It's curious, very, very odd, and yet nobody realizes it, that human beings are brought
up to feel as if they were strangers in the world.
We are given a sense of our own existence that is in flat contradiction to the facts
of nature, although in its own way there is something natural about that, because nothing
can happen at all that is not in some way connected with an elaborate scheme, not a scheme that
as it were had a plan in mind, but nevertheless a scheme that is musical in its nature, and
even our delusions are part of that.
But nevertheless, they are sometimes extraordinarily odd, and we are given by our society, by
our tradition and upbringing, by our culture, a very weird sensation of our own existence.
And that is the sensation of strangeness, of being somebody who, as we say, comes into this
world, whereas when you are born, you should say that you came out of this world.
You don't come into it.
Where else is there to come from?
In the philosophy that we've inherited, however, and that underlies our common sense, there are
some ideas which account for this sensation of strangeness.
And I'm going to spend the first session examining the history of that.
But what I want to say to make things clear from the outset, especially to those of you
who are strangers to these seminars, is that, strictly speaking, you, that which you feel
most inwardly and intimately to be yourself, is obviously part and parcel of the works, you
might say the plays, but what there is, we could say in a slangy way, the witch than which there is no
witcher.
The Hindus say, Tattva Masi, which is in Sanskrit saying, that thou art.
You're it.
Only you're playing, you aren't.
And that's what it was always doing.
But basically, never fear.
What is absolutely central and fundamental to you is what the Christians might call God,
or the Godhead, and you're pretending you aren't.
And you're pretending very cleverly, so that the illusion is extraordinarily convincing.
Or if we put it in terms that do not require these, what we today call mythological concepts
of God or Brahman or whatever, we can simply say that every individual is what the total cosmos
is doing at a place called here and now, or a place called I.
I is a pronoun of position, like this, here, so on.
And so that's the way things actually work.
And anyone can see it, and it can be proved to the satisfaction of anybody, by purely physical
evidence.
Only we are trained to feel the exact opposite, you see, that we are little creatures sort
of looking over our shoulders and wondering where the hell we are and what's going to
happen next, and that this isn't our arrangement at all, and that we're caught in a great cosmic
trap.
Oh, thou who didst with pitfall and with gin, beset the road I was to wander in.
You know, that kind of idea.
Now, what accounts for this?
How could we possibly have come to feel this way?
Well, there are a lot of reasons, but the two that I want to concentrate on this morning
are two mythologies that have influenced everybody's thinking in the Western world.
The first we'll call the Jewish Christian mythology, and the second, the Newtonian mythology,
or mechanistic mythology, and the latter, of course, has a far more dominant influence
on educated people today than the other one.
But let's look and see what they really involved in our feelings about the world and about our
place in it.
First of all, in the Jewish Christian mythology, we are here in a relationship to the ultimate
reality, which is comparable to the relationship between a great king and his subjects.
This king is modeled on the ideal type of a great Near Eastern king who might have lived,
say, around 4 or 3,000 B.C.
You remember, don't you, in reading about the fact that when those kings died, all their
families and servants and many of their subjects were buried with them.
They were killed outright by being, well, buried alive in the royal tomb.
And Thomas Mann made the observation that in those days it seemed as if human heads had
no backs to them, as if one were simply a mask, and that what was behind you was something
altogether beyond you, so that you were completely identified with your tribe, with your human
family.
And so the king was like a queen being.
The abs, well, we would say the king pin upon which everything depends.
And when that's blown out, everybody collapses with it.
Only later did we grow backs to our skulls, and then begin to feel enclosed.
That was a very important step, but a troublesome one.
We don't feel in the lines of G.K.
Chesterton, but now a great thing in the street seems any human nod.
We're moved in strange democracy, the million masks of God.
We don't feel that, we see.
We feel all by ourselves.
But we can get it back, this sensation of being absolutely one with the whole and at the same
time retain everything that we have won by the development of Western-style personality,
the ego.
So then, this model of the world, based on the idea that we are all subjects of the divine
king, was, you might say, a political model, based on the organization of the great city-states
of the ancient Near East.
And that image, you see, has absolutely haunted Western man throughout his whole development.
Because he has felt that he is in this universe on probation, on sufferance.
He doesn't quite belong here, because there's this great, big, giant spirit who's saying
to him, you're just a miserable little worm, and I evoked you here out of nothing.
Of course, I love you, because I'm love.
I'm a very good father.
And everything that I do, however much it hurts, is for your good.
But you watch out, and don't you dare look me in the eye.
So everybody does this.
See?
All those customs where the ruler is faced this way, with head down, and so no looking at him
directly, is based on this mythology.
And of course, it's based, too, on some political facts, because when a big man does attain to
eminence, everybody is against him secretly.
They hate him for it.
So he has to be surrounded with guards and secret police.
And people all lie with their faces on the floor, so that they're in a position where
they can't attack.
That's the whole idea.
And that's why, in the royal court, the throne has its back to the wall.
There is nothing behind the throne.
There are just guards on either side who can be watched a little.
You see?
So in a church, when the altar, or the episcopal throne, is right with its back to the wall,
this really indicates a situation of fear.
But if I'm not afraid of you, I shouldn't really have my back to the wall at all here
in this situation.
Only rooms are designed.
Our whole architecture, following the design of original courthouses, is made that way.
After all, one should walk out into the middle of people and have people behind you, if
you can trust them.
So, this model, I call it a model of the universe, based on the kingly court, did certain very
important things for us.
It gave us the idea, for example, of universal law.
It lies at the roots of many of our best ideas of justice.
But, it bugged us.
It really bugged us.
Because, you felt that you were never, never free from the penetrating glance of an all-seeing
eye that watched everything you do.
I have a friend who is a humorous Catholic.
And in her toilet, she has an old-fashioned kind with a tank and a pipe going down to the
seat.
And right on that pipe, there is a little pile with an eye on it.
And written underneath in Gothic letters, it says, Thou God seest me.
So, everywhere, there is no escape.
