holding onto beliefs limits our experience of life. that doesn't mean that beliefs or opinions or ideas are a problem. it's the stubborn attitude of having to have things be a particular way, grasping onto our beliefs and opinions, that causes the problems. using your belief system this way creates a situation in which you choose to be blind instead of being able to see, to be deaf instead of being able to hear, to be dead rather than alive, asleep rather than awake.
as people who want to live a good, full, unrestricted, adventurous, real kind of life, there is concrete instruction we can follow: see what is. when you catch yourself grasping at beliefs or thoughts, just see what is. without calling your belief right or wrong, acknowledge it. see it clearly without judgment and let it go. come back to the present moment. from now until the moment of your death, you could do this.
--comfortable with uncertainty
pema chodron
I beleef in nuthink!
ReplyDeleteReally nice photographs. Break your boundaries, eh?
okatb-you nihilist, you! if you didn't believe in anything, would you disappear? boundaries are made to be broken.
ReplyDeleteSee what is... be present... live in the Now!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing such inspiring post.
loveNlight
Gabi
Using the jawbone of an ass, he slays one thousand Philistines?
ReplyDeletegabi-being present is our greatest challenge.
ReplyDeletetag-or, using the jawbone of a philistine, he slays one thousand asses?
Did somebody say presence?
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to see 'what is' if there is no context.
ReplyDeletetag-huh?
ReplyDeletetregina-the "what is-ness" doesn't depend on context, tho we usually supply one. it is inherent, and true.
Just don't introduce your beliefs to your ego.
ReplyDeleteOK. I get what you all are saying, especially your comment to me, Lorraine. Yes, what is is what is, whether or not the human viewer of what is has a context. I was frustrated in viewing the subject matter of these photos because I wanted to know what they were, beyond appreciation of colors, textures, lighting.... So what are these things??
ReplyDeletetregina-and that is why i left them ambiguous, to confound the ego's need to nail down, pinpoint, etc. being able to sit in the presence of uncertainty is, i think, a skill worthy of learning. and it does take practice!
ReplyDeleteall that being said, the first one is another view of the rose that showed up in the "in the fog" post. the second one is ice clinging to the lip of a glass, and the third one is a piece of a broken turtle shell.
Ah, thank you, L. Your identification of the objects in each photo deepen my pleasure and appreciation
ReplyDeleteAs a botanist, my experience of a plant deepens when I know it by name. Naming is not necessarily synonymous with pinning or pidgeon-holing. In botany, for example, binomial nomenclature opens doors of knowing a lot more about the individual you are looking at and calling Escholtzia californica, ( California poppy) for example. The scientist and the naturalist in me wants to know the name so I can understand it in the bigger scheme of nature, but I certainly appreciate the value of of being able to sit with uncertainty, since everything is uncertain except what is right in front of you right now.