We all do innumerable things due to motives. We all do things for reasons, to get something out of it. Our calculating minds were programmed to react primarily with self-centered motives in mind.
What place has true meditation (and mindfulness) in all this? I have been, in the distant past, to so-called “meditation gatherings,” where i have observed people sitting cross-legged, smugly acting like they are achieving something immensely profound. But is that really meditation? It may be that true meditation is not what a person can arrange to happen. True meditation might not merely be just another effect brought about by a scheming cause. You can work out (via motives) how to acquire money, knick-knacks, drugs, and self-satisfaction from asking favors from a learned (imagined) deity, but can you similarly plan or plot how to truly meditate or partake in real, spontaneous insight? It might be that true meditation and insight may occur when one is not plotting how to meditate and not plotting to have insight. It might be that a mind that is not wrapped up in “plotting” may be touched by what cannot be reached by groping in (and “as”) time. And far too often, a person tends to do something for himself (or herself) and not for others. It all can be very robotic and infantile while one lives foolishly. The self can think that the “special spotlight” is on it, with its beliefs and spiritual conclusions. Beliefs and conclusions are what someone is (which often results from programmed motives).
There is often a space between the self and “others,” and there is often a space between what actually exists and what one wants for oneself. Such space is extremely limited. It is of mechanical, animalistic foolishness. But most of us take that bait and run with it. Limitation is its own prison… a prison that is self-concocted.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Very cool Tom! 😎
Thanks, M.T.! Take care, my friend. 👍
No, you don’t need a group to do these things, just do them on your own. Look at the frog – he stares straight ahead, deep in thought, just like you can do if you set your mind to it, i.e. you can do anything you set your mind to do. The frog does a great job blending into his surroundings.
Yes, that toad (i.e., not frog) sure blends in so very well! That definitely contributes to its chances at survival. I am sure that a lot of people pass such creatures by without ever seeing them, without ever appreciating them. Many people don’t even bother to look at the more obvious creatures. To be indifferent to nature is not to be fully alive, fully aware.
Tom, sorry – I don’t know why I get them confused, but this small creature is not near the water, so I should have known better. Yes, people are often too busy looking down at their phones, which I see all the time at the Park … you might as well walk in a parking lot then. We have to always be curious, look around and pay attention better! (P.S. – for some reason your reply did not show up again in my notifications, so I am on your actual site to reply.)
Ah, yes, staring at their phones is the norm around here too. So people prefer an endless bunch of symbols instead of the real things. So when one depends on synthetic phones constantly…. is that real living? One wonders. I even see pre-kindergarten kids staring at their phones.
I rarely, if ever, look at my WP notifications. I probably should.
In some regards smartphones are great, but they are a horrible distraction to be honest and yes, I see pre-kindergarten kids staring at their phones. I have been at the grocery store and have seen a toddler sitting in the grocery cart playing with a tablet. I don’t even know how to use a tablet or iPad, or any of that stuff. I have a Lively smartphone (Lively took over Jitterbug, senior phones) and I only have that for an emergency situation as it has a direct line for help and also vetted Lyft drivers should you need them. It does other smartphone functions as well, but I just don’t use them, but should learn I guess. I don’t text either, except I do from my computer to people’s phones and did that with my boss all the time to reach him with urgent messages. I keep a flip phone on me whenever I leave the house, to walk, or otherwise. I’ve had it for years and have used it just a few times, once to call our City’s Animal Control Office as there were Mallard ducklings fell down the sewer. 🙂
I just check there to respond to people’s replies to my comments on their site.
Wow, i sure hope that Animal Control was able to get the Mallard ducklings out (and safe). I’ve called Animal Control in the past regarding raccoons with rabies (or some similar virus) trying to attack even during daylight hours.