In my beginning is my end. — T.S. Eliot
[Note: While photographing this Monarch caterpillar, it noticed the camera and suddenly went from high activity and movement to total stillness. More of us would be better off by letting total stillness — of the mind — occur more often (even though it is not merely an occurrence and has nothing to do with time or effort).]
Monarch Caterpillar … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Once there was a very rich man who, every time he saw people in need, would quickly pass them by, saying, “Sorry, I don’t help strangers.”
Then, over a short span of time, the man lost everything. When he reached out for help, the first person who passed him by mumbled, “Sorry, I don’t help strangers.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
There was a man who, every time he looked up, worried about what was down… and every time he looked down, worried about what was up.
He suddenly died.
They buried him way down in the ground, facing up of course.
Monarch Butterfly on Cone Flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
A kind of postmortem examination
was done on him
long before his actual physical death
because unfortunately,
his brain became quite un-alive
after the innocent age of childhood.
Miseducation, brainwashing commercials,
propaganda-oriented news networks,
and being satisfied with remaining
in one dull routine after another
all contributed to his cadaverous pseudo-existence.
He often watches television and, of course, likes sports.
However, the little birds who nest in his yard
have far more compassion and life than he ever did.
Red House Finch Eggs … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Earth’s glaciers are shrinking five times faster than they were in the 1960s.
The United States used more energy in 2018 than ever before, partly because Americans drove more: 3.225 trillion miles, 12.2 billion more than 2017.
Wolves return to the Netherlands after an absence of 140 years.
A suspected rhino poacher in South Africa is trampled to death by an elephant, then eaten by lions.
The last time Earth’s atmosphere had as much carbon dioxide as it does today, there were trees growing near the South Pole.
Thawing ice on Alaska’s Denali is exposing the 66 tons of feces left by generations of mountain climbers.
Sea level rise has cost property owners on the East and Gulf Coasts more than $16 billion since 2005.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah says that the solution to climate change is to “fall in love, get married, and have some kids.”
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede who inspired the Youth Climate Strike, is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The stomachs of dead whales found in the Philippines and Italy are full of plastic trash.
Scientists discover a new species of orca of southern Chile — “The largest undescribed animal left on the planet.”
Trump’s proposed federal budget would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent.
Composite photographer Nick Brandt, whose profound works show how nature in the world is quickly dying away due to man’s indifference, says, “My motivation is my anger and despair at what we are losing, that the human race is sleepwalking its way to oblivion.”
Lacewing Insect … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Walking just walking along
gingerly and slowly swaying
waltzing alien-like from leaf to leaf
Stalking just stalking along
stick-like & Oh so lean
happily wondering whom next i can eat
Suddenly out of nowhere
a huge ominous creature appears
thrusting a blackish lens-thing right up to me
In a flash, I quickly leap away
and am so very glad
that the huge hideous creature didn’t eat me
[Note: This photo was taken about a month ago. This was the first Praying Mantis that i’ve seen this summer; it was young, just around 3cm long. And, yes — with blackish lens-thing macro camera in hand — i am the ominous, hideous creature. (You must admit, we ominous, hideous creatures are pretty huge.)]
Young Praying Mantis (praying that I don’t eat him) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The ecstasy in the green luscious garden
flaps its wings in harmony
pert antennae sensing all the smells
in the rapture beyond the kitchen window
Lovely colors moving all around
flower to flower endlessly
cares not a bit about the past
or what the future might just be
Rubbing stamen amongst the stigma
in a style Oh so clean
purity in every blossom
here between the trees and golden honeybees
Collecting nectar sweet and no antiques
living fresh in every moment
time’s illusion not for me
beyond the world’s vast confusion
Ecstasy in the Green Luscious Garden … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
If one is merely a marionette, repeating what others poured into you, then what you say and do will usually be rather robotic, quite puppet-like… though it will seem quite pleasant and socially acceptable to you (while you feel quite unique). There are so many standardized lemmings out there. To question things fundamentally, deeply, with substantial passion, takes great intelligence. That great intelligence (naturally) is largely constituted of immense vastness, which inherently includes compassion. Compassion acts beyond many of the limits of ordinary perception. It perceives beyond all of the mundane, superficial, circumscribed borders. It is not tethered by stale, dinosaurian, antiquated beliefs. Such intelligence (i.e., such profound, penetrating insight) is extremely rare in the world as it now exists; miseducation has a lot to do with it. Acceptance of mediocrity has a lot to do with it.
Wild Spiderwort … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
May i understand why people don’t understand.
And why is there such a disconnect in people’s minds
betweenthings,
between them and all other things?
They look with (and “as”) sep
ar
A
tion,
each from a center that never was a true center
and that never will be a true center…
like bubbles floating in a glass of milk
each thinking that they are separate from
the milkiness.
Beyond Separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence.
The flower at a distance always looks better than the one you are standing on.
Separation is a definite illusion.
Young Katydid pining for a distant flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Jumping Spiders, those very alert arachnids, you know, have many eyes. Some of the eyes are at the back of the head. Some even have extra eyes on the abdomen (i.e., their rear section). One of the reasons that they have eyes in such places is so that they can more efficiently see moving prey (that they can capture to eat). Another reason for having eyes in such places is that other Jumping Spiders (or other spider species or insect enemies) may try to sneak up on them (to devour them). Seeing such “attackers” affords quick reaction involving countermeasures.
