Workshop - Going Forward with Life (Lake Whitney 1982 - 8 CDs)- Page 3 of 4
The following is without commentary. It is as close to the original audio as possible. [Brackets are used for clarity.] Bold type is used for emphasis. (Audience participation is in parentheses.)
Audio: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bjsnni9menko397/AADKgtfgC6AUkN-q-yre2g2Ta/Going%20Forward%20with%20Life?dl=0&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
CD5
We can really get with it now that my “front man,” Mr. Harris, has arrived, why we can go to work. You really don't know what a handicap it is not to have a front man when you're workin'.
(Gotta have a shill here.)
Gotta have a front man, a straight man, you know. Without that it's real rough. Okay, did anybody while you were enjoying your lunch in the glorious restaurants around town come up with a subject you would like to talk about? We want a subject. Yes, sir.
(You have made a statement that the struggle toward an ideal is the only disintegrating factor.)
That's correct, a struggle towards an ideal.
(Let me ask you a question. If I am struggling for an ideal, and I realize that that's what I'm doing, does that take the disintegrating factor out of it?)
No, I don't think so. If you didn't quit struggling, why... of course if you saw that the ideal was a pure illusion and that you cease struggling towards it, then it would stop. But otherwise, disintegration is going on as long as one is struggling towards an illusion. I think I used the word illusion which I said an ideal was an illusion, so it all comes out the same. The struggle towards an illusion is the disintegrating factor in mankind. So, we have many illusions that we struggle towards. One of the favorite ones is something called happiness.
You know people used to come in when I did this thing where you have, solve problems – people come in and they say, well, all I want is to feel good and be happy like everybody else. I said, "Well you're already the same amount everybody else is. Now we'll start from there.” But you know we've all heard about happiness. And as long as I'm trying to be happy, I’ve usually got something to fret about because I'm checking myself out and obviously this is not quite up and that's not up to the ideal.
When you really don't care whether you're happy or not, you wouldn't trade places with anybody; but that's a hard one to get to, isn't it. Hmm? What difference does it make and what does it really mean to be happy anyway? Do you know? It's when you don't want to change anything, I think. When you haven't got anything out there that's gotta be changed in order for you to get along, what kind of state would you call that, Miss Marci?
(Um, I’d call that contentment.)
Well, all right. Do you think you could be what's called happy without being contented or so forth? I don't know what the word happiness means. I heard that if you could sprinkle salt on a bluebird's tail, you could catch it. I also heard that there was a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow, both of which are somewhat of illusionary things. So, I think both of them were talking about happiness – that I could have happiness if I could only travel over the rainbow to the end. Did you ever try to get to the end of a rainbow? It always seems to be on the next hill a little bit.
(I believe that if I'm out of my emotions...)
Well, that's right. If you're out of your emotions, why then you're not worrying about being happy, are you? But if you got a bunch of anger, guilt, fear and insecurity then you're struggling to be happy, I think. So, I tried to be happy for many years and was very miserable and one day I decided to hell with it, and I haven't bothered with it since and I wouldn't trade with nobody. Everything seems to be going along all right, so I can like it.
So, I think that happiness is probably that state of being one's in
when you don't want to change anything
– everything's all right for you like it is.
I didn't say it's all a bed or rose petals, but you know, I like a few challenges here and there, and etc. Sometimes I get me some pretty good-sized ones, but they're fun too. So, I think that the illusion is that there's something called happiness. If I could just find the right formula, I would have it. Now what's the ideal that you might ever wanted to struggle towards?
(Right now, I can't imagine.) (laughter)
I can't imagine. You know I know people that say that all they want is a happy home. Well, that's fairly easy, but they go home and argue a lot about having a happy home. You know, if I just go along and be peaceful and quiet and pleasant, why you know, the household's pretty quiet. Anybody else finds it very hard to argue by themselves very long at a time. You know you gotta get with it. If you don't contend with somebody there's hardly anything goes haywire, does it, Mack? Lucy will be real nice if you don't buck her, is that right?
(Yeah, long as I don't.) (laughter)
As long as you just let her have her way 100% of the time, it's smooth as silk, isn't it? Why shouldn’t you have her way – what's the difference, her way's fine too, right? Always all right. So, there's really nothing that we can do that really gets ourselves all upset unless we start making something important like being happy or being this or being the other thing. But you know if we just "BE"... "BEING.”
Somebody told me the highest form of existence is Being.
If you're just being, it’s pretty wonderful. It's when you're trying to become something, which is to get an ideal, that we get all tangled up and aggravated inside and we got all these problems and so forth.
I work in California a lot and I talk to a lot of people – I'm getting away from talking to people about anything but business because businesspeople want to make a dollar. I at least know where their head is. The others say they want to feel good, be happy and all this, but they really don't work at it very much. They work at being miserable very hard.
Now frequently I'm talking to one of two people that went out together last night. Say a boy and a girl goes out, or a man and a woman, and they spend the whole evening working on each other's problems – him trying to straighten her out and her trying to straighten him out. I said Good Lord, I go out on a date, I want to have a good time! I don't want to sit and work. You know, if I'm going to do that I'm going to charge a fee for it, I guarantee you. You know. If I’m going to listen to somebody's problems or tell 'em about all their shortcomings, I'm going to charge a fee. Charge a fee for all those kinds. So, if you're going out on a date and they want to talk about problems, you charge a fee. Don’t buy their dinner – charge 'em a fee. Okay, who's got the next subject here?
(Where do goals come in?)
Well, they usually come in at the most unexpected moments and cause you a lot of misery. (laughter) Now how about having just an aim to do something and you don't have a goal. A goal will usually get you tangled up. I aim to go in a general direction. I have a lot of tentative arrangements to take care of, okay? But if something happens which it frequently does and I don't do it, so what? But if I had a goal, I would be very upset I didn't get it. So, I'm not exactly goal directed – of course I don't get a job with all the big companies 'cause I don't want a job. But they want you to be goal directed and goal centered.
I'm not interested in goals. I do like to have an aim, and I make tentative arrangements.
I just talked on the phone a minute ago and made a tentative arrangement to be a certain place tomorrow. But who knows. Something might happen, I don't get there, it's not going to cause any great difficulty, huh? No bother one way or the other. So, I don't want any goals. A goal is very much like an ideal – we've set that up, you know. I know people who have made it a goal to make x number of dollars this year. And they're really miserable all year and seldom get it done because they're so busy going to be pleased when they get their goal.
Did you ever hear somebody say, "I'll be glad when I get the kids through school. Be glad when we get out of debt. I'll be glad when we get our new house." You've heard that haven't you?
I'm glad right now. Okay? I'm glad right now. If I owe bills, well I'm glad somebody trusts me enough to get it, huh? And if they don't get their money on time, I'm not going to worry about it 'cause they should ‘a known better than to let me have credit in the first place. (laughter) They should ‘a known better than that, you see. So, I'm not going to go with all these worries.
But you know most people are going to be glad or pleased at a later date when something happens, is that correct? You look like you're enjoying today all right, aren't you? Huh? You don't have to wait till the kids are through school. You don't have to wait until you're totally out of debt. You know you can't really get out of debt anyway because by the time you get one set of bills paid, the others are already in the computer ready to come, so the light bills going to be here next month and everything on down the line, isn't it? So, you never get through.
And so, what's all the noise about “going to be glad later”? Now did you ever tell yourself you were going to be glad later? Hmm? Why not be glad now? Makes all that other stuff seem so insignificant. So, I'm glad right now, okay. Now's the only time I know of I can really do anything – is now. That's the only time I can feel anything. It's the only time I can do anything is now. I can talk about something I'm going to do later, but the only time I can experience anything is now.
