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All Posts Tagged ‘photography’

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Violence…

September 25, 2016

When we are violent and mentally formulate an ideal of nonviolence, we set up an “idealistic image” for the center of self (which is itself an absorbed, learned image) to strive towards. That “idealistic image,” being a fabricated construct of the brain, is a symbolic pattern that is not — much the same as the image of an isolated (controlling) center — real (other than being a fabrication of the mind). It may be far more prudent to give attention to the actual violence as it is occurring (without merely looking at the violence with separation and imagery). Then violence is not merely something that you have; it is what you actually are. Then you are not separate from the violence. Giving all of your energy to understand it may require that it be seen without a fallacious center trying to do something about it from a distance. In this, there would be no distance of space, nor any distance of time; (there, in other words, would be no spatial distance between a fabricated “center or ego” and the violence… and there would be no psychological time for the fallacious “center” to “have” to try to get rid of the violence.) Superfluous ideals of nonviolence need not (necessarily) be manufactured; if they were, they likely would create space, time, and conflict in the mind, sway attention from the actuality of violence, and would likely tend to support a false (isolated) center that focuses away from the learning, understanding, and true relationship regarding violence; a false center is (in itself) a form of violence; it is a man-made (isolated) image (that projects indifference, separation, and conflict).

Instead of being aware of violence and deeply learning about it (and therefore fundamentally going beyond its many ways), merely mentally saying (with that old, procrastination trick) that one will be “better” in the future involves (the space of time). The false center additionally forms (space) between itself and so-called others. This space and the space of time (psychologically) are intrinsically the same in many respects. Intentionally hurting so-called “other” life-forms is a form of violence. Jealousy is a form of violence. Envy is a form of violence. Racial prejudice is a form of violence. Indifference is a form of violence. Violence exists in many formats. If one fragment merely tries to get rid of another fragment (that is seen with separation)… then conflict continues (in one form or another) and the mind remains immersed in violence. Most have no true relationship with others and no true relationship with violence; so the violence continues (in society) as it does.

Eastern Amberwing. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Eastern Amberwing. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Core of the Butterfly

September 23, 2016

19 comments

once upon a twice

wings folding unfolding

here within the universe’s

folding unfolding

twice upon a once

universes folding unfolding

here within the wings

folding unfolding

Pearl Crescent (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Pearl Crescent (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Holistic Mindfulness and Meditation

September 18, 2016

42 comments

*********** This writer would just like to say, “thank you!” to those of you who have been liking and/or commenting on my posts, while being open-minded about it. Of course, to go beyond the superficial, one goes beyond my photos; we are well aware that many are merely satisfied with the photos; it’s not (fortunately) just about the photos. A lot of what is written here, we know, is way beyond the norm; thank goodness for that! Many of the best scientists have said that reality is likely way different than what we have been lead to believe up to this point… way different than what we can imagine. (That is for sure!) I am very appreciative of those of you who stick with this and continue to read, even though, at times, it must be very difficult to swallow or stomach. I’ve always deeply cared about the truth, no matter how uncomfortable the answers may be, no matter what was revealed. Those who do the same, this movement deeply admires. (Truth is beautiful, and there are real treasures if one is open, independent, passionate, honest, and not afraid to go beyond the primitive, antiquated ways.) Too many of us are like clay that (over time) hardens after it has been molded by (equally desiccated) others. *************

Thinking — as a process — is fractional and sequential. Thinking involves a sequential series of patterns; these patterns are always symbolic, limited, and (unless rare insight occurs, influencing them) merely dependent on banal, past memories and ordinary experiences. Patterns, in a sequence, constitute time; thinking and time are not two separate things. Experiencing, in most minds, is dictated — as to how it takes place and manifests — by implanted, past memories. When, as it does with most people, a learned and supposed static self-image seems to be claiming (from a supposed psychological distance) to have control and be dominant over moving, rearranging, sequential, symbolic thought-patterns that thought/thinking considers such a self-center to have power over via managing and authoritatively manipulating… deception takes place. If the supposed central image is not — in reality — central at all, and if it is merely another one of the images (which it is), then things are not as they appear and there must be a significant paradigm shift; otherwise, all kinds of misbehavior and distortion occurs.

A dominating center that — in reality — is not truly dominating and not, in any way, central… creates a tremendous amount of havoc for the (unfortunate) mind miseducated to contain (and “be”) such an array. The havoc involved manifests as needless inner friction, inner conflict, fabricated space, needless dominancy, false glorification, and needless separation. When one segment claims to be dominant and “in control” of other sections (from a fallacious distance)… inner tyranny, friction, struggle, and pseudo-power-control materialize; these often manifest (outwardly) as conflict, outward dominance, and violence in the external world. Additionally, such a false center inevitably leads to the cultivation selfishness, jealousy, and competition; it fosters inner self-aggrandizement, indifference, and isolation. The supposed center is considered permanent, most important, and lasting, while the other thoughts and feelings are considered subservient, more or less temporary, and as something to be used. Surgeries on the corpus callosum within the brain, resulting in two fields of consciousness, are indicative of the falsity of a permanent center. Yet, psychiatrists and psychologists still promote antiquated methodologies which continue to constrain the mind into practices promoting a fallacious center.

A true and intelligent paradigm shift would transcend these false bonds and conceitful ways. A genuine, beautiful psychological transformation would occur when the mind acts — not merely reacts — as a whole without false separation and delusive, fallacious space. Then, when reflection takes place, one is not something separate from the reflection; then, when compassion occurs, one is not something separate from compassion. Since so many thoughts are fractional, limited symbols… the holistic mind would often intelligently go beyond them; the whole is more than the sum of the parts. In this, no crude, dominating part would exist to stupefy, tyrannize, manipulate, or intervene. In this lack of friction and loss of falsity are bliss and integrity. In such wholeness, wisdom manifests, eternity manifests.

Looking Downward (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Looking Downward (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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When this What If…

September 16, 2016

15 comments

When this WHAT IF

rumin

8ed on what MIGHT BE,

ear

interrupted and re

main

as some

thing unpleasant

2 be elimin

8ed

by what considered

itself

2 besomewhat sepa

r8ed from the

ear

that thought thoughtithad

& also con

sidered it

self

separatefrom(&controlling)

images projecting the

possible future

& also

separate from the

whole of

time

toc

tic

Mommy Shortlegs. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Mommy Shortlegs. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Resting in the Holographic Universe…

September 11, 2016

16 comments

It is good to be proficient in life; it is good to be adept at getting things done (and then resting afterward). Merely getting things done for oneself alone (or merely for some small, immediate family) may be rather small-minded and narrow in outlook. Similarly, getting things done while concomitantly harming the environment may also be rather petty and narrow-minded. A wise, highly aware, dynamic mind is compassionate, considerate, and does not put itself first. It gets things done while loving the whole… not loving some silly little self-image or merely those who care for (and reward) that self-image.

Inner proficiency — in (and “as”) the mind — is to exist without needless conflict, without needless friction. A mind full of limited, separative notions and perspectives (internally) is a jumble of friction, clutter, disorderliness, and disarray. Such a disorderly mind will consist of many fractional images and ideals, all of which are limited, symbolic, partial, and which reinforce isolation and separation of a so-called “center” as being (supposedly) in charge of the “other” thoughts, (conflicting ideals and desires), and images. When the mind is jealousy manifesting… jealousy is what you are; it is not something that some fictional center “is having.” How can a learned — though fictional — and concocted center efficiently and proficiently get rid of the jealousy, when (all along) the center is an accumulated delusion whose very isolated manifestation supports feelings such as jealousy? Inner separation and segregation extend from an internally disorderly mind into the outer world; indifference, conflict, hatred, jealousy, war, ruthless competition, and exploiting others are often results.