We might think, “Oh, how very primitive these spiders are, to be attacking and killing each other with such violence.” Our species, it can be seen, however, still often kill each other on the so-called battlefield. “Battlefield,” by the way, is just a word or accepted term for where humans go to react ultra-violently (i.e., primitive-ass crazy). Many of us periodically celebrate those who were the most violent, calling them “great heroes.” We seldom celebrate — we rarely celebrate — those who were opposed to war. (We, instead of observing through separative countries, religions, and tribes, need to observe holistically and globally — which would help to end all wars — but most of us won’t do that, because of being firmly and stagnantly stuck in separative ruts. So the unending nonsense will continue.) To really go beyond being primitive and violent, we must observe without all of the separations that were poured into us.
Jumping Spider Observing … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Part 1
The sunset stared at separate birds
as he pendulously walked into what he thought he wasn’t.
His disconnection with everything — like the day — was ironically complete:
A separate “me” scratching an arm that was “his” and
there to use from a “distance.”
Part 2
She was the blossoms that she helped grow.
Their colors were colors that were of purplish her.
She was that towering Oak Tree
but to her, it wasn’t an Oak Tree;
it simply was what it was (beyond labels)
and was not separate from any “me” within her,
for she was beyond all “me”s.
She was the beautiful blossoming of wholeness.
a little bit of her … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Instead of being images “about things,” can the mind perceive beyond all of the absorbed mental patterns and labels that it has accumulated? In actuality, most minds are a result of the accumulation; (i.e, they actually are the accumulation). This “accumulation” often intrinsically involves “looking at things via separation” as one of its core attributes.
Perception beyond mere pigeonholing can take place. (We are not suggesting that one should not label things; we are suggesting that one need not always be doing it habitually. It takes dynamic intelligence to go beyond robotic habit.) Real perception, beyond the mere separation between subject and object, can take place. However, it takes real innocence, real simple-purity to do that and, unfortunately, the masses are (for the most part) incapable of that. (However, corruption does have its trivial perks.)
Nothing between us… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
So while looking into the mir-
ror at one
self,
one asks, “Did
I re-
member
to brush my
teeth this morning?”
Well then, “Oh, that’s
right! I don’t have any
teeth; I have a proboscis.”
Proboscises suck,
and it’s not that you “have them”;
they are merely part of what you are…
as are butterflies
and things to reflect on.
[Note: Butterflies use their long tube-like proboscises to suck nutritious nectar out of flowers. They have a symbiotic relationship with flowers in that they help pollinate them by going from one flower to another. Note the yellow pollen sticking to the “face” of this Painted Lady Butterfly.]
In the Mirror … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Not too many tears
dear
be ever shed for Nature
that dies
Not too many tears
dear
trickle down from faces
not sky
Not too many tears
ever flood away
from smiling faces
in stores shopping
Not too many dry eyes see
there be fewer bees and
honey
in the ending of the begin
They say not enough concrete
to cover all da prairie fields
but Mr.
Progress be working on it
Prairie Trillium Wildflower, Illinois. These low-ground plants grow very slowly and they take around 10 years to mature enough to flower. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The associative patterns of the mind, what are their functions? Do they exist merely for us to acquire, accumulate, attain things (including food and shelter), and differentiate with (and from) an element of separation? Do such patterns dictate — to us — what we see?
We usually look at things through labels, through images that we have learned. A person often distinguishes things (at a distance, separate from himself). The patterns that we hold dictate what we see. However, we are these absorbed patterns; we do not actually hold them; they are not separate from what we essentially are. Real wholeness, real integrity, real love, may involve looking beyond the patterns, beyond the old, stuffy mental accumulations, beyond the labels, beyond the mental separative distance.
Three in One … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Once, there was a burly man who carved things out of wood.
Many people in his village would each ask him to carve something special for them, and he usually would, with great pride.
The man would often boast about what he could expertly carve.
Then, one day, a little girl — who had never asked the man to carve anything whatsoever — asked him what the best wooden thing is.
“I am not sure,” said the man, perplexedly, “Maybe it is the large horse that I once carved for Mr. Hayes.”
“No,” said the girl, confidently, “It is that large, beautiful, living Oak tree that grows in our yard.”
Very young Oak tree sapling just beginning to get there. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Many stuffy politicians can pull many
into their stupefaction
pull many into their (paid-for-by-
the-fossil-fuel-industries)
raisons d’etre
(which include bona fide lies)
but as for a rogue like me,
well, the cheese in their trap
is made of distorted
(though expensive and smelly)
cardboard
Apolitical photo … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Unpremeditated goodness is often rather motiveless in that it disregards mere efforts to satisfy the self. Satisfying the self is crude, gross, unevolved, and is what most people do. There is a goodness that is unattached-spontaneous, free of the illusory ego, simple, beyond fragmentary thought, and innocent in the way it acts. It is not a mere reaction but, rather, something else is involved. That “something else” is the whole, or is a perception of and from wholeness. Wholeness doesn’t depend upon illusory parts. Parts and fragments — especially when they are illusory, and most of them are — are not what wholeness covets. Wholeness is highly intelligent action, though not merely of the intellectual kind. Wholeness is action, not mere reaction.
