When the vegetarian cameraman
took aim at the vegetarian mosquito
no one there was
(really)
out for blood
Wordless Wednesday… Not… Vegetarian Mosquito
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All Posts Tagged ‘Wildflowers’
Humanity
They scramble and they gamble
and they weep and they run
They wiggle and giggle
and they tan toast in sun
They piddle and paddle…
pull dandelions from fresh grass
and waddle and dawdle
and fish for striped bass
They fumble and they tumble
and they struggle in time
They chisel and they grizzle
and they wrote this short rhyme
Wordless Wednesday… Not! Halloween Theme
To disturb others with words
on a Wordless Wednesday
is a grave mistake
in a dark cemetery of verbal spiders
We were Educated Wrongly
We
(too many of us)
have treated nature as
a thing to be used
to be exploited
and not as a living beautiful delicate
extension of ourselves
to be guarded cherished protected
respected
loved
and cared for
It is Friday the 13th, and it is very unlucky to remain as illusion…
More, yet again, is presented here on psychological time. Most of us still function — in the psychological-sense — as if we are in time, as if we are (somehow) something separate from (or apart from) time. The best scientists, including Albert Einstein, have told us that time and space are not two separate things; they have told us that spacetime is one holistic thing. Yet we go on in this barbarian, primitive way… acting as if we are merely “in time” and not acting with the intelligence that sees that we are indeed what time is. The thoughts that we exist as actually exist as networks of neurons and neural components in (and “as”) matter in our brains. Our thoughts emanate from (and depend upon) a very material process… involving matter. This matter — this brain oriented matter — must be constituted of physical materials just like what is contained in stars and planets. This matter is, per se, a form of space. And space and time are not two separate things; they are one. They are different in their aspects, but they are one. We are time (not merely in time).
Now here is the crux of the matter (that we are pointing to). Let’s say you wish to (psychologically) “get better” in time. That distance, that is from where what exists “now” to what “you say you ‘will be'” takes up psychological space. It is a limited (psychological) space projected concerning a “here” to “there.” When you see someone of a very different familial or racial heritage than you, there often exists — in each of many people — a psychological space between “you” and “them,” between your group and their group. What we are suggesting is that the limited space of “here” to “there,” with your “I” or “me” psychologically “getting better in time” situation, is remarkably similar to the space separation with your “you” and “them” situation. We are all extensions of the same holistic spacetime movement, and “as it,” in reality, we are not separate things. Some perceptive people will see this; others (i.e., most) will just go on being stuck in primitive perspectives and will go on being greedy about the future and indifferent about others. You are time; space too is what you are… and if that space is limited and illusory, consciousness will be limited and illusory. If you merely remain as that limited space between “now” and “tomorrow,” and if you merely remain as that limited space between “you” and “them,” then primitive illusion is what you are; and primitive illusion is not separate from what suffering and ignorance is.
Right now we are a society that gobbles up tons of synthetic pills (instead of solving the real, fundamental problems about health and mental wellbeing); we overpopulate the planet and do all kinds of hateful and callous things to “others”… including “other life forms.” Many of us were miseducated to be stuck in indifference, separation, and blindness… and the wealthiest powers that be (at the top) are delighted… (although, in reality, they are suffering and are a tremendous cause of suffering).
That timeless and immense perception can only occur when limitation is understood… when limitation ends psychologically.
Wild Blue Vervain and Bumblebee … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wishy-Washy
Wishy and Washy were fun-loving gals
and many folks knew that both were loyal (trueblue) pals
Washy (without Wishy) went to the laundromat (with a basket that she had her clothes in);
later, the clothes were all swishy and went into full-spin
Wishy, however, was sitting in her comfortable, convenient chair
pining for great nature photos at which she could stare
So, instead of viewing blog photos of nature (which you often appreciate)
get over to the clothes-washer and put your laundry in (because it’s getting late)
Purple Wildflowers … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Our Neural Networks and the fallacious “I”…
Our neural networks — much like a computer — are hardwired and conditioned to accept and fully believe in a central (free-will oriented) regulatory agent whom we call “I.” This “I” to each of us, seems very concrete, dependable (i.e., always there to control), and stable. We never deeply question whether such a “center” really exists in the first place. I maintain that there is no legitimate “I,” which, of course, seems contradictory, (due to the crude structure and barbaric evolutionary phase of our current language system).
