one budding diminutive why
staring at the sky
in that beautiful youthful wonderment of innocence
beyond piggish power
and far from cultivated fear
so beyond the grip of authority
beyond stuffy temples
and stale priests and gurus
beyond tests
and drunken parties
sweet sky staring
further than thought’s weary boredom
and so far away from cold shoulds and musts
alive
whole
and unprogrammed
also looking down
of course
at tiny grasshoppers and katydids
I’ve read statements by people, in blogs and elsewhere, where they say, for example, “I meditate for 20 minutes a day.”
Please!
Meditation cannot be practiced. It is a quietude of the mind that is not made by some projected image of a central controller. There is no central controller, or “I,” or “me” that can cause meditation. Meditation is not a mere sequential effect or event (in time) brought about by some predetermined cause (i.e., by some form of causality). True meditation is timeless and is not what can occur by any methodology in (and “as”) psychological time. If you think that you are causing so-called meditation to happen for a specified period of time (each day or whatever), it is — unfortunately — a form of glorified self-hypnosis.
Real meditation is not even what one can “know” is happening. It is beyond the field of the known. One can neither practice it nor know that it is happening… and that is its beauty. But most people are so addicted to their need to categorize and “know” things that they feel frightened or insecure with not existing (mentally) as the known. They perpetually cling to the apron-strings of the known. They have to know that they are meditating or know that they are practicing meditation… all of which are not real meditation whatsoever.
Or they say such things as, “Well I am working on perfecting my meditation,”… or “I am practicing my meditation more and more each day.” Who (or what) is this so-called “I” that is supposedly doing such things? Really, if we are at all honest, it is a protrusion of thought (i.e., an image created by thought) that takes credit for being a central controller or central (mental) orchestrator, of which it is (in actuality) neither. Most people — plain and simply — are afraid to transcend the false sense of security that the primitive notion of a central “I” projects as. However, a false (fabricated) central “I” that thinks it is meditating is neither meditating, nor an actuality, nor truly central. (Past blogs that one has written explain this more; read them if confusion exists at this point.)
Real meditation may occur when the mind, without effort, is aware beyond superficiality. That means that it is not merely attached to the field of the known. The known is always limited; it is grossly circumscribed. Wisdom is meditation, a non-concocted quietness, which may happen throughout the day without deliberate intent. Then, perhaps, what is eternal, sacred, unlimited, and beyond words may enter. But it does not enter if false notions, false practices, and false images are perpetually clung to.
Real meditation can be a blossoming of the mind. But if you (metaphorically) cling to fake, fabricated flowers all of your life, nothing profound will happen.
Don’t be a torpid, sluggish mind, indifferent about the environment, about others, and about goodness. We’ve been donating a lot, over the years, to all of the Hurricane victims (both to charities for humans and for dogs), including (recently) Dorian. These hurricanes are worsening over the years due to global warming. I see some bloggers who claim to love nature, yet they travel — in jets and planes that spew out tons of pollutants — to distant countries or far distant places to get “great nature photos.” I’ve been unfollowing such hypocritical behavior blogs. I’m not afraid of devils or goblins around Halloween. I’m more concerned about people who treat the earth wrongly, indifferently. We all can do more to help nature; we all could do less harmful things. Please watch the following Greta Thunberg video. I feel very sorry for kids these days; if things do not change, they — because of the increase in carbon dioxide — will not be able to breathe properly in a few short decades. 30% of all birds in North America (alone) have gone extinct in the last 50 years; they are the canaries in the coal mine, but most adults just don’t see it enough.
Fourteen steps climbed to the top
from the bottom
An hour and fifteen minutes moved a short hand
and a long hand
One fishing line ignorantly reeled in
what it thought it wasn’t
Three opinions typed what
was surely right
Seven sayings scanned the screen
in a zigzag fashion
Thirty-seven pieces of candy
looked forward to Halloween
Twenty-five Black-Eyed Susans were arrested
for trespassing
It takes a lot of hard work to keep the colony healthy and thriving but i
realize that the colony and i are one. We are each other. What each of us does is done for all. (Unlike those ruthless, competitive, bipedal apes, we are 100% cooperative and act for all.)
So here i am,
hauling another large bounty of meat for the colony to feast upon.
Maybe now i will finally get the recognition that i deserve.
Maybe now i will be the great worker-ant that all of the
other ants will aspire to be like.
But first, i must get this great bounty to the anthill.
While they are feasting, they will be thinking of me.
Oh lucky me for finding this treasure of voluminous, wonderful meat!
P.S. — Don’t cringe! (I know that you bipedal apes are watching… and judging.) You bipedal apes eat hairy cattle and pigs and unquestioningly think and feel that it isn’t gross in the least.
So don’t judge!
