All Posts Tagged ‘awareness’

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Responsibility and Love

November 4, 2018
20 comments

 

 

When there is the negation of what order and love are not, perhaps love will be there.  There is no “you” that wills that negation, for the very self itself (i.e., the “I” or the “me”) must be part of that negation… not merely controlling it from (or “as”) a distance.  Of course, we are not suggesting harm to the body in any way; such harm would not entail love.  Love is not merely measurable (i.e., not merely of measure), so one cannot merely “know” that one has it.  Thinking and time are of measure and a mind that is merely caught up in thinking and measurement (in and “as” time) cannot love deeply (though it can easily think that it can).  Clinging to an isolated concept of “me” (apart from all of life) requires distance and a measurement of opposites.  Psychological distance and measurement create the “I” and the “I” would not exist without such psychological distance and measurement.

A lot of people say “I love you” very easily (as if one knows that one “has” it… as if it entails an absolute separate subject and object).  Is there really an “I” that is separate from what the whole world is?  Is there really an isolated “you” — that is looking from a (learned) distance, an accumulated psychological space — that is separate from what the whole world is?  Psychological separation, isolation, and conflict depend upon limited thought/thinking, and without limited thought/thinking, such separation wouldn’t exist.  

Our minds are often so very distorted and not whole.  The grocery stores, these days, are chock-full of fragmented, over-processed, pseudo-foods.  And, in the United States, for example, there is more obesity and more cancer (and strange, deleterious syndromes popping up) than ever before.  Too few of us eat real, whole foods like our grandparents did; we assimilate garbage both mentally and gustatorily, and we don’t mind being normal (and swallowing it all) one bit.  

 

 

 

Yellow Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Enlightenment

November 3, 2018
40 comments

 

 

 

While it occurs
one feels
a trillion times
more alive than
one has ever felt
before

Afterward
one doesn’t forget
the answer to the question
of whether the
immeasurably sacred
exists
or not

 

 

Lichen on Tree Branch … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Pinocchio

November 2, 2018
24 comments

 

 

Pinocchio
            you’ve told so many duplicitous lies
            in your disingenuous politician style 
            it makes me wonder 
            if your incredible nose 
            could possibly grow
            even longer

 

 

Boll Weavil (but at least it’s not voting to destroy the environment) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Insights or Non- (Part 7)

October 28, 2018
35 comments

 

 

Don’t be a second-hand, hodgepodge mix of what others (in your life) programmed you to be; perceive directly, without mere conditioning/reaction.

Quixotic, extremely idealistic behavior is often based on dead, old patterns; look at life afresh, without dead blueprints.

Don’t merely pigeonhole others with an old, categorizing-oriented brain; perceive with fresh and lucid eyes.

Many of us take immaculate care of our overly fancy cars while we guzzle sugar, starch, alcohol, and processed foods like there’s no tomorrow.

To habitually take refuge in old-fashioned beliefs may be like finding protection in a rainstorm by depending on an old, torn, metal umbrella. 

Roses are red and violets are blue… wake up and realize that what you perceive is you.

 

 

 

Female Monarch Butterfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Meditation

October 26, 2018
14 comments

 

 

Merely sitting on your can
with eyes closed
with legs crossed
while supposedly “controlling ‘your’ thoughts from a distance”
(in order to get something)
is not it.

 

 

 

Fruit-fly on a small leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Story of Lo Zu and the Atheist … (Another short Lo Zu tale)

October 21, 2018
13 comments

 

 

The elderly Lo Zu was sitting on a huge fallen log next to a beautiful pond that was not far from the village.  A much younger man, who was an atheist, came by and said to him, “Many people in the area say that you are a great wise man, a holy man, but if there is no God, then you are not a holy man, you are nothing.”

Lo Zu invited the man to sit next to him on the large, fallen log, which he did.  Then Lo Zu, said (while smiling), “We two can agree on one thing; I am nothing.”  

“Then there is no God,” the man pronounced with confidence.

Lo Zu then said, “‘God’, for most everyone, is an image (or series of images) that they have learned.  (They will insist that it is something much more than absorbed images.)  To these images, they associate power, dominance, kindly (special) protection, fatherliness, and unlimited knowledge.  However, these images (and their associative emotions) are self-protrusions of thought/thinking.”

“And so not anything real?” asked the man.

Lo Zu then said, “The sign on the road, just outside of town, that has the name of the town upon it, is not the town.  If someone steals the sign, they are not stealing the town.  If someone wants to visit the town, they do not crawl up the sign.  Additionally, to really be sure that the town is there, one must visit the town.”

“I see what you are getting at,” said the man.  “So, you are suggesting that one, such as you, can visit God.”

“Not really,” said Lo Zu.  “If one, through supposed will and choice, decides to visit ‘God,’ one is visiting one’s own learned images, one’s own learned thoughts and strong emotions associated with such thoughts.  Such a ‘visiting’ is usually a self-deluding form of acquisition that involves greed.” 

“So there is no real God,” the man insisted.

“Jumping to conclusions,” Lo Zu suggested, “may be as foolish as worshipping mere self-fabricated symbols, mere signs.   A strong belief that there is no God may be as superficial and primitive as a strong belief that there is a God.  Holistic perception inquires (without accumulated patterns) into what might be sacred; it inquires with a passion that surpasses beliefs of any kind (and actually finds out).”   

“So what are you saying?” the visitor queried.

