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

All Posts Tagged ‘toads’

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Wordless Wednesday … Not!… Halloween Toad

October 9, 2019

Don’t be a torpid, sluggish mind, indifferent about the environment, about others, and about goodness. We’ve been donating a lot, over the years, to all of the Hurricane victims (both to charities for humans and for dogs), including (recently) Dorian. These hurricanes are worsening over the years due to global warming. I see some bloggers who claim to love nature, yet they travel — in jets and planes that spew out tons of pollutants — to distant countries or far distant places to get “great nature photos.” I’ve been unfollowing such hypocritical behavior blogs. I’m not afraid of devils or goblins around Halloween. I’m more concerned about people who treat the earth wrongly, indifferently. We all can do more to help nature; we all could do less harmful things. Please watch the following Greta Thunberg video. I feel very sorry for kids these days; if things do not change, they — because of the increase in carbon dioxide — will not be able to breathe properly in a few short decades. 30% of all birds in North America (alone) have gone extinct in the last 50 years; they are the canaries in the coal mine, but most adults just don’t see it enough.

**During the Halloween season, this is the new greeter at Walmart stores. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019**

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I am a kid!

March 11, 2019

44 comments

I am a kid
trapped in an old man’s body
i fly kites
i perpetually chase insects and frogs
i still often gaze in wonder through a magnifying glass
i still think that grown-ups are yucky
i love watching toads in the woods
i keep fish and shrimp as pets and stare at them for hours
i hunt fossils and love everything about dinosaurs and prehistoric life
i unendingly question
and i still learn best away from
boring school

Mr. Toadster … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Limited Minds of Fragmentation

July 15, 2018

19 comments

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

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The Balanced Mind

September 10, 2017

14 comments

[Note: Currently we are thinking of the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, regarding the human species (and other animal species). We donated to the Red Cross for each specific area. Please consider donating if you haven’t done so already. Additionally, please do more to help curtail global warming. I’ve been warning, for a long time now, about the winds and weather getting substantially worse due to man’s neglect regarding clean energy; things will get far worse if we do not radically change our ways.]

A lot of minds are unbalanced these days. Most minds, really, are very unbalanced. A truly balanced mind is like a rare, precious jewel. Unfortunately, very few minds, in this rather rotten society, are truly balanced. To be truly balanced means not to have a mind that has been conditioned by the current rotten, immoral society in which we currently live. It involves having (i.e., being) a mind that has stepped out of the morass of selfish values, indifferent separation, cold competition, and crude status quo beliefs. A balanced mind does not follow the crowd, especially when that crowd has been indoctrinated to accept and hold orientations and tendencies that have been going on since ancient times. Many people, these days, would be able to fit in quite nicely into the ancient Roman culture; the changes necessary — to so fit in — would not be very dramatic in the least.

The balanced mind that goes beyond all this, that largely transcends beyond conditioning and fragmentation, is far from what the ordinary man can understand or discover. Real balance goes beyond unnecessary internal friction and conflict. The balanced mind is not composed of learned (i.e., absorbed) barriers which separate it from all life, or which separate a supposed controlling center from other thoughts. The balanced mind is not what looks from (or “as”) a screen of mere prejudices, edicts, beliefs, pigeon-holing labels, or hand-me-down values. When a balanced mind looks, it looks without the mental-programming that dictates to others about how they should look (with certain preconceptions). A balanced mind has its own intrinsic, natural empathy, holistic perception, insightful understanding, and unbounded wisdom.

Can the unbalanced mind, the conditioned, corrupt mind, step out (mentally) from the quagmire that it is in… and be balanced? Can separative, crass concepts and preconceived viewpoints go past the crude limitations that they are? The mind can psychologically die to its own accumulated corruption. Such a psychological dying is a real innocence, involves silence, and is real living… and it does not involve a learned method that takes time.

Chillin’ (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Chillin’ (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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When the Observer is the Observed…

June 2, 2017

22 comments

If trees could swim

and rocks could crawl

perception would rise

and feet would fall

When ladders climb

and coffee cups drink

wisdom would flourish

as thoughts needn’t think

Boats went rowing

as plants watered themselves

books read their contents

and nestled in shelves

Leaves went hopping

while photos sat still

up went down

and deception went nil

Toadingly you (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Toadingly you (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Beyond the ordinary mind…

January 29, 2017

18 comments

There were two entities. One was rather crass. It merely went on as an extension of society… immoral, indifferent, separate, closed, common, compulsive, stale, rather indifferent about nature, respectable. There was another entity. It was open, compassionate, aware, whole, moral beyond the ills of society, in close relationship with nature, global. Highly spiritual, it did not care to belong to any separative government nor religion that (separates man from man contributing to war). It was a danger to all separative elements of the false.

One of the entities was often bored. It would frequently need to find escape in all kinds of entertainment (and with various forms of drugs). It was often composed of recurring fears. It depended on walls of isolation for its very existence (isolated existence). The other entity was often content in and of itself. That self, however, was nothing to be measured, for no limited walls defined it by limited space nor limited boundaries. Perceiving that it was not separate from the fears, the fears were understood and quickly dissipated; either that or they never existed (or needed to exist) in the first place. Limitation breeds fear. Limitation is of measurement and recognition; (recognition is a form of measurement).

One of the two minds continued to go deeply beyond itself to where there was no measurement, no time. The other mind measured constantly. Its essence mostly involved time and measurement. Measurement takes (and is) time. One of the minds was satisfied with superficial things; one of the minds went far beyond the superficial. One of the minds (without the measurements of equations) understood all about existence, time, and the timeless. One of the minds did not care about anything much other than about small details and banal experiences; it understood little of time and nothing concerning the timeless. It, unfortunately, was never visited by anything immensely beyond the mundane.

Stillness (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

Stillness (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017

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Regarding boredom…

May 22, 2016

15 comments

Boredom never occurs to the mind that is without a spurious, central regulator that is always dependent upon experience. If the mind is its own energy it does not always have to depend upon outside patterns of energy to function joyfully. So many depend on outside influences, outside patterns and forms. Often they internalize these patterns and forms and merely look with the accumulated remembrances of these. So many depend on internal influences, internal patterns and forms. However, a mind that often looks without merely accumulating, without merely storing patterns and attributes… may perceive freshly and joyfully without the dead and dusty past. When the mind is fresh it renews itself from moment to moment, beyond mere accumulation and storing. Without being dependent upon experiences at all times, it may enjoy experiences, but it often goes beyond them. Then boredom rarely or never sets in. If there is no false center to be entertained, then the mind is free of a learned center that was accumulated from others; such a mind may also be free of many other types of accumulated patterns, forms, and images (oftentimes). For instance, when perception of a creature takes place, it need not merely label it and look at it with a sense of separation. Or if it does label it, there is a “going beyond the label,” and the animal is seen without merely pigeonholing it, categorizing it, and looking at it from a separative stance. Such a mind is free to be fresh and uncontaminated, without the stale past and stored symbols. Boredom is not freedom.

Well, I Toad You So! Video by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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The simple things in life are often the best and most precious.

September 24, 2014

4 comments

The simple things in life are often the best and most precious.

[This is an American Toad head study. Based on DNA sequence analysis, the American Toad, Anaxyrus americanus, and related North American species of Anaxyrus, are thought to be descended from an invasion of toads from South America prior to the formation of the Isthmus of Panama land bridge, presumably by way of floating on logs or buoyant plant masses.]