Workshop - Life's Word Workshop Lake Whitney, TX - 1981 - Page 3 of 4
There is a beautiful little book entitled
Life’s Word
by Anonymous
Dr. Bob was asked to comment on the material for clarification. It has been transcribed verbatim, in the vernacular of Dr. Bob’s “Kentucky-ese”.
(Note: Audience comments are in parenthesis.)
[Dr. Bob’s comments within his reading of Life’s Word are in brackets.]
[Clarifications and Suggested Links to Illustrations on this website are in brackets and italicized.]
Since this Workshop transcription came out to about 50,000 words, it is included here in continuing parts for the facility of loading these pages. There is no particulat relevance or topic to each page as it just continues from one page to the next via the links at the end. - Marsha
Continued from Part 2 .......
Pray earnestly, if you will, that certain conditions
which are obnoxious to you, be abolished.
Ok, and then we'll start somethin’ else, you know. Let black folks sit up front in the store and we'll put the smokers in the back. So what's the difference? And, of course, people are wantin’ to abolish smoking. You know, they want to do that. California is pretty good at it, you know. They look at you like you have the leprosy or something. It's kinda nice to come where most everybody smokes. The rest of ‘em are closet smokers. I work in a building where I and one other person are the only ones that openly ever light a cigarette. Whole company full of people. But I go to the washroom and it's always just loaded with smoke. That's what you call closet smokers, and these are bathroom smokers. So, man, every so often they got to run in there and smoke in the bathroom. But, now outside they're, "Why don't you quit that filthy thing?" I think that's funny too.
Pray earnestly, if you will, that certain conditions
which are obnoxious to you, be abolished.
Let's get with it; pray and ask the Lord.
Strive with your fellows unto that end if it seems right unto you.
Pride yourself, if you choose, on exercising a strong influence
against such conditions.
You have really done much to end these evils in the world. Pat yourself on the back. Just be careful and don’t disjoint it.
I will be with you in all such prayers and strivings.
…and laughin’ up a storm. Can you imagine at the laughing and the joy of the sense of humor that Life must have. Hmm? To answer all the prayers for everbody.
Yet know that I have provided those obnoxious conditions on purpose to exercise the heart and the hearts of all those who are affected thereby,
and will sanctify them unto you, even your deepest distress.
You'll really be upset, more and more of it’s come on.
That which you deem a disgrace to the times, to the City, or to you,
is intended by Me to work great advantage unto you.
You might finally get so you recognize that everything's ok - just like it is. You might even get there sometime. That would be kinda nice, wouldn't it? But without all these things happening, you would never get to the place you could agree that everything was all right. You could never get around to the second mystery here.
Yet, I will that you shall fight, as if it were an enemy,
if you see it as an enemy, and herein is this mystery!
Things are as you see them. They aren't like you like they might be, but things are to you as you see them. So it's about purity, but that's what purity is. So if you should see all things as pure, so the fifth one here - all things are as I see them. To me, of course. All things are to me as I see them.
So now, that is a mystery. We talk about, "Well, that's the way it is, that's a fact," and so forth, but it may or may not have anything to do with fact. So it is to you as you see it. Now if I choose to see you as a wonderful person, what kind of a person are you to me? And if I see you as having a bunch of durn faults and I got to struggle with you to get you straightened out, how do I see you? As a very flawed person that really needs a lot of my ministrations to get you straightened up so you'll be like you ought to be, is that right?
Now suppose that today we could begin to see everybody as an expression of Life, an individualized expression of Life - God, if you please; X, Spirit, whatever word you want to call it. What kind of world would you live in then? If you saw everybody as being an expression of God, Life, Spirit? You'd see everybody as the Christ then, wouldn't you? Wouldn't this be a terrible old world to live in? Like the woman said the other day, “Who wants to stay here? Get out and go into the realms." Forget it, I'm better acquainted here. I wanna stick around. So what kind of world is it when you see everybody as being an expression of Life including yourself, dear Louise? I couldn't figure out an improvement on it, could you? Could you?
(No.)
Well, that's pretty close to what it is. I don't know if that's the way it is or not, but that's the way I choose to see it. And everything is as to me as I choose to see it, ok? You are to me as I choose to see you. And you are to me as I choose to see you, and Marcy is to me as I choose to see her. You are, and you are, and on and on. Hmm? Now if I see everybody as an expression of Life, and that whatever they're doin’ is serving some contribution to the whole, it is Life working. Maybe it's just having fun. Oh, I don't think Life has to be so serious all the time, that it never plays jokes or anything. It has a good time, but there is absolutely nothing that you can get all torn up and upset about because everything you see is an expression of God, Life, Spirit, whatever word you're comfortable with, huh? Now that's just about what it said here. It says It's quite pleased with us. You obviously notice that when Life's not pleased with you, it seems that you're invited away from the party. We're all here, so it must be puttin’ up with us quite well, Mary, huh? Now we're here, you're here. So I guess Life is pleased with us. Why can't I be? It's pleased with everybody around - they're all right just like they are.
