All Posts Tagged ‘photos’

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Puff Ball Fairy

November 16, 2018
40 comments

 

 

 

Puff Ball Fairy,
    when you floated past,
    ever so gracefully,
    ever so enchantingly,
    i was, at once, captivated
    by your spell.
As you gently floated away,
    i, with camera in hand,
    wished you would return
    so that i could capture
    some of your mysterious beauty.
Alas!  You granted my wish
    and again floated nearby,
    alighting on a simple leaf.
Thank you, Puff Ball Fairy,
    and may we meet again
    someverymagicaltime in sweet eternity.

 

 

 

Puff Ball Fairy … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Our Internet is Down and Broken… & my Apologies…

June 28, 2018
20 comments

 

Our internet has been down a few days.  That is why i have not been responding to you guys, interacting, liking your blogs, or responding to your comments (which i apologize for).  They finally got it going again but our rural-area computer wouldn’t work with the new system and so they got it going for us with a very antiquated, dial-up-cretaceous system.  It is so slow that i have to wait a very long time just for one picture to download!  The internet service provider promised me that they would come back with a fast system for us again (but that they would have to order it and didn’t know how long that would take.) 

So, in the meantime, i will not even try to visit other blogs or do much online (unless it temporarily starts working faster, which one doubts will happen).  I schedule my blog postings about a month in advance, so my blog posts will continue to appear.  I will probably not — while this is super-slow internet is happening — continue to try to schedule many posts in advance, though i may continue with the mindfulness-philosophical prose stuff on Sundays, as i feel a responsibility to keep the significance of that going.   (If i do, i will probably use images already used and existing in my WordPress media file, since it would be near impossible to upload at this point.)  Hopefully, things will get back to technologically normal soon, and all of this will be just a bad memory!  🙂   Thanks much, all of you!   🙂  

 

 

Mushrooming Love (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Love…Beyond measurement

May 13, 2018
10 comments

 

 

The mind, for many, is incessantly measuring things, comparing, acquiring, accumulating and labeling.  Can the mind, without a continuing effort — which isn’t laziness — simply perceive without all those things habitually going on mentally?  Measuring and labeling have their place but there is also a time when they are not necessary and, if still used, are merely habitual and robotic in essence.  Total separation, between the “perceiver” and “that which is perceived,” demands measurement, requires a type of psychological wall and resistance.   Resistance occurs as an opposing force.  If you separate yourself from all other life forms, that is a form of resistance, a manifestation of conflict.   Indifference and conflict go hand in hand; there is so much of it in the world these days.

Perceiving without separation is not what most people are involved with.  Perceiving with (and “as”) the standard norms (that were taught), because of the conflict, because of the resistance, because of the robotic repetitiveness of it all, leads to depression and psychological suffering; then many turn to drugs or alcohol as an escape (which really is no escape at all).  There is an order that goes beyond all this.  Mere measurement does not take one to that order.  It is not within the realm of accumulating or acquiring, (yet so many are willing to pay money for instructions or systems to get there).  

Its beauty includes its being beyond mere accumulation and “getting.”  You can’t obtain what is beyond mundane getting, having, and measuring.  Real love is not merely a product of accumulation; however, if one is very fortunate, non-fragmented, and serious, it is there (beyond measure).  If one merely remains within the mental realm of getting, having, and measuring, one will stay miserable and secondhand (though one may erroneously think that one is doing marvelously).  Deep awareness and profound psychological transformation are not a matter of time.  Measuring and accumulation take time.

 

[A variety of crust fungus, Milk White Toothed Polypore (Irpex lacteus) seems to have “teeth” that, in actually, are tubes or pores in the spore-bearing surface which break apart with age and become tooth-like.  This is a very small fungus; it was on a small, dead tree branch; the pictured portion was around one centimeter long.]

 

Milk White Toothed Polypore Fungus… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

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Observing

April 29, 2018
14 comments

 

 

When most people are observing an animal, they are really not (usually) seeing purely without contamination.  They usually are looking with (and “as”) images and labels of the organism… images and labels that are constantly being modified, changed, added to, and rearranged.  Their seeing is not pure seeing per se but is more a part of a process of categorization, image-recognition, and processing.

When most people observe, there is a separative space between the perceiver and the perceived.   In a very wise mind, however, in pure observing, there is no separate perceiver merely categorizing, merely engaging in image-recognition, and processing… and there is no separative space involved.  Perception beyond learned accumulation does not merely continue to contribute to a learned accumulative process.  Deep perception, then, is not merely reacting but, instead, is something entirely different.  Profound perception is far deeper than mere superficial reacting.  Real perception involves completeness, non-fragmentation, and timelessness.   That may be what real mindfulness, real meditation consists of… and not all of that childish, practiced, self-hypnotic stuff.

Perception immersed only with (and “as”) reaction and accumulation is incapable of great depth and profundity.  Perception beyond mere reactions and accumulative processes is immense and profound.   Looking as a totally separate “perceiver” isolates and separates in a very crude and barbaric way.   A man who, as a separate perceiver, is looking at “his fear” tends to see that fear from a separative distance, even though, in reality, he actually is the fear (not something separate from it at any distance whatsoever).  Ignorance must end for true psychological order to exist.  Only true psychological order can really be mindful in the deepest sense.  Unintelligence, false (learned) separation, and a lack of compassion are all one pitiful thing.

 

 

Observing Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Blue

January 12, 2018
15 comments

 

 

Blue skies

           quick upon a florid day

Sun swell

           in a sea of shine

Still fate

           frozen beyond nowhere bound

End sorrow

           in a jaunty rhyme

See far

           beyond horrid dream

Love lots

           perennial sunbeam

 

 

 

 

Blue Damselfly Sunbathing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Blue Damselfly Sunbathing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Serendipity… (when there may be no you mindlessly separate from them)

December 15, 2017
15 comments

 

 

One

       pink day

             in a curious

                   we kind of way

                         the camera landed

                               near what insects were focusing on

 

 

 

 

Serendipity (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Serendipity (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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That Sacredness

December 1, 2017
15 comments

 

 

There is an immeasurable energy

       a sacredness that cannot be created or destroyed

       and it is a field beyond thought/thinking

Its essence is an indescribable eternity that is

       beyond words and mere mental patterns

It rarely visits the realm of man

When it visits

      it fills the cup of the mind/body for a while

       and departs as quickly as it arrives

       but leaves some perfume of itself

        that forever affects the mind

Its intrinsic order will not visit a concocted silence

        nor any copied meditation

       nor any secondhand distortion or twisted corruption

It is of an immense intelligence

       beyond fragmented limitation and stagnant beliefs

It is not of the separative fabricated religions and countries

        that divide man

Thinking is always “about” energy

Thinking is never (the actual boundless energy

        with all of its holistic beauty)

