Workshop - Rodey, NM -1979 - Part 1

In creating a companion to the audio files found in the “Links” section,
we strive to give the reader as close a verbatim transcript as possible.
Dr. Bob’s laid-back “Kentucky-ese” is retained – not correcting his grammar
makes reading it sound like he’s actually talking.
In addition, he purposefully used not only specific words,
but also pronunciation, grammar, and dialect as tools to get the listener’s attention.
Honoring his choices, we’ve made sure in these Verbatim Transcripts
not to take it upon ourselves to “clean it up” for him.

Audience (laughter) is noted; he was a master at keeping the mood up!
(Audience participation is parenthesized and separated from his words.)
Speakers’ emphasized words are in italics.
[Anything offering clarity is added by the proofreader and italicized inside brackets.]  
Some tenets of the Teaching are in bold.

Access the mp3 at:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bjsnni9menko397/AAAXm9X-MKTl3XGsaXmrSq08a?dl=0

[CD #1 of 4]

We want to welcome you to the Rodey Hacienda Project and the rebuildin’ of the church and etcetera.  Now, we have tried to use it somewhat as a symbol of Teaching.  When we first arrived it was in a state of disintegration – the whole thing.  And slowly – by a little effort over about five years now – why, it has begin to come together and get to be one unit again.  And it does show that no matter what any kind of a state any of us are in, we can come out of it somewheres along the way. 

Now, this church buildin’ was for a while – if any of you came by to visit – was totally piled full of junk.  Now, that’s the only word I could use for most of the stuff.  There mighta been a few things worthy in it but it looked junky.  It looked a lot like the inside of most of us’s head.  And now it’s all getting’ cleaned out and, in another few days, it will have carpet in it and look very lovely; and all the inside will look like a new one again.  So it does show that it’s possible for it to happen as well in a buildin’ as it is in us, and it is certainly easy to get it done in us a little bit. 

Now, I will probably be a little bit nervous today because there’s a man sittin’ here with a bazooka aimed at me.  Hold that thing up so people can kinda see it.  You see why I might be a little jumpy – I’m afraid it’ll go off in a bit.  But really it’s a very high-class piece of recording equipment.  So we will try to not be too much bothered by it.

The basic idea of Teaching, such as we are going to discuss today, is for liberation.  Now, most people don’t realize it, but they’re in somewhat of a bondage – a bondage to feelings of anger, guilt, fear, anxieties of all sorts – that does more or less control most everything the person does.  Very little does the person have a total freedom to do as they feel to do and what they want to design as their purpose.  So liberation from illusion – because it is an illusion if I’m in a state of anxiety.  I have something up that I have imagined or have an illusion – a picture in the mind, which is the definition of an illusion – that it’s gonna cause me tremendous difficulty later.  Is that right, Brother Paul?  It’s later it’s gonna get you.  You drove all the way here with an anxiety that you were going to be late and “em-bare-assed” when you come in the door when everbody was already started – is that correct?

(Something like that.)

Something like that.  Okay, so liberation from illusion.  So, this is what we will work on today is to see some method, some means that, if we use it, we can experience a liberation from illusion.  Now, just to hear about it won’t do anything at all except you’ve heard of something and recorded it back over here – like you read the newspaper yesterday or somethin’ like that.  But if it is used in your association with other people, within your work and everwheres that whatever you’re doing, you will find that it has very deciding liberating qualities.  So man, basically, is made up of a series of frames of reference.  You might say [writes it on board]

“I am a frame of reference.”

Now, a reference comes in so that when something happens, we respond in a certain way – spontaneously.  So one of the things with frames of reference we have is a technical frame of reference.  And now maybe that will be a little easier for “e-lus-ter-ation,” [Dr. Bob’s way of saying “illustration”] and we will start with the technical frame of reference.  Now, most of us can drive an automobile.  So we have a technical frame of reference about driving.  We come to a red light, we stop.  We don’t have to go through a mental process anymore of saying, “Now, let’s see, I take my foot off of the gas, I step on the brake and I hold the wheel straight ahead and I push on it hard enough to stop before I get to the intersection.”  We just do it.  And when the light turns green, we don’t have to stop and go through a mental process – “Now, I got to take my foot off the brake, put it on the gas and drive ahead.”  We just do it because it’s now spontaneous.  We have a frame of reference. 

Now, if some of you have little children – and most around have had little children – you remember what kind of an agony they went through gettin’ their clothes on.  They got the pants on backwards, hmm?  They got the shoes on the wrong foot and the socks upside down, and quite a bit of stuff; and it took a long time.  And they tied a knot to get their shoelaces tied – it was quite an agony.  Now, most of us don’t remember that because we get up in the morning, we go zip, zip, zip, we got it all on – even tying a tie.  Richard got his tie on this morning – didn’t have to think about it much.  It’s been a long time since he had one on.  (laughter)  But, nevertheless, all of these things become in our technical frame of reference. 

Now, anything gets in our frame of reference because we’ve decided,
“This is worthwhile to me; it has a value,”
and we have used it a number of times.

How many people here type?  When you went to study how to be a typist – why you set down and looked at this machine with all these keys on it.  But somebody showed you that if you started out “a, s, d, f, j, k, l, m, semi-colon,” and you got that one down.  Then you went and got another line and another line.  And pretty soon you didn’t have to look at the machine.  You don’t have to think of it, you’re only aware of what you want to type and the fingers go “bluuuup.”  Now, that’s when it is you – it is spontaneous. 

Now, we all learned the multiplication table and the alphabet, and all of us but Bill Kinney learned how to spell a little bit.  (laughter)  But he didn’t have to bother with it; he’s got it figured out how to get along without it.  And most of us learned to multiply and add and so forth.  One time Bill Kinney and I were workin’ together out in California runnin’ a little restaurant.  And Bill and a man were about to come apart and so they sent for me – I’m in the kitchen, as usual.  And so we got out there and the man said, “My bill could not be $30.”  And Bill said, “Here it is right off the tape, off the addin’ machine.”  The man had bought two $4 dinners; and Bill was trying to charge him 30 bucks because he added on his addin’ machine.  The only thing, he forgot to clear it the last time.  But there was no way he was going to question that addin’ machine.  (laughter)  So it was barely that I got him out with his life at that time.  So, Bill has been a fairly good friend ever since because I saved his life once.  And it was over quite a peculiar little ticket.

So, as we look to see that we have some technical thing.  Now, how did we get all those things that we can do spontaneously? [writes it on board]  Now, I wanted to write the word “frame” here a minute ago and it just went up.  I didn’t have to stop and think, “I do an ‘f’ like this,” and so on – it was just there [he snaps his fingers].  Because somewheres along the way, I decided that it was of value to write – such as I do – and to be able to spell a few of the words.  If I don’t know how to spell it, I can always hunt up another one that’s a synonym – so that made me learn a lot of extrie [extra] words, you know, that I didn’t know. 

So with a frame of reference, we have our technical frame of reference, which has many bits in it.  Now, if we wish, we can change those once in a while.  Maybe you change from driving a four-in-the-floor car to an automatic.  And it takes you a little bit to change because you’ll still be stompin’ the clutch.  Right, Brother Jim?  You’ll still stomp the clutch and slam the wheels.  I wrecked a very nice car one time doin’ that.  I’d been drivin’ one that had three under the steering wheel; and I went around the corner with an automatic and some way or other it needed a little extra pull, and I shoved it into second…that’s when the transmission fell out right there on the floor.  The whole thing dropped out right there because the old frame of reference took over.  And I hadn’t had this new frame of reference long enough to have it completely replaced. 

Now, most of us establish a conditioned frame of reference in infancy – a conditioned frame of reference.  [writes it on board]  Now, this is the deal with our dealing with other people, with society – even what goes on within the person.  Now, in order to look at that conditioned frame of reference fairly easy, we will make our favorite little drawing [The Picture of Man], and we will see what’s in the conditioned frame of reference.

The first thing in it was formed in the very moment, possibly, of being born that:  the whole purpose of living is to regain that non-disturbed state.  In other words, most of us are resisting very strongly until this day, having been expelled from the uterine world where there was no disturbances.  There was nobody kickin’ me around.  There was nobody givin’ me any static.  I had it all to myself and there was very few disturbances ‘cause any changes were slow and somewhat muffled.  There was no loud noises, there was nobody to keep me from doing what I wanted to do and etcetera.  But one morning about 3:00 o’clock, we unceremoniously got thrown out of the uterine world into the Earth world. 

