Serious

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Reframing Weaknesses in a New Light

August 6, 2021 Ron Gordon 0
Reframing Weaknesses in a New Light In surprising ways, character traits or personal conditions that seem to block us can sometimes be transmuted into the very thing that can help us most. Our job (largely) is to stay alert to these special moments. From early American history we are provided with another illustration of the unexpected way in which this process can unfold. This true story concerns Clark Davis, a resident in 1827 of Independence, Missouri, and one of twenty-five men who conducted the first, and perhaps most foolish, silver mining expedition to Colorado. One of his friends, James Cockrell, claimed to have found a silver mine in Colorado four years earlier while on a beaver-trapping venture. In the summer of 1827 Clark, his friend, and twenty three other frontiersmen set off on horseback to make their fortunes. James Cockrell was appointed leader of the group. Crossing the Great Plains in those times was dangerous. Each man took only his horse, a rifle and ammunition, scant bedding, and enough food for the first ten days. Hostile Indians would be a constant threat during the trip. Yet the group successfully made it through two hundred miles where food was scarce and found itself following the Arkansas River westward through buffalo country. So all the way to the base of the Rocky Mountains a steady supply of food was available. Once they were in the proper region, the leader of the expedition had considerable trouble finding the silver deposits. Clark and the […]
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The Fly

June 28, 2021 Ron Gordon 0
Today I had an unusual interaction with a fly. It’s not over yet, and I’m pretty sure it won’t end well. I’ve had many interactions with flies throughout my long life, usually totally unconsciously, as I killed them in the quickest manner without a thought. But today’s fly was different. I left my basement office about 10:30 AM and went to the kitchen to make coffee. I felt great time pressure to get back to work as quickly as possible, and in this time of great stress for all with what happening in the world (what is happening…. just a standard communist takedown of the Western world) I was completely fixated on myself and in no mood for delays. The fly buzzed past and without a thought I lashed out with the back of my right hand and, amazingly, hit him hard. He bounced off the wall and fell by the toaster, obviously hurt. Instantly remorse hits me. I look at him, wishing I could back up 5 seconds and just let him fly by, and this whole scenario never happens. He’s trying to right himself, and one of his wings is now displaced somehow.  I wish I could just fix him and set him free again. Why did I do that? I’m 170lbs, he’s a few ounces at most, and the way I hit him was full of anger and violence and must have shaken or broken every solid object in his body. And all this without any hesitation, […]
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The NOW From Three Teachers

June 20, 2021 Ron Gordon 0
The NOW From Three Teachers The ‘now’, or the eternal present instant, is the only space we ever are in reality. Paradoxically, the context in which we use the word ‘we’ refers to our ego mind, which has become crippled by its dependence on thought (a product of the past), which is based entirely on the past, or on the projected past… which is the future. The ego mind (as opposed to our universal mind) is incapable of being in the present ‘now’. This one observation, obviously true, presents us with a frustratingly simple challenge…why we are we simply unwilling or incapable to experience the present now? We treat the now as an unimportant gap between the past and the future to be avoided… but the past is gone…and the future never arrives. But the reality is we are evermore in the ‘now’, which we refuse to recognize. What is insanity, if not this? I’d like to look at the concept of time from the perspective of three of the greatest world teachers of our time… A Course in Miracles, Jiddhu Krishamurti, and Eckhardt Tolle. I believe all are saying the same thing on this topic with different words, the Course from a vastly broader array of teachings, and Krishnamurti and Tolle from their respective teachings which are not only very similar, but emphasize the ‘now’ as one of, or in Tolle’s case, their primary concept. ///////////  A Course in Miracles: (Chapter 13 – The Function of Time)  ///////////// (Note: […]
image of world in our mind
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The World is Us

May 22, 2021 Ron Gordon 0
“It is difficult to get a person to understand their world, when their world depends on their not understanding it.” This quote above is perhaps the reason that I, after decades of studying, still simply refuse to understand simple concepts. No matter how simple and obvious they may be, the fact that their acceptance collapses our world view is enough to make them suicide to accept. Except, if they are true, it is suicide not to accept them and we willingly acknowledge that we will not escape this world alive. Might there be another way? Here are few paraphrased quotations below, from ACIM, Krishnamurti, or Eckhardt Tolle. I believe all are essentially saying the same thing in different words. These are spiritual foundations, and without their acceptance we cannot go far. The world is in our mind. This sounds like philosophical conjecture, but let’s set that aside and consider that it is a truth so fundamental and obvious that it’s acceptance would truly be a thought reversal. Paraphrased from ACIM chapter 12 section 3, ‘The investment in Reality’: ‘We always perceive this world as outside ourselves, for this is crucial to our adjustment. We do not realize that we make this world, for their is no world outside of ourselves. We have projected outward what is antagonistic to what is inward, and therefore we would have to perceive the world this way. This is why we must realize that our hatred is in our mind, and not outside of it before get can […]