Thoughts | Solid Rock Vista

Belong November 9, 2009

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:39 -0800

Perhaps the most difficult thing for those of us trapped in the physical body and the world to which it is glued is to separate ourselves from…

Duro October 26, 2009

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:39 -0700

During a phone conversation with a man I haven’t seen in over three decades he mentioned that he’d read something that I’d recently written. …

Deception October 19, 2009

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:39 -0700

One of the ways we justify our negative emotions is to call them something else. It’s a sly form of denial. Using the word sly may seem…

Defending September 28, 2009

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:00:39 -0700

A little bit of Self-Observation can show us how we justify all that we are as well as all that we do. I’m not sure what the difference is, if…

Payment September 14, 2009

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:00:39 -0700

There are two big globs of mud that people find to toss at spiritual leaders. The same two things that seem to make civilized man crazy at…

Uncomfortable August 17, 2009

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:00:39 -0700

Every now and then someone new comes to our group. This is remarkable because we don’t talk much about our group so there are not many ways a…

Pruning August 10, 2009

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:00:39 -0700

It was 34 years ago that I first pursued an interest in bonsai trees. The word bonsai is Japanese, from bon ‘tray’ + sai ‘planting.’ The idea…

Inside August 3, 2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:00:39 -0700

It was 5 a.m. and still dark when I was driving my wife to the airport one day last week. It’s true there’s nothing remarkable about that.…

Labor July 27, 2009

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:00:39 -0700

Though most people probably don’t give it much thought, one of the things Gurdjieff emphasized was labor. Given the condition of our society…

Octaves July 20, 2009

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:00:39 -0700

A friend and I were talking the other day about some projects we have going around the house. While under the house I found a maintenance…

Willpower July 13, 2009

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:00:39 -0700

If you’ve read much of what I’ve written you know of my fascination with words and how their meanings have evolved and changed over the years.…

Sorrow July 6, 2009

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:00:37 -0700

Sorrow, like many of our words, is often difficult to define. The problem is compounded by the Confusion of Tongues that comes from our…

Christianity June 29, 2009

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:00:31 -0700

There are certain people who have a profound affect our lives though we rarely know it when we have them in our lives. It may take many years…

Nehemiah June 22, 2009

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:00:31 -0700

Forty isn’t an especially large number but depending on the scale it could be huge. It’s been forty years since I semiconsciously started to…

Accounting June 15, 2009

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:33 -0700

A few weeks ago, in one of our meetings, someone mentioned how much they admired another in the group. Then they qualified it by saying there…

Weakness June 8, 2009

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:00:47 -0700

While sitting in the customer lounge of an auto dealership my sensibilities were being assailed by CNN news spewing from the television on the…

Levels June 1, 2009

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:00:42 -0700

One of the tragedies of our condition is how we can be aware of something intellectually and imagine we understand it. As an example, lately…

Assassin May 25, 2009

Mon, 25 May 2009 05:00:56 -0700

We are assassins in the true sense of the word. Assassins don’t murder just anyone. What gives them the distinction of being assassins rather…

Simpleton May 18, 2009

Mon, 18 May 2009 05:00:42 -0700

Daring to be a simpleton seems to me a courageous act. Perhaps not as much in this age of natural simpletons as in a time when the word meant…

Failure May 11, 2009

Mon, 11 May 2009 05:00:42 -0700

Looking back over the past forty years of my life I’ve realized what an incredible failure I have been. When I found this path, or it found me,…

Crisis May 4, 2009

Mon, 04 May 2009 05:00:04 -0700

For the majority of us, crisis is not a pretty word. It’s more like a trigger word for stress, drama and upset of one kind or another. The…

Htrae April 27, 2009

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:00:24 -0700

Our ordinary state of consciousness, no matter what it may be, is such a strange thing. To us, everything is the same as everything else,…

Ransom April 20, 2009

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:00:05 -0700

As with everything else in life, living in a semi-rural area has its advantages as well as its downside. For many years I have kept geese on…

Dichotomy April 13, 2009

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:00:01 -0700

Once upon a time there was a foolish man sleeping under a mango tree. As the story goes, the Lord was passing by and the fool asked him, Oh…

Genders April 6, 2009

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:00:01 -0700

While thinking about the differences which appear to be inherent in the genders I noticed that different I’s in ourselves may be classified by…

Synchronization March 30, 2009

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:00:19 -0700

Last week we changed our timing for updating the weekly Podcasts. The idea was to better synchronize what we’re doing in the group with what…