Mere reaction feeds the self, with all of its gross demands. The self, in fact, is a product of mere reaction. Crude reactions nourish and sustain the self. Without such reactions, the image and repetitious movements of self would not be. Wholeness operates differently than what reactions and fragments entail. In wholeness, a vast intelligence operates. There is little vastness/intelligence in what is fragmentary and isolated.
Orange Fairy Cup Fungus at the base of an Oak Tree, Illinois … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
There is no thinker without the thought.
There is no observer without the observed.
There is no experiencer without the experience.
And if you think that the world and its creatures
are separate from what you are…
think again.
Far beyond separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Makes a living by searching for nectar
Sleeps where it eats
Doesn’t have to pay taxes
Doesn’t have to worship at stone temples that replaced nature
Doesn’t need to propound fancy opinions
Doesn’t ruin the environment by traveling in fossil fuel vehicles
Is a pacifist and has no crazy leaders
Common Blue / Spring Azure Butterfly and a scrawny caterpillar … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Getting better through time. What does that entail? One may get “better” physically, with getting a more appealing job, a “better” house, an environmentally “better” car, “better” health, or “better” food. Getting better physically has its place. Psychologically, we think we get “better” by, perhaps, being more generous, more kindhearted, more honest, and/or happier. A number of people think that things will be “better” in a future heaven that they imagine or cling to, promised by past traditions, past cultural-social inheritances.
These cravings and desires, concerning the future, that people have, if examined deeply and not merely superficially, are all extensions of thought and conditioning. Physical “betters” are one (frequently necessary) thing, but our psychological “betters” are often a postponement; they are not the actuality of what is really taking place at the moment. You are lying now but, regarding the imagined future, protrusions of thought/thinking maintain that “fewer lies will be told”; such a psychological “better” is often a form of hypocrisy or pretense. “Eventually, I won’t lie so much.” (Additionally, such psychological “betters” feed the misconception that, for instance, one is — at a distance — psychologically separate from what the lying actually is.) Past education (or miseducation), social interactions, and suggestions/behaviors observed from elders (over time) have largely influenced us regarding our (psychological) “betters.” In actuality, is one really separate from what the lying is (while lies are told)? (We separate ourselves from the lying — in the present — and then are projections of thought — from the stored memory bank — about some improved future.) Projections about the future always stem from (and consist of) thought/thinking. This thought/thinking is conditioned and is primarily what most people habitually consist of (and actually are). It is essentially the “past” (as past accumulated thought) that is reformulating. To dwell as a lot of “craving things about the future” is to, in reality, be living in the past. Past images (from the stuffy memory bank) formulate what is craved. However, “living” in the past is a rather inefficient way of putting it; dwelling often as extensions from the past is not really living whatsoever.
It is what we are now (in the true present) that is important. This does not mean that one just self-indulgently fixates on all kinds of pleasurable things; conditioned cravings (from the tainted past) and misconceptions can infiltrate and distort the true now and holistic compassion; real order, real insight, is instantaneous, holistic, and timeless. Real wisdom sees the present as it is (without distortion) and, with that, real learning and understanding take place. The stale past and the projected future — that “future,” which is really an extension from the (mental) accumulated past — have their place, but far too many people get enmeshed in the two and do not live in the beauty and flame of the one. Instead, many dwell in (i.e., “as”) the residual smoke.
One last note: This planet (this life) may not merely be a stepping stone to something better. This is it. This is it.
Woodland Wildflower with small, young Ladybug. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
It’s a shame that
others species also
have to suffer
the dire consequences
of global warming and man’s pollution.
When i was a kid,
i realized that, in the future,
we would — in ignorance —
be fueling our own hell.
Tiny Jewelweed Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
In the stark contrast of things
beyond the darkness and light
beyond the good and bad
see something whole glowing beyond mere conflict
beyond the world of the opposites
Mayfly in June … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Quietness and awareness often go together, like a sweet aroma and a flower. A mind that is constantly chattering to itself, repeating what it has learned or absorbed… and then merely habitually re-repeating such things in (remembered) altered mental arrangements and recollections for itself, does not have the pristine energy to look freshly and directly beyond the known. The known is the past — as stored, old patterns of memory — and the beauty of real “newness” cannot take place when mere repetition from (and of) the memory bank takes place.
One cannot practice awareness any more that one can practice real quietness. A profound and living awareness/quietness is never the mere outcome of repetitive, learned procedures or known systems. Profound innocence can occur when one is not filled with what others have taught you to do. It is a motiveless looking, and most people, unfortunately, merely look with (and from) motives. Most are caught in a cause-and-effect framework; they live that way, they work that way, and they are programmed exclusively in that. Real joy seldom occurs in a mind trapped in such repetitive cause-and-effect oriented motives. In the sequence of things, the cause becomes the effect and the effect becomes another cause. To merely be one conditioned after-effect (after another) throughout life (in such a robotic sequence)… may not be real living whatsoever. (It would be wonderful if we could easily disinter such rather cadaverous minds out of the conditioned quagmire that they are in but, alas, it is not easily done.) Of course, we must engage in (and “as”) cause-effect occurrences often; however, to merely be stuck in that mode is a shame. An innocent (naturally quiet) mind can look beyond the crude sequence of things and that is when wholeness (beyond mere ordinary effects) and love really blossom.
Beyond the crude sequence of things… small Eastern Gray Beardtongue wildflower on the forest floor. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Three beautiful blue wishes,
circumscribed by a rigid limitation.
Soon they will emerge beyond
weakness and constraint
and will fly free enchantingly.
