All Posts Tagged ‘Opinions’

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Turtles and Freedom

May 26, 2020
47 comments

My wonderful, nature-loving wife, Marla, discovered this young, freshly-hatched Snapping Turtle wandering around in our yard and called me to take pictures. Snapping Turtles lay from 20 to 30 eggs on land — in sand or soil — and when the little “snaplets” hatch, they (hopefully) head for water. I took photos of this little fellow and then tossed him in the river that we live on. I saved him a lot of walking/wandering time and prevented him from being eaten by crows, raccoons, and such.

When i was very young — at grade-school-age — i went fishing one day with my grandfather and father. They caught a big turtle — it wasn’t a snapping turtle — and wanted to take it home to make Turtle Soup out of. Yuk! They kept the turtle in a huge fishing net (high up on the bank); the turtle was trapped in the net as it faced the water… wishing to run in. I felt very sorry for the turtle… and gave the big net a swift kick. The turtle managed to get out of the net; i never saw a turtle run so fast; it ran, like lightning, straight into the lake and quickly swam off. Of course, i got a good “yelling-at,” but felt that it was well worth it! That lovely creature got away!

Most humans are trapped and don’t even know it. The net is their traditions, their societal norms, their iron-clad religions, their immoral habits, their separative ways of looking at the world and its so-called separate parts. They think that their net, their beliefs, religions, prayers, mental projections, meditative techniques, and customs are ensuring that they remain very safe. But the net is a net… a limiting, fragmentary, man-made trap that is not helping in a holistic and truly healthy way. One cannot easily kick or leave the trap because one’s very foundation and mental constitution consists of the trap. It is very arduous to go beyond the trap but it is not so difficult if wise/keen and very pure perception occurs without all of the nettings that were crammed into (and around) one over the many years. To look without the known involves no learned technique, no remembered procedure.

That turtle, many years ago, cared more about freedom than most people do in this very nutty age… (with callous, narcissistic, dictatorial leaders popping up worldwide like mushrooms). Their well-designed traps were carefully fabricated to entrap you.

Baby Snapping Turtle (1) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020

Baby Snapping Turtle (2) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020
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Something is Fishy about Staying at Home Here… (2 pics and a video)…

May 18, 2020
44 comments

A man who doesn’t merely sugar-coat stuff and (lie like a snake), Governor Andrew Cuomo recently stated, “Do not underestimate this virus. It has beaten us at every turn, and it has surprised us at every turn. Don’t take it lightly. Don’t underestimate it. I believe the facts will change as we go forward. The more we learn about the virus, the more the facts change, and the worse it gets.”

With this Covid-19 situation going on, some people are going absolutely bonkers with regard to staying at home. Some people are vehemently protesting the staying at home orders. All this while most people see professional medical experts’ recommendations to stay home as being very insightful, intelligent, fact and data-based, and beneficial; many people don’t mind staying at home. We live in a very rural area, so we can go to nature areas without contacting people. At our home, we don’t have to go out to be close to nature; nature is part of the essence and foundation of our living space. (We have — and have had — dogs, birds, tropical fish, shrimp, and praying mantises; not that animals can ever truly be “owned”.)

I’ve kept tropical fish for around 59 years so far. Right now i maintain around 700 gallons of aquariums. Aquariums are a very relaxing, educational, and beautiful way of keeping nature within your own home. (Many apartments, where pets are not allowed, allow aquariums.) Think about getting one for yourself. Many can be maintained without a heater. Most tropical fish, despite what the stores tell you, do very well in aquariums kept at room temperature. Petco periodically has “$1 per gallon” sales, wherein you can get a 20 Gallon Long aquarium for $20 or a 40 Gallon Breeder aquarium for $40. Air pumps from Walmart cost around $10 and can run 2 or 3 aquariums at only 4 watts. Walmart sells natural gravel. Many home-bred fish, like Endlers Guppies or hardy Corydoras Catfish (or very colorful Shrimp), can be purchased on eBay.

Most all of my aquariums have live plants. There are all kinds of very beautiful live plants that you can get and they can be very enjoyable to raise and reproduce. Some of my aquariums have shrimp instead of fish, or shrimp combined with small fish.

