Regarding those who are pompously dogmatic, who pontificate, telling you exactly what to do according to rigid creeds or beliefs that they expect you to adhere to… may i suggest running away from them (and wisely discovering and examining things for yourself beyond set patterns). And many say they’ve “gone beyond society’s crude patterns” while, all the while, they continue to carry them around mentally (tricking themselves that they’ve gone beyond). It’s so easy to deceive oneself and to wallow in (and “as”) that deception; it’s so easy to live a mechanical, robotic-automaton life, falling into programmed, spoon-fed habits and perspectives sadly beyond the natural, holistic, unfettered (living) beauty.
I met Kurt Vonnegut many years ago when my wife and i had gone to a book signing event in Chicago. I do not agree with everything that he says, but i am appreciative of the seven very sagacious terms which he seriously provides below. Will the people of our planet change to substantially improve the health of the earth as a whole? That is not likely (in substantial enough numbers). However, at least some of us are trying. Meanwhile, with the Covid situation improving, oodles of people are once again flying around in polluting jets and are long-distance traveling in fossil fuel vehicles to get vacations that they feel they are owed. The blue sky will be getting smoggy again and the crazy winds will continue to get even crazier.
Letter to the Future, From Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:
“Ladies & Gentlemen of A.D. 2088:
It has been suggested that you might welcome words of wisdom from the past, and that several of us in the twentieth century should send you some. Do you know this advice from Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘This above all: to thine own self be true’? Or what about these instructions from St. John the Divine: ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment has come’? The best advice from my own era for you or for just about anybody anytime, I guess, is a prayer first used by alcoholics who hoped to never take a drink again: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.’
Our century hasn’t been as free with words of wisdom as some others, I think, because we were the first to get reliable information about the human situation: how many of us there were, how much food we could raise or gather, how fast we were reproducing, what made us sick, what made us die, how much damage we were doing to the air and water and topsoil on which most life forms depended, how violent and heartless nature can be, and on and on. Who could wax wise with so much bad news pouring in?
For me, the most paralyzing news was that Nature was no conservationist. It needed no help from us in taking the planet apart and putting it back together some different way, not necessarily improving it from the viewpoint of living things. It set fire to forests with lightning bolts. It paved vast tracts of arable land with lava, which could no more support life than big-city parking lots. It had in the past sent glaciers down from the North Pole to grind up major portions of Asia, Europe, and North America. Nor was there any reason to think that it wouldn’t do that again someday. At this very moment it is turning African farms to deserts, and can be expected to heave up tidal waves or shower down white-hot boulders from outer space at any time. It has not only exterminated exquisitely evolved species in a twinkling, but drained oceans and drowned continents as well. If people think Nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.
Yes, and as you people a hundred years from now must know full well, and as your grandchildren will know even better: Nature is ruthless when it comes to matching the quantity of life in any given place at any given time to the quantity of nourishment available. So what have you and Nature done about overpopulation? Back here in 1988, we were seeing ourselves as a new sort of glacier, warm-blooded and clever, unstoppable, about to gobble up everything and then make love—and then double in size again.
On second thought, I am not sure I could bear to hear what you and Nature may have done about too many people for too small a food supply.
And here is a crazy idea I would like to try on you: Is it possible that we aimed rockets with hydrogen bomb warheads at each other, all set to go, in order to take our minds off the deeper problem—how cruelly Nature can be expected to treat us, Nature being Nature, in the by-and-by?
Now that we can discuss the mess we are in with some precision, I hope you have stopped choosing abysmally ignorant optimists for positions of leadership. They were useful only so long as nobody had a clue as to what was really going on—during the past seven million years or so. In my time they have been catastrophic as heads of sophisticated institutions with real work to do.
The sort of leaders we need now are not those who promise ultimate victory over Nature through perseverance in living as we do right now, but those with the courage and intelligence to present to the world what appears to be Nature’s stern but reasonable surrender terms:
Reduce and stabilize your population.
Stop poisoning the air, the water, and the topsoil.
Stop preparing for war and start dealing with your real problems.
Teach your kids, and yourselves, too, while you’re at it, how to inhabit a small planet without helping to kill it.
Stop thinking science can fix anything if you give it a trillion dollars.
Stop thinking your grandchildren will be OK no matter how wasteful or destructive you may be, since they can go to a nice new planet on a spaceship. That is really mean, and stupid.
And so on. Or else.
Am I too pessimistic about life a hundred years from now? Maybe I have spent too much time with scientists and not enough time with speechwriters for politicians. For all I know, even bag ladies and bag gentlemen will have their own personal helicopters or rocket belts in A.D. 2088. Nobody will have to leave home to go to work or school, or even stop watching television. Everybody will sit around all day punching the keys of computer terminals connected to everything there is, and sip orange drink through straws like the astronauts.
To truly be alive is a real art. It involves a lot of depth, understanding, and compassion. (By the way, psychological depth, great understanding, and compassion are not three separate things; they are all one.) Most of us have been indoctrinated with superficial second-hand patterns, thoughts, and traditions. Most of us live in (and “as”) an endlessly repetitious series or sequence of thoughts. That is what we call “living.” However, that may not be “living” whatsoever. Most people say that they are doing fine and are OK, but, in reality, they are not. They are full of fears, uncertainty, depression, dull mundaneness, and one series of stale thoughts after another.
Thoughts are stale. All thoughts stem from the past and are protrusions (i.e., projections) from (and of) that past. Patterns from the past can be rearranged to seem rather new but, fundamentally, they consist of the stale past. From that past, we look. Most people look through — and from — images of the past that they hold (and are). They recognize, they re-cognize things… such that they perceive according to the symbols and patterns of thoughts that they have absorbed and have clung to in (and “as”) the past. Thoughts are merely symbols and, therefore, are very limited and circumscribed. Symbols, being representations, are always residual, limited, and rather stale. However, most of us were indoctrinated to live in (and “as”) thoughts. Little wonder why so many say that they are enjoying life when, really, they are not. It’s like hugging or clinging to a Stop Sign and saying that the sign fills you with joy. You might fool some people, but you can’t fool me. That Stop Sign, like a thought, is a symbol, and a symbol is always of the past, limited, fragmentary, and nothing to get in rhapsody about. Most of us are of a consciousness that goes from one series of thoughts to another, never looking or perceiving wholly beyond thought/thinking. We go from one sequence of symbolic images to another. Even when we are out in nature, we perceive things through (and with) the screen of thought/thinking; we see things according to mere pre-learned patterns and labels; this may not truly be “seeing” at all. And yet we think that we are doing fine.