Now, the Earth world has an entirely different set of rules than a uterine world.  Here we are always in association with other people; and so we immediately started settin’ up an ideal.  The ideal was that the purpose of living in this Earth world – the whole purpose…let me put it – [writes it on board] – the whole purpose of living in this Earth world is to regain the non-disturbed state.  And you know, the moment we started that in this world of stimuli, we wanted a non-disturbed state. 

We want to do that by gaining and escaping.  We want to gain pleasure and comfort and escape all pain – gain attention, escape being ignored or rejected.  [writes it on board]  Now, you know, when we have been rejected by a boyfriend or a girlfriend, it is a horrible sense of agony and pain, hmm?  Terrible.  We feel the world has come to an end.  And we’ve even run across people who said it’s not worth livin’; and, of course, all these things down here try to tell you this.  

And we wanted to gain approval and escape all disapproval.  And if anybody even remotely sounds they were disapproving of something I did – even though they’re not, they’re only talkin’ about the act – immediately you will see a great defense go on.  “You’re not gonna talk that way about me!  You’re not gonna lay that on me...blup, blup, blup, blup…I’ve gotta defend myself!”  And that’s a good way to start a fight sometimes. 

And we also want to feel important; and we want to escape all sense of being inferior and we compare being different with being inferior.  Now, we’re all different but I notice that everybody walks on the floor.  Now, the first day I meet somebody walkin’ down the street two-foot up in the air, I’m gonna look at him as being superior – but I haven’t found him yet.  Have any of you?  All of ‘em got their feet on the floor or somewheres.

Now, of course, we set out in our frame of reference after havin’ established the purpose of living in the Earth world, we set out the methods to obtain it.  The first method we set up was to complain.  Now, when we complain when we’re tiny babies, it works wonderful to get me non-disturbed to some extent.  It gets people to give me attention to say the least and they will usually try to get me comfortable to stop that screekin’ noise.  Is that right – do you try to stop your little boy, you make him comfortable?  So you see this works pretty well; and of course, we use it repeatedly just like we use writing or arithmetic or drivin’ an automobile or typin’ repeatedly.  So complainin’ comes in as our first method of obtaining our purpose of living. 

Now, as I get older, I notice that complainin’ works less and less well.  Has anybody else noticed that?  That complainin’ works less and less well.  But does that keep you from complainin’?  Now, if I were to ask how many people in the last – oh, let’s make it very liberal and say in the last week – have complained?  And if we have some truthful people here everybody will be up.  Now, of course, we usually have a few fibbers that says, “I haven’t complained in ages.”  But the truth of the matter is that there’s been a little complainin’. 

It may have been about the way your car was functionin’.  It may have been about somebody else.  It may have been about the weather, it may have been about business, it could’ve been.  But somewhere – children especially – they never behave just right, do they, Donna?  Hmm?  Joanne, do they ever behave just exactly right?  Not quite.  Now, they’re pretty nice, they’re pretty wonderful BUT...there’s a little complainin’.  Now, this complaining, of course, is only done for one purpose.  It’s supposed to work to get ‘em to straighten up and do what I want ‘em to, is that right?  That’s the only reason for complainin’, isn’t it, Tina?

(Yes sir.)

Okay, but it don’t work anymore.  So the next way we found to get our purpose of living was to stick up for our rights.  In other words, become a little belligerent, angry – that makes people get with it in a hurry.  Because we put on a show of being ferocious and sounding ferocious and that’s supposed to work, huh?  Now, if we asked again how many people in the last week have used some little bit of anger, now all the truthful people would stick their hand up because somebody has tried it in the last week a little bit.  But it didn’t work – it just created more chaos and more difficulties to get along with.  But, which in the frame of reference, there’s no time to think about it. 

Now, if you’re going to practice the idea of self-improvement, you’re going to practice trying to be less complaining and less angry.  And you won’t succeed because it’s already gone and then after it happens, you can go back and re-hash it a little bit.  That’s the favorite indoor sport, you know, is re-hashing, “Why did I do this and that?” 

Now, long about the time that I got these pretty well in my frame of reference, my folks’s frame of reference went to work with those; and decided, because they were larger than I was, bigger than I am, that they had to straighten me out and train me up in the manner to which I ought to grow.  So they begin to impress upon me, in no uncertain terms, that in order to gain any pleasure and comfort or certainly to escape pain and to escape being rejected and to escape being disapproved of, then I must become a pleaser.  So [writes it on the board] please them.  Now, most of us have said the appropriate thing and did what we thought would be pleasing even though we didn’t want to in the last few days.  Is that also correct?  Have you at sometime or other said something that you felt would be pleasing, but it wasn’t because you wanted to?  It was because you felt that you would be miserable if you didn’t.  About right?  So that brings about a split in the Awareness Function of man – the Awareness now is split in two pieces. 

We got one side that wants to complain and stick up for its rights and the other side that wants to be pleasing.  And, of course, that brings about a chooser, which says, “I”.  Now, of course, “I” then has the chore of trying to decide which of these methods to use.  And that brings about a whole bunch of things that we call anxiety – is the basic one.  And most people are in bondage to which of these shall I respond with. 

Now, the next one here [#4 decision: do as told by authorities] is that we were taken down and shown the policeman and the Sunday school teacher and the school teacher and a whole bunch of other people that said you got to do what they say – or else.  Now, they didn’t tell us it was to our advantage to play the game accordin’ to the rules – they told us we had to.  And did you ever notice when somebody tells you you have to do somethin’, you bow your neck?  Right now.  I don’t care who it is tells you you have to do something, you buck.  Is that about right, Miss Joan?  Do you still buck even though somebody says you have to?

Now, nobody told us when we were little folks that, “Look we got a game plan here and if you want to get along well, it’s to your advantage to play the game accordin’ to the rules.”  They told us we had to do this and we had not to do that and you must not do this and you can’t do that; and you know good and well you can do it.  Right?  And so you go on and do it usually.  You know, they tell you, “You absolutely can’t do it!”  But I know I could do it – I knew all the time I could do those things, so I went and did ‘em.  May’ve had to go out behind the barn, but I got ‘em done. 

And the fifth way then, they told us that if we were just different… if I was different.  “Why aren’t you like your brother Joe?”  “Why aren’t you like your sister Katie?”  “Why aren’t you like Uncle Tommy?”  “Why can’t you just be nice like everbody else?”  And all this good stuff.  So “I” had to be different.  So I go to work on strugglin’ with that one. 

And then, of course, one day I really found out what the whole problem was.  The problem was if you, and she, and he, and they, and it, and this, and that were all different, I’d be very happy.  That’s all it takes, hmm?  If everything and everybody was different, I’d be all right.  So we start blaming.  So we then get in that famous question of, “Why did this happen?”  We don’t know what to blame, we start wondering “why” it happened.  And then if we knew what to blame it on, everything would be all right, wouldn’t it?  If I could just find the appropriate thing to blame it on, everything would just be lovely. 

So now we set this up, and this then gets up that we have found out a little more, and the chooser begins to make some good conclusions as to how to have all this.  Number one is the chooser says, “I know what ought to be.”  Now, if I knew what ought to be, I could just get that all straightened up – everything would be fine, wouldn’t it?  I knew that what ought to be:  Everybody would do exactly as I want them to, when I want them to, and in the way I want to.  And they would never do anything I didn’t want ‘em to.  And everthing’d be all right then, wouldn’t it?  There’s just nothin’ to it.  But gettin’ it that way is a little problem.  That’s what we call the ideal – that is the most famous of all these illusions – that I know what ought to be.  I don’t know what ought to be ‘cause I don’t know the outcome of anything. 

Now, can anybody here tell me what you would have done, what would have happened, and what would have come across your path, and who you would have met today, had you not been here?  Not a thing one do we know about it.  And we don’t know what would have happened if you coulda got your car to go 64 miles an hour.  You don’t know what would have happened ‘cause you’d have been in a different place than where you were at the moment you were there.  Right, Paul?  You don’t know that.  But we continually tell ourselves, “I know what ought to be.”  Now, it’s obviously never quite that way – that right, Miss Joan?  It’s never quite like you know it ought to be; therefore, you get a bit of anxiety as to how to get it there.

The second thing that we all know is “I know what you need and what I need.”  [writes it on board]  Now, as long as we know what we need, we can really be in a state because we don’t have what we need – obviously if we needed it, we don’t have it.  Because if I already had it, I wouldn’t need it anymore, is that right?  Hmm?  You don’t need it then.  Is that right, Jim, huh?  So we know what we need and that puts us out of time and into a turmoil so that we are strugglin’ away and it’s to get all those things we need.  So I know what I need. 

