Workshop - Life and Living(Lake Whitney 1982)- Page 1 of 4
Note from proofreader: Marsha does the original transcribing and I do the final proofreading. We work together to give as close a verbatim transcript as possible while retaining Dr. Bob’s interesting vernacular. If you knew the man, not correcting his grammar and laid back Kentucky-ese makes reading it sound like he’s actually talking. Since you’re reading vs. listening to the CD of the workshop, notations have been added where there was laughter, which was quite often. He was a master at keeping the mood up!
Audience participation is contained in parenthesis and separated from Dr. Bob’s remarks. His speech-emphasized words are in italics. And any clarifications of Dr. Bob’s references, words, or actions have been italicized with brackets. – t.e.v. .
While you're doin’ instructions I'll tell you about the last introduction I was made. I was in Albuquerque and they, as you may know, they have the balloon festival there. So it happened to be at the time of the balloon festival and the air was full of these big hot air balloons. And the lady that introduced me said that it was very appropriate because I was always full of hot air like the balloons were (laughter) so here we go. Now see if you can improve on that, Margie. That sure is a beautiful blouse.
(Thank you.)
And a beautiful lady I must say.
Hi everybody, my name is Margie. I'm so excited. When Marcy told me, she said I want you or Bob to introduce Dr. Bob and I thought, “Oh, that would be so wonderful and I hope Bob doesn't want to do it – ‘cause I really do!” I'm really glad to be here. It's a special, special weekend when I come to hear Dr. Bob. I have a list of instructions that Donna provided me with – announcements. Saturday evening, which is tomorrow evening, dinner will be served here at the Chapel from 6-6:30 and it is $5. If you have not, if it’s the same group as before, oh if you have not eaten, it's worth it. Wonderful. Tapes are available of the weekend – will be available. Before they leave? Donna or somebody. Somebody…)
Somebody will make it.
(And I can tell you they're worthwhile. My tapes wear out.)
Good. We have cheap grades, huh? (laughter)
(No, I just play 'em a lot.)
Ok.
(And I'm really, I really would like to welcome everyone. Is there anybody here who hasn't been here at the Chapel before? Oh good.)
Three or four of 'em here. They don't know what they're in for, do they?
(No they sure don't. You better be careful, you're liable to find yourself back here over and over and over. A lot of people even move here. I don't, at present, intend to do that. Bob thinks I’m going to eventually, but I doubt it. It’s the best second home I’ve got. I'd like to have everybody feel a part of this place and one of the best ways to have everybody do that is for each of us to introduce ourselves and to… Oh wonderful, welcome everybody and me too and Dr. Bob. I was thinking this light up here shines in my eyes and once you look at that light, every time I look at somebody, right here on your face, there's a light and each of you is a radiating center of light.)
Isn't that marvelous.
(Yeah, they really are, aren't they?)
Stare at that thing for a little while and you'll go blind. (laughter) Then you won't see ‘em at all. Then you will make ‘em vanish right out in clear air – you'll really be a magician then.
(Don't you think we're in for a treat? I met Dr. Bob… he was an influence on my life even before I met this man. And I heard, I learned from Dr. Bob vicariously through another gentlemen who has made his transition and is not here any longer and that was Bill Donovan. And he talked about Dr. Bob and he told me a lot of things that Dr. Bob had said. And then after Bill left us, Barbara made arrangements, his wife made arrangements, to have Dr. Bob come to the Chapel and I thought, well, I guess maybe I'd better go hear it from the mouth of the man who taught it to the man who was my teacher. And so I came. And I don't know if you've ever heard someone talk and gone away saying, “I don't think that's true. I don't think I believe that,” and have the experience that I’ve had. But that's what happened to me. I heard a lot of things that Dr. Bob had to say and I left and I thought, at the moment he said it, there was something in me that said, “I don't believe that's true. I don't believe you can make a blanket statement as simple as that and have it be true.”
And within a very few months, I was saying, you know, it's right.)
It may not be true, but it's right. (Laughter) It may be true though.
(I don't believe that this man has ever told me a lie about mankind or about what life is all about. He's told me some pretty astounding things and I've come to believe every single one of them. It's slippery.)
Hot air.
(And sometimes I think it's hot air. I've seen people react to him just a tad on the hostile side 'cause he touches places in you that you don't want to have anybody touch and yet, we're all blessed because we've been touched in those places. I know that he's affected a lot of people in this room the way he's affected my life and I know that they're here for that reason. And I don't know what else to say except that I don't believe he's a teacher but I believe he's willing to walk with anybody and help anybody find their own way. And what he told me was that he does not have the power to teach me anything, but he has maybe the privilege of helping me to find what's right for me in my life and make it work. And that's what's been true and he has truly been a gift to me and I am looking so forward to whatever hot air he's got to hand out this weekend.) (laughter, clapping)
Good. Thank you Marge, that was pretty good. It was almost as pretty as your blouse is.
So we have a few hours to talk here this weekend and the last two or three times I have put on what's called workshops or whatever they may be that we go talk at, we have said wait a minute, we're not gonna stand up here and lecture to you and let you get sleepy and go to sleep. We're gonna have a plain discussion. So I'm gonna talk about what you wanna talk about. You know, I always know what I wanna talk about, but maybe you get tired of that. And incidentally, Miss Coordinator, I don't have a blackboard and that's an absolute essential. That's even more essential than toilet paper. If I'm gonna do anything, that is. Remedied right away. No sooner said than done. So in order to know what you took the time away from your weekend and came here for, other than to enjoy ourselves at all, there must have been something you would want to have some discussion on and so if you will bring the subject up, I'll guarantee to talk about it. If I don't know something, I'll betcha I can fake it. So you bring the subject up and the only ones that I will not attempt to answer is, "Why did that happen?" That is an endless question when you ask, "Why did so and so do…?" or "Why is this happening in the world?" and so forth because the next question after that one if I were so unwise as to attempt to answer it would be, "Why that?” So we won't entertain any why questions; but we will entertain any question about some general subject of life and living and us people. And we're all pretty much alike even if we don't look exactly alike, we're very much alike inside. And if you will bring up a subject, why we will discuss it and then the next person brings up a subject and we will discuss that. And the last two or three times we put those on – these talks – in that manner, everybody went out saying they took a lot more home with ‘em than they did when I stood up and gave you a lecture and told you a bunch of wonderful things and all that good stuff and then you went out and maybe the very thing you wanted to talk about, I hadn't touched on. So let's have whatever subject you wanna talk about. How about you droppin' on the first one there, Miss Cherie? Nobody wants to be first, so you're a good subject to be first. You sit down in the front row and that invites it. You got it goin'?
(I got one.)
Ok.
(Fear.)
