#inthought - The Difference Between Observation and Perception , does one lead to the other?

26 August 2019 : 9.35 pm.

This will be a rather tricky issue to discuss, because we would be going right into the very tool we are using for our examination. The very fact of reading these discussions of _inthought you are making an observation provided your level of attention is of a sufficient quality so as to give you an insight into what you are observing. That very insight should give you a subtle change within your being, and in that we would say that there is perception; or it has taken place. This is really a discussion into the art of seeing, because there are very many tricks which can arise from this observation and if one is not clear on what it is they are observing they may fall into a trap of self-delusion. It is rather something which demands complete attention and a great deal of energy to observe and in that observation perception takes place, and that very perception is action of our consciousness; that is, a change takes place. When there is no change, then there is a self delusion taking place, so what is the root of this self delusion?

The observation would have it that, one has to see clearly what it is they are looking at, because there is the seeing of something just with our eyes, and then making knowledge out of it, which means it has become part of memory, and there nothing takes place apart from the creation of a memory and that is not perception, it is simply looking, like an optical camera would, but it would not register at ones depth of being. So when one looks at this it is easy to see that memory in itself is what interferes with perception, and that is what prevents observation. The reason this is so, is that memory in itself implies time, that is the time in which the memory was created and that is separate from the actual moment, because the moment is always moving, but the memory is locked in the past. This can be applied to any situation, and can be most apparent when practiced in nature. One can look at a tree,or a flower or a small plant and in that very looking, there is act of recognition and naming and categorising and in that very action one is locked in the past, referencing all past knowledge and experience and laying it over the same observation and in that more memory is formed. This prevents the very looking at the flower and what it is doing, what it actually is and in that there is no perception only observation and analysis. When one is free from the need to know, recognise, name and evaulate every object/situation in ones observation one can ‘see’ clearly exactly what is going on, and that very ‘seeing’ has a clarity about it, and perception takes place, which is an action in itself.

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#inthought - The Root of Dualistic Thinking

This would not be the first instance of writing about duality, in itself as a concept. There would not be a need to define or describe the nature of dualistic thinking, but rather to elaborate on the path of observation which aimed to describe duality. The most common dualistic thinking expressed by most today is in the sense of morality, which really seems to be the basis of behaviour in relationship , either between ourselves or the environment within which we find ourselves caught in. The distinction between good and bad can be seen as a measure of describing the nature of action, since all our expression takes place in the form of action, either action in speech, gesture or creation. Our ability to set attributes of observation to action seems to stem from the observation of the ideal expression of life, and relationship. The basis of which stems from the general nature of the relationship with this ideal in some religions know it as God, or nirvana, or the ultimate realisation of being, so in essence we can state that a dualistic assertion, either as good or bad is actually a description of the relationship between the nature of the particular action and the ‘ideal’ so to speak. A movement towards it, may be seen as an ideal, hence ‘good’ and a movement away from it may be seen as ‘bad’. So by this, it can be seen that dualistic thinking is basically a judgment according to an ‘ideal’ and as such may not be describing what is actually taking place. To percieve duality one has to transcend duality as it is taking place, which means one has to observe fact, which is what is actually taking place and perception is observation because it is actually taking place.  The nature of attachment to observation determines how one cognises the nature of their observation and the conclusion which is reached is ultimately based on their state of intelligence.

The most common example of duality is in the description of the general basis of behaviour, which is a way of classifying human action according to an ideal set of behaviors, something which can be hard to fathom, since ideal human action is something which has a rather great difficulty in its description, and therefore, we have used religion to describe superlative human traits which are said to exist far beyond the realm of perception. We have therefore developed intermediaries between these non-physical traits through text and speech as a reference for the nature of the dualistic description of human behaviour. This inevitably breeds conflict because, one bridges action and perception through judgement, therefore  all action then takes place according to whether it conforms to an ideal which has been described through a particular religious text or doctrine and so there is never action which is purely based on perception, all action becomes divided as it has to conform to the past which may be text based, speech based or image based. So all action takes place according to the past, and is never based on what is actually taking place, which is what breeds conflict.

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#inthought - Desire and Conflict

Desire and Conflict

One of the biggest challenges of any mind is to separate concept from truth within its waking world of experience. Our minds have grown and developed from an early age in a technological society will have had to deal with a great deal of concepts. This ability to deal with concept has been described conceptually and we have even devised tests to determine our ability to deal with concept. The IQ test is a modern day test which is rather believed to test the intelligence of an individual. I could bring into question its ability to test or determine the true nature of intelligence of a human being, and with the belief in the infinite nature of intelligence of the human mind, one can only ask which mind has come up with the IQ test. It will be very clear from this onset that an IQ test is really a test of adaptability to modern life, because it rarely takes into account the intelligence required to navigate and survive in a natural environment, where the amount of data any living brain is able to gather is nearly infinite within such a setting.

Having said this, one can only ask, what is desire and what relationship does it have to conflict? The old Sanskrit teachings have stated that, in the mind all division breeds conflict, this can be a rather difficult statement to fathom because the very nature of survival in the modern world requires that one divides and categorises elements of one’s experience. The very nature of modern life implies that all action, tasks and objects be divided from each other through some form of categorisation which is what we have come to term as the order of the way things work, but this only describes a certain kind of order, an external and rather crude order where everything has a discrete place or position relative to another. This order is used to describe the relationship between objects or elements of this reality, such as human relationships in a family as brother, sister etc. The nature of thought would have it that categories can only be formed from a set of attributes around the subject or object and can never encompass the whole thing and by that nature that intelligence will always be incomplete and hence breed conflict in one aspect or another.

Desire on the other hand is a relatively similar sort of observation, because when one looks at the nature of thought and observation we will see that desire is not something to be described nor can it be objectified. The only way we can deal with desire is to see how it comes about, and that can tell us a lot about its nature.

