Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

There is only being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
the way only we can do it.
In each situation as it arises.
No matter what.
What's the problem?

Oh, wait! I see!
Having our way--right?
Getting what we want,
when we want it--right?

What does thinking about 
what we think about
keep us from thinking about?

That's called diversion,
distraction,
escape,
denial.

Which is where we spend most
of our time, no?

And not being who we are,
doing what is ours to do
in each situation as it arises,
no matter what. 

Right?

People like Donald Trump
cannot comprehend the reality 
of restraints, confinements and limitations.
To them, money can solve any problem,
and they buy/threaten/force/coerce/extort
themselves to whatever they want.

Well. Money can't buy weather.
Or shutdown volcanoes.
And paying our enemies to not attack us
has not worked for anyone throughout time. 
There is a limit as to what money can do.

But limits don't sit well with Donald Trump.
He takes to yelling a lot
and telling people, "You're fired!"
As if that can keep the oceans from rising
and the desert from taking over Texas.

Better for us all to learn to take "NO!"
for an answer,
and live with what needs to be lived with
for the true good of all.

If sound advice could be heard and applied
by those with a will to power and control,
the world would be a safer, saner place
for all through time.

It isn't that we don't know 
how life should be lived.
It is that we don't care for anything,
anyone, other than ourselves--
as in the story of the Garden of Eden.
The theme of the ages,
apparent from the beginning.

We have to do our own work,
live our own lives,
assisting one another
with our work and our life
as we are able
in light of the corporate good
and see what happens
and what we do about it
in service to our sense
of what is called for,
and see where things go over time.

Conversations regarding the corporate good
are essential to the cooperation 
of each other toward that end,
and that's where it gets sticky.

Groups and individuals will tend 
to develop wealth and power
that is disproportionate to that of the whole,
and will tend to run things in their best interests,
to the disadvantage of those with less wealth and power,
and the corporate good will be lost
in the service of individual/personal good,
and here we are.

Equality, equanimity, justice, freedom, well-being,
and the best interest of all concerned,
where everyone has what they need
and no one amasses more than they need
is the ongoing effort in the cause of balance and harmony
that has been lost in the production
of massive wealth over the past 150 +/- years.
And no one is in charge of evening out the scales.
Individual honor, restraint and service to others
is an easy casualty in the contest for wealth and privilege,
and there are none to right the wrongs in society and culture.

We are left with "circumstances begetting circumstances,"
and things having to work themselves out through wars and 
power struggles with environmental necessity limiting
what can be done and not done over time.

Welcome to the kingdom of greed in the land of the blind
generating conditions requiring individuals to find their 
own way and shape their own life within the givens and requirements they are handed as best they can.

It is up to us to find communities of like-minded people who support and encourage one another through the options and choices of our lives toward peace, serenity, tranquility, balance and harmony in light of our original nature, our inherent virtues (What we do best and enjoy doing most) and our intrinsic intuition for the good of ourselves and each other all our life long.

We are seeking communities in the service of the common good, and the internet is the most likely place to start looking--or to begin creating one "just like that" out of the ether.

Making sense of things 
is a full-time job.
And we can't ever be sure
we've been successful.

We take everything on faith
in this world.

We trust ourselves to our intuition
and take our chances.
Our biggest chance is being right
about how we read/understand our intuition!

Too often, it seems, she says 
exactly what we want to hear.
Which is to say our thumb is on the scale of truth,
tipping the outcome in favor of our wishes/want/
desires and fears.

We aren't even truthful with ourselves!
And our intuition never abandons us
or leaves us bereft.
But is always there
as the hills from which our help comes,
hoping we will be receptive 
to what she offers.

May it always be so!

We come equipped with three guides
to lead us along the way.

There is what we do best.
And what we enjoy/love doing most.
And there is our intrinsic intuition
as our ever-present help
in all times and places.

Our place is to know what we do best,
and what we enjoy/love doing most,
and to develop our relationship
with our intuition
by simply watching/listening
for what arises 
in the emptiness, stillness and silence
as realization/awareness/knowledge.

In the company of the three guides,
we are ready to meet every situation
as it unfolds before us
with the confidence of those
who know we have what it takes
to do what is called for
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

What do you have to say?
How are you saying it?

What is yours to do?
How are you doing it?

Who is it yours to be?
How are you being it?

What we say--
what we do--
who we are--
are ours to say-do-be
in the time yet left for living.

How are you going 
to get it done?

When are you going to start?

Let your intuition lead the way!