When one talks to people about there being no “I” they tend to feel rather apprehensive, threatened, and psychologically uncomfortable. After all, to them, one is threatening the very core of their psychological framework. Our physical body, the organism, perceives largely through the eyes. The eye tends to be what focuses on and examines things. A similitude exists in us (mentally) between the physical “eye” and our concept of the “I” of the mind. We say that the “I” examines; we say that the “I” perceives; we say it was decided by “me.” The brain’s associative patterns are, in pretty much everyone, deeply hardwired and conditioned to constantly be referring to and depending upon this “I.” (The physiology of the brain is much like a walnut, and scientists have — repeatedly, in different human individuals — surgically divided the two halves, producing two separate fields of consciousness in each skull, each permanently existing with no clue as to what the other half is thinking.) Our conditioning for so many mental things is deeply pre-programmed in us, and many factors, including physical health, past education, brain chemistry, and genetic influences, pretty much nullify any real “free-will” completely, whether we like it or not. We must act — not react — carefully and diligently, and we cannot do that if we believe in a lot of crap that isn’t true. In 1932, Albert Einstein told the Spinoza society:
“Human beings in their thinking, feeling, and acting are not free
but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions.”
What we are saying is that this “I,” in a tremendous way, is fallacious and unnecessary. Clinging to it is like clinging to that childhood Raggy Ann Doll that was mentioned years ago in one of my earlier blogs… clinging to it as if it was real, alive, and a dependable pal. We could live perfectly, compassionately, and timelessly without clinging to our fallacious “I”s. Scientists, as was mentioned before in my blogging, have suggested that our universe likely operates in a totally different way than what we think is happening now… and they, the writer maintains, are correct. It was, many years ago, when i understood the fictitiousness of the “I” and the foolhardiness of the concept of “free-will,” when real security, profundity, insight into eternity, and real order came… (and not before).
This life is relatively short — in the few years that we have to live — and if you don’t get it right, via understanding and insight, if you (instead) continue to cling to a lot of rotten, crude fallacies, then the consequences are eternal (and not nearly as sweet as they could be). There is great beauty and timeless splendor in life if life is seen without much illusion.
Neural Networks or maybe just Queen Anne’s Lace … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Wordless Wednesday
Wild Purple Loosestrife with Bumblebee … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Not too many tears, dear
Not too many tears
dear
be ever shed for Nature
that dies
Not too many tears
dear
trickle down from faces
not sky
Not too many tears
ever flood away
from smiling faces
in stores shopping
Not too many dry eyes see
there be fewer bees and
honey
in the ending of the begin
They say not enough concrete
to cover all da prairie fields
but Mr.
Progress be working on it
Prairie Trillium Wildflower, Illinois. These low-ground plants grow very slowly and they take around 10 years to mature enough to flower. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Getting “Better” Over Time
Getting better through time. What does that entail? One may get “better” physically, with getting a more appealing job, a “better” house, an environmentally “better” car, “better” health, or “better” food. Getting better physically has its place. Psychologically, we think we get “better” by, perhaps, being more generous, more kindhearted, more honest, and/or happier. A number of people think that things will be “better” in a future heaven that they imagine or cling to, promised by past traditions, past cultural-social inheritances.
