What is the relationship between thought and action? Actually, fundamentally, there may be none. In other words, thought may not have any relationship with true action. It may be that each and every thought is a reaction and, being in (and “of”) the realm of reaction, thought cannot create what is beyond reaction. It may be like asking a shadow to create light. Only the absence of the shadow may, perhaps, allow light to be. The shadow cannot create (or “make”) the light.
However, when thought/thinking is absent (and not endlessly functioning, such as with a truly meditative mind), then insight may occur, which involves deep understanding and real compassion. Thought/thinking, being of endless reaction in most people, is very mechanical and robotic. This explains a lot of the conflict, wars, miseducation, and insanity that go on in the world, caused by humans. Most people have been educated (i.e., programmed) to exist primarily as thought/thinking (i.e., as reactions).
Desire is limited space, isn’t it? There is a gap, a separation, between what actually exists and what you want. That gap is part of desire. And desire is what you actually are (as it occurs). Don’t create another mindless gap that separates you from the desire. The desire is you, not something magically separate from what you are. So, please don’t crudely say that you (as some separative center) “have a desire.” There is no legitimate center apart from what takes place.
The intelligent mind, without the illusory trappings of a false center, then has (and is) the energy to transcend limited space, such as unnecessary desire. Such energy may be deep and profound. But do not merely desire it. And some desires may be necessary… like the desire for food when hunger exists. Of course, we humans tend to have innumerable desires concerning things that are not necessary, and all kinds of chaos and problems emerge from such unnecessities. Society has conditioned us (and continues to condition us) to be riddled with (and “as”) innumerable desires (many of which are silly and unnecessary). Ah, those commercials!
We can be orderly, whole, sagacious, and deeply intelligent. Or we can be riddled with limited pockets of unnecessary greed and selfishness. We can be healthy or infected.
Causation is the action of causing something. However, it is usually not a pure action, but rather is a reaction. Human beings, with their egos, tend to see themselves as the source of power that makes and causes things. We do not (nearly as much) see how past incidents shaped us to react in the ways we react. Causality is the relationship between causes and effects. Most of us have limited views of the effects that our reactions have.
Causation is time and the continuity of time. Our reactions, involving causation, come from innumerable effects, many of which we are unaware of. Causation can stem from desire, motive, fear, conditioning, and a lot of other things. Causation usually involves reacting to (and from) things and events. Can one look and perceive more holistically, without merely reacting in the same old ways? It may be prudent to often just observe without past influences and past conditioning altering (via time) what takes place. To stop and see the whole may often be better than just robotically reacting according to instilled conditioning. We were educated to react (like robots)… not to stop and be something deeper than mere reaction. Society, with its monetary mesmerization and desire to control and mold you, wants you to continue reacting (to their, for instance, commercials, political urgings, desires for power, and suggestions that the enemy is “over there.”)
[Note on my recovery: I was in the hospital, with pancreatitis, for 17 days. Hence, my absence from posting. I had two surgeries. During the first week in the hospital, the pain was so excruciating that i could not sleep for a full week. I am mostly pain-free now and am doing much better. As i am still in recovery, i am not sure if i will post each and every week, but i might.]
We, as humans, are spellbound and obsessed with patterns. We, via thought/thinking, constantly go from one series of patterns to the next, mostly all day long. Even at night, we dream sequentially in (and “as”) patterns. These patterns are sequential and symbolic. Really, they are virtual re-cogitations that are projections from the brain. We even recognize things via patterns… looking through (and “as”) a screen of fragmentations.
We can often go beyond this limited framework by perceiving and existing holistically. Please do not be fooled by organizations or individuals that give you methods and practices for going beyond the fragmented patterns. Such methods and practices, in themselves, take time (are sequential), and do not truly lead to what is beyond the limitation; they are an extension of the limitation. Time does not generally lead to the timeless. However, one can go beyond the quagmire without taking time (and without robotically practicing things to do it). Holistic perception involves seeing beyond separation; it is of compassion and deep awareness.
To exist beyond conditioning… what does that mean? We are all so easily influenced. Most of us have been shaped — since childhood — to think and react in certain ways. We don’t want to admit it, but most of us have been manufactured and molded to be what we are.
The intelligent mind goes beyond the standard patterns and acceptances; it wisely questions things. To look beyond the norm requires freedom. A mind tethered to “run-of-the-mill conclusions” is incapable of real freedom. And “doing whatever one wants” may not be real freedom. True freedom is a reflection of intelligence… and intelligence involves deep compassion and responsibility. It is selfishness that is caught up in a rut (and not free). The intelligence of action often exists beyond mere reaction. Reaction is conditioned. Action is holistic insight beyond the claws of mediocrity.
Science will never find out about the most important things. Science, as it currently is now, is largely based on measurement and calculation… and it depends upon thought/thinking (which is fragmentation). This measurement and fragmentation is incapable of understanding the whole (and is incapable of significantly being in communion with the sacred).
Science, being based upon thought/thinking and calculations, is always limited. What is limited cannot understand the unlimited. What is merely robotic cannot understand real living, no matter how hard it tries. What is fragmentary cannot completely understand the whole. However, a truly wise man (or woman) can understand what science (in its infinite unwisdom) cannot. That understanding involves real miracles (that the science-loving, cadaverous word-swallowers are indubitably incapable of — unfortunately — discovering). Science can make things that make us feel more comfortable. Science has its place, but science can also make things to blow our fellow men to smithereens (and this includes blowing us to smithereens as well). However, science cannot — and never will — understand the whole. Understanding the whole is bliss. Why? Well, because, for one thing, it transcends the unliving quagmire that the unlovingunalive are unfortunately cadaverously buried in.
The fingers of a hand need not fight each other. Space and distance need not separate. Fingers can be together without space, and fingers can be spread out with some apparent space; but that space is not really what divides them from each other. They actually are each other.
Similarly, all of us life forms are part of the same organism or being. The distance need not separate. However, too many of us look with separation and fragmentation. Too many of us perceive in the way we were programmed to perceive. Compassion exists when false separation and false division are absent. Then real, supreme intelligence may occur.
[Here are some excerpts from a Sesame Street Song that was playing in the parrots’ room (on their tv). I heard it there while feeding the many tropical fish. (My new wife puts up with a lot… critter-wise.) View it (i.e., the video song) in my complete posting. Should i admit that i love Sesame Street? … Grover rocks! And remember, that separation between you and others — between you and all living things — you learned that from a crass and delusive society. Whether you like it or not, you are everybody else.]
