Merely sitting on your can
with eyes closed
with legs crossed
while supposedly “controlling ‘your’ thoughts from a distance”
(in order to get something)
is not it.
Fruit-fly on a small leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
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
[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
Among the many “here”s
within the many “there”s
a confusion quite precisely
drinking coffee stirred by nows
Within the trodden whiles
absorbing many styles
a delusion so pretentiously
through dirty-window-hows
But then unfathomable why
no shredded bits of get
a sunburst of entirety
a placid joyful yes
Like two white(fluffy) socks
outside the darkest day
an immeasurable perpetuity
Untold poetry’s best
Shrooms … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
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
Finding decent employment in today’s world is very difficult. It isn’t easy to get a job, yet alone a very ethical job. I am elderly (and retired from being a teacher of the multiply handicapped) and it was even tough to get a decent job when i was very young. I empathize with young people in this day and age. It will become even more difficult in the near future, with more and more robots doing the work, with more automated machines cranking things out; these automatons will do things efficiently and without needing to get paid. Many employers, these days, are not treating workers like human beings; they are cutting benefits, not giving them decent retirement plans, and are loading them with extra work. Miseducation and empty hearts have a lot to do with this. If you are young, or not so young, do not get depressed over having a difficult time in the job market; it is not your fault. It is just the way things are now.
Additionally — let’s face it — the world is getting to be a much more dangerous place. Scientists have moved the Nuclear Clock closer to midnight, largely due to people in high governmental places wanting to proliferate nuclear weapons even more. There are all kinds of conflicts between separative countries and religions. Populations are increasing and not enough is being done to curtail the usage of fossil fuels. However, with all of what is going on, one can function with stability, goodness, and real care and love for the environment. There’s a lot of darkness out there — for sure — but one has to be that starlight that is beyond that vast darkness.
When i was just out of college, i (instead of the regular route) became involved in a rural intentional community. (Many called them “communes” back then.) We did everything by consensus, had no leaders, were non-denominational, shared the land, did not allow drugs or nudity, did all kinds of volunteer work in the local community, were largely self-sufficient, grew much of our own food, and cooperated instead of being competitive. The local (outside) community loved us. I’m not sure what is out there (similarly) these days, but back then there were some intentional communities that were quite sane, cooperative, down to earth, and oriented toward more reasonable self-sufficiency and being closer to Mother Earth. This may be an alternative for (some) young people in the future. A lot of people, though, who were educated to be competitive, have an extremely difficult time when it comes to a very cooperative lifestyle.
To young people, i would suggest that they question things intelligently, look beyond mere self-gratification, and do things that will really benefit people and nature. Far too many have been programmed to be greedy, competitive, self-serving, and merely specialists. Do not merely fall into the rut of merely being a specialist in some limited field. Care about the whole of life too — or care about it more than anything — and don’t just care about some little section. You are not a pawn in all of this. You are the king (and you are the whole board and more). If they don’t treat you like a king… it is their mistake, not yours.
There is a new movie coming out this week… “A Quiet Passion.” Try to see it if you can; deep learning is real joy. Often, a quiet passion is the very best kind.
