In an intelligent inquiry as to whether or not there is anything really sacred, the mind must be free from limited patterns of conditioning and opinion. For such an inquiring mind, there is no room for belief or conjecture. Both belief and conjecture are based upon supposition or primarily baseless, unscientific conclusions. This transcendence beyond the limitations of conditioned belief and conjecture additionally includes going beyond any formulated methodologies that one may be lead to believe are worthwhile. Very many have, with blind faith, clung to the structured methodologies and ideologies that various organized religions — such as Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and others — have provided over the years. Asking people to go beyond the conditioning of these organized groups (with their leaders) usually falls on deaf ears.
In such an inquiry, the mind must be supremely healthy; additionally, it must be beyond being influenced or programmed by any group or by any person. It may be that only a very healthy, balanced, unconditioned mind can discover what is truly sacred. Such a mind brings about its own order (and not according to what someone else says). It may be that to truly come upon the sacred, the mind must have its own natural, intrinsic order. Such order may not be the result of mere accumulation. No accumulation of beliefs, or structured methodologies to live according to, would be of interest to a truly orderly, unconditioned mind. In a big way, perception without dependence on accumulation is perception beyond the parameters of time; all accumulated beliefs and structured methodologies require (and depend upon) time. The timeless, unconditioned, truly free mind is beyond all of that (but don’t just take my word for it).
Can perception take place that is not the mere result of — and not dependent upon — past accumulation (as stored memory)? It may be that if one looks without all of the past accumulated memories and hand-me-down patterns of others then such a one is stepping out of the confinement and incarceration of conditioning. Such confinement was a limitation, a barrier; “mostpeople” refuse to let it all go. They cling to their so-called religions, groups, beliefs, and methodologies and refuse to let them go. The pristine, untainted mind goes beyond this conditioning and no longer uses others’ methodologies to “get something.” I, for one, will not give you patterns to follow, edicts to live by, or beliefs to cling to.
Accumulation, in any psychological form, is usually a manifestation of greed; greed, in any psychological form, likely negates discovery of the sacred. When one — not theoretically or idealistically — sees this, all organized religions and methodologies that are learned are out. There is a non-concocted silence that can never be brought about by the accumulation of memory, nor by learned patterns, nor copied procedures. That silence is not the result of conditioning and practice; it is not derived from greed or acquisition over time. Don’t waste your time in believing in such silence. Find out if there is such a silence, but not by mere abstraction, not by mere “idealistic image-projecting.” That “finding out” may have nothing to do with what you were ever taught. An elderly Great Blue Heron was looking for his next meal as the placid pond was getting ready to settle-in for the evening.
Great Blue Heron (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Great Blue Heron (2) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2017
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 