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
[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
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
[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.]
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.)
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
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
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.
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
Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee walked through some woods, but one had to pee. Said Tweedle-dum to Tweedle-dee, “I need to pee, but so you can’t see.” “But I don’t want to go blind,” said Tweedle-dee. So Tweedle-dum did not pee, and remained good friends with Tweedle-dee.
So the next time you are walking deep in the observative woods, hold it all in as Tweddle-dum knows you should.
Spotted Green Tiger Beetle crossing the Urinary River … 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
When i was a student, i thought, “Exams can go to grass!” I never really deeply cared about exams. They never could measure me and they never will measure me. As an adult, i still say, “Exams can go to grass!”
(Sorry grass, you deserve dandelions and insects, not cadaverous exams.)
Damselfly with the Insect Prey that it caught … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2019
No doubt, a large number of people will dismiss this or merely become irritated by it. Very many of us — most all of us, really — assume that we have a free will that freely does whatever it “wants” to. Suggesting otherwise tends to offend people, annoy people, and ruffle their feathers. However, the decisions we are involved in are all largely governed by the chemical processes in the brain, the physiological/biological/neurological networks and systems. Conditioning — by past sociological structures, such as education, religion, and other social networks — also, of course, plays a big part in this. It may be that your decision to read this blog up to this point was as inevitable as hydrogen and oxygen combining at a certain point to form water. Billions think and feel that they have free will.
It may be that any thought or any manifestation of thinking that one exists as, no matter what it is, is inevitably involved with conditioning. So, where is freedom in all of this and is there any chance for true freedom? Real freedom, perceptually, may come when the mind is of a stillness, a wholeness, that (at times) is beyond the sequential patterns and frameworks of thought/thinking. It involves awareness beyond what was merely taught or absorbed. It is of a newness that shatters all conceived and preconceived patterns. When it occurs, there is an intelligent cessation of thought/thinking; without inevitable, conditioned thinking, there is no learned, false center as the “me” or “I” being projected. Regarding true freedom, one cannot merely “know” that one is involved with it. Only a healthy brain can allow it to manifest but it is not what depends upon a healthy brain. It is not yours or mine; it is of a vastness that transcends all borders.
Royal Catchfly (Silene regia) This red blossomed plant is a very rare wild plant of the United States Midwest; it is very endangered in Illinois, for example. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
[Note: My wife Marla’s shoulder replacement surgery went well (so far, it seems) but she still has a long way to full recovery. She must have strong PICC Line antibiotics given to her intravenously via syringes multiple times per day for 6 weeks (and i am the one giving her these). Additionally, i am helping her with her enteral feedings (via tube feedings to her stomach) multiple times per day (because, at the current time, she is unable to do them herself, with only one functional arm.) The shoulder replacement that they put in is a special antibiotic-emitting kind and she will likely need a whole other “regular” shoulder replacement done (in the same shoulder), with a steel replacement, once this temporary antibiotic replacement fully heals and is bacteria-free. Apparently, the infectious bacteria that caused trouble in the first place — and that is hard to eradicate (since it lodges deep within the joint) — is a type of acne bacteria (which baffles us as to how she got it). Since i will be busy taking care of Marla for the next few weeks, i will likely not do postings after my already scheduled 01/02/2019 blog/posting; i will not have time to read others’ blogs or correspond with others re their blogs or my blogs. Hopefully, i can soon get back into blogging again once things settle down and i find more time to do so. Peace!]
Why doesn’t a smidgen of cream dash itself into a cup of coffee for you? Stirring itself, the cream is part of this poem’s theme.
[Note: My wife Marla’s shoulder replacement surgery went well (so far, it seems) but she still has a long way to full recovery. She must have strong PICC Line antibiotics given to her intravenously via syringes multiple times per day for 6 weeks (and i am the one giving her these). Additionally, i am helping her with her enteral feedings (via tube feedings to her stomach) multiple times per day (because, at the current time, she is unable to do them herself, with only one functional arm.) The shoulder replacement that they put in is a special antibiotic-emitting kind and she will likely need a whole other “regular” shoulder replacement done (in the same shoulder), with a steel replacement, once this temporary antibiotic replacement fully heals and is bacteria-free. Apparently, the infectious bacteria that caused trouble in the first place — and that is hard to eradicate (since it lodges deep within the joint) — is a type of acne bacteria (which baffles us as to how she got it). Since i will be busy taking care of Marla for the next few weeks, i will likely not do postings after my already scheduled 01/02/2019 blog/posting; i will not have time to read others’ blogs or correspond with others re their blogs or my blogs. Hopefully, i can soon get back into blogging again once things settle down and i find more time to do so. Peace!]
