All Posts Tagged ‘truth’

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The Story of Lo Zu and True Stillness…

October 17, 2024
9 comments

The elderly sage, Lo Zu, was walking with his meandering-cane along a path going through a meadow near town. Youthful twins were walking toward Lo Zu, from the opposite direction. As they approached Lo Zu — and knowing about his reputation for being wise and insightful — they asked him to stop and listen to their remarks about their recent attempts at meditating in stillness. They told Lo Zu about how they both sat, unmoving, for hours, in their recent attempts to (according to them) meditate properly.

As they talked on and on about the stillness that they tried to engage in, Lo Zu did not appear to be very impressed. Lo Zu looked at the flowers and creatures in the meadow and remarked that true stillness is not the result of “trying” and “effort.” He suggested that one of the twins should walk some distance down the path (then return), while the other twin should remain standing with him. One of the twins then walked along the path and returned after a short while. Then Lo Zu asked the twin who had remained with him, “While your brother was walking away, did the field of consciousness (that you were) ever actually move away from what it was all along?” “No, of course not,” the lad replied. Then Lo Zu asked the twin, who had been walking away, whether his field of consciousness had actually moved — from what it was all along — during his walk. “Of course not,” the lad replied. Then Lo Zu said to the twin that had been walking, “Your consciousness did not move from what (and where) it always was, and neither did your brother’s. So even though you were walking, the mind was not going anywhere other than where it was all along.” Lo Zu was implying that movement is often delusory and not factual.

Lo Zu suggested to them, “Please don’t try, with effort, to be still (through various techniques, for instance). Such techniques likely take you on a delusional journey (that is secondhand). Let true stillness occur naturally, without effort. Also, stillness can exist even while walking, even while working. True stillness is not what one makes happen through effort and striving, or through traveling through (and “as”) linear thought/thinking. Additionally, a physical body that is not physically moving is not any special kind of stillness. Rather, natural (true) stillness of mind may occur not by calculated effort but during effortless awareness.”

Spooky Time is Here … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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Regarding Happiness/Joy…

October 10, 2024
6 comments

One can get a limited amount of happiness by accumulating things — or by doing things — that one had wanted to get or do. However, acquiring things by way of motive(s) is always circumscribed by a degree of calculated, linear planning, and the result (as an effect) is usually very mundane, secondary, and rather stale. So constantly chasing after happiness is often reflective of a rather immature mind, a mind that falls for the ordinary (being itself, unfortunately, rather ordinary). Does an extraordinary mind habitually chase after the ordinary? … probably not!

Additionally, true joy seldom comes invited (by way of calculated motives). Calculated motives — like clockwork –manifest to bring up what a mind desires… and desire is usually small, self-centered, generic, plastic, and commonplace. Desires are limited reactions (often being robotic, calculated, and dull). True joy and bliss are not what the mind can calculatingly concoct mentally.

So what is an intelligent mind to do? This may (at first) seem nonsensical, but a very wise thing to do — regarding happiness and bliss — is nothing. In doing nothing, the mind is automatically out of the quagmire of calculated, mechanical plotting. Such plottings, with their limitations and mediocrity, are reflections of motives. Going beyond them opens the mind to possibilities that are not limited and are not just fragmentary reactions in the cause-and-effect continuum. Real joy and bliss are beyond the fragmentary known.

Buffet Lunch … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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That Limited Mental Space…

October 3, 2024
22 comments

That space, that limited, cadaverous space, that separates most people from what they see (and are)… it may nourish a callous indifference (though they may insist otherwise). When limited mental space exists between the perceiver and that which is perceived, then a fabricated center manifests a false radius. This is what allows hatred and indifference to take hold. This is what manifests as secondhand mediocrity and unfeeling psychological cadaverousness.

That learned, absorbed, embedded psychological space must end (without clinging to the apron-strings of tradition, customs, and learned habits). True compassion does not flower with restricted, fragmentary, small, isolated perception. It radiates beyond the ice-cold limited. Stagnant perception is the result of its own illusory psychological cage. In that dead cage, it remains (and claims to be free)… while it decorates and reinforces that cage with superficialities. That stagnation depends on (and is) the cage. (There never was a true center in control of thoughts and emotions. It — i.e., the supposed controller — is a learned protrusion of thought/thinking.) Real joy and love of life can exist beyond limitation based on falsities. Please transcend beyond psychological separation and existing as a consciousness with a limited radius based on a phony center.

Buddha Mind … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2024

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Understanding the Whole…

September 26, 2024
14 comments

Understanding the whole is not possible if the mind is distorted. So, obviously, the instrument of the mind must be orderly and uncontaminated for clear, holistic perception and understanding to occur. A mind full of antiquated patterns, opinions, and fragmented systems that include conflict, friction, copying, and learned anxiety, is likely not what is capable of perceiving purely (beyond the distorted). A mind burdened with the conditioning of a violent, primitive society — such as ours is — is likely too stagnant and adulterated to perceive purely.

So the first step is to perceive beyond — and without — the past conditioning. Many of us may agree, but few will actually deeply look into doing it. Most of us are tethered to the “old ways” in ironclad habits and stagnant patterns. To leave those patterns seems frightening and too unconventional. So we keep reacting (rather like lemmings). Most take the easy path (which is, really, an unalive path).

The old, fragmentary ways of looking at things via separation, conflict, psychological distance, pigeonholing, and using symbols (such as words) as if they are realities, can drop away without needing secondhand methodologies, techniques, and calculated systems. Such calculated systems take time, and they are limited and fragmentary in themselves. Looking without contamination and conditioned parameters does not take time. Time may be a postponement and an easy excuse. Organized religions all take time and emphasize “gradually improving.” True inner silence and profound awareness do not take time, nor are they necessarily two separate things.

Leaves of Grass … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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The story of Lo Zu and the Rocks and Stones… (yet another Lo Zu tale)…

September 19, 2024
16 comments

(Note: Coincidentally, there are five evergreen trees — in a row — in the middle of my front yard.)

Away from the village, at a great distance from the orthodox temples that he never frequented, the great, aged sage Lo Zu — as he often had done — was sitting in silence on a large boulder, with his twisting, meandering walking-cane leaning against him. Among many serious spiritual students in the region, word was spreading that sometimes those passing around the vicinity of Lo Zu could, at times, feel some emanations of what seemed like a divine, radiant energy coming from his being.

Indeed, when some students were passing by Lo Zu sitting upon the boulder that particular day, they say they saw the elderly sage crouched forward with his hands tightly clenched; the meandering-cane had fallen down, having slid to the ground. As they approached him closer, they could feel that radiant energy (that was rumored about by others). After a while, Lo Zu sat up straight, and they could see an amazing, blissful smile on his gleaming face. (Was it the universal blessing, the nirvana, that some said had often visited him?)

The students gathered around Lo Zu and they then asked him to share more of his great insights with them. “Alright,” he said, leaning down to grasp his walking-cane lying (horizontally) in the rocks and stones around the big boulder. There were many stones and colorful rocks in that particular area, situated all around that huge boulder that Lo Zu was sitting upon.