Thought/thinking is limited fractional

        and symbolic

 

 

 

 

Lichen near a pond (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Lichen near a pond (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

 

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Mediocrity and the Unconditioned

November 26, 2017
13 comments

 

Most of us, i feel, were educated to accept innumerable fallacies as facts and as ordinary phenomena to be taken for granted.  These have been presented to us since birth and, although it wasn’t deliberate indoctrination, the word “indoctrination” is very applicable to what actually has largely taken place.  In our youth, we were not encouraged to deeply question society’s values, doctrines, principles, beliefs, and systems (and go beyond them).  We were molded to conform, to remain with (and “as”) the status quo, to accept competition… and deviating from that (significantly) was definitely not tolerated.   Some people, reading or hearing about this, would say, “Yes, I know,” or “Yes, I realize that.”   It is unlikely, however, that many have even the foggiest idea of just how vast the conditioning (and indoctrination) runs into their lives.   We were not brought up to be truly open, creative, questioning, deeply insightful human beings; we were, for the most part, programmed to be copiers, replicators, and obedient parts of the machine.    

Most of us do not see the world as “one organism”; we perceive the many parts, many species, many others, many sections.   We’ve used thought (as we were taught to) for advantageous purposes, yet most all of us greatly overuse it (dwelling, almost exclusively, in that realm).  (Some of us who absorbed calculated methods to go beyond thought, by sitting on mats and all such planned nonsense, have substituted mere glorified hypnotic technique to displace thinking, all the while thinking something great has been accomplished.)  Very few of us have intelligently seen the limitation of thinking and have truly (intelligently) gone beyond that limitation.   Thinking, being the sequential arrangement of symbols (that it is)… is always partial, always very limited.  Thinking is a very necessary tool, a necessary instrument that is extremely useful (at times); however, at other times, it is unnecessary to remain in (and “as”) the realm of thinking.  Need the mind always merely exist as symbols, as sequential tokens to attain (or “represent”) something?   The very supposed core of most people’s selves consists of fragmentary images and symbols (such as “me” and “I”) that they have absorbed from others.  So many are existing in a virtual world of man-made images and fabricated constructs that consist primarily of mere representational ideas and habitually learned patterns.

 Real perception, real intelligence goes beyond all this — and that is where the real bliss and eternity exists — not by accumulating more methodologies, not by absorbing more systems and patterns, not by blindly adhering to more authority.  The truly perceptive mind looks without outward and inward authority.  It sees beyond the symbolic, the partial, and the taught.  Such a mind is of real bliss and order.  It has no teacher, no resting place, no anchor that others have provided in (and “as”) the past.  Without looking with (and “as”) the dead past, such a mind may be truly free, pristine, and unspoiled.  There is no procedure or “how” regarding getting there.  A lot of people prefer to comfortably remain in the leftover debris that was shoveled to them, and they call it “security” and “wellbeing,” yet they remain full of anxiety, uncertainty, and sorrow.   Real (fundamental) security and genuine bliss, however, go beyond the residual norms of a fragmented, nocuous society.     

 

 

 

Together … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Gold, the Eternal Treasure

November 24, 2017
7 comments

 

 

Denzel Epinstein ambled with a very crooked leg

         His perceptions,though,were not jaded and askew

Mary Whitnun power-walked with perfect knees and thighs

         Her subservient perceptions were full of broken fragments and distortion

 

Ed Sedentary was perpetually glued to his television

         Temporary things were seen with separation and phosphorescent isolation

Tina Flow appeared to be alone in the golden meadows of nature

         She wasn’t,however,apart from all of the wondrous and magnificent creatures

 

 

 

Grasshopper on Tugged Sunflower (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Grasshopper on Tugged Sunflower (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Awareness vs. Conditioned Responsiveness…

November 19, 2017
21 comments

 

 

It is very difficult for people to fundamentally change.  One realizes, all too well, that whatever is written here, and in my other posts, will likely not have much of a meaningful impact for most who are reading this.  People cling to their traditions, to what they have absorbed in school and to what they swallowed from others in the distant past; they cling to deeply ingrained conditioning, and (though they claim that they are changing) they are unwilling to really drop all of that baggage.  It is unfortunate that most people cannot radically and fundamentally change.

If one merely reads these posts, accepts much of what is written, and builds a bunch of mental constructs out of it… it is not what is truly blossoming whatsoever.   Awareness flowers when there is a flowering beyond mere conditioned responsiveness.  That flowering has nothing to do with effort, agreement, absorption, practice, or dead tradition.  (There, of course, remain to be oodles of religions, armies, and experts who are all too willing to give you more of those essentially unflowering falsities.)

Most people are very good at responding and reacting.  That is what they were trained (i.e., indoctrinated) to do… and it is what they were trained to remain as.  Practicing something to “be” in some state beyond that may be a foolhardy waste of time.  As was written in the “Being and Becoming” posting:  “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.”  

A person can go out in nature and then be a series of mere reactions… seeing everything through a screen of images and mental compilations that one has “absorbed” from previous others in (and “as” the past).  Then, a separate image of self is projected as a learned reaction, as an obtrusion of thought/thinking, and seemingly and pretentiously identifies that with images and with other mental compilations involving nature; it then claims “I am one with nature.”   Unfortunately, however, mere reactions and obtrusions of thought may not be “one” with much of anything.  Seeing with (and from) the past (i.e., from stuffy, old memory and imagery) is existing in (and “as”) the past.

As was written in the “Being and Becoming” posting:  The intelligent mind does not try to be in a state of being, does not try to be what is non-becoming, nor does it 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 (psychologically) not trying to be or not be… the mind may naturally blossom as what is beyond greed, dependence (on others for how to get there), and measurement.

Awareness involves a depth, love, and a total perception that the limited domain of mere reaction cannot fathom.   Such awareness, such love, and perception — though they are not separate things —  go beyond being, beyond becoming, beyond measurement.   Eternity is involved in such awareness.

