.
Profound truth and what is sacred and timeless cannot ever be found second-hand, nor by clutching to patterns; that is why it cannot be discovered by clinging to another’s authority — neither religious, political, social, nor a (learned, though essentially illusory) central ego’s authority — but only directly, effortlessly, spontaneously. That is one reason why — for so many — it is so very elusive.
.
At the summit (1). Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
At the summit (2). Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
What is belief? Is it necessary in terms of understanding the whole, or is it something that is not very intelligent? In terms of religion, there are many who believe in their various Gods, and these beliefs — unquestionably — have a lot to do with what was handed down to them from others. Each one has his or her own inherited beliefs. So many (each) think that their God is best, that their country is best. Beliefs tend to divide people. Many wars have been fought over, and about, firm beliefs. One wonders — when beliefs have caused so much havoc and conflict in the world — why we still desperately cling to them.
In terms of spirituality, as was suggested, there are many who believe in their own particular God. Atheists believe that there is no God; they say that God doesn’t exist. Please don’t go off and get overly upset about this… but if one’s images of one’s God are composed of learned concepts and if one’s ideas that there is no God are constituted of concepts… then — in a fundamental way — there really is no big difference between ardent religious believers and atheists; they are both filled with their own particular, absorbed concepts.
To really (passionately) inquire — beyond all this vast array of disagreeing and conflicting beliefs — is something totally different. Then handed-down concepts or absorbed abstractions and procedures don’t influence and hinder one’s perception. Someone beyond these is truly open (and not contaminated by some process or conclusion). If you are on a quest to really find out the true nature of the whole of everything, will you follow someone’s technique, religious process, or anti-religious process… “map” of how to get there? If you follow their methodology, that means that you strongly suspect or “believe” that they hold the answer… the “special map.” However, if you aren’t truly aware of the answer, how could you possibly accurately know, or believe, that they have the answer?
Simply inquiring and perceiving, without an accumulated procedure (involving time), and learning about one’s self — without belief — without dependence on anyone’s system, or tradition, or “special map”… is not merely another belief. Belief (including following the methodology of others) takes time; it’s the residual result of an accumulated, residual process. Immediate perception (not clouded by learned beliefs or concepts), and insight concerning the self and/or deep truth, may not be (or be part of) an accumulative process whatsoever; time essentially has nothing to do with it. You know, when you actually see the sun, you don’t have to believe in it. There are billions habitually walking around with (and “as”) accumulated symbols, patterns, and images… learned from others over time. People love symbols; they are mesmerized by symbols, and most people are “thinking,” by way of mental symbols (which are what thoughts are), nearly all of the time. But the word “sun” isn’t the sun. Accepting symbolic beliefs, images, and concepts as the primary basis of your existence may not (unfortunately) be deeply intelligent, and it may lead to more conflict in the world; it may be like clinging to dark, cloud-like, second-hand, empty shadows (that never allow one to truly see the light). One can be open and beyond all that; few ever do it.
.
BZZZZZZ… Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
If learned, separative concepts and symbols tend to divorce you from others, nature, and the whole of life… change — look without learned separation — and get re-engaged to the beauty of true relationship!
.
Together forever. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
In the card game of life, many don’t (unfortunately) have their share of hearts. Play the hand of compassion in spades!
.
[This somewhat heart-shaped organism is a Cup Fungus; note the little slug enjoying the damp environment within.]
Someone shot a slug into my heart! Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
Depending on recreational drugs means one left one’s inner integrity and happiness for others’ merchandise; doing so leaves one fragmented, twisted, and distorted (and not in the “good” way). I just read about how Montana’s drug problem is skyrocketing out of control… causing devastating results for the state and acting to ruin the economy in many areas. Needless to say, this is also occurring all across the U.S. Life can be extremely tough for most everyone in this day and age, and drugs are an escape. It takes great courage not to escape; it also takes intelligence. Recreational drugs distort the mind… and a mind that is distorted easily makes excuses, easily allows itself to fall into deeper and deeper distortion. Prescription drugs are being abused more and more; and, of course, it’s even easier to rationalize the over-usage of those. In some states, marijuana is being issued as a prescription drug; no doubt many are using it who have no substantial ailment. In India, there are people who take hashish frequently — which contains THC, just like pot does here — and when they die, autopsies reveal that their brains are shrunken, just like with the brains of alcoholics.
