The shadow of my wing
unfolds as a very curious thing
reading this to the very end
The Shadow of the Dragon’s Wing… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Shadow of the Dragon
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All Posts Tagged ‘thoughts’
New Model SuperDroid 4-JPG
We must find C-3PO
make our way to Obi-Wan Kenobi
and erase the forces of darkness
New Model SuperDroid 4-JPG… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Curling
In Canada and around the world,
Curling is a sport that is growing.
We love to watch Curling as it continues to grow!
Curling … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Assumptions
Many of us hold assumptions/presumptions, either consciously or unconsciously, that dictate how we observe and react. These assumptions are what we have absorbed from others and may not be separate from what we are. Many people assume that they are separate from others. Many assume that they are separate from their so-called “own thoughts” and rule them from some kind of internal distance. Many assume that the perceiver is (psychologically) separate from the perceived. Many assume that their family consists of a few human beings. Many assume that endlessly imitating others is safe, sane, and wonderful. Many assume that they are fully autonomous and have absolute free will. Many assume that they are dominant, both internally and externally. Many assume that animals were put here for man. Many assume that they have a right to destroy nature. Many assume that someone who sees things very differently than they do is strange or wrong and should be avoided. Many assume that degrees from universities are a sign of deep intelligence. Many assume that thoughts are what they control by a central “I” or “me” that is not another thought. Many assume that fragmentary, limited science has all of the answers. Many take for granted that money and “showing off” are more important than caring.
It may be that the very intelligent mind goes beyond absorbed presumptions. Such a mind transcends fear, separation, prejudice, conflict, indifference, dead habit, delusion, and mediocrity. It is likely that only such a mind may be visited by the ineffable and sacred eternal.
[Note: According to the environment-oriented Sierra Club which we belong to and donate monthly to: Monarch butterfly populations have been rapidly declining in North America since 1997. In fact, the Midwestern United States have seen an 88 percent decline in the number of Monarchs, and a 64 percent decrease in the available Milkweed, which serves as the Monarch’s only egg-laying habitat and food source for Monarch caterpillars. We need to stop denying man-made global warming and do much more. I, myself, over the past years, have seen a dramatic decline in many butterfly and bee species.]
A Monarch Among Us… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Become a Flower…
If people were sweet like flowers
this world wouldn’t be going to hell
and so much would beautifully smell
Become a Flower… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Talk regarding a spy within The United Society of Ants
If there is a spy among us,
he shouldn’t be too hard to spot;
he’ll be at the top and have glaring eyes of red.
[Note: These insects are on a wild Celery plant. Wild Celery is very common in our area.]
Spy Among the Ants… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Limited Minds of Fragmentation
Thought, being sequential and fragmentary, depends upon — and is — time. A fragmentary, sequential process, as part of time, will never fully understand the whole of time. Yet, the scientists continue to operate through sequential and fragmentary equations and analysis. Space and time are an integral part of one another; they are not two entirely different things. The space between the perceiver and that which is perceived involves limitation and fragmentation and necessitates time. Scientists do not generally transcend that limitation; they keep projecting fragmentary equations, theories, and use analysis based on what they have learned before. Many scientists claim that they are close to having a theory of everything, yet scientists do not understand what dark energy is (consisting of 68% of the known universe); they also do not know what dark matter is (consisting of 27% of the known universe); they do not understand a lot regarding the basic essence of the cosmos. There is evidence, for example, that the so-called constant speed of light may be changing. New tests are exploring this. The whole of physics is predicated on the constancy of the speed of light. (Scientists may, however, understand some rather remarkable things at this point. Leonard Susskind’s Holographic Principle of the Universe comes to mind; however, even principles such as this are, of course, limited and fragmentary. I used to hang out with Loren Billings, who ran the Museum of Holography in Chicago and, decades ago, way before these expert scientists came up with this holographic theory stuff, we used to have wonderful discussions about the likely holographic nature of the universe… about how a large amount of the entire universe functions much like a hologram.)