A beautiful mind of the humility of emptiness and of intelligent wholeness, with real inner order and with inner images in a harmonious relationship with each other, beyond delusion, will express itself in the external environment in ways that are cooperative, compassionate, considerate, wise, environmentally sound, empathic, and non-fragmentary.

Resting in the holographic universe. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Resting in the holographic universe. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Meditation and Un

September 9, 2016

8 comments

Upon which this once became a twice

and twice became trillions

because why not and many so between

floating eternally silently divine

Happily nothing within when’s nowhere

devoid of stale musts rotten shoulds

placid endlessly wondering alive always

beyond savage ugly and hurtful war

one little how. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

one little how. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Nothingness… mindfulness…

September 4, 2016

14 comments

Far too many of us are afraid of being nothing. We do not like to dwell on the subject of death; we are terrified about death. Of course, this posting does not appertain to trying to end oneself physically; doing so would be extremely foolish, irrational, and very non-harmonious. Being nothing psychologically, however, is another thing completely. Being nothing psychologically, at times, throughout the day and night, is prudent and sane. Most of us, unfortunately, are in fear about being nothing psychologically (because of miseducation, lack of awareness, and dependency on superficial things and deceptive concepts).

To be empty internally, devoid of effort and devoid of images and patterns of thought and thinking, frightens many people. The main function of thoughts/thinking is to solve problems. However, even when there are no problematic occurrences manifesting, most of us go on perpetually thinking anyway. We are caught in the habit of thinking; we are the habit of thinking. All thoughts, however, are mere fractional tokens or symbols for things. As such, they are inherently rather metaphorical and emblematical and thus are rather stiff and bereft of real life… much like mere numbers or road signs. Yet, because of the way we were miseducated, we cling to them and worship them. Ironically, most of us cling to these stale (rather unalive) images, and we are afraid of letting them go. Of course, thoughts are very necessary. It is great to often use them sensibly and reasonably. However, as we’ve said many times, they are merely tools. Everlastingly clinging to stiff and lifeless symbols is not really “alive,” nor is it awake and dynamic in the profound sense. Even when there are no problems, we fabricate problems. Some of us will do anything to avoid emptiness and nothingness. However, clinging to the limited is deceased in itself and is not real living. (By the way, in physics, the emptiness or nothingness that exists — as empty space — is never merely just stagnant; it is full of fluctuating quantum fields, dark energy, and all kinds of dynamic activity. The silent, empty mind, too, is tremendously dynamic in its own way.)

Psychological nothingness is not pettiness, is not smallness. The truly empty mind is beyond the stale patterns concocted by man; that involves great intelligence. Far too many are caught in (and “as”) those stale patterns (and forever remain there). Psychological nothingness often goes beyond ordinary experience, because ordinary experience is merely recognition by the known. The truly empty mind is not, even during the day, merely caught in perceiving through (and “as”) the old screen of accumulated patterns. That old screen is largely of separation and conflict.

Mayfly next to its empty exoskeleton. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Mayfly next to its empty exoskeleton.(2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Post

Piggy

September 2, 2016

38 comments

When i first laid eyes on you

it was love at first sight

Then i got to know you better and realized

that we have so very much in common

You relish eating delectable meals

(So do i)

You love to smell the nearby,splendid wildflowers

(So do i)

You love the songs of the joyful,little birds early in the mornings

(So do i)

You like to watch beautiful horses sprightly prancing around

(So do i)

You love to roll around in the sweet,textured mud

(So do i) (Well,at least i did when i was your age)

You dislike being bossed,bullied,and pushed around by heartless people

(Same for me)

As time went by,i became even more enamored with you

Rumor had it,though,that you might be liquidated by carnivorous others

(That played heavy on my heart) I was looking forward to seeing you again

but not (being myself a long-term vegetarian) between

someone else’s two slices of bread

It is a shame when others dismiss you as

merely being a swine

We are all hoggish in our lives in

one form or another

***********************************************************************************************

This poem is dedicated — with much respect and fondness — to Jinx. Jinx was a bus driver at the school for the multiply handicapped where i worked as a teacher. In warm weather, i would often take my sack lunch to the beautiful river that was right on the school property… and eat my lunch on the banks, watching the river go by. Jinx would often be there fishing during his lunch break; he would release any fish that he caught. Jinx, when he found out that i was a vegetarian, told me that he had been the owner of a pig farm for many years. Then, one day, he decided to give it all up, because it seemed wrong to be raising them for slaughter. Jinx became a vegetarian. Quite some time later, after i had switched over to another school, i found out that Jinx died. Jinx was driving through Chicago. He had seen a house on fire and heard screams from children inside the house. Without hesitation, Jinx ran into the house in an attempt to rescue the children. Jinx died in that fire. He is a true hero (and he had real love).

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24628983/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/smartest-animals/#.V6rBr5grKUk

Miss Piggy (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Miss Piggy (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Order of the mind…

August 28, 2016

18 comments

Order of the mind is a sane, truly intelligent person’s responsibility. Real order involves integrity and purity. How can the mind remain pure if it is merely sullied by the old-fangled values and archaic systems of the past? One must have a clear, untarnished mind. For that to occur, it may be that one’s mind must be open, young, and beyond mere influence. Only profound silence beyond old systems and methods can do that. That means not merely depending on others. That means not merely depending on inner thoughts… that were likely implanted in one by (and “as”) others. That means not merely depending upon time. (Psychological and so-called spiritual methodologies — dreamed up by man — stem from the past and require time.) Timelessness involves existing beyond one’s inner conditioning (a conditioning that is the accumulation and extension of the old patterns of others). Most of us habitually depend upon others; most of us are afraid to stand empty, alone, and open. “Standing alone” goes beyond psychological security and imitation. Many go through life imitating and copying; fear has a lot to do with it. For many, it is far easier to copy others and “go through the motions,” rather than to independently perceive and think for themselves. (And their so-called leaders are often mentally unsound.) Too many of us are second-hand human beings.

Real perception, empathy, and compassion, emanates from a superb, selfless mind that is beyond mere imitation and dependence. Real compassion comes from the heart; it does not emerge from a robotic mind that merely imitates and follows orders. In real compassion comes real action (not just reaction). Reaction belongs to imitating, conditioning, and second-hand minds (many of whom are indifferent and puppet-like).

Red-Spotted Purple (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Red-Spotted Purple (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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8 x 8 = 64

August 26, 2016

23 comments

When i was a child, i was the scissors, the paste, the glue, and the papers.

We were instructed to (each one of us) cut out a small paper kite and attach it to a big pegboard on the schoolroom wall. The teacher stated that whoever learned their multiplication tables to a certain level would be allowed to raise their kite higher to a corresponding level. I cut my kite into a grotesque shape. Our teacher asked me why (while i was good at art) i made my kite so distorted and “out of shape.” I told her that i did not want to have a nice kite that would appear to soar higher than the kites of all of my friends. I refused to learn the multiplication tables. I remember, at that young age, thinking that my teacher was very crude and unrefined for asking us to compete in such a way against each other. After a couple of weeks, the teacher allowed me to learn the multiplication tables without having to place my kite on the bulletin board. Years later, as a young adult, i visited (and worked for 6 wonderful months) in Perth, Ontario, at a magical place called “Family Pastimes.” They, at Family Pastimes, are caring vegetarians who make and sell cooperative (non-competitive) games. Play together, not against each other. When i was a child, i was the ringing of the school bell, the giggling of boys and girls, and the accordion-like, crushed paper coverings for plastic straws.