Lo Zu replied, “I am saying that I will not encourage you to worship or to cling to any symbols of power, any symbols of divinity.  Worshiping self-created or learned images, that one projects (from what one absorbed from others), is similar to worshipping parts of oneself.  It may be that the true answer has to come to you.  (It cannot merely be visited, like an ordinary town.) The true answer is probably rather unapproachable, but that may be a real key; conclusions, accumulated images, and greed cannot expose it.  It is beyond foolish grasping.  The internal images of self are nothing when foolishness ceases.  When all of the windows are open and the room is not filled with garbage… only then can the breeze, perhaps, flow through.”

With that, Lo Zu stood up and began walking with his meandering cane and said,  “We must go; we see someone carrying a heavy burden and we will help them with it, to a certain point.  You can come along also… unless you prefer to remain stuck where you are.”

 

 

 

Bumblebee covered with Golden Pollen … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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The Story of Lo Zu and the Dog Chasing its Own Tail (Another short Lo Zu tale)

October 12, 2018
28 comments

 

 

Lo Zu, after one of his frequent walks into the fields and wooded areas of nature, came walking into the village.  He stopped to rest for a while and leaned on his sinuous pole, his meandering cane; nearby, a small group of men, all of them sitting together, continued to repeatedly laugh hysterically.

Lo Zu realized that they were laughing at the fact that a nearby dog was repeatedly chasing its own tail.  Lo Zu continued to walk again and came closer to the men who were laughing.  He heard one of them say, “That dog is really ignorant!”  All of them, except Lo Zu, continued to laugh at the dog as it continued to chase its own tail.

Lo Zu turned to face the sitting men and said, “It is so easy to come to conclusions; conclusions that are wrong.”  Lo Zu further went on, “That dog could chase that cat that is a little way down the road, but cats can quickly scratch and the dog could easily get a gravely injured eye.   Likewise, the dog could chase after that man walking across the street.  However, the man could kick the dog or throw something at it, injuring it.  Instead, the dog takes the prudent approach and, for great exercise, chases its own tail.  A most intelligent animal!  I, myself, walk daily to the meadows and woods to enjoy the sweet butterflies and creatures; therefore I get quite a bit of exercise.  I see that dog exercising ‘most every day also.  Sometimes I see it chasing butterflies, which is also a very wise and safe form of exercising.  Exercising often is great intelligence.  I see you men sitting around here a lot each and every day.  Do any of you exercise?”

“Not really,” said one of the men.  (The men were no longer laughing.)

“I didn’t think so,” replied Lo Zu.  He further added, “The beginning of this doglike life always chases its own end; let the dog be your teacher.”

 

 

 

Black Swallowtail on Thistle Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Life is not a game…

October 7, 2018
17 comments

 

 

Life is not a game.  Too many of us go through life as if the mission is to be totally entertained.  Most people are afraid of death, yet they may not have ever truly lived.   Very many people assume that they are alive.  To go through existence merely imitating others and spewing out what was poured into one by society… may not be “living” whatsoever.  It is so easy to conform.  It is so easy to just fit in the machine and be another cog in the wheel.  Only a very few have been visited by that timeless energy that enraptures and transcends consciousness.

To inquire — to really inquire — into whether or not the sacred exists, takes great passion, great profundity.  A stagnant, indifferent mind could not do it; stagnation and indifference make the actual answer all the more elusive, for the answer lies beyond limitation.  To find the true answer necessitates that the mind be of considerable order and completeness.  An incomplete mind is never fully alive, never fully whole.  

The world has far too many seeds (of consciousness) that have never sprouted, that have never really begun growing.  The answer is immeasurable and cannot be communicated about via mere fragments/words/symbols/patterns.   The minds of most people consist largely of mere fragments/words/symbols/patterns.

We can change.

 

 

Green Grasshopper on his favorite leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Flower

October 5, 2018
21 comments

 

This isn’t one of those fake
       flowers
       all artificial
It is a growing (yard-flower)
       of life
It doesn’t have artificial
       bottle-sprayed
       drops
They are genuine drops
       from the 
       crying skies

What is important
       is not in 
       the pictures you take
       or the money you make
What is important
       is to be
       someone who is 
       not artificial
       and not someone 
       stuck there to be yanked
       from strings by
       mediocrity

 

 

Bellis Pompomette … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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This is the Poem that came out of the grave

September 29, 2018
18 comments

 

 

This is the poem 
that came out of the grave
to tell you what death is.

Everyone has avoided the answer
but here is the answer:

Death is indifference;
Death is mental fragmentation;
Death is accepting immorality;
Death is accepting mortality;
Death is belonging to separatist organizations that
one thinks are “right,” 
and death is the limited space surrounded by boundaries.

 

 

It is very rare to see two Ambush Bugs together with a victim like this.  

Two Ambush Bugs with their Bumble Bee victim on Thistle Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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We’ll Miss You Gab

September 27, 2018
43 comments

 

 

You were the best dog ever
and you are with us always
Most people don’t have a clue
about what eternity really entails
but we don’t have that problem

 

 

****************************************************************************************************

Our wonderful, little dog, Gabby (who was over 16 years old), passed away on Monday.   Marla and i really miss her!   Since we don’t have human children, this hits us especially hard.  That little sweetie was perfect in every way.   
We still have a number of other pets, including a Miniature Dachshund, Lola, (who is also quite a sweetie).  