At the most intimate moments or in the most intimate thoughts, you are under judgment.
You are being what?
Big Father is watching you.
You see?
Now, that made the Western world more and more and more uncomfortable.
They couldn't stand it.
They felt that this was the paradox involved.
To believe in that kind of a God, a personal God, has this good thing about it, that it's
saying that the ultimate reality, that which underlies everything that happens, is intelligent.
And not only intelligent, but beneficent, even if in a rather stern and authoritarian way.
But at least it's alive.
The universe, in other words, has a heart.
But we switched to the opposite mythology, because we couldn't stand it.
And in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, evolved the idea that the universe doesn't have
a heart at all, that it is essentially stupid, and that we, sensitive, intelligent beings
capable of love and all sorts of feelings, are an accident, a really deplorable accident.
But what a monstrous system in which the tender, sensitive nervous systems that we are
could appear in a world that consists principally of rock and fire.
That is an impersonal, vast, gyrating nonsense, which has no consideration for us men whatsoever.
Why did such an idea possess the Western world?
Why could it be that in the 19th century, Freud could talk about the basic energies of the
psyche, as libido, and compare them to the blind forces of brute emotions, you know?
Think of that language.
At the same time, Ernst Haeckel and T.H. Huxley and so on were thinking about the world as
the manifestation of energy, say Henri Bergson with the idea of the élan vital, what was
the nature of this energy which manifested everything?
Essentially, it was something like electricity.
Now, electricity does wonderful things for us, but essentially electricity is rather dumb.
You switch it on and switch it off.
Supposing I could just switch you on and switch you off, you see?
But just like that, say, please don't bother me anymore, and you'd vanish.
But that's the name, you see, they thought of the world as having, as being just a surge
of, like this, you see?
But completely stupid.
Only after the, how on earth they ever got intelligence out of this is a miracle, but they
did, by explaining that if you gave it enough time, it would eventually become intelligent.
But that's the most nonsensical idea anybody ever thought of.
But if just time, you see, would make things more complicated.
Now, I want you to, this is the thing that is difficult today, because that idea of the
mechanical universe, that is essentially dead, is a very persuasive one.
And most intelligent people today, who are products of the college and that particular system
of propaganda and indoctrination, really it feels that this is the case.
That they are strangers in an alien world.
And that when you die, it will just be like you were a caterpillar that was squashed.
And that will be that.
That you are, in other words, an interlude of consciousness between eternal darknesses.
And that's all there is.
It doesn't mean anything.
It is just, just that.
And not much of that, anyway.
Not much of a bad.
Now, what is important is to understand that this is a myth.
There aren't, just as the other thing about the great cosmic king is also a myth.
There is no foundation for it, in fact, whatsoever.
But it's a way, you see, of putting the world down when it had been put up too much.
It's a reaction.
The world had been put up too much by being made embarrassingly intelligent.
You see, there was that all-seeing eye who would say to you,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, every minute, you see.
Better a dead world than one watching me like that.
Now, let's look at certain elements in the 19th century myth,
the Newtonian myth, that are very interesting.
First of all, let's consider what it says about the nature of human consciousness,
of the mind, of being aware.
There really is no such thing as a mind.
What we call mind and life is a kind of scum
that grows after a long time on the top of rocks.
You see, it looks upon the human being as a cell-infested skeleton,
just as it looks upon the earth as a life-infested rock.
It sees no real connection between the rock, which is the earth,
or the fiery metallic ball,
and the life that's creeping on its surface.
That's an excrescence.
Now, excrescence means something that grows out of.
But look how we use the word.
An excrescence is something.
It sounds almost like excrement.
We use it in a deprecatory way.
And you've got to watch very much how people use words
and the tone of voice they put into them,
because that shows you what game they're playing.
So when they say life is an excrescence,
or they've got another word they had at those times,
an epiphenomenon,
a mere epiphenomenon.
Note the word mere.
That word does more damage in philosophy than any other one I know.
It's merely energy, you know?
You are...
All the matter with you is that you're merely nervous.
So, in this system of things,
they explained that the whole world is merely mechanical,
but that we are here is a sort of accident,
and we are an excrescence.
We are a fungus.
We are a sort of growth, like lichen on rocks.
And that's all we are.
Now, this was to say, on the one hand,
that man is a product of nature.
He's not the special creation of a supernatural god.
But they didn't, as a result of feeling that man is a product of nature,
become friendly with nature,
as you would have supposed they might.
They hated nature all the more,
and all the more furiously,
for bringing us forth.
And therefore, waged and initiated
the war against nature
that began with the 19th century
and has been pressed into the 20th.
The idea, in other words,
that the only hope there is
for the human spirit
is to beat the environment into submission
because it's an alien environment.
It's a hateful, mechanical, stupid bunch of nonsense.
And if we don't get in there
with our cleverness and power
and smash it into submission,
we have no future.
We're just going to be wiped out one day
when the sun gets too hot and blows up.
And that'll be that.
But before that happens,
which will maybe a million years from now,
we expect to inhabit other galaxies,
to have the sun under control,
you know, all sorts of wires fixed into it and things,
and so it'll behave itself.
And then we'll rule the roost.
Having examined them,
these two mythological forms,
which underlie the Western man's intense feeling of alienation and separateness,
we have to go into another dimension of the question.
And that is the influence upon who we think we are
of our social institutions.
We know that there are things like
the family,
marriage,
the police,
the courts,
the church,
and we know that these are social institutions.
But social institutions are far more subtle than those things.
Time, for example,
is a social institution,
because it is a matter of convention.
That is to say,
of coming together to agree
to measure
time in a certain way.
And we have international agreement about that.
Likewise, obviously,
money is a social institution.
So are weights and measures.
So are
ideas of value.
What is the good life?
Who is contributing to society?
And who is working against it?
So you see,
we were discussing this morning,
among other things,
excuse me,
the idea of survival.
And that survival is a good thing.
And to survive as long as possible
is a very good thing.
But that is a form of social institution.