Now while we're at it, I will pass a word. We sense many, many things every day; but the only thing you truly experience is your inner state of being right now. That's all you're experiencing. You sense a jillion things, huh? I could be sensing a headache, but my state of being could be very pleasant, is that right? Huh? We can do that. So, I prefer my sate of being which is what I'm experiencing right now to be kind of pleasant. I don't see any use of having other kinds 'cause it's totally within my capability to determine the inner state of being I'm going to have.
I cannot determine what circumstances is going to occur about me. That I can't do. You know I have no charge over whether it's going to rain or snow or be cold or the sun's going to shine and be warm. I can't choose that. I can't choose what other people on the highways are going to do with their cars. I can only dodge 'em to the best of my ability, huh? I can't determine what anybody else's is going to say to me. I don't know what anybody else's mood's going to be like today. So, I cannot choose circumstances, but I can sure choose my responses to it and I can choose my own inner mood. We wrote a little book one time – or I didn't write it, I talked it and then they transcribed it. That's the way to write things – this business of sitting down and writing, that’s hard work.
Who's in Charge of my Inner State
It tells you how you can have about any inner state of being you want to. I think you have a few of 'em still left downstairs. There's one of 'em Miss Marcy's holding up. It actually tells you how to do it; but of course, as I said, that's a hard thing to sell to people 'cause people don't want to give up their miseries. So you worked hard and long to get 'em, didn’t you? You know that little sign you see around a lot of places: “As soon as the rush is over, I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. I've earned it and nobody's going to keep me from having it.” So, most of us have earned our miseries and we want to keep 'em. Yes, sir?
(Bob, the obvious seems to be to get rid of fear, guilt, anger, insecurity.)
I don't know as to get rid of 'em – just quit having them.
(Quit having ‘em. You stated either this morning or last evening that this takes a while. Is there any...)
It usually takes a few minutes for most people to be willing to give it up. It wouldn't take long if you just decided you couldn't afford it right now. You could do it now, but I've been around long enough to know that very few people is going to do it now. So, I like to be realistic and say it'll probably take a little while.
(Is there any advantage to working with another group of people that are interested in the same thing?)
Aw, I don't know. That's an inside job; you're going to do it on your own regardless of what the other people are doing. Sure, it's easier if you're around somebody that keeps a pleasant mood going. But you can't stay with those pleasant-mood people all the time, you know. I try to establish a pleasant harmonious mood wherever I may be because it's to my advantage to do so. It's nice around there, huh? Now, suppose you took it on as something to do? You know... you got a project. You want a project? Huh? Would you like to have a project? Contribute to a pleasant har... – I didn't say make it now, I said contribute – to a pleasant harmonious mood wherever you may be.
Now I'll give you a project, okay? That'll do more than all the being around the other people would do. Now sure, I want to be around other people. I love people, I like to eat in restaurants. I go because there's people there. You know, I could go get me a cup of coffee and go sit on a park bench and drink it, but I'd rather go in there where there's a bunch of other bodies around. I don't care whether I know any of 'em or not. I like to look over there and see 'em and so forth. But that's not the reason is that they're going to determine my inner state. That's just one of my hobbies is people watching and people talking and so forth and so on.
But if you want to really take on a project that would get rid of the whole thing right now, okay? You take it on as your project to contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood wherever you may be. If you're in your car by yourself driving to the grocery store, you contribute to a pleasant mood in that car, okay, and on the highway. If you're in a home, why you contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood. If you're in a place of business, contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood.
Cattleman’s Restaurant
Now a few years ago we opened up several restaurants. One of 'em in particular was a very large one outside El Paso, Texas. And I laid out as its whole format was that we have four things to offer: food, mood, service and consistency. And the mood brought the people in, the food kept 'em there, okay, and the service kept 'em there. And being consistent, they were never disappointed when they came back. It was going to be like it was the last time – the food, the mood and the service. Now the mood was so up that we never even got around to putting a sign on the building or a sign on the road or ever running an ad and we had people come from many, many continents – practically every country in the world was there. We had a full house and another full house waiting. At all times. And the only thing that brought 'em in was the mood.
Now most people don't think about mood, so they get anxious and they want to wait on everybody and they run all over each other and everything, trying to do it the right way. First thing out was mood; and if you walked in there, you had a good time I'll guarantee you. You didn't know why, maybe, but you had a sure good time because the mood was so high that you could feel it. And somebody came to work and was down, I said go back outside and dump it in the garbage pail, then come back in and if you can't leave it out there, you take it and go home with it. We don't want you here tonight. We'd rather get along without you than to have it there. I'm talking about the employees. I'd rather double up and do two people's work than to have one person in there with a foul mood tonight.
Now let's say that each of us took on the same project I talked to you about. That each of us wherever we were – not just for a day or week, but for right now – that we would contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood. Can you imagine what kind of effect you'd have on people around you? Huh? You contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood. Isn't that hard work? You know, it doesn't cost you a penny. It's simple. All you got to do is have a good time and let other people in on it. They'll pick it up. It's highly contagious. All moods are contagious; they’re more contagious than the flu bugs are. Did you ever [get] around somebody that were all down in the dumpies?
(You bet.)
And how'd you have a tendency to feel? It was contagious, wasn't it.
(Yeah.)
So, let's spread a wild contagion across the country
of contributing to a pleasant harmonious mood.
Let's start a contagion that makes people feel good whether they want to or not, huh? You could do that, couldn't you? Contribute to a pleasant mood wherever you are. You know even at home we can have a pleasant mood (laughter and Bob chuckling) – even at home, right? We can have it in the grocery store. We can have it in a restaurant. We can have it in a place where we work – wherever it may be... there's really no effort to contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood, right?
(Right.)
It's highly contagious; gobs of people will catch it from you. Gobs of people will catch it – so it's all right. Okay, next comment.
(Would you comment on how you keep from getting over into the trying to please them attitude?)
Well, I know that trying to please people is not my job. You see if I treat you with common courtesy – pleasant, congenial to be around – I don't know whether it would please you or not; but I don't know how to go any further than that. So, let's say that I use simple good manners everywhere I am. That's pretty unusual. And I use simple good manners. I'm not interested in pleasing you; I’m interested in what I'm doing. I don't know how to please you because I have seen people that were ticked off and there was no way you were going to please 'em at the moment, is that right? They're just going to be ticked. You’re nice to 'em and they [he makes grumbling sounds]. So, if somebody's ticked off, they're going to be ticked off. I'm not trying to please anybody. I am doing what is to my advantage – very selfishly. I'm going to contribute to a pleasant mood. I didn't say make one, I said contribute. I'm going to do my end of it.
Now you're talking about how am I going to make this person be nice. No way, honey; you have no control over other people. I said we have no control over circumstances. I can choose my response. When I'm around people who are grumpy, let 'em be grumpy. I'm going to go on about my business of being, contributing to a pleasant harmonious mood wherever I may be, which to me is part of being a good guest is contribute to a nice mood. Now they can go on and grump all they jolly-well please. That's their bit. I'm not interested in that. I'm not trying to please 'em. I'm not trying to change 'em. It's not my job. My job is to take care of my own inner state, okay? And it is contagious; but I’m not going to try to please anybody. I don't know how to please 'em. I do know what simple good manners are, okay. I'm not going to be rude and uncouth and kick old lady's crutches out from under 'em or pinch baby's toes or anything like that, you know. Just let 'em alone, okay?
Does that answer your question all right? Nobody's talking about pleasing anybody, okay? And when we're talking about contributing to a pleasant harmonious mood, I'm not doing it because it might please them, because that's my purpose, okay? I don't know whether they'd be pleased with it or not. Most of 'em will be, but that's purely incidental and has nothing to do with the motive of doing it, okay?