In order to learn about desire we have to observe ourselves, and the way in which desire comes about, and within this observation we have to be very careful about how it is we observe, because as soon as we become idealistic or conceptual about what we are observing, then we may fall into the trap which may prevent us from seeing the desire actually. In this sense we have to look at the operation of thought in observation, which means that we have to see how thought reacts at all times, and that is something which can be difficult to do. Suppose one is walking in a shop and see’s a shoe upon that observation

of the shoe thought takes place, to categorise, name and even possibly proceed to image one-self wearing that shoe, all these images produce a pleasure in the thought, and from those pleasurable images there is desire, which is what the mind pursues -the pleasure of the image. The nature of thought would have it that it is limited, and any image it produces is not complete, or whole, therefore it will always create conflict, which may manifest itself during the pursuit of that image. Many of us have very many images in our heads, these have come from the many desires we have picked up during the course of our lives, and from consuming various types of media and entertainment. It is perhaps that the many images which we have formed of ourselves and our need to become has created so many desires that we pursue them irrespective of the limitation which may be produced by our thoughts in pursuit of that desire. Could desire perhaps be the root of conflict in the world, and is it possible to be free from desire..?

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#inthought - The Nature of Understanding

The Nature of Understanding

 Understanding seems to be one of the functions of the brain which cannot be put into words, but the nature of the mind which has understood can somehow be put in a logically discernable manner. A state of understanding can somehow be placed into a state of contentment, in which the mind does not continue to churn over and process or hold in its space the information which it does not understand. Lack of understanding implies that the mind is not identified with the particular idea or information, therefore it has no place in the current order of the operation of the particular mind, and hence breed conflict with that which it does not understand. This occurs when the mind finds classification of knowledge in other aspects which it does not identify as parts of its own, and ignores it for its use, until there comes an experience which makes use of information or ideas about the particular subject with which we have the limited understanding. One would need to get in to the process of learning and make a difference between learning and simply gathering information, because learning can imply that the mind of the learner is simply gathering information as knowledge. A demonstration of what one has learnt would be, to put it into action, the knowledge which one has in a manner which would be useful to not only one self, but the next individual, this would inevitably show that one has a clear understanding of their knowledge. So by this observation, one would inevitably see that there is a difference between knowledge and understanding; and knowledge without understanding may breed conflict up until such a time the mind comes upon an experience which will put that particular set of knowledge into action in a relatable manner to the experience of the individual. Experience can only have meaning if the particular experience is not divided into different aspects of itself such as dividing the experiencer from the experience as well as a constant assignment of what is known to what is being experienced, otherwise it breeds conflict and denies understanding.

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#inthought - The Importance of Identifying with the I

The 'I' is the root of operation of thought, and most of what we call action in its sense is based on what we think of our selves. In many ways, the way we think about ourselves determines the nature of our action. What ever task we set ourselves to, the root of action will always be the 'I'. If the 'I' is not consistent with the thought and hence the feeling, which usually expresses itself as negative emotion, then the proceeding action will be incomplete, sloppy, or in a sense carried out with a diminished sense of attention. So it is important to feel good before acting.


As one would observe themselves, the idea of the I becomes more and more ingrained as one proceeds throughout the activities of the world. The I, which is a definable set of memories of existence of the awareness which we identify with is partly limited through the use of simple word, and through the use of societal (other) descriptions. Simplify the language in the society and you can simplify the language with which the I can be described.
Why should one be accepting of word descriptions of the I, why is human description unappreciated?

The reason why the unappreciative nature of observation comes up is because of the acceptance of word, descriptors as the true description of the I. I am of the belief that societies once existed in a manner that the I could and did not be fully described. This allowed for space of the ‘extra special’ elements to be expressed. The understanding of us and life in general relates to the way the mechanism of description relates to ourselves. This gives it space in operation, and the space of operation determines the energy which can be harnessed for operation of these mechanisms. Subtle energies should be left to subtle processes, and subtle processes can be given subtle energies to work with, it is simply the mechanism of the reality; it is what keeps the order of operation. The order of operation can be said to be of energy and space, orientation and function, or mechanism of function.

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#inthought - The Awareness of Thought

A rather tricky article to write, since it has many ways to intepret and view. It is rather difficult because the nature of reading, and the nature of conversation are two completely different scenarios in the mind of many. In reading text, the intepretation and sight of the what is read, is purely for the intepretation of the reader, whereas conversation and dialogue, there is a constant sharing of intepretation so as to have the same mind about the subject. So what is it which interferes with intepretation?

Various faculties of the brain are responsible for activities we intepret as existence, and much of the basis of our action stems from such faculties. If we were to ask, what is it which the brain listens for in order to act? Be it reading a book, or watching a drama, or driving an automobile, one rationalises action against what they are seeing. Which part of the brain is thus responsible for the action, whether it is contemplation or the scripting of a new idea. We have come to use words and symbols as a means of pointing out what is in our minds, such symbols have been used to communicate in various ways for the longest time. They lay in the part of our mind, which we have access to during most of the day. It is the repository for all the experience which we have come identify and communicate and create much of the useful artifacts of our world. It has become the basis of our work and thus what we identify with, it is the labels we use to characterise the world and each other.

Much of what I am describing here is the ability to think, or to contemplate or to have useful action. It is the voice in our head, the memory of a past pleasure or pain, or the knowledge about a particular subject. That operation is thought, which is really the past, laying dormant in our brains ready for us to make it the present. It is the recognition through sight sound or smell. It is thought, so can we be aware of thought as it operates in our lives..? and this can leave us with the question, is anything new the result of thought, or is it some other action independent of thought.  

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#inthought - Duality is Physics of the Mind

 "Part of understanding the world comes from learning that the world is undefinable. It is made up of goo and prickles, sometimes one may say that it is made of gooey prickles or prickly goo. It is really dependent on how you look at it." These are the words of a famous philosopher and scholar of the early 70's who goes by the name Alan Watts.

To anyone who is not vaguely interested in philosophy or the arts, will see this or hear the statement and immediately rubbish it as banter worthy of a kindergarten audience, however, this may play a very important role in understanding the human mind in the 21st century and how it as developed or evolved as a result. A more relatable explanation of the statement may be that in life, some experiences may be good and others may be bad, and one may state that life is one bad experience with moments of good experiences; while another may state that life is one good experience with moments of bad experiences. In the end the experience is the same, that is one will have gone through the same motions and emotions as the other individual, but will have two completely different interpretations of the experience which they may have just had. While some may argue this statement, the arguments will always stem from the same place within the mind, and thats the part of  the mind which deals with the experience one has, this is a part of the mind which is always present and working, if it was not we would have trouble seeking to function in the modern day existence. To operate a vehicle we need some sort of experience in operating it, to instruct a computer we need some experience in computing to cook we need to have experienced cooked food, this may be extrapolated to many aspects of our life albeit with varying complexity.

