All Posts Tagged ‘psychology’

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Regarding the Nature of Fear

April 26, 2019
13 comments

 

 

In order to have psychological fear, psychological time is a fundamental necessity.  (Thinking and psychological time are not two separate things.) Without some protrusion of thought about some distant event in the future, there would be no psychological fear.  That distance (that the mind fabricates about the future) necessarily involves space (and sequential duration)… which are projected by (and “as”) the mind.  “In the future, something terrible might happen.”  “In the future, I might not have enough friends.”  There may be innumerable fears, such as the two aforementioned ones, that can plague a human’s mind.  Then one may say that one would like to get rid of the many fears that one has.  Somewhat ironically, the very desire to get rid of these fears is (in a real way) an extension of fear; it (itself) is, in a big way, an extension of (or precursor to) more fear.

Who is dealing (internally) with the fears?  If one is looking at the fears with a feeling of control or manipulation, then one is assuming that the fears exist at some distance (to somehow “manipulate”).  However, (psychologically, whether we like it or not) the manipulator is not separate from the manipulated; the two are both part of the thought/thinking process… and (in a big way) are not two separate things.  Trying to “get rid” of the fear causes the mind to fabricate the controller, the “I” or the “me” who is allegedly separate from the fear. 

Many types of sequential thinking (i.e., many forms of sequential thinking) — in most people — trigger thoughts that project (often needless) fear about what may happen in the future (along with thoughts of an “I” or a “me” that will be dealing with things).   (Sequential thinking that reflects order is very good; sequential thinking — especially the muddled, psychological kind learned from miseducation — that reflects disorder is bad.)  A keen perception that observes this whole process (and that goes beyond fabricating a separate “me” apart from the fear) has gone beyond friction and then has tremendous energy, wholeness, and insight.  Insight is timeless energy; most people, unfortunately, waste energy.   Timeless energy is beyond the chaos that manifests as mere psychological time.  (In true silence there is great energy/insight; however, there is no “I” or “me” who can take one to that silence through the process of sequential time.) 

 

 

Drops from Above … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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I am a kid!

March 11, 2019
44 comments

 

 

I am a kid
trapped in an old man’s body
i fly kites
i perpetually chase insects and frogs
i still often gaze in wonder through a magnifying glass
i still think that grown-ups are yucky
i love watching toads in the woods
i keep fish and shrimp as pets and stare at them for hours
i hunt fossils and love everything about dinosaurs and prehistoric life
i unendingly question
and i still learn best away from
boring school

 

 

Mr. Toadster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Conditioned Responses and You

March 8, 2019
28 comments

 

 

To be one series of conditioned responses after another, each and every day — and please excuse me for saying so — is a rather lackadaisical way to be.  It merely entails letting what was poured into you (over time, by society) internally flutter around to emerge out again (externally) slightly modified, slightly altered (but essentially being the same-old-thing).  It is the way most people are, and it is the way the bureaucrats want you to remain.   They want you to emit what was injected into you.  The powers-that-be don’t want any Walt Whitmans, John Lennons, or Rosa Parks questioning things.  No way!  The powers-that-be want to everyone to robotically conform and nicely fit into their prearranged patterns.  Period.  They want everyone to remain being the cogs in the nice prearranged machine.   The powers-that-be are themselves part of that humongous machine and they will use domination, force, and will blindly do anything to preserve it.  Reacting, day in and day out, only like you were programmed (or miseducated) to react… is a very mechanistic/machine-like way of being.  Most people do not question enough.  Most people do not perceive enough.

Real freedom exists beyond mere conditioned responses.  To dwell in (and “as”) real freedom may be an arduous task that may not (at all) be possible for the halfhearted.  Real freedom may involve getting laughed at, ridiculed, hated, spit on, and ostracized.  Real freedom may involve going beyond a fallacious essence that was given to you to exist as.  Real freedom is a precious jewel that no money can buy, that no amount of bartering can acquire. 

 

 

 

Spider Web Sugar Candy … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Depression and Sorrow…

September 16, 2018
19 comments

 

 

Many people suffer from depression and sorrow. Many take pharmaceutical antidepressants and regularly go to clinics to receive therapy.  Of course, for some, it may involve issues based on heredity and diet.  For many, it entails accumulated psychological problems.  Most, when they were much younger, did not have such issues; in youth, they were filled with wondrous curiosity and inner vitality. Many, as they age, become jaded and unhappy, bored with the same-old-things and with the monotony of it all.

