All Posts Tagged ‘psychology’

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Fundamentally Erroneous

June 16, 2020
31 comments

To be fundamentally wrong is one thing. But to be fundamentally erroneous with regard to the basic framework or essence of one’s whole psyche is extraordinarily significant. From the day that you were born, they coddled you with warm words that supported the imagery of a center… a central dominating “controller” that is at the core of consciousness dominating and running everything. However, as we’ve mentioned in past blogs, scientists have split the brain (via splitting the corpus callosum) and have created two separate fields of consciousness. The center is fictitious (yet everyone believes in it).

The repetitive operation of a fictitious center — that is not really central at all — creates much mischief; it is separative, illusory, fragmentary, and power-oriented; it depends upon separative borders; it creates a circumference around itself. It, additionally, is a waste of time and energy. Little wonder why there is so much human havoc in the world. We operate with distorted (mental) equipment. Most humans are “off the beam.” Look at the world around you. Look at the narcissistic, sociopathic leaders in America and the world.

How can stability and harmony deeply exist if the essence of consciousness is based on a false premise? We say things like, “I’m working at improving my memory.” You are your memory… and there is no you separate from memory (using it from a distance). Then we surmise that without a center, we will not be secure in eternity. On the contrary, it is the very clinging to a dominating, illusory center that negates the full and comprehensive understanding of beautiful eternity. Distortion cannot perceive the fundamental nature of eternity clearly.

Mr. Lightning Bug waiving Hello on the Fern Plant… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2020
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Goodness and Fear

May 11, 2020
24 comments

It is intelligent to be fearful during this Covid-19 thing. Not being fearful would be a form of foolishness and ignorance. Fear has its place. Is one separate from the fear that one has? Well, one doesn’t merely “have” or “own” fear. Psychological fear is actually part of what one is. If that part gets to be too habitual, too excessive, too dominant… then unnecessary disorder manifests. What is it that is going to “get rid” of excessive fear? What is it that is going to “control” fear from a distance? Is it going to be a supposedly separate set of habitual fabricated images and “learned mental patterns” that are designed to think that they are manipulating fears that are “there” (at a distance) to manipulate? (Such supposed psychological distance is fallacious and is a barbaric inheritance that maintains conflict and illusion. The internal psychological distance creates a false duality; it manifests as the “controller” and the supposed separate “controlled.”)

Security is important in terms of being healthy with food, clothing, and shelter. However, in the quest for mere self-oriented security, the mind-heart can become cold, mechanical, robot-like, over-anxious, and dependent upon strange and unethical patterns. Of course, in the present crisis, if you do not have enough food, fear is a very legitimate factor; good governments and groups need to do more to help people; currently, they are not doing enough. When i was young — and not so young — i quit a good number of jobs because i did not feel that what they were doing (or making) in them was ethical. I left quickly without much concern for what may happen to me. I like what Senator Bernie Sanders recently said: “We must break away from the worldview that everybody should try to become a billionaire — and you can lie, cheat, and steal if your goal is to make billions and not pay attention to the suffering of others.”

Life, real life, is so much more than a Monopoly game.
Compassion, these days, is not prevalent enough. But $ in people’s brains certainly is. Many cling to the apron strings of $ and security… and the real joy, extraordinary spiritual bliss, and meaning of life, unfortunately, pass them by. (Kudos to truly dedicated medical staff and other critical needs and essential needs people working at risk — selflessly — to help others in these very precarious times.)

We think internal fear is there to manipulate (at some kind of distance) and we think organisms that suffer are merely “there at a distance.” We may have been taught wrongly.

Mushrooms don’t have to Social Distance. Photo by Thomas Peace (from a distance) c. 2020.
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The Controller of Thought

November 29, 2019
13 comments

[This post is very similar to a recent post, but reiterating some things is necessary (for it to possibly “sink in”); there are also some new twists.

This will end my posts now for a while (as i had scheduled them); i will take a break (after my recent heart attack) and will not be posting for a while. My cardiologist said that my heart sustained minimal damage, which is good. He said, “Let this be a warning sign.” Warning sign! I was living like a monk and doing everything right! Hopefully, the medication that they are giving me will help keep the bad things from progressing… even though i am no huge fan of Big Pharma.]

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Is there a separate controller of thought? Or is such a “separate controller” a product (an extension) of thought itself? Despite what we were taught, it really is the latter. Thought/thinking is a field or sequence of reactions. Positing that a separate controller exists just extends one’s (learned) attachment for some dominating factor, imagined powerful center, or “internal boss.” A very orderly mind can function quite nicely, thank you, without believing in some fictitious (imagined) boss as its “center.”

When someone states “I meditate for 20 minutes a day,” it implies, for one thing, that meditation is something that one can “decide” to do, and it additionally implies that there is a separate “controller” or “regulator,” a dominating entity that makes decisions controlling the thought process.
However, the real facts may be that all thoughts are totally conditioned reactions (i.e., symbolic responses to stimuli) and that positing a real “center” or “controller” directly contributes to crude, limited fields of separation. For example, there is the supposed separation between the controller and his or her thoughts. But the inner “controller” is an extension or protrusion of thought and is not at all separate from what thought is. (As we’ve said before, when one speaks to others, one must occasionally use the words “I” or “me,” even though such usage is rather primitive and involves a rather barbaric language system.) However, often thinking (or projecting) a central “I” internally tends to give one a fragmentary, separative view towards others, toward other life forms, and it even creates internal separation/conflict: “me” and the separate thoughts that “I” manipulate. This internal separation then (obviously) extends outwardly into the world. “I” am separate from their suffering… or nature is separate from “me.” The aforementioned sentence is an example of a very primitive, distorted, mindset; such mindsets are, unfortunately, very common, hence all of the indifference and lack of love existing in the world.

True meditation does not occur as a result of some thought process. All thought processes are secondhand (conditioned) reactions (i.e., aftereffects) and a mere secondhand reaction (or set of reactions) can never decide to be what is whole and beyond reaction. Meditation is a thing that occurs uninvited when the mind is not foolishly trying to make it happen. Realizing that one is not something separate from a series of thoughts (as those thoughts are taking place) involves wisdom that allows true meditation to take place. And, as we’ve written before, one cannot merely “know” that one is meditating; it is beyond the field of the known.

The beauty of meditation is that its wholeness and purity may allow the mind to see and exist beyond limitation. That limitlessness is of the eternal, beyond distortion.

Ant on Wild Celery Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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Human Motives

November 15, 2019
8 comments

Much of what we do involves motive. Our reactions, throughout the day, largely emanate from motives. Oftentimes these motives are learned (i.e., absorbed) habitual responses, and the end-products (that they unfold into) usually are rather mundane and ordinary. The ramifications of this tend to be conformity, sameness, and a lack of real perception and real creativity.

Such sameness and conformity may not at all be beneficial for life as a whole. Superficial motives often keep one in stagnation, while imitating others. Such habitual motives are a form of inaction and are a wastage of energy. Beliefs stem from motives, and beliefs (with their separative groups) tend to cause division in the world.

The innocent/wise mind, throughout the day, can often look without mere motive. Such looking, such perception, is uncontaminated, whole, and pristine. Seeing beyond the ordinary, it flowers in insights and depth not merely dependent upon direction. Mere motive always has a direction. Such direction corrupts. Only what is beyond direction and motive can, perhaps, commune with the timeless, the immeasurable whole.

Hover Fly on Eastern Daisy Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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To Exist as Nothing Psychologically

November 1, 2019
3 comments

To exist as nothing, psychologically, is not an unfavorable, weak state. Going beyond everything that you have been and believe in — instantly, without motive — is one of the most positive things, for it is of innocence, wholeness (beyond fragmentary reactions), and freedom. In fact, always continuing as mere reaction (from the old memory bank of stale ideas and images) is the continuation of sorrow. Sorrow must inevitably occur when mental things are second-hand and are constituted of mere reactions. Of course, thought/thinking must frequently manifest for one to do certain necessary things proficiently, with care. However, remaining in (and “as”) thought/thinking habitually, when such thinking is unnecessary, is sorrow and over-reacting. (It’s like endlessly clinging to a stream of shadows when — with deeper awareness — such shadows can be seen to be superficial and often rather insignificant.)

We, unfortunately, were miseducated to associate internal emptiness with internal poverty. Pure, uncontaminated, psychological emptiness is the most positive action, for it is of a pristine, orderly wholeness; merely being the reaction of thinking, however, is essentially inaction… dullness. Unfabricated emptiness is of a wholeness that is beyond mere sequential reaction in (and “as”) time; in that is vast energy, real freedom.

Monarch Madness … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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Einstein, Spacetime, and the Fallacious Belief in a Central Ego…

August 30, 2019
18 comments

 

 

Hermann Minkowski and Albert Einstein taught us about how space and time are not two entirely different things but are, together, one.  However, most people just do not get what that means, psychologically and fundamentally, including a lot of supposedly smart scientists.  Years ago, when i was much younger, i used to hang around the quantum physicist Professor David Bohm, whom Einstein fondly called his “spiritual son.”  Bohm was a famous scientist in his own right and when we discussed things, i was already well aware of the implications of spacetime and what that meant psychologically and on a larger scale.

Space and time are not two separate entities; together they are one.  If you look at nature and people merely with psychological separation, with psychological space, as most people do, that very separation helps to support and produce an abstracted, psychological “I” or “me.”  If you perceived without such (learned) separation, the “I” or “me” need not exist (which would be fundamentally way more accurate).  If you say, “I will be trying to be ‘good’ so that I can eventually get to heaven,” you are supposing that you are something separate from time (in time)… rather than the actuality of being what time is.   Your brain consists of matter (which often functions to react as thoughts), and matter is space, spacetime.   Of course, we have to use time (in the physical world) to get to work on time or to be at a specified meeting on time.  To use time to get somewhere psychologically or spiritually, however, is largely fallacious.   Wishing to advance over time spiritually presupposes that you are “in time” and are not what “time is.”  Mentally manufacturing a separation between you and time (except for certain time-oriented physical things, like the ones mentioned… and for using our crude, unfortunate language system) is often a process of wasting energy and is inviting great deception.  Both the aforementioned psychological space separation and the psychological time separation are illusory; together, both help to create the fallacious and selfishly separate ego.  (One cannot be in communion with the timeless if one is a series of fragments of time that erroneously presuppose that they are “in time” advancing spiritually.)