The students sat on the stones on the ground around Lo Zu, carefully listening. Lo Zu said, “What the mind sees is what consciousness consists of. The perceiver is the perceived.” He then said, “If you look at a tree, the image of the tree is what your consciousness is, (not that you merely become sap and the actual, physical tree).” He then went on, “If you look at the stones around this area, your consciousness is what the stones appear as. Please wisely exist beyond accepted separation and conflict. If you are fear of ‘not fitting in with your peers,’ that fear is what you are. You are not something separate from what that fear is.” A bit later, Lo Zu said, “Not too many years ago, a man named Jesus said things very similar to me, but stale orthodoxy (as it so often does) came around and destroyed and twisted the essence of his message. Please learn to stand alone and independently ponder and perceive for yourselves.”
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Excerpt from the Gospel of Thomas (which was once a popular ancient text that eventually became banned by government-controlled orthodoxy):

(19) Jesus said: Blessed is he who was before he came into being. If you become disciples to me (and) listen to my words, these stones will minister to you. For you have five trees in Paradise which do not change, either in summer or in winter, and their leaves do not fall. He who knows them shall not taste death.

Stones … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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The Perceiver is the Perceived

September 12, 2024
18 comments

 

 

Let’s dive deep
into shadowless realms of unsleep
far from the web of callous indifference

Let’s be whole
no fragmented pieces taking the toll
and streets driving as congested arteries

Let’s tread ages
leaving these words still on the pages
as a bored television tries to turn itself on

Let’s take time
as stolen money runs from the crime
while handcuffs are frowning with remorse

Let’s look down
while a missing wallet looks to be found
and credit cards fret with anxiety

Let’s be joy
while the white crib rattles her toy
as a happy nest with gray friends is singing

The Edge of the Nest … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Psychological Suffering…

September 5, 2024
12 comments

Thoughts are, as one has said many times, symbolic representations. The word “butterfly” is not the butterfly. The word “frog” is not the frog. Words are often necessary, but most of us are almost constantly churning with thought after thought, even though these thoughts are just fragmentary symbols. Symbols are tokens for the real thing; they are not the real thing, (be they words or pictorial images in the brain). In our past — in school — we were spoon-fed with words and the symbols within books (as if they were the real thing). We were instructed (for years) to believe in that symbolic/artificial methodology, accepting it as real and true.

A life that habitually clings to one series of symbols after another is, unfortunately, clinging to representations that are (in a big way) superficial. Endlessly clinging to symbols may take away a lot of the true joy, compassion, and true relationship in one’s life. Unfortunately, remaining mostly as symbols and as mental patterns consisting of symbols can tend to make the mind operate in (and “as”) stagnation. Such stagnation consists of sorrow. It is sorrow.

Instead of foolishly trying to escape from this sorrow by means of alcohol, recreational drugs, or expensive vacations, one can likely do much better by not running to outside (purchased) modalities. We can look joyfully just by looking without merely seeing through a mental screen of habitual symbols, labels, and distinctions. “Looking simply” does not require a lot of mental effort, energy, and technique. Since no effort is needed, no time is needed. But we tend to habitually and endlessly employ effort and time. We need not always take time pigeonholing everything with symbolic labels, categorizations, and separate differentiations. Going beyond constant, fragmentary symbolism, and psychological distance is joyous and liberating. In doing so, love is involved… so love then flowers. Words, as rather dead symbols, are protrusions from the past (i.e., from past learned memory). The living present is not of this learned, old past; it is fresh and beyond the old adulteration. Real meditation, without all of the silly techniques and time-oriented methodologies, is the freshness and joy of perception beyond the stale and secondhand.

The word is not the thing. … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Cause and Time…

August 29, 2024
8 comments

We, as human beings, primarily function due to (and from) causes. The process of thinking (per se) involves cause and effect; we usually do things mentally (with a cause or effect in mind or with a series of causes or effects in mind). Animals also act via cause-and-effect parameters. So, in a big way, we are not much different than other animals. Cause is time. When we function with (and “as”) cause, we function in (and “as”) time. Most of us, just as we were taught for many years, remain very time-bound and time-oriented.

Cause and effect often involve — and consist of — a motive or motives. We want to achieve things and get things, just like many animals. Most of us remain in such domains, without ever deeply inquiring what may be beyond. We usually, without question, remain in cause-and-effect parameters without ever mutating beyond such reactions. Can the mind transcend cause/effect parameters, intelligently existing beyond endless motives? This writer says, “Yes!” Then one doesn’t just react in (and “as”) time. Time has its place. It is often necessary. However, merely clinging to it may be rather childish and crass. Thinking, though often very necessary, is imbued with cause and effect attributes; therefore thinking is time (and takes time). Only if we stay limited do we have to exclusively remain in such a domain.

Many are so conditioned to exist as perpetual “achieving” and “getting,” that they would not even consider the possibility of existing beyond such patterns. Most are stuck in grooves, where they habitually remain. Please consider metamorphosing beyond the norm. Wisely ending conditioning may not depend on any concocted (or habitual) series of endless motives.

Cause is Time … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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In the Vastness of Nature…

August 22, 2024
9 comments

In the vastness of nature, when walking among the myriad of beautiful plants and animals that are away from human interference and human destruction, is it possible to blend in as a mind that is also away from human interference and human destruction? Can such a mind be empty of the abstractions, ideas, beliefs, labels, and symbols that were poured into it over many years? Such a pure (uncontaminated) mind, empty of its content, empty of all of the second-hand garbage that was poured into it, can then look beyond adulteration and contamination. Such emptiness, then, is all of the living organisms (without merely labeling them, classifying them, pigeonholing them, or recognizing them through learned and preconceived images and patterns). Then, perhaps, there is only the unadulterated perceived… and not the separation between the perceiver and the perceived. Perhaps, in that situation, there is no time and division. Without time and division, real love and joy may flower.

To look superficially through walls involving separation and boundaries… may not be deep perception. The very nature of the isolated center, ego, or so-called controller, automatically creates walls of separation, distance, and boundaries. It’s not “being in the now,” as so many (these days) mechanically parrot and claim they are doing; it is beyond all that bilge. Please look simply and effortlessly… without all of the rubbish, the abstractions, and the learned separations.

Beyond Words … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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Experiencing is often Childish and a Waste of Time…

August 15, 2024
22 comments

This may seem ludicrous at first, but it isn’t. Most of us are heavily conditioned to run from one entertaining experience to another. We will do anything to escape from what we see as our own inner emptiness (i.e., our own inner void and sorrow). We run from one experience to another, like that proverbial donkey that perpetually pursues the carrot dangling from a stick (that is — interestingly enough– attached to the donkey). We were conditioned to do this… and in this conditioning, we remain. We are this conditioning, not something separate from it.

We were not encouraged to refrain from running from inner emptiness. To not run from inner emptiness does not take time. However, most of us, in time and “as time,” continue to run from it. It may be that such effort is a waste of time… which we repeatedly do until we die. It may be largely a waste of time and energy.

When one doesn’t run from emptiness (in and “as” time), a miraculous transformation may happen. Time (then) does not exist in the normal sense and a timeless (non-sequential) bliss and intelligence may flower without a motive or system of effort. The “known” is a sequential, symbolic, robotic series involving experience, recognition, remembrance, and further accumulative experience and repetitive recognition. This stems from the known (i.e., the habitual, reacting, symbolic, past remembrance) and its sequential movement. This “sequential movement” is often necessary, but clinging to it makes the mind mechanical, repetitive, and dull.