It is something we have come to agree about.
It isn't necessarily true
in the sense that,
shall I say,
the French language
is not a truer language
than the English.
But so long as people agree
to speak a certain language,
they can communicate.
And they've decided
that communication
is a good thing.
So any language
that makes communication possible
is a good language.
And, in a way,
the more people
who agree about it,
the better.
But it is a matter of agreement.
You see,
same way,
the lines of latitude
and longitude
are conventions.
They are,
they don't exist.
You can't tie up packages
with the equator.
But it's a very useful idea.
And so,
in the same way,
the ways in which
we have shaped the constellations,
that we all agree
that the stars
called the Big Dipper
look something like a dipper.
And,
though,
you know,
there aren't any strings
tying them together.
The constellation
is not there
as a constellation.
So,
in a sense,
we project
our institutions
onto the world
in rather the same way
that psychiatric patients
project images
onto a Rorschach blot.
and what interests
the psychiatrist
is what sort of images
this person produces
that tells him
something about the person.
In the same way,
our social institutions
tell us something
about people.
When we see
some very exquisite pattern,
we look at it
and say,
my,
isn't that wonderful?
Isn't that intelligent looking?
I wonder who did it?
Because we associate
all intelligence
with a who.
And when you look
at a plant,
it's obviously intelligent.
It's shape.
It's rhythm.
All its wonderful tubes inside.
Its complex relationship
to bees and birds.
And to the surrounding atmosphere.
And light.
This is a very intelligent affair.
Now,
in just the same way,
we are related
to the external world
as plants are
in amazingly complicated ways.
and by and large,
we don't notice them.
Because the aspect
of our consciousness
with which we notice things
is very limited.
It notices
what it calls facts,
things,
and events.
Pinpoints them.
It pulls them out
as significant.
You see,
when you remember
coming here
and what you saw
and who was here,
you only remember
very tiny bits
of the whole scene.
You will not remember
what very many people wore
unless you happen
to be interested in clothes.
You won't really remember
how they did their hair,
what their styles were,
unless you are peculiarly
interested in hairstyles.
You probably won't notice
their shoes at all.
And goodness knows
what else
that nobody
has ever thought
to notice.
But when under
certain circumstances
our consciousness
becomes expanded
as in mystical vision,
you begin
to become aware
of things
that you don't notice.
One of the most
important things
that we don't notice
is space.
Most people regard
space as nothing.
It's just a void
in which we move around.
But actually,
space is terribly important.
It has properties.
We are all
something happening
in space
in rather the same way
that a whirlpool
occurs in water.
Space has
turns in it.
It has ripples in it.
It has places
where it's denser
than at other places.
And this is all
becoming clear
in physics.
But it's certainly
not impinged
upon the consciousness
of the average
intelligent person.
There is no
manifestation of energy
without space.
in time.
But I don't want
to make it complicated.
I want to make
this little image
as simple as possible
so as to understand
the importance
of space.
That is to say
of the surroundings
of things,
of the background.
And the background
is ignored
in ordinary consciousness.
But in mystical consciousness
the background
becomes important.
You become aware
vividly of the fact
that you
as a
an individual
imply
by your existence
everything else
that exists
or ever has existed
or ever will exist.
You can't exist
as the kind of person
you are
without all that.
Now that's the secret
to the connection
between you
and the cosmos.
Just as a back
doesn't exist
without a front.
In just that
sort of way
all of it
doesn't exist
without you
and you don't exist
without all of it.
Even if you die
you see
and disappear
totally.
Nevertheless
the fact that
you have existed
is still a fact.
And a universe
in which there
has been a person
like Socrates
is quite a
different universe
from a universe
in which there
hadn't been a person
like Socrates.
Socrates
having existed
is a symptom
of the way
things are.
So fundamentally
we get a picture
of the cosmos
in which
the self
the real I
is the whole thing.
Just as we say
of an individual
human body
you are John Doe
and that's all of you.
Although
if we look at you
very carefully
under an electron microscope
we will find
that molecules
in your blood
are further apart
than the earth
and the sun.
What makes you think
you're a unity?
It's quite a thought.
Well it's space.
And so in the same way
as such a relationship
exists
between our
our galaxy
and other galaxies
and so on
it's obvious.
Then
various
conventions
and social institutions
we develop
the impression
that this isn't so.
We learn
to ignore
we learn
not to notice
certain things
and do you know
not noticing
is very very important.
In the Hindu
theory of politics
all the
what are
spiritual virtues
have political
counterparts.
for example
in the spiritual domain
the word
upaya
means merciful
techniques
for awakening people
clever devices
used by a teacher
in the politics
in the political domain
the word
who
to
are
the
Upaya means cunning, deceit.
Likewise, in the spiritual domain,
upeksha means equanimity.
In the political domain, upeksha means overlooking.
When, for example, the boss of the big concern
finds that one of his employees
is taking out a little bit of the petty cash,
now he figures out,
is this man worth it?
Are his services really worth it?
And shall I merely ignore the fact that he's doing this?
That would be upeksha.
Now, in our whole society,
we do an enormous amount of upeksha.
The things we overlook,
obvious things that we don't talk about,
there's a taboo side to life that we don't mention.
We're supposed to overlook it.
You know, when silk stockings were first invented,
with the fine mesh type,
a present of several dozen of them
was sent by an important American businessman
to the Queen of Spain.
And they were returned by her chamberlain
with a letter which said,
you should recognize that Her Majesty,
the Queen of Spain,
has no legs.
In other words,
those legs don't officially exist.
Only what exists officially
is what is noticed,
unless we say noted,
noteworthy,
make a note of it in your mind,
in your date book,
noting and noticing,
notation,
you see,
they're all based on the same idea,
what we attend to.
But there are a lot of very
attention-worthy things
that we ignore.
Part of the whole game,
you see,
of a cosmos,
is played
in this way.
Imagine the cosmos
as a great harp.
You know the angels
are supposed to play harps
in heaven.
Or the actual harp
they play
is the total
possibility
of vibrations.