 

 

Beyond words (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Beyond words (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Without Make and How

November 17, 2017
14 comments

 

 

                                                                      Without

                                                              make and how

                                                      this lit

                                                 tlest no

                                            thing

                                      hap

                                 pens

                            be

                            yond

                                 being

                                      be

                                             coming

                                                   is

                                                         was

                                                                and(of course)

                                                                      will be

 

 

 

 

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Reactions and Beyond

November 12, 2017
17 comments

 

All of us, in (and “as”) a succession of moments, in a series or sequence, react.  In a very wise entity, however, these reactions are not always habitual, are not always the only activity taking place.  In most people, conditioned into habits, what they actuate is always caused by some prior (usually some group of) antecedent factors.  They may think and fully feel that they are dignified and elegant and in total control (for what they allegedly “choose”); however, they usually are a reacting part of a calculated, complex matrix devised by a larger society.  Many then get stuck in mundane, dull routines and then often try to find various escapes to temporarily pull boredom out for a while.  These escapes then create further reactions, many of which do not fundamentally benefit the earth nor those upon it.

What can go beyond this is real integrity, real wholeness, and soundness.   To perceive integrally is to perceive beyond the fragments.  Thought, being symbolic and partial, is inherently limited and fragmentary.  However, most are habitually composed of (and habitually dependent on) thought and thinking.  These habitual thoughts go much further (in their extent) than most realize.  Thought often separates one group from another, oneself from so-called others at a distance, and the so-called central controller from what is seen (from an alleged distance) as his or her fear.  

In a divisive, mad, chaotic world, can the mind exist as more than mere fragmented reaction?  There is a quietness, a vast humility, beyond the shadows of spurious control and manipulation.  That quietness is not the mere result of any kind of reaction, nor the product of any kind of intention or contrivance.   You cannot make yourself be quiet (as so many try to do); the so-called “maker” of the quietness is a protrusion of thought; the concocted reaction from a protrusion of thought can never be genuine quietness.   There must be a motiveless (effortless) perceiving without mere habitual rigamarole.  

 

Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Real Love

November 10, 2017
14 comments

 

 

Real love can’t be reasoned

        can’t be measured

                        can’t be sold

                        and doesn’t give a damn

              about having tons of $

or a stinking pot of gold

 

Genuine wisdom isn’t pompous

        isn’t pigheaded

                        isn’t forlorn sorrow

                        and won’t ever bring ecstatic truth

        eternal perception and blissful joy

if seriousness is 4 2morrow

 

 

Alfalfa Sulfur Butterflies (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Alfalfa Sulfur Butterflies (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Second-handedness

November 5, 2017
24 comments

 

Real mindfulness, real meditation is not sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat.  Such sitting is calculated and is structured to gain something… (which is greediness).  On the other hand, innocent, pristine awareness throughout the day (that is not merely influenced by the patterns and symbols that others have provided) may be very prudent.  Is it real awareness when one is looking with what other people have poured into one?  Is real awareness, real living, what can take place through the secondhand edicts or patterns provided by others?  When perception takes place through mere symbolic images and via learned psychological separation, is such perception what was copied from others and (additionally) limited and superficial?

It may be that secondhand has little to do with actual living.  However, many rely on (and habitually exist “as”) secondhand, without question.   

 

 

0.5 cm Scarlet-and-Green Leafhopper (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

0.5 cm Scarlet-and-Green Leafhopper (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Happy Edentulous Halloween!

October 31, 2017
7 comments

 

 

Today i will be going to the annual Halloween Party at the school for the multiply handicapped (where i had worked as a teacher before i retired); it should be a hauntingly fun day!

 

I knocked out all

       of my teeth last night

       to cash in big with the Tooth Fairy

       and fill my pockets right

 

I’ll be buyin’ candy wid all of dat cash

       which i’ll sweetly eat right away

       (and the beauty is dat

       i’ll not have to worry about tooth decay!)

 

 

Halloween Tooth Fairy Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The Greatest Halloween Terror is not a Spider

October 27, 2017
29 comments

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
******************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Halloween is a candylicious 

        fun for kids time of year

        and the ugly monster

        with the orangish hair

        (who is a reflection of a sick national immorality)

        is mostly what we should fear

 

 

 

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

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

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Many dead from the heart up…

October 22, 2017
19 comments

 

 

We exist in a world society that largely operates with a very amoral morality.  It’s a society where ruthless competition is so hammered into people that many do it without question.  It’s a society where it is largely accepted to destroy large parts of nature with chemicals, abuse, polluting fuels, and endless cement.  It is a society where little is said or felt about human population control (as humans, as a species, are taking way more than their fair share quantitatively/environmentally).  It’s a society where separation and division are often encouraged and reinforced.  It’s a society where it’s easy to fit in (and be accepted) if one is indifferent, barbarous, and manipulating.  It’s a society where, for example, one is often accepted and congratulated while one claims to love nature, all the while frequently flying long distances in fossil-fuel (very polluting) aircraft from continent to continent to take pictures of animals and plant life… although they are all are being choked off by pollutants and fumes.  Of course, there are some who are truly sympathetic and good (even in a society that, for the most part, is of corruption and chaos).  Many more are living in tiny houses, recycling, staying local, reproducing less, intentionally using less, using alternative energy, and are truly doing more to make a difference.

To really find out what happens at death, one must, first and foremost, understand life/living.  One isn’t, however, even actually living if one is a cadaverous clone of stale traditions and secondhand (accepted) suppositions.  Most were not encouraged to doubt, to question.  However, intelligent doubting and sensitive questioning may help an individual bloom beyond rigid, rigor mortis states.  Many end up being buried six feet down even though they were never fully alive in the first place, unfortunately.  To go through life merely reacting (from what was poured into one) may not be real living whatsoever.  Too many assume that they are actually alive.  It may be that if genuine enlightenment would ever happen to you, as a visitation by that sacred immeasurability, you would definitely realize that we truly live in the land of the dead.  Do not ever merely accept what i say or write.  Find out for yourself.  Please do not be like dead clay.

 

 

 

Buckeye Butterfly (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Buckeye Butterfly (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Let us go and make our visit…

October 20, 2017
19 comments

 

Thither we go
        into a half-baked poem
        hardly worth reading

We will continue to read it
        despite its repulsive tendencies
        to bring us closer to mediocrity 

unless we allow the eyes to feast
        on the accompanying photos
        which are not as puerile and spineless
        as the poem currently being read

Of course the poem can be
        memorized and recited
        if you’d like to fail to impress your friends
        (who are imprisoned in all standard misconceptions)

Any disreputable poem
        such as this one
        neglects to suggest anything profound
        and declines to mention
        the beauty of nature

You (Mr. Prufrock) heard them each to each
        Go ahead and eat your peach
        I too am an easy tool
        and i too grow old
        (the bottom of my trousers rolled)

 

Enfolded (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Enfolded (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

Post

Cessation

October 1, 2017
7 comments

 

There is a psychological cessation that is beyond the parameters of motivation, desire, or striving.  It involves a timelessness that is beyond sequential methodologies and practices.  Such a cessation is a discontinuance of the same-old mental symbols, same-old perspectives involving separation, and same-old mental traditions.  Such a cessation is natural, healthy, intelligent, and is not merely what can be measured.  Those who perpetually and habitually function in (and “as”) the parameters of thought (endlessly using dead sequential symbols to cogitate about things) cannot be of such a living timelessness.

