Three beautiful blue wishes,
circumscribed by a rigid limitation.
Soon they will emerge beyond
weakness and constraint
and will fly free enchantingly.
Do you think that you are beyond your
enclosing limitation?
Most are circumscribed by more
rigidity than these three ever were.
Most will never break free
but
because of blind beliefs
darkly will remain
bound in rigidity forever.
Three Beautiful Eggs from Mother Robin … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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
“I love you in a place where there’s no space or time.” — Kodi Lee
We saw the extraordinarily talented Kodi Lee the other night on America’s Got Talent. Kodi reminded me of a lot of the very fine and wonderful students that i used to have when i was a teacher for the multiply handicapped (before i retired). Seeing Kodi perform brought tears to my eyes. The students that i had were a delight to be around. Some were very gifted. When i was a teacher, we had students, for example, who were very mentally handicapped but who could play the piano flawlessly. One fellow could be shown a complex scientific book (or complex passages on whatever subject); the book could be opened at any section, with both pages flashed (even upside down) in front of his face for a fraction of a second. He then would recite the entire content — from memory — of both pages… word for word, perfectly.
Kodi has autism and autism is increasing worldwide (especially in developed countries) at alarming rates. The adjuvants in vaccines, increasing pollution, fragmented-unhealthy GMO foods, and food additives are possible contributing factors to autism’s increase, i think.
For many years, our classrooms were situated right within the elementary school building and it was a good thing for so-called “normal” children to often interact with those who had severe handicaps. Such a close relationship between these two groups of children benefited those who were handicapped and helped the so-called “normal” population develop empathy, compassion, and understanding concerning the handicapped. Some of my students, by the way, had regular IQs but, because of very severe physiological problems, were quadriplegic and could not control their arms or legs whatsoever. (Real meditation is not merely sitting around being quiet. Compassion is a vital component, and if you don’t have it, the sacred — that timeless enormity that man has sought after for eons — will never visit you.)
My wife and i went to Navy Pier, in Chicago, a few years ago, and we saw and heard some visiting classroom of kids making fun of (and taunting) some other children who were there (who happened to be handicapped). Such callousness is sad and disgraceful. The so-called president of the United States — before he was elected — in his ugly callousness, hateful nature, and typical nefarious manner, mocked and made fun of a gentleman who happened to be mentally handicapped. (Google that!) With his neglect for others having misfortune, and with his gross neglect about the health of nature and the environment, Donald Trump’s behavior is a disgrace to humanity.
(See the short video of Kodi below.)
Gifted Sweat Bee going after the gold while surrounded by tons of adoring fans … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
How important is it to perceive deeply in life? (Have you ever asked yourself that question?) Is the essence of all life and existence rather meaningless and superficial, such that no matter how deeply one perceives, it (i.e. such perception) may be essentially a waste of energy in the long run? Could it be that there is something in life that is immensely profound, such that looking deeply allows great, eternal treasures to manifest and blossom?
A broken mind, a mind crippled by such things as bad dietary habits, poor sleep, and by propaganda media designed to mold minds (for ulterior reasons), of course, would not be able to look deeply (if true depth really exists in the first place). It would likely be content with living a superficial, second-hand life that would accept within the limits of that superficiality (though, to it, such superficiality would seem plenty deep enough). Through miseducation, stagnation is often learned, absorbed, clung to, and cherished.
To go through life merely believing in something without ever having actually perceived it (without delusion) is a tragic thing. A belief that something does not exist, (without ever having perceived wholly), is an equally tragic thing. Both are — despite people arguing otherwise — empty acceptances. Stagnant minds cannot perceive because they have been shaped and molded by other minds that (also) are limited. Minds can change, however; the mind is a dynamic and wonderful thing (if real care is taken). Stagnation can end. Contamination can end.
There are plenty of gullible people deluding themselves (and others) about having had experienced something profound or “otherworldly.” However, i would suggest waking up and discovering and passionately finding out for yourself. Look with every fiber of energy that you have. No one else is going to do it for you; that is for sure! How critical, how important is this “discovering and passionately finding out (for ourselves)” in our lives? Personally, i feel that it has profoundly immense and eternal consequences. Of course, there might be a chance that i am very wrong, but find out; there may be real magic out there!
[Note: Marla is out of the hospital — after her fourth reconstructive shoulder surgery — and is doing well. I am acting as her nurse and am helping her with enteral feedings and other medical-oriented things. She is calling me “Nurse Matilda”! 🙂 ]
Miniature Wildflower – Purple Deadnettle (3/4ths of an inch long total for full arrangement)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Good nutrition is essential for having (i.e., being) a mind that is perceptive, stable, innocent, compassionate, whole, and non-fragmentary. What we eat affects us cognitively, and a mind that eats a lot of unnecessary sweets and junk food and that takes all kinds of mind-altering drugs cannot have — and be — the stable integrity that allows profound order, beautiful wisdom, and spiritual magic to take place. We truly are what we eat, and if we eat junk… we end up being intrinsically junky. (Look at what the current president of the U.S. is eating.)
