Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

If we were to build a church without theology
(And why don't we?),
we could do it basted upon personal experience.

The ground/foundation would be
the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence.

The touchstone components
for maintaining/deepening our attachment
to the core/center/source of life and being
would be 
integrity/sincerity,
spontaneity,
balance/harmony,
spirit,
energy,
vitality...
As each of us understand these terms to be
in our own life.

We would gather to explore our original nature
and the virtues/specialties/characteristics
that come with us from the womb--
and how we are exhibiting/expressing/serving these
qualities 
in the here and now experiences of our life.

In so doing,
we would be balancing/harmonizing ourselves,
in our work to experience, 
engage,
explore
ways of better being ourselves 
in our daily engagements with our life.

The thrust would be how to better who we are
for the good of each situation as it arises,
and not how to have our way
and get what we want
as much, and as often, as possible
before we die.

The process would be more on the order
of a 12-Step group
that that of a religious service.

It would center on hearing what we have to say
rather being told something
someone thinks we need to hear.

We all could start a small group of this type,
with 3, 5, or 7 people,
and learn with experience what size is the optimal size
for everyone to be able to say
what they need to hear
in the time allotted for saying what needs to be said.

Additional accompaniments,
singing bowls, 
chants,
music,
readings,
silence,
etc.
could be experimented with
and worked out over time.  

No one is going to come along
and hand something like this 
out to us.
It will become a reality,
only by us doing it ourselves.

Namaste

–0–

The day is here
to be seen,
and heard,
and understood,
comprehended,
attended
and served.

We are here
to do right by
each day.

To size things up,
know what is called for
and do what needs to be done.

Some days demand that we go back to bed.
Some days require us to go for a walk
with a camera.

Or write a piece about days gone by.

We have to ferret out 
what each day is offering to us,
asking of us,
and be the day's observant servant
in all things great and small.

We don't need any theology to do that,
or a doctorate in philosophy
or psychology.

We only have to have eyes that see
ears that hear,
hearts that know what's what,
what is needed,
what is to be done,
when,
where
and how it needs to be done,
and do it.

In all circumstances that come along
and in each situation that arises 
within all of them.

But lethargy and laziness
have a hard time finding a place
to prop up their feet.

Oh, look!
Another day is upon us!
Let's see what we can do with it!

–0–

The Hum at the foundational center 
of the universe 
is the gravitational remnant 
of the destruction of hundred, 
or thousands, of galaxies. 

AUM is the triumph of Black Holes, 
and the wail of unimaginable devastation. 

Israel in Gaza.
Hamas in Gaza.

This is where we live. 
How we live with what we live with 
is up to us.

Our response-ability
to the here/now
of each situation as it arises
is what we say,
what we do.

And say-not,
do-not.

–0–

Find a place
in image form
or actual life,
that is for you
a fine place 
for engaging the truth
of what's what
and how things are,
and finding what you have
to bring forth
in adjusting to it
and doing what needs to be done
in response to it.

Just sit there,
or walk around,
waiting to see 
what arises,
emerges,
occurs to you
in the way of responses
you might make
out of the spontaneity
of your original nature
and the virtues/traits
that are yours to work into your life.

This could be your listening/hearing,
looking/seeing place--
your place of knowing
what is called for
and how best to comply
through all the situations 
and circumstances of your life,
now and forever more.

–0–

No one has ever had the solution
to war/hatred/evil.

Makes it easy to think no one ever will.

Leaves us with wringing our hands
and staring at the wall,
weeping.

The best among us never did any more than that.

Buddhist monks self-immolation in Vietnam
speaks to the futility of "nothing better to do."

Flash forward to Hamas and Israel and the Gaza Strip,
and the "Armed Republic: Nothing But Christ"
(Of all things)
idea for peace everlasting in our own country,
and it seems that the solution to war
is, as always, to kill everyone not like "us."

Takes me back to the Butcher of Lyons,
AKA Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons,
and his treatise "Against Heresy,"
where the solution to heresy is to kill the heretics.

Killing everyone not like us
is the ultimate fix for all of our problems with "them."
Only, "they" never go away.

Which means that "we" have to "die"
to our idea of how things ought to be,
grow up and allow "them" to be how "they" are
no matter what that might mean for "us."