There is a vast, timeless sacredness that is beyond the illusory patterns of the world. It did not create this world and it rarely manifests itself to those in it. (The creation of the world or universe by a separate, calculating deity is a rather barbaric conceptualization inherited from our ancient forebearers.) This sacredness is ineffable; it is beyond words and the representation of words. (Most all words are symbols and are merely representations.) It is beyond the framework of time. All sequential patterns of words (and mental images) are time. What is merely caught in time cannot touch or approach the timeless. There is an innocence, a wholeness of mind, beyond thought/thinking, that can be open to a visitation of this timelessness, (and that can also involve insights that may be reflections from such timelessness). Theories and beliefs have nothing to do with it.
It can only visit you; you cannot visit (or approach it). The “you” (i.e., that learned image of a “central me”), anyway, cannot merely exist as the illusion that it is (for a likely communion with that timelessness to take place). Mankind, for the most part, being caught in rather vapid sequential symbols of thought/thinking, tends to go on suffering, go on in limitation and time.
“That’s one small step for arachnid, one giant leap for arachnidkind.”
______________________________________________________________________________
They beat us to it.
Neil Armstrong didn’t realize that he had a spider hitching a ride on his spacesuit (and that it jumped off and was what actually took the first lunar step). 🙂
There was a clock
with many hands
And the space between a certain hand
at a specific area of the face
(i.e., that limited space between the hand and the face)
constituted a certain consciousness
Now each of the hands had different lengths and colors
and different numerals and experiences upon the face
to go through
There were black hands with long lengths
there were white hands with short lengths
there were wide little yellow hands
there were thin long red hands
For one space of a hand to hate another space of a distant hand
was insanity
since each hand was a part of the same one clock
For one space of a hand
at four
to want to eventually be wiser at eight
was foolish
since the space at four
could never really be the space at eight
Unless the space at four
could fully realize that
it was the space of all of the other hands
There is the limited little dull space of the segregated self
and there is the not-so-limited timeless space of vast intelligence
vast compassion
Which would you rather be?
One takes no time whatsoever to get to
It was such tremendous luck finding this big green meal for the colony
It is very difficult to move all of this fine meat toward our anthill but
when I get it to the colony I will become a
great heroine
I will be known as the one who courageously
brought a lot of protein for the many larvae
all the while risking being stepped on by
those giant frightening bipedal apes
I will be revered and may even be promoted to
the job of attending to the Queen
Oh I am so very excited and happy
Each living creature of life has a sensitive vibration of feeling, and many have a cherished awareness. We human beings somehow think that ours is “superior,” better, and magnificent. However, with much of our fancy ideas and thinking, we are destroying the ecological balance of the whole… of the globe. We perceive and think in the ways that we were taught to perceive and think… primarily in parts, fragmentarily. We see the so-called “outer environment” fragmentally, as what can be used piecemeal, to be exploited, manipulated, and used.
However, the so-called outer is really not separate from the inner. The observer is not separate from the observed. Similarly, space and matter are not separate from what time is. We are of matter’s (thought’s) doings; we are thought, time, and the movement of time. The intelligence of meditation takes place when thought is not merely habitual and endless. Thought/thinking is always partial, always fragmentary, and sequential. Real meditation is consciousness beyond the stirrings of its content; it is an effortless, unplanned, holistic quietness beyond mere fragmentation and sequential patterns. The timeless can only reveal itself when the mind intelligently perceives beyond the fragmentary movement of its content.
Are you a word, an image
that you cling to,
that is claimed to have “control of all the other words”?
Winged and ready
to softly swirl
a long way off from
man’s sad sordid fabrications and smoggy surgings
Bright eyes see
beyond miserable madness(musts and can’ts)
and will fly
beyond stale circumscriptions
Will we succumb to whirlwinds of hard
indifference?
Will they plant their deadness into
our innocent minds?
That is up to you
We
(too many of us)
have treated nature as
a thing to be used
to be exploited
and not as a living beautiful delicate
extension of ourselves
to be guarded cherished protected
respected
loved
and cared for
Violence not only involves shooting bullets, war, causing bloodshed, and physically abusing people. It often occurs in (and “as”) more subtle or less obvious forms that people do not perceive as what is involving violence. Conformity, remaining in a mold that you were programmed to be in, indifference, and imitation are indicative of violence. Many lick the boots of authority, stay trapped in narrow, separative views about being a superior race, country, or religious group. Many of these things tend to separate people socially, religiously, globally, psychologically and otherwise… and are (whether we like to admit it or not) forms of violence, conflict. Many of us worship authority and power, the people with a lot of money and influence, and many of us ignore the person who is bereft of much intelligence and financial success. Many of us are ruthlessly competitive, which is a form of violence (that we were miseducated to accept and think is normal and wonderful)… while real compassion, much cooperation, and holistic awareness (in the classroom) are still rarely touched upon.