Multitudes are addicted to many things which become their drugs… junk foods, cigarettes, alcohol, video games, etc. It’s so easy to depend on crutches, on habits… and on things that others sell to us, saying that it will alter our minds to be “happier.” However, the mind can only be lastingly happy, joyous, and blissful without habitually depending on drugs and substances that allegedly “make” you happy (temporarily); temporary (and distorted) is always a fragmentary, darkly limited thing. Lasting joy must come from within, wherein one is a light to oneself. Beyond dependency, that light is not of distortion.
Excerpts from the unrightfully rejected ancient Gospel of Thomas, which also occur in my “Eternal Fountain of Youth” book (with permission from the Biblical scholar-translators):
Jesus said: “Show me the stone that the builders rejected: That is the cornerstone.”
Jesus said: … “I found all of them all drunk; I found none of them thirsty. And my soul became afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do not have sight; for empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the moment they are intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent.”
“If one is (whole), one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness.”
.
Distorted and fragmented — but in a good, (whole), artistic way. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
The sacred exists — call it God if you want — but it didn’t create this universe and so remains forever blameless, innocent, and perfect.
.
Timelessness is. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
There’s an indelible energy — beyond our fragmented world — that is boundless, whole, of a supreme order, and is what can be called sacred (though it’s beyond definition). Can it visit one? Yes… it can visit… but only if one’s mind is rather boundless, whole, and of a supreme order.
.
Dragon out of the cave. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
Be suspect of those telling you to be detached or to stay in firm belief/attachment. There’s only pristine, dynamic awareness… and not psychological separation (or subjugating oneself with second-hand ideas/images).
.
[Eastern Amberwing Dragonflies, while perched, often flick their abdomen up and down in a wasplike manner. Females lay their eggs in jellylike masses just above the waterline; when exposed to water, these masses burst open and the eggs disperse over a large area.]
Jewel of the pond. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
.
If the mind renews itself each and every moment… there is no boring job of drudgery.
.
[Ladybugs are largely carnivorous and eat little insects called Aphids. In this photograph, the captured Aphid is ejecting (i.e., offering) some honeydew, but to no avail. Ants herd Aphids — and protect them like cows – to get honeydew from them (like getting milk from protected cows); but this Ladybug is not just interested in the honeydew; it wants steak for dinner. (There were no protective ants within or around this particular Aphid colony.)]
It likes it medium rare. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Perhaps real spirituality is not found — locked up in confinement — in temples, where masses of people often worship self-created images, but is found when one understands oneself alone, such as when one is out in nature (without deception, without fabrication, without endless, internal chattering, and without a bunch of pretense).
After the death of the historical Christ, there were many Gospels and bibles about Jesus that different groups of people cherished and felt were legitimate. Many years after the death of the historical Christ, The Gospel of Thomas — which many of the world’s top (current) Biblical Scholars feel was written before the standard four — was declared heretical by the high priests who catered to Rome’s Emperor Constantine… no doubt largely because it called for finding God for oneself and not by following others (such as priests, leaders, and gurus). Some top scholars even feel that the Gospel of John was written as a rebuttal against the Gospel of Thomas. (Jesus was initially an ardent follower of John the Baptist, who advocated finding God far from the temples, out in nature; John was terminated by the authorities.) From the early Greek version of the Gospel of Thomas found at the ancient Oxyrhynchus site:
Jesus said, “Where there are three, they are without God. And where there is only one, I say, I am with him. Lift up the stone and you will find me there. Split a piece of wood and I am there.”
.
[The Christmas ornaments are on the left. One of Santa’s reindeer is on the right.]
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Can one ever remain truly happy if one is constantly looking at the world through the labels that others instilled in one?
.