The human mind, with its incredible and often infallible complexity cannot be understood using mere text and books, one has to dive into the experience of life fully in order to even have an idea of how the brain may work. This does not, however, stop one from attempting to understand even a small part of how this organ works. So far it has become prevalent that there is a function to the brain which is common to most if not all humans, it is what is passed down from adults to new born babies in the process which we refer to as upbringing and it is the same processes we instill in practices and institutions in which we call culture. It is important for man to cooperate together with himself, nature and animals for his survival, the mechanism which has been developed is called culture, and this cooperative mechanism has changed the way the brain works, but not in its entirety, but rather in the areas which we recognise as being necessary. This means there are certain rules of the operation of mind which most of us are aware of, these rules are complex and varied and they change very little, over the course of our lifetimes, they may be analogous to the laws of physics. The physics we refer to is classical mechanics, which is the description of objects as they interact or move about in free space.

One such law which has been part of the acute awareness of everyday existence is the law of opposites, which simply describes that everything has its opposite which means there only two forms to the experience, nothing more. Just as light is opposite to dark, fast to slow, clean to dirty, good to bad and the list goes on. This is something which many religions of the east, particularly Buddhism, and vedic philosophy have been aware of as one of the common features of the physical mind, and that is what they have termed as duality.

Duality is one of the functions of the mind which overlays what ever it is that one experience to a mechanism of judgment and catergorisation of objects and movements. Depending on what one has learned in their early years right up to the present moment of their life, this categorising mechanism operates to varying degrees and intensity throughout ones experience, while everything in the prevailing reality is fundamentally neutral. All categorisations form the basis for even more experience which allows the mind to form even more categories of experience even if the experience has no direction or motive. One such mechanism of duality which we learn in our early years is that of dividing human beings into one of two categories, which we know as man or woman. This mechanism has been translated down the tree of life and all living organisms can be classified as being male or female, and these classifications relate only to the recreational or reproductive nature of the organism and nothing else; if we wish to understand the organism even further the mind divises even more classifications for which it can use to place several other attributes of the organism, and this is what is referred to as learning. It is easy to see how the early forms of dualistic learning can propagate through the years of the learning mind which is what can form the basis of experience and learning and this is what forms the basis of the conditioning of the mind. This is a very important and beneficial aspect of the mind in the search for intelligence, but intelligence is a very tricky aspect of the human mind which we have not come to understand to this present day, despite the fact that we use our intelligence in our daily existence.


Intelligence like all things in nature has its limitations, and the limits of intelligence are subtle and varied, and only the intelligent human being is able to be aware of these limitations and transcend them, the most obvious limitation to intelligence is to be aware of the problem of clinging to one particular aspect of what the mind knows, because what needs to be known is constantly changing and moulding to the constantly changing reality.

Limitations of the mind may lie in the way it functions. One of the most compelling attributes of this philosophy may be able to be used to observe the mind itself; which is a supple and often steady organ which moulds itself according to its experiences and will mould its function according the experiences it has had. One of the most common features of this function is memory, which while it may be useful in most instances, sometimes functioning through memory may have its effect on limiting the way it functions. One such instance is in how it defines the reality in which it exists, in that the world is either one thing or another, good or bad, fast or slow. It separates variable character from the dynamic world into understandable categories, based on what it has experienced, which gives rise to what we have called learning.

Learning itself is a very complex activity which cannot be described simply by the ability to store memories, as that categorisation itself has limitations. The reason for this assertion may be derived from the observation of a computer, which is an instrument with tremendous capabilities of memory, but we do not say that a computer is intelligent. It may be intelligent in one area of operation such as mathematical computation, but it cannot learn to play Beethoven's 5th symphony, it can only recall the human recording. So by this logic we may extrapolate to the mind that such learning by intense categories is limited, it is so because of the overuse of memory, which dulls the mind into thinking in terms of memory, and operating in that way leaves no room for something new, something never before experienced or catergorised. The world is not black and white, rather it is made up of many shades and colours which in themselves may transcend the limits of category. Just like the human brain, reality is vastly complex and often un-understandable by the same method of operation, and to say there is only one way of operating, is like saying there is only one law of physics, but when we observe the open reality we often see many laws of physics operating on objects some we know and others we do not understand.

Just as to your organism, which the mind has tried to understand is often operating under many laws and patterns, some we know others we do not even know whether they exist or not, and are often subjects of intense debate. The brain has tried to understand our organism through this same dualistic method, by separating is as body and mind; that is to say, the body is different from the mind and that is the limiting operation of this idea. This is because one may think that the body operates separately from the mind and vice versa, in this way there will always be conflicts in the way one tries to understand their self. Some religions, particularly of the far east, or the Asiatic reigions have been able to transcend this paradigm, they have always known other rules of conciousness, and have communicated them using various symbols and teachings, and one of the most famous symbols is that of the yin-yang.

The symbol has many interpretations depending on the direction from which we are observing, one could look at the black dot in the white space, or the white dot in the black space and infer that there is a mind in a body, just like there is the body in a mind. The two cannot be separate, therefore the conflict can be resolved and new learning can take place, through further questioning.

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#inthought - The Reality of Objects

Simple observation will prove to us that reality is a rigid and fixed structural motif that changes very little with time. The change we may observe is the change of birth, growth, thriving and eventually death of living organisms; when we observe static or solid objects, whether natural or man made, it would seem like time takes its toll on them and gradually wears out its original luster, uniqueness or shine. That is to say, we know objects are solid because one of its properties inherent to its material goes through some kind of wear, tear, degradation or some other withering of the structural form.Never do they seem to be born, grow, thrive and die only to be reborn again; that is how one can know an object to be alive, and only then it ceases to be and object, as it is part of the universe which is constantly moving and has inherent within it a certain quality of beauty, something to be appreciated.