A lot of people are not fully aware of the very detrimental contents pertaining to much of the “so-called food” in the grocery stores. No wonder why many diseases and disorders are increasing in alarming numbers in countries like the United States. In the U.S., the FDA (the Fraud and Deception Administration) certainly doesn’t really care what happens to you; look at all the garbage on the shelves that people can buy; it’s $ and extended shelf life (for the powerful industries) that is fundamentally important to the FDA and U.S. government. We laugh at what people did many years ago with blood-letting and leeches. What we are doing — in the U.S. — in this day and age, with tons of crazy, synthetic medications (most of which have very deleterious side-effects)… and foods giving us inflammatory disease, increased blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, autism, and such things as Alzheimer’s disease… is equally tragic and malignant. These days, in the U.S., most doctors — though most mean well and are doing a reasonable amount of “good” — are, unfortunately, puppets of the pharmaceutical companies; most of them just do not tell you how to heal your body naturally and holistically. Big $ supersedes the overall health of the nation’s people. We are not a sick species that needs to depend on innumerable kinds of synthetic (unnatural) drugs in the quantities that we currently take! I am recommending two important videos — their links are offered below — for you to watch to get started. I admire both Dr. John Bergman and Dr. Mandell, who talk in these videos, but i certainly don’t agree with everything that they say (especially in certain other videos that they provide); however, for the most part, they are far better to listen to than the standard fare! Do yourself a favor and watch these two videos when you have the time. Super healthful Chia seeds, mentioned below, actually got their name from the Mayan word for “strength,” and for good reason! They have maximum nutrients with minimal calories and are very high in top quality fiber, and contain very high levels of ALA omega-3 fatty acids (higher than flax seeds and even salmon)! So, here is how i make Chia Pudding daily (which is anti-inflammatory, raises HDL, lowers blood pressure, and lowers triglycerides.):
(I make my Chia in the evening… to refrigerate overnight and eat in two portions the next day.)
1. Add 1 cup of unsweetened Almond milk (vanilla flavor) to a small, plastic container.
2. Add some honey and flavorings (possibly more vanilla if preferred) and/or some powdered cinnamon (to one’s taste)… and stir vigorously.
3. Add 4 level Tablespoons of Organic Chia Seeds (Walmart sells it in the flour section)… and stir vigorously; (if you have time, stir every now and then for the first few minutes).
4. Let it set for 45 minutes or so and stir it well one more quick time (to homogenize it and get out the clumps).
[Note: It is at this step that i add my favorite flavoring — instead of the others mentioned above — which is organic Cacao Powder (not Cocoa); i add about a tablespoonful of the powder and stir it in well (with honey having been added previously in step 2). (If you add the organic Cacao, you might want to add a bit more milk in step 1.) Organic Cacao is sold where the Chia is (at Walmart) and is full of antioxidant flavanols. Raw cacao powder contains more than 300 different chemical compounds and has nearly four times the antioxidant power of your average dark chocolate — more than 20 times than that of blueberries. ]
5. Put it in the refrigerator (covered) overnight and then eat in the morning (or later) as is, or with blueberries added, or whatever. Get healthier.
(If you have any questions regarding making the Chia, just ask.)
I also take curcumin in the form of “Double Strength Theracurmin” daily, which does wonders for the joints! I’ll post more on nutrition at a later time.
More Spring Emergence … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
We were miseducated to look with separation. For eons, we have looked from (and “as”) separation. For eons, we have looked from (and “as”) separative beliefs. Beyond empty, limited separation is wholeness, beauty, and full compassion. One of the attributes of limited, learned separation is indifference. Many people have (and “actually are”) cold indifference; many people’s minds are based upon the acceptance of separation; they look from (and “as”) separation. It’s easy for cold indifference to point a gun at what it considers to be “others who are separate from oneself.” It is easy for cold indifference to look the other way and not help. If the essence of your consciousness is based on separation — as most are, these violent days — then you will go on in the old ways, old habits, and old mundane routines.
There is a profound reality of wholeness with its natural integrity of real beauty. It cannot be touched by what is distorted and corrupt. Separative beliefs can never be one with it. Its beauty is beyond the learnable, beyond the merely absorbed. Profound goodness is not the mere opposite of the bad. There is a wholeness that is beyond the opposites and beyond measure.
Blossoming Beyond Separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Spring Beauty
you are always
(timelessly there)
and so amazingly new
in your selfless sharing
You help make the woodlands
simply magical
Your fragility
transcends transience
with joyous eternity
___________________________________________________________________________________________
[Note: The common name for this Illinois woodland wildflower is Spring Beauty. The entire width of the flower is less than 1/2 inch (around one centimeter wide). This wildflower is still rather common throughout Illinois. It, fortunately, can survive more environmental disruption than most wildflowers. Its eternal essence has nothing to do with its persistence in Illinois or elsewhere.]