Fear. Fear is when you are rather anxious about somethin’ and you don't know exactly what it is about. Now if I was to pick up a hammer and start after you and was going to strike you somewheres, it would not frighten you, but it would very decidedly startle you, ok? But if you have something that you are concerned about and you don't know what it is, we call that fear. Is that correct? So fear is being concerned about something that you don't know what you're concerned about. Is that correct? And you experience it as a great big knot in your solar plexus and, of course, most people wanna get rid of that knot in their solar plexus and so they do various and sundry things. They first usually try a pill or three – Valium is great for it – it makes you so numb that you don't know you have it. And a few other good items that stand around… some fool folks have used alcohol in this group, believe it or not, at various times in their existence. They have used a little alcohol 'cause you pour enough alcohol on it, it'll dissolve almost any kind of knot – for a while – and then it comes back with a vengeance.
So if you would like the remedy for fear, I can give it to you. Would you like that? You are perfectly free to experience fear. As soon as you say, "Well, go ahead, sit there, do your thing. Who cares?” It's no big deal, you know, it's not like havin’ your arm cut off or your leg cut off – it's just uncomfortable. And who are you and I to say that we should always be comfortable in this world, you know? And the minute you are really free – I won't say the minute, I will stretch that out a little bit – the first 10 minutes that you're really free to experience the feeling of fear, it will no longer be there. The thing that maintains fear in existence is not wanting to have it. You know about worry too, of course; you've worried a minute or two in your life, haven't you? Mmm? Did you ever worry deliberately or did you do it against your will?
(It was very deliberate.)
Mmm?
(It was very deliberate.)
No, you can't worry deliberately – if I may. I don't like to contradict you, but you cannot deliberately worry because the minute you start deliberately runnin’ through a bunch of thoughts through your mind, you only call it thinking. It's when they’re goin’ against your will. "Oh my God, that's gonna happen to me. And the kids, you know, are 10 minutes late comin’ in at night. They're in troubles and they're in a wreck somewheres layin' by the side of the road and nobody knows they're even there, killed,” or anything of the sort. That's all against your will. And if you deliberately think the same thoughts you can't feel the same way. Now you know some things you worry about ordinarily, right? Now let's worry about it right now, deliberately and freely, let’s ...you're not worryin’, you're laughin’.
(I know!)
Come on – let's get serious. (laughter) I didn't come here for kiddin' you know. Let's get serious. Let's worry a bit now.
(Ok.)
All right, what are you worried about? Good subject, you don't have to tell me but you got the subject straight and you're worryin’ about it now. You're runnin’ all kinds of thoughts through your mind, huh? Is the solar plexus all knotted up?
(No.)
No. You see we resist. So in the Teaching that I generally talk about (in fact it's the only one I ever talk about) is that we're attempting to furnish material by which, by which way a person can be totally liberated from all the outer control or inner control. In other words you can be in charge of your own state, ok?
That's all we're really workin’ for. Now if you can be in charge of your own inner state, you could be free to feel as miserable or as happy, as joyful or anything you wanted to be, is that right? Now if you feel that you're in charge of your own inner state, would you worry a lot, have all these knots in here? You wouldn't do that. Ok. So before we get through we will attempt to have you sufficient information that you can be entirely in charge of your own inner state at all times – if you remember to do it. Now, of course we forget a lot of things. Most of us forget very easily, is that right? Beth was around tonight and she forgot her bag for a minute while she went off to talk to somebody else, but she came back to get it in a few minutes because her cigarettes were in it. Now there's a few of us here have been known to smoke a cigarette or two in our life. My record is more like a carton a day, but that's all right. But that's one thing you don't forget. You smoke?
(Yes.)
Do you ever forget your cigarettes and go off and leave 'em lying around somewheres?
(I did yesterday.)
How long did it take you to go back and get 'em?
(About an hour.)
That's what I figured. Now if you remember the things that we're gonna talk about which will be the things that can give you total charge of your own inner state, if you put as much value on using it as you do your cigarettes you'll never forget it more than an hour, is that right? And you didn't forget that an hour; it just took you that long to get there, is that right? How long did you forget 'em?
(Oh probably 10 minutes.)
That's about right. Now if we don't ever forget… so if we have as much value on life and living as we have on a funny little white cylinder stuffed with tobacco… You know there's a man went out in London one day and he went to every tobacco shop in the city of London (which took him several days to get around to ‘em all) and he told ‘em he was searchin’ for an object that had little white cylinders that were stuffed with tobacco that was all shredded up – did they have any? And they all told him, "No we don't carry them. I don't know where you would look for that.” Now this was tobacco shops he went to. But you see he used a slightly different word. Now if you will remember and put as much value – and we put value on that which we pay attention to and remember, is that right? We remember those. So if I should give you the information so that you could be in charge of your own inner state – I can't take charge of it and I don't want to. I got enough to look after me. But if you did – if you could always be in charge you'd feel pretty wonderful most of the time, is that right? And if you put as much value on it as you do a cigarette, which is very little – granted they're gettin' to be worth a nickel apiece these days or that's what they're chargin’ for 'em when you buy 'em a pack at a time, right? A nickel apiece. But if we put just that much value on it you'd never forget to use what we're talkin’ about.
Now, resistance… Purple! [referring to the chalk color as he writes] – resistance, conflict, and struggle which all mean exactly the same thing when you get it down to brass tacks – is the only problem that any human has, ok? Conflict, struggle and resistance and they all mean exactly the same thing. If we’re resisting feeling like we're feeling at the moment and the moment is the fact and the truth and the reality, huh? And if we're in conflict ("I don't wanna feel this, I want to feel some other way,") then we're in a conflict and if we're strugglin’, we're trying to make that feeling go away. Now this all comes down to the idea of freedom. Now that's what you'd like, isn’t it – it's really a sense of freedom, huh? Free to feel any way you like. Freedom is what you enjoy and like and am happy with, is that right Miss Beth? Freedom.
Now you want to get freedom. You wanna experience and feel freedom, is that right? Then you can be in charge, right? Now as long as I'm resisting something, I'm not free; I'm fighting against this thing. If I'm in conflict, I'm not free. I'm in a struggle with something or other and struggle is the same thing. Now freedom is like if you were going to find a town somewheres and you had signs on the road. Somebody said, "It's marked very clearly." I found Lake Whitney State Park this afternoon by followin’ those clearly marked signs and I really wasn't interested in goin’ to the park because it was rainin’ out there and it's cold. But freedom is something – let's say it's a place you wanted to find and the map is clear. So I'm gonna lay the map out now. Now do you want to have – is freedom experiencing "free from" or is it "free to"? Now which way would you be free?
Now if you wanted to be free from headaches and you'd been havin’ headaches every few days for several years and you said, “If I could just get free from those headaches,” and a headache was gone one day, would you really be all right or would you be still worrying that the durn thing was comin' back pretty soon, huh? How about it, mmm? So there's no freedom from – is no freedom at all.
