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. You don’t have to believe in anything to enjoy and love nature; you don’t have to swallow dead doctrines to love others and all of life’s creatures.
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John the Baptist – whom the historical Christ followed – was far from the bureaucratic temples, and didn’t believe in them. J.C. tore up temples. …photo by Thomas Peace 2014
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. White butterfly
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. whose spirit?
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. — Shiki (1867-1902)
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Just another me… photo by Thomas Peace 2014
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. Don’t waltz through life eternally numb… with a paralyzed heart.
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Entwined in too much Security… photo by Thomas Peace 2014
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. Although one lives in a violent and unfair world… one can be nonviolent and fair.
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Safe in the evergreen… Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
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. Life is much more precious than reason can conceive.
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Katy in the Daylilly… Katydid in Flower… photo by Thomas Peace 2013
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. If Nietzsche were alive today, I’d, from behind, maybe gently kick him in the pants… to have him permanently understand how some things can truly come to an end. 😉
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Mushrooms amongst blades of grass… photo by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Being popular and self-confident isn’t what is important; being caring, alive, compassionate, and aware is what’s important.
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Orange Anthias Fish – saltwater fish at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago – photo by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Enjoy life simply and lovingly and you won’t ever need to ask why we exist.
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Different kind of flowers … mushrooms … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. If you intelligently think for yourself… you’ll be a threat (though not a violent one) to all of the greedy, bureaucratic powers that be.
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Honey Mushrooms are called Honey Mushrooms for a good reason! These mushrooms are edible. I used to go mushroom-hunting with adults (when i was a child); beware… there are very dangerous mushrooms that are not Honey Mushrooms, though they look much like them. The visible part of the mushroom is only a small part of the organism. The main body of the mushroom is called the mycelium… and it can spread for miles. Some Honey Mushrooms are estimated to be over 400 years old.
Honey Mushrooms … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The deepest intelligence isn’t merely remembering a lot of patterns. It is warmhearted, all-encompassing care.
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Boxelder bugs — larvae and adults — remove sap from seeds, flowers, and leaves… but they do not do much damage. In the fall, they can congregate on the sunny side of buildings. When i lived in Kansas, there were tons of them on the warm side of the house in the fall!
Blood-shot-Red-eyed Boxelder Bug … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The treasure isn’t “out there”… the treasure lies within!
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Spined Soldier Bug Hunting for prey … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. A mind of infinite wisdom is infinite. An uncaring mind (full of limitation and enclosed selfishness) is essentially of transience involving limitation and the finite.
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The Bumble bee that isn’t bumbling awkward at season’s end … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The beauty and sacredness that exists beyond this clockwork universe can visit you, but only if you are silent, innocent, and compassionate.
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Monarch Butterfly at her home-tree … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. A warmhearted company supervisor is a respected and cherished individual; a cold boss — mistreating mere vassals — is a dark, long shadow of grief on life.
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Praying Mantis (at the edge of life… literally) … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Interestingly, if you intentionally harm the small and fragile… you harm the universe, the immense and substantial.
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De-flying our garden… Green Leopard Frog … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. If you systematize your life into bundles of practices and methodologies… you — despite thinking that you are vibrant — are likely mechanical and robotic.
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. [Below is an Ambush Bug (Assassin Bug); they are “sit-and-wait” predators that eat other insects, including bees, flies, butterflies and moths. They often attack insects much larger than themselves.]
Patiently waiting for the next crawling meal… Ambush Bug … Assassin Bug … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Do not merely set boundaries of delimitation, chopping the whole up into identifiable parts; those parts may be mere symbolic, trifling illusions.
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Beyond words… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Words and mental images, being mere symbolic representations, cannot take you to the zenith of understanding. What is limited can only go to a limited degree/extent.
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. Eastern Yellow Jackets:
They prey on insects and spiders. Their underground, globular paper nests, usually built in abandoned rodent burrows (it is said)… may contain as many as 5,000 workers and one queen. The ones which I photographed were expanding their underground breeding chambers; you can see two of them each diligently carrying a huge clump of moist dirt! [Double left click on the photo to get a closer look; hit left return arrow to return.] I was precariously close — they deliver a vicious sting — but I used to keep bees… and all went well! One could see that they were definitely aware of my presence; some were hovering next to my head, keeping a close eye on me. I moved slowly and they allowed me to get rather close to their “woman cave.”