The following well-done, short video is by Lucas Bretz, where he talks about the “Staying at Home” thing and aquariums. I disagree with him on a number of things regarding the way aquariums should be maintained but there are a number of good ways to keep aquariums that all work well. I met Lucas at an Aquarium Auction/Swap in Champaign, Illinois, and i gave him some young Daisy Neon Blue Ricefish that i bred. Daisy’s are extinct in the wild — due to pollution — and only aquarium enthusiasts like myself and others are keeping them alive. Cory (of Aquarium Co-op) is another great source for videos and aquarium plants and supplies. Prime Time Aquatics is also a great video source. LRB Aquatics sells home-bred fish, shrimp, and plants online.

Below are two different shots of my 8 feet long Angelfish aquarium.

Angelfish and Italian Val Plants … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020
Large Aquarium with Angelfish, Emerald Corydoras Catfish, and Ivory Mystery Snails … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020
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Blossoming Beyond Separation…

May 3, 2019
26 comments

 

 

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

 

 

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Photography Tip # 7 — Haiku

July 14, 2018
55 comments

 

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP #7:

When you see what you like,
there is a button on the top of your camera.
Press that button.

 

 

 

Photography Tip with Wildflowers… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

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Thought and Thinking

February 25, 2018
44 comments

 

[2-26-18 Flood Update:

The river is receding well.  We are OK but have a ton of cornstalks in our yard.  I am elderly and have arthritis so may have to hire people to remove it.  Marla says that there is more rain in the forecast (coming soon).  We don’t have hydrophobia yet but we are getting there!

Excerpt from Emily Dickinson:

You cannot fold a Flood—
And put it in a Drawer—
Because the Winds would find it out—
And tell your Cedar Floor—     ]

 

 

[Note:    Update on our River Flooding:    The river remains very high.  Our house is OK so far, except for some very minimal water in a small section of our crawl-space that a sump-pump has been taking care of.  Many local rural homes and nearby towns are flooded severely, unfortunately.  Our neighbor told us that her son had to rescue his mother-in-law from her rural home.   Her son’s mother-in-law’s home is surrounded by water and is severely flooded within the living area.  At first, his mother-in-law refused to leave… much like the couple that i mention in my update within the Flooding posting that i submitted.  Please refer back to that recent posting for that update.  We had more severe rain last night for a time; i hope that that will not cause the river to rise; it shouldn’t.   Some large logs have been hitting the horizontal I-beams that support the nearby bridge, as the water level is so very high.  Thanks again to many of you for your heartfelt comments and concerns.]

 

 

Thought/thinking is always, as we have often said, an extension or protrusion from the old storehouse of memory.  Thinking is a form or representation and symbolism used in order to achieve desires and wanted outcomes.  Interestingly, when thinking occurs in (and “as”) the brain, it often exists (mimicry-like) as a sequence of words (which are a simulation of one’s actual talking voice); thinking can also occur as a sequence of stored images that are pictorially oriented.  Thinking is essentially all virtual; even the simulation of one’s actual voice, used as internal verbal thought, is virtual.  Yet so many of us cling to (and exist “as”) this virtual, spurious pseudo-reality. The essence of thinking is reaction, mimicry, symbolism, categorization, interpretation, restructuring, recollection, recognition, abstraction, and finding meaning.  Additionally, thinking can help with real curiosity.  Profound curiosity, however, goes beyond thinking and is never merely tied to any superficial motive (such as how to make more money).  It is interesting that those of us who think better than others are (oftentimes) given better (and higher paying) jobs.  Society tends to worship complex and intricate thinking.  Ironically, it may be that the wisest minds go beyond mere motive; it is motive (and robotic reaction) that corrupts the perception (the availability) of the whole.