The third illusion we have is “I know, or can know, the future.”  [writes it on board]  Now, if I just know all about what’s goin’ on – I know that if you do so and so today, you’re gonna get this happen to you tomorrow and next week.  And I know if you don’t do this, some terrible thing’s gonna happen to you.  So I tell myself all the time that I know the future.  Now, we really absolutely have no idea about it – really.  We have all kinds of ideas but we don’t have any facts about it ‘cause it’s always now; and all these unexpected things come by in every direction.  Howard went off the other mornin’ and he had no more idea in the world he’d come home with a pony and a cart and a set of harness.  (laughter)  Did you, Howard?  But he just run into somethin’.  You know, he had no more idea of goin’ out for a pony and a cart than I have of goin’ for an airplane today – who knows, I may wind up with an airplane one day.  But you had no idea what you’re gonna run into and that happened, huh?

(Right.)

But we all think we can know the future by reasoning and if we can’t get it by reasoning, we can look in the crystal ball.  If we can’t get it that way, we can get our “horrible-scope” cast and get that looked at, and we could know the future here ‘fore long. 

And the other thing that we all have a big illusion about is, “I know, or can know, the cause of everything.”  That’s why we have so many “why” questions – we know the cause of it.  Now, we feel if we knew the cause that would fix it.  So a man broke his leg the other night; he flipped on a motorcycle, broke his leg – foot, really.  Tore it all up.  Now, knowing that bein’ flipped off of a motorcycle can, at sometimes, break a leg or a foot don’t stop his foot from bein’ broken.  Now, it don’t say that every time you flip on a motorcycle you get broke ‘cause little Becky was in – she got flipped on a motorcycle – all she had was scratches…so she had a little one, okay?  Do you know the cause of anything?  And if you did know what to blame it on, would it fix it?  Now, everbody thinks if you knew the cause, you could immediately go fix it.  If one of these light globes explodes, can you fix the light globe?  Or you just know to just replace the thing?  You don’t know what to do to fix it.  You don’t know why it did that – it just did it.

Now, this is the conditioned frame of reference and it is the subject of one of the fundamental principles of Teaching – self-knowing.  [He writes the term on the board]  Now, self-knowing is not self-knowing if you’re criticizing.  Self-knowing is not self-knowing if you are justifying.  Self-knowing is only being aware of what’s there – like we’re aware there is plywood on the floor.  It’s neither approve of it nor disapprove of it.  [He turns to someone in front of him]  Go ahead and sneeze.  Okay.  So we have no conception of how to criticize or how to find fault with it.  We do not know how to improve it.  We can only be aware it’s there.  Now, most people go through life not knowing this is there.  They say, “Well, that’s just human nature.”  You know, they fly off the handle every once in a while. 

I was in a little group the other day and one lady kept askin’ if a well-adjusted person didn’t get angry ever now and then – if a well-adjusted person didn’t worry ever now and then.  So I asked what the definition of a “well-adjusted person” was and that kind of upset things.  So I finally said, “Well, I’m the only well-adjusted person.  You’ve been being it, but I’m gonna be it now.”  And that kind of got things off the road.  But we go through life without being aware that this is going on.  That we’re in bondage to it, that it produces all manner of inner states of being that are extremely non-survival – like anxiety, anger, guilt, fears, self-pity. 

You see, if I do this one here, this one up here, knowing what ought to be – the big illusion?  Get this one to work – this one’ll make me feel guilty because I didn’t do what I ought to have done; and I wasn’t improved and I didn’t please everbody.  Then if after a while the nod gets over here and this one gets the nod, this one’ll make me feel sorry for myself – “I don’t ever get to do what I wanna do, I just have to do what all you want to do.”  So these are very destructive.  And gradually bring about the total disintegration of man.  

Now, we will say he is always disintegrating.  And the definition of “disintegration” is the struggle towards an illusion – the illusion that complainin’ will get what I want, the illusion that the purpose of livin’ is to be totally without challenge, which is what we call disturbance.  That it can be in establishin’ blame.  Now, most people do – that come around and discover a little bit of this and begin to see that these things are present – instead of just seeing that they’re there, they criticize it or find fault with it.  You know, you gotta blame and say, “Well if all that wasn’t in me, well then I would be all right.”  So they establish the blame by the blamer – got him to establish the blame.  So they start in to have a program of retraining these things. 

Now, there’s two creatures that I have observed that are domesticated – you don’t train.  One of ‘em is a pig and the other one’s a cat.  Now, you can train dogs, you can train horses, you can train monkeys, you can train people, but you cannot train cats and pigs.  They do pretty well what they want to do, when they want to do it, and that’s about it.  If a cat wants to leave your house, it just gets up and leaves some night, don’t it?  Say, “I don’t wanna live here anymore.”  You don’t own a cat; it just tolerates you for a while.  So those you don’t train. 

But we sit here and spend years and years trying to improve these things.  This one won’t complain as much and we listen to ‘em talk and argue.  And we decided if we can make them go away, everthing would be fine – but they’re still there.  Now, the point is that we can spend a reasonable length of time – and I feel that three months to six months ought to be plenty…Paul.  (laughter)Three months to six months, I get well acquainted.  If I be around you all the time for three months to six months, everybody here – I work with you every day, I’m in the same buildin’ with you every day, I’m pretty well acquainted with you, is that right?  And anybody that you see ever week – and especially many times a day for six months – you’re pretty well acquainted with ‘em, is that right?  Is that right, Miss Ruth?  Anybody you’re around, you get so you know ‘em, you can call ‘em by name.  Lord, I can know these names and call ‘em all by name – you don’t have to, ‘cause they’re there many times a day – not just once ever week or two, they’re there many times a day, if not all day long.  Right, Paul? 

(That’s about right.)

Now, if you can’t get acquainted with it in three to six months, you’ll never get acquainted with it, okay?  Now, once I get acquainted with ‘em, I got ‘em – I’m through with ‘em.  So I practice my self-knowing now; and I’ve got that down.  I know what’s goin’ on.  I know that frame of reference backwards, forwards, up one side, down the other.  And I can see that all it is – is destructive to me.  That it’s non-survival.  That there isn’t anything I can do about it because it’s there – it’s like a recording and it’s implanted in certain areas of brain tissue as a recording.  Like Jim Wilson’s computers has got things recorded in ‘em and they’re gonna stay there, right?  Yup, they’re there.  So it’s a program and it’s going to respond spontaneously [snaps fingers]…like that.  You don’t have time to think about it or anything else.  So that’s the subject of self-knowing. 

Now, when you get acquainted with that in three to six months, we’ve spent enough time with ‘em.  Now, some of us, you know, takes a little longer to get things through our heads than others, so we’ll take up to six months.  In three you ought to be very well acquainted with ‘em.  If you lived and worked with somebody every day of the week, Jim, you would get so you was well acquainted with ‘em in three to six months, is that right?  You would recognize them anywheres you see them no matter how they performed, right?  Okay?

Now, the other fundamental subject is Self-Remembering.  And to be real technical about it, we’ll make this one with a capital “S” and this [points to self-knowing] with a little “s”.  ‘Cause this self is the conditioned self – it is the invader.  It has taken over the Awareness; and it is one that we’re unaware of and we’re going to make it aware.  In three to six months we listen to it talk, argue, fight with itself, and scream with everybody around it.  Because about all the thing that we call “thought” is listenin’ to this thing – that’s about all it does.  So, as we listen to this, we get well acquainted with it, and that’s a long enough time to spend on self-knowing. 

Now, the other subject is Self-Remembering.  It’s remembering what I really am.  Now, that is – we’ll put with the capital “S” – the real one – and the Picture of Man in that case would be like this.  [draws it on board]  It wouldn’t have all that stuff in there – or it’s there, but it’s been set over to the side and I don’t use it anymore because it’s of no value to me.  And I’m busy establishin’ me a new frame of reference.  Now, a person is called a frame of reference – so if I have a new frame of reference established, I become a “New Man”.  I become a new person.  I’m new in ever conceivable way because I built a brand new frame of reference and I built it myself.  I chose what it would have in it – and it’s conscious that I’m subject to reviewing it whenever I want to.