Somebody says, "Don't you wish everybody in the world was conscious?" I said I'd have a hard time makin’ a living. I need a few sleepy folks to take advantage of every now and then. That right, Mack Harris? If you, as a peddler and a maneuverer in the business world, had all conscious people, it’d be rough to make a living, wouldn't it? Thank goodness we got a lot of ‘em sleepin’. If you're a doctor, do you want everybody in the world to be well? You'd starve to death. You gotta have a bunch of "sickies" around to keep goin’. If you’re an undertaker, you don’t want anybody to go. I have a friend that's an undertaker up in Pennsylvania up in the hills and he's forever calling me on the phone and says, "Bob, do something to get my business up. I haven't had a funeral in weeks." I say, "Well, if I help Charlie out, I got to knock a few people out." I don't guess I want to help Charlie’s business much. The doctor says, "My practice has gone down. I haven't had a patient in two weeks." So I got to get some people sick so he can be busy. I don't mind helping out in some of these chores, you know. But isn't it all right? You see, we really don't want anything a whole lot different than it is, if you really think over it for a while. Hmm?
Now everybody's an expression of Life serving some purpose or other, and why should we be disturbed about it and try to straighten everything up and get all our causes and our situations going, and we do these great reforms and everything? I think everybody's all right just like they are. Tina, don't you? You’re just fine just like you are. Hmm? You've then taken all the troubles out of the world, but then without troubles, how are we gonna survive? We've got our whole society set up on fixing other people's troubles, is that right? Hmm? Can you imagine what a depression would come about if from now on nobody got sick? See the biggest industries in the country are supplyin’ sick people—medications and medical instruments and medical devices of all kinds. In this industrial complex I work in, nine out of ten of the businesses there are all supplying something for sick people - medical devices, etc. But the whole thing would be a ghost town out there in a week if nobody got sick from now on. What would you do? We'd have a depression - unemployment would be rampant. We'd probably go to 25% in this country. You want that to happen? Let 'em stay sick. Keep the business going. Too many of my friends are physicians. If they didn't have sick people, they'd all starve. Besides that, they’re the greatest people for investments, aren’t they? That right, Mack? Where do you go when you need some risk money (without tellin’ them it’s risk)? You see, we just got to have all these things. So for goodness sake, see that Life is pretty smart and that everything is just fine just like it is, ok? Not tryin’ to change a thing. Then you don't have any problems.
VI
Sixth Mystery: Giving
You wanna take a break or you wanna wait ‘til I get through with the next little mystery here? Ok, we'll go to Number 6. We got five. So far they all look kinda sensible even, don't they? We’ll take a break after this one here.
The Sixth Mystery is the mystery of Giving.
Now this really gets with it.
Behold I have set My sun in the sky,
and the light in which it lives is the light that radiates itself.
That's the only light around the sun is the sun it radiates, ok?
It is not lighted by reason of any light which comes to it,
Nothin’ out there brighter than it is or gets anywheres near it.
…but only by reason of that light which goes out from it.
So unto you I have given the power to radiate My love,
My happiness, My health, My wealth, My vitality and My wisdom.
Ok? “I have given the power unto you.” Each and every one of you. “So unto you I have given the power to radiate My love, My happiness, My health, My wealth, My vitality and My wisdom.” You already have that ability, ok?
And as the sun cannot live in any light except that which it radiates or gives out, so is it impossible for you to live in any light
that you do not radiate,
…nor have any Life, and love, and happiness, and health, and wealth, and vitality and wisdom, which is all called light. That’s what is meant by “light” - all those things.
Now the only bit of that I will ever live in is what I can radiate. So why not just radiate me a whole gob of it if I like it, huh? There's nothin’ wrong with it, nobody keepin’ me from it. Is there, Mack? Nobody keepin’ me from it. So if I want to have light which is love, happiness, health, wealth, vitality, and wisdom, that is what is meant by light - not light comin’ through the ceiling up here. That is the light that we can live in – is that which we radiate.
You cannot obtain love by getting it from without,
You know, I would never know whether anybody loves me or not. I can know how they treat me. I can see when you treat me nicely and caringly and all that, I can see that, but I don’t know whether that's from love or you figured it was to your advantage to do it that way. I don't know. It may be a big act for all I know, huh?
You cannot obtain love by getting it from without,
even as the sun cannot obtain light by getting it from without.
The sun don't get any light from outside of itself. It's got its own source goin’, huh? So if you love, you will feel that everybody loves you. But if you don't love, you're always questioning and wondering and doubting and all that good stuff - that about right?
Happiness is constantly yours to the extent that you do give it out.
So if you pitch out a little joy as you go through this world, an awful lot you're livin’ in then. You don't get back - you're just living in it. You're already spreading it around you, so it's like you're sitting in the middle of that light thing. It's all around you then.
Seeking happiness from without and drawing it to the self
is its own destruction.
Now I've had many people come to me and say, "I'd just give anything to be happy." I said, "Well fine, the day you don't give a damn whether you're happy or not, you'll find you are." Try it on for size someday. As long as you're tryin’ to be happy, you're checkin’ up every minute, and it don't seem you are. But if you don't care whether you're happy or not, what kind of state are you in? Wouldn't trade with nobody in all the world, you know it? Because you're not tryin’ to make yourself happy. You're not checkin’ up on it. Happiness is like a body. No self-respecting body will work well while being spied on; and happiness couldn't stay around if you're checkin’ up on it every minute. So…
Happiness is constantly yours to the extent that you do give it out.
Seeking happiness from without, and drawing it to the self, is its own destruction. The desire to obtain happiness from without gives the sense of the lack of happiness. This sense is the only unhappiness.