Spring Beauty … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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
Today is Earth Day and i will undoubtedly shed a few tears today. (Today, with the following, I’m telling you like it is, and not merely singing about daisies and butterflies.) The ability to have very accurate premonitions runs in our family; my mother had it and i seem to have a strong dose of it too. When i was in high school (in around 1966) i had a premonition that humans would quickly ruin the earth with excessive manmade pollutants. Yesterday, the very intelligent Fareed Zakaria had the famous environmentalist Bill McKibben on, as part of his show. Bill, 30 years ago, wrote a book — the first book about global warming — warning about the threats of manmade pollution; since then, he says that little has been done to change things for the better. Arctic ice is 50% gone and the oceans are 30% more acidic. We all need to change and do more to change things. Additionally, it is far more prudent/globally-compassionate to stay local and not go long distances for vacations and entertainment.
(Down below is a link to the conversation between Fareed and Bill.)
If i had a magic wand
that would
when waved
make people
care
understand
look without separation
clean up the environment (that they are)
and look without a false center…
i’d use it
No such
magic wand
from any mystical magic shop
exists
but that doesn’t mean
that real magic can’t happen
Real magic can happen
Profound mysteries of life assure you
real magic can happen
Ants Caring for the Aphids that they herd and that they milk like cows … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2019/04/21/exp-gps-0421-mckibben-full.cnn
People who are not serious will not care about this. The turbulent mind, the mind that is constantly reacting, constantly chattering (internally), constantly being agitated, is much different than a placid mind of true quietude. A quiet mind is analogous to a small boat in the middle of a pond, with little haphazard movement, with its oars still and not disturbing the water. Then, in such stillness, the surface of the water may be mirror-like, accurately reflecting everything. Contrastingly, the constantly chattering mind, the agitated mind, is like a small boat — in the middle of a pond — that is endlessly rocking, rowing circuitously, and splashing. Then, in such unending agitation, very little of the water’s surface reflects accurately; then there is a great deal of distortion; this is when a lot of twisting takes place; this is when a great deal of misrepresentation and misinterpretation can take place.
I will not offer you (like so many of the charlatans do) concrete methods and techniques — meditative or otherwise — to make the mind still and quiet. Any such concrete techniques (that you can practice) will only make your mind more mesmerized, more robotic and dull. For many, the “I” or “me” can allegedly “make” the mind quiet. However, the “I” and the “me” are protrusions of thought/thinking; any such “quietness” that they supposedly conjure up is inevitably an extension of a false and deceptive process. One conditioned reaction cannot make other conditioned reactions quiet, at least not in any legitimate sense; one form of agitation cannot cause similar forms of agitation to be quiet by using “control” as a means to an end. Only natural, simple, unpremeditated observing of what is going on (without dependence on antiquated patterns and suppositions) may — perhaps — allow an effortless, non-concocted quietness (beyond gross separation) to take place. Deep intelligence perceives the whole. Thought/thinking is primarily choppy, primarily fragmentary.
First Butterfly — a Red Admiral — of the season; they were eating sap dripping down the Birch bark. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
One might say that the Iris flower in the accompanying photo is very beautiful. However, real (profound) beauty surpasses what is superficially evident. Profound beauty goes far beyond mere recognition and superficiality. Hitler, for instance, loved flowers; he often gave them to others as gifts. Most of us see, but don’t see. Most of us are neither dead nor alive. It is very ironic, actually. We take for granted that we can see… perceive. We look with separation — between a so-called “center” and “what is seen.” Is seeing partially, seeing fragmentarily, seeing with tainted (i.e., corrupt) eyes… really seeing at all? Most of us accept the authority of others and we look at things in the ways that authority has dictated. We have wholeheartedly accepted a life of imitation, slavishness, being tied to systems, jobs, and routines that are making us more and more robotic, more and more mundane; and we automatons don’t see anything wrong with it. We perceive what we were programmed to perceive; we accept what we were programmed to accept; we fear what we were programmed to fear; we loathe what we were programmed to loathe. We dupe ourselves into thinking that we are somehow out of the box when, all along, we are firmly inside the box. We are the box. We fit into the pattern — that they fabricated — quite nicely, and then we die. That is how most of us (supposedly) live.
That can change if one is serious enough. The integrity and health of the world depend on such seriousness and profundity. Oneself and the world are not two separate things.
Flowering out of the box… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Frivolity, caught in the little
details of the competitive games
and traditions,
never was
the serious pondering about the whole.
That’s why it remained
as frivolity.
Frivolity can wear awesome shoes.
Frivolity can wear a first-rate hat.
Frivolity can appear to be intelligent,
in frivolous ways.
Mushroom Gills … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wars, for humankind, have been going on for eons. War is where and when we often spill each other’s blood over systems and ideas. Apparently, in war, systems, ideas, (and control) often become much more important than any universal brotherhood, any universal oneness.
Countries of the world are divisive and most are based on (and extensions of) an antiquated feudal system; “you pay us money (i.e., taxes) and we’ll protect you from ‘others’; we’ll be your ‘leaders’ with power and authority.”