A large part of the problem lies in wrong education. Most, throughout their education, were not encouraged to be keenly aware of their own minds… to be aware of the essence of thought and thinking and to explore beyond the realm that thought and thinking manifest as. Most, from society as it currently is structured, were taught to cherish and exclusively dwell in the process of thinking… in mostly math and reading and such, and not so much with wholeness and integrity.  Few were encouraged, in their youth, to question everything and to be free from mere standard ways/procedures. These days, almost all of us are immured within the walls of thought/thinking. Most exclusively dwell in (and “as”) thought/thinking… and very few value going beyond that domain. Most have put all of their eggs into that one basket; in that, they dwell.  That basket is like a small, limited prison.  Many minds are imprisoned (i.e., deeply embedded) in dogmas, beliefs, presuppositions, antiquated systems, and isolating boundaries.

As one has said so many times before, thinking is always symbolic, always second-hand, limited, and merely representational. Yet so many cling to thinking and unquestionably exist almost exclusively as what it is. Even when most of us look at things, we are looking with (and through) the screen of thinking; such thinking involves labeling, categorizing, classifying, identifying, and pigeonholing. When most look at things, they are primarily looking with the memory bank (i.e., through retained knowledge). Such a memory bank is from the past and is always old, always of stored data. They look with (and from) the stored (old) past… and they inevitably get bored while they feel stale and full of the mundane. With this situation, antidepressants and clinical so-called experts can only help so much.  One of the functions of the human mind is to be of order and to transcend sorrow; transcending sorrow is, in itself, order.

A mind of deep awareness can often look at things without merely using the storehouse of old and stuffy memory. To perceive without relying on the storehouse of dead memory (and stale patterns of remembrance) is a living art. There is no method to this art. It does not involve old patterns that you can absorb or practice to improve yourself over time. Using thought when it is necessary but often going beyond it, the wise mind sagaciously realizes that profound bliss is not a mere remembrance. Profound joy is not labeling everything and then looking at everything through (and “as”) dead labels. To perceive without the burden of the past is real living. Real living is not the past perpetually relabeling things (with endless symbols) into the present and future. The mind that goes beyond “perception through mere symbolism and fragmented mental constructs” is a liberated, whole, free mind full of joy. 

 

All Tied Up In Knots… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Upon Awakening

August 31, 2018
25 comments

 

 

I am not the problems, this morning,
upon waking up,
that i went to bed with.
This waking is a real awakening,
a true awakening.
It is not an awakening to some second-
hand religion or separative flag
that was shoved down my throat.
It is not an awakening to what others 
have said that i was in the past.
It is even beyond what i thought i was
in the past.
It is, very possibly, a true renewal,
a true awakening
beyond the past images and labels
about myself and others.
It is not the old and stale past
getting out of bed; it is
newness, pristine perception,
and whole, healthy action
beyond mere reaction.
It is perception beyond the secondhand images
implanted by a largely immoral society.
We’ll not miss that nightmarish,
assembly-line-brain of conditioning!
The old, jaundiced brain upstairs is dis
              ­app
ear  (arh-whoooooo)
               ing
“So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m going back to my plow!”  

 

 

Mushrooms deep in the woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Habits

August 12, 2018
36 comments

 

 

Many people do things habitually, mechanically, without thinking, without much awareness, in very robotic ways.  The mind gets used to functioning in (and “as”) habit; dullness, and incessant routine set in, making the mind more and more repetitive, more and more machine-like.  People get so used to repeating the same set of routines day after day, month after month, year after year, such that they hardly know (or try) anything different.  (Air-polluting, fossil fuel spewing vacations aren’t a way out of this, by the way.)

Many people mindlessly and habitually cling to what they were taught, religiously, politically, nationally, ethically, socially, culturally, at home and in the office.  To them, “THIS IS THE WAY THINGS MUST BE DONE,” and that is that.  Then they remain teaching their children to dwell in the same grooves, to function in the same patterns.  Anyone who questions the status quo is considered a trouble-maker or some kind of freak and is cast out.  It may be, however, that, in such an atmosphere, true creativity and true “aliveness” is squelched.  In such an environment, the truly insightful and the truly creative person is considered an oddball.  

Be one of the lemmings if you want to (like most want to), but as for that… well, it’s not for me.  Like Einstein, i don’t give a rat’s behind about “fitting-in” or about superficial appearances.  It’s the deeper things that matter, and you can’t go deeper if you are stuck in superficial paradigms and one-dimensional routines.

 

 

Blue Damsel… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018