Isn't that funny? And that is a fact - I've checked up on that one for years. The only way you ever feel unhappy is when you're tryin’ to be happy by trying to get it. “If I had this”, and “if I had that”. . . .
For a while, I run a little thing on Tuesday nights. We give a talk for an hour or so every Tuesday night out in California and there was a bunch of people came, and they would bring me letters of all the things they wanted. One lady started in with what she wanted. Started out with a yellow corvette, and then it went to a man who makes ten million a year and already has a lot, and he would let her have an affair every year with some guy named Erhardt or somethin’ or other - and this went on and on. Now this is all she required to be happy. It was about eight pages. I still have the thing; I’ll let you read it sometime. About eight pages of just this and this and this, and then she'd be happy. Now, if she had all that, she wouldn’t be. I know that. Because she’d know she must have forgotten something.
So as long as you're trying to be happy, you won't be. And when you
say, "What difference does it make? Who am I that I should be happy? It's pretty wonderful just like it is without it,” you'll find you are bubblin’ over with joy from there on. You like to be happy, Mary?
(Yes.)
Good. You see there's no reason not to be happy because it's already been given to us as a gift. But we ignore the gift and start running around lookin’ under rocks trying to find it.
All things drawn towards the self
prove, when obtained, to be but the mirage of the desert.
Isn't that funny? When you're gonna try and get it, it's gonna make you happy. When you get it, it has about the same validity as the mirage in the desert. You know it can look so real out there. I've been driving across the desert and see a beautiful seashore with palm trees and even a big pretty boat in it. When I get up there, it's just sand hills. It just all disappears.
The anxiety to get for the self from without proves always disappointing,
That’s when we settle it, one simple little statement which we throw around. You know I don't think in these terms, these pretty words. "Whenever I make anything important, I am anxious." You wanna try that one out? Anytime you make anything important, whether it's to feel good or be happy, or be helpful or contribute somethin’ great to the world, to be creative or all these wonderful things that people lay out that they just want - as long as you make it important, you will be anxious.
Whenever I make anything important, I am anxious. When you see that nothin's important - it's just a very interesting, delightful thing set up here that Life’s runnin’, why then you're not anxious. So the anxiety or the importance to get for the self from without proves always disappointing because all realities radiate from within. Where does health come from? I radiate it out. Where does joy come from? You radiate it out. We have talked about that if you act a certain way, you will begin to feel that way. In other words, you begin to radiate it, right? So if I act miserable, how will I feel? If I act very joyful and happy and delighted and see nothin’ but expressions of Life around me, what am I radiating? What am I doing? I'm pushin’ it out.
Health is from within only. All attempts to gain health from without
are likened unto the sun should it attempt to draw back light unto itself.
Can you imagine givin’ the sun a couple of pills? You know, so it will work better? Thing’s got spots on it, you know - it's got pimples. You know, that every day - the thing's got pimples all over it. Can you imagine us getting us some good pills and getting a big gun and shooting them up there for it to get rid of its sun spots. It's got pimples on it - probably ulcers.
Such an attempt would, if it could succeed, result in darkness. When you do receive my health, whether I inspire one of my other bodies to draw it forth or whether you are inspired with it, you will find it to be a fountain within you and not an external force which you can draw unto you.
You're not going to find the Fountain of Youth out there in Florida, New Mexico or Alabama or any other glorious spot in the country. You're not going to find health in a bottle or in pills or in anything else. It’ll come from within or you won't know about it. It comes from within when you begin to express health. But most people express illnesses. As I said, you ask, "How are you?” and you get an organ recital. Hmm?
All that you are you give out. If, therefore, you give not anything,
you, the self, are not that thing. To be anything is to possess that thing,
so I say unto you that you have nothing but what you are. Yet you are I, Myself, and therefore do possess all things. Herein is the Sixth Mystery.
You own everything that you care to express. You want love, express it - then you have it. You want joy, express it - you have it. You want peace, express it—you have it. You want wealth, express it - you have it. You want energy, express it and you’ll have it. Whatever you can come up with. You only have that which you care to express, and you already have it because Life is what you really are, and Life is all things if you will but express it.
Now, it's not gonna run away with you. It'll let you sit there and listen to the not-I's and be mournful and miserable and pathetic and really need sympathy. If nobody else, you can give it to yourself, can't you, Mary? You won't believe it, but you are.
My wealth is the possession of all things. Gold unused is not wealth.
You can't eat it, wear it, play with it or much of anything else. All you can do is leave it sitting around, huh?
Silver or lands or houses or raiment - not one of these is wealth unless used.
Gotta use it or it's no good to you, is that right? You could have a closet full of beautiful gowns, and if you didn't wear ‘em, they might as well been old cut up newspaper patterns hangin’ in there, is that right? Wouldn't do you any more good one way or the other. Had millions of dollars all stored up in money market funds, why, you'd be just as poor as you could be, still be eatin’ out of garbage cans. Most people don't eat out of garbage cans physically. They do mentally. But…
So I say unto you that use is the only wealth.
I think that is worthwhile remembering—“use is the only wealth”. If I don't express happiness, what's the use of havin’ it, huh? I couldn't say I had it unless I expressed it or use it. Not one of anything is wealth until used.
So I say unto you that use is the only wealth.
