fear | Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog

All Posts Tagged ‘fear’

Fishing Spider (Note the Leopard-like spots on the legs of this beautiful animal!) ... Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2021

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Halloween Spider

October 20, 2021

[NOTE: This poem and this posting is just designed for some innocent, scary, Halloween fun. It is not meant to reinforce anyone’s hatred of spiders. When i see a spider in the house, i gently grab it in a soft Kleenex and subsequently release it (gently) out-of-doors. Spiders are generally harmless, are great pest removers, and can be admired for their own intrinsic beauty; humans probably look ugly to a lot of perceptive animals!]

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The enchanted, having ranted, spidery witch of

darkest, dreary goblin

sobbin’

in that convulsive, soggy, wriggly kind of way

within a musty, murky midnight

that stealthily sneaks into your house perceiving

your body’s warm, sleeping unconsciousness

unaware of the overhanging, hungry, evolved fangs of natural

selection (of which you are soon to be a part)

Dark, dark world where vibrations are a dead giveaway

and tossings and turnings in bed (for comfort) are incantations

luring the eight-legged spinstress whose

shadow unfolds into one’s somnolence

She skirts across further up the wall to the

dreamceiling where, suspended, she

swings above you

pitch dark pendant-like

eloquently poised

descending

your breathing calls her

descending

she lowers

descending

to become one with you forever

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Goodness and Fear

May 11, 2020

24 comments

It is intelligent to be fearful during this Covid-19 thing. Not being fearful would be a form of foolishness and ignorance. Fear has its place. Is one separate from the fear that one has? Well, one doesn’t merely “have” or “own” fear. Psychological fear is actually part of what one is. If that part gets to be too habitual, too excessive, too dominant… then unnecessary disorder manifests. What is it that is going to “get rid” of excessive fear? What is it that is going to “control” fear from a distance? Is it going to be a supposedly separate set of habitual fabricated images and “learned mental patterns” that are designed to think that they are manipulating fears that are “there” (at a distance) to manipulate? (Such supposed psychological distance is fallacious and is a barbaric inheritance that maintains conflict and illusion. The internal psychological distance creates a false duality; it manifests as the “controller” and the supposed separate “controlled.”)

Security is important in terms of being healthy with food, clothing, and shelter. However, in the quest for mere self-oriented security, the mind-heart can become cold, mechanical, robot-like, over-anxious, and dependent upon strange and unethical patterns. Of course, in the present crisis, if you do not have enough food, fear is a very legitimate factor; good governments and groups need to do more to help people; currently, they are not doing enough. When i was young — and not so young — i quit a good number of jobs because i did not feel that what they were doing (or making) in them was ethical. I left quickly without much concern for what may happen to me. I like what Senator Bernie Sanders recently said: “We must break away from the worldview that everybody should try to become a billionaire — and you can lie, cheat, and steal if your goal is to make billions and not pay attention to the suffering of others.”

Life, real life, is so much more than a Monopoly game.
Compassion, these days, is not prevalent enough. But $ in people’s brains certainly is. Many cling to the apron strings of $ and security… and the real joy, extraordinary spiritual bliss, and meaning of life, unfortunately, pass them by. (Kudos to truly dedicated medical staff and other critical needs and essential needs people working at risk — selflessly — to help others in these very precarious times.)

We think internal fear is there to manipulate (at some kind of distance) and we think organisms that suffer are merely “there at a distance.” We may have been taught wrongly.

**Mushrooms don’t have to Social Distance. Photo by Thomas Peace (from a distance) c. 2020.**

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Wordless Wednesday … Not! … (pre-Halloween hors d’oeuvres)

October 16, 2019

28 comments

We see you clearly
and we have a wonderful treat coming for you
on Halloween

coming for you!

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And here is an excerpt from the Monster in the Mirror song sung by Grover… (not that i ever watch Sesame Street with my big bird friends).

If your mirror has a monster in it, do not shout
This kind of situation does not call for freaking out
And do nothing that you would not like to see him do
‘Cause that monster in the mirror he just might be you

Singing “Wubba wubba wubba wubba woo woo woo”
Wubba wubba wubba and a doodly do
Wubba wubba wubba you can join in too

**Halloween Delight … Note the series of long, fine hairs on this spider’s hind legs; they are likely used for web construction. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019**

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Regarding the Nature of Fear

April 26, 2019

13 comments

In order to have psychological fear, psychological time is a fundamental necessity. (Thinking and psychological time are not two separate things.) Without some protrusion of thought about some distant event in the future, there would be no psychological fear. That distance (that the mind fabricates about the future) necessarily involves space (and sequential duration)… which are projected by (and “as”) the mind. “In the future, something terrible might happen.” “In the future, I might not have enough friends.” There may be innumerable fears, such as the two aforementioned ones, that can plague a human’s mind. Then one may say that one would like to get rid of the many fears that one has. Somewhat ironically, the very desire to get rid of these fears is (in a real way) an extension of fear; it (itself) is, in a big way, an extension of (or precursor to) more fear.

