01

Doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
and repeating this process
through each moment 
of every situation as it arises,
is more about listening and looking,
seeing and hearing,
than it is about prioritizing.

We need less thinking
and more realizing.
Realization comes from seeing and hearing.
Action is spontaneous,
automatic.

Look and listen.
Here and now.

Hear what is being called for.
See what is happening
and what needs to be done about it.

Do it with the gifts 
you have to share
and the daemon (sounds like "diamond")
you live to serve.

And let nature take its course.

–0–

02

Theology is the end of religion.

The religion that has to be explained,
defined,
elucidated,
spelled out,
nailed down,
argued
and debated
into being
is dead on arrival.

Living religion thrives
on fascination,
realization,
wonder,
amazement,
joy,
laughter,
dancing,
relishing,
exuberance,
confidence,
peace,
grace,
kindness,
compassion,
generosity,
integrity,
mindfulness,
awareness,
self-transparency,
questions,
silence,
balance and harmony,
playfulness,
mercy,
non-contrivance,
spontaneity,
sincerity,
good faith,
good will,
honesty,
truthfulness,
and on and on like this...

Religion ends
when it tries to make sense
or make disciples.

We find it with our heart,
not with our head.

We live our way there.
We do not think our way there.

Check out 
The Non-subscribing Church of What's Happening Now
at www.jimdollarsphotographyandphilosophy.com

  

–0–

03

Insight,
awareness,
realization,
illumination,
awakening,
etc.
are the result
of seeing what we look at.

Of hearing what is being said--
particularly what we are saying.

Typically,
we see and hear
what we expect to see and hear,
what we think we are seeing and hearing,
what we assume we are seeing and hearing.

Take an object,
an old hubcap perhaps,
anything will do.
Draw a frame around it
(The frame can be imaginary),
and consider the object
in a contemplative,
meditative,
kind of way--
the way you might look at
an optical illusion--
until you see the object as it is,
and as it also is. 

Sit with the object
and allow it to reveal itself to you.

When the shift occurs,
continue looking
until you see all
that is in the frame
with the object--
until the entire cosmos 
is in the frame with the object.

This is called 
"Seeing things as they are."

Look at everything you see
in this way.

This is called "Seeing."

–0–

04

We live to make peace with our contradictions--
to balance our extremes,
to harmonize our excesses and deficiencies,
to integrate our polarities,
to bear the pain of our conflicts
and to walk two paths at the same time.

We do that by walking carefully
along the way,
with one eye on this path,
and the other eye on the other path,
always conscious of both paths at once,
threading the needle
between Yin and Yang, 
and making our home
on the edge of the coin.

Sometimes we do it this way,
and sometimes we do it that way,
and we can never be sure
which way we will do it next.

If people demand consistency of you,
hand them a brick,
and wink.

Live playfully
in the service
of what the situation calls for,
rising to every occasion
and doing what needs to be done there--
without worrying about precedent
or tradition--
and let the outcome be the outcome
and the opening 
to the next moment
where you do the same thing,
consistently inconsistent over time,
and always in tune with the moment
and what is best suited to here and now.

–0–

05

We cannot help how we see things,
or what we think about how things are,
or how we feel about the present situation anywhere...

My current way of thinking about these things
is to say it all depends on several contingencies:
Where we come from,
who we run with, 
who we admire,
who we dislike/detest
who we want to please...

Change any of these factors,
and we don't see the way we see,
think the way we think,
feel the way we feel...

Which is to say that
we are very much 
the product of our environment,
no matter how independent
and self-directed
we think we are.

We are where we live,
and who we live with,
and who we love,
and who we want to love us.

We want the right people
to be happy with us,
and thus,
our seeing,
thinking
and feeling.

Or we want to irritate/enrage
the right people,
and thus, 
our seeing,
thinking
and feeling.

How would we see,
think and feel,
if we were cut off
from all human contact,
and lived by ourselves alone?

Check it out.
Spend a week by yourself,
in complete seclusion,
solitude,
isolation.

No movies,
no books,
no TV
no newspapers.

Walk on a lonely beach.
Camp in the woods.
Build a log cabin.

See how that impacts
how you see, think and feel.

Or, you could just observe
yourself seeing,
thinking,
feeling.

Ask all of the questions 
that beg to be asked--
and all of the questions 
the questions beg to be asked.

Investigate your seeing,
thinking,
feeling.

Where does this come from?
Why do I see/think/feel this way?
Who do I know that would 
see/think/feel this way?
That would be happy-or-upset
with me seeing/thinking/feeling this way?