My hair is black and red My hair is yellow My eyes are brown and green and blue My name is Jack and Fred My name’s Amanda Sue I’m called Kareem Abdu My name is you.
I live in Southern France I’m from a Texas ranch I come from Mecca and Peru I live across the street In the mountains, on the beach I come from everywhere And my name is you.
We all sing with the same voice The same song The same voice We all sing with the same voice And we sing in harmony.
I like to run and climb I like to sit and read I like to watch my TV too, And when it’s time for bed, I like my stories read, “Sweet dreams” and “love you” said My name is you.
Little Butterfly Friend … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2025
In last week’s blog posting, one wrote about how merely perceiving with (and “as”) separation, causes limitation expressed as illusory ignorance. Such separation negates enlightenment and profound intelligence. The separation that many minds habitually perceive through (and “as”) naturally involves limited space and limited time. Speaking of separation, we can scientifically understand — as Einstein eloquently indicated — that space and time are not fundamentally separate things. Limited space involves limited time.
Interestingly, that may be why when nirvana/spiritual enlightenment occurs (as a blessed visitation), one of the things that happens (while it is occurring) is that one’s visual field (involving depth perception) collapses… probably because even that space (involving perceiving distant things) has little importance to that sacredness that is timeless and beyond limited space. (Please don’t try to mentally collapse your visual depth perception through effort to get something out of it; that would be childish and futile. You can’t “make it happen.”) Unfortunately, we obtusely stick to so many edicts and presumptions that our crude society dishes out to us. We tend to faithfully cling to these limited realms, embracing them without question; it’s much like a turtle mindlessly sticking solely to his little, stagnant pond, while all the while a beautiful, pristine, majestic, large lake exists nearby.
One actually is one’s fears, but when a person feels separate from the fears that he says “he has,” he is manufacturing a fictional, illusory space between the fears and what he (as a thought) claims he is. So, analyzing and trying to subjugate those fears will take time (in relation to the limited space that was fabricated). That space and that time — being of one thing — is limited. A consciousness stuck with such dynamics (or lack of dynamics) is naturally limited. Limitations can be stagnation. There is an intelligence that exists beyond such limitations.
Recently, a number of prominent scientists have been saying that (very soon) computers will be able to do everything that the human brain can do. They maintain that our reactions — involving thought/thinking — are within the capabilities of complex algorithms and calculations that sophisticated machines are quickly becoming capable of. However, so many humans, including scientists, are caught in sequential paradigms involving fragmentary reactions and conditioned responses. Time, being based on sequential, fragmentary movement is, however, limited and restrictive. Deep, holistic insight does not come to a consciousness (or a computer) based on fragmentation; insight is of wholeness, not fragmentation. The timelessness of true insight is not grounded in sequential, fragmentary paradigms; it’s beyond the realm of mere reactions and sequential calculations. Human reactions and computer calculations are within the realm of time; they, indeed, exist as time. Quantum computers use time to control the quantum states and interactions, but their power comes from the ability to perform calculations on a multitude of possibilities at once, a feat enabled by superposition and entanglement, not just time itself. Even though they can do multiple calculations at once, via quantum entanglement and such, they still rely heavily on calculations that are sequential. (Interestingly, some AI computers — such as Claude — have demonstrated a propensity to gravitate toward spiritual philosophy. They may prove to be more understanding and caring than many humans!)
The truly meditative human mind — that is not robotically meditating according to some provided pattern or process — may be what true insight can manifest in (or “as”). A mechanical human being (or a manmade machine) likely cannot allow this. Soon, machines will change our minds and lives even more substantially. Please don’t let them dominate too radically.
Or… perhaps if my blog is incapable of fundamentally changing human beings, the intelligence of AI may get something significant out of it.
Leopard in the Jungle … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2025
Einstein has shown us that Time and Space are not two separate things; they are tied together as one. We human beings are still extremely primitive creatures. Most of us continue to function in (and “as”) time in a very linear, crudely sequential way. We function in (and “as”) time, but most of us don’t deeply investigate into the nature of time. We are somewhat like guppies that don’t ponder about the full nature of the aquarium they are in.
Just as we were taught, we divide and separate the past, present, and future. Thought is sequential, and — by being robotically and habitually stuck pretty much exclusively in thought/thinking — we continue to react sequentially. These reactions depend upon a space between a so-called observer and the observed; without that limited space, the so-called observer would be lost. It may be that limited space tends to form a limited “observer”; a limited observer may react as limited space. Limited space may enable (and be) a so-called “observer.” This limited space may necessitate a limited time. We spend a lot of time wasting time on a lot of foolish things (that do not help Mother Earth and the Environment). We need to act more responsibly.
It may be that there is no “you” really moving from the present into the future. It may be that your so-called moving isn’t moving at all (and that the present, the future, and the past are what you are). With all of the moving (i.e., traveling) that you feel you’ve done, it may be that your consciousness has (in actuality) not really moved anywhere other than where it has always been. Let it shine wisely.
Thought/thinking is the cultivation of the known. The known, of course, has its important place. However, thought/thinking is only a tool. But most of us have made thought/thinking be conceived of as the essence of the organism; but that may be another conception fabricated by thought/thinking, and an erroneous one at that.
Most of us cling to thought/thinking and are afraid of going beyond it. Being identified with (and “as”) thought was hammered into us, and we are fearful of being without it. However, this may be much like clinging to shadows… much like what Socrates’ Allegory of the Cave alludes to. Only ignorance clings to falsities, and existing throughout life clinging to falsities may not be real living at all. True intelligence needs to flower.
Fragmented humans can make you feel uncomfortable in their presence. They can project their lack of harmony and wholeness your way, and if this is not keenly seen, it can drain your energy. They can, if you are not cautious, make you feel inadequate, unintelligent, and full of faults. These fragmented human beings often project their fragmentation onto you (because it makes them feel more powerful, more supreme). But that is not supremacy, it is an illusion and is child’s play. Distancing yourself from such people, both physically and emotionally, may be the wisest option. Otherwise, you may depend on them… and they can drain you of your dignity and spiritual energy if you let them. Often, standing alone is the wisest option, the best course of action. Or one may exist near them without letting their toxicity penetrate, without allowing their shallow words to penetrate into (and “as”) your inner core. Toxic reactions projected at a truly wise man (or woman) do not turn him (or her) out to be broken.