Remaining as stale, mundane, second-hand thoughts and patterns is never fine. It is the road to mediocrity, dejection, and robotic-repetition. One has to have the moxie, the fortitude, the guts, and the integrity to go beyond the indoctrination that was implanted in (and “as”) one. But most people are unwilling to do that. They are caught and find it easy to remain rather dead in the net or web of second-hand circumstance. Intelligently going beyond mere thought/thinking is frightening to them, because thought thinking is what they are; it is what they have accepted and is what they cling to.
Thinking in an orderly fashion is very useful at times. However, it is prudent to often go beyond thought/thinking. To merely remain in (and “as”) thought/thinking is sorrow. Period.
Fragmentary Raindrops caught in the Spiderweb of Mediocrity … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2021
[Note: I despise politics, but these are critical, precarious times when one must get somewhat “political.” The current diabolical U.S. administration is endorsing coal and fossil fuels and is deregulating and dismantling environmental mandates/regulations, not to mention destroying democracy and free-voting. Each year there are fewer butterflies, fewer bees, fewer lightning bugs, fewer of myriad types of wildlife creatures… not to mention fewer healthy people.
The cover of a recent Sierra Club environmental magazine stated: “Vote like the Planet depends on it (because it does).”]
Clear-eyed lightning thundering into people as a person whose booming tinkering blew separative self-seekers into roaring trepidation
Powerful winds upsetting murky, muddy minds of seem groundlessly thinking they were of clear, illuminated skies but falsely emancipated in dead houses of opaque beliefs
Earth’s life creatures were dying, not from the tempest but from the stale, stagnant home-dwellers indifferent, enclosed abodes of security hiding from the perfume of life
The tumultuous clapping was earth desperately tenacious among the sullied world of gadgets, plastic, and fossil fuels (Their adherence to self-gratification… not worth the price)
Note: (I’ve dropped out of blogging for a while because i’ve been very busy with other projects. I may — or may not — be doing much blogging in the future; it depends upon my time and some other factors. For those who are truly “inquiring” in all of this, what i have written is always there — and elsewhere — if you know how to look. Regarding the blogging, posting close-up nature pictures has always been a small part of my offerings, although the main focus has always been the philosophy. Followers who have primarily focused on the pictures have really missed the whole point; it’s like focusing on the tie that a good philosopher is wearing, rather than actually listening to what he has to say… which is sad in regard to the picture — or mere tie — lover. That being said, the number of insect species and other small species disappearing in the environment is alarming, to say the least. It breaks my heart to go picture-taking and seeing fewer wildlife species each year, and it is not just in our area; it is all over. Additionally, so many millions of people, such as in America, succumbing to heartless political propaganda — that includes indifference to the health of the environment — is equally cataclysmic… and, of course, the two situations are closely related.)
So many of us have assumed that we are fully living. However, a person who has been through true satori (i.e., true visitation from that eternal, sacred energy) realizes that people are only “alive” and “living” to a very limited, fragmentary extent. Such so-called “living” is only a rather seed-like state that has never really blossomed whatsoever. To truly change fundamentally, the instrument that is looking is perceiving beyond distortion. That instrument is the mind (and perception of the mind is not separate from what the mind is). Before one starts “cleaning” the mind into what one thinks it “should be” one must realize that there is no separate “cleaner” or “changer” and that time is not a necessary factor. And the “should be” is a projection of the mind that may help create illusions of separation, such as (psychologically) the so-called separation between the “changer” and the “changed.” Thought takes time; thought is psychological time and is separative and fragmentary. A vast, whole, timeless intelligence does exist.
It is intelligent to be fearful during this Covid-19 thing. Not being fearful would be a form of foolishness and ignorance. Fear has its place. Is one separate from the fear that one has? Well, one doesn’t merely “have” or “own” fear. Psychological fear is actually part of what one is. If that part gets to be too habitual, too excessive, too dominant… then unnecessary disorder manifests. What is it that is going to “get rid” of excessive fear? What is it that is going to “control” fear from a distance? Is it going to be a supposedly separate set of habitual fabricated images and “learned mental patterns” that are designed to think that they are manipulating fears that are “there” (at a distance) to manipulate? (Such supposed psychological distance is fallacious and is a barbaric inheritance that maintains conflict and illusion. The internal psychological distance creates a false duality; it manifests as the “controller” and the supposed separate “controlled.”)
Security is important in terms of being healthy with food, clothing, and shelter. However, in the quest for mere self-oriented security, the mind-heart can become cold, mechanical, robot-like, over-anxious, and dependent upon strange and unethical patterns. Of course, in the present crisis, if you do not have enough food, fear is a very legitimate factor; good governments and groups need to do more to help people; currently, they are not doing enough. When i was young — and not so young — i quit a good number of jobs because i did not feel that what they were doing (or making) in them was ethical. I left quickly without much concern for what may happen to me. I like what Senator Bernie Sanders recently said: “We must break away from the worldview that everybody should try to become a billionaire — and you can lie, cheat, and steal if your goal is to make billions and not pay attention to the suffering of others.”
Life, real life, is so much more than a Monopoly game. Compassion, these days, is not prevalent enough. But $ in people’s brains certainly is. Many cling to the apron strings of $ and security… and the real joy, extraordinary spiritual bliss, and meaning of life, unfortunately, pass them by. (Kudos to truly dedicated medical staff and other critical needs and essential needs people working at risk — selflessly — to help others in these very precarious times.)
We think internal fear is there to manipulate (at some kind of distance) and we think organisms that suffer are merely “there at a distance.” We may have been taught wrongly.