[Familypastimes.com]

64 flower stigmas, more or less. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c.2016

64 flower stigmas, more or less. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c.2016

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Many of us value rather cadaverous things…

August 21, 2016

21 comments

Many of us value rather cadaverous things. So many value fancy possessions and excessively large houses that they are fond of showing off to others. It is likely, however, that the intrinsic intelligence of the vast universe doesn’t give a rat’s behind about fancy possessions and elaborate, ostentatious houses. Real value is in what is free… like integrity, compassion, and pristine, uncorrupt perception. However, so many of us were miseducated to neglect those “deep and profound” things and, instead, were taught to chase after rather superficial things that must be “earned and acquired over time.” (They are valuable-garbage-things; in other words, they are “valuable,” but they are — if you are of deep perception — essentially worthless garbage.) Aspects of the real beauty of integrity, compassion, and uncorrupt perception are that they are beyond the greedy clutches of grasping and “earning” and so are (in a big way) beyond time. Most people chase after the contrived, superficial shadows while failing to see the true value in what is timeless and alive. They are caught — while the real jewels of life elude them — in showing off their dead, shadowy treasures to each other… trying to impress.

Before i retired, i had, as one of my students, who — though having mental retardation and though being severely multiply handicapped, including being blind and having paraplegia — had a great sense of humor and a very caring disposition. He never displayed any hatred or malice toward anyone. He often stated, “I love everyone.” He never displayed any pretentious behavior; he never — though handicapped, he was more gifted than most of the other students — flaunted his abilities, and he never wanted much, but he was always happy, always joyful and caring. He would always joke around a lot — he was a great member of our Royal Order of the Moose Club (similar to the Royal Order of Racoons on the Honeymooners show) — and he would often laugh and be zestfully living. He recently passed away. I spoke at his funeral service to those who attended. Many attended… because he was so genuine and pure. He was my teacher (in a big way too); i learned a lot (about goodness and about value) from him.

Miseducation magnifies false values, portraying them to be precious. It also often overemphasizes competition rather than joyful cooperation. Real education goes beyond false values and transcends separation, vanity, conflict, pride, imitation, racism, hatred, competition, environmental indifference, and fractional perception.

[Note: Many years ago, when i was young, i visited, worked at, and spent a lot of time (6 months) at Family Pastimes in Ontario, Canada. The people there live in a marvelous, very beautiful rural area (with wild bear and beavers), are vegetarians, and they make and sell cooperative (non-competitive) games. They have been making and selling exclusively cooperative games for over 40 years. Check out their website sometime; you will be glad you did! www.familypastimes.com]

Spicebush Swallowtail (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Spicebush Swallowtail (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Upon this earth a here transpired…

August 19, 2016

23 comments

Upon this earth a here transpired

between all rabbits and everything inspired

Miraculous rambling after the tidings of dawn

beyond bourgeois commercials that boringly yawn

You’re not the world around you,you’ve learned assuredly

but seeing yourself apart perverts so luridly

To blossom past superficial darkness quite superb and transcendent

not the separative space of a shadowy pretendant

Part of the blossoming. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Part of the blossoming. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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We can blossom psychologically…

August 14, 2016

35 comments

Please don’t go through life merely sullied with the ideas, beliefs, and opinions of others (including what you may think mine might be). Wash yourself clean of all the ideological debris and perspectives of others. Otherwise, you may go through life contaminated, and the contaminated and mentally tarnished cannot see clearly (without distortion). Most see with (and “as”) distortion, which may not really be seeing at all.

Some will agree with the aforementioned statements; then they will inevitably go on adhering to the patterns and edicts of others. To perceive without contamination is an arduous thing; it may go way deeper than most of us (incorrectly) assume. For instance, many of us assume that there is a central regulator or “I” (i.e., “me”) that is in “control” over our “internally possessed thoughts” and “internally acquired feelings.” Few deeply and effortlessly realize that the “I” itself (along with concomitant feelings of “having” control) are (in themselves) no different than the other accumulated thoughts and feelings. This “I” is often seen as separate from the so-called “other” psychological images observed; it is habitually viewed as being “in charge”; few (including many psychiatrists/psychologists) consider that the “I” is itself another one of the thoughts in a conditioned series. Can one conditioned thought (psychologically separated… and projected as being different) truly be in control of the other conditioned thoughts? Many of us consciously, or unconsciously, accept separation and conflict (as the internal norm)… and we inevitably exude this out into society (which ends up in conflict and disorder). We can be better than the norm. We can blossom with (and “as”) real understanding, real intelligence.

Cone Flower in the process of blossoming (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Cone Flower in the process of blossoming (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Butterfly Poesy…

August 12, 2016

24 comments

What is oneself?

Is one a vibrant, compassionate movement involving wholeness and integrity?

Or is one a fractional collage of mundane symbols,

stale ideas, and bourgeois reactions?

Is one a radiant, superb dynamic that exists as freshness and real change?…

Or is one a secondhand repeater of stagnant thoughts

and antiquated ideas?

Is one free like a splendid, magnificent butterfly?…

Or is one a jaded prisoner of static miseducation

and barbaric, indoctrinated values?

The listless chrysalis always bursts into gliding

if it leaves the secure confinement

of its own limited space.

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Beyond being bourgeois…

August 7, 2016

28 comments

Love is not of limitation. It is endless; as such it goes beyond the rather false boundaries concocted by man. Too many of us exist — not wholly, not globally — in fractional modes that inevitably contribute to friction, conflict, war and separation in the world. Too many of us cling to separative religions, governmental groups, isolated (fictional, man-made) regions, and old, polluting routines and addictions (which we merely accept). These things are an extension of our inner fractional and disjointed psychology. Too many of us think that there is a separate center that is internally apart from what is perceived. (A so-called separate center inevitably projects selfishness; it is folly and it is deception.) Too many of us were miseducated and we apperceive and function through (and “as”) this separative miseducation. This can change. The world can become whole, safe, and clean. For that to happen, each of us is responsible for getting the mind whole, safe, and clean. Clean means unpolluted.

Damsel in distress (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Damsel in distress (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Turtles Airborne someday soon!

August 5, 2016

23 comments

Being in the water

is our domain

Being out of the water

is our domain

We can’t (as a species) fly yet

but we are certainly considering the possibilities!

*********************************************************************************************************************

[Please… don’t laugh about the possibility of “flying, airborne turtles.” In reality, from what one has seen so far, many people are a lot less likely to fundamentally change away from the self-deceptive, standard, run-of-the-mill, crass, bourgeois mentality… than the occurence of turtles evolving to fly.]

Who knows: Those huge webbed feet could be turned into wings over time! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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So many… dwelling in the past…

July 31, 2016

21 comments

A brain that is constantly and habitually churning along as symbolic thoughts and recalled patterns — as most brains, unfortunately, are — is a brain that may be (within its own superficial and limited framework) satisfied and content. However, such a brain is always (in one form or another) an extension from (and “as”) the absorbed and learned past; being from the past, it always has (and is constituted of) elements of what is inherently old. Be that constantly — if you wish — but be aware of the possibility that the past is usually rather stale, second-hand, and musty; it is not the fresh, new, spontaneous, living now.