Eternal and orderly phenomena can exist (in humans) without the ego (i.e., without any psychological center).  As we have often suggested, the central ego is essentially fallacious and illusory.  Habitually looking from (and “as”) it is an illusion; it is a fallacy that most people habitually cling to.  Like a man who thinks that he sees vast water in a desert — you know that age-old mirage — and insists on fishing in it non-stop, stay completely with the ego if you wish.

When discussing things in public with people, we can still politely use the word “I,” while (all the while) being fully aware of its fallacious and deceiving attributes; it is one of the misfortunes of living in a society with a barbaric system of language.  Professor Bohm diligently worked on helping develop a more accurate and scientifically evolved system of language, which he called the Rheomode.  Later in life, Bohm learned of the Native American Blackfoot language, and also of other members of this Native American language family, all of which are very strongly verb-based and do not divide the world into solid categories (i.e., nouns) but, instead, describe in terms of processes and related movements.   Link to short Professor David Bohm Video.

 

 

Green Treehopper … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Our Neural Networks and the fallacious “I”…

August 23, 2019
18 comments

 

 

Our neural networks — much like a computer — are hardwired and conditioned to accept and fully believe in a central (free-will oriented) regulatory  agent whom we call “I.”  This “I” to each of us, seems very concrete, dependable (i.e., always there to control), and stable.  We never deeply question whether such a “center” really exists in the first place.  I maintain that there is no legitimate “I,” which, of course, seems contradictory, (due to the crude structure and barbaric evolutionary phase of our current language system).  

When one talks to people about there being no “I” they tend to feel rather apprehensive, threatened, and psychologically uncomfortable.  After all, to them, one is threatening the very core of their psychological framework.  Our physical body, the organism, perceives largely through the eyes.  The eye tends to be what focuses on and examines things.  A similitude exists in us (mentally) between the physical “eye” and our concept of the “I” of the mind.  We say that the “I” examines; we say that the “I” perceives; we say it was decided by “me.”  The brain’s associative patterns are, in pretty much everyone, deeply hardwired and conditioned to constantly be referring to and depending upon this “I.”  (The physiology of the brain is much like a walnut, and scientists have — repeatedly,  in different human individuals — surgically divided the two halves, producing two separate fields of consciousness in each skull, each permanently existing with no clue as to what the other half is thinking.) Our conditioning for so many mental things is deeply pre-programmed in us, and many factors, including physical health, past education, brain chemistry, and genetic influences, pretty much nullify any real “free-will” completely, whether we like it or not.  We must act — not react — carefully and diligently, and we cannot do that if we believe in a lot of crap that isn’t true.  In 1932, Albert Einstein told the Spinoza society:
“Human beings in their thinking, feeling, and acting are not free
but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions.”

What we are saying is that this “I,” in a tremendous way, is fallacious and unnecessary.  Clinging to it is like clinging to that childhood Raggy Ann Doll that was mentioned years ago in one of my earlier blogs… clinging to it as if it was real, alive, and a dependable pal.  We could live perfectly, compassionately, and timelessly without clinging to our fallacious “I”s.  Scientists, as was mentioned before in my blogging, have suggested that our universe likely operates in a totally different way than what we think is happening now… and they, the writer maintains, are correct.  It was, many years ago, when i understood the fictitiousness of the “I” and the foolhardiness of the concept of “free-will,” when real security, profundity, insight into eternity, and real order came… (and not before).

This life is relatively short — in the few years that we have to live — and if you don’t get it right, via understanding and insight, if you (instead) continue to cling to a lot of rotten, crude fallacies, then the consequences are eternal (and not nearly as sweet as they could be).   There is great beauty and timeless splendor in life if life is seen without much illusion.  

 

 

Neural Networks or maybe just Queen Anne’s Lace … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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on Experience

August 9, 2019
3 comments

 

 

Experience… what is it, and why do we exclusively depend upon it?  A lot of people say, “I’ve learned from experience”; or they say, “I will learn from my experiences.”  Many people go on expensive and lengthy vacations to far distant places to get “exotic experiences.”

Experiencing has its place.  However, it is very limited.  Many crave “new” experiences… but are such experiences — all based on patterns of recognition — really all that “new”?  I am suggesting that fundamentally, intrinsically, they are all very much the same and are not really so “new”; they all depend on — and add to — patterns within the field of the mundane known.  (That is why many of us retain a deep, inherent sadness, even though we travel to places that should seem new and exciting.  Merely existing as a brain that is based primarily on patterns and the recognition of patterns… is sorrow.  But that is what most of us were trained to exist as.)  Most of us were brainwashed to crave various “wonderful” experiences (i.e., more and more experiences)… through commercials, magazines, examples in books, and by what friends and relatives say and do.  (Experiences are never enough, though, because they are essentially limited.  But nobody tells you that.)

Evading experience (on the other hand) can be a very childish thing, wherein one endlessly sits cross-legged, for example, thinking that one is accomplishing something special.  (You know… all that phony so-called meditation stuff, which is really a glorified form of self-hypnosis.)

Is the experiencer all so separate from what the experience is?  If one examines intelligently, the answer is rather obvious: “No.”  We look with (and “as”) accumulated patterns and labels at things, pigeonhole them in the rather musty memory bank system and call the experience “new.”  To really see something new, perception itself must be dynamically new, fundamentally different, and not based on old, stale systems (and patterns) of observation.  Most people are incapable of that, and you don’t get it by sitting in a corner with your legs crossed.  Additionally, you don’t get it by reading traditional so-called “religious” books that have been severely distorted over time.  

There is a deep, orderly intelligence that is a true spiritual blossoming that is beyond the thoughts and fabrications of man… beyond all of the rituals, stone temples, and concocted patterns.  (Those fabrications are all old, and the timeless, miraculous new does not dwell as them.)  Deep intelligence is a dynamic harmony, a deep order that effortlessly flows between experiencing and going beyond experiencing.  (Constant experiencing and “accumulating” only builds up the illusion of the self.)  The “going beyond experiencing” factor (or dimension) is never planned or mentally arranged for.  Deep, spontaneous newness and dynamic creativity are never part of a plan or contrived methodology.

 

 

Wildflower Pods … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Love exists beyond mere separation…

July 12, 2019
23 comments

 

 

Instead of being images “about things,” can the mind perceive beyond all of the absorbed mental patterns and labels that it has accumulated?  In actuality, most minds are a result of the accumulation; (i.e, they actually are the accumulation).  This “accumulation” often intrinsically involves “looking at things via separation” as one of its core attributes.

Perception beyond mere pigeonholing can take place.  (We are not suggesting that one should not label things; we are suggesting that one need not always be doing it habitually.  It takes dynamic intelligence to go beyond robotic habit.)  Real perception, beyond the mere separation between subject and object, can take place.  However, it takes real innocence, real simple-purity to do that and, unfortunately, the masses are (for the most part) incapable of that.  (However, corruption does have its trivial perks.)

 

 

Nothing between us… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

 

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The Patterns of the Mind

July 5, 2019
14 comments

 

The associative patterns of the mind, what are their functions?  Do they exist merely for us to acquire, accumulate, attain things (including food and shelter), and differentiate with (and from) an element of separation?  Do such patterns dictate — to us — what we see? 

We usually look at things through labels, through images that we have learned.  A person often distinguishes things (at a distance, separate from himself).  The patterns that we hold dictate what we see.  However, we are these absorbed patterns; we do not actually hold them; they are not separate from what we essentially are.  Real wholeness, real integrity, real love, may involve looking beyond the patterns, beyond the old, stuffy mental accumulations, beyond the labels, beyond the mental separative distance.

 

 

Three in One … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

 

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Goodness beyond the self…

June 28, 2019
12 comments

 

 

Unpremeditated goodness is often rather motiveless in that it disregards mere efforts to satisfy the self.  Satisfying the self is crude, gross, unevolved, and is what most people do.  There is a goodness that is unattached-spontaneous, free of the illusory ego, simple, beyond fragmentary thought, and innocent in the way it acts.  It is not a mere reaction but, rather, something else is involved.  That “something else” is the whole, or is a perception of and from wholeness.  Wholeness doesn’t depend upon illusory parts.  Parts and fragments — especially when they are illusory, and most of them are — are not what wholeness covets.  Wholeness is highly intelligent action, though not merely of the intellectual kind.  Wholeness is action, not mere reaction.   

Mere reaction feeds the self, with all of its gross demands.  The self, in fact, is a product of mere reaction.  Crude reactions nourish and sustain the self.  Without such reactions, the image and repetitious movements of self would not be.  Wholeness operates differently than what reactions and fragments entail.  In wholeness, a vast intelligence operates. There is little vastness/intelligence in what is fragmentary and isolated.

 

 

Orange Fairy Cup Fungus at the base of an Oak Tree, Illinois … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Quietness and Awareness

June 14, 2019
18 comments

 

 

Quietness and awareness often go together, like a sweet aroma and a flower.  A mind that is constantly chattering to itself, repeating what it has learned or absorbed… and then merely habitually re-repeating such things in (remembered) altered mental arrangements and recollections for itself, does not have the pristine energy to look freshly and directly beyond the known.  The known is the past — as stored, old patterns of memory — and the beauty of real “newness” cannot take place when mere repetition from (and of) the memory bank takes place.  

One cannot practice awareness any more that one can practice real quietness.  A profound and living awareness/quietness is never the mere outcome of repetitive, learned procedures or known systems.  Profound innocence can occur when one is not filled with what others have taught you to do.  It is a motiveless looking, and most people, unfortunately, merely look with (and from) motives.  Most are caught in a cause-and-effect framework; they live that way, they work that way, and they are programmed exclusively in that.   Real joy seldom occurs in a mind trapped in such repetitive cause-and-effect oriented motives.  In the sequence of things, the cause becomes the effect and the effect becomes another cause.  To merely be one conditioned after-effect (after another) throughout life (in such a robotic sequence)… may not be real living whatsoever.   (It would be wonderful if we could easily disinter such rather cadaverous minds out of the conditioned quagmire that they are in but, alas, it is not easily done.)  Of course, we must engage in (and “as”) cause-effect occurrences often; however, to merely be stuck in that mode is a shame.  An innocent (naturally quiet) mind can look beyond the crude sequence of things and that is when wholeness (beyond mere ordinary effects) and love really blossom.