What is a New Year?… and is it really new? We humans, most of us anyway, have a very superficial sense of time, a very linear, rudimentary perspective regarding time. Many of us, even when we think that we are dwelling in (and “as”) the present, are, in reality, conceiving of (or recognizing) that “present” via past images, old, learned perspectives. So, it really isn’t “the present” at all (due to recognition via old, stored mental images). If one really often lived timelessly in the present, there would not be any concrete recognition of the present as the present (as something separate from the past and the future).
So many of us live almost exclusively in (and “as”) the past. Our recognition of things, our labeling of things, our habitual (repetitive) chattering of thoughts and mental images, are all fundamentally protrusions from the learned past. We have allowed our minds to become reacting mechanisms; reactions are essentially secondhand and mechanical (being part of a cause/effect continuum). If we have reduced ourselves to that — which, unfortunately, so many have — then we will remain as parts of a rather mechanical, sequential process (which is rather limited).
Can one look without the past dictating? Can one perceive, not fragmentarily, but wholly, beyond mere limited, learned reactions? One says that it is possible. Will a step by step method, that you absorb from others, get you there? Of course not! A radical revolution in consciousness has to take place. Will it take time to (eventually) get there. No.
Happy New Year! (ahead of time)! (… though, for decades one has realized that there is really nothing new about it.)
Lichen at the end of the “New Year” … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
[Note: My wife Marla’s shoulder replacement surgery went well (so far, it seems) but she still has a long way to full recovery. She must have strong PICC Line antibiotics given to her intravenously via syringes multiple times per day for 6 weeks (and i am the one giving her these). Additionally, i am helping her with her enteral feedings (via tube feedings to her stomach) multiple times per day (because, at the current time, she is unable to do them herself, with only one functional arm.) The shoulder replacement that they put in is a special antibiotic-emitting kind and she will likely need a whole other “regular” shoulder replacement done (in the same shoulder), with a steel replacement, once this temporary antibiotic replacement fully heals and is bacteria-free. Apparently, the infectious bacteria that caused trouble in the first place — and that is hard to eradicate (since it lodges deep within the joint) — is a type of acne bacteria (which baffles us as to how she got it). Since i will be busy taking care of Marla for the next few weeks, i will likely not do postings after my already scheduled 01/02/2019 blog/posting; i will not have time to read others’ blogs or correspond with others re their blogs or my blogs. Hopefully, i can soon get back into blogging again once things settle down and i find more time to do so. Peace!]
The following poem has nothing to do with Marla’s shoulder surgery, by the way…
When everything without feeling happened for quite some time, feeling came along and tried to make a difference,
but it wasn’t easy.
On the Forest Floor … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
[Note: My wife, Marla, is still in the hospital — getting strong antibiotics through a PICC Line for the serious infection that has been occurring in her shoulder, following her recent shoulder replacement surgery — so my online correspondence will continue to be limited for the time being.]
Do you feel small in this huge cold world? Don’t feel large. Don’t feel small. Just express warmth… the warm of compassion.
That’s all that really matters.
Golden Skipper Resting … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
An inquisitive, young woman approached Lo Zu and asked him, “Why do you leave our village every day and go wandering off into the mountains?”
Lo Zu, the great sage, answered, “I have talked to all of you many times about ‘no mind’ and that, in essence, I do not really exist as anything concrete internally. Yet, you all continue to see me as just another man.”
The inquisitive, young woman then pensively exclaimed, “I do not understand!”
Lo Zu then stated, “When this body is in the village, you say ‘Lo Zu is here.’ When this body is in the mountains, you say, ‘Lo Zu is not here.’ At least when one is in the mountains, you (in the village) speak the truth.”