The patterns of the past can help us, at times, to avoid danger and to get food, clothing, shelter (and health) in ways that are easier and proven to be fruitful. However, to carry patterns of the past — reacting over and over again — in (and “as”) our minds, unceasingly, may not be prudent or “alive” in the least. If you are a good (and sane) gardener, you don’t take the hoe into your living room at night and continue hoeing. Similarly, a mind that uses thoughts (which are symbolic tools) endlessly — as so many foolishly do — is rather absurd. It is ludicrous to be like a broken record, repeating things over and over (even if it is somewhat rearranged). Who can profit from merely existing in the past? No one can, and no one should. Little wonder why so many get bored and need to go on finding exciting things “out there,” as if true happiness lies outside of oneself.

We can, not merely to get or attain anything, just be quiet — at times throughout the day or night — not needing to robotically (constantly) function as thoughts (all of which are merely symbols). Then real, joyful, insightful life might actually happen, and not merely some old, stale representations and dead tokens from (and “as”) the past. There is no legitimate technique or methodology to go beyond these thoughts; any technique or method is an extension of the absorbed patterns and — as such — is essentially fallacious.

It’s OK to be eating our day-lilies! (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

It’s OK to be eating our day-lilies! (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Beyond time’s deception…

July 29, 2016

23 comments

When

magically

the

crisp breeze

of pink summer

eclipses all thoughts

blossom

beyond the deception of time

to where energy bursts

without measure

and compassion gives

a damn

Bursting (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Bursting (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Silence beyond mere thinking…

July 24, 2016

24 comments

When i was very young, in grade school, i — one day, without motive — went into a profound silence beyond thinking and had the insight that doing so was a wholly different, wonderful form of consciousness. “Form,” in the aforementioned sentence, is rather misleading because going beyond thinking is of no real form or pattern, otherwise it is just standard “thinking.” Back then i didn’t name this “meditation” or “mindfulness” or anything whatsoever because such words were — at such a young age — foreign to me. I did have the insight that this is a “very special” way of being; it continued to take place on occasion now and then for a long time. It was only later, in college, when one began seriously enquiring into the mind and into spirituality, that words for this (as inadequate as they are) began to take place.

Fortunately, when one was in high school, one became interested in hypnosis and self-hypnosis. I was wise enough to realize the dangers and limitations of self-hypnosis and saw that it tended to constrain and curb the mind, keeping it in a narrow and circumscribed area. While away at college, when attending yoga meditation events given by people from Asia — who claimed to be gurus offering special mantras — i quickly realized that this (i.e., what they were offering) involved (and was) a subtle form of self-hypnosis, which i did not wish to have anything to do with. Anything you repeat over and over again to “get spirituality” is not legitimate as far as i am concerned. Repeating a series of words, no matter how “special” they are claimed to be, is just rather mechanical and is a mesmerizing waste of time. Even repeating silence, within (and “as”) the mind, to “get spirituality,” is also likely a big waste of time. Grasping and effort never lead to true spirituality. It is like trying to catch the wind.

Thoughts are always symbolic, always fractional and piecemeal. The intelligent mind uses thoughts often, efficiently, and prudently. Thoughts, all thoughts, however, are merely tools. They are limited patterns and symbols to solve problems and to help one to function well in life. Merely remaining as the tools, accepting them as the essence of what one is (as so many do), however, would be foolish. Going beyond these tools, not merely to “get spiritual,” not to “get or attain anything,” may be a sagacious, brilliant way of functioning. Then silence is silence (not “for” something); it is beautifully what it is without ulterior motives or aspirations. Then one does not fabricate mere outer or inner symbols into what one calls “spiritual”; deception is unlikely for a mind of true insight, true silence. Thoughts, for so many of us, are like habitual repetitions… not, in actuality, so very different from what self-hypnosis entails. The wise mind goes beyond this circumscribed (hemmed in) state of unbeing.

Ready to launch (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Ready to launch (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Beyond the intelligence of ignorance…

July 22, 2016

19 comments

Fragmentation

is the scientists’ piecemeal

way of ripping everything

to perhaps $\mathbf{j} = \frac{-i\hbar}{2m}\left(\Psi^* \nabla \Psi - \Psi \nabla \Psi^*\right)$ $= \frac\hbar m \mathrm{Im}(\Psi^*\nabla\Psi)=\mathrm{Re}(\Psi^* \frac{\hbar}{im} \nabla \Psi)$ one day understand everything.

The true wise man,however,abandons

chopping things up,abandons dissecting things

little by little.

The wise man clearly sees beyond the bits and segments

because his consciousness is devoid of mere bits and segments.

That is why he timelessly understands the whole better

than any sequential calculation wearing thick glasses.

In flight (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

In flight (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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On atheism and beyond…

July 17, 2016

21 comments

If you play the lotto, here in one of the U.S. areas, for around (approximately) 500 times — on 500 separate occasions, or so — and do not win… you need not automatically assume that the prize money doesn’t exist (and never existed for anyone, ever). It is easy to come to conclusions about things without ever having had deeply explored, without ever having seriously enquired. One might ask, “Well, why doesn’t God, if he exists, help us more… reveal himself to us more?” Of course, the aforementioned question is full of loaded, anthropomorphic assumptions. The natural world is natural because it is not interfered with much; if it was frequently interfered with, it would cease to be natural. Period. The sacred, however, may be what blossoms naturally if one is serious and if perception beyond the distorted occurs. Perhaps the sacred does indirectly reveal itself (somewhat), naturally, through (and “as”) the movements the wise. Perhaps the sacred directly reveals itself to those few who are truly wise. It does not reveal itself by way of mere reactions of the conditioned and indoctrinated. (Many — filled with self-delusion — may think that they are wise and may try propagandizing or selling their version of the sacred to others, but what they are distributing or selling is almost inevitably some form of conditioning, symbols, and methodology that they have absorbed from others.) What is truly sacred cannot merely be directly told or shared in words or writing; it may visit one, and (as was suggested) one may be directly aware of it as it is visiting, but that awareness cannot merely be shared (adequately) in writing or through mere symbolic words. The sacred is too vast and immeasurable to merely be fully shared via limited words and symbols. The sacred, in actuality, may be of tremendous order and integrity; merely projecting images or conclusions about it from a field that consists of conditioning and disorder may have very little value. It is never what can merely be possessed or held. Real love is like that. It is a passion that is like a beautiful spring rain and it dries up if one merely tries to pigeonhole it, propagandize it, or use if for the self alone.

Conjecture has no place here; you either discover something or intelligently investigate (without forming an opinion)… or (as so many do) you “believe that God exists” or “do not believe that God exists.” Belief and disbelief are — despite the protests of many — fundamentally the same thing; with both, opinions, conclusions, and symbolic thinking are involved. Formation of an opinion on incomplete evidence is naive and constrained. Direct, untainted, intelligent observation is another matter, and there are (fortunately) ways to test whether it was indeed legitimate or merely fallacious. Most of us are symbols, measurements, and images about energy; very few of us were ever in communion with the actual, unadulterated, limitless, timeless, immeasurable energy… pure, orderly, and pristine, pouring through one’s empty vessel. That energy has its own intrinsic intelligence beyond the superficial limitations and boundaries of time.

