Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Dharma is right action--
doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right place,
in the right way.

Living in accord with the Tao
is the same thing.

And what that is cannot be codified,
said, told, spelled out, defined, explained, etc.

We can only know it intuitively,
not intellectually, 
not rationally, 
not logically.

Doctor Spock would be completely
out of luck.

Intuition is the path to the Pure Land,
to the Land of Promise,
to the Farther Shore,
to Heaven in all its glory,
to Nirvana...

Intuition is the key to happiness ever after.
You would think someone would have told us that
by now.   

It is time we stop taking  
our intuition for granted!
It is equivalent to the voice of God,
the intervention of the Holy Spirit,
our Buddha-nature,
and has always been our projection
of all those things since the beginning.

Our intuition is the source of all
we consider sacred and holy,
mystical, moving, motivating,
guiding, directing, comforting
and reassuring about us.

It is the origin of the idea
that "we are surrounded by the hills
from which comes our help."

The more we allow ourselves
to be directed by our intuition, 
the less we will be driven
by our want/wishes/desires/fears,
and the more grounded/balanced/centered/
and whole we will be.

So?

We have no choice about a lot of things.
How we deal with that tells the tale.

What are we going to do
with the time left for living?

What does the way we have lived
up to now
have to do with the way we will live
going forward?

What do we want to bring with us?
What do we want to leave behind?

The questions are appropriate
for every day from here
to the end of the line--
and may there be many!

Every day represents a fresh start
and a turning, turning
from what has been
to what can be.

Sit quietly, waiting,
to see what might come to mind.

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.