So Self-Remembering starts with four questions.  Number one is “What Am I?”  Now, most of us hasn’t given any question to that.  I’m a mechanic.  I’m a builder.  I’m a housewife.  I’m a secretary.  I’m a cook.  I’m whatever – and that’s about where we get with that – so that, of course, belongs over here, you know?  And it says we gotta identify ourselves with our occupations; and then we start claimin’ all sorts of things over here.  So “What am I?” would come up with the question of what really am I, then we’d have to study what man works like.  Now, in order to see “What am I,” we’ll put over here our little drawing.  [draws Picture of Man on board]  Now, X is the reality – you can call that Spirit, you can call it Life, you can call it whatever other word makes you comfortable.  You can call it the biological aspect of man, which is a fancy way of sayin’ Life.  Now, I know of no one that can define Life.  We can talk about lots of its attributes, but do you know the definition of it, Brother Jim?  Huh?  It’s there.  Now, X is Life.  It is the reality. 

Now, here is something that will not be there unless X is there to charge it up and that’s an Awareness.  Awareness is not a thing separate from X; it is a function of X.  [writes it on board]  A function of X.  Not a separate thing.  It is not a thing at all.  It is a function of X and, without X being there, it wouldn’t be there.  It ceases just like if there was no stomach, digestion ceases.  Digestion is a function of a digestive track, right, Dr. Jim?  Huh?  And it’s not a thing that we can catch and land out here only in relation to the reality of the digestive track, is that right?  Then we have digestion, huh? 

Now, we have a body down here and a body, in fact – in spite of the fact – that we can see it and that we can feel it and touch it and all that, it is a Motor Function of X.  And if X is not there, the motor quits.  Did you ever notice that?  You’ve all attended a funeral somewheres I’m sure some time or other.  I was drug to a few when I was a kid – I haven’t attended one since; but nevertheless, I’ve been around to see that when X is not there, the motor quits, right, Dr. Jim?  The whole schmear.  All the things – everything that works to make up the Awareness – it is gone right now, right?  So the body is the Motor Function of X.  [writes it on board]  So, there’s not much that a function can do – in fact, absolutely nothing except that the reality does, hmm?  So, we would have to say that the Life within doeth all the work without any further hassle.  This one [Awareness] may determine what work to do because it is a function of X.  This one [Motor Function] may be used as the tools to do it; but it won’t be there unless that was there, unless this was here. 

So, we are a living unit.  And that unit is not that “I” have a mind, and I don’t have a body, and I don’t have this and I don’t have that – ‘cause only X can do all those things. 

X has an Awareness Function
and it so loves that Awareness Function
that it does whatever that Awareness Function says is true and of first value
at this moment.

That Life, that Energy, that Power, whatever it may be; it is all those things.  It does the appropriate thing for whatever the Awareness says is true and of first value at this moment and it doesn’t have to do it – it does it because it loves its Awareness Function so much, it will do it.

So, when the Awareness Function sends information – which is no complicated thing…I decided to go over and move the microphone.  Then I – the Awareness Function – told X to move the microphone, X used the motor function to do it – not because it needed to, it was important, or it was right, or it was wrong; but simply because X told us this Awareness Function’ll do anything that it says is true and is of first value. 

Now, in order to make things work real well and fast in this world, then we establish a frame of reference in the Awareness Function.  So, there’s a frame of reference in here – whether it is conditioned, technical or something that I consciously pick.  And our whole purpose in working is to get well acquainted with this.  Probably discover that it was wonderful for a child and worked just fine, but that it’s worthless to me.  It don’t work at all for me – it just causes me constant chaos.  But as long as this reports instantly to X that the thing to do is to complain, X will complain – use its motor function to complain.  And it can do it beautifully all the way up to killin’ somebody.  Heaven knows, that’s what killin’ is, it’s complainin’.  And it can really get violent and vicious because that’s what was reported, and X so loves its Awareness that it’ll do anything that it says is true and is of first value, right now. 

And, therefore, this Awareness Function has a bit of responsibility – because it reports constantly, instantaneously to the Power of the Universe as to what will get done.  It reports instantly and spontaneously, instantly.  And you call in to the Power of the Universe – ‘cause Life is the only power that really matters out here, anyway.  And so that immediately is into Function, and so there is a certain time of responsibility to see that the Awareness Function has something to do.  It is here and we could make a New Man.  Now, the idea of a New Man is one that’s set up without any conditioning factors that just happen; but that one unconsciously established that frame of reference.

Somewheres in the great Teaching book it says, “Strip off the old man and all his deeds and put on the New Man.”  Now, it doesn’t say that it will happen to you; it said very specifically that you strip it off and you put it on.  In other words, your clothes don’t fall off of you.  That right, Brother Richard?  You have to take ‘em off, huh?  And this mornin’ they didn’t come jump on you – you had to put them on.  In other words, it’s an act of conscious that this Awareness sees what is of value.  Now, I see that this is of no value. [indicates infant decisions on board]  I also see that I couldn’t function without a frame of reference.  I would have to learn how to put on my clothes every morning.  I would have to learn how to stir my coffee.  I would have to learn how to wash my face and all this, and I don’t want to have to learn that over ever morning.  I got it all down and I’m set to go.  So I want to establish a new frame of reference, and then I will be a New Man. 

And what it is that we are going to establish is something that each of us for ourselves value – not something that I might say you should put in there because then you’ll bow your neck.  If I tell you, you got to do somethin’, my lovely little Gina would tell me off right quick, right?  More than likely.  But you don’t have to do anything, and it is also each of us can choose what we want in that frame of reference.  Now, that begins to put us in a state where we are in charge rather than bein’ taken over and in bondage of this. 

So, first we get acquainted with this as our first step in our liberation.  And I said three to six months is more than adequate for gettin’ acquainted with that because it’s there every minute of the day and night.  Is that right, Miss Joan, it’s always there yappin’, isn’t it?  And anybody that you’ve been around, any personage – visible or invisible – that you’ve been around constantly…even if you had a ghost in the house and it did about the same thing every night, wouldn’t you get acquainted with the durn thing ‘fore long?  Even if you lived in a haunted house – ‘cause you get to know what he’s gonna do.  I’ve been around these houses that had poltergeists in ‘em.  You know, you get so you know when he’s there.  He starts throwin’ things around and makin’ a commotion and pitchin’ things off the table and knockin’ pictures off the wall, and all this – so you know when he’s there.  You don’t have to stay there the rest of your life – you get acquainted with him, then you’re through with him – you know about him.  And then you do something different.

So in establishing the “New Man”, it takes two fundamental principles.  One: self-knowing – with a little “s” – to be acquainted with the conditioned frame of reference, which is the conditioned person.  And we feel that that is a reasonably limited time necessary to spend on that study.  I have known people that I met from around the world that have been spendin’ the last 35 or 40 years on it.  And I say, “You’re nuts.” 

You know, I grew up on a farm and they used to send me down to feed the pigs.  And the pigs squealed and grunted and they smelled bad and they slopped in their mud holes.  And they fought over the trough when I poured slop and feed out for ‘em.  Now, I couldn’t train the pigs, but if I didn’t wanna listen to pigs, you know what I could do?  I left the pigpen and went up to the house.  I didn’t hear the pigs squealin’ and gruntin’ up there.  Now, if I don’t want to listen to these things squeal and grunt and fight – and that’s about what they do all day, isn’t it?  They squeal and grunt and fight.  And if I don’t want to listen to it, I go away.  I go to another place.  I don’t stand there and try to train those pigs not to squeal (laughter)and not to grunt and not to fight over their slop.  I just don’t do that.  My mama said she “didn’t raise no stupid kids” – and if I kept stayin’ down there tryin’ to train pigs to be mannerlyat the trough (laughter)and to quit squealin’ and gruntin’ and fightin’ each other, mama was wrong.  And I hate to change things with the poor lady – she might come back from the dead after all these years – but I stay down there and try to do that, I’m nuts.  Is that right, Paul?

(That’s about right.)

That’s about right, hmm?  So I never tried to teach pigs manners.  I figure for them, they got pig manners and that’s good enough for them.  But if I don’t want to be around it, I don’t try to train them, I leave, okay?  So we’re talkin’ about makin’ a new frame of reference and then I’ve left the old frame of reference – I stripped it off, I don’t use it anymore, I put no value on it. 

So when we do that, we have started our work of Self-Remembering.  The first question is: “What Am I?”  Now, inasmuch as we’ve been sittin’ an hour on these lovely soft, padded pews, let’s all stand up a few minutes and walk around and I will hammer…[hammers the surface of the podium]…like that when we’re ready to start. 

[Picking up after the break:]  A motor function and an Awareness function, we might answer the question of “What am I?” that I’m a privileged and invited…

[END OF CD #1]

[Note:  Using reel-to-reel tapes required they be switched, which eliminated discussion about “What Am I?”]