[Buffalo Treehoppers feed on the sap of flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and deciduous trees.]
There’s a hole in their theories! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
To be cultivated is to be discerning; one can’t be discerning if one is full of the crumbs of an indifferent society’s brittle cookie.
.
Away from the brittle pavement… Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Let the mind be malleable and adaptable; flow with changes with poise and adroit movement.
.
[This is a local river area in fall.]
River Flow (1) Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
River Flow (2) Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
True enlightenment — not all of that phony stuff — involves being beyond the “conditioned”; few ever exist in (and “as”) the timeless, the “unconditioned.”
.
[A female Cabbage Butterfly resting. They were introduced into the U.S. from Europe at around 1860. Well… we’re used to immigrants!]
She’s not a legal citizen… but I won’t turn her in! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
The Zen all-meaning circle… it’s just a symbol, but whoever initially came up with it was attempting to convey something profound.
.
[A dried, fall wild vine…]
Zen all-meaning circle… Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
You can buy stuff, but you can’t purchase integrity, compassion, and deep insight.
.
[Local Creek in Fall]
Local Creek Up Close. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Local Creek. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Simple acts to help others, physical action to end suffering, and acting to help Mother Earth with actual deeds… is likely worth more than a million people praying.
.
[Close-up study of a Begonia (Scarlanda green-red) in the outdoor garden of a large hospital/medical center.]
Begonia (Scarlanda green-red) Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Don’t function like a cold, callous machine; operate with a warm, living heart.
.
[These are ants collecting pollen on wild Queen Ann’s Lace flowers. Pollen is great protein for some species of ants.]
Ant on Queen Ann’s Lace (1). Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Ant on Queen Ann’s Lace (2). Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Constant desire is the crutch of a very broken and injured mind.
.
[Buffalo Treehoppers are aptly named for their hornlike projections, which suggest a buffalo’s horns. Female Buffalo Treehoppers make crescent-shaped slits in young plant stems to lay their eggs. The larvae are a pale green and are covered with short spines.]
Buffalo Treehopper photo, from successful buffalo hunting! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
It is likely that the mind cannot fully go beyond nightly anxieties about the future if it continues to feel that it is something separate from what they are.
.
[A diminutive fly of the order Diptera resting on a very small, rain-laden Viola flower. Viola flowers tend to attract many small insects, while larger insects ignore them completely.]
Rain dodger! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
It’s not how far or how many you’ve gotten in life… it’s how deep!
.
[Grasshoppers would have made Jack’s job a lot more difficult with climbing the beanstalk! There would be grasshoppers flying everywhere!]
Grasshoppers and the beanstalk? Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
To be perceptive means to be observant, to be sensitive; and one isn’t fully perceptive if one does not have deep sensitivity and love for all living things.
.
[Milkweed plants feed so many insects, yet seem to prosper and continue to do very well! True energy machines! These are nymph stages of the Large Milkweed Bug. Both the adults and young nymphs of the Large Milkweed Bug sip nectar and sap from plants and their flowers… but seem to do no significant damage. In the fall and winter they over-winter in the cottony growth of the milkweed pods. It would be nice if our homes were so edible and accommodating!]
One big happy family! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
It’s sweet when your home is what you can eat! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
Fingers apart are still — and will always be — fingers together!
.
[These caterpillars — lined up and looking like puppies for sale and selection at the local pet store — are Milkweed Tussock moth (Euchaetes egle) caterpillars. They are eating and resting on a Milkweed plant. Caterpillars often look a lot different in appearance during each successive molt. Some species have completely different colors, or length of setae (fur-like covering), or may or may not have antennae or horns, for example. The variation between instars is one of the factors that makes it challenging to identify caterpillars.]
Milkweed Tussock moth (Euchaetes egle) caterpillars. This is no puppy mill! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
If you have a really big nose — like I do — don’t be ashamed of it; it’s far better than having a big, fat ego.
.
[This is a female Snout Butterfly. They have extensive projecting mouth parts (palpi) that resemble long snouts or noses. Similar to the metalmark butterflies, Snout Butterfly males have four walking legs and the females have six. Only one species occurs north of Mexico. The larva, which grows very rapidly, feeds on Hackberry.]