Educating children in a run-of-the-mill, standard, ordinary fashion is a form of violence. Cramming 30 kids in a stale classroom and indoctrinating them to conform to a lemming-like existence, to be slaves and victims of comparison, competition, and separative views, is violence.
Mindlessly doing things that pollute the environment, without deeply considering the consequences or trying to alter one’s behavior, are forms of violence. One can go on and on, further upsetting people about the forms of violence that they contribute to (or that they may be involved in). What about violence ending? Merely trying to control violence may not be a full, prudent answer to ending violence. Psychologically, the controller is not really separate from the controlled. A broken, miseducated, limited mind, trying to control violence, will only go so far… to a very limited extent. It will operate within (and “as”) the confinements of its limitation. For violence to fundamentally end, the mind must go beyond its conditioning and limitations; it cannot likely do that if it comfortably remains circumscribed by the limitation of others. Most people, of course, will just not care about this. Limitation, imitation, and mere conformity seem to be the norm.
A true love of nature stays local as much as possible and avoids using deadly fossil-fuel jet planes and fossil-fuel road vehicles to travel world-wide to go to “exotic” nature places; such worldwide-sight-seeing (and picture-taking) is not loving nature; nature is not a Disney Amusement Park. Our globe is very delicate, fragile, and we have been brainwashed and conditioned to think nothing of traveling long distances for mere amusement purposes. Aircraft emit staggering amounts of CO2, the most prevalent manmade greenhouse gas. If you love nature, stay local.
Perfect symbiosis … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
His inquietude made him what he was…
a repetitive jumble of endlessly clamoring
mental symbols that were not realities
(i.e., they were the typical unreal, fabricated images of the mind).
Her quietude was the immense beauty that she was…
a comprehensive wholeness of undivided reality,
actualities of timeless life movement beyond the known
(i.e., beyond mere superficial symbols of thought).
Neural Networks Personified … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The very wise ToadMaster perched near the toadstool,
and with his croaky voice, he summoned all of the little tadpoles to swim up to the riverbank
to hear another lesson.
He, in his sagely way, bellowed, “Unfortunately, many of the upright, large apes — that we have mentioned in the past — foolishly refuse to judiciously see that they too evolved from swimming fish, even as you here, as swimming tadpoles (through a long passage of time), will soon be leaving your aquatic existence to join our terrestrial lot. What is even more unfortunate is that the upright apes continue to mindlessly throw toxic debris into our water habitats and also
onto the beautiful terrestrial domain that you will all soon be graduating to.
The upright, large apes continue to make things that destroy things. The upright apes can be downright
destructive and dangerous, though some of them are very kind and considerate. Overall, the whole world’s
life forms are all rapidly disappearing due to what these, large bipedal creatures are mindlessly doing. Even as they claim that one of their kind is a God, they endlessly continue to pour cement and plastic over living things and spew out much toxic debris, killing our planet. They often do what is called “mowing their lawn,” which they think is very beautiful (though such activity callously cuts and kills many precious creatures, including us amphibians.) When you hop on land — which you all will be doing soon — do so with extreme caution, and avoid these large, bipedal creatures at all costs… and please
do your best to survive in the excessive heat (due to the climate rapidly changing).”
_____________________________________________________________________________________
If you have time, please watch the following 60 Minutes video on ocean plastic and pollution…
The Very Wise ToadMaster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
More, yet again, is presented here on psychological time. Most of us still function — in the psychological-sense — as if we are in time, as if we are (somehow) something separate from (or apart from) time. The best scientists, including Albert Einstein, have told us that time and space are not two separate things; they have told us that spacetime is one holistic thing. Yet we go on in this barbarian, primitive way… acting as if we are merely “in time” and not acting with the intelligence that sees that we are indeed what time is. The thoughts that we exist as actually exist as networks of neurons and neural components in (and “as”) matter in our brains. Our thoughts emanate from (and depend upon) a very material process… involving matter. This matter — this brain oriented matter — must be constituted of physical materials just like what is contained in stars and planets. This matter is, per se, a form of space. And space and time are not two separate things; they are one. They are different in their aspects, but they are one. We are time (not merely in time).
