200 More Zen Thoughts From Jim Dollar #1

Posted byjimwdollarPosted inUncategorized
  1. What is called for in a situation trumps all other considerations. Knowing what is called for here, now is essential knowledge, and we are attuned to that from conception. We know what is called for here, now, beyond all doubt. Even though we may not be able to explain, justify, excuse, defend our choice/actions. When the dog needs to go outside, we take the dog outside. When the baby’s diaper needs changing we change the baby’s diaper. When it’s time for a cup of coffee or a nap we know it. And so on, all the way to the end of the line.

  2. Things are not going my way, and there is nothing new about that. I relish it in that there is no better mechanism for growing up some more again than that of coming to terms with things not going our way, and growing up some more again today every day is the path to whom we are capable of being–to whom we are called to be, built to be. And I am glad for being able to square myself up with the way things are that I would deeply prefer to be different than they are, but “here we are, now what?” Answering that question as it needs to be answered brings out the best in us in each situation as it arises. And being the best self that I am capable of being in every one of those situations is that which I aspire to be in every situation always. May I be so lucky!

  3. Speaking of being lucky, that reminds me that being lucky is the foundation of a life well-lived. Those who live well are likely to consider themselves to be lucky, and they all would be right to do so. Being lucky is the essential quality required for a well-lived life and no one can do that on their own. However, we can position ourselves to be lucky by laying our hopes, desires, plans, aspirations, ambitions, etc. aside and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done no matter what in each situation as it arises by living aligned with, in accord with, our inherent intuition no matter what that means for our hopes, desires, etc., throughout the time left for living. If we want to be lucky we have to live intuitively and allow the outcome to be the outcome in good faith accommodation to that.

  4. I don’t care if you love me–I care about you treating me lovingly whether you love me or not. Feel about me however you feel about me, but treat me lovingly. Treat me so consistently lovingly that I would never guess that you don’t love me. And if we all do this in our relationships with one another, it will transform the world in no time at all. So replace “Love one another,” with “Live lovingly toward one another” in all times and places. And all will be well.

  5. Living lovingly with one another is being accommodating, with kindness and compassion, gentleness and grace. The world is dying for lack of those things when we all need to be kindling them in all of our relationships. Taking the lead by being what the circumstances need us to be here, now throughout our day, throughout our life. There is nothing difficult about this, and with practice it becomes second nature. It should be first nature, and may have been for Neanderthal, hunted down and killed by Cro-magnon. Genocide from the start. Something we have been good at from the beginning, and something we evidently are unable to out-grow or overcome. Racism being evidence of who we are capable of being without shame or remorse. Fie! Fie on us all! No?
  6. We want more than we need, have any use for, know what to do with. We have Billionaires, even Trillionaires who don’t know what to do with their money. So they buy a congressman/woman, or a Senator or two, or the entire Supreme Court. Whom they also don’t know what to do with. We have no idea of what we are to be about. Jesus and the Buddha would not known what to do with us either. We cannot be still or quiet. We cannot sit waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear. We have the means with no end in sight. What’s the point of that? We don’t know what the point is. We don’t have a point and no idea of how to find one. Or, of where we go from here. Dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence doesn’t sound inviting at all, yet is the way, the truth and the life waiting for us to be willing to discover what waiting is all about.

  7. The next moment hinges upon how we interpret/understand/comprehend what’s what in this moment. Each moment is a springboard into the next moment. How we see, hear, understand what’s what, what’s happening and what is called for here, now determines, or strongly influences, where we go from here and what happens next. We can, at any point influence/control the future and all that flows from that into all that will be because of what happens right here, right now. How competent, capable, balanced, alert, awake, aware are we right here, right now? That makes all the difference in terms of what happens next and where we go from here, now. How tuned in are we to ourselves and our surroundings? How in touch are we with the psychic foundation of our being right here, right now? How alive are we to ourselves and our surroundings? How sensitive are we to the psychic movement of past and future of ourselves and of all things in this moment with us right here, right now? How open are we to what is happening and what is called for? How available are we to what is called for and what needs to be done about it right here, right now? How can we best cooperate with the forces, the drift and flow of life and being at work within these circumstances of this situation in order to assist it in its movement toward what needs to happen? What do we mean by stepping into any moment without being in touch with all the things this paragraph opens up for our reflection, insight, intuition to take into account and consider cooperating with?