It is never going to happen, is it?
"We" are going to move to The New World,
raise an army,
kill the British
and then kill the Native Americans,
and then kill everyone else
who gets in "our" way.
Forever.

Killing one another is just what we do.
A stalemate is the best we can hope for,
only that never lasts for long,
because there are always people
who just like to blow other people up.

Which leaves us with wringing our hands
and looking at the wall,
weeping.

Wondering "Why can't we just get along?"

–0–

During the heresy hunts and murders,
people were compelled to convert
to something
that can only be taken on faith.
And faith cannot be forced.

The core/foundation of my faith is
the essential/utmost importance
of doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
and in the right way.

I believe that is essentially important
for itself alone
whether it "does any good" or not.

Trying to force anyone to take that
as the ground of their faith
would be the wrong thing to do.

The grounding foundation of our faith
is our business alone,
and no one can decide/declare
that we are right or wrong about it.

It is entirely ours to conceive,
embrace,
articulate
and serve.

Jimmy Buffet believed
it's five o'clock somewhere,
and, as far as I know,
was faithful to his convictions
as long as he was alive.

Which is more than can be said
for a lot of people
whose professed beliefs and life
have no apparent connection at all.

–0–

We all need a sounding board.
A sounding board is all we need.
In world of balance and harmony,
we all would be our own sounding board,
sitting down with ourselves
on a regular basis
in a dependable kind of way
to talk things over
and think things through
in order to see what we look at
and do what needs to be done about it,
day in and day out
all our life long.

We have within a tuning fork of sorts,
and the capability of harmonizing ourselves
with ourselves
within the circumstances of our life,
if we but take the time to check in
and check things out
and find our way back to who we are
and what is ours to do.

Resonance is our most dependable state of being.
Resonating with ourselves 
and what is ours to do
keeps us on track,
in focus,
in tune,
on the beam,
at one with who we are
and what is ours to do
within the circumstances
of time and place
here and now
all along the way.

Right relationship with ourselves
enables right relationship
with those who are capable
of right relationship with themselves,
and makes things as right 
as they can be,
given the nature of life in the moment of living.

The ground of right relationship
is loving/trusting ourselves day-to-day,
and being worthy of love/trust
is to be capable of love/trust
with ourselves and one another.

Love/trust is not a feeling,
not an emotion,
so much as it is an attitude,
a state of mind and being.

It is founded upon listening/hearing,
looking/seeing,
knowing/not-kidding
ourselves or one another
about who we are and what's what
and what we will do and not do about it all.

Truth.
Living truthfully.
Lovingly.
Trustingly. 
Keeping good faith
with ourselves and one another.

Enables us to remain on track,
in focus,
in tune,
on the beam,
at one with who we are
and what is ours to do
within the circumstances
of time and place
here and now
all along the way.

We are what we need
if we will but do what we need to do
to realize/remember it/tend it/serve it
all along the way.

–0–

My central symbol of life, of being alive, is the swamp. Swamps are vital sources of vitality, wellsprings of all the qualities of life and being. They are where life originates, and carry the realization of the Buddhist chant, "Om Mani Padme Hum" and its implication of the jewel that is in the lotus and the lotus is rooted in the muck at the bottom of the pond/swamp to reflect the swamp as the essence of who we are and the foolishness of thinking that we will ever be more than that in a "Be content to be yourself, for that is who you are," kind of way. 

I enjoy reflecting on the Elder Wand,
of the Harry Potter series origin,
as the ultimate source of the power--
not of force,
but of perspective/realization/understanding/enlightenment/
kindness/gentleness/compassion/life...

If I were given the Elder Wand,
I would go into retreat with it,
into a vision quest with it,
and sit with it,
inviting it to show me/teach me
all it knows
and how to use it to its best and fullest potential,
by not "using it" at all.

I see the power of the Elder Wand
being the heightened capacity
for seeing/hearing/comprehending what's what,
knowing what needs to be done about it,
in response to it,
when/where/how it needs to be done,
and doing it
in each situation as it arises
through all the circumstances
that are generated by other circumstances
through the epochs and ages of time.

This is informed awareness in the service
of what is called for
moment-to-moment in every here/now forever.

The power of knowing/doing in action.

I cannot imagine anything more necessary
and less available,
than that.

I take comfort in the idea nonetheless.