You know they run around here a few years ago and there was a great bunch of stuff – that you wanna be free from fear, free from hunger, free from want. I don't wanna ever get free from wanting. That's one sure thing I don't want to do, huh? So if we were free from something how secure feeling or how much in charge are you anyway? You've had times you weren’t fearful, is that right? But that didn't relieve much because you knew it was comin' back pretty soon, is that correct also? Mmm? So being “free from” is no free at all; but now if I'm free to experience whatever may arise in my way today… Now it's gonna arise and you're gonna experience it. Why not do it gracefully? Let's just be blunt about it, huh? It's gonna happen. It's here now; and if you study the human being from an anatomical and physiological and psychological state, about all you can say about a human bein’ is it's an experiencing organism, that about right? We're always experiencing something or sensing something. Is that correct? Now to resist it because it's a little unpleasant would be askin’ to be half unconscious. Now if I was in a state where I could feel no pain, would you consider I was a very lucky man or a man in a very precarious position? Tell me.
(Precarious position.)
A very precarious position. I'll have to take somebody along with me every minute to be checkin’ everything out 'cause I wouldn't know if I broke a leg, eat poison or anything else. Or I picked up a hot iron skillet. I wouldn't know I'd done anything injurious until I smelled the meat cookin’ in my hand, is that right? So we're experiencing organisms. The minute we experience something freely, we find a tremendous change comes about. Now when it comes down to brass tacks, have you ever really experienced fear freely? No, you've been tryin’ to make it go away. You've been in conflict, struggle and resistance with fear, ok? And as long as you do that, I will make you a very solid promise – it will continue to be there. But if you will today, now, say, "I'm perfectly... I'm a big girl now... I'm a big boy; I'm free to experience fear. Who in the world am I that I shouldn't experience the feelings that most everybody in the world does at some time or other." Right? “Who am I that I should be so singled out that I couldn't feel that?”
Now how many people have ever felt guilty that's been in here tonight? Anybody in here ever felt guilty? (laughter) Ok, if you're perfectly free to feel guilty, you know, nothin’ happens. It all goes away right quick. Now the preachers call that havin’ your conscience branded with a hot iron, but that's all right. If you're perfectly free to feel guilty you can't feel guilty anymore. It's all gone. It just pops and goes away; but boy, you resist it and you make all kinds of commotions about it and you resist it and get in conflict with it, you struggle with it – you can feel guilty for years and years and years on end. I know people who have felt guilty for 30 years. It’s no go, you know. It's miserable. Wasn't feeling guilty kinda miserable?
(Oh, terrible.)
But you know I'm perfectly free to feel guilty why pluuup, it's all gone. So if you wish to really be a person who is experiencing freedom of being, you will work to be free to, not free from. Now that work is so simple it's unbelievable. I'm free to experience it. Here I'm sittin’, I'm a big boy. So I'm tired, ok, I'm free to feel tired. If I have something that hurts, I'm free to experience pain. I don't get… don't get me wrong, I don't like pain any better than anybody else does but I'm a big boy so I'm free to experience it, ok? And it's surprising how much less intense it is and how soon it goes away when you're perfectly free to experience it. But you know it's tryin’ to tell me something. There's somethin’ goin’ on that needs to be fixed. That's what physical pain is about, isn't it? Mmm? Somethin' needs to be fixed and I wanna know about it, don't you?
Now I know a lot of people that the minute they have pain, they get fearful. There’s a young man out in California, bless his heart, he is the sweetest young man I know of. He is an athlete. He has such an enormous powerful body, he bends his arm, his coat sleeves pop out and all this kind of stuff unless he wears knit clothes. But if he has the slightest discomfort, he panics. It could never be nothin’ less than a heart attack or cancer or some of those goodies, you know; it's some big name at least. So he's on the phone callin' me telling me about his thing. The other day he had gas on his stomach and his heart palpated a little bit and God, he couldn't find me at the usual number he'd been callin’ ‘cause I was out running around and he set the telephone lines on fire all over the country. Everybody he knew or ever heard of that might have known me, he called 'em. "Where's Bob? Where's Bob? Where's Bob, I'm havin’ a heart attack!" And but you know, we told him… his wife by the time he got ahold of me, had taken him down to the cardiologist and he'd run a cardiograph and the thing was absolutely perfect. There was nothin' wrong, but he couldn't believe that because, you know, those jerks were just either kiddin' him or didn't know what they were doin’ with their durn electrocardiogram. They didn't know what they were doin’. He knew he was dying with a heart attack. So we talked a while and he went on his way. And so he called me yesterday afternoon and he said, "I know every time I've ever called you it was to holler about somethin’. But today I just called you to tell you thank you. I don't feel nothin', I'm feelin’ good." So he went on his way. But you see all this bit of resistance and struggle with everything that we judge being the least bit uncomfortable, we call it "bad". That right? Mmm? We call it "bad". Do you? Now are you free to feel fear? You're a big girl now – it's not gonna tear you up. You're not gonna explode like a bomb or anything just 'cause you have fear. Go ahead – pluup! Can you do that?
(No.)
Well, then you can keep on havin’ it. You must be addicted to fear and you wanna keep it, is that right? Because you have never been able to get rid of it with all your struggle and your conflict with it and your resistance, is that right?
(That's right.)
So if that didn't work, it would appear to me the day you get tired of havin’ it, you'll say, "Well, I'll try what that guy said. I'll be free to have it a few minutes." I very well recall when I decided I was free to have it for a few minutes. I was sittin' in a very nice big house just outside the north edge of Clovis, New Mexico and I decided one day I was perfectly free to feel fearful. Well, it felt like I was spinning in a wheel and a whole bunch of things for about 15 minutes; but I haven't been scared of anything since, ok? It was worth that 15 minutes. It was pretty wild but you know I decided I was free to experience that too, ok?
Now I have given you the information how you can do it. Now I obviously can't do it for you. You know I could go cook a beautiful dinner… (I do happen to like to cook and do a pretty good fair job of it, ok?) I could cook you a beautiful dinner and set it in front of you but I can't eat it for you, right? That's one I can't do. I can give you a roadmap of how to get to a certain place but I can't go for you. That right? You'll have to do it on your own. Now I've given you the information. You may not choose to use it for 20 years; but I imagine eventually you'll decide some day, “I'm gonna try it.” But in the meantime, you can enjoy fighting fear – lots of people have made a career of attempting to “overcome fear”. There's great numbers of books written about it; and of course, you never overcome ANYTHING – because this is what you've been tryin’ all these years. And no matter if you take up weightliftin’ and get bodybuildin’ and the whole works – become the strongest woman in the world – you still can't do it. It's only when you say (and really mean it), “I am a big girl now. I'm free to experience whatever may arise in my way today – no matter what it is.” ‘Cause if it's gonna arise you're gonna experience it – like it or lump it. Might as well do it freely and gracefully and see what happens, ok? Next question? Thank you for that one.
(Thank you.)
See there I talked a whole bunch of minutes on that one and I didn't even have to think of the subject. Next one out? You've had time to think on yours now while she got her dissertation.
(I thought of it but I already forgot it.)
And you already forgot it – what a shame. Yes, Miss Beth.
(Self-esteem.)