 

Beyond the crude sequence of things… small Eastern Gray Beardtongue wildflower on the forest floor. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Most People Are Afraid…

June 7, 2019
19 comments

 

 

Most people are deeply afraid of intrinsically being nothing.  They, deep within, have enormous fear about existing as emptiness.  They’ll “try” various meditative techniques to “attain some kind of emptiness that they can control,” but these techniques all depend on time (which is merely a postponement and — really — a duplicitous psychological excuse to use a so-called psychological center to continue to be manipulating and “getting there”).   They may conjure up a fabricated emptiness (under their control) and continue to pretend that it is something special (that “they” have); this further reinforces internal possession and, with it, the “I” of domination/possession.  Profound emptiness is not merely brought about by any psychological cause, by any psychological effort.  However, the exclusive cause-effect mentality has been deeply ingrained within us.  That is how most of us operate and that is the only way most of us know how to operate.   Psychological — not physical — ending to the known neither requires effort, technique, nor time; really, it is timeless living.  Regarding psychological emptiness, it is foolish to run away from it (and it is foolish to fabricate it).  (Accurate thinking has its place, but it is only a tool; one part of a conditioned “network of tools” identifying itself as “the controller” is a form of crudity and ignorance.)

The nothingness that most conjure up, unfortunately, is a fabrication.  The beauty of true nothingness/emptiness is that… when it actually occurs, the magnificence of wholeness and profound eternity exists.  To be deeply afraid of that, then, is delusive and fallacious.  

There was a man
who was afraid of the emptiness of a flower
He ran from that emptiness
Ignorance fled from what was the door to immeasurably immense beauty

 

 

Flower Power (Emptiness) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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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

Post

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

Post

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

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Comparison

August 5, 2018
17 comments

 

Comparison is often such a vulgar and unnecessary thing.  Many people, throughout life, continue to habitually compare themselves with others.  Those “others” are often very standard, ordinary, bourgeois, and dull.  People compare their home, livelihood, lifestyle, and overall life, with others.  Comparison invites imitation; imitation reinforces “second-handedness” and conformity to formulated, standardized “set patterns.”  Fear often emanates from comparison…  “Will I be as successful as them?”   “Am I too different?”  Comparison often paves the way to jealousy and superficial showing-off and boasting.  (Some people, for instance, go ga-ga, trying to have the hugest and “most pretty” home; this is so childish and superficial.)  Taunting another may often involve comparison.  Comparison thrives in the world of the opposites (where differences are often magnified).  Comparison can make the mind dull; it can be what nourishes mental sorrow. 

The wise mind can exist where comparison is seen for what it is and where it is put in its appropriate place (where its limited aspects are seen).  Such a mind can be of a profound joy where comparison does not often needlessly enter.  When the mind compares, the mind is comparison (within the limited corridor of the opposites).  Uniqueness and spontaneous insight usually do not ever depend upon comparison.  Comparison and contrasting correlations can be very useful at times, but the mind need not depend upon them as deeply as it usually does.  Perceiving directly, without employing comparison, is often very significant and profound.  

 

 

No need to compare! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Post

Space

July 29, 2018
17 comments

 

Few of us, so very few of us, have deep, immeasurable space within (and “as”) the mind.  Most minds are endlessly chattering about one thing or another, filled with series after series of limited thoughts (which are merely symbols), images, fears, opinions, musical tunes, and past experiences.  Most minds are satisfied with remaining cluttered by what was poured into them.  Most go from one series of reacting thoughts and repetitive reconfigurations to another… endlessly.  Being satisfied with that is the norm, and that leads to depression, melancholiness, and division.

This space — of thought — which most people adhere to, and consist of, is of limitation.  It is the small space of fragmentary symbols, which thoughts actually are.  It is the little space between “self” and “other life forms.”  It is the fallacious space between a supposed “me” and the so-called distant thoughts that it allegedly controls.   It is the space between the past and the future.  It is the space between “us” and “them.”  It is the little space of sorrow.

Remain plastered there, if you wish.  However, it may be most prudent to intelligently consider going beyond the norm.  Will going beyond the norm necessitate more methodologies (from the stale past of the old teachers and religious/philosophical/political leaders)?  Will going beyond the norm require following certain patterns in time, as in the ways we have merely functioned in throughout the past?  Surely not!  Love cannot exist deeply and profoundly if limited patterns and limited space crowd the mind.  It is the mind that is full of walls of separation and limitation that is the prejudiced mind, the hating mind, the callous and uncaring mind.  Love cannot enter what is limited, fragmented, contaminated, and “unwhole.”  

 

Perpetuity… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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The Inner and the Outer

July 8, 2018
9 comments

 

The separation of the inner from the outer involves standard perception which largely involves misperception and barbaric acceptances.  Such misperception involves conflict, separation, isolation, and distinct borders.  A prudent entity who intelligently transcends mere inner-outer frameworks of perception is not a dull mind that walks into walls or that steps into busy traffic.  Rather, such a person exists beyond old and cadaverous viewpoints and worn-out, primitive perspectives.  Only such a person can be of real order; only such a person can be fully genuine, deeply compassionate, and of vast integrity and virtue.  (By the way, idealistically saying that one is “one with nature,” which is all the fashion these days, is not it!  A limited, fragmented mind can easily identify itself with anything, but it still remains a fragmented mind.)

Thought and stored memory feed the separation of the inner from the outer.  Too many of us worship a false inner and are indifferent about the vast outer.  A separate perceiver cannot be the complete understanding of the whole as long as the fragmentary self-projected images and thoughts of an isolated, independent observer are maintained via learned effort.   Any state of opposition, such as what a concocted, separate “0bserver” brings about, further nourishes indifference and isolation.  Thoughts and “image making” form the perceiver, and without thoughts and mental images, without repeated effort and psychological struggle, the perceiver would not be.  The psychological ending of the so-called separate perceiver is not something to be frighted of; the true ending of limited images, symbolic patterns, and accepted barriers is not frightening; rather, it is liberation and involves profound insight.  Holistic insight does not occur often for conflict and misperception.

 

 

Katydid Nymph and Ladybug… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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This and That

June 29, 2018
6 comments

 

an impressive this and that
a revealing why and how
won’t make the superficial mind much deeper
we might see that by now

a reading left to right
some judgment up and down
will not make the world much saner
or dissolve the patterns to which we’re bound

 

 

Young Leafhopper (around 4 mm long)…. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Bridge to a Better Future

June 24, 2018
8 comments

 

Physically, there may be a bridge to a better future.  One can eat more healthfully, exercise more, and do things to improve the environment, including building wonderful bridges.  Internally (i.e., psychologically), is there really a bridge, and who is going to cross that bridge?   Is the bridge different from what one is?  

Is the “experiencer” really something separate from the experience?  If there were no experiences, what would the “experiencer” be?  So many of us, like infantile children, want more and more pleasurable experiences.   Can there be moments when a sagacious mind exists without merely depending upon experience after experience? 

If anger takes place, can it be looked non-fragmentarily — without manufacturing separate ideals — so as to be fully aware of it (without separative space and time)?  Can there be moments when the mind (without excuses) fully sees what it is directly and with full awareness, without concocting notions of something different (that requires space and time to achieve)?  If cruelty exists, and ideals manifest of “someday not being cruel,” is the non-cruelty an actuality or is it a mere abstraction (or escape) that depends upon fabricated psychological time?… and may it be that fabricated time (with its space) fails to see cruelty instantly and fully for what it really is?  Is the thinker really something separate from thought, or are they one and the same?  Is psychological time often an escape depending upon fragmentation, fabricated space, a mentally fabricated separate “I”… and, also, a postponement?  

These questions are here for you to ask yourself; they do not exist for you to reply here with any answers.

 

from Emily Dickinson:

 

There are two Mays
And then a Must
And after that a Shall.
How infinite the compromise
That indicates I will!

 

 

 

Ebony Jewelwing… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

Post

A totally different dimension of mind…

June 3, 2018
20 comments

 

A totally different dimension of mind can take place.  What nearly all people take to be reality is a far cry from what truly exists (beyond delusion).  Most are walking around oblivious to what is really possible.  They have accepted secondhand images, secondhand patterns, secondhand symbols, dissected labels, measurements, and cold statistics to be their reality; such reality is akin to taking shadows to be concrete substances, toys to be living things, silly iPhones messages to be substantive.  Even our images of self are essentially secondhand patterns that we have assimilated and absorbed.  Then, these images of self are involved with images of another (a spouse, for instance); one set of images is involved with what are considered images of another.  A (relationship between secondhand images of self and — then, also, down the road of psychological time — secondhand images of another) may largely be based on learned, sequential patterns (of recognition and categorization); such a programmed arrangement (based merely on absorbed patterns/symbols/images) may not be much of a relationship at all.  It is a relationship of secondhand patterns.  What kind of relationship is that?

Life is tremendously much more profound and deep than what learned symbolism, categorization, and information processing are involved with.  If you just stick to those three, that the previous sentence mentions, what you are is likely normal… but you certainly may not be what goes beyond the superficial.  People all throughout life are all too willing to tell you how to think, what to do, how to live.  So many, blogs included, want to give you spiritual templates, philosophical instructions.  There are infinite “expert non-experts” out there; just today, one saw a blog wherein the author stated that to fix our life problems, we have to find the right templates, the right instructions.  It may be, however, that real life is much too vast, flowing, multidimensional, and alive for any set of cooked-up “shoulds,” instructions, blueprints, or stale templates.   

You won’t be getting any die-hard templates from me.  It may be that the timelessness of real wisdom exists only when self-concocted effort and struggle cease (psychologically).  Such ceasing involves an ending that doesn’t take time, that doesn’t rely on blueprints, instructions, or processes.  Most, however, are frightened about psychologically coming to an end (i.e., about psychological dying); most continue to cling to potty little images of self.  Therein lies sorrow; the irony is that, without psychologically ending, their sorrow will never really end.   Many of us merely depend upon (and exist “as”) patterns and symbols.  Be certain here that we are not at all suggesting ending physically; physical existence is an opportunity and a privilege that can involve keen (unspoiled) awareness and dynamic flowering.  Physical death is not for me (except for the wonderful fossils that i collect).  Psychological dying, however, is a whole other ballgame.  The psychological dying to stale, secondhand, dead symbols and images is real living.