Now,
you know about
the spectrum of light.
That is a series
of vibrations.
So is the spectrum
of sound.
Then beyond light,
there are other vibrations
which are not picked up
by our senses.
But instruments
pick them up.
And then there must
also be many vibrations
as yet not picked up
by any instruments
that we have.
Now what is,
you see,
what we call nature
is a system
of picked up vibrations.
Some vibrations
aren't picked up
and therefore
nothing appears.
That's why it seems
that the space
around things
because the vibrations
there aren't picked up.
They're not noticed.
And this is why
there is a whole domain
of Hindu and Buddhist
philosophy
called Tantra.
Tantra
refers to
the idea of weaving.
And so when you have
a warp
and a woof,
the weaver decides
what threads
are going to be picked up
and appear on the front,
which is what everybody
is going to look at,
and what threads
will be overlooked,
repressed,
put behind the seams.
They'll be behind.
And so it will appear
that we have a birdie here
and a birdie there
and no connection
between the birdies.
Actually,
if you look on the other side,
you will see that
the red threads
which made the birdies
against the white background
continues.
Only that's not noticed.
So in this way,
we are taught
from childhood.
We are indoctrinated
in a system
of social institutions
that are simply
rules about
what is to be noticed
and what is not
to be noticed.
That's why children
ask sometimes
very odd questions
about things
that adults don't notice.
The famous story
of the little boy
who's been taken
to a concert
where a lady
is singing
and he says,
Mama,
why does she scream
when she yawns?
And in the same way,
inventive poets
put together images
that people never
thought of before.
It's like
Yeats' famous phrase
the be-loud glade.
You know,
it was a beautiful idea
for a nice glade
to be be-loud.
And everybody says,
Wow,
think of that.
We never thought
of that before.
We never thought
of it in just that way.
We didn't notice that.
And the question,
the fundamental koans
that would be called
in Zen
is what is it
you haven't noticed?
What are you ignoring?
What have you forgotten?
You know,
you've forgotten something.
Very important.
In fact,
you came in here,
you know,
without clothes on,
in a sort of
fit of absent-mindedness.
I look at you and say,
Haven't you forgotten something?
You say,
What?
Well,
I,
oh,
good heavens.
So,
in the same way,
the fundamental who we are,
the basic identity,
the Brahman,
the Tat,
which Tram Asi,
that's what we've all forgotten.
But by ignoring it,
we make this game.
So then,
let's see what we do
precisely in steps
about social institutions
in training the young.
First of all,
it's important
to identify a child.
The child has got to
be someone.
And we often say,
of a child we think
is dumb and incompetent,
you're never going to
amount to anything.
You're just going to be
unimportant.
You're going to be
something unnoticed.
So a child has to find out
the approved way
of drawing attention
to itself.
If a child succeeds
in not drawing attention
to itself,
it won't get fed
for one thing.
So the very first yell
of a baby
is in a way
a way of getting attention.
And that's what we
want people to do.
We want a certain kind
of way
of asking for attention.
We don't like it
when babies howl
and get attention that way.
But it gets attention
because it's annoying
and we want to stop it.
So,
we fundamentally
want people to love us.
And we don't believe
that they will.
Unless somehow
we put them
in a situation
where they must.
So we have all kinds
of processes
for charming people
and eliciting their love.
They range,
you see,
first of all,
on one end of the spectrum
from being
physically attractive
elicits attention.
Another way
is to be funny.
And people laugh
and they like you
having something around
that's funny.
Another way
is to be helpful.
To wash the dishes
and things like that.
And that's good.
Another way
is to be weird.
Only that's a little
disconcerting.
You have to be careful
how you play that one.
Or they may put you
in a place where
you're not seen.
All the time
you're playing
this game,
of course,
everybody else
is reacting to it.
And they're talking
to you
and they're giving
you messages
about the kind
of attention-making
scene
you're playing.
And they
don't want you
to do anything
in this game
that will
discombobrate them.
They want you
to play it
according to
certain rules
so that they'll
know what you'll
do next.
That's terribly
important.
people mustn't
be too surprising.
We,
you know,
we like things
to stay put.
We like them
to be regular.
And if you had
a kettle
which suddenly
developed legs
and walked off
the stove,
you would say
it was uncanny
and put it
in a zoo
or something
where it would
be safe,
where it wouldn't
do anything
further unpredictable.
So,
for the same
reason,
we have
a fairly
large number
of acceptable
character roles
that people
are allowed
to play.
And you
should watch
these things
very carefully
because it's
tremendously
instructive
to figure out
what kind
of roles
your friends
are playing.
They have
through long,
long
accustomedness
come to
believe that
that's who
they really
are.
And that
when they
are playing
their role
they are being
themselves
and being
straight and
honest.
That's a
deception
that's very
easily arranged
by choosing
between a number
of roles in
early life
that you
might play.
You've got to
decide whether
you're going to
be a serious
person or a
clown or
whatever,
you know.
and then
you behave as
if the roles
you've discarded
were the
superficial ones.
The one
you've decided
to play is
the deep
one and
that's really
you.
That is
soon done
in this
way.
A child
notices very
early in
life that
he's a
different person
in different
environments.
He is one
person in the
company of
his parents.
Sometimes one
person with
his father and
another with
his mother.
he's another
person with
a nursemaid.
He's another
person at
school.
He's still
quite another
person alone
with other
children and
still someone
else when he's
by himself.
He makes a
visit to
relatives.
I know very
well that I
was a different
personality in
my aunt and
uncle's home
than I was in
my own home.
Because you
respond to the
environment you
get very
very subtly
delivered cues that
certain attitudes
are expected of
you.
And you
don't just
play these
attitudes outwardly
in how you
speak and
gesture.
You play
them inwardly.
You think
the thoughts
that the other
people are
suggesting you
think.
If you
listen to
what you
call your
own mind
very carefully
you will
discover that
it's full of
the echoes
of other
people's
voices.
What do I
think about
this?
