Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Alan Watts said 
being completely engaged
in what you are doing
here/now
is the real secret of life.

And what is the secret
to being completely engaged
in what we are doing here/now?

Give our heart the reins!

How often do we do that?
For how long?

How long has it been
since we let our heart
have the day?

If we were going to let our heart
have tomorrow, say,
what do you think our heart would do?

Ask your heart
and listen for what your heart
has to say.

Your heart will like that
almost as much as doing it.

–0–

We impose our will 
for our life
upon our life
at our own risk.

This is the true nature
of the "Fall" in the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Eve decided
they knew what was good for them
and ignored the inner guidance
of their own hearts.

And, "Boom!", as John Madden might say,
here we are.

We have Big Ideas
about how we want our life to be.
And it takes a lifetime 
of regret and remorse
for us to see what we have done.

The good news is that we can
get out of the way
and link back up
with the source
of internal guidance and direction
at any point along the way.

But.
There is a catch.
We have to hand over
control of our life
to the inner source of life within.

Sounds spooky, I know, but.
This is Right Brain stuff,
and it doesn't follow
the rules of reason and logic.

Our place is that of learning
how to "talk" to our Right Brain.
That requires us to spend time
with emptiness/stillness/silence,
learning about
focusing/felt sense/intuition/dreams
in order to be equipped 
to find the way that is our way
through what remains 
of the time left for living.

–0–

Religion without theology 
requires each individual participant
of that religion
to be their own minister/priest
in opening themselves to the abiding presence
of numinous/ineffable reality,
aligning themselves with the
rhythm and flow of their life
and living in accord with their destiny
and their calling from the source
of life and being
to be true to themselves
in the ways they respond to what is happening
and to what is called for in the here/now
of each situation as it arises
all their life long
by living out of/expressing/exhibiting/serving
their original nature
and their innate virtuosities
(What they do best
and love/enjoy doing most)
moment-to-moment
through all of the circumstances of their life
in being who they are,
where/when/how they are
and doing what needs to be done
where/when/how it needs to be done
throughout the time left for living.

The foundation of their being able to do this
is a regular and recurring relationship
with emptiness, stillness and silence.

Stillness and silence are just that.
Being still and quiet.
Emptiness requires emptying ourselves of
Fear, Desire, and Duty
and of all of the accompanying 
thoughts, emotions, anxieties, concerns,
guilt, worries, etc.
that generate inner turmoil and distraction,
imbalance and disharmony.

Emptiness is returning to balance and harmony
by removing ourselves from the impact
of the destabilizing influences at work in our life.

The quickest way to this kind of emptiness
is to sit still and quiet,
inhale to a count of five,
exhale to a count of five,
and pause between breaths for a count of ten.

Repeat this round for three to five times,
and then return to breathing normally.

The kind of emptiness we seek
is found in the pause between breaths.
This is what we sustain
during our normal breathing,
by simply returning to this experience 
of nothing
whenever thoughts/emotions/feelings intrude.

In the emptiness, stillness and silence,
shift into a contemplative/meditative trance state
in which we consider one of the following terms
and explore how it applies to, and may be found in, our life:

Balance - Harmony - Integrity

Sincerity - Vitality - Spontaneity

Intuition - Felt Sense - Focusing - Dreams

(An internet search for "felt sense"
and "focusing" will provide a wealth
of resources for you to explore.
Another resource is "The Wisdom of your Dreams,"
by Jeremy Taylor).

At any point in this contemplative/meditative trance state
something may appear, emerge, occur
"out of nowhere" with an energy impulse all its own.
Pay attention to that.
Explore that.
Follow where it leads.
See where it goes, and what it may lead to,
and where that goes...

And end the trance state when it seems appropriate to do so.

Welcome to the experience 
of religion without theology.

–0–

Our felt sense,
habitual intuition
and nighttime dreams
will do their best
to keep us "on the beam,"
doing what we do best
and enjoy most,
in the service of our original nature
and innate virtuosities.

And, all we have to do 
is pay attention.

Paying attention is knowing what we know
and doing what needs to be done about it.

This is not hard.

It is merely paying attention.

Jon Kabat Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
videos on YouTube
will help you pay attention
if you need help paying attention.

And daily practice with focus on
our felt sense,
intuition
and our nighttime dreams
will center in our life's need of us
through every situation as it arises,
all our life long.

–0–

Living from habitual intuition,
following our felt sense
into each situation as it arises,
seeing what's what there
and doing what needs to be done about it
with the gifts of our original nature
and our innate virtuosities
(The things we do best
and enjoy/love doing most),
is quite different
from living in the service
of avoiding what we don't want
and acquiring what we do want.

And that is the switch 
that needs to be made.

We may have to think about doing it
until it becomes spontaneous/automatic/natural.

It's worth the effort.

–0–

Finding the way
and the will to walk it
is a matter of being present
with all that is present with us--
in other words,
being here/now
without opinion,
without fear,
without desire,
without being bound by duty,
free to see, hear, understand,
know, do, be.