Explore! Explore! Explore!

Get to the bottom of it!

Get to the bottom of you!

And see how you see/think/feel about you!

01

We die because 
it becomes too much trouble
to keep going.

We Peter-out.
We dwindle down to nothing.

Our knees go.
Our eyesight goes.
Our teeth go.
Our hearing goes...
The list goes on and on.

And we get to the place
of saying the hell with it.

I'm suggesting that longevity
is not the point,
and that quality of life is.

The phrase "quality of life"
needs to be explored.
What does it mean to you?
What number would you give
the present level of the quality
of your life--
with 1 being next to nothing,
and 10 being beyond compare?

My best would be a 6, here and now.
I think I will blow the whistle
at 3, maybe 2.

This is my 77 April 5th.
I think 87 will be stretching it.
More like 83-84.

In the meantime, I'm going to 
devote myself to the pursuit
of what interests me,
and see where it goes.

You are, well, up to you.
What do you see for yourself?
What do you intend?
How shall you proceed?

This point of demarcation
between me and you
gets us to the heart of the matter,
two of them, actually.

The first is that we see things 
the way we do
because it is the way
someone we admire and/or
want to please sees things.
It is the way the people we run with
see things.

We aren't going to change
the way we see things
until/without changing the people 
we admire/want to please/run with.

This in the key factor 
in determining 
how different things can be
with us.

Alcoholics, for instance,
have to change the people 
they hang around with
if they want to quit drinking,
and they have to start hanging around
with people who don't drink,
or with no people at all.

Etc. regarding all of the things
you want to stop doing
and/or start doing.

Who you run with makes all the difference.

The second is that the way things are
is just the way things are.
It is easier that way.
Streams take "the course of least resistance"
on their way to the sea.
Don't we all?

There is no reason for it.
Saying "God's will" is saying
"It's just the way things are."
Ask, "Why is it God's will?"
Or, "Why does God want things the way they are?"
Gets eventually to, "That's just the way things are!"
So, "cut to the chase"
(Take the course of least resistance)
and go straight there
with no "beating around the bush":
"That's just the way things are!"

What are we going to do about it
is the question.

"This is the way things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."

What are we going to do about it?
That's the question
that only we can answer.

We better be quick deciding.
It will be too much trouble to fool with
before long!

–0–

02

There is our life
and there is how we live it
and that's that.

What do we mean by the life we are living?
What do we intend?
What are we doing?

What is our life's work?
Our "body of work" consists of what?
What are we about?
What are we up to?
Who are we showing ourselves to be
through the way we go about
living our life?

If we were to "do better,"
what would we do?

Does it matter?
Does it matter to us?
Why does it matter?
Why doesn't it matter?

What are we doing here?
What are we going to do
with the time left for living?

Drink more beer?
See the sights?
Party hearty?
Look for some action?
What???

We answer that question
whether we mean to or not.
Why not mean to?
Why not give it our best effort?
Why not live the life
we would be proud to have lived?

Too much trouble, you say?
Great epitaph.
"I woulda done better
but it was too much trouble."
You'll be proud to live with that
for eternity.
You should have a tee shirt made up,
wear it around the beach.
Drinking beer.

–0–

03

"Live the questions."
"Dance with the questions."
What questions?
All of the questions!
Find out for yourself
what questions are your questions
to explore/answer
through the way you live your life!

Our life is the answer
to the questions we are living--
and to the questions we are failing to live.
Refusing to live.
What are those questions?
The ones we have nothing to do with.
What are they?

I'm living to discover
the place of silence, stillness,
solitude, reflection, experience
and questions
in my life.

What are the questions 
that are important to me?
I'm living to discover them.

I am my own experiment
with silence and introspection.
Can we find a reliable guide
through our life
just by attending what arises,
emerges, appears, occurs to us
in the silence?

Is silence a source of direction
that is trustworthy,
valuable, reliable
in leading us into a life
we would be proud to live?

What is the source of the silence's wisdom?
Direction?
Guidance?

How does the silence know what it knows?
What knows beyond the silence
that uses the silence
to commune with us/me?

What is the source of my life--
of my vitality--
of me?

Are we all connected to each other
by being connected with the silence
or with what is beyond the silence?

In communing with the silence,
are we communing with ourselves
and with each other?

Is there a collective "mind" directing,
enthusing, vitalizing all of us?

Are we all "plugged into" the same source?

Are we capable of being choreographed,
harmonized, united, formed into
one universal/cosmic being?

Are we violating some sacred principle
when we break the silence
and presume to speak for 
That Which Is Beyond The Silence?

