Monthly Archives of: June 2023

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Environmental Chaos and Mindlessness

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Before we congratulate ourselves for being an intelligent, wonderful species, we need to get our act together and stop ruining the entire planet for ourselves and all other species. (I, like my mother, was very good at having very accurate premonitions. I am currently 71; when i was a child, i had a premonition that human beings would ruin the planet by causing too much pollution.) Currently, the pollution and smoke in the Midwest are so bad that i have to wear a mask when outdoors. And temperatures are soaring. Unfortunately — and tragically — the poor birds, insects, and other creatures of nature do not have masks to wear. They must remain outdoors and they are truly suffering. (I have been in tears about it.) And i do not care to write this but it’s true… lately, scientists are saying that the Doomsday Glacier (i.e., the Thwaites Glacier) is melting much faster than previous predictions have suggested. They say that it’s hanging on by its fingernails. Its melting, in turn, will disrupt the oceanic currents that have been necessary for regulating and balancing Earth’s global climate. And, there are plenty of people — like my next-door neighbors — who think that manmade climate change is a myth. We all need to curtail global environmental mindlessness and do much better for the sake of the earth and its creatures.

Before All of the Smoke Arrived … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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The Bliss of Being Beyond All of the Baggage that Others Gave You to Carry…

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When you were a very young child, before society gave you all kinds of baggage to carry (mentally), you were euphorically joyful, deeply inquisitive, and full of bliss. Then you felt eternal, timeless, and profound, and you were not concerned about death, religion, politics, or how to climb a ladder of success. But they loaded you up with the baggage that they had accumulated (and concomitantly, a lot of the real beauty of life dissipated in consciousness over time). Perhaps you can do yourself a real favor and perceive again (without depending on any accumulated baggage). Perceive without all of their concepts weighing down upon you. Without all of the psychological baggage, perhaps you can be young and full of joy and living magic again.

Clinging to Easy Substance … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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One Normally does not Post Videos but this One is an Exception…

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Yes, one doesn’t normally post videos and one normally doesn’t like to watch them but the following short video — which was sent to me by friends in Canada that i used to live with and do volunteer work with, for six months, making non-competitive games — is an exception. The video is very sweet, in my honest opinion! Please watch it!

The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders
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Perceiving Directly Beyond Conditioning…

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Pristine perception is not observing through a screen of conditioning. Very many of us look at things just as we were programmed to look… which really isn’t looking at all. To perceive without conditioning interfering requires a very dynamic mind that is not easily influenced by others. Such unconditioned observing is innocent, unsullied, profound, without a center, and has little to do with robotic reactions with their concomitant opinions and labels. Pristine perception does not involve the limited circumference that a psychological center brings about. Such perception is untethered, insightful, and — not being secondhand — is beyond methodology and imitation. Profound perception goes beyond mere recognition and remembrance. It is an effortless explosion of intelligent freedom.

Little by little … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Living with Suffering

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Suffering is part of life. We all suffer. We suffer physically and we suffer psychologically. Physical suffering is unfortunate oftentimes, and often some of us get more than our fair share. When one suffers, one is not just suffering alone; the whole of humanity and life shares in that suffering; it is the suffering of life. Sometimes, we automatically run from suffering in a robotic, conditioned, thoughtless way. If one is intelligent, one can allow physical suffering to flower naturally somewhat (without just being totally negative about it). Physical suffering is often a signal… and we need not be too overwhelmed with some of these signals (as long as we are doing everything we can to live a healthy and responsible life).

Additionally, there is psychological suffering. The mind can suffer with grief, with fear, with sorrow, with depression, loneliness, and boredom. Habitually manifesting as grief and sorrow can, for instance, take its toll on the body; it can cause high blood pressure, strokes, and all kinds of things. One’s sorrow, one’s fears, one’s grief… are all not separate from what one actually is. One can, without effort, psychologically die to grief, fear, to sorrow (and such things). And merely dwelling in (and “as”) thoughts is a form of sorrow. Thoughts are merely virtual, symbolic images, and existing merely as virtual, symbolic images is intrinsically a form of suffering. And thoughts (and psychological images in time) are usually the sources of fear and anxiety. One can psychologically die to the endless chattering of thoughts; such a dying is inherently a blessing. Look at things directly and not just through a psychological screen of learned images and labels. It is the images and labels that take effort to manifest, which is not the case with direct perception and pure seeing. But we make effort into an endless habit and then claim that we can’t exist without it. Effort takes time; wise (pristine) perception is timeless. Compassion is instantaneous (and has an element of timelessness), by the way.

Coprolite — Fossilized Dinosaur Dung … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023