It is so easy to be lead by ignorant men who, themselves, have little or no deep understanding about order and the wholeness and fullness of life. It is so easy for sloppy disorder and hatred to trump order and compassion and then be “followed” by others. We aren’t solving the fundamental problems concerning human against human friction, overpopulation, and environmental degradation but, rather, are chaperoned to dwell in relatively superficial realms that deal with barbaric, mundane things. We were miseducated to stay quiet and to keep quiet and to “fit in” and keep our mouths closed. Most of us merely blindly conform and see nothing wrong with it. It is easy for dullness to accept dullness. It is easy for mediocrity to accept mediocrity.
Crab Spider with Butterfly Prey … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
We all need to question more. Many of us, as we get older, lose the joy of deep questioning and become dull and stagnant. Many of us, as we age, begin to merely accept what others have poured into us. Then we look with secondhand eyes (which is really not any kind of real looking). Boredom and mediocrity, then, set in.
If a philosophical question is merely a spring-board to get a result (i.e., a quick answer), then it is giving more emphasis to the end rather than the beauty of the means. Real questions have a life of their own; they are not merely a shallow means to an end. The indoctrinated, the blind, do not question deeply enough. They have embraced superficial answers and have become hardened by inflexible, statue-like, rigid traditions and old, stale viewpoints. Then they become rather apathetic, indifferent, and subservient. Of course, they’ll come up with a million reasons to “justify” such behavior. Blind conditioning works in ironclad (though malignant) ways.
If questioning is merely limited by the language (or languages) that one happens to use, and limited by traditions, then such questioning is very circumscribed and tainted. Deep questioning goes beyond the cage-like barriers that language impales, beyond the confines of tradition. Profound questioning — being true intelligence — is often accompanied by deep empathy. What is pure and unsullied often naturally radiates compassion.
Crab Spider in Wildflower Foliage … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
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
No doubt, a large number of people will dismiss this or merely become irritated by it. Very many of us — most all of us, really — assume that we have a free will that freely does whatever it “wants” to. Suggesting otherwise tends to offend people, annoy people, and ruffle their feathers. However, the decisions we are involved in are all largely governed by the chemical processes in the brain, the physiological/biological/neurological networks and systems. Conditioning — by past sociological structures, such as education, religion, and other social networks — also, of course, plays a big part in this. It may be that your decision to read this blog up to this point was as inevitable as hydrogen and oxygen combining at a certain point to form water. Billions think and feel that they have free will.
It may be that any thought or any manifestation of thinking that one exists as, no matter what it is, is inevitably involved with conditioning. So, where is freedom in all of this and is there any chance for true freedom? Real freedom, perceptually, may come when the mind is of a stillness, a wholeness, that (at times) is beyond the sequential patterns and frameworks of thought/thinking. It involves awareness beyond what was merely taught or absorbed. It is of a newness that shatters all conceived and preconceived patterns. When it occurs, there is an intelligent cessation of thought/thinking; without inevitable, conditioned thinking, there is no learned, false center as the “me” or “I” being projected. Regarding true freedom, one cannot merely “know” that one is involved with it. Only a healthy brain can allow it to manifest but it is not what depends upon a healthy brain. It is not yours or mine; it is of a vastness that transcends all borders.
Royal Catchfly (Silene regia) This red blossomed plant is a very rare wild plant of the United States Midwest; it is very endangered in Illinois, for example. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wanting to become enlightened — to be in nirvana or satori or whatever it is — is a form of avaricious behavior that depends upon thought and psychological time. Desire and thought create psychological time. This time is always limited and based upon the past. (We are referring to psychological time, not necessary physical/chronological time, here.) In (and “as”) a person (often), there is a gulf (i.e., a chasm) — psychologically — between what one is and what one wants to become. Most of us do not mind such a gulf/chasm to exist psychologically; we were brought up and educated (or miseducated) to accept such a gulf fundamentally. We don’t see anything wrong with it. We don’t (ever) question it.
Additionally, there is often a tremendous gulf or chasm between “what one considers oneself to be” and “other people” or “other organisms.” Many people look with separation and see “their race” as better, “their culture” as better, “their family” as better, “their species” as far better, and “their being” as much better. Others are “at a distance” and they are separated from “oneself” by a gulf (a chasm), much like the chasm mentioned in the aforementioned paragraph.
You know, it is so easy to be duped. It is so easy to be deceived and defrauded to think that one is rich in the things of life. Fragmentation and psychological time are one hell of an illusion (wholly grasped by restricted minds). Be careful and attentive.
************************************************************************************************************************
[Note: My wife, Marla, is doing better following her recent shoulder surgery; she, however, will still require further surgery on that shoulder.]