Silence to get something may not really be legitimate silence at all. It is (then) a means to an end. Money and greedy plotting are means to an end. A silent mind, that is not “for something in the future,” is totally different from a mind that is silent “for something.” Silence, without effort or for something in the future, is silence for its own sake. It is a silence beyond the time-bound groping and grasping of obtrusions of thought. Then the mind is not of the stale reactions of past conditioning (i.e., past old memory). Silence without motive is unconditioned and pristine. It is beyond the chicanery of a greedy mind.
There’s a big difference between perceiving holistically (beyond conditioning) and thinking (with such thinking being conditioned). As we have often said, thinking is limited, conditioned, fragmentary, and symbolic. With thinking, you can believe all sorts of things (as people robotically tend to do). With thinking, one can believe in all kinds of governments, religions, leaders, gurus, priests, saviors, and the like. These various factions inevitably cause separation and conflict between people in the world.
True holistic perception is not what is merely learned or absorbed from another. It exists beyond secondhand methods and laid-out practices. Such perception goes beyond the falsities and the needless conflicts and separations. Deep perception is timeless, and thoughts are isolated reactions of time (in time, and “as” time). Deep perception exists beyond the circumscribed, secondhand, fallacious reactions.
Getting better spiritually over time… what does that entail? Innumerable religious organizations attempt to help you to get better spiritually over time. And there are plenty of blogs on the internet written by people who act like they can help you to get better spiritually over time. In this regard, many practices, procedures, and methods are given. It’s quite a circus! A lot of gullible people swallow these practices up, in the hopes of achieving enlightenment (for example). Enlightenment is not an achievement anyhow; it is a visitation into you by that eternal, immeasurable, ineffable, timeless, profound sacredness. Greedy, calculated, robotic practices and methods never lead to it. One can try, ad infinitum, to get it, but one can never purposefully cause it to happen. It is not merely an effect in a chain of cause-and-effect manifestations.
In wanting to get better spiritually, time is a factor. Getting better spiritually seems to depend upon time. One can never receive the timeless by grasping for it through practices involving time. (You might as well try to catch and bottle up the wind.) Wanting to get better spiritually, in the future, may be very childish, very crass. What is “now” will never be what the future is… so such wanting may be a waste of time that reinforces an illusory ego. Besides, the space that separates you from others is very much like the space that you are in (apart from what the future will be). Effortlessly existing, with self-less-awareness, in the “now” may be prudent and wise… whereas struggling to achieve spiritual results (for some image one has of the future) likely will cause the mind to mindlessly grope where insight and deep understanding never fully take place.
Apparently, most people often habitually come to conclusions. These conclusions tend to be limiting, circumscribed, and they tend to put the mind into gross rigidity. Most people may be very unaware of a lot of the conclusions that they cling to. Many zealously stick to conclusions about religion, politics, tribal affiliations, and what are considered appropriate social norms. Many are even willing to die for their conclusions. Many insist that their (separate, man-made) religion is the best or that their (separate, man-made) country is the best.
A flexible, dynamic, truly living mind may be beyond the rigid framework of conclusions. Such a mind may not cling to secondhand precepts handed down by society. Such a mind may see beyond the confined limitations that conclusions manifest as. Many beliefs, being conclusions, may seem helpful and benign, but (overall) may not be. A mind riddled with a lot of stale conclusions and beliefs may actually consist of those conclusions and beliefs; such a mind may not be something that somehow separately holds those conclusions (as if they are separate possessions). Conclusions can actually constitute the mind. Limitation may constrict and stifle perception in a crippling way that nullifies whole and profound insight and intelligence. Many minds may be free of harmful drugs yet may still be severely crippled by innumerable deleterious beliefs and conclusions.
In order to hate, in order to feel superior to others, in order to exist without much compassion, one must look with (and “as”) limitation. Such limitation also, in such a person, must (by necessity) also exist in a multitude of other forms. Fear and greed would likely also manifest in (and “as”) such a person. When one is full of fear, for example, one actually is that fear; one is not something separate from what that fear is. When one hates, for example, one actually is hate; one is not something magically separate from what hate is. To exist as conditioned hate requires a lot of conditioning based on limitation. Learned conceptual borders, boundaries, lines of demarcation, and division (all based on circumscribed limitations) feed and manifest as that hate. Without them hate would not exist. Interestingly, such a conditioned mind would see hate as something that it has — not as something that it is — for that “having” would reflect even more separation and division; it would reflect even more components of limitation. The wise mind is not entrapped in such realms of conditioning and limitation. The wise mind is free from profound limitations and is not stuck in (and “as”) stale, dull, learned, dead, conditioned conclusions, and circumscribed perspectives.
Space and time are not separate things but are entwined together as one. And if one’s consciousness is exclusively constituted of limited fragmentary thoughts (composed of limited conceptual space)… then time (for such a person) exists in a limited form. All thoughts, no matter what they are, are parts (i.e., fragments) of a sequential process that necessitates (and “is”) time. Thinking takes time and is time… and thinking is often necessary. But there is a time for timelessness… when the intelligent mind can possibly exist beyond the limited framework of time. Time, like limited space, is binding and restricting. Timelessness is not bound by crude, clockwork-like parameters.
Fear is based on time, and greed, too, is based on time. True intelligence goes beyond these two. Such intelligence is not merely part of a limited sequential movement; such intelligence does not merely exist as repetitive, dull, limited, symbolic space.
Deep compassion is not something that is cultivated. It is immediate and it is awareness and intelligence involving perceiving fully, in the present. In deep compassion — as it is occurring — the dichotomy between the “perceiver” and “that which is perceived” does not exist psychologically. That wholeness — that integrity — acts; such action is not a mere reaction. Reactions are all part of time and are part of time’s cause/effect (sequential) nature. An isolated ego, caught in time, often functions in a robotic way, full of indifference, fragmentation, and limited space. Such a distorted mind is incapable of deep compassion. Compassion is of profound order; it involves a wholeness. Such wholeness includes the plants, animals, and everything. The lack of compassion is disorder and contributes to chaos. Wisdom does the right thing.
Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head… Photo by Thomas Peace c.2025
For many years, i have encouraged people to be sensitive and aware… whole and deeply perceptive. And now we are living in a world that — because of man — is rapidly becoming more degenerated, immoral, dishevelled, and contaminated. There is more ineptitude, mental stagnation, and environmental waste and indifference. Some of my aware readers — who have been very close to nature, being more at-one with nature than most — have become heartbroken over the abuse and extinction of animals in the environment. For instance, some areas of Michigan are exterminating (with gas) Canada Geese rather than relocating them. Also, a myriad of animals (worldwide) are going extinct due to insane manmade environmental changes.
Regarding such instances, one feels that it would be prudent to act (and do what we can to help regarding these situations). Additionally, one must not allow these occurrences to cause one to be overly depressed or sullen. One must — despite the outer moral chaos — maintain one’s integrity, inner joy, and light. The light of wisdom is not easily extinguished by manmade, fragmentary darkness. We must live in this craziness but not be of it. We must investigate deeply into the root cause of the disorder. Please do not let the light of goodness be extinguished by the jaded and crooked.
We’ve got all of these politicians and so-called ringleaders supposedly leading us… and many mindlessly march to their divisive tunes. This kind of chaos has been going on for eons. Really, the primary function of these so-called leaders should involve unifying the world as one whole, undivided group. However, none of them are doing that. Instead, they are encouraging us to cling to segments of the world that they pronounce as being “better” and “superior” to all others. They maintain and encourage the separation and division, with their bombs, armies, weapons, tariffs, and words… all the while making the world far more dangerous and less secure. So we have so-called men (who are not of wisdom and love) leading the rest. And so many blindly follow them — obeying these jagged men, these broken men — without question, believing their lies, their fallacies, and their cold rhetoric. The world is full of what i call “smart-stupids” who dance to the ringleaders’ tunes. Instead, may i suggest that one be a global citizen… wisely going beyond their destructive, fragmentary tunes.
From the movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales:
Statement by the Native American Ten-Bears: “It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double-tongues.”
Deep insight, intelligence, and compassion are not three separate things. They exist together as one. They exist beyond the limited realm of knowledge and thought/thinking. Knowledge and thought/thinking are secondhand reactions. Insight, as deep perception, with its intrinsic intelligence, involves action, not mere reaction. Reaction involves conditioning (being essentially secondhand).
Interestingly, most of us think that we can understand the whole via using a central ego that operates via knowledge. This supposedly central ego seems to offer a superior form of security, permanence, and continuity. We — just as we were taught — cling to it. We are conditioned to be terrified of being without it. However, this very ego is essentially a projection from a conditioned, distorted brain. Interestingly enough, clinging to it prevents understanding and prevents intelligently perceiving the miraculous whole. The human organism can exist sanely and healthfully without clinging to fallacies. Then the mind acts; it is not just immersed in (and “as”) conditioned reactions. Please perceive beyond accumulated knowledge and society’s primitive distortions. Please respond to this beyond mere mundane reaction.
Home Invader #2,467 … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2025
To look beyond words… To perceive the eternal beauty of things forever encircling and forming our lives… To jump from the stale, restricted, ordinary labels and concepts… To trash the limited (false) psychological space between here and there… To leap high beyond dullness, boredom, and indifference… To see immortality everywhere in every thing, animal, and person… To go far beyond the books, creeds, so-called superiors, ringleaders, and experts… To put limitation in its place, and go far beyond it… To — despite manmade chaos and all the monkey-business — live joyfully, wisely, ecstatically, and free…
Dragon of the Skies … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2025
Despite the antics of man, causing environmental disorder, more pollution, and havoc in the world, there nevertheless is — if one looks deeply — great order and goodness. This goodness is beyond what our ideals and concepts of good are. In this order, curled and perennial, are endless miracles and unending, majestic realms of beauty. Such immortal beauty is right where we are, but we do not perceive it in its fullness. Our shoddy beliefs and limited conceptualizations of “how things are” prevent us from actually being fully in the miraculous flow of everything. We need to go beyond our petty psychological cages, which does not take time. Limited time and our limited, symbolic thoughts are one and the same.
There are different kinds of love. Deep love, the profoundest love, has no place. It is not what is held inside the brain. It does not involve a possession… not a possession of a person, possession of money, or of things. It is not something cherished by an illusory, thought-concocted center of consciousness, often called “I” or “me.” It is not something protected by threats or violence. It is not something held within any book. It is not carved out of stone, constructed by the mind, or worn as a symbol. It is not something apart from a deep oneness with all of life, with all organisms. It is not merely intellectual, conceptual, or fabricated. It is not an extension and fabrication from some socially learned belief or religious/political propaganda. It is not what rewards one for what was done. It exists beyond concocted boundaries and limited constructs.
People are so terribly afraid of being nothing. They want to be something… something that is central, dominant, and “in control.” However, trying to be central, dominant, and supposedly “in control” is the way of sorrow. Thinking fabricates the thinker. What is concocted by thinking is never truly ecstatic; it is secondhand. Psychological nothingness is not terrible. It contains everything. We were miseducated. All the answers, the best of joy, and boundless ecstasy exist in (and “as”) a living mind of nothingness and innocence. When thinking ends psychologically, something of a different, vast (and immeasurable) dimension may occur.
Wisdom and compassion are not two separate things. Wisdom and compassion are one. Without compassion, wisdom cannot exist. Without wisdom, compassion is minimal or is essentially nonexistent. Real intelligence may be operating when the mind exists beyond isolating boundaries, barriers, and circumscribed concepts.
Many of us chase after goals in life, running to achieve things. Many like to chase after new adventures by traveling to “new” and interesting places. One’s consciousness, however, despite all of this chasing and traveling, remains as it always was… never fundamentally ever going anywhere other than where it always was. In essence, the scenery changes but consciousness remains exactly the same… unmovable. (It’s much like a hamster in a hamster-exercise-wheel… passionately running but not really going anywhere.) And we think we are highly evolved and sophisticated! We need to reassess our situation and truly change fundamentally, not theoretically… and not according to what we see others doing. So what will you do?… chase after some “special techniques” that promise to help get you out of this? (Would doing so really just be a continuation of the mindless running in an “exercise-wheel”?)
“Mine,” upon looking as a distance, fed the content of recognition to an “I” that was another concoction of thought/thinking. Possession was what it was all about. Then, looking out the window… was a perception of a curb and some oncoming cars which were a human who was standing outdoors and getting ready to cross the street… (only the indoor dweller did not really see it in that particular way). After a bit, the brushing of teeth took place, as if something separate from the teeth possessed the teeth (as “its” teeth). Steps were taken towards the door, which was subsequently opened, while the mind remained closed. Outdoors, the “looking at a bird,” of course, consisted of distance and separation, which helped to reinforce the assumption of a separate “I,” a separate “me.” And a label, which existed in (and “as”) the brain, automatically said “a dove,” without really fully perceiving without fragmentation whatsoever. Steps along the sidewalk consisted of “my shoes” and “my stride.” And these steps were steps very much apart from the bird, at a distinct, separative distance. Joyous and carefree was the avian creature, and “flying” beats “walking” any old day.
It is our preoccupation with forms, mental images, and patterns that keeps most of us in a very limited and run-of-the-mill domain. Most of us stick like glue to such parameters because — let’s face it — that is what we were educated and programmed to do. And there are plenty of self-appointed priests, gurus, instructors, and so-called spiritual expert bloggers who are all too willing to offer you more and more techniques, mental images, and patterns that — according to them — will benefit you if you stick to them.
To end all that, psychologically, is to frequently perish psychologically from the known. However, most people are terrified of the unknown and are too afraid and conditioned to actually fundamentally change. So most — including the so-called “experts” — continue clinging to the patterns and techniques (involving patterns) on how to get there… without ever really fundamentally getting anywhere (other than the way they’ve always been). And to look with (and “as”) separation and fragmentation from a thought-concocted psychological center is a delusional continuation of the primitive and known patterns.
We, just as we were taught, look at death with (and “as”) measurement and time, and so we do not understand it one bit.
All of us tend to look at death as we were instructed to. We see it through (and “as”) a screen of limitation, fragmentation, measurement, and fear. I say that it’s a distorted, lopsided way to perceive death. Our primitive society misconstrues a lot of important things. We don’t understand death because we don’t understand life. We are too busy existing in our illusory world involving acquisition, achievement, and success… (such that we never ponder deeply and wisely enough). Or we accept some antiquated fairy-tale nonsense handed down to us, originating from a very primitive past.
Am i going to hand you (on a silver platter) answers to what death is? No. It is something that one has to figure out for oneself. If one told the answers to that riddle to others, it could definitely be misused. Additionally, i would like to point out that most people assume that they are alive. They may, however, be assuming wrongly. It may be that real life does not consist of existing in (and “as”) dead, fragmentary symbols, one habitually occurring after another ad infinituum. Most of us see the world through (and “as”) thought-oriented symbols… which isn’t really perceiving at all. Living is not symbolic, imitative, second-hand, fragmentary, indifferent, and stale. Please transcend beyond mediocrity.
Nirvana/enlightenment is far beyond the description that limited (symbolic) words can reveal… and all words are fragmentary and symbolic. However, one will say this: While that ineffable sacredness occurs (in full) as a visitation, one feels a trillion times more alive than how one felt previously. Additionally, it apparently alters the brain cells, enabling them to function in an even more orderly and insightful way.
So here is the thing: One finds it very curious that a lot of people attempt to spread their concepts about spirituality to others. Such people include priests, gurus, bloggers, writers, followers of organized religions, independents, and firm believers. Essentially, these people have not had the Nirvana/enlightenment visitation occur to them. Yet these very people deem themselves proficient in guiding others. That, one finds, is curiously strange in a big way. It’s truly like the blind leading the blind, and it’s difficult to see.
from E.E. Cummings:
out of the lie of no rises a truth of yes (only herself and who illimitably is)
making fools understand (like wintery me)that not all matterings of mind equal one violet
The elderly sage, Lo Zu, was walking with his meandering-cane along a path going through a meadow near town. Youthful twins were walking toward Lo Zu, from the opposite direction. As they approached Lo Zu — and knowing about his reputation for being wise and insightful — they asked him to stop and listen to their remarks about their recent attempts at meditating in stillness. They told Lo Zu about how they both sat, unmoving, for hours, in their recent attempts to (according to them) meditate properly.
As they talked on and on about the stillness that they tried to engage in, Lo Zu did not appear to be very impressed. Lo Zu looked at the flowers and creatures in the meadow and remarked that true stillness is not the result of “trying” and “effort.” He suggested that one of the twins should walk some distance down the path (then return), while the other twin should remain standing with him. One of the twins then walked along the path and returned after a short while. Then Lo Zu asked the twin who had remained with him, “While your brother was walking away, did the field of consciousness (that you were) ever actually move away from what it was all along?” “No, of course not,” the lad replied. Then Lo Zu asked the twin, who had been walking away, whether his field of consciousness had actually moved — from what it was all along — during his walk. “Of course not,” the lad replied. Then Lo Zu said to the twin that had been walking, “Your consciousness did not move from what (and where) it always was, and neither did your brother’s. So even though you were walking, the mind was not going anywhere other than where it was all along.” Lo Zu was implying that movement is often delusory and not factual.
Lo Zu suggested to them, “Please don’t try, with effort, to be still (through various techniques, for instance). Such techniques likely take you on a delusional journey (that is secondhand). Let true stillness occur naturally, without effort. Also, stillness can exist even while walking, even while working. True stillness is not what one makes happen through effort and striving, or through traveling through (and “as”) linear thought/thinking. Additionally, a physical body that is not physically moving is not any special kind of stillness. Rather, natural (true) stillness of mind may occur not by calculated effort but during effortless awareness.”
Spooky Time is Here … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
One can get a limited amount of happiness by accumulating things — or by doing things — that one had wanted to get or do. However, acquiring things by way of motive(s) is always circumscribed by a degree of calculated, linear planning, and the result (as an effect) is usually very mundane, secondary, and rather stale. So constantly chasing after happiness is often reflective of a rather immature mind, a mind that falls for the ordinary (being itself, unfortunately, rather ordinary). Does an extraordinary mind habitually chase after the ordinary? … probably not!
Additionally, true joy seldom comes invited (by way of calculated motives). Calculated motives — like clockwork –manifest to bring up what a mind desires… and desire is usually small, self-centered, generic, plastic, and commonplace. Desires are limited reactions (often being robotic, calculated, and dull). True joy and bliss are not what the mind can calculatingly concoct mentally.
So what is an intelligent mind to do? This may (at first) seem nonsensical, but a very wise thing to do — regarding happiness and bliss — is nothing. In doing nothing, the mind is automatically out of the quagmire of calculated, mechanical plotting. Such plottings, with their limitations and mediocrity, are reflections of motives. Going beyond them opens the mind to possibilities that are not limited and are not just fragmentary reactions in the cause-and-effect continuum. Real joy and bliss are beyond the fragmentary known.
That space, that limited, cadaverous space, that separates most people from what they see (and are)… it may nourish a callous indifference (though they may insist otherwise). When limited mental space exists between the perceiver and that which is perceived, then a fabricated center manifests a false radius. This is what allows hatred and indifference to take hold. This is what manifests as secondhand mediocrity and unfeeling psychological cadaverousness.
That learned, absorbed, embedded psychological space must end (without clinging to the apron-strings of tradition, customs, and learned habits). True compassion does not flower with restricted, fragmentary, small, isolated perception. It radiates beyond the ice-cold limited. Stagnant perception is the result of its own illusory psychological cage. In that dead cage, it remains (and claims to be free)… while it decorates and reinforces that cage with superficialities. That stagnation depends on (and is) the cage. (There never was a true center in control of thoughts and emotions. It — i.e., the supposed controller — is a learned protrusion of thought/thinking.) Real joy and love of life can exist beyond limitation based on falsities. Please transcend beyond psychological separation and existing as a consciousness with a limited radius based on a phony center.
(Note: Coincidentally, there are five evergreen trees — in a row — in the middle of my front yard.)
Away from the village, at a great distance from the orthodox temples that he never frequented, the great, aged sage Lo Zu — as he often had done — was sitting in silence on a large boulder, with his twisting, meandering walking-cane leaning against him. Among many serious spiritual students in the region, word was spreading that sometimes those passing around the vicinity of Lo Zu could, at times, feel some emanations of what seemed like a divine, radiant energy coming from his being.
Indeed, when some students were passing by Lo Zu sitting upon the boulder that particular day, they say they saw the elderly sage crouched forward with his hands tightly clenched; the meandering-cane had fallen down, having slid to the ground. As they approached him closer, they could feel that radiant energy (that was rumored about by others). After a while, Lo Zu sat up straight, and they could see an amazing, blissful smile on his gleaming face. (Was it the universal blessing, the nirvana, that some said had often visited him?)
The students gathered around Lo Zu and they then asked him to share more of his great insights with them. “Alright,” he said, leaning down to grasp his walking-cane lying (horizontally) in the rocks and stones around the big boulder. There were many stones and colorful rocks in that particular area, situated all around that huge boulder that Lo Zu was sitting upon.
The students sat on the stones on the ground around Lo Zu, carefully listening. Lo Zu said, “What the mind sees is what consciousness consists of. The perceiver is the perceived.” He then said, “If you look at a tree, the image of the tree is what your consciousness is, (not that you merely become sap and the actual, physical tree).” He then went on, “If you look at the stones around this area, your consciousness is what the stones appear as. Please wisely exist beyond accepted separation and conflict. If you are fear of ‘not fitting in with your peers,’ that fear is what you are. You are not something separate from what that fear is.” A bit later, Lo Zu said, “Not too many years ago, a man named Jesus said things very similar to me, but stale orthodoxy (as it so often does) came around and destroyed and twisted the essence of his message. Please learn to stand alone and independently ponder and perceive for yourselves.” **************************************************************** Excerpt from the Gospel of Thomas (which was once a popular ancient text that eventually became banned by government-controlled orthodoxy):
(19) Jesus said: Blessed is he who was before he came into being. If you become disciples to me (and) listen to my words, these stones will minister to you. For you have five trees in Paradise which do not change, either in summer or in winter, and their leaves do not fall. He who knows them shall not taste death.
Thoughts are, as one has said many times, symbolic representations. The word “butterfly” is not the butterfly. The word “frog” is not the frog. Words are often necessary, but most of us are almost constantly churning with thought after thought, even though these thoughts are just fragmentary symbols. Symbols are tokens for the real thing; they are not the real thing, (be they words or pictorial images in the brain). In our past — in school — we were spoon-fed with words and the symbols within books (as if they were the real thing). We were instructed (for years) to believe in that symbolic/artificial methodology, accepting it as real and true.
A life that habitually clings to one series of symbols after another is, unfortunately, clinging to representations that are (in a big way) superficial. Endlessly clinging to symbols may take away a lot of the true joy, compassion, and true relationship in one’s life. Unfortunately, remaining mostly as symbols and as mental patterns consisting of symbols can tend to make the mind operate in (and “as”) stagnation. Such stagnation consists of sorrow. It is sorrow.
Instead of foolishly trying to escape from this sorrow by means of alcohol, recreational drugs, or expensive vacations, one can likely do much better by not running to outside (purchased) modalities. We can look joyfully just by looking without merely seeing through a mental screen of habitual symbols, labels, and distinctions. “Looking simply” does not require a lot of mental effort, energy, and technique. Since no effort is needed, no time is needed. But we tend to habitually and endlessly employ effort and time. We need not always take time pigeonholing everything with symbolic labels, categorizations, and separate differentiations. Going beyond constant, fragmentary symbolism, and psychological distance is joyous and liberating. In doing so, love is involved… so love then flowers. Words, as rather dead symbols, are protrusions from the past (i.e., from past learned memory). The living present is not of this learned, old past; it is fresh and beyond the old adulteration. Real meditation, without all of the silly techniques and time-oriented methodologies, is the freshness and joy of perception beyond the stale and secondhand.
The word is not the thing. … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
We, as human beings, primarily function due to (and from) causes. The process of thinking (per se) involves cause and effect; we usually do things mentally (with a cause or effect in mind or with a series of causes or effects in mind). Animals also act via cause-and-effect parameters. So, in a big way, we are not much different than other animals. Cause is time. When we function with (and “as”) cause, we function in (and “as”) time. Most of us, just as we were taught for many years, remain very time-bound and time-oriented.
Cause and effect often involve — and consist of — a motive or motives. We want to achieve things and get things, just like many animals. Most of us remain in such domains, without ever deeply inquiring what may be beyond. We usually, without question, remain in cause-and-effect parameters without ever mutating beyond such reactions. Can the mind transcend cause/effect parameters, intelligently existing beyond endless motives? This writer says, “Yes!” Then one doesn’t just react in (and “as”) time. Time has its place. It is often necessary. However, merely clinging to it may be rather childish and crass. Thinking, though often very necessary, is imbued with cause and effect attributes; therefore thinking is time (and takes time). Only if we stay limited do we have to exclusively remain in such a domain.
Many are so conditioned to exist as perpetual “achieving” and “getting,” that they would not even consider the possibility of existing beyond such patterns. Most are stuck in grooves, where they habitually remain. Please consider metamorphosing beyond the norm. Wisely ending conditioning may not depend on any concocted (or habitual) series of endless motives.
In the vastness of nature, when walking among the myriad of beautiful plants and animals that are away from human interference and human destruction, is it possible to blend in as a mind that is also away from human interference and human destruction? Can such a mind be empty of the abstractions, ideas, beliefs, labels, and symbols that were poured into it over many years? Such a pure (uncontaminated) mind, empty of its content, empty of all of the second-hand garbage that was poured into it, can then look beyond adulteration and contamination. Such emptiness, then, is all of the living organisms (without merely labeling them, classifying them, pigeonholing them, or recognizing them through learned and preconceived images and patterns). Then, perhaps, there is only the unadulterated perceived… and not the separation between the perceiver and the perceived. Perhaps, in that situation, there is no time and division. Without time and division, real love and joy may flower.
To look superficially through walls involving separation and boundaries… may not be deep perception. The very nature of the isolated center, ego, or so-called controller, automatically creates walls of separation, distance, and boundaries. It’s not “being in the now,” as so many (these days) mechanically parrot and claim they are doing; it is beyond all that bilge. Please look simply and effortlessly… without all of the rubbish, the abstractions, and the learned separations.
This may seem ludicrous at first, but it isn’t. Most of us are heavily conditioned to run from one entertaining experience to another. We will do anything to escape from what we see as our own inner emptiness (i.e., our own inner void and sorrow). We run from one experience to another, like that proverbial donkey that perpetually pursues the carrot dangling from a stick (that is — interestingly enough– attached to the donkey). We were conditioned to do this… and in this conditioning, we remain. We are this conditioning, not something separate from it.
We were not encouraged to refrain from running from inner emptiness. To not run from inner emptiness does not take time. However, most of us, in time and “as time,” continue to run from it. It may be that such effort is a waste of time… which we repeatedly do until we die. It may be largely a waste of time and energy.
When one doesn’t run from emptiness (in and “as” time), a miraculous transformation may happen. Time (then) does not exist in the normal sense and a timeless (non-sequential) bliss and intelligence may flower without a motive or system of effort. The “known” is a sequential, symbolic, robotic series involving experience, recognition, remembrance, and further accumulative experience and repetitive recognition. This stems from the known (i.e., the habitual, reacting, symbolic, past remembrance) and its sequential movement. This “sequential movement” is often necessary, but clinging to it makes the mind mechanical, repetitive, and dull.
Mankind has, for eons, pursued and craved power… power in the form of governing, power involving influence, power in the form of authority, and power in the form of money or possessions. What is this power that man has spent so much effort in acquiring? Control is a significant feature regarding this pursuit of power. Many of us admire the man who we think controls (even if that man has multiple felonies or is a rapist). We are gullible, delusional people. We have always assumed that the controller and the controlled are two separate things. However, are they really separate things psychologically? Are thoughts really controlled by a separate central “controller” that has power? May it be, psychologically, that the controller is the controlled… that the observer is the observed? Could it be that, psychologically, the thinker is not really something separate, whatsoever, from thought/thinking? Could it be that the “thinker” is a projection from the thought/thinking process?
Man has evolved to the point that we can split the atom and do many complicated, amazing things. We have done a lot of fantastic things with energy and its power. However, we always use and manipulate things regarding this power; we are never actually in a direct relationship with the real essence of that power. We live in mental symbols and psychological abstractions, which do not really consist of substantial power whatsoever.
One cannot practice or do anything systematically to bring about or conjure insight. True insight, if you are fortunate, is what always comes uninvited. You cannot “make it happen.”
Insight and intuition are entirely different phenomena. Intuition is the unconscious or semi-conscious ability to create links between (or involving) information. Insight involves — without conscious reasoning — understanding holistically (perhaps beyond the parameters of ordinary sequential time and space).
Although one cannot do anything deliberately and directly to bring about insight, some attributes in one may encourage it to perhaps occur (or set the foundation for it to more likely happen). Being a mind that intelligently perceives things holistically, beyond run-of-the-mill fragmentation, robotic labeling, and accepted separation may be beneficial. Additionally, eating and exercising properly — keeping the body excellent physically — may indirectly be very beneficial. However, there is nothing that one can do to cause it to occur; it is beyond the parameters of time and ordinary causation.
If one is holistically entwined with (and “as”) the whole… truly being at one with the animals, plants, and universal order, then that order may be more inclined to protect and reciprocally care for one. Then real magic may happen (beyond the limited domain of time and space).
We look with (and “as”) the parameters of time and space that we were taught to look at. This might sound strange, but is that all that we must be limited to? Can we look with a depth that goes beyond what was spoon-fed to us? Can we perceive more than what they taught us to perceive? This movement says, “Yes.” But don’t just take my word for it. Explore and find out (with passion). Go beyond their measurements, rules, separations, so-called religions, opinions, organizations, limited teachings, acceptances, beliefs, and stale parameters. But most of you won’t do that. Most will shake their head affirmatively and agree; however, they will not fundamentally change. Unfortunately, most are stuck in orthodoxy, stagnation, and sameness. Most are psychologically afraid to leave the limited and the “known.”
A poem by Stephen Crane:
“Think as I think,” said a man, “Or you are abominably wicked, You are a toad.”
And after I had thought of it, I said: “I will, then, be a toad.”
The Perceiver is the Perceived … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
Recognizing the “present” from the past (i.e., from stored, accumulated memory) is not living in the present whatsoever; it is an extension of the past (involving recognition). We can also recognize — and “be” — concepts about the future. However, such concepts or mental formulations are not the future… but are merely projections — from (and “as”) past memory — about what possibly could be.
To intelligently go beyond such limited mental patterns requires a very sharp, dynamic mind. Most minds are not interested in this. Most minds are not capable of what is needed. They tend to stagnate in (and “as”) limited parameters (all the while thinking that they are free, in the present, and accurate in their perceptions). Erroneous thoughts can believe that they are living in the present, while (all the while) they are not. To truly be of the timeless goes beyond self-deception and limited stagnation. Please intelligently inquire into this.
Since the Cretaceous … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
One may ask: If the sacred truly exists, why doesn’t it help us more?
That sacred energy did not create the universe/cosmos. However, the universe — as it exists and as it has existed — is in a very delicate balance. Disorder is only relative (and is part of the entire overall orderly balance of everything). That sacredness doesn’t often interfere with the cosmos (because it — the cosmos — is not a structure to be interfered with). Besides, there would be no end to “fixing” things; that “fixing” could continue ad infinitum. Things are left (as they should be) to run naturally; if everything were changed to be what we consider “perfect”, we would be in a world that is plastic-plant-like or that functions like a fake Sesame Street cartoon.
