John Gray

Compassion

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"...to comfort all that mourn; to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesss..." [Isaiah 61:2-3]

Photograph by Suzanne Core

by John Gray
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I’m thankful for the technology that allows us to gather from distant places with such ease. It’s good to see you all and feel our presence together.

This is the last of our biweekly teleconference gatherings for this year. As calendar years draw to a close it’s usual to look back and assess the year that was. AJ Willingham, a writer for CNN, posted yesterday, “If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that kindness and compassion have never been more important. It’s taught us that difficult times are made easier when we work together, when we take care of each other; when we reach out a hand to those struggling and lift up the heroes that protect us. It’s taught us that the best way through the darkness is to look for the light—and if there is none, to make it ourselves.”

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Volker Brendel

Walk With Me

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"There are many ways to contribute. Particularly in these days when people might feel isolated and limited, let’s celebrate all efforts by anyone, anywhere to contribute to their highest vision, in whatever form is available to them. We recognize the spirit of love and truth in expression. That is what counts."

by Volker Brendel
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There are a variety of communication channels, some of which are lost in electronic transmission. We cannot quite see each other in the same way as when we are in the same room.  Certainly, we cannot smell each other. Perception of body language is limited. But then again this is not all that different from any form of communication. Ultimately, we always have to make do with what we have. We use words, gestures, body language, and so forth to convey something of our own experience. And then those we are communicating with perceive this and necessarily filter this through their own associations, related to their own experience. The best we can hope for is to convey with some accuracy what our experience is and that this translates for those with whom we wish to communicate. In that sense, technology doesn’t change too much; it just introduces more factors in the chain of communication that we have to consider.

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Sanford Baran

The Point of Balance

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"I am certain that balance is intrinsically present throughout all of the cosmos."

An artist’s concept of Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the “habitable zone.”
Credit... T. Pyle/NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech

by Sanford Baran
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Here in the U.S. it’s been a fairly quiet week with not much really happening!

All kidding aside, apart from the national election, which has been all-consuming for many, I thought I would do a scan of the universe and see if anything else of note was going on.

As you might be aware, the universe is believed to be expanding—and has been since the Big Bang. I was curious—how much did the universe expand this last week? So, using what is known as the Hubble Constant I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation and estimated that the outer reaches of the universe expanded by 110 billion miles in all directions, just last week. Not bad for a measly seven days’ worth of work. And to my knowledge the universe didn’t break a sweat. Sounds like expanding the universe is a lot easier than counting ballots!

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Larry Krantz

Higher Ground

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"If we are attuned to the fineness of spirit, we know when something does not feel right. By releasing ill patterns, we lift up to higher ground, those bonds no longer holding us captive."

Nemonte Nenquimo

by Larry Krantz
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Here are words from a letter written by an indigenous woman who lives in the Amazon basin. She is not well-educated or sophisticated, so many people dismiss what she says out of hand. I find this letter, which was later published in the Guardian, rings true. Here are her words: 

Dear presidents of the nine Amazonian countries and to all world leaders that share responsibility for the plundering of our rainforest.

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John Gray

Election Day

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"Nothing that truly matters
is at risk."

by John Gray
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When we turned the page of our Gregorian calendars to 2020 about ten months ago, I expressed in one of these teleconferences my hope that this would be a year of clear twenty-twenty vision.  I can’t say if things have worked out that way, but I think we could all say at this point that we’ve seen a few things this year! We’ve seen examples of real people acting in selfless altruism, in virtuous character, and we’ve seen the absence of these in dark self-centered depravity and distortion. 

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Volker Brendel

The Curse not Talked About

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"Are our interaction based on the highest expression of nobility and character accessible to us?"

Southern Indiana fossil. Photo credit: N. Pohl

by Volker Brendel
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Today is a beautiful autumn day. Leaves are turning in Southern Indiana and are displaying wonderful colors; a sight to behold. There is comfort in the predictability of the seasons. We know that summer will come to an end, autumn will come, and eventually winter and spring will follow. We take comfort in this orderly progression. We like to be able to predict our future, and yet our experience shows time after time that we don’t do a good job of this. Who among us could have imagined our current life circumstances from the perspective of fall of 2019, looking ahead just one year? As strange as it may sound, a year ago was pre-epidemic. Many of us wouldn’t have known what a coronavirus was, let alone how quickly it could spread across the globe and change almost everyone’s lifestyle. And that is covering only the very small timescale of one year!

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Sanford Baran, Kate Isaacs, Joyce Krantz

The Uplifting Spirit

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"Just the act of noticing what's right in an individual (and saying it out loud when the moment calls for it) is the single most important thing you can do with a child, or with anyone, to create that uplifting spirit where each one can grow into their greatest creative potential."

Photo by Nicola Pohl

by Sanford Baran, Kate Isaacs and Joyce Krantz
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            Sanford Baran: To begin our time together I wanted to play for you an audio soundscape that I produced last week that provides a surround for Alan Hammond’s poem, The Eternal Presence.

Listen to the soundscape    (12 and a half minutes)

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Bill Isaacs

The Authority of Quiet

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Photo by Nicola Pohl

by Bill Isaacs
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Let us be present together in this moment of quietness, to listen to the world around us, the world within us, the larger dimensions of Being that are always present.

There is a great deal of noise in the world. I was struck by this realization this summer when my family and I spent a few weeks on an Island 30 miles out to sea, off the coast of Massachusetts. We stayed in a place where you could constantly see the open sea, the sky, the wide landscape, and in the evenings, dazzling and richly textured sunsets. The Milky Way gleamed vividly luminous at night. And most strikingly, it was very quiet. There is a vastness and an openness to this place. I realized how nourishing that is, how sensual, and how easily that experience can be lost in the press of busy experience.

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Larry Krantz

To Live Gracefully

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"Grace, and graceful living, is no accident but the result of moving with the rhythms of Being, and of listening within. It is not a haphazard thing, but the result of right living."

by Larry Krantz
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The world is a messy and chaotic place, especially these days. There is an intensification happening which may prove destructive unless there is a rising up of spiritual consciousness to meet it and extend control, and we have an important part to play in letting this outworking be creative. People often favor quantity rather than quality oflife experience. They want more but have less. This notion is well-expressed by Dr. Bob Moorehead of Seattle (from Words Aptly Spoken, 1995). He says:

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John Gray, Pamela Gray

To Grace the World

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"Life is God’s gift to the world through humanity. This is why all life matters."

Photo by Pamela Gray

by Pamela Gray and John Gray
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Pamela Gray: In these days of intensification when so many feel this world is rapidly moving out of control in horrendous ways, there is a constant.  We gather like this to remember. The grace of God is with us. This is the constant that has always been and always will be present: God’s grace.

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