 [BEGINNING CD #2 OF 4]

…the best that they could do, that they were not sane.  So, the New Man apparently could be able to answer these questions and be consciously aware of:  What am I, where am I, what’s going on here, and what can I do?  That seems that would be the minimum amount that the New Man would be aware of for himself. 

So “Where am I?” is fairly easy to look around – that Life has built a beautiful estate.  And when each of us was invited to arrive, it was all completed with trees, and with bearing fruit, and with water, and with transportation all over the place, and with ever conceivable thing that we could require.  And if you recall, we all came to the party broke, helpless, “nekkid,” and didn’t even understand the language that they were talkin’.  That’s the way we all arrived here, and the Host had it all set up for us, and even had his servants to look after us.  Now, I’ll tell you that looks to me like we came to a pretty nice layout.  That I arrived and there was servants to look after me, feed me, clothe me, and all the things were already here.  There was textiles already made to provide me clothing.  There was utensils for me to eat with and servants to look after me.  And I didn’t need a coin nor a toothbrush nor a language or anything else – I just got along.  

So we could easily say, “I’m a privileged invited guest at a beautiful estate called Earth.”  And it is a lovely estate.  There was shelter provided for me.  There was things to do.  They set up a bunch of people to teach me how to build a technical frame of reference.  Now, what’s missing in this world – that most of us grew up – was anything about this [indicates on board] frame of reference.  They let us alone with that one.  But I was given all the material to have the technical frame of reference.  I was taught all sorts of things.  They had schools set up, people that dedicated themselves, servants that took care of me to do that.  So it seems that we could easily see that I’m a privileged invited guest at a beautiful estate called Earth.  Isn’t it pretty?  And everywheres I go I see beauty in the estate and everywheres I go there’s some way for me to get along ‘cause everything has been provided in the estate.

Now, the next one says, “What’s going on here?”  Now, that’s where we get a little bit lost it looks like…What’s going on here?  So, what’s going on here?  There is a big party goin’ on, obviously, because there’s so many games being played.  Now, as long as you find a whole bunch of people together and they’re playin’ games, you figure it’s a party, is that correct?  That’s about the best definition isn’t it, Debbie?  That you find a whole bunch of people together and all playin’ games – you figure it’s a party.  So they’re playin’ games.  They’re playin’ the traffic game.  They’re playing football.  They’re playin’ basketball.  They’re playing marriage games.  They’re playing business games.  They’re playin’ all kinds of games. 

Now, games has basically four things to make a game.  You gotta have players, you gotta have rules, and you have to have an official of some sort or other to see that the rules are being played accordin’ to the game.  And they don’t keep you from foulin’; they just give you a penalty if you foul.  And if you play accordin’ to the game, you win little prizes – that’s about right isn’t it, hmm?  So there’s big games goin’ on and gobs and gobs of people playin’ these games. 

Now, I’ve noticed that most of ‘em are unaware they’re playin’ games.  They’re unaware that the officials are there – that all the official is sayin’, “If you don’t play the game accordin’ to the rule there’s a little penalty if we catch you at it.”  And if you do win, you get little prizes such as income, clothes, shelter, houses – whatever you want to accumulate – from the other guests.  Now, all of it was provided by the Host, but then we try to play checkers with it and I try to win it all – you know, I wanna accumulate it – afraid I won’t have any tomorrow.  That right, Paul?  You gotta accumulate it – that’s part of it.  “The Host won’t provide for you ‘cause He don’t care whether you’re here or not.”

When we see these many games being played, we also can determine that I can play certain games if I want to and I don’t have to play certain games if I don’t want to – there’s nobody says I gotta play a game if I don’t want to.  But if I wanna play the game, then it behooves me to play the game accordin’ to the rules, and I can have a pretty good time playin’ all the games. 

Now, there’s gobs and gobs of guests around, and I can associate with the guests I like best and I can walk away from those that don’t appeal to me.  I don’t have to dislike any of ‘em, and certainly the Host did not ask me to check out the guest list.  The Host must find them interesting or He wouldn’t have ‘em here. 

And I noticed every once in a while some leave the party.  And I’ve also noticed that they don’t take anything away from the party, which indicates it all belongs to the party.  Recently, in the last couple of years, about three men who have accumulated most prizes at the party – one by the name of Hughes, one by the name of Getty, and one by the name of Hunt – all left the party.  And do you know somethin’?  Not a one of ‘em took a thing away from the party with him.  Did you ever think of that?  Not one little thing did they take away from the party.  They left like they came – broke, helpless, “nekkid,” the bit.  And so we can stay at the party and use everything that’s here, and we don’t have to accumulate it; but if we did, then that’s part of the game and you want to play it.  Don’t get the idea it’s yours.  You’re just gettin’ to hold it for a little while, so when the game’s over for you and the party’s over and the Host says you can go back where you came from, you don’t take any of it with you. 

So, everything belongs at the party and it’s here for our use and our enjoyment and our delight – whatever one we want to do with it, but it’s all at the party.  Now, I don’t have to check the guest list, but I can associate with the ones that I want to – walk away from the ones that don’t really interest me.  The Host finds them interesting, so I’ll have to beat it.

Now, basically the way the game is going is that it’s much like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”  You’ve all seen that game probably where they put a paper donkey on the wall without a tail.  And they give a kid a tail stuck on a hat pin, and they blindfold the kid and spin him, and one after another, the kids try to get the tail in the most appropriate place on the donkey.  And the one that gets the closest gets a prize.  But did you ever think how it would be if we put a whole bunch of people down here in the bottom of this building and all of ‘em were blindfolded, all of ‘em had a long hat pin and a tail, and there was only one donkey on the wall, and you could stand up there in the choir loft and watch it? 

Now, this is the way you’d see it, wouldn’t you?  That the ones who got close would blame the ones that poked ‘em for interfering with them gettin’ the prize.  But what do you think about the guy that did the pokin’?  He would blame those that got poked for gettin’ in his way and keepin’ him from gettin’ the prize.  So I think this is pretty well the way it got caught up – that the game is goin’ on, only everybody is blindfolded and there’s nobody standin’ up there to watch it – except the Host.  And I’m sure He has a peculiar sense of humor (laughter)and he’s laughin’ himself into agony, because I do every time I watch it.  And I did find out one day that all you had to do is pull the blindfold off and then you can stand and watch the show.  And it’s a beaut!  (laughter) Because they’re all blindfolded, all got these old long hatpins with a paper tail and they’re pokin’.  And the ones that get poked scream and blame the ones that poked them for interferin’ with them gettin’ the prize, and the ones that’s doing the pokin’ screams at the other guy for bein’ in his way. 

Now, isn’t that about what your whole problem is every day in the week?  You see, the only problem we have – everything else is just perfect – the only problem we have is somebody didn’t do what we wanted them to do or they did something we didn’t want ‘em to do and we make a big issue out of that.  Now, isn’t that really the only problem you ever run into?  How about that, Jim?  The only thing you ever know to get you upset, somebody did something you didn’t want ‘em to do or they didn’t do something you wanted ‘em to do.  Is that right, Isabel? 

That’s all it is and we all live it.  So what’s going on here – there’s a big party and I choose to watch it with the blindfold off.  And I can choose to play what games I want to, and I can dodge the pins pretty well as long as I have the blindfold off, right?  And I don’t poke anybody if I have my blindfold off.  Now, I don’t wanna poke anybody anymore than I wanna get poked because I just don’t see any fun in that.

Now, the next question is, “What can I do?”  Now, seeing what I am, where I am and what’s goin’ on here, the obvious question is “What can I do?”  Now, what I can do is to be what’s really laid out in front of me:  I can be what, to me, is a good guest.  I don’t really see anything else to do.  I’m a guest at a big party, and I’m a privileged invited guest at this beautiful estate called Earth, and there’s a big party going on.  Then it’s obvious to me that what I can do is to be what to me is a good guest. 

Now, I don’t know what bein’ a good guest is to anybody else.  Now, Bill Kinney and I make a pretty good habit of always being a guest somewhere.  (lots of laughter)We don’t do much else but we’re always a guest somewheres so we got it down to a pretty good art as to be a good guest.  Now, as long as your whole business and means of livelihood is to be a good guest, you get proficient at it after while, you see? 