And you
think that
actually it's
your mother
talking to you
or the sort
of things she
would say or
whoever else
it may be
someone you
admire very
much.
So the
interchange of
our own
behavior and
the messages
that come from
the environment
and especially
from other
people give
us the
message that
identifies us.
It tells us
who we are.
in this culture
you see the
messages that
we get from
the social
environment
do not tell
us very many
things about
ourselves.
They do not
tell us above
all about
the big secret
how we are
connected with
the cosmos
because that
in this
weaving game
has been left
out in the
background.
now I
have spoken
obviously of
many of
these social
institutions in
a somewhat
a way that
will sound
critical to
you as if
they weren't
too as if
some of them
weren't really
a very good
idea and we
have to figure
out ways of
deciding about
social institutions
whether there
are good games
or not and
that's quite
difficult.
When we
contrast a
Victorian family
with a modern
family there
are very
different game
rules are being
played and we
have more or
less decided
today that
they weren't
playing very
good game
rules.
If you
contrast a
book for
example on
child rearing
written in
say 1860
with Dr.
Spock.
Well Dr.
Spock is
post Freud
and since
Freud ideas
of child
rearing have
altered quite
radically and
also one
must not
forget that
Montessori
and Frobel
and all
sorts of
other people
and not
to mention
what's his
name
Summerhill
come in
between.
Now on
what grounds
will we
say that
the game
in which a
child is
now educated
at a
reasonably
progressive
school is
better than
the kind
of school
I went to
which was
based on
the fundamental
game rule
of this
school
is suffering
Bill's
character.
and therefore
you could
mistreat
somebody
out of
compassion
that it
is good
for you.
Now you
could say
well I've
had many
arguments with
my father
about this
my father
is a really
genuine
philosopher
man with a
very open
mind
but he
said once
he said
think of
any great
man
who ever
came out
of a
co-educational
school
you know
it's the
sort of
question
you've never
thought of
and so you
don't have
any
ready
answers
but he
was convinced
you see
that
in a
boy's
life
association
with women
is weakening
to the
character
and that's
why boys
are sent
away to
be in
the company
of men
get them
out of
those
womanish
ways
and make
them
tough
you see
now if
you are
playing
society
by that
sort of
game
rule
and you
want
men
to be
soldiers
and so
they'll be
happy with
each other
with no
women around
and you
want to
be
explorers
and all
that sort
of thing
then you
will say
that kind
of education
produces
good results
but you see
we're living
in a world
where soldiers
are becoming
obsolete
they're just
becoming a
menace
and a danger
and we've
got to be
very careful
that we only
breed a few
of them
just like
bees have
these problems
of how many
of this type
of worker
and so on
to breed
and we have
this as a
very serious
problem
and it's
changing rapidly
it's changing
so rapidly
that we're
in considerable
doubt as to
what kind
of human
characters
are advantageous
to have
you see
there are
circumstances
in which
people who
simply conform
and cooperate
are a damn
nuisance
because they
don't get
any new
ideas
and what
we needed
was new
ideas
and we
needed people
with the
courage of
their convictions
in other
circumstances
where we've
got enough
ideas
and people
with new
ideas
just make
things
complicated
I have
a psychiatrist
I met
recently
on my
travels
said
I don't
know if
I'm going
to come
to your
seminar
we'd had
a conversation
and got
on
rather amusingly
he said
it would
be a
terrible
problem
to me
to get
any new
ideas
he said
I would
have to
reorganize
my entire
operation
it's going
along pretty
smoothly
now
and I
you know
said I
have a
hospital
and I
have
many
men
under me
working
and we've
got a
system
going
if you
give me
new
ideas
it's going
to be
awful
so
the
basic
thing
then is
we're
given
a choice
of roles
and we
are encouraged
to be
consistent
in our
roles
through
the novel
and through
drama
and through
all kinds
of other
means
so that
people will
be controllable
so that
they won't
be too
jumpy
is it
that worries
you about
somebody
who is
insane
a friend
of mine
had a
patient
who when
he came
into the
outpatient
department
in the
veterans
hospital
every day
would have
to sign
himself
in
and on
the roster
where you
signed
yourself in
there was
a place
for your
occupation
but he
changed his
occupation
every day
and
one day
when my
friend received
the card
you know
that he
signed
as he
comes in
he said
oh I
see you're
the mailman
today
and he
said
yep
and I
married
to a
mailbag
well think
of the
meanings
in that
you know
the trouble
with certain
schizophrenics
is that
they've got
an association
pattern
going
they make
the most
devastating
puns
and
the people
don't appreciate
these puns
because they're
too deep
they don't
follow them
the skid
secret
person
gets worried
because people
don't appreciate
it
and he sees
how everything
goes together
and plays
this language
and if people
don't appreciate
it it leads
to trouble
well it so
happens that my
friend is very
sharp
and loves that
kind of message
and they go
all very well
together
he finally
explained to
him
how to use
languages
how to say
the right
things on the
right occasion
because these
nuts called
sane people
won't understand
you if you
make that
pun
but
therefore
remember at
the same
time though
that the
role you
have over
the years
gradually
acquired and
are playing
is a social
institution
it isn't
the real
you
in many
cases
therapy
in which a
person as a
result of which
a person feels
that they've
found themselves
means that
they have
exchanged an
impossible game
for a possible
one
they haven't
really found
themselves
they haven't
gone or very
rarely gone
behind the
game
so you see
we like a
game that
teases us
that is
comprehensible
but not too
comprehensible
and this suggests
then that the
world itself
the nature of
the cosmos
is comprehensible
but not too
comprehensible
even God
if you will
imagine yourself
in the situation
of God
would be
bored
in knowing
everything
so why
what does
God do
God therefore
plays hide
and seek
now you see
it now you
don't
and that game
is of the
essence of
being
it is the
up and down
motion of a
wave
the crest of
the wave
is now you
see it
the trough
of the wave
is now you
don't
and the whole
of existence
is waves
is undulations
is vibrations
so
there it is
but you
can't say
as if to
toss the
thing off
well it's
just vibration