Would it be better--
in sync with That Which Is Beyond The Silence--
to simply be quiet
and see what arises
without saying how things are 
and ought to be,
but just wait,
and see?

No authorities?
Just servants?
Of the silence?
Just the silence?
And us listening?
Waiting?
To see what emerges?
And doing what needs to be done
about it?

–0–

04

Hermits,
recluses,
solitaries,
loners,
and unsociable sorts
have the benefit of silence
going for them.

Not that they can't create
their own noise
and distractions,
but they have the opportunity
to avail themselves
of the grace of the moment
that is upon them
in every moment.

Whether or not they 
take advantage of it
is on them.

I don't know that hermits, etc.
are any more centered, focused and grounded
on and living out of
their own, original, nature
than the rest of the population,
and I think balance and harmony
require "the other side of the coin"
to be upright and intact
and operating on all levels
at peak performance
with a good disposition
and no impeding deficiencies.

Where to draw the line
between too much and not enough
of anything 
is the perennial dilemma.

We have to be aware of the importance
of walking two paths at the same time
between the Yin and Yang--
the contradictions and contraries--
of our life throughout our life.

We balance the opposites,
integrate the polarities,
bear consciously the pain
of our conflicts
and make things work
as best we can--
as best they can--
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises,
and let that be that.

There is no solution
to the adamantine truth 
of Yin/Yang.
We negotiate and compromise
and "walk with a limp"
all along the way.

Minding how we go,
and seeking the guidance
of silence
as we are able
every day.

01

When you are thinking,
also be thinking about your thinking.

To not be thinking about your thinking
is to be swept away 
by your thinking,
carried off,
into emotional fits of rage,
or terror,
or remorse and guilt--
possessed by your thoughts
and your feelings about your thoughts
to the point of losing all control
of your actions in response
to your thoughts/feelings--
or a robot responding mindlessly
to the direction of those who are 
telling you what to think
and how to feel.

When you are thinking,
think about your thinking.
When you are feeling,
think about your feeling.

Put reflection between you
and your thinking
and your feeling.

Observation and reflection
put you in charge
of your thinking and feeling.

The more you can observe and reflect
without emotional reactivity,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just being aware
of your thoughts and feelings
without being shanghaied by them,
the more capable you are
of making inquiries--
of asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked
by your thoughts and feelings--
of seeing into them
and where they come from
and how they are automatic
and recurring,
and what their origin is
and what the source of their
ready presence in your life is.

Why are these thoughts
and these feelings
your go-to thoughts and feelings?
Who says this is how you ought to think
and how you ought to feel?
Who is in charge of what you think
and what you feel?

Observe, reflect, explore, inquire.
This four-pronged response
to thinking about your thinking
and thinking about your feeling
will insert some distance between
you and your thinking/feeling/reacting,
and change the way you think/feel,
and invite you to think/feel differently,
and eventually to think without feeling
automatically,
predictably,
at the mercy of emotionally-charged
actions wreaking havoc on your life.

–0–

02

Believe whatever it takes
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises.

For instance, I believe
that it matters how we live.
I take that on faith.
There is no factual basis for 
believing it.
All the evidence is to the contrary.
But.
It enables me to "Get up and do
what needs to be done"
with the power and sustainability
of Powder Milk Biscuits.

I believe nothing is more important,
essential,
necessary
than doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
for as long as it needs to be done,
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

This is my foundational belief,
the rock upon which I stand
and am anchored,
in an adamantine kind of way.
You can't knock me off this.
It is my essential truth
and I am not forsaking it,
betraying it,
renouncing it,
abandoning it,
deserting it,
etc.
ever.

I'll go to hell for this belief.
A million times over.
You can't talk me out of it,
or bribe it away from me.

It has a corollary:
Every time is the right time
for something.

Our place is to align ourselves
with what is right for this occasion
and live to serve it here and now
in every situation that arises
all our life long.

Which means we have to know what
is called for in each here and now
and serve it with our life,
by doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
etc.
every moment.

We have to live attuned to,
attentive to,
aware of,
in service to,
with liege loyalty
and filial devotion to
what the moment is calling for
in every moment that comes along.

Believe whatever it takes to do that.
And don't let anything keep you from doing it.

The basic test of any belief,
of any system of belief,
of any faith system,
that comes along
is this:
Does it enable me to do what is called for
in each moment?
To do what is right for every occasion?
To be who I am needed to be here and now forever?
If it does,
believe it with all your heart, and mind,
and soul, and strength.