Changing our lens to the reality of energy, we would see that all energy exists within our view and it is with the trained mind that we give boundaries to all these different forms of energy. Boundaries help with understanding because, in essence all it helps with is to allocate what we see into a prescribed box within our mind, this has given rise to names, classifications, and judgements. It follows with logic, that we can see that solid objects are just boundaries that contain a specific type of energy, of something that is either living or dead.

It is important to understand this aspect of the mind, because its operation leaks in to areas that it should not, and that is in human relationship. It is often that one would come across spiritual teachings that state that man is currently consumed with a fetish for objects, and an ignorance to living things. That is, it seem that most would easily love something that is an object as over a living thing such as a plant, or another person; love in this context would refer simply to a quality of attention, care and loyalty to the particular.

So why do we need to differentiate  between the reality of objects and of living things? From this perspective it is important to understand the way we relate to our outside reality which has a primary influence on the way we relate with nature, people and animals. From the onset of experience, in this context, experience being all that we see, hear and feel. All this forms part of our memory and eventually makes us who we are. Experience shapes our state of being, and that influences the relationship we have with our reality, it is through the primary differentiation of object vs living thing that determines the relationship with the particular.

Objects are static or may exhibit limited or even mechanical movements that are defined within the limits of their inherent design, the observation of which determines the nature of our relation with the particular object. Objects have little or no sense capability and thus make the perfect candidate for use as a tool or material to be manipulated so as to perform a specific task. Therefore, our relationship to objects is that of assistance in performing a particular task, and specially formed objects may provide us an advantage within a specific area too. What of living things? First of all how would we know when something is alive? Life is something that is difficult to put into words, it is part of the universe's whole and as words are mere abstractions, it may seem like a task in futility to put into words what a living thing is. We do however, know certain properties exhibited by a living organism, first of all is sense capabilities. Biology has over the millennia evolved specific molecules that give the particulate nature of the molecule the ability to sense specific characteristics of the environment, these range from protein receptors for hormones, and smells, to the ever more complex temperature and pressure sensing nerves, and the most complex of which, the eye almost which all complex organisms are associated with. The complexity of an organism has to do with the detail to which it can comprehend the complexity of reality, and it can be easy to see that the Homo Sapien ape man that we are is the most complex organism we know of.

It would suffice to state that the complexity of relationship also varies between organisms of different complexities, and the most complex relationships that we have are between two humans. This might be attributable to the fact that we are able to sense a complex cacophony of signals ranging from simple light to somewhat capricious human emotions and ideas that one has to wonder if they can fathom the order to which all these signals are processed. Emotion is one such signal that serves as a guide to navigating the reality of relationship be it with objects or living things. Many philosophers over time since writing have warned of the dangers of  disconnecting with emotion, and how it could be detrimental to how we view our reality.

The pursuit of technological progress in the name of development has led us to trust more in the objective reality over the subjective reality of emotion. This has led to a drastic way in which our minds define relationship, and this may have been the cause of conflict within man for thousands of years of history as evidenced by the endless stories of war and conflict right till the present day. Wars may not be as prevalent but conflict persists in our everyday scenario and this may be due to the attention we give towards the particular. A lot of attention is spent on creating objects that may satisfy our desires that it leaves little left non-formal experience of human relationship, some may  argue a relationship with a girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse is somewhat enough to fill the discrepancy, but even that may be subject  to its own disorders and conflict as mind assumes the same reality. 

A case in point may be observed in the objectification of women by themselves, which has been cheered on by men since the dawn of the commercial enterprise of ego marketing, self glorification and the pursuit of comfort. It is not to say that women have not been in the forefront against their objectification but these messages may have been met with futility as they did not speak to the central desires produced by the need for gratification by external objects as opposed to emotion. The assimilation of external objects requires that one invests a lot of attention to the objects so as to maintain them, for example spending a disproportionate amount of time at the gym to sculpt the body will only result in a relationship that is more based on the body than other aspects; therefore one forms a relationship to those objects and not with the living thing and this is where the conflict arises.

...just a thought.

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#inthought - Perception

#inthought with perception

I'd like to touch on a bit about perception, it came to me as I realised that for most of the topics I will be talking about, we will need an understanding of perception, deep at its core and what it really is. This would put things into context for understanding of the some of the concepts to be outlined. I always like to start with a quote, mostly because it puts the idea into context, it also confirms the observation as has been by others, since most of these articles are just postulations created from my observations and learning as accumulation of knowledge.

"What is perception, what is seeing? How do you see that tree? Look at it for the moment. With what sight do you see it? Is it solely an optical observation, just looking at the tree with the optical reaction, observing the form, the pattern, the light on the leaf? Or do you, when you observe a tree, name it, saying. “That is an oak” and walk by? By naming it you are no longer seeing the tree—the  word denies the thing. Can you look at it without the word?"
     The flame of Attention, p34 Jiddu Krishnamurti,
                           
The world that exists outside of us also exists within us, this is one of the fundamental laws of the observable universe, which we make a part of. Our minds connect to the outside world through the senses that lay all over our body. Sight is an optical connection that our mind has with the outside world; hearing is the connection of sound; taste and smell the connection of essence; temperature and pressure sensation the connection of feel and the list of sensitivities in our body is ever vast.

The current mind relates to the world through a variety of classifications of various objects, emotions, decisions, patterns etc. It does this through a conditioned self, which its goal to divide each of the senses through a naming or a classification of some sort, and this operates throughout daily activity, all to gain simple understanding for action.While this may be useful for efficient navigation through reality, it may in someway become a somewhat problematic way to live upon the time one reaches an impasse within their quest for whatever that may be which you set for yourself. It is at this point that one has to confront their tools and knowledge and somehow come to the conclusion that there is a limit somewhat in way of the current mind operation.