These cravings and desires, concerning the future, that people have, if examined deeply and not merely superficially, are all extensions of thought and conditioning. Physical “betters” are one (frequently necessary) thing, but our psychological “betters” are often a postponement; they are not the actuality of what is really taking place at the moment. You are lying now but, regarding the imagined future, protrusions of thought/thinking maintain that “fewer lies will be told”; such a psychological “better” is often a form of hypocrisy or pretense. “Eventually, I won’t lie so much.” (Additionally, such psychological “betters” feed the misconception that, for instance, one is — at a distance — psychologically separate from what the lying actually is.) Past education (or miseducation), social interactions, and suggestions/behaviors observed from elders (over time) have largely influenced us regarding our (psychological) “betters.” In actuality, is one really separate from what the lying is (while lies are told)? (We separate ourselves from the lying — in the present — and then are projections of thought — from the stored memory bank — about some improved future.) Projections about the future always stem from (and consist of) thought/thinking. This thought/thinking is conditioned and is primarily what most people habitually consist of (and actually are). It is essentially the “past” (as past accumulated thought) that is reformulating. To dwell as a lot of “craving things about the future” is to, in reality, be living in the past. Past images (from the stuffy memory bank) formulate what is craved. However, “living” in the past is a rather inefficient way of putting it; dwelling often as extensions from the past is not really living whatsoever.
It is what we are now (in the true present) that is important. This does not mean that one just self-indulgently fixates on all kinds of pleasurable things; conditioned cravings (from the tainted past) and misconceptions can infiltrate and distort the true now and holistic compassion; real order, real insight, is instantaneous, holistic, and timeless. Real wisdom sees the present as it is (without distortion) and, with that, real learning and understanding take place. The stale past and the projected future — that “future,” which is really an extension from the (mental) accumulated past — have their place, but far too many people get enmeshed in the two and do not live in the beauty and flame of the one. Instead, many dwell in (i.e., “as”) the residual smoke.
One last note: This planet (this life) may not merely be a stepping stone to something better. This is it. This is it.
Woodland Wildflower with small, young Ladybug. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
We need to change our ways but many won’t… and the weather is getting more and more erratic…
It’s a shame that
others species also
have to suffer
the dire consequences
of global warming and man’s pollution.
When i was a kid,
i realized that, in the future,
we would — in ignorance —
be fueling our own hell.
Tiny Jewelweed Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Of Atheists, Agnostics, Church-goers, Philosophers, and Maytag Repairmen
How important is it to perceive deeply in life? (Have you ever asked yourself that question?) Is the essence of all life and existence rather meaningless and superficial, such that no matter how deeply one perceives, it (i.e. such perception) may be essentially a waste of energy in the long run? Could it be that there is something in life that is immensely profound, such that looking deeply allows great, eternal treasures to manifest and blossom?
A broken mind, a mind crippled by such things as bad dietary habits, poor sleep, and by propaganda media designed to mold minds (for ulterior reasons), of course, would not be able to look deeply (if true depth really exists in the first place). It would likely be content with living a superficial, second-hand life that would accept within the limits of that superficiality (though, to it, such superficiality would seem plenty deep enough). Through miseducation, stagnation is often learned, absorbed, clung to, and cherished.
To go through life merely believing in something without ever having actually perceived it (without delusion) is a tragic thing. A belief that something does not exist, (without ever having perceived wholly), is an equally tragic thing. Both are — despite people arguing otherwise — empty acceptances. Stagnant minds cannot perceive because they have been shaped and molded by other minds that (also) are limited. Minds can change, however; the mind is a dynamic and wonderful thing (if real care is taken). Stagnation can end. Contamination can end.
There are plenty of gullible people deluding themselves (and others) about having had experienced something profound or “otherworldly.” However, i would suggest waking up and discovering and passionately finding out for yourself. Look with every fiber of energy that you have. No one else is going to do it for you; that is for sure! How critical, how important is this “discovering and passionately finding out (for ourselves)” in our lives? Personally, i feel that it has profoundly immense and eternal consequences. Of course, there might be a chance that i am very wrong, but find out; there may be real magic out there!