Exploring. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Iris…

July 15, 2016

17 comments

Once

simply minerals and water

Now

minerals and water cooperating with

a different twist,different tingly,energetic

sensation

that miraculously ebbs and flows like the

purple sea

beautiful sea

Purple Iris (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Purple Iris (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Real Mystery…

July 10, 2016

22 comments

The mystery behind all of life cannot be discovered by the mundane known, by the ordinary and measurable. The accumulation of knowledge, no matter how seemingly vast, is always limited, always partial. Most of our minds were conditioned to discover by way of measuring (e.g., recognizing) with (and from) knowledge. The timeless, the immeasurable, however, cannot merely be discovered via measurement in mere time. Most of us were trained to look and to exist using only certain modes…. and we remain in (and “as”) what those modes are. The limited, no matter how hard it tries, cannot ever penetrate the unlimited. (Even the best scientists and physicists are in the dark about so very much.)

To understand real mystery, the mind must, itself, become the majestic mysterious. That means leaving the known, the accumulated, and putting them aside. Very few are willing to do that. Consciously, or unconsciously, they still (in one form or another) cling to the known. They continue to measure, to endlessly use symbols, to separate, and follow methodologies.

Even in quantum mechanics, the moment something is measured, the wave-function collapses and mere limitation and locality ensues. We can blend with the whole when we stop being what reacts and measures as we were programmed to. Too many of us function as mere points in locality… which is limited, barbaric, selfish, fragmentary, and which negates real compassion and deep understanding.

Honey Bee Feeding. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Tiny Houses Are Getting Popular!…

July 8, 2016

18 comments

Let us keep things small and simple and be excellent parents, and let’s make our house accessible to easy landings.

Let us hire little, though vigilant, Hackberry butterfly guards to alert us to any imminent dangers.

Let us not pontificate over nature with many fossil-fueled vacations and selfish excursions.

Let us go green locally as a new way of being (which transcends indifference).

We cannot renounce nature’s fragility;

we are part of it.

Of Butterflies on Birdhouses. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Tiny Houses Rock! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Being and Becoming…

July 3, 2016

17 comments

In talking or writing about mindfulness and meditation, many will give you techniques and things to practice to get to a certain point. However, real mindfulness, wisdom, and meditation may not (by any means whatsoever) be what can be attained through practicing or through following methods laid out by others. Wholeness is not at some point; it is everywhere and nowhere. Taking a route to it is like following a road to the totally pathless, which is ludicrous. (It’s like trying to measure the immeasurable, like so many so-called scientists are trying to do!) Related to this is that being and becoming are essentially the same thing. “Being,” as does “becoming,” reinforces the self, the center, with its dependence on sensations, pleasure, and time. The intelligent mind does not try to be in a state of being, try to be what is non-becoming, nor try to be in a state of non-being. Such trying would be a further extension of becoming and would reinforce the self and its dependence upon time. In not trying to be or not be… the mind may naturally blossom as what is beyond dependence and measurement. The measureless is timeless; a point in time is always limited. A natural mind can intelligently use experience when necessary and may go beyond it without striving to become or be anything.

[Firefly on window, checking us out!]

Firefly on window, checking us out! It’s that time of year here! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Sharing us…

July 1, 2016

21 comments

cryingplayinggigglinglearning

swimmingskippingjumpingfinding

kickingwhistlingdancingscreaming

laughingspittingdrinkingcaring

dreaminghelpinghatingdriving

huggingsleepingrockingsharing

walkingsmilinglisteningswearing

steeringrunningwonderingcomparing

readinglovinghidingglaring

writingseeingsufferingwearing

exploringwishingeatingbathing

blossomingkissingunderstandingdying

Purple Veronica (1) . Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Purple Veronica (2) . Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Regarding doubt…

June 26, 2016

16 comments

Many religious organizations do not want you to have doubt. They want you to be firmly fixed in what they furnish. What they furnish is fixed and they don’t want you to waver from it. Propagandists do not want you to waver from rigid frameworks. Many of us were taught not to doubt. We were instructed, directly or indirectly, to adhere to set patterns without question. We were taught that that is what keeps us safe and secure.

Doubt — wonderful, dynamic, alive doubt — is not rigid like a dead rock. It involves a living, enquiring mind that intelligently perceives without merely clinging to the apron-strings of past patterns. If you are of a wisdom that intelligently doubts, then you might not be safe and might not be properly valued by others (in their set groups and ways); they might despise you or even hate you. Depth cannot be discovered by clinging to the superficial. The dry, rigid rocks and shallows might appear to be safe, but they are not where the electric, profound, alive secrets dwell. Many look at things through what they accepted, which may not really be looking much at all. When you look only with (and from) what you’ve been taught, you may not be perceiving much at all; it may then be others’ reactions of the past… that is looking… not you.

To a young person, one would say that it is prudent to question things wisely and intelligently. Don’t, within reason, accept what anyone says is true; find out for yourself. In that movement to “find out,” the instrument of the mind must be precise, must not be jaded by others, must not be contaminated by others. Therefore, understanding the instrument and keeping it pristine and uncontaminated may be of the utmost importance. Only a dynamic, pure instrument perceives without distortion. Symbols are second-hand and synthesized; they may have little to do with pure observing in the deepest sense. Most look through (and “as”) the symbols (e.g., words, patterns, and images) that they accepted and absorbed from others. The symbol is never the actuality; it is a second-hand post-impression.

Crab Spider with Fly in Rose Flower. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Understanding is not a possession…

June 24, 2016

16 comments

When laziness happens, laziness is not what you have…

laziness is what you are.

When indifference happens, indifference is not what you have…

indifference is what you are.

When anger happens, anger is not what you have…

anger is what you are.

When distortion looks…

distortion is what is seen.

When fear happens, fear is not what you have…

fear is what you are.

When compassion happens, compassion is not what you have…

compassion is what you are.

When understanding happens, understanding is not what you have…

understanding is what you are.

When recognition happens, recognition is not what you have…

recognition is what you are.

When wisdom happens, wisdom is not what you have…

wisdom is what you are.

Bellis Perennial. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Bellis Perennial… Through the Looking Glass Version. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Fears (and how we deal with them)…

June 19, 2016

25 comments

The moment that a psychological fear — not necessarily threatening physical harm — occurs, simply be the fear, without merely looking at it with (and “from”) separation. Do not (as you learned from the past) merely try to avoid it, or rationalize it, analyze it, judge it, condemn it, or wish it was not happening. Simply be what it is without some (supposed) center looking at it from a (supposed) distance. If a legitimate relationship occurs with a fear, then the mind has much more clarity and energy to perceive with (and “as”) order and integrity. Most people have tension with their fears, involving conflict, friction, and avoidance; they look at “their” fears with images of distance and separation; many feel the more distance and separation… the better. Fear is only really diminished and solved when it is understood in a precise, legitimate relationship… not when there is needless friction, separation, strife, struggling, tug-of-war tension, and piecemeal analysis of fear. Analysis of fear involves — and is — time. A precise relationship with fear is not something that requires time or uncovering. If there is a precise, legitimate relationship (i.e., intelligent relationship) with fear there may be no need for time and duration (which is what analysis is) to better understand it (i.e., fear) in the future. If the future’s perspective (even with loads and loads of analysis having occurred) on fear still involves separation and conflict (as it does when the analyzer is supposedly different from the analyzed), it will not have understood fear to any profound degree; there is no more ideal moment to delve into it and understand the depth of it than when it actually takes place. Analyzing it later involves distance; most people look at fears through (and “as”) distance; such separation is of conflict/friction, and does not deeply flower into profound understanding and immense insight. Fear requires time for its existence. Without time, fear is not. Employing analysis and time to deal with fear may not be the most prudent thing to do.