it's only
vibration
it's mere
vibration
because wow
when that
happens it
isn't mere
because what
this vibration
thing is doing
is saying
come on
now
how far
can we go
this way
whee
it goes
way out
that way
it's all
right now
how far
can we go
the other
way
then it
goes way
out like
that
then suddenly
it falls
apart
because it's
found out
that by
falling apart
in this
dimension
you can
come into
being in
another
and there are
endless ways
of going
you can do
it this way
that way
and you can
think out
dimensions
that we've
never thought
of at all
for our
ordinary
practical
purposes
but always
you see
to be
in this
way
implies
not to
be
in
another
way
and not
to be
in that
way
implies
to be
in that
way
so don't
worry
the whole
point of
the thing
is
however
now watch
this
this is
terribly
important
the whole
point of
the thing
is worked
out
so that
nobody
even God
is going
to be too
sure
because if
the moment
there is
total certainty
there is no
life
being
has ceased
at the
moment
when
it's all
white and
no black
it's all
clear
and nothing
obscure
at that
moment
you see
it stops
but what
we call
existence
life
all those
things
is a
pulsation
which
involves
a constant
uncertainty
it always
involves
the second
philosophical
question
are we
going to
make it
and
there are
people
you see
like
philosophers
and sages
and what
not
who say
yes
don't be
afraid
you're
going to
make it
but it's
always going
to feel
as if
you
want
so
but that's
the fun
you see
that's
all children
love to
take risks
they like
going
roaring
around
in hot
rods
I realize
I've made
it
through
half
a
century
and I
can't
make
out
whether
I'm
just
getting
older
or
getting
wiser
I mean
I do
think
you know
the nature
has certain
merciful
processes
in it
and that
it
for example
for a person
in extreme
pain
the pain
can be
converted
into
ecstasy
the person
who is
starving
can begin
to feel
way out
and
same way
as you
get older
maybe
you do
in a funny
way
get wiser
and feel
more at
peace
with yourself
you've accepted
yourself
with all your
limitations
and you begin
to understand
more and more
your connection
with the total
cosmos
and that as you
approach death
and you vanish
so what
you're going to
come back again
as somebody else
and maybe
as many other
people at the same
time
and that'll be
great
only you'll always
think you're one
only one
because that's the
element of the
unknown
that's the thrill
that's the joke
in the thing
so then
the way of
putting the
emphasis
on the
mechanical aspect
of things
the mechanical way
of understanding
do not confuse
that with
the truth
it is simply
a way
a fashion
in philosophy
see philosophy
has fashions
in exactly
the same way
as clothing
does
and in the
academic world
is riddled
with fashion
what a lot
of people
are doing
when they come
on in the
academic world
with a great
to do about
how rigorous
how solemn
all this is
what they're
really doing
is they're
saying
by going
through these
rituals
and writing
these learned
contributions
to journals
I'm really
saying
I'm a very
sound and
reliable person
that's the
signal
the message
I'm giving
you
I mean
he can be
writing about
something
absolutely
no practical
consequence
whatsoever
some amusing
game about
Sanskrit
calligraphy
in the
15th century
that's fine
to study
that
and you'll
come on
with such
a very
way about
it
but now
we've got
a curious
thing going
in our
culture
we're playing
this game
which we've
caught from
the original
god the
father
because he
was very
serious
he meant
you to know
when he was
around
my god
he was
around
and boy
don't you
dare laugh
or anything
like that
and now
you see
you've got
the reflection
of the type
of adult
ruler
here
who's very
insecure
on the
other hand
there's no
earthly reason
whatsoever
why
a creative
responsible
loving
human being
should have
to put on
this act
about being
grave
see
we
what
what is it
our men
in this culture
are possessed
by looking
like clergymen
and go around
wearing black
and things
like that
and it
is terrible
why not
break out
enjoy
color
delight
and so on
because people
are afraid
if they were
too many
colors
do you know
what the real
reason is
somebody will
shoot you
you can be
seen
you don't
disappear
into the
landscape
or you know
or the lord
will say
who do you
think you are
coming on
like this
what's all
this stuff
about
disappear
see
you annoy
me
you're too
colorful
you
don't
you won't
be wiped
out
for that
reason
there are
plenty of
other reasons
nowadays
but not
that one
so you
know
it is
important
to recover
you
From myths which constantly bug us, they constantly annoy inside, that you have to wash out.
Of course, some corporations are arranged so that you do.
You work across the street, IBM, they require you to look as ordinary as possible.
Because that would make them nervous if you didn't.
You know, things that aren't ordinary can't be thought of in terms of punch cards.
Everybody shall soon will go around wearing a notice on them.
Do not fold spindle on me to that.
So, what is the...
I want to summarise what I've been saying this morning, which is this.
Peculiar culture, based on a fearful attitude to reality,
makes each one of us feel that we don't belong.
It's working on the idea of being scared as the basis of a culture.
So that you could say, all our literature, our drama, our religion, our music,
is a complicated way of being scared.
And we cannot really, and not in our culture, there are cultures where they do,
that we can't let go.
And stretch out our arms, breathe deeply, and say,
Oh, for heaven's sake, I belong in it.
All the whole thing is me.
Not me, in the sense of Alan Watts.
Not quite like that.
But all of you, that it's the whole thing,
goes together as one enormous organism that is living it up.
What we call being alive, isn't it?
And doing all these things around us.
In this third session, let me start by briefly summarizing
what has happened up to this point.
We have been studying
the ways in which our sense of existence,
of personal identity,
is influenced by social factors.
And in the first session,
I described the two great myths
of the nature of man and the universe
which have dominated Western society.
The Judeo-Christian myth, first of all,
of our existence as being the creation
of a cosmic king
is the foundation of being who is reality itself,
but to whom we are related as a sovereign and judge,
who therefore keeps us in a chronic state of guilt.
This particular myth
became so highly uncomfortable
that it had to be abandoned
by most intelligent people.