Now here is the crux of the matter (that we are pointing to). Let’s say you wish to (psychologically) “get better” in time. That distance, that is from where what exists “now” to what “you say you ‘will be'” takes up psychological space. It is a limited (psychological) space projected concerning a “here” to “there.” When you see someone of a very different familial or racial heritage than you, there often exists — in each of many people — a psychological space between “you” and “them,” between your group and their group. What we are suggesting is that the limited space of “here” to “there,” with your “I” or “me” psychologically “getting better in time” situation, is remarkably similar to the space separation with your “you” and “them” situation. We are all extensions of the same holistic spacetime movement, and “as it,” in reality, we are not separate things. Some perceptive people will see this; others (i.e., most) will just go on being stuck in primitive perspectives and will go on being greedy about the future and indifferent about others. You are time; space too is what you are… and if that space is limited and illusory, consciousness will be limited and illusory. If you merely remain as that limited space between “now” and “tomorrow,” and if you merely remain as that limited space between “you” and “them,” then primitive illusion is what you are; and primitive illusion is not separate from what suffering and ignorance is.
Right now we are a society that gobbles up tons of synthetic pills (instead of solving the real, fundamental problems about health and mental wellbeing); we overpopulate the planet and do all kinds of hateful and callous things to “others”… including “other life forms.” Many of us were miseducated to be stuck in indifference, separation, and blindness… and the wealthiest powers that be (at the top) are delighted… (although, in reality, they are suffering and are a tremendous cause of suffering).
That timeless and immense perception can only occur when limitation is understood… when limitation ends psychologically.
Wild Blue Vervain and Bumblebee … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Looking beyond the darkness … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
9/11 was an extraordinarily tragic thing. Far worse than 9/11 is losing the ecological balance of the earth. The earth is currently collapsing, nature-wise, because of our shortsightedness. Heartless political forces, so-called big business, and indifferent so-called humans are zealously steering many of us in the wrong direction. We all need to do much more. A collapsing earth is a most terrible thing. Stay local, use alternative energy, recycle, and vote green.
Marla, my wife, said that my poems occasionally need to be more uplifting, so the first poem (here) is meant to fulfill that end. The second poem is what was written before her comment.
Poem #1
Here in his hands
is a flowery treasure
with sweet petals and leaves
much joy beyond measure
He is of hopes and images where
as he ascends up in the elevator
flowing fields of smiling imaginary angels
open doors that were dreamt of later
Can we lift a luminous whole
and bring new minds out of below
rise to the top ever so mindfully
in a towering highrise deep in the heart of Chicago?
(Well, elevators are uplifting, aren’t they?)
Poem # 2
There was a pond
and every time a frog jumped into the pond
the pond became a little froggier
a little splashier
There was a grasshopper
and every time he landed upon a weed
the weed became a little leggier
a little jumpier
There was a propagandizing political news-channel
and every time a person watched it
the television became a little duller
and a lot more dim-witted
Leopard Frog, a species that will not survive long in a world filled with crass people who do not act diligently to prevent global warming and who think that “Windmills cause cancer.”. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
(Based on a true story…)
They called her Little Icky Vicky(and she
cried a lot in pain)today
because of her distorted facial features
many people stared then quickly looked away
I called her Victoria & amiably sat next to her in grade school(&
always with her was very very kind)
There’s a lot of cold(cruel kids who name-call
with dark dead hearts)and blind
[Side Note: We saw the movie The Peanut Butter Falcon over the weekend. It is highly recommended. It contains scenes involving both bullying and compassion.]
Not Mere Facial Beauty but Beauty Deep Within … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Whom are we kidding? Most people do not change fundamentally no matter what you tell them, no matter what you write about. We are writing here about changing immeasurably beyond what most people consider “changing” to be. I do blogging mostly for one reason only: to help people to explore their true relationship with everything and look into the possibility of discovering something really sacred (beyond what most of us merely conceptualize about by what was implanted into us by old traditions and antiquated customs). Medals aren’t given to those very few in the world who were truly enlightened (i.e., visited by that ineffable, eternal energy). Halos aren’t given either. (Far too often, unfortunately, it is the blind leading the blind and it’s one hell of a mess out there; a lot of people assume that they can clearly see… according to what was spoonfed into them.) Real perception is a radical and beautiful explosion beyond what you were merely taught.
Speaking of seeing, my macro-nature photos are all well and good but, fundamentally, they are two-dimensional snapshots of the past that are rather trivial in their own superficial way. (The photos are squat compared to the prose writings offered in terms of the possible value to people’s lives regarding going beyond gross conditioning and limitation.) Much of what i write — we are referring to the prose stuff here — is only mildly deep (i.e. we could go much deeper), though a good portion of it does go somewhat deeper. Will what i write help many people to change fundamentally? (Probably not.) A real, fundamental change would leave a person totally shocked at what the implications are… and totally shocked by what actually, phenomenally happens; a totally different kind of human being, from the standard, same-old fare, would emerge. But the chances of that occurring are very small indeed. People, in this sense (i.e., the sense that we are talking about) — due to deeply ingrained conditioning, etc. — just do not change. They basically (fundamentally) remain the way they were.