Snow Crystals … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
[Note: My wife Marla’s shoulder replacement surgery went well (so far, it seems) but she still has a long way to full recovery. She must have strong PICC Line antibiotics given to her intravenously via syringes multiple times per day for 6 weeks (and i am the one giving her these). Additionally, i am helping her with her enteral feedings (via tube feedings to her stomach) multiple times per day (because, at the current time, she is unable to do them herself, with only one functional arm.) The shoulder replacement that they put in is a special antibiotic-emitting kind and she will likely need a whole other “regular” shoulder replacement done (in the same shoulder), with a steel replacement, once this temporary antibiotic replacement fully heals and is bacteria-free. Apparently, the infectious bacteria that caused trouble in the first place — and that is hard to eradicate (since it lodges deep within the joint) — is a type of acne bacteria (which baffles us as to how she got it). Since i will be busy taking care of Marla for the next few weeks, i will likely not do postings after my already scheduled 01/02/2019 blog/posting; i will not have time to read others’ blogs or correspond with others re their blogs or my blogs. Hopefully, i can soon get back into blogging again once things settle down and i find more time to do so. Peace!]
The following poem has nothing to do with Marla’s shoulder surgery, by the way…
When everything without feeling happened for quite some time,
feeling came along and tried to make a difference,
but it wasn’t easy.
On the Forest Floor … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
[Note: My wife, Marla, is still in the hospital — getting strong antibiotics through a PICC Line for the serious infection that has been occurring in her shoulder, following her recent shoulder replacement surgery — so my online correspondence will continue to be limited for the time being.]
Do you feel small
in this huge cold world?
Don’t feel large.
Don’t feel small.
Just express warmth…
the warm of compassion.
That’s all that really matters.
Golden Skipper Resting … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Happy Holi
days! 🙂
(Don’t forget what it’s really all about.)
It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
An inquisitive, young woman approached Lo Zu and asked him, “Why do you leave our village every day and go wandering off into the mountains?”
Lo Zu, the great sage, answered, “I have talked to all of you many times about ‘no mind’ and that, in essence, I do not really exist as anything concrete internally. Yet, you all continue to see me as just another man.”
The inquisitive, young woman then pensively exclaimed, “I do not understand!”
Lo Zu then stated, “When this body is in the village, you say ‘Lo Zu is here.’ When this body is in the mountains, you say, ‘Lo Zu is not here.’ At least when one is in the mountains, you (in the village) speak the truth.”
Lichen … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
I will likely not have time, the next few days, to be corresponding with people and/or visiting peoples’ blogs. My wife, Marla, is (again) having complicated reconstructive shoulder surgery and i’ll be too preoccupied with that; my blogs will continue, as they have been prescheduled (as they usually are). Marla requires extra help, nutritionally, with enteral tube feedings to her stomach, which she must always have due to complications from a prior neck surgery; most of the nurses in hospitals, believe it or not, are inexperienced with proper enteral tube feeding.
[Eternity is all around us.]
Together we
made a smiling snowman
who
(in magic, and he is we)
danced around
And when he melts
to those very last
drops
(of who we are)
he’ll be back again some day
Melting Away … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Imperishable insight is life that perceives its true reality (far beyond the limited, dead norm).
If you try to anchor the ship of your mind in the supposedly safe harbor of orthodox security (i.e., traditional beliefs)… you’ll stay shallow and never go deep.
The wise mind goes beyond constant symbolic thinking; it does not necessarily always need to be recognizing things as it was taught.
The watery pool of the astute, reflective mind must be still to mirror the absolute truth. A mere agitated mind, merely full of turbulence and turmoil, reflects nothing.
To a truly wise mind, many supposedly tantalizing sensations are rather trivial and somewhat meaningless… because a truly wise mind is content in itself, not needing extraneous stimuli to (eventually) make it happy.
Movements can claim to be solid entities. Mere reactions can claim to have freedom. Few truly evolve.
Nature’s Bounty … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Well, it’s a good thing
that matter solidifies as it does
and a miraculous thing that water flows at it does
and a wonderful thing that
the earth is just the right distance from the sun
and a crappy thing that
mankind pollutes the
skies and the oceans
Sweat Bee Study … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
They better not try to fool my heart
because they’d be wasting their time
There are plenty of other lost causes out there
whom they can easily fool
They better not try to harden my heart
because they’d be pounding on the wrong chest
There are endless cold cadavers around the globe
who would gladly help with the cruel beating
They better not pave the path to “truth”
because i have seen where their deception leads to
There are plenty of eager path-makers out there
though no path in time ever leads to the timeless
Shadow of a doubt … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Plenty of lenses to see
what seeing has to offer
Plenty of directions
to move as life’s parameters
Will wholeness see
or merely the fragments?
Black Horse Fly Eye Study … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
from Kobayashi Issa (c. 1818):
“Never forget:
We walk on hell,
gazing at flowers.”
from Thomas Peace:
One of the problems about hell
is that most who are in it
do not realize that they are in it.
One of the problems of hell
is that a few in it
(realizing they are in it)
are not listened to or
understood by those
in it (not realizing they are in it).
Who in the hell has
all of the right answers?
Nobody!