[Note: Marla is out of the hospital — after her fourth reconstructive shoulder surgery — and is doing well. I am acting as her nurse and am helping her with enteral feedings and other medical-oriented things. She is calling me “Nurse Matilda”! 🙂 ]
Miniature Wildflower – Purple Deadnettle (3/4ths of an inch long total for full arrangement)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
When Truly One with Nature…
When you reach out to others
you are reaching out to yourself
When you help beautiful nature
you are healthfully curing yourself
When you reach out to the lost
you are finding you’re found
When truly one with nature
you are color and sound
________________________________________________________________________________________
[Note: My wonderful wife, Marla, will soon again be having major shoulder surgery — for the fourth time on her problematic shoulder — and i may not be able to reply to my blog (or visit other people’s blogs for a while when that happens); my postings are all prescheduled, so they will continue to appear, only i will not be available to comment on them;please keep this in mind. Thank you!!!]
Reaching Out to Yourself … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Blossoming Beyond Separation…
We were miseducated to look with separation. For eons, we have looked from (and “as”) separation. For eons, we have looked from (and “as”) separative beliefs. Beyond empty, limited separation is wholeness, beauty, and full compassion. One of the attributes of limited, learned separation is indifference. Many people have (and “actually are”) cold indifference; many people’s minds are based upon the acceptance of separation; they look from (and “as”) separation. It’s easy for cold indifference to point a gun at what it considers to be “others who are separate from oneself.” It is easy for cold indifference to look the other way and not help. If the essence of your consciousness is based on separation — as most are, these violent days — then you will go on in the old ways, old habits, and old mundane routines.
There is a profound reality of wholeness with its natural integrity of real beauty. It cannot be touched by what is distorted and corrupt. Separative beliefs can never be one with it. Its beauty is beyond the learnable, beyond the merely absorbed. Profound goodness is not the mere opposite of the bad. There is a wholeness that is beyond the opposites and beyond measure.
Blossoming Beyond Separation … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Spring Beauty
Spring Beauty
you are always
(timelessly there)
and so amazingly new
in your selfless sharing
You help make the woodlands
simply magical
Your fragility
transcends transience
with joyous eternity
___________________________________________________________________________________________
[Note: The common name for this Illinois woodland wildflower is Spring Beauty. The entire width of the flower is less than 1/2 inch (around one centimeter wide). This wildflower is still rather common throughout Illinois. It, fortunately, can survive more environmental disruption than most wildflowers. Its eternal essence has nothing to do with its persistence in Illinois or elsewhere.]
Spring Beauty … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
A this and that must wear its hat
A this and that must wear its hat
while hoping for balmy weather
The meaning of life is to give life meaning
us on this ship together
This hole of fate in a piece of cake
in a jumble of rhyme and reason
A warm cup of Joe for Larry and Moe
while Curley’s out of doors just freezin’
A sitting duck amongst the muck
as the hunter takes keenly careful aim
It’s like shooting fish in a barrel for him
he’s happy as a clam but it’s himself he’ll maim
We all run the tough gauntlet in this crazy rat race world
many down in the dumps without a clue
The smoke and mirrors gunshots and tears
must do an about turn and fathom out what is true
Upcloseandpersonal … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Separation, habitual dominance, and wholeness…
We so habitually separate. We, psychologically, separate the perceiver from “that which is perceived” so readily, so habitually, just as we were taught… and just as primitive conflicting, opposing factors (over eons) have dictated. Time, additionally, is separated. Of course, chronologically, actual physical time (in many, limited respects) has sections, but we, psychologically, almost constantly live in (and “as”) the past, as learned (stored) symbols, words, and concepts (of the past) that we constantly use (and are protrusions of what was poured into us). What is projected internally (psychologically) is what we are (i.e., what we actually are) fundamentally. If we remain in the old and limited, we remain old (internally) and limited. Even our concepts about the future are extensions of past accumulated (old) symbols/patterns. (Even when we think that we often live in the present, we — in actuality — do not.)