Resting … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Power …

August 8, 2024
18 comments

Mankind has, for eons, pursued and craved power… power in the form of governing, power involving influence, power in the form of authority, and power in the form of money or possessions.  What is this power that man has spent so much effort in acquiring?  Control is a significant feature regarding this pursuit of power.  Many of us admire the man who we think controls (even if that man has multiple felonies or is a rapist).   We are gullible, delusional people.  We have always assumed that the controller and the controlled are two separate things.  However, are they really separate things psychologically?  Are thoughts really controlled by a separate central “controller” that has power?  May it be, psychologically, that the controller is the controlled… that the observer is the observed?  Could it be that, psychologically, the thinker is not really something separate, whatsoever, from thought/thinking? Could it be that the “thinker” is a projection from the thought/thinking process?

Man has evolved to the point that we can split the atom and do many complicated, amazing things.  We have done a lot of fantastic things with energy and its power.  However, we always use and manipulate things regarding this power; we are never actually in a direct relationship with the real essence of that power.  We live in mental symbols and psychological abstractions, which do not really consist of substantial power whatsoever.

in the heat … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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Peace

August 1, 2024
11 comments

Peace (world peace) comes about when the inhabitants of the earth perceive and feel true heartfelt oneness. It comes when borders — between countries — are seen as manmade fabrications that often bring about unintelligent separation, conflict, animosity, and turmoil. Countries and religions, when clung to as being special and above and apart from the rest, often bring about conflict. Peace exists when the perceiver sees that the perceived is not so very separate and apart (as we were taught). When separation and division disappear, harmony exists. The fingers of a hand may be different — and in different places — but they are (together) united as one. Even within the mind, the “learned” thought process separates the observer from the fear (but the observer is the fear); the “learned” thought process separates the observer from the desire (but the observer is the desire). We separate inwardly and this is also projected outwardly… with outward separation, friction, and conflict (that is often accepted as normal). Without putting tons of money into armaments, we could get so much more accomplished in the health and medical fields, in environmental health for this small planet, in food production, and regarding forest/wildlife expansion and protection. Peace

No Chameleon … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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Insight…

July 26, 2024
21 comments

One cannot practice or do anything systematically to bring about or conjure insight. True insight, if you are fortunate, is what always comes uninvited. You cannot “make it happen.”

Insight and intuition are entirely different phenomena. Intuition is the unconscious or semi-conscious ability to create links between (or involving) information. Insight involves — without conscious reasoning — understanding holistically (perhaps beyond the parameters of ordinary sequential time and space).

Although one cannot do anything deliberately and directly to bring about insight, some attributes in one may encourage it to perhaps occur (or set the foundation for it to more likely happen). Being a mind that intelligently perceives things holistically, beyond run-of-the-mill fragmentation, robotic labeling, and accepted separation may be beneficial. Additionally, eating and exercising properly — keeping the body excellent physically — may indirectly be very beneficial. However, there is nothing that one can do to cause it to occur; it is beyond the parameters of time and ordinary causation.

If one is holistically entwined with (and “as”) the whole… truly being at one with the animals, plants, and universal order, then that order may be more inclined to protect and reciprocally care for one. Then real magic may happen (beyond the limited domain of time and space).

Ouch! … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Perceiving Beyond the Limited

July 18, 2024
12 comments

We look with (and “as”) the parameters of time and space that we were taught to look at. This might sound strange, but is that all that we must be limited to? Can we look with a depth that goes beyond what was spoon-fed to us? Can we perceive more than what they taught us to perceive? This movement says, “Yes.” But don’t just take my word for it. Explore and find out (with passion). Go beyond their measurements, rules, separations, so-called religions, opinions, organizations, limited teachings, acceptances, beliefs, and stale parameters. But most of you won’t do that. Most will shake their head affirmatively and agree; however, they will not fundamentally change. Unfortunately, most are stuck in orthodoxy, stagnation, and sameness. Most are psychologically afraid to leave the limited and the “known.”

A poem by Stephen Crane:

“Think as I think,” said a man,
“Or you are abominably wicked,
You are a toad.”

And after I had thought of it,
I said: “I will, then, be a toad.”

The Perceiver is the Perceived … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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The Whole

July 4, 2024
9 comments

From E.E. Cummings:
“It is with roses and locomotives (not to mention acrobats Spring electricity Coney Island the 4th of July the eyes of mice and Niagara Falls) that my poems are competing.”

For most people, the “whole,” is conceptual (as a component of thought/thinking). However, what is merely conceptual (i.e., a product of the brain-thought process) is not the whole. It is just a fragment, or series of fragments, constructed of intellectual images/symbols. The whole is imperceptible to a person who is immersed in (and “as”) fragmentation. Yet, a lot of people think that they understand the whole. Words are fragmentary symbols/representations, not the actuality.

Education, in the past, for almost all of us, focused exclusively on intellectual and conceptual things and parameters. We were not encouraged to look beyond mental symbols, fragmentary parameters, and run-of-the-mill mental constructs. We were — early on — molded to perceive conceptually, fragmentarily, with (and “as”) words and ideas. So most of us look with (and “as”) a screen of mental fabrication. Such looking is limited, largely symbolic, and quite robotic.

Encouraging others, later in their lives, to go beyond such mental structures is very difficult. They function almost exclusively in a world of fragmentation and symbolism. However, there is always the chance of real metamorphosis. Surprisingly, perceiving beyond limited concepts and fragmented symbols does not take a lot of effort. It is the robotic attachment to habitual mental effort that prevents people from radically changing. The blind, habitual effort and dependence involving constantly looking with limitation (as mental fragments and symbols) must psychologically end.

Hunting for Food … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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To Live in the Present (is illusory) for most people…

June 27, 2024
15 comments

Recognizing the “present” from the past (i.e., from stored, accumulated memory) is not living in the present whatsoever; it is an extension of the past (involving recognition). We can also recognize — and “be” — concepts about the future. However, such concepts or mental formulations are not the future… but are merely projections — from (and “as”) past memory — about what possibly could be.

To intelligently go beyond such limited mental patterns requires a very sharp, dynamic mind. Most minds are not interested in this. Most minds are not capable of what is needed. They tend to stagnate in (and “as”) limited parameters (all the while thinking that they are free, in the present, and accurate in their perceptions). Erroneous thoughts can believe that they are living in the present, while (all the while) they are not. To truly be of the timeless goes beyond self-deception and limited stagnation. Please intelligently inquire into this.

Since the Cretaceous … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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We look with separation…

June 13, 2024
15 comments

Most of us look with (and “as”) separation. Within almost each of us, there psychologically exists what we assume to be a “central I” that assumes that it is in control of its thoughts (from a separative distance). This so-called “central I” additionally fundamentally sees things (as if from a point) with a radius between it and the external world.

Love does not readily occur in a mind that is fundamentally based on separation. Psychologically, the perceiver is not separate from the perceived. Separation is often reinforced by fragmentation, conflict, and non-holistic perceiving. A wise mind of profound intelligence may transcend such fragmentary, separative, and divisive psychological behaviors. Such a mind is not fundamentally stuck in conditioned disconnection and illusory partition.