Ant on Stella Daylily … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
To wake up unaware
remaining unaware
is a pseudo-blissful ignorance
which lasts lifetimes
until
it is
far
too late
to bury
the sealed
casket of
hell
Wild Grain Happening … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Looking is easy. Anyone can (and anyone does) do just that. They can easily look at separate things…. things at a distance. But seeing is another matter. Seeing — real seeing — involves perception beyond all of that separation that you genetically inherited over eons of time (i.e., generations of experiences) or obtained from storing what was personally learned; it exists beyond what was gathered from accumulated learning. Seeing is not from accumulation; it surpasses and is phenomenally much more than what mere accumulation can offer. Most people look at what they were taught to recognize. Seeing cuts through barriers, surpassing them. Seeing puts the unfeeling, obtuse notion of “me” separate from “everything else” aside. But a lot of people are afraid to feel. They don’t have the courage or the moxie to feel. Real perception melts away the self and allows compassion to flower (beyond a dead consciousness). Real living involves real seeing… real perception.
Looking is easy. People, who merely look, throw bombs. Real perception — instead — is deeply compassionate.
Don’t be just anyone.
Silver-Spotted Skipper with extending proboscis … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
But if all haves
could seldom
see
past twisted crime
maybe some living compassion
could
free some dead slaves
from
time
Stink Bugs Feeding from Petiolar Glands (that emit nectar) from Wild Chamaecrist fasciculata Plant. (It was Linda, ‘shoreacres’, who found out just what these strange sections of the plants were… regarding an earlier article/posting we had on them. Note how the bug is using its proboscis to feed from the gland of the plant. ) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Between)the great purchase
of life’s parameters,
the price was everything
while the cost was nothing…
and we had plenty of nothing to give,
since it constituted everything,
(such as the space between
protons and electrons)
which seems to begin
to sum up the whole thing.
Just don’t squabble about the price,
since it cost you nothing(while
rattling in pockets
is change
Southern Cloudy Wing Skipper … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
It’s no mere coincidence that a narrow-minded brain can only see partially. Look with wide eyes.
Plurality won the referendum over “holistic insight and oneness” (because unity had insufficient votes).
If you were duped by miseducation and are cut off from the whole of life… then you don’t mind being indifferent to (or to be malevolently maltreating) “others.”
Don’t fall for all of the insincere claptrap which propaganda-oriented news and which commercialism provide; be an oasis from society’s calamity.
If you seek the truly unknown via a system or formula, you will have remained in the “known” patterns and methodologies of others.
This isn’t a fly-by-night universe (after all); what each of us does has infinite implications/consequences.
Mushroom Umbrella (with dew) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
One must put up barriers to keep oneself in time.
Wild Chicory … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
the favor.
The day we kissed everything,
everything kissed us back,
and
since
we are everything,
we
returned
Kissing Mushrooms … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
We so habitually separate. We, psychologically, separate the perceiver from “that which is perceived” so readily, so habitually, just as we were taught… and just as primitive conflicting, opposing factors (over eons) have dictated. Time, additionally, is separated. Of course, chronologically, actual physical time (in many, limited respects) has sections, but we, psychologically, almost constantly live in (and “as”) the past, as learned (stored) symbols, words, and concepts (of the past) that we constantly use (and are protrusions of what was poured into us). What is projected internally (psychologically) is what we are (i.e., what we actually are) fundamentally. If we remain in the old and limited, we remain old (internally) and limited. Even our concepts about the future are extensions of past accumulated (old) symbols/patterns. (Even when we think that we often live in the present, we — in actuality — do not.)
One can’t choose to perceive correctly… any more than one can choose to be wise or choose to be a genius. Choice and will are not keys to vast understanding. Understanding takes place when limited perception and fragmentation are not dominating factors. Will and choice are crude extensions of limited fragmentation; the chooser separating himself (or herself) from the choice is a mere continuity of primitive, illusory, fragmentary opposites. When fragmentation and limited perception no longer dominate, then there is a wholeness that is not the result of a mold or a mere blueprint.
Wildflower Flower Pods … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018 .JPG
An indelible, sacred energy
that rarely visits…
Its immensity surpasses all
things within the world of the
opposites.
Though ineffable, it is the real flame beyond
all of the smoke,
the true light beyond all shadows.
Do not take my word for it.
Find out!
Looper Moth on Clover Flower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
When there is the negation of what order and love are not, perhaps love will be there. There is no “you” that wills that negation, for the very self itself (i.e., the “I” or the “me”) must be part of that negation… not merely controlling it from (or “as”) a distance. Of course, we are not suggesting harm to the body in any way; such harm would not entail love. Love is not merely measurable (i.e., not merely of measure), so one cannot merely “know” that one has it. Thinking and time are of measure and a mind that is merely caught up in thinking and measurement (in and “as” time) cannot love deeply (though it can easily think that it can). Clinging to an isolated concept of “me” (apart from all of life) requires distance and a measurement of opposites. Psychological distance and measurement create the “I” and the “I” would not exist without such psychological distance and measurement.
A lot of people say “I love you” very easily (as if one knows that one “has” it… as if it entails an absolute separate subject and object). Is there really an “I” that is separate from what the whole world is? Is there really an isolated “you” — that is looking from a (learned) distance, an accumulated psychological space — that is separate from what the whole world is? Psychological separation, isolation, and conflict depend upon limited thought/thinking, and without limited thought/thinking, such separation wouldn’t exist.