Roses in the making. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Poem to a wild bird…

June 17, 2016

42 comments

We all cling to something

You cling to part of an old white birch tree

Some of us cling to corrupt politicians who promise sunny heaven

while connivingly making shady deals under the table

I’d rather cling to a simple old white birch

and then soar joyfully through the vast wondrous sky

rather than grasp onto what driveling babbling politicians say

I’d rather fly free into that wordless timeless immensity

Redpoll Finch. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Fearlessness

June 12, 2016

18 comments

To be valiant, to be courageous in the deepest sense, may not involve merely following orders as part of some mechanized, calculated structure. Instead, it involves the deep and profound freedom of standing alone, away from all of the contrived patterns of others, away from all of the concocted and separative systems promising security. To truly — not feigningly — go beyond the ego (i.e., the central self or “I”) involves vast courage and penetrating insight from a realm of freedom. A mere follower cannot — and will not — do it. Too many of us run and cling to our little structures that we have absorbed and learned from others, without ever standing alone while seeing and thinking about things deeply for ourselves. It is easy to be told what to do; it is easy to be influenced by commercials, by propaganda, by so-called authorities, by words.

The mind can go beyond them. The mind can go beyond the ego and the so-called central controller or central self. The mind can go beyond what merely clings to one experience after another. The fearful, afraid mind will not care — among its modes of indifference and of being frightened — to have anything to do with this to any significant extent. When an experience or when fear occurs, the mind is not merely separate from the experience or from the fear. Freedom is in neither. Both are inexorably limited.

Ailanthus. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Ailanthus. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Indigo Bunting

June 10, 2016

30 comments

Eye couldn’t conceive so simply a pure blue

as perfectly miraculously feathered you

who far into the vast and cloudless skies

can fly deep from any terrestrial primate’s whys

Indigo Bunting. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Pain…

June 5, 2016

33 comments

Most of us avoid and run from pain. Our habit, as we were taught, is to run from pain and to seek pleasure. Most of us accept this as the way to react and perform. Commercials add to this tendency of ours, portraying pain as something horrible to avoid; additionally, they tempt us to go after exotic vacations, possessions, and fancy (though polluting) automobiles. The relationship that a truly intelligent and wise mind has to pain may be quite different than the relationship that most people have (or do not have) with pain. As long as it is not too unbearably intense, the intelligent mind may not merely detest it, avoid it, and flee from it. The intelligent mind doesn’t come to pain with all of the prejudices, judgements, and ingrained reactions that so many face pain with. Similarly, the intelligent mind doesn’t just approach certain races, ethnic groups, and certain classes of people with (and through) all kinds of preconditioned prejudices and judgements; they are seen simply as they are (without a mere separative viewpoint). There is much beauty in that; even pain can — and often does — have elements of beauty to it if one looks without mere condemnation. One can come to terms with pain in an intelligent, harmonious way.

We avoid pain so readily, so quickly, so mechanically. Avoiding pain goes back eons into our evolutionary past and does have its place. However, remaining in thought — and the limited (which is what thought is) — as so many of us inevitably do, is (in a big way) a real form of suffering and pain. It is like a man clinging to shadows and wholeheartedly taking the shadows to be what reality truly is. It is also like an organism taking a mere tool to be the essence of what it is. Very many of us cling to concepts, mental images, beliefs, and to our authoritarian leaders (who themselves are as lost as we are). So many of us have a central authoritarian leader whom we each call “me” or “I.” Yet this so-called central figure (purporting to be some sort of central authority) is what was conditioned into us (from others with the same syndrome); we continue, day in and day out, to look at the world with separation (yet we think we are healthy). Distortion isn’t healthy. Even though it may claim to be fine, it causes suffering and causes havoc in the world (directly or indirectly). You can’t intelligently come to terms with pain if there is not proper relationship to it and to other aspects of life, both psychologically and physically. When one is separate from what is experienced or thought, then fear, distortion, and suffering take place. (Very many think that they are separate from their thoughts, fears, and from others who are suffering.) When the mind acts without mere dependency upon what others have taught, then physical pain (personally) isn’t always so bad; and then the mind isn’t merely immersed in the pool of psychological suffering that so many accept as normal. Such a mind transcends (and helps to transcend) suffering. Such a mind doesn’t mind undergoing a lot of pain and discomfort (and lack of pleasure) in order to help others. Compassion negates pain (not necessarily in one’s so-called personal self). If wholeness and integrity aren’t there — they’re not two separate things, by the way — neither is true joy, deep intelligence, and profound bliss.

Feeling Slowly.(1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Feeling Slowly (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Butterfly Answers

June 3, 2016

15 comments

Wherefore we alight upon these mineraled grounds

far from the dainty blossoming stores

with their nectar prizes all too pure and sugary seeded?

To extract something tangible and something intangible

must occur together as a unified whole

in and out of the recurrent clockwork of time that was needed.

The Cabbage Butterfly Club. Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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All the world’s a stage…

May 29, 2016

16 comments

“All the world’s a stage,” wrote William Shakespeare in “As You Like It.” That stage, too, is the mind and the perceptions of (and “as”) the mind. Whatever characters — as the thoughts and mental images of the mind — that make an appearance on that stage are inevitably what was absorbed from imitating others or from copying and taking mental snapshots of the external world. How these snapshots were taken and how they become rearranged, recognized, and recalled in (and “as”) consciousness has always involved learned and inherited processes. Snapshots and thoughts are of a partial, piecemeal, fragmentary nature; they are never the complete essence of that which they try to capture. The usage of supposed volition regarding the manipulation of these thoughts and images is itself sketchy and quite questionable, since — if truly intelligent observation is taking place — the “I” or supposed center that is allegedly manipulating is likely itself another specimen of the learned (sequential) images or thoughts. Mentally, whatever appears upon the stage (of consciousness) is fundamentally old and of the past; this is because it comes from stored memory (which is always of the accumulated past). Most of us are mentally existing as these images and thoughts (brought out and rearranged) from the past. Most of us are living in the past.

That stage — of consciousness — can exist (some of the time, anyway) without the components of the past making their appearance upon it. Then there is no spurious volition; then there are no obtrusions from (and “as”) the past… neither in the form of thought-oriented symbols nor imagined visual (or auditory) snapshots. Technique and practice have nothing to do with this, as techniques and practices are all extensions of the old, dead past. Then the stage is not the same-old stage anymore.

When the stage is truly empty naturally and intelligently, without having willed anything, or thought anything, or practiced anything, then it may be beyond the concocted, the old past, the symbolic, and the partial. When that takes place, the stage is not of mere experience, partial images, learned symbols, and jaded characters. You know, a limited little stage, with superficial dimensions, is what anyone can recognize and fill with the old and ordinary. However, a living, dynamic, whole, uncorrupt, limitless (immeasurable) stage is another thing altogether. Such a stage (in life) is beyond measurement by the antiquated patterns of the hoarded past.