Mushrooms don’t have to Social Distance. Photo by Thomas Peace (from a distance) c. 2020.
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
Only sick immorality can yank children from their parents and cage them up, shitting on universal-global love
You know, i am not interested in politics whatsoever. Politicians are not my cup of tea. However, what is happening in the U.S. is getting to be extremely sick and immoral, and people (deeply stuck in their ruts) are accepting it! Children are children of the world; they don’t belong to any damn country, to any damn politics. It’s only crass, divisive adults who put them in such fragmented domains. A regime that, against international human rights laws, pulls children from their parents, is an immoral, diabolical regime. That same deranged, fascist-loving regime has been turning its back on the environment (kissing the behind of the fossil fuel industry). The unnatural, hellish, hot and violent weather is going to get exponentially worse and is no coincidence; mass extinctions will continue. When will people wake up?… when it is too late?
Shitting on Children… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
[from Albert Einstein (1879-1955; physicist and Nobel Laureate): “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”] Write to your congressmen, vote wisely (instead of what you inherited), and demand change.
This Haiku doesn’t need a canto because it’s just too damn small.
The U.S. is destroying the Environmental Protection Agency.
We all want security or some kind of stability in life. If someone asks you — such as is done in this blog — to consider transcending beyond the image(s) of a central “I” or “me,” it is normal to have reservations about doing that. Since very early childhood, images of there being a central “I”, “me,” or “central controller,” have been poured into us and have been heavily reinforced. People have a psychological defense mechanism regarding protecting that supposed “center” that allegedly controls everything that each one does or decides upon. That defense mechanism is built around the need for stability and security. The “I” or “me” seems quite permanent and seems to be what one can always identify with (and depend upon).
For centuries, many of us have each existed in a country that we identified with and looked to for security. “Our country” will keep us safe; “our country” is better and has the right systems and traditions. “Our country” is protecting us… providing the necessary security for us. However, these countries, worldwide, have not really given us security to any very significant, long-lasting degree. The world remains full of conflict. Crazy leaders, who are power-hungry and who have child-like minds, still (in this so-called modern age) pull people into deadly wars. Separative countries, for eons, have contributed to conflict and wars between humans. We are so programmed into following leaders (who promise security) yet who merely maintain the separative division that puts man against man. Countries are essentially, by the way, manmade. There really isn’t such a thing as Scotland; it is what man concocted.
Organized religions, too, are what man concocted. Just like with countries, they have plenty of leaders who (like deceptive politicians) offer you security (especially in the after-life or in their “here and now” that is promised). Like the image of a central “I,” one’s religion is what one can identify with and depend upon. Like with countries, organized religions have caused much friction between human beings. There have been many wars in the name of religion. This still goes on.
These things that promise security may, with closer more vigilant observation, not provide much real security at all. The world is not a safer place to exist in currently (with these manmade systems full of rigid practices and formulations that separate one group of humans from another). Ignorance constructs walls and barriers to separate people and this inevitably causes conflict. It may be, in reality, a small world… a global world.
Many may easily think that going beyond the concept or idea of a central “I” will somehow negate our security. We are afraid of giving up what we think is so fundamental, so very permanent and lasting. That “I,” however, creates psychological walls (and a bounded circumference) that can (and easily do) cause conflict in the world (and internally). It may be that real security and real relationship with eternity can take place, however, without the illusory (limited) circumference and psychological wall that the image of “I” or “me” manifests as. The reaction of “I” or “me” is a new projection or reflex of thinking each time it takes place, yet we take it to be the same-old, reliable (egocentric) essence of what we are. Like a cigarette lighter flame repetitiously brought into existence, the flame is new and a bit different each time it burns; however, we tend to identify with it as being always the same, permanent thing… which it isn’t. The “I” causes walls of indifference, walls of callousness. Intelligence and a real sense of bliss and eternity can live quite nicely (thank you) without dependence upon the “I,” “me,” or a spurious center… (except during times of superficial conversation where it is still commonly used).
Beyond its limited circumference exists what is beyond borders and concocted walls. Real love transcends the “I,” transcends walls and borders that divide and cause conflict.
Captured but Plant-based (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Captured but Plant-based (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
[Special Note: Happy New Year everyone! Though we need to go way beyond “happy” into deep perception, compassion, and environmental awareness (that matters).]
The passion of awareness — real awareness, not all of that phony stuff — perceives beyond the known. The known consists of preconceptions, traditions, and limited patterns of the past. Profound awareness goes beyond all those things. It goes beyond the mundane and commonplace. It is not enmeshed in repetitive, rather mechanized habits that dull the mind and expand sorrow. (Most people are caught in sorrow and perpetually try to run from it. Interestingly, they always run from sorrow in a particular direction, and that direction is always limited; then, sorrow remains.) Awareness is a motiveless inquiry without superficial direction or desire. Any inquiry with direction is calculated and limited.
Many people have preconceptions about the way things are; with (and “as”) those preconceptions, they look. What they see, then, will inevitably be limited, predetermined, and partial. To perceive without conclusions is real humility, real innocence in action (beyond mere reaction). The constant labeling of things, mentally, is a repetition of memory and the known (which is the past recurring). All thoughts are symbols that are both fragmentary and limited. Limitation can never see the whole… but so many cling to their limited preconceptions and fragmentary patterns of thought/thinking… just as they were taught to. Many remain circumscribed within the limits that were given to them as their foundation.
Recently one saw a science program about artificial intelligence. In the near future, there will nanorobots (nanobots) — at sizes smaller than the cellular level size — that will enter the brain and connect with the neural pathways. People then will be composed of minds that are part computer… part machine. Ray Kurzweil, who works for Google, and other computer experts/entrepreneurs claim it can begin happening very soon; the year 2029 has been pinpointed as a date for when it can really (more fully) take place. All kinds of beneficial things are allegedly supposed to happen because of this. However, one questions whether is it taking us to a better place. Human minds are heavily conditioned and mechanical enough; implanting the brain with machines will only make them more robot-like… more prone toward programming by the powers that be. Some scientific reports maintain that 50% of the earth’s wildlife has been killed off by humans in the last 40 years. Immersing ourselves in virtual worlds, which is what computer implants will likely do to us to a significant extent, will not help wake us up to what is alive and precious in the real world. Additionally, people wishing harm to others will — more easily — access ways to make deadly viruses and nocuous substances. We need to intelligently put a leash on technology; however, that is unlikely to happen unless more of us wake up; the leash, so far, is on us.