Not really separate (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Not really separate (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
An elemental Frown
wore a serendipitous gown
and danced with a Smile all around
They flowed through the night–
what a breathtaking sight–
if only there was enough light
Eventually,the Frown was kissed by the Smile
It was most definitely worthwhile
until both were swallowed by an enormous crocodile
The crocodile swam west
as his gastric juices began to digest
(and inside his stomach muscles)both were depressed
The crocodile choked
The two were ejected,soaked
Happily,as they ran away,they were very stoked
Though both were together,the Frown disappeared
and a Grin kissed a Smile next to his beard
(while the crocodile hunted,just as we feared)
As for the croc,well,he inherited Frown’s prior frustration
as he slowly died of starvation
Now,museum kept,he’s under sterling preservation
One mean, old Croc! Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
When we are violent and mentally formulate an ideal of nonviolence, we set up an “idealistic image” for the center of self (which is itself an absorbed, learned image) to strive towards. That “idealistic image,” being a fabricated construct of the brain, is a symbolic pattern that is not — much the same as the image of an isolated (controlling) center — real (other than being a fabrication of the mind). It may be far more prudent to give attention to the actual violence as it is occurring (without merely looking at the violence with separation and imagery). Then violence is not merely something that you have; it is what you actually are. Then you are not separate from the violence. Giving all of your energy to understand it may require that it be seen without a fallacious center trying to do something about it from a distance. In this, there would be no distance of space, nor any distance of time; (there, in other words, would be no spatial distance between a fabricated “center or ego” and the violence… and there would be no psychological time for the fallacious “center” to “have” to try to get rid of the violence.) Superfluous ideals of nonviolence need not (necessarily) be manufactured; if they were, they likely would create space, time, and conflict in the mind, sway attention from the actuality of violence, and would likely tend to support a false (isolated) center that focuses away from the learning, understanding, and true relationship regarding violence; a false center is (in itself) a form of violence; it is a man-made (isolated) image (that projects indifference, separation, and conflict).
Instead of being aware of violence and deeply learning about it (and therefore fundamentally going beyond its many ways), merely mentally saying (with that old, procrastination trick) that one will be “better” in the future involves (the space of time). The false center additionally forms (space) between itself and so-called others. This space and the space of time (psychologically) are intrinsically the same in many respects. Intentionally hurting so-called “other” life-forms is a form of violence. Jealousy is a form of violence. Envy is a form of violence. Racial prejudice is a form of violence. Indifference is a form of violence. Violence exists in many formats. If one fragment merely tries to get rid of another fragment (that is seen with separation)… then conflict continues (in one form or another) and the mind remains immersed in violence. Most have no true relationship with others and no true relationship with violence; so the violence continues (in society) as it does.
Eastern Amberwing. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Eastern Amberwing. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
The moment that a psychological fear — not necessarily threatening physical harm — occurs, simply be the fear, without merely looking at it with (and “from”) separation. Do not (as you learned from the past) merely try to avoid it, or rationalize it, analyze it, judge it, condemn it, or wish it was not happening. Simply be what it is without some (supposed) center looking at it from a (supposed) distance. If a legitimate relationship occurs with a fear, then the mind has much more clarity and energy to perceive with (and “as”) order and integrity. Most people have tension with their fears, involving conflict, friction, and avoidance; they look at “their” fears with images of distance and separation; many feel the more distance and separation… the better. Fear is only really diminished and solved when it is understood in a precise, legitimate relationship… not when there is needless friction, separation, strife, struggling, tug-of-war tension, and piecemeal analysis of fear. Analysis of fear involves — and is — time. A precise relationship with fear is not something that requires time or uncovering. If there is a precise, legitimate relationship (i.e., intelligent relationship) with fear there may be no need for time and duration (which is what analysis is) to better understand it (i.e., fear) in the future. If the future’s perspective (even with loads and loads of analysis having occurred) on fear still involves separation and conflict (as it does when the analyzer is supposedly different from the analyzed), it will not have understood fear to any profound degree; there is no more ideal moment to delve into it and understand the depth of it than when it actually takes place. Analyzing it later involves distance; most people look at fears through (and “as”) distance; such separation is of conflict/friction, and does not deeply flower into profound understanding and immense insight. Fear requires time for its existence. Without time, fear is not. Employing analysis and time to deal with fear may not be the most prudent thing to do.
Roses in the making. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Foolish people eat unhealthy foods and swallow foolish thoughts. The wise man is beyond such indelicacies.
True meditation is beyond will and methods. You can’t, in a mental framework of conditioning, make meditation happen any more than you can make God come to you in enlightenment.
Profound awareness goes beyond the separation between the perceiver and the images perceived.
Except for moments of pristine insight, every thought (including the thought of “I”) is a conditioned response reaction.
Perception merely through the mental screen of learned and absorbed thoughts and images isn’t really much perception at all.
