Camera vs. Philosophy

I don't have a philosophy.
I have a camera.

Saul Leiter

Don't Pretend Yourself

Don't pretend yourself
beyond your evolution.

Byron Katie

Believe Nothing

Believe nothing you hear,
and only one half that you see.

Edgar Allan Poe (or maybe Ben Franklin)

Something Gets Provided

When you relax into what's here,
without telling what it should be,
something gets provided.

John Tarrant

Not Worth Living

An unexamined life
is not worth living.

Socrates (Plato)

Don't Stop Questioning

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existence.
One cannot help but be in awe when
he contemplates the mysteries of eternity,

of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of this mystery each day.

Albert Einstein

Not Necessarily So

Just because you put a name on it
doesn't make it so.

Byron Katie

Slow Down

If you're in a hurry,
slow down.

Byron Katie

Be With It All

The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable,
yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe
and with the unbearable pain - to just be with it all.

Ram Dass

The Body Mirrors

The body mirrors back to us
our unquestioned thinking.

Byron Katie

What Love Is

Love is the absence
of all expectation.

Byron Katie

You Have the Power

The misunderstanding is always
on your part, and that is good news.
You have the power to take care of it.

Byron Katie

This Too Was a Gift

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand that
this, too, was a gift.

Mary Oliver

Also Mischief

I believe in kindness.
Also in mischief.

Mary Oliver

What We Notice

Life is a garden, not a road.
We enter and exit through the same gate.
Wandering, where we go matters less
than what we notice.

Kurt Vonnegut

It Is

It is what it is
until it's not.

Byron Katie

Degree of Presence

Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and
start experiencing them by degree of presence.

Alan Watts

Life However

I love life
however

it shows up.

Byron Katie

Life is Internal

All life
is internal.

Byron Katie

Nothing So Simple

There is nothing so simple
as being the Self.
It requires no effort, no aid.
One has to leave off
wrong identity and be
in one's eternal, natural,
and inherent state.

Ramana Maharshi

The Whole Point of Zen

The whole point of Zen
is to suspend the rules
we have superimposed
on things and to
see the world as it is.

Alan Watts

We Don't Like It

What we have to discover is that there is no safety,
that seeking is painful, and that when we imagine
that we have found it, we don't like it.

Alan Watts

My Only Problem

I was the only problem
in my world.

Byron Katie

What I Want

When I'm perfectly clear
what is is what I want.

Byron Katie

It Is What It Is

Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is.
And you must bend to its power or live a lie.

Miyamoto Musashi

Just Keep Going

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Be Alive Now

Your entire education has deprived you
of the capacity for living in the moment
because it was preparing you for the future,
instead of showing you how to be alive now.

Alan Watts

Bullshit Does

The truth does not require
your participation to exist.
Bullshit does.

Terence McKenna

Quietly Like Earth

I am smiling at myself today.
There's no wish left in this heart.
Or perhaps there is no heart left.
Free from all desire,
I sit quietly like Earth.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Asked in the Wrong Way

Problems that remain persistently insoluble
should always be suspected as questions
asked in the wrong way.

Alan Watts

The Truth is Revealed

The truth is revealed by removing things
that stand in its light, an art not unlike sculpture,
in which the artist creates, not by building,
but by hacking away.

Alan Watts

Who Would I Be?

I love that you listen closely to your thoughts
anytime you are under stress and that you
mindfully become aware of this sweet question:
"Who would I be, just in this moment now,
without my story?"

Byron Katie

I Was New

I saw nothing
that day on my forest walk
I hadn't seen before
yet everything was new
And I was new
as I stepped forward
into presence.

Carol Dickey

Photography is Unique

Photography is unique in that it asks for both
an inward look and outward gaze simultaneously.

David Ulrich

Age Doesn't Matter

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain