All Posts Tagged ‘macro’

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Happy Holidays!

December 24, 2017
21 comments

 

Special Note:   Happy Holidays to everyone worldwide!

 

We sure hope that the coming new year brings, with it, more sense and more compassion in people.  People, unfortunately, are very gullible and it is easy for the fat-cat bureaucrats to get people to believe just about anything.  Please do not get all wrapped up in belief; please intelligently go beyond all belief and tradition-oriented presumption.  Do not ever merely believe what i write within this blog; i do not wish to be your authority.  (There are plenty of charlatans out there who will gladly be your authority, if that is what you wish.)  Each one of us has to deeply question things and look beyond all of the propaganda.  If the world has any hope at all, we need to go beyond the ruts that we are mindlessly entrenched in.  Governments that rob the poor to feed the filthy rich (and that neglect environmental health and global unity) need to be radically questioned/altered.  The world is very small and fragile and it will not last — in its balance naturally as it has — if we continue to lack seriousness and continue to act with negligence regarding the delicate whole.   Despite what you were “taught,” you may not be anything separate from all of the fragile creatures and humans of this planet; it may be that you are them.  If you do not care — and continue reacting as the fat-cat bureaucrats want you to — it may be like the right hand not at all caring about the left hand (and thinking it is separate).  

Alleged saying of Jesus… from the ancient Nag Hammadi Gospel of Thomas (that the hierarchical fat-cats rejected):

Jesus said:  “The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”

 

Do not ever think that you are something separate.  Wash clean of cold deception, false accumulation, and dead tradition.

Mostly alone… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The Light of Shine

December 22, 2017
4 comments

[Addendum:   We saw the movie “Wonder” the other day; it was excellent; highly recommended!]

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

 

 

But here

amongst 

the light of shine

why couldn’t

when arcing was

as shading stared 

even when

something moved

ever so

graciously

amid

perceptions reactions

and you’re

blinking

 

 

Amongst the Light of Shine (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Amongst the Light of Shine (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Humans’ Psychological Walls…

December 17, 2017
18 comments

 

 

Everyone seems to exist with many psychological walls.  In the aforementioned sentence, the word “exist” was used and not the word “live.”  One is not sure whether existing with all of the psychological walls (that society had us absorb) is really living.  We… early in life — in grade school and similar places — learned how to incorporate these walls into (and “as”) our consciousness.  As adults, these walls have become heavily imbued into each one of us.  We perceive — without even realizing it — with (and from) these walls of separation.

What do these walls consist of?  They consist of a myriad of things; however, they are essentially ingrained thoughts.  We perceive largely via separation and a wall of division.  Each one takes for granted that the perceiver is separate from the perceived.  Many of us think that humans are somehow separate from the animals.  Many function with separative countries, religions, and traditions, and such people then look  — despite saying that they do otherwise — with division and fragmentation.  We were taught that we are separate individuals.

When a psychological fear takes place, if it is seen via psychological distance, then a manufactured psychological wall exists.  That wall divides the perceiver from the fear.  In actuality, the perceiver is not something separate from the fear.  The fear itself is a protrusion or swelling of consciousness… a consciousness that one is.  If jealousy takes place, the average mind sees it as something that it “has,” not as what it actually is.  “Having” the jealousy — in the mind — puts it at a psychological distance.  A psychological wall, in (and “as”) the mind seems to place the perceiver at a distance from “his jealousy.”   That very wall, which separates something from the jealousy, helps manufacture the image of a separate perceiver.   That may be a waste of energy; the perceiver is not (in reality) something separate from the jealousy.  (This is not to say that a human being is just jealousy; that would be ludicrous; each of us is a unique dynamic).   So, what is rather ludicrous — which, unfortunately, most people do not see — involves looking at what you actually are from a distance (as if it is not actually what you are).  This is really not complicated.  When you look in a mirror, you do not think, “There is a separate image at some distance,” … do you?  Yet, partly because of faulty education, when hatred occurs, most people see it as what they “have” and as what they control from a “center” at a distance.  We extend that inner separation outwardly (into the world, so to speak).   We were taught that each one of us is an individual and that each one of us is separate from all other life forms in the whole world; that may not be true whatsoever.  Manufactured walls, however, make it seem true.  (Transcending the falsehood of separate individuality, by the way, does not negate the beauty of eternity for us whatsoever.)  The world is in real chaos/decline because of accepting many (false) deluding walls as things that are true.

Many people can look at a hurt animal without any empathy.   Such people inevitably look with a callous wall of indifference.  That wall involves space.  It is a very limited, distorted space.  It is a very confined, circumscribed space that “exists,” and one would not immediately jump to call it “living.”  There is, in most of us, a sensed distance between “you” and “what is seen.”  This applies internally (such as involving fear) and externally (such as seeing a creature of nature).  Either way, that sensed distance (too) makes up the consciousness that you are (and so does the image of what is seen); so there really is no wall, especially internally where the fear or hatred is an extension of the mind.  

Though he harms others, even an extremely cruel man — in his isolated, cold existence — usually takes great pains not to harm himself.  However, for such a man, false walls have isolated that so-called self to a very disconnected, limited (fallacious and fictitious) realm.   We need to be more intelligent as a species; we need to go beyond our primitive walls and limited boundaries and stop butchering each other in archaic wars; we need to stop polluting the whole of nature, which we are not segregated from.  We can be truly intelligent and live in the holistic eternal.

 

 

 

Jumping Spider (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Jumping Spider (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

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Serendipity… (when there may be no you mindlessly separate from them)

December 15, 2017
15 comments

 

 

One

       pink day

             in a curious

                   we kind of way

                         the camera landed

                               near what insects were focusing on

 

 

 

 

Serendipity (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Serendipity (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Imprecision of the Mind

December 10, 2017
19 comments

 

 

It is important to have a mind and body that (together) work with great precision.  Many people do not take great care of their bodies; nor do they delve into the nature and essence of their minds a great deal.  Such behavior is often negligence.  A body that consumes many foods that are not conducive to good health is operating in a way that is not harmonious, not orderly.  Similarly, a mind that is operating with a lot of inner conflicts, resistance, fears, delusional manipulations, and a fanciful administration of power, is not being harmonious nor orderly. 

A mind that is a hodgepodge of absorbed (i.e., learned) conditioning consisting of false psychological separation, inner conflict, inner resistance, and spurious (internal) domineering power can seemingly create a meditative silence that it may think is divine.   However, a mind full of inner limitations, conflicts, suppositions, and learned attributes can easily deceive itself; such a silence is (inevitably) as limited as the mind that fabricated it.  It may be that a truly profound and precise silence is never the product of a calculating mind.

A mind that is aware of itself, each and every day, without the stagnant patterns that society has impressed upon it, may (without effort or spurious inner dominating factors) function with (and “as”) real order, precision, and harmony.  Thinking and the thought process is often used by (and “as”) such a mind; however, the thinking process is seen to be the limited tool that it is; the sagacious mind realizes that it need not exclusively cling to that limited domain.  There is a cessation of thought/thinking that comes uninvited, that comes unprovoked; it is not the hypnotic, limited kind of fabricated silence that so many unfortunate minds have learned to materialize.  

A mind that has profound awareness functions without a fictitious and misleading center (such as the kind that the majority have learned to accept and take as genuine).  Most, with that misleading and inaccurate “center” that each takes to be genuine, function — especially internally — with fraudulent space and with fanciful separation.  The fraudulent, limited space and fanciful separation are involved with protrusions of thought that are given (false) credit for being the source of power and domination (of the so-called other thoughts).  Then, such minds of imprecision think that they can intentionally meditate, creating or concocting a space of true and legitimate silence.  Does one see the absurdity of it?…  A mind of delusional, distorted separation and fictitious space thinks it can fabricate a true silence (of vast space).  What it produces will be an obtrusion (i.e., an extension) of its own inherent disorder and imprecision (and, therefore, will inevitably be of the conditioned and/or false).  It is so easy for distortion to bamboozle itself into thinking that it is free, or whole, or divine (when it is not).  Only an innocent, honest, truly humble mind (of real clarity and precision) is beyond self-deception. 

A mind that examines without the burden of false values and the stale conditioning (of the past) can flower beyond limitation, internal imprecision, and fallacious separation (such as misrepresentation as when, in the mind, the so-called “controller” is misconstrued as being somehow separate from “thoughts seen with psychological distance”).  Profoundly intelligent observation must be pristine, uncontaminated, undistorted, and beyond measure.   It is very possible for the truly serious mind.  Only a mind of real clarity and precision can see and understand the whole. 

 

 

 

Green Lacewing… Predator of many harmful insects… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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We moved

December 8, 2017
12 comments

 

 

We moved and in that moving looked

                     and in that looking many things were seen

and in that seeing labeled things were from the storehouse of memory

We re-cognized from patterns of the past

We saw everything the way we were instructed to see

We looked from (i.e., as) the screen of conditioning

We never looked originally spotlessly wholly 

?Can the yes of awareness be beyond stagnant lies of no

                     as magic beautifully flowers

 

 

 

Depth with superficiality (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Depth with superficiality (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Ideals (What are they and why do we “have” them)…

December 3, 2017
13 comments

 

 

We have had ideals for centuries.  Yet mankind goes on, with all kinds of corruption and distortion.  Ideals seem to help but, in the long run, do not change much whatsoever.  When one has an ideal, it is a projection or obtrusion (of the mind) regarding what one “ought to be.”  That “ought to be,” that “what one should be,” is a pattern that one has accumulated — over time — from others’ teachings or from experiences (of the past).  It is a protrusion of the past into the present, concerning what the future “should be”; such a process is a sequence in (and “as”) psychological time.

Profound awareness is not what occurs when the present (in its wholeness) is constantly contaminated by past fragmentary symbols and patterns.  People are energetic, habitual, lightning-quick “reacting organisms,” and learned, fragmentary symbols and patterns — of the past, like any “should be” — are usually not enough to entirely tame the deeply ingrained emotions/desires/reactions that “people are” (and to significantly change those reactions).  So the projected “‘should be’s” from the past, are (for the most part) never enough to fundamentally alter behavior.  Whenever what one “should be” is projected — in (and “as”) the mind — from the past, it is at odds with what “actually is.”  The “ideals” and the “actualities” are often in conflict with each other; a mind that habitually feeds internal conflicts is not a healthy mind… it is a mind of friction and internal resistance.  When the present time actually takes place, such internal friction and resistance prevent profound awareness.  When one portion of the mind is at odds with another portion of the mind — which is so often the case with minds that harbor (and consist of) ideals — then such internal conflict prevents pristine awareness and holistic energy.  When pristine awareness takes place, it has its own (unimposed) natural, intrinsic order; then there is no need for symbolic ideals or many regulating laws.  Great, sagacious passion sees clearly (without distortion); that very seeing is its own order and compassion.

The wise mind does not merely carry and project ideals but, rather, sees what it actually is from moment to moment.  If jealousy is taking place, in such a mind, it sagaciously perceives that jealousy (as what it actually is… not merely as something that it “has.”)  Perceiving without “learned-accumulated space,” learned-accumulated patterns of what “should be,” and learned-accumulated patterns of “psychological effort” may enable the mind to be deeply aware beyond the realm of mere fragmentation and sequential expansion; then real insight and order can take place.  Such order would not be merely manmade or imposed.  Order that is imposed is never lasting and is never what can fundamentally change a person.

Innumerable people are the “should be” or “ought to be” images (of idealism) that they harbor.  People who hold many ideals actually are those ideals (and are not something separate from them).  The mind does not merely “have ideals”; in many, whether they realize it or not, ideals are what they actually are (at least partially, of course).  They are (additionally) a lot of reactions and movements at odds with the ideals; so there is real friction and struggle within.  Inner conflict doesn’t easily allow fundamental learning (beyond mere accumulation) to take place.  Wisdom goes beyond separation, beyond fragmentation, beyond internal struggle and conflict, beyond very primitive ways of dealing with things.  The passion of very intelligent awareness is an explosion beyond the dead sequence of psychological time and distortion; only then can a deep form of timeless compassion and intrinsic order manifest.

 

 

Mushrooms without ideals Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

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That Sacredness

December 1, 2017
15 comments

 

 

There is an immeasurable energy

       a sacredness that cannot be created or destroyed

       and it is a field beyond thought/thinking

Its essence is an indescribable eternity that is

       beyond words and mere mental patterns

It rarely visits the realm of man

When it visits

      it fills the cup of the mind/body for a while

       and departs as quickly as it arrives

       but leaves some perfume of itself

        that forever affects the mind

Its intrinsic order will not visit a concocted silence

        nor any copied meditation

       nor any secondhand distortion or twisted corruption

It is of an immense intelligence

       beyond fragmented limitation and stagnant beliefs

It is not of the separative fabricated religions and countries

        that divide man

Thinking is always “about” energy

Thinking is never (the actual boundless energy

        with all of its holistic beauty)

Thought/thinking is limited fractional

        and symbolic

 

 

 

 

Lichen near a pond (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Lichen near a pond (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

 

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Mediocrity and the Unconditioned

November 26, 2017
13 comments

 

Most of us, i feel, were educated to accept innumerable fallacies as facts and as ordinary phenomena to be taken for granted.  These have been presented to us since birth and, although it wasn’t deliberate indoctrination, the word “indoctrination” is very applicable to what actually has largely taken place.  In our youth, we were not encouraged to deeply question society’s values, doctrines, principles, beliefs, and systems (and go beyond them).  We were molded to conform, to remain with (and “as”) the status quo, to accept competition… and deviating from that (significantly) was definitely not tolerated.   Some people, reading or hearing about this, would say, “Yes, I know,” or “Yes, I realize that.”   It is unlikely, however, that many have even the foggiest idea of just how vast the conditioning (and indoctrination) runs into their lives.   We were not brought up to be truly open, creative, questioning, deeply insightful human beings; we were, for the most part, programmed to be copiers, replicators, and obedient parts of the machine.    

Most of us do not see the world as “one organism”; we perceive the many parts, many species, many others, many sections.   We’ve used thought (as we were taught to) for advantageous purposes, yet most all of us greatly overuse it (dwelling, almost exclusively, in that realm).  (Some of us who absorbed calculated methods to go beyond thought, by sitting on mats and all such planned nonsense, have substituted mere glorified hypnotic technique to displace thinking, all the while thinking something great has been accomplished.)  Very few of us have intelligently seen the limitation of thinking and have truly (intelligently) gone beyond that limitation.   Thinking, being the sequential arrangement of symbols (that it is)… is always partial, always very limited.  Thinking is a very necessary tool, a necessary instrument that is extremely useful (at times); however, at other times, it is unnecessary to remain in (and “as”) the realm of thinking.  Need the mind always merely exist as symbols, as sequential tokens to attain (or “represent”) something?   The very supposed core of most people’s selves consists of fragmentary images and symbols (such as “me” and “I”) that they have absorbed from others.  So many are existing in a virtual world of man-made images and fabricated constructs that consist primarily of mere representational ideas and habitually learned patterns.

 Real perception, real intelligence goes beyond all this — and that is where the real bliss and eternity exists — not by accumulating more methodologies, not by absorbing more systems and patterns, not by blindly adhering to more authority.  The truly perceptive mind looks without outward and inward authority.  It sees beyond the symbolic, the partial, and the taught.  Such a mind is of real bliss and order.  It has no teacher, no resting place, no anchor that others have provided in (and “as”) the past.  Without looking with (and “as”) the dead past, such a mind may be truly free, pristine, and unspoiled.  There is no procedure or “how” regarding getting there.  A lot of people prefer to comfortably remain in the leftover debris that was shoveled to them, and they call it “security” and “wellbeing,” yet they remain full of anxiety, uncertainty, and sorrow.   Real (fundamental) security and genuine bliss, however, go beyond the residual norms of a fragmented, nocuous society.     

 

 

 

Together … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Gold, the Eternal Treasure

November 24, 2017
7 comments

 

 

Denzel Epinstein ambled with a very crooked leg

         His perceptions,though,were not jaded and askew

Mary Whitnun power-walked with perfect knees and thighs

         Her subservient perceptions were full of broken fragments and distortion

 

Ed Sedentary was perpetually glued to his television

         Temporary things were seen with separation and phosphorescent isolation

Tina Flow appeared to be alone in the golden meadows of nature

         She wasn’t,however,apart from all of the wondrous and magnificent creatures

 

 

 

Grasshopper on Tugged Sunflower (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Grasshopper on Tugged Sunflower (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Awareness vs. Conditioned Responsiveness…

November 19, 2017
21 comments

 

 

It is very difficult for people to fundamentally change.  One realizes, all too well, that whatever is written here, and in my other posts, will likely not have much of a meaningful impact for most who are reading this.  People cling to their traditions, to what they have absorbed in school and to what they swallowed from others in the distant past; they cling to deeply ingrained conditioning, and (though they claim that they are changing) they are unwilling to really drop all of that baggage.  It is unfortunate that most people cannot radically and fundamentally change.

If one merely reads these posts, accepts much of what is written, and builds a bunch of mental constructs out of it… it is not what is truly blossoming whatsoever.   Awareness flowers when there is a flowering beyond mere conditioned responsiveness.  That flowering has nothing to do with effort, agreement, absorption, practice, or dead tradition.  (There, of course, remain to be oodles of religions, armies, and experts who are all too willing to give you more of those essentially unflowering falsities.)

Most people are very good at responding and reacting.  That is what they were trained (i.e., indoctrinated) to do… and it is what they were trained to remain as.  Practicing something to “be” in some state beyond that may be a foolhardy waste of time.  As was written in the “Being and Becoming” posting:  “Being and becoming are essentially the same thing.  Being, as does becoming, reinforces the self, the center, with its dependence on sensations, pleasure, and time.”  

A person can go out in nature and then be a series of mere reactions… seeing everything through a screen of images and mental compilations that one has “absorbed” from previous others in (and “as” the past).  Then, a separate image of self is projected as a learned reaction, as an obtrusion of thought/thinking, and seemingly and pretentiously identifies that with images and with other mental compilations involving nature; it then claims “I am one with nature.”   Unfortunately, however, mere reactions and obtrusions of thought may not be “one” with much of anything.  Seeing with (and from) the past (i.e., from stuffy, old memory and imagery) is existing in (and “as”) the past.

As was written in the “Being and Becoming” posting:  The intelligent mind does not try to be in a state of being, does not try to be what is non-becoming, nor does it try to be in a state of non-being.  Such trying would be a further extension of becoming and would reinforce the self and its dependence upon time.  In (psychologically) not trying to be or not be… the mind may naturally blossom as what is beyond greed, dependence (on others for how to get there), and measurement.

Awareness involves a depth, love, and a total perception that the limited domain of mere reaction cannot fathom.   Such awareness, such love, and perception — though they are not separate things —  go beyond being, beyond becoming, beyond measurement.   Eternity is involved in such awareness.

 

 

Beyond words (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Beyond words (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Reactions and Beyond

November 12, 2017
17 comments

 

All of us, in (and “as”) a succession of moments, in a series or sequence, react.  In a very wise entity, however, these reactions are not always habitual, are not always the only activity taking place.  In most people, conditioned into habits, what they actuate is always caused by some prior (usually some group of) antecedent factors.  They may think and fully feel that they are dignified and elegant and in total control (for what they allegedly “choose”); however, they usually are a reacting part of a calculated, complex matrix devised by a larger society.  Many then get stuck in mundane, dull routines and then often try to find various escapes to temporarily pull boredom out for a while.  These escapes then create further reactions, many of which do not fundamentally benefit the earth nor those upon it.

What can go beyond this is real integrity, real wholeness, and soundness.   To perceive integrally is to perceive beyond the fragments.  Thought, being symbolic and partial, is inherently limited and fragmentary.  However, most are habitually composed of (and habitually dependent on) thought and thinking.  These habitual thoughts go much further (in their extent) than most realize.  Thought often separates one group from another, oneself from so-called others at a distance, and the so-called central controller from what is seen (from an alleged distance) as his or her fear.  

In a divisive, mad, chaotic world, can the mind exist as more than mere fragmented reaction?  There is a quietness, a vast humility, beyond the shadows of spurious control and manipulation.  That quietness is not the mere result of any kind of reaction, nor the product of any kind of intention or contrivance.   You cannot make yourself be quiet (as so many try to do); the so-called “maker” of the quietness is a protrusion of thought; the concocted reaction from a protrusion of thought can never be genuine quietness.   There must be a motiveless (effortless) perceiving without mere habitual rigamarole.  

 

Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Real Love

November 10, 2017
14 comments

 

 

Real love can’t be reasoned

        can’t be measured

                        can’t be sold

                        and doesn’t give a damn

              about having tons of $

or a stinking pot of gold

 

Genuine wisdom isn’t pompous

        isn’t pigheaded

                        isn’t forlorn sorrow

                        and won’t ever bring ecstatic truth

        eternal perception and blissful joy

if seriousness is 4 2morrow

 

 

Alfalfa Sulfur Butterflies (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Alfalfa Sulfur Butterflies (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Second-handedness

November 5, 2017
24 comments

 

Real mindfulness, real meditation is not sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat.  Such sitting is calculated and is structured to gain something… (which is greediness).  On the other hand, innocent, pristine awareness throughout the day (that is not merely influenced by the patterns and symbols that others have provided) may be very prudent.  Is it real awareness when one is looking with what other people have poured into one?  Is real awareness, real living, what can take place through the secondhand edicts or patterns provided by others?  When perception takes place through mere symbolic images and via learned psychological separation, is such perception what was copied from others and (additionally) limited and superficial?

It may be that secondhand has little to do with actual living.  However, many rely on (and habitually exist “as”) secondhand, without question.   

 

 

0.5 cm Scarlet-and-Green Leafhopper (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

0.5 cm Scarlet-and-Green Leafhopper (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Bipedal

November 3, 2017
13 comments

 

[Note:  The following poem is not about the Praying Mantis; it is about the species who manufactured the metal rail that the Mantis is walking across.]

 

Bipedal

Hairy

Tends to dominate other species

Some act with great order and understanding while many are indifferent and uncaring

Often fights other imaginary sub-groups of its own kind

Takes far more — in terms of the domain of other species — than its fair share

Overpopulates its own kind over the entire planet

Covers life-areas with dead concrete

Feels intelligent and superior (while it — all along — ruins the planet)

Most do not realize that they are not separate from the world as a whole

Some are very caring, considerate, and compassionate

Mentally feeds on symbols and images rather than reality

Often uses others for profit

Often blindly follows/obeys power-hungry tyrants in high positions

Some fire projectiles from held devices to put holes in  other species or in others of their own kind… rendering them lifeless

Some warmheartedly stay local, recycle, use alternative energy, and actually help nature and others of their own kind

Others hypocritically claim to love nature while they often needlessly fly for long distances in aircraft that spew out deadly fossil fuels in vast quantities

Most foolishly think that their species is separate from other species

Some refrain from harming multitudinous species who highly value their own existence

Some have real empathy while others are mere thinking/reacting machines

Most abandoned life in the trees and woodlands to become the obedient working slaves of others

Only an extremely small number have been visited by that sacred, eternal energy that is beyond the realm of standard causality and rigid boundaries

Many believe in a dominating super-organism who — up above — happens to be a tail-free ape like themselves

Most subscribe to the very primitive notion that the observer is separate from the observed

A small few exist beyond the shared madness

 

 

 

Shadow of Mantis in the World of Man (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Shadow of Mantis in the World of Man (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

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True Simplicity

October 29, 2017
10 comments

 

Most of us each look with psychological space between a posited “I” and what that “I” — which is actually manufactured — supposedly sees from a distance.   Even when a psychological fear takes place, we each tend to see it from a distance, as what each one of us “has,” rather than seeing it as what we actually are.   (This psychological distance exudes a false sense of control.)  However, if that central “I” is spurious, is mentally manufactured and not really central… and is essentially a projection of the thought process, then erroneous perception is taking place.  An illusory “I” often may necessitate a concomitant illusory (psychological distance).  The absence of a central “I” helps to curtail unnecessary psychological distance.   

We are also separated by organized (concocted) religions, countries, cultural groups, rigid beliefs, systems, and prejudices… many of which we are willing to fight and die over.

Very few of us are truly simple (in an intelligent way) beyond the absorbed conflict, rifts, and illusory boundaries and spaces that were provided by way of direct or indirect indoctrination.  The wise mind that transcends the very crass and illusory notion of a central “I” or “me” will live among many who habitually cling to absorbed images of a central self.  Such a wise mind usually must function in a vast population of delusion and falsities.   It may be that the very essence of those habitually expressing unnecessary psychological space consists of duplicity and inaccuracy.  Deep compassion and profound holistic relationship occur not a moment sooner than when (psychologically) the limited “I” is wisely and fully transcended.   When the limited “I” is wisely and fully transcended, needless separation and wasteful conflict end. 

 

 

Snout Butterfly (Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Greatest Halloween Terror is not a Spider

October 27, 2017
29 comments

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Halloween is a candylicious 

        fun for kids time of year

        and the ugly monster

        with the orangish hair

        (who is a reflection of a sick national immorality)

        is mostly what we should fear

 

 

 

Halloween Spider (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Halloween Spider (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Many dead from the heart up…

October 22, 2017
19 comments

 

 

We exist in a world society that largely operates with a very amoral morality.  It’s a society where ruthless competition is so hammered into people that many do it without question.  It’s a society where it is largely accepted to destroy large parts of nature with chemicals, abuse, polluting fuels, and endless cement.  It is a society where little is said or felt about human population control (as humans, as a species, are taking way more than their fair share quantitatively/environmentally).  It’s a society where separation and division are often encouraged and reinforced.  It’s a society where it’s easy to fit in (and be accepted) if one is indifferent, barbarous, and manipulating.  It’s a society where, for example, one is often accepted and congratulated while one claims to love nature, all the while frequently flying long distances in fossil-fuel (very polluting) aircraft from continent to continent to take pictures of animals and plant life… although they are all are being choked off by pollutants and fumes.  Of course, there are some who are truly sympathetic and good (even in a society that, for the most part, is of corruption and chaos).  Many more are living in tiny houses, recycling, staying local, reproducing less, intentionally using less, using alternative energy, and are truly doing more to make a difference.

To really find out what happens at death, one must, first and foremost, understand life/living.  One isn’t, however, even actually living if one is a cadaverous clone of stale traditions and secondhand (accepted) suppositions.  Most were not encouraged to doubt, to question.  However, intelligent doubting and sensitive questioning may help an individual bloom beyond rigid, rigor mortis states.  Many end up being buried six feet down even though they were never fully alive in the first place, unfortunately.  To go through life merely reacting (from what was poured into one) may not be real living whatsoever.  Too many assume that they are actually alive.  It may be that if genuine enlightenment would ever happen to you, as a visitation by that sacred immeasurability, you would definitely realize that we truly live in the land of the dead.  Do not ever merely accept what i say or write.  Find out for yourself.  Please do not be like dead clay.

 

 

 

Buckeye Butterfly (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Buckeye Butterfly (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Let us go and make our visit…

October 20, 2017
19 comments

 

Thither we go
        into a half-baked poem
        hardly worth reading

We will continue to read it
        despite its repulsive tendencies
        to bring us closer to mediocrity 

unless we allow the eyes to feast
        on the accompanying photos
        which are not as puerile and spineless
        as the poem currently being read

Of course the poem can be
        memorized and recited
        if you’d like to fail to impress your friends
        (who are imprisoned in all standard misconceptions)

Any disreputable poem
        such as this one
        neglects to suggest anything profound
        and declines to mention
        the beauty of nature

You (Mr. Prufrock) heard them each to each
        Go ahead and eat your peach
        I too am an easy tool
        and i too grow old
        (the bottom of my trousers rolled)

 

Enfolded (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Enfolded (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

Post

Sensibility

October 15, 2017
10 comments

 

Sensibility can involve and does involve the ability to receive sensations.  We wholeheartedly pursue pleasurable sensations throughout our life.  We often avoid sensations that are unpleasant or uncomfortable.  Thoughts are often involved in the pursuit of pleasurable sensations and in the avoidance of uncomfortable sensations.  Reactions, as thoughts and feelings, often involve sensations of various types… and pursuit or avoidance involving them.  Many of the cravings and evasions of people are learned (i.e., absorbed from others).  What others — in overall society — pursue and crave is often examined and copied.  Needless to say, in this day and age, many are into heavy partying, exotic vacations, and all kinds of entertainment.  Much of this involves endlessly trying to find exciting and pleasurable sensations.  

One can go on, for many decades, perpetually pursuing one pleasurable experience after another (ruining the environment along the way)… just as one has learned to do by observing many others (who buzz along in large fossil-fueled vehicles).  It may be, however, that the values involved in a life of doing that kind of thing are rather superficial, without real depth.  To remain in such a state may be rather infantile.  Sensibility can also, beyond the aforementioned involvement with limited sensations, pertain to an acute awareness with an overall accompanying perception and intelligence involving what is significant and prudent. Real prudence involves sagacity and sensibility beyond what was merely poured into one by others.  Such prudence goes far beyond what is merely pleasurable into realms that help life and humanity (without getting anything in return).  The childish mind will be incapable of such prudence; real depth will elude such a mind.  

Endlessly pursuing one pleasure after another (without depth), and a donkey perpetually chasing a carrot suspended from a stick tied to its saddle, both have a lot in common.  Intelligence goes beyond mere reaction; it is not what is bound in (and “as”) endless reactions.  What is restricted and circumscribed is limited.  Sensibly going beyond the limitations of what is ordinary may be real intelligence.  The carrot is really not something that is truly separate from the donkey, though he thinks it is.  The next time desire takes place, please consider the possibility that it is what you actually are, not merely what you have.

 

 

Carrot Groping (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Carrot Groping (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The leader and the lead… should be obsolete in this day and age.

October 13, 2017
8 comments

 

Here I am riding on the Solar Sunflower Express

        in first class.

Down below,in third class,a lowly soldier beetle rests;

        he has connections on the web

        but he is way below my esteemed riches.

I have my feelers out for the lush,green cash to be had,

        and I feel secure in my dominance and expertise.

As for the servile soldier beetle,well, 

        he better hope that he is fit enough to fight in the 

        battles that I decree.

Now please excuse me while I give some

        top-rate tobacco a little chew.

 

 

 

Riding the Solar Sunflower Express (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Riding the Solar Sunflower Express (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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What a lot of us go through

October 8, 2017
14 comments

 

A lot of us go through unbelievable hardships in life.  Very many of us have had to go through tremendous turmoil, unfortunate tragedies, and unbelievably tough times.   For some of us, maybe our parents were rather cruel and unstable; or perhaps such was the case regarding some of our teachers or classmates.  Or maybe some of us have had to deal with significant physical or socioeconomic handicaps.  Many of us have had to face real pain involving the loss of a loved one or dear friend.  Most of us were shaped to be programmed by a society that is competitive, money oriented, and extremely superficial (in terms of deep meaning and real integrity).  Most of us have been harmed psychologically (by cruelty and indifference); many of us do not even realize the vast extent of the damage that has been done to us.  Beyond the past, we all, whether we like it or not, are facing a very precarious future.  The world is getting more and more dangerous, more and more divided; we have not fundamentally changed (psychologically) since our early barbarian ancestry days.  And now, with nuclear armaments being able to wipe out billions and with germ warfare a real possibility, here we sit.  Violent winds and ferocious storms and wildfires are increasing as pollution gets far worse, as many politicians are indifferent, and as fossil fuelled homes and vehicles run rampant.

Given the aforementioned circumstances, it would be very arduous to be truly stable in such a tough, unstable world (such as it is).  It would be very easy to remain truly stale in such a tough, unstable world (such as it is).  One cannot really blame others for their staleness and lack of depth; they were educated and programmed to be that way.  Many cannot change; many do not want to change.  We were taught that we are separate from each other.  We were taught that we are different.  Within all of the vast darkness, there can be light and real intensity.  That light must shine from you; it cannot merely be given by another.  Such light is never really just secondhand; however, darkness can easily be secondhand (or of a residual, shadow-like, cold recurrence).   To be a truly bright human being, here, has little to do with intellectual capacity, with copying and mimicking.  

 

 

 

Struggling in Life (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Struggling in Life (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The Reader is the Read

October 6, 2017
9 comments

 

 

 

In the reading of a poem
the depth of the poem may have meaning
which,coincidentally,depends upon
the depth of the reader
not that the reader and the poem
are necessarily two separate things

If superficiality is involved
it may be with regard to the poem itself
or it may involve the perception of the reader
not that the perception and the reader are separate
not that the poetry and the depth are necessarily separate
as when the reader and the read are not two separate things
which,in a world of tremendous conflict,friction,and division,
might not be a bad thing whatsoever

 

 

Fall (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Fall (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Cessation

October 1, 2017
7 comments

 

There is a psychological cessation that is beyond the parameters of motivation, desire, or striving.  It involves a timelessness that is beyond sequential methodologies and practices.  Such a cessation is a discontinuance of the same-old mental symbols, same-old perspectives involving separation, and same-old mental traditions.  Such a cessation is natural, healthy, intelligent, and is not merely what can be measured.  Those who perpetually and habitually function in (and “as”) the parameters of thought (endlessly using dead sequential symbols to cogitate about things) cannot be of such a living timelessness.

There is no path to such a cessation, such a timelessness… for, if there was, it would be reducing such a timelessness to being just another part of the continuum of temporal manifestations; there are plenty of charlatan priests, gurus, and so-called religious masters who are all too willing to give you the path (and methods), however.  A lone Bumblebee went from flower petal to flower petal, caught in a sequence of endless reactions that never were transcended, never fully understood.

 

 

 

Immersed in reaction (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Immersed in reaction (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

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Mr. No-One and the Universe

September 29, 2017
14 comments

 

 

Squeak and Meek each went to take a peek

   and what they saw was delectably ever so sleek

It buttery flowed meltedly through slippery slopes

   and was spattered in sections beyond blind people’s hopes

 

Roly and Poly barrelled into town

   they joined the loud circus and smiley jolly clown

They circled around the rainbowed ice cream shop

   and drove to the intersection then came to a stop

 

Itchy and Stichy yelled into a huge microphone

   and no one heard them since no one was home

And the tree in the forest down with a loud crashing sound

   while the universe sure heard it because the universe was around

 

Skipper and Scatter burst onto the scene

   to become part of this skinny poem and the pickings are lean

What do you expect at this hungry time of day

   like some scrumptious corn on the cob in a splendid flowery kind of way?

 

 

 

Silver-spotted Skipper (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Silver-spotted Skipper (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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Basking beyond the need for belief

September 15, 2017
22 comments

 

 

A nonmediocre novelty lasted for relaxed nonseparative miles

     as we drove past steady sunflowers who sweetly worshipped the sun

In a divided disorganized planet of perplexed savage wars

     omniscient order majestically does nevertheless easily run

 

Multitudinous millipedes mingled in the downbelow grasses

     as businesslike bumblebees hurriedly bustled in blossoms far up above

And the saintly sun’s devotees seemed to move like precision clockwork

     with a passionate proclivity for life and for love

 

 

 

 

Sunflower Time (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Sunflower Time (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

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The Balanced Mind

September 10, 2017
14 comments

 

[Note: Currently we are thinking of the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, regarding the human species (and other animal species).  We donated to the Red Cross for each specific area.  Please consider donating if you haven’t done so already.  Additionally, please do more to help curtail global warming.  I’ve been warning, for a long time now, about the winds and weather getting substantially worse due to man’s neglect regarding clean energy; things will get far worse if we do not radically change our ways.]