He who spends a small silver piece with a free hand is wealthier in that moment than he who has hoarded millions, and used them not.
That right? He went out and spent you a quarter for something and really enjoyed it, and the other man got millions and he had to hang onto it and he’s afraid to spend it because somethin’ might happen to him. Who had the most wealth? Who's the wealthiest at the moment, huh? Not who has it, but who is the wealthiest? The man who’s enjoyin’ the quarter.
The Divine sense of wealth is from within and radiates outward.
It's not from numbers on the outside radiating inward.
It is not helped nor hindered by external circumstances.
It isn't hindered by having a few million dollars layin’ around. It isn't helped either. No problem there.
Neither debts and slavery nor piles of gold and mastery over others, at all affects Life.
Doesn't do a thing for it, doesn't affect your sense of wealth at all.
If you feel rich, you give out that feeling
and freely give to whatsoever you do feel like giving.
So if you really feel wealthy, man it's pretty liberal, is that right? But if you feel poor, no matter how many millions you got, you're hard up.
But giving with a desire to accomplish some purpose
is not free giving and is not a sign of My inward wealth.
Now, that one you know. If you give in order to get a write off, why you're really wasn’t givin’. You was just maneuverin’ a little bit. I have a lot of people call me up and says, “Have you got a non-profit corporation or somethin’? I'll give you some money.” That's so they get a write off. But you know I say no, I don't have those things. Just drop it on me, I'll spend it. “Oh, well, I don't get a write off then by just givin’ it to you.” So well, now then that kind of gets down to where the givin’ is, do you see? There's no giving when you're just gonna get a write off. That's just maneuverin’ Uncle, hopin’ you can maneuver a little bit out of him, isn’t that right? What's wrong with just givin’ somebody something if you want to? I think the post is, we don't wanna give, we wanna get a write off. You see, there's a difference. So then we can say, “I give,” but really I didn't give, I bought myself a write off somewheres on a tax-deductible item.
But giving with a desire to accomplish some purpose
is not free giving and is not a sign of My inward wealth.
…this feeling of wealth.
Whatever the purpose may be, whether it is to alter the circumstance of others for their good as you see it, or to satisfy those who make a demand upon you, or to put others under an obligation to you,
That's a pretty good one you know. You give somebody something, now they're obligated to you. They gotta give you somethin’ back. They don’t give you something and then, “After all, look at the way you treated me, hmm? After all I have given you?” That is to put people under demands. That’s makin’ people sign a promissory note without them knowing they did so? That's really trickery.
… to put others under an obligation to you, or to obtain the world's praise for your generosity you express -
That is a good one, too.
yet it is “your purpose”, and the giving is done to accomplish your own will, and is not free giving, but is a buying [of something].
Whether you're buying approval, whether you're buying obligation on somebody or whether you're buyin’ a write off, or whatever it is, it's still buying and is not giving.
Yet, do I not forbid you to buy thus,
You can buy all you want to. Life's not gonna tell you not to. It's not going to forbid you to do anything.
for until you can be free, you must be bound.
Not because Life’s going to bind you, but because you won't take the strings off.
If, then, you have the thought that love can be obtained from others – from without thee – you feel lonely and unloved. If you have the thought that happiness consists
of outward things, or can be obtained through them,
If you have the thought that happiness consists of outward things, or can be obtained through them,
….you know, new cars, new homes, new clothes, trips, etcetera and etcetera, and all the other little prestige items… then it's kinda kiddin’ you.
you do thus create for the self a torment of unhappiness.
And how.
If you have the thought that health is to be obtained from without, from diet, or medicine, or influence, and do therefore endeavor to draw health towards the self, then you do cause the condition you call sickness.
And it can be not only sick from trying to be healthy, but you can get sick from tryin’ to be happy. It all works on any of those things, if you want to call them that. Anything you're strugglin’ to get which is gonna make you happy or healthy or wealthy or wise - when you try to get it - will usually have the affect of making you rather sickish to say the least.
My law is a Mystery unto you because I say you live in what you do radiate outward, and you die in what you call towards yourself.
What you're trying to call into the self.
Herein is this Mystery, that getting destroys, and giving giveth life.
That's the Mystery here. Getting destroys and giving gives life. Now we'll just put it up there now. So getting destroys. That's the struggle to get. Giving gives Life. That's life, a continuation, going on, light - all those things. That getting destroys and giving gives Life.
Call suffering unto you, and behold, it loses its power to hurt you.
Now come on, do your bit. I'm free to have all the discomforts and all these things. And you know, if I'm free to be miserable, you just can't stay miserable very long. Did you ever freely try to worry up a storm ‘bout somethin’? What happened? It just falls apart right there in your hands. You can't even do nothin’ with it. So if you're free to die, you know, you're still alive. But if you're trying “not to get dead”, then there's death around every corner, isn't there? It's hanging everywhere. It's poisons and filth in the air and there's destruction in the food and the water - all sorts of things. It's just terrible.
Call suffering unto you and behold it loses it's power to hurt you.
Call happiness unto you and it loses its power to please you.
You try to get happy and you get all the things gonna make you happy and they don't please anymore after you get ‘em.
Give suffering unto others and it eats into your own heart; give happiness unto others, sing unto them a song of gladness and joy,
and it shall fill the heart with the beauty of sweetness of My love.
