Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Having things in your life
like ideas,
or a stick that needs whittling,
or a cobbler that needs baking,
or eating...

Anything that siezes you
with a sense of urgency about it
and a vibrancy that throbs with
the rhythm of life,
sending you off on a mission
that must be done NOW,
is a very good thing,
and we need more of it in our day,
every day.

My sister, Susan, took her own life
for the lack of anything better to do.
She made out a living will
with "no tube feeding" in caps
and quit eating and drinking.
She died under hospice care
from a lack of verve, she did.

She also lacked an imagination
that could grab her by the neck
and throw her into life
with the passion of someone seeking
to serve a vision that has to be realized
like, to borrow a Zen image,
"A person with their hair on fire
seeks a swimming pool."

May we all have such an imagination!
May we need such a swimming pool
every day or two!

–0–

We find the way,
not by seeking what we want,
but by seeing what needs to be done
and what needs us to do it
in each situation as it arises.

Living out of the emptiness/stillness/silence
and incorporating Jon Kabat-Zinn's approach
to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
in our approach to the moment.

You can start your association with Jon Kabat-Zinn
by watching all of his YouTube videos 
(The shortest ones first)
and reading his book that started it all
in the seventies, 
"Wherever You Go, There You Are."

And practicing being where you are
in each situation as it arises.

That is as simple as it needs to be.

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In any situation,
there is where life is to be found
and where there is nothing
but the dead and dying.
The difference lies in our
perception/perspective.

By the way we look at things,
we prescribe life or death.

In any situation,
there is what brings us to life
and there is what reduces
our chances at life to the level
of minus numbers.

How we see what we look at
makes all the difference.

People lived through the Depression
with much less than we have,
and we say, "Oh, woe, poor me, poor me."

Homer was a blind poet
who found life wherever he looked.
People live in the desert
and find life everywhere.

What are we looking for
that keeps us from seeing
what is there?

How do we turn the light around
in order to see what is before us
that we aren't seeing?

We have to become servants of life
in all situations
in every circumstance.
"Where is life hiding here?"
"What holds life for us now?"
"How can we live in the service of life
anyway, nevertheless, even so?"

Jesus raised the dead to life.
He wasn't doing anything we can't do.
If we can understand that,
we have all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done.
Anyway, nevertheless, even so! 

–0–

Jesus did not know
whether he was coming or going--
and that's a good thing,
"maybe, the best of things"
(Stephen King).

He said as much himself:

"Don't let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing!"

"The Spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will,"
implying that not even the Spirit
knows what it will be doing next.

Jesus lays out examples of not knowing
what he is doing
all over the Gospels.

My favorite is the second commandment.
"Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you--love your neighbor
as you love yourself!"

And, in no time at all,
he is telling parables about an unjust
landowner paying his workers
the same wage for different amounts of work,
justifying the outrage by saying,
"Shall not he do what he wills with what is his?"

So much for "do unto others as you would have them
do unto you"!

Second commandment my turkey's gobble!

And he doubles down with the parable
of the wise and foolish bridesmaids:
"We didn't take you to raise,"
say the wise bridesmaids.
"You go back to town and get your own oil!"

The topper, of course, is his cursing the fig tree
for not having fruit out of season.
Killing it for innocently doing what it lived to do.

Jesus, himself, was like the wind,
not knowing what he would do next.

And he calls us to follow him.

We do that by throwing away the rules
and the rule books,
including the Bible and the books of doctrine,
and all of the hymnbooks
(which are doctrines set to music),
and find our own way through each day,
surprising ourselves with what we come up with,
wondering where that came from, and that.

Living out of the silence will do that.
And that.

Not knowing what we will do next
is allowing the circumstances to call us forth,
to show us here/now what is being asked of us,
and inviting us to create on the spot
a response appropriate to the occasion,
regardless of what our mother or father might think.

And living ourselves into focus day by day.

–0–

We are all waiting for clarity.
Native Americans go on vision quests
looking for clarity.
They could as well
sit under a tree
or by a steam or pond or ocean,
and wait for something to arise
in the silence
as a clarifying image
sent from The Mystery,
which is our own psyche,
and, not to be dismissive,
connects us with the psyche of the universe.

So that we all hum the same tune,
or the same tone,
and seek clarity from the same source.

It is not farfetched to say
that psychic energy runs the whole show,
the light show,
the gravity show,
the cosmos show,
down to the microscopic universe show.

And we connect with that energy
and are expressions of it,
and are invited to explore it,
investigate it,
probe it,
play with it,
and wonder with it through all of the possibilities
of consciousness and unconsciousness
(Which is all that we are not conscious of).

So, go sit under a tree,
and wait for what arises
as a clarifying image
to accompany you
and lead you along your life's way.