The structure of the perceiver (psychologically) being separate from the perceived… is what is formulated by limited thought. This thought also sees the past as separate from the future. Fragmentation will understand things only in very limited ways. That very limitation, however, can (and often does) contribute to conflict, indifference, hatred, competition, and suffering. To step out of all that may not require time, struggle, theories, religions, authorities, practices, or any other piecemeal processes. There is a fundamental psychological revolution that is beyond the framework of fragmentation and conflict. Currently, science is replacing religion as a major contributor of the worldview. If science tends to stress fragmentation, which it (for the most part, but not entirely) has been doing, then people will, unfortunately, likely remain stuck in fragmentary frameworks.
Eye of the Toad… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Photography Tip # 7 — Haiku
PHOTOGRAPHY TIP #7:
When you see what you like,
there is a button on the top of your camera.
Press that button.
Photography Tip with Wildflowers… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Snakes Alive! Haiku
(thou)
gh
man
y hate
you
Some
see you
r true
full
beauty.
That’s
all
th
at
mat
ter
s
Bull Snake Admiration… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The Inner and the Outer
The separation of the inner from the outer involves standard perception which largely involves misperception and barbaric acceptances. Such misperception involves conflict, separation, isolation, and distinct borders. A prudent entity who intelligently transcends mere inner-outer frameworks of perception is not a dull mind that walks into walls or that steps into busy traffic. Rather, such a person exists beyond old and cadaverous viewpoints and worn-out, primitive perspectives. Only such a person can be of real order; only such a person can be fully genuine, deeply compassionate, and of vast integrity and virtue. (By the way, idealistically saying that one is “one with nature,” which is all the fashion these days, is not it! A limited, fragmented mind can easily identify itself with anything, but it still remains a fragmented mind.)
Thought and stored memory feed the separation of the inner from the outer. Too many of us worship a false inner and are indifferent about the vast outer. A separate perceiver cannot be the complete understanding of the whole as long as the fragmentary self-projected images and thoughts of an isolated, independent observer are maintained via learned effort. Any state of opposition, such as what a concocted, separate “0bserver” brings about, further nourishes indifference and isolation. Thoughts and “image making” form the perceiver, and without thoughts and mental images, without repeated effort and psychological struggle, the perceiver would not be. The psychological ending of the so-called separate perceiver is not something to be frighted of; the true ending of limited images, symbolic patterns, and accepted barriers is not frightening; rather, it is liberation and involves profound insight. Holistic insight does not occur often for conflict and misperception.
Katydid Nymph and Ladybug… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Those Poor Children
Only sick immorality can yank children
from their parents and cage them up,
shitting on universal-global love
You know, i am not interested in politics whatsoever. Politicians are not my cup of tea. However, what is happening in the U.S. is getting to be extremely sick and immoral, and people (deeply stuck in their ruts) are accepting it! Children are children of the world; they don’t belong to any damn country, to any damn politics. It’s only crass, divisive adults who put them in such fragmented domains. A regime that, against international human rights laws, pulls children from their parents, is an immoral, diabolical regime. That same deranged, fascist-loving regime has been turning its back on the environment (kissing the behind of the fossil fuel industry). The unnatural, hellish, hot and violent weather is going to get exponentially worse and is no coincidence; mass extinctions will continue. When will people wake up?… when it is too late?
Shitting on Children… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Nightmare Incident on Highway 47…
Speedy Gonzales: Why was I pulled over, officer?
1st Officer: You were speeding. And you were thinking about passing in a “no-passing zone.”
Speedy Gonzales: I was?
1st Officer: Yes, you were! Let me see your driver’s license.
Speedy: What’s a driver’s license?
1st Officer: Oh boy, you hit the jackpot!
Speedy (smiling): No, I did not run into any jackpot! Here is my driver’s license.
1st Officer (yanking Speedy roughly): Put your hands behind your back, wise guy; I have to handcuff you. You got a green-card?
2nd Officer (nervously): Be careful, don’t get too rough with him. Maybe we are being filmed. I, from this highway, already see huge aerial cameras hovering above us.