You know you can't make anybody else happy, but you sure can pour a lot of pleasant stuff around. Sing ‘em a song. You don't have to know a note to do that. You can sing a song. You can purr around them pretty good anywhere. But if you run up and give them your organ recital hoping they will be sorry for you, they walk away. Hmm?
You have no wisdom of your own until you hear My voice speaking
from within the heart outward.
You know you really can have that happen to you, that you don't know what to say, but you open your mouth and out comes a bit of wisdom. You even you get to listen to it so that's pretty nice too. Let that voice speak.
In that hour, you shall open the mouth and I will speak through it,
and you shall live in the wisdom you give out.
Now that's only when you don't know what ought to be, and you open your mouth. This is in the Scripture in the New Testament. The man said if you're called up before the judges, don't prepare your piece as to what you're gonna say. Just go down there and open your mouth, it’ll come out all right.
Yet it was My will that you should have long sought
for love, trying to obtain it from without you and failing.
You know, that's the only way you're gonna find out anything is through experience. So it was wonderful that all of us went out searching that we would feel love by finding somebody to love me. “I’d be happy if I just had somebody to love me.” I've set through a lot of people that have told me that sad story. Said, “I’d just be so happy if somebody would love me.” I said, "Well, are you loveable?" Wouldn’t hurt you a little bit to be a little lovable once in a while, you know. Usually somebody will love you if you're loveable. That seem reasonable? And maybe you'd have so much fun bein’ loveable you wouldn't know whether they loved you or not and wouldn't care.
And it was My will that you should have eagerly searched for happiness
only to find that such a search is the only unhappiness.
Again, you learn from experiencing, not because somebody told us so. But maybe through all your searchin’ for happiness, you finally catch on to the joke. You know, you have a practical joke played on you enough times, you finally learn not to bite. So it's a big practical joke to try to find love and happiness and wisdom and all these things out there. When you find out that the longer you struggle for ‘em is the only thing that keeps ‘em from bein’ there, looks like we would catch on to the joke. Mack, are you old enough to remember snipe hunts?
(Oh, yes, I was the farthest one.)
One. It’s been goin’ on since the day we been alive. (laughter) Don’t you see that? You been on more snipe hunts…
(I still got the bag.) (laughter)
All those other guys are goin’ out there, beatin’ the bushes and runnin’ the snipin’ attack while you sat out there all night waitin’ for ‘em, is that right? Are you catchin’ on? That's what the whole world is - one big snipe hunt – while we’re all standin’ around holdin’ the bag. Can’t you catch on to that? Huh?
(Yep.)
Okay. I thought maybe you would finally catch on to that.
It was my will that you should seek health in vain among all the external imaginings of the brain.
That you should run from here to there and go to Mayo’s and back to Baylor and down to Houston. You know, the best place to go get well is a far distance. You know that. You know, the people in California go to the East coast. They go to John Hopkins. People over there come out to California to go to Pritikin Institute. Had an old gent, a very wealthy old man come in last week. He come from Connecticut out to Pritikins. Well, you know, all Pritikins does is starve you and walk you. And you can do that anywheres. Pritikin had taken his booze away from him and his cigars away from him, so he come to visit me. So I took him to lunch and he had two martinis and two cigars. He said, "God that feels good." I said, “You'll be back in the same boat you were in fore you left Connecticut.” So, you know, you’re gonna find it somewhere. He was feelin’ fine as long as he wasn’t killin’ himself. He hasn't caught on. He's still on a snipe hunt.
And it was My will that prompted you to think that wealth consisted in getting.
Another snipe hunt.
So I have called you that you may know by failure and heart burnings,
that you cannot obtain anything from without you; and that you might struggle to be strong and thus develop the organs of the mind and the body to be fit to perfectly express My perfect love, My perfect happiness, My perfect health, My perfect vitality, and My perfect wisdom, from within.
You already got it, but you're standin’ out in the swamp, in the cane break in a little narrow hog trough, holding the sack waiting for somebody to run the snipe in it. Huh? That right, Mack?
(You'd think you had the wrong size bag, right?)
No doubt, they'd run out before you could shut it.
Take the gift where you will. If you give it freely, you can only give it unto the self.
If you give out something, you actually give it to you. So if you radiate health, you're the one that's gettin’ healthy, not all those other jerks that's not entitled to it out there. It's you. If you're expressing happiness, it's you that gets the happiness; the others may be amused, laugh for a few minutes, but they'll go back to mournful ‘fore morning. So you only give it to yourself.
Give in order to receive a blessing, if you will,
but know that such giving is not giving at all in My sight.
Now, you can tell people, you know, give ‘em an order - get with it.
Give unto the preacher of different views of My truth to help the view you see is right, if you will. But know that such giving is really to serve your own purpose and accomplish your own will and is not giving at all.
You know if you give to the preacher to go out and convert the world to your viewpoint so you won't have to bother with it, just give him a few thousand, you're really doin’ it for yourself. You're not giving anything, you're buying more of “your way”, is that right? You know ‘what you ought to have’ so you're trying to buy it while you're away. Mordida. You know. Ever go to Mexico? If you want some little favor from any official, you leave some coins around when you shake his hand, preferably long green ones, and you get it done. That's called “mordida”. And you didn't give him a gift; you was buyin’ something. He treats it as a gift (non-taxable) and you freely gave it to him - under duress - if you wanted to get it done.