Most think way more than they feel. It is best the other way around!
The historical Christ was killed because he didn’t follow hierarchical orthodoxy… and now, many hundreds of years later, orthodoxy claims him as their own.
The purpose of life is not merely to feel good but to make a meaningful difference in this world.
How can you be free and perceptive if you are behind the gilded cage bars made of rigid beliefs and fabrications?
Nothing you can accumulate in your lifetime is worth the price of your integrity.
Reaching Still. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Reaching Still. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016
Existing in fallacy is to remain clinging to learned or absorbed false systems or mistaken beliefs. A truly dynamic, liberated mind is one that likely transcends beyond all (given) beliefs and manmade patterns… being a mind that perceives without contamination that has been absorbed from others. It is easy to exist in a slapdash way, merely allowing others (many of whom want power and control) to tell you how to do things. However, unless one looks with the purity of non-contamination, then what one perceives and believes in may merely be extensions of what others (with motivations involving power and suppression) have planted. When one supposedly has a belief, it is very likely that one is that belief… not merely something separate (from some kind of manufactured distance) “having” it.
The beauty of real innocence and pure perception (which is what is truly unsullied) is that they — together as one — are beyond secondhand values. Real innocence transcends self-importance, pompous display, and it goes beyond mere accumulation. In mere accumulation — including the gathering of images and beliefs — there is a “getting more and more,” which inflates the self (via increments of images, internal components, and others’ patterns). With uncontaminated, innocent perception, there is a seeing beyond the self and the accumulations that fill (and make) the self. It may be that profound relationship goes beyond any mental accumulations that constitute the self. Real relationship and true selflessness may not be two different things.
Dragonfly and Damselfly. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
It is great to go out and enjoy nature, being very appreciative of all that nature offers. There is tremendous beauty and order in nature. Even the more brutal, violent things that occur in (and “as”) nature are part of a larger, overall order that is truly immense. Those who are not at all interested in nature, who are not interested in the outdoors and in the many diverse plants and animals, are not to be envied; they are missing something in their lives; really, a life without “life” may not be much of a life at all.
When one experiences nature, how does one experience it? If one merely experiences it as an outside “observer,” then there is a very good chance that one is looking with distance and separation. However, if one looks passionately, deeply, without the contamination from the way that one was supposedly “educated,” then there may be real perception, real contact and relationship with (and “as”) what nature is. Then you and nature are not merely two separate things. Nature is alive; but if you look at it through a bunch of dead (learned and absorbed) images, are you really perceiving the immensity of nature? It is easy to look via distance and separation, and with learned, dead concepts and say, “Oh yes, indeed, I am one with nature, one with the whole!” However, that may be rather meaningless unless one profoundly goes beyond what was instilled in (and “as”) one throughout the past. With (and “as”) the past is how most of us view nature. We look with preconceived symbols, stiff images, learned distance and separation, labels, and lifeless concepts absorbed in the past… and so we are not really looking much at all; instead, our perceiving is contaminated. Our very concept of self — that thinks it is doing the looking — is (in itself) a learned, separate, rather defunct thought/set of thoughts.
Interestingly, through intense awareness and keen insight, if one gets to that point (which really isn’t a “point” at all, by the way), then one is beyond where boredom, depression, and indifference can take a hold. Without being dependent upon dead, internal images and symbols, one is where real life, fortunately enough, truly blossoms, just as it does in profound nature. Then one doesn’t need to take mind-altering drugs or cling to artificial, unnatural, man-made things, leaders, and systems. (Many, unfortunately, are like walking graveyards, and they don’t even realize it.) Then — unlike most, who were taught to cling to (and supposedly live as) dead symbols, musty conceptual images, and stagnant, repetitive patterns — one is where real living flowers. Then one doesn’t even need to constantly experience nature (or constantly experience anything, for that matter)… because there exists a flowing vitality, immensity, and intensity that is beyond (at times) the need for images, experiences, and “absorbing more and more, and still more.”
