CONTEMPLATION — A THINKING MEDITATION

Rip Parker
3 min readDec 1, 2023

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Random thoughts that seem worth thinking.

I talk to myself, and risk sharing it with others.

Thank you for life, for this beautiful day, and for peaceful friendship, and for family.

Thank you for all things, for they serve their purpose.

It seems the only good purpose for war is to end war and conflict.

Anger tends to be destructive. Anger reveals weakness. So, in that light anger can serve a beneficial purpose, if we allow it to. We can learn about ourselves, if we are willing to face ourselves. Then, anger having served its purpose, must be let go.

Fear can serve good purpose . It gives rise to true courage which can only be found in the act of confronting fear.

Fear is not weakness. Weakness comes only when we surrender to fear.

We all have our role to play, even the most disgusting, despicable, among us, like Donald Trump and his acolytes. They reveal to us our dark side.

Yes, I dare judge, because I dare not, but my judgement does not lead to a sentence which can only be rendered by the highest Judge.

When we judge others, we also judge ourselves.

This world serves great purpose. The bumpy road is well worth traveling.

We learn how to love, even ourselves. We learn how to forgive, even ourselves.

Silence is healing.

True friendship grows out of forgiven conflict.

Our perceived enemies have much to teach us.

Conflict can serve good purposes, if we learn how to move past it.

Forgiveness begins with ourselves.

I suppose the “far right” has always existed . It has always been “far wrong”. I search for any good purpose for it. It creates conflict, pain, and anger. It requires great understanding to mine anything good out of these conditions.

There is a great difference between the “right” and the “far right”. There is more difference there than between the right and the left.

We throw ourselves into the All only to discover we are already there.

Let be what must be, even if discomforting. If it truly must be, the results will be good.

When a discomforting event presents, correct it if possible.

There are times when the good fight must be fought. The fight is only properly concluded when the opponents shake hands at its conclusion.

There is no punishment for the sake of punishment, only teaching.

Interesting how we feel someone’s absence before we see it. The feeling is subtle.

The first thing we learn from conflict is to avoid it when possible. When conflict must occur, it brings important lessons.

We can know true peace only when we have experienced conflict.

We often discover that the opposite of a truth can also be true depending on circumstances .

The evolution of relationship: first comes respect, then trust, then friendship, then love. This seems to be the necessary order of things.

Self satisfaction can be good, but it leads to pride, which can be dangerous. Pride tends to lead to a fall.

All conditions seek their balance. Balance is not boring. It requires attention and constant adjustment.

A system out of balance will eventually self destruct .

There comes a time for thinking to temporarily end and silence is to prevail. Now is that time for me.

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Rip Parker

Geophysicist, lawyer, mediator, student of Jung, phenomenology, semiotics