Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Tourist time starts around 10 AM.
Sunrise on the peaks begins a bit earlier.
It is a question of what matters most.

Knowing what matters to us
is a key piece of knowing,
reflecting our original nature.

We don't know why the important things
are important,
we just live to serve them.

Dogs, cats, horses and people
matter a lot to a lot of people,
and not so much to others,
reflecting the original nature
of both groups.

Giving them a sense of where they belong,
and where they have no business being.
Essential knowing.
Where our place is,
and where it isn't.
What we are about--
what we are to be about.
And not about.

We have to honor the lines
defining, expressing,
doing, being who we are,
and are capable of being.

That is the tragedy.
That we do not know
and do not bother with knowing
who we are
and are capable of being.

Largely because we have 
the wrong people in or life.
People who do not know
or care
who they are.

Who have/had neither the time
nor the inclination
to sit in the emptiness/stillness/silence
long enough,
often enough,
to listen/see/know/understand
required to discover
and understand
who they are
and not.

Zen is Taoism's response to Buddhism.
There is nothing Buddhist about it.

"Don't take suffering seriously, Bro!
Just fold it into your life
and live on!
Live on!"

The Buddha could have used
the insights of Taoism.

"Nothing is so bad
that changing the way you look at it
won't make better!"

"Why be undone about the way things are?
Do what can be done about it
and move on! Move on!"

The Buddha's solution
was to stop thinking about it entirely.
Empty mind.
No mind.
Untouched by it all.
Being dead to the idea of dying.
Ignoring things as they are
disappears them altogether.

Nothing is so bad
that denial can't improve,
like that!

Dying to death beats death!
Dying to suffering beats suffering!
"Nothing can happen I can't deny
by not thinking about it!
So, I'm just going to not think
about the things I don't like!"

"Whatever, Bro!
Peace and love!
Peace and love!"

Spend the rest of your life
trusting yourself
to the right kind of emptiness/stillness/silence,
exploring your original nature,
your innate virtues
(The things you do well and enjoy/love doing most),
and your intrinsic intuition.

And experimenting with living in ways
that serve and exhibit/express
these three aspects of yourself
in responding to what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

Bringing yourself forth in this way
to meet your life.
In so doing,
you will be living your life
in the deepest, truest, kind of way.

Live to be you--
in the service of being you--
in the right kind of way,
here and now,
for as long as life shall last.

Making the world a better place 
is quite beyond any of us.
It is out of our hands.
We would do well to settle
for making ourselves a better place.

That is well within our reach, but.
We have to lay aside our wants, desires,
aspirations, dreams of conquest and domination...

We cannot go the Adam and Eve route,
striving for what we have no business having.

Living within our means
and doing what can be done
with our original nature,
our inherent virtues
(The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition
to work with
in each situation as it arises
throughout the time left for living
would do an amazing amount of good.

Let's agree to do it
starting here, now.

What do you say?

Caring while not-caring
goes hand-in-hand with
doing while not-doing.

Living our life
while being untouched by life
is the trick the masters all have mastered.

Distancing ourselves
while staying in touch.

Living as though we care
while not caring at all.

Acting like it matters
without letting it matter.

Faking it without appearing
to be faking anything.

Walking two paths at the same time.

Don't have to know why.
Be content with what and how,
when and where. 

Too often, we talk ourselves out
of doing what is called for
because we cannot explain, defend,
justify,excuse our actions.

We have to live the way our life 
needs to be lived without caring why.

We have to trust our life--
our intuition--
to know what it is doing,
and go with our strong impulse to act,
even if we never know/understand why.

And don't spend your time with people
who have to know why all the time.

And in the same vein, 
look closer at the things that catch your eye!
Explore, investigate, probe, examine, reflect on,
wonder about, play with what is the attraction
and what is being asked of you,
suggested to you.

Open the experience up to all its possibilities.

Don't just say, "That was weird,"
and go on with your life.

See what's there.

Being a Christian
the way Jesus and the disciples
were Christians
is to be a non-Christian
in the sense of being free
of doctrine, theology, dogma, dharma,creeds,
catechisms, hymns (books of doctrine
set to music), rituals, prayer meetings
and fellowship dinners. 

And being free to follow the guidance
of our intuition
in being who we are called to be,
doing what needs to be done,
in the here/now of each moment,
being Jesus the way only we can be Jesus,
the way Jesus was Jesus,
within the circumstances unfolding
day-to-day.