 

from E.E.Cummings:

 

dying is fine)but Death

?o
baby
i

wouldn’t like

Death if Death
were
good:for

when(instead of stopping to think)you

begin to feel of it,dying
’s miraculous
why?be

cause dying is

perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but

Death

is strictly
scientific
& artificial &

evil & legal)

we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death

 

Wasp reflecting deeply… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Post

Fear, Understanding, and Compassion

May 20, 2018
22 comments

 

 

If psychological fear occurs and one tries to avoid that fear by indulging in all kinds of escapes, then the fear is never understood.  If one tries to suppress or subjugate the fear, then the fear is never fully understood… one is too busy being in conflict with it.   If fear arises and one has ideals about oneself being fearless, then those mental ideations prevent one from actually seeing the fear completely (because ideals and learned principles are getting in the way).  So, when fear arises, merely labeling it as something negative, or merely judging it in a “thumbs down” kind of way, clouds the full perception of the fear with secondary, learned reactions concerning it or against it.  Fear can only be profoundly understood when it is seen without extraneous factors, without learned reactions “about it.”  

Additionally, if the fear is merely seen fragmentarily, from a (learned) mental distance, then it will not be fully dealt with without friction and conflict.  Fear may not at all be what you have; fear (when it occurs) is what one actually is.  When there is no crass distance between the fear and some accepted, supposed center, then (and only then) can there be understanding without friction, without conflict; that understanding can be whole and of great intelligence.   The perceiver is not, psychologically, separate from the perceived.   So, the next time fear,  jealousy,  greed, or indifference show up in (and “as”) consciousness, can they be observed without prejudice, without merely labeling them, without denying them, without merely categorizing them with additional reactions (positive or negative), including reactions involving a separative space between the perceiver and that which is perceived?  Only then can deep learning and understanding take place.

You can’t understand something fully if you have no true relationship with it.  A relationship based on shadow-like ideals, concocted distance, and a learned and admired (though false) center, is really no relationship at all.  True and lasting compassion can only take place when real relationship exists. 

 

[Note:  The following two photos are of early spring beginnings of mushrooms.  The lower photo is of the mycelium which is, by and far, the main body of the mushroom (which grows underground).  The mushrooms we see above ground are merely the small, fruiting parts of the organism.  Mycelium — much like a neural network — in some mushrooms can spread for miles and connect with tree roots and other plants, trading nutrients and communication signals with them.  (See the movie Avatar.)  My theory is that primitive lichen, as a combination of molds and algae working symbiotically with each other… may have later evolved over time into these seemingly separate (but very connected) mushrooms-trees-and-plants.  The diminutive Lemon Drop Fungi (Bisporella citrina) are fruiting body parts of the mushroom; the Mycelium pictured are from these Lemon Drops.  The Lemon Drops are very small, each being only 1mm to 2mm in diameter.  Refer to the following blog for further interesting information on Mushrooms:  http://www.jingagustin.com/TheMushroomProject/mushroom-anatomy/ ]

 

Mushroom Primordia Caps… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Mushroom Mycelium… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

Post

Insights or Non- (Chapter 1)

May 6, 2018
15 comments

 

 

Most people are heavily conditioned by all kinds of absurd beliefs that divide them and that cause havoc in the world, especially beliefs involving nationalism, religion, politics, (and even science).  To question all beliefs, and to intelligently go beyond them, may be true wisdom.

First thing in the warm spring mornings, many birds sprightly sing to the joy of the new day, to the returning sun, and to the exhilaration of sharing! 

If many folks had Pinocchio noses, their heads would be perpetually tilted by the weight of their answers.

If you exercise the mind but not the body you are cheating a very significant and important part of what you are.

True divinity does not usually interfere with the natural laws of the cosmos… and that noninterference is, in a very real way, an expression of deep compassion.

On their way to the endearing burning candle of society’s tradition, people who look at the contrast between moths and themselves need not ignore the contrast within the moths themselves.

Divinity — though it happens very rarely in the very insane world of man — may enter and visit a very innocent mind… not ever the other way around.

Unfortunately, one doesn’t need to have “right education,” wisdom, halfway decent genetics, or even compassion, to be a parent.

Normality is a common type of insanity.

The truly intelligent human being is a blessing, not a malediction, in the lives of others and regarding the health of Mother Earth.

 

 

 

Desmia subdivisalis moth… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Psychological Order and the fictitious “Center of Control”…

April 22, 2018
20 comments

 

Sorry to be harping on this but it is a serious thing that needs attention, despite all the avoidance that miseducated people have regarding it.  As was mentioned in previous postings, when one was very young, one had a Raggedy Ann type of doll whom one carried around as a great, first-rate pal.  Then, one day, one came to the realization that the charming, smiling doll was not a real, living friend; it was fabric, stuffing, and such.  It was quite a shock at first but then one got over it very quickly (finding other interests and discovering nature).  Later in life, perception concerning the ego, or “me,” was much the same thing.  Let us say, metaphorically, that a man carries a stick around (never letting it go and even sleeping with it) day after day, month after month, year after year — just as others taught him to do — all the while believing that it was his central self, or “I,” or “me.”  Stick would feel that everything decided upon and done by thinking was what emanated (or originated) from “stick.”  Stick would be thought of to be the core essence of what one was and any suggestion to “let go” of “stick” would be construed of as utter nonsense.  Letting go of what seems to be the core of one’s essence (and means of control) would seem ludicrous and unimaginable.

The human organism can function beautifully with great harmony, insight, bliss, eternity, and order without clinging to the taught concept of an isolated/controlling “me” or “I.”  Most everyone in society, now, has a concrete ego, isolated self, a “me” that they ardently cling to, just as has been done eons ago by our primitive ancestors.  Actually look at society as it is now — with all of these “me”s and egos — with all of its chaos, wars, crimes, dishonesty, and pollution.  We must change.  We must grow beyond this nonsense.   In previous posts, one wrote about the brain as being like two halves of a walnut… and about how certain surgeries splitting these two halves — by severing the corpus callosum — left each half not knowing what the other half was thinking.  So, in actuality, two fields of consciousness were produced from one field, via advanced surgery (in living human subjects).  Times and evidence have changed; yet so many of us continue to cling to the erroneous (primitive) notion of a central “I,” a central “me” or controller.  For a very long time now, one — when thinking, instead of using the term “I,” — has been using the words of “this movement.”  Of course, for the most part in this primitive culture, one doesn’t verbally say “this movement,” instead of “I,” when actually talking to people.

“I”, “me,” and the notion of a “central controller” are all products of thought (fabrications of thought) either learned or inherited by our culture over millions of years.  “Me” depends upon (and is) a product of thought.  Clinging to that is like perpetually clinging to a little stick, fabric doll, or shadow.  Going beyond that is wisdom that does not preclude joy, bliss, insight involved with the eternal, and harmony.  On the contrary, obstinately clinging to that creates guaranteed disharmony, sorrow, and separation.  Ignorance is:  Me separate from man or so-called others.  Me separate from the environment.  Me separate from “my fears.”  Me separate from “my desires.”  Me separate from “my thoughts.”  “My religion, my country” separate from others.  (It is all so immature and involves separation that feeds conflict, friction, and endless turmoil.)  

People will read this — or will not care to read it — and go on in their standard, ordinary ways.  Even those who claim to be employing sophisticated forms of zen or meditative techniques are additionally subtly entrapped via endlessly clinging to the “me” or “central controller” in many surreptitious ways.  The brain engages in all kinds of subtle or unconscious tricks to maintain the existence of a supposed central controller who is domineering (even though no such center really exists).  One has seen this, time and time again, in many so-called “wise” others… (who have really not changed fundamentally whatsoever).  Going beyond this doesn’t demand sophisticated methods, stratagems, or meditative techniques that take time.  This demands facing something that people absolutely do not want to face; additionally, it demands going into and beyond the root of conditioning.  Most don’t really want to be bothered.  However, actual order can only come about when real seriousness exists, beyond mere fabrications.   The stick is dead; it is not part of the living tree; it is not the whole.  The whole is living and is not what symbolic thought is capable of.  An immoral, violent, primitive society has given you a stick to depend upon.  Are you still endlessly carrying it around?  Are you still relying on it, depending on it?  (Actually, it is a virtual image, a symbol that we have taken to be something real — which is even less than a dead stick — but we won’t elaborate any longer at this point.)  Profound compassion is, on the other hand, real and living; profound compassion goes far beyond mere symbols, images, and borders.

 

 

Ringo Starr… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Post

Pristine Perception… (and Proto-Primate Jaw)

April 1, 2018
19 comments

 

[Note:  The pictured fossil is no April Fools joke.  If you’d like to get a good laugh for April Fools Day, once, years ago before i retired, when i worked as a teacher for the multiply handicapped –on April Fools Day —  i was putting a slice of pizza into the microwave at work.  It was from a sack lunch that my wife, Marla, packed for me.  It looked rather sad, for a pizza. I took it out of the aluminum foil wrap and put it on a paper plate and was putting it into the microwave; it looked stale or something!  At the last second, before putting it into the microwave, i turned it upside down.  It said “Mattel” on the bottom; it was plastic!  The fries in the lunch were plastic!  The broccoli was plastic!  The chocolate in the lunch was plastic!]

 

 

Pristine perception takes place when the mind is not tarnished by the methodologies and forms that were manmade and injected into one over time.  It is a timeless seeing that is spotless and fresh.  Things that were poured into you (over time) by others are all of the past; as such, they — for the most part — are old, residual, and secondhand.  A distorted mind does not see clearly; it is swayed by misinformation and tarnished contamination. 

One may ask, “How am I to clean my mind to enable it to see clearly?”  However, who is going to clean such a mind?   Is the “cleaner” going to be something that is somehow magically different from what needs cleaning?  Then there are those who say, “Well, I’ll meditate to make my mind still and empty.”  Is meditation a mere result, a product (via effort) of a mind that is (itself) full of distortion and fallacies?  Any such so-called meditation — fabricated by a distorted mind — will inevitably be an extension of that distortion, no matter how wonderful or relaxing it may feel.  Most human brains are so wrapped up in the deception of a supposedly dominating “center” or “me” —  a supposed “center” which intrinsically creates false separation and supposed control — that any action or inaction that is created generally extends the deception… and indifference and ignorance inevitably continues.   (The old, distorted instrument cannot be fundamentally changed by perpetually clinging — even subtly — to the old, distorted mental misusages.)

