It is great to go out and enjoy nature, being very appreciative of all that nature offers.  There is tremendous beauty and order in nature.  Even the more brutal, violent things that occur in (and “as”) nature are part of a larger, overall order that is truly immense.  Those who are not at all interested in nature, who are not interested in the outdoors and in the many diverse plants and animals, are not to be envied; they are missing something in their lives; really, a life without “life” may not be much of a life at all.

When one experiences nature, how does one experience it?  If one merely experiences it as an outside “observer,” then there is a very good chance that one is looking with distance and separation.  However, if one looks passionately, deeply, without the contamination from the way that one was supposedly “educated,” then there may be real perception, real contact and relationship with (and “as”) what nature is.  Then you and nature are not merely two separate things.  Nature is alive; but if you look at it through a bunch of dead (learned and absorbed) images, are you really perceiving the immensity of nature?   It is easy to look via distance and separation, and with learned, dead concepts and say, “Oh yes, indeed, I am one with nature, one with the whole!”  However, that may be rather meaningless unless one profoundly goes beyond what was instilled in (and “as”) one throughout the past.  With (and “as”) the past is how most of us view nature.  We look with preconceived symbols, stiff images, learned distance and separation, labels, and lifeless concepts absorbed in the past…  and so we are not really looking much at all; instead, our perceiving is contaminated.  Our very concept of self — that thinks it is doing the looking — is (in itself) a learned, separate, rather defunct thought/set of thoughts. 

Interestingly, through intense awareness and keen insight, if one gets to that point (which really isn’t a “point” at all, by the way), then one is beyond where boredom, depression, and indifference can take a hold.  Without being dependent upon dead, internal images and symbols, one is where real life, fortunately enough, truly blossoms, just as it does in profound nature.  Then one doesn’t need to take mind-altering drugs or cling to artificial, unnatural, man-made things, leaders, and systems.  (Many, unfortunately, are like walking graveyards, and they don’t even realize it.)  Then — unlike most, who were taught to cling to (and supposedly live as) dead symbols, musty conceptual images, and stagnant, repetitive patterns — one is where real living flowers.  Then one doesn’t even need to constantly experience nature (or constantly experience anything, for that matter)… because there exists a flowing vitality, immensity, and intensity that is beyond (at times) the need for images, experiences, and “absorbing more and more, and still more.”

Silver-spotted Skipper (or something beyond a mere label). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015