Self-esteem. Well, self-esteem I think means that I like me and to put it down in country boy simple language, is that right? I like me. I figure that I like me and if anybody else don't they have very poor taste, honey. (laughter.) They just have very poor taste. Now that's self-esteem to the nth degree is it not, Beth? Huh? How'd I get there? By bein’ a smart ass. [He bumps into a lit candle.] That was a candle, believe it or not! I'm glad my toe wasn't under it. I don't have safety toe shoes on. Why would you store a candle in a place like that? Could be fatal.
(Ok, don’t be frightened; it's ok.) (laughter)
Yeah, I'm all right. Ok so you wanna talk about self-esteem, which merely means I like me, is that right now? Ok, now why would a person not like themselves? This is what I would want to know. What goes on that you wouldn't like yourself?
(Oh, wow, I know a lot about that.)
Do you know a lot about it?
(Uh-huh. I don't think I'm adequate to do the things that I think I'm supposed to be able to be adequate to do.)
Hoooo, that was a mouthful. Who said you were supposed to do it?
(That's my rulebook.)
Huh?
(That was my rulebook.)
That was your rulebook. We'll draw a little picture of your rulebook then. I’ll draw a little picture of the rulebook. [He draws the Picture of Man.] That is the Awareness. Some people call it the mind – it don't mind much so I'll talk about it. Here it said you were supposed to keep yourself in a total state of non-disturbance at all time and obviously you're gonna be disturbed, so that was the first big lie we bought. This one says you gotta complain to get your way and this one says you gotta stick up for your rights. This one says you gotta please everybody – that one of those things you're supposed to do?
(Yes.)
And the other one says believe and do as you're told by your authorities. And the other one says you gotta improve yourself.
(Yes, definitely.)
And this one over here says if those other jerks would all straighten out, but you haven't gotten that one down very good. This one we call “A” and this one we call “B” and you're very good on this side [referring to “B” side] – you're double plus here and kind of a minus over there, right? Now somebody told you, you had to please everybody. That's an impossibility; I don't know whether you know that or not, isn’t it? There's an old, old story told about somebody tried to please everybody – one of my more favorite stories about over in Italy or somewheres they have Trade Days, kind of like they have out here at some big flea market in Texas somewheres. What's the name of that one out there, the big one somewheres?
(Canton, Texas.)
Canton, Texas. Well, this was the Canton, Texas of Italy and they had a Trade Day once a month just like they do out there – first Monday. So here goes the man and his little boy up in the hills and the only thing they had to take to the market to trade day was a little young donkey. So they started down the hill on this beautiful spring morning like yesterday was (not today) and goin' down the hill with their little donkey. And they meet a young guy and he starts to laugh at ‘em because they have a beast to ride and they're walkin’ along in the dust. So the old man, hoping to please everybody and thinking he should, picked the little boy up and put him on the donkey. They go down the road a few miles or a few blocks or so and they meet a nice old lady and she begins to berate this big strappin’ youngster for ridin’ while his poor old father trudged along there in the dust. So the old man took the boy off and he got on the donkey. And the next one they met was a young mother and she begin to berate the old man for ridin’ while that poor child struggled along there in the dust. So the old man used his head, ya know – so he picked the kid up and put him up in front of him. Now both of ‘em are ridin’ the donkey. And the next one they met was a young guy and he begin to laugh at “em and he said, "You two are better able to carry the donkey than the donkey is you." So they got off and tied the donkey's feet together like a deer carrying in and hung him over their shoulders and walked into town and everybody laughed at ‘em. Now that's the way to not have any self-esteem you see, ok. That about right?
First off if you try to please everybody you obviously will fizzle, right? So that would lose your self-esteem. The second one is to try to believe and do as you are told by all your authorities because there's authority on every corner – an authority merely means somebody wrote something; he was an author of it, ok? He didn't have to write it, just yelled it out. And they obviously don't agree with each other, that right? Huh? They don't agree with each other at all. So I'd lose my self-esteem if I tried to live by an authority – that's the next one out – I'd loose it totally and completely 'cause I couldn't keep up with it. Now the only way I know to have self-esteem is to kinda figure out what you are, where you are, what's goin’ on here and what you can do. I think I've talked on that subject here once or twice before. I will gently run it by again.
I'm a privileged invited quest at this beautiful estate called Earth. That gives me a little self-esteem. I'm here, and I didn't do anything to get it so the creator of this universe must find me interesting or he’d already pitched me out, ok? I'm not important and don't wanna be, but maybe I'm interesting. I would consider it a far greater compliment if I overheard somebody say, "Bob is interesting," than I would if they said he was important 'cause I'd know thesecond guy was nuts anyway. But the other one may have a point, ok? So then I would see that I'm here, that's a pretty good point.
The second is, “Where am I?” I'm at this beautiful estate called Earth where Life is the Host – that's a pretty good little mark in my favor, isn't it? I got one, now I got two, huh? The third one is, “What's going on here?” Well, obviously there's a great big party goin’ on 'cause when you see a lotta people together and they're all playin’ games, you have to assume it's a party. (laughter) And everybody's around here playing traffic games, marriage games, family games, business games, gamblin’ games, all kinds of games you see ‘em playin’ all over. So, and they're all out here doing it so I know it's a party. So I'm a privileged invited guest at this beautiful estate where there's a big party goin’ on and I have the privilege of playin’ with any of the other guests I want to. I have the privilege of ignorin’ any of the others and walkin’ across the street away from ‘em if I want to, right? And I have the privilege of playin’ any game I want to and ignorin’ any game if I want to. And I have noticed that ever since I've been at the party, the Host has provided me with food, clothing, shelter and transportation, is that right? Had all those? Everybody here? We all look fairly well fed anyway, mmm? So we've had that – ever since we got here.
Now, “What can I do?” I can be what to me is a good guest 'cause that's where I am and that's what's goin’ on. Now is there anything to keepin’ you from feeling like a good guest – except forgettin’ it? So let's put as much value on remembering that as you do to remember your cigarettes, Miss Beth.
If you do that, you'll always have a lotta self-esteem 'cause look who we are, mmm? We're here! Those other jerks aren't, huh? I don't care how rich they are, there's a lot of 'em not here; they get invited out of the party and we're still here so that's pretty good. I read in the book of Ecclesiastes one time that, “a live dog is far better than a dead lion.” (laughter) Mmm? You're here and I'm here and you're here, is that right? We're all here so, man, that shows we're pretty important folks and that the Host hasn't found us obnoxious enough to run us out yet. You know about two years ago there was a little epidemic of four of the richest men in the world all died within less than a year of each other. Now they all had walked around and accumulated billions of dollars and stored ‘em up in their little pockets and in their name. When they left, you know what the Host said to 'em? "Leave that here, that's just furniture at the place we all play with. We all play with those tokens, you have to leave 'em. You get out with the same thing you brought – nothin'." You know you come to the party, you didn't even have to bring a toothbrush because you didn't have a tooth. And you didn't have a stitch of clothes or anything else when you got here and you found a well-equipped world, a couple slaves to look after you and the whole schmear. Now if that don't give you self-esteem, what in the world does? You see you only have to see what is in order to have self-esteem. If you don't see what is, you listen to all these people throw these heavy trips on you that, “You ought to do this and you ought to do that and you should do this and you haven't done this and you should never fail in anything; and you should never stump your toe and you ought to do all these things.” So they try to make us all feel miserable and guilty.