 

Gabby … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Beyond Limited

September 26, 2018
33 comments

 

 

Let’s pull some forever out of a hat
      mail a kind letter back to oneself
and sit again wisely where always sat

Allow tears to flow back into red eyes
      and dream again of flying as a child
beyond cold gravity… blue skies

 

 

 

Getting ready to fly… Male Clouded Sulpher Butterfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Insights or Non- (Part 4)

September 23, 2018
13 comments

 

 

Silence is not an achievement that is the result of your reaction;  true silence is when conflict ends.  

Lucid, insightful wisdom doesn’t take time… but sequential, symbolic thought does.

Compassion isn’t the left arm hating the right arm and thinking it is separate.

John Lennon was right:   “Living is easy with eyes closed… misunderstanding all you see.”

Each of us is responsible for getting oneself and the world right.  Oneself includes — and is — the world.

Don’t think with a prefabricated mind, with a handmedown, archaic mentality; look at things beyond the ways you were taught.  

 

 

Wood Boring Crane Fly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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4mm Aphids on a Wild Burr Cucumber Plant

September 22, 2018
21 comments

 

 

Our diminutive world
is far different from your “big” world
but we are doing pretty darn good 

 

 

4mm Aphids living upon a Wild Burr Cucumber Plant.

Small Aphids on a Wild Burr Cucumber Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

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What are they feeding us?

September 21, 2018
31 comments

 

 


They provided us with delectable ideas
which our minds assimilated like gluttons.
We, of course, became hungry for more.
Our ravenous appetites drove us
to the next serving… and to the next.
One palatable idea after another
is what we craved; anything other
than facing the starvation of the
emptiness within.
True intelligence can only, for a
limited time, feast on the illusions they
provide.  After
that limitation is reached, real
sustenance breaks free beyond
their insipid inedibilities.
Will habit continue to feast on delicacies
of disorder?  Even the supermarkets are
full of the artificial.
It’s good to eat healthy, whole,
nourishing food.
It’s not so good to allow oneself
to be conditioned to merely
swallow a lot of mindless crap.

 

[Note:  These are not the kind of eggs that you can purchase at the supermarket.  These are 1 millimeter insect eggs on a leaf.   Note the orderly patterns in which they were laid.]

Tiny insect eggs on a leaf… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

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Praying Mantis

September 19, 2018
36 comments

 

 

As if he crawled
      out from M.C.Escher’s Dream Woodcut
      he watches the camera 
      and the camera manipulator
      waiting for
      the aloneness
      that he cherishes and lives by 
      beyond mere supplication

 

 

Praying Mantis Hanging Around… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

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Depression and Sorrow…

September 16, 2018
19 comments

 

 

Many people suffer from depression and sorrow. Many take pharmaceutical antidepressants and regularly go to clinics to receive therapy.  Of course, for some, it may involve issues based on heredity and diet.  For many, it entails accumulated psychological problems.  Most, when they were much younger, did not have such issues; in youth, they were filled with wondrous curiosity and inner vitality. Many, as they age, become jaded and unhappy, bored with the same-old-things and with the monotony of it all.

A large part of the problem lies in wrong education. Most, throughout their education, were not encouraged to be keenly aware of their own minds… to be aware of the essence of thought and thinking and to explore beyond the realm that thought and thinking manifest as. Most, from society as it currently is structured, were taught to cherish and exclusively dwell in the process of thinking… in mostly math and reading and such, and not so much with wholeness and integrity.  Few were encouraged, in their youth, to question everything and to be free from mere standard ways/procedures. These days, almost all of us are immured within the walls of thought/thinking. Most exclusively dwell in (and “as”) thought/thinking… and very few value going beyond that domain. Most have put all of their eggs into that one basket; in that, they dwell.  That basket is like a small, limited prison.  Many minds are imprisoned (i.e., deeply embedded) in dogmas, beliefs, presuppositions, antiquated systems, and isolating boundaries.

As one has said so many times before, thinking is always symbolic, always second-hand, limited, and merely representational. Yet so many cling to thinking and unquestionably exist almost exclusively as what it is. Even when most of us look at things, we are looking with (and through) the screen of thinking; such thinking involves labeling, categorizing, classifying, identifying, and pigeonholing. When most look at things, they are primarily looking with the memory bank (i.e., through retained knowledge). Such a memory bank is from the past and is always old, always of stored data. They look with (and from) the stored (old) past… and they inevitably get bored while they feel stale and full of the mundane. With this situation, antidepressants and clinical so-called experts can only help so much.  One of the functions of the human mind is to be of order and to transcend sorrow; transcending sorrow is, in itself, order.

A mind of deep awareness can often look at things without merely using the storehouse of old and stuffy memory. To perceive without relying on the storehouse of dead memory (and stale patterns of remembrance) is a living art. There is no method to this art. It does not involve old patterns that you can absorb or practice to improve yourself over time. Using thought when it is necessary but often going beyond it, the wise mind sagaciously realizes that profound bliss is not a mere remembrance. Profound joy is not labeling everything and then looking at everything through (and “as”) dead labels. To perceive without the burden of the past is real living. Real living is not the past perpetually relabeling things (with endless symbols) into the present and future. The mind that goes beyond “perception through mere symbolism and fragmented mental constructs” is a liberated, whole, free mind full of joy. 

 

All Tied Up In Knots… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Oh, Lower Case “i”!…

September 14, 2018
25 comments

 

 

As Grover on Sesame Street
      — not that i ever watch it
      with our pet parrots —
      says:  “Oh, lower case “i,”
      you are so cute with your
      little dot!”
      Grover is right!  It is a 
      marvelous letter and helps
      to represent what i am
      (even though it really isn’t
      what i am whatsoever)!