Any movement or effort of a distorted mind clinging to information of the past limits it to what was poured into it by (constrained) sequential events in time.  Distortion and psychological time exist together as one.  Once adulthood is reached, insight, love, and profound intelligence are not a matter of psychological time.  Physical and evolutionary time are another story.  

How do you look at life?  Is it seen through (or “with”) a screen of learned separation?  

 

 

The photograph is of a proto-primate jaw (with a premolar and two molars).  There is a good possibility that it is from what evolved into you and your family… or, at the very least, that it is your distant cousin.  (Take a good look at great, great grandmother!) 🙂  The photograph is of a post-Purgatorius species that evolved from Purgatorius following the Cretaceous mass extinction.  Mammals — after the mass extinction — began becoming larger, and this one is no exception.  It is from the Fort Union Formation of Montana and is 62 to 63 million-years-old.  The entire jaw is a little over 5 centimeters long (or 1.96 inches).  The teeth are jet black due to millions of years of permineralization, wherein local minerals are permeated into the teeth.  See the following for more information:   http://www.paleocene-mammals.de/primates.htm

 

Proto-primate jaw, post-Purgatorius Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

Post

Awareness

March 18, 2018
10 comments

 

 

‘Aware,’ in the dictionary, is defined as ‘having knowledge,’ or ‘well-informed.’   A mind that is aware just in terms of the dictionary’s definitions of awareness, is a rather mechanical, robotic mind (of which there are, unfortunately, plenty).  Awareness is so much more.  Awareness that exists within the superficial limitations of knowledge is a confined and reaction-oriented, mechanistic kind of consciousness.  Fortunately, there is an awareness that goes far beyond the realm of knowledge and memory retention.

When one was in the fourth grade, one partook in an awareness that was not merely within the realm of knowledge and thinking.  It was an awareness beyond thought.  It happened spontaneously, without one ever being told about letting or making such a thing happen.  At the time, one immediately understood that it was something entirely different than normal (everyday) consciousness; one realized that it was something very special.  It, way back then, seemed rather instantaneous and did not seem to require time.  (One, back then, didn’t label it as anything because it didn’t require a label; really, it is beyond all labels anyway.)  Now, years later, at the age of 66, one is still very appreciative of it.  “Thinking,” indeed, takes time; “thinking” is sequential and is a series of conditioned responses.  “Thinking” is involved with information collection and information processing; thinking depends upon psychological time.  The other, that awareness, was (though rather indefinable) more about aliveness and holistic perception beyond limited boundaries.

The awareness that is beyond mere thinking is involved with sensitivity and understanding.  It is not aloofness (that so many, unfortunately, have); it is not indifference (that so many, unfortunately, have); it goes beyond the formulations and molds (of the past) that have structured the endless reactions of man.   A mind without such awareness is trapped in the virtual realm of thought/thinking, endlessly reacting somewhat like a programmed robot, endlessly seeing through preconceptions and presuppositions (which isn’t really seeing whatsoever).  A mind that merely recognizes according to what it has been taught is a very secondhand, automaton-like mind.

It is very simple, really.  To see the unlimited, the whole, the mind cannot merely remain in (and as) the limited.  The limited mind cannot, under any circumstances, make itself be beyond the limited.  Effort and will have nothing to do with it.  Effort and will are within the realm of thinking and sequential memory; besides, will is a fallacious supposition based on a fictitious (but highly “believed in”) center or controller.  (As was pointed out in previous postings, human brains have been surgically divided in living human subjects, leaving two separate — viable — fields of consciousness within one braincase.)  The sacred, despite what a lot of very self-deceitful and guileful people claim, may not at all be what thought/thinking can summon or conjure up.  The sacred is not what thought (which is virtual and limited) can ever grasp.  Thought/thinking — and all misconceptions about a “controlling center” or of a “‘me’ manipulating thoughts from a distance” — must come to an end for that sacred immeasurability and impersonal intelligence to be.  In fact, when it visits, it makes thinking extremely difficult and rather impossible… much like when the light of the brightest sun annihilates all dark shadows; other physical changes to the body also occur for a while, among other things… but don’t just take my word for it.  The sacred and what is secondhand and virtual do not meet and will not ever meet (or combine).  Those charlatans who claim that their thoughts, manmade temples, secondhand methods, and mantras (or any thoughts, writings, or sayings) are sacred… are full of drivel.

Beyond categorization, beyond mere recognition and reaction (such as what ideas are) there is a deep, immeasurable dimension (that is not a mere dimension).  It will not and cannot ever meet with what is false; the false must die for it to be; such psychological dying is real living.  It is not a mere fabrication of the brain.  Awareness includes compassion, sensitivity, real curiosity, love, caring, and perception beyond the secondhand garbage that people so easily swallow.

 

 

 

Crab Spider on Lichen (1)
Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

Crab Spider on Lichen (2)
Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

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Distorted Mirror Distorted Mind

March 11, 2018
11 comments

 

A perfect mirror has no distortion.  It shows what is really there.  Can the mind be like that?

A distorted mirror, just like a distorted mind, twists things around such that reality seems askew and misrepresentation and untruth run dominant.  Fortunately, most people realize what the situation actually is when they are gazing into an intentionally distorted (circus) mirror.  Unfortunately, many people perceive via minds that are of distortion, deception, and perversion, yet they continue to think that they see things rightly.  Many of us put up a facade, for others to perceive, of what we want them to think we really are.  Many of us deceive not only others… but ourselves.  Society tends to instill various forms of distortion into the minds that partake in its offerings, and such minds then zealously accept such distortions and falsities as the truth.

Many people are overly concerned about how they (physically) appear to others.  Few people are prudently concerned about perceiving themselves as they actually are… internally, without any distortion whatsoever.  A mind that is passionate about going beyond distortion is a very scientific and spiritual mind.  It seems that very few have actually done it (i.e., gone beyond distortion) to any very significant extent. (There are ways to test this out, for accuracy; however, we will not go into that here.)  Great clarity and immense understanding are needed to see the whole.  Most, unfortunately, still function with (and “as”) symbols and fragmentary parts.  If the tools and the processes of the mind are distorted and partial, then the outcome — the results — will be equally askew, equally incomplete.  Before we accept and cherish methods to get out of this distortion, we should question whether they are possibly an extension or continuity of the same-old fallacies, which most are.

Without method, without depending upon the process of psychological time, is it possible for the mind to observe without merely utilizing the past tools (of symbolic thinking, abstraction, analysis, and image-building)?  Can the mind perceive without always carrying the burden of past formulations?  It may be the influential formulations of the past that prevent pristine perception.  We can be choicelessly observing with an intense awareness that includes all of the senses working harmoniously together as a whole, without limited thoughts always interfering… (and all thoughts are limited).

A mind that goes beyond distortion sees deeply.  Such depth goes far beyond the ordinary, far beyond the mundane.  Many cling (knowingly or unknowingly) to the ordinary, yet wish to experience what is beyond the ordinary.  What is truly beyond the ordinary may not at all be what can be categorized or placed into the realm of “experience.”  If an experience is recognized (as most are), it usually consists (more or less) of a rather mundane occurrence that the brain “recertifies,” “acknowledges,” and “classifies” via (and according to) prior memory images, prior mental retentions, and symbols.  Recognition and the reaction to things have their place, but so does an unadulterated awareness beyond mere reaction and conditioned responses.  Full enlightenment/satori — should it ever occur as a blessed visitation by that ineffable, holistic energy to a human being — may be far too immense for any kind of full mental grasping, retention, or remembrance (by the brain) to take place.  However, should it actually happen — and don’t be foolish enough to crave what you suspect that it might be — the brain will have recalled small snippets of that profound event, though what is retained is rather like mere shadows of the actual occurrence.  Great wisdom, unlike distortion, never needs to ask about whether the sacred truly exists.

 

 

 

Polished Jurassic Dinosaur Bone, with crystal fortification, from Utah (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Polished Jurassic Dinosaur Bone, with crystal fortification, from Utah (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Curiosity

March 4, 2018
39 comments

 

 

In that last prose piece that was written, profound curiosity was mentioned.  Very many of us, when we were very young, had immense curiosity.  This curiosity was a natural investigation into the nature of things.  This curiosity concomitantly involved a lot of questioning.  Most of us, as we aged — as one can see by observing the adults that one interacts with — have lost a lot of this innate drive to discover; unfortunately, too, the questioning has subsided and (instead) many just (more or less) accept what was poured into them.  Then most look at things the way that they were programmed to look… and they end up fitting in quite nicely.  This “fitting in,” however, can often be equated with stagnation, blind-acceptance, dull mediocrity, and imprisoned, bourgeois mentality.  When the mind merely looks with (and “as”) the accumulated “known,” then one gets very bored, stagnant, dull, and sorrow and depression easily manifest.  Many, unfortunately, have quite cadaverous minds, though they are not yet six feet under.

Real discovery, real learning, (and joy), if one is wise, is endless.  Such learning, such discovery does not involve mere accumulation.  It goes far beyond the mere accumulation of information and beyond the mere reacting (of that accumulation).   Curiosity, if it is deep enough, even questions the parameters, nature, essence, and attributes of the very means by which it probes and discovers.  Such curiosity, if it is deep enough, may even go beyond the tools that were provided (by society) for it to operate (as).  These tools, as can be seen, largely consist of thought and thinking.  Most have heavily relied on (and depended upon) thought in their endeavor to assimilate things and figure things out.  However, here is the rub:  If the tools are limited, if the tools themselves have a propensity toward distortion, if the tools themselves are fragmentary and concocted… then the outcome will (pretty much inevitably) be limited and askew.

It may be that there is a profound learning and a profound curiosity that (together) occur beyond mere accumulation.  Such a movement does not depend upon psychological time nor on what others have poured into one.  Perceiving beyond lines of demarcation, beyond circumscribed parameters of thought, beyond constrained methodology, beyond the norm, takes great care and intelligence.  Yet so many remain in ruts and everlastingly function in (and from) such limitation.  Many will easily claim that they are not in a rut (as they robotically keep digging).