1st Officer (in a cruel tone): It’s off to incarceration in the old Delux Ant-farm for you, Speedy! You will get nothing but bread and water!
Speedy: Bread and water? I love bread and water!
*************************************************************
Final Note:
Speedy got sentenced to three years but he got out in two for good behavior; unfortunately, against international human rights, all of his children were separated from him by an immoral, fascist-loving regime. Though extremely poor, he is content with living on meager crumbs somewhere upon your shiny kitchen floor. Walk gingerly!
There is an alternative name for Highway 47. The alternative name is Tom’s Garden Hose.
Incident on Highway 47… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Dandy Lion Crimes Haiku (Ain’t Freedom Grand)
They hate yellow deeply
with their Scotts toxic bags
set to make dull lawnminds all exactly the same
Dandelion Dreams… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Lens of Awareness
Many of us bloggers, who take pictures often, are scrupulously concerned about keeping our camera lenses clean and spotless. Many of our minds (and concomitant actions), however, are not taken care of so very diligently. We look at things through tainted, jaded, contaminated lenses, according to the way we were programmed to look. We see what we were programmed to see. We think what we were programmed to think. Most merely react, very predictably, according to the ways in which they were molded to react by. If one desires to clean the mind, to polish the lens of the mind, it is usually merely according to someone else’s system, methodology, or beliefs. That may merely be an extension of the crass conditioning.
Before considering cleaning the lens of the mind, please consider who (or what) is doing the cleaning. If the “perceiver” is not something separate from the perceived, then the cleaning itself may be part of the programming, part of the conditioning. Yet, most will just want to go out and take some mighty fine pictures.
I am quite aware that my blog only helps some people. Most will not see the seriousness of it. That lack of seeing the seriousness is what i have seen all my life, ever since childhood. Our world is going under because of it and, in the long run, our superficial images of things won’t matter one damn bit.
Leopard Frog Time… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
This and That
an impressive this and that
a revealing why and how
won’t make the superficial mind much deeper
we might see that by now
a reading left to right
some judgment up and down
will not make the world much saner
or dissolve the patterns to which we’re bound
Young Leafhopper (around 4 mm long)…. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Our Internet is Down and Broken… & my Apologies…
Our internet has been down a few days. That is why i have not been responding to you guys, interacting, liking your blogs, or responding to your comments (which i apologize for). They finally got it going again but our rural-area computer wouldn’t work with the new system and so they got it going for us with a very antiquated, dial-up-cretaceous system. It is so slow that i have to wait a very long time just for one picture to download! The internet service provider promised me that they would come back with a fast system for us again (but that they would have to order it and didn’t know how long that would take.)
So, in the meantime, i will not even try to visit other blogs or do much online (unless it temporarily starts working faster, which one doubts will happen). I schedule my blog postings about a month in advance, so my blog posts will continue to appear. I will probably not — while this is super-slow internet is happening — continue to try to schedule many posts in advance, though i may continue with the mindfulness-philosophical prose stuff on Sundays, as i feel a responsibility to keep the significance of that going. (If i do, i will probably use images already used and existing in my WordPress media file, since it would be near impossible to upload at this point.) Hopefully, things will get back to technologically normal soon, and all of this will be just a bad memory! 🙂 Thanks much, all of you! 🙂
Mushrooming Love (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Same-sex Marriage Legislation Haiku
Same-sex marriage laws.
Nothing like old, moldy raisins deciding
how the young grapes should grow.
Moldy, Old Politicians… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Bridge to a Better Future
Physically, there may be a bridge to a better future. One can eat more healthfully, exercise more, and do things to improve the environment, including building wonderful bridges. Internally (i.e., psychologically), is there really a bridge, and who is going to cross that bridge? Is the bridge different from what one is?
Is the “experiencer” really something separate from the experience? If there were no experiences, what would the “experiencer” be? So many of us, like infantile children, want more and more pleasurable experiences. Can there be moments when a sagacious mind exists without merely depending upon experience after experience?
