Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Nature has a way of working
things out.
Our life has a way of working
things out.
Thinking has very little impact
on how things are.

Things are just what they need to be
to get things done.

Everything is finding out
what it can get by with.

Everything has to take
something else into account.
Even black holes.

It is the way things are,
or, "It is the way,"
for short.

Which segues nicely into
the way of ebb and flow
that is called "the Tao,"
balancing and harmonizing Yin and Yang
throughout the universe.

The Tao can be thought of
as the source of Yen and Yang,
ebb and flow, 
or the result of Yen and Yang,
ebb and flow.

What comes first?
It depends on how we look at it.
Everything does.
Changing our perspective changes everything.

Things have been becoming themselves
over billions of years.
Cause and effect blur into each other
becoming effect and cause
to the point where it is impossible 
to know what was the first cause
not caused by some effect.

It has always been what it is
becoming what it is not
without reason or purpose or cause
because it can/must/can't help itself.

Which segues nicely into 
how do we organize ourselves around
what we need to operate smoothly,
flowing endlessly with balance and harmony
forever even through death and the hereafter?

It is hard to beat emptiness, stillness and silence
in sync with intrinsic intuition
(which is the hidden cause of everything)
for producing what we are capable of becoming
throughout the days of our primary existence.

Which segues nicely into where do we go from there/here/now?

–0–

Living in ways that do
what needs to be done
in response to what is called for
by what's what
in each situation as it arises,
meets what needs to be met
in ways it needs to be met.

Who can do better than that?

Circumstances are always begetting circumstances.
How we respond to them
determines the quality of our life.
Circumstances evoke our life
by calling us forth to meet the needs of the moment,
situation by situation.

If we are anxiety ridden
and fear bound,
our responses will not be guided
by our relationship
with our original nature,
our virtues and virtuosities
(What we do best and enjoy doing most),
and our intrinsic intuition.

We develop our relationship
with these grounding/guiding aspects
of ourselves
by reflecting on them regularly
in the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence.

And by practicing their expression
throughout the normal routines
of daily life,
as we are called forth to meet
the mundane needs of the moment
buying groceries,
getting the mail,
washing dishes, etc. 

How well do we meet our life?
What is our life calling for from us?
We can practice being who we are every day--
if we aren't wrestling with the day
in striving to impose our way for the day
upon the day!

What is the day asking for from us?
That is our question to answer.
What are we trying to get from the day?
Is not the way to deal with the day!

Our place is not to get more today
than we got yesterday!

Our work is to do what needs us to do it,
when, where and how it needs us to do it,
throughout the day 
every day.

Getting what we want is appropriate
to the extent that we need it.
When we are being driven by unwarranted desires,
we are getting in our own way,
and our life is drifting toward 
being addiction based
and not offering what is called for
out of what we have to give.

Getting my way NOW!
is exhausting before getting out of bed!

–0–

Do you have enough 
of the right kinds of things
in your life?

And not too much 
of the wrong kinds of things?

How do you arrange for that?
Maintain it?

I find that Focusing 
in Ann Weiser Cornell's kind of way
helps me with the balance and harmony.

Listening to my body/mind (intuition)
knowing when enough is enough,
and allowing my guides to guide me
without trying to force balance into place
(As if!)
and "going with the flow" of the here/now
in each situation as it arises
makes all the difference.

Allowing things to happen 
according to their need of the moment,
and dancing with what each day brings
works as well as anything I know.

This helps with knowing what it is time for
here/now, 
moment by moment,
situation by situation--
always with enough emptiness/stillness/silence
for reflection/realization/readjustment
all along the way.

No?

–0–

The source of hatred is beyond redemption.
And it is a hate-driven world.
All the talk is love, love, love,
and gratitude.
Yet, it is a hate-driven world.

Russia and Ukraine.
Israel and Palestinians.
White people and people of color.
White people and immigrants.
White people and Woke white people.

Republicans hate everybody not like them.

If I could,
I would give everybody an extended time out.
No social media.
No media of any kind.
No human interaction of any kind.

Everybody would spend their days alone
with a zazen cushion
observing their thoughts and their emotions--
without attachment to their thoughts or emotions.

With a long-enough time out,
there may be some shifts in attitudes
and points of view.

Ain't gonna happen.

It is a hate-driven world.

I have withdrawn from it 
as far as I can.
That is my recommendation
for everybody.

Put yourself in time out.

Zen is what happened
when Buddhism met Taoism.

It should be called "Zen Taoism"
in that it has much more in common
with Taoism than it does with Buddhism.

The differences between Buddhism and Zen
can be summed up in this way:

The heart of Buddhism is expressed/revealed
by the book "The Indestructible Truth,"
by Reginald Ray.
If you want to know Buddhism, 
read the book.

The heart of Zen is expressed/revealed
by our intrinsic intuition.
If you want to know Zen,
follow the truth of your own heart-knowing.

I'm thinking you won't make it 
through the first chapter of the book.

What keeps you in the kind of work you're in?
What would prefer to do instead?
What do you wish you had done with your life?
How close can you come to that
in the time left for living?

What would be your ideal life?
How close can you come to that
in the time left for living?

When you think of yourself,
what image comes to mind?
What do you not have enough of
in your life?
If you were to hand me an object
or an image
that would adequately symbolize
your life to this point,
what would it be?