I refuse. I tried feelin’ guilty once when I was a kid and I didn't like it, so I learned how not to: go do it twice more right quick. That's almost as good as bein' free to do it because that is really practicin’ being free to do it. Do you see? Free to experience it. I was raised up in the hills where to do anything on Sunday besides go to church and sit down and eat a whole bunch of stuff and be real quiet all day was a deadly sin. Some kids come by and I went fishin' with 'em. I didn't go fishin' – they bent a pin, a little old straight pin on a hook and tied a string on and told me, “Here kid, you play with that.” So I dropped it in the water but I didn't catch any fish, but I caught the guilties. Oh how did that hurt. And I worried and I didn't sleep for days and all this stuff. And then in a few more days they came by and I went with ‘em again. And again I felt guilty, but not near as much. And then about another two or three weeks they came by and I did the same thing and you know I didn't hurt a bit in the world. So I learned somethin’ right there. Go do it twice more and it won't hurt you at all. (laughter) And that is really practicin’ being free to experience guilt 'cause I knew I'd feel guilty, ok?
So now if you really wanna be free to experience it, you go do it twice more right quick. Whatever it was made you feel guilty – quick as possible, go do it more, ok? That'll take care of it ‘cause that's really bein’ free to experience it; so you know it's gonna come right then. They don't come after the third time. Don't even come the third time – just the second time and it's much less. Does that help answer your question? Can you have self-esteem as long as you remember what you are, where you are, what's goin’ on here and what you can do? You can be what to you is a good guest and that is the greatest thing I know of – to be the guest of Life on this beautiful planet called Earth. And if that's not enough to give you self-esteem, you're in a real bad shape.
Ok? Ok, Beth?
(Yes.)
Ok, thank you for that one. Let's have another subject. Who has the next question? Yeah, you remembered it now.
(In action about the circumstances of what's going on around you, to what length do you carry non-resistance? Is it in absolutely everything?)
A resistance is to inside. Now some joker comes down the street and tries to clobber me, I'm liable to clobber him back unless he's a lot bigger than I am, ok? Now that is not what we call non-resistance. What we're calling resisting is inside your head here, that's what I'm talkin’ about. Mama told me somebody cheated me once shame on them. If they cheated me twice shame on me. (laughter) That wasn’t exactly the words she used but the meaning is approximately the same – you can figure out the words dear old Mama said. Ok? So you see we're not talking about all these things out here in the everyday world. I don't argue with people. I usually let 'em have their way, but very shortly they can't find me to have their way, ok? I said I could play with any of the guests at the party I wanted to and I can walk across the street and not play with any of 'em I want to, too. The Host give me total freedom at the party. He didn't ask me to judge the guest list, so I don't say they're bad, I just say they don't fit my taste, ok? And I walk across the street. But I'll try to let 'em have their way 'cause I don't like hassles. But if the hassle got out of size, yes I will take charge to the best of my ability, is that all right?
Resistance – we're talking about this kinda stuff in here. You know you have a given sensation or feeling in you, you can resist it all over the place; that's an inside job. That's the one we're talkin’ about being free to experience. You see the only enemies we have are those – (end of CD 1)
Beginning CD 2
....and they want to take that rather literally. Now what it really is, is talking about the only enemy you have. If one of these little things here like this one that says, “I gotta please everybody,” jumps up and says, “You didn't believe so and so – you ought to feel guilty!” Mmm?
(You know it.)
That is the one I'm talking about. I'll go five miles with him and say, "Sure I should feel guilty; in fact I probably feel more guilty that anybody in the world." And he gets tired of that and goes away in a little while. Now that's the enemy that things talkin' about is these guys in here. They're very busy. These like to make you feel sorry for themselves and these might can make you feel guilty. You've had both. Sometimes this one works on you and makes you feel oh so sorry for yourself: “So totally mistreated, nobody understands me.” You know we've had a few bars when we had… we had restaurants and you could get a drink there. You go into the bar room and there's a lotta people lined up around the bar tellin' everybody that’ll listen and anybody that just passes by that don't want to listen that they're, “just not understood.” And they've been mistreated and, “It's led to this,” ok? They pay good money for the booze like everybody else does. We took it, but who listens?
One time when I was very early in the years of workin’, of listening to people spill out all their stuff inside, you know, I was comin' down the elevator out of the office building I was workin' in and there was an old man who was in the same general field of endeavor. And I was all beat out and tired and he looked fresh as a daisy. And I said, "Don't you get tired of listening to that all day?" He said, "Who in the hell listens?" (laughter) “You just sit there and collect your fee. Who listens to all that stuff people are pouring out?” you see. Miss Beth did that get something goin'? Ok. Next question up? Who's got the next? See this works a lot better than me havin’ a subject and up here and rattling off for you and putting you to sleep. Yes sir?
(Expectation.)
Expectations. Most people expect – something. Usually the very best of every endeavor they start out… is that the kind of expectation you're talking about or expectin’ that everybody's gonna do you in? Which one? You expect everybody's gonna do you in?
(No.)
No – the other one. That everything’s gonna work out just lovey-dovey. Well there's always what we have tried to put out – there's something called Second Force. There's a little resistance from nature, not from anything esoteric or deep or anything, just plain old nature of things – friction – that when we have an expectation, our expectation is usually based on the ideal, the ideal that everything will be just exactly like I dreamed it up. If I sit down and dream something.
I worked out in California with staff for a while this year for a very organized corporation. Never done such a thing before in my life. And the first thing we was told that we needed from all the officers (and I happened to be an officer at that time before I got fired) was to write a business plan. And so I sat down and wrote a beaut. Man, they're gonna make several mil this year, you know. There was just no doubt about it the way I had the plan written out, if everybody made the plan work. And, of course, I didn't put any Second Force or anything that somethin’ would go haywire.
Well, the fact of the matter was that about everything went haywire and the stock went from $15 a share to the last I looked the other day in the Wall Street Journal, it was like $75 bid and a dollar asked. No takers, ok? So obviously my business plan was the ideal. Now I didn't have any confidence in this business plan, I was just writing things up. They wanted fiction, I can write it. (laughter) And any business plan is gonna be fiction if you're gonna project out what it's gonna do and all this stuff. So obviously somebody was disappointed. I wasn't, 'cause I knew what I was writin'. I saw what all they were all doing and seein' the terrible mood that was in the place of business so I knew it wasn't gonna go very good. So they were all disappointed now. Now when they're disappointed, you feel hurt right down the line. Boy you been hurt. Now, you haven't been but because you had an expectation all based up there now, you feel hurt.