What a snoz! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
One has to be gutsy when looking for the truth… not molded to find comfortable answers that one is merely desiring to find.
.
[A Ladybug resting in the center of a wildflower as a very diminutive insect ascends toward it.]
The Center of attention. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
.
.
.
.
. Don’t just immaturely be stuck with finite details… see the beautiful, infinite whole.
.
.
Perpetually immature… by Thomas Peace 2013
.
.
.
.
. To be cut off from the universal order is to merely look with separation and limited space “at energy” while (all the while) not existing in a direct relationship with orderly energy. True enlightenment is a real communion with — not merely a fabricated ritual about — that energy. Those who look at life through eyes of separation are — interestingly enough — inevitably apart (mentally, not actually) from that orderly energy that is universal, vast, and whole. To merely perceive through limited space is to remain ensnared in limited space. Such limitation causes the mind to often encounter boredom, indifference, melancholiness, and confined measures of control, stemming from a false, learned, fabricated center (involving a limited circumference, with it’s separation — and isolating walls — from all others). Psychological space between a “perceiver” and “that, which is perceived” often results in disorder resultant from limitation… (the limitation of a distorted, circumscribed, confined space). Intelligently go beyond such limitation.
.
.
Splendid Unfurling… by Thomas Peace 2013
.
.
.
.
. Live each moment with awareness and integrity… not with separative indifference.
.
.
Our Cooperative/Orderly Plan… by Thomas Peace 2013
Life involves much more than having many symbols (i.e., thoughts) about it. Many of us go through life looking at everything through a screen of symbols and images. We recognize things merely via these symbols and images (that we were taught). To look freshly — without all of these blasé, worn-out images — is to really live. Otherwise, one is merely looking through (and with) the old, dead known. Direct, youthful observation only takes place without the contaminated past interfering. Such observation is, in itself, alive and free.
Structured and “learned” observation is never really of freedom; it is never implicitly free. Many merely look via the ways and modes that they were “taught” to look. Little wonder, then, why so many become bored, weary, melancholy, and depressed. They are not looking with what is joyous, fresh, alive, and spontaneous; they are looking with what is old, stored, categorized, and of the past. The beauty of existence and life is in its spontaneity and “nowness”… not in a remembrance of what “was before.” Go beyond what all the pundits have taught you. Go beyond what you stored and accumulated. Leave the dead past and perceive freshly in the “now.”
The next time you see the beauty of an animal, or a face, (or a tree)… please do not merely look at it via labels, classified-learned patterns, formulated systems, and antiquated memories. Please do not merely look with a lot of that “learned space” that exists between the perceiver and what is being perceived. Without all that baggage, maybe (if you’re lucky) you’ll actually be in relationship with what is observed.
“Beyond Labels”… pic by Thomas Peace (Left click on the photo and scroll down to see it enlarged; left click on the “middle” of it again to enlarge it more; hit left return-arrows, twice, to return.)
“Beyond Labels” photo by Thomas Peace
We are what we think. And by and large, we are the thoughts of others. We have absorbed the thoughts, patterns, habits, and manners of others; we are an accumulation of these processes, tokens, and methodologies that others provide. Yet we (each of us) think that we are something truly independent and unique. The reality may be that most of us are not unique or independent at all. To be a second-hand copy (of what everyone else basically is) may not at all be what “true living” involves. Being another domino in a sequential series of reactions may not involve real action whatsoever. Real action goes beyond limited boundaries. Limited boundaries constitute the very essence of symbolic representations and mental recognition frameworks via learned (i.e., merely absorbed) paradigms. Real learning lies beyond mere absorption.
We look through the screen of what we were taught… and what we see is what was implanted into us. Very few of us go beyond that very limited domain. We are used to (i.e., accustomed to) limitation, we live in limitation, we accept limitation, and we fight… in childish political parties, divisive religions, separative countries, and isolated, small self-concepts… all involving gross and crass limitation. Limitation occurs when the mind is spewing with boundaries of demarcations, when barren, symbolic representations endlessly clutter the mind. Merely absorbing and assimilating limitation is easy. Any languorous or inattentive mind can do that.
