I wrote about this to someone who commented regarding one of my posts a short while ago. Much of my reply is being reiterated here.
We all go through myriads of experiences throughout life. However, most of us do not ponder about the intrinsic essence of “experience” nor about what the implications may entail. Most of us cling to one experience after another. Experience is often recognizing things (i.e., re-cognizing things based on past memory and past accumulation); and the experiencer is not separate from the experience. Experiences, same as with thoughts, are always limited. Experiencing is often very necessary and even beautiful (at times); however endlessly psychologically depending on experiences may be rather limited and childish. Can intelligence sometimes go beyond experience and not always cling to the apron-strings of it? I say, “Yes.” However, there has to be a balance. ”Avoiding experience habitually” can turn out to be neurotic and childish. We often take direct experience to be different than thought/thinking… while, for most of us, thoughts — and the recognitions stemming from stored thoughts — are there (involved) as things are experienced. We often perceive through the screen of thinking (while thinking that we are not thinking).
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
hmmm, “We often take direct experience to be different than thought/thinking… while, for most of us, thoughts — and the recognitions stemming from stored thoughts — are there (involved) as things are experienced”. direct experience that catapults us into another dimension Tom involves no thought at all – right? That’s the way I experience those moments anyway…. oh love that picture WONDROUS I was just writing about bumblebees this morning – i am missing seeing them – think I’ll include that post….
see my first comment below! Intermittent rain and NO wind made it nice to be outdoors yesterday. I could hear robins and phoebes as well as the yellow rumped warbler. Oddly I also heard a hermit thrush during the afternoon. As I walked by budded and blooming narcissus and tightly closed bloodroot I thought about bees. The wind has been so relentless that I haven’t seen as many bees as I usually do this spring. I am missing bumblebees in particular (who love bloodroot)… my favorite of all bees and one of the earliest to appear around here. It upsets me greatly that I haven’t seen one – climate chaos is of course partially responsible – these bees need cool temperatures because they overheat – one reason I look for them in the mornings…. but everywhere these critical pollinators of crops and perhaps more important spring wildflowers are in steep decline… 50 to 90 percent drop depending on the source – ugh – the photo is of one that is critically endangered – the rusty patch bumblebee – a pair of doves wait for me to come down the hill when the wind is not crazed like it was last night! Note the pale pink of maple buds in the distance….. here is the post I wrote this morning for FB – the only time I interact with s/media – I still haven’t given up advocating and this besides publishing is one way I do it
I didn’t realize that bumblebees were that endangered. But, really, whole groups of insects are endangered… like butterflies and praying mantises. I used to see mantids now and then around here; not so much any more. Roundup and a lot of similar manmade things are to blame.
I don’t think that direct experience takes or catapults us to a different dimension. Sure, experiencing without a lot of recognition and labelling going on is wonderful at times, but it doesn’t catapult us into a different dimension. Experiencing is still entangled in some degree of recognition (otherwise it wouldn’t be an experience). Seeing via distance and separation is still the old brain functioning, and there’s nothing new about the old brain. However, occasionally if the brain is wisely simple and not groping, there may be lulls wherein the old brain is not repetitively doing what it has done for millenia.
Wow wonderful colors!! Muy hermoso !!
Thank you, Marcela! 😊
wow sir your Photography is too awesome.
Thank you, Himanshi! 😉
😁
The color is stunning Tom – our colorful blossoms burst out, then we had gusty winds and two widespread frosts before we really got to enjoy them. You always give us food for thought and eye candy too.
Thank you very much, Linda! 😊 It’s been far too windy though, day after day! I suspect that it has a lot to do with climate change and global warming, It’s not a good thing. Farmers are in for a rude awakening when the winds will — more and more each year — leach the ground and take away the soil moisture. Hopefully, the winds will be subsiding,
The photo is so Springy looking Tom – the best part of Spring is the early bulb flowers and the blossoming trees.
I heard a comment from a meteorologist when asked about these high windsy we are experiencing day after day and he said “it is the tail end of Winter coming through” and I thought to myself “I’ve been around a long time and never remember these high winds every day.” Last December I was at Lake Erie Metropark and remarked to one of the interpretive guides I met on a trail “the marshes are dried up – all the Canada Geese are congregating in the only marsh that has water.” He said all the windy days we had in 2023, those big-wind days, had dried up the marsh despite the many torrential rain storms we had endured and, just like you just said, he said it would get worse as to the wind before it got better.
Your photo is so Springy looking Tom – the best part of Spring is the early bulb flowers and the blossoming trees. As to the high winds, I heard a comment from a meteorologist when asked about these high winds we are experiencing day after day and he said “it is the tail end of Winter coming through” and I thought to myself “I’ve been around a long time and never remember these high winds every day.” Last December I was at Lake Erie Metropark and remarked to one of the interpretive guides I met on a trail “the marshes are dried up – all the Canada Geese are congregating in the only marsh that has water.” He said all the windy days we had in 2023, those big-wind days, had dried up the marsh despite the many torrential rain storms we had endured and, just like you just said, he said it would get worse as to the wind before it got better.
Tom – I’m sorry two identical comments will appear here. When I replied to you, it would not “take”, so I saved the comment, tried a minute later, changed a few words, pressed “send” and it said “duplicate comment – you already said that!” So I sought out this post in Reader only to find I had two comments here that worked!
I used to fly sport kites a lot (for years) as a hobby. I even flew the sport kites in mild winters. Linda, in no way were the winds as erratic and violent as they are now… not by a long shot! Things will get worse, weather-wise, year after year but a lot of foolish people will persist in denying man-made climate change. Look at all of the violent storms and tornadoes that are occurring now. Instead of going to the moon or to Mars, we need to curb our population, create biodegradable plastics, develop clean energy, and stop killing ourselves for insane leaders who support conflict and friction between various cultures.
Nice