Monthly Archives of: November 2023

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Diet, Exercise, and Mindfulness…

November 30, 2023
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For the mind to be holistically mindful, keenly perceptive, compassionate, integrally balanced, and aware, the body must be in great order. What helps to maintain this order involves a well-balanced diet consisting largely of whole foods; also necessary are things like adequate exercise, sufficient sleep, and refraining from recreational drugs. Some of this is easier said than done, especially when it comes to having a good diet.

A good diet, for example, would involve getting enough Omega-3, which is an essential fatty acid. An essential fatty acid is what the body needs; it cannot adequately synthesize it on its own. A lot of people think that they can eat things like walnuts and avocados to get their Omega-3. But most people, especially men (and women who are 30 years or older), cannot adequately convert that type of ALA Omega-3 into the usable kind (i.e., the kind with DHA and EPA). Therefore, they need to get their Omega-3 from oily fish or from Omega-3-rich algae (that has the usable form of Omega-3, not the unsatisfactory ALA kind). Omega-3 is important for brain function, for suppressing arthritis, and for heart health. (Nuts — like walnuts — have other health benefits, by the way, and i eat them every day.)

Additionally, these days, farms don’t usually replenish the soil with organic, whole minerals. Therefore, it is wise to take some supplementary vitamins (especially naturally derived vitamins). Beware; some synthetic vitamins that are sold, believe it or not, are made from petroleum.


Dinner Gathering … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Intentional Meditation from a “Meditator” is a Falsity…

November 24, 2023
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[Note: I hope that many of you had a happy Thanksgiving. Beyond being “thankful,” we also need to help others in need (by donating or by doing something)… so that they too may be thankful. ]

To intentionally meditate, at certain times of the day (using certain methods), is likely very limited, false, and likely makes the mind more mechanical, more calculating, and dull. To meditate to get something out of it… is to try to do something from a motive. A so-called meditator who tries to meditate to get nirvana (or to get some kind of “special” non-ordinary experience)… is (let’s face it) out to get something. Time and greed do not (and cannot) lead one to a timeless, non-greedy dimension. Time is sequential and greed (being in time) is, likewise, sequential. The timeless is not an achievement that comes about by calculation, motives, practices, methods, or learned procedures in (and “as”) time. However, there are oodles of people (i.e., charlatans) who (all too willingly) try to instill their methods upon you. And they have plenty of secondhand beliefs that they learned from others.

The beauty of spontaneous, simple, uncalculated awareness (without motives to get something) may come about naturally — without effort — in a mind that is unsullied, uncontaminated, and innocent. And it may be that, on the other hand, the supposed central (controlling) self that tries to meditate through methodology is essentially an obtrusion of conditioned thought/thinking (that is neither central, truly controlling, nor a true initiator of anything). Trying to meditate via the effort of a so-called central controller… is neither viable nor intelligent. Even while engaging in our so-called meditation (which we learned from others), most of us are reinforcing the perpetual conditioned illusion of a center (i.e., a central ego).

To perceive without effort can occur in a mind of deep order, intelligence, and health. Such effortlessness may be beyond the limitations of sequential motives and time. Such effortlessness does not reinforce an illusory center. Bliss, eternity, and a profoundly innocent mind are not separate things.

The Trees’ Symbiotic Friends … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Thinking, Fear, and Suffering…

November 16, 2023
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Thinking, being of abstraction, is sequential in nature; therefore, it is of time; it is time. It is psychological time that creates and manifests as fear. In time, one may be despised by others; in time (i.e., in the future), one may be laughed at; in time, one may become senile; in time, one may get psychologically hurt by another. So, often, thought and its shadow (i.e., concomitant fear) manifest in (and “as”) time. And remaining in (and “as”) conditioned, sequential abstraction… is a form of suffering. Such suffering is not blissful living.

Thought is often a very necessary tool. However, all too often, we go on thinking (when thought is not necessary). This remaining in (and “as”) thought/thinking, is remaining in what is merely conditioned, merely sequential, merely symbolic, and what is merely time-bound. To psychologically die, at times, to the repetition of abstract thinking, is to go beyond fear, secondhandedness, fragmentation, symbolism, and separation. It may be that the separation between the thinker and the thought is, in itself, another conditioned, sequential misstep… another learned fabrication that isn’t true. It may be that thought creates (and is) the thinker, not the other way around. And we are afraid to have thinking stop (because we are afraid of being nothing). But this “nothing,” that we are afraid of, is a projection of thought/thinking that is erroneous and illusory. To often go beyond the limitation of abstract, fragmentary, and sequential thinking — and all thought is fragmentary, sequential, and time-bound — may be (if it is actually done) rather blissful and beyond distortion, fear, and suffering.

Chameleonic Sweetie … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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The Limited and Isolated Domain of Thinking

November 9, 2023
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One often points out here that it may be prudent to go beyond the limited and fragmentary domain of thought/thinking. One is not asking you to dive deep into a lot of philosophical abstraction. On the contrary, i am suggesting that you do something that is immensely pure, pristine, and beautifully simple… which is to not always be of (and “in”) the domain of thought/thinking. You see, thought/thinking — if we are at all honest with ourselves — is where all of the abstraction is. Most of us habitually live in (and “as”) abstraction. Our thoughts (i.e., our abstractions) are actually what we are. These abstractions are dreadfully habitual, and we do not want to let them go. Most of us even accept words as being rather equivalent to reality… even though words are merely virtual abstractions. (Sometimes words are necessary, but they are only tools.)

Too many of us are satisfied with virtual, illusory, fragmentary ways. Little wonder why the world is full of a lot of insanity and chaos. We need to wake up and change.

In the Shadows … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023