 

 

A lot of minds are unbalanced these days.  Most minds, really, are very unbalanced.  A truly balanced mind is like a rare, precious jewel.  Unfortunately, very few minds, in this rather rotten society, are truly balanced.  To be truly balanced means not to have a mind that has been conditioned by the current rotten, immoral society in which we currently live.  It involves having (i.e., being) a mind that has stepped out of the morass of selfish values, indifferent separation, cold competition, and crude status quo beliefs.  A balanced mind does not follow the crowd, especially when that crowd has been indoctrinated to accept and hold orientations and tendencies that have been going on since ancient times.  Many people, these days, would be able to fit in quite nicely into the ancient Roman culture; the changes necessary — to so fit in — would not be very dramatic in the least.

The balanced mind that goes beyond all this, that largely transcends beyond conditioning and fragmentation, is far from what the ordinary man can understand or discover.  Real balance goes beyond unnecessary internal friction and conflict.  The balanced mind is not composed of learned (i.e., absorbed) barriers which separate it from all life, or which separate a supposed controlling center from other thoughts.  The balanced mind is not what looks from (or “as”) a screen of mere prejudices, edicts, beliefs, pigeon-holing labels, or hand-me-down values.  When a balanced mind looks, it looks without the mental-programming that dictates to others about how they should look (with certain preconceptions).  A balanced mind has its own intrinsic, natural empathy, holistic perception, insightful understanding, and unbounded wisdom.  

Can the unbalanced mind, the conditioned, corrupt mind, step out (mentally) from the quagmire that it is in… and be balanced?  Can separative, crass concepts and preconceived viewpoints go past the crude limitations that they are?   The mind can psychologically die to its own accumulated corruption.  Such a psychological dying is a real innocence, involves silence, and is real living… and it does not involve a learned method that takes time. 

 

 

 

 

Chillin’ (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Chillin’ (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Past Flying In Time

September 1, 2017
16 comments

 

 

Past flying in time
beyond because and why
Further than sorrow’s self-pity
Lofty in nature’s design

Pent-up in clover not theories
Peppered impressions
beyond dark desperation
Red glorious sweet tastes like rhyme

 

 

 

Past Flying in Time (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Past Flying in Time (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Pristine Perception

August 27, 2017
8 comments

 

Pristine perception is beyond the limited; if it is very limited, it is not pristine perception.  Such perception goes beyond the fragmented, limited labels that people assign to things.  Such labels, however “accurate” they may seem, are always partial, circumscribed, and merely symbolic.  Symbols are not actualities.  The word “water” isn’t wet.  Their essence may hold aspects of reality, but they may not be of actual truth whatsoever.  Mostpeople cling to symbols and sequential conceptual terms; without them, they (i.e., mostpeople) are lost.  Wisdom goes beyond this, and what is sees is far from ordinary. 

Depression and melancholiness, worldwide, are rampant in people these days.  A lot of the problem deals with the fact that they were primarily educated to merely exist and remain as symbolic thought (and all thought is merely symbolic).  Being one symbol after another, in sequence, creates an atmosphere that can, indeed, be depressed or of melancholiness.  Even when many chase after exciting experiences, these experiences are usually seen through (or “as”) a screen of symbolic interpretation and label-oriented imagery; then, it ends up being an extension of more and more symbols, which are intrinsically not what is fundamentally whole and pristine.  It is very easy to get lost because of poor education.  It is not so easy to perceive the danger of the false and go beyond it.

 

 

 

Mating Monarchs (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Mating Monarchs (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Regarding the Current Abominable, Psychologically Sick, Trump – U.S. White House Administration

August 25, 2017
20 comments

 

 

 

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OF

JUST

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WID

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PRO

PEN

CITY

2

POLL

LUTE

D

ENVI

RON

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WID 

H8

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ROT

10

SCUM

 

 

 

Wilting Environment Unless We Change (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Wilting Environment Unless We Change (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Prudent perception

August 20, 2017
14 comments

 

 

There is often a fine line between erroneous judgment and prudent perception.  Profound perception cuts through erroneous judgment and dissipates it.  There is no “how,” set in stone, on “getting” profound perception.  Like humility and real love, it is not something that one can merely cultivate.  However, if the mind is passionately aware of its own workings — without merely depending upon the patterns and judgments of others — then, perhaps, that untethered awareness opens up (or manifests as) profound perception.  A mind that is keenly interested in this is naturally and concomitantly interested in a correct relationship in all matters (internally and externally).   By “correct,” we mean in accordance with real fact and truth.  Naturally, deception, falsity, and illusion are not things that one would be eager to cling to and exist as.

Distorted minds, broken minds, fragmented minds, relatively superficial minds, will not be (at all) interested in this.  They will be content to remain — and wish to remain — as the ordinary, everyday mundane things that they were programmed to deal with (and be).  Going beyond this limitation will not suit them well.  They won’t care to be bothered.  Minds beyond this (limitation) may be somewhat interested in things, such as what is often written about here… or, perhaps, (though rarely) they may be extremely interested.  This interest must flower into a real passion for any real significant change to take place.  That “flowering” has little to do with retaining stale memories, old traditions, beliefs, or standardized procedures.   Those four are best suited for those who wish not to be bothered.  

A mind that looks without all the fragmented patterns, outlooks, judgments, and structures that others have poured into it is a very untethered mind.  Such an untethered mind is free to see everything as it really is (beyond limitations and distortion).  Such a non-separative, non-partial, holistic perception often is (and often exists “as”) undistorted relationship.  That kind of relationship goes beyond those that think that they are in relationship with the world but actually are not.  We are not really separate from what we perceive; and if what we perceive is dictated by the limited patterns and symbols that we have absorbed from a primitive society, then what we see will (inevitably) be second-hand, narrow, and circumscribed.  We can be beyond such inaccuracy. 

 

I eat a lot of green things too!

Eating a Green Lunch … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Love

August 13, 2017
39 comments

 

A lot of people use the word love.  Popular songs, needless to say, are riddled with the word.  It is a word that is so easily dished out; however, its profound depth of meaning may have been long neglected or absent in human culture.  If love, for an individual, is tied to self-interest, or motive, it is likely not actually deep love; then, in such very numerous cases, it is involved with (or “is”) desire.  If self-motive is involved, then it usually is mere desire, relish, and craving.  Deep love is not what is mere desire or what involves self-motive.  If one says one loves one’s nation or immediate family, for instance, but does not deeply care for all humanity and all forms of life as a whole… then that so-called love may just be a form of self-gratification or motive for security (out of fear). 

Profound love goes far beyond mere sensation, far beyond mere gratification from stimuli.  A merely greedy, avaricious mind cannot be of it.  It may be that few people (on this little globe) truly have love.  It may be a rare jewel that one cannot cultivate or exploit.  Like humility, one cannot program it to occur or make it happen; additionally, one “of it” would not “know” that one is imbued with what it is.  Though it cannot merely be cultivated or manufactured, it may occur in a very perceptive mind that is deeply aware of internal and external relationship.  Most, unfortunately, perceive with (and “as”) separation; this negates love via innumerable limited psychological walls and barriers.   Does one really love another, or is it an image (or set of images) that one’s set of internal images are associated with and fixated upon?  Is — in the mind — one set of images that cling to another set of images what profound love is?  What is limited, self-centered, and small cannot — by natural law — deeply be in harmony with the whole.  The limited (mind) will cause conflict (internally and externally), friction, wars, turmoil, pollution, and suffering.  In awareness that is not the product of the separative images and patterns that others cling to in limitation, the free mind is of an untethered vastness that largely transcends what causes suffering, friction, and prejudice.  Such a mind has no borders and, therefore, love is possible.

 

 

Mating Butterfly (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Mating Butterfly (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The Profound Mind…

August 6, 2017
27 comments

 

It is essential to be attentive throughout life.  If one is a mind that endlessly chatters (internally) about trivial things, with a lot of “noise” going on, which one is only half-aware about, then the mind becomes more and more cloudy, more and more dull. If reactions are going on, internally, it is prudent to be aware of them, not to have them occur while one does not perceive their occurrence or implications.  Most of us are addicted to being in a realm of reactions; we crave more and more reactions to cling onto (and to exist as).  Without merely resisting reactions, be attentive to them; perceive how the mind habitually depends on them (and exists as them).  Merely resisting having reactions is another (additional) reaction.  Without merely resisting, but just by simply observing without separative friction, the mind can be extremely attentive and alert.  That attentiveness, that great alertness and listening may, at times, allow the mind to exist without merely depending on reactions.