So it came upon me that one thing that Bill and I had to do is be considerate.  Now, we don’t only be considerate of the Host – which is wonderful, too – we’re considerate of the Host’s other guests and we’re considerate of His estate.  Now, you know there’s great noise made about pollution and all that, but if I recognize that I’m a guest in somebody’s estate, I obviously don’t go around litterin’ it up.  Now, I’m not doing this because I ought to or because I should or because I must; I’m doin’ it as my way of saying, “Thank you for havin’ invited me to your house” or to your big party.  And to the Host I want to say “thank you” and I don’t feel obligated in any way to not make a mess of the estate.  It’s my way of saying thank you – it’s what I want to do. 

So I can be considerate of the Host – which is of Life.  So I can be considerate of Life, I can be considerate of the estate, and I can certainly be considerate of the other guests.  They all were invited just as much as I am, so I have no reason for me to sit down and start makin’ noise about them, okay?  The Host finds them interesting – sometimes I wonder why – but, nevertheless, he finds them interesting or they wouldn’t be here.

So, the first thing I can do is, obviously, be considerate.  Now, considerate when you put it down into simple terms finally gets down to practicin’ simple good manners – that’s about what it all gets boiled down to – simple good manners.  Now, basically most of us practice simple good manners with strangers – but that’s where we draw the line.  When it gets down to people we associate with, close to, and married to, and live with – who wants to be considerate, you know, who wants to use simple good manners?

The second one that I can do in being a good guest is to be harmless.  We can be harmless.  Now, to do “good” is very easy – all I got to do is know what you need and start providin’ it for you.  It may be the last thing in the world you want, you know, but that’s “doing good.”  It’ll make me feel good, anyway – that’s what’s called “doing good” is.  Now, I’m not trying to gain any good feelings for me – I’m being considerate and you can have whatever taste you like.  And I don’t know of anything that I could do for you that would be good for you because I don’t know what you want – unless you tell me and then I don’t know whether it would be good for you or not – it may upset you; but, nevertheless, I’ll give it to you. 

Now, to be harmless takes a considerable bit more of attention.  Number one, obviously, we wouldn’t commit physical violence on any other person.  That’s number one to being harmless; and that’s fairly easy to leave alone because it’s hard on the clothes to commit physical violence on the other guy ‘cause he usually fights back and that tears mine up.  So I don’t want to do that. 

And the other thing is that I will not try to take away his responsibility as his position…as he is reporting to X he is the Awareness Function of an individualized expression of X there – Life.  And I have no reason to try to interfere in what he should do nor what he needs or anything else.  I can be considerate of him and let him alone.  If he asks me something, I can tell him my viewpoint.  But I cannot tell him, and remain harmless, as to what he should do, what he ought to do, what he needs to do – in other words try to make him over so he will do what I want him to and not do anything I don’t want him to.  Now, this is when we get harmful is that we’re trying to control another person. 

In the little book of Headlines, we said if I don’t know how to control another person – and don’t, of course – that couldn’t be considered moral.  If I know how to control him and do, that couldn’t be called moral either.  But if I know how to control him and don’t because it’s simply none of my business to control him, that might be called moral.  You can think about that sometime when you don’t have anything to do.

The third thing that we can do is – in being a good guest – is to make some little contribution to Life – now, I’m not talking about a contribution to another one of the guests that would make me feel obligated or anything.  We’re talking about a contribution to Life. 

The first contribution to Life I can make is to practice self-knowing until I’m no longer controlled by all the not-I’s.  I see they don’t fit my purposes.  The next contribution I can make to Life is to create a new frame of reference consciously that would do it.  And the third contribution I can make to Life, of course, is to practice being considerate, harmless, and making a little contribution, which means I would contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood wherever I may be. 

And if you’ve ever noticed, you thrive better in a pleasant harmonious mood than you do in “staticky” moods, is that right?  Around you, huh?  So I can make those little contributions; they may all be insignificant, but as long as many of those contributions are made by a number of people, this becomes a literal heaven on Earth.  

But we’re not trying to set up any ideals or anything.  We’re only looking at what I can do.  Now, I’m not interested in whether the other guy is doing it or not.  Just me – that’s the only one I’m concerned with.  I don’t have to look around and see if anybody else is doing it but simply that I am doing it – that I am being considerate, that I’m being harmless, and I’m making some little contribution to Life.

Now, if a person begins to be aware of these and this was his way of seeing – therefore, his way of responding – at first it would take a little practice.  Just like it took a little practice so you could complain accurately so mama knew whether you wanted a glass of water or if you wanted her to put you to bed.  You remember babies know how to complain so they can let you know what their complainin’ implies.  Is that right, Joann, huh?  They don’t just complain the same way all the time, hmm?  So, we could also…it took a little time to develop that – it took a little time to develop our belligerency so that we really looked vicious enough that it upset people.  And it took us a little while to get so we could really see what was to blame, and what needed to be repaired and fixed and over done, and who needed to be straightened out, and all these things.  It took us a little while to learn all of our authorities – that we could quote the proper authority – it took us a little while.  

Now, if we’d spend just a little bit of time establishing a frame of reference wherein that I was being a good guest – that’s my spontaneous response – to be considerate, regardless of where I happen to be and what happens to come along ‘cause I have really no control over what circumstances occur.  I can only choose my response and I want that response chosen ahead of time and made into a frame of reference so I don’t have to stop and think about it – you know, because most of the time I forget everything.  Right, Paul?  You just go on with the old one.  So you got to do something, so you go with the old one.  So, I don’t have to stop and think, “Well, now, I want to be considerate at this moment,” because if I do, I’ll forget it 99% of the time.  I can only do it when things are goin’ real nicely, and not when there is a sudden challenge.  So I want to be that this is a frame of reference…by practicing it like we do anything that is a frame of reference – whether it was drivin’ an automobile, in a technical frame of reference, multiplyin’, addin’, dividin’, spelling, writing, typing, playing the piano, any other musical instrument – anything that is a technical frame of reference was practiced.  And this conditioned frame of reference was practiced. 

Now, to be a New Man requires a little practice.  Now, it doesn’t take very long to establish a frame of reference.  Again, 30 to 60 days – somethin’ like that – three months would be very long.  So it’s very easy to establish a new frame of reference and it would be there spontaneously.  Now, always, of course, we want that frame of reference open to consciousness – that I can check it out. 

Maybe I want to change somethin’ else.  I haven’t found any reason to change it since I started working at being considerate, harmless and makin’ a little contribution; but I may find a way today that I want to change it.  If I do, then I will see what don’t work and what I want to re-gain over here and put in a new one.  Now, when I put in the new one, it will require a little practice and then it will become a spontaneous – there is an action at every moment. 

Now, I’m not the one to say that this would be for you, but I do say these questions are for each of us.  What am I?  Where am I?  What’s going on here?  And What can I do?  Now, what you can do may be somethin’ that you want entirely different from what I do.  I’m not qualified to say that.  I showed that, as a for instance, that this is a workable one; but I’m not saying that’s the one you should use.  [Chapel bells start chiming.] 

It’s time for lunch – Bill Nunn has graciously provided a small pot of stew, so everbody eat carefully and it will go around.  Now, I blessed it just a moment ago when I went through the kitchen, so I think it’ll go around and everybody enjoy it.  We will start again at one…let’s make it 2:00.  Everybody enjoy the lovely things around here and nobody’s in a hurry to go home, I’m sure; so enjoy about two hours for lunch.  But please be within the buildin’ here so we can start at exactly 2:00, okay?  And we will start with questions.  Now, next is Max has a word to say.

(Well, I just want to invite people to browse through the greenhouses.)

Greenhouses…and if you see somethin’ you want to buy, it’s for sale.  (laughter and clapping)  He forgot to add that but I will tell you that it is.  Also Lana has a few little purses, which she has stitched up in her spare time up here, which she has a lot of and she would... 

[Resuming in mid-discussion, after break] 

So this is what happens when one just tries to improve this over here without making a New Man.  Puttin’ on the glasses is a very temporary state of affairs and it doesn’t work very well because it just makes things look a little different for the moment, but still lookin’ through this same bunch of old ideas over here.  Okay, who’s got a question?  [long pause with no questions]  Now, you had two whole hours to come up with a question here.  Nobody got a question?

(What happens if you become a New Man?)

That’s what we’re gonna talk about – that’s before we get to that.  That’s not just puttin’ on glasses.  That’s just puttin’ on a New Man – he becomes a new person; and he puts dogs and policemen and people stickin’ their heads out the door and so forth as – he left those – he just parked those over.  Those are to then, not now, okay? 