If it doesn't,
keep looking for something that does.
Or make it up
right out of your own imagination.
Which is where all belief/faith systems come from,
right out of someone's imagination. 

–0–

03

We have to get to the end of our rope
before we can change our minds
about what is important,
and some of us had rather die
than change our mind.

This is the important thing:
Something must die!
What will it be?

We will either die actually, literally,
or we will die figuratively, metaphorically.

This is dilemma at every transition point
in the work/task of growing up,
which is what the spiritual journey entails.
The Hero's Journey is nothing more 
than growing up,
shouldering all of the developmental tasks
and surrendering what must be surrendered
in doing what must be done
to meet the demands of the journey,
of this developmental task along the way.

We will die to what we have always believed is so,
to all we ever wanted to be so,
in changing our mind,
and embracing what is truer 
than the truth 
we held to be true--
or we will die to our life in the moment of our living.

Hitler killed himself.
So did Jesus and Socrates.
Helen Keller squared up to her choices
and died to what she wanted to be so
in embracing what was so.
As have billions of people worldwide
through the centuries.

We give up this to get that,
to make that possible,
to do that--
for the sake of a good
that is better than our own,
personal good.
We die to ourselves
and live in the service
of the good of the whole,
of our family,
of our nation,
of our world,
of the cosmos...

It's called "growing up."

We grow up when we change
our mind about what is important,
about what is true,
about what is right,
about what is incumbent upon us--
and do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
without exploiting the situation
for our benefit,
our gain,
our good.

Just doing what is good,
what is right,
what is called for,
moment by moment.

And the world is better for it.
Every time.

01

The impulse of our original nature
comes to us in the silence
of watching, listening--
which characterizes the Aborigines' walkabouts,
and the Native American vision quests,
and our own search for the source
of life and being--
to guide our boat on its path through the sea.

"The path that can be discerned
is not a reliable path,"
said the old Taoist Sage.
Such is every path through the sea,
and the way of every life lived
in accord with the Tao.

"The spirit," said Jesus,
"is like the wind that blows where it will."
Not knowing itself what it will do next.

Thus, we wait and watch,
listening, looking
for the impulse of our original nature
to signal what is needed now, here,
one situation at a time.

This is prayerful living--
praying without words,
by being quiet
and listening for "the still small voice,"
which is more of something occurring to us
than something talking to us--
something being realized,
not something being said.

And off we go,
with the wind that blows where it will,
and no idea of what's next,
and then what,
and where it's all going.
It is enough to ride with the wind
of the Tao
propelling our boat 
on its path through the sea.

The adventure of a lifetime
from one moment to the next.

–0–

02

Being centered,
grounded,
at one with ourselves
and the moment, 
balanced,
in harmonious accord
with here, now,
waiting,
listening,
watching,
for the propitious
time to act
in the service
of what is being called for,
of what is needed--
the right action
in the right place
and the right way
at the right time--
spontaneously arising 
in us and through us
without thinking of ways
to exploit the occasion
for our gain/good,
or figuring out the best course
to some achievement,
accomplishment,
end
we have in mind--
just seeing,
just knowing,
just realizing,
just doing,
here, now,
moment to moment
situation by situation,
day by day,
one at a time,
all our life long.

Dancing with time and place 
and Tao
all the way.

Who could do more?

"Do your work and step back,
let nature take its course,"
said the Sage,
doing his work,
and stepping back.

–0–

03

The Tao can be summed up as:
"The Flow of Pace and Timing, Kid,
the Flow of Pace and Timing."

Some people are naturals
at the flow of pace and timing.
They live in accord with the Tao
without knowing what they are doing.

They come in on cue
and depart
when their work is done.

They read the situation,
sense what is called for,
respond with what is needed,
and are known for making things right
wherever they are.

There is an air of grace and peace,
balance and harmony,
about them,
and they are a blessing 
upon all who come their way.

At the far extreme,
there are those who create
disturbance and chaos 
in every situation they enter.

One group is sensitive to,
and live as servants of,
the flow of pace and timing,
and the other group
lives to demolish and destroy
anything resembling it.

This is yang and yin in real time.

In a world of yin,
yang comes along
as the gift it is,
and people relish 
the experience of its presence,
and dream of its hoped-for return.

01

The natural world is "Thus Come,"
just as it is,
without pretensions
or aspirations,
looking only for what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
and rising to meet the occasion
with what it has to work with,
letting the outcome be the outcome,
situation by situation,
day by day,
for as long as life lasts.

–0–

02

Love is not what we feel.
Love is what we do.
Love is how we act.

We cannot be commanded to feel.
We can be commanded to act.