There is no path to such a cessation, such a timelessness… for, if there was, it would be reducing such a timelessness to being just another part of the continuum of temporal manifestations; there are plenty of charlatan priests, gurus, and so-called religious masters who are all too willing to give you the path (and methods), however.  A lone Bumblebee went from flower petal to flower petal, caught in a sequence of endless reactions that never were transcended, never fully understood.

 

 

 

Immersed in reaction (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Immersed in reaction (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

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Mr. No-One and the Universe

September 29, 2017
14 comments

 

 

Squeak and Meek each went to take a peek

   and what they saw was delectably ever so sleek

It buttery flowed meltedly through slippery slopes

   and was spattered in sections beyond blind people’s hopes

 

Roly and Poly barrelled into town

   they joined the loud circus and smiley jolly clown

They circled around the rainbowed ice cream shop

   and drove to the intersection then came to a stop

 

Itchy and Stichy yelled into a huge microphone

   and no one heard them since no one was home

And the tree in the forest down with a loud crashing sound

   while the universe sure heard it because the universe was around

 

Skipper and Scatter burst onto the scene

   to become part of this skinny poem and the pickings are lean

What do you expect at this hungry time of day

   like some scrumptious corn on the cob in a splendid flowery kind of way?

 

 

 

Silver-spotted Skipper (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Silver-spotted Skipper (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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Trotting Beyond Limitation

September 22, 2017
12 comments

 

 

We trot in eternity

          though most see transiency

We move with infinity

          though most react temporarily

We silently sail among endless waves

          they thirst in thought’s bone-dry deserts

We are visited by the timeless

          they are late for their appointments

 

 

 

 

Beyond limitation (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Beyond limitation (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Silence

September 17, 2017
6 comments

 

The silence of a very aware mind is not what can be measured.  Such pure silence goes beyond recognition; recognition (of separate things that the mind labels and pigeon-holes) is — or involves — measurement.  The mind can, at times, beautifully function without merely relying on measurement, without exclusively relying on recognition, patterns of experience, and interpretation of stimuli.  “Mostpeople” would not likely be involved with this immeasurable silence because remaining in sequential thinking, recognition,  and constant comparison and measurement are what they were educated (i.e., programmed) to be.  Leaving the domain of the known would seem frightening to a lot of people.  Many may equate such silence, such emptiness, with ignorance; however, a vast, immeasurable silence, in actuality, is profound intelligence.  “Mostpeople” rigidly cling to patterns of recognition, symbolic thought (and all thoughts are symbols), labels, and separative images.  Going beyond these would seem unthinkable to most.  

One cannot “know” that one is in such silence when it takes place, for such “knowing” would be in the realm of recognition and would negate the very essence of a silence beyond mere measurement.  Such silence is beyond merely calculated patterns and sequential formulations concocted by man; this is why gurus and so-called holy men who want to provide you with techniques to “get there” are definitely out (including the fees that they often fraudulently charge)!  One who is lucky enough to be involved with such silence is not in any way harmed but, rather, may be blessed to be in relationship with a timeless energy that is forever renewing itself.  Such silence can never be brought about by an act of will; will is (fundamentally) desire… and desire can never attain such unadulterated silence via effort of any kind.  It would be like trying to catch the wind (or catch love) in a bottle.  The highly intelligent mind, through seeing and understanding itself in relationship (and in seeing itself, without deception, in everyday occurrences) may, with understanding, move beyond the psychological dependencies and repetitious mental habits that most exist as.   Understanding transcends mere measurement and will.  The immeasurable may occur for the man (or woman) who goes beyond the limited, the merely symbolic, and the stagnant.   In the immeasurable, eternity abides.  The immeasurable and the eternal are without confining borders.  The gurgling sounds of the drinking Mallards are not something separate from a vast, immeasurable silence.

 

 

 

 

Mallard Ducks (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Mallard Ducks (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

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Basking beyond the need for belief

September 15, 2017
22 comments

 

 

A nonmediocre novelty lasted for relaxed nonseparative miles

     as we drove past steady sunflowers who sweetly worshipped the sun

In a divided disorganized planet of perplexed savage wars

     omniscient order majestically does nevertheless easily run

 

Multitudinous millipedes mingled in the downbelow grasses

     as businesslike bumblebees hurriedly bustled in blossoms far up above

And the saintly sun’s devotees seemed to move like precision clockwork

     with a passionate proclivity for life and for love

 

 

 

 

Sunflower Time (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Sunflower Time (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

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Beyond Coming to a Conclusion

September 3, 2017
18 comments

 

It is very easy to come to conclusions about things.  Some things that many come to conclusions about seem like cut-and-dried facts that can be taken for granted.  Often we come to conclusions about the behavior of others… when, however — over time — they have changed far from what we have “concluded.”  In past postings, one has often written about transcending or dissolving the central “me” or “I.”  Some people, no doubt, have concluded that doing so is foolish or even very dangerous.  Many cling to that fabricated image of self and are terrified and very frightened about letting it go.  It is very likely that their love of the absolute truth is likely not nearly as strong as the love and attachment to that image.  Really perceiving — not merely intellectually — the falsity and delusion that a supposed central psychological controller inherently consists of, we maintain, is neither foolish nor dangerous.  On the contrary, it helps eradicate the very root of conflict that causes so much indifference, neglect, and hatred in the world of man.   Perception beyond such a fallacious center does not, as many might presume, tend to negate eternity for us.  On the contrary, it may be that the eternal can more readily be perceived and appreciated once the supposed central “me” or “I” is truly transcended.  

One read a post by someone, recently, that matter-of-factly pointed out that everything is temporary and that we all must die and come to a complete end.  Coming to a complete end is, so they say, coming to a conclusion.  Many people, while they are alive, come to conclusions — about many things — without ever having deeply and independently inquired.  They absorb what was poured into them by others… and from there they — as self-appointed experts — spew out more and more myopic conclusions.  However, we may presently live in a very primitive and crass world culture and a lot of what the so-called educators say may be utter rubbish.  If, as most do, you fall into the standard or common lines of thinking (about things)… then it may be that you are making a grave mistake and are fundamentally making very deleterious decisions with (and “as”) the essence of your life.  As one has stated before in some of my previous postings, some of the world’s top-notch scientists have said that reality is likely far different, in its fundamental nature, from what many of us have thought or suspected.  Indeed!