 

Two Pearl Crescent Butterflies… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

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Dragonfly

September 12, 2018
33 comments

 

 

Valient blue conqueror
of the skies
Aware mosquito slayer
and bug buster
An aerodynamic agility
turning on a dime
Posed limber and free
and thus we salute thee

 

 

Swift Long-winged Skimmer Dragonfly… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Insights or Non- (Part 3)

September 9, 2018
28 comments

 

 

Deep passion — to find out about the whole of existence — goes far beyond details and fragmentary parts.

There can be a holistic awareness, not merely of the five “separate” senses that one “has,” but rather “as” the holistic senses working together harmoniously, as one, without thought/thinking constantly interfering, separating.

When one was young, one mustered up all of the energy that one had to perceive the truth and the whole.  That’s the only way to be!

Order comes through understanding and perception… not via rigid, limited ideals which bring about conflict.

Many animals value life just as we do… maybe even more so.

Look beyond the learned patterns; see beyond the limited, learned symbols.

True wisdom goes beyond perceived borders and is therefore truly compassionate and caring.  

 

 

Scarlet-and-Blue Leafhopper …Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

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One Little Tentacle at a Time

September 8, 2018
9 comments

 

 

One little tentacle at a time
One little seed among many 
One small leaf rising to shine
One tiny bristle around plenty
One curious mind turning into this rhyme
After this line won’t be any

 

 

One Little Tentacle at a Time… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Upon Awakening

August 31, 2018
25 comments

 

 

I am not the problems, this morning,
upon waking up,
that i went to bed with.
This waking is a real awakening,
a true awakening.
It is not an awakening to some second-
hand religion or separative flag
that was shoved down my throat.
It is not an awakening to what others 
have said that i was in the past.
It is even beyond what i thought i was
in the past.
It is, very possibly, a true renewal,
a true awakening
beyond the past images and labels
about myself and others.
It is not the old and stale past
getting out of bed; it is
newness, pristine perception,
and whole, healthy action
beyond mere reaction.
It is perception beyond the secondhand images
implanted by a largely immoral society.
We’ll not miss that nightmarish,
assembly-line-brain of conditioning!
The old, jaundiced brain upstairs is dis
              ­app
ear  (arh-whoooooo)
               ing
“So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m going back to my plow!”  

 

 

Mushrooms deep in the woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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No charge at the Tattoo Shop…

August 25, 2018
21 comments

 

 

At the tattoo shop
they just quickly sent me home.
Nature is perfection already!

 

 

Hibiscus Bug… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

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Lo Zu regarding the Best Clouds… (Another short Lo Zu tale)…

August 24, 2018
27 comments

 

 

One young student of life asked Lo Zu, “Of all the various types of clouds in the sky,
which is the one that you deem best?”

The great sage’s penetrating eyes sagaciously looked up and he said,
“Not the huge, mountainous, white towering clouds that have accumulated much.  Neither the
saturated, heavy clouds, for each is darkly full of itself; nor the clouds that stretch, sheet-like,
blanketing the whole sky; they think that they know everything.
However, there is real beauty in the little, truly humble, faint cloud of no-mind that one can barely see,
that no one notices; it lets the sun through and helps illuminate the darkness.  Fireflies can illuminate
darkness too; very few people love them like I love them.”

 

 

 

Firefly Illumination Happening!… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

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The Trashcan of the Mind

August 19, 2018
10 comments

 

A trashcan that is full of leftovers and rubbish cannot receive something precious, such as a priceless treasure.  We hold so much information, filling us, satiating us to the brim, and we think we are doing just wonderfully; however, the world is not, for the most part, better off because of it.  It is important to think a lot and to think in ways that are significant and that have profound meaning; too many of us, however, habitually think all kinds of needless things over and over, repetitiously.  There can be an intelligence of silence that exists beyond mere repetitious words/symbols.  This silence involves an emptiness that penetrates and that is full of life.  To be empty — truly empty — is the action of true humility.  That true humility brings about real order and the purity of “harmonious action.”  It is no longer filled with secondhand beliefs, opinions, primitive perspectives, and dead traditions; it is whole, unsullied, and pristine beyond the rubbish of propaganda and learned distortion. 

If procedures and systems involving time are needed to (supposedly) empty the mind, that is questionable; because the “cleaner/eraser (i.e., the one supposedly doing the emptying)” and the contents to be emptied are (psychologically) one and the same.  When one is engaged in such attempts at emptying, a false conflict often ensues.  One cannot, via some concocted will, make the mind empty.  With intelligent, uncalculated perception, however, there is a possibility that a timeless emptiness can exist without illusory effort.  That timeless emptiness, if it really is timeless emptiness, is what perceives beyond distortion and secondhand rubbish.  Such perception is beyond tainting, beyond corruption, beyond habitual (sequential) repetition, beyond ugly, robotic manipulation.  Such perception is a danger to all that is false.  

 

 

Monarch Butterfly on Coneflower… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

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Beauty Needs No Reason

August 17, 2018
40 comments

 

Beauty needs no reason
like bourgeois businessmen do
who strut with the deepest frowns
competitively struggling for what
beauty is not

The faceofthewings(lookclose
ly)has eyes
a dimple and a smile
That smile transcends
sorrow  

 

 

 

[Note:  Do you see the “Smiling Face” in the Swallowtail’s wings?]