–0–

Taking the initive
is sitting still,
being quiet,
and seeing what arises
in the silence
to call our name.

It is not rushing ahead
with an action plan
and a time table
to achieve our goals
and realize our dreams
of fortune and glory.

How we respond to the day
unfolds the way
for those not demanding
their way NOW!

But the way specifically designed
to bring us forth,
relying on our original nature
and our innate virtues/attributes
in meeting each situation as it arises
and doing there what needs to be done,
allowing one moment to lead to another
with wonder and amazement
at the process of self-discovery
and endless surprise.

–0–

When I think about what we have done
and are doing
to make things worse instead of better,
I have to stop thinking.

Left alone, nature does a fabulous job
of taking care of nature.

Our idea of better is always More Money!

We can make More Money if we do this,
and that,
and that, 
and that...

Native Americans got along just fine
for 8,000 years
and then somebody's idea of making More Money
got in the way.
And is still getting in the way.

And what do we do with all that money
that makes it worth all the damage we do
to get it?

Don't go there.
It will only depress you.

And you will have to go sit with nature,
and walk slowly through it,
to get over your depression.

–0–

Meeting the moment as the moment needs to be met
and doing there what needs to be done there,
is not as simple as it sounds,
because self-interest gets in the way.

Do we live for self
or do we live for the moment?
Adam and Eve answer for us all.

Theirs is such a wonderful expression
of the human condition!
What a story!
The writer, or writers,
nailed us as well as any writer, or writers
since have nailed us--
and a lot have done really well.

Seeing ourselves exposed so clearly
in Adam and Eve
provides us with a life time 
of meditative reflection
on the self-serving nature of human nature,
and should have by now awakened us
to the need for standing up to ourselves,
saying, "Enough is enough!"

But, no.
On and on we go.
Needing awareness, awareness, awareness
and practice, practice, practice
to meet the moment as it needs to be met,
and do there what needs to be done.

The work of being human
carries over into 2024
with best wishes and hope for the best!

Yes and No are poles between which we live.
We can tell which we prefer
by how often we use them.

Do we say "Yes" more than "No,"
or "No" more than "Yes"?

We are what we say "Yes" to
and what we say "No" to.

"Yes, I can!""
"No, I can't!"

"Yes, I will!"
"No, I" won't!

And more important than 
how often we say yes or no,
is what we say yes to
and what we say no to.

Yes and no spoken wisely and well
lead to a certain outcome.

Yes and no spoken hastily/impulsively
without reflection
lead to a different outcome.

What determines/influences
our yes and our no?

What are the types of things
we are most likely to say yes to?

What are the types of things
we are most likely to say no to?

Live to become aware of your yes's and your no's,
understanding that our patterns
easily become molds,
rigid and unbending,
shaping our life
in ways we do not intend
and do not lend themselves
to the kind of life 
we would be proud and happy
to have lived.

–0–

What are we doing?
What do we think we are doing?
What keeps us going?
Where do we think we are going?
What does it matter?
To whom does it matter?

Native American spirituality,
Celtic spirituality
and Taoism
all recognize the significance 
of seven terms:

Balance and harmony,
integrity, sincerity, spontaneity,
original nature, 
innate virtues/attributes--
and the importance of living in ways
which integrate them into our life.

I am interested in 
these three spiritual expressions
having these seven terms at their core,
and I find there the possibility
that all three originate 
from the same 5 to 10,000 year old source.

Shamanism has been around for at least that long,
and serves as a grounding influence
upon religion world-wide.

Spirituality has been with us 
from the start,
along with the need
to explain/control
the circumstances and events of our lives.

We need a hedge,
a buffer,
between us and the bitter realities
of existence--
help in dealing with what 
we have to deal with
from birth to death,
with death being the biggie.

We have to tell ourselves something
to make it all manageable.
And so, religion.

And so, balance and harmony,
integrity, sincerity, spontaneity,
original nature,
innate virtues/attributes.
The grounding, orienting aspects
of life against all odds.

How do they express themselves 
in your life?
How do you honor/serve them 
with your life?

Where would we be without them?

–0–

We enlarge our perceptions,
expand our perspectives,
by avoiding the trap
of the same old same old
and doing things 
we have never done before.

What is the newest thing
in your life?
How often does new drop in for a visit?

Change for the sake of change
will change things you never
would have thought about changing.

Shake up your life every six months.
Just to see things differently.
And to change your mind
about how things are.

–0–

I invite you to take up 
the study of silence
by way of experience
and inquiry/exploration/
interviews/investigation/
experimentation...

Find out everything there is to know.

Become an expert on silence.

Let me know what comes of it.

My hunch is that it is as close
to the Numen/Numinous/Transcendent/Ineffable
as it is possible to be,
and the ground of being.

But, research is necessary
before we declare it to be so.

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