If anger takes place, can it be looked non-fragmentarily — without manufacturing separate ideals — so as to be fully aware of it (without separative space and time)? Can there be moments when the mind (without excuses) fully sees what it is directly and with full awareness, without concocting notions of something different (that requires space and time to achieve)? If cruelty exists, and ideals manifest of “someday not being cruel,” is the non-cruelty an actuality or is it a mere abstraction (or escape) that depends upon fabricated psychological time?… and may it be that fabricated time (with its space) fails to see cruelty instantly and fully for what it really is? Is the thinker really something separate from thought, or are they one and the same? Is psychological time often an escape depending upon fragmentation, fabricated space, a mentally fabricated separate “I”… and, also, a postponement?
These questions are here for you to ask yourself; they do not exist for you to reply here with any answers.
from Emily Dickinson:
There are two Mays
And then a Must
And after that a Shall.
How infinite the compromise
That indicates I will!
Ebony Jewelwing… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
SubWay Diploma Haiku
[While at the local Subway, getting a vegetarian sub the other day, i noticed a framed “Subway Diploma” hanging on the wall where the employees were working; the following Haiku was inspired by that Diploma certificate.]
I worked so very hard
to get a diploma from Subway
but I just couldn’t cut the mustard
Insects on Wild Celery… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Turning it’s back on Mother Earth… Haiku
[from Albert Einstein (1879-1955; physicist and Nobel Laureate): “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”] Write to your congressmen, vote wisely (instead of what you inherited), and demand change.
This Haiku doesn’t need a canto
because it’s just too damn small.
The U.S. is destroying the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tiny Things… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
That Original Source
That original source, if it is to be discovered at all, must be seen firsthand (and directly). Seeing it through the second-hand scraps of another — including me — is never seeing it at all. The mind must be free of the contamination of others — the second-hand rubbish of others — for that seeing to take place. That seeing — of that wholeness — may have nothing to do with visual perception whatsoever. (Don’t be foolish enough and greedy enough to think that closing your eyes and sitting with crossed, pretzel-like legs will get you there!) Regarding this, the mind must be free of all the hand-me-down knowledge and systems of others and be of a sweet, pristine, innocent purity. However, even that is not enough, for the human mind cannot ever be totally spotless and original, and if that miraculous immeasurability ever occurs, it is not ever because one made it occur. It is much too immense, intrinsically intelligent, and freely mysterious, to merely be a shoddy effect from some paltry human cause. It is (though words are never the actual thing) an ineffable, sacred whole beyond mere causality. So many charlatans write in books and blogs and talk in temples about what they “think” it is. Additionally, many claim that it does not exist. Beware of all others and find out for yourself. Inquire with profound passion and never allow that passion to be quenched by mediocrity.
Fungus on Forest Floor… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Further Beyond Spider Prejudice — Haiku
Eye see you still there
focusing on your sweet friend
with “I”s to no end
[Note: Look at all the eyes along her cephalothorax!]
Fishing Spider… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The Beauty of Timeless Psychological Negation
[Note: Most people are afraid to die psychologically, so they are never really living.]
no method
no practice
no effort
no goal
no system
no beliefs
no process
no analysis
no past
no future
no present
no nation
no religion
no ideology
no “shoulds”
no wants
no opinion
no fear
no escapes
no thoughts
no me
no authority
no time
no tomorrow
no yesterday
no separation
no excuses
no them
no being
no becoming
no controller
no labeling
no indifference
Skipper Investigating… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Haiku of Death
at my “final ending”
don’t waste a lot of tears
at what is just another beginning
Red Admiral Butterfly Metamorphosed… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Our Nest Haiku
a different kind of bird
a different kind of nest
too many hate you but i don’t
Wasp with Nest Eggs… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Sensibility
Sensibility implies the capacity to feel. Most of us can react according to the ways in which we were miseducated to react; not as many of us, unfortunately, really (fully, independently) feel. Deep feeling usually does not take place when the mind is imprisoned in limited labels, categorizations, systems, and robotic practices. The aforementioned patterns tend to dull the mind, rendering it more programmed and less likely to feel. Psychological borders, such as those that take place between the observer and the observed, also tend to render dullness in the mind, making it far less likely for things like profound empathy to take place.