The Face on the Wings of a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Clinging

August 15, 2018
19 comments

 

 

Why
dew
sew
many
cling
two
the
s
u
p
e
r
f
i
c
i
a
l
?

 

 

 

Rose Chafer… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Habits

August 12, 2018
36 comments

 

 

Many people do things habitually, mechanically, without thinking, without much awareness, in very robotic ways.  The mind gets used to functioning in (and “as”) habit; dullness, and incessant routine set in, making the mind more and more repetitive, more and more machine-like.  People get so used to repeating the same set of routines day after day, month after month, year after year, such that they hardly know (or try) anything different.  (Air-polluting, fossil fuel spewing vacations aren’t a way out of this, by the way.)

Many people mindlessly and habitually cling to what they were taught, religiously, politically, nationally, ethically, socially, culturally, at home and in the office.  To them, “THIS IS THE WAY THINGS MUST BE DONE,” and that is that.  Then they remain teaching their children to dwell in the same grooves, to function in the same patterns.  Anyone who questions the status quo is considered a trouble-maker or some kind of freak and is cast out.  It may be, however, that, in such an atmosphere, true creativity and true “aliveness” is squelched.  In such an environment, the truly insightful and the truly creative person is considered an oddball.  

Be one of the lemmings if you want to (like most want to), but as for that… well, it’s not for me.  Like Einstein, i don’t give a rat’s behind about “fitting-in” or about superficial appearances.  It’s the deeper things that matter, and you can’t go deeper if you are stuck in superficial paradigms and one-dimensional routines.

 

 

Blue Damsel… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Especially I Just Want to Breathe

August 10, 2018
31 comments

 

 

Especially i just want to breathe
     when air is getting dirtier
Especially i just want to see
     when the world’s views are getting cloudier
Especially i just want to hear
     when so few are really listening
Especially i want to smell
     when so many just pass the flowers by
Especially i want to feel
     when many are just indifferent
And most especially i want to live
     beyond a cadaverous respectful comfort

 

 

Question Mark Butterfly, and why not? Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Comparison

August 5, 2018
17 comments

 

Comparison is often such a vulgar and unnecessary thing.  Many people, throughout life, continue to habitually compare themselves with others.  Those “others” are often very standard, ordinary, bourgeois, and dull.  People compare their home, livelihood, lifestyle, and overall life, with others.  Comparison invites imitation; imitation reinforces “second-handedness” and conformity to formulated, standardized “set patterns.”  Fear often emanates from comparison…  “Will I be as successful as them?”   “Am I too different?”  Comparison often paves the way to jealousy and superficial showing-off and boasting.  (Some people, for instance, go ga-ga, trying to have the hugest and “most pretty” home; this is so childish and superficial.)  Taunting another may often involve comparison.  Comparison thrives in the world of the opposites (where differences are often magnified).  Comparison can make the mind dull; it can be what nourishes mental sorrow. 

The wise mind can exist where comparison is seen for what it is and where it is put in its appropriate place (where its limited aspects are seen).  Such a mind can be of a profound joy where comparison does not often needlessly enter.  When the mind compares, the mind is comparison (within the limited corridor of the opposites).  Uniqueness and spontaneous insight usually do not ever depend upon comparison.  Comparison and contrasting correlations can be very useful at times, but the mind need not depend upon them as deeply as it usually does.  Perceiving directly, without employing comparison, is often very significant and profound.  

 

 

No need to compare! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Space

July 29, 2018
17 comments

 

Few of us, so very few of us, have deep, immeasurable space within (and “as”) the mind.  Most minds are endlessly chattering about one thing or another, filled with series after series of limited thoughts (which are merely symbols), images, fears, opinions, musical tunes, and past experiences.  Most minds are satisfied with remaining cluttered by what was poured into them.  Most go from one series of reacting thoughts and repetitive reconfigurations to another… endlessly.  Being satisfied with that is the norm, and that leads to depression, melancholiness, and division.

This space — of thought — which most people adhere to, and consist of, is of limitation.  It is the small space of fragmentary symbols, which thoughts actually are.  It is the little space between “self” and “other life forms.”  It is the fallacious space between a supposed “me” and the so-called distant thoughts that it allegedly controls.   It is the space between the past and the future.  It is the space between “us” and “them.”  It is the little space of sorrow.

Remain plastered there, if you wish.  However, it may be most prudent to intelligently consider going beyond the norm.  Will going beyond the norm necessitate more methodologies (from the stale past of the old teachers and religious/philosophical/political leaders)?  Will going beyond the norm require following certain patterns in time, as in the ways we have merely functioned in throughout the past?  Surely not!  Love cannot exist deeply and profoundly if limited patterns and limited space crowd the mind.  It is the mind that is full of walls of separation and limitation that is the prejudiced mind, the hating mind, the callous and uncaring mind.  Love cannot enter what is limited, fragmented, contaminated, and “unwhole.”  