Awareness, real awareness, is action… not merely secondary reaction. Very many of us habitually react all day long (like robotic, mechanized, programmed instruments); and they want to implant more mechanicalness, more man-made concoctions into our (already programmed) brains!
It is only the uncontaminated, pristine, innocent mind that can be entered by the whole, the timeless. That which is limited, fragmented, sequential, partial, and prejudicial, is not open or unbounded enough to be visited by that miraculous, impersonal intelligence.
It is important to have a mind and body that (together) work with great precision. Many people do not take great care of their bodies; nor do they delve into the nature and essence of their minds a great deal. Such behavior is often negligence. A body that consumes many foods that are not conducive to good health is operating in a way that is not harmonious, not orderly. Similarly, a mind that is operating with a lot of inner conflicts, resistance, fears, delusional manipulations, and a fanciful administration of power, is not being harmonious nor orderly.
A mind that is a hodgepodge of absorbed (i.e., learned) conditioning consisting of false psychological separation, inner conflict, inner resistance, and spurious (internal) domineering power can seemingly create a meditative silence that it may think is divine. However, a mind full of inner limitations, conflicts, suppositions, and learned attributes can easily deceive itself; such a silence is (inevitably) as limited as the mind that fabricated it. It may be that a truly profound and precise silence is never the product of a calculating mind.
A mind that is aware of itself, each and every day, without the stagnant patterns that society has impressed upon it, may (without effort or spurious inner dominating factors) function with (and “as”) real order, precision, and harmony. Thinking and the thought process is often used by (and “as”) such a mind; however, the thinking process is seen to be the limited tool that it is; the sagacious mind realizes that it need not exclusively cling to that limited domain. There is a cessation of thought/thinking that comes uninvited, that comes unprovoked; it is not the hypnotic, limited kind of fabricated silence that so many unfortunate minds have learned to materialize.
A mind that has profound awareness functions without a fictitious and misleading center (such as the kind that the majority have learned to accept and take as genuine). Most, with that misleading and inaccurate “center” that each takes to be genuine, function — especially internally — with fraudulent space and with fanciful separation. The fraudulent, limited space and fanciful separation are involved with protrusions of thought that are given (false) credit for being the source of power and domination (of the so-called other thoughts). Then, such minds of imprecision think that they can intentionally meditate, creating or concocting a space of true and legitimate silence. Does one see the absurdity of it?… A mind of delusional, distorted separation and fictitious space thinks it can fabricate a true silence (of vast space). What it produces will be an obtrusion (i.e., an extension) of its own inherent disorder and imprecision (and, therefore, will inevitably be of the conditioned and/or false). It is so easy for distortion to bamboozle itself into thinking that it is free, or whole, or divine (when it is not). Only an innocent, honest, truly humble mind (of real clarity and precision) is beyond self-deception.
A mind that examines without the burden of false values and the stale conditioning (of the past) can flower beyond limitation, internal imprecision, and fallacious separation (such as misrepresentation as when, in the mind, the so-called “controller” is misconstrued as being somehow separate from “thoughts seen with psychological distance”). Profoundly intelligent observation must be pristine, uncontaminated, undistorted, and beyond measure. It is very possible for the truly serious mind. Only a mind of real clarity and precision can see and understand the whole.
Green Lacewing… Predator of many harmful insects… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
[Note: The following poem is not about the Praying Mantis; it is about the species who manufactured the metal rail that the Mantis is walking across.]
Bipedal
Hairy
Tends to dominate other species
Some act with great order and understanding while many are indifferent and uncaring
Often fights other imaginary sub-groups of its own kind
Takes far more — in terms of the domain of other species — than its fair share
Overpopulates its own kind over the entire planet
Covers life-areas with dead concrete
Feels intelligent and superior (while it — all along — ruins the planet)
Most do not realize that they are not separate from the world as a whole
Some are very caring, considerate, and compassionate
Mentally feeds on symbols and images rather than reality
Often uses others for profit
Often blindly follows/obeys power-hungry tyrants in high positions
Some fire projectiles from held devices to put holes in other species or in others of their own kind… rendering them lifeless
Some warmheartedly stay local, recycle, use alternative energy, and actually help nature and others of their own kind
Others hypocritically claim to love nature while they often needlessly fly for long distances in aircraft that spew out deadly fossil fuels in vast quantities
Most foolishly think that their species is separate from other species
Some refrain from harming multitudinous species who highly value their own existence
Some have real empathy while others are mere thinking/reacting machines
Most abandoned life in the trees and woodlands to become the obedient working slaves of others
Only an extremely small number have been visited by that sacred, eternal energy that is beyond the realm of standard causality and rigid boundaries
Many believe in a dominating super-organism who — up above — happens to be a tail-free ape like themselves
Most subscribe to the very primitive notion that the observer is separate from the observed
A small few exist beyond the shared madness
Shadow of Mantis in the World of Man (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Shadow of Mantis in the World of Man (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Today i will be going to the annual Halloween Party at the school for the multiply handicapped (where i had worked as a teacher before i retired); it should be a hauntingly fun day!
I knocked out all
of my teeth last night
to cash in big with the Tooth Fairy
and fill my pockets right
I’ll be buyin’ candy wid all of dat cash
which i’ll sweetly eat right away
(and the beauty is dat
i’ll not have to worry about tooth decay!)