I require no man to give.
Life doesn't care.
If you give because you think it will please Me,
know that I'm already pleased with you,
So you don't get anything done there, ok? So if you think, “Well, this will please Life, if I go out and give something,” forget it. Life's already pleased, pleased with you. And you're not gonna influence it in that way.
and nothing which you can do can alter My pleasure
nor can cause My displeasure.
In other words, you're not going to upset Life, ok? Do as you will.
You have all favor in My sight now,
and I would not have you do anything with the object of gaining My favor.
You know there's a prayer we've told people sometimes to try to get the point across a little bit. We say that the perfect prayer is that you say, "Oh Lord, if I serve you because I desire to gain a heaven, deny it to me; and if I serve you, Oh Lord, to escape a hell, throw me in." Now if you can do that, why you're not really trying to do anything for a purpose, you know. One man said, “I said that prayer because you told it to me and he did throw me in.” It really wasn't the way it works; but anyway, that's the way he saw it.
Give love to obtain love from others if you will, but know that what you give with an object is not love, but desire.
So if you go out and, “I'm gonna love all these people so they'll love me”, you're just horse-trading. And you probably will lose because they may not want to exchange for your horse. So you might as well keep it to yourself.
That which you love for a purpose is blighted unto you by that desire.
You love it because it will do this for you or that for you. It's already destroyed, it's blighted; and it's all made sick.
You have lost all you have loved, if the love has been only a desire to keep them. Learn then this Sixth Mystery, that you live only in what you radiate.
Now we put it here that “getting destroys and giving gives Life” which is that you're living or dying in one or the other; so everything you have is in what you radiate. Now is it fairly easy to radiate whatever you would choose to do so? But most of us never think about radiating or givin’ it out. We think about getting it, that right? We are a “getting” society. We have been taught from infancy that if you get enough things and situations and circumstances, you'd be healthy and respectable, is that right? Hmm? If you own your own home, you can get credit and so forth. If you can pass the test, you can get credit. And you may not have any credit if you don’t do all properly, is that correct? So then, it’s quite free that we can have whatever you radiate. Now, let’s all kinda check up once in a while to see what I want to radiate. Now, it’s no certain thing. You can radiate whatever you want to, but it might be interesting to find out what we are radiating. You spose, Mack? Ok? Any more questions, comments, what have you here? We’re gonna take a break for a few minutes and then we will proceed to number seven.
VII
Seventh Mystery: Humiliation
Now, this one that’s comin’ up sounds kinda peculiar, but I will give a little preliminary if I may. It is the Mystery of Humiliation. Now, the only thing that ever needs to be humiliated or can be humiliated is the “self” which is all these little things - the complainer, the blamer, the pleaser, the sticker-up-for rights, the quoter of authority, and the self-improver. Now we can either humiliate it by ignoring it… you know, that’s the biggest humiliation you can give, is ignore somebody on the street or whatever. You become a “no person.” So we can either do that now, or we can let it go on and on until it’s forcibly done. I choose to humiliate the not-I’s right away. Ignore them, act like they’re “no-people.” That’s really humiliates them. Now if you don’t, they will take you through a lot of humiliations. If you want to do it the hard way, more power to you. If you want to do it the easy way, that’s wonderful, too. But one way or the other it will happen if you continue along attempting to be a conscious person. One way or the other the humiliation will come along. The easy way is to ignore the not-I’s which humiliates them – cause, that’s the only thing that’s gonna be humiliated is the not- I’s. But you see, most of us identify with them and so we wind up with lots of humiliations, right, Mary? Hmm?
(Getting better.)
Getting’ better? (laughs) Might as well stop it, then it’s not getting any better - it’s gone, okay? So we will go through this one with that little preliminary that the only thing that ever is humiliated is the not-I’s. If you identify with them – with the complainer, and the sticker-up-for-rights, and the blamer and the pleaser, the quoter of authorities and the self-improver - then the whole thing will experience humiliation.
The Seventh Mystery is the Mystery of Humiliation. Before I make you conscious of Myself, I cause you to struggle with a sense of separate existence.
You see, the not-I’s are separate. They feel “I” and “I” have a mind, “I have a body and God’s off in Heaven somewheres, wearin’ a purple throne and got a yellow pad, makin’ marks on me.” But… you know, one, two, three, four, psssst. [He makes like he’s checking things off a list.] You pray to something off into the blue yonder and you wonder if it heard you. Really, Life is so here that it can't be not here. It does everything you say you wanna do.
So before I make you conscious of Myself, I cause you to struggle with the sense of separate existence. When the sense of separate existence is overcome,
then you can be conscious of Me.
So when you realize that there is nothing that can say "I" that is real (not-I’s), that the only thing that can really say I is the Awareness Function of X, and the function is not a separate thing - it's only a function of something that really exists. So you could be over it right now if you choose to look at it. So when all this sense of separate existence is gone, “then you can be conscious of Me.”
And that struggle will have developed the organ of the mind so that consciousness will be a great joy unto you.
Now if there was consciousness probably without anything, it wouldn’t be a joy. But if you been through all this struggle, then it is a tremendous joy.
Now, to overcome the sense of separate existence, you must be humbled.
That’s that which identifies with the not-I's.
That individuality which seems to you to be yours exclusively, is really Mine, not yours. That sense of deserving which you have, applies only to Me, not to you.