Peppermint Patty … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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The Wisdom of Effortlessness

June 6, 2024
8 comments

In previous posts, i’ve mentioned existing in effortlessness. Effortlessness is not some lazy psychological state that causes one to be lackadaisical throughout the day. It is not a state of mind that causes one to lay around listlessly throughout the day.

Most of us habitually engage in (and “as”) the effort of “thinking” throughout the day. We are so ingrained in the effort of “thinking” that we hardly or rarely exist without it. We mechanically engage in (and “as”) thinking with constant effort. This “thinking” involves so-called effort by a supposed central, controlling ego. Habitual “thinking” creates the habitual “thinker.” There is a deep perception, however, that does not depend on the habitual effort of thinking. Such perception is not stagnant laziness; on the contrary, it is tremendous energy. This energy acts without dependence on any habitual effort that a limited ego reacts as. In fact, the limited ego is devoid of this energy… and such an ego is often trapped in (and “as”) a series of reactions resulting from habitual effort. This habitual effort was hammered into one (by others in the past) and on this one depends. It is the result of an imitative, secondhand process; it is — itself — an imitative, secondhand process. Imitative, secondhand processes consist of absorbed psychological time and are not true liberation/freedom.

Deep perception is beyond the secondhand. It involves a wholeness that acts outside of the fragmentary effort of an isolated ego. An isolated ego is, itself, secondhand and is the result of stale, fragmentary, effort. The effort of a secondhand ego involves repetitive, habitual psychological time. Wisely existing beyond such effort does not require more time.

Long Legged Attraction … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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In Deep Perception is Great Wisdom

May 30, 2024
18 comments

Deep perception is the extraordinary order many would radiantly flower in if they were only of it. Such profound perception is beyond the superficial… (the superficial, with its many limitations, forms of fragmentation, and boundaries).

Believing that one has great “will” does little to instill great order in the mind because “will” is a crude mental supposition that presupposes immense freedom (and true freedom is not what manifests by thinking or by believing that one possesses it). One can be in a prison as most people are — psychologically — yet still believe that one has freedom. However, such freedom may be limited and very illusory.

Perceiving everything deeply and profoundly supersedes stale beliefs and conclusions of thought/thinking. In seeing beyond limited conclusions, beliefs, fragments, and suppositions, the mind is of immense clarity and wisdom. Such clarity and wisdom — not being two separate things — is great order and goodness. Many violent and uncaring people think that they have free will; such thinking may not mean a thing. Thoughts (always being fragmented) nullify deep perception if one exclusively exists in (and “as”) thoughts habitually most of the time.

Deep perception acts in (and “as”) a great order (beyond fragmentary thinking and conflict).

Male Indigo Bunting … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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Wholeness and Caring…

May 23, 2024
16 comments

The root of the word “mediocre” means halfway… like going halfway to a treasure or halfway up the mountain. Many people in society, it seems, tend to not care enough about profound, important, and penetrating things. Many prefer to look superficially and prefer to remain satisfied with the superficial. Caring to go deeper is not a one-dimensional thing. Caring to go deeper is multidimensional (and perhaps beyond ordinary dimensions). If you truly care to go deeper, you also naturally care for all human beings. Additionally, you care for the whole of life: the trees, the plants, the animals, and all living things.

A mind stuck in the superficial remains content with superficial things. This superficiality is fragmented, limited, divisive, and circumscribed. I often get complimented for my pictures but not for the written content. I am polite and thank those who compliment me but i wonder about how they perceive in this world. (If Einstein was still around and he gave a superb lecture, would it be prudent for one of the listeners to solely compliment him on the color of his tie?) Society (and its so-called educational systems) have succeeded in turning out a lot of robotic people who go through the motions of being alive, yet (unfortunately) are not fully alive.

We can exist in an easy so-called life and do as we were told, exist as we were instructed, while we believe in what was hammered into us. To question everything intelligently, however, is not easy. To go beyond mediocrity and a lemming existence is not easy. To go very deeply is not easy. To look beyond the stale curtain (and the provided beliefs, isolated boundaries, and words) is not easy. It may be that, unlike what society had taught you, you are not some separate, little entity that needs to succeed apart from all others; it may be that the whole of life (including all living things) is what you are (and not something separate). In true silence and emptiness… the whole is.

River Friend … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024

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A mind separate from “its” fears is a Distortion.

May 9, 2024
9 comments

Most people look at inner psychological fears with separation (from a distance). However, this distance is illusory; such distance involves time and perpetuates fear. All fears, to exist, depend upon thoughts and time. They are often about what will happen or what — according to the mind — could happen. This projecting about the future involves (and is) psychological time. Of course, there are some natural and necessary fears, like when a big shark is seen in the water where one is swimming. That is when fear is prudent and natural. However, most of us have many fears that are not so prudent.

With many psychological fears — as what often happens — what purports to be separate from fears, supposedly “having them,” then looks for ways to go beyond the fears. This wanting to go beyond the fears involves distance and time. As we said, the fears themselves are the result of time. This may be a mindless circle — that many are caught in — that prevents clear understanding and wise change. A wise mind may perceive that fears are not separate from what it (partially) is. Such a wise mind may also see that there is nothing truly separate from the fears that, in a possessing kind of way, has them. Inventing or imagining something separate from them (to get rid of them) creates unnecessary conflict and friction. Conflict and friction depend upon time (and waste energy).

A mind that is largely beyond psychological fears (and needless internal separation and friction)… is a marvelous thing.

Defying Gravity … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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More on that Ineffable Sacredness… and Enlightenment

May 2, 2024
42 comments

One may ask: If the sacred truly exists, why doesn’t it help us more?

That sacred energy did not create the universe/cosmos. However, the universe — as it exists and as it has existed — is in a very delicate balance. Disorder is only relative (and is part of the entire overall orderly balance of everything). That sacredness doesn’t often interfere with the cosmos (because it — the cosmos — is not a structure to be interfered with). Besides, there would be no end to “fixing” things; that “fixing” could continue ad infinitum. Things are left (as they should be) to run naturally; if everything were changed to be what we consider “perfect”, we would be in a world that is plastic-plant-like or that functions like a fake Sesame Street cartoon.

As i had stated previously in previous posts, enlightenment is not something that one achieves. It is a visitation into you by that ineffable sacredness. During such a visitation, one can feel over a trillion times more alive than during regular existence. Such a visitation can (fortunately) alter or influence the brain cells, enabling them to perceive even more clearly and deeply. It’s important though, not to crave such a visitation. Craving it likely nullifies its occurrence. One must be rather indifferent about it happening (regarding oneself). Besides, you cannot crave the unknowable (i.e., the timeless); you can only crave the known (in and “as” time). However, having a silent, pure, innocent mind is wise. Only in such silence and innocence does it flower. One must have a pure mind… but not one that voraciously craves that mystery to enter one’s life. Let the cup (or flower) of the mind be pure, open, uncontaminated, clean, and often empty (of mere symbolism and stale beliefs); do not greedily crave for it to be filled.

Stamen and Pistil … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Can real, psychological quietness be “made” to happen?…

April 4, 2024
13 comments

Can real, psychological quietness be “made” to happen by a learned psychological image of a central controller (that is neither central nor a true controller)?
Is such a “made” quietness actually phony, because it was concocted by a conditioned psychological process that is — in itself — erroneous (and not a legitimate controller)? A fallacious process is not likely to produce a very orderly (profound) psychological result.
To psychologically die to what is false is easy if a real, living passion for truth is there, and if real courage, joy, and intelligence are also factors. True quietness may occur — naturally and without effort — in a mind that is orderly, perceiving without much conditioning and contamination by a manipulating society.