Halloween Tooth Fairy Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Halloween is a candylicious
fun for kids time of year
and the ugly monster
with the orangish hair
(who is a reflection of a sick national immorality)
is mostly what we should fear
Halloween Spider (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Halloween Spider (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
A lot of us go through unbelievable hardships in life. Very many of us have had to go through tremendous turmoil, unfortunate tragedies, and unbelievably tough times. For some of us, maybe our parents were rather cruel and unstable; or perhaps such was the case regarding some of our teachers or classmates. Or maybe some of us have had to deal with significant physical or socioeconomic handicaps. Many of us have had to face real pain involving the loss of a loved one or dear friend. Most of us were shaped to be programmed by a society that is competitive, money oriented, and extremely superficial (in terms of deep meaning and real integrity). Most of us have been harmed psychologically (by cruelty and indifference); many of us do not even realize the vast extent of the damage that has been done to us. Beyond the past, we all, whether we like it or not, are facing a very precarious future. The world is getting more and more dangerous, more and more divided; we have not fundamentally changed (psychologically) since our early barbarian ancestry days. And now, with nuclear armaments being able to wipe out billions and with germ warfare a real possibility, here we sit. Violent winds and ferocious storms and wildfires are increasing as pollution gets far worse, as many politicians are indifferent, and as fossil fuelled homes and vehicles run rampant.
Given the aforementioned circumstances, it would be very arduous to be truly stable in such a tough, unstable world (such as it is). It would be very easy to remain truly stale in such a tough, unstable world (such as it is). One cannot really blame others for their staleness and lack of depth; they were educated and programmed to be that way. Many cannot change; many do not want to change. We were taught that we are separate from each other. We were taught that we are different. Within all of the vast darkness, there can be light and real intensity. That light must shine from you; it cannot merely be given by another. Such light is never really just secondhand; however, darkness can easily be secondhand (or of a residual, shadow-like, cold recurrence). To be a truly bright human being, here, has little to do with intellectual capacity, with copying and mimicking.
Struggling in Life (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Struggling in Life (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
There is a psychological cessation that is beyond the parameters of motivation, desire, or striving. It involves a timelessness that is beyond sequential methodologies and practices. Such a cessation is a discontinuance of the same-old mental symbols, same-old perspectives involving separation, and same-old mental traditions. Such a cessation is natural, healthy, intelligent, and is not merely what can be measured. Those who perpetually and habitually function in (and “as”) the parameters of thought (endlessly using dead sequential symbols to cogitate about things) cannot be of such a living timelessness.
There is no path to such a cessation, such a timelessness… for, if there was, it would be reducing such a timelessness to being just another part of the continuum of temporal manifestations; there are plenty of charlatan priests, gurus, and so-called religious masters who are all too willing to give you the path (and methods), however. A lone Bumblebee went from flower petal to flower petal, caught in a sequence of endless reactions that never were transcended, never fully understood.
Immersed in reaction (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Immersed in reaction (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
In an intelligent inquiry as to whether or not there is anything really sacred, the mind must be free from limited patterns of conditioning and opinion. For such an inquiring mind, there is no room for belief or conjecture. Both belief and conjecture are based upon supposition or primarily baseless, unscientific conclusions. This transcendence beyond the limitations of conditioned belief and conjecture additionally includes going beyond any formulated methodologies that one may be lead to believe are worthwhile. Very many have, with blind faith, clung to the structured methodologies and ideologies that various organized religions — such as Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and others — have provided over the years. Asking people to go beyond the conditioning of these organized groups (with their leaders) usually falls on deaf ears.
In such an inquiry, the mind must be supremely healthy; additionally, it must be beyond being influenced or programmed by any group or by any person. It may be that only a very healthy, balanced, unconditioned mind can discover what is truly sacred. Such a mind brings about its own order (and not according to what someone else says). It may be that to truly come upon the sacred, the mind must have its own natural, intrinsic order. Such order may not be the result of mere accumulation. No accumulation of beliefs, or structured methodologies to live according to, would be of interest to a truly orderly, unconditioned mind. In a big way, perception without dependence on accumulation is perception beyond the parameters of time; all accumulated beliefs and structured methodologies require (and depend upon) time. The timeless, unconditioned, truly free mind is beyond all of that (but don’t just take my word for it).
Can perception take place that is not the mere result of — and not dependent upon — past accumulation (as stored memory)? It may be that if one looks without all of the past accumulated memories and hand-me-down patterns of others then such a one is stepping out of the confinement and incarceration of conditioning. Such confinement was a limitation, a barrier; “mostpeople” refuse to let it all go. They cling to their so-called religions, groups, beliefs, and methodologies and refuse to let them go. The pristine, untainted mind goes beyond this conditioning and no longer uses others’ methodologies to “get something.” I, for one, will not give you patterns to follow, edicts to live by, or beliefs to cling to.
Accumulation, in any psychological form, is usually a manifestation of greed; greed, in any psychological form, likely negates discovery of the sacred. When one — not theoretically or idealistically — sees this, all organized religions and methodologies that are learned are out. There is a non-concocted silence that can never be brought about by the accumulation of memory, nor by learned patterns, nor copied procedures. That silence is not the result of conditioning and practice; it is not derived from greed or acquisition over time. Don’t waste your time in believing in such silence. Find out if there is such a silence, but not by mere abstraction, not by mere “idealistic image-projecting.” That “finding out” may have nothing to do with what you were ever taught. An elderly Great Blue Heron was looking for his next meal as the placid pond was getting ready to settle-in for the evening.
Great Blue Heron (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Great Blue Heron (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
It is very easy to come to conclusions about things. Some things that many come to conclusions about seem like cut-and-dried facts that can be taken for granted. Often we come to conclusions about the behavior of others… when, however — over time — they have changed far from what we have “concluded.” In past postings, one has often written about transcending or dissolving the central “me” or “I.” Some people, no doubt, have concluded that doing so is foolish or even very dangerous. Many cling to that fabricated image of self and are terrified and very frightened about letting it go. It is very likely that their love of the absolute truth is likely not nearly as strong as the love and attachment to that image. Really perceiving — not merely intellectually — the falsity and delusion that a supposed central psychological controller inherently consists of, we maintain, is neither foolish nor dangerous. On the contrary, it helps eradicate the very root of conflict that causes so much indifference, neglect, and hatred in the world of man. Perception beyond such a fallacious center does not, as many might presume, tend to negate eternity for us. On the contrary, it may be that the eternal can more readily be perceived and appreciated once the supposed central “me” or “I” is truly transcended.
