Excerpts - Information plus Opportunity (A) = Peace of Mind

Excerpt from Salt Lake City 4/71 Tape 6
[The (A) is not explained on the tape; but must mean Awareness]
(audience participation in parenthesis)

The teacher starts out this excerpt explaining the formula.

So there is a formula that might prove to be interesting.

I plus O (A) = P

We have all had information of some sort given to us since we were very young children. We have all had the opportunity to ask for enlightenment; but most of the time we have taken that opportunity and converted it to ask for things that gratify our curiosity or senses.

But if we experiment with it, we can then have some action take place within ourselves. We can begin to see things as they are. We can look differently at things. We can use a little conscious awareness to look at it. And we can take advantage of the opportunity by asking questions and using the information. And then we have the P.

(What is the P?)

Peace of mind. And in peace of mind comes everything that's wonderful. That's when the inner development begins to take place. To the best of my knowledge there is no other way.

(Would you go over that again?)

I is information. We've all had a certain amount of information [teachings] given to us in many books, many talks.

O is opportunities - We've all had opportunities [every challenge is an opportunity] to take advantage of it which most of us have not-we've totally ignored it and that equals P = Peace of Mind [*see note at end]

We've all been given information, we all have the opportunity to ask for enlightenment; but most of us ask for everything else.

There was a great king named Solomon. When he asked for wisdom, it said he'd have wisdom plus all the other stuff. Now all the other people asked for riches and they asked for this and they asked for that and asked a thousand questions to get this, that or the other.

So when we can ask for wisdom (which is to see things as they are, not as they appear to be through our infant conclusions, misinformation and misconceptions of the nature of things)--we find there is nothing we want to change-and that's taking advantage of the opportunity--when we are not trying to change anything--the mind is in a state of peace.

(When you make a decision, how do you know if it's the right thing?

It's according to where you grew up, isn't it? If you grew up in one household, why it would be wrong to do one thing; and if you grew up in another it'd be all right, but in addition, you'd still want to do something else again. In one household it's ok to drink coffee; but in another household it would be very wrong to drink a cup of coffee. So we may see those family ideas as great things--but really are they "the right thing to do" or are those only ideals which we've taken on as to what's going on in the great initiation and life experiences?

(Well, you and somebody else might not see eye to eye.)

Right, so I don't need to. I can only see it for me, is that right? If he sees it and judges it as "bad", he's going to see all kinds of things as "going wrong"--so it's giving him an opportunity to wake up. So I don't have anything I want to change-if he wants to change it, so that's OK.

(If everyone in here doesn't want to change things, do they see things alike?)

Nobody's standing in the same place, so they wouldn't see it the same, but they could see it as not having to be changed.

(What about inner development in raising children?)

I'm not capable of judging. I do what I see as right and proper and justifiable just like you do every day. The only thing you or I can do is ask for enlightenment in that moment; and maybe those answers would come for the children's inner development--but not before-it only appears in this present moment we find ourselves. Find out for yourself. Have peace of mind for three years and then come tell me. It will be a lot more fun, honey.

(I want to become more familiar with your philosophy.)

Stick around--it's not a philosophy-I only describe "what is", and you can check it out to see if it's true. Experiment with it. It's only from experiment that you will know whether I'm telling you the truth or I'm the biggest liar that ever lived.

You see we always like thinking that we're "learning something"-that it would be valuable for the inner development of man--like it would be valuable to earn a living by learning how to build bridges or build houses or raise gardens or whatever the case may be; but in this state of being, with enlightenment or whatever you want to call it, there is not "learning"; but EXPERIMENTATION AS DISCOVERING FOR ONESELF. It is a different system and a different state of being and a different area of existence, ok?

[* From a recent traumatic challenge, I now realize that opportunity also encompasses
the every day challenges-both big and small-which we see as "bad", "wrong" and "being done to me"; but in using every morsel of teaching every spare moment through moment by moment challenges that were coming fast and furious; I was able to (with dis-identifying, not condemning and watching X take care of the smallest and biggest events and details) realize and discover that I could not do anything except report "what is" as passively as I could and then watch X work…………..Marsha]