A little happy Snowball Wish around the corner’s edge of time past spring and summer though glidingly bringing rhyme
This is a photo of some of my pet Snowball Shrimp. The females carry white, round eggs that look like snowballs. The shrimp in the foreground is carrying fertilized eggs. The shrimp in the background is carrying eggs that have not been fertilized and are positioned higher up in her body (looking like a saddle); such females are called “Saddled” females. Happy Holidays!
Neocaridina Snowball Shrimp with Eggs … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
I will likely not have time, the next few days, to be corresponding with people and/or visiting peoples’ blogs. My wife, Marla, is (again) having complicated reconstructive shoulder surgery and i’ll be too preoccupied with that; my blogs will continue, as they have been prescheduled (as they usually are). Marla requires extra help, nutritionally, with enteral tube feedings to her stomach, which she must always have due to complications from a prior neck surgery; most of the nurses in hospitals, believe it or not, are inexperienced with proper enteral tube feeding.
[Eternity is all around us.]
Together we made a smiling snowman who (in magic, and he is we) danced around
And when he melts to those very last
drops (of who we are) he’ll be back again some day
A mind came upon a wall and the wall necessitated separation. That same mind came upon some people of a different skin color… and the “learned psychological prejudice” necessitated separation.
Now here is the tricky bit: The first separation was natural and factual. The second separation was manmade and illusory.
A lot of people were taught to look through psychological walls of separation. It’s so easy to deceive oneself, to see what one was programmed to see.
One man looked at a tree, and only existed as an image of a “re-cognized,” distant tree, supposedly separated from a learned image of “self,” apart from everything else. Another man looked at the same tree, and there was, beyond stored images, a bonding, blending, and sharing.
Imperishable insight is life that perceives its true reality (far beyond the limited, dead norm).
If you try to anchor the ship of your mind in the supposedly safe harbor of orthodox security (i.e., traditional beliefs)… you’ll stay shallow and never go deep.
The wise mind goes beyond constant symbolic thinking; it does not necessarily always need to be recognizing things as it was taught.
The watery pool of the astute, reflective mind must be still to mirror the absolute truth. A mere agitated mind, merely full of turbulence and turmoil, reflects nothing.
To a truly wise mind, many supposedly tantalizing sensations are rather trivial and somewhat meaningless… because a truly wise mind is content in itself, not needing extraneous stimuli to (eventually) make it happy.
Movements can claim to be solid entities. Mere reactions can claim to have freedom. Few truly evolve.
Well, it’s a good thing that matter solidifies as it does and a miraculous thing that water flows at it does and a wonderful thing that the earth is just the right distance from the sun and a crappy thing that mankind pollutes the skies and the oceans
They better not try to fool my heart because they’d be wasting their time There are plenty of other lost causes out there whom they can easily fool
They better not try to harden my heart because they’d be pounding on the wrong chest There are endless cold cadavers around the globe who would gladly help with the cruel beating
They better not pave the path to “truth” because i have seen where their deception leads to There are plenty of eager path-makers out there though no path in time ever leads to the timeless
(From news clippings from the Sierra Club that we belong to and donate to…)
A school groundskeeper who says his non-Hodgkin lymphoma was caused by Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is awarded $289 million by a San Francisco jury.
Atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than they have been in 800,000 years.
July in Death Valley is the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, with an average Temperature of 108 F. In parts of Japan it was 106 F, a new national record.
Fossil fuel companies have spent nearly $2 billion since the year 2000, lobbying the government not to take action on climate change, outspending climate activists by a factor of 10 to one.
Reductions in air pollution from coal-fired power plants, automobiles, and manufacturing are offset by increased pollution from wildfires.
Russian hackers seek the ability to disrupt the U.S. electrical grid.
Two-thirds of Republicans believe that humans are causing climate change and that we should do something about it but don’t speak out because they assume their GOP peers are climate skeptics.
As the population of rural Japan shrinks, bears move into towns. Drought causes emus to invade a town in Australia’s outback. Goats run wild in Boise.
French crows are being trained to pick up cigarette butts and other litter.
Pleistocene worms that were frozen in Siberia’s permafrost for 42,000 years are brought back to life.
North Atlantic waters are too warm to cool nuclear power plants in Norway and Finland, leading some to shut down.