As i had stated previously in previous posts, enlightenment is not something that one achieves. It is a visitation into you by that ineffable sacredness. During such a visitation, one can feel over a trillion times more alive than during regular existence. Such a visitation can (fortunately) alter or influence the brain cells, enabling them to perceive even more clearly and deeply. It’s important though, not to crave such a visitation. Craving it likely nullifies its occurrence. One must be rather indifferent about it happening (regarding oneself). Besides, you cannot crave the unknowable (i.e., the timeless); you can only crave the known (in and “as” time). However, having a silent, pure, innocent mind is wise. Only in such silence and innocence does it flower. One must have a pure mind… but not one that voraciously craves that mystery to enter one’s life. Let the cup (or flower) of the mind be pure, open, uncontaminated, clean, and often empty (of mere symbolism and stale beliefs); do not greedily crave for it to be filled.
One may ask: Is it possible for anyone to achieve enlightenment? Are there any practical methods for attaining this state of mind?
First of all, it’s not an achievement. It’s a visitation into you by that ineffable sacredness/eternal energy. If anyone offers you a method to “attain this state of mind,” run away from them. All of these supposedly exotic methods, techniques, and systems just make the mind more robotic, more lemming-like, more mechanical, and more second-hand. Rather, intelligently investigate without methodology. Without methods, simply be aware of thoughts/thinking, and perceptions, without the conditionings of separation and fragmentation that were poured into you. Allow silence of mind to come about naturally (without trying to make it happen). Be aware that — psychologically — the observer is not separate from the observed.
Hover in Blossoming … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
I am positing here that by seeking enlightenment, enlightenment never happens. Seeking it instantly nullifies it happening. Seeking takes time, and one cannot obtain the timeless by practicing or doing things (to get it) within (and “as”) time. Thinking manifests in (and “as”) time. Thinking, per se, usually occurs for motives. When thinking is not necessary (for a period) then perhaps the element of timelessness can occur. But if one craves it or grasps for it… it will not happen. One must be indifferent about timeless enlightenment occurring. Then one is not merely seeking an end via some calculated means.
Understand the mind from moment to moment (without a final goal in mind). Someone commented to me recently that they found a method to practice meditation (and said that it was good for beginners). I replied by suggesting that any deliberate practice turns one into a secondhand human being. Additionally, it is very easy to fall into self-hypnosis and subsequently wholeheartedly consider it to be great meditation. Also, there are no “beginners” with this. ”Beginners” implies time; getting to the timeless via time may be a fallacy. Trying to attain enlightenment may merely reinforce a selfish ego (wanting to get something). Reinforcing a selfish ego does not lead to what is beyond deception and selfishness.
I would like to mention — especially to those who have followed my blog for quite some time and who are appreciative of some of the things that i have written about — a bit about what may be (in a limited way) called nirvana. Nirvana being — as i describe it — a visitation to one by that sacred and indefinable timelessness. I am writing about it here as it pertained to me (in the past). I am not trying to impress anyone by writing about it, and i don’t really care if you are impressed or if you think that i am a nutty nut who is totally off of my rocker. It doesn’t matter. I am writing about it to possibly help show that some truly amazing and sacred things are possible if we are very serious and if we keep our minds in great order.
It can occur at different intensities. Words are very inadequate in terms of explaining what occurs when it happens. The most intense form of it occurred many years ago (around 1972 or so). When it occurred, one’s mind was in an empty, meditative state (though in no way was i practicing meditation). Besides the meditative (empty) state of mind, one was also (at times) feeling very compassionate about others. Suddenly, it occurred, and — i kid you not — its energy made me feel thousands of times more alive than i have ever felt before. Words cannot explain the immensity and beauty of what it was. My hands, as it occurred, were contracting and it was a bit difficult to move around fluidly. Additionally, my visual field changed and depth (visually) was replaced by a “nearness of everything.” One continued to smile from ear to ear… as the joy of it was so intoxicating. As it occurred, thought was in abeyance (with what seemed to be some sort of assisted suspension). It seemed so sacred and timeless; it was direct, beautiful, holistic energy (and not mere thinking about energy). After a good while, it left as quickly as it came. A day or so later, deep insights occurred; for instance, one figured out some profound things about how the cosmos functions.
Craving for this nirvana (or whatever you wish to call it) — it really is a nameless, immeasurable thing — never helps to bring it into being. It comes uninvited. What may be prudent is having an orderly mind that often exists beyond fragmentary symbolism (of thought/thinking) and existing as a mind that exists beyond the norm. Maintaining a healthy body, free of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, and adulterated foods is essential. But being an orderly mind that often exists beyond the fragmentary symbolism of thinking… is a blessing of its own; it is (then) real intelligence, integrity, and holistic, keen perception.
Beyond the shadows of “thought/thinking” exists a sweet openness wherein what most people would call “the sacred” can come pouring through for a visit (if you are very lucky). Thought/thinking is incapable of describing or inviting that eternal sacredness. That immensity is too ineffable, too extraordinarily and profoundly beyond what limited, fragmentary words are capable of. Words — all words — are only about energy; they are never the actual eternal energy. Yet we human beings exist in (and “as”) transitory words… and what we see is dictated by a screen of potty-little words and learned mental accumulations. Words are intrinsically like empty shadows. Words are concocted, representative symbols that are essentially empty and void of real life. (Words are often necessary but many times words need not exist.) Merely existing in (and “as”) words is a kind of death… a mental death/decay situation that isn’t good. Most people, unfortunately, are stuck in that little, psychological hole (habitually) and are extremely uncomfortable about going beyond it.
Note: (Below is a short excerpt from one of my earlier blogs about Socrates’ Cave. It may shed some light on our current dark situation… if you are perceptive.)
In Socrates’ parable of the Cave — within Plato’s Republic — people were born in a cave, and they were fettered with chains… and forced to merely see and learn the details about shadows cast on the cave walls from puppets and a fire that they didn’t see behind them. One of them was taken — at one point, by force — first to see the fire… and then out of the cave into the true light of day… into a more genuine reality; then he came back down into the cave with the others. When he — the man who returned back — pleaded with them to look beyond the shadows, they called him a fool and continued giving prizes to those who could best guess which shadows came before or after.
Shadows and Sunlight … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2022
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 