  8. The psychic foundation of life and being is that which has always been called God. Psyche is God. God is our interpretation, our understanding, our conception, our projection of psychic reality, which is the essence of reality in cosmological form. We experience psychic reality and interpret it, understand it, define it as God. And give this God all of the qualities and capabilities that God has come to possess over time. We drape psychic reality with all of the projections humanity has created for God and build a theology complete with doctrines and dogma to explain all that needs to be explained to our relatively complete satisfaction, but it is all imagined and made up by those who have only the experience of psychic reality to work with over time.

  9. Psychic reality is life. Mystery enfolded in matter. And there is no getting beyond the Mystery of life, of psychic reality. That is all there is. And it calls us, asks us to live in relationship with life and being and psychic reality so that we are one with all of it and happy/content to be so, doing what is called for, what is asked of us in relation to life and psychic reality, in each circumstance, in each situation, in each here, now that arises and asks us to offer what we have to give in service to the whole, or the part of the whole that is available to us in any/every given moment in living in accord with, in tune with, in harmony with the flow of life and being in every here, now by doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long. Engaging the magic and the mystery, at one with the magic and the mystery, aligned with the Tao, always and forever. Amen! May it be so! No?

  10. My present reality is a good-enough reality for me, and the more personal the reality, the better the reality. And I read that as the “reward,” the essence of my being available to psychic reality, moving in relationship with, in response to, the influence of psychic reality throughout my life. I have always been attuned to, aligned with, the Tao, with the flow, the current, the drift of life and being through all of the times and places, the here, now’s, of life over the entire scope of life, and have “reaped what I have sown,” without knowing what I was doing or that I was sowing anything. We are always sowing something. The more attentive we are, attuned we are to who we are and what we are doing, the better the outcomes for us over the full course of our life, without our trying to achieve any outcome at all, just doing what was called for in each time and place of our living. This is the magic and the mystery of life at one with life, which is how we all are asked to live–and it is never too late to start living that way. Here and now is always the ideal time and place to begin doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for. Doing the right thing at the right time in the right place in the right place, just as the Tao has always asked that things be done.

  11. Not forcing. Not pushing. Not shoving. Not insisting. Not striving. Cooperating. Listening. Looking. Seeing. Hearing. What’s what and what needs to be done about it here, now. Communing with the present. Being present with the present. For the good of the present moment. The here, now. What is called for? How? When? Where? Living at one with the Tao of life and being in each situation as it arises.

  12. Benefiting and profiting from not trying to benefit and profit. From not caring about benefiting and profiting. Being aware only of here, now and what is called for, when, where and how for the sake of doing that and only that alone. This is living innocently with a noble heart in all times and places. Doing that, living in this way is the way of living well-enough and doing well-enough in all times and places. Why ask for more than that?

  13. I have said before here that Carl Jung said, “There is in each of us another whom we do not know.” Our place is to get to know The Other Within. Begin with thinking of The Other Within as our psychic connection, as Psyche Within, and see if The Other Within has a gender preference. Ask the question and wait for a reply. It may come instantly and it may come as a dream tonight or next week. Don’t be in a hurry, just wait. If you care to, you can also ask for an actual, physical symbol to represent The Other within and see what comes to mind, instantly or eventually. We are making psychic reality real–the imaginary becomes real, tangible, actual when we treat it as though it is, and psychic reality is the foundational actuality of the physical universe. The spiritual is physical and Quantum Mechanics would not be surprised to hear so, and has known so from its beginning. We are following the path of Quantum Mechanics in taking up the work of making the immaterial real, actual, tangible, personable, factual and undeniable.

    As we become comfortable with emptiness, stillness and silence, it becomes an inner world that we can rely on to ground, stabilize, guide and direct us in an inward and intuitive way to know what is called for and needs to be done in response to our outer circumstances, and “dropping into the silence” becomes the equivalent of Jesus’ injunction to “pray always.” Living from the silence is living from our intuitive awareness/realization/enlightenment/awakening/knowing what’s what and what is called for/needed to be done about it here, now. And the imaginary becomes real “like that.”

  14. If we think of Psyche as fundamental/foundational reality–the stuff of which everything is made, matter and spirit/life/energy–and the Tao as the flow of life and being, then Psyche/Tao is all there is. And we can participate with Psyche/Tao through consciously aligning ourselves with Psyche and Tao in doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for in each situation as it arises, not for our own advantage but for “the good of the whole,” assisting the movement of life and being along the lines of the flow of life-being-energy through the experience of here, now, as we “chop wood, carry water,” and “eat when hungry, rest when tired,” and do what it takes to “take care of business” in each here, now that comes along.