All right, next subject up you'd like to talk about a while. We said we're going to have discussions today and not lectures. I will give one more lecture today sometime through the day, but right now let's have discussion. That's what we're all here is to talk about the things that relate to all of us, not just something that I might come up and elucidate on which maybe it’d have about as much interest to you as a new wagon tongue would be for your car.
Karma
(I never heard you talk about karma. What are your opinions?)
I know you haven't heard me talk about karma and you probably if you know me the next 50 years you won't hear me talk about karma. I will talk about balance. Balance is the law of the universe. It seems that you know we talk a lot about cause and effect; but I don't see cause and effect as existing. I see that there is four things in relationship – Initiative, then there's a Resistance and there's a Form and there is a Result. Now all of these things are in somewhat of a balance. You can put it out here like this: we'll make a little see-saw board; over here I will put “Environment, Inner Feeling, Activity and Nutrition.” On this end I'll put “State of Being.”
(What does that ___ arrow stand for?) [referring to prior paragraph]
Here?
(Right.)
“Result” here.
(All right. No, the second one.)
“Resistance.” If you planted a seed in midair and hung it on a string, it will never make a plant, is that correct? Hmm? But if you put it in the ground where it has to resist against growing against it and it's got something to push down against, then you can get a plant, okay? So, all these have to be there. Now the common idea that I have heard that karma is somebody who has to be able to answer all questions. There's a lot of people that find that they cannot say, “I don't know.” So, let's say that there is a child born that is blind from birth – doesn't even have eyeballs or ears. I've seen both. Okay, so somebody comes along and says, why'd that happen? You know about anybody can come up with a why question, not that it means anything because nobody knows the answer to why questions. I don't ever entertain one if you've asked me why you found that out. I don't take the question. I'll rearrange it somehow.
So, somebody says why was this poor little baby born with no ears or no eyes as the case may be or something else and somebody around has to be able to always answer. They can't say, “Hell, I don't know.” (laughter) So, they say, “Well, in the last life he had...,” which again they don't know whether he had one or not because we may have a theory of reincarnation – I'll talk about that in a minute – but we don't know it's a fact, huh? It's just a plausible theory... maybe – I don't know whether it's even plausible or not, but it's a theory – “and in your last life he poked somebody's eyes out so you're born in this life without eyes.” And somebody says, “Oh isn't that wonderful how smart he is!” He doesn't know nothin' about that; but that's what they call karma now, huh? So, I get married and I have six nagging wives and somebody says, “Why do I have all this terrible trouble with my mates?” and this same guy says, “Cause in your last life you picked on your [makes nonsense noises] so now you got to pay for it and you get it in this life.” I don't think it waits quite that long myself. (laughter) It balances a little quicker than that.
In the first place we don't know whether there is such a thing as reincarnation. It's a good theory. I heard a man who explained – said in his words now – he explained why in the Orient basically there is belief in reincarnation. And the opposite of that, especially down through the Jewish, Judeo-Christian traditions and the Arabic ones, they believe in one life and in some kind of an afterlife if you're a good kid. And another kind of afterlife if you're a bad kid, okay?
Now he said that in the Orient that life was pretty rugged and peoples crowded up and who wants to live another life? So, in order to get 'em on the ball and really do their studying, they threatened them with getting born back into this mess. And so they had to get out off of the wheel of death and birth and death and birth and death and who wants to get born back in India again? So, man, let's get with it and get out of here!
Now the people in the Occident kind ‘a like to have another one, and that wouldn't put 'em into any tizz 'cause we all comparatively have, we have it awful good even though we fuss a lot. You know, you live in a nice house. You wear beautiful clothes. You have lovely diamonds and so forth and you wheel around in automobiles and jet airplanes and all this. We really live it up. Solomon would have been totally excited with the way the most common of us live, you know. He would think my Volvo was something fantastic if he had that to wheel around Jerusalem in, instead of a chariot.
So, we like to live. And so somebody's not threatening us worth a durn with reincarnation, you know; that sounds pretty interesting. So, we're not going to get with it and start really working at being an integrated whole person. So, they told us one and all – if you don't do it right this time, you're going to burn from now on. He said both of 'em were lying, that they were usually using that as an excuse to get us to get with it. In other words, they were trying to motivate us to get with it and use it.
Now I’m never interested in whether anybody gets with it or not. I'm just going to offer it. I'm going to throw it out here and anybody wants to take it home with 'em, fine. If they don't want to take it home, that's fine too. But you know, certain people when they work and teach the people and so forth, they want 'em to do something with it. And so, we probably have these two theories, neither of which have any validity other than that they're motivators, okay?
That's the best one I've heard on both of 'em. Okay? Because you don't know, I don't know. Now it sounds good to us in the Occident to get reincarnation. You know, no matter how rough we got it, it's pretty durn good, is that right? It's pretty nice. So we wouldn't really get with it – that's not anything to motivate me. But in the Orient the thought of having to come back through here 50, 75, a hundred thousand times – whew! Get out of this mess! Let's get with it and get on the ball so we can go on beyond the wheel of death and life.
(___)
But to bring it over here and get a VISA to the U.S. and a green card, if we could get that why we wouldn't be in it either, do you see. So, I think this is probably the best explanation of why people have the ideas that are taught from the Orient that taught reincarnation, and then the rest of the world they talk a one-shot deal, right? In heaven or hell. I guess one's as good as the other. So now we got so much communication's getting over here and it's really, possibly, totally out of place in this end of the world.
Eternity
(How do you see eternity then? I mean, our–)
Eternity is a time without beginning or end, is that correct? There's only one definition of time and that's NOW.
(___)
No, time is something you get off the clock. But you said eternity, which is beyond – not in time. Huh?
(We have time.)
That’s no time. Eternity has no beginning and no end. Does now have a beginning and an end? No. Does a hundred billion years have a beginning and an end? Yep. So eternity is now. So, you drive down the road and you see somebody stop and painted on the rocks: “Where will you spend eternity?” I can tell you – right here, right now. Right here, right now. You’re in eternity and you can't get out. But we can talk about time all we want to. We invent a past and we invent a future and we do all these things, but they don't exist. You cannot eat your breakfast tomorrow morning, now. You can only eat now, hmm? You can only feel sad now. You can only feel joyful now. I said we only experience our inner state, and you can only do something when it's now, is that right?
So, you and I are hung up in eternity and we can't get out, okay, but we sure try to imagine we can get out into time. We talk about it and act like we can, but we can't. We can only do something now. So where are you going to spend eternity?
(Right now.)
Right. You're in it. You're hung up there. You're not going to get out. Okay? I kind ‘a like that.
(I kind ‘a like it too.)
Now that definition has no beginning and no end. In other words, the “timeless” state. Now this is what they were trying to sell in the Orient and threatening them with time, huh?
(That's right.)
They were threatening them with time and scaring the hell out of 'em.
(Motivating 'em.)
Motivating 'em. We're talking about time, and man they wanted to get to eternity right now. And, of course, there is prayer in the near East which I like very much. You want to hear it?
If I worship you or serve you whatever word you want to use in that place, it has to be translated from Arabic, so we'll just use serve, okay? “If I serve you, oh Lord, to gain a heaven, deny it to me.
If I serve you, oh Lord, to escape a hell, throw me in.”
(Do it again, please?)
I will be happy to do it again. If I serve you oh Lord or Life... if I serve you oh God or Life or Spirit, whatever word you want.
“If I serve you, oh God, to gain a heaven, deny it to me.
If I serve you, oh Lord, to escape a hell, throw me in.”
You see, you kind ‘a get it down to where you're not horse-trading. You see, if you're out here being good so you will catch a heaven, you might as well be down here graplin away to try to make a million dollars so you can have a lot of fun next week, huh? Or if you are trying to avoid any discomfort or pain.