One read a post by someone, recently, that matter-of-factly pointed out that everything is temporary and that we all must die and come to a complete end. Coming to a complete end is, so they say, coming to a conclusion. Many people, while they are alive, come to conclusions — about many things — without ever having deeply and independently inquired. They absorb what was poured into them by others… and from there they — as self-appointed experts — spew out more and more myopic conclusions. However, we may presently live in a very primitive and crass world culture and a lot of what the so-called educators say may be utter rubbish. If, as most do, you fall into the standard or common lines of thinking (about things)… then it may be that you are making a grave mistake and are fundamentally making very deleterious decisions with (and “as”) the essence of your life. As one has stated before in some of my previous postings, some of the world’s top-notch scientists have said that reality is likely far different, in its fundamental nature, from what many of us have thought or suspected. Indeed!
Question everything that people tell you and everything thatisay. Go beyond all the standard ways of looking at things and looking at the world. Perceive without looking through the screen of perception that others have built for you to look through (and “with”). Then, if you are very lucky, you will go beyond most of the fundamental conclusions; and then eternity will not merely be a representational symbol as part of your brain; then your essence will never come to any final conclusion.
Beyond Conclusions (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Beyond Conclusions (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
There is often a fine line between erroneous judgment and prudent perception. Profound perception cuts through erroneous judgment and dissipates it. There is no “how,” set in stone, on “getting” profound perception. Like humility and real love, it is not something that one can merely cultivate. However, if the mind is passionately aware of its own workings — without merely depending upon the patterns and judgments of others — then, perhaps, that untethered awareness opens up (or manifests as) profound perception. A mind that is keenly interested in this is naturally and concomitantly interested in a correct relationship in all matters (internally and externally). By “correct,” we mean in accordance with real fact and truth. Naturally, deception, falsity, and illusion are not things that one would be eager to cling to and exist as.
Distorted minds, broken minds, fragmented minds, relatively superficial minds, will not be (at all) interested in this. They will be content to remain — and wish to remain — as the ordinary, everyday mundane things that they were programmed to deal with (and be). Going beyond this limitation will not suit them well. They won’t care to be bothered. Minds beyond this (limitation) may be somewhat interested in things, such as what is often written about here… or, perhaps, (though rarely) they may be extremely interested. This interest must flower into a real passion for any real significant change to take place. That “flowering” has little to do with retaining stale memories, old traditions, beliefs, or standardized procedures. Those four are best suited for those who wish not to be bothered.
A mind that looks without all the fragmented patterns, outlooks, judgments, and structures that others have poured into it is a very untethered mind. Such an untethered mind is free to see everything as it really is (beyond limitations and distortion). Such a non-separative, non-partial, holistic perception often is (and often exists “as”) undistorted relationship. That kind of relationship goes beyond those that think that they are in relationship with the world but actually are not. We are not really separate from what we perceive; and if what we perceive is dictated by the limited patterns and symbols that we have absorbed from a primitive society, then what we see will (inevitably) be second-hand, narrow, and circumscribed. We can be beyond such inaccuracy.
I eat a lot of green things too!
Eating a Green Lunch … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
A lot of people use the word love. Popular songs, needless to say, are riddled with the word. It is a word that is so easily dished out; however, its profound depth of meaning may have been long neglected or absent in human culture. If love, for an individual, is tied to self-interest, or motive, it is likely not actually deep love; then, in such very numerous cases, it is involved with (or “is”) desire. If self-motive is involved, then it usually is mere desire, relish, and craving. Deep love is not what is mere desire or what involves self-motive. If one says one loves one’s nation or immediate family, for instance, but does not deeply care for all humanity and all forms of life as a whole… then that so-called love may just be a form of self-gratification or motive for security (out of fear).
Profound love goes far beyond mere sensation, far beyond mere gratification from stimuli. A merely greedy, avaricious mind cannot be of it. It may be that few people (on this little globe) truly have love. It may be a rare jewel that one cannot cultivate or exploit. Like humility, one cannot program it to occur or make it happen; additionally, one “of it” would not “know” that one is imbued with what it is. Though it cannot merely be cultivated or manufactured, it may occur in a very perceptive mind that is deeply aware of internal and external relationship. Most, unfortunately, perceive with (and “as”) separation; this negates love via innumerable limited psychological walls and barriers. Does one really love another, or is it an image (or set of images) that one’s set of internal images are associated with and fixated upon? Is — in the mind — one set of images that cling to another set of images what profound love is? What is limited, self-centered, and small cannot — by natural law — deeply be in harmony with the whole. The limited (mind) will cause conflict (internally and externally), friction, wars, turmoil, pollution, and suffering. In awareness that is not the product of the separative images and patterns that others cling to in limitation, the free mind is of an untethered vastness that largely transcends what causes suffering, friction, and prejudice. Such a mind has no borders and, therefore, love is possible.
Mating Butterfly (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Mating Butterfly (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
We all suffer. We suffer physically and psychologically. None of us escape it. Here is a little secret about the true nature of suffering: It is neither just yours nor mine; it is universal. It is our suffering. We all share in it… some more than others. When one of us suffers… we all suffer.
So many of us habitually run from suffering. We use all kinds of legal and illegal drugs to escape from suffering. There are plenty of drug-addicted and alcohol addicted people in the world, many of whom insist that they don’t have a problem and can stop whenever they wish to. Instead of habitually fleeing from suffering, few of us have embraced it without separation, without deep-seated bias and friction. Of course, if suffering is overwhelmingly intense (physically), then one would naturally not care to embrace it or have much of a relationship with it. A wise mind, however, may act — and not merely react — to milder forms of suffering in ways unlike what most people do.
Unlike most minds, the wise mind rarely suffers psychologically. A mind that is wise — due to understanding itself and its contents — is of a vast, immense order. Such order is a flame that incinerates the chaotic disorder that psychological suffering feeds upon; hence, psychological suffering, for such a mind, dissipates. Order doesn’t easily manifest as disorder. A mind that is truly orderly rarely suffers.