Do you think that you are beyond your
enclosing limitation?
Most are circumscribed by more
rigidity than these three ever were.
Most will never break free
but
because of blind beliefs
darkly will remain
bound in rigidity forever.
Three Beautiful Eggs from Mother Robin … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Most people are deeply afraid of intrinsically being nothing. They, deep within, have enormous fear about existing as emptiness. They’ll “try” various meditative techniques to “attain some kind of emptiness that they can control,” but these techniques all depend on time (which is merely a postponement and — really — a duplicitous psychological excuse to use a so-called psychological center to continue to be manipulating and “getting there”). They may conjure up a fabricated emptiness (under their control) and continue to pretend that it is something special (that “they” have); this further reinforces internal possession and, with it, the “I” of domination/possession. Profound emptiness is not merely brought about by any psychological cause, by any psychological effort. However, the exclusive cause-effect mentality has been deeply ingrained within us. That is how most of us operate and that is the only way most of us know how to operate. Psychological — not physical — ending to the known neither requires effort, technique, nor time; really, it is timeless living. Regarding psychological emptiness, it is foolish to run away from it (and it is foolish to fabricate it). (Accurate thinking has its place, but it is only a tool; one part of a conditioned “network of tools” identifying itself as “the controller” is a form of crudity and ignorance.)
The nothingness that most conjure up, unfortunately, is a fabrication. The beauty of true nothingness/emptiness is that… when it actually occurs, the magnificence of wholeness and profound eternity exists. To be deeply afraid of that, then, is delusive and fallacious.
There was a man
who was afraid of the emptiness of a flower
He ran from that emptiness
Ignorance fled from what was the door to immeasurably immense beauty
Flower Power (Emptiness) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
My favorite walk
is when I am not there
but is when everything around
is what one is not separate from
Then there is no I
but only the wonderment of eternity
and everything about
is magical splendid mysterious
whole
Open and Alive … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
“I love you in a place where there’s no space or time.” — Kodi Lee
We saw the extraordinarily talented Kodi Lee the other night on America’s Got Talent. Kodi reminded me of a lot of the very fine and wonderful students that i used to have when i was a teacher for the multiply handicapped (before i retired). Seeing Kodi perform brought tears to my eyes. The students that i had were a delight to be around. Some were very gifted. When i was a teacher, we had students, for example, who were very mentally handicapped but who could play the piano flawlessly. One fellow could be shown a complex scientific book (or complex passages on whatever subject); the book could be opened at any section, with both pages flashed (even upside down) in front of his face for a fraction of a second. He then would recite the entire content — from memory — of both pages… word for word, perfectly.
Kodi has autism and autism is increasing worldwide (especially in developed countries) at alarming rates. The adjuvants in vaccines, increasing pollution, fragmented-unhealthy GMO foods, and food additives are possible contributing factors to autism’s increase, i think.
For many years, our classrooms were situated right within the elementary school building and it was a good thing for so-called “normal” children to often interact with those who had severe handicaps. Such a close relationship between these two groups of children benefited those who were handicapped and helped the so-called “normal” population develop empathy, compassion, and understanding concerning the handicapped. Some of my students, by the way, had regular IQs but, because of very severe physiological problems, were quadriplegic and could not control their arms or legs whatsoever. (Real meditation is not merely sitting around being quiet. Compassion is a vital component, and if you don’t have it, the sacred — that timeless enormity that man has sought after for eons — will never visit you.)
My wife and i went to Navy Pier, in Chicago, a few years ago, and we saw and heard some visiting classroom of kids making fun of (and taunting) some other children who were there (who happened to be handicapped). Such callousness is sad and disgraceful. The so-called president of the United States — before he was elected — in his ugly callousness, hateful nature, and typical nefarious manner, mocked and made fun of a gentleman who happened to be mentally handicapped. (Google that!) With his neglect for others having misfortune, and with his gross neglect about the health of nature and the environment, Donald Trump’s behavior is a disgrace to humanity.
(See the short video of Kodi below.)
Gifted Sweat Bee going after the gold while surrounded by tons of adoring fans … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Slithering in this oscillating domain
Feeling it
Breathing it
Loving it
Being an important part of it
[Note: This is an innocent, non-poisonous Garter Snake. I am delighted that she has emerged from our sandy soil to spend time around our house! Such snakes eat mice, rats, and other such vermin. Too many people foolishly kill snakes whenever snakes are seen. Snakes are an important part of the beautiful balance of nature.]
Emergent Spring visitor; she must have just come out of the sands after winter dormancy. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
How important is it to perceive deeply in life? (Have you ever asked yourself that question?) Is the essence of all life and existence rather meaningless and superficial, such that no matter how deeply one perceives, it (i.e. such perception) may be essentially a waste of energy in the long run? Could it be that there is something in life that is immensely profound, such that looking deeply allows great, eternal treasures to manifest and blossom?
A broken mind, a mind crippled by such things as bad dietary habits, poor sleep, and by propaganda media designed to mold minds (for ulterior reasons), of course, would not be able to look deeply (if true depth really exists in the first place). It would likely be content with living a superficial, second-hand life that would accept within the limits of that superficiality (though, to it, such superficiality would seem plenty deep enough). Through miseducation, stagnation is often learned, absorbed, clung to, and cherished.