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Raising a family isn’t easy (1)… Eastern Yellow Jackets … by Thomas Peace 2013
Raising a family isn’t easy (2)… Eastern Yellow Jackets … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The hubbub of a disturbed and constantly chattering mind is incapable of being the calmness of the millpond that can reflect the truly orderly, the truly sacred.
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. Robber Fly:
Adults prey on wasps, bees, flies, and even larger insects such as dragonflies. They seize prey while “on the fly” with their spiny, grasping legs… and pierce the body with their stout mouthparts. They have very good eyesight.
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From Sherwood Forest… Robber Fly … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Hate is psychological separation — as ignorance — reacting. Without separation, hate cannot be.
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. Blue Mud Daubers consume nectar and spiders. They will even deliberately land in a spider’s web to lure it out… and then capture and sting it without becoming entrapped by the webbing.
Nectar and Spider Eater… Blue Mud Dauber … by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The network of existence that the universe has sewn for us to live in… is not a hammock wherein we can rightfully sleep indifferent and aloof from the real needs of others.
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Raccoon impersonator… Gray Squirrel… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. We bath and keep very clean, but the hygiene, the cleanliness of the planet… is going to the dogs. Please recycle and go green ASAP!
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The Flight of the Bumble Bee… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Few, unfortunately, are truly aware of the timeless. Thought is time… for as time, thought is sequential, fixed, and conditioned. Music is sequential too. To go beyond the “conditioned” partially involves ending dependence on mere sequentiality.
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? Question Mark Butterfly ? … By Thomas Peace 2013
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. It is so easy for the mind to deceive itself, for it to believe in its own or in others’ delusions. Only a mind that is simple and unburdened sees reality as it really is.
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. [She’s a blond, brunette, and redhead… all rolled into one! And, of course, she has plenty of simple, down-to-earth horse sense!] 😉
Real Horse Sense… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Fear of “not being accepted” makes many into the shallow shadows of others.
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. [Note: Immediately under each of the Katydid’s front leg knees are holes; these are the Katydid’s “ears.” If you are a small, slim, narrow creature — like our Katydid friend — you’ll have the best stereophonic hearing, helping to protect you from predators, (if your ears are situated in your widely spread legs).]
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Katydid — blending in… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Wisdom never turns its back on others… because there are no separate “others.”
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Moe, Larry, and Curly (as one) Nuuk, Nuuk, Nuuk… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. You can’t run from your fears… you are your fears.
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Who is that masked man?… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. If you seek the truly unknown via a system or formula… you — no matter what you think — will have remained in the “known” patterns of others or in the “known” projections of yourself.
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Not seen in the scenery… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Deep wisdom in life reflects immortality… otherwise it is limited vaporousness.
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Magic Manna… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Snakes Alive! :0 Multi-Photo…
A lot of people were taught to (and also innately) fear and hate snakes. All my life i’ve admired them for their true beauty and excellence (as some of God’s amazing creatures). When Steve Irwin died, i cried and cried and cried; for he was a brilliant and wonderful spokesman for the true beauty and joy of snakes/spiders and similar creatures. Steve was such a supreme spokesperson for all of life’s amazing wildlife. When he died young… a lot of species — here on this earth where many animals are cruelly abused — lost their most important, kindhearted friend.
When very young, i used to briefly catch snakes just to admire them; then i’d release them back into the greenery. We had a large family picnic recently, and i purchased a lot of rubber/plastic snakes for the young boys of the family (of which there are many). While purchasing them, the cashier at the store cringed, and stated that she hated snakes. She then went on to say that she and her mother recently killed one that was in her mother’s yard. Many people kill snakes when they see one. I informed her that there are really no poisonous snakes in northern Illinois — the Massasauga is basically extinct and is illegal to kill if found — and that snakes are very beneficial in that they eat disease carrying vermin such as rats and mice.