What we are suggesting here is that, perhaps, it is not merely the most complex thinking mind (with the most thoughts) that is to be admired.  A mind that functions as thinking when it is necessary but that often prudently goes beyond thinking may (indeed) be admirable.   Unfortunately, the brain that thinks endlessly is a very mechanical, robotic, materialistic brain.  A prudent mind that often goes beyond thinking is not the opposite of the “endlessly thinking brain” but it is (fortunately) different.  Of the two aforementioned brains, one of the two endlessly depends on being reactions and on receiving endless stimuli to feed those reactions.  The other of the two often goes beyond the realm of “reacting”; interestingly, it can — and does — function as awareness without the need for exclusively being reactions… without the need for exclusively categorizing endless stimuli.  One of the two craves experience in order to function.  The other of the two partakes in experiencing but also can function without mere dependence on experience.  Of the two, one must stay — and endlessly remain — within the field of the known.   The other of the two dwells in the field of the known but is not merely tied to that very limited domain.   All thoughts are fragmentary symbols, and the essence of the sequential arrangements that they are always involves limitation.  Profound curiosity — if it really has true depth — is not foolish enough to be satisfied with remaining in (and “as”) a limited domain.   Not enough of us question the essence of the domain that we function in… and not enough of us intelligently consider going beyond the domain that we function in; the domain we are referring to is, of course, “thinking.”  The mind can be fully aware, alive, and sensitive without needing to rely on thinking and time (though often, of course, thinking is very necessary).  Mere constant recognition is, each and every time, limited reaction as part of motives.  Each and every limited reaction with (or “as”) a motive is inaction regarding holistic perception; this inaction denies that holistic energy. 

The known cannot penetrate into (and understand) the true unknown.  The unknown, however, can flower within a mind that does not merely exist as endless reaction (i.e., endless responses of the old); a sapient mind often does not merely function with (and “as”) the known.   Deep insight and profound enlightenment/satori can only occur when the known is not functioning (as the old repetition and habitual sequence that it is).  What is truly new, what can never be recognized as the same thing over and over again, can never be experienced by the old past (i.e., by the known).  The dead known can never enter into the measureless and timeless beauty of the living unknown.  What is fallacious cannot remain what it is and enter truth. 

The beauty of real mindfulness and meditation is that they are not what can be practiced via any methodology.  All methodology relies on the known and exists within the field of time.  Time is not a path to the timeless; measure is not a means to the measureless.   Mere experience (or trying to go beyond experience) is not a path to that sacredness that is beyond all the senses. 

 

 

 

Curious Ant (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Curious Ant (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Two Different Minds

February 9, 2018
22 comments

 

 

When wily mediocrity mingled

           impressing dozens of cadaverous friends

When superficiality stagnated

           content with parts and very dead ends

 

Where innocence’s insight fully flowered

           near caring doubt’s entwining now

With timelessness everlastingly

           not separate from the whole of life somehow

 

 

 

 

Soldier Beetle in Chives (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Soldier Beetle in Chives (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Humans’ Psychological Walls…

December 17, 2017
18 comments

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

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We

August 11, 2017
6 comments

 

 

We ascend)from the greatest miracle

        that blindmost think never did happen

We sprightfully spring to always

        beyond death’s empty reasons and hows

We transcend a trillion wishes and billions of prizes

        and jump past dark was into now

 

We beseech the ever small-minded,far from ordinary’s cadaverous lair

        to go beyond all of the cold puppetry and superficial lies

Let’s mail the old status quo to dead Pluto

        and correct corrupt vision(with new purity in their eyes

 

 

Some friends’ tortoise (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Some friends’ tortoise (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The mindless… and the deep well of the mind…

June 11, 2017
26 comments

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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Vegetarianism and beyond…

March 26, 2017
21 comments

 

This post will not try to lure you into being a vegetarian.  I sit and eat comfortably with people who eat meat, and i don’t try to convince them to do otherwise.  I’ve been a vegetarian since 1973.  My reason for vegetarianism is mostly related to a compassion for animals, rather than simply for health reasons.  Currently, i am an Ovo-Lacto vegetarian, though for a few years i was a vegan (not eating any animal oriented products, including milk and eggs).  I do not use much (at all) in the way of dairy products, but do eat eggs fairly often.  Over the years, one has met all kinds of vegetarians and non-vegetarians.  It has been an interesting ride.  Some vegetarians, whom i’ve known or lived with, were simple and non-arrogant about their vegetarianism.  They were simply that way, and they didn’t flaunt it or look down on those who were not like they were.  I was appreciative of the way they were… of their non-judgemental approach.  I’ve also met plenty of vegetarians who were rather arrogant and pretentious about it… looking down on those who did not fit into what they thought was the only correct way to be.