Silver-spotted Skipper (or something beyond a mere label). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
It’s easy to “fit in”… to merely accept what the crowd (i.e., what the masses) say is the truth. It’s easy to comfortably “fit in” and lazily go along with what special groups say. That is where many find security and that is where they are all too willing to absorb what others maintain. Nazi Germany — and the way its people would blindly follow — was an example of this. But to intelligently question everything, to stand alone, to deviate (psychologically and profoundly) from the norm is not easy; it is very arduous and it is where one puts security aside. Many will not at all care for this; they will maintain that their special group has the answers; however, this (true independence and standing alone) may be the only way to come upon actual truth; otherwise one is stuck with old, secondhand, stagnant, and primitive values and traditions (which hamper real, legitimate discovery). Most are too conditioned, too rigidly formulated from the mold that society utilized to fabricate their structure; they will — one way or another — dismiss any real invitation to independently probe deeply.
Most will not ever realize that the very way we observe things is heavily conditioned. It is ironic that some, in the past — like the historic Christ (as can be seen in The Gospel of Thomas, Q, and the pre-narrative Mark) — transcended beyond normality and invited others to look within and find out for themselves… and that, after they died, others (over time) intentionally distorted and twisted their message in order to maintain power, authority, position, money, security, and control.
No one but you can discover the uncontaminated truth. However, if that “you” is a product of what was learned… then it will likely only find by way of limitation, contamination, and “secondhandedness.” (One’s very concept of self, for most, is a learned image/symbol, or a set of learned symbols.) When distortion looks… what it perceives is of distortion. The masses and the patterns of their world are full of distortion. Very few independently and sagaciously go beyond that, but (to be truly wise and not deceived) going beyond is absolutely necessary.
Clustered and apart. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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As she brushed
her long, flowing, blond hair,
she continued to admire her radiant beauty
in the large mirror.
However, she didn’t
reflect enough
around that superficial mirror.
She never realized that
the beauty that she was
a part of extended as
the trees, the butterflies,
the bees, the rocks,
and the fish.
Her mind was apart from the whole
which, when it’s all said and (never) done,
may be apart from
the real beauty.
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Green Tree Frog in Flower. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Green Tree Frog in Flower. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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When I was very young, (before I became a vegetarian) I was an avid fisherman. I loved fishing tremendously; being out there, with nature, was a large part of it (and was very special). There was a manmade lake that I would often fish at that was fairly new; adjacent to it, and connected to it by a narrow channel, was a huge, shallow swamp area (that was nearly as big as the lake itself). Most people who fished at the lake didn’t know about the swamp area; it was a superb area that contained many fish, many of which would go there to spawn and lay eggs. All kinds of other wildlife were there. There was a large factory not far from the swamp, however, and each year the swamp would get more and more slime and oily residue floating at the surface, much of which was undoubtedly due to pollution from the factory and from the industrial environment. Each year would be exponentially worse than the next. There would be less and less fish each year and more and more noxious algae and scummy debris. Back then, as a kid, I felt that what was going on in the swamp was a precursor to what would be going on for our entire planet; I deeply felt that often.
Now scientists are saying that we don’t have much time left (before it’s too late) to “get it right” with changing things for the better with regard to the environment. The permafrost of the globe is melting rapidly, and they say it will get exponentially worse each year, which will affect our environment in drastic ways. Our weather is getting more and more erratic and violent and the coral reefs are rapidly dwindling. Please try to do something more green; please try to use fossil fuel planes and automobiles less frequently and please recycle and look into using alternative energy forms that don’t leave as big of a carbon footprint. Our human population, additionally, needs to be regulated more and intelligently diminished; an aquarium with too many fish within it cannot adequately recycle the waste and remain balanced. Each one of us is highly responsible and must do our part.
(This won’t fit under a rug; it’s our planet.)