The limits may lie in perception; which in my thought is a concept that has to be explored within this context. So the  question one may be faced with, when vaguely casting reference to the quote at the beginning of this script a question that begs the mind is "how does naming limit perception?" The first place to begin is exploration of the five senses which we have become accustomed to. First of all naming, for example, the feeling of touch requires the mind to characterise the sensation of touch, such, texture, temperature, dimensions etc, same with smell, taste, hearing, and seeing. The more complex the experience of a sense, the more we break it down into its different characters, simply to understand, communicate or take action from what it is we see. This leads the mind into a complex array of measurements, characterisations and descriptions of seeing something, even if it is something as simple as a box, this takes up a lot of space in the mind by preoccupying it with details that may not be necessary. A cosmic rule that exists is that: "divisions create limits", and that is the very thing which is happening when this is taking place. The opposite of this idea is the combination of these senses to create a synergy, which is simply creating a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Synergistic combination of the senses, does indeed involve combining the signals from each of our five senses to create something more that what we would have if we observed our senses separately; that is what being in the moment truely is; seeing things for what they are; which is seeing, which has an influence on hearing, which has an influence on feeling, and therefore acting, this action may be from the mind being free of all prejiduces and therefore allowing it to use a vastly different intelligence. That is what perception really is. There within this there is no mention of the use of words or descriptions all which are the activities of our thoughts, which have their place in daily existence.

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#inthought - Everything as Energy

"Everything is essentially energy"

this is a quote that has been seen passing around through the pages of the interwebs, and there has been no proof who the original Author of the quote was but it has mostly been attributed to Albert Einstein. This is not the important part, what is important is what the statement is trying to share as a trail of thought. Why would Einstein be attributed to this quote? my 2cents:

I will say this with a scientific mind, this is an easy base for understanding, as in my view science is the observation of our physical reality in broken bits. We break it up to study it, and then eventually compile the whole. When observing everything, all that is happening is simply looking, looking at everything, matter, objects, plants, insects, trees, everything came into being because energy was converted into one form or another. Energy is never still, it is always moving, and therefore this statement makes a profound shift to the way one would see things. It would mean, everything, absolutely everything we see is all energy, and is all moving, even the seemingly solid non moving objects are moving all the time. Physics studies all matter, and the way this matter is related to energy, and the famous equation by Einstein famously related energy to matter with his equation that changed the modern world:

                                            Energy = mass x the speed of light x speed of light

The basics explanation of this equation with a non scientific mind, for easy understanding is that mass that interacts with light in space has energy within it. Where it may seem that the equation may not hold place in our minds is how this can all be. The simple way of looking at it is that, any object that can be seen has energy, the proof of this was observed by a famous scientist Max Planck who related energy to frequency with his equation:

                                       Energy = h(Planck's constant) x frequency

While avoiding to put this into a mathematics class, the simplest way to understand this equation is that all energy is frequency, so why Plancks constant?, well remember in Einsteins equation, the fact of the seer proves the energy mass balance, so Planck was the seer, so to keep the equation true, we have to incorporate the one who made the observation, and that is through the constant. It is actually a calculated number and Planck was the person who calculated it, and the number will never change therefore he is the observer of the number. The study of sound has shown all matter to be vibrating at its own specific frequency from the chair in your room, to your cell phone, to your television and even you as the individual, and you probably vibrate at the highest frequency pf everything around you, which is what brings about interaction.

Lets simplify,

how does this all relate to you? If all is energy, and we seek knowledge of all these energies, but where do we study them, the beauty of this observation is that when everything is moving, and you keep still, you can observe all these types of energies as they move through you.That is the beauty of being human, all these energies are contained within you. Heat, as warmth, electricity and magnetism as your heartbeats, sexual energy, wind energy in your lungs, light in your eyes. . . . all one has to do to see them is to be still. In a world where everything is constantly moving, it can be easy to see how we are all channels of energy, and your state of being determines which energy you channel and where the energy goes, and what it creates. Being aware of this may fundamentally change the way one sees their reality.

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Faster than the speed of shutter

It was a summer morning spending time on a little garden of flowers, aimlessly drifting away in thought. Lucky for me I had a camera when many of the butterflies and little insects came to feed on their pollen. Now this post is not about the subject of the thoughts but rather an amazing little insect or bird that passed by.  Tiny as it was, the speed of the flutter of its wings gave it the look of an insect, but the finesse of its flight with a beak as thin as the head of a needle and the segmented body of a sea creature this wonder of nature still has me wondering whether it was a bird. To probe into the creature was to keep it still in time with the camera, it turned into a battle of capture as it jumped from flower to flower with the speed only a high shutter speed could conquer.

It seemed success would be achieved through a quick shutter speed, and pulling it tighter and tighter would only limit the image as it got dimmer and dimmer, as I feared it would slowly disappear and be just a mere memory the  rays of the sun pierced through to save the day and illuminated the flowerbed as if the storm has just passed, but the ballet had just begun as now armed with a quick shutter it became a game of chase, clicking away in and around the shadows  it would be until later that I would see the bounty as I got hints of the creature, here I share the spoils….enjoy this wonder I share.  

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Bird in the Bush

Birds are wonderous little creatures that give nature its voice. Ive set out to discover the many species of bird on the Southern African tree tops. The following pictures have been shot in various locations from Rustenburg, South Africa to Rasesa, Botswana. I'll be adding more as I come across and capture the many little birds that capture my eye.

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Mopipi o thuntse

Mopipi is a popular tree in the southern african region, and can mostly be found in semi-arid locations of the region. Largely concentrated in the south eastern part of Botswana, the trees rarely grow in clusters and would usually be found dotted around the land. Noticably always on ploughing fields standing lone and strong as it is the culture of the people to never cut the tree down. It does seem to have a sacred and mystic aura about it, even when one sits in its cool shade shielding the strong Botswana sun that we all love to hate.

So, why the topic mopipi o thuntse?, well in the setswana language o thuntse is a verb used to describe the state of the tree, which is the time it has produced flowers, which translated to saying that it has blossomed. I wondered why the blossom of this tree was so important and something spoken about with the people of the region. It was interesting to discover as i had the opportunity to during the last couple of months, which is the transition from winter to spring to summer, which happens rather quickly in these parts.