There is a rhythm and flow
to our life and to all of life.
When we cooperate with that rhythm and flow,
all is well.
When we co-opt that rhythm and flow
and try to direct it toward ends
that are pleasing to us,
it all goes to hell.

Cooperating with the rhythm and flow of life
begins with our looking to our intuition
for guidance and direction
and help with what to do now.

Our place in response to our life
is to understand that we are the moved
living in response to the mover.

Our intuition is the mover.

Aligned with our intuition
and living in accord with her wisdom
and her grace,
we are one with life,
and all is well.

May we embrace that as our work to do
and live so as to implement that in our life
through each situation as it arises
as long as life shall last.

The most important thing
has always been
doing what's called for
in the moment at hand.

The here, now is always
calling for something,
and we are always having
to rise to the occasion
with the right response
to meet the circumstances,
rhythm and flow
of the times 
that always "are a'changing.'"

"Wake up and meet the day,"
day after day.
is the way
of seeing how, 
and where,
it goes
everyday.

It is best to be "loose in the saddle
and light on our feet."

We don't need to know anything
that we do not already know.
Another Bible study isn't going to
make any difference in the way our life
is lived. 

Neither is another sermon.
Or another book.

It comes down to us and our intuition,
and the emptiness, stillness and silence.

And our being clear about our original nature, 
our inherent virtues--
what we do best and what we love/enjoy doing most--
and our inherent intuition.

We stand/sit between our wants/wishes/desires/fears/dreads/anxiety
and what our intuition is calling us to do
in response to what is happening
in each situation as it arises.

And we say/decide/determine when and where 
and how often to say,
(To our intuition),
"Okay, thy will, and not my will be done."

And. That. Is. It.

It comes down to nothing more than that
time after time.

We can believe anything we want/decide/choose
to believe as long as it enables us to do
what is called for,
when it is called for,
where it is called for,
how it is called for,
time after time.

We don't need more information.

We don't need to know something
We don't know.

We only need to establish and develop
our relationship 
with our intuition.

Understanding/comprehending/knowing
that we exist to serve our intuition,
not that your intuition exits to serve us.

We are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,
and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,
where the right relationship with our intuition
is simply, "Thy will, not mine, be done."

The plus in this arrangement
is that living aligned with,
in accord with,
at one with our intuition
is the best thing we can do for ourselves,
and our life will get a lift like that (snaps fingers).

And it will only ask us 
to do what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

It is the deal of the day
every day.

The key to a well-lived life
is learning to ride the waves--
to read the currents--
of life,
and comprehend the signs of the times.

It is all about the flow,
and the signs of the times.

You can be in accord with the flow,
or you can be swimming against the current,
your entire life long.

Intuition reads the flow
and goes with it.

The willful pursuit of success
is the salmon's return to the breeding grounds.
They get there and then what?

With the flow or against the flow
is the primary choice of life.

But first comes the ability to read the flow,
the knowledge of the flow.

We talk about flow all the time,
but there are few experts in the field
guiding people in the process
of alignment with the flow.

I'm thinking that is because
success, acquisition, acquirement, triumph
are all the rage.

Tevya (in "The Fiddler On The Roof")
was a master at being one with the flow.
And a total failure at mastering success
(Understood as being at the top
and retiring at forty).

Living well is about understanding 
what life is about 
and being in full accord with it.

No?

All the sitting, all the attention devoted to the dharma, all the talk, talk, talk… is not doing it the way the Buddha did it.

The Buddha saw what he looked at and did what was called for in each situation as it arose. Without consulting a manual of how to do it.

Seeing what we look at entails seeing HOW we are looking at it and HOW we have to get outside our own eyes/brain/experience in order to SEE what we are looking at without all of our expectations, assumptions, presumptions, judgments, etc., getting in the way.

Sitting is just sitting/reflecting/realizing/reflecting… There is nothing to know/understand beyond the eternal work of knowing/understanding. And that is nothing more than sitting/seeing/reflecting… Because of the projecting/denying/self-delusion/etc. that goes on within us 24/6/12.

And Buddhism continues the nonsense of projecting answers. There is no end to suffering, but Buddhism is always talk-talk-talking about “liberation” and “the end of suffering.”

There is only growing up and doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, where and how it is called for.

Then, sitting/seeing/realizing only to arise and do, only to sit and see, arise and do forever.

Buddhism ought to come clear about this and stop all of the rigamarole regarding how to sit, and how to think, and how to act like a proper Buddhist.

The Buddha never though about how to act like a proper Buddhist.

Just as Jesus never thought about how to act like a proper Christian.

Sit-see-arise-do-sit-see-arise-do… See?