There is, it seems to us,
At best, only a limited value
In the knowledge derived from experience. — T.S.Eliot
It is good to experience things in life often. For instance, one needs experience in order to function properly and in ways that do not end up being detrimental to one. Additionally, it is very wise to experience nature often. Nature contains a lot of profound beauty, order, and magical dynamics… consisting of occurrences that are real treasures to take in. However, it is also prudent to often go beyond experience… to dwell where experience has no place. Exclusively clinging to experience is what most people do (and such an existence may be very limited, very confined, and partial). Such a partial life is of sorrow. Most people exclusively crave more and more experiences, greater and greater experiences. Someone, to them, suggesting going beyond experience, must seem odd. Many would laugh at such a person.
When we experience, we usually do so in terms of what we have already mentally accumulated. We recognize things and classify things according to what we’ve already been taught (in and “as” the past) and according to what we already have stored in our brains. It can be a rather robotic (re-cognition), mundane process. And exclusively partaking in it may, in fact, be rather childish and mechanical. We recognize with (and “as”) the past and, in a sense, we keep living in the past.
A mind that sometimes perceives or exists without accumulating, labeling, or comparing patterns, however, may be atypical… and may be beyond normative experiencing. Such a mind may see (or be) holistically at times, in a way (or unway) that does not merely classify, label, recognize, pigeonhole, compare, or evaluate. Such a mind does not merely always cling to the apron strings of experience. (Do remember this… Going beyond limitation, the status quo, and confinement is not a terrible thing.)
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
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With all due respect, i am disinclined to follow blogs that involve a lot of world travel. Jets (to travel recreationally from country to country) are major polluters of our planet. Scientists say that we are in the middle of a sixth mass extinction event… caused by mankind’s indifference and carelessness.
Lovely photo, have never seen this type of yellow blossom before, with such a big fluffy pollen. The bees’ paradise there! 🙂
Thank you, Nicole! 😊 And, in case you didn’t notice, besides the bumblebee, there’s a young praying mantis walking on the plant also.
Yes, of course, I did notice more… creepy crawlies 🙂 , though I am in fact used to seeing the praying mantis in the color green, probably the bigger ones, yes.
Yes, the adult mantises tend to be predominantly green around here too. 🙂
Stunning photo!!! I’m ready to see some of that around here. But I love the snow too and all that goes with it.
Yes, the change of seasons is a marvelous thing but i too miss spring and summer’s living bounty. 😊
I’m intrigued that no one has mentioned your interesting comments. Your photograph of nature is indeed beautiful but I don’t really understand your message. Our experiences are those of the ‘past’ and the ‘present’. They are ongoing. Do you mean ‘think outside the box’? Outside our experiences; outside our thoughts? Just allow ourselves to be. If so, it sounds great but so difficult.
You’ll have to excuse me if I’m completely on the wrong track but I prefer to question rather than assume.
You’ve made me think but I’m wondering if you think we do too much thinking(?)
Always contradictions…..
Thanks very much for your inquiry, Margaret; i am glad that you take interest in this and want to further investigate it. 🙂A good portion of the people give “likes” according to my pictures… and they are — sadly enough — not very interested in what i am saying. (It’s like going to a museum to see the pretty colors but not caring to learn what took place.)
No, i’m not just suggesting that we should think outside of the box. Thinking is the box (in all actuality). Thinking is useful and necessary but it is also wise to go completely beyond thinking (where thought is not robotically functioning as it does). It is not going into some kind of “stupid blank”; it is looking holistically without thought’s fragmentation and crude, sequential nature. Yes, we do too much thinking… And look what it has given us: A world of conflict, violence, pollution, fear, hatred, and insanity. Thinking is a useful tool (at times) but we have made the tool the essence of our lives… which is so limited, tragic, dead, and non-magical. We’ve taken our symbols to be actualities… which they are not.
Thank you for your response Tom. I don’t disagree but the only alternative (I think?) is gut feeling and instinct and they are ( or can be ) damaging too. More of a balance perhaps?
No, Margaret, it’s not gut feeling or instinct. It occurs when thought/thinking is in abeyance… and it is not what thought/thinking can grasp, label, pigeonhole, or categorize. But most people, in modern society, would be uncomfortable about often being where ordinary thinking is not… and they would likely say that what i am suggesting is malarkey. We are so indoctrinated with the process of thought/thinking, that anything else is unfathomable. Most of us were programmed to be what thought/thinking is… and anything else is unwelcome (and likely not what we are interested in).
lovely picture
This flower is just exquisite Tom … so delicate, one of Mother Nature’s finest specimens to be sure. Without nature to give us a reason to appreciate that around us that is sustained without Mankind’s “help” (which I put in quotations as do we really help anything or continue to plunder the jewels, the eye candy we are provided free of charge?