The learned image of self (or “me”) creates an intrinsic radius (from a center) and a circumference around itself… with limited space between what is considered the central “me” and that which is observed. It is this learned image and absorbed space that helps manufacture a stage of limitation. Such a stage, with its concocted (or learned) center and a radius and circumference, is full of absorbed demarcations/boundaries. Compassion can take place when the falsity of that stage is wisely perceived. Such compassion involves eternity; it goes beyond the many limitations. If it is not perceived with (and “as”) wholeness and integrity then there will not be much compassion. There is no wholeness in a limited, false center (thinking that it is the center of the stage); such a center is partial and learned; neither does the limitless (which is not something that can merely be learned) manifest for such a center.

Two Together. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Measuring one’s life with coffee spoons alongside Mr. Eliot…

May 27, 2016

11 comments

Here among the dust suspended is precisely where the story ended)
not that the end and beginning were ever the same
The agitating wings flapped a bird not far above rose leaves
while sequenced words inevitably turned eyes to the right

No superficial questions ever birthed deep answers
The yellow present became the future of past awareness
Ripples followed suddenlywetrocks unflinchingly
as adherents preceded authoritarians obtusely

Honey turned to nectar via six-legged winged creatures
as toilet paper touched crass politicians vehemently
(Elmer’s fun was glue as a child
Itching was scratching and blinking was deer

After the nectar. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c.2016

After the nectar. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c.2016

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Regarding boredom…

May 22, 2016

15 comments

Boredom never occurs to the mind that is without a spurious, central regulator that is always dependent upon experience. If the mind is its own energy it does not always have to depend upon outside patterns of energy to function joyfully. So many depend on outside influences, outside patterns and forms. Often they internalize these patterns and forms and merely look with the accumulated remembrances of these. So many depend on internal influences, internal patterns and forms. However, a mind that often looks without merely accumulating, without merely storing patterns and attributes… may perceive freshly and joyfully without the dead and dusty past. When the mind is fresh it renews itself from moment to moment, beyond mere accumulation and storing. Without being dependent upon experiences at all times, it may enjoy experiences, but it often goes beyond them. Then boredom rarely or never sets in. If there is no false center to be entertained, then the mind is free of a learned center that was accumulated from others; such a mind may also be free of many other types of accumulated patterns, forms, and images (oftentimes). For instance, when perception of a creature takes place, it need not merely label it and look at it with a sense of separation. Or if it does label it, there is a “going beyond the label,” and the animal is seen without merely pigeonholing it, categorizing it, and looking at it from a separative stance. Such a mind is free to be fresh and uncontaminated, without the stale past and stored symbols. Boredom is not freedom.

Well, I Toad You So! Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Shorties (2)…

May 20, 2016

29 comments

Saying you live in the here and now still involves measurement and, as such, is still of time and limitation.

The bucket of the transitory has a hole in it… that is eternally pouring out.

When you are truly deep in the woods, you are not in the woods… the woods are in you.

If we are mostly conditioned, then free will has very little place. However, we are still responsible for bringing orderly behavior and getting things right.

Deep intelligence, compassion, wisdom, and real love are not four separate things.

We are all like the fingers of a hand… different, yet not really separate. (This, as was mentioned before in one of my postings, was told to one of the parrots who lives with us… and she said, “You are right!” At least some may understand me, different species or not.)

Veronica. Photo by Thomas Peace c.2016

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So many are seeing (and being) the same old things…

May 15, 2016

21 comments

We talk to ourselves internally all of the time; most of us do this most of the time. Most of us delineate and interpret the phenomena of the world through words and learned images. Words are the modus operandi by which and through which most of our minds function. We recognize the world’s phenomena by words, patterns, and images which we have absorbed from others. We continue to categorize and measure via learned words; we are not separate from what these patterns of words are, though we think (as we were told) that we (from some kind of internal distance) “use” them. All words are symbolic.

Divinity itself is even promised by others via words. They tell you to read and believe in a certain book, or system, or series of stories; then, so they say, you will come closer to the divine. Some will even claim to give you what can reach the divine (by way of repeating certain special words or mantras over and over again).

It’s all too easy to follow and cling to the words of others (especially when they promise to give you something fantastic, just like so many politicians do). It is easy because each of us clings to words repetitiously (as a habit) day in and day out. What isn’t easy — what is arduous and what is rarely done by anyone in this violent, chaotic world of ours — is to understand one’s mind (from moment to moment) throughout the day, without merely being dependent upon symbols, images, separation, judgement, conflict, control, and what was absorbed from others.

Unfurling (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Unfurling (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Dogs Rock!

May 13, 2016

18 comments

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

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Elusive Peace…

May 8, 2016

26 comments

If we sincerely wish to be truly peaceful and help the world go beyond the conflict that tears people apart, then it would be prudent to exist as that which does not contribute to much of the separation and conflict. It would be wise to be a global citizen, not a mere adherent to a particular political party, country, or race. This isn’t anarchy here; it is intelligently working together as one, beyond all of the insane, disconnected nonsense. It would also be foresighted and very thoughtful to not belong to an organized religious structure, with its own separate set of dogmas, beliefs, and hierarchical systems. It is separative countries, traditions, organized religions, and beliefs that have largely contributed to wars and friction between people. This is no small matter; people die over this stuff; young people die. If we could come together, just as friends, putting away the absorbed patterns that cause so much of the friction, maybe that would be the start of truly being spiritual. However, so many refuse to let go of the inherited patterns and traditions that they cling to. If that would change, and if they would perceive and care instead of repeat and belong… we would have a planet with much less bloodshed. So many of us were brainwashed into thinking that belonging to things gives us security; however, real global security, ironically, comes when man transcends belonging to systems that separate and cause friction.

White-breasted Nuthatch. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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The red and yellow of it…

May 6, 2016

23 comments

beyond the gobbledygook of politicians
and a mad society’s derelictions
beyond the divisive multiplicity
exists a yellow, whole, and naturally red simplicity

not bamboozled by their hateful despair
we won’t feed our youth to constant warfare
we’ll cherish love despite the bureaucrats
as we disappear from their gray caveats

Explosion in Spring. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Explosion in Spring. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Beyond limited space…

May 1, 2016

13 comments

There is space between what is seen outwardly (i.e., there in the outer environment) and — for most of us — there is space between what is considered the central controller (i.e., the “I”) and the other (controlled) thoughts. It may be, however, that there is no space between the so-called central controller and the other thoughts whatsoever. Correct perception would be the thoughts or images of the mind (including the thought of “I”) without the imagined space (of using them at a distance) that most people have (and “are”). A mind with less self-deception would function more accurately with less friction and conflict than would a mind full of falsities and concocted limited space. Asserting power and domination (inwardly), when it really isn’t there, may be one of the reasons why people assert power outwardly, trying to dominate over others (or other life forms) while not perceiving their true relationship with them. True relationship, which often involves real compassion, insight, and holistic seeing, is what negates limited space and superficial domination. So many of us extend outwardly what we are inwardly. So many of us take this inward separation, domination, and limited space and (also) utilize it to look outwardly. Indifference is often what then occurs. All thought is limited, but thinking that one is something separate from thought (controlling it) from some sort of inward distance… is much more limited.