So, many are — and exist “as”– mere reactions.  Reactions are always secondary, mechanical, reactionary, residual; merely being “them” may not be real living whatsoever.  There can be a stability that is beyond the mere limits and fragmentary attributes that mere reaction entails.  That stability can be deep and profound.  That profundity will perceive beyond all of the superficial illusions, all the fallacies, all the nonsense, all the petty escapes.  It will be compassionate, caring, sensitive beyond measure, and will perceive far beyond the ordinary.  A rather ordinary mind who meets such a mind, who meets a person with such a profound mind, will likely merely see “someone” who just seems to be another regular person.  However, that profound mind is far from regular.  It will have seen so much more than what most have seen or will ever see.  It will have done so by not traveling an inch (to get something).

 

 

[Note:   The top photograph is of a young Praying Mantis on a Lily Flower.  The photograph below it is of a young Praying Mantis fossilized in 20 million-year-old Dominican Amber.]

 

 

Young Praying Mantis on Lily. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Young Praying Mantis in 20 Million-Year-Old Dominican Amber. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Truth, security, and the eternal…

July 30, 2017
5 comments

 

In great humility, there is an emptiness that exists beyond the “me” and “mine.”  That emptiness is, in actuality, the absence (i.e., the non-existence) of the “me.”  “Mostpeople” would feel frightened about the psychological absence of the “me,” or even about the possibility of the psychological absence of the “me.”  To “mostpeople,” it would seem to be an “insecurity” to go beyond the “me” or beyond the supposedly “controlling center.”   However, for the (truly) wise man, mere security is not a factor… truth is a factor.  To the wise man (or woman), it is truth that is where the real beauty, the real treasure, exists.  

Many years ago, in the early ’70s, when i was in my 4th year of college, i read an article about split-brain operations and how these surgical operations resulted in two totally separate fields of consciousness in one human being.  Reading about how the corpus callosum could be surgically severed, resulting in two distinct, separate fields of consciousness — with each not knowing what the other was doing — pulled one even further away from the ancient orthodoxy that so many of us were indoctrinated by.  It was back then that my insatiable quest for truth began (in the deepest sense), though even when one was much younger one still saw through a lot of the madness and falsities in the things that they tried to indoctrinate into us.  Real humility occurs when the mind intelligently doubts and asks profound questions without relying on what one’s family or culture provides as the truth.  If one largely relies on what one’s family or one’s culture has provided, it reflects a form of arrogance (which is far from true humility); one’s family and culture can, indeed, be a component or facet of oneself and, for sure, being certain of their validity is — in a big way — just a form of self-admiration and arrogance.  Intelligent doubt goes beyond all this.  Such intelligent doubt reflects the way Albert Einstein discovered things, by wisely questioning many things that were taken for granted as facts. Albert Einstein understood what it meant to “stand alone.”   To really inquire into that which is truly sacred, immeasurable, timeless and uncontaminated, one must, of course, do it with an instrument (i.e., a mind) that is itself uncontaminated.  It absolutely must be untainted, healthy, uncorrupt… that instrument (i.e., that true mind of inquiry).  That, then, means no belief, no arrogant assumptions about the validity of one’s own faith, religion, culture, family creeds, and spiritual blueprints; so it means no beliefs or presumptions.  However, “mostpeople” are totally unwilling to be that way.  They want the comfort and security of “knowing.”  It can be the “knowing” of others that they absorb and take on for themselves… it doesn’t matter.  However, it may be that the real quest for truth lies beyond security and “knowing.”  That is why so few ever come upon that real treasure. 

Standing alone (without depending on others), going beyond the crowd, understanding the mind, going beyond mere images of the “me” and “I” — and mere images and learned concepts is all that they really are — may seem like abandoning security.  However, a truly wise mind, that transcends beyond beliefs, realizes things that involve the only real treasure.  That treasure has an essence of real eternity, immensity, and bliss in it (that “mostpeople,” unfortunately, have no clue about whatsoever).  The scientists were, as it turns out, likely right about one thing; they said:  Reality is probably radically different (i.e., far different) from what most of us assume it to be.

 

 

 

Crab Spider blending in (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Crab Spider blending in (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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What real poverty is…

July 28, 2017
13 comments

 

There was a very rich man

       (a man with a cadaverous, cold heart) 

       who walked along the barren, indifferent sidewalks

       and, while he walked, he passed

       the splendid flowers and trees by,

        (without looking at their immense beauty).

As he walked, there was a limited separation

       between what was considered to be “a central I” and

       the other thoughts that occurred;

       there was also a large gap or separation

       between his consciousness and profound nature.

 

There was a rather poor man

       (a man with a beneficent, warm heart)

       who walked through the amicable gardens and meadows

       and, while he walked, awareness

       examined the magnificent flowers and trees,

       (smiling at the immeasurable beauty).

As he walked, there was no separation

       between a supposed “central controller”

       and the occurring thoughts;

       additionally, an effortless silence often occurred;

       there was no gap or separation

       between a “his consciousness” and natural beauty.

 

And here is a sweet, little secret that can always unfold:

       The very rich man wasn’t really rich at all, 

       and the rather poor man wasn’t poor

        what

                    so

                          ever.

 

 

Beyond words (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Beyond words (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Spiritual and Philosophical Inquiry

July 23, 2017
16 comments

 

As we have stated before, one must (in deep spiritual/philosophical inquiry) stand alone; one must go beyond seeking direction or blueprints from others (i.e., from supposed “experts.”)  We are used to taking direction and following direction from others; it is our habit.  We are obstinate in our deep dependence in regard to seeking and following direction.  We have followed religious and political direction for eons and we remain lost and in disarray (fitting well into this immoral society).  Inquiry beyond the direction and guidance of another requires that the mind stand alone.

Not following or seeking direction involves a directionlessness that most people are not used to or comfortable with.  We have associated directionlessness with confusion; we see it as a jumble that is without an intelligent goal.  However, there is an ineffable, intelligent directionlessness that is not a product of others.  This directionlessness may be a real key to unlocking and perceiving the whole.

When one looks for the whole in a certain direction, it is not there.  In quantum mechanics, if an electron isn’t measured it exists in many states (or places at once); once it is measured, it is in a limited state in a limited way.  We want to understand the whole by following direction from others… which is a form of measurement; it may essentially be an erroneous process.  

Psychologically, we each think that a central “I” or “me” provides necessary direction as to correct behavior.  Yet such a center — being nothing more than a learned image — is a fallacy that does not exist.  Split brain surgery, severing the corpus callosum, substantiates this.  Holistic awareness, without dependence on a fictional center (or absorbed outside authority), may be what functions far more accurately and healthfully, without the ruse of a (false) directing controller.  Even those who purport to “transcend” or go beyond the ego are (for the most part) just like everyone else; they constantly use images of “I” or “me” in a learned, automatic, passive-associative process.  They constantly operate from what seems to be a central “I” or controller, whereas deep awareness would see this as a lot of inherited, automatic-associative processes.  Going beyond this psychological ruse is nothing to be feared; going beyond any fallacious, illusory process need not involve fear.

Holistic perception beyond the false exists as true health, harmony, and bliss; eternity is one with it.  Is there a manufactured method to get there? No! However, there are innumerable charlatans who are all too willing to tell you or sell you the way.  They tell you how to pray, how to chant mantras, how to concentrate on your breathing, how to behave… with their stale methodologies; and many people, being very gullible, easily follow their directions, edicts, and stale blueprints.

 

Stability (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Stability (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Colors

July 21, 2017
13 comments

 

 

But even just red

           without any blue

would

           (or to

whom without any who)

           be

a strange sort of absence

           like the death of

a living friend

now pronounced dead

 

Whose endings need

           beginnings

(only as ups

            require their downs)

and in the full spectrum

            of things

certainly

beginnings their endings

need

 

Wherein darkness’s couldn’t

           followed crescent’s moonly would

gingerly

           (surely as trees

fell from leaves)

           and in the grand colored scheme

of things

black seeds of silence sprouted to could

 

Growing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Growing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Inquiry into the Sacred…

July 16, 2017
21 comments

 

Today, unfortunately, if you talk about the sacred, people look at you as if you are completely off the beam.   We, as a society, have shelved spirituality into the potty toilet area.  If you are different from “mostpeople,” if you are truly interested in finding out if there is anything really sacred, what will your first step be?  If it is to merely look within the parameters of the particular edicts and beliefs of the organized religion that you happen to have been brought up to accept, then that “looking” will be dictated — like an old, worn out, secondhand pair of pants — by what others want you to believe is the truth (which may not, at all, be the truth).  There are so very many different religions (and sects), each with their own versions and beliefs as to what constitutes the truth. 