Fortunately, there are a few who look beyond the muddle and go beyond it. They are not the ones who write the innumerable mystery books that have no real mystery to them, and within… (and there are plenty of so-called mystery books like that). They are not the ones carelessly driving into dead-end streets while childishly trying to entertain us. They are not the ones in high office, dressed in fancy clothes (or wearing hierarchical robes) jabbering away, but with real apathy behind it. They are not the ones with their images plastered on the cover of popular magazines.
We think that we control what we think… but we are what we think. We have accepted separation as an essence of our fundamental perspective. (We think that we are separate from what we think… and that we control it.) We (most of us) have merely absorbed what we were “taught.” However, that kind of teaching, from which we were “taught,” may not be real teaching at all. Real teaching involves penetrating the superficial. Real teaching involves tearing down false limitations and puny demarcations to reveal and allow deep, profound insight. Wholeness, real wholeness, is not a concept. It is not something concocted from an accumulation (or bundling) of the many things that one sees or was “taught” to see.
Many of us are second-hand shadows, congratulating each other on what remains superficial and fragmentary. The ramifications of this involve a world being harmed more and more by very limited minds. To question what we were taught, and to go beyond it, may be the beginning of true wisdom. True wisdom stands alone… and it does not depend. True wisdom may not exist for one who wishes to wallow in the comfortable shadows of what it was conditioned to become by society.
www.eternalfountainofyouth.com
from Walt Whitman:
I believe that a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars…
******************************************************************************************
Photograph “Leaves of Grass” by Thomas Peace (copyright 2012)
from Thomas Peace
True meditation is not something that one can know that one is engaged in. Like humility, true meditation occurs to the mind unawares; it is not something that can be recognized. One can not “know” that one is humble. Likewise, one cannot “know” that one is meditating. True meditation and true humility are both beyond the field of “the known.” Therefore, both are beyond the realm of recognition by the self; for recognizing is in the field of “the known,” whereas humility and meditation are of “understanding” and not “knowing.”
To practice meditation is folly. For one cannot practice what is beyond causality. One can practice what is within a cause and effect continuum — such as learning to play a man-made instrument — but true meditation is an all-encompassing, non-conditioned, non-fragmentary thing. Therefore, it is beyond the realm methodology within phenomena involving common causality. Interestingly, a lot of people claim that they practice a form of meditation. However, true meditation, being beyond what can be mechanically “practiced” within causality, does not exist for such erroneous individuals. You can practice something rather dead and mechanical… but you can’t practice “aliveness,” “awareness,” “insightful compassion,” and “holistic understanding”… and that (despite what many so-called experts say) is what meditation may really involve.
A wise, sagacious mind is (in itself) meditation. However, such meditation is not something that it practices as part of some methodology. A wise, sapient mind goes beyond the clutches of practice and methods… because such a mind intelligently goes beyond the field of the “known.” Such a mind goes beyond the realm of mere symbols and representations that words and labels are a part of. Such a mind goes beyond mere symbols… but not by any process of practice or methodology. True insight is instantaneous: no time is involved for it to (finally) come about. All methods and forms of practice take time. A wise mind (of true meditation) exists beyond what takes time in order to manifest. Interestingly, true meditation, being beyond mere practice and being beyond mere methods… is, in a significant way, beyond the causality of time.