Rainfall had been irregular and on a massive decline in the past two or three years, and the land had been very dry with dams almost empty on a cold July afternoon when taking a bush walk with a friend when we noticed this tree that was lush green with bright yellow dottings that resembled cotton balls strewn all over the tree. Now this being an unusual sight during the time of the season i was in doubt as to wether it was natural. As we approached the tree there were flower stems made up of thousands of tiny little flowers that would bear the fruit known as motlopi. I asked why this tree seemed out of place with flowering like the rest of the plants in the area and was later told that the tree grew only where there was lots of underground water, and the flowering of the tree is a sign that the lands thirst was going to be quenched with bountiful rain. Something that was hard to beleive since it was the middle of winter, but as time progressed I was shown many more signs in nature that showed the rains were coming such as the falling of a chichiboa from its nest tree the acacia was also a sign that rains were coming. So i waited and observed, and months later in november rains are showering the bush and the knowledge say that this is the earliest it has rained in four years and it was a sign that the skies were plenty with rain.

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she gave me (pink) flowers

There is  a lot that trees can tell us, if we just see. The seeing can also take another dimension, as it has been said before, "perception creates reality". This can never be any more true than in nature as the mind chooses what to see therefore it creates its own reality according to the way one may choose.

I was taking a walk in town to a friends house, camera in hand and mind open. I came across this beautiful tree that was made up of a green bark, thorns and flowers. How magnificent! I did not care much for its name or why it was there, but just being aware of its beauty was enough. 

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Update: 1 Oct 2012

Its been a timeless six months. A lot has been revealed, a lot has been observed, and a lot has to be covered. In this series of inthought articles I will be covering and uncovering all that takes place to journey within the self because that is where we have to start.

These articles I will be sharing to help bring understanding to the self and to remove that thorn that has been irritating you at the back of your mind. The journey of this understanding can take any path and it has to start from the inside, that being our thoughts which are the basis of our actions from there we will move out but I can only take you so far, as the journey has to be continued by you. Next inthought article will touch thought itself.

The rest of the site we will be observing nature through exploration and photography.

enjoy.

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Of Emotions Colours and the Seasons

The sun rises, the sun sets, we wake, we sleep, we work we rest, we entertain, we get entertained. These are the daily chores in our everyday lives...and we live in different worlds with different experiences, but one thing remains...we are human and we have emotions which differ and change throughout our daily lives.

We are all different from each other in much the way that we are similar. We all experience the same set of emotions, and since we live different lives these emotions come in different ways at different times and in different intensities. We have all learnt to understand our emotions and the emotions of others, and we have all learnt to manage them. It has been said that one of the biggest developments of mankind is understanding this thing called emotion, and through this understanding we have been able to develop relationships, maintain them, and end them. Some say the most important thing in life is to understand and manage the relationships we have with other people, be it our parents, peers, or acquaintances, business partners etc. This is how we have learnt to live with each other and how we have learnt to manipulate the daily activities of our lives and what we have set out to do. The fundamental aspect of all this is, Emotion: sadness, anger, fear, happiness, excitement, nonchalance....the list is goes on and on. These emotions guide our thoughts, and consequently our actions or vice versa and through action we are able to achieve many of that which has led to where we are as mankind today. 

So lets simplify this and move inwards so as to put this into context of  how this relates to colour and the seasons. We are living in an increasingly fast paced world and there is a great deal of expectation that we put into our daily lives, and this plays havoc with our emotions which change countless times a day as we go through our daily activities and this may leave one rather exhausted both physically and mentally or otherwise. Any person that wants to cope in this fast paced world we live in would realise that the most important aspect of our being is to keep things in order both inwardly (in our minds) and outwardly (in our physical being). As we attempt to do this we deal with a lot of our emotions by putting them in their right place and right mind. We expose ourselves to pleasures and pain; and we seek justification for each time we do this. This pleasure will come from satisfying our desires, through any of our senses together or individually - sight, smell, taste, touch (feel), hearing. These all tie back to thought of the mind, which is in direct connection with our emotions. 

We satisfy our desires by indulging ourselves in that which gives us pleasure,  both knowingly and unknowingly. When we knowingly indulge in that which gives us pleasure, we are stimulating one or more of the senses either in isolation or in unison, but we can never really address them all, and that always leads to temporary or incomplete fulfillment of our emotions, of which the feeling ceases once the stimulus is removed. We then have to question as to whether there can ever be complete fulfillment of our emotions, and what of this unknowing  fulfillment of our desires..?

I will explore unknowing fulfillment....

....you know it is sometimes said that happiness comes from enjoying life's simple pleasures. I have often wondered about the simple pleasures that were being referred to. I have often observed this, and also come to my own about this, and it seems it is enjoying the best of what nature has to offer. Some often have fulfillment from just taking a walk in nature and completely immersing myself in the moment taking in the colours. Walking along a crystal clear stream, listening to the water trickle along the rocks, hearing the birds sing, seeing the explosion of colours as the sun pierces through the clouds and trees, the fresh air, the hills, the sway of trees, and removing all of life's complexities that have been created by man, removing the ego from the self and actually realising there is more to life that all the superficial satisfaction thats put before us. 

The beauty of all this is that I can never really get bored of all these stimuli, they keep fascinating me as nature has a way of keeping itself interesting. It changes throughout all the year, as it cycles through all the seasons and sheds its skin of the old and brings about renewal. This always tends to bring about a renewal in our emotions aswell, and most of us do not even realise this...it is involuntary. I  would like to use spring as an example because of the explosion of colours as nature restarts its engines for yet another cycle of life. Nature and man celebrates spring in different parts of the world, through different religions, festivites, rituals and cultural acknowledgements. Each season has its own story its own joys and its own sorrows, the harshest of which is winter, which represents struggle and survival for all life on earth. The colours of nature seem to tone down during this period as the plants lose their leaves and the leaves lose their colour. It has been investigated and it has been proven that colour has an effect on the way we feel, it is a stimulus that has a strong correlation with our emotions.