Years ago, i was introduced, by two female vegetarian friends, to a man who was a fruitarian.  He did not eat plants because he thought that plants had feelings.  He was rather pitiful to look at… looking very emaciated and sickly (though he was only in his 20’s).  He claimed that it was “wrong” to even eat bread… since yeast — used to make bread — is closely related to animals.  To me, what he said didn’t carry much credibility… especially since he looked like death warmed over.   For a meal, he would eat some fruit… and he looked down on people who ate plants (as if they were immoral).  One can take idealism to levels that negate the correct and proper care of the physical organism that the mind inhabits, causing irreparable harm to that organism.

When one was a vegan, after a period of time, though eating a good variety of foods, there developed unnatural cravings to eat more and more.  Something was missing in that diet.  Eventually, one went back to an Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian regimen.  I was taking Chia oil capsules for the essential fatty acids.  However, skin started to come off of my inner legs by my thigh area; it literally fell off!  When i started taking Fish Oil capsules and/or Krill Oil… the skin problem went away.  What i didn’t know before then, was that vegetable oils, including Chia, Flax, oils from nuts, and such, are in the form of ALA fatty acids.  Most people cannot readily convert the ALA into the needed DHA.  DHA is critical for proper brain function and body chemistry; many vegetarians are lacking in information about this (and in the necessary DHA).   In a big way, this is a real crisis, and few are knowledgeable about it.  Even non-vegetarians can be very lacking in DHA… which can lead to all kinds of problems, including cognition problems and Alzheimer’s disease.  Recently, DHA from algae has become commercially available, which is great for vegetarians and even vegans.  I currently use the Diet Standards brand called “Prenatal DHA”; please don’t laugh (like my wife did)!  It can be purchased for less $ (than on some sites) on eBay, if one shops around.  Fish oil and Krill oil, additionally, contain very large amounts of DHA.  

As we age, we — vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike — especially need plenty of DHA; the brain consists largely of fat and DHA; DHA is essential!  DHA is the predominant structural fatty acid in the central nervous system and in the retina of the eye, and its availability is vital for the development and health of the brain.

Lately, one has been into studying Native American culture, before the arrival of Europeans.  They ate plenty of vegetables (back then) as well as meat.  They respected nature… and lived in real harmony and balance with nature.  Many of us, these days — vegetarians included — don’t even come close to that genuine harmony… that genuine balance.  We, with our fossil-fueled cars, fossil-fueled plane trips, excessively large homes, overpopulation, and endless plastics, are far from that harmony.  (One has been trying, with geothermal home heating, a small home, with using small cars, not having children, and recycling, etc.; but one can never do enough.)  Being a vegetarian does help environmentally and with nature; however, there are many other factors that affect life in very significant ways.   

Please — vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike — take the time to read the following regarding DHA:

http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2012/11/dha_essential_brain_food/page-01

http://www.dhaomega3.org/Overview/Conversion-Efficiency-of-ALA-to-DHA-in-Humans

Not for eating (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Not for eating (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Not for eating (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Not for eating (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

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Can one decide to meditate?…

March 19, 2017
21 comments

 

One has read blogs (recently) wherein those composing them write about meditation as if it is something that one can make one’s mind do… as if one can decide to do it (like turning a light switch on or off).   Real meditation is not what one can decide to do.  The accumulation of knowledge, as the past, cannot (under any circumstances) decide to be what it is not.  Any planned or deliberate meditation is not real meditation.  Charlatans abound, however, who are all too willing to tell you how to meditate.   (It must be very easy to mesmerize yourself, in a rather self-hypnotic way, and then be all too willing to encourage others to do the same with themselves.)  There is no “how” to real meditation.  If it takes place, it is like a sudden spontaneous silence or quietude that was not (in any way) preplanned and brought about by a mental blueprint or calculated procedure.  It may happen when one is walking through a wooded area, or when moving occurs from one room to another, or when sitting (without motive) takes place for a while on the back porch steps.  When a bundle of memories, as the accumulated past — called thinking — decide to meditate, what they strive for is loaded with reactions of motive and acquisition.  Whatever they reacted to become is an obtrusion of thought that projects with — and reinforces — a learned reaction constituting an image of “me” or “I,” which is itself another extension of thought/thinking.  Deciding to sit down and meditate (for any motive), via a learned procedure, merely strengthens the fallacious “I” and its supposed ability (which it really does not have) to alter consciousness to a true and profound silence.  The known cannot decide to be the unknown.  Conditioned reactions, even sophisticated ones, cannot decide to be the unconditioned.

