Nature's Place

Every now and again I offer to teach meditation locally and the ad has gone into the local paper and there have been a few calls. One from Dulci, who has been before in years past, and others who are new to me and perhaps this meditation.

When and if it takes place is entirely up to the people who want to take part. I can be flexible on timing up to a point, and because there are no costs involved doing it from home there is no charge. I prefer to leave money out of it anyway.

Anyone who sees the need for peace of mind can do this meditation. It’s far simpler than it reads. So, if you are reading this and are local and want to learn contact me and we’ll take it from there.

A niche Orb Spider with a web where no fly would find it, between high ridges of bark on a tree.

*Remember to click the pictures for a better sense …

Nature knows best for nature. Or something’s not right … don’t believe that for a minute.

An unusual find in the long grass, a Flower Beetle at rest at end of day, at end of season.

Tiny Jumping Spider, lives and hunts on the vertical, usually found on trees often stalking wandering ants.

Surprise, a piece of forest fruit against the darkening sky through the oof (out of focus) forest canopy.

This will be a Ladybird soon, still forming inside her shell.

A giant Robber Fly resting in the afternoon. Time enough for 2 shots and it was away.

Larva of some kind, can’t recall now, munching away on gum tree leaf.

They flick that tail when disturbed. Probably as well not to cuddle it.

Cockroach, shy and elusive. Not the kind to enter the house and eat your food.

Mother Shield Bug. Hiding her brood from me. Maternal instinct at work in the smallest creatures.

And back in the garden, a Harlequin Fly – yes, just made it up.

Tiny jet black Weevil. Almost too small to shoot and feature.

These pictures are of the odd ones that aren’t often posted these days. There is something remarkable about each, in their way. It’s nature’s common variety of weird and wonderful we don’t often see.

It is a form of meditation to really look at something, an image for instance. If you focus on seeing without thinking you’ll see what I mean. Thinking is in most cases always trying to get in on the act.

See the colour, the form, look into the detail. See or sense the space it all happens in. That’s all sense. And you can do this in any situation, any time or place that doesn’t actually require thinking for it to be or happen.

The way to keep thinking out is to keep coming back to seeing. Focus on seeing. Look, don’t think, by constantly returning to seeing or sensing. After a while thinking fades as a compulsion and in time it becomes a pleasure to do this.

Looking at these images is one form of meditation. Another is smelling the flowers, feeling the breeze, hearing the birds – or anything that requires the focus of attention on one sense or another, that you can exercise ‘not thinking’ in.

This focusing of attention on sense, on the ‘outer’, is the reciprocal of and complimentary to the focus of attention on the ‘inner’ sensation of the body. The tingling or pressure that is always there, which you probably already observe to some degree.

It is this focus on the inner that eventually, in time, amounts to sustainable peace of mind. Peace from the thinking mind and the emotion thinking stirs. What other peace is there a need of, really. If there is inner peace then surely the outer must follow.

Once you get the idea you’ve got it, it never leaves you so you never have to depend on another to be able to do it again. Though, until you master the practise, it does help to be guided by someone who has done it before you.

As in all things …

© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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