And in the 18th and 19th centuries,
they substituted for it another myth,
which is the myth of a purely mechanical universe
which is unintelligent,
unfeeling, unseeing,
the total opposite of the one they had before,
and in which we can live
without being judged,
but nevertheless with a fundamental sense of futility.
This latter myth
has become extremely plausible today,
and it is, as far as I can make out,
the thing that most people really believe in.
See, you can always press what people believe in
by what they do.
I'm highly suspicious of most Christians
because I don't think they believe it at all.
They'd be screaming in the streets if they did.
They'd be terribly earnest.
They'd have the most hair-raising television programs
on the fate and destiny of man
if they took this thing seriously,
but they don't.
You see, what's happening in most of the churches
is that the theological schools are very advanced,
very liberal,
but they feel they can't give their congregations yet
what they think,
and their clergy are apt, therefore,
to be extremely frustrated people,
always wondering in the back of their minds
whether they ought to,
in good conscience,
maintain their jobs.
So, the plausible myth today
is not the Christian myth
or the Jewish myth.
The plausible myth
is this mechanistic universe
which I call the Newtonian myth.
And what I wanted to get across to you
in the first session
was that that rather plausible
and so-called realistic view
of how things are
is just as much a myth
as anything else.
It's a way
it's a formulating an attitude to life
which has nothing
really connected
with the way things are at all.
Then we went on
in the second session
to explore
the influence of social institutions
on our sense of identity.
And
I
tried to show
how social institutions
involve
the most fundamental ideas
that we have
and that our ideas
of time and space
are the nature of ourselves
and of the nature
of the good life
and of the necessity
for survival
are social institutions
of exactly the same kind
as
the lines of latitude
and longitude.
Those are abstractions.
They do not exist
concretely
but they're extraordinarily
useful ideas
because
it's only
through
as it were
spreading networks
and grids
over the world
in our imagination
by means of which
we can measure things
that you and I
can arrange to meet
at the corner
of
Wilshire Boulevard
and
whatever the street is
here
Vermont Avenue
the
it's interesting
in Buddhism
you find
that all
temples
are guarded
by very
fierce looking
authoritative
beings
they're not like
modern authorities
they don't have
the same kind
of glumness
they are much
more
ecstatic
in their fierceness
and these are
called
the
Dharma
Rajas
that means
the kings
of the
they are the
guardians of the
ten directions
of the universe
Buddhism
and Hinduism
have ten directions
that is to say
eight points
of the compass
plus above
and below
and these
very fierce
creatures
stand at all
temple entrances
and
they are
essentially
the cosmic
traffic cops
because
they have
to be fierce
because somebody
has to lay
down the law
that we do
recognize
north
south
east
and west
in a very
firm way
and up
has to be
clearly
distinguished
from down
you see
so these
people have
a very
important
function
but
at the
same time
the
Dharma
Rajas
have a
slight
twinkle in
the eye
for all
their fierceness
they know
you see
that the
ten directions
are conventional
they don't
think that
they are
absolutely
real
they are
enlightened
all of them
they are
all bodhisattvas
in the
aspect of a
bodhisattva
which is
wrathful
I suppose
I haven't
looked closely
enough
but if you
look around
these paintings
you will
find
here
for example
is a
wrathful
bodhisattva
the sort
of person
who would be
a guardian
of the
directions
up here
this bodhisattva
and this one
they are
beneficent
they appear
in white
color
and they
have
serene
faces
but this
one
appears
in black
color
and has
a wrathful
face
this is
not a
devil
or demon
in the
western
sense of
the word
at all
he is
simply
a
manifestation
of the
fierce
side
of reality
some
people
don't
feel
really
alive
unless
they are
sitting
on
Mexico
this
summer
to
explore
this
because
in
Mexico
they
enjoy
bullfighting
and they
enjoy
a kind
of
catholicism
in which
suffering
is the
big bit
the shrine
of Guadalupe
and watch
young girls
walking about
half a mile
on their knees
to get
into this
shrine
and for
the special
blessing
then you
find in
the stores
where they
sell
that is
to say
religious
goods
all
kinds
of
horrendous
paintings
of
Christ
with
the
crown
of
thorns
on
and
we
made
some
very
special
meditations
in the
cathedral
at Oaxaca
in the
inner chapel
where they
keep the
sacrament
and in
there
is a
crucifix
just about
as bloody
as it
can get
and on
either
side
pictures
of
Jesus
being
flogged
on one
side
under the
agony
in the
garden
of
Gethsemane
on the
other
and
I was
trying to
penetrate
what is
this thing
why do
people
go into
this kind
of spiritual
massacry
and it
seemed to
me very
much
that
there is
that end
of things
which is
a spite
and which
is extreme
agony
and which
is terribly
real
and that
you know
you're there
when you're
on that
point
the other
end
you see
is the
womb
is the
all
embracing
softness
and
loveliness
that's
there too
but if
you go
too far
into that
you see
you don't
know you're
there
this was a
digression
but
it is
in terms
then of
our various
social
institutions
that we
formulate
structures
and measures
in our
Rorschach
blot
universe
although
you see
let me
reemphasize
this point
that I
made in
both
former
lectures
this is
not exactly
our
projection
on the
universe
many of
you
probably
read a
book
called
The
Pathetic
Fallacy
which is
a discussion
of the
way
men
have
in past
times
attributed
human
feelings
and
emotions
to
nature
the
wind
is
sorrowful
and
is
serene
and
the
whole
theme
of
19th
century
philosophy
was that
this is
not
true
the
sun
is
not
joyous
the
wind
does
not
sigh
it's
you
who
sigh
but
that's
not
quite
true
because
a
sighing
human
being
called
the
external
