Nature's Place

I came upon this Orb Weaver one night, molting. Hanging upside-down from a few strands of silk.

*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again

Gravity helps him exit the old body, too small now. And helps his new body stretch to its full extent.

Swaying and turning in the night breeze, it took a while to get free of the old. No doubt some effort is involved.

Stretching out to aid the new, exposed to every danger … but not a predator in sight. Safe on a silken thread.

A crop, to show his eating gear. Fangs above the palps, and above that a couple rows of black cutters.

After a while hanging down he curled up, clenching his new body. A little natural spider yoga preps it for action.

Not yet ready to start his new life. Exercises need repetition, duration and timing for optimal effect.

Brand new spider body … functioning perfectly … almost ready for life on the wire … how many more to go, bodies.

It’s a theatre, a play, a part, then shuffle off the stage … to a new body, and newer still, until the last and then no more …

… to be born, or die, into a world of light and beauty. But who’s to tell, unless you see …

Free? Not yet, old shell gone now but still some living to do. Hanging in there … for what may be.

And once he’s done here, upside down, he turns around and back he goes from whence he came, into the black night.

It takes a spider a long time to be born again. And then there’s no guarantee …

But guarantee would be a form of death … to any self-respecting spider.

Then again, life’s one guarantee to every form is death.

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

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*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again

… maybe, maybe not.

Who knows what’s in a spiders mind.

Not personalised thinking, that’s for sure …

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

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What is it? People talk about what they think is intelligence, and what is not, don’t they? But what is it really, as far as being free of unhappiness is concerned? Because surely that is the first intelligence that matters in a world beset with human violence and misery? Perhaps it’s the only intelligence that really matters.

Let’s start with nature. There is obviously intelligence in and behind nature, obvious to me. Just look at it. Nature is the seed that becomes the mighty tree that houses a myriad creatures and lives in a forest that is watered by passing clouds that appear in the all encompassing sky of a planet that exists in a complex system of planets and orbiting moons governed by the sun that is one star in a galaxy of star systems, as can be seen in the night sky. And everything happens in concert. Nobody can tell me there isn’t intelligence in this amazing nature.

But let’s stay here and now. The unique characteristic of natural intelligence is there is no problem in it, no unhappiness. This can be observed in the nature around you – except where domestic or ‘industrial’ animals are mistreated, the plants and animals are free of unhappiness. Because theirs is a purely instinctive intelligence, they don’t think or get emotional, naturally.

Not so with people. Like all of nature we too are instinctively intelligent first, but then we also have the capacity for self reflection. We can think and be emotional about our nature, which we do, and it’s entertaining for a while. But by indulging in it we become attached and add to ourselves a past, a reservoir of psychic pressure that builds up as the sub-conscious. And there’s the rub, we can’t stop it any more, if we ever could.

By our continued indulgence we keep building on the living past inside, the pressure in the psyche is getting worse and we are not in control of our own minds. In other words we are not responsible. And that’s the only problem on earth.

Check it out for yourself though. When you are down or depressed or ‘insert your own problem here’ isn’t it emotion and thinking that brings it on first and then sustains it, without your volition? Against your will …

So, the problem is identified. Thinking and emotion is in control and making a mess of life on earth, your life. So it seems.

Or am I mad? Everybody thinks and gets emotional, nothing could be more normal. But is it intelligent? When you see thinking and emotion are causing your problems is it intelligent to continue with it?

Not in my experience. So I did something about it … and I am not special. I live an ordinary life, work at the computer, pay my bills, do the gardening, de-flea the house, feed the cat, do the shopping and so on – the ordinary stuff.

But I also did something unusual – not normal, but still ordinary – meaning anybody can do it. After many years doing what caused me pain I had enough and met a spiritual teacher, Barry Long – dead now, who showed me how to negate my self made pain, through meditation first. And that was the beginning of the end to my own unhappiness, the beginning of me being responsible for my life.

So I have to say … looking around me now, I don’t see intelligent people. I see normal thinking emotional people who don’t seem to know what to do about their recurring unhappiness, even if they see it as a problem to be solved.

There is a way though, to become intelligent enough to negate the cause of unhappiness. And it begins with meditation. I have done it as much as need be for now, and go on … by grace.

I have gotten down to my original instinctive intelligence and it tells me not to do what hurts any more, naturally. That is being intelligent, being responsible for the quality of my life, being free of unhappiness.

I don’t ask myself any more ‘what’s it all about?’, ‘why am I here?’, ‘where’s it all going?’. I know what I am doing with my life, I know what’s happening with life on earth.

And I know because I love life, god, love or truth enough to put it first in my life. Is there really any other way to be?

I don’t think so. And it is realised, by right action.

*As always, your comments and questions are welcome and I will respond.

And where would we be without a little entertainment from our instinctive cousins …

Step into the light. An expressive little creature wanders the tree without a sign of fear, instinctively.

*Click on the pictures for a proper look …

The genius … in a jumping spiders big eyes to see, her spiky legs to catch, clawed feet to grip with …

She dances in front of the lens, staccato gait, and jumps onto the glass for a quick look around.

Elegant and sure-footed on her pad of silk she calls home, for now. From where she patrols to feed.

She looks like she might have babies on the way. But not a thought for the future or past, just being here now.

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

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