To go through life merely believing in something without ever having actually perceived it (without delusion) is a tragic thing. A belief that something does not exist, (without ever having perceived wholly), is an equally tragic thing. Both are — despite people arguing otherwise — empty acceptances. Stagnant minds cannot perceive because they have been shaped and molded by other minds that (also) are limited. Minds can change, however; the mind is a dynamic and wonderful thing (if real care is taken). Stagnation can end. Contamination can end.
There are plenty of gullible people deluding themselves (and others) about having had experienced something profound or “otherworldly.” However, i would suggest waking up and discovering and passionately finding out for yourself. Look with every fiber of energy that you have. No one else is going to do it for you; that is for sure! How critical, how important is this “discovering and passionately finding out (for ourselves)” in our lives? Personally, i feel that it has profoundly immense and eternal consequences. Of course, there might be a chance that i am very wrong, but find out; there may be real magic out there!
[Note: Marla is out of the hospital — after her fourth reconstructive shoulder surgery — and is doing well. I am acting as her nurse and am helping her with enteral feedings and other medical-oriented things. She is calling me “Nurse Matilda”! 🙂 ]
Miniature Wildflower – Purple Deadnettle (3/4ths of an inch long total for full arrangement)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Two buttons, at the beginning of life,
to select from:
One, if pressed, makes you (for the rest of your life) an
extremely rich person (monetarily) with not much
wisdom and compassion.
The other, if pressed, makes you
a not so rich person with
much wisdom and compassion.
Which would you press?
Which would you be?
You can’t press both;
you can never press both.
Button Mushrooms with Dew … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Spring involves renewal, growth, and new life. The mind can be like spring… growing, blossoming, becoming more alive and vibrant. That cannot happen if the mind remains like the frozen, hard crystals of winter, clinging with coldness and frozen in rigid beliefs, dogmas, and ideologies. The truly blossoming mind must be alive, unassuming, dynamic, perceptive, flexible, and truly vibrant. Those set in their ways may be like dead concrete, full of stale blindness toward life as it really is.
Deep perception and compassion are not two separate things. Profound (alive) insight and psychologically dying to stale beliefs are not two separate things.
Hyacinth with Early Spring Insect … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
When you reach out to others
you are reaching out to yourself
When you help beautiful nature
you are healthfully curing yourself
When you reach out to the lost
you are finding you’re found
When truly one with nature
you are color and sound
________________________________________________________________________________________
[Note: My wonderful wife, Marla, will soon again be having major shoulder surgery — for the fourth time on her problematic shoulder — and i may not be able to reply to my blog (or visit other people’s blogs for a while when that happens); my postings are all prescheduled, so they will continue to appear, only i will not be available to comment on them;please keep this in mind. Thank you!!!]
Reaching Out to Yourself … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Good nutrition is essential for having (i.e., being) a mind that is perceptive, stable, innocent, compassionate, whole, and non-fragmentary. What we eat affects us cognitively, and a mind that eats a lot of unnecessary sweets and junk food and that takes all kinds of mind-altering drugs cannot have — and be — the stable integrity that allows profound order, beautiful wisdom, and spiritual magic to take place. We truly are what we eat, and if we eat junk… we end up being intrinsically junky. (Look at what the current president of the U.S. is eating.)
A lot of people are not fully aware of the very detrimental contents pertaining to much of the “so-called food” in the grocery stores. No wonder why many diseases and disorders are increasing in alarming numbers in countries like the United States. In the U.S., the FDA (the Fraud and Deception Administration) certainly doesn’t really care what happens to you; look at all the garbage on the shelves that people can buy; it’s $ and extended shelf life (for the powerful industries) that is fundamentally important to the FDA and U.S. government. We laugh at what people did many years ago with blood-letting and leeches. What we are doing — in the U.S. — in this day and age, with tons of crazy, synthetic medications (most of which have very deleterious side-effects)… and foods giving us inflammatory disease, increased blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, autism, and such things as Alzheimer’s disease… is equally tragic and malignant. These days, in the U.S., most doctors — though most mean well and are doing a reasonable amount of “good” — are, unfortunately, puppets of the pharmaceutical companies; most of them just do not tell you how to heal your body naturally and holistically. Big $ supersedes the overall health of the nation’s people. We are not a sick species that needs to depend on innumerable kinds of synthetic (unnatural) drugs in the quantities that we currently take! I am recommending two important videos — their links are offered below — for you to watch to get started. I admire both Dr. John Bergman and Dr. Mandell, who talk in these videos, but i certainly don’t agree with everything that they say (especially in certain other videos that they provide); however, for the most part, they are far better to listen to than the standard fare! Do yourself a favor and watch these two videos when you have the time. Super healthful Chia seeds, mentioned below, actually got their name from the Mayan word for “strength,” and for good reason! They have maximum nutrients with minimal calories and are very high in top quality fiber, and contain very high levels of ALA omega-3 fatty acids (higher than flax seeds and even salmon)! So, here is how i make Chia Pudding daily (which is anti-inflammatory, raises HDL, lowers blood pressure, and lowers triglycerides.):
(I make my Chia in the evening… to refrigerate overnight and eat in two portions the next day.)
1. Add 1 cup of unsweetened Almond milk (vanilla flavor) to a small, plastic container.
2. Add some honey and flavorings (possibly more vanilla if preferred) and/or some powdered cinnamon (to one’s taste)… and stir vigorously.