And when you feel hurt, of course we immediately have to look for blame. Well, they looked for blame and I was one of 'em. And they found another guy for blame and they threatened him with all sorts of hard stuff, and of course they couldn't threaten me with much 'cause I just walked off anyway. So you feel hurt and you look for blame. Now as long as you find something to blame, you can't do anything about anything because this thing that was to blame's gotta disappear. And there's no way for it to ever disappear. Because even if the guy goes off and dies, he's already done the damage and there's nothin' you can do about it. So blaming is a part of something that happens when you have expectations based on an ideal, right? And when you blame, you have paralyzed yourself. You can't do anything because you gotta wait for that to go away now isn't it? Or something… You can go to court and sue and all these things because somebody's got – they found out who is to blame.
Now when you look for blame, you always find it. Now if you're a real good person on this little picture I drew a while ago that's trying to please everybody and do the right thing at all times... That was the one my mother laid on me: if I’d always do the right thing, everything would work out fine. But she forgot to tell me how to find out what the right things was. See, I'd have to know the future under a thousand different possibilities for at least 200 years to know whether I was gonna do the right thing or not 'cause I had to know how it works out and how all these alternatives work out, see. That's a horrible one to lay on a kid.
So if you find it was you, though, you feel guilty and that's a very common one if we're what's called “good folks”, you know. Old reprobates don't mind. And if you found that it was somebody else that you know, you could be angry. And if you could know that you were off looking for blame but you couldn't find what to blame you'd feel fear, is that right? That's when you feel fear. You got something going haywire and you don't know what to blame it on. You know… “I don't feel good and I don't know what diagnostic term to put on it, so I worry if it's cancer and if it's this and if it's that 'cause I don't know what it is.” So then we have fear. Fear is when you have lookin for blame and you can't find what to blame it on. Then you feel fear, mmm?
And if you've been around this way a good many times, you begin to feel insecurity in no uncertain terms. Another word for that is lack of self-esteem. Another word for it is inferiority and etc., mmm? You begin to feel all of those. Now that's what comes about and then we call those, of course, stress and they do all their good things and we’re beginnin' to then want to know how to get all full of that and we want to get expectation of that. We might try any number of different things hopin’ that'll work… but they don't ever work. Now if you wanted to be a little crude but free of these kind of expectations, I will give you that bit of information. Would you like to have that also?
(Yep.)
Now we don't have to tell anybody else what we're aware of, but we can be well aware of it. I'm aware that most people are livin' by these little things we had in here a while ago: complainin’, sticking up for rights, and blamin’. And then on the other side is pleasin’ everybody and quotin' your authorities and improvin’ yourself. “B” and that's “A”. Now we've found that most everybody has a great big charge of those and totally unconscious and live in a state of conflict. Now these are infantile conclusions and things that infants live by. Now they can't do anything else; that's what they have to live by – for a while. Now most people never get over it, so my viewpoint is that the world is populated with infants, many of which have grown bodies and technical educations. So I expect them to behave as infants that now have grown bodies and technical educations. Since I've taken that viewpoint, never once have I been disappointed; and a few times I've had a wonderful pleasant surprise and that I can't conceive of anybody bein’ upset about – havin’ a pleasant surprise. Can you? I've had a number of pleasant surprises. But my basic assumption is: the world is populated with infants, many of which, most of which, have grown bodies and technical educations and therefore I expect them to behave according to this. I expect some of them to be fallin' over themselves to please me and they quote their proper authorities and they're tryin’ to improve themselves. And then I have ones that's complainin’, stickin’ up for their rights and blamin’ and the whole works. And I've never been disappointed since I took this viewpoint. And I think you would find it very effective. Now don't go around tellin' other people what you see. Keep that to yourself. It's your own private weapon, but one of the best ones I think you could come up with. And fortunately, unfortunately, or otherwise it's pretty close to factual. In fact I think it is very factual. And that also gets you to develop that state of being called agape or love – that you recognize that what a person does, at the moment of doing they had to feel it was (with what light they have, [he points to the chalk board] which is this – not near as bright as that) with what light they had, they did what seemed right or proper or justifiable to them and they couldn't have done anything else. So why be upset about it or anything else? And so that I base my expectation on, Bob, whenever I meet somebody – that I'm dealing with an infant that has a grown body and a technical education and therefore I better beware of the technical education in the grown body because some of these are very apt to show up very quickly. And I said I've never been disappointed since then. That make all right sense for you now?
(Yeah, it does. Could you elaborate just a little bit on the last point you made which is that we need to allow those others to do what they need to do?)
I didn't say we “need” to. I said it was a necessity, Bob, that we have agape – or love it's called in the Scriptures. It's also called charity. It has nothing to do with givin’ somebody a quarter when they're needin' a cup of coffee which wouldn't do ‘em any good today anyway – couldn't get the coffee with it. But this means simply that I understand that what anybody’s doing, has done, or ever will do, or what I've done or ever will be doing or what I'm doing at the moment, that I feel it to be right… that person feels it to be right or proper or justifiable or they couldn't do it.
Now if there's anybody here that says you can know that something is wrong, improper and totally unjustifiable, you can go ahead and do it anyway, I wanna hear from him. You know we have a whole code of jurisprudence I believe it's called that says that man knows what's right and goes on and does wrong anyway. That's anti-agape. I have experimented a great number of times with a great number of people and I have yet to find the person who can feel knowingly within themselves, “This act is wrong, improper and unjustifiable but durn it, I'm going on and do it anyway.” Let's see you. I want to see the person that can do that. Bobby, you think you could? That you know… now you may feel that it's wrong and improper, “But under this circumstance, the way she's treated me, I can certainly do it!” That's justification. Now I have only learned one thing in many years: not to base any action on something I have to justify 'cause the durn justification's gonna break down about the time I get through doin' it. Justifications are very short-lived things once you act upon ‘em. Now as long as you haven't acted on it, boy they're the most reasonable logical thing in the world. But you just act on it once and you'll find that your justification breaks down in a hurry. So I've learned one thing: just to do what I feel is right or proper, not what is justifiable because that justification always breaks down. So agape, or what's called in sacred writing so to say, is called that I have the insight to recognize that whatever you do, another does, or I did, that at the moment of doing, it had to feel with what light the person had, it had to feel that it was right or proper or justifiable or you would find it impossible to do the act.
A man who sticks a gun in somebody's face in the liquor store and says, “Gimme your money,” he has it all justified 'cause I've talked to him. And he told me exactly how it was justified. And when I say “him”, I'm talkin’ about several dozen of 'em. And they have it perfectly justified. Now the justification breaks down after a while. However, no longer ago than yesterday I was talkin’ with a man who's been arrested about five times in the last two months for breaking and entering. He is out on… what's it called? Not parole 'cause it's after you've been locked up. Probation. He is on probation. And he had all those acts justified and the law was just, you know, they was just really uncouth to be accusing him of anything. Yes sir? Did you have your hand up? No. I thought so – I'm sorry. So he has it still justified with five arrests on him in the last two months. They're just pickin' on him, they're just harassing him, that's all. He hasn't done anything. In one place he broke in the buildin’ and had gathered up a whole bunch of stuff and had it piled at the front door to leave. And the law, the police, came because they'd tripped an alarm somewheres and a silent one. And the police came and so they didn't get to take the stuff out of the door. And he said, "Well we didn't do anything. The door was unlocked, we just walked in and we didn't get to take anything so what have they got against me?” You know, he didn't get out the door with it – he was tryin’, he got to the door. But he's very unjustified in everybody doin' ‘cause he was justified in anything he was doin'. So it's still goin' on.
