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Being truly mindful or of a deeply meditative mind, is not something that one can know that one is experiencing or part of. The beauty of the unknown is that it cannot merely be held or captured by the known. It is a state of true humility where the one who may be involved with it is not certain that it is being done. There’s no certitude in full mindfulness and profound meditation, because the unknown cannot be captivated (and owned) by the known. So many of us are indoctrinated by mere symbolic knowledge… by the known; it is what was poured into us — formulating us — throughout our youth. Even our individual concepts of self are essentially learned symbols and images. Concentration is all well and good, at times, but it has little to do with this; this goes far beyond mere concentration. Concentration involves focusing on various images and mental patterns (symbolic patterns). Concentration is often necessary, but a mind that merely concentrates is stuck in a very limited segment of what the mind is capable of. We’ve been concentrating for eons, and look where it has gotten us. We may have better machines and more comfortable lives, but we are lost in symbols, competition, separative ideologies, with power-hungry leaders and mechanical systems manipulating our lives.
It takes great courage and intelligence to step out of that field (that so many of us are immersed in). To leave the field of the known (i.e., the field of absorbed symbols and learned mental formulations) is, indeed, a kind of psychological dying. However, it is where the true innocence and true beauty of a different kind of intelligence exists. Not doing it is truly a morbid kind of decay. Most of us want to be certain. We remain (perpetually) in the field of learned images and symbols; we are frightened to go beyond that. Interestingly, remaining (perpetually) in that field continues with what remains secondhand, stale, and unoriginal.
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Softshelled Turtle. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Nice photo 🙂 Is this a Snapping Turtle? He has such a pointed face and looks quite strange with his domed back.
I always read your posts, but rarely comment as I am sure I do not really understand them! – Sorry.
It’s not a Snapping Turtle; I had posted a photo of a baby Snapping Turtle earlier this year. It (as the label at the bottom of the photo — in small print — shows) is a Softshelled Turtle. Their shells are very rubbery and soft. They are extremely elusive and very difficult to photograph.
Thank you for reading the posts as you do! 🙂
Oh sorry – I did read the label, but thought maybe a Snapping Turtle was a general name, and the Softshelled a specific. Well done for ‘snapping’ this elusive one 🙂
My one daughter studied philosophy and would ask me to read her essays. I could only proof read and check grammar as her thoughts were beyond me! As with any subject when you get into it, words take on a specific meaning, so it is hard to know if you understand exactly, when you do not specialise in that particular field.
But your posts always make me think! Which is a good thing 🙂
Great turtle picture.