Question everything that people tell you and everything that i say.  Go beyond all the standard ways of looking at things and looking at the world.  Perceive without looking through the screen of perception that others have built for you to look through (and “with”).  Then, if you are very lucky, you will go beyond most of the fundamental conclusions; and then eternity will not merely be a representational symbol as part of your brain; then your essence will never come to any final conclusion.  

 

 

Beyond Conclusions (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Beyond Conclusions (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Prudent perception

August 20, 2017
14 comments

 

 

There is often a fine line between erroneous judgment and prudent perception.  Profound perception cuts through erroneous judgment and dissipates it.  There is no “how,” set in stone, on “getting” profound perception.  Like humility and real love, it is not something that one can merely cultivate.  However, if the mind is passionately aware of its own workings — without merely depending upon the patterns and judgments of others — then, perhaps, that untethered awareness opens up (or manifests as) profound perception.  A mind that is keenly interested in this is naturally and concomitantly interested in a correct relationship in all matters (internally and externally).   By “correct,” we mean in accordance with real fact and truth.  Naturally, deception, falsity, and illusion are not things that one would be eager to cling to and exist as.

Distorted minds, broken minds, fragmented minds, relatively superficial minds, will not be (at all) interested in this.  They will be content to remain — and wish to remain — as the ordinary, everyday mundane things that they were programmed to deal with (and be).  Going beyond this limitation will not suit them well.  They won’t care to be bothered.  Minds beyond this (limitation) may be somewhat interested in things, such as what is often written about here… or, perhaps, (though rarely) they may be extremely interested.  This interest must flower into a real passion for any real significant change to take place.  That “flowering” has little to do with retaining stale memories, old traditions, beliefs, or standardized procedures.   Those four are best suited for those who wish not to be bothered.  

A mind that looks without all the fragmented patterns, outlooks, judgments, and structures that others have poured into it is a very untethered mind.  Such an untethered mind is free to see everything as it really is (beyond limitations and distortion).  Such a non-separative, non-partial, holistic perception often is (and often exists “as”) undistorted relationship.  That kind of relationship goes beyond those that think that they are in relationship with the world but actually are not.  We are not really separate from what we perceive; and if what we perceive is dictated by the limited patterns and symbols that we have absorbed from a primitive society, then what we see will (inevitably) be second-hand, narrow, and circumscribed.  We can be beyond such inaccuracy. 

 

I eat a lot of green things too!

Eating a Green Lunch … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Surrounded by the crap of others…

August 18, 2017
3 comments

 

We sat at the crossroads between two whys

and because came by and told us we couldn’t

We did anyway

and with great joy ran

And although there wasn’t anything where we were not

we unfolded outside in

to again when returning becomes begin

 

We mulled beyond the lackluster masses

past a jangled jeer of mediocrity

Literally we so deeply immersed in always

even though surrounded by cold clevers 

all permanently flushed by a potty-bowl of transient hows

 

 

Canada Goose Gosling (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Canada Goose Gosling (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Truth, security, and the eternal…

July 30, 2017
5 comments

 

In great humility, there is an emptiness that exists beyond the “me” and “mine.”  That emptiness is, in actuality, the absence (i.e., the non-existence) of the “me.”  “Mostpeople” would feel frightened about the psychological absence of the “me,” or even about the possibility of the psychological absence of the “me.”  To “mostpeople,” it would seem to be an “insecurity” to go beyond the “me” or beyond the supposedly “controlling center.”   However, for the (truly) wise man, mere security is not a factor… truth is a factor.  To the wise man (or woman), it is truth that is where the real beauty, the real treasure, exists.  

Many years ago, in the early ’70s, when i was in my 4th year of college, i read an article about split-brain operations and how these surgical operations resulted in two totally separate fields of consciousness in one human being.  Reading about how the corpus callosum could be surgically severed, resulting in two distinct, separate fields of consciousness — with each not knowing what the other was doing — pulled one even further away from the ancient orthodoxy that so many of us were indoctrinated by.  It was back then that my insatiable quest for truth began (in the deepest sense), though even when one was much younger one still saw through a lot of the madness and falsities in the things that they tried to indoctrinate into us.  Real humility occurs when the mind intelligently doubts and asks profound questions without relying on what one’s family or culture provides as the truth.  If one largely relies on what one’s family or one’s culture has provided, it reflects a form of arrogance (which is far from true humility); one’s family and culture can, indeed, be a component or facet of oneself and, for sure, being certain of their validity is — in a big way — just a form of self-admiration and arrogance.  Intelligent doubt goes beyond all this.  Such intelligent doubt reflects the way Albert Einstein discovered things, by wisely questioning many things that were taken for granted as facts. Albert Einstein understood what it meant to “stand alone.”   To really inquire into that which is truly sacred, immeasurable, timeless and uncontaminated, one must, of course, do it with an instrument (i.e., a mind) that is itself uncontaminated.  It absolutely must be untainted, healthy, uncorrupt… that instrument (i.e., that true mind of inquiry).  That, then, means no belief, no arrogant assumptions about the validity of one’s own faith, religion, culture, family creeds, and spiritual blueprints; so it means no beliefs or presumptions.  However, “mostpeople” are totally unwilling to be that way.  They want the comfort and security of “knowing.”  It can be the “knowing” of others that they absorb and take on for themselves… it doesn’t matter.  However, it may be that the real quest for truth lies beyond security and “knowing.”  That is why so few ever come upon that real treasure. 

Standing alone (without depending on others), going beyond the crowd, understanding the mind, going beyond mere images of the “me” and “I” — and mere images and learned concepts is all that they really are — may seem like abandoning security.  However, a truly wise mind, that transcends beyond beliefs, realizes things that involve the only real treasure.  That treasure has an essence of real eternity, immensity, and bliss in it (that “mostpeople,” unfortunately, have no clue about whatsoever).  The scientists were, as it turns out, likely right about one thing; they said:  Reality is probably radically different (i.e., far different) from what most of us assume it to be.

 

 

 

Crab Spider blending in (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Crab Spider blending in (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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What real poverty is…

July 28, 2017
13 comments

 

There was a very rich man

       (a man with a cadaverous, cold heart) 

       who walked along the barren, indifferent sidewalks

       and, while he walked, he passed

       the splendid flowers and trees by,

        (without looking at their immense beauty).

As he walked, there was a limited separation

       between what was considered to be “a central I” and

       the other thoughts that occurred;

       there was also a large gap or separation

       between his consciousness and profound nature.