 

Perpetuity… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Shadow of the Dragon

July 28, 2018
17 comments

 

The shadow of my wing
unfolds as a very curious thing
reading this to the very end

 

The Shadow of the Dragon’s Wing… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Assumptions

July 22, 2018
25 comments

 

Many of us hold assumptions/presumptions, either consciously or unconsciously, that dictate how we observe and react.  These assumptions are what we have absorbed from others and may not be separate from what we are.  Many people assume that they are separate from others.  Many assume that they are separate from their so-called “own thoughts” and rule them from some kind of internal distance.  Many assume that the perceiver is (psychologically) separate from the perceived.  Many assume that their family consists of a few human beings.  Many assume that endlessly imitating others is safe, sane, and wonderful.  Many assume that they are fully autonomous and have absolute free will.  Many assume that they are dominant, both internally and externally.  Many assume that animals were put here for man.  Many assume that they have a right to destroy nature.  Many assume that someone who sees things very differently than they do is strange or wrong and should be avoided.  Many assume that degrees from universities are a sign of deep intelligence.   Many assume that thoughts are what they control by a central “I” or “me” that is not another thought.  Many assume that fragmentary, limited science has all of the answers.  Many take for granted that money and “showing off” are more important than caring.  

It may be that the very intelligent mind goes beyond absorbed presumptions.  Such a mind transcends fear, separation, prejudice, conflict, indifference, dead habit, delusion, and mediocrity.  It is likely that only such a mind may be visited by the ineffable and sacred eternal.

 

[Note:  According to the environment-oriented Sierra Club which we belong to and donate monthly to:   Monarch butterfly populations have been rapidly declining in North America since 1997.  In fact, the Midwestern United States have seen an 88 percent decline in the number of Monarchs, and a 64 percent decrease in the available Milkweed, which serves as the Monarch’s only egg-laying habitat and food source for Monarch caterpillars.  We need to stop denying man-made global warming and do much more.  I, myself, over the past years, have seen a dramatic decline in many butterfly and bee species.]

A Monarch Among Us… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Become a Flower…

July 21, 2018
28 comments

 

If people were sweet like flowers
this world wouldn’t be going to hell
and so much would beautifully smell

 

 

 

Become a Flower… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Limited Minds of Fragmentation

July 15, 2018
19 comments

 

Thought, being sequential and fragmentary, depends upon — and is — time.  A fragmentary, sequential process, as part of time, will never fully understand the whole of time.  Yet, the scientists continue to operate through sequential and fragmentary equations and analysis.  Space and time are an integral part of one another; they are not two entirely different things.  The space between the perceiver and that which is perceived involves limitation and fragmentation and necessitates time.  Scientists do not generally transcend that limitation; they keep projecting fragmentary equations, theories, and use analysis based on what they have learned before.   Many scientists claim that they are close to having a theory of everything, yet scientists do not understand what dark energy is (consisting of 68% of the known universe); they also do not know what dark matter is (consisting of 27% of the known universe); they do not understand a lot regarding the basic essence of the cosmos.   There is evidence, for example, that the so-called constant speed of light may be changing.  New tests are exploring this.  The whole of physics is predicated on the constancy of the speed of light.   (Scientists may, however, understand some rather remarkable things at this point.  Leonard Susskind’s Holographic Principle of the Universe comes to mind; however, even principles such as this are, of course, limited and fragmentary.  I used to hang out with Loren Billings, who ran the Museum of Holography in Chicago and, decades ago, way before these expert scientists came up with this holographic theory stuff, we used to have wonderful discussions about the likely holographic nature of the universe… about how a large amount of the entire universe functions much like a hologram.)

The structure of the perceiver (psychologically) being separate from the perceived… is what is formulated by limited thought.  This thought also sees the past as separate from the future.  Fragmentation will understand things only in very limited ways.  That very limitation, however, can (and often does) contribute to conflict, indifference, hatred, competition, and suffering.  To step out of all that may not require time, struggle, theories, religions, authorities, practices, or any other piecemeal processes.   There is a fundamental psychological revolution that is beyond the framework of fragmentation and conflict.  Currently, science is replacing religion as a major contributor of the worldview.  If science tends to stress fragmentation, which it (for the most part, but not entirely) has been doing, then people will, unfortunately, likely remain stuck in fragmentary frameworks.  

 

 

Eye of the Toad… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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The Inner and the Outer

July 8, 2018
9 comments

 

The separation of the inner from the outer involves standard perception which largely involves misperception and barbaric acceptances.  Such misperception involves conflict, separation, isolation, and distinct borders.  A prudent entity who intelligently transcends mere inner-outer frameworks of perception is not a dull mind that walks into walls or that steps into busy traffic.  Rather, such a person exists beyond old and cadaverous viewpoints and worn-out, primitive perspectives.  Only such a person can be of real order; only such a person can be fully genuine, deeply compassionate, and of vast integrity and virtue.  (By the way, idealistically saying that one is “one with nature,” which is all the fashion these days, is not it!  A limited, fragmented mind can easily identify itself with anything, but it still remains a fragmented mind.)

Thought and stored memory feed the separation of the inner from the outer.  Too many of us worship a false inner and are indifferent about the vast outer.  A separate perceiver cannot be the complete understanding of the whole as long as the fragmentary self-projected images and thoughts of an isolated, independent observer are maintained via learned effort.   Any state of opposition, such as what a concocted, separate “0bserver” brings about, further nourishes indifference and isolation.  Thoughts and “image making” form the perceiver, and without thoughts and mental images, without repeated effort and psychological struggle, the perceiver would not be.  The psychological ending of the so-called separate perceiver is not something to be frighted of; the true ending of limited images, symbolic patterns, and accepted barriers is not frightening; rather, it is liberation and involves profound insight.  Holistic insight does not occur often for conflict and misperception.