Who is dealing (internally) with the fears? If one is looking at the fears with a feeling of control or manipulation, then one is assuming that the fears exist at some distance (to somehow “manipulate”). However, (psychologically, whether we like it or not) the manipulator is not separate from the manipulated; the two are both part of the thought/thinking process… and (in a big way) are not two separate things. Trying to “get rid” of the fear causes the mind to fabricate the controller, the “I” or the “me” who is allegedly separate from the fear.

Many types of sequential thinking (i.e., many forms of sequential thinking) — in most people — trigger thoughts that project (often needless) fear about what may happen in the future (along with thoughts of an “I” or a “me” that will be dealing with things). (Sequential thinking that reflects order is very good; sequential thinking — especially the muddled, psychological kind learned from miseducation — that reflects disorder is bad.) A keen perception that observes this whole process (and that goes beyond fabricating a separate “me” apart from the fear) has gone beyond friction and then has tremendous energy, wholeness, and insight. Insight is timeless energy; most people, unfortunately, waste energy. Timeless energy is beyond the chaos that manifests as mere psychological time. (In true silence there is great energy/insight; however, there is no “I” or “me” who can take one to that silence through the process of sequential time.)

Drops from Above … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019

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Halloween Dream Time (Part 1)…

October 17, 2018

28 comments

At the very bottom of my gorgeous face
you may see what looks like a dreadful mouth
and a little above that
a large nose
and a little above that
two glaring eyes

And if you happen to be
one of the lucky ones
who is able to see these things
then I will crawl into
your midnight dream
and come again
around Halloween
to get a taste
of your warm bloodstream

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These Tiger Spiders, Argiope trifasciata, are very large and are common web-weavers in our Illinois area. They are so common in our Illinois area (in the fall) that i have — during nature photography outings — gotten used to inadvertently walking into their webs and having them crawling on me. They, in reality, are perfectly harmless and get off of me (on their own) before i need to bother to remove them myself. However, they are not harmless to grasshoppers and — nevertheless, during this U.S. holiday season — they may be visiting you tonight! Lots of them!

Tiger Spider (Argiope trifasciata) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Fear, Understanding, and Compassion

May 20, 2018

22 comments

If psychological fear occurs and one tries to avoid that fear by indulging in all kinds of escapes, then the fear is never understood. If one tries to suppress or subjugate the fear, then the fear is never fully understood… one is too busy being in conflict with it. If fear arises and one has ideals about oneself being fearless, then those mental ideations prevent one from actually seeing the fear completely (because ideals and learned principles are getting in the way). So, when fear arises, merely labeling it as something negative, or merely judging it in a “thumbs down” kind of way, clouds the full perception of the fear with secondary, learned reactions concerning it or against it. Fear can only be profoundly understood when it is seen without extraneous factors, without learned reactions “about it.”

Additionally, if the fear is merely seen fragmentarily, from a (learned) mental distance, then it will not be fully dealt with without friction and conflict. Fear may not at all be what you have; fear (when it occurs) is what one actually is. When there is no crass distance between the fear and some accepted, supposed center, then (and only then) can there be understanding without friction, without conflict; that understanding can be whole and of great intelligence. The perceiver is not, psychologically, separate from the perceived. So, the next time fear, jealousy, greed, or indifference show up in (and “as”) consciousness, can they be observed without prejudice, without merely labeling them, without denying them, without merely categorizing them with additional reactions (positive or negative), including reactions involving a separative space between the perceiver and that which is perceived? Only then can deep learning and understanding take place.

You can’t understand something fully if you have no true relationship with it. A relationship based on shadow-like ideals, concocted distance, and a learned and admired (though false) center, is really no relationship at all. True and lasting compassion can only take place when real relationship exists.

[Note: The following two photos are of early spring beginnings of mushrooms. The lower photo is of the mycelium which is, by and far, the main body of the mushroom (which grows underground). The mushrooms we see above ground are merely the small, fruiting parts of the organism. Mycelium — much like a neural network — in some mushrooms can spread for miles and connect with tree roots and other plants, trading nutrients and communication signals with them. (See the movie Avatar.) My theory is that primitive lichen, as a combination of molds and algae working symbiotically with each other… may have later evolved over time into these seemingly separate (but very connected) mushrooms-trees-and-plants. The diminutive Lemon Drop Fungi (Bisporella citrina) are fruiting body parts of the mushroom; the Mycelium pictured are from these Lemon Drops. The Lemon Drops are very small, each being only 1mm to 2mm in diameter. Refer to the following blog for further interesting information on Mushrooms: http://www.jingagustin.com/TheMushroomProject/mushroom-anatomy/ ]

Mushroom Primordia Caps… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

Mushroom Mycelium… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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The Root of Fear Haiku

May 10, 2018

4 comments

The shadow of fear
seen as really what is me.
A glimmer of hope!

Tiny Wildflower in Woods… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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What Makes the Muskrat Guard His Musk?