Yellow Tiger Swallowtail … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Resting on a leaf
this Wordful Wednesday
and
being wordless doesn’t matter one damn bit if
you don’t do very compassionate things
for people and for animals and plants
Damselfly Resting ..,. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Here is a place
where everything is not
so everything is never here
where delusive selfishness reigns in its spot
And timelessness an eternally sweet wholeness
where when doesn’t matter
while “getting to heaven” is foolish
like tissue paper in busy rainfall clatter
Diminutive Leafhopper Nymph (just 2 or 3mm long) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wishy and Washy were fun-loving gals
and many folks knew that both were loyal (trueblue) pals
Washy (without Wishy) went to the laundromat (with a basket that she had her clothes in);
later, the clothes were all swishy and went into full-spin
Wishy, however, was sitting in her comfortable, convenient chair
pining for great nature photos at which she could stare
So, instead of viewing blog photos of nature (which you often appreciate)
get over to the clothes-washer and put your laundry in (because it’s getting late)
Purple Wildflowers … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Hermann Minkowski and Albert Einstein taught us about how space and time are not two entirely different things but are, together, one. However, most people just do not get what that means, psychologically and fundamentally, including a lot of supposedly smart scientists. Years ago, when i was much younger, i used to hang around the quantum physicist Professor David Bohm, whom Einstein fondly called his “spiritual son.” Bohm was a famous scientist in his own right and when we discussed things, i was already well aware of the implications of spacetime and what that meant psychologically and on a larger scale.
Space and time are not two separate entities; together they are one. If you look at nature and people merely with psychological separation, with psychological space, as most people do, that very separation helps to support and produce an abstracted, psychological “I” or “me.” If you perceived without such (learned) separation, the “I” or “me” need not exist (which would be fundamentally way more accurate). If you say, “I will be trying to be ‘good’ so that I can eventually get to heaven,” you are supposing that you are something separate from time (in time)… rather than the actuality of being what time is. Your brain consists of matter (which often functions to react as thoughts), and matter is space, spacetime. Of course, we have to use time (in the physical world) to get to work on time or to be at a specified meeting on time. To use time to get somewhere psychologically or spiritually, however, is largely fallacious. Wishing to advance over time spiritually presupposes that you are “in time” and are not what “time is.” Mentally manufacturing a separation between you and time (except for certain time-oriented physical things, like the ones mentioned… and for using our crude, unfortunate language system) is often a process of wasting energy and is inviting great deception. Both the aforementioned psychological space separation and the psychological time separation are illusory; together, both help to create the fallacious and selfishly separate ego. (One cannot be in communion with the timeless if one is a series of fragments of time that erroneously presuppose that they are “in time” advancing spiritually.)
Eternal and orderly phenomena can exist (in humans) without the ego (i.e., without any psychological center). As we have often suggested, the central ego is essentially fallacious and illusory. Habitually looking from (and “as”) it is an illusion; it is a fallacy that most people habitually cling to. Like a man who thinks that he sees vast water in a desert — you know that age-old mirage — and insists on fishing in it non-stop, stay completely with the ego if you wish.
When discussing things in public with people, we can still politely use the word “I,” while (all the while) being fully aware of its fallacious and deceiving attributes; it is one of the misfortunes of living in a society with a barbaric system of language. Professor Bohm diligently worked on helping develop a more accurate and scientifically evolved system of language, which he called the Rheomode. Later in life, Bohm learned of the Native American Blackfoot language, and also of other members of this Native American language family, all of which are very strongly verb-based and do not divide the world into solid categories (i.e., nouns) but, instead, describe in terms of processes and related movements. Link to short Professor David Bohm Video.
Green Treehopper … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
?what kind of heathen sacrilegiously writes
on a consecrated,wordless day,
asking us to transcend all of our mindless traditions
[Note: Today’s posting was inspired by a comment by a wonderful blogger that i follow who, last Wednesday, in a “Wordless Wednesday” that i posted, graciously commented that my words were missed. Thank you much, A Curious Introvert ! … and hugs to Cutie Fuzzy Doggy.]
Let’s follow Daddy-Long-Legs … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
O
h $
that
top that
so many are
struggling to get to
Is it worth all of the time & competition?
Is surpassing and suppressing those below and impressing those above worth it?
When you finally get to the top, is there really genuine happiness there or is it an empty lie?!
Getting to the Top … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
at the apex of this world’s littleness
perched in a carnivorous bigness
king of his airy domain
making a mockery of mere helicopters and planes
alert rascal of the skies
resting razing beyond gross separative nationality
and manmade stale flags of fabric
ation
Whitetail Dragonfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Our neural networks — much like a computer — are hardwired and conditioned to accept and fully believe in a central (free-will oriented) regulatory agent whom we call “I.” This “I” to each of us, seems very concrete, dependable (i.e., always there to control), and stable. We never deeply question whether such a “center” really exists in the first place. I maintain that there is no legitimate “I,” which, of course, seems contradictory, (due to the crude structure and barbaric evolutionary phase of our current language system).