 

There was a rather poor man

       (a man with a beneficent, warm heart)

       who walked through the amicable gardens and meadows

       and, while he walked, awareness

       examined the magnificent flowers and trees,

       (smiling at the immeasurable beauty).

As he walked, there was no separation

       between a supposed “central controller”

       and the occurring thoughts;

       additionally, an effortless silence often occurred;

       there was no gap or separation

       between a “his consciousness” and natural beauty.

 

And here is a sweet, little secret that can always unfold:

       The very rich man wasn’t really rich at all, 

       and the rather poor man wasn’t poor

        what

                    so

                          ever.

 

 

Beyond words (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Beyond words (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Spiritual and Philosophical Inquiry

July 23, 2017
16 comments

 

As we have stated before, one must (in deep spiritual/philosophical inquiry) stand alone; one must go beyond seeking direction or blueprints from others (i.e., from supposed “experts.”)  We are used to taking direction and following direction from others; it is our habit.  We are obstinate in our deep dependence in regard to seeking and following direction.  We have followed religious and political direction for eons and we remain lost and in disarray (fitting well into this immoral society).  Inquiry beyond the direction and guidance of another requires that the mind stand alone.

Not following or seeking direction involves a directionlessness that most people are not used to or comfortable with.  We have associated directionlessness with confusion; we see it as a jumble that is without an intelligent goal.  However, there is an ineffable, intelligent directionlessness that is not a product of others.  This directionlessness may be a real key to unlocking and perceiving the whole.

When one looks for the whole in a certain direction, it is not there.  In quantum mechanics, if an electron isn’t measured it exists in many states (or places at once); once it is measured, it is in a limited state in a limited way.  We want to understand the whole by following direction from others… which is a form of measurement; it may essentially be an erroneous process.  

Psychologically, we each think that a central “I” or “me” provides necessary direction as to correct behavior.  Yet such a center — being nothing more than a learned image — is a fallacy that does not exist.  Split brain surgery, severing the corpus callosum, substantiates this.  Holistic awareness, without dependence on a fictional center (or absorbed outside authority), may be what functions far more accurately and healthfully, without the ruse of a (false) directing controller.  Even those who purport to “transcend” or go beyond the ego are (for the most part) just like everyone else; they constantly use images of “I” or “me” in a learned, automatic, passive-associative process.  They constantly operate from what seems to be a central “I” or controller, whereas deep awareness would see this as a lot of inherited, automatic-associative processes.  Going beyond this psychological ruse is nothing to be feared; going beyond any fallacious, illusory process need not involve fear.

Holistic perception beyond the false exists as true health, harmony, and bliss; eternity is one with it.  Is there a manufactured method to get there? No! However, there are innumerable charlatans who are all too willing to tell you or sell you the way.  They tell you how to pray, how to chant mantras, how to concentrate on your breathing, how to behave… with their stale methodologies; and many people, being very gullible, easily follow their directions, edicts, and stale blueprints.

 

Stability (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Stability (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Colors

July 21, 2017
13 comments

 

 

But even just red

           without any blue

would

           (or to

whom without any who)

           be

a strange sort of absence

           like the death of

a living friend

now pronounced dead

 

Whose endings need

           beginnings

(only as ups

            require their downs)

and in the full spectrum

            of things

certainly

beginnings their endings

need

 

Wherein darkness’s couldn’t

           followed crescent’s moonly would

gingerly

           (surely as trees

fell from leaves)

           and in the grand colored scheme

of things

black seeds of silence sprouted to could

 

Growing (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Growing (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Awake

July 14, 2017
12 comments

 

 

That everywhere is awakingly here

           is ouryourheshemy joy and compassion

           until we

take

        that

               first 

                      step

(which is also quite the

                               last)

           in sequential perpetuity

(at which point some will wonder 

why God doesn’t intervene or

show us the answers)…

We had them all along,you see

           but eyes were kept perpetually closed

just as everyone else’s were

           since we’re a facsimile of them

           and they’re a facsimile of us

           and everything conceived is

            second-hand and artificial

And there are dreams while we sleep

           though most are never really awake

 

 

Baby Katydid on Day-lily (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Baby Katydid on Day-lily (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Enmeshed in the chaos of the world…

July 9, 2017
4 comments

 

At the precise moment that desire takes place, instead of merely running after some goal — like myriads of people do — deeply perceive/examine the desire.  You cannot examine it very well unless it is examined very closely.  How closely must it be examined?  More closely than most would think!  Desire cannot be deeply perceived if it is just another reaction (that some image of self supposedly thinks it “has”) which causes one to chase after something in a certain direction.  Most people think that desire is something that they “have”; they do not see desire (at the precise moment that it happens) as something that they actually are.  If desires are suppressed… it involves parts of the mind trying to suppress other parts of the mind, which is, of course, internal conflict.   If desires are cherished and considered worthwhile… it involves parts of the mind being in agreement and recognizing some kind of value in other parts of the mind.  Additionally, in our very complex minds, there are a series of reactions going on that involve a mixture of suppression and, concomitantly, the cherishing of desires, which oftentimes results in internal conflict and friction.  Our minds are a hodgepodge of these conflicting internal reactions and we feel that we need to keep such things under control, psychologically.  We, in reality, are all these things (occurring internally) and there is no separate “controller” (apart from them) whatsoever.  It is separation and conflict that keeps us from being in right relationship with desires; separation and conflict occur in large degrees when there is little understanding; it is separation and conflict when opposing desires and images are in friction with each other.  A mind of real integrity is not a mere slave to desire; this world is overpopulated and has run amok, largely due little understanding and superfluous desire. 

A mind that perceives all this (deeply) does not turn into something that ends up “out of control.”  On the contrary, a relatively shallow mind that assumes that it is in control, that assumes (as it was crudely taught) that it is something separate from its desires, fears, and internal friction… is, whether it admits to it or not, enmeshed in fanciful and illusory separation and conflict.  That illusory separation and conflict — which it has copied from others and has absorbed secondhand — constitute something that is bound to project out into society as disorder (in one form or another).  Wise internal (psychological) perception — that is deep — sees (and “is”) correct relationship; that correct relationship will not have (and “be”) a lot fabricated, idiotic conflict (endorsed by a foolish society’s modus operandi).  A wise mind, at the precise moment of desire, does not perceive desire as something separate from what it actually is.  In such a mind there is no separate controller who is going to “do something” about the desire; however, that intelligent perception of desire, not being separate, likely unfolds into further intelligent perception, which — unlike with many people — will not occur as conflict and false separative ideations.  Such perception is orderly, deep, and not chock full of the chaos that misperceptions manifest as.  That order acts beautifully.