Awareness can — without the separative nonsense of an “I” apart from and controlling “its” thoughts — function with thinking, and if intelligence functions without calculated, separative psychological nonsense, then perhaps real meditation, without effort, may actually (naturally) occur.  However, one cannot decide to meditate any more than one can decide to have — or be — an insight.  Neither can one decide to be what humility is.

Another thing that people have been posting about is how they are so sure that everything in their world will turn out to be rosy and wonderful.  Fanciful ideas!   Because of underlying fears, many have an indoctrinated belief (either on the surface or deeper in their psychological unconscious) that a deity somehow is benevolently pulling the strings for things that go on in their world.   Their security blankets, born out of fear (stemming from thinking and psychological time), are their beliefs.  Fear, in people, is often buried in the hideaway of concocted belief.  These beliefs, unfortunately, often encourage waiting for some future after-death utopia or some external power (to make things better in time).  I am suggesting that we grow up (from those blankets), face the fears without separation, and not presume that God created this universe (and continues to manipulate it); (one is not suggesting that the sacred does not exist… on the contrary!).  Additionally, if you actually want real security, perceive (without mere imagery) what is actually taking place, and act (don’t merely react) with intelligence and care.   Perhaps you could write (like i have done many times) to governments, asking them to curtail nuclear armaments, fossil- fuels, and wars.  Do environmentally friendly things, join the Sierra Club (or other such environmental groups), work for a more peaceful, environmentally cleaner world, do more and more green things, actually help life, and then maybe things will be truly wonderful.

Only in pairs (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Only in pairs (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Only in pairs (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Only in pairs (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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One’s Relationship with Nature…

January 15, 2017
15 comments

 

To have a decent rapport with nature, one must perceive beyond the limited walls of an isolated self.  To really be in harmony with nature, one must (first and foremost) be harmonious psychologically.  A mind of inner dissonance (and lack of harmony) does not perceive holistically; it sees fear as something that it has, not as something that it is not (at all) separate from; it sees nature as being “over there,” not as something that it is not separate from.  A mind of conflict, fear, prejudice, and inner distortion will often — even if it insists otherwise — perceive nature with fragmentation, indifference, and corruption.  Likewise, a mind of conflict, fear, prejudice, and inner distortion will perceive other human beings with fragmentation, indifference, and corruption.  To perceive beyond mere contamination the mind would necessarily have to be pure and unsullied.  Is psychological purity what can be accumulated, by someone, over time?

Profound psychological purity is timeless; it is not the result of accumulation or mere cultivation.   Accumulation and cultivation require time.   To be pure, innocent, and spotless (mentally) does not take time.  Time, psychologically, is a postponement, a delay, and it involves a gradual change, a gradual (possible) improvement.  To perceive other life beings with (and “as”) that innocence does not take time.  To look at others (and at nature) in the same old ways does require time; it is time, as the stored (accumulated past) that merely recognizes separate things, sees with (and “as”) separation, pigeonholes things, and exploits people and nature.  Real passion, real love, real order is timeless and pure… unsullied.  Its spontaneity, its freshness, its aliveness, is instantaneously perceptive without distortion.  That lack of distortion is real love, not the spurious (small, self-oriented) kind.  That lack of distortion is wholeness as non-fragmented perception.  

To climb the high mountain, one cannot move far by carrying a lot of heavy baggage.  Very many depend so heavily on their psychological baggage, such that they fail to perceive the real beauty that is there (that excessive baggage cannot take one to).  

Somehow appealing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Somehow appealing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Somehow appealing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Somehow appealing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2016
16 comments

 

Happy Halloween… and here’s a huge, new threat to horses!   Remember, however, nothing is quite as scary as the presidential campaign in the U.S. around now!   Ahhhhhhhhhh!  

A Huge New Threat To Horses! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

A Huge New Threat To Horses! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016