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Fly-catching. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Fly-catching. (2) (Digital Crayon). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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Most of us, in existence — because of the way we were educated (or miseducated) — are immersed almost exclusively in the conceptual, rather than in what is of real energy and substance. Our concepts (and our perceptions that are based on concepts) are almost always about virtual patterns and images; they are seldom (or never) of the essence of actual energy. Our modes of consciousness are almost always based around “patterns” within energy; we are seldom (or never) pure and unadulterated energy. Certain people and groups maintain that you should strive to exist in the “here and now” to better come into contact with that pristine energy (or the essence or source behind all things). (They’ll give you all kinds of techniques or methods for getting to the “here and now,” which is so ludicrous, as if a technique from the past can fabricate the present.) Really, for many, the “here and now” is often the result of more concepts, more propositions and proposals put forward by others to absorb and react to. Then such a “here” or such a “now” becomes a learned frame of mind or mindset (that seems to be divorced from the past), but that really is an extension from (and of) the past. Perhaps the conditioned recognition of the “now” (as being separate from the past and the future) requires reactions (from the past) that negate the actuality of really being in (a now that is not merely part of the past). So there is a strong possibility that the moment you recognize that you are in “the here and now”… you really aren’t in (or of) it.
Most of us are endlessly talkative (to ourselves), endlessly chattering (or visualizing mental images) throughout the day (and night, as we sleep). We thrive on these endlessly chattering patterns… we are these endlessly chattering patterns. We are used to being the past, endlessly restructuring itself from (and “as”) patterns that were learned and absorbed. If the mind (naturally, without method or effort) is quiet (at times) throughout the day, (extremely aware and alert, but without endlessly chattering to itself internally), then at night it can really rest and sleep (without any continuing and habitual, conditioned chattering). Then, when it sleeps, dreams (and the many absurd patterns that they entail) need not take place; then the mind can really rest and gather energy, without friction, without fears, inner struggles, needless conflict, and all that clutter. Then, when such a mind wakes, it is naturally (without any effort whatsoever) quiet. In that quietness, there is no conflict, struggle, friction, control, or domination. Then there’s no recognition of a “now” separate from the past or the future; but there is an intensity (an intelligent awareness) without dependence upon anything — not even dependence upon recognition and knowledge (which so many are frightened to leave) — (and this includes being beyond the patterns that were poured into it when it was younger). Then, when it looks, it doesn’t merely robotically perceive what was taught. Such a mind is truly alive and doesn’t exclusively perceive through (and “as”) the screen of the learned/programmed past.
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Downsideup. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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If one cares to understand the entirety (i.e., the completeness) of the universe as a whole, then one must essentially be complete in oneself. One can’t be complete in oneself if one merely perceives fragmentarily, with conflict, separation, and with mere conceptual images that were learned. So many try to spread their conceptual images of what they themselves absorbed (in terms of what they believe wisdom and truth to be). However, truth is never secondhand, and it is never what one merely rearranged or calculated from what one absorbed from others. Too many (online and in books) try to point the way to truth, when — throughout their entire life — enlightenment never occurred. Many merely share what they were brainwashed with (or “as”), which isn’t (usually) real substantial sharing at all. When the blind lead the blind, both eventually end up in the ditch. Writing about facts and about certain basic things like “love for others” or about “love of life and all of life’s creatures” is good (from others) and admirable; however, when they go beyond that and spill into delicate philosophical areas, without having gone beyond secondhand concepts or realizations, that is something else.
Profound truth is never secondhand, nor a free ride; you have to do the work. Don’t adhere to what anyone says about what the truth is; discard all leaders, gurus, sages, religious cults, and all those popular lemming groups. Find out for yourself. If you don’t find out for yourself, then what is discovered will (more than likely) largely be conceptual or rehashed… which is no substantial discovery whatsoever.
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In the pink. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Not In the pink. (Digital Charcoal). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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In an oscillating universe, if an entity does not get it together and transcend mediocrity psychologically, then the consequences remain infinitesimally dull, like a seed that never germinates. If one flowers and grows, the winds of enlightenment may be truly endless.