Thinking, in human beings, stems from (and involves) problem-solving. Thinking is a tool. Many of us continue to think (and entertain thought) even when thinking is no longer necessary. This strict adherence to thought/thinking is a distorted habit that nourishes all kinds of psychological disorder. Thinking is largely symbolic and representative; merely existing as one symbol after another (in sequence) is much like substituting symbols and signs for the real thing. Such substitution rarely leads to lasting joy and pristine revelry; accepting shadows as reality rarely leads to sunlit bliss. Too many of us were educated wrongly; thinking is only a tool; it need not be the essence of consciousness. If you have made tools as the essence of your consciousness, you are bound to suffer.
A wise mind can exist beyond the tools, beyond the shadows, beyond mere symbols and abstractions. Such a mind is beyond suffering (though it has immense empathy); it never needs to take recreational drugs, alcohol, or take antidepressants. Wisdom begins when psychological suffering ends.
Diminutive wildflowers (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Diminutive wildflowers (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
How were we educated? Were we educated about what to think, with things being poured into us to absorb? Or were we educated to find out for ourselves, to inquire and to investigate beyond what was merely put forward by others? Were we shaped (for the most part) by preset molds, or were we encouraged to be whole and independent human beings who can intelligently question things, take nothing for granted, and who probe deep beyond the ordinary, unfeeling, and commonplace?
When we were very young, our canvas was blank; they (for the most part) painted it with what they thought should be painted. What they thought should be painted — of course — was an extension of how their canvas was painted in the past. So they painted our canvas. However, they (fundamentally) did not encourage us to be extremely creative painters. (The painting-like rendition of the ant — down below — has little or no relevance with what we are actually writing about, by the way.) Most of us are a product of their painting… and we see the world through (and “as”) the network of that painting. If that network largely consists of separation, isolating images of self, accepted conflict and fragmentation, acceptance of ordinary values, boredom, and groping for more… can one, in a profoundly significant way, change to a blank canvas and paint a very different picture?
It may be that the painter is the painted, that the tree and the ant are not merely two separate things, and it may be that we have to unlearn a lot of the baloney that we learned. Just like the ant and the tree, unlearning and learning may not be two separate things, just like living and dying are not two separate things (though so many of us think they are).
Integrity, in the dictionary, means wholeness, soundness. Wholeness is being complete. Wholeness is not one fragmentary image involved with thinking that it is related to other fragmentary images. A fragmentary image that maintains, with a series of ideas and imagery, that it is “one” with other fragmentary images (that it sees out there) is merely deluding itself… and is still reinforcing fragmentation. Wholeness is absolute. One definition for absolute, in the dictionary, is “unconditional.” Though the truly sacred is what cannot ever be thoroughly defined by limited words, it is — nevertheless, for what we must use here to communicate — inherently unconditional. All words are symbolic and limited, and there is a supreme sacredness beyond all words, beyond all man-made, clever attempts at silence, beyond all the divisive religions that separate man (and lead to war).
Its unconditional beauty is beyond the limited patterns and clockwork paradigms of this universe. Few are ever visited by it, for it is not what inhabits separation, fear, jealousy, indifference, and falsities. A practiced or calculated silence designed to “get it” will only manifest false, self-created manifestations, not that profundity. The conditioned — no matter what technique is used, no matter what expert is followed — will never bring about the unconditioned. Conditioning must end (through uncharted, non-concocted understanding and natural self -awareness), and not “to get something.” Sitting cross-legged (with your eyes shut) in order to achieve something “special” merely reinforces acquisition and the greed of the self. If observing takes place naturally, quietly, without always trying to achieve, without learned separation and abstractions, without merely always groping to get… then, perhaps, that sacred, eternal movement may explode through the organism; if not, it simply doesn’t. One must be indifferent about whether or not it comes; that can only take place if the mind is whole and sound… (and that timelessness, that sacredness need not appear just because the mind is whole and sound). The ending of conditioning occurs when awareness exists beyond mere acquisition, beyond mere symbolism, beyond limitation, and beyond the mere glorification of a fallacious, psychological center. The repetitious notion of a controlling center is a misrepresentation, and is a furthering of the conditioning actually taking place; it is an extension of erroneous conditioning. Few of us realize about the real joy of psychologically dying to an inner psychological center, to inner psychological greed; the image of a central controller (i.e., a central boss that dominates) is a big part of (primitive, inelegant) greed. Going beyond that is real wisdom and joy. Such joy is bliss without motive… and it is not a mere result… is not a mere reaction.
Vertical Climbing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Vertical Climbing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
One wishes that things were much better, such that one could just blog about wildlife and nature’s flowers, but they are not. The ship of the world, whether we realize it or not, is in a very precarious condition and it, due to indifference, is most definitely sinking; too many of us are walking around as if we are on a luxury cruise.
In ancient Rome, the conniving politicians held the masses in complacency by providing them with plenty of entertainment in the Colosseum; there were many forms of entertainment that involved death. Now, dancing from the strings of fossil fuel corporations and big industry, most politicians robotically react, and people get big fossil fuel transportation vehicles to have a lot of fun in. If all fossil fuels ended today, our atmosphere would remain critically polluted for 60 years. At the Colosseum, there was a lot of indifference among the endless entertainment back then; many of us haven’t changed from that paradigm whatsoever.
To wield witty words, to accumulate a lot mentally and in the material world, to have power, and to have security, is zilch if one is not of a holistic compassion beyond the so-called central self. Holistic compassion (beautifully) does not depend on any outside or inside authority for guidance. In holistic compassion, there is no direction, no blueprint as to the right way to go. Society spoon-feeds us everything. So many of us are used to being spoon-fed. We are so impressionable and easily influenced by (and “as”) reaction. Our propensity for looking with what others have spoon-fed to us runs deep. What may be intelligent is a quantum leap going beyond all that. That quantum leap may not be of time. Psychological time, as the associated past of what one has learned, and as obtrusions from the past as what the future might be, does have some place. However, the timeless, beyond that limited domain, is also of great significance.