Instead, we can transcend inner (false) conflict, transcend separation (that really isn’t there if one sees accurately) and go beyond mere domination and isolation. We can tear down the walls that separate and divide us. We cannot do that fully, however, unless we go beyond our primitive inner separations and fragmentary ways. We can do this. There is something magical and whole beyond limited inner and outer perspectives, beyond mere (absorbed) limited space and conflict.

Spring flowing. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Limited space…

April 29, 2016

12 comments

You need space (don’t you?) to discover “exciting
things” out there
(out there apart from what you are)

There’s only one problem with that
that they didn’t teach you
… which is:
Such space is always limited
and a mind that merely depends
on that limitation
is always limited

A mind that sagaciously goes beyond
such limited space
dies to limitation
and (in such psychological dying)
lives in (and “as”)
a boundless realm
beyond the isolation of
symbolic words, egotistical centers,
habitual cravings, and restricted beliefs

Mostpeople depend on limitation
and are that limitation
And there is nothing perceived
apart from what you are

Limited Space (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Limited Space (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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When we think that the “perceiver” is truly separate from “the perceived”…

April 24, 2016

22 comments

“And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”
— T.S. Eliot

Excerpt from my book, which includes, just as it does within the book, another one of the many poems, by famous poets (who are deceased), that seem to help corroborate what i write about:

When we think that we are different and separate from our environment, we are wrong. When we think that we are better than those around us, we are wrong. When we think that we are special and that the others are not so special, we are wrong. When we think that we are not so special, as the lucky ones are, we are wrong. When we think that our skin is of the “better color,” we are wrong. When we think that our country or religious organization is better, we are wrong. When we think that fear is separate from what thought/thinking is, we are wrong. When we think that cruel greed and indifferent selfishness can “get away with it” and exist in deep happiness, we are wrong. When we think that the left arm that harms the right arm can truly be triumphant, we are wrong. When we laugh at the dog that chases its own tail, yet (we) endlessly seek pleasure from one amusement after another, we are wrong. When we think that silence, vast space, and quietness are merely barren voids of lifelessness, we are wrong. When we think that life, sunlight, gravity, and space are all mere coincidences that will never happen again, we are wrong. When we think that the big can exist without the little, we are wrong. When we think that left can exist without right, we are wrong. When we think that the sailor is not the sails, we are wrong. When we think that the mountain-climber is not the mountain that he conquers, we are wrong. When we think that the figure skater is not very slick, we are wrong. When we think that the magician is not an illusion, we are wrong. When we think that the “perceiver” is truly separate from “the perceived,” we are wrong.

from Walt Whitman:

When the script preaches instead of the preacher,
When the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver
that carved the supporting desk,
When I can touch the body of books by night or by day,
and when they touch my body back again,
When a university course convinces like a slumbering
woman and child convince,
When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the night-
watchman’s daughter,
When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite and are my
friendly companions,
I intend to reach them my hand, and make as much of them
as I do of men and women like you.

Clearly beautiful. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Post

Beyond a Broken Mind…

April 22, 2016

32 comments

“And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.” — T.S. Eliot

Excerpt from my book, which includes, just as it does within the book, another one of the many poems, by famous poets (who are deceased), that seem to help corroborate what i write about:

The “I” that says it sees the “trees” is a manmade, fabricated symbol that is unnecessary; it can be referred to if it represents the whole; however, if reference to it involves positing that the perceiver is something separate from the perceived, then miscalculation and error have taken place. The patterns that one perceives are the patterns that one is; such patterns compose and constitute consciousness. Without such patterns, ordinary consciousness is not possible. If one is supremely intelligent, one can be a mind that does not merely depend on patterns, at all times, in order to healthily function. Such a mind can function as an immense, quiet stillness that is beyond the mechanizations of patterns and attributes; but even this goes only so far and, to remain healthy, the mind must often look at trees, rivers, and other wonderful, flowing manifestations of the earth. It must look at them without separation.

To go beyond the confines of limited patterns, one must first realize that one’s consciousness is not at all separate from the patterns and images that it perceives and functions as. In other words, if one observes things merely via conflict and miscalculated separations, one is then observing with great error. Such error often merely sees itself as separate from the patterns and conflict that compose what it is. If one’s erroneous observations are a millstone around one’s neck, how can such a one have the energy to transcend into a vast, intelligent, placid stillness that is open to the possibility of visitation from the immeasurable benediction of what is truly sacred? A broken mind, full of separation, would be incapable of moving beyond its dead borders that separate it from everything else.

from Wallace Stevens:

THEORY

I am what is around me.

Women understand this.
One is not duchess
A hundred yards from a carriage.

These, then are portraits:
A black vestibule;
A high bed sheltered by curtains.

These are merely instances.

Beeing us. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Beeing us. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Post

Shorties…

April 17, 2016

32 comments

Foolish people eat unhealthy foods and swallow foolish thoughts. The wise man is beyond such indelicacies.

True meditation is beyond will and methods. You can’t, in a mental framework of conditioning, make meditation happen any more than you can make God come to you in enlightenment.

Profound awareness goes beyond the separation between the perceiver and the images perceived.

Except for moments of pristine insight, every thought (including the thought of “I”) is a conditioned response reaction.

Perception merely through the mental screen of learned and absorbed thoughts and images isn’t really much perception at all.

Most think way more than they feel. It is best the other way around!

The historical Christ was killed because he didn’t follow hierarchical orthodoxy… and now, many hundreds of years later, orthodoxy claims him as their own.

The purpose of life is not merely to feel good but to make a meaningful difference in this world.

How can you be free and perceptive if you are behind the gilded cage bars made of rigid beliefs and fabrications?

Nothing you can accumulate in your lifetime is worth the price of your integrity.

Reaching Still. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Reaching Still. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Post

The Ubiquitous Chord of Everything…

April 15, 2016

18 comments

The ubiquitous ChordofEverything

d

Ed to play parts of itself in s

Some facets(of the music relayed)turned out to be dancing and whales

Also,the ensemble included

yew and eye

gliding butterfly beauties and malodorous turds

and the insightful sagacity of existing beyond merely symbolic words

yew and eye. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Post

Joy Natural

April 10, 2016

39 comments

Truly seeing nature’s profound beauty requires a living, dynamic perception. Some people walk right past nature — or are indifferent to nature — hardly giving her any attention or deep appreciation. Nature’s beauty includes natural competition, cooperation, violence, stalking prey, compassion, fear, love, territorial friction, sharing, and tenderness. It also includes the simple yet profound action of being. Most animals have a deep joy, just to be living as they are, just to be existing as they do. Many animals go through many of the same things we do, although without a lot of the symbolic abstractions and complexities. Animals truly value their lives as precious… same as we do.

Elemental nature, on its own, survives quite well and does great without human intervention. If you are truly innocent — like a simple butterfly or bee that functions true to its basic, eternally flowing, elemental nature — the mystery of the universe will come to you (and pursue you); you won’t have to seek it. If one is wise, one can naturally, without drugs, be of a natural innocence that lives in great joy and beauty each and every day. There is an eternity in such joy and beauty. Profound perception in life reflects immortality… otherwise, it is limited vaporousness.

Sulphur. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Post

Froggie

April 8, 2016

19 comments

When)you croaked I cried for days

(four days)

Then eye saw hop

splash

jump

slurp

moths dis

appearing

(a peering here and there)

and then(Suddenly) I kicked the bucket

Some folks wept

(it is useful for hauling

things like

leaves and

sticks

and wasted t

Froggie (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Froggie (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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