In other words, if you stop to look, you already have everything. You're alive, you're breathing, you have every potential – everything’s working inside of you. So, once you recognize you already have everything, then you could do it because it's a way of saying thank you instead of hoping to get more, more, and more like a little kid. In other words, if I'm going to serve any life, I'm going to do it because it's my way of saying thank you for having been allowed to be invited to this big party. I'm going to get to the party later, but I’m here to, you know, I'm not hoping to gain anything or escape anything. But if one is only being whatever they call it – being good – in order to gain a heaven or escape a hell, forget it.
(There's really no good and no bad... right?)
It's according to your taste. If you don't like it, it's bad – to you. It's bad to Susan, isn’t it. And if it pleases your case, it's good to Susan, is that right? So, I like to qualify good and bad with "to me.” Okay, that's to me, but you know, maybe you just love something that I would find acch! and vice versa no doubt, huh?
(__)
Well, I doubt if there is. There's some things that agrees with your line of conditioning and some things that don't, huh?
(I really ________.)
I don't think there's any right or wrong, as such, from on high. You know a country that says you do your duty by going out and killing all your enemies and then teaches you thou shalt not kill is kind of funny. You have to wait according till the right circumstances roll around, is that right? Huh?
(Bob, your philosophy appears to be very strongly anti-establishment.) (laughter)
Well, first off, I don't have a philosophy. I am only describing what is; and if it happens to go against the establishment, that's wonderful, okay? (laughter) Now the establishment as I see it is I'm neither opposed nor in favor of it, okay? It's just that sometime what I say probably don't agree with what they do. But I'm not anti-anything, including the establishment.
(You just ignore it.)
I'm just describing what is to the best of my ability, okay? And if the chips fall that way, that's fine. So, if this falls there, that's fine. But I'm just describing “what is” to the best of my ability in plain simple everyday terms – no foreign words thrown in. No sixteen-syllable words; one of six or twelve will do. I'll just stick down to fundamentals if we can and we want to look – not because of an establishment which I believe is another word for the authorities, is that right?
(Probably.)
Well, is that correct?
(Or the majority.)
Authorities
No, the majority is always wrong, we know that. (laughter) We know that from the start. You know, I work in Salt Lake City a lot. They have a very common phrase up there that says the “General Authorities”; it’s said very holy. It means, I think it's 37 men who determine what is what in Mormonism, okay. The 37. I doubt if I agree with 'em 100 percent, or they certainly don't agree with me – that’s the other way around. [chuckling] But it's not that I'm opposed, they're all fine men and I know several of them personally and I like them and we shoot the breeze and I drink coffee and smoke my cigarettes and they look the other way. But nevertheless, they're fine men, but they are the authorities there – the “General Authorities” that says yes and yes and certainly a lot of things I say upsets 'em.
(woman chuckles) (Good!)
I don't think it upsets them, but they don't want their people to hear it; and they do. So, they get very upset very easily, you know.
But I'm not opposed to anybody. But no doubt some of the things I say is not in keeping with the usual bit that the so-called establishment or the authorities... – and of course, I don't think anybody's an authority, but I do respect officials. They're doing their job. In other words, I don't think the policeman that stops me on the street and directs me to go down here and detour and go around is an authority. But he's an official and I respect his position. I respect all officials because we've elected them to carry out an office and we respect the office, but that don't make him an authority right quick, okay?
Now or later, he's not an authority. And I think if we could all remember that the establishment is a group of officials that's put in to take care of a given office or a job, then it wouldn't matter whether we agree or disagree with 'em, but it's still going to respect what they're doing okay? But I'm not going to accept them as an authority. Is that all right? He don't know any more about it than you or I do. You and I were put in the office, we'd have to do much likewise – whatever that office calls for, okay?
(Then the tax resisters are just knowing what ought to be.)
Oh, they think they know what ought to be and they think they can read something they can't read. I know some very good friends of mine that are tax resisters, so called. Were; I talk 'em out of it 'cause I don't want to go see em in jail. Look man, you say they got all kinds of reasons. They come up and say, "it's not even money, this stuff is Federal Reserve notes." Did you take it for pay? Did you take it in exchange for merchandise? Yes. Then it's money. It's money and you better jolly-well share up that non-stuff. And so if you don't think it's any good, why are you so insistent on keeping it? Might as well give it all to 'em. And you know, they see the joke after a while.
Some wild-eyed person comes out and says that the whole income tax laws are illegal and everything. I don't doubt it. I don't know. But the point is it’s been around a long time, and I like to keep on walking around the streets, so when I get a dollar, I give 'em what they call their fair share. I don't know whether it's fair or not, but they say it is, so I let 'em have it. But I don’t care, I’ll go get me another one some where’s else. I'm not going to contend with all that. No, they are seeing that is something.
I also maintain that there's only five men in the United States that can read the constitution that knows what it says. You know who they are? The majority of the Supreme Court. There's nine of 'em. There's five of 'em says it means something, that's what goes, man. (laughter) Right? You and I can read it to our hearts content and say it says right there in black and white. Those five men say it didn't say that and let's see which one gets upheld by the law, okay?
And there's only two men in the world who know what the Bible says – in spite of all the preachers on the air. The president of the Mormon Church and the Pope of Rome. Both are infallible, they say. (laughter) They are the only two that claim infallibility. So, they know what it says, and you and I don't. I can read it and it says it looks to me like it says that, but those guys can say no, it didn't mean that, and they are infallible. Both of 'em claim infallibility and I don’t' want to get caught in that clan. They can have their infallibility. I like to be fallible. You know, I like to be able to say I don't know when I don’t know. You know it seems to me...
A man told me one time that
the first time any human usually spoke the truth in his life
was when he said,
“I don't know.”
That's really stating the truth of the matter. And I like to be able to state the truth: I don't know. Now if it's something I've experienced and know about, I'll be happy to share it with you. When it comes up to something like you said you never heard me talk about karma. I don't know. And so, I'm not going to talk about it, okay? I just don't buy those explanations very well. The reason you were born beautiful and somebody else was born with a crooked nose was because the other one broke somebody's nose in the last life and you sold cosmetics and made ladies pretty. (laughter) I just don't like to buy that. It doesn’t sound right to me, you know. And that's about the way it comes out, right?
(Yeah.)
So, I don't bother with all that. Yes?
(The resistance that we have on here that results in Form is different from the resistance that we have when we’re still in conflict.)
Well, that's not resistance – it's struggle, conflict, and resistant. We are resisting. This is resistance to your initiation.
(Okay.)
In other words, if you started to make a cake, we'll say, you have the resistance of breaking eggshells and stirring it all up right and getting the heat in the oven and everything. Then you gotta have a pan; you can't just pour this batter out in midair; it won't make a cake at all. You gotta have the resistance of something to hold it in shape and so forth. The ground has to be a resistance to the plant seed, or it don't do much. We have to have a little resistance, or we have no strength. That's why we go down to the gym and lift iron weights; the resistance gets the muscles to grow because you got a resistance there. Nothing really develops without some sort of a resistance.
But you know that's what we cry about a lot is a little resistance here and there. I like it when it comes along. It's pretty good. It gives me something interesting to do to see if I can adapt that resistance. So, it's still there, but it's a minimum. I make a minimum out of everything. But it's still going to be an effort or it won’t' work, okay?
(When we know that it's resistance that...)
Natural resistance. And don't see it as something bad, but it's something that's natural to do, okay?
(And when we recognize that the not-I's are a form of the resistance...)
Yeah, they're a form of resistance, I guess.
(When we walk through that, then we're free.)
Well, that's one way of telling 'em to shut up and let you alone and quit bringing aggravation into your affairs and everything. They have no business of being there.
(Is there always going to be resistance?)