A truly intelligent mind that is beyond superficial borders, childish beliefs, and “learned patterns of separation,” may be capable of profound feeling (which is far beyond crass indifference).
Sweet Dreams… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
A Listening Happened Just Today
A listening happened just today
beyond the “shoulds” and frowns
It curtsied and then ran away
without the verbs and nouns
Then seeing came running past
as lightning with the rain
All this will always ever die
like laughter after pain
Then fragile touched a feeling thing
as springtime slipped away
All this will always never die
Whitman’s wink here to stay
Bumblebee Time… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Perfect Haiku… (Elephants wouldn’t have fit)…
Oops, I tore my pants!
For syllabic perfection,
legs are swarmed by ants.
Ants getting ready to invade the legs of Thomas Peace c. 2018
Count von Count
Why should Haiku involve
the counting of syllables?
This isn’t Sesame Street!
Face to face with a Red Admiral… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
A totally different dimension of mind…
A totally different dimension of mind can take place. What nearly all people take to be reality is a far cry from what truly exists (beyond delusion). Most are walking around oblivious to what is really possible. They have accepted secondhand images, secondhand patterns, secondhand symbols, dissected labels, measurements, and cold statistics to be their reality; such reality is akin to taking shadows to be concrete substances, toys to be living things, silly iPhones messages to be substantive. Even our images of self are essentially secondhand patterns that we have assimilated and absorbed. Then, these images of self are involved with images of another (a spouse, for instance); one set of images is involved with what are considered images of another. A (relationship between secondhand images of self and — then, also, down the road of psychological time — secondhand images of another) may largely be based on learned, sequential patterns (of recognition and categorization); such a programmed arrangement (based merely on absorbed patterns/symbols/images) may not be much of a relationship at all. It is a relationship of secondhand patterns. What kind of relationship is that?
Life is tremendously much more profound and deep than what learned symbolism, categorization, and information processing are involved with. If you just stick to those three, that the previous sentence mentions, what you are is likely normal… but you certainly may not be what goes beyond the superficial. People all throughout life are all too willing to tell you how to think, what to do, how to live. So many, blogs included, want to give you spiritual templates, philosophical instructions. There are infinite “expert non-experts” out there; just today, one saw a blog wherein the author stated that to fix our life problems, we have to find the right templates, the right instructions. It may be, however, that real life is much too vast, flowing, multidimensional, and alive for any set of cooked-up “shoulds,” instructions, blueprints, or stale templates.
You won’t be getting any die-hard templates from me. It may be that the timelessness of real wisdom exists only when self-concocted effort and struggle cease (psychologically). Such ceasing involves an ending that doesn’t take time, that doesn’t rely on blueprints, instructions, or processes. Most, however, are frightened about psychologically coming to an end (i.e., about psychological dying); most continue to cling to potty little images of self. Therein lies sorrow; the irony is that, without psychologically ending, their sorrow will never really end. Many of us merely depend upon (and exist “as”) patterns and symbols. Be certain here that we are not at all suggesting ending physically; physical existence is an opportunity and a privilege that can involve keen (unspoiled) awareness and dynamic flowering. Physical death is not for me (except for the wonderful fossils that i collect). Psychological dying, however, is a whole other ballgame. The psychological dying to stale, secondhand, dead symbols and images is real living.
from E.E.Cummings:
dying is fine)but Death
?o
baby
i
wouldn’t like
Death if Death
were
good:for
when(instead of stopping to think)you
begin to feel of it,dying
’s miraculous
why?be
cause dying is
perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but
Death
is strictly
scientific
& artificial &
evil & legal)
we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death
Wasp reflecting deeply… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Sweet Dove Eggs Haiku
Sweet Mourning Dove seeds
planted and ready to grow
Afternoon is hopeful
Mourning Dove Eggs… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
When this photo took itself
When this photo took itself,
blossoms danced with joy,
pasts, presents, and futures
soundly did not employ
With this movement’s perceiving,
nature was at home,
politicians, priests didn’t matter,
Beauty was alone
Forest Floor Flowers… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The Agony of De-feet Haiku
I need many shoes
for all of these soar old feet.
