#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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