Profound insight, deep intelligence, holistic perception, and real compassion occur when the mind is beyond what a stale, rotten society has dictated.

 

 

 

Curiosity (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Curiosity (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Depression and Sorrow

February 18, 2018
27 comments

 

 

 

Many people suffer from depression and sorrow. Many take pharmaceutical antidepressants and regularly go to clinics to receive therapy. Most, when they were much younger, did not have such issues; in youth, they were filled with wondrous curiosity and inner, refreshing vitality.  Many, as they age, become jaded and unhappy, bored with the same-old-things and with the gray 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 (and “as”) the process of thinking; it was taught that the more thinking and the more reaction… the better.  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. Many exclusively dwell in (and “as”) thought/thinking… and very few value going beyond that very circumscribed domain. Most have put all of their eggs into that one basket; in that, they dwell.  (Ironically, though most everyone exists as “thinking,” few are in a direct, intimate relationship with such thinking, such that they can go beyond it; they see “thinking” as what some alleged independent center is “using from some sort of internal distance.”)  Some delude themselves, by others’ methodologies, into practicing going beyond thinking (which is, in reality, an extension of thinking and, each time, a self-imposed hoax); a concocted silence that is part of a perpetuation of backward and spurious ways is not any kind of legitimate silence at all, though many believe that it is.   

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 many look at things, they are mostly 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. Many 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.  The selfish “I” is created via concocted psychological distance and learned walls of demarcation; this distance and these very walls are an incarceration that ensures that suffering will continue.  

A mind of constant thinking is a mind of sorrow.  A mind of deep awareness, however, can often perceive without merely using  (and being) the storehouse of old and stuffy memory. To perceive without relying on the storehouse of dead memory and to perceive without depending upon the stale patterns of remembrance is a living art.  There is no method or blueprint-oriented practice to this art. It does not involve old patterns that you can absorb to improve yourself with over time.  It does not involve intentionally sitting crosslegged for long periods of time, mesmerized by some kind of self-fabricated so-called silence.  Being aware (without method) throughout each and every day, being “thinking” when it is necessary but often effortlessly 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, and through, the present and future. The mind that goes beyond “perception through mere symbolism and fragmented mental constructs” is a liberated, whole, caring, free mind… full of joy.

 

 

 

Family Photo (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Family Photo (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

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Knowing Yourself…

February 11, 2018
21 comments

 

 

There have been blogs, by others, wherein they write all about themselves.  They write about their likes, special preferences (such as favorite foods, books, and movies), social relationships, and so on and so forth.  Others write about the need to love oneself; they write about the beauty of really caring about oneself (first and foremost).  

What is oneself?  Most of us, one suspects, were educated to see the self as we were all programmed to see it.  This education is often very similar to the education that other countries have stuck to in the past, even the one which Adolf Hitler emerged from (who, by the way, loved himself dearly and who passionately encouraged others to adore him too).   

So, what is the self?  Is the self an autonomous entity separate from the environment, the whole, the rest of mankind, the animals?  When a person says that he knows himself, what does he — actually — know?  Is such knowledge a lot of recalled patterns of bygone preferences, tendencies, opinions, images, and methodologies that have occurred in (and “as”) the past?  Recalled patterns (of the past) are from the storehouse of memory.  Recollections, from (and “as”) that memory, are always old (i.e., of the past), limited (i.e., snap-shot-like), partial, and (therefore) incomplete.  Those recollections of self, additionally, are heavily influenced by the past education and culture in which one was raised.   One’s fundamental conceptions of self were poured into one (and absorbed) during one’s youth.  Recollections and labels “about the self” are always of the past.  They are images or linguistic symbols from (and about) “what was.”  

Many people feel empowered by an elevated sense of self.   Many are enamored about themselves and they write about themselves a lot (either positively or negatively), or they are very obsessed about their physical appearance.   However, the self may not necessarily be what society has had each of us accept and take for granted.   There is a very good chance that a lot of primitive miseducation has taken place for many years.  

Unfortunate is the man or woman whose self is a fenced in, segregated, walled-off conglomeration of past images and symbolic thoughts convinced that a special space isolates what they are (or what “one is”) from the rest of life on earth.  Being walled-in is a surefire recipe for depression, no matter how financially fortunate one’s life has been, no matter how wonderful one may (superficially) think one appears physically.  To have private dominion apart from the rest of life, as something special and separate, is no cup of tea that real perception is interested in sipping.   It may be that real liberation does not come from coddling and worshipping the isolated self, as so many immature and egocentric people tend to do, but (instead) comes about when the self is understood and joyfully transcended.   The circumference around an egocentric mind is always limited, primitive, self-concocted via absorbed patterns… and is standardized, mediocre, and regimented.  Most people are very immersed in (and “as”) such a circumference; very few of them will care anything whatsoever about prudently going beyond it.  A limited, walled-in circumference inevitably brings sorrow.  All of the psychological therapy and superficial entertainment in the world will not put an end to that sorrow.

Instead of coming up with notions about “oneself,” go out (for an enlightening change) and perceive without the separative boundaries and isolated perspectives that were implanted in (and “as”) the past.  Is the perceiver so very separate from the perceived?  Walls of delusion may experience a lot of things; however, walls of delusion will never understand and see the uncontaminated truth and the eternal.   Real understanding, bliss, and balance are not of dead limitation, stale recognition, and segregation.

From the poetry of Stephen Crane:

 

The sage lectured brilliantly. 
Before him, two images: 
“Now this one is a devil, 
And this one is me.” 
He turned away. 
Then a cunning pupil 
Changed the positions. 

Turned the sage again: 
“Now this one is a devil, 
And this one is me.” 
The pupils sat, all grinning, 
And rejoiced in the game. 
But the sage was a sage. 

 

 

Super Thin Model (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Super Thin Model (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

 

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The Internal Psychological Division that Wastes Energy and Time…

January 28, 2018
8 comments

 

 

 

As we were suggesting in recent previous posts, when things — such as fears or desires — are seen with a psychological distance, then that very (separative) perception reinforces the (supposed) gap between the perceiver and that which is perceived.  When, for instance, fear is seen as something that one “has,” it is usually seen as what is manipulated (from a distance) by an internal, psychological “I” or “me.”  In actuality, the mind (the entity) is not something separate from what the fear is.  The fear is what you “are”; it is not merely what you “have.”  Perceiving fear from a psychological distance — such as what most minds do — tends to firmly reinforce the notion of a manipulating “I” or center who (supposedly) can, over time, deal with the fear.  The fraudulent thing regarding that, though, is that — in reality — the fear is not (whatsoever) separate from what the mind is.  Looking at the fear with internal distance, from a supposed internal “I” or “me,” reinforces the assumption of an “I” or “me” that is separate from what is perceived (internally); such an assumption, used habitually, as it is, is imagination reinforcing itself.  Perceiving, for instance, fear, sadness, or desire, from a psychological distance — as most people do — reinforces and actually helps fabricate a separate “I” or “me,” (who allegedly “has” those things).

Internally developed fear, per se, depends upon psychological time; without psychological time, internally developed fear would not exist.  And we think we can (from an internal distance) understand, over time, psychological fear!  We create a separate “analyzer” who is going to analyze internally.  However, the analyzer actually is the analyzed.  Analysis takes time; additionally, time is required to manufacture a separate “I” who is different from the fear.  Does one just want to “get rid” of fear?  It may be one part of the mind trying to get rid of another part… being in conflict with it.  It may be far more prudent to understand it (i.e. the fear which is yourself), and it may be that one cannot fully understand it if one thinks that it is separate from what one is.

Someone might say, “What is the benefit of seeing all this?”  If, for instance, fear takes place and there is an acute perception and accurate relationship regarding (and “as”) that fear… then it can be fully perceived as it is, and not with some extraneous images or imaginings of a separate “I” who is somehow separate from it and in conflict with it.  (Conflict is friction and may not solve anything fundamentally.) The extraneous images — of a separate controller or of a separate “I” or “me” — disallow the full perception of the fear as it really is… and tend to waste time by projecting a separate image (or images) that supposedly will do something about the fear.  Fear is what one actually is; then a separate image is created by the mind to get rid of, suppress, overcome, analyze, or somehow adjust to the fear.  This creates duality and conflict in the mind that essentially leads to friction, limitation, and time wastage.  False, inner fragmentation, no matter how sophisticated it may be, is fundamentally (in most cases) what contributes to friction, and it is essentially a waste of time and energy.

People erroneously associate going beyond a central “I” or “me” with a lack of security, with a lack of inner integrity.  On the contrary, real integrity exists in perceiving things as they actually are, without introducing fallacious images and a lot of primitive rigmarole into the picture.  Bliss and understanding the essence of real eternity can exist only when one psychologically dies to the ungrounded and phony images that one, unfortunately, has been taught (over time) to carry.  Such psychological dying is what is truly living, and such living involves direct, untainted, pristine, beautiful perception.  It may be that real baptism occurs when one’s consciousness is washed clean of cold deception, false accumulation, and dead tradition.

 

 

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

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

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Directionlessness

January 14, 2018
13 comments

 

 

All of us function, in life, with regard to various motives.  We react in (and “as”) conditioned responses involving these motives.  Each motive gives us a certain direction to move in; we follow these specific directions, based on motives, throughout life (just as we were taught to).  Very few of us have considered directionless.  Very few have inquired into the possibility of perceiving without being constantly influenced by motives or directions.  Each of us has motives and directions that each one clings to and functions from, (even the so-called great scientists).  Often, these motives conflict — with the motives or directions of other people — and friction ensues.  Desire and greed are often involved with the motives that people have (and desire and greed tend to function from — and “as” — the reactions that they are psychologically).  One’s mind, too, can harbor conflicting motives… conflicting directions to pursue or go in.