What do you wish you had known earlier?

What needs redemption or atonement about your life?
In what ways are you living to do that?

What needs you to do it right now in your life?

Who do you have to talk with about these things?

What is keeping you from writing about them
if you have no one to talk to 
who is interested in what you have to say?

–0–

The world is a mess beyond correction,
but.
That means there is always something 
we can do to make things better here/now
wherever/whenever we are.

And it is our place to do what needs to be done
anyway, nevertheless even so, no matter what,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
and needs us to do it,
with the gifts we have to offer
from our original nature,
our intrinsic virtues/virtuosites
(The things we do best and love to do most),
our inherent intuition,
our spirit,
vitality,
and knack for this kind of thing.

And don't give me the drift 
about how it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter that it doesn't matter!
We are here to give our best to the moment
even if it is our last moment!
Or, our next to last moment!

We have a life to live even so,
even yet,
even now,
and it would not be right to not live it
all the way to the end of the line.

Let To The End Of The Line be your mantra
for the days, weeks, months, years left to us.
And live like you mean it every day!
And mean it.
Every day!

–0–

We are as close to Jesus and the Buddha
as some people will ever get.

We bring as much of God to life in our life
as some people will ever experience.

If we aren't doing it as it ought to be done
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises,
why not?

If we aren't doing the things that need to be done,
saying the things that need to be said,
asking the questions that need to be asked,
being whom the times need us to be,
why not?

What are we doing that is better than that?

Why waste our time on anything less than that?

Why do we see things the way we see them
and not some other way instead?

How many different ways of seeing/experiencing/
evaluating/interpreting/understanding/
comprehending/thinking about/believing in/...
things are there?

And yet, and yet...

Those who know, know the same things.
No?

What is the difference between
seeing and knowing?

Between thinking and knowing?

Between believing and knowing?

It is the difference between
being connected with our intrinsic intuition
and being told what is so and not so.

The main difference between groups of people
is not what they know to be so
but what they have been told is so.

Religion is the foundation
of our major differences of opinion
worldwide.

We go to war over what we have been told is so.
As in Israel and the Palestinians. 

They don't hate each other over 
what they know to be so.
They hate each other over
what they have been told is so,
over what they believe is so,
over what they think is so,
over their opinions about what is so.

Here is how to know what is so.

Take this list of words:

Original nature
innate virtues/virtuosities
(The things we do best and enjoy doing most)
intrinsic intuition,
imagination,
balance and harmony,
integrity,
sincerity,
vitality,
spontaneity,
emptiness,
stillness,
silence.

And reflect on the connection
between each word and you.

On how they relate to you,
and you to them.

On what they mean to you
out of your own experience.

On what your experience
of each word/term is.

As you do this exercise
repeatedly over time,
you will come to know
what these words mean--
and no one will have told you so.

–0–

We are as close to Jesus and the Buddha
as some people will ever get.

We bring as much of God to life in our life
as some people will ever experience.

If we aren't doing it as it ought to be done
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises,
why not?

If we aren't doing the things that need to be done,
saying the things that need to be said,
asking the questions that need to be asked,
being whom the times need us to be,
why not?

What are we doing that is better than that?

Why waste our time on anything less than that?

–0–

When "the world is too much with us,
late and soon" (William Wordsworth),
or life is,
we need a place to go
to lay our burdens down.

I have arranged three landscape stones
on my book case
as an imaginary link to the Wailing Wall.

I take grief that is too much to bear
to my Wailing Wall Link and deposit it there
(All in my imagination)
to take its place with the grief and mourning
of the ages.

And when it is time for another round with it,
I go back to stand before my bookcase
and remember the losses and sorrows.
When I have had enough for a while,
I leave them there
to return again by and by.

The Wailing Wall and all of our links to it
bear all of the pain of the world--
of the cosmos,
and keeps it in good stead for us
until we are ready for another round 
of remembrance and agony.

A very present help in time of trouble,
enabling us to face what must be faced
in our own time and our own way,
and face it again,
in that it is always near at hand,
never to be out-grown or left behind.

–0–

Focusing's foundational question,
"Except for what is everything just fine?"
is trumped by the realization,
"It's all useless, hopeless, pointless, futile,
stupid, ludicrous and absurd--
and coming to a very bad end
(We are all going to die).
But other than that, it's all great."

Which itself is negated by the counter-realization,
"How do we know the end is actually the end
or all that bad? 
It could be the opening to wonders beyond imagining!"

And, "All of our reasons for giving up,
caving in, rolling over and calling it quits,
are themselves trumped by the simple shift in perspective
which asks, 
"So what if it is all useless, etc.?
What difference does it make if nothing makes a difference?
Who cares if nobody cares?
Why not give it our best effort,
even if it does no good?"

And, dedicating ourselves to the eternal service
of the good of the moment
beginning right here, right now,
doing what is called for,
when, where and how it is called for,
anyway, nevertheless, even so--
moment after moment,
time after time,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
always and forever, Amen!

Fidelity to the good of the here/now,
with fealty, filial loyalty
and unwavering devotion,
is the solution to all of our troubles,
now and always.

And is the sacred ground
at the heart of Focusing
in all times and places.

Getting up and doing what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
no matter what,
forever,
restores us to our soul,
and our soul to us,
day after day.

It only takes doing it
to know that it is so.
 

–0–