Another question?  Okay, let’s move on.  So the question is frequently asked as to the means of practice – meaning this over here – how do you get there?  Often somebody says that these not-I’s or these little decisions over here that was runnin’ that man there with his pictures – that he checked everything off with – that all they do is hear that; and they can’t do anything else.  So we’re going to talk about somethin’ else for a minute.  So we will make us a line off up there and kind of study about where people are when they’re in this state over here, and where they might be when they begin to ask these four questions and begin to get some answer to “What can I do?”  Askin’ the last question without the others would be worthless. 

Most of us live most of the time as a stimuli/response mechanism.  They are a victim, you might say then, because if we get bad news, we feel terrible.  If somebody gives me a little disapproval, I feel terrible.  If somebody ignores me, I feel terrible.  And if somebody pats me on the back and gives me a compliment, I feel real nice for a while; but that’s subject to who the next guy comes along.  So one person comes along and says, “You sure are a nice person, Paul.”  A few minutes later somebody says, “Why don’t you do so-and-so once in a while, Paul?”  And we’ve flipped up and down on here. 

So our well-being depends upon the environment.  We have no self-determining direction as to what our state of being is going to be at all – it’s entirely dependent upon circumstance.  And, of course, then we go into strugglin’ as to how to control circumstances – which is a kind of a waste of time because circumstance you can’t control.  They just kinda happen along all day long.  This one happens, the other one happens – you cannot control circumstances – ‘cause in order to do that, you’d have to control ever person in the world.  And that gets to be a little bit of an ambitious project.  I can’t make ‘em all do what I want to no matter how I try to make ‘em feel guilty or how I try to make ‘em feel afraid of me or anything else.  And as this our hero found here when he was – the man who found the glasses on the street – he made a few people cow…but that steamroller didn’t pay much attention to him.  When he kicked it, it just kept comin’ and he got kinda flattened out. 

So the person on the stimuli/response level is purely always a victim – a victim of circumstances.  And we hear them complain loud and long about all the bad luck they’ve had and how important they are and why did this have to happen to me, and all these things that goes along.

Now, the next level that we could get on would be thinking level.  And that’s where we are playing the game between A and B over here.  And I know what oughta be, and I know what you need.  And all the thinkin’ would be would be to try to get the person – everbody else – to do what they ought to do and then I would be all right.  If you would do what you need to do, Jim, everything would be fine for me.  I know what I need – it’s just have you do what you need to do.  And I know what ought to be, and if all of you would just straighten up and do it that way, why everything would be just fine.  I know what oughta be – everybody oughta treat me like I oughta be treated. 

So that is on the thinking level, and that, of course, leaves a person in conflict because if I could just get things other than they are.  It is the setting up of an ideal and the struggle toward an illusion.  A struggle toward an illusion.  And that, we’re told, is the disintegrating factor in man – the struggle towards an illusion.  An illusion that if I could just get you to do what you ought to do and that other person do what they ought to do, and I just had what I needed, and there wasn’t anything left, then I would have everything all right.  

Now, above this is the New Man.  This is the old man; he worked on these levels.  The conditioned man – this is the old man; he worked on these levels.  Now, the New Man begins to look at things a little differently.  So, first off, he begins to see, as we said, what he is, where he is, what’s going on here, and what he can do.  Now, when he begins to see that what he can do is to make – be considerate, make some little contribution to Life, and that he can be harmless, he begins to count up a little bit of what he really has.  So he begins to check up – he begins to see what is.  The New Man looks at what is, not what ought to be.  The old man looks at what ought to be – the ideal.  The New Man looks at what is.

Now, as a person begins to look to what is, one sees that all one really wants – everybody in the world – is to have 100% of my preference 100% of the time.  That don’t seem much to ask for, does it, Isabel?  Just to have 100% of my preference 100% of the time, hmm?  That don’t seem like much.  But that’s “what is.”  So “what is” is that Iwant – and there’s no use telling ourselves that we don’t – 100% of my preference, 100% of the time.  [writes it on board]  Now, you cannot say I don’t want my preference because then you would be saying, “Well, what I want is not to have my preference.”  And that’d still be your preference, wouldn’t it?  (laughter)  So there’s no way we could get out of the proposition that all we want out of life is to just have 100% of my preference, 100% of the time.  ‘Cause if you tried to change it, you’d just be changin’ your preference that moment.  Isn’t that right, Isabel?  So you want this, don’t you?  And I want it, so does everybody else.  Is that right, John?  All I want is 100% of my preference 100% of the time. 

So seeing this, we begin to check up on what is.  Now, let’s see what is.  Now, I’m alive at this moment.  I’m here movin’, walkin’, standin’ around.  Now, how much of your preference do you think that’s worth?  How much of your preference would you think that was worth?  That you got your life, Isabel?  If you didn’t have that, you wouldn’t have nothin’, would you?  You couldn’t even have a preference anymore.  But now that you’ve got it – that much – how much would you think?  Would you think that’s 90% of your preference just to stay alive, be alive this morning?  To me it’s more than this, but I’ll be conservative and put it 90% of my preference is just to be alive – and I got that at this moment, okay?  Anybody here want to contend with that percentage point there?  Is that worth that much to you, Audrey?  Who here least likes to live?
Let’s see.  (laughter)  Gladys, you glad to be alive enough – 90% of it, is that all right?  You got 90% of your preference on that, okay?  Now, I have the use of all the senses.  I have the use of all the senses.  May have to use the cheaters and so forth, but I can still see some, and I can hear – some – and I can taste, and I can smell, and I can touch, and I can feel when somethin’ bumps me.  That all right, Jim?  What would you take for that?  Now, as some of you know, I do little jobs for other people and I get finder’s fees.  Now, there’s a very rich lady out in San Francisco, California, that has commissioned me – if I can find what she wants, she’s willing to pay ten million dollars.  Now, she lost her eyesight but she has a surgeon who says he can graft a fresh set of eyeballs on and she can see then.  And she’s willin’ to pay ten million dollars for a matched set.  Anybody wanna sell?  Anybody want to sell a matched set of eyeballs for ten million in here?

(How much?) 

Ten million.  (lots of laughter)  And, she don’t even care if they’re blue, Teako.  She don’t even care if they’re blue.  You wanna go?  I get ten percent – I get a ten percent finder’s fee.  You go instant millionaire, Teako – instant millionaire.

(See if she’ll go up.)  (laughter)

Okay.  So far she’s only said ten; I’ll try to bid ‘er up.  In other words, we’re all rather wealthy.  So to have the use of all the senses…  You have the use of all yours?  Now, did you ever conceive what it was like if you were alive and had no senses?  You couldn’t smell.  You couldn’t hear.  You couldn’t taste.  You couldn’t touch.  You couldn’t tell when anything touched you.  What would you be like, Isabel?

(I’d be half dead.)

Well, no, you’d not only be half dead – nobody would know if they was alive or not ‘cause you gotta have some response.  You’d be in a very deep coma.  You’d be like somebody layin’ on the operating and the surgeon is in there cuttin’ around in his liver somewheres, you know – he wouldn’t know anything about it.  So it wouldn’t be any good to be alive if you didn’t have those, would it?  So, would you say that’s worth 5% of your preference, hmm?  Would you say that’s worth 5% of your preference?  Gladys, you said you like to live least.  Would you feel that’s a fair estimate – you got 5% of your preference ‘cause you got the use of all your senses? 

Now, most of us have a friend or two – I didn’t say a slew of ‘em, I said one or two.  Now, a friend or two – that’s the ones that like us just like we are and don’t have to make us over.  Now, we got an awful lot of acquaintances that would like us real well if we were made over a bit, you understand?  If I was more generous.  If I was more this.  If I was more pleasant.  If I had more energy.  If I went more places.  If I didn’t go so many places or whatever it is.  We got lots of those that would like us if we would do so and so, right?  But there’s one or two people in the world just like you just like you are, right?  You know you got one, don’t you?  Just like you are.  Now, you don’t have to change one thing in the world.  Now, what’s that worth to us?  To have one friend or two in the world that likes me just like I am.  I don’t have to change a thing for them to like me.  How about that, Jim, how much’d you put on that one?  Well, I’ll put 2%.  [writes this and the following on board as he continues speaking:]  I’ll be very conservative – in all my numbers I think I’m extremely conservative here.  I got at least 1%, 2% right here off the bat. 

Now, we all have a living of sorts, huh?  We all got some means of earning a living or have a living given to us, one reason or another.  We have a living, is that correct?  And I only put 1% on that – have a living.  Now, that adds up to 98% percent of my preference, so I have 98% of my preference and we said that each one of these was conservative, right?  

I have 98% of my preference 100% of the time.