Our minds are often so very distorted and not whole. The grocery stores, these days, are chock-full of fragmented, over-processed, pseudo-foods. And, in the United States, for example, there is more obesity and more cancer (and strange, deleterious syndromes popping up) than ever before. Too few of us eat real, whole foods like our grandparents did; we assimilate garbage both mentally and gustatorily, and we don’t mind being normal (and swallowing it all) one bit.
Yellow Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
While it occurs
one feels
a trillion times
more alive than
one has ever felt
before
Afterward
one doesn’t forget
the answer to the question
of whether the
immeasurably sacred
exists
or not
Lichen on Tree Branch … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Don’t be a second-hand, hodgepodge mix of what others (in your life) programmed you to be; perceive directly, without mere conditioning/reaction.
Quixotic, extremely idealistic behavior is often based on dead, old patterns; look at life afresh, without dead blueprints.
Don’t merely pigeonhole others with an old, categorizing-oriented brain; perceive with fresh and lucid eyes.
Many of us take immaculate care of our overly fancy cars while we guzzle sugar, starch, alcohol, and processed foods like there’s no tomorrow.
To habitually take refuge in old-fashioned beliefs may be like finding protection in a rainstorm by depending on an old, torn, metal umbrella.
Roses are red and violets are blue… wake up and realize that what you perceive is you.
Female Monarch Butterfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
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
The elderly Lo Zu was sitting on a huge fallen log next to a beautiful pond that was not far from the village. A much younger man, who was an atheist, came by and said to him, “Many people in the area say that you are a great wise man, a holy man, but if there is no God, then you are not a holy man, you are nothing.”
Lo Zu invited the man to sit next to him on the large, fallen log, which he did. Then Lo Zu, said (while smiling), “We two can agree on one thing; I am nothing.”
“Then there is no God,” the man pronounced with confidence.
Lo Zu then said, “‘God’, for most everyone, is an image (or series of images) that they have learned. (They will insist that it is something much more than absorbed images.) To these images, they associate power, dominance, kindly (special) protection, fatherliness, and unlimited knowledge. However, these images (and their associative emotions) are self-protrusions of thought/thinking.”
“And so not anything real?” asked the man.
Lo Zu then said, “The sign on the road, just outside of town, that has the name of the town upon it, is not the town. If someone steals the sign, they are not stealing the town. If someone wants to visit the town, they do not crawl up the sign. Additionally, to really be sure that the town is there, one must visit the town.”
“I see what you are getting at,” said the man. “So, you are suggesting that one, such as you, can visit God.”
“Not really,” said Lo Zu. “If one, through supposed will and choice, decides to visit ‘God,’ one is visiting one’s own learned images, one’s own learned thoughts and strong emotions associated with such thoughts. Such a ‘visiting’ is usually a self-deluding form of acquisition that involves greed.”
“So there is no real God,” the man insisted.
“Jumping to conclusions,” Lo Zu suggested, “may be as foolish as worshipping mere self-fabricated symbols, mere signs. A strong belief that there is no God may be as superficial and primitive as a strong belief that there is a God. Holistic perception inquires (without accumulated patterns) into what might be sacred; it inquires with a passion that surpasses beliefs of any kind (and actually finds out).”
“So what are you saying?” the visitor queried.
Lo Zu replied, “I am saying that I will not encourage you to worship or to cling to any symbols of power, any symbols of divinity. Worshiping self-created or learned images, that one projects (from what one absorbed from others), is similar to worshipping parts of oneself. It may be that the true answer has to come to you. (It cannot merely be visited, like an ordinary town.) The true answer is probably rather unapproachable, but that may be a real key; conclusions, accumulated images, and greed cannot expose it. It is beyond foolish grasping. The internal images of self are nothing when foolishness ceases. When all of the windows are open and the room is not filled with garbage… only then can the breeze, perhaps, flow through.”
With that, Lo Zu stood up and began walking with his meandering cane and said, “We must go; we see someone carrying a heavy burden and we will help them with it, to a certain point. You can come along also… unless you prefer to remain stuck where you are.”
Bumblebee covered with Golden Pollen … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The dichotomy between the “perceiver” and “that which is perceived,” is essentially (psychologically) illusory and nonexistent.
To overlook and ignore others is to be partially dead psychologically — as so many are — while one merely concentrates on a small point, called “me.”
Forget what everyone taught you about life and death; go out, sit with nature, and look at everything as if for the first time.
Peace will never come as long as each of us belongs to some separative group.
If to be typically human is to abide by commercialism and to pollute the planet… then we need to become superhuman (and green).
To function all of one’s life in predictable, knee-jerk reactions of self-projected selfishness is safe, easy, comfortable… but also, unfortunately, dead.
Aphids up close … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Lo Zu, after one of his frequent walks into the fields and wooded areas of nature, came walking into the village. He stopped to rest for a while and leaned on his sinuous pole, his meandering cane; nearby, a small group of men, all of them sitting together, continued to repeatedly laugh hysterically.
