Experiencing things is often good and refreshing. However, too many of us habitually cling to experience. Experience manifests as the “experience” and the “experiencer.” That separation creates and invites conflict and limitation. Experiencing almost inevitably invites recognition. To recognize a particular experience, one has to have and use prior knowledge about the fundamental parameters and attributes of that experience. So, experience usually involves the past. Stored, old thought processes are involved in experience… even if the experience seems new.
We jump from one experience to another. Like the donkey chasing after the carrot dangling from a pole that is secured to the donkey, we run after experience. The “experiencer” is the experience. We need not, contrary to what we were taught, perpetually chase after experience. A sagacious mind often is not what endlessly pursues experience. It, like a dog that sees the futility of chasing its own tail, does not endlessly chase after “one experience after another.” Real, dynamic meditation, is not another calculated experience. When it occurs, without effort, it is not merely what gropes and reaches for more experience. (And to avoid experience is another way in which the mind can easily get lost and distorted.) Real poise and balance require a mind that is truly attentive, sane, dynamic, alive, and untethered. Most people — having been raised in (and educated by) a mediocre society — don’t want to delve into this or bother.
When I am fully immersed in ‘experience’ now is all there is – any thinking etc comes later.
That’s great, Sara… like when walking in Nature. The staleness of thinking is in abeyance, and one can view Life without the dead symbols, thank goodness.
Yes, nature keeps me present – as for the rest? Oh
It’s so great that you are so close to nature, Sara. Most modern people are rather divorced from nature (for the most part). The Native Americans were (and still are) often very close to Nature. But then the iron-axe-wielding-tree-cutters came and took away their lands, butchered families, and propagandized their children. Now, so many have lost touch with nature.
it’ s my sanity Tom – I could not survive without this connection
Wow amazing macro! So beautiful and exotic flower!
Thank you, Marcela! Keep snappin’!
That’s a beautiful flower Tom – you outdid yourself!
Look closely and you will see a little insect in it, Linda. That flower, to that insect, is much of the world.
Like i mentioned in your blog, please be careful when walking around lakes, ponds, or streams, and such. Be sure to wear great sunglasses, because that water can easily reflect very harmful rays. Fortunately, in Michigan, you don’t have to worry too much about alligators pulling you in.
This time I saw the insect Tom – I did not yesterday when I read your caption on the flower. I was out today at a large metropark and saw several butterflies (two Monarchs, a Viceroy, a couple of Pearl Crescents and a Red Admiral, lot of Skippers), but what dismayed me was signs everywhere about being careful of pesticide application … shaking my head. It was a little windy out there today and the butterflies were having landing issues. I got several upside-down pics of the Viceroy clinging to the flower, but several of the butterflies also were near the ground, especially the Skippers. The metroparks should know better. Earlier in the season I took some photos for a post that I’ve not published yet, that showed burn marks around every single sign pole and near outlooks … easier than using a weed whipper I guess.
Yes, Linda, the metroparks should know better. I see Monarch caterpillers around here that eat the milkweed to a point and then die (an early death). Only a few of the lucky ones make it through. And the smoke and pollution keep increasing. It’s tough to see. It breaks my heart.
I was very disheartened to see this and took a few pictures of the signs, but I likely won’t put them on the post as it takes away from the beauty of the butterflies and other flora and fauna (two deer today). As a nature lover, it breaks my heart as well Tom. Way too many things today are not as they always were – too many to count – too many that will never be again.
There is something very interesting in this. Experience is incredibly useful, but it can also become a filter through which we see everything that follows. Perhaps the real challenge is not to abandon experience, but to remain curious enough to look at the next experience without assuming we already know what we are going to see.
Yes, Bushcrafter, most of us see through (and “as”) mental screens and filters shaped by previous experiences and learning processes. Many of us look through (and “as”) the known, which really is not unadulterated looking at all. An innocent, uncontaminated mind often looks without all the garbage. That looking isn’t tainted or adulterated by the past. The past is “unalive” and rather stale. I am not suggesting that we abandon experience; i’m suggesting that we not become robotic slaves to it. Experiencing certainly has a fundamental place, but to unceasingly cling to experience may be a sign of an immature mind. Does deep awareness always necessitate experience? This writer says, “No.”
I think I understand what you mean, Tom.
I think that is an important distinction. Experience can teach us how to see, but it can also teach us what we expect to see. Perhaps real awareness is being able to use experience without becoming trapped by it, knowing when to trust what we have learned, but also remaining open to new insights and different ways of looking at things. I’ve gained quite a bit of experience over the years, but I try not to let it close my mind.
Marc