Three beautiful blue wishes,
circumscribed by a rigid limitation.
Soon they will emerge beyond
weakness and constraint
and will fly free enchantingly.
Do you think that you are beyond your
enclosing limitation?
Most are circumscribed by more
rigidity than these three ever were.
Most will never break free
but
because of blind beliefs
darkly will remain
bound in rigidity forever.
Three Beautiful Eggs from Mother Robin … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Sweet Mourning Dove seeds
planted and ready to grow
Afternoon is hopeful
Mourning Dove Eggs… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
When most people are observing an animal, they are really not (usually) seeing purely without contamination. They usually are looking with (and “as”) images and labels of the organism… images and labels that are constantly being modified, changed, added to, and rearranged. Their seeing is not pure seeing per se but is more a part of a process of categorization, image-recognition, and processing.
When most people observe, there is a separative space between the perceiver and the perceived. In a very wise mind, however, in pure observing, there is no separate perceiver merely categorizing, merely engaging in image-recognition, and processing… and there is no separative space involved. Perception beyond learned accumulation does not merely continue to contribute to a learned accumulative process. Deep perception, then, is not merely reacting but, instead, is something entirely different. Profound perception is far deeper than mere superficial reacting. Real perception involves completeness, non-fragmentation, and timelessness. That may be what real mindfulness, real meditation consists of… and not all of that childish, practiced, self-hypnotic stuff.
Perception immersed only with (and “as”) reaction and accumulation is incapable of great depth and profundity. Perception beyond mere reactions and accumulative processes is immense and profound. Looking as a totally separate “perceiver” isolates and separates in a very crude and barbaric way. A man who, as a separate perceiver, is looking at “his fear” tends to see that fear from a separative distance, even though, in reality, he actually is the fear (not something separate from it at any distance whatsoever). Ignorance must end for true psychological order to exist. Only true psychological order can really be mindful in the deepest sense. Unintelligence, false (learned) separation, and a lack of compassion are all one pitiful thing.
Observing Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Without a compass
the geese fly in perfect form
True north stands wisely
With Mother Goose… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
In an intelligent inquiry as to whether or not there is anything really sacred, the mind must be free from limited patterns of conditioning and opinion. For such an inquiring mind, there is no room for belief or conjecture. Both belief and conjecture are based upon supposition or primarily baseless, unscientific conclusions. This transcendence beyond the limitations of conditioned belief and conjecture additionally includes going beyond any formulated methodologies that one may be lead to believe are worthwhile. Very many have, with blind faith, clung to the structured methodologies and ideologies that various organized religions — such as Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and others — have provided over the years. Asking people to go beyond the conditioning of these organized groups (with their leaders) usually falls on deaf ears.
In such an inquiry, the mind must be supremely healthy; additionally, it must be beyond being influenced or programmed by any group or by any person. It may be that only a very healthy, balanced, unconditioned mind can discover what is truly sacred. Such a mind brings about its own order (and not according to what someone else says). It may be that to truly come upon the sacred, the mind must have its own natural, intrinsic order. Such order may not be the result of mere accumulation. No accumulation of beliefs, or structured methodologies to live according to, would be of interest to a truly orderly, unconditioned mind. In a big way, perception without dependence on accumulation is perception beyond the parameters of time; all accumulated beliefs and structured methodologies require (and depend upon) time. The timeless, unconditioned, truly free mind is beyond all of that (but don’t just take my word for it).
Can perception take place that is not the mere result of — and not dependent upon — past accumulation (as stored memory)? It may be that if one looks without all of the past accumulated memories and hand-me-down patterns of others then such a one is stepping out of the confinement and incarceration of conditioning. Such confinement was a limitation, a barrier; “mostpeople” refuse to let it all go. They cling to their so-called religions, groups, beliefs, and methodologies and refuse to let them go. The pristine, untainted mind goes beyond this conditioning and no longer uses others’ methodologies to “get something.” I, for one, will not give you patterns to follow, edicts to live by, or beliefs to cling to.