  15. Donald Trump is the environment in which we conduct the business of assessing what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for and what needs to be done about it here, now in every situation as it arises. We the people have always been at the bottom of the social order, lacking the tools and the wherewithal to do what needs to be done, where, when and how it needs to be done in the time left for living. While those with the tools and the wherewithal to do what needs to be done aren’t interested in doing it, preferring instead to give themselves to idle pursuits pertaining to personal pleasure.

  16. Anyone could look around and see this isn’t getting it done. And that has been the story of life and being, of Psyche and the Tao from the beginning of life and being. It is a travesty and a sham. Those who could won’t and those who would can’t. And we waste our lives going nowhere doing nothing–and this is all we have to show for our efforts through eons of sun rises and sunsets. I feel completely justified sitting in my recliner looking out the window. And look forward to doing it again tomorrow.

  17. No plan. No agenda. No objective. No aspiration. No ambition. Just waiting. Just watching. Just looking. Just listening. Just seeing. Just hearing. Just knowing what’s what. What’s happening. What’s called for. In each situation as it arises. And doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done. Doing the right thing, in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, time after time. So that everything is as it needs to be here, now. Then dropping back into the emptiness/stillness/silence to wait and watch, look and listen…knowing what’s what, what’s happening and what’s called for in each situation as it arises as “circumstances beget circumstances” (An old Taoist observation) throughout what remains of life to be lived. Word without end. Amen.

  18. Knowing what brings us to life is essential knowing. Knowing what depletes us, drains us and leaves us lifeless is also essential knowing. Vitality directs us throughout our life. We go where the life is and stay away from the places life cannot be. We know what is life and what is death for us, just as we know what is “YES!” for us and what is “NO!” for us. We only have to listen to what we know to know what we need to know to live the life that is right for us and avoid the life that is wrong for us.
  19. Here’s an exercise I recommend for you: Pray as you normally would to the god of the bible and theology, and ask that god to introduce you to the Psyche/Tao god of all and everything. And see where it goes.

  20. Psyche/Tao envisions all we have known of God through the ages, which also serves as a mirror of the best we have known about ourselves. We are one with the god of Psyche/Tao, and when we are conscious of being one with Psyche/Tao, none of the other gods we have imagined in all the pantheons of those gods could begin to match us in terms of the positive qualities those gods represent. When we are at our best we are the best that could ever be. And if we cannot sustain it for long that is only because we have other things on our mind that require our attention and break the spell of the Holy Other that we also are, and know it in the best moments of our best days. We are what we worship, or can be when we put ourselves into the role of PsycheTao and love one another as we are capable of doing. If you spend some time with this idea, you will know it is so. No?

  21. That being the case, all you have to do is sit still, be quiet and become conscious of your realizations to know that you are quite capable of enlightenment and awakening and of living as though you are enlightened/awakened/compassionate/etc. and doing so just by paying attention, knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises and doing what needs to be done about it, when, where and how it needs to be done, which is all the Buddha and Jesus, etc. ever did. The Buddha said, “You are the Buddha!” The Christ said, “You are the Christ!” And they knew what they were talking about. When we think about it, we know it is so.

  22. We are capable of realizing/recognizing the Buddha in the Buddha and the Christ in the Christ. If we can realize/recognize it in them we can realize/recognize it in ourselves if we would but get out of our way and see what we look at when we look at ourselves, and stop giving ourselves over to the un-Buddha-like and un-Christ-like aspects of ourselves, and thinking that is who we Really are. We are the Buddha, we are the Christ–all it takes is acknowledging/ realizing that it is so and living as though it is for it to be so. And if you are screaming “NOT SO! NOT SO!” now, I invite you to begin living as though it is so for it to actually be so. Do this for me: Live to see how close you can come to it actually being so in each situation as it arises for the rest of your life. How about it? What do you say?

  23. Think of Psyche as the foundation of life and being. Think of the Tao as the guiding principle of the Cosmos controlling direction and flow through time and space, through when, where and how. Put them together and we have what, where, when and how. Psyche/Tao. One thing not two.

  24. I am a proponent of living as though it matters how we live even though I realize that on a lot of levels it doesn’t matter at all. Because on some level it matters to someone, me, for instance, my children, other drivers on the highway, etc. And not just matters–it makes all the difference. So, I live in light of the difference I do make and don’t bother with it not making any difference whatsoever. Some impact somewhere is impact. No?

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

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