Beware of those charlatans who offer a concrete form of meditation to you (for you to practice). What they give you may make you feel happy or comfortable for a limited time. However, what is not true meditation is merely a crutch. It is not the indelible gem of many indescribable facets. So, regarding those that offer you some form of methodology or prayer to attain enlightenment: run from them and do not fall into their clutches. Meditation is only what can occur for the individual of (and by) his (or her) own accord. It is a harmony that others cannot bestow upon you. Read my book (about self-awareness) at http://www.eternalfountainofyouth.com. The book will not provide you with mechanical methods to practice (like some kind of robot); it will not give you methodologies to follow like some kind of lemming. It will, however, encourage you to wake up and realize that what you do in infinitely important. However, if you are merely a “follower” and a lemming, then what you do will always be limited and confined. True meditation never blossoms forth from what is always merely limited and confined. True meditation is an explosion of infinite awareness and understanding… an awareness and understanding that no one can merely regulate out to you.
from Emily Dickinson:
A COUNTERFEIT — a plated Person —
I would not be —
Whatever strata of Iniquity
My Nature underlie —
Truth is Good Health — and Safety, and the Sky,
How meager, what an Exile — is a Lie,
And Vocal — when we die —
*************************************************************************************************
www.eternalfountainofyouth.com
Warm Regards,
Thomas Peace (author)
Photograph of Butterfly by Thomas Peace copyright 2012
Love and be the whole miracle of life… not limited, dead concepts and systems.
Intelligence goes beyond the boundaries of “them” and “us” and dissolves them forever.
It is easy to get lost in the shuffle.
A passionless mind is dead before it ever gets to the grave.
Anything, even a heartless machine, can exist as what it was programmed to exist as.
Separation (from others, for instance) is as a death.
You are responsible for the whole of life, because the whole of life is you.
True beginnings are entwined with (and engaged to) true endings.
The book, which I recently wrote, cannot fail, because even if you do not like it (which is highly unlikely)… it will have succeeded; it can only fail if you think that it is of the “languid orthodox” and that it is cherished by the “numb status quo”… and that cannot ever happen.
Regarding what most of the ungracious masses of separative people have unceasingly clung to: it doesn’t ring true.
Fly like a free Swallowtail… please do not cling to the stagnant flypaper of orthodoxy along with so many others.
Regarding my (i.e.,Thomas Peace’s) book please click on: www.eternalfountainofyouth.com
from Emily Dickinson:
Macro-photography pic taken by Thomas Peace:
I feel that what is important in life… is understanding. For understanding is life, not something divorced from it. If you merely look in a second-hand way — that is, according to accumulations and formulated systems/patterns that were handed down to you — then you likely will be far from being a mind that is truly alive and supple. What is truly alive and supple is not ever the result of rigid, traditional, habitual formulations. If you follow a rigid, fixed path… you might find comfort, but you will not be what directly perceives truth, and you likely will not be what discovers deep mystery. That deep mystery is too alive and unconstrained to be able to be touched by what is second-hand, premeditated, and stale. No dead, fabricated path can lead to (or hold) what is true and what is truly living.
Please read my new book, but please do not cling to it. People who cling to books, to systems, to traditions, to methodologies (in the realm of the psychological and spiritual) are often like flies that get stuck onto stagnant flypaper. They end up being embedded in the conclusions of others, and there they are forever stuck… not ever realizing, for themselves, what true freedom is. So please do not turn my book into something to cling to and to help one become “stuck” (to conclusions about life). Please use my book as a tool for questioning. Question yourself about how others may have indoctrinated you and molded you to become part of what is rigid, second-hand, and obsolete.
Please wisely go beyond my book and beyond me. I, Thomas Peace, am not what is important and I am not what you need to focus on. You are what is important… and you may be so much more than what the supposedly sophisticated intellectuals have told you what you are. Please go beyond what the cultural pundits have shoveled to you. Please share my book with others… not to get them to come to presumptions… not to affix more humdrum ideas into their minds — and, it seems, most all the orthodox ideas are rather “humdrum” — but to invite them to prudently question things for themselves. This questioning may help them to live peacefully and holistically beyond dead conceptualizations, and to fly free (from being secure in the wretched, flat flypaper of stale conclusions). Please learn, for yourself (and not merely from others) about soaring and flying in true freedom. Please do not remain embedded in the old, humdrum patterns that the languid status quo adheres to.
Discover my book at www.eternalfountainofyouth.com
It can also be found by searching for it (via the book’s title) on Amazon.com
In an indirect way, it may be like drinking directly from the Grail cup itself.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 