In the timeless, there is no seeking, no authority, no goal (projected from, and “as,” the past), no direction, and there are not mere tokens and labels (as words) that keep one in fragmented, sequential symbolism. In the timeless, real compassion and holistic intelligence — beyond the limited, isolated, coldly indifferent, and false — manifest.
[Note: The attached photograph is either of my uncle Lefty (who may or may not exist) or of a model of a Neanderthal at the Chicago Field Museum. Which is it? I won’t tell you, buti do have a big smile on my face as this is being written.]
I’ve written about timelessness in the past. Some people, one has noticed, have mistakenly abstracted that “timelessness” to be a static thing… an inert thing. On the contrary, the beauty of timelessness is not of the lifeless, the dormant, nor the comatose. Stagnant minds — as so many, unfortunately, are — cannot be in a relationship with it. It is too dynamic, too alive and energetic to be in direct relationship with the listless, cold, and lackadaisical.
Most of us never question things deeply and intelligently. Most of us never wonder about whether or not existing in (and “as”) patterns (and experiences, which depend on mere patterns) is the only way in which to go through life. Our religions, our politics, our everyday mundane routines in life are all based upon patterns and sequential cause and effect paradigms. Need one just be that? (If so, is one then merely a series of reactions? Merely existing as a series of reactions may be what stagnation is… may be what a kind of death is.) Most never ask about this. Most never go beyond the limited domain that was handed over to them. It’s like a fish bowl in the vast ocean… and the fish (within) never (ever) going beyond the confines of the bowl. That bowl, that we have accepted and remain in so diligently, is limited, is confinement. That limited bowl, for humans (who evolved from fish, by the way), consists of thought, fragmentary reactions, and conditioning. If you wish, stay there.
All of the isolated governments, all of the standard, separate religions and traditions of the world keep you there, in what is limited. Going beyond the limited doesn’t take time. However, they’ll be more than happy to give you oodles of methodologies (that take time).
Antennae on the lookout! (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Antennae on the lookout! (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
My wife and i never had kids (because the world is way overcrowded with humans as it is), but we are concerned about them deeply. If i had only a few short moments — or a bit longer — to tell a child what to care about, in life, here is what i would likely say:
Mistrust everything anyone has ever told you about truth… and find out for yourself.
Go beyond the dead symbols that they provided; be intelligently empty, stay young, and don’t lose your innocence (as so many adults do).
Don’t just look through the screen of what was taught; use thoughts often, but go beyond them.
Love the whole and not merely a few isolated parts.
Let effortless silence be your oasis from internal patterns that were planted in you by others.
Help others (so-called other life forms) to go beyond suffering.
Help (and care for) Mother Earth; she is all we have, and many are making her sick.
Don’t be ordinary (even if it is more comfortable and easy to be ordinary).
Never lose that youthful feeling of eternity (that most adults have lost long ago).
Perceive with (and “as”) dynamic emptiness without a mere center.
Look without mere separation between you and what is perceived.
Perceive with a warm heart, not merely (as so many do) with a cold mind.
Note:
[These are fish in a large pond in our area. There is a small creek that flows into the pond, and the fish love to hang out by the mouth of the creek to get oncoming food and to enjoy the current. I like how one of the fish — unique, with the purity of white on its head — in the top section of the video is (especially) enjoying a burst of water current, creating surface swirl! There were many more fish than what is seen in the frame.]
Dogs are so joyful to frequently hug Dogs are fun to roll around with on the living room rug Dogs cherish you in their own little pack Dogs = oodles of love to give back Dogs just wish you to be compassionately there Dogs (if your face is ugly) do not give a care Dogs each can be just a wonderful friend Dogs chase their tails to no attainable end
[The first photo is of our 14-year-old Shih Tzu, Gabbie. She just turned 14; yesterday was her birthday! The second photo is a 12 million-year-old fossil wolf from Eurasia. Could it be a distant ancestor to the dogs who own us? Possibly! (Putting a perspective on time here, recent research reveals that the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees may have begun genetically diverging from one another 13 million years ago; 12 million years ago we were still in the trees, safe from the terrestrial, predatory wolves.) ]
Our dog Gabbie. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
12 Million Year Old Fossil Wolf. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Let’s pretend that thoughts that are symbols (and all thoughts are symbols) are what a central “I” controls
And let’s pretend that this I (that supposedly controls thoughts) is not another one of the thoughts is not another one of the symbols
Let’s wonder what the purpose of this poem is and let’s think that we are sep a rate from the symbols regarding this poem
Let’s pretend that thoughts that many cling to (and “are”) as superficial habits have even a fraction of the substantive depth and reality that genuine heartfelt feelings have
Let’s listen to the sounds around us now and also hear the sounds of thinking and pretending which are not, of course, really sounds at all
Katy with sound sensing legs (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Katy with sound sensing legs (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
[Added note: My sister-in-law is married to another woman; both she and her spouse are very sweet, caring, and kind; they are far better parents than mine ever were.]
Someone’s aunts on Stella D’oro. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
My heart goes out to those in Charleston, South Carolina who lost their lives or loved ones. The Confederate flag needs to go. To many, it (justifiably) represents repression and hatred. Personally, one doesn’t care to wave flags of any type. If you are a global citizen (i.e., a true citizen of the world), then separative flags have very little meaning. Flags tend to reinforce the feeling of separation and indifference regarding “those at a distance.” Many think that their country or area is superior to “that” country or “other” place… or is superior to “those other people.” During war, so many feel that “God” is on their side… as if God takes sides in violent, separative confrontations! A truly perceptive mind realizes a profound truth that places it in a common bond (united) with all living creatures. Separative flags (of any kind), which promote boundaries and divisiveness (and they pretty much all do), have little significance to a mind that is truly in such a bond beyond demarcations.
[This baby snapping turtle was in the backyard, running about. The adults lay their eggs in the ground; when the babies finally hatch, they need to quickly get to water (or else they get eaten by raccoons, coyotes, foxes, or crows and such). After taking a few photos, I carefully tossed this little guy into the river that we live on.]
Baby Snapping Turtle (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Baby Snapping Turtle (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 