What is colour anyway..? We see colours as light bounces off objects, and light is a wave with different wavelengths and each wavelength represents a different colour; this is what has given rise to what scientists call the light spectrum - a representation of light of all different wavelengths giving different colours. A physicist who has studied this at depth will tell you that different waves with different wavelengths carries with it different energy levels. Our eyes are the receptors for colour and there is a limit to the wavelength of colours we can see. It is often on the two extreme ends of the colour spectrum infrared light and ultraviolet light, but all that is in between we can percieve. This got me thinking that, all the different energies of the different colours gives us a particular type of energy as we see it - it is all transfer of energy.

Colours on the low end of the spectrum such as reds tend to represent strong emotional responses, such as fear, anxiety, anger, love etc/ red is a colour with the longest wavelength and has the least energy, as we move up the spectrum to orange we tend to see a representation of warmth, happiness, hope etc.Colours in the middle of the spectrum such as greens  represent a calm, serenity and nature and as we move up to the high energy colours such as blues and violets represent good energy, spirituality and upliftment. Thats just the general jist of it, and it is a lot more complex than I have put it out here.

We often share the best of natures colours, scents and tastes with our fellow human beings , from giving the gift of flowers to our loved ones, to sharing a drink, a fruit, a walk in the park....the list goes on. We are all trying to capture that piece of  natures brilliance -the brilliance which has given us (man) that simple pleasure which has evoked emotions that bring us inner calm and peace because THAT is what has given us complete fulfillment. There is nothing wrong with allowing ourselves to stop once in a while and enjoy life's simple pleasures and completely immerse ourselves in the best of what nature has to offer.

As the first rains pour on the parched earth, new life beckon, new opportunities arise and it shall be all over again.

 I am reminded of a quote while reading a book from a philosopher:
"...And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth  thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth. But rather a heart inflamed and a soul enchanted. It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear, But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears. It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw, But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels  for ever in flight."
-Kahlil Gibran ( from the book "The Prophet" ISBN: 978-0-86852-048-3)

Cheers

kMoe

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#inthought -Time

The concept of time was invented purely as a measurement of progression -at least that's what I think.
Anyways, the reasons for my assertion is that time as dimensionless as it is seems to have a finite dimension. I will not try to get into the deep metaphysics of this one, as I myself am gettin confused, so really if we are both confused then what is the point.

Anyways my discussion about time is to mainly emphasise its point as an organisational tool. Mankind has seen himself grow more and more sophisticated as the concept of time became more a part of their activity, and eventually their person, and finally their own existence.

Time keeping is something that has been around for thousands of years from as early as 2000 b.c. and during this time different methods of measuring time changed from water clocks to candle clocks to insence clocks right up to sunclocks, and they were mostly communal time measurement rather than personalised use. The earliest western clock use was by the christian monks who made some of the 1st mechanical clocks in medieval times, as they were used to manage time between work schedules and prayer time. Innovation on mechanical clocks was continually carried out and this saw the 1st personal watch being used in the 15th/16th century.

The people that were using watches were prestigious members of society and they were businessmen, and they were efficient with their time as they could get more done during the day.

So my thought is, if this was the case then, is it still the same today? Well it seems to be! Simply because our world has been moving towards doing things in the shortest amount of 'time'. So clearly there is something to be learnt here..."Time is of the essence". Ever heard that before?

In the modern world time is so much a part of our lives, like most things, it has become a constant. We don't pay attention to it cause we expect it to be there. I say we should appreciate time, respect
 And recognise that its there, we have so many tools at our disposal, technology that makes it seem like we can even warp time. Take the planning ability smart phones give you, imagine how effortless daily organisers and planners make doing seem so easy. They show you how u have the time to do any number of things within any given period.

So when you say "I just don't have the time". Do you really not?

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Birds of Botswana - Weavers (Ploceidae)

The spring of 2011 opened my eyes up to a lot of natures wonders and the hive of activity that takes place during this wonderful season. This could perhaps be the cause of my long absence from the African continent which I personally think is a continent that is full of life and feels alive. I have been observing the seasons and its changes on people and nature in my experiences when I was in different parts of the world, such as the dense jungles of Malaysia and the vast expansive forests and deserts of Australia, but nothing seems as wonderful as seeing nature in its full life in the continent of Africa.

One thing that particularly caught my eye was bird life and how it interacts with its natural environment which it seems is constantly evolving and adapting to changes in the environment brought about by modern day human existence. One of the birds that i have been following is the male African weaver, which comes from the Ploceidae family that is broken into 17 genera, with about 116 species all different in much the way that they are alike. Weaver birds are also known as weaver finches and this name comes from the intricate nature of their well built nests that seem as if they were built by a creature with tools and opposable thumbs. These birds can be found in most of Southern Africa and India.

The weaver is a very quick bird and very hard to photograph, so you can imagine the challenge one would have when using a point and shoot camera to capture such a bird in action live in nature. I  was fortunate during this spring to have the chance to capture some half decent shots of  a male lesser masked weaver (Ploceus intermedus) just as I was setting up my camera for a photoshoot in the backyard of a residence in Gaborone-West, Botswana.

This bird was building a nest and there is something particularly interesting about the manner in which it does it. Weavers are known to build their nests in colonies and usually a tree that has got the nests of the weavers will usually have more than one ranging between four and ten on mostly acacia trees. The nest building exercise is also known to be part of its mating behavior as it uses the nest to attract a female mating partner, the male bird is know to build several nests from which the potential mate selects one (usually the first one) which she will complete and make it their nesting home.

Birds build nests for protection from weather elements, predation and they also provide a shelter where the young will be raised and taken care of. I see many people that enjoy cutting down trees and tree branches for no apparent reason other than their own, and this puts pressure on the birds to relocate a new habitat. Usually this causes disruption to mating patterns of the birds and may lead to dwindling population numbers. Conserve  trees to help protect our beautiful creatures.

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#inthought -Observation

ok, I think this blog may be going in the direction past my intentions...but hey its a blog, and I'll just let it go the direction that feels right. As with most things that we do, we act and react to situations based on collective information that we receive from observation.

Observation is something that occurs all the time, we do it intentionally or unintentionally, and its something that we do from the moment we are born. It is through life's experiences that we are shaped by our observations, and eventually those collective observations become part of us. Take for example, learning how to speak. A baby is born without the ability of speech, yet through hundreds and hundreds of days of human interaction and observation a baby learns to speak, and they will speak like whom they have been observing -their observation has become part of them.