Stupormen March 23, 2009

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:00:19 -0700

A language in use is alive. It shifts, changes and morphs. Meanings change over time as understanding shrinks. Our species, on this planet,…

Titles March 20, 2009

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:00:11 -0700

The other day I was thinking about what I do. It’s something I think about in cycles. The mind loves labels, concepts, titles and words because…

Beauty March 13, 2009

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:00:04 -0700

Gradually, over the last month or so I’ve become aware of a strange and interesting state of mind. It’s not that I don’t know the state of mind…

Busy March 6, 2009

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:00:52 -0800

While chatting online with a listener the other day I was reminded of the story of Martha and Mary. You can find it at the end of the tenth…

Sailing February 27, 2009

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:00:52 -0800

While taking a ten day meditation course with a friend I noticed that every morning he was the first in line at the dining hall. Participants…

Elasticity February 20, 2009

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:00:52 -0800

The first time I ever heard about tithing was in 1969 while reading about it in a book. It seemed like such an amazing idea and made what thus…

Justification February 13, 2009

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:00:00 -0800

The Work finds us in a strange condition. We want to have different lives but we don’t want to change. Oh, we think we want to change but when…

Warning February 6, 2009

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:00:31 -0800

There are things that work in the outer world that do not work well internally. The more we move in consciousness from the coarser to the finer…

Nada January 23, 2009

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:00:03 -0800

Living in Southern California, less than an hour from the border of Mexico, gives one an opportunity to pick up a little Spanish. Nada, in…

GooRue January 16, 2009

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:00:46 -0800

This play on words isn’t designed to diminish genuine gurus. It’s for the rest of us. Goo is a sticky or slimy substance. Rue is to bitterly…

Intention January 9, 2009

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:00:13 -0800

While chatting with someone the other day I asked him about his aim. He said he didn’t have a clear aim. That’s not true. What is true is that…

Acquire January 1, 2009

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:00:03 -0800

Societies, cultures and families have established traditions for many mellennia. What seems normal to one group may be foreign to another. Over…

Thoughts from 2008

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 09:50:43 -0800

Freedom
December 26, 2008
Ratatouille
December 5, 2008
Origins
December 12, 2008
Answers
December 19, 2008
Motion
November 28, 2008
FAQ
November 21, 2008
Peas
November 14, 2008
Change
November 7, 2008
Results
October 31, 2008
Seasons
October 24, 2008
Understanding
October 17, 2008
Meditation
October 10, 2008
Belief
October 3, 2008
Unpleasant
September 26, 2008
Opportunity
September 12, 2008
Roles
September 5, 2008
Thanks
August 29, 2008
Practice
August 22, 2008
Meaning
August 15, 2008
Signs
August 8, 2008
Authority
August 1, 2008
War
July 25, 2008
Opposites
July 18, 2008
Vision
July 11, 2008
Impartial
July 4, 2008
Ease
June 27, 2008
Notions
June 20, 2008
Flying
June 13, 2008
Bonsai
June 6, 2008
Restaurant
May 30, 2008
Wrong
May 23, 2008
Monkeys
May 16, 2008
Hindsight
May 9, 2008
Tail Chasing
May 2, 2008
Easy
April 25, 2008
Suffering
April 18, 2008
Wishing
April 11, 2008
Words
April 4, 2008
Misnomer
March 28, 2008
Organizations
March 21, 2008
Paradox
March 14, 2008
Taste
March 7, 2008
Choice
February 29, 2008
Government
February 22, 2008
Rules
February 15, 2008
Drip
February 8, 2008
Backside
February 1, 2008
Balance
January 25, 2008
Cults
January 18, 2008
IOU
January 11, 2008
Railroad
January 4, 2008

Thoughts from 2007

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:46:51 -0800

Ripening
December 28, 2007
Syndrome
December 21, 2007
Warning
December 14, 2007
Projectionist
December 7, 2007
Goodness
November 30, 2007
Centers
November 23, 2007
Self-Love
November 16, 2007
Secrets
November 9, 2007
Giving
November 2, 2007
Memories
October 26, 2007
Practice
October 19, 2007
Non-Identification
October 12, 2007
Pictures
October 3, 2007
Growth
September 28, 2007
Shortcuts
September 8, 2007
Discouragement
September 4, 2007
Teachings
August 31, 2007
Conspiracy II
August 19, 2007
Conspiracy I
August 17, 2007
Limitation
August 8, 2007