tao | Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog

All Posts Tagged ‘tao’

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Meditation… (Multi-Photo)

April 2, 2015

True meditation is never what one can decide to do. Real meditation is only done without will, without mere knowledge, calculation, and methodology. If will, calculation, and methodology are involved, something may be happening… but it is not true meditation. Any uncouth person under the sun can purchase a yoga mat, sit on it perfectly (statuesque) still with legs crossed, and proudly say that they are “meditating.” However, real meditation is too dynamic, living, profound, and immense to be what can be brought about by some inane, calculated, copied procedure. What is truly dynamic and beyond a cause/effect continuum cannot (ever) be brought about as a mere “result” of some man-made patterns or practices. Thinking otherwise is foolish… and, unfortunately, there are plenty of foolish entities out there.

Blossoming. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Blossoming. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

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Not so separate from the perceived… (Multi-Photo)

March 26, 2015

13 comments

i stuck a stick

into the mud…

a stick in the mud am i.

i cut a paper

into many fragments…

and i fell to pieces.

i stared at the moon

on a dim blue night…

and i became very pale.

i zigged a zag

on the computer screen…

and ziggyzags became my fate.

i smiled at some children

who were frightened and sad…

then i became happy two.

Small Planet. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Small Planet. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

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And that’s why few ever do it…

January 15, 2015

2 comments

Real meditation does not involve going to an exotic mountain-top to meditate. Real meditation does not involve getting the body in some statuesque, special, learned position. Real meditation does not involve repeatedly chanting some so-called special (pre-programmed) saying. Real meditation does not involve staring at or fixating upon some so-called special object or image. Real meditation does involve breathing according to someone’s special technique or system. Real meditation does not involve opening, concentrating upon, and mechanically traveling through fabricated chakras like some kind of zipper. Real meditation does not involve learning some special process or methodology. Real meditation does not involve living one’s life like most people do; yet, there is no “how” involving meditation. To intelligently look without a blueprint, without separative symbols, systems, conflict, fragmentation, and procedures… does not depend upon others’ procedures. No time is involved in it. All methods take time. Using time to get to the timeless is folly.

Hanging from one’s dinning table. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015

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Not clinging to the apron-strings of experience…

January 10, 2015

4 comments

A truly aware and mindful human being often exists beyond petty details and, concomitantly, doesn’t need to depend on stimulus after stimulus to be attentive and content. Though experience is often necessary, a deeply aware mind can sagaciously exist in (or, rather, “as”) a timeless domain beyond mundane experience (beyond the continuum of mere cause/effect relationships); or, though this may seem rather odd, it sometimes functions where experience is a minimal phenomenon that is sometimes secondary or “in the background.” If one is merely immersed in (and responding “as”) experience, one is merely part of cause and effect events (that are always partial, always conditioned). A fluid mind that is not merely dependent on causal phenomena may be whole (and not merely dependent on what is fragmentary, conditioned, and partial). Then, when such a mind is experiencing (which is often very necessary)… it does so with great sensitivity and care. Its experiencing then involves a wholeness; experiencing involved with that wholeness has sensitivity which loves nature, the rivers, the people, and the land. Then there isn’t a fragmentary, separate set of experiences that are only out for themselves.

[Walking on clouds.]

Angelic stroll. Photo by Thomas Peace 2015

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(Multi-Photo) *** Lost in a dark quagmire of fragmentary details…

January 6, 2015

Burdened and drained of energy…

December 7, 2014

4 comments

Thought is a necessary and extremely helpful tool; but it’s only a tool… not the true essence of the organism. When the mind is cluttered with a myriad of needless thoughts throughout the day (as it is in so many, with their endless fears and habitual, repetitive imagery) … it’s, in a way, like a plant burdened with many insects. However, don’t merely “try” to eradicate excess thoughts… because that would likely be some thoughts trying to eliminate “other” thoughts (accomplishing, in reality, nothing)… leaving the “plant” remaining rather “buggy.” (Fabricating more bugs to chase away other bugs leaves one remaining “buggy.”) Simply observe each series of thoughts without psychological separation (being aware of the space between thoughts as the thoughts perish and end)… and then a natural silence may beautifully occur without effort (i.e., without another fabrication trying to get rid of them). That natural silence would occur without struggle, without concocted manipulation, without friction, without conflict.

(Of course, there are endless people who prefer to remain buggy!)

[Aphid insects on a wild plant.]