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Wild Beebalm. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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Just because you are good does not mean that only good things will happen for (or to) you. True goodness is not for some later prize, but exists as its own effortless beauty. True goodness is far beyond the norm; it is beyond what “mostpeople” subscribe to and unexist as. True goodness involves an immense awareness that exists independent of group ideas, traditions, and values. The ideas, traditions, and values of others are often binding and limiting. True goodness, like real creativity, is causeless and effortless… and merely following the patterns of a system or group nullifies profound creativity and independence. Interestingly, true goodness does not merely cling to being in patterns of experience. Habitually clinging to “needing experience” is another form of dependence. A mind twisted up in psychological dependence and in habits is not capable, for the most part, of being intrinsically good. Goodness exists beyond descriptions and learned concepts. Most are unwilling to cut themselves off from dependence… dependence on governments, nations, religions, philosophies, ideals, hypnotic effects, learned concepts, experience, and false habits; therefore, real enlightenment and profound goodness eludes them. Only what is free, independently wise, and whole can be visited by what is immensely sacred and profound. It cannot, and will not, enter into what is distorted and corrupt.
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Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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If you are melancholy and blue, transcend what you are. This can be done by, without method, being highly observant from moment to moment, without clinging to the methods, systems, and stale images that were seeded within (and “as”) you. If one often merely perceives with (and “as”) stale, redundant images that one constantly “recognizes” things with… then one is seeing what was taught; and that is the old, stale, antiquated, and musty “known.” Perceive without that dust-laden past… and one may see joyfully without merely just recognizing. That may bring real ecstasy. Then one won’t be blue any longer… unless one is an Indigo Bunting.
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Returning Indigo Bunting. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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the Heart of the Truth) flower
Rhythmically beats Blossoms
for
who(ever) is caring
enough
too
(Deeply Perceive
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Heart of the Flower. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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His boss wanted to fire him because he was accused, by his coworkers, of moving at a snail’s pace.
“I realize that I’m a bit sluggish,” he exclaimed, while red with embarrassment.” He then said, “There are a lot of sluggards in my family, I know; we were brought up wrong, and some of us are trying our best to get out of the vicious spiral that we are in; please give me another chance.”
“Well, OK,” said his boss, with a straight face.
And so he happily continued in his job of cleaning the inside glass of aquariums… not once thinking that his job sucks.
[If you are still working for an employer, remember this little story, and realize that (in deep reflection) the observer may not be all that separate from the observed.]
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Red Ramshorn Snail. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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Insensitivity ignores nature, ignores truth, ignores others. Compassion and wisdom loves nature, perceives the truth, and helps others.
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Rarity. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Rarity. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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The wise mind goes beyond constant symbolic thinking. It does not — therefore — necessarily need to always be recognizing things as it was taught. Constant recognition involves constant thought, mental labeling, categorization, and residual attribute manipulation. Constant recognition is a form of reacting; and reacting is second-hand and is not essentially original.
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Together as one (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Together as one (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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the alcohol brought itself 2 a face
the movement toward the mouth was
slow
and
deliberate at 1st
then unnoticed things(which began
hap
in
ing
contin
you)
‘d
2 be unmanifested
the mouth opened 4 more
4 more
the brain closed
4 less
words mispronounced dayselves
justified 1 more
and sipped
in
2
oblivi
on
a clear
day
you can
see
4ever
the car
brought itself 2 a tree
da alcohol poem
brought itself
2 a close
the end
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Horsetail growing not far from the tree (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Horsetail growing not far from the tree (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
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Ideals cause conflict and friction in the mind. Existing without them and without conflict is true intelligence. Instead of having (and “being”) mere ideals… observe what is taking place from moment to moment (without the conflict that occurs between the “ideal” and the “actuality”… or the conflict that occurs between “fantasized images of the watcher” and the “watched”) and let understanding and learning (beyond conflict) flower. Ideals cause friction between “what you actually are” and what “you wish to be.” Profound understanding trumps ideals every time! When you clearly understand that a certain snake is venomous and extremely poisonous, you naturally avoid getting bitten; you don’t need an ideal about not kissing that snake; intelligence and understanding naturally have you act with (and “as”) caution (beyond lame, fabricated ideals).
