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Applying Krishnamurti’s Wisdom

December 20, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
2004 Letter from Johan Lem Issue No. 24, 2004-2005 of the Krishnamurti International Link magazine, contained the letter below from Johan Lem. I don’t know who Mr. Lem is, but this letter struck me as the most common-sense approach to applying K’s work that I have ever seen. To me, this letter is worth decades of reading and studying, if it is applied. I suspect however, that until one has done decades of reading and studying, letters like this mean nothing. I hope it can save you more time than it saved me! Understanding, or Living the Teachings? After having read a few articles in different issues of The Link, I have the impression that the goal of many authors is to understand the teachings, and their approach is often very intellectual and complicated. My approach is simple. Many years ago I used the teachings to understand myself. This understanding is not intellectual, but direct; it occurs through seeing what is happening one’s psyche when it happens. This seeing comes through a state of awareness when inner and outer senses are open, alert, interested to see or experience what is taking place there and then, no matter whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. From that moment on, if one is alert in daily life, the teachings are no longer so important: ‘what is’ has taken over the teaching job. As in this awareness thought has automatically calmed down, such a state cannot be found through any activity of thought. There […]
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Krishnamurti – The Observer is the Observed

October 25, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
‘The Observer is the Observed’. I struggled for years to understand what Krishnamurti meant by this cryptic statement that he repeated often. This is what I think he meant, although I may be missing the essence of it. We are the world, and the world is us, we are not different from what we are ‘seeing’, if we are in fact seeing it at all. I believe his message was to see ‘what is’, not ‘what should be’. When we see ugliness in ourselves our minds immediately escape into ‘what should be…’, what I will do it improve myself… but this (almost instantaneous are largely unconscious) escape prevents us from seeing clearly in the present moment, rather we are escaping into the past or future. It was part of Krishnamurti’s message that only by seeing what is, what actually is, can we can begin to make progress in understanding ourselves, which is the first step in real change. This video, and other incredibly well produced videos on Krishnamurti, are available through the Krishnamurti Foundation of America ©: https://theimmeasurable.org/
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The (Vaccine) Desperation of the Super-Rich

September 20, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
Here I was, sailing through my week, until someone sent me this video below about the ‘vaccine’. I can take most things in stride in a spiritual sense, keeping the first principle of miracles in mind (‘there is no order of difficulty in miracles’) and forgiving (overlooking), but this was different. This did break my personal order of difficulty. It’s things like this that deeply offend me, that are obviously gross violations of the most basic elements of human dignity, that are practiced not by the poor and suffering, but often by the richest people in the world. In this case Bill Gates of Microsoft, Ray Kurlweil of google, and Elon Musk of Tesla. This is hard to understand unless you watch this. But be warned, it’s scary stuff. Really scary, if it’s all accurate, and I have no reason to believe it’s not. NOTE 2020.12.09: THE VIDEO BELOW IS NOT THE ONE THIS ARTICLE REFERS TO, BUT IS SIMILAR. The original video has been censored by youtube and other sources. We no longer live in a society that permits free speech. You should see a ‘Brighteon Conversations’ video below, unless it too is removed. Why would billionaires like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Ray Kurzweil lower themselves to this level? It’s clearly obvious that money has not made them happy. In fact, the more money and control they have, the more they want. The reality is that we all share one mind, we are not inherently different from these […]
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The Difference Between Simple and Easy

August 21, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
August 17, 2020 by ACIM teacher Doug Sparks The terms ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ are so often found together to describe the same thing that it is not surprising that the two terms are often unconsciously conflated. This is of little or no consequence most of the time since what is simple is often also easy. Not so, however, when the term ‘simple’ is applied to ACIM, as Jesus does throughout his course. Ironically, it is the Course’s simplicity that is hard for us to grasp. In describing his course, Jesus says … For here we have an answer, clear and plain beyond deceit in its simplicity. All the complexities the world has spun of fragile cobwebs disappear before the power and the majesty of this extremely simple statement of the truth (W-pI.122.6:6-7). Understandably, when one begins reading and perhaps, studying ACIM, it can take some time to adjust one’s thinking to align with its thought system. While the writing style is unfamiliar to most readers in the beginning, it is what the Course says that is so challenging. The most basic metaphysical premise of ACIM … that there is no world (W-pI.132.6:2) … confronts our belief in the reality of our perceptions. Thus begins the process of realizing that our self/ego generated experience is not the truth. We must develop the humility to question the assumption that our perceptions are correct, and the honesty to recognize that we are wrong about all of our perceptions when they are generated from the ego. This course is simple, […]
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Translating Anger into Needs

July 6, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
Here’s a central technique in Marshall Rosenberg’s ‘Non Violent Communication’. Underneath our anger, judgements, strategies, opinions, evaluations, and blame of others is our needs. All people have the same basic needs, for security, safety, happiness, protection, fulfillment, autonomy, peace, meaning, connection, etc. If we can recognize and connect with these universal needs that are consistent in all of us, we have a better chance of connecting and getting what each person wants. If we can see beyond the anger, blame, and judgements to the needs, new and often unexpected strategies of dealing with the situation may appear. Even if they don’t, being more conscious of the needs of ourselves and others can bring out more compassion in both. When we are being attacked by others the natural inclination is to be defensive and attack in return. This quickly escalates. Consider an alternative approach. Instead of seeing the attack coming from the other, look beyond it to the feelings and needs behind it. Don’t allow yourself to become hooked into the storyline…look beyond it to what is empowering it. When we or others use judgmental language we are more likely to disconnect, and to fail to identify and be able to resolve our underlying needs which we may not be conscious of (“I’m just damn angry! I don’t know why…”). Needs might be obvious… but often they are not. If you don’t know what the underlying issue is, you can help the other person to identify it in themselves and better […]
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3 Systems of Thought

July 4, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
The PDF embedded in this page presents my interpretation of the three modes of thought available to us. The first is the standard mode of thought in this world. Our separation from God created such unimaginable guilt that this world literally had to be projected outside of us. The one mind of God that we all share then became split into billions of ‘minds’ and bodies, all of which appear to be separate from us. When we observe any person, object, idea, or thing outside of us our brain immediately ‘recognizes’ it, names it, recovers past memories or stored thoughts about it, which colors our interpretation of it. The idea at this point becomes more important than the thing we observing, which we no longer see rightly. A favorite plan of the ego is to hold grievances, which we tell ourselves will be healed when the other person ‘changes’, which they never will. The vast majority of the world is trapped in this circular thinking system. Under A Course in Miracles thought system, recognition, naming, and ideation (recovery of good or bad memories) still occurs, however at this point we are watching these patterns unfold in our minds and make a conscious decision to turn this entire encounter over to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sees all things as either Love, or a call for Love. Thus the Holy Spirit interprets the other persons ‘sins’ as illusory dreams that represent a call for Love, and that require not punishment […]
why BLM won't work
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Why BLM Won’t Work

June 25, 2020 Ron Gordon 0
It won’t work because the problem is in each one of us, not where we conveniently see the problems…. in everyone else. Few of us want to accept responsibility for that. After all, that’s what keeps the world going round and round. Until we decide to get off the boat.