I would say yes, there will always be a resistance except the one occupation I have taken on for myself which I've told you about many times. Nobody resists, there is no resistance to me being what to me is a good guest. Nobody's caught on to what I'm doing so they don’t know how to get in my way. [he chuckles]
(What is the “I”?)
I is Initiative. You initiate something.
(Yeah.)
Initiative, Resistance, Form, and Result.
In other words, there's four things involved in every completed phenomenon
instead of two – cause and effect.
[End of CD 5 of 8]
CD 6
Resistance, cont.
...Form and Result. It can be any way you want to put it together. There's always four things – four factors involved in every completed phenomena. And cause one thing follows another doesn't mean one's cause, the other one's effect.
(In the general, we could describe about the seed.)
Uh-huh. The seed you planted, that's the Initiator.
(Yes.)
That's Life.
(Yes.)
It has to have resistance. When it gets resistance, you get the form of the plant. If you didn't have any resistance, all you got’s a long old sprout. Did you ever see a potato sprout in the cellar, and it just run one clear up there to the door, but it never got the potato plant going did it? And after you get the plant, then it produces something. That's the result.
(Oh.)
And then that Result starts back being the seed which you can put back and start the whole cycle over again, okay? The Result becomes either Initiative or Resistance in the next twist of the cycle.
(What does it mean “The crops were in the ground before there was seed.”)
The what?
(The crops were in the ground before there was seed.)
Well, there was no doubt crops back there somewhere and where'd you get the seed if it wasn't from a crop somewhere else, okay? Before you called it seed somebody else had to call it a crop that they harvested, is that right?
(Right.)
So if you buy seeds from W. Atlee Burpee, Mr. Burpee had to harvest a crop before you got the seeds. So, the crop was already out there long before you bought the seed.
(I was really talking about Genesis.)
Well, I know.
(Okay.)
I'm acquainted with Genesis too. It said let the earth bring it forth, didn't it?
(I've always been fascinated with it, but I've never been able to... I've asked the question a lot – no one's ever been able to tell me except that’s the way it was, and I accepted it. But this is, this is what it meant to me suddenly.)
Okay. That's what it's all about. There always has to be something back there to start with; but before you plant seed a crop already is grown, is that right? It's seed to you and a harvest to somebody else. Okay?
(Fine. Thank you.)
(You and I are too old to register for the draft. But how do you resist compulsion?)
How do I resist compulsion?
(Or avoidance.)
Well, I play a very low profile and anything I do because I want to is not compulsion. Is that right? I'm not compelled to pay income tax; I like to get it out of my hair every year and get it over with as quick as possible and I hire a nice accountant that causes me the least bother with it as possible. So, I don't feel I'm compelled to do it. Somewhere in the Scripture it says if somebody comes along and sticks a knife in your back and says you gotta go walk a mile with me, go on two. Now who's in charge? You took it away from him. You see. So, the guy comes up and wants to take your overcoat, give him your overcoat and yank off your sweater and give him that. Now then, who's in charge – him or you? You took it away from him so quick he didn't know what hit him, do you see?
Nobody can compel me to do anything I'm doing freely.
I know a cat out in California up in Santa Cruz – I don't know whether any of you have been to Santa Cruz or not, but it's kind of [chuckling] third world country up there – and they come and put an old boy in jail for something. I don't know what his deal was, and they said he had to stay in there until he did something. I guess it was paying child support or something. He had to pay it up – child support’s the only bill I think they can put you in jail for these days. And that’s contempt of court. So, he said, “Well, I can sit here and meditate just as easy in jail as I can anywhere else.” So, he set there and chanted all day long for a few days and they fed him and had to feed his family while he was in jail. And they pretty soon seen they had the wrong cat in there, so they kicked him out. You see, he wasn't compelled to stay in there, he was doing it freely. So, when you can't punish a guy with doing something he's doing freely, does that answer your question, sir?
You heard about when Alexander the Great was going across the world showing what a macho he was and conquering every city he come to. They heard he was coming to some little town over there in India. And they all came out bringing all their wealth and everything and they laid it down on the ground and said, “We have moved out. Come in and take our city – it's yours. The right belongs to Alexander the Great. Some prophet long ago said that someday you would come and we have been keeping it up – it's all yours.”
He couldn't conquer those people. So, he sit down on a rock and got so frustrated that he couldn't figure out a way to conquer them, he beat his brains out on a rock. How'd they handle aggression, you know, and force? Now, they could ‘a stood back there and fought and got run out cause he obviously had the manpower to do it. But they used their brain, and he couldn't conquer those people and he got so frustrated he found somebody he couldn't conquer, he sat down and beat his brains on a rock. Beat his head against a rock till he died from it. Did you read that? You've read that, haven't you? The way Alexander himself did him in cause he found somebody he couldn't conquer cause there was no resistance.
You see, there's gotta be a resistance before the Initiative can get a Form.
And I choose not to be a resistance to anybody. In other words, they told me not to contribute to people's delinquency.
(Right.)
So, if I don't resist, how are they gonna control me, huh? That correct?
(Really.)
Okay. 3:30. We'll take a break for about 15 minutes; that'll be 3:45 and we will start again and we will go for approximately an hour or so and then who knows? Everybody may get starving and the lady may have dinner ready and who knows......
[after the break]
Present it any way you want it – let's have it.
(Why do we pray?)
I imagine because somebody taught you to, I don't know. I don't know the answer to why questions. Why do you?
(chuckling as she responds) (I don’t know why I do it.)
I don't know the answer to why questions.
(Based on what you said, why... Do you pray?)
I say thank you an awful lot.
(Okay. I didn’t understand, thank you for this. I ...)
Gimme this and gimme that and gimme the other thing. You know I hear a lot of 'em that say give me this, give me that, give me the other thing. Asking. How about looking, seeing that you already have it and there really isn't anything to ask for, hmm?
(I understand.)
You're alive and when you got here you found a world well equipped with food, clothing, shelter, transportation, interesting things to do, people to educate you and get you all the little bits of information you really needed. Was all that available to you? Huh? You have everything; what more could we want? And then what is there to ask for? Huh? Unless we just want to have our way right now. There isn't anything to ask for, but there sure is a lot to be thankful about as far as I can see, okay? Hmm? So, I say thank you an awful lot. Is that praying?
(Hm-hmm.)
I don't know whether it is or not. I sure say thank you a lot. Okay, next. That take care of yours all right?
(You got it.)
Okay. Let's have a subject you want to talk about. Mack? Let's get with it here.
(You said that most of our adaptations come from nutrition, activity, environment or ...)
They're all the stresses come from that direction.
(If you have sudden, say mood swings toward downward toward energy loss...)
Yeah.
(I never can figure out what it is of those four factors that ...)
Inner feeling. What's a mood but an inner feeling, isn't it?
(Yeah, but I mean say you had a feeling’s been great...)
Yeah.
(You can't, you know... I always use my feeling....)
All of a sudden, you're low in energy, huh?
(You just go from really feeling good and having plenty of energy down to zip...)
No energy?
(Right.)
"Cause you aren't interested in anything. If you're not having interest, what would you have energy for? You have any use for it?
(Yeah, but what if you're still interested?)
Well, I know but that what if in there is not right.
(I was in this particular case.)
You were very interested and all of a sudden you just had no energy?
(Right.)
Didn't have no bugs from the environment.
(This is the ___ getting lunch. I don't know what could have changed it.)
Well, lots of things could change it. (laughter) In the first place you could eat something that didn't fit your stuff.
(Right, but that's my point. How do you know which it is or is it possible?)
Why, it doesn’t matter what it is; the thing is to get out of it right quick.
(Well, I guess that's the answer.)
That's the whole answer, get out of it.
(Now I’ll ask you this – how do you get out of it?)