Jesus' command to 
"Love your neighbor,"
is to be understood as
"Treat your neighbor lovingly
in all times and places."

He is saying,
"Do what is loving,
when it is called for,
the way it is called for,
as long as it is called for,
moment by moment,
day in and day out,
in each situation as it arises,
your entire life long."

We know what is loving
by asking
"How would I like to be treated?"
and extending that treatment
to all people everywhere.

We have no trouble recognizing
when we are being treated well
and when we are being treated poorly.
We only have "questions"
when it comes to how we treat others.

Strive to treat others as well
as we would like to be treated.
All others.
Every other.
All the time.

–0–

03

Squaring ourselves up with how things are
is the first order of business
in each situation as it arises.

Our ability to do that
hinges on our having few,
and not very strong,
opinions regarding how things ought to be.

Being able to operate
out of a perspective
whose foundation is
"Okay. Here we are. Now what?"
provides us with the attitude
necessary for
letting come what's coming
and letting go what's going,
as things come and go
throughout our life.

How we live in response to our life
is the determining factor
in determining how well we live
with-and-through all of the ebbs and flows
of our days.

What is your default reaction
to the things that come your way
(and go away)?
How close is it to
"Okay. Here we are. Now what?"?

We live to close the gap
between our default reaction
and the preferred reaction.
We do that consciously,
with mindful awareness
of our need to be a certain way
and the chances of that being the way
things are,
moment by moment,
day by day--
and living toward the position
of being able to let come what's coming
and to let go what's going.

–0–

04

            A Good Friday/Easter Meditation:

The Suffering Servant of Isaiah
was co-opted by the early Christian church,
and used as a prophetic model of Jesus,
missing again the point of both
the suffering servant and Jesus.

"Surely he has born our griefs
and carried our sorrows,
and upon him was the chastisement
that made us whole,
and by his wounds we are healed." 
(Isaiah 53: 4&5)

What does he have to do with us?
What does his chastisement
and his wounds 
have to do with our peace
and our healing?

It works like this:
"Thou Art That!"

Any symbol is only as good
as our identification with it is.
The symbol is not "like us,"
The symbol "IS us!"
Any symbol.
Every symbol.

God is dead to the extent
that God no longer symbolizes
the best of us.
God is dead to the extent 
that the symbol of "God"
does not awaken within us
any aspect of godliness,
and becomes an external "Thou"
on a level we can never attain--
as "The Wholly Other."

To awaken the symbol--
any symbol,
every symbol--
we have to be able 
to identify ourselves 
with the symbol,
and understand how we are it,
and how it is who we are.

And that requires a meditative,
contemplative, prayerful,
reflective openness to possibilities
and actualities 
we normally don't want to take the time
to consider.

How is the Suffering Servant and Jesus
you, me?
In what ways are we the Suffering Servant
and Jesus?
How are we interchangeable?
How are we identical?
How are we one with each of them--
and with each other?

We are asked to make this identification
with Jesus
in the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement,
where "Jesus became as we are,
so that we might become who he is,"
but we are never encouraged to see
that we are who he is right now,
without believing anything about sin,
redemption, faith, and atonement.

We have to "turn the light around"!

We are Jesus.
How are we Jesus?
In what ways are we Jesus?
How can we become increasingly conscious
of being Jesus in the normal course
of our life?

Two days ago,
approaching the checkout station
at a local nursery, 
the clerk at the register
noticed that my wife and I were 
having trouble corralling 
the four plants 
we were carrying to her.
She left her station,
came to us,
and carried our purchases 
to the counter.
Jesus could not have done it better.

Over the course of our life,
we do thousands of things
as well as Jesus could do them,
and some things we do better
than Jesus could do them--
all without thinking about Jesus at all,
or ever wondering "what would Jesus do?"

Could Jesus hit a curve ball?
Could Jesus throw a curve ball?
Perform open heart surgery?
Etc.

Thou Art That!

This is the fundamental,
foundational,
realization.
Everything points to this
and flows from it.

We are what we seek.
We are what we love.
We are what we hate.

How?
How is it so?
In what ways is it so?
How can we see ourselves
reflected back to us
in the things we admire
and detest?
In what ways does the phrase,
"Thou Art That" apply to us
and everything?
What connections can we make
between ourselves and "That"?

It takes meditative,
contemplative, prayerful
reflection to see all the ways
"Thou Art That."
And it is essential
that we take up the practice
of enlarging our vision
to be able to see what we look at
and how it is us looking back at us.

This is the challenge
and the calling
of Good Friday and Easter morning!