In the eye of the stone… Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Orderly Sleep…

March 29, 2024
23 comments

When we sleep — to help create psychological order — the mind often dreams about things that went on during recent days. Some of these dreams may not seem relevant to what actually went on… but, nevertheless, oftentimes they (indirectly) are. (Analyzing them doesn’t do much good, since the analyzer is the analyzed.) If one is very aware and holistically mindful during the day, then dreams are unnecessary. Then, the mind does not need to try to establish order during the night; order was already established. Without incessant dreaming, the mind can exist in (and “as”) a profound, mindful, meditative silence. Such silence is beautifully beyond repetitive, fabricated patterns and concocted symbols.

Be very holistically aware during waking hours, without constantly looking at things, and labeling things, symbolically (i.e., without merely seeing via words and stored mental images). Then, as was mentioned, you will see that having many dreams is unnecessary. (Of course, eating certain spicy or unusual foods — like pepper or piperine — may inadvertently cause dreams following the time they were consumed.) Please be sure to get enough sleep.

Dentition of a Fallen Log … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Comparing ourselves with others…

March 21, 2024
30 comments

We often compare ourselves with others. Why? Many people fail to ask deeper questions and many adhere to the same, antiquated ways and beliefs. Why would you measure yourself according to such parameters? Many primarily act from conceptual programming and not with the heart. Most look via separation and psychological distance. Success, in a rather insane world, may not really be success at all. Comparison often invites judgment, fear, competition, and imitation. Please consider being beyond those kinds of shenanigans.

Together as One … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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The Wisdom of Perceiving Beyond Influence

February 29, 2024
7 comments

Please consider perceiving beyond influence. Influence rooted in the past may distort perception, causing it to be jaded. We were all heavily conditioned in childhood. We were conditioned to hold certain beliefs and opinions. We were conditioned to perceive through separation, psychological distance, and mental screens involving labeling and pigeonholing. We were taught that fragmentary, manmade borders are legitimate and absolute. We were primarily taught that we are separate from the world, separate from all of life’s creatures, and separate from those other countries.

Additionally, beyond outside social structures trying to condition one, one also can further condition oneself. One can, for example, mislead oneself into thinking that one is superior to others, that one is meditating spectacularly (while all the while one is actually hypnotizing oneself), that a central “controller” is separate from “other” thoughts, or that one is somehow special (such that it is OK for one to take advantage of others).

It is arduous to go beyond outside authority. It is much easier to follow instructions and to do (and think) as you were told. Going beyond “inside” authority is likewise very difficult. When one goes beyond inward authority, perception exists without relying on past conditioning that is mistakingly taken to be original, isolated, or self-created. (One thinks that one needs to control oneself to be good. However, the very control may create a false inward authority, dominance, and friction. Legitimate order may involve much more than that old game.)

To go beyond outside and inside influence may involve great wisdom, freedom, and integrity.

Sweet Effort … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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To Exclusively Look With the Known May Often Bring Depression

February 22, 2024
17 comments

Many people — unfortunately, as adults — primarily look at things in life with (and “as”) the known. They recognize things as what they have seen before. This recognition occurs when the mind habitually sees through a screen (and background) of memory. When memory looks, it looks from the old, stale past. Memory is rooted in the old; it is oldfangled. The past, being old and secondhand, tends to make the mind stale, bored, and lacking in passion (from recognizing the same old things repeatedly).

It may be that a wise mind, however, often looks at life freshly, without merely perceiving through stored, musty images (of what was). When we were young, we glowed with the passion of seeing life without stale (learned) recognitions. Then we were blissful; then we were flowing while not merely recognizing. (When i was biologically young, i told people that i would never grow up.)

Look at life happily, joyfully, blissfully, soaringly, and fresh… without always carrying the oppressive burden of the past.

Resting … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Insight and Wholeness…

February 8, 2024
26 comments

Love and be the whole miracle of life… not limited, dead concepts and systems.

Intelligence goes beyond the boundaries of “them” and “us” and dissolves them forever.

It is easy to get lost in the shuffle.

A passionless mind is dead before it ever gets to the grave.

Anything, even a heartless machine, can exist as what it was programmed to exist as.

Separation (from others, for instance) is as a death.

You are responsible for the whole of life, because the whole of life is you.

True beginnings are entwined with (and engaged to) true endings.

Clinging to what most of the ungracious masses of separative people have unceasingly clung to:                              it doesn’t ring true.

Fly free (like a Swallowtail) beyond unnecessary limitation…     go beyond the flypaper of stagnant orthodoxy (that so many cling to).

Sweet Meal Time … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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Keeping those eyes closed… a Sarcastic Discourse…

February 1, 2024
17 comments

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Whatever you do, don’t look at life and the world beyond the systems, patterns, and ways in which you were taught.  If you look outside of the systems, patterns, and ways — which were poured into you, forming your consciousness — you may be a danger to all that is false, fragmentary, and distorted.  Keep looking at things just as you were programmed to.  Don’t question anything.  Be sure to accept (and cling to) everything that they poured into you.  

Continue to observe things from behind a self-made psychological wall supporting separation and isolation.  Continue to mindlessly escape into endless forms of entertainment, travel, drugs, and amusement.  Continue to have opinions based on how you were raised and taught.  Worship the dollar.  Grow out of that youthful, magical wonderment concerning life and turn into a fusty adult who sees little of life’s newness and magical beauty.  Get dreadfully bored while seeing and thinking the same old patterns. Think only of yourself and have no feelings for others.  Continue to worship the dollar.  Never stop endlessly chattering with mental symbols, patterns, and words. Look at everything through a maladjusted psychological screen (or curtain) of separation and division.  Be very afraid of sweet and refreshing mental silence.  Seldom look at (or visit) nature.  Do not fundamentally change on the inside, but make your body look very unusual and different on the outside.  Continue to worship the dollar. Go through existence being narrow-minded, selfish, and opinionated.  Blindly cling to a lot of manmade patterns that were concocted in the distant past, and never look at reality without old, dusty, iron-clad beliefs.  Keep your lawn looking perfect, but remain disorderly and a mess inwardly.  

Where the Fairies Live … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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What Divides you from so-called Others?

January 25, 2024
22 comments

What divides you from so-called “others”? Is it what society has poured into you (when you were very young)? Is that division (i.e., that separation) what they implanted within (and “as”) you? Could it be that when you look with separation and fragmentation, you are separation and fragmentation? 

Thought/thinking usually depends upon division. It is fragmentation. It is one symbol after another. Holistic perception exists beyond these fragmentary divisions/separations. It is, therefore, not merely of limitation, confinement, and solid boundaries. It transcends beyond illusory barriers and close-minded conceptions. Friction is separation, conflict, and division. Harmony is of holistic oneness and caring intelligence. 