A very wise mind, however, is involved with a measureless directionlessness.  To observe purely, without tainted motives or covert conditioning influencing what is seen, requires a highly unprejudiced mind that does not merely perceive via fragmentation and limitation.  Looking in a certain direction — which most all of us tend to do — by its very action (or, rather, reaction) precludes other directions and is always limiting and partial.  Even precise scientists are limited — in their own fields and by their own (learned) processes, habits, prejudices, and procedures — and most would likely laugh if one suggested that they consider directionlessness.  However, a truly sagacious mind would perceive the limitation and fragmentation that motives and directions inevitably bring with them; such a wise mind may then go beyond mere motive (and beyond mere direction).

A mind that perceives beyond merely having a “motive” or “psychological direction” must be a very dynamic mind.  To look (at times) beyond mere motive or beyond specific desire takes tremendous intelligence and great purity.  Directionless is not a stagnant state that one mesmerizes oneself in; rather, it is a causeless explosion of awareness without mere motive and without the influence of psychological conditioning.  It truly is an explosion without any cause.  It is a movement without any direction.  Greed and desire have nothing to do with it; greed and desire are of motive; greed and desire always involve a specific direction.

There is a vast difference between a mind that often is of directionlessness and a (common) mind that always functions by way of motive and direction.  Of the two mentioned in the aforementioned sentence, one of the two always (without exception) reacts (via motives and directions set up by limited influences); the other, of the two — though it also often reacts and is choicelessly aware of the reactions — may often go beyond that… such that it exists with (and “as”) motiveless perception (beyond borders).  Only one of the two can ever perceive and understand the whole (instantly, without mere sequential process); the other must be caught in time-bound, sequential parameters that manifest as fragmentation and limitation.

The beauty of real ecstasy occurs only when harmful (i.e., fallacious) ways are finished while true joy blossoms without motive. 

 

 

 

 

Jagged Ambush Bug in Cone Flower (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Jagged Ambush Bug in Cone Flower (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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We all want security…

January 7, 2018
14 comments

 

 

We all want security or some kind of stability in life.  If someone asks you — such as is done in this blog — to consider transcending beyond the image(s) of a central “I” or “me,” it is normal to have reservations about doing that.  Since very early childhood, images of there being a central “I”, “me,” or “central controller,” have been poured into us and have been heavily reinforced.  People have a psychological defense mechanism regarding protecting that supposed “center” that allegedly controls everything that each one does or decides upon.  That defense mechanism is built around the need for stability and security.  The “I” or “me” seems quite permanent and seems to be what one can always identify with (and depend upon).

For centuries, many of us have each existed in a country that we identified with and looked to for security.  “Our country” will keep us safe; “our country” is better and has the right systems and traditions.  “Our country” is protecting us… providing the necessary security for us.  However, these countries, worldwide, have not really given us security to any very significant, long-lasting degree.  The world remains full of conflict.  Crazy leaders, who are power-hungry and who have child-like minds, still (in this so-called modern age) pull people into deadly wars.  Separative countries, for eons, have contributed to conflict and wars between humans.  We are so programmed into following leaders (who promise security) yet who merely maintain the separative division that puts man against man.  Countries are essentially, by the way, manmade.  There really isn’t such a thing as Scotland; it is what man concocted.

Organized religions, too, are what man concocted.  Just like with countries, they have plenty of leaders who (like deceptive politicians) offer you security (especially in the after-life or in their “here and now” that is promised).  Like the image of a central “I,” one’s religion is what one can identify with and depend upon. Like with countries,  organized religions have caused much friction between human beings.  There have been many wars in the name of religion.  This still goes on.

These things that promise security may, with closer more vigilant observation, not provide much real security at all.  The world is not a safer place to exist in currently (with these manmade systems full of rigid practices and formulations that separate one group of humans from another).  Ignorance constructs walls and barriers to separate people and this inevitably causes conflict.  It may be, in reality, a small world… a global world.

Many may easily think that going beyond the concept or idea of a central “I” will somehow negate our security.  We are afraid of giving up what we think is so fundamental, so very permanent and lasting.  That “I,” however, creates psychological walls (and a bounded circumference) that can (and easily do) cause conflict in the world (and internally).  It may be that real security and real relationship with eternity can take place, however, without the illusory (limited) circumference and psychological wall that the image of “I” or “me” manifests as.  The reaction of “I” or “me” is a new projection or reflex of thinking each time it takes place, yet we take it to be the same-old, reliable (egocentric) essence of what we are.  Like a cigarette lighter flame repetitiously brought into existence, the flame is new and a bit different each time it burns; however, we tend to identify with it as being always the same, permanent thing…  which it isn’t.  The “I” causes walls of indifference, walls of callousness.  Intelligence and a real sense of bliss and eternity can live quite nicely (thank you) without dependence upon the “I,” “me,” or a spurious center… (except during times of superficial conversation where it is still commonly used).

Beyond its limited circumference exists what is beyond borders and concocted walls.  Real love transcends the “I,” transcends walls and borders that divide and cause conflict.  

 

 

 

Captured but Plant-based (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Captured but Plant-based (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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One littlest why

January 5, 2018
17 comments

 

 

One littlest why came up with a how

         and said “You shouldn’t”

         but then a could gleefully said “Sure we can”

Suddenly a reflective tear cheerlessly cried “Please don’t”

         and then cold terror screamed “Oh this is going to be gruesome”

                                                                                           (Snakes are often Ben

Next a placid smile grinned a reassurance

         while impatience glanced again at the clock

Understanding suggested “Prejudice and hate can end… or end us”

         while fear nervously shouted “What will happen to us?”

Separation coldly looked with indifference

         and absorbed habit answered repetitiously

Sequential words swiftly scanned this poem

         as wonder why magically dropped in

                                                                                              eficial and not nearly as dangerous to
the earth’s health as man)

Wisdom transcended unwhole fragmentation

         while ostentatious showed off his clever intellect

 

 

 

Midland Brown Snake (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Midland Brown Snake (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

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The Passion of Awareness… (and Happy New Year!)

December 31, 2017
21 comments

 

[Special Note:   Happy New Year everyone!  Though we need to go way beyond “happy” into deep perception, compassion, and environmental awareness (that matters).]

 

The passion of awareness — real awareness, not all of that phony stuff — perceives beyond the known.  The known consists of preconceptions, traditions, and limited patterns of the past.  Profound awareness goes beyond all those things.  It goes beyond the mundane and commonplace.  It is not enmeshed in repetitive, rather mechanized habits that dull the mind and expand sorrow.  (Most people are caught in sorrow and perpetually try to run from it.  Interestingly, they always run from sorrow in a particular direction, and that direction is always limited; then, sorrow remains.)  Awareness is a motiveless inquiry without superficial direction or desire.  Any inquiry with direction is calculated and limited.

Many people have preconceptions about the way things are; with (and “as”) those preconceptions, they look.  What they see, then, will inevitably be limited, predetermined, and partial.  To perceive without conclusions is real humility, real innocence in action (beyond mere reaction).  The constant labeling of things, mentally, is a repetition of memory and the known (which is the past recurring).  All thoughts are symbols that are both fragmentary and limited.  Limitation can never see the whole… but so many cling to their limited preconceptions and fragmentary patterns of thought/thinking… just as they were taught to.  Many remain circumscribed within the limits that were given to them as their foundation.

Recently one saw a science program about artificial intelligence.  In the near future, there will nanorobots (nanobots) — at sizes smaller than the cellular level size — that will enter the brain and connect with the neural pathways.  People then will be composed of minds that are part computer… part machine.  Ray Kurzweil, who works for Google, and other computer experts/entrepreneurs claim it can begin happening very soon; the year 2029 has been pinpointed as a date for when it can really (more fully) take place.  All kinds of beneficial things are allegedly supposed to happen because of this.  However, one questions whether is it taking us to a better place.  Human minds are heavily conditioned and mechanical enough; implanting the brain with machines will only make them more robot-like… more prone toward programming by the powers that be.  Some scientific reports maintain that 50% of the earth’s wildlife has been killed off by humans in the last 40 years.  Immersing ourselves in virtual worlds, which is what computer implants will likely do to us to a significant extent, will not help wake us up to what is alive and precious in the real world.   Additionally, people wishing harm to others will — more easily — access ways to make deadly viruses and nocuous substances.   We need to intelligently put a leash on technology; however, that is unlikely to happen unless more of us wake up; the leash, so far, is on us.  

Awareness, real awareness, is action… not merely secondary reaction.  Very many of us habitually react all day long (like robotic, mechanized, programmed instruments); and they want to implant more mechanicalness, more man-made concoctions into our (already programmed) brains!  

It is only the uncontaminated, pristine, innocent mind that can be entered by the whole, the timeless.  That which is limited, fragmented, sequential, partial, and prejudicial, is not open or unbounded enough to be visited by that miraculous, impersonal intelligence.  

 

 

 

Bee Flight (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Bee Flight (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Happy Holidays!

December 24, 2017
21 comments

 

Special Note:   Happy Holidays to everyone worldwide!

 

We sure hope that the coming new year brings, with it, more sense and more compassion in people.  People, unfortunately, are very gullible and it is easy for the fat-cat bureaucrats to get people to believe just about anything.  Please do not get all wrapped up in belief; please intelligently go beyond all belief and tradition-oriented presumption.  Do not ever merely believe what i write within this blog; i do not wish to be your authority.  (There are plenty of charlatans out there who will gladly be your authority, if that is what you wish.)  Each one of us has to deeply question things and look beyond all of the propaganda.  If the world has any hope at all, we need to go beyond the ruts that we are mindlessly entrenched in.  Governments that rob the poor to feed the filthy rich (and that neglect environmental health and global unity) need to be radically questioned/altered.  The world is very small and fragile and it will not last — in its balance naturally as it has — if we continue to lack seriousness and continue to act with negligence regarding the delicate whole.   Despite what you were “taught,” you may not be anything separate from all of the fragile creatures and humans of this planet; it may be that you are them.  If you do not care — and continue reacting as the fat-cat bureaucrats want you to — it may be like the right hand not at all caring about the left hand (and thinking it is separate).  

Alleged saying of Jesus… from the ancient Nag Hammadi Gospel of Thomas (that the hierarchical fat-cats rejected):

Jesus said:  “The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”

 

Do not ever think that you are something separate.  Wash clean of cold deception, false accumulation, and dead tradition.

Mostly alone… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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The Light of Shine

December 22, 2017
4 comments

[Addendum:   We saw the movie “Wonder” the other day; it was excellent; highly recommended!]