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Green in green (1). Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
Green in green (2). Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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Instead of seeing your actions (i.e., reactions, fears, biases, and treatment concerning others) from a distance, observe them without separation (and not from some learned, devised, isolated “central point”)… such that you are them.
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Close to the Edge… Yes. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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When sensation occurs, the mind reacts according to memory and usually categorizes or “maps” that particular sensation. It is all well and good to do that… but just don’t do it habitually, as most people, unfortunately, do. One can often just be intensely aware — without merely categorizing and labeling (and looking through and from those labels) — so that the mind is not dependent on a mere process of reacting. Merely reacting sets up the mind to be rather mechanical and robotic… and that tends to create a mental environment wherein it is much easier to get bored, get depressed, seek more, or feel in a rut. Profound insight is a living phenomenon beyond the extension of sensation via categorizing or craving; it is something majestically beyond stale reaction. In profound insight, something new occurs to you; it comes to you, not from you; it’s not merely a re-fabricated reaction… a rehashed exercise of the brain.
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Mr. I.M. Bubble-head, Esquire — Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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Truly helping others — as well as nature — is an action that may not be separate from the order and movement of the divine and spiritual. (One can’t know that one is spiritual… just like one can’t know that one is humble. However — and this probably sounds a bit “out there,” but it’s not — there is a sacred immensity that can visit for a time; should that occur, one would be far beyond the ordinary field of “belief” or “not believing.”) Many people — especially atheists — maintain the conceptual belief that there is no God… and point out that no real evidence exists that God manifests or is beneficent and helps those on this planet. Then there are many who worship God; unfortunately, for many of them, God is a series of mental images and absorbed beliefs… which usually are limited symbols and concepts separate from the whole of life. Beyond all this, real perception is action (beyond conclusions)… wherein the perceiving and the action are one.
Of course, when action is done to truly help others (and all life) — which may be a spiritual thing — that doesn’t mean that one becomes the actual sacred immensity. As was suggested, God, or the conceptual belief that there is no God, for many, is largely merely a concept or series of concepts. Go beyond concepts and actually inquire without pre-molded patterns from others. Passionately inquiring, and (additionally) helping others, and life, may not be a mere concept; it may be an alive, majestic order beyond the cold ordinary. Perception that is limited and incomplete does not act fully/flowingly… it reacts; reactions from (and “as”) what is limited often divide people via rigid beliefs or anti-beliefs. Indifference is a lack of perception. Real perception acts. Care, compassion, and responsibility are at its very heart.
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Beyond fragmentation. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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True insight doesn’t take time, but mechanical, rote practices do. Go beyond robotic habits, including thinking the way you were programmed to.
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Climbing down. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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Most are locked in (and “as”) the small details of life without a passionate inquiry into the essence of the whole… (which, unfortunately — for human beings — is partial, fragmentary, limited, and not real life at all).
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[Part of a huge Oak Tree]
Satisfied with merely crumbs. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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We’re not something isolated from our actions/reactions; we are those actions/reactions.
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In flight and landed. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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Psychological blindness educates others to be content in the dark; illuminated minds educate entirely differently.
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Showered by illumination (1). Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
Showered by illumination (2). Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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Real wealth is in perception and heartfelt caring, not in dollars and cents.
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[American Bellflower – Campanulastrum americanum]
After the rain. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015
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The purpose of life is not merely to feel good, but to make a meaningful difference in this world that contains indifference.
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[This Royal Catchfly Plant — with red flowers — is a very rare plant and is an endangered species in Illinois. The calyx is light green or purplish, longitudinally ridged, and covered with sticky hairs that trap climbing insects.]
True Royalty! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
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 —
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www.eternalfountainofyouth.com
Warm Regards,
Thomas Peace (author)
Photograph of Butterfly by Thomas Peace copyright 2012
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 