The associative patterns of the mind, what are their functions? Do they exist merely for us to acquire, accumulate, attain things (including food and shelter), and differentiate with (and from) an element of separation? Do such patterns dictate — to us — what we see?
We usually look at things through labels, through images that we have learned. A person often distinguishes things (at a distance, separate from himself). The patterns that we hold dictate what we see. However, we are these absorbed patterns; we do not actually hold them; they are not separate from what we essentially are. Real wholeness, real integrity, real love, may involve looking beyond the patterns, beyond the old, stuffy mental accumulations, beyond the labels, beyond the mental separative distance.
Three in One … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Reblogged this on Lady Dyanna.
Appreciative of the Reblog. Thank you! 🙂
Lots of rich color in that image. It’s true that we view the world through pattern matching. It does serve a useful function, as you note, but moving beyond it opens up many possibilities.
Most people are stuck in the patterns (in a fragmentary way); little wonder why conflict ensues.
Beyond habitual political convictions …
Yes, like sticking with a heinous monster who makes fun of the handicapped and who cages children in filth, letting them go hungry.
I hope these guys were fast friends and one did not end up as lunch? Is that a grasshopper Tom? I cannot remember the last time I saw one. I can remember picking them up as a kid and closing my fingers like a makeshift cage and feeling them hopping all over inside my hands – my friends and I did that and then had “tobacco juice” all over our hands once we released them again.
I didn’t stick around to see what happened but if the fly got away without being eaten by the crab spider then it was a good day (for the fly). It’s a katydid, not a grasshopper. (You’d throw-up too if you were picked up by someone hundreds of times bigger than you!) 🙂
I have to go back and see the spider – I thought the third item was the flower and I have on my new glasses! I’ve never seen a katydid, so my apologies to it and you for calling it a grasshopper.
Yup, now I see that crab spider. I should have known you would not count the bloom as one of the trio. 🙂
New glasses! You must go to your ophthalmologist and tell him that you have crabspider-myopia. It’s a very serious eye condition. 🙂
Ha ha – I missed that little bugger and honed in on the other specimens only. I had such a slight increase in my prescription that I almost said wait ’til next year. But I also got a blue-light special (a blue tint to the lenses that is supposed to be good for your eyes if you’re on a computer a lot, but so far I see no difference.)
Most people miss seeing the Crab spiders. They have a chameleonic talent; they can often change color to the color of the flower that they are on. Butterflies and bees beware!
I use Flux (it’s free) for my computer; it blocks out as much blue light as you wish and you can set it to normal color temporarily if you wish. I’ve been using it for years. (Make sure you get it from a reliable Flux site.) 🙂
Yes indeed, looking beyond the patterns 🙂