Off to the shoe store!
Millipede friend in our garage… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Insights or Non- (Chapter 2)
Intelligently go beyond what everyone has ever taught you about anything. Reality is totally different from what society has thought it to be.
Much secondhand thought — and all thought is residual and secondhand — is an impediment to receiving direct insight, direct perception.
The caring, intelligent mind recycles and helps to keep our oceans more free of polluting plastics and unnatural debris. The other kind of mind just doesn’t care.
True joy is walking through the woods, silently listening and effortlessly watching — without separation — the creatures of nature.
Forget beliefs! Find out!
A closed mind, like a closed flower bud, isn’t there yet.
In compassion, there is no separate “you” and “I.”
Little birds who don’t joyfully tweet at the morning return of the rising sun… we call atheists.
Action and understanding are sometimes beautifully, wholly, one and the same thing; mere reaction, darkly, is not usually what involves deep understanding.
[Note: Photograph is of tiny Spring Beauty Wildflowers (Claytonia virginica) in a wooded area. Each flower is about 8 mm. (1/3″) across when it is fully open, consisting of 5 petals, 2 green sepals, 5 stamens with pink anthers, and a pistil. The petals are white with fine pink stripes; these stripes vary from pale pink to bright pink.]
Spring Beauty Wildflower (Claytonia virginica)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Scales on a Deceased Moth’s Wing Haiku
Flying meant a lot
in the open air so free
Soaring meant a lot
Scales on a Moth Wing… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Cup Mushroom Encounter
like a little there was here
far beyond time and fear
in a little cup up-spill
as all reactions went nil
then a little here is there
like a holding of the purest air
why a lot of hate and crime
need a lot more love and rhyme
Cup Mushroom in the middle of the woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Hidden Profundity Uncurling Haiku… (or the Perceiver is the Perceived)
“How could so few words
have any profound meaning?”
the Haiku poem reads.
Uncurling Fern… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Critters Pictures Haiku
People don’t realize that I
take all my photos without a camera.
Photographic memory, you see.
[Note: This is a shot of an Ivory Mystery Snail and some Painted Fire Red Shrimp in one of my aquariums. I breed both the snails and the shrimp. It is so cool about how the snails and shrimp get along with each other so well! The snails often rise up to expose more of their bodies to the shrimp… in order to get groomed and get little parasites or debris taken off by the shrimp. I’ll have to get a shot of that sometime! ]
Ivory Mystery Snail and Painted Fire Red Shrimp… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Fear, Understanding, and Compassion
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
Wrinkles in Time Haiku
If you count those dots
upon my back, like gray wood,
your old head will crack.
Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The Poem of the Turning of the Key
Once, I was the key and the turning of the key
Once, I was the lock and the unlocking of the lock
Once, I was the door and the opening of the door
Once, I was the light and the seeing of the light
However, when the light was really seen,
when the door was really opened,
when the lock was really unlocked,
when the key was really found:
There was no “I,” just the turning of the key
There was no “I,” just the unlocking of the lock
No “I” was there, just the opening of the door
No petty “I” was there, just seeing and infinite illumination
[Note: This is another close-up of some Lichen on a small Oak branch. I continue to suspect that the close symbiotic relationship between primitive algae and primitive fungus… such as in Lichen, tended to continue — because of its very advantageous aspects — throughout evolution with the higher evolved trees and mushrooms. That is why, today, we are discovering that mushrooms and trees (and many other plants) share communication and nutrients with each other underground (even over vast distances).]
Lichen on small Oak branch… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Lichen Lava Haiku
Lava Flow of Life
beyond growth’s shadow
and time’s ending
Lava Flow of Lichen… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The Profundity of Haiku
The seriousness
of zen-like Haiku: Profound!
Beetle Juice tastes great!
