Everyone seems to exist with many psychological walls. In the aforementioned sentence, the word “exist” was used and not the word “live.” One is not sure whether existing with all of the psychological walls (that society had us absorb) is really living. We… early in life — in grade school and similar places — learned how to incorporate these walls into (and “as”) our consciousness. As adults, these walls have become heavily imbued into each one of us. We perceive — without even realizing it — with (and from) these walls of separation.
What do these walls consist of? They consist of a myriad of things; however, they are essentially ingrained thoughts. We perceive largely via separation and a wall of division. Each one takes for granted that the perceiver is separate from the perceived. Many of us think that humans are somehow separate from the animals. Many function with separative countries, religions, and traditions, and such people then look — despite saying that they do otherwise — with division and fragmentation. We were taught that we are separate individuals.
When a psychological fear takes place, if it is seen via psychological distance, then a manufactured psychological wall exists. That wall divides the perceiver from the fear. In actuality, the perceiver is not something separate from the fear. The fear itself is a protrusion or swelling of consciousness… a consciousness that one is. If jealousy takes place, the average mind sees it as something that it “has,” not as what it actually is. “Having” the jealousy — in the mind — puts it at a psychological distance. A psychological wall, in (and “as”) the mind seems to place the perceiver at a distance from “his jealousy.” That very wall, which separates something from the jealousy, helps manufacture the image of a separate perceiver. That may be a waste of energy; the perceiver is not (in reality) something separate from the jealousy. (This is not to say that a human being is just jealousy; that would be ludicrous; each of us is a unique dynamic). So, what is rather ludicrous — which, unfortunately, most people do not see — involves looking at what you actually are from a distance (as if it is not actually what you are). This is really not complicated. When you look in a mirror, you do not think, “There is a separate image at some distance,” … do you? Yet, partly because of faulty education, when hatred occurs, most people see it as what they “have” and as what they control from a “center” at a distance. We extend that inner separation outwardly (into the world, so to speak). We were taught that each one of us is an individual and that each one of us is separate from all other life forms in the whole world; that may not be true whatsoever. Manufactured walls, however, make it seem true. (Transcending the falsehood of separate individuality, by the way, does not negate the beauty of eternity for us whatsoever.) The world is in real chaos/decline because of accepting many (false) deluding walls as things that are true.
Many people can look at a hurt animal without any empathy. Such people inevitably look with a callous wall of indifference. That wall involves space. It is a very limited, distorted space. It is a very confined, circumscribed space that “exists,” and one would not immediately jump to call it “living.” There is, in most of us, a sensed distance between “you” and “what is seen.” This applies internally (such as involving fear) and externally (such as seeing a creature of nature). Either way, that sensed distance (too) makes up the consciousness that you are (and so does the image of what is seen); so there really is no wall, especially internally where the fear or hatred is an extension of the mind.
Though he harms others, even an extremely cruel man — in his isolated, cold existence — usually takes great pains not to harm himself. However, for such a man, false walls have isolated that so-called self to a very disconnected, limited (fallacious and fictitious) realm. We need to be more intelligent as a species; we need to go beyond our primitive walls and limited boundaries and stop butchering each other in archaic wars; we need to stop polluting the whole of nature, which we are not segregated from. We can be truly intelligent and live in the holistic eternal.
Jumping Spider (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Jumping Spider (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Powerful post! (Amazing spiders, too!)
Glad you are appreciative of it, Roda! Jumping spiders are one of my very favorite spiders! 🙂
thank you. Well put.
Thank you, Steph! I’m very glad to see something in it! 🙂
Great post. Wonderfully expressed.
Thank you much! My wife said that it was a bit too much, wording-wise; i’ll try to keep things a bit shorter in the future (maybe)… as she may be right! 🙂
Follow your heart Tom. The photo is wonderful too!
Your analysis of the human race is probably true although it is much too complex for me to understand. I suppose that all of the hatred in the world is derived from conscience and a person’s ability to be able to sort it out which unfortunately, most of us cannot.
It really isn’t complicated, Francis, if one looks (simply) without all the crap that they filled us with. The complexity lies in our minds… not in pristine, pure, innocent perception beyond conditioning. 🙂
I’ll soon be posting a poem that mentions snakes (with a photo of a snake included). I realize that you had a very traumatic experience with your beloved dog and a snake. One sure hopes that that poem doesn’t upset you; it mentions snakes in a positive way. What happened with your dog was not the snake’s fault, the dog’s fault, nor your fault; it was just an unfortunate thing that happened.
What an incredible shot…lends proof that some spiders are, indeed, hairy!
They sure do look different up-close! 🙂
Amazing read. I am grateful to have found this.
I’m very glad that you may be getting something out of it! (One hopes that somebody is!) 🙂
I am sure many are. You have a fascinating perspective, from mine of course.
🙂
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights, Tom.
A remarkable macro shot!
I appreciate that, Amy! 🙂 It’s from — here in Illinois — earlier in the year, of course.
Thanks for this post. I’m fascinated by how we human “dance” back and forth with connection and separation. We long for unity, but distance is very much a part of our lives. And in some ways, we really love the distance. I believe the thing we love about it, is how it draws us to cross that distance. Take reading a book, for example. There’s a “distance” between the beginning and the end, and that separation draws us in. Or sports… Starting a game, we don’t know how exactly it will end up, and we can stay fully engaged through the whole process. It all “takes us from one place to the next”, and we love it.
Of course, there are plenty of instances where distance is used against — but the way I see it, it’s when we stop and don’t engage with the distance… when we pull back and don’t leap into the gap (like the jumping spiders, which I *love*, btw)… that distance works against us.
What would become of our little 8-legged jumping friends, if they never jumped? If they shrank away from the gaps and separation before them? They wouldn’t be what they truly are… and neither do we become what we could be, if we shrink from leaping into the gaps that separate us all.
Thanks again for the thought-provoking post. And… spiders! 🙂