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

 

 

But here

amongst 

the light of shine

why couldn’t

when arcing was

as shading stared 

even when

something moved

ever so

graciously

amid

perceptions reactions

and you’re

blinking

 

 

Amongst the Light of Shine (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Amongst the Light of Shine (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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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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Imprecision of the Mind

December 10, 2017
19 comments

 

 

It is important to have a mind and body that (together) work with great precision.  Many people do not take great care of their bodies; nor do they delve into the nature and essence of their minds a great deal.  Such behavior is often negligence.  A body that consumes many foods that are not conducive to good health is operating in a way that is not harmonious, not orderly.  Similarly, a mind that is operating with a lot of inner conflicts, resistance, fears, delusional manipulations, and a fanciful administration of power, is not being harmonious nor orderly. 

A mind that is a hodgepodge of absorbed (i.e., learned) conditioning consisting of false psychological separation, inner conflict, inner resistance, and spurious (internal) domineering power can seemingly create a meditative silence that it may think is divine.   However, a mind full of inner limitations, conflicts, suppositions, and learned attributes can easily deceive itself; such a silence is (inevitably) as limited as the mind that fabricated it.  It may be that a truly profound and precise silence is never the product of a calculating mind.

A mind that is aware of itself, each and every day, without the stagnant patterns that society has impressed upon it, may (without effort or spurious inner dominating factors) function with (and “as”) real order, precision, and harmony.  Thinking and the thought process is often used by (and “as”) such a mind; however, the thinking process is seen to be the limited tool that it is; the sagacious mind realizes that it need not exclusively cling to that limited domain.  There is a cessation of thought/thinking that comes uninvited, that comes unprovoked; it is not the hypnotic, limited kind of fabricated silence that so many unfortunate minds have learned to materialize.  

A mind that has profound awareness functions without a fictitious and misleading center (such as the kind that the majority have learned to accept and take as genuine).  Most, with that misleading and inaccurate “center” that each takes to be genuine, function — especially internally — with fraudulent space and with fanciful separation.  The fraudulent, limited space and fanciful separation are involved with protrusions of thought that are given (false) credit for being the source of power and domination (of the so-called other thoughts).  Then, such minds of imprecision think that they can intentionally meditate, creating or concocting a space of true and legitimate silence.  Does one see the absurdity of it?…  A mind of delusional, distorted separation and fictitious space thinks it can fabricate a true silence (of vast space).  What it produces will be an obtrusion (i.e., an extension) of its own inherent disorder and imprecision (and, therefore, will inevitably be of the conditioned and/or false).  It is so easy for distortion to bamboozle itself into thinking that it is free, or whole, or divine (when it is not).  Only an innocent, honest, truly humble mind (of real clarity and precision) is beyond self-deception. 

A mind that examines without the burden of false values and the stale conditioning (of the past) can flower beyond limitation, internal imprecision, and fallacious separation (such as misrepresentation as when, in the mind, the so-called “controller” is misconstrued as being somehow separate from “thoughts seen with psychological distance”).  Profoundly intelligent observation must be pristine, uncontaminated, undistorted, and beyond measure.   It is very possible for the truly serious mind.  Only a mind of real clarity and precision can see and understand the whole. 

 

 

 

Green Lacewing… Predator of many harmful insects… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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We moved

December 8, 2017
12 comments

 

 

We moved and in that moving looked

                     and in that looking many things were seen

and in that seeing labeled things were from the storehouse of memory

We re-cognized from patterns of the past

We saw everything the way we were instructed to see

We looked from (i.e., as) the screen of conditioning

We never looked originally spotlessly wholly 

?Can the yes of awareness be beyond stagnant lies of no

                     as magic beautifully flowers

 

 

 

Depth with superficiality (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Depth with superficiality (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Ideals (What are they and why do we “have” them)…

December 3, 2017
13 comments

 

 

We have had ideals for centuries.  Yet mankind goes on, with all kinds of corruption and distortion.  Ideals seem to help but, in the long run, do not change much whatsoever.  When one has an ideal, it is a projection or obtrusion (of the mind) regarding what one “ought to be.”  That “ought to be,” that “what one should be,” is a pattern that one has accumulated — over time — from others’ teachings or from experiences (of the past).  It is a protrusion of the past into the present, concerning what the future “should be”; such a process is a sequence in (and “as”) psychological time.

Profound awareness is not what occurs when the present (in its wholeness) is constantly contaminated by past fragmentary symbols and patterns.  People are energetic, habitual, lightning-quick “reacting organisms,” and learned, fragmentary symbols and patterns — of the past, like any “should be” — are usually not enough to entirely tame the deeply ingrained emotions/desires/reactions that “people are” (and to significantly change those reactions).  So the projected “‘should be’s” from the past, are (for the most part) never enough to fundamentally alter behavior.  Whenever what one “should be” is projected — in (and “as”) the mind — from the past, it is at odds with what “actually is.”  The “ideals” and the “actualities” are often in conflict with each other; a mind that habitually feeds internal conflicts is not a healthy mind… it is a mind of friction and internal resistance.  When the present time actually takes place, such internal friction and resistance prevent profound awareness.  When one portion of the mind is at odds with another portion of the mind — which is so often the case with minds that harbor (and consist of) ideals — then such internal conflict prevents pristine awareness and holistic energy.  When pristine awareness takes place, it has its own (unimposed) natural, intrinsic order; then there is no need for symbolic ideals or many regulating laws.  Great, sagacious passion sees clearly (without distortion); that very seeing is its own order and compassion.

The wise mind does not merely carry and project ideals but, rather, sees what it actually is from moment to moment.  If jealousy is taking place, in such a mind, it sagaciously perceives that jealousy (as what it actually is… not merely as something that it “has.”)  Perceiving without “learned-accumulated space,” learned-accumulated patterns of what “should be,” and learned-accumulated patterns of “psychological effort” may enable the mind to be deeply aware beyond the realm of mere fragmentation and sequential expansion; then real insight and order can take place.  Such order would not be merely manmade or imposed.  Order that is imposed is never lasting and is never what can fundamentally change a person.

Innumerable people are the “should be” or “ought to be” images (of idealism) that they harbor.  People who hold many ideals actually are those ideals (and are not something separate from them).  The mind does not merely “have ideals”; in many, whether they realize it or not, ideals are what they actually are (at least partially, of course).  They are (additionally) a lot of reactions and movements at odds with the ideals; so there is real friction and struggle within.  Inner conflict doesn’t easily allow fundamental learning (beyond mere accumulation) to take place.  Wisdom goes beyond separation, beyond fragmentation, beyond internal struggle and conflict, beyond very primitive ways of dealing with things.  The passion of very intelligent awareness is an explosion beyond the dead sequence of psychological time and distortion; only then can a deep form of timeless compassion and intrinsic order manifest.

 

 

Mushrooms without ideals Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

 

 

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True Simplicity

October 29, 2017
10 comments

 

Most of us each look with psychological space between a posited “I” and what that “I” — which is actually manufactured — supposedly sees from a distance.   Even when a psychological fear takes place, we each tend to see it from a distance, as what each one of us “has,” rather than seeing it as what we actually are.   (This psychological distance exudes a false sense of control.)  However, if that central “I” is spurious, is mentally manufactured and not really central… and is essentially a projection of the thought process, then erroneous perception is taking place.  An illusory “I” often may necessitate a concomitant illusory (psychological distance).  The absence of a central “I” helps to curtail unnecessary psychological distance.   

We are also separated by organized (concocted) religions, countries, cultural groups, rigid beliefs, systems, and prejudices… many of which we are willing to fight and die over.

Very few of us are truly simple (in an intelligent way) beyond the absorbed conflict, rifts, and illusory boundaries and spaces that were provided by way of direct or indirect indoctrination.  The wise mind that transcends the very crass and illusory notion of a central “I” or “me” will live among many who habitually cling to absorbed images of a central self.  Such a wise mind usually must function in a vast population of delusion and falsities.   It may be that the very essence of those habitually expressing unnecessary psychological space consists of duplicity and inaccuracy.  Deep compassion and profound holistic relationship occur not a moment sooner than when (psychologically) the limited “I” is wisely and fully transcended.   When the limited “I” is wisely and fully transcended, needless separation and wasteful conflict end. 

 

 

Snout Butterfly (Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sensibility

October 15, 2017
10 comments

 

Sensibility can involve and does involve the ability to receive sensations.  We wholeheartedly pursue pleasurable sensations throughout our life.  We often avoid sensations that are unpleasant or uncomfortable.  Thoughts are often involved in the pursuit of pleasurable sensations and in the avoidance of uncomfortable sensations.  Reactions, as thoughts and feelings, often involve sensations of various types… and pursuit or avoidance involving them.  Many of the cravings and evasions of people are learned (i.e., absorbed from others).  What others — in overall society — pursue and crave is often examined and copied.  Needless to say, in this day and age, many are into heavy partying, exotic vacations, and all kinds of entertainment.  Much of this involves endlessly trying to find exciting and pleasurable sensations.  

One can go on, for many decades, perpetually pursuing one pleasurable experience after another (ruining the environment along the way)… just as one has learned to do by observing many others (who buzz along in large fossil-fueled vehicles).  It may be, however, that the values involved in a life of doing that kind of thing are rather superficial, without real depth.  To remain in such a state may be rather infantile.  Sensibility can also, beyond the aforementioned involvement with limited sensations, pertain to an acute awareness with an overall accompanying perception and intelligence involving what is significant and prudent. Real prudence involves sagacity and sensibility beyond what was merely poured into one by others.  Such prudence goes far beyond what is merely pleasurable into realms that help life and humanity (without getting anything in return).  The childish mind will be incapable of such prudence; real depth will elude such a mind.  

Endlessly pursuing one pleasure after another (without depth), and a donkey perpetually chasing a carrot suspended from a stick tied to its saddle, both have a lot in common.  Intelligence goes beyond mere reaction; it is not what is bound in (and “as”) endless reactions.  What is restricted and circumscribed is limited.  Sensibly going beyond the limitations of what is ordinary may be real intelligence.  The carrot is really not something that is truly separate from the donkey, though he thinks it is.  The next time desire takes place, please consider the possibility that it is what you actually are, not merely what you have.

 

 

Carrot Groping (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Carrot Groping (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017