3. Add 4 level Tablespoons of Organic Chia Seeds (Walmart sells it in the flour section)… and stir vigorously; (if you have time, stir every now and then for the first few minutes).
4. Let it set for 45 minutes or so and stir it well one more quick time (to homogenize it and get out the clumps).
[Note: It is at this step that i add my favorite flavoring — instead of the others mentioned above — which is organic Cacao Powder (not Cocoa); i add about a tablespoonful of the powder and stir it in well (with honey having been added previously in step 2). (If you add the organic Cacao, you might want to add a bit more milk in step 1.) Organic Cacao is sold where the Chia is (at Walmart) and is full of antioxidant flavanols. Raw cacao powder contains more than 300 different chemical compounds and has nearly four times the antioxidant power of your average dark chocolate — more than 20 times than that of blueberries. ]
5. Put it in the refrigerator (covered) overnight and then eat in the morning (or later) as is, or with blueberries added, or whatever. Get healthier.
(If you have any questions regarding making the Chia, just ask.)
I also take curcumin in the form of “Double Strength Theracurmin” daily, which does wonders for the joints! I’ll post more on nutrition at a later time.
More Spring Emergence … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
The emergence of Sweet Spring
one purplish thing
beyond all of the sorrow and sting
that sullen contrived fear must bring
The Emergence of Spring … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
We were miseducated to look with separation. For eons, we have looked from (and “as”) separation. For eons, we have looked from (and “as”) separative beliefs. Beyond empty, limited separation is wholeness, beauty, and full compassion. One of the attributes of limited, learned separation is indifference. Many people have (and “actually are”) cold indifference; many people’s minds are based upon the acceptance of separation; they look from (and “as”) separation. It’s easy for cold indifference to point a gun at what it considers to be “others who are separate from oneself.” It is easy for cold indifference to look the other way and not help. If the essence of your consciousness is based on separation — as most are, these violent days — then you will go on in the old ways, old habits, and old mundane routines.
There is a profound reality of wholeness with its natural integrity of real beauty. It cannot be touched by what is distorted and corrupt. Separative beliefs can never be one with it. Its beauty is beyond the learnable, beyond the merely absorbed. Profound goodness is not the mere opposite of the bad. There is a wholeness that is beyond the opposites and beyond measure.
Blossoming Beyond Separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Spring Beauty
you are always
(timelessly there)
and so amazingly new
in your selfless sharing
You help make the woodlands
simply magical
Your fragility
transcends transience
with joyous eternity
___________________________________________________________________________________________
[Note: The common name for this Illinois woodland wildflower is Spring Beauty. The entire width of the flower is less than 1/2 inch (around one centimeter wide). This wildflower is still rather common throughout Illinois. It, fortunately, can survive more environmental disruption than most wildflowers. Its eternal essence has nothing to do with its persistence in Illinois or elsewhere.]
Spring Beauty … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
In order to have psychological fear, psychological time is a fundamental necessity. (Thinking and psychological time are not two separate things.) Without some protrusion of thought about some distant event in the future, there would be no psychological fear. That distance (that the mind fabricates about the future) necessarily involves space (and sequential duration)… which are projected by (and “as”) the mind. “In the future, something terrible might happen.” “In the future, I might not have enough friends.” There may be innumerable fears, such as the two aforementioned ones, that can plague a human’s mind. Then one may say that one would like to get rid of the many fears that one has. Somewhat ironically, the very desire to get rid of these fears is (in a real way) an extension of fear; it (itself) is, in a big way, an extension of (or precursor to) more fear.
Who is dealing (internally) with the fears? If one is looking at the fears with a feeling of control or manipulation, then one is assuming that the fears exist at some distance (to somehow “manipulate”). However, (psychologically, whether we like it or not) the manipulator is not separate from the manipulated; the two are both part of the thought/thinking process… and (in a big way) are not two separate things. Trying to “get rid” of the fear causes the mind to fabricate the controller, the “I” or the “me” who is allegedly separate from the fear.
Many types of sequential thinking (i.e., many forms of sequential thinking) — in most people — trigger thoughts that project (often needless) fear about what may happen in the future (along with thoughts of an “I” or a “me” that will be dealing with things). (Sequential thinking that reflects order is very good; sequential thinking — especially the muddled, psychological kind learned from miseducation — that reflects disorder is bad.) A keen perception that observes this whole process (and that goes beyond fabricating a separate “me” apart from the fear) has gone beyond friction and then has tremendous energy, wholeness, and insight. Insight is timeless energy; most people, unfortunately, waste energy. Timeless energy is beyond the chaos that manifests as mere psychological time. (In true silence there is great energy/insight; however, there is no “I” or “me” who can take one to that silence through the process of sequential time.)
Drops from Above … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Today is Earth Day and i will undoubtedly shed a few tears today. (Today, with the following, I’m telling you like it is, and not merely singing about daisies and butterflies.) The ability to have very accurate premonitions runs in our family; my mother had it and i seem to have a strong dose of it too. When i was in high school (in around 1966) i had a premonition that humans would quickly ruin the earth with excessive manmade pollutants. Yesterday, the very intelligent Fareed Zakaria had the famous environmentalist Bill McKibben on, as part of his show. Bill, 30 years ago, wrote a book — the first book about global warming — warning about the threats of manmade pollution; since then, he says that little has been done to change things for the better. Arctic ice is 50% gone and the oceans are 30% more acidic. We all need to change and do more to change things. Additionally, it is far more prudent/globally-compassionate to stay local and not go long distances for vacations and entertainment.