Below are a few photos of a large Bullsnake that was in our yard recently. It gave off a wonderful fake rattling sound when it was curled around some dried leaves (at one point). It was beginning to shed its skin, so i grabbed it by the tail and moved it to where it could safely get under our gazebo. It was large and awesome… a beautiful, incredible animal! 😉
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Bullsnake (1)… by Thomas Peace 2013
Bullsnake (2)… by Thomas Peace 2013
Bullsnake (3)… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. This isn’t a fly-by-night universe (after all); what each of us does has infinite implications/consequences.
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How sweet it is!… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Forget what everyone taught you about life; go out, sit with nature, and look at everything as if for the first time.
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Wild and Domestic… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Multi-photo: The gravity of living with awareness and kindheartedness outweighs the minuscule misery of mindlessness. Break free…
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. [Below is a Cicada emerging from it exoskeleton case. Prior to this, they lie buried for 7 or 13 years or so… depending on the species. These are the insects that make loud symphonic sounds at the tree tops.]
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Cicada Emerging (1)… by Thomas Peace 2013
Cicada Emerging (2)… by Thomas Peace 2013
Cicada Emerging (3)… by Thomas Peace 2013
Cicada Emerged… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. To unlock the conundrum of life’s profound and deep messages, one cannot remain shallow and coldly conditioned.
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Ease off please… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Roses are red, violets are blue… please wake up and realize that what you perceive is you.
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. [We are addressing this in the psychological, not physical sense, regarding the mind. When you look at the blue sky, your mind — as actual conscious perception (which you are) — consists of blueness… not of actual ozone, and updrafts of a stratosphere.]
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Rosy outlook… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. To truly perceive nature that is all around you… you realize that it is you and you are it.
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Squirrel Vision… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Sensitivity helps — and merges with — others and all life; mere progress may pollute and destroy… so we must be careful and perceptive.
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Of an evening… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The wisdom of profound insight and holistic perception is never the result of fractional thinking; all thought is fractional and “broken up.” Silence is golden.
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Wise Old Owl (in rehab. facility)… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. So many of us absorb what mediocrity hands to us… and we go on in substandard ways without question.
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Alert and Agile… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The dissonance, the lack of true harmony in so many innumerable minds, is largely the result of the wrong kind of education.
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Young and Old… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. To not be contaminated by the childish traditions, fallacies, and crudities of others… to not be as a second-hand shadow…
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Flowering Independently… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Don’t build a thick psychological wall to protect yourself from “outside threats”; don’t distance yourself from what are really fears/perceptions that you actually are.
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Superfluous Thorns… By Thomas Peace 2013
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. Nationality is for the limited; globality is for the wise.
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Bumble Be… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. To go beyond the pettiness of silly, superficial dreams — and all dreams are superficial — one’s mind must (during the day) be very aware and of an intense order; then dreams — as the limited self-obtrusions of symbolism that they are — are unnecessary (and rarely occur)… and something profound may, instead, take place.
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In the daylight… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. One of the reasons that there are (and were) so few true bodhisattvas (i.e., enlightened entities) is that only the immature cling to (or deliberately avoid) experience… while wisdom is neither just being nor not being… (nor is it endless “becoming.”)
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Wild Iris Rarity… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Boredom is the manifestation of a distorted mind bereft (at that moment of boredom) of complete wisdom. Boredom is a fortunate signal — to the intelligent mind — that the mind has to work further with regard to understanding itself.
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Beauty and the Beast… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. So many merely follow the edicts and patterns of others; to merely follow the patterns of others leads to inevitable suffering. Don’t be afraid to stand alone.
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Singularity… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Only sorrow constantly strives to “get happy.”
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Simplicity… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. Psychologically, one is not truly separate from the perceived. Realizing this is true wisdom.
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Red Cardinal… by Thomas Peace 2013
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. The space that seems to separate us is nonexistent; we are all one… united.
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. Below is a photo of a male Indigo Bunting; these nest in our yard every spring. Only the males have the bright blue coloring.
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Indigo Bunting… by Thomas Peace 2013
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 