So many of us run from our fabricated fears, never fully realizing that we actually are those fears.  So many of us engage in (and “as”) conflict internally and then waste energy in so very many aspects of life and relationship (because we are habitually used to wasting energy in conflict internally, psychologically); what we are on the inside, we project to the outside.  Look at society now as it currently is worldwide.  Is it full of endless beautiful order and harmony?  Or is it full of chaos, ruthless competition, territorial conflict, and much disharmony?  Does it almost entirely involve minds that think that they are something separate from their fears, desires,  and boredom… as well as thinking that they are each separate from others?

 

Crammed to the max! (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Crammed to the max! (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Let all the cadavers lie

July 7, 2017
10 comments

 

 

Let all the cadavers lie

         where they remain buried in lies

Let fears turn into one beautiful winged insect

         and let wisdom turn to joy

Let whispers turn into songs

         where singing breathes as freedom

Let wise questions become insightful answers

         let ends become beginnings

Let here be where compassion helps

         while indifference goes to grass

Let the earth’s winds increase exponentially

         as nature’s rage to pollution and carelessness

Let all the hateful hurt turn to kindness

         as sweetly flowers smile

Let descending mutate to ascending

         rendering death nonexistent for forever

Let the future be now

         where the past will happen

 

 

From Fear to Damselfly (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

From Fear to Damselfly (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Going beyond outside authority and inside authority…

July 2, 2017
14 comments

 

Most of us see things in fragments (just as we were taught to).  The intrinsic nature of thinking is, in itself, fragmentary.  Thought, being symbolic, being limited, being merely representational, can never perceive the whole.  Since most of us cling to thought, worship thought, and are tied to thought… we seldom, or never, perceive the whole.  The whole cannot be seen through — or by — the fragments.  People enmeshed in (and “as”) this fragmentation often then choose a priest, a guru, a zen monk, a leader, or an authority (and some techniques) to lead them to truth.  Out of their fragmentation, out of their confusion… they choose someone to lead or guide them; or they choose some technique or method.  (Out of their confusion, they choose.)  It may be, however, that there is no path or map to the pathless… no authority, no procedure — in time and that takes time — to get to the timeless.  

Few truly stand alone without depending on outside authority.  Few, further still, go beyond inside authority.  One can easily say that one is free and is not influenced by outside authority… while, all along, one is heavily embellished with structures (internally) that were — long ago — poured into one by outside authoritarian influences.  One can maintain that one is untethered by outside authority, yet (internally) be riddled with conditioning stemming from outside structures and patterns that came from others early in one’s life and over the years.  A mind that truly goes beyond the outside and accumulated inside molds and patterns is quite extraordinary and blessed.  Eternity and the sacred then manifest.  No one can take you there… not even your accumulated structures and sense of self.  It takes real humility to go beyond your own accumulated patterns and judgments… real innocence and freedom.  That true freedom, that true humility and innocence is a psychological dying; there is no method to “do” it.  That unshaped (non-concocted) psychological dying is nothing cadaverous or to be afraid of; it is majestic life beyond canned, dead molds. The profound magic and the bliss are not in the limited patterns — including your own — that anyone can give.

 

 

 

Up close and personal (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Up close and personal (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

 

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Take a Gander (They’re your children — and responsibility — too)…

June 30, 2017
19 comments

 

The other day

           the shoreline went for a walk

It saw dogs walking their people

           and it saw goslings swimming with joy

 

Laughing kites were what it saw

           and blankets on grass eating strawberries

And(i’ll tell yew the leastlittlest of secrets)

           we aren’t really separate from what we experience

 

After a while,the trees and shoreline sat 

            on a wooden bench to rest

Eyelids shut themselves and there(for a while or forever)

           was(beautifully too)no

           thing

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

[Note:  If we ruin the environment and casually let callous, pigheaded politicians ruin our environment… (while doing nothing about it), we will be forever etched in time as the cadaverous indifferent… and we will be the malignant enemies of all life.  Period.]

Strolling with the kids (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Strolling with the kids (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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Beyond all the so-called experts…

June 25, 2017
9 comments

 

 

Profound mindfulness, deep awareness, and real meditation are not three separate things.  They are all one in the same.  Unlike what many so-called experts may tell you — including people who call themselves gurus, zen monks, priests, or spiritual guides — one doesn’t need to concentrate on a fixed point, on one’s breathing in and out, on a mantra, a prayer, or on anything else in order to be really mindful or deeply aware.  Actually, doing the aforementioned things — to get something out of them — usually makes the mind duller and more mesmerized.   As in hypnosis, concentration (purposefully done) tends to limit the mind to fixed points; concentration is an exclusionary process.  Concentration and similar forms of effort all cause the mind to focus on details and to engage in a concocted plan (or plans) in order to get some kind of result.  Profound awareness, however, is not exclusionary; it goes beyond mere details and is never the mere result of some blueprint or mentally formulated plan.  

One can practice methods by so-called experts ad infinitum; one can concentrate on one’s breathing, one can concentrate on a repeated mantra or on a so-called special prayer, (or on any other image or set of images that the mind focuses on).  These limited means — manufactured and provided by others — will never bring about true, pristine, and real enlightenment.  One might get some relaxation or some feelings that the mind construes as being “invigorating” from them… but these things will never be real and profound enlightenment.  A stale, limited means, psychologically, never leads to an unlimited, vast end.  Profound awareness is not something that you can rotely learn from any book, any blog, any guru, any zen monk, any priest or any authority (including your own so-called central, inner authority).   Real awareness (which may flower into true enlightenment) is never exclusionary and is never the result of some rote practice or structured technique.  Effortless, non-separative observing without all of the preprogrammed conditioning — simply put — is not merely the result of more preprogrammed methods, procedures, or images put forth by yourself from what others have provided.  Therefore, methods that so-called experts give to you, sell to you, or entice you with, are absolutely out.  What they offer is not cogent, not viable, if you have significant awareness.  And if you don’t have significant awareness you’ll be more than willing to play their games, give them money, adhere to their plans, worship their idols, or travel across the globe to be with them.  If you want to be second-hand, then, by all means, follow their methods; however, one thing is for sure: second-hand never comes upon real enlightenment.