Well, you start actin' like you feel a lot better than you do. Now the human works along from some sort of a conception here, so let's say you have a conception, and you did know about foods and all these things – most of us don't. It's immaterial. I eat it and I feel lousy, well I just don't eat that one again today. Try again tomorrow, all right? Maybe I'll be in a different state tomorrow, okay? A conception, then you have a feeling about it and when you have a feeling. Then you, the body creates the energy to take care of whatever it was that you had here as according to the feeling. And then you have the adaptation or the creative action. So, let's say that you have a creative action if you have followed all these around.
Eating
Now every now and then there's something. Let's say that one day you drink a glass of milk, and you didn't feel very good and another day you drink a glass of milk and feels fine with it because these do vary from moment to moment from the way the body is gonna handle something. Most often we go to Thanksgiving lunches. You didn't eat because you were hungry but because it looked good and tasted good and all that kind of stuff, is that right?
(Yeah.)
Now I've tried to teach Robert one thing – don't eat unless you're hungry. I've tried to teach him that much – not to eat just because it looks good and it tastes good and etc. But how much of the time do you eat, Mack, when you are no more hungry than anything in the world? But you eat because it's pretty, it's lunch time, cause somebody says let's go to lunch, or because there's a spread put out, or because it looks good?
(That's most of the time.)
Most of the time. Very seldom you eat because you're hungry, is that right?
(Yeah.)
Okay, so now in this Thanksgiving lunch you probably were no more hungry than I am right now. That probably about right?
(Mm-hmm.)
Huh?
(Yep.)
But you eat. Now when you put food in the body and it's not hungry, it essentially doesn't digest very well. It lays there like, “Blech – what'd you throw this crap in on me for?” But it wasn't hungry, it wasn't looking for anything, and it usually makes us feel pooped out – total loss of energy.
Now if I could offer a little brotherly suggestion:
I would eat when I was hungry
and no matter how pretty it is or how good it's going to taste,
let's don't eat it unless we're hungry.
(Then you come to my place and tell Lucy that when she cooks it.)
I would be happy to tell Lucy that. I would even say, Lucy that looks beautiful and could I have a raincheck on it till I get hungry? You know I don't like to torture the body just because I'm pleasing somebody. Now I know about all those things if somebody prepares up something; but the whole bit was you eat and you were not hungry, is that correct?
(Yep.)
And that is not called nutrition, is it?
(No.)
You only get nutrition when you're hungry and you eat. Otherwise, you was amusing yourself with all the pretty tastes and the smells and the looks and so forth, but the body said, “What in the hell did you throw this down here for?” You see. And you feel like you've been wiped out and run through a wringer, that correct?
(Yeah.)
Now the next, or just anytime you want to experiment with what I'm telling you, you're feeling fine, you're no more hungry than nothin', go down to the deli and get you a whole bunch of stuff and eat it and tell me how you feel, okay? Or go raid the refrigerator. Did you ever just be bored and go raid the refrigerator?
(Sure.)
Uh-huh, and tell me how you felt later.
(Fat!) (laughter)
Not necessarily fat, just heavy. You feel heavy, logy, as Mack would say; he was out of energy. Is that right?
(Sure.)
And then you wonder why you don't feel so good and so forth. Now you didn't eat because you were hungry. Now nutrition is something that happens when you are hungry and eat something you are hungry for, then the body uses it and you feel fine. But if you eat for entertainment, basically, and that's what it was – more or less entertainment – it'll probably make you feel so wiped out or heavy, logy, like you haven't enough energy to walk across the floor.
(Social eating.)
Yeah, social eating. It's like social drinking, it'll leave you in about the same state. It'll wipe you out. Does that help your subject there, Mack? Now, you want to experiment with what I'm saying, this next time you're totally not hungry at all, if there's lots of good stuff go stuff a bunch of it and see if it don't make you feel that way, okay?
(What was those four things that he said - nutrition, what, what, what? That's a new subject for me.)
Okay,
Environment, Inner Feeling, Activity, and Nutrition.
Now everybody has some state of this, is that correct? At all times. We always exist in some kind of an Environment, right?
(Yes.)
And you always have some kind of an Inner Feeling.
(Yes.)
You always have some kind of Activity whether it's sleeping or what, huh?
(Okay.)
And you always have some state of Nutrition. Now, according to how close these are to optimum... now, none of us probably know exactly what optimum is. I certainly don't. I'll be the first to tell you that. I don't know what it is, but I know kind of the direction it lies in. Okay? It's like I know that Dallas is kind of northwest of here somewhere. I know the direction, generally speaking, so I know the direction toward optimum.
I know that an environment that is very cold and wet and a lot of pollution in the air. I don't feel as well as I do where the sun shines bright and it’s comfortable and dry for me, is that right? Now some of us could – one would be more comfortable in one environment than another, but I know what fits me pretty well. I tell people I look to see if there's a palm tree growing there. If it is, I'll stick around a few days. No palm trees, no place for me. So, we always have some kind of an environment. You either like the environment or you don't like it as a general thing, huh?
(Right.)
Your inner feeling...
I suppose that the most optimum inner feeling would probably be gratitude
– a state of being thankful.
Now you could be ecstatic, but you wouldn't do anything else, so I don't think that's too optimum – you just sit and enjoy that. We could have an inner feeling of regret. We could have an inner feeling of anger. We could have an inner feeling of a lot of things, right?
(Right.)
We always have some. So, the closest to optimum I could conceive of would probably be one of gratitude or thankfulness. Activity, we're always doing something – we're sleeping or what-have-you, so we could indulge in some activity that would be detrimental to us under certain states. Say that I basically work sitting at a desk. Comes hunting season, I head off to the hills and start climbing mountains and running around like I was in good shape, and I left sitting in the desk yesterday. It’s not gonna work very well for me, is that probably about right? In other words, the human body can adapt to almost anything if you'll give it time; but it don't do it instantaneously.
Now, Nutrition, none of us know exactly what it is, but we can check it out every once in a while by seeing what feels good. I only eat when I'm hungry and try to eat what I'm hungry for. Now did you ever try living that way? Eating only when you're hungry and eating what you're hungry for. If you really get hungry, you know what to eat. You're hungry for something. Now if you're eating because it's entertainment – “Shall we go to the Chinese restaurant? Oh no, let’s go to the Mexican. No, I'd rather have a steak tonight I think.” Nobody's hungry but they're going out and stuff their guts. Okay? They're gonna feel rough. I'll guarantee you that, okay?
(Right.)
Hmm? They're gonna feel rough. Now I have no qualms about any kind of meat. I'll eat anything that don't run from me if I'm hungry. I won't eat it if it kicks too hard; but I'll eat it. I don't care what. Octopuses, anything, doesn't make any difference. Everybody else eats it, I'll try it once. I try to stay away from oxes and calamari. You know about calamari. That's a squid. When they call it a squid you could hardly give 'em away. And now that their calamari, they're a great seller. People eat calamari all the time. A squid is a baby octopus as far as I'm concerned. I guess it's a little different, but about the same. I eat things that I don't even know what it is sometimes. You know. I go in a restaurant. I went in a Korean restaurant the other day and had 9 side dishes. I didn't know what any of 'em were, but I ate 'em. It was all right. I tasted 'em first and it tasted all right – yah, let's go. I was hungry when I went in, so I ate it.
So, you can eat if you eat when you're hungry and you eat what you're hungry for, you'll have excellent nutrition. If you eat because you read a book and it said do this and do that, you'll have lousy nutrition. If you eat because it's the acceptable thing to do or it will taste good, you're liable to wind up eating a lot of chocolate candy and all that kind of stuff, right? Now if you're hungry and you're hungry for chocolate candy, that's wonderful; but usually if you get hungry, that's not what you're hungry for, believe it or not. That's things you eat for entertainment.
