying
back in your little town.

If so, you remember the gloom,
astounded into your old age
that no one ever
awakened to the problem
and did something about it.

Why remain forever dead
when it is only a matter
of looking until you find something interesting
and allow it to bring you to life? 

I never heard anyone in my little town
ask a question fresh from the womb
of curiosity and wonder.
Even their questions were dead.

Real questions were forbidden,
for they would have required thinking,
and dead people are beyond thinking,
or caring about anything 
but the announcement freeing them
from the burden of pretending to be alive.