When one talks to people about there being no “I” they tend to feel rather apprehensive, threatened, and psychologically uncomfortable. After all, to them, one is threatening the very core of their psychological framework. Our physical body, the organism, perceives largely through the eyes. The eye tends to be what focuses on and examines things. A similitude exists in us (mentally) between the physical “eye” and our concept of the “I” of the mind. We say that the “I” examines; we say that the “I” perceives; we say it was decided by “me.” The brain’s associative patterns are, in pretty much everyone, deeply hardwired and conditioned to constantly be referring to and depending upon this “I.” (The physiology of the brain is much like a walnut, and scientists have — repeatedly, in different human individuals — surgically divided the two halves, producing two separate fields of consciousness in each skull, each permanently existing with no clue as to what the other half is thinking.) Our conditioning for so many mental things is deeply pre-programmed in us, and many factors, including physical health, past education, brain chemistry, and genetic influences, pretty much nullify any real “free-will” completely, whether we like it or not. We must act — not react — carefully and diligently, and we cannot do that if we believe in a lot of crap that isn’t true. In 1932, Albert Einstein told the Spinoza society:
“Human beings in their thinking, feeling, and acting are not free
but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions.”
What we are saying is that this “I,” in a tremendous way, is fallacious and unnecessary. Clinging to it is like clinging to that childhood Raggy Ann Doll that was mentioned years ago in one of my earlier blogs… clinging to it as if it was real, alive, and a dependable pal. We could live perfectly, compassionately, and timelessly without clinging to our fallacious “I”s. Scientists, as was mentioned before in my blogging, have suggested that our universe likely operates in a totally different way than what we think is happening now… and they, the writer maintains, are correct. It was, many years ago, when i understood the fictitiousness of the “I” and the foolhardiness of the concept of “free-will,” when real security, profundity, insight into eternity, and real order came… (and not before).
This life is relatively short — in the few years that we have to live — and if you don’t get it right, via understanding and insight, if you (instead) continue to cling to a lot of rotten, crude fallacies, then the consequences are eternal (and not nearly as sweet as they could be). There is great beauty and timeless splendor in life if life is seen without much illusion.
Neural Networks or maybe just Queen Anne’s Lace … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wild Purple Loosestrife with Bumblebee … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
So here we are, Master FourEyes,
and i don’t think that what i write
will change things enough
and i don’t think that what you
nibble on will change things enough
… and that’s OK; it’s OK
And when we look at each other
each other we are
And when each other
we together look at oneself
Our unbelievable now is more timeless
than any dead(stone-cold temple that replaced the prairies)
while Mr. Death — whom so many fear — has nothing on us
because we livingly understand him(and smile with and beyond him)
more than teardrops grow upwards
and flowers flow down
Master FourEyes… who happens to be a Milkweed Beetle on, of all places, a Milkweed Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
There is the isn’t
which every couldn’t lost for
Its unquietness is what we were
and its non-absence steals our wonder
This is the joy(quite possible
that)every sorrow would ignore
Its murmuring is beyond our getting
and its thunder beyond your clapping
Tiny White-Striped Katydid on a Clover Leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The comatoseness of the average-ordinary mind is the result of a cadaverous education.
Merely looking at life through a screen of symbols and labels — as most do — isn’t really looking at life at all.
Taking a shower isn’t good enough; cleanse yourself of the dusty, stale past.
One cannot be visited by that pristine ground of eternal sacredness unless one’s mind is of intense order and purity.
There is, despite what we were taught, no (real) separate ego or central “I” controlling thought/thinking; what occurs — other than what holistic insight and direct perception reveal — is mostly all conditioned reactions that one is not separate from.
Being photogenic isn’t important. Being whole, compassionate, and perceptive is important.
After a Shower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Yes, dears, I am your long lost auntie.
We finally get to meet, my sweet loved ones!
Life’s been tough, as you can see by all of the
many timeworn scratches on my aged back.
Come, come, I have some sweet, fresh salad for you to enjoy!
You had better eat it while it’s fresh…
that way, you will get all of the best vitamins that will help you grow.
Eat plenty, eat!
After we eat, that is when
your loving auntie will hug you dearly.
We’ll hug and hug to make up for all of the lost time that
has befallen us.
Now, let’s eat, dearies, let’s eat!
Photo of Your Long Lost Auntie … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
AD INFINITUM 😦
My wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
But then, my wonderful, magnificent
pet frog croaked, and i was very sad.
The next day, he was quite alive,
and i was very happy.