You know, you really feel you deserve to be treated a lot better than you are. And you deserve to feel better, have more things, be treated nicer, right? You deserve that? How come, I don't know. You not only “deserve” it, you’re “entitled to it” cause you were born, huh?
Who are you, apart from Me?
In other words, what would be left if Life departed from one of these bodies here today? What's left? Nothing - a corpse, a stinky mess you got to get rid of somewhere. It's very expensive to dispose of ‘em these days, too. So what are you other than that Life which dwells in this body? What are you? Nothin’. Maybe that’d be easy to get through our heads. Just imagine if X says, "pluup" and takes a ride this afternoon. Fires up its helicopter and takes a run. What's left? Hmm? Nothin’, okay?
Learn that there is no such person as the "self". Learn that I, and I alone, exist and animate the body; that I, and I alone, do all things that the body does.
X does it all. It digests the food, walks, talks, eats, sleeps - the whole schmeer. We don't know how to do it. Did you ever try to force yourself to sleep at night? Didn't work, did it?
(You’re talking about last night.)
Learn too, that I take the responsibility upon Myself
for all that the body has done, is doing or will ever do.
So you don't have anything to worry about, ok?
To another age I gave this Mystery of My responsibility for all things
by the symbol of the cross; teaching them that I took their sense of guilt upon Myself, and purged it upon the cross.
The Christ said He took the sins of the world on; He's responsible for all of it. So He got rid of ‘em. So He left you and me scot-free. So if you will take it, you don't have anything to be guilty about now. Life said it took it all that everybody has done, is doing, or will ever do, okay? So you don't have anything to fret about.
But unto you I give the Mystery of Humiliation, teaching you that
you are nobody at all,
Period. “I” is a “no thing”, not a “nothing”, a “no thing”. That's what the word nothing means, isn’t it? A “no thing”. Now you're a nobody at all; and
and that it is I who live in the body.
X is the one lives there and that sense of separate existence is only a dream. Like a grasshopper dreaming he's a man, or man dreaming he's a grasshopper, you know.
You can have no guilt, and you can have no merit.
So don't pat yourself on the back or feel how terrible you are; you're neither. Period.
Now, that in you which thinks it is a person shall suffer humiliation after humiliation until it dies, leaving the body free to enjoy Me.
Now we might as well let that not-I clan die today cause I am not separate. I am nothing, I am a no - thing. Only X lives in this body and this idea of personality that I’m separate from Life, and I can tell it what to do. You know, did you ever go to church and the preacher gets up and prays, "Lord, have it rain, and Lord, get the floods out of the way, and Lord, cure all the sick, and Lord do this and Lord do that," like you didn't know enough to get in out of the rain, so you have to tell him. Can you imagine that? That really takes audacity. Humiliation - you can see the necessity of it in cases like that.
Many pray, “Lord, make us humble”,
yet when I visit them with humiliation, they recognize not My hand.
You know it's like the guy that prayed, "Oh Lord, give me patience and do it now!"
Humiliation is the most painful thing the pride can suffer;
yet must it suffer before it can die.
….because as long as it gets all of it's way and everything goes on, so it seems that it would be to our advantage to give it the suffering, you know, and just say, “You're a no – being. You're a nothing, you're a not-I and you don't belong to me and you don't have anything.” I know people say “my not-I’s" do this, do that. They even claim the damn things!
Has the pride hopes that it shall save the personality?
Oh yeah, everybody wants the personality. That's why, you know, a lot of folks believe in reincarnation. That means, “You ain’t gonna get rid of me all that easy. I'm gonna come back and haunt you next time around.” And so forth… It's inconceivable to many people that the personality, which is nothing but the not-I's, could ever cease to exist. And it is going to cease to exist. You can do it the hard way or the easy way.
That it shall find favor or gain power? Has it hopes that it shall be judged “good”, or that it will live forever? Learn this - that there is no hope.
…for the not-I's.
In deep humiliation it [the "self"] shall die and pass away, and I alone shall live.
So let's get that kinda straight. There's none of us is gonna hang in here as the personality. Now if we get rid of the personality, all sorts of possibilities are open, but as long as it sits there, it's a bunch of foolishness.
Yet has the imagining of the personality been good for the body, for it has developed the organ of the brain which shall hereafter become conscious of Me, the One Infinite Personality. You think that the personality dwells in the body, and is more important than the body. But I will hereafter reveal unto you that I am caring for the body and have provided it with the proud sense of personality to develop it, and that when the body is developed so that it shall have no further need of that proud sense,
I will send thee deep humiliations.
So let's get rid of it now so we don't have to put up with the deep part of it. But the whole bit is that personality is only education, pure conditioning, and has absolutely nothing you need. Now Life says it has used it to strengthen the body because of all the turmoils and it made you stronger by having it. And you appreciate getting along without it. But it has purely bits of conditioning. Had we grown up in a country where it was wonderful to eat, uh, that we had to hide away in a little private room when we eat, and that we could do all the bodily functions out in public, we'd be very humiliated if somebody saw us eating, is that right? Now it would have been just as easy to have put on you as anything else. Right?
