Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Time goes by,
and we make of it
what we will.

We do with it,
what we will.

What means the most to you,
what you have done,
are doing,
with the time that is,
and has been, yours?

My reflections and realizations
over time
continue to be 
my most meaningful ways of passing the time.

My conversations and inquiries.
My listening and looking.
Hearing and seeing.
Reading and writing.

Music and poetry.
Art and nature.

None of these things have been wasted time.
And I look forward to spending more time
with them all.

–0–

Being here/now 
and waiting
for a situation to arise
that needs what we have to offer
in the way of the gifts 
we are here to share--
of our original nature
and the innate virtuosities
that define us and set us apart
(The things we do best
and love to do most)--
leaves us with nothing better to do
than attending the moment 
of our being
and consciously being with
what ever is being with us.

This is called
The Practice of Being With,
and I know I don't need to tell you
that it has fallen on hard times.

Hardly anyone knows 
how to be here now,
being with whatever is 
being with us.

Everyone is in a hurry
to be somewhere else.
No one wants to spend
quality time with anyone
who is with them here/now.

And the conversations!
Warmed up versions of 
what they were yesterday,
and all the days before.

Don't have anything to do with it!
Spring something new on
whomever is with you here/now.
Ask them what they do 
to increase the depth of their intuition.
See what they have to say to that!
And share with them
what you are doing 
to increase the depth of yours!

And when that track begins to wain,
ask them what they dreamed last night,
and tell them what you dreamed.

Or, if you prefer,
ask them to tell you about 
their virtuosities,
and tell them about yours.

And, if they have to go,
follow a similar agenda
with whomever is close-by.

Let your insight and intuition
lead you into similar topics
during the time between times
throughout your day.

Sparking interest in things we
need to be interested in
wherever you are!

I'm hoping I bump into you myself!

–0–

Enlightenment/Intuition/Awareness 
is in-tune-ment,
alignment,
with the way of being in the world
that is grounded in/founded upon
emptiness, stillness, silence
and the knowing that comes
with seeing/hearing/understanding
what is important
in each situation as it arises,
perceives what is happening
and what is called for in response,
and rises to meet the occasion
out of the gifts of our original nature
and the innate virtuosities--
what we do best and love/enjoy doing most--
that come with us from the womb.

It is free from the burden
of fear/desire/duty/noise/complexity,drama/trauma
and free to do whatever needs to be done,
when/where/how it needs to be done
in each here/now that comes along,
no matter what,
with nothing to gain or lose in so doing.

–0–

We spend a lot of time between some things,
and no time at all between other things,
like everything else in the natural world.

Dogs and cats (etc.) lie around,
stretching and yawning and going back to sleep,
waiting for getting up and going time to arrive.

And everyone who has been there
knows what "Island Time" means,
and if we stay there long enough
we begin to apply it naturally,
and have difficulty fitting back into
"the real world,"
of clocks and calendars,
schedules and meetings,
and an order of the day
that doesn't have room for naps,
or being late ever to anything.

Which is to say "the real world"
has to learn to make room 
for naps and time for meditation,
emptiness,
stllness
and silence,
if we are going to find our way
to intuition 
and our natural awareness
of what needs to be done
when, 
where
and how
in putting first things first
that have nothing to do with 
clocks and calendars,
schedules and meetings,
and Left Brain orders of the day.

–0–

Beneath the Bodhi Tree
the Buddha reached a state of being
beyond Fear, Desire, and Duty,
and was unmoved by anything
that appeared before him,
and available to everything
as being on equal footing to him.

Degree of importance disappeared.
Preference no longer existed.
Bias and prejudice,
racism and sexism,
were nowhere to be found.

The Buddha was "as one thus come."
As one just born.
With no opinions, judgments or expectations
to cloud his perceptions.
He saw with right seeing,
knew what was what
and what was called for
and was able to respond spontaneously,
in the moment
with the gifts of his original nature
and the innate virturosities 
(The things he did best)
that were his to share
in doing what needed to be done
where/when/how it needed to be done
no matter what,
from that point on.

Being enlightened
is being intuitive
and allowing intuition 
to lead the way
without concern for any of the things
that produce attraction or revulsion
or "tilt the table" in favor 
of certain outcomes.

What needs to be done
from the standpoint of "disinterested"
intuition alone?

How do we become disinterested enough
to engage our intuition on those grounds alone?

That is what the Buddha did under the Bodhi Tree.

–0–

We grow up quite at the mercy
of our own perspective/perceptions.

How we look determines--or strongly influences--
what we see,
and what we see determines--or strongly influences--
what we do in response
throughout the entire course of our life.

If we would only look at our seeing,
at the way we see what we look at,
with an investigative mind,
asking the questions that beg to be asked,
and saying the things that cry out to be said,
what a different person we would be!

But no.

We are who we are because we refuse 
to examine how we see,
to see how we see,
and how it is a function 
of what we expect to see,
and not an accurate representation
of what is actually there.

We are such jerks--
and "jerks" is a wonderfully
more accurate description of us all
than the word "sinners" is.

"Sinners" is the description applied to us
by those who are trying to sell us "salvation."
And we rid ourselves of that designation
by "accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior,"
but no one can relieve us of being jerks,
which is clearly a residual moniker 
of those who would save us.