Accumulation, in any psychological form, is usually a manifestation of greed; greed, in any psychological form, likely negates discovery of the sacred. When one — not theoretically or idealistically — sees this, all organized religions and methodologies that are learned are out. There is a non-concocted silence that can never be brought about by the accumulation of memory, nor by learned patterns, nor copied procedures. That silence is not the result of conditioning and practice; it is not derived from greed or acquisition over time. Don’t waste your time in believing in such silence. Find out if there is such a silence, but not by mere abstraction, not by mere “idealistic image-projecting.” That “finding out” may have nothing to do with what you were ever taught. An elderly Great Blue Heron was looking for his next meal as the placid pond was getting ready to settle-in for the evening.
Great Blue Heron (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Great Blue Heron (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
We sat at the crossroads between two whys
and because came by and told us we couldn’t
We did anyway
and with great joy ran
And although there wasn’t anything where we were not
we unfolded outside in
to again when returning becomes begin
We mulled beyond the lackluster masses
past a jangled jeer of mediocrity
Literally we so deeply immersed in always
even though surrounded by cold clevers
all permanently flushed by a potty-bowl of transient hows
Canada Goose Gosling (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Canada Goose Gosling (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
At the precise moment that desire takes place, instead of merely running after some goal — like myriads of people do — deeply perceive/examine the desire. You cannot examine it very well unless it is examined very closely. How closely must it be examined? More closely than most would think! Desire cannot be deeply perceived if it is just another reaction (that some image of self supposedly thinks it “has”) which causes one to chase after something in a certain direction. Most people think that desire is something that they “have”; they do not see desire (at the precise moment that it happens) as something that they actually are. If desires are suppressed… it involves parts of the mind trying to suppress other parts of the mind, which is, of course, internal conflict. If desires are cherished and considered worthwhile… it involves parts of the mind being in agreement and recognizing some kind of value in other parts of the mind. Additionally, in our very complex minds, there are a series of reactions going on that involve a mixture of suppression and, concomitantly, the cherishing of desires, which oftentimes results in internal conflict and friction. Our minds are a hodgepodge of these conflicting internal reactions and we feel that we need to keep such things under control, psychologically. We, in reality, are all these things (occurring internally) and there is no separate “controller” (apart from them) whatsoever. It is separation and conflict that keeps us from being in right relationship with desires; separation and conflict occur in large degrees when there is little understanding; it is separation and conflict when opposing desires and images are in friction with each other. A mind of real integrity is not a mere slave to desire; this world is overpopulated and has run amok, largely due little understanding and superfluous desire.
A mind that perceives all this (deeply) does not turn into something that ends up “out of control.” On the contrary, a relatively shallow mind that assumes that it is in control, that assumes (as it was crudely taught) that it is something separate from its desires, fears, and internal friction… is, whether it admits to it or not, enmeshed in fanciful and illusory separation and conflict. That illusory separation and conflict — which it has copied from others and has absorbed secondhand — constitute something that is bound to project out into society as disorder (in one form or another). Wise internal (psychological) perception — that is deep — sees (and “is”) correct relationship; that correct relationship will not have (and “be”) a lot fabricated, idiotic conflict (endorsed by a foolish society’s modus operandi). A wise mind, at the precise moment of desire, does not perceive desire as something separate from what it actually is. In such a mind there is no separate controller who is going to “do something” about the desire; however, that intelligent perception of desire, not being separate, likely unfolds into further intelligent perception, which — unlike with many people — will not occur as conflict and false separative ideations. Such perception is orderly, deep, and not chock full of the chaos that misperceptions manifest as. That order acts beautifully.
So many of us run from our fabricated fears, never fully realizing that we actually are those fears. So many of us engage in (and “as”) conflict internally and then waste energy in so very many aspects of life and relationship (because we are habitually used to wasting energy in conflict internally, psychologically); what we are on the inside, we project to the outside. Look at society now as it currently is worldwide. Is it full of endless beautiful order and harmony? Or is it full of chaos, ruthless competition, territorial conflict, and much disharmony? Does it almost entirely involve minds that think that they are something separate from their fears, desires, and boredom… as well as thinking that they are each separate from others?
Crammed to the max! (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Crammed to the max! (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