Now in certain areas in this world, you know in medical school, why the boys could take their shirts off; the girls only could expose their back and the girls could let it all hang out, that woulda been all right. [Bob notices a butterfly that came in through an open window.] One of the little butterflies come in. That’s what Lake Whitney’s known for – its butterflies. It would be just as easy if you stop to think about it. You could have been conditioned any way there was. You were conditioned to speak English when you were born. It coulda been just as easily you’d a been conditioned to talk Chinese or Japanese or something. And you would have thought that English sounded real weird. Even your name sounds weird sometimes, don't it, Tina?
(Well, if the personality didn't exist.…)
Oh, it exists, as an illusion.
(Okay, if it exists as an illusion, then what makes us all so different? Why is it that she's different from me and….)
We've been through that all the time here. Everybody's built different, but the conditioning is about the same in everybody. Thank goodness there is an “Infinite Personality”. “Infinite” means without end, doesn't it? So this body will express one way, that body expresses another way, that body expresses another way, this one another way, and that one over there another, cause all these bodies are different and they will express differently when only Life runs it - Infinite Personality.
All these personal ones… you know they're so similar, it's unbelievable. I can make almost everybody fight at me by sayin’ the same group of words at ‘em with the same tone. Now see, I can say a word with one tone and you purr, and I say the same word with another tone and your claws come out, Tina. Hmm? That part’s pretty standard, isn't it? That’s pretty standard. But the real person will all be different and they’re spontaneous and totally unpredictable, ok? Cause each one of us is different from anybody else. Bodies are different and X expresses through those bodies as they are.
…I will send thee deep humiliations.
Then shall that proud sense be brought low and die.
In other words, the not-I's will die.
So when any humiliation comes to you, let the personality tremble, for its end is near; but let the body rejoice, for its freedom is at hand.
That's nice isn't it?
You think you have an aspiration to do good or benefit mankind.
You know I run into all kinds of people that know they have a great mission if the Lord would just let ‘em in on it - what they can do for the world. Tell ‘em the best thing they can do is shut up.
But all desires, ambitions, and aspirations are of the personality and shall die with it.
When it dies, all these great aspirations to “do well” and to “cure the world of all of its ills” and “to really do a great mission” will all die with it, thank goodness. We won't have to be bothered with all the do-gooders then.
Many pray, “Lord if thou send wealth,
I will use most of it to benefit others to Thy glory.”
That is, until I get it. Then I'll use it for myself. That's just a gimmick to try to get Him to give it to you.
Indeed, would you help Me to develop and benefit mankind?
Do you know better than I do what others need;
and would you supply unto others that which I withhold from them?
You know, you're gonna go straighten out and interfere in the work of Life to benefit and fix everybody. You know, one of the greatest things to do is mind our own business.
That wish is simply the personality trying to assert itself.
Yet let it try and let it fail, reaping humiliation from all of its efforts and bringing humiliation to others, for thus do I use it to develop the body,
and also those other bodies.
So you see that all these people’s out savin’ the world. Out in California, everybody's in the “people savin’” business these days. Are they here, too? There's one little magazine put out in San Diego called “Holistic Living” and everybody has an ad how they're gonna save you. I suppose there is at least 200 ads every paper comes out. Everybody going to save you in their way. Then, thank goodness, to balance it there’s a little magazine put out same day called "Wolf". Wolf. And it pokes a little fun at all these holes, you know, kinda keeps the balance going. It's a little fun you can see what a joke all this crap is, you know. I think every community should have a "Wolf." Have a “Wolf” Magazine. They have ads in it that are fake-o ads, but they’re offerin’ all these great and wondrous things, you know, that everybody else is, only it is a little bit humiliating to the others. So that is where I think Life is running "Wolf." It humiliates the others, the personality.
This Seventh Mystery is very hard for the conceit to learn.
But when you shall have suffered the humiliation yet in store for you, it will be a season full of joy. For behold you will be free of that conceit
and the body will be an instrument of My joy alone.
If you cannot yet receive these words, it is well that you should reject them. [Please.]
The present pride is as much My work as the humiliation will be.
So we're building you up for a sit down, you know.
For the body it is well that pride rules with it's ambitions and desire
until it works its power on you. When its work is perfected, thou shalt cast it off, and the body shall arise from the death of the pride, strong to express Me.
This is the story of the Phoenix, the bird that burned up and out of the ashes arises. The false personality goes by the wayside and the real personality is born from the ashes of it.
So the only way the real I, or that Infinite Personality will arise (which is different in everybody but will be very, very much expressing, radiating life, love, truth, health, etc.) can only arise out of the ashes of the false personality, the not-I's, being destroyed. The only way they can be destroyed is humiliation. Now, that's the one thing they can't stand is to be laughed at. They get very upset. Now as long as they can scare you, frighten you or you wanna fight with them they’re in pig heaven. But if you laugh at them, they are in a mess. So it is well to laugh at them - for yourself. Now if you laugh at ‘em in somebody else, you may not live to get rid of yours.
So we will take another here without any further break: The 8th Mystery. Now, the 7th one is Humiliation - the not-I's must die. Period.
(Dr. Bob, it's like the man with the acorn in his pocket. He said, "This acorn is going to be a mighty oak, but it's not going to be unless it get's out of your pocket.”)
Right. Leave it in the pocket so it won't be any oak. So it is humiliation. Humiliation is the way we laugh at the not-I's. They can't bite you, they just carry on and make a lot of fuss and frighten people and everything. They're really polished.
Continued............