 

 

Katydid Nymph and Ladybug… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Dandy Lion Crimes Haiku (Ain’t Freedom Grand)

July 4, 2018
18 comments

 

They hate yellow deeply
with their Scotts toxic bags
set to make dull lawnminds all exactly the same

 

 

Dandelion Dreams… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

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Lens of Awareness

July 1, 2018
11 comments

 

Many of us bloggers, who take pictures often, are scrupulously concerned about keeping our camera lenses clean and spotless.  Many of our minds (and concomitant actions), however, are not taken care of so very diligently.  We look at things through tainted, jaded, contaminated lenses, according to the way we were programmed to look.  We see what we were programmed to see.  We think what we were programmed to think.  Most merely react, very predictably, according to the ways in which they were molded to react by.  If one desires to clean the mind, to polish the lens of the mind, it is usually merely according to someone else’s system, methodology, or beliefs.  That may merely be an extension of the crass conditioning.

Before considering cleaning the lens of the mind, please consider who (or what) is doing the cleaning.   If the “perceiver” is not something separate from the perceived, then the cleaning itself may be part of the programming, part of the conditioning.  Yet, most will just want to go out and take some mighty fine pictures. 

I am quite aware that my blog only helps some people.  Most will not see the seriousness of it.  That lack of seeing the seriousness is what i have seen all my life, ever since childhood.  Our world is going under because of it and, in the long run, our superficial images of things won’t matter one damn bit.

 

 

 

Leopard Frog Time… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Hotter than Hell Today Haiku

June 30, 2018
14 comments

 

 

They cling to guns to feel safe
while callously letting the environment go to hell.
It’s all really starting to smell.

 

[Note:  So sad that the U.S. is a country addicted to guns.  Even the children have taken up shooting each other.  On another note:  So many fly in jets to go on vacations to “beautiful places,”  or to take “beautiful” nature photos.  The carbon footprint of jet travel, for human beings, is unbelievably high, massively high; there is nothing beautiful about ruining the environment.  People who frequently go traveling around the world are admired by others, not by me.]

 

Our Dying Environment… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

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This and That

June 29, 2018
6 comments

 

an impressive this and that
a revealing why and how
won’t make the superficial mind much deeper
we might see that by now

a reading left to right
some judgment up and down
will not make the world much saner
or dissolve the patterns to which we’re bound

 

 

Young Leafhopper (around 4 mm long)…. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Bridge to a Better Future

June 24, 2018
8 comments

 

Physically, there may be a bridge to a better future.  One can eat more healthfully, exercise more, and do things to improve the environment, including building wonderful bridges.  Internally (i.e., psychologically), is there really a bridge, and who is going to cross that bridge?   Is the bridge different from what one is?  

Is the “experiencer” really something separate from the experience?  If there were no experiences, what would the “experiencer” be?  So many of us, like infantile children, want more and more pleasurable experiences.   Can there be moments when a sagacious mind exists without merely depending upon experience after experience? 

If anger takes place, can it be looked non-fragmentarily — without manufacturing separate ideals — so as to be fully aware of it (without separative space and time)?  Can there be moments when the mind (without excuses) fully sees what it is directly and with full awareness, without concocting notions of something different (that requires space and time to achieve)?  If cruelty exists, and ideals manifest of “someday not being cruel,” is the non-cruelty an actuality or is it a mere abstraction (or escape) that depends upon fabricated psychological time?… and may it be that fabricated time (with its space) fails to see cruelty instantly and fully for what it really is?  Is the thinker really something separate from thought, or are they one and the same?  Is psychological time often an escape depending upon fragmentation, fabricated space, a mentally fabricated separate “I”… and, also, a postponement?  

These questions are here for you to ask yourself; they do not exist for you to reply here with any answers.

 

from Emily Dickinson:

 

There are two Mays
And then a Must
And after that a Shall.
How infinite the compromise
That indicates I will!

 

 

 

Ebony Jewelwing… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

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The Story of Lo Zu and The Young Man

June 22, 2018
28 comments

 

An inquisitive young man, along with some of his friends, went to Lo Zu, and said,

“Every time that I look east, the birds fly east, and every time that I look west, the birds fly west;

every time that I look up the birds fly up,

and every time that I look down, the birds fly down.  What does this mean?”

After a very long period of silence, Lo Zu, the great sage, finally answered,

“One must keep one’s mouth shut when inquiring within.”

 

They finally hatched!    🙂

Mourning Dove Fledglings… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mushroom Protection — Haiku

June 21, 2018
41 comments

 

Let me shelter you
from the rain, from all the pain,
for all are brothers.

 

 

Mushroom Feelings… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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That Original Source

June 17, 2018
13 comments

 

 

That original source, if it is to be discovered at all, must be seen firsthand (and directly).  Seeing it through the second-hand scraps of another — including me — is never seeing it at all.  The mind must be free of the contamination of others — the second-hand rubbish of others — for that seeing to take place.  That seeing — of that wholeness — may have nothing to do with visual perception whatsoever.  (Don’t be foolish enough and greedy enough to think that closing your eyes and sitting with crossed, pretzel-like legs will get you there!)  Regarding this, the mind must be free of all the hand-me-down knowledge and systems of others and be of a sweet, pristine, innocent purity.  However, even that is not enough, for the human mind cannot ever be totally spotless and original, and if that miraculous immeasurability ever occurs, it is not ever because one made it occur.  It is much too immense, intrinsically intelligent, and freely mysterious, to merely be a shoddy effect from some paltry human cause.  It is (though words are never the actual thing) an ineffable, sacred whole beyond mere causality.  So many charlatans write in books and blogs and talk in temples about what they “think” it is.  Additionally, many claim that it does not exist.  Beware of all others and find out for yourself.  Inquire with profound passion and never allow that passion to be quenched by mediocrity.  