Now if you have these four,
your state of being seems to be always equal, balanced
or at least balancing to.
So, your state of being goes along with how far these are from optimum. Now let's say these were very far from optimum – all of 'em. You live some place you didn't like. Your inner feeling was one of turmoil and aggravation and annoyance, and your activity was slopping about, doing as little as possible. When you sit, you sit sloppy. When you stood up, you stood sloppy and so forth and so on. And your nutrition was you eat because it was fun to eat or because you were bored – your state of being will make a doctor very happy. (laughter) Okay? Cause you as a living, walking source of fun, every day, you got a chair leased in the doctor's office.
Now if your environment should be something you like real well and you feel nice in it; and your inner feeling is one of thankfulness; and your activity is a reasonable amount of moving the body every day and when you stood up you stood up, when you sit up you sit up, when you lay down you laid, and your nutrition was you eat what you were hungry for when you were hungry... the doctor don't see you as a very good prospect, okay? That help answer your question a little bit for you, dear one?
(Oh, you really did, honey – thank you, marvelous!)
Well, I'm being paid for it, honey, or I wouldn't be doing it. [he laughs]
(Oh, my!)
I'll try to keep that conception going anyway.
(___)
You don't have to thank me for it, okay?
(We have to – you're a guest.)
Right. I'm doing it because I want to. So, can you see how that works? Anybody here find a question in that?
Now we could all be reasonably healthy at all times if we pay attention.
You know, the insurance companies and everybody says, "You never know when illness will strike." And of course, we're all kind ‘a conditioned to believe that illness is something that's floating around up here in the ceiling somewhere and they said there's Mary, I'm gonna bite her. That's the arthritic one. And then there's another one over here that's influenza and it's gonna bite Mack Harris and six or seven other people. And then there's another one that's ulcers and they're gonna bite somebody else. See we think of diagnostic terms as being proper names. Diagnostic terms are adjectives. They describe in shorthand language what's going on.
So, if you came to me and said, “My joints ache and hurt, they feel inflamed, they're swollen, they're a little distorted and when I first get up in the morning I can hardly move 'em. Later in the afternoon I can move them a little more, but they're always sore and painful.” Now you told me a bunch of things. I could put everything you said in one word – “arthro” which means joints, “itis” means inflamed. So, I could say you had inflamed joints. Now I said the same thing, it just took me a lot less time to say it cause that's that little technical language. It's a shorthand deal. So, arthritis is not a noun, it's an adjective describing stiff, sore, aching, painful joints and that they're uncomfortable and liable to look inflamed. Okay? Yes sir.
(Didn't each of those four things have the same weight?)
Well, it's according to which one is far from optimum. We'll say three of 'em was close to optimum, one was a long way away – it has a lot a lot of weight toward making you feel rough. I doubt if they're 25, 25, 25, 25 to most of us. In the world that you and I live in, probably the inner feeling is the biggest offender is the most often one is out of kilter. If you lived in South India or somewhere, more than likely nutrition would carry the big end of it. Okay? And if you lived somewhere else, maybe some other area would carry it. But basically, we'll just say they're all involved, and I wouldn't want to get into the detail of trying to figure out what percentages.
But I think in our world – the one we live in –
that Inner Feeling is the biggest offender.
At least when I operated a practice, I saw that as being the most common one that came through the door. But I always try to take all four of 'em toward optimum. And usually most everybody has all of 'em away from optimum in quite a direction, but the inner feeling further than any of the others, okay? But I think if your nutrition was real badly, it would make your inner feeling feel pretty grumpy.
You felt grumpy the other night when you got all out of energy Thanksgiving' day, is that right, Mike? You felt real grumpy, wanted to bite somebody. Tell ‘em off, huh? That right? So, they're all interacted. You are a unit, not made up out of parts. You are a unit. The fact that we can talk about heads and arms and legs and so forth, doesn't mean we are parts. We are a unit. It all works together. Like the old lady said when her feet hurt, she hurt all over; and so do you. It doesn't matter what hurts, you hurt all over. And you're not concerned with parts.
And Environment, Inner Feeling, Activity, Nutrition works as a whole. We're living optimally or far from it and it doesn't matter which one you got way off there. And so one day you could have one way off and another one way off; it'll still make you feel pretty rough anywhere you go. So let's kind of make it our business to not be a fanatic about it, but take each one of these somewhere over optimum.
We said we could stretch once a day; that’d be good for activity. We could eat when we're hungry and eat what we're hungry for instead of what's simple, what’s easy, the fast food, the nibbles, the snacks, the etc., etc. and eating because it's a holiday or whatever. That would help our inner feeling.
Certainly, we can be thankful all the time if we just look around. And most of us do have pretty fair environments to live in in this world. We all have us pretty nice little pads to live in somewhere and we got reasonable heat and cooling and all this stuff – in fact it's almost too idealistic. But we have pretty good environments.
We basically have pretty lousy inner feelings and nutrition, and our activity is spasmodic a lot. Not everybody, but quite a bit. And if we put all of those somewhere just toward optimum, you would feel fantastic physically the biggest part of the time, okay? Once in a while you'll feel a little grouchy. You got a bug in your environment that kind of acts up a day or two before you kick him off and so forth. But there's nothing going to bother you very much. That answers a bit about the health division. Yes, dear?
Marriage
(Can we change the subject?)
Absolutely. Nothing would please me better.
(Well, I was going to say I think I’ve got this problem, but it's really not a problem.)
Well, that's all right. Just a situation. You got a situation.
(This is my situation. Last year I have been learning to stay out of my emotions. So, there's one thing that I haven't done very good at in my lifetime or now, whatever, and that's the institution called marriage. Okay. It doesn't seem to be okay to just–)
It just never been up your alley, huh?
(Well, I mean I feel like I'm a relatively good person to live with and easy to get along with....)
Well, I would think that would be nice... [both talk]
(I treat people real nice. I just haven't done very good at it.)
Well, I don't know as anybody does very good at it. (laughter)
(Okay. I’m out of my emotions and it doesn't really matter if someone calls me up and screams at me and tells me all the things they don’t like about me. And then it doesn't really matter if they _____ and want to get married and I just kind of felt... I’m just...)
Say I've heard that before.
(Well, it just... nothing really turns me on, nothing really turns me off, it's just kind of okay, it just ___. But then I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life all by myself and you know, this....)
I doubt if you will.
(You know, I really want to be, but then again, not totally alone all the time.)
I said I doubt if you will be.
(Well, what do you think about marriage?)
I try to never think of it. (laughter)
(_________ for me. I just wanted to....)
Well, you know most people have a great idea of marriage is gonna do things that it won't do, okay? And if you saw it as something that it is possible for it to perform, that would be one thing. But most people think that marriage is going to make them happy, that it's going to be a state of eternal bliss, both the boys and the girls. They start in on it with that idea in mind.
Now, if I started in that I'm taking on a big responsibility when you did it, huh? And that I'm going to only contribute one thing to it. I'm going to contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood in it whether I'm at home or away or what-have-you, okay. I'm gonna contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood. Now I imagine I'd be rather careful as to who I decided I was going to play house with.
(That's my problem.)
Yeah, because we were talking about this morning about these names that have all been translated into love, huh?
(Right.)
Right, and so it's awful easy to decide to play house with somebody because they give you a thrilling feeling which we've been taught to call love. It's really Eros. If we knew that that was the case and that Eros is not exclusive and it's not eternal. In fact, it is rather transient, and it can certainly be with more than one person and it may be very high today and very low the day after tomorrow, okay? Now if we know these things, then we would be more careful probably of who we decide to play house with, okay? Huh?
(Yes. Definitely.)