It’s-not-easy-being-green-Having-to-spend-each-day-the-color-of-the-leaves-But-i-think-it’s-what-i-want-to-be.-.-photo-by-Thomas-Peace-c.2024
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To live in the Present… and to Live in the Here and Now…

January 18, 2024
22 comments

To live in the present, in the “here and now,” is often still in vogue these days. To actually “live in the present” may involve much more than most people realize. Many may think that they “live in the present” but they may not. It is extremely easy to deceive oneself. If within, constant “thinking” is going on, then one (surely) does not live in the present. Thoughts are symbols from (and “as”) old, stored memories that unfold from the past. So, if one is constantly thinking about things, one is living in the past. This includes pondering about the future. When we worry about the future, we are using thoughts of the past to project what the future might be (i.e., what the future might consist of). 

Additionally, if we go through our day while just habitually recognizing everything with distinct borders, distinct names, distinct attributes, and characteristics, then we are looking primarily with what we were taught… which really isn’t looking at all. Even then we are relying on the past; even then we are existing in (and “as”) the past. 

Many say, “Be in the here and now.” What is that “here”? Is it a lot of recognition from (and “as”) what was poured into us in the past? That recognition is the past; its “here” is what old, stored, dusty memory is. Is the “here” some stored images about what is assumed to be centrally located? And, what is “now”? Is it some isolated time interval (of one’s own) that one clings to? It may be that most of us never really wake up. It may be that T.S. Eliot was right when he wrote, “Love is most nearly itself when here and now cease to matter.”

Gingerly … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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True Bliss and Wisdom…

January 11, 2024
16 comments

The mind may be a prisoner of its own delusions and misconceptions.  To extricate the mind from the quagmire (that it is likely in) may require much more than mere reactions.  Mere reactions are likely just extensions of the confusion, disorder, uncertainty, and disarray that the mind is (in).  In other words, if the mind is disorderly, who is going to make it orderly?… Will it be another part of that same mind assuming to have (or be) authority or order?  

Though we all have to react… merely reacting may not be a profound solution regarding fundamentally existing beyond the disorder.  If we perceive our reactions without judgment, ideologies, beliefs, and images of what others have taught… that very perceiving may be beyond the realm of mere reacting.  If the mind ceases to depend on standard and ordinary reactions, perhaps it may undergo a transformation wherein few reactions continue to contribute to the misconceptions and delusions that it existed as (in the past).  Looking without merely having obtrusions of thought occur as reactions, however, may be easier said than done.  The very way we observe things is often heavily tarnished with reactions that we are — for the most part — unaware of.  A mind of pristine, untainted “observing,” however, goes beyond being merely rather mechanical and robotic.  Such a mind is where true joy and true living exist.  Rather crass, robotic minds — though they may say otherwise — are divorced from deep joy and insight.  Deep joy and insight are not mere projections (as reactions) from a heavily conditioned mind.  Deep joy and true wisdom aren’t part of what must depend; they are spontaneous and not fabricated.  

It may very well be that the best joy, the best insights, and the best perceptions… are not merely what are sought (through and “as” reaction).  Often, at the precise moment that one seeks to be joyous, joy is not.  Most of us have relied, as we were taught, on time to become joyful and wise.  However, the most profound joy and the deepest wisdom may not involve a factor that takes, requires, or involves time.  Deep joy and deep wisdom are timeless and are not of the realm of mere acquisition (with and by) delayed reactions (about patterns) in time.  However, in “time” the wisdom of compassion intelligently acts to help others.

 

 

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[Note:    The front leg has a tannish, round area under the knee… that is its hearing mechanism.  Since it has one on the left and right legs, it can hear in stereo.]

Resting on the Balcony … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2024
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There is an Intrinsic Goodness that is not merely Learned…

December 28, 2023
19 comments

There exists the intrinsic goodness of a very healthy mind. It is not what came about (secondhand) from the teachings and preaching of others. It is its own radiant and special light (which was not made from what others offered). To act from the blueprint of others is not unsullied, pure action; rather, it is secondhand reaction. Secondhand reaction rarely truly radiates what is holistically good. Behaving from a blueprint is robotic, mechanical, regimented, imitative, and not genuine. Organized governments, religions, schools, and cults tell you how to behave. Dynamic intelligence and true innocence surpass all of the superficiality that mankind’s so-called structured organizations offer. A crippled mind needs a crutch. But over-dependence on crutches keeps you dependent and limited. 
No need to cling to things, floating frog. 

Ribbit… Ribbit… Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Intentional Meditation from a “Meditator” is a Falsity…

November 24, 2023
17 comments

[Note: I hope that many of you had a happy Thanksgiving. Beyond being “thankful,” we also need to help others in need (by donating or by doing something)… so that they too may be thankful. ]

To intentionally meditate, at certain times of the day (using certain methods), is likely very limited, false, and likely makes the mind more mechanical, more calculating, and dull. To meditate to get something out of it… is to try to do something from a motive. A so-called meditator who tries to meditate to get nirvana (or to get some kind of “special” non-ordinary experience)… is (let’s face it) out to get something. Time and greed do not (and cannot) lead one to a timeless, non-greedy dimension. Time is sequential and greed (being in time) is, likewise, sequential. The timeless is not an achievement that comes about by calculation, motives, practices, methods, or learned procedures in (and “as”) time. However, there are oodles of people (i.e., charlatans) who (all too willingly) try to instill their methods upon you. And they have plenty of secondhand beliefs that they learned from others.

The beauty of spontaneous, simple, uncalculated awareness (without motives to get something) may come about naturally — without effort — in a mind that is unsullied, uncontaminated, and innocent. And it may be that, on the other hand, the supposed central (controlling) self that tries to meditate through methodology is essentially an obtrusion of conditioned thought/thinking (that is neither central, truly controlling, nor a true initiator of anything). Trying to meditate via the effort of a so-called central controller… is neither viable nor intelligent. Even while engaging in our so-called meditation (which we learned from others), most of us are reinforcing the perpetual conditioned illusion of a center (i.e., a central ego).

To perceive without effort can occur in a mind of deep order, intelligence, and health. Such effortlessness may be beyond the limitations of sequential motives and time. Such effortlessness does not reinforce an illusory center. Bliss, eternity, and a profoundly innocent mind are not separate things.

The Trees’ Symbiotic Friends … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Thinking, Fear, and Suffering…

November 16, 2023
18 comments

Thinking, being of abstraction, is sequential in nature; therefore, it is of time; it is time. It is psychological time that creates and manifests as fear. In time, one may be despised by others; in time (i.e., in the future), one may be laughed at; in time, one may become senile; in time, one may get psychologically hurt by another. So, often, thought and its shadow (i.e., concomitant fear) manifest in (and “as”) time. And remaining in (and “as”) conditioned, sequential abstraction… is a form of suffering. Such suffering is not blissful living.

Thought is often a very necessary tool. However, all too often, we go on thinking (when thought is not necessary). This remaining in (and “as”) thought/thinking, is remaining in what is merely conditioned, merely sequential, merely symbolic, and what is merely time-bound. To psychologically die, at times, to the repetition of abstract thinking, is to go beyond fear, secondhandedness, fragmentation, symbolism, and separation. It may be that the separation between the thinker and the thought is, in itself, another conditioned, sequential misstep… another learned fabrication that isn’t true. It may be that thought creates (and is) the thinker, not the other way around. And we are afraid to have thinking stop (because we are afraid of being nothing). But this “nothing,” that we are afraid of, is a projection of thought/thinking that is erroneous and illusory. To often go beyond the limitation of abstract, fragmentary, and sequential thinking — and all thought is fragmentary, sequential, and time-bound — may be (if it is actually done) rather blissful and beyond distortion, fear, and suffering.