We have to do our own work
in ridding ourselves of that.

That work consists of seeing how we see,
and all the alternative ways we might see it,
and how what we see depends
on how we look,
and what we are doing to ourselves
and others
by not being deliberately objective
and astute
in our work to say what's what
and what it means
and how we might best respond to it.

And allow that to create within us 
an abiding sense of kindness and humility
so that we become a source of grace and mercy
in a world dying for the experience 
of those things,
ending our jerk-hood forever, and ever, Amen!

–0–

Kara Lawson's "Handle Hard Better"
YouTube speech was an instant hit
because we all knew it
but hadn't put it together
the way she did.

Her saying it enabled us to recognize it
as an "Aha! Moment,"
because we already knew it
and did not have to be talked into it,
or have it explained to us.

We knew it instantly, 
because we all had known it intuitively.

That's enlightenment.
Knowing what we have always known intuitively,
and recognizing it instantaneously
when we hear it, or think it: "Aha! Of Course!"

Enlightenment is not knowing something we don't know.
Enlightenment is knowing what we know.
What we have always known.
Intuitively.
Not rationally.
Not logically.

Right Brain stuff.
Not Left Brain stuff.

–0–

Nature at its best. 
Nature is always at its best.
The way nature is is the best nature can be. 
Not so with civilization.
Civilization is rarely--is NEVER--at its best.

Sunrise at the Tetons for the natural world
is much the same over time.
The seasons change, but not much else.
And everything in this photograph
does pretty much what it does everyday
all the time.
Nature's way.

And if we were primal people,
we would fit into this scene
along with everything else in the scene.
And we would rise from sleep
and carry out the business of the day,
and fall asleep to do it again tomorrow.
With very little that could come along 
to disrupt the flow.

Until Columbus brought Civilization to life
in the natural surroundings of this land.
And with Civilization came anxiety and uncertainty,
and wealth and poverty,
and life as we know it to be.

As a primal person before Columbus,
if something happened, 
we would fold our life around it,
deal with it as best we could
and go on, if we could go on,
in a world that could sustain us
because it didn't take much to sustain us.

Now, we need 10,000 kinds of insurance
to help us sustain ourselves if "something happens."

The natural world is always just what it is.
Civilization is always what it is--a trip through
uncertainty and insecurity 24/7/12. 

–0–

What chain of associations
can you create from this photograph?
Spend some time
seeing what comes to mind
as you consider the image.
Try for 3 to 5 links.

Then bring your present state of being
into your consciousness.

Ask yourself what the links
that came to mind regarding the photo
might bring to bear 
on your present state of being.

What do they have together
that might be usefully applied
to how things are with you at the moment?

How can they be of help?

As you work with this exercise,
you are strengthening your creative imagination,
your intuitive capabilities,
and your ability to access/engage
your Right Brain--
as well as giving yourself
an opportunity to help you
in a round-about, indirect,
kind of way.

All of which may prove to be useful
in the work to navigate your path
that lies ahead.

You will be inviting reflection to 
lead you into new realizations--
and who knows where that might take you?

–0–

There is the intuition 
to sense/realize/know
what needs to be done,
where,
when
and how--
and there is the will to do it.

And that is all there is to it.

To know,
will,
and do
what,
where,
when,
how,
through all of the circumstances
of our life.

Makes living attentively
from the heart,
in service to our heart
situation by situation
the greatest work of humankind.

Requiring us to empty ourselves
of all desire,
fear,
ambition,
duty,
obligation--
of anything and everything
that would interfere
with our tending the matters
of what,
where,
when,
how,
so that we might
see,
hear,
know
and do
what is called for
here and now
through all that remains
of our life on earth.

Which makes our relationship
with here and now
the most important thing
forever.

–0–

What do we spend our time thinking about?
What preoccupies us?
Absorbs us?
Consumes us?

What do we dwell on?
What can we not stop thinking about?

Think about that.
Meditate on that.
Explore that.
Turn that over and over.
Reflect on that.
Ask all of the questions
you can imagine about that.

Then interview that.
Ask questions of that.
How did that become the most important
thing in your life?

Pursue that without pause.
See how many new realizations
you can come up with about that.

–0–

Going through life in a semi-trance state
is the way to stay in touch
with our Right Brain
while remaining tuned in to our Left Brain.

Doing so requires us to be somewhat distant
from the distracting noise
of life in the ordinary world
of normal, apparent reality.

And we may look out the window a lot,
and write ourselves notes
when reflection sparks realization
and we don't want to forget it.

There is a lot going on between 
Right and Left Brain,
and the work to be aware of that
while responding to traffic signals
and highway construction
requires us to attain a high degree
of acumen and aptness 
in navigating daily life
while maintaining our balance and harmony
on all levels.

If we pause to think about it,
we lose our place in all we are doing
to keep pace with everything that is going on,
and develop the art of laughing a lot
at our close calls and near misses.

Musing becomes amusing after a while,
and we wouldn't revert to our old way
of living for fame or fortune.

Being at one with the flow of life and being
beats anything the old world has to offer,
and the new world keeps getting increasingly
wonder-filled by the day.

–0–