If you look for a great philosopher, a wise man, a guru, a special kind of Zen monk, priest, or authority to lead you to the truth, your choice (of that person) is based upon supposition and confusion.  If you were not confused, you would not need to pick someone else in the first place; enlightenment, and its absolute and concomitant certainty would already be a part of you.  Out of your confusion and lack of having been enlightened, you choose another to guide you; that very choice (of that other person) may be — since it does not come from absolute, clear certainty — erroneous and very foolish.   Even Hitler “felt right” to a lot of people.   (A lot of people quote others and say things, concerning what they are sure is “truth,” and, it may be — as far as the rare individual, who was truly enlightened and visited by that profundity, is concerned — that what they say is often very erroneous and unfortunate.)

So what is one to do?  If one is not very passionate about this… if it is merely some minor inquiry, then (of course) not much will happen; it will just be some rather trivial pattern on the marginal side of a large group of concerns.  If one is not very passionate about this, one will merely remain as “mostpeople,” who all get wrapped up in the details and only seldom (or never) care about looking into the whole.  They have children, they have money, they have impressive homes and automobiles, but they do not have any deep understanding of the whole; (nor do they really care to.)  So then, essentially, they are in (and exist “as”) sorrow; because a mind without that profundity is, by absolute and natural law, a sorrowful mind… an empty shell.

So what is one to do?  Obviously, the mind that deeply inquires into this must first examine the mechanism that is doing the looking.  If the mechanism of the mind is distorted (and not clear) then, obviously, what it sees will be tainted, perverted, contaminated and not true.  So the mind must understand itself.  It must understand itself as it actually is (in life and in relationship) and not according to the opinions and beliefs of another.  If the mind merely analyzes itself according to set and held patterns that it has absorbed from others, it is looking with (and “as”) others’ patterns, which may not be looking with an untainted, uncontaminated background whatsoever.   Unfortunately, many of us depend upon others for instructions, for patterns.  This inquiry, however, if it is to be pristine and honest, may demand that one stand alone.   That means not depending on anyone.   Most of us have no clue as to what it means to truly stand alone.  

 

Inquiring Wild Canada Gosling (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Inquiring Wild Canada Gosling (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Awake

July 14, 2017
12 comments

 

 

That everywhere is awakingly here

           is ouryourheshemy joy and compassion

           until we

take

        that

               first 

                      step

(which is also quite the

                               last)

           in sequential perpetuity

(at which point some will wonder 

why God doesn’t intervene or

show us the answers)…

We had them all along,you see

           but eyes were kept perpetually closed

just as everyone else’s were

           since we’re a facsimile of them

           and they’re a facsimile of us

           and everything conceived is

            second-hand and artificial

And there are dreams while we sleep

           though most are never really awake

 

 

Baby Katydid on Day-lily (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Baby Katydid on Day-lily (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Enmeshed in the chaos of the world…

July 9, 2017
4 comments

 

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

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Let all the cadavers lie

July 7, 2017
10 comments

 

 

Let all the cadavers lie

         where they remain buried in lies

Let fears turn into one beautiful winged insect

         and let wisdom turn to joy

Let whispers turn into songs

         where singing breathes as freedom

Let wise questions become insightful answers

         let ends become beginnings

Let here be where compassion helps

         while indifference goes to grass

Let the earth’s winds increase exponentially

         as nature’s rage to pollution and carelessness

Let all the hateful hurt turn to kindness

         as sweetly flowers smile

Let descending mutate to ascending

         rendering death nonexistent for forever

Let the future be now

         where the past will happen

 

 

From Fear to Damselfly (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

From Fear to Damselfly (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Going beyond outside authority and inside authority…

July 2, 2017
14 comments

 

Most of us see things in fragments (just as we were taught to).  The intrinsic nature of thinking is, in itself, fragmentary.  Thought, being symbolic, being limited, being merely representational, can never perceive the whole.  Since most of us cling to thought, worship thought, and are tied to thought… we seldom, or never, perceive the whole.  The whole cannot be seen through — or by — the fragments.  People enmeshed in (and “as”) this fragmentation often then choose a priest, a guru, a zen monk, a leader, or an authority (and some techniques) to lead them to truth.  Out of their fragmentation, out of their confusion… they choose someone to lead or guide them; or they choose some technique or method.  (Out of their confusion, they choose.)  It may be, however, that there is no path or map to the pathless… no authority, no procedure — in time and that takes time — to get to the timeless.  

Few truly stand alone without depending on outside authority.  Few, further still, go beyond inside authority.  One can easily say that one is free and is not influenced by outside authority… while, all along, one is heavily embellished with structures (internally) that were — long ago — poured into one by outside authoritarian influences.  One can maintain that one is untethered by outside authority, yet (internally) be riddled with conditioning stemming from outside structures and patterns that came from others early in one’s life and over the years.  A mind that truly goes beyond the outside and accumulated inside molds and patterns is quite extraordinary and blessed.  Eternity and the sacred then manifest.  No one can take you there… not even your accumulated structures and sense of self.  It takes real humility to go beyond your own accumulated patterns and judgments… real innocence and freedom.  That true freedom, that true humility and innocence is a psychological dying; there is no method to “do” it.  That unshaped (non-concocted) psychological dying is nothing cadaverous or to be afraid of; it is majestic life beyond canned, dead molds. The profound magic and the bliss are not in the limited patterns — including your own — that anyone can give.

 

 

 

Up close and personal (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Up close and personal (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

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Beyond all the so-called experts…

June 25, 2017
9 comments

 

 

Profound mindfulness, deep awareness, and real meditation are not three separate things.  They are all one in the same.  Unlike what many so-called experts may tell you — including people who call themselves gurus, zen monks, priests, or spiritual guides — one doesn’t need to concentrate on a fixed point, on one’s breathing in and out, on a mantra, a prayer, or on anything else in order to be really mindful or deeply aware.  Actually, doing the aforementioned things — to get something out of them — usually makes the mind duller and more mesmerized.   As in hypnosis, concentration (purposefully done) tends to limit the mind to fixed points; concentration is an exclusionary process.  Concentration and similar forms of effort all cause the mind to focus on details and to engage in a concocted plan (or plans) in order to get some kind of result.  Profound awareness, however, is not exclusionary; it goes beyond mere details and is never the mere result of some blueprint or mentally formulated plan.  

One can practice methods by so-called experts ad infinitum; one can concentrate on one’s breathing, one can concentrate on a repeated mantra or on a so-called special prayer, (or on any other image or set of images that the mind focuses on).  These limited means — manufactured and provided by others — will never bring about true, pristine, and real enlightenment.  One might get some relaxation or some feelings that the mind construes as being “invigorating” from them… but these things will never be real and profound enlightenment.  A stale, limited means, psychologically, never leads to an unlimited, vast end.  Profound awareness is not something that you can rotely learn from any book, any blog, any guru, any zen monk, any priest or any authority (including your own so-called central, inner authority).   Real awareness (which may flower into true enlightenment) is never exclusionary and is never the result of some rote practice or structured technique.  Effortless, non-separative observing without all of the preprogrammed conditioning — simply put — is not merely the result of more preprogrammed methods, procedures, or images put forth by yourself from what others have provided.  Therefore, methods that so-called experts give to you, sell to you, or entice you with, are absolutely out.  What they offer is not cogent, not viable, if you have significant awareness.  And if you don’t have significant awareness you’ll be more than willing to play their games, give them money, adhere to their plans, worship their idols, or travel across the globe to be with them.  If you want to be second-hand, then, by all means, follow their methods; however, one thing is for sure: second-hand never comes upon real enlightenment.

It takes no time for the wise mind to be empty of all of their methods, blueprints, schemes, and concoctions.  Methods and techniques take time; however, not being conditioned by them takes no time whatsoever.  Methods and procedures have nothing to do with pristine, non-manufactured awareness; and without methods and procedures, time is not a factor, time is not operating as it does for most people.  I will not give you methods to practice… or plans to rigidly follow.  We think that someone needs to show us the way, the path; we feel that there is security in that “showing.” However, real insight, real profundity functions in a motiveless, directionless, unplanned way… which is not at all to say that it is haphazard and chaotic.  Most of us are perpetually relying on the methods, systems, images, and constructs of others; then we think we need further methods and systems to go beyond all this, which is absurd.  The very way that most of us observe things via separation (from a so-called center) is the result of stale methodologies learned from others.  There is no path that leads to the pathless.  There are no procedures — that take time — that lead to the timeless.  

 

 

Our Neighbor (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Our Neighbor (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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This Movement

June 23, 2017
7 comments

 

 

           This movement wishes to go

through life helping others

(who are,themselves,part of 

           the movement of life).

 

           This movement wishes to be

life’s companion,not life’s enemy;

it doesn’t want to merely harm

           or exploit life.

 

           It wants to root itself in with

the majestic oak trees

and share in their

           growth and freedom.

 

           This movement wants to put its arms

around Mother Nature 

and gently walk with her

            beyond the synthetic and man-made.