 

 

 

Fungus on Forest Floor… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

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Further Beyond Spider Prejudice — Haiku

June 16, 2018
36 comments

 

Eye see you still there
focusing on your sweet friend
with “I”s to no end

 

 

[Note:    Look at all the eyes along her cephalothorax!]

Fishing Spider… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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The Beauty of Timeless Psychological Negation

June 15, 2018
13 comments

 

[Note:   Most people are afraid to die psychologically, so they are never really living.]

 

 

 

no method
no practice
no effort
no goal
no system
no beliefs
no process
no analysis
no past
no future
no present
no nation
no religion
no ideology
no “shoulds”
no wants
no opinion
no fear
no escapes
no thoughts
no me
no authority
no time
no tomorrow
no yesterday
no separation
no excuses
no them
no being
no becoming
no controller
no labeling
no indifference

 

 

Skipper Investigating… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

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Our Nest Haiku

June 11, 2018
31 comments

 

a different kind of bird
a different kind of nest
too many hate you but i don’t

 

 

Wasp with Nest Eggs… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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A totally different dimension of mind…

June 3, 2018
20 comments

 

A totally different dimension of mind can take place.  What nearly all people take to be reality is a far cry from what truly exists (beyond delusion).  Most are walking around oblivious to what is really possible.  They have accepted secondhand images, secondhand patterns, secondhand symbols, dissected labels, measurements, and cold statistics to be their reality; such reality is akin to taking shadows to be concrete substances, toys to be living things, silly iPhones messages to be substantive.  Even our images of self are essentially secondhand patterns that we have assimilated and absorbed.  Then, these images of self are involved with images of another (a spouse, for instance); one set of images is involved with what are considered images of another.  A (relationship between secondhand images of self and — then, also, down the road of psychological time — secondhand images of another) may largely be based on learned, sequential patterns (of recognition and categorization); such a programmed arrangement (based merely on absorbed patterns/symbols/images) may not be much of a relationship at all.  It is a relationship of secondhand patterns.  What kind of relationship is that?

Life is tremendously much more profound and deep than what learned symbolism, categorization, and information processing are involved with.  If you just stick to those three, that the previous sentence mentions, what you are is likely normal… but you certainly may not be what goes beyond the superficial.  People all throughout life are all too willing to tell you how to think, what to do, how to live.  So many, blogs included, want to give you spiritual templates, philosophical instructions.  There are infinite “expert non-experts” out there; just today, one saw a blog wherein the author stated that to fix our life problems, we have to find the right templates, the right instructions.  It may be, however, that real life is much too vast, flowing, multidimensional, and alive for any set of cooked-up “shoulds,” instructions, blueprints, or stale templates.   

You won’t be getting any die-hard templates from me.  It may be that the timelessness of real wisdom exists only when self-concocted effort and struggle cease (psychologically).  Such ceasing involves an ending that doesn’t take time, that doesn’t rely on blueprints, instructions, or processes.  Most, however, are frightened about psychologically coming to an end (i.e., about psychological dying); most continue to cling to potty little images of self.  Therein lies sorrow; the irony is that, without psychologically ending, their sorrow will never really end.   Many of us merely depend upon (and exist “as”) patterns and symbols.  Be certain here that we are not at all suggesting ending physically; physical existence is an opportunity and a privilege that can involve keen (unspoiled) awareness and dynamic flowering.  Physical death is not for me (except for the wonderful fossils that i collect).  Psychological dying, however, is a whole other ballgame.  The psychological dying to stale, secondhand, dead symbols and images is real living.

 

from E.E.Cummings:

 

dying is fine)but Death

?o
baby
i

wouldn’t like

Death if Death
were
good:for

when(instead of stopping to think)you

begin to feel of it,dying
’s miraculous
why?be

cause dying is

perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but

Death

is strictly
scientific
& artificial &

evil & legal)

we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death

 

Wasp reflecting deeply… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Hidden Profundity Uncurling Haiku… (or the Perceiver is the Perceived)

May 24, 2018
18 comments

 

“How could so few words
have any profound meaning?”
the Haiku poem reads.

 

 

Uncurling Fern… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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The Poem of the Turning of the Key

May 18, 2018
28 comments

 

Once, I was the key and the turning of the key
Once, I was the lock and the unlocking of the lock
Once, I was the door and the opening of the door
Once, I was the light and the seeing of the light

             However, when the light was really seen,
             when the door was really opened,
             when the lock was really unlocked,
             when the key was really found:

There was no “I,” just the turning of the key
There was no “I,” just the unlocking of the lock
No “I” was there, just the opening of the door
No petty “I” was there, just seeing and infinite illumination

 

 

[Note:  This is another close-up of some Lichen on a small Oak branch.  I continue to suspect that the close symbiotic relationship between primitive algae and primitive fungus… such as in Lichen, tended to continue — because of its very advantageous aspects — throughout evolution with the higher evolved trees and mushrooms.  That is why, today, we are discovering that mushrooms and trees (and many other plants) share communication and nutrients with each other underground (even over vast distances).]

Lichen on small Oak branch… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018