Ad Infinitum… 🙂
My Eastern Gray Tree Frog named Infinitum … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Experience… what is it, and why do we exclusively depend upon it? A lot of people say, “I’ve learned from experience”; or they say, “I will learn from my experiences.” Many people go on expensive and lengthy vacations to far distant places to get “exotic experiences.”
Experiencing has its place. However, it is very limited. Many crave “new” experiences… but are such experiences — all based on patterns of recognition — really all that “new”? I am suggesting that fundamentally, intrinsically, they are all very much the same and are not really so “new”; they all depend on — and add to — patterns within the field of the mundane known. (That is why many of us retain a deep, inherent sadness, even though we travel to places that should seem new and exciting. Merely existing as a brain that is based primarily on patterns and the recognition of patterns… is sorrow. But that is what most of us were trained to exist as.) Most of us were brainwashed to crave various “wonderful” experiences (i.e., more and more experiences)… through commercials, magazines, examples in books, and by what friends and relatives say and do. (Experiences are never enough, though, because they are essentially limited. But nobody tells you that.)
Evading experience (on the other hand) can be a very childish thing, wherein one endlessly sits cross-legged, for example, thinking that one is accomplishing something special. (You know… all that phony so-called meditation stuff, which is really a glorified form of self-hypnosis.)
Is the experiencer all so separate from what the experience is? If one examines intelligently, the answer is rather obvious: “No.” We look with (and “as”) accumulated patterns and labels at things, pigeonhole them in the rather musty memory bank system and call the experience “new.” To really see something new, perception itself must be dynamically new, fundamentally different, and not based on old, stale systems (and patterns) of observation. Most people are incapable of that, and you don’t get it by sitting in a corner with your legs crossed. Additionally, you don’t get it by reading traditional so-called “religious” books that have been severely distorted over time.
There is a deep, orderly intelligence that is a true spiritual blossoming that is beyond the thoughts and fabrications of man… beyond all of the rituals, stone temples, and concocted patterns. (Those fabrications are all old, and the timeless, miraculous new does not dwell as them.) Deep intelligence is a dynamic harmony, a deep order that effortlessly flows between experiencing and going beyond experiencing. (Constant experiencing and “accumulating” only builds up the illusion of the self.) The “going beyond experiencing” factor (or dimension) is never planned or mentally arranged for. Deep, spontaneous newness and dynamic creativity are never part of a plan or contrived methodology.
Wildflower Pods … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
In my beginning is my end. — T.S. Eliot
[Note: While photographing this Monarch caterpillar, it noticed the camera and suddenly went from high activity and movement to total stillness. More of us would be better off by letting total stillness — of the mind — occur more often (even though it is not merely an occurrence and has nothing to do with time or effort).]
Monarch Caterpillar … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Once there was a very rich man who, every time he saw people in need, would quickly pass them by, saying, “Sorry, I don’t help strangers.”
Then, over a short span of time, the man lost everything. When he reached out for help, the first person who passed him by mumbled, “Sorry, I don’t help strangers.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
There was a man who, every time he looked up, worried about what was down… and every time he looked down, worried about what was up.
He suddenly died.
They buried him way down in the ground, facing up of course.
Monarch Butterfly on Cone Flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Originally posted on charles french words reading and writing: Given the horrors of the mass shootings over the weekend, clearly inspired by bigotry, white nationalism, and racism, I decided to use this post again. (https://en.wikipedia.org) In 1935, Sinclair Lewis, in It Can’t Happen Here, spoke to the idea that many Americans held that fascism could…
via It Can Happen Here: Revisited — Becoming is Superior to Being
A kind of postmortem examination
was done on him
long before his actual physical death
because unfortunately,
his brain became quite un-alive
after the innocent age of childhood.
Miseducation, brainwashing commercials,
propaganda-oriented news networks,
and being satisfied with remaining
in one dull routine after another
all contributed to his cadaverous pseudo-existence.
He often watches television and, of course, likes sports.
However, the little birds who nest in his yard
have far more compassion and life than he ever did.
Red House Finch Eggs … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Earth’s glaciers are shrinking five times faster than they were in the 1960s.
The United States used more energy in 2018 than ever before, partly because Americans drove more: 3.225 trillion miles, 12.2 billion more than 2017.
Wolves return to the Netherlands after an absence of 140 years.
A suspected rhino poacher in South Africa is trampled to death by an elephant, then eaten by lions.
The last time Earth’s atmosphere had as much carbon dioxide as it does today, there were trees growing near the South Pole.
Thawing ice on Alaska’s Denali is exposing the 66 tons of feces left by generations of mountain climbers.
Sea level rise has cost property owners on the East and Gulf Coasts more than $16 billion since 2005.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah says that the solution to climate change is to “fall in love, get married, and have some kids.”
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede who inspired the Youth Climate Strike, is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The stomachs of dead whales found in the Philippines and Italy are full of plastic trash.