Chameleonic Sweetie … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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The Limited and Isolated Domain of Thinking

November 9, 2023
18 comments

One often points out here that it may be prudent to go beyond the limited and fragmentary domain of thought/thinking. One is not asking you to dive deep into a lot of philosophical abstraction. On the contrary, i am suggesting that you do something that is immensely pure, pristine, and beautifully simple… which is to not always be of (and “in”) the domain of thought/thinking. You see, thought/thinking — if we are at all honest with ourselves — is where all of the abstraction is. Most of us habitually live in (and “as”) abstraction. Our thoughts (i.e., our abstractions) are actually what we are. These abstractions are dreadfully habitual, and we do not want to let them go. Most of us even accept words as being rather equivalent to reality… even though words are merely virtual abstractions. (Sometimes words are necessary, but they are only tools.)

Too many of us are satisfied with virtual, illusory, fragmentary ways. Little wonder why the world is full of a lot of insanity and chaos. We need to wake up and change.

In the Shadows … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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The Passion of Deep Inquiry regarding Truth

October 12, 2023
20 comments

In this very insane and violent world, in order to find out what is true, and what is beyond and deeper than what everyone else is thinking, believing, or hoping, one must have (and “be”) a tremendous and great passion (involving holistic discovery). This immense passion must be beyond motives involving hopes, desires, and secondhand patterns. One must — to truly explore — function with (and “as”) a mind that is untainted, unprogrammed, unafraid, unconditioned, and uninfluenced by others. Such a profound inquiry must not try to influence what may be discovered (via any internal, psychological influences such as hopes, beliefs, desires, and expectations). And, such a pristine, inquiring mind must be extremely healthy, via being part of a body that eats wholesome, very natural, nourishing foods, exercises often, and does not indulge in recreational mind-altering drugs, alcohol, and tobacco products (that can distort the observations).

Then, having laid the right foundation, one can inquire. This inquiry may best be done (psychologically) without methods, systems, and learned techniques… just by timelessly, effortlessly looking without conflict, and conditioning… beyond any previously learned psychological molding, casting, techniques, or shaping. Most thinking, per se, involves methodology, remembrance, and effort; being beyond thinking is neither of methodology nor time. Freedom, spirituality, and truth may not be what people think or what minds fabricate.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023

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Anything “Separate” (psychologically) may be largely Illusory…

September 28, 2023
17 comments

Conflict and friction are rooted in separation. We were miseducated to accept and embrace separation in (and “as”) consciousness. We were taught that we have a separate “ego” that controls things. We were not told about the possibility that this “ego” is merely a protrusion of thought/thinking. We were not told that, psychologically, the perceiver is not something separate from the perceived. So-called “normal” people look at internal anger, fear, and jealousy as if each is something separate from what they actually are. This inward separation also extends “outwardly.” Most look at life with separation and conflict and accept it as being normal.

Genuine, holistic love is not based on separation and conflict. Love is not what involves psychological distance and ironclad, circumscribed boundaries. The left hand that sees the right hand as something apart from itself is ignorant and is confined in (and “as”) blinding deception. Such ignorance and confinement manifest as sorrow. Wisdom transcends this.

Tiger on the run … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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The Known and the Unknown…

September 7, 2023
17 comments

Most people are magnetized to gravitate to (and to dwell in, and “as”) the known. They, unfortunately, cling to an existence exclusively in that superficial dimension. That dimension is a very limited dimension because one can only know (and accumulate) a very limited amount of things. To often exist as the unknown is foreign to them (and, for many, they never even considered it). The known is always of the past because it was accumulated in (and “as”) the past. Being of the past, the known always has a stale, secondhand element to it; it is never new, never totally fresh and living. Virtual, symbolic patterns, which constitute the known, are tokens and representations… not the actuality. It is good to use symbolic patterns often… but they are only temporary tools.


In so-called modern times, we were miseducated to dwell (and exist “as”) the known exclusively. Unfortunately, a mind that exclusively exists as the known is unbalanced and not whole. Society is a direct reflection of this unbalanced element, and insanity is rampant across the world. Interestingly, there is no procedure or method to step out of the known. All procedures and methods involve the known and are extensions of it. Procedures and methods involve time and the known is sequential (in its mechanical nature) and involves (and is) time. The unknown has the essence of nothingness to it (psychologically), and most people (unfortunately) are extremely afraid to be nothing psychologically. All want to be something, to attain something, to become something, to believe something, to get something, and to just continue to accumulate (sequentially). This exclusive sequential accumulation may be the very denial of true and timeless living.

Snapper Jr. … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023

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Meditation does not occur when you sit on your behind and decide to meditate.

August 31, 2023
14 comments

Many years ago, when i was in college, so-called gurus from the East came to our campus, providing students with meditation techniques that involved sitting cross-legged and concentrating on allegedly “special” mantras that were supposed to take us to a higher spiritual level. I went to a couple of these sessions and ended up telling the bearded gurus — who were taking money, by the way, for their efforts — that i felt that what they were promoting was just a glorified form of self-hypnosis. I read about hypnosis while in high school and was familiar with what it entailed. Needless to say, they were not very elated regarding my comments.

Many people are greedy and gullible. They think that they can pay money that will enable them to soar to some kind of higher spiritual plane. Real meditation is not what one can greedily arrange to happen. It is not something that one can practice. Real meditation is not doing something to attain some otherworldly result (to escape from reality). Real meditation is an effortless thing that may take place if one is very perceptive, caring, and greed-free. Real meditation is not doing something to get something out of it. One cannot “know” that one is meditating. Real meditation takes place, in one, unawares, without a person concluding that he or she is doing it.

A dull, greedy little mind can sit cross-legged (repeating so-called “special” words for decades but it will only be mesmerizing itself hypnotically… rendering itself to be even more dull and robotic). There is no path to the truly spiritual because the truly spiritual (i.e., the timeless) is not in a place. It is not locked up in a box upon an altar. Place and time are bound together.

Beyond the Caterpillars … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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The ego prevents Deep, Holistic Compassion…

August 17, 2023
11 comments

The ego of most people exists as a learned, limited set of reactions that involve separation, distance (from what are considered “others”), conflict, and a circumscribed (though false) center. Thought/thinking is the source of the ego, not the other way around. Egos, being restricted in nature, often cause havoc in the world; just check out the news. The ego, being limited, is often a cause of suffering (both with what are considered “inward” and “outside” events). The ego manifests suffering (because of its confinement and falsity). Deep, holistic compassion is dynamic and involves unadulterated perception. Such perception is direct and is not a mere reaction… it is action and is not robotic (like superficial reaction is). When the ego is transcended, a real, holistic compassion may occur that exists as immense and profound intelligence.

Buck “I” … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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More About “Praying”

August 10, 2023
25 comments

Well, this one is not going to win me any popularity contests!
Nevertheless, one hopes that you have the seriousness, energy, and integrity to openly attend to this.