It takes no time for the wise mind to be empty of all of their methods, blueprints, schemes, and concoctions.  Methods and techniques take time; however, not being conditioned by them takes no time whatsoever.  Methods and procedures have nothing to do with pristine, non-manufactured awareness; and without methods and procedures, time is not a factor, time is not operating as it does for most people.  I will not give you methods to practice… or plans to rigidly follow.  We think that someone needs to show us the way, the path; we feel that there is security in that “showing.” However, real insight, real profundity functions in a motiveless, directionless, unplanned way… which is not at all to say that it is haphazard and chaotic.  Most of us are perpetually relying on the methods, systems, images, and constructs of others; then we think we need further methods and systems to go beyond all this, which is absurd.  The very way that most of us observe things via separation (from a so-called center) is the result of stale methodologies learned from others.  There is no path that leads to the pathless.  There are no procedures — that take time — that lead to the timeless.  

 

 

Our Neighbor (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Our Neighbor (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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This Movement

June 23, 2017
7 comments

 

 

           This movement wishes to go

through life helping others

(who are,themselves,part of 

           the movement of life).

 

           This movement wishes to be

life’s companion,not life’s enemy;

it doesn’t want to merely harm

           or exploit life.

 

           It wants to root itself in with

the majestic oak trees

and share in their

           growth and freedom.

 

           This movement wants to put its arms

around Mother Nature 

and gently walk with her

            beyond the synthetic and man-made.

 

           This movement would like to

somehow share

the eternal secret of life

           (that exists beyond all conclusions).

 

 

 

Mayfly Resting (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Mayfly Resting (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

Post

The Outdoor Cuckoo Clock…

June 18, 2017
7 comments

 

Note…  Our internet is out due to a violent storm.  Hence, I will not be able to correspond, etc.  (My postings have been prescheduled so will continue to appear.)  Using a little cellphone to type this, which stinks!  Hopefully, we’ll get it fixed in a week or two.  Lightning hit our large old-fashioned, rural tower antenna; the sound was unbelievable!  Our neighbor’s television, garage door opening system, and phone fried; she smelled sulfur after the hit.  Our internet and phone fried.

Most of us do not question enough.  We accept, we conform, we remain stale, and we pretty much fit into the norm of the way things are.  There are many who think that they are not of the mentality of the masses; however, essentially, fundamentally, despite what they think, they still are.  There is a real art to questioning intelligently.  In wise questioning, the answers exist curled; they are there.  Can a highly shackled mind, a cuckoo mind, a mind that is heavily conditioned by society, ask extremely profound questions?  Probably not.  When the mind is tethered to a limited point, it has a limited circumference; its field is partial and restricted and it remains within (and exists “as”) limited bounds.  A truly dynamic mind, however, perceives with more unlimited vastness; it is open rather than closed; it is free rather than enslaved.  

Indifference, uncaringness, is a form of prison.  A mind of indifference hasn’t questioned enough, hasn’t looked beyond restricted, little boundaries and domains.  Such a mind is satisfied with merely feeding and caring for the little.  Its space of confinement and separation — which is itself — is its very own prison; such a prison doesn’t require cold steel bars; it does require a coldness of a different variety.  Intelligent questioning often consists of a warm benevolence that encompasses all, without learned boundaries, without power manipulation, without an isolated center.

 

 

The Outdoor Cuckoo Clock (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

The Outdoor Cuckoo Clock (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Poetry…

June 16, 2017
15 comments

Note:   Our internet crashed due to a violent storm.  I cannot correspond with any of you until it is fixed, hopefully in a week or two. My postings have been prescheduled, so they will continue.  It’s storming as this additional note is being typed on a tiny cellphone.

 

 

Note:  The following reflects my personal outlook regarding the best types of poetry; if the poetry that you write or that you happen to be fond of is not of the type that i most admire, it does not mean that it is not valid poetry for you; (it does not mean that it is not interesting to me ; one finds many types of poetry interesting).  Everyone has different tastes.  Please do not be offended if the following poem does not reflect your viewpoints on poetry.

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If it takes your breath away

           and helps you see the world with less fragmentation,

then that’s poetry

 

If it encourages you to take better care

           of Mother Nature and of yourself(who is part of her),

then that’s poetry

 

If it goes beyond mediocrity,sameness,and bourgeois values…

           causing you to not merely see through others’ eyes,

then that’s poetry

 

If it takes away the crass separation between

           the observer and the observed,

then that’s poetry

 

If it merely enthusiastically entertains you 

            without a profoundly deeper meaning,

then that’s not poetry

 

If it merely helps you to fit in

           with the copiers,the mimics,and the perpetually indifferent,

then that’s not poetry

 

If it fixates you with more mere details to maintain a blindspot 

           regarding truth for the rest of your so-called life,

then that’s not poetry

 

If it helps you to see

           beyond the ordinary,

then that’s poetry

 

If it peels away your stiff,robotic dependence

           on the patterns and symbols of others,

then that’s poetry

 

If it comes to you uninvited,silently in the middle of the night

           bringing immense insight,true bliss,and vast understanding,

then that’s poetry

 

If it helps you to actually feel

           rather than to merely mechanically react and think,

then that’s poetry

 

House Hunting (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

House Hunting (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

Post

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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That’d be not ignoring the health of the environment…

June 9, 2017
19 comments

 

These isn’ts and aren’ts

           care not beyond what they were taught

which(by the way)wasn’t worth mentioning

 

These can’ts and nevers

           trapped in sorrow’s mustn’ts and measures

never really move(though free they think they are)

 

When’ll “wouldn’t have a clue” ever transcend

           shouldn’t’s dominance?

Mightn’t hasn’t’s pain 

           be why’s responsibility?

 

Where’ll we be when we transcend mankind’s empty should’ves

            to,instead,keep nature’s ’tisn’ts always from happening?

 

 

Great Blue Heron (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Great Blue Heron standing on one leg. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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All Hail the Queen!

May 26, 2017
25 comments

 

 

She’s the most regal queen 

         that ever walked the earth

She servants in the hundreds has

         who depend on her for birth

 

Royal jelly fed to her 

         for a weighty amount of time

formed her different from the rest

         and kept her in her prime

 

Bees are Nature’s gift to flowers

         and to blossoming trees

Without them not as much beauty

         dancing in the breeze

 

If their kingdom you would love 

         to honor and reverently bless

consume more organics and in your monarchical yard

         spray chemicals much less

 

 

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[The larger bee — in the center of the top photo, with the gold marking placed on its back — is the Queen.  In the bottom photo, young bee larva can be seen in the comb (that the worker bees have been feeding).  Many thanks to Chad McGinnis for allowing me to photograph; Chad is the beekeeper of these fine bees.]

Queen bee and worker bees (bees of Chad McGinnis) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Bee Larva and Bees. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017