Scientists discover a new species of orca of southern Chile — “The largest undescribed animal left on the planet.”
Trump’s proposed federal budget would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent.
Composite photographer Nick Brandt, whose profound works show how nature in the world is quickly dying away due to man’s indifference, says, “My motivation is my anger and despair at what we are losing, that the human race is sleepwalking its way to oblivion.”
Lacewing Insect … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Walking just walking along
gingerly and slowly swaying
waltzing alien-like from leaf to leaf
Stalking just stalking along
stick-like & Oh so lean
happily wondering whom next i can eat
Suddenly out of nowhere
a huge ominous creature appears
thrusting a blackish lens-thing right up to me
In a flash, I quickly leap away
and am so very glad
that the huge hideous creature didn’t eat me
[Note: This photo was taken about a month ago. This was the first Praying Mantis that i’ve seen this summer; it was young, just around 3cm long. And, yes — with blackish lens-thing macro camera in hand — i am the ominous, hideous creature. (You must admit, we ominous, hideous creatures are pretty huge.)]
Young Praying Mantis (praying that I don’t eat him) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The ecstasy in the green luscious garden
flaps its wings in harmony
pert antennae sensing all the smells
in the rapture beyond the kitchen window
Lovely colors moving all around
flower to flower endlessly
cares not a bit about the past
or what the future might just be
Rubbing stamen amongst the stigma
in a style Oh so clean
purity in every blossom
here between the trees and golden honeybees
Collecting nectar sweet and no antiques
living fresh in every moment
time’s illusion not for me
beyond the world’s vast confusion
Ecstasy in the Green Luscious Garden … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
If one is merely a marionette, repeating what others poured into you, then what you say and do will usually be rather robotic, quite puppet-like… though it will seem quite pleasant and socially acceptable to you (while you feel quite unique). There are so many standardized lemmings out there. To question things fundamentally, deeply, with substantial passion, takes great intelligence. That great intelligence (naturally) is largely constituted of immense vastness, which inherently includes compassion. Compassion acts beyond many of the limits of ordinary perception. It perceives beyond all of the mundane, superficial, circumscribed borders. It is not tethered by stale, dinosaurian, antiquated beliefs. Such intelligence (i.e., such profound, penetrating insight) is extremely rare in the world as it now exists; miseducation has a lot to do with it. Acceptance of mediocrity has a lot to do with it.
Wild Spiderwort … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
May i understand why people don’t understand.
And why is there such a disconnect in people’s minds
betweenthings,
between them and all other things?
They look with (and “as”) sep
ar
A
tion,
each from a center that never was a true center
and that never will be a true center…
like bubbles floating in a glass of milk
each thinking that they are separate from
the milkiness.
Beyond Separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence.
The flower at a distance always looks better than the one you are standing on.
Separation is a definite illusion.
Young Katydid pining for a distant flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Jumping Spiders, those very alert arachnids, you know, have many eyes. Some of the eyes are at the back of the head. Some even have extra eyes on the abdomen (i.e., their rear section). One of the reasons that they have eyes in such places is so that they can more efficiently see moving prey (that they can capture to eat). Another reason for having eyes in such places is that other Jumping Spiders (or other spider species or insect enemies) may try to sneak up on them (to devour them). Seeing such “attackers” affords quick reaction involving countermeasures.
We might think, “Oh, how very primitive these spiders are, to be attacking and killing each other with such violence.” Our species, it can be seen, however, still often kill each other on the so-called battlefield. “Battlefield,” by the way, is just a word or accepted term for where humans go to react ultra-violently (i.e., primitive-ass crazy). Many of us periodically celebrate those who were the most violent, calling them “great heroes.” We seldom celebrate — we rarely celebrate — those who were opposed to war. (We, instead of observing through separative countries, religions, and tribes, need to observe holistically and globally — which would help to end all wars — but most of us won’t do that, because of being firmly and stagnantly stuck in separative ruts. So the unending nonsense will continue.) To really go beyond being primitive and violent, we must observe without all of the separations that were poured into us.
Jumping Spider Observing … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
What prey are you dreaming about
tonight, my adroit, winged friend?
What shifting air currents
are floating through your
fulfilled, slumbering mind?
[Note: I was in the woods taking nature pictures and stayed quite awhile. It started getting dark and as i was leaving i saw a White Tail Skimmer Dragonfly landing low in some wild plants on the forest floor, fortunately. I knew that that meant it was preparing for sleep (there). I waited a bit — for it to really dose off — and then i slowly moved in to photograph it. Poison ivy was all around me! Please note how they wrap their legs around plants while in sleep; this stance affords stability for possible upcoming windy conditions.]
Sleeping White Tail Skimmer Dragonfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