Do you know anyone who is that free?

That leaves it to us
to be who/what we need to be
out of our own heart and soul.

It may take a lot of sitting
with the silence
for that to happen.

–0–

The white response
to the black presence 
has been--
and continues to be--
atrocious, ridiculous and absurd.

If you are white or black,
you can't top this for a lasting 
source of grief,
mourning
and sorrow.

Something else to add to our
list of items
to bring before our Wailing Wall.

Racism has no place in our lives,
yet, it has prevented our lives
from being anything close 
to what they might have been with out it
for all of us everywhere.

And for what?

If there were a God keeping score,
white people would have to be consigned to hell
for their racism alone.

To present that to our healing heart
at the Wailing Wall
would be to put us in our place
in need of absolution, mercy and pardon--
and we are the ones who will have to
grant these things to ourselves!

I will be a long time squaring myself 
up with OUR racism.
Eternity may not be long enough.
I hope you know what I mean. 

–0–

This is my monument to all that has been lost.
Three stones representative of all the stones
in all the wailing walls that would need to be 
constructed to bear the weight of the world's 
grief, anguish, mourning and sorrow over the long 
years of its existence.

We owe it to ourselves and to one another
and to all who have been victims of ruthlessness,
viciousness, atrocity, abomination and brutality worldwide
to construct our own Wailing Wall Remnant
and stand before it regularly,
calling to mind all of the occasions of genocide,
racism, hatred, pogroms, executions, mass killings,
and wrongful death.

Receiving in our own imagination,
and feeling in our own body,
the horror and terror of those events,
and the hateful wrath of the perpetrators.
And embracing all of it with our own grace
and peace and love.

Infusing all of the evil with the goodness and righteousness 
of those who are moved to cry out for goodness and righteousness.

Blessing it all with the purity of our own impulse for
kindness, and charity, and wonder, and beauty, and generosity--
so that we become well-springs of living water
washing the world clean of its abundant, abhorrent impurities
through its experience of our tenderness, gentleness, 
human-kindness and absolution.

We redeem the world and ourselves with our loving receptivity of the world just as it is at our wailing wall where we experience
the agony of what love must bear every day. And transform ourselves if not the world.

Amen! May it be so! Amen! Every day!

Inspired by my friend Ramble

–0–

The truth is
we have what we need
to do what needs to be done.

The truth is 
we don't want to do it.

Indigenous People do it.
Native Americans were doing it
before the Conquistadors
put an end to it
by killing/civilizing (it's the same thing)
them all.

And we aren't going to do it
as long as we live.

Save the climate?
Let the climate take care of itself!

Now, here's the stupid thing about that.

The climate was taking care of itself
before we came along.
The climate will take care of itself
after we are gone.

We are shooting ourselves in the foot here.
We are the only ones going anywhere.
The climate will adjust itself quite nicely.
And, won't miss us at all.

We are already seeing signs
of climate adjustment,
with weather patterns shifting
and animals learning new ways
of getting by.

Only humans are in peril.

If I am the last to go,
I won't shed a tear.
Though, maybe a tear of shame
for being part of the multitude
of stupidity and irresponsibility.

Have you noticed how multitudes
are always stupid?

Only individuals have what it takes.

Put us in a group
and the group goes straight to hell.

The Taoist sages
and Zen monks 
stayed to themselves.

We could adjust to climate change
by becoming hermits!
For a while.  

–0–

We are better off 
in some places 
than we are in others.

It's good to know where 
those places are
and spend time there
in a regular and reoccurring way. 

The same thing goes with people.
There is good company
and not so good company.
Why waste time
where it is a waste of time
to be?

My spirits are lifted 
among the trees
and by water,
but I wonder how the trees
and water
feel about having us
in their presence.

I'm not sure we are good for trees
and water,
and think they must know about us
by now.

Word gets around.

And they can't just get up
and walk off.

So, part of appreciating
their presence
is apologizing for being there,
and trying to imagine
what it is like to grieve
the loss of entire forests,
and streams,
and rivers. 

–0–

P.S.

If you are in the market for ways to deepen/strengthen
your relationship with your intuition,
do an internet search for "Focusing"
and for "Felt Sense,"
and get to work.

The methods and techniques,
videos and books are without end
and they are all teaching enlightenment.

Enjoy the ride.

Training ourselves (Our egos)
to recognize,
develop,
strengthen
and serve our intuition
is our work to do
over what remains 
of our time left for living.

Making our intuition our focus
for the rest of our life
will transform our life,
boost our energy level,
cause our little heart to sing
and our little toes to dance,
and people will wonder
what is going on with us.

I recommend winking at them
and inviting them to dance.

–0–

Bodhisattvas make the world a better place
by virtue of their being in the world
in service to their habitual intuition,
and honoring their original nature
while sharing the things they do best
and love/enjoy doing most.

What is so hard about that?

Anybody could do that!

So why not?

Starting now?

Are you in? 

–0–