Beetle Juice main ingredient… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Love…Beyond measurement
The mind, for many, is incessantly measuring things, comparing, acquiring, accumulating and labeling. Can the mind, without a continuing effort — which isn’t laziness — simply perceive without all those things habitually going on mentally? Measuring and labeling have their place but there is also a time when they are not necessary and, if still used, are merely habitual and robotic in essence. Total separation, between the “perceiver” and “that which is perceived,” demands measurement, requires a type of psychological wall and resistance. Resistance occurs as an opposing force. If you separate yourself from all other life forms, that is a form of resistance, a manifestation of conflict. Indifference and conflict go hand in hand; there is so much of it in the world these days.
Perceiving without separation is not what most people are involved with. Perceiving with (and “as”) the standard norms (that were taught), because of the conflict, because of the resistance, because of the robotic repetitiveness of it all, leads to depression and psychological suffering; then many turn to drugs or alcohol as an escape (which really is no escape at all). There is an order that goes beyond all this. Mere measurement does not take one to that order. It is not within the realm of accumulating or acquiring, (yet so many are willing to pay money for instructions or systems to get there).
Its beauty includes its being beyond mere accumulation and “getting.” You can’t obtain what is beyond mundane getting, having, and measuring. Real love is not merely a product of accumulation; however, if one is very fortunate, non-fragmented, and serious, it is there (beyond measure). If one merely remains within the mental realm of getting, having, and measuring, one will stay miserable and secondhand (though one may erroneously think that one is doing marvelously). Deep awareness and profound psychological transformation are not a matter of time. Measuring and accumulation take time.
[A variety of crust fungus, Milk White Toothed Polypore (Irpex lacteus) seems to have “teeth” that, in actually, are tubes or pores in the spore-bearing surface which break apart with age and become tooth-like. This is a very small fungus; it was on a small, dead tree branch; the pictured portion was around one centimeter long.]
Milk White Toothed Polypore Fungus… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The Root of Fear Haiku
The shadow of fear
seen as really what is me.
A glimmer of hope!
Tiny Wildflower in Woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Fear of Spiders Haiku
A needless disease
is arachnophobia!
Get well soon, please!
Jumping Spider Time!… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Garden Helpers Haiku
Gardening is easy.
It’s pollinating that’s hard.
It’s not just the bees!
[Note: After photographing this Ladybug, one noticed that, while covered in pollen, she was frantically intent on getting on to the next, adjacent flower. There aren’t many of their aphid insect prey targets around in early spring; eating pollen and helping pollen producers is a wise alternative.]
Beetle Pollination… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Insights or Non- (Chapter 1)
Most people are heavily conditioned by all kinds of absurd beliefs that divide them and that cause havoc in the world, especially beliefs involving nationalism, religion, politics, (and even science). To question all beliefs, and to intelligently go beyond them, may be true wisdom.
First thing in the warm spring mornings, many birds sprightly sing to the joy of the new day, to the returning sun, and to the exhilaration of sharing!
If many folks had Pinocchio noses, their heads would be perpetually tilted by the weight of their answers.
If you exercise the mind but not the body you are cheating a very significant and important part of what you are.
True divinity does not usually interfere with the natural laws of the cosmos… and that noninterference is, in a very real way, an expression of deep compassion.
On their way to the endearing burning candle of society’s tradition, people who look at the contrast between moths and themselves need not ignore the contrast within the moths themselves.
Divinity — though it happens very rarely in the very insane world of man — may enter and visit a very innocent mind… not ever the other way around.
Unfortunately, one doesn’t need to have “right education,” wisdom, halfway decent genetics, or even compassion, to be a parent.
Normality is a common type of insanity.
The truly intelligent human being is a blessing, not a malediction, in the lives of others and regarding the health of Mother Earth.
Desmia subdivisalis moth… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Once we looked at the tiniest little thing
Once we looked at the tiniest little thing
it looked up with caring innocent eyes
its heart was bigger than what all words mean
Once perception was more than me
looking was deeper than distance and time
living was beyond becoming or be
Wildflowers with Beetles, deep in the woods … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
First Photographed Butterfly of Spring Haiku
First Spring Butterfly
wants to play hide and seek.
Alright then! I’m in!
First Encounter… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 