Now what kind of mind would you say that was? I just went by it a while ago. It's… Huh? That's an infant mind with a grown body and it's somewhat of a technical education out here walkin' around. So you know, I can't fight with it. I know his justification is just as good as anybody else's includin’ mine if I make one. Ok? Does that finish up the question? Ok, Bob, thank you. Ok, next comment. Here we are.
(Purpose.)
Purpose. My purpose is something I have decided that is of first value to me to do and do all the time. Now I only have one little purpose and it's a very simple one. I'm doing what I can to be what to me, is a good guest. I don't go around, ask other people about bein' a good guest. I just do it – what to me is a good guest, ok? And any purpose you have if it is a single purpose, that is your first value in life – whatever that may be. Now most people have as their major purpose is to be non-disturbed. And of course that's a very frustrating purpose to have because it is hoping to obtain somethin’ without any effort. “I'm entitled to it.” And besides that, you're gonna be disturbed a little bit every day. To live and to be alive is to have a certain amount of pain, frustration, discomfort, challenges 'cause otherwise we wouldn't be alive, ok? And if our purpose is to be non-disturbed we're in a very frustrating situation, which most people in the world are. You can stop about any place and say, "How's everything?" and somebody tells you that it's pretty cruddy – right away – because they're comparin’ it to be totally non-disturbed and we're not gonna get it that way. Some great philosopher way back down the road said, "To live is to suffer." I don't suffer because you know, you don't suffer unless you're resisting pain so I just have pain and don't resist it so I don't go into the suffering level. Pain's enough bother for me. Don't need to suffer on top of it. So that's simple enough.
So your purpose is whatever your first value is. Now I would recommend that all those that don't know what their first value is (and very frequently I find that is the case that very few people know what their first value is – most of 'em is to be non-disturbed), then I would certainly check it up and if I found it to be non-disturbed I would attempt to make some other one. Now I don't say my little first value is any good for anybody except me. It works fine for me. I found a few other people that kinda took it on and they seem to get along pretty well with it that their only purpose is to be what to them is a good guest. I don't try to be a good host 'cause I'd be competing with an expert and I don't like to do that.
(Talk a little bit about the “Traveler and the Tripper”.)
Well, the tripper is a person who continually changes their direction or their purpose or whatever their thing of first value is. They go flittin' all over the place, so they take a little trip here and it don't work too well for 'em or they grab another one. The traveler is a person who is free to experience whatever is, wherever it may be and continues with his one purpose. I said you can have one purpose to be non-disturbed all your life. You might be a traveler but it sure would be a hard travel ‘cause you're takin' all the, you're leavin' all the roads and going to the swamps and the mountains and the cut grass and so forth and the person who continually is vacillating all over the place of course never gets very far in anything, ok? That's the simplest way of sayin’ it. I talked about it here one time for four days… three days. I thought everybody would remember it. I finished it and went on. Yes ma’am?
(Will you tell us about the four kinds of love and what is most lasting?)
Ok. I will try to put 'em all out here. I don't know how lasting anything is. The best possible… is that what you're talkin’ about?
(Good relationships.)
Oh, one of them you can enjoy, how's that? It's the only one that counts is one you can enjoy, isn't it? Huh?
(Yes.)
Ok, the four loves. The one English word “love” has been translated from four different Greek words. The first Greek word was “Pia”: p - i - a, and that refers to the love you have for relatives, we'll say – children particularly, your own children, or children for their parents. You might gritch among yourselves but don't let anybody else get involved in it, you know. You can be gritchin' about your kid, but don't let somebody else come do it or they got troubles on their hands, ok? And Pia you go ahead and take care of 'em even though they cause you trouble and they get in trouble with the law and get in jail. You'll go bail 'em out and scream at ‘em all the way home but you still go there. Pia's there, ok? Now, Pia is parent/child we'll say in its simplest explanation, but it extends a little further than that – mostly relatives.
And the next one is Eros: e - r - o - s, and that is the mating attraction and it's gonna be here and it's gonna stay here. It is many times rather selective but seemingly it's not exclusive has been the case of most people in the world looked at. And they have figured that when it arose that it would last forever – it is full tempo forever and ever. And of course its tempo slows down, its intensity does slow down. And then, of course, a lot of people are horribly disappointed about that. But it's to be expected because it's gonna be there. That it undergoes many kinds of changes – it may become much deeper and quieter over the years or it may explode entirely. But it in itself is not anything to depend on a very lasting relationship with. Nice as it is, it's fickle.
Ok?
The next one is Philia (p - h - i - l - i – a). Philia is, means, brotherhood. And put it in its simplest most understandable terms simply means, “I like.” So I might say I love chocolate cake. I didn't say that but I could have said that and that would mean I like chocolate cake. We could meet 20 people in a day and say, “I love all humanity – it's those damned individuals that get to me.” (laughter) But you know, that's the way most people work, you know. They just love everybody but they can't stand the individuals. So Philia means, “I like”. I like this. I like you. I like that. Ok? Simply that. Now of course that is even the thing that would certainly have to be there; you might say it could be like friendship. So if there was Eros and this, it would get along a little better.
Ok? If it had that.
Now there’s another one down here that has nothing to do with feeling things. It is comprehension. It is more of an intellectual thing than it is a feeling. These are feelings and very powerful ones. This one is understanding, a clarity, a way of seeing. We just talked about Agape a while ago in connection with Bob's question, that this is when I understand that whatever a person does, whatever they have ever done, doing now or ever will do, at the moment of doing, with what light they had at that moment, they felt it to be right or proper or justifiable. It is what you might say that you never need to forgive anybody because you build no accounts against them. People do a lotta strange things with their what light they have and it takes some comprehension and clear seeing to see that to them, it feels right, proper or justifiable, ok? And without having that there, there's no chance of very many lasting relationships in this world without at least some degree of this because people do strange things especially when they're operating on these things in here. And they do; the world's populated with people who do that.
So in order to make it last, they used to say, “Forgive.” I would say not build accounts because you have a certain amount of Agape and if I don't build accounts then I don't have to forgive you, is that right? And if I… Forgiving kinda implies I'm so damn good and you're crappy. (laughter) You know, I don't forgive things ‘cause I don't build too many accounts. They get there once in a while and say there it is; but there's no use carryin’ 'em around and keepin' em. And there's no use forgivin’. If you can't understand, don't bother with the forgiving. It just gives you the big head and that's not self-esteem. Now if you have a little Agape for yourself, you know you have a little more self-esteem too. Anything you and I ever did, that at the moment of doing, we only had enough light that it looked like that was right, proper or justifiable, ok? I can't find no fault with me. And if you don't like me you have poor taste – that's the conceited part of it. Mama said there was no conceit in the family; I had it all. Anyway it's comfortable that way. Ok?