Although i may have had a profound spiritual nirvana-oriented “experience,” which (if it indeed happened) would definitely cause me to realize the reality of that vast, sacred intelligence… i generally do not pray. With regard to human beings praying, it is indeed amazing how many people think that they have to point out (to that vast, supreme intelligence) what needs to be done in life. If it is indeed vast and intelligent, it wouldn’t need a middle-man (i.e., a basically primitive, fragmentary, limited, little hominid species) to tell it what needs to be done. A human being may think that he or she must point out what he or she or what others need… but that, in a big way, may be arrogant, limited, and insulting. Furthermore, some people may maintain that praying makes them feel better. Well, alcohol and other drugs make a whole lot of people feel better but that does not mean they should be frequently used.

Additionally, many people in life have problems and need help. There would be no end to any divine, miraculous activity of helping people (and animals) once that ball gets rolling. Nature is basically allowed to (naturally) run its course. My suggestion — and i’ve said this before — is, instead of using symbolic words, mental supplication, and summoning wishes toward a supposed God-oriented image in your head… actually roll up your sleeves and do something. For many years, i was a teacher for the multiply handicapped. Instead of merely praying and wishing that their lives improved, i actually did something. Perhaps — at times — one can be somewhat of an extension of that vast, unimaginable, compassionate intelligence, (without merely relying on internal wishes and invocations), without requesting some invisible power to magically get things done.

And please don’t continue to anthropomorphize things; and, of course, that sacred immensity doesn’t want to be worshipped (by fragmentary minds) via idolization, because it certainly doesn’t have a primitive, narcissistic human ego (thank goodness) that craves adoration. One is suggesting here that large numbers of humans have misconstrued what true spirituality entails… but then, one has realized that fact ever since one was in grade school.

Sweet Yellow … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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When The Mind Worships What it Considers to be God…

August 3, 2023
13 comments

When the mind — as thought/thinking — worships what it considers to be “God,” it — in actuality — is worshipping thought-formulated images that it absorbed from others or that it manufactured on its own. So, in essence, it is worshipping itself (or part of itself). Alternatively, it may be far more prudent to diligently inquire as to whether the sacred really exists (or not). And such an explorative inquiry, if it is to be pristine and uninfluenced by outside (or inside) agencies, may best be often done beyond the limitations and trickery of thought/thinking. A lens that is not contaminated by outside debris perceives clearly beyond all of the rot. Keeping the mind healthy, clear, inquisitive, compassionate, orderly, and of dynamic depth, may be far more important than clinging to secondhand images, beliefs, so-called experts, and traditional routines.

Grasping for Life … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Short Video entitled “Animals Acting Like Humans”…

July 27, 2023
26 comments

Very many of us regard humans as something separate from animals. We are, in actuality, a strange kind of animal.

(Please watch the attached short video.) 😉

Watch the entirety of it, please.

We horse-around … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023

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Liberation from the Limited Notion of Self…

May 25, 2023
18 comments

I’ve included the following quote by Einstein in previous posts, and i’m including it here again.

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.” — Albert Einstein

The human brain goes through a huge amount of associative mental connections. Most people associate the “I,” the “me,” the “self” with power to control, with domination over “other” thoughts, and with freedom to act independently. However, the “I” — just like the other concepts of central authority — is just a protrusion of thought/thinking. In all actuality, there is no true central “controller” situated in the brain. Unfortunately, far too many people treat this thing as if it has a separate, substantive existence (apart from others). It may be that many millions deceive themselves each and every day. Transcending this limited, primitive, crude form of thinking opens the way toward deep compassion and holistic understanding. Our age-old associative ties to a central, independent “controller” (apart from the world) may be very erroneous.

I’m little … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Protrusions of Thought/Thinking

May 4, 2023
11 comments

Most of us are almost constantly churning — mentally — with various images, words, and patterns within our minds. (The words are often verbal in essence and usually occur as simulations of what one’s own physical voice sounds like.) Even when we listen to others, or observe others, what we perceive largely consists of patterns recognized (i.e., re-cognized) by mental patterns which already exist in (and “as”) the mind. We often take these patterns — these protrusions of thought/thinking — to be equivalent to pure reality. However, they are primarily just virtual representations that are fragmentary, symbolic, and of the past, since they are constituted of repetitive mental protrusions that reflect what was poured — piecemeal — into us by others. Even the “I” that each one seems to zealously harbor and worship consists of a protrusion of thought/thinking (that deceives the mind and often invites fragmentary, separative behavior).

A silent mind transcends this limitation by going beyond what is secondhand, virtual, and symbolic. Such a mind is not merely trapped in (and “as”) the representational. Such a mind is dynamic, alive, pristine, and beyond sequential, robotic imitation. Then, true care and compassion may manifest. Compassion does not emanate from what is fundamentally not alive.

Lichen what you see … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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What is Integrity?

April 27, 2023
13 comments

Integrity is wholeness, goodness, purity, accuracy, uprightness, and incorruptness. A disjointed mind that is constantly internally chattering to itself — with fragmentary words and labels that society indoctrinated it with — likely has a hard time with existing as true integrity. Friction, conflict, fragmentation, and indifference are not what contribute to integrity. The lack of integrity is illusory, and so many people (for comfort) accept what is spoon-fed to them but which is essentially false.

There exists a profound level of integrity that is intrinsically a manifestation of incorruptibility; such incorruptibility is beyond the decay that most people fear. It effortlessly transcends mortality.


Chlorophylless … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Wisdom, Compassion, and Great Intelligence…

April 13, 2023
15 comments

There exists a certain kind of wisdom, a certain kind of compassion, and a certain kind of great intelligence. Each of the three is not something separate from the others.

Orange Fairy Cup Fungus … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023

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How do you look at occurrences? It matters…

February 16, 2023
20 comments

Do you look at things in standard, habitual, common ways (involving space and separation)? How we perceive occurrences matters. It matters regarding the outside environment and it matters internally (i.e., in consciousness, so to speak). Of course, as we have pointed out in the past, we perceive the outside environment via our internal consciousness… so our “outside perceptions” tend to be largely internal and altered by internal screening.

People tend to look at things — both externally and internally — through space that is limited. People, even with thoughts, for example, seem to see thoughts through a limited space (between a perceiver and the perceived). This space may be largely fictitious because there may just be the perceived and any (separate) perceiver may be solely the result of thought/thinking. We see our fears through a limited space (with a distance)… whereas, in reality, we actually are our fears… not merely what “has them.” When one is in sorrow, one is — partially as a part of what one is — the sorrow. Dealing with things directly, without having superfluous entities at a distance, enables more energy and acute intelligence to flower. Additionally, one can point out that limited space (such as habitually concocted by the mind) does not nourish vast, unlimited perception, deep compassion, and pristine understanding. It may be prudent to often be the phenomena of observing without habitual limited space. Limited space is the essence of indifference (i.e., a lack of compassion).

Crystallization … Photo by Thomas Peace c.2023
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Seriousness

January 19, 2023
14 comments

There is a vast seriousness that radiates its discipline holistically, healthfully, and with tremendous joy and insight. This seriousness is not what merely childishly depends upon the blueprints of others. Being whole, it need not grope for more, for improvement, nor does it mechanistically function according to any prearranged laid out patterns. The flame of this seriousness burns away illusion, separation, death, and time.

Bird’s Eye View … photo by Thomas Peace c.2023