April 26, 2018

25 comments

What makes a King out of a slave?
Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk, in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?
Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder?
Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in apricot?
What have they got that I ain’t got?
(All Four):
Courage!
(Lion):
Then you can say that again! — Words from the timeless (and indubitably immortal) Wizard of Oz

Muskrat carrying leaves to his underwater den…(Photo taken last spring) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018

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Fears (and how we deal with them)…

June 19, 2016

25 comments

The moment that a psychological fear — not necessarily threatening physical harm — occurs, simply be the fear, without merely looking at it with (and “from”) separation. Do not (as you learned from the past) merely try to avoid it, or rationalize it, analyze it, judge it, condemn it, or wish it was not happening. Simply be what it is without some (supposed) center looking at it from a (supposed) distance. If a legitimate relationship occurs with a fear, then the mind has much more clarity and energy to perceive with (and “as”) order and integrity. Most people have tension with their fears, involving conflict, friction, and avoidance; they look at “their” fears with images of distance and separation; many feel the more distance and separation… the better. Fear is only really diminished and solved when it is understood in a precise, legitimate relationship… not when there is needless friction, separation, strife, struggling, tug-of-war tension, and piecemeal analysis of fear. Analysis of fear involves — and is — time. A precise relationship with fear is not something that requires time or uncovering. If there is a precise, legitimate relationship (i.e., intelligent relationship) with fear there may be no need for time and duration (which is what analysis is) to better understand it (i.e., fear) in the future. If the future’s perspective (even with loads and loads of analysis having occurred) on fear still involves separation and conflict (as it does when the analyzer is supposedly different from the analyzed), it will not have understood fear to any profound degree; there is no more ideal moment to delve into it and understand the depth of it than when it actually takes place. Analyzing it later involves distance; most people look at fears through (and “as”) distance; such separation is of conflict/friction, and does not deeply flower into profound understanding and immense insight. Fear requires time for its existence. Without time, fear is not. Employing analysis and time to deal with fear may not be the most prudent thing to do.

Roses in the making. Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Fearlessness

June 12, 2016

18 comments

To be valiant, to be courageous in the deepest sense, may not involve merely following orders as part of some mechanized, calculated structure. Instead, it involves the deep and profound freedom of standing alone, away from all of the contrived patterns of others, away from all of the concocted and separative systems promising security. To truly — not feigningly — go beyond the ego (i.e., the central self or “I”) involves vast courage and penetrating insight from a realm of freedom. A mere follower cannot — and will not — do it. Too many of us run and cling to our little structures that we have absorbed and learned from others, without ever standing alone while seeing and thinking about things deeply for ourselves. It is easy to be told what to do; it is easy to be influenced by commercials, by propaganda, by so-called authorities, by words.

The mind can go beyond them. The mind can go beyond the ego and the so-called central controller or central self. The mind can go beyond what merely clings to one experience after another. The fearful, afraid mind will not care — among its modes of indifference and of being frightened — to have anything to do with this to any significant extent. When an experience or when fear occurs, the mind is not merely separate from the experience or from the fear. Freedom is in neither. Both are inexorably limited.

Ailanthus. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Ailanthus. (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

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Fear…

November 29, 2015

12 comments

Fear. You can run from it all you want, but — if you do — it will always be there (in one form or another).

There are intelligent forms of fear and other forms of fear that are largely unintelligent. If you are walking through the woods and see a cluster of poison ivy (and have gotten severe rashes from it before) you naturally avoid it with (and “as”) a fear that is sensible and intelligent. If you are going along with others in an activity that you don’t really deem wise or wholesome, but are doing it just to “fit in” and not be rejected (as so many do with drugs, for example)… that may stem from a form of fear that is rather unintelligent and lopsided.

So many of us were taught that we are separate from our fears. When fear takes place, is it truly something that is separate from what you are? Instead of running from fears, or merely trying to manipulate them, it may be prudent to be in relationship with them… to carefully understand them and examine them (without manufactured distance and learned concepts, without fleeing). Fear often involves time; fear feeds on (and is) time. So many have fears about what the future may be (or may not be). Interestingly — though fear feeds on, involves, (and is) time — fleeing from fear involves time.

Separation from fears may go along with separation from other aspects in life… such as hopes, aspirations, dreams, speculations, and the images of others (that one deems separate from oneself). Hate often springs from unintelligent fear, for both are intrinsically bound in modes heavily involved with separation. Mental separation breeds both hate and indifference. When there is a wall of circumference around a (supposedly) separate self apart from fear, images, aspirations, and others… friction and turmoil often ensue. We can grow and wisely flower beyond the fragmentation and needless friction — internally and externally — if we perceive beyond mere separative and primitive processes.

Instead of merely just running from boredom, or fear, or loneliness, it may be prudent to remain with them (effortlessly observing) and learn from them intimately; then (out of the intimacy) if relationship with them truly changes naturally, they may flower into what transcends mediocrity, tradition, and fragmentation; then boredom and fear are no longer what they were (as part of broken, fragmentary isolation and separation).