To be Jesus is to be a non-Christian
the way Jesus was a non-Christian--
not imposing anything on any situation,
in a "this is how I'm supposed to act"
or "this is the way it is supposed to be,"
way,
but in a "this is what is called for,
and how I'm here to do it" way.

Being free of the image/idea of "ought to be,"
enables us to 
embrace the experience of oneness with
the moment,
dancing the dance that must be danced
in accordance
with the music of time and place,
aligned with the Tao of life and being,
in light of what is called for here, now.

Buddhism is another caste system
with a different dharma
and more teachers
telling people what to do
and how to live their life.

Not even the Buddha himself
would know where my back itches when
for how long.

Not even my eye doctor 
knows if 1 is better than 2
or if 2 is better than 3.

All of the experts eventually
have to ask me what I think.

Not the Buddhist experts.
They tell me not to think,
just listen to them.

Thank you, no.

I know when the shoe pinches
and where,
and what style I prefer
and when I feel like wearing them.

The Buddhists think one size fits all.
And individual preferences don't matter.

And their flocks
love to be told what to do
when, where, how,
asking, "Am I doing it right now? Now? Now?..."
Wondering "What's wrong with me?
Why can't I get it right ever?"

Buddhist don't know anything
they haven't been told to know,
and have to have somebody else's approval
before they do anything.

Sheep waiting to be told to Baaaa
and when to stop.

Living to get/have what we want
is a waste of time and life.

Better to be who we are,
doing what is ours to do--
which puts us on the track
of reflecting on who we are
and what is ours to do,
which sits us down in the emptiness,
stillness and silence,
listening, looking, waiting
for realizations to occur, arise, emerge
in the areas of our original nature,
our essential/innate virtues
(The things we do best and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition.

Our role is to develop our connection/
relationship with our nature,
our virtues,
and our intuition,
and allow these aspects of who we are,
direct us along the way,
guiding our boat on its path through the sea.

We listen/look for direction
in knowing/doing what needs to be done
with our life
and in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

We listen, see, do.
"Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear"
between our engagements on the field of action.

Someone should have told us this
in the fourth grade.

As a Non-Buddhist,
I am free to pick and choose, 
imagine and invent,
the precise kind of Buddhist
I care to be. 

I sit in a recliner, for example, 
without counting my breaths,
assuming my body knows how many it takes
in what period of time,
and by now has enough experience
to take care of itself in that matter.

And as far as my mind goes,
I trust it explicitly to do what it needs to do
without any interference
or direction from me.

I also trust my intuition,
and look to it to guide my boat 
on its path through the sea.

I sit like the Buddha,
rising to do what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
then dropping back into sitting like the Buddha,
waiting on what needs to be done to come along.

No Teacher.
No Dharma.
Nobody to please.
Nobody to tell me what to do
and how to do it.
Nobody's word to take for everything...

I like Yoda-wisdom in this matter,
"Do or do-not! There is no try!"

And there are certainly no levels of attainment.

Only me and the moment,
getting along just swell together.
Like two old pals enjoying each other's company.

And as far as aligning myself
with someone else's idea
of who and how I ought to be,
I ask, "Who says so?"
And, "What makes them think
they know what they are talking about?"
And "How can I be sure that they know
what they are talking about?"

It it comes down to "taking it on faith,"
I'll take on faith that my intuition and I
can figure things out on our own just fine.
We have up to this point,
and can be depended upon to keep it up through
all future points.

And I'll bet you can develop the same relationship
with your intuition.

Intuition is the origin of God.

Our ancestors weren't capable
of believing that we were the source
of the voices and the knowing,
the sensing and the feeling--
there are those of us today
who are unable to dare risking the thought.

Hell is peopled with those
who have done far less
than place themselves 
in the seat of GOD!!!

Yet, projection and denial,
expectation,superstition,
imagination and the wonderful,
magnificent--
who would have thought it--
hearsay,
are more than capable of gifting
GOD with the capacity 
of coming to us in dreams and visions
in guiding us along the way.

While innate, inherent, intrinsic, invincible,
indefatigable, intuition
has been doing it from the start.

There is what we do for a living,
and there is what we live to do.

What do you live to do?

Is it the product of your intuition? 

Where does your intuition come into play 
in your life?

Where is it most fully on display?

Where do you disappear 
with your will/desire/want/intention,
and simply relax into the wonder and joy
of being where you are,
doing what is yours to do?