Let's have the next comment along the way. I'm kinda enjoyin’ where you bring the subject and I do the talkin’ every now and then. You know, it works a lot better. The hardest work in doing these things is thinkin’ up a subject because every subject I think of, I think that would bore hell outta everybody. It does me, you know, because I been through it a thousand times. Unless somebody wants to talk about it I can't imagine, you know, talking about those things because I think, “Well everybody knows that, I've already talked about that there once anyway.” So I very much thank you for bringing the questions. Now we're gonna do that all day tomorrow. And Sunday mornin’ we don't have to do that; I look up a little piece of something and say a word or two about it. But tomorrow it's gonna be that routine. Now, you're gonna have to bring the subject up and then I'm delighted to talk because that makes it a lot easier for me. And then I feel – well, we've covered whatever anybody wanted to talk about. Because otherwise I may be standin’ up here talking about somethin’ I just love to talk about and you're sittin’ there wonderin’, “When's he gonna get around to this, when's he gonna get around to this?” and I won't ever get around to it. So now we're enjoyin’ this routine here. Now we got about another 10 minutes to go here.
(How about a little discussion between rights and justice.)
Rights we don't have any that I know of because as I said a while ago, I was born broke helpless, naked, and the place I arrived at was not really wantin’ me very much as they told me many times, but nevertheless these slaves took care of me, fed me, clothed me, sent me to school for a while, and all those good things, ok? So I have no rights, but I have a lot of privileges and I have learned that the best way to lose a privilege is to mistake it for a right and start stickin’ up for it. That's the best way to lose a privilege. So once we recognize that all we have is privileges, I think that most of us would be very thankful to know that we had only privileges. And I'm very thankful that's all I have because then I can do a certain amount of work to maintain the privileges that I now have, enhance them and get more. ‘Cause if there's anything I want it’s more privileges, ok?
Justice – I haven't the foggiest idea what it is. It belongs to one of the earliest teachings after the law of the jungle. The law of the jungle was: strongest survives. And then they came along with the next line of teaching, which was an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. So that was justice. You cut my toe off, I'll cut your toe off – then we're even. You kill my brother, I'll kill your brother. You kill somebody, they would kill you and this goes on and on and on and on and on and justice was one of the very furtherest back teachings there was: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Before that it was fang and claw – whoever eats, that's it.
Then the next line of teaching was taught as love – Agape, which we just been talkin' about somewhat.
And the fourth line of teaching is the one we're trying to elucidate a little bit tonight is called the Fourth Way. So the First Way was the jungle. The Second Way was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and justice and that's still about the most, by population numbers, the teaching that's most used. The teaching of love, the Third Way, has been talked about and given a lot of lip service and precious little use. But at any rate the Fourth Way says that all of those are wonderful but let's find out what we are, where we are, what's goin’ on here and what we can do. And maybe we don't need those other three anyway but you take 'em where they are. So I don't know about justice, doctor. I'm totally in the dark on it, totally in the dark. I do know about rights: I don't have any. I have a lot of privileges and I'm doin’ my best to maintain those privileges, enhance them, and get many more as I can get, ok? That's all I know about that one. Does that cover your question all right, doctor? Ok? Next one. We have still time for one more.
(Where are we going – with this?)
Where are we goin’? Well some people are goin’ to town. Some are goin’ to the country. Some are goin’ to the moon. Some are goin’ into orbit. Some aren't goin’ anywhere. There is nothing that we are going. It is where am I going.
(I going.)
Yep. Now that's the only question only man in the world can answer that is you. Now if you don't know where you're goin’, I would suggest you check up as to where you are first. And I got through talkin’ about where you are a while ago. You are a privileged invited guest at this beautiful estate called Earth. I'm not in a hurry to go anywheres. I like it here. I'm here and that's where I am. Now, nothin’ is being happening and if we don't, probably, behave as fairly decent guests over a reasonable length of time the Host might find us uninteresting and send us away. And I've noticed that you don't take anything with you when you go on that trip and I'm not in a hurry to go on that trip, ok? Maybe if I be a good enough guest, they won't notice me and won't kick me out – make no ripples, ok? I don't know where you're going, and really I doubt if you do.
(I was ___ that theory that ___.)
What is what?
(What is justice. I was trying to ....)
I haven't the foggiest idea what justice is. I don't know. I'll leave that up to, I believe, judges and so forth and they can't agree on it. And even when they take the question to the Supreme Court I notice that there's very seldom a unanimous decision as to what is justice. Is that right, Bob?
(Very close.)
Very seldom do the nine ride it out the same, is that right? So there's only five men in the United States who knows at any moment how to interpret the Constitution of the United States. The rest of us just rattle our heads. There's only five of em. The other four don't count. And it doesn't matter which five it is, either.
(Not always the same five either.)
No, it's not always the same five, but when five of 'em agree that this is what it said, man, that's it. I don't know. And I don't think we're really goin’ much of any place. I think we're just standin’ here treadin' water mostly and seein’ around that maybe we can understand what's goin’ on here. I think that's a far better question if I may say so is, "What's going on here?" rather than, “Where am I going?”
(What's going on...)
Here. And I think when you catch on to that, the other question won't matter, ok?
(Bob, a lot of people say they don’t want justice, but they want mercy.)
That's what we all better hope we get. I think we all better hope for that, don't you Bob? I don't know what justice is. I think some people want justice for themselves and don't wanna give mercy to others and there's a few people when once they see justice about to come, they suddenly decide they'd rather have mercy. They found that justice headin' my direction, I'd a whole lot rather have mercy, I'll guarantee you, Bob. Now if it's me gettin' justice on you, I'm very much in favor of justice, Robert, right? If I'm gettin' a lick at you then that's justice. If you're gettin' a lick at me then you don't have mercy. You know it's like so many of those things you know, Bob – they, you and me. You know about that don't you? They are all a bunch of money grabbers. You put too much value on money. I'm a prudent man – describin’ the same acts all the way, see, and so on down the line. You are a miser or they are misers. He's a miser. You got an overly love of money. I'm conservative. You know the words get better as they get closer to me. (laughter) All synonyms, but they get better synonyms when they get close to me.
Dear people I've enjoyed the evening. I hope you have. We’ll start in the morning at 10:30. I like that – we can quit at 12. And from 12 to about 3 or 4 we'll have a lunch break, then we'll stop at 6 for dinner. Is it 6 for dinner? 6:30. Well, everybody has to have 30 minutes to freshen up. So we’ll have a nice long lunch break from about 12 ‘til 4 or something like that. (laughter) I’ll be here and I hope somebody’s here to bring up a subject, ok? (clapping) (end of CD 2
Life and Living Page 2
Life and Living Page 3
Life and Living Page 4