 

           This movement would like to

somehow share

the eternal secret of life

           (that exists beyond all conclusions).

 

 

 

Mayfly Resting (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Mayfly Resting (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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The mindless… and the deep well of the mind…

June 11, 2017
26 comments

 

In the deep well of the mind, people often get bucketfuls of conclusions.  It is through these conclusions that they perceive and contemplate the world.  For many years, each of us has been groomed and molded to be the responsive use of these buckets.  Our buckets have been carefully tailored and manufactured; their contents were shaped and influenced by the limited, fashioned nature of the buckets.  So, our contents were molded and adapted to suit particular needs, objectives, and purposes.  Our buckets were produced and fabricated by society to help society continue to exist in the way that it deems necessary.  

Bringing up well water one bucket at a time may be fine for some time (and in certain respects).  However, it involves very limited amounts.  Our bucketfuls of thoughts, too, are very limited and fragmentary.  There is a whole lot more down there… and a fragmentary, limited process may never afford one with the opportunity to deeply examine, deeply explore.  Our buckets are full of symbols and representations, not actualities; yet, so many of us are indoctrinated with them and accept them as actual realities.  Most of us were so imbued with limited bucketfuls that we rarely, if ever, consider going beyond the limited nature of what they consist of.  We are so permeated by the bucket-mentality of limited, sequential symbols and images, we never even consider going deeper.  

Mentally, we are perpetually bringing tidbits and symbols to the surface (and taking that to be reality).  There is a superficiality that is merely at the surface.  There may be an untapped, vast, deep stream of activity much deeper; however, most remain oblivious to it, unaware and unmindful of what is taking place in a much deeper and unlimited way.  The notion of a separate self (apart from others and all life) is one of the limited buckets that society has developed and filled for each one of us; our current society, however, may be very primitive and crude, both psychologically and in regard to life’s deeper meanings.  One can cling to the sequential bucketfuls, one at a time if one wants to; that so-called “one” that wants to, however, is not different from the buckets or their symbolic contents.  Symbols are fragmentary representations and are not actualities.  

 

Depths of nectar (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Depths of nectar (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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When the Observer is the Observed…

June 2, 2017
22 comments

 

If trees could swim

           and rocks could crawl

           perception would rise

           and feet would fall

 

When ladders climb

           and coffee cups drink

           wisdom would flourish

           as thoughts needn’t think

 

Boats went rowing 

           as plants watered themselves

           books read their contents

           and nestled in shelves 

 

Leaves went hopping

           while photos sat still

           up went down

           and deception went nil

 

 

Toadingly you (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Toadingly you (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

Post

How were we educated?

May 28, 2017
21 comments

 

How were we educated?  Were we educated about what to think, with things being poured into us to absorb?   Or were we educated to find out for ourselves, to inquire and to investigate beyond what was merely put forward by others?   Were we shaped (for the most part) by preset molds, or were we encouraged to be whole and independent human beings who can intelligently question things, take nothing for granted, and who probe deep beyond the ordinary, unfeeling, and commonplace?

When we were very young, our canvas was blank; they (for the most part) painted it with what they thought should be painted.   What they thought should be painted — of course — was an extension of how their canvas was painted in the past.  So they painted our canvas.   However, they (fundamentally) did not encourage us to be extremely creative painters.   (The painting-like rendition of the ant — down below —  has little or no relevance with what we are actually writing about, by the way.)  Most of us are a product of their painting… and we see the world through (and “as”) the network of that painting.   If that network largely consists of separation, isolating images of self, accepted conflict and fragmentation, acceptance of ordinary values, boredom, and groping for more… can one, in a profoundly significant way, change to a blank canvas and paint a very different picture?   

It may be that the painter is the painted, that the tree and the ant are not merely two separate things, and it may be that we have to unlearn a lot of the baloney that we learned.  Just like the ant and the tree, unlearning and learning may not be two separate things, just like living and dying are not two separate things (though so many of us think they are).   

 

Tree Climbing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Tree Climbing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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All Hail the Queen!

May 26, 2017
25 comments

 

 

She’s the most regal queen 

         that ever walked the earth

She servants in the hundreds has

         who depend on her for birth

 

Royal jelly fed to her 

         for a weighty amount of time

formed her different from the rest

         and kept her in her prime

 

Bees are Nature’s gift to flowers

         and to blossoming trees

Without them not as much beauty

         dancing in the breeze

 

If their kingdom you would love 

         to honor and reverently bless

consume more organics and in your monarchical yard

         spray chemicals much less

 

 

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

[The larger bee — in the center of the top photo, with the gold marking placed on its back — is the Queen.  In the bottom photo, young bee larva can be seen in the comb (that the worker bees have been feeding).  Many thanks to Chad McGinnis for allowing me to photograph; Chad is the beekeeper of these fine bees.]

Queen bee and worker bees (bees of Chad McGinnis) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Bee Larva and Bees. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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Beyond Linear Time…

May 21, 2017
23 comments

 

In the excellent movie “Arrival,” which is now out on DVD, aliens come to earth to help humanity (and themselves).  One thing that they do, for humanity — while behind a thick, glass-like barrier (separating them from the humans) within their spacecraft —  is to reveal, to humans, the erroneousness and primitive nature of linear time.  Most of us, by the way, think and perceive exclusively in terms of linear time.  This movie hit home with me because for many years one was not fooled by the illusion of linear time.  In the movie, there was someone (and there were those) who could see the future as if it was not separate from the present in any way, shape, or form. 

Throughout my childhood,  my siblings and i knew (all too well) what it meant when my mother would say that she “had a feeling” about someone.  It meant that that person was about to pass away within the next few days, even if they were healthy.  We always wondered if she’d “have a feeling” about one of us!  Whatever it was that my mother had must have some form of genetic makeup (or something) because i tend to see things beyond the mere present too.   What i see, fortunately, doesn’t involve death or dying; it entails more ordinary occurrences, for the most part.  This has been going on ever since i was a kid.  Some examples, for instance:   When i was a very young boy, we — my friends and i — would go to the corner store to purchase some snacks, like a bag of potato chips or some Mr. Freezies.  My grandmother never went shopping, never went to that store… but on one particular day as we headed toward the store, with the store far from where we were, i had a strange feeling.  I felt that my grandmother would be in that store when we arrived there, and that i would be a bit embarrassed about running into her there.   When we later arrived at the corner store, she was there; she said something to me, in front of my friends, that made me feel a bit embarrassed.  And more recently, for example:  I would see mental images of our large garage overhanging door (and wonder why i would be having recurrent images about something silly like that)… and later come home to find out that my wife (without consulting me whatsoever) had a new garage door installed.  Or i would have repeated visions about a woman (Sandy F.) who was a direct-care assistant at the school for the handicapped where i worked before i retired.  However, she (Sandy F.) was one of the direct-care assistants in some other teacher’s classroom… not mine.  (I thought: “Why would i be repeatedly having images of her, since she wasn’t even in my classrom?)  A day or so later, i was invited to come to a retirement party for a teacher who was retiring from the school where i used to work; she was the teacher in whose class Sandy F. worked in as a direct-care assistant.   Later, when at the retirement party, the woman who i was seeing visions of was sitting right next to me at the dinner table of the restaurant; then they told me that Sandy F. was going to be taking over the classroom as the new teacher.  I congratulated her (while she had a big smile on her face)!  Just the other day, while still in bed in the morning, i had a vision of being in a vehicle and starting to crash into the side of a big semi truck.  That day, i went shopping… and on the way home — in my car — was stopped at a four-way stop intersection.  It was my turn to go, after a stop, but a big semi truck (perpendicular to my car) came roaring through the intersection without stopping (only very slightly slowing down).  I am more than glad that i wisely hesitated at that intersection! 

There is a lot more (much more, in fact), involving this, that one can tell you about, but i definitely think that it is best left unsaid (and private); it is way more involved than what i have ever told others (including my wife)… way more involved.  There are very deep implications in all this.  Like the movie suggests, we are a very primitive species, though we think that we are highly evolved.  The world isn’t flat; this one is the only real viable one we have; we can’t mindlessly trash this one and fly away to escape to some other pristine sphere.  And finally, in ending this posting, i will refer to Albert Einstein who said, “For those of us who believe in physics, the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

 

 

For Your Eyes Only (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

For Your Eyes Only (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

Post

Poem of One

May 19, 2017
23 comments

 

Of course,everything that we ever warmly saw

       was exactly what we were

With this,clocks might disagree

       or limited walls of where

       just as when the frost yawns

       or the tide jumps

       or the winds,in their caprice,

       change their minds about moving

 

Suddenly they shouted

       and their shout was what we were

       and always will be

       as when the sun and flowers

       dance so close that each

       the other is

       or how birds fly in unison

       as one organism

       together but not

       as many

 

Like when the poetic words

       and the reader are

       not two separate things

       when why the she and he

       of love is not

       the cold separatist

       apart from analysis

 

Dancing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Dancing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017