Lo Zu realized that they were laughing at the fact that a nearby dog was repeatedly chasing its own tail. Lo Zu continued to walk again and came closer to the men who were laughing. He heard one of them say, “That dog is really ignorant!” All of them, except Lo Zu, continued to laugh at the dog as it continued to chase its own tail.
Lo Zu turned to face the sitting men and said, “It is so easy to come to conclusions; conclusions that are wrong.” Lo Zu further went on, “That dog could chase that cat that is a little way down the road, but cats can quickly scratch and the dog could easily get a gravely injured eye. Likewise, the dog could chase after that man walking across the street. However, the man could kick the dog or throw something at it, injuring it. Instead, the dog takes the prudent approach and, for great exercise, chases its own tail. A most intelligent animal! I, myself, walk daily to the meadows and woods to enjoy the sweet butterflies and creatures; therefore I get quite a bit of exercise. I see that dog exercising ‘most every day also. Sometimes I see it chasing butterflies, which is also a very wise and safe form of exercising. Exercising often is great intelligence. I see you men sitting around here a lot each and every day. Do any of you exercise?”
“Not really,” said one of the men. (The men were no longer laughing.)
“I didn’t think so,” replied Lo Zu. He further added, “The beginning of this doglike life always chases its own end; let the dog be your teacher.”
Black Swallowtail on Thistle Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
A Halloween colored dream
came swimming beyond scream
and then a cruel green witch flew by
if you know what i mean
*****************************************************************************************************
One of our pet Koi Angelfish:
Fire Red Koi Angelfish … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Life is not a game. Too many of us go through life as if the mission is to be totally entertained. Most people are afraid of death, yet they may not have ever truly lived. Very many people assume that they are alive. To go through existence merely imitating others and spewing out what was poured into one by society… may not be “living” whatsoever. It is so easy to conform. It is so easy to just fit in the machine and be another cog in the wheel. Only a very few have been visited by that timeless energy that enraptures and transcends consciousness.
To inquire — to really inquire — into whether or not the sacred exists, takes great passion, great profundity. A stagnant, indifferent mind could not do it; stagnation and indifference make the actual answer all the more elusive, for the answer lies beyond limitation. To find the true answer necessitates that the mind be of considerable order and completeness. An incomplete mind is never fully alive, never fully whole.
The world has far too many seeds (of consciousness) that have never sprouted, that have never really begun growing. The answer is immeasurable and cannot be communicated about via mere fragments/words/symbols/patterns. The minds of most people consist largely of mere fragments/words/symbols/patterns.
We can change.
Green Grasshopper on his favorite leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
This isn’t one of those fake
flowers
all artificial
It is a growing (yard-flower)
of life
It doesn’t have artificial
bottle-sprayed
drops
They are genuine drops
from the
crying skies
What is important
is not in
the pictures you take
or the money you make
What is important
is to be
someone who is
not artificial
and not someone
stuck there to be yanked
from strings by
mediocrity
Bellis Pompomette … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Many whom i know eat meat.
Some of them have two legs,
some of them have eight.
*********************************************************************************************
NOTE: Now and then, since October is the month of Halloween here in the U.S., i will likely post a few more spider photos than usual; not that spiders are really all that “scary” but that people associate them with Halloween (which is kind of fun and silly at the same time). 🙂
Spider with Prey … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
True wisdom has great wholeness, expanse, and vastness; indifference is of limitation and is confined.
Often dying psychologically to “thinking” is alive, harmless, and highly intelligent. Constantly reacting as mere symbolic thoughts is cadaverous.
Ignorance often does not recognize its own ignorance. Wisdom often goes unnoticed and unappreciated by those who have little wisdom.
Nonsensical behavior often makes excuses. Behavior that is prudent is honest and compassionate.
Many need to make-believe about some heaven or magical domain in the future (that was fabricated by make-believers); escaping what “actually is” is ignorance. (The aforementioned words are not at all meant to deny true eternity or sacredness.)
Wisdom naturally goes beyond superficial values and superficial behaviors.
Silver-Spotted Skipper Butterfly Up Close … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
This is the poem
that came out of the grave
to tell you what death is.
Everyone has avoided the answer
but here is the answer:
Death is indifference;
Death is mental fragmentation;
Death is accepting immorality;
Death is accepting mortality;
Death is belonging to separatist organizations that
one thinks are “right,”
and death is the limited space surrounded by boundaries.
It is very rare to see two Ambush Bugs together with a victim like this.
Two Ambush Bugs with their Bumble Bee victim on Thistle Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
One finger said
to the other finger,
“I want to be close to you!”
The other finger said,
“I feel that we two are
very close.”
Then they passionately wrapped around
each other intertwining.
A somewhat distant finger (away from
the other two) pointedly said,
“You two seem as if you were made for each other!”
Then, after a considerable time, fingers
of a supposedly separate
hand jealously came attacking,
and total war broke out.
A real fact is that,
in war,
the winners are the losers.
Illinois Meadow Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
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