But I have all these all the time, don’t you?  Got every one of these all the time.  Now, the only 2% I can possibly find is that somebody did somethin’ I didn’t want ‘em to do or somebody failed to do somethin’ I wanted ‘em to do – that’s 2%, hmm? 

Now, I have back here when we all leave this afternoon, a set of raffle tickets – now they sell for $98.  And we’re gonna hold a drawing three years from now and one person will win.  Now, I’m gonna try to sell lots more all over the United States as I go about and make talks – and I’m gonna try to sell those for $98.  And the person that wins three years from now will get two bucks.  Who wants to buy?  Huh?  Who wants to buy?  Would you? 

Now, if I look at the point that I have 98% of my preference 100% of the time, which is what is, I’m thankful.  Now, that’s the only way I can see it because I can’t get carried away about that 2% – I got 98; and I’m not gonna jeopardize the 98 by gritchin’ because I don’t have the 2%, right?  So I consider I’m the luckiest man in the world.  And if I am thankful – now, I will give you all an experiment to run.  Try being thankful – those of you that have listened to the not-I’s arguin’ and all the conditionin’ talk backwards and forwards –  be thankful and see if you can hear a word out of ‘em.  Have you ever tried that, Paul?

(I tried it one time.)

Once for about two minutes.

(A little less than two minutes.)

About a minute and 10 seconds.  And could you hear any of ‘em during that time?

(I didn’t hear them.)

But he was so lonely, he went back to the pigpen.  (laughter)  After all he was so used to pigs squealing and gruntin’ and floppin’ in the water, he couldn’t leave.  But while you are thankful, you have become a new person.  Now, this is the New Man up here.  [points to the board]  He’s got his attention on “what is.”  So the New Man’s attention is on what is.  The old man’s attention is on what ought to be.  [writes it on board]  And so he, of course, is solely concerned with that 2%.  He’s the guy that pays $98 dollars for a raffle ticket on the bare chance of winning $2 in case he wins, hmm?  So the old man has his value on what ought to be. 

Now, somewheres in the great Teaching book it says, “A man’s treasure is where his heart is” – his heart is his attention, really – what he puts value on.  The thing that you put attention on, you put value on.  So he put attention on what ought to be.  And he’s constantly in this struggle and conflict and he’s fallin’ apart, rapidly disintegrating.  Now, the New Man puts his attention on “what is’ and he left this world, he left the hog pen, he left the whole bit – he went to a new world.  He’s a New Man and he’s in a new world.  And, of necessity, if he is observing what is, he’s bound to be thankful. 

If I got a minimum of 98% of my preference 100% of the time, I don’t believe I could ever find anything to complain about.  Hmm, that right, Sandy?  You got 98% of your preference right now and 2% you don’t have, okay?  So, 2% – so what?  I’m sure not gonna waste all this 98% just because I didn’t have that lousy 2%, would you, Richard?  Would you buy one of my raffle tickets for 98 bucks on the bare chance you get $2 if you win three years from now?  Huh? 

(You haven’t sold me any.)

You’d be surprised how many people buy ‘em.  (laughter)  In fact, everybody in here buys ‘em every day.  In fact, everybody in here buys ‘em every day, Brother Richard.  Just day after day they buy those raffle tickets – 98 bucks they risk bein’ alive, they risk the use of their senses, they risk their friends – that one or two they have.  And they risk havin’ a livin’ even – because somebody didn’t do what I wanted ‘em to.  Or somebody did somethin’ I didn’t want them to do.  How many people you know blew up and quit their job because somebody didn’t do just what they wanted ‘em to do?  I’m talkin’ about a real good job.  I’m not talking about, you know, the ordinary kind.  Did you ever do that, Richard?

(Yes.)

Then you bought a $98 raffle ticket for two bucks, didn’t you, huh?  That guy did something you didn’t want him to and all you wanted was 100% of your preference but you got 98 minimum.  Now, I happen to have 100% of my preference because I’ve been playin’ at this for a little while.  And I found out that my alternate for having 98% was to have – if I wanted 100% – I would have to live with a bunch of robots that I had programmed.  That’d be the only alternate – so they would always do exactly as I wanted to, when I wanted them to, and they never would do anything I didn’t want them to do.  I’d have to have a robot that looked and felt like you; but it’s geared up in here. 

Now, our friend Gary Demus, which several of you know, is working and has just completed a movie called “Futureworld,” and the villain in this show found he could totally copy people.  So he copied them into robots and destroyed the real ones.  In other words, you get killed; but he turned out a robot to go that was programmed to be Isabel.  Only it would do everything he wanted it to, when he wanted it to, and it would never do anything he didn’t want it to do.  Now, I wouldn’t want to live with a bunch of robots.  I’ll take you people that do things unexpected all the time.  (laughter) 

So I have 100% of my preference.  So I’m the luckiest man in the world; but you folks second, you at least got 98%, huh?  Now, when I’m doin’ that, I’m bound to be thankful – when I’m looking at what is.  I’m a privileged invited guest at the beautiful estate called Earth where there’s a big party going on, and I can do whatever I want to there.  And the gift from the Host was for me to have 98% of my preference 100% of the time and He leaves it up to me to fiddle with the other two, hmm?  And I don’t want it.  I don’t want it to all do that because they’d all have to be robots.  Could you think how horrid it would be if you knew what everybody’s gonna say and everybody’s gonna do ‘cause you already programmed it?  Would you want that, Audrey?  I’ll take the 2%, won’t you?  So then I have 100% of my preference right now.

Now, the other state of man that a man can be as well is enthusiastic.  Now, enthusiasm is from a Greek word meaning “The fire of the Gods” – the fire of the Gods.  When a person is in a state of enthusiasm, you’re generating so much energy that anything you touch turns around about the way you would like it.  Furthermore, everything you say in that state turns out to be true.  Now, while you say it, somebody might say you’re a liar; but you’ll find in a very few minutes, it turns out to be true.  Whatever you say in a state of enthusiasm will turn out to be true very quickly.  Did you ever experiment with that, Brother Jim?  It always turns out to be true – what I said at that moment.  You may tell me, “Well, he’s lying.”  I may say that person over there – you said they were blind and I said they were perfectly all right and you may say they’re blind; but they’ll turn out all right.  I’ll turn out to be true, okay?  Now, this is purely by seeing the potential. 

Now, man is the only creature that has an endless number of potentials; and most often we never actualize any ourselves – just society, culture around us, actualizes a few of ‘em.  You know, enough to get up and go to work, enough to keep a house, enough to build a house, and do things like that.  But we have potentials that are undreamed of, but all we have to do is actualize ‘em.  Now, nobody’s gonna actualize ‘em for you – they can’t; but you can actualize it.  And enthusiasm is very actualizing one’s spiritual potential. 

Now, is there anything to keep you from being enthusiastic – except you’re waitin’ for a stimuli/response?  See, the stimuli/response person down here is waiting ‘til something “grabs him”, I believe is the general terminology.  “It really grabbed me,” hmm?  He’s waiting for somethin’ to grab him and make him feel enthusiastic.  And, of course, it never does – he gets excited sometimes, but that’s as far as he ever gets.  And most people confuse excitement and enthusiasm a little bit.  Bill Kinney and I have a friend who told me he was a wonderful salesman because most people couldn’t tell the difference between nervousness and enthusiasm; and he was so nervous that people thought he was enthusiastic all the time.  (laughter)  But the basic thing is that we’re waiting for something to happen – we know what ought to be and something wonderful ought to come by and make me enthusiastic later today, hmm?  Is that right, Paul?

(That’s about right.)

Did it ever come by?

(It never made it.)

Never quite got there, did it?  But it ought to one of these days.  It oughta get there. 

Now, the person who’s thinking, of course, will just be thinking very beautiful thoughts, but he isn’t acting it.  Now, did you ever talk to someone and they said, “I have so much to be thankful for, I know, but...”  (laughter)  You’ve seen those haven’t you, Isabel?  They get up with quaking voices and say, “We’re so thankful the Lord has provided us with so many things, and oh Lord, make so and so get well tonight,” and all this good stuff.  And, of course, they sound very mournful.  Now, I will make a little challenge here.  I would like for somebody here to feel thankful without acting thankful.  Miss Joan, do you believe you could do that?  That you could feel thankful without acting thankful?  You see, we are so closely hooked together as we see over here a while ago that if the Awareness says to X something, X then puts the body with it.  So if you aren’t acting thankful, you don’t feel thankful.  If you are not acting enthusiastic...

[END OF CD #2] 

RODEY WORKSHOP PART 2