Because basically this is what has led to the house game is that particular feeling, is that right, Missy? All right, okay. When it does that, I'll guarantee it'll always be not very workable, okay? But if we try it as look I kind ‘a like this person regardless of the rest of the performance and it’s pretty hard to keep your head real straight about whether you like 'em or not when this other thing is kicking around cause it’s kind ‘a potent. But we like to wait until it kind of slows down a little bit. Now see, do I actually enjoy you as a person? Do I enjoy going out and just sit down and have dinner with you. Do I enjoy just talking with you. Do I enjoy just going to town with you and pass the time of day. Do I enjoy the usual chores of everyday living with you. Hmm?
(Right.)
Now, if I get that down without this other thing cluttering' it up...
(Right.)
You know, it’d be pretty soon there'd be a lot of, “Hell, I wouldn't want to live with her! God, you know, I can't talk to her, she's not interested in anything I'm interested in, etcetera, blah blah.” So that other, we only find out after Eros gets well satisfied. By then we begin to notice that they can't stand this jerk. (laughter) Okay?
So first I want to know if I can just plain like you. I tell little girls somebody calls, and she says he told me he loved me. I said don't let that bother you. (laughter) Don't let that get to you. But now if he said, you know I really like you, I said you better stick around and listen cause you might have something working there, okay?
(Yeah, I got ___)
I like somebody around I just plain damn like, you know. And now we can have a lot of fun and I'll guarantee you Eros will perform big enough, often enough. Cause after so long a time, it’s gonna talk regardless of what's out there, you know. Right? After so long a time.
I had a friend that lived in St. Louis and he said every year he took a vacation up in Canada, went to the backwoods fishing. He went by himself. In fact, didn't take his watch. Didn't take a calendar. Didn't take nothing and in three weeks he came back home. Somebody said how do you keep up with time? When do you know the three weeks is up? He said, “Aw that's simple. The last Crow village I go through,” – I don't know whether you know about Crow Indians up in Canada, – he said, “The last Crow village I go through I take the oldest, strongest, ugliest old squaw there is and I pay her to come up and set up her camp next to mine. And the day she starts looking good, three weeks is up.” (laughter) No sweat, no bother; Eros will always get around.
But if you really like somebody, it's pretty easy to live with 'em, right? But if all you have is Eros going and all this [makes a trilling sound], butterflies and everything going. And then some day when it's pretty well gratified – which it is fairly easy to do – then I look to see if I want to enjoy just being with this person. If I don't have any reason to be around them, ____! So, the marriage game is over with then. So maybe we approach the marriage game a little incorrectly because we've been impressed by movies and songs and fairy tales that they live happily ever afterward. We've listened to enough of those that we think maybe that if I just find the right Eros feeling, why it'll last forever. And it won't.
(But when you're staying out of your emotions, those feelings are as intense...)
Well, that's what I said, you know, just stay down so then you just have feelings and not emotions. And you stay out of those, then you can look around and see who you like, okay? And if you really like somebody, they're kind of fun to be around, right?
(Mm-hmm.)
Okay, it's good.
(There's not a whole lot of sane people though.) (laughter)
That's the understatement of 1982. (huge laughter) Did you know that? That's the understatement of 1982, cause you're all so damn serious and screwed up and wound up.
(___than anyone I know....)
Huh?
(And I can't find anyone that likes to have fun as much as me.)
Well, there is one or two around, but you have to look a while or wait. Don't get in a mad hurry, okay?
(Well, I'm really not...)
Because–
(I was going to ask you–)
Don't get in any mad hurry because the world’s not thick of 'em and if you are grown up enough not to get totally controlled by emotion and you begin to look and see do I really like this person, you'll have to wait a while to find somebody else that grown up. But it'll be well worth it.
(I love that...)
...be well worth it, okay?
(I’m gonna to go get married this weekend.)
I think I'd put it off a day or two, hon. Put it off a day or two. No mad rush in doing it for any reason that I know of. If it won't wait a week, it's in pretty bad shape. Only Eros demands immediate action. Liking you is no hurry. Did you know that, Susan? Eros demands immediate action. Liking people doesn't demand any hurry-up deals, okay?
(You know, that’s okay...)
You remember that way. If it's a hurry-up deal, better wait, honey. Only Eros is talking. But if you really like somebody, there's no mad rush to get into it, okay?
(For either person.)
For either person. If it's a mad rush, then Eros is running the show and that's not gonna work very long.
(Even if you’re a thousand miles away.)
I don't care – well, they're probably more interested in you a thousand miles away than they are if you’re next door.
(Uh-huh. Probably, yes.)
And if they're a thousand miles away, leave 'em there. (laughter) Causes you less difficulty. If you want to take a trip, why they will probably have you come over for a day or two, go and have a nice dinner on a weekend and so forth and then come on back home, okay? Work a lot better. Something that works. I like you and that works.
And if somebody says, "Oh, I need you!" run like hell. Run, girl – don't walk, run! They say I like you, why stick around and see what's happening. But if they say I need you, RUN GIRL RUN. Hurry! Move it! Get out of there! Boy, when you start being needed, it sounds so good, but oh it's a mess to get involved in, okay? I don't want to be needed. That is another word for control – “I need you.” You know what this words when they call up, the next one calls up and says, “I love you,” you want to tell him to finish the sentence. I'll give you the rest of it. You want to hear it?
(Uh-huh.)
“I love you, therefore you're now obligated to me and you must do exactly as I want you to whenever I want you to or else I will be hurt and then I will cry and it's all your fault – so there!” So, you say well, finish the sentence when they say I love you. Say, "Finish it." Now he don't know what the finish is, you tell him will you?
(Okay.)
I love you. Now you've done this terrible thing to you – you made me fall in love with you. Now you're obligated to me. (laughter) And you must do exactly as I want you to whenever I want you to or else I will be all hurt and then I will cry and it's all your fault, so there. Now if somebody falls in love with you, that's their problem, isn't it? (laughter) But they act like that you did some dirty trick on them and now you're obligated to them, huh? Crap. I love a lot of people and I think the world of em and care for 'em dearly and everything, but that don't obligate nobody to me that I can see, does it? You see I think I love everybody here to a considerable degree, but I don't know that that puts any of you under any obligation to do anything. That's an inside job on my part that I care for people, okay?
(Wonderful.)
That's an inside job. It don't obligate you to do anything. But you know the way somebody would talk: “I love you and you've got to get with it now and perform exactly like I want you to when I want you to or else I’ll be in a terrible shape,” huh? That right?
(Right.)
Always say – finish the sentence. Always say finish the sentence – finish the sentence – therefore you are now obligated to me and you must do exactly as I want you to when I want you to or else I will be hurt and heartbroken (sigh) and it's all your fault – so there. (laughter)
(Absolutely.)
Have you had that laid on you?
(Yes.)
Have you laid it on guys?
(No. Probably!)
You have? [laughing]
(Yep.)
Of course! It's a favorite indoor sport of people – making everybody feel obligated. You can't leave me, you can't go now because he made you fall in love him and if he goes away, think what a horrible state you’re in. And he did it all, you know. He made you fall in love with him – whatever that means.
(That's right. And then he changed.) (laughter)
Naturally. And he says you changed. And so there goes the wheels and the wheels turn on. The great boy/girl game all based upon not whether I like you, but whether you make my heart go pitty-patty or something, you know? I can go pitty-patty from a lot of different things, under a lot of different circumstances. But living with 'em, you'd better like 'em. Otherwise, you’re wondering what in the world did ..... And we always maintain they changed. They didn't – they're the same jerk they always were, but I didn't see the jerky part while Eros was running full tilt, you see. They say it makes you blind – makes you totally blind, you can't see what's going on.
(That's true.)
That's right. Now Eros makes you blind – wild and all this kind of stuff. And it's a poor subject to form any relationship.
[End of CD 6 of 8]
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