“Never forget: We walk on hell, gazing at flowers.”
from Thomas Peace:
One of the problems about hell is that most who are in it do not realize that they are in it. One of the problems of hell is that a few in it (realizing they are in it) are not listened to or understood by those in it (not realizing they are in it). Who in the hell has all of the right answers? Nobody!
Ant on Stella Daylily … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Looking is easy. Anyone can (and anyone does) do just that. They can easily look at separate things…. things at a distance. But seeing is another matter. Seeing — real seeing — involves perception beyond all of that separation that you genetically inherited over eons of time (i.e., generations of experiences) or obtained from storing what was personally learned; it exists beyond what was gathered from accumulated learning. Seeing is not from accumulation; it surpasses and is phenomenally much more than what mere accumulation can offer. Most people look at what they were taught to recognize. Seeing cuts through barriers, surpassing them. Seeing puts the unfeeling, obtuse notion of “me” separate from “everything else” aside. But a lot of people are afraid to feel. They don’t have the courage or the moxie to feel. Real perception melts away the self and allows compassion to flower (beyond a dead consciousness). Real living involves real seeing… real perception.
Looking is easy. People, who merely look, throw bombs. Real perception — instead — is deeply compassionate.
Don’t be just anyone.
Silver-Spotted Skipper with extending proboscis … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
But if all haves could seldom see past twisted crime maybe some living compassion could free some dead slaves from time
Stink Bugs Feeding from Petiolar Glands (that emit nectar) from Wild Chamaecrist fasciculata Plant. (It was Linda, ‘shoreacres’, who found out just what these strange sections of the plants were… regarding an earlier article/posting we had on them. Note how the bug is using its proboscis to feed from the gland of the plant. ) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Between)the great purchase of life’s parameters, the price was everything while the cost was nothing… and we had plenty of nothing to give, since it constituted everything, (such as the space between protons and electrons) which seems to begin to sum up the whole thing. Just don’t squabble about the price, since it cost you nothing(while rattling in pockets is change
Southern Cloudy Wing Skipper … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
It’s no mere coincidence that a narrow-minded brain can only see partially. Look with wide eyes.
Plurality won the referendum over “holistic insight and oneness” (because unity had insufficient votes).
If you were duped by miseducation and are cut off from the whole of life… then you don’t mind being indifferent to (or to be malevolently maltreating) “others.”
Don’t fall for all of the insincere claptrap which propaganda-oriented news and which commercialism provide; be an oasis from society’s calamity.
If you seek the truly unknown via a system or formula, you will have remained in the “known” patterns and methodologies of others.
This isn’t a fly-by-night universe (after all); what each of us does has infinite implications/consequences.
Mushroom Umbrella (with dew) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Puff Ball Fairy, when you floated past, ever so gracefully, ever so enchantingly, i was, at once, captivated by your spell. As you gently floated away, i, with camera in hand, wished you would return so that i could capture some of your mysterious beauty. Alas! You granted my wish and again floated nearby, alighting on a simple leaf. Thank you, Puff Ball Fairy, and may we meet again someverymagicaltime in sweet eternity.
We so habitually separate. We, psychologically, separate the perceiver from “that which is perceived” so readily, so habitually, just as we were taught… and just as primitive conflicting, opposing factors (over eons) have dictated. Time, additionally, is separated. Of course, chronologically, actual physical time (in many, limited respects) has sections, but we, psychologically, almost constantly live in (and “as”) the past, as learned (stored) symbols, words, and concepts (of the past) that we constantly use (and are protrusions of what was poured into us). What is projected internally (psychologically) is what we are (i.e., what we actually are) fundamentally. If we remain in the old and limited, we remain old (internally) and limited. Even our concepts about the future are extensions of past accumulated (old) symbols/patterns. (Even when we think that we often live in the present, we — in actuality — do not.)
One can’t choose to perceive correctly… any more than one can choose to be wise or choose to be a genius. Choice and will are not keys to vast understanding. Understanding takes place when limited perception and fragmentation are not dominating factors. Will and choice are crude extensions of limited fragmentation; the chooser separating himself (or herself) from the choice is a mere continuity of primitive, illusory, fragmentary opposites. When fragmentation and limited perception no longer dominate, then there is a wholeness that is not the result of a mold or a mere blueprint.
Wildflower Flower Pods … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018 .JPG
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