(Down below is a link to the conversation between Fareed and Bill.)
If i had a magic wand
that would
when waved
make people
care
understand
look without separation
clean up the environment (that they are)
and look without a false center…
i’d use it
No such
magic wand
from any mystical magic shop
exists
but that doesn’t mean
that real magic can’t happen
Real magic can happen
Profound mysteries of life assure you
real magic can happen
Ants Caring for the Aphids that they herd and that they milk like cows … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2019/04/21/exp-gps-0421-mckibben-full.cnn
People who are not serious will not care about this. The turbulent mind, the mind that is constantly reacting, constantly chattering (internally), constantly being agitated, is much different than a placid mind of true quietude. A quiet mind is analogous to a small boat in the middle of a pond, with little haphazard movement, with its oars still and not disturbing the water. Then, in such stillness, the surface of the water may be mirror-like, accurately reflecting everything. Contrastingly, the constantly chattering mind, the agitated mind, is like a small boat — in the middle of a pond — that is endlessly rocking, rowing circuitously, and splashing. Then, in such unending agitation, very little of the water’s surface reflects accurately; then there is a great deal of distortion; this is when a lot of twisting takes place; this is when a great deal of misrepresentation and misinterpretation can take place.
I will not offer you (like so many of the charlatans do) concrete methods and techniques — meditative or otherwise — to make the mind still and quiet. Any such concrete techniques (that you can practice) will only make your mind more mesmerized, more robotic and dull. For many, the “I” or “me” can allegedly “make” the mind quiet. However, the “I” and the “me” are protrusions of thought/thinking; any such “quietness” that they supposedly conjure up is inevitably an extension of a false and deceptive process. One conditioned reaction cannot make other conditioned reactions quiet, at least not in any legitimate sense; one form of agitation cannot cause similar forms of agitation to be quiet by using “control” as a means to an end. Only natural, simple, unpremeditated observing of what is going on (without dependence on antiquated patterns and suppositions) may — perhaps — allow an effortless, non-concocted quietness (beyond gross separation) to take place. Deep intelligence perceives the whole. Thought/thinking is primarily choppy, primarily fragmentary.
First Butterfly — a Red Admiral — of the season; they were eating sap dripping down the Birch bark. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
One multiple now at the opening of all why
blossomed out because
beyond reasons
Echoing spritely
time and time again
outside when’s known seasons
Mushroom Time … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
We won’t ever have a clean planet — free from dying and mass extinction — if fracking is more important for creating jobs and oil than green energy is for world health.
True meditation lies beyond mere practice, beyond calculated methodology toward an end, beyond sequential, conditioned reactions.
John Lennon hit the nail on the head when he said, “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
When the idealism of politicians takes precedence over truly caring for all of the people, then chaos and confusion ensue.
The living, dynamic, moving sacred can neither be retrieved like a stagnant memory nor lead to by a dead, organized path.
The epiphany of profound insight may occur when the mind is naturally quiet without effort.
One of our pet Pearl-scaled Philippine Blue Angelfish … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
A this and that must wear its hat
while hoping for balmy weather
The meaning of life is to give life meaning
us on this ship together
This hole of fate in a piece of cake
in a jumble of rhyme and reason
A warm cup of Joe for Larry and Moe
while Curley’s out of doors just freezin’
A sitting duck amongst the muck
as the hunter takes keenly careful aim
It’s like shooting fish in a barrel for him
he’s happy as a clam but it’s himself he’ll maim
We all run the tough gauntlet in this crazy rat race world
many down in the dumps without a clue
The smoke and mirrors gunshots and tears
must do an about turn and fathom out what is true
Upcloseandpersonal … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
One might say that the Iris flower in the accompanying photo is very beautiful. However, real (profound) beauty surpasses what is superficially evident. Profound beauty goes far beyond mere recognition and superficiality. Hitler, for instance, loved flowers; he often gave them to others as gifts. Most of us see, but don’t see. Most of us are neither dead nor alive. It is very ironic, actually. We take for granted that we can see… perceive. We look with separation — between a so-called “center” and “what is seen.” Is seeing partially, seeing fragmentarily, seeing with tainted (i.e., corrupt) eyes… really seeing at all? Most of us accept the authority of others and we look at things in the ways that authority has dictated. We have wholeheartedly accepted a life of imitation, slavishness, being tied to systems, jobs, and routines that are making us more and more robotic, more and more mundane; and we automatons don’t see anything wrong with it. We perceive what we were programmed to perceive; we accept what we were programmed to accept; we fear what we were programmed to fear; we loathe what we were programmed to loathe. We dupe ourselves into thinking that we are somehow out of the box when, all along, we are firmly inside the box. We are the box. We fit into the pattern — that they fabricated — quite nicely, and then we die. That is how most of us (supposedly) live.
That can change if one is serious enough. The integrity and health of the world depend on such seriousness and profundity. Oneself and the world are not two separate things.
Flowering out of the box… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Frivolity, caught in the little
details of the competitive games
and traditions,
never was
the serious pondering about the whole.
That’s why it remained
as frivolity.
Frivolity can wear awesome shoes.
Frivolity can wear a first-rate hat.
Frivolity can appear to be intelligent,
in frivolous ways.