Is what we observe the true representation of what we see? or is it based on what we want to see. Are we impervious to occurances that occur right infront of our eyes but independent of our vision? Again my 2 cents...we see something becuase we want to see it, that is, we become part of what we observed in the past to the point where our observation of the present can never be independent of ourselves. What we have here is then conflict caused by these observation: assumptions, social beleifs and conformity are what causes this conflict.

This may sound neither here nor there, but if you carefully read the statements and think about them, you might see this in a different light. To put this into context, I'll put forth an example that can occur and probably does a lot of the time.
When someone presents their view in a discussion, they will most certainly almost always refer to a past event in order to validate their observation as one that is "more" true. They would utter the words "In my experience.." or "back in my day...". The problem with that according to me is that it past observations of a similar subject in the present will give the same perception, but how accurate is it? (given the fast changing and dynamic world that we live in). What has merely happened is that the observer has limited their subject of current observation to the past and therefore will give rise to conflict.

which is probably why adults and teens seem to never get along in some societies (intergenerational gap). Is it probably due to adults' observation that is not independent from self that fails to account for the variables present today. Past events can have similar attributes to present events of the same nature, but they are no way the same, and therefore assuming that acting or reacting in the same way and expecting similar results is truely foolish...but its something we see happen everyday of our lives. What im trying to say here is that close minded observation (that is not free from self) creates conflict by not not observing something in its entirety and is what certainly leads to misintepretation. 

 this is in no way trying to suggest that we shouldnt learn from the past. Then again im not suggesting anything!!

So how would one avoid this conflict? Would it be to separate observation from the self..? and how would one go about that.? perhaps its not possible, or perhaps its what it is to be human, then again, I would say that open mindedness would be one of the ways to avoid conflict. To truely separate emotion from observation, and just as we can never really completely separate emotion from observation, we can never be truely be free from conflict.

but we can go some way in opening our minds to the world around us. What you see is what you get, but if you want to see more, you will get more.

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Charity Photoshoot Against Human Trafficking - Shoot 2

It started off on a cloudy and frosty Saturday morning, we met just on the south Edge of Gabrone city. I was certainly surprised at the number of people that were going to work on this. Feeling very unsure on whether we would have a successful shoot as we made our way to the  rail track that would make the setting for the shoot; I got acquainted with the designers and other photographers, most were friends I hadn't seen in a while and others I just met but the overall energy and friendly atmosphere among us was enough to brighten up every day.

Equipment talk now out of the way, we quickly got got planning, while the designers and make up artists dressed and worked on the models; the photographers got scouting the location to get the best of the scenery. I went around looking for unique and interesting scenes that would make for interesting shots. The great thing was that we worked well together and even got to share and create some great ideas for the scenes.

As soon as we started we got snapping and things flowed so organically and seamlessly as if we had practiced for it prior. By midday we had a small lunch provided by the shoot organisers as we casually had a chat to which we decided to have the last couple of shots and call it a day. It was a great success, and ill share some of the images that I managed to capture, but first a bit about the photoshoot.

About the shoot: 

ART FOR A CAUSE-HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS PROJECT COORDINATED BY DESERTARTZ

DesertArtz is a collective of visual artists who collaborate to achieve specific common goals. Artists who constitute DesertArts include a range of photographers, videographers, clothing and accessories designers, sculptors, painters, printmakers, make-up artists, leather crafters, potters, models and any kind of imaginable handymen and women. A remarkable passion for art and humanity has inspired this group of well versed artists to work hand in hand in the name of charity to raise awareness against human trafficking activities in Botswana and the rest of the world.

With its youthful population, economic disparities, porous borders, lack of opportunities for young people and flawed birth registration systems, Botswana has inevitably become an origin, destination and transit for the trafficking of persons. Women and children are most commonly trafficked without their consent for forced labor and sexual exploitation. Victims from Botswana and neighbouring countries are trafficked throughout Southern Africa with Botswana as the transit route mainly via the ‘Maputo Road’.

Botswana also has common cases of internal trafficking of vulnerable men, women and children. Children orphaned by different circumstances are usually not registered and they never officially acquire a formal nationality which is why they become targets who are easily moved around Botswana and other countries. In a time frame of countless generations children, refugees and internally displaced people in Botswana have been trafficked and subjected to manual labour. Children from poor rural communities are usually sent to work for wealthy families as domestic workers and cattle herders while they have most of their basic human rights violated. It has also come to our attention that Albinos are violently trafficked and killed for ritual purposes across Africa. 

Although human trafficking is world wide dismay, DesertArtz intends to primarily raise an intense awareness in Botswana then secondarily in Africa and the rest of the world. With our versatile talents, DesertArtz aspires to use art as a medium of raising this awareness by compiling previous fashion photo shoots and respective artworks to host an exhibition that would mark the inception of this endeavour. It is also our intention to send our video documentary to CNN –Project Freedom.

Artists currently involved in this project include;

DESIGNERS;

Tshegofatso Sino Ragontse- bead accessories D’vine Designs

Buhle- accessories Tswanalyric

Boitshoko Kebakile- accessories House of Divinity

Naiko- clothing Naiko

Maungo J Seabenyane- handpainted tshirts and bead accessories  ‘ outoftheblu’

Tsholofelo Madiabaso- clothing

Julia- bags label Valerie Clemence

Dondo Segola- bags

Tafadzwa- wireworks

Chandida Nlebesi- Shoes xix couture

Kepi Mngomezulu of Smarteez

PHOTOGRAPHERS;

Tsaone Majela- videography Green Hole Productions

Kopano Machailo- photography kMoe Foto

Kabo Olesitse- photography

Batho Matlhake-photography

Motheo Keitumetse

STYLISTS;

Dodo Bikane Zinc Boutique

Chandida Nlebesi

MAKE-UP ARTISTS

Fatima

Sino

MODELS

Kagiso Kablay

Christina

Eunice

Sino Ragontse

Nkamo

Thandie

Sadie

Khwame Acheampong

Diawyn

Katlo

Kgosi

Bonni

Here is my top ten shots I managed to capture (in no particular order)....

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