One can’t choose to perceive correctly… any more than one can choose to be wise or choose to be a genius. Choice and will are not keys to vast understanding. Understanding takes place when limited perception and fragmentation are not dominating factors. Will and choice are crude extensions of limited fragmentation; the chooser separating himself (or herself) from the choice is a mere continuity of primitive, illusory, fragmentary opposites. When fragmentation and limited perception no longer dominate, then there is a wholeness that is not the result of a mold or a mere blueprint.
Wildflower Flower Pods … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018 .JPG
What the Finger Said…
One finger said
to the other finger,
“I want to be close to you!”
The other finger said,
“I feel that we two are
very close.”
Then they passionately wrapped around
each other intertwining.
A somewhat distant finger (away from
the other two) pointedly said,
“You two seem as if you were made for each other!”
Then, after a considerable time, fingers
of a supposedly separate
hand jealously came attacking,
and total war broke out.
A real fact is that,
in war,
the winners are the losers.
Illinois Meadow Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
LifeDeath
Life is so much more
than books and words
and iPhones and money
Death is so much more
than finality and crying
and funerals and caskets
If one is of deep understanding
Life and Death are
not two different things
Augochlora Green Metalic Bee… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Haiku of Joy
“I want happiness,”
said the greed to be happy.
Joy is motiveless.
Magnificent Milkweed Flowers… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
A Poem About my Camera… (or The Perceiver is not separate from the Perceived)
As it fell from my
hands into the river,
my second-rate, semi-waterproof
camera was drowning.
I tried to give it mouth-to-
mouth resuscitation
but then received a
massive jolt of electricity
into my flared chops.
As I remained passed-out
on the riverbank,
sweet images of beautiful flowers
crawled in my head
and I smiled,
realizing that a camera
was no longer needed.
Wildflowers and Soldier Beetle… 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
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
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
Sun-baked 1st of May Haiku
“We need rain today!”
“It’s what the Mayapples say,”
cries the 1st of May.
Mayapple Plant on Forest Floor… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
One Little Raindrop Haiku
One little raindrop
on wildflower youandme
alltogetherwe
[Early Spring Wildflower deep in the woods… with one sole, little raindrop.]
Early Spring Wildflower Deep in the Woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Life’s meaning is deeper than merely that…
.
The purpose of life is not merely to feel good, but to make a meaningful difference in this world that contains indifference.
.
[This Royal Catchfly Plant — with red flowers — is a very rare plant and is an endangered species in Illinois. The calyx is light green or purplish, longitudinally ridged, and covered with sticky hairs that trap climbing insects.]
True Royalty! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Primarily functioning from (and reacting as) mere symbols is a form of suffering…
.
It may be that merely looking at life through (and “as”) a screen of symbols – as most do – isn’t really looking at life at all.
.
Plants can be blue… humans needn’t be. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
True and authentic, wise behavior is never the result of a blueprint or mere book of rules.
.
True and authentic, wise behavior is never the result of a blueprint or mere book of rules.
.
[A spotted Cucumber Beetle walks across a wild Sunflower flower. An adult Cucumber Beetle may feed on many different types of plants, including cucumbers.]
A Cucumberless Cucumber Beetle. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
The real treasure to find is…
.
The real treasure to find is within you yourself; you don’t have to travel or search anywhere (out there) to find it.
.
[This is a fluffy, seeding Thistle Plant full of Thistle Plant down. Some insects will nest in a Thistle Plant’s down to keep comfortable. Goldfinches (i.e. little, yellow, wild birds) use the Thistle Plant down for the main material for nest construction; they, additionally, relish Thistle seed.]
A lot of useful fluff! Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Don’t just pick flowers or buy cut flowers… enjoy wildflowers or grow flowers!
.
Don’t just pick flowers or buy cut flowers… enjoy wildflowers or grow flowers!
.
[These are wildflowers. The white wildflowers are Robin’s Plantain. The purplish wildflowers are American Vetch. The American Vetch is less common than the Robin’s Plantain. (There is an insect in this photograph.)]
American Vetch & Robin’s Plantain. Photo by Thomas Peace 2014
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 