Mushroom Gills … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
It is so easy to psychologically get into a muddle with things and (still) think that one is doing well. We get situated in a psychological morass without suspecting that that is the situation. We continue to feel that we are performing sufficiently. Self-deception is so very easy, so very possible (with dire consequences), yet few of us look deeply into it and investigate whether it is affecting us. In my blog, for instance, sometimes existing beyond the “self” or existing beyond the supposedly central “I” is sometimes discussed. Many people tend to shun such talk; it makes them feel less comfortable, less psychologically secure, less self-asserting. Ironically, however, it may be metaphorically like remaining in bed all day (under the sheets) to keep oneself “safe” and “unharmed.” However, all the while in such a situation, one is not getting the exercise and joy in life that is there (and the body ends up perishing sooner with many problematic issues).
It is so easy to be duped in life… so easy to be misled. Miseducation has a lot to do with it, and miseducation is rampant in most societies. Learning to be a nurse or a carpenter is one thing (which is good), but many — if not most — of us are brought up and miseducated in ways to bind us to psychological mayhem. One thinks that one is separate from the fears that occur, for example; then one tries to control the fears from an (internal) distance. That very distance reinforces the concept of “I” that thinks that it is separate from the fears. Many fears are protrusions of thought/thinking about what the future might be; the concept of “I” (or “me”) is also a protrusion of thought/thinking. One protrusion thinks that it must control another protrusion; one conditioned reaction projects that it must control another reaction. However, there is a fundamental absurdity with this.
Fear dissipates (fundamentally) not by pseudo-manipulation by a false process but by deep understanding and penetrating insight. The utter chaos, friction, indifference, and violence of our current society is a projection and reflection of the inner disorder within each one of us. Hate is not something that one merely has; it is what one actually is. When hate is a reaction (in one)… one is the hate… one is not merely something that has hate. Hate involves separation, friction, and distance… much like the separation, friction, and distance between the “I” (or swollen ego) that thinks that it is different (or apart) from the fears that take place.
Many of us can transcend the muddle that we are in — that we exist as — and that takes understanding and insight… not mere internally deceptive effort. Don’t be bamboozled by false processes that were absorbed in (and “as”) the past.
Blossoming beyond friction… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wars, for humankind, have been going on for eons. War is where and when we often spill each other’s blood over systems and ideas. Apparently, in war, systems, ideas, (and control) often become much more important than any universal brotherhood, any universal oneness.
Countries of the world are divisive and most are based on (and extensions of) an antiquated feudal system; “you pay us money (i.e., taxes) and we’ll protect you from ‘others’; we’ll be your ‘leaders’ with power and authority.”
It is so easy to be lead by ignorant men who, themselves, have little or no deep understanding about order and the wholeness and fullness of life. It is so easy for sloppy disorder and hatred to trump order and compassion and then be “followed” by others. We aren’t solving the fundamental problems concerning human against human friction, overpopulation, and environmental degradation but, rather, are chaperoned to dwell in relatively superficial realms that deal with barbaric, mundane things. We were miseducated to stay quiet and to keep quiet and to “fit in” and keep our mouths closed. Most of us merely blindly conform and see nothing wrong with it. It is easy for dullness to accept dullness. It is easy for mediocrity to accept mediocrity.
Crab Spider with Butterfly Prey … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
(Not long ago, while driving home, one observed people texting — with their heads facing down — while driving; (this was observed, that day, in two separate automobiles). It is observed happening, while on road, all too frequently. What is fundamentally wrong with people these days?
I perceive a so-called human being
driving from the opposite direction
with an
indifferent, addicted head
facing down;
blundering stupidity and callousness
thinks that it can multitask while driving.
There are families
with precious children
on the road that that immense stupidity is gambling on.
What messages are so important (so profound)
that they warrant perilling multiple lives?
Thanks for putting
us all in
dire
risk!
Wasp coming head-on… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
We all need to question more. Many of us, as we get older, lose the joy of deep questioning and become dull and stagnant. Many of us, as we age, begin to merely accept what others have poured into us. Then we look with secondhand eyes (which is really not any kind of real looking). Boredom and mediocrity, then, set in.
If a philosophical question is merely a spring-board to get a result (i.e., a quick answer), then it is giving more emphasis to the end rather than the beauty of the means. Real questions have a life of their own; they are not merely a shallow means to an end. The indoctrinated, the blind, do not question deeply enough. They have embraced superficial answers and have become hardened by inflexible, statue-like, rigid traditions and old, stale viewpoints. Then they become rather apathetic, indifferent, and subservient. Of course, they’ll come up with a million reasons to “justify” such behavior. Blind conditioning works in ironclad (though malignant) ways.
If questioning is merely limited by the language (or languages) that one happens to use, and limited by traditions, then such questioning is very circumscribed and tainted. Deep questioning goes beyond the cage-like barriers that language impales, beyond the confines of tradition. Profound questioning — being true intelligence — is often accompanied by deep empathy. What is pure and unsullied often naturally radiates compassion.
Crab Spider in Wildflower Foliage … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
I am a kid
trapped in an old man’s body
i fly kites
i perpetually chase insects and frogs
i still often gaze in wonder through a magnifying glass
i still think that grown-ups are yucky
i love watching toads in the woods
i keep fish and shrimp as pets and stare at them for hours
i hunt fossils and love everything about dinosaurs and prehistoric life
i unendingly question
and i still learn best away from
boring school
Mr. Toadster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 