–0–

Joseph Campbell said the thrust
of the Bahgavad Gita
is "Get in there and do your thing
and let the outcome be the outcome."

We live to manipulate the outcome
by doing whatever is necessary
to leverage what we want
into place
and letting "our thing"
be anything it takes to get what we desire.

Our thing is having our way
at the expense of all other considerations.

Which is to say
that we don't have a "thing."
We have a compulsion to get what we want
no matter what.

And those who know know
that having our way
is the first thing to go
in the service of being who we are
and doing what is ours to do.

It is not a choice that we are aware 
of having to make.

We think that getting our way
IS what is ours to do.

Lao Tzu said,
"Do your work and step back,
let the outcome be the outcome."

We are here to serve "our work"
and to do "our thing," 
no matter the outcome.

Wait? What?

The idea that there is something
greater than what we want,
something more important 
than having our way,
is inconceivable.
Unbelievable.
Incapable even of being imagined.

There is a good beyond our good?
How can that be good?
Good IS our good!
Why would we serve something
that does not have our best interest--
as we think of it--
at heart?

Our good is surely the most important thing!

No?

–0–

All of the philosophies of life
that I am aware of
assume a high enough income
to meet the cost of living.

I don't know of any philosophy 
that makes poverty bearable,
much less fun.

Life starts with being able
to pay the bills.
Once we take care of that requirement,
then we can turn our attention
to what we pay the bills to do.

Until then, philosophy and religion
call us to keep trying,
with promises of "pie in the sky by and by,"
when it will "all be made up to us one day,"
if we keep trying.

Destitution and abundance are the poles
between which life is lived,
Finding and maintaining 
the "sweet spot"
between the two extremes
is out of the question for 
a staggering number of people
which is rapidly increasing
even as I write these lines.

And that is a problem for all of us worldwide.

How do we address it?
How do we solve it?

As with everything else that Really Matters
(War, Hunger, Climate Change, Over Population, Pollution...),
we have no idea.

And that leaves us with waiting/watching
as things become increasingly dire and out of hand
and the systems sustaining life
overheat and collapse into a catastrophic meltdown
and it all starts over for another round from the beginning.

This is called "The Circle/Cycle of Life,"
and it plays itself out across the universe over time.

In the meantime, 
we settle into responding as appropriately
as we can manage
to the need of the moment
in each situation as it arises
in service to the good of the whole
insofar as that is possible
all our life long.

This is a philosophy that is good 
for all times and places
as long as there are times and places,
spoken first to my knowledge by Lao Tzu
in the Tao te Ching ("The Virtues of the Way"):
"Do your work and step back,
let nature take its course."

And, "This is the way things are."

–0–

What would it take 
for you to enjoy being
who you are?

For you to enjoy your life?

What do you enjoy in a day?

Make it your thing
to enjoy what remains
of the time left for living!

Music.
Friends.
Art.
Poetry.
Nature.
Food...
 
Make your list
of the enjoyable aspects of life and being,
and focus on those things.

And do not dwell on,
or spend time with,
the un-enjoyable elements
of the days that are upon us.

Seek out the goodness of these days!
Bring goodness to life
in your life
and in the lives of others!

Embrace the joy,
refuse despair,
reject dejection,
tell gloom
to find someone else to burden.

Bring life to life
in the way you live 
each day!

–0–

Being the right kind of people
is well within our reach,
yet far exceeds our grasp,
as Abraham Heschel might have said.

We have better things to do.

Being the right kind of people
gets in our way.
Asks hard things of us.
Is always inconvenient
and an imposition
of outlandish proportions.

We aren't interested.

Lazy and lethargic 
and not interested.

Yet, we want things to be better
than they are.

That is true of every human being 
everywhere
from the beginning of human beings.
And it is always someone else
we want to change in relation to us,
never us that we want to change
in relation to someone else.

Let THEM do all the changing
to make US happy!
Or we will declare war on them
if they don't!

Declaring war is our go to solution
for everything.
Never mind that it has never worked
for long,
and likely never will
unless it is the total nuclear variety
and completely exterminates the species.

That probably would work for a long time.

In the meantime we will all continue to say,
"YOU have to change in order for ME to be happy.
Or else!"

If we spent as much effort 
in the service of being the right kind of people,
as we do in making war,
we wouldn't recognize the place.
And everything would wonder,
"What is going on?"

–0–