world
a
part
and
parcel
of
your
whole
mental
existence
and so
we
borrow
from
the
sun
we
say
so
and so
has
a
sunny
disposition
so
and so
is a
lunatic
oddly
influenced
by the
moon
all
our
language
is
full
of
references
to
our
is
one
with
us
that's
why
in
ancient
times
and
some
people
today
feel
that
you
can
draw
the
picture
of
a
human
being
soul
by
drawing
a
diagram
of
the
arrangement
of
the
universe
as
it
was
at
the
time
when
he
was
born
see
that's
the
art
of
astrology
now
I
personally
think
that
modern
astrology
is
pretty
phony
because
it
is
an
archaic
way
of
thinking
about
these
problems
in
rather
the
same
way
that
Paracelsus'
idea
of
medicine
was
primitive
as
compared
with
modern
medicine
nobody
has
ever
seriously
thought
out
an
up-to-date
astrology
that is
because
the
whole
idea
of
astrology
has
been
out
of
fashion
among
the
aspects
for
several
hundred
years
but
the
idea
of
it
is
in
principle
correct
that
your
soul
is
not
inside
your
body
your
body
is
inside
your
soul
and
what
your
soul
is
of
course
fundamentally
the
total
universe
our
astrological
maps
don't
include
the
total
universe
they
include
only
phenomena
in
the
solar
system
and
in
the
surrounding
galaxy
some
of the
stars
which
appear
to be
overpassed
by the
sun
in its
annual
course
have been
selective
to be
significant
but if
you were
a super
astrologer
you should
put in
all the
galaxies
or as
many of
them as
you are
aware of
and
think about
them
but you
see the
idea
of
astrology
the
truth
that
underlies
it
is that
the
universe
is your
character
and the
way it
is
disposed
and
focused
at
your
birth
moment
which is
really
rather
arbitrary
point to
choose
when did
you start
did you
start when you
were at the
moment of
parturition
the moment
of conception
or when you
were an evil
gleam in your
father's eye
it's arbitrary
and one should
say of course
that every here
and now
that you have
and are
is
a focal
point
of all
that there
is
the moment
of birth
is simply
selected
as being
significant
because
when the
officials ask
you who
you are
they always
ask you
where and
when were
you born
for some
reason or
other
this establishes
your age
this establishes
your
nationality
or something
like that
and so
that's been
that's a
social institution
it's been
agreed on
as a
peculiarly
significant
moment
but all
moments
fundamentally
are just as
significant
as the
moment of
birth
you have
a birthday
every day
if you
understand it
aright
so
there is
a tacit
conspiracy
in society
to ignore
fact that
the body
is inside
the mind
or the soul
and that
you are
therefore
playing the
game
of being
a creature
separate from
everything else
all alone
locked up
inside a bag
of skin
and worrying
like
all get out
whether you're
going to make it
and being
frustrated by
the ultimate
knowledge that
you're not
that we all
because we are
time binders
we know we're
going to die
and that we'll
eventually collapse
and that we'll
get colder
and colder
and it will be
most unpleasant
and then we'll
fade out
but because we've
got our minds
turned inside out
you see
we've got our
identity
our center
of gravity
in the wrong
spot
then this
worries us
a great deal
but with that
worry we do
all kinds of
magic
if people
didn't worry
about dying
there'd be no
medicine
the whole craft
of the physician
and the surgeon
and all the
skills and
marvellous things
that it involves
is based on
worry
about death
there are
children born
occasionally
who can't
be boxed
into the scheme
and very
often the
so-called
mongolian
idiot
or a child
who is
schizophrenic
for some
reason from
birth
can't be
made to
be afraid
of death
and some
of those
children
just playing
everything
for all
it's worth
they see
a light
on a
reflecting
surface
like that
and they
dig that
light
they go
and everybody
says now
come to
yourself
behave
they don't
care
if they
come to
an end
that'll
be great
too
they'll
with that
experience
it doesn't
matter what
it is
they have
no
discrimination
they'll
eat
anything
put
anything
up their
noses
they have
absolutely
no
sense
of
what
you
should
do
and what
you
shouldn't
do
the
trouble
is
you
see
that
if
they
had
an
understanding
of the
game
that the
rest of
us
are
playing
they
could
get on
very
well
knowing
their
different
game
and put
the
two
together
and that's
what I'm
talking to
you about
the trouble
with them
is that
they
they don't
understand
our
game
but that's
the trouble
with them
from our
point of
view
do you
see
that
all
decisions
as to
who
is
crazy
are a
question
of
majority
vote
as to
what is
reality
and that
sometimes
it's
touch
and
go
you
see
look
reality
is
what
it
is
according
to
the
kind
of
senses
you
have
since
in
this
room
almost
everybody's
eyes
are
of the
same
structure
we
are
here
and
we
agree
everybody's
ears
and
auditory
nervous
systems
are
of the
same
pattern
so
we
can
all
converse
if
a
fly
comes
into
our
persons
he
has
an
eye
of
a
very
different
structure
from
ours
a
fly
apparently
because
of the
multiplicity
of
lenses
sees
the
surrounding
world
from a
considerably
different
number
of points
of view
they're
not very
different
but they're
just
subtly
different
and that
gives a
fly
certain
advantages
but
he
doesn't
see
the
world
as
you
know
if I
see
you
there
sitting
there
he
sees
you
ever
so
many
times
but
he
manages
to
unify
that
in
some
way
now
the
awkward
matter
for
decision
is
when a
human
being
has
a
different
kind
of
consciousness
from
the
average
to
make
the
decision
is
he
advanced
and
seeing
new
things
that
nobody
has
seen
before
or
is
he
retarded
and
hasn't
yet
developed
what
the
rest
of us
have
this
is
a
very
difficult
decision
to
Arabs
or
the
Hindus
we
are
not
sufficiently
respectful
of
crazy
people
more or
less
what
has
happened
is
this
in
the
development
of
games
when
human
there was a
time
when
human
beings
were
wild
and
that's
what
we
call
in
modern
anthropological
jargon
they
lived
in
hunting
cultures
they
didn't
live
in
any
fixed
place
and
they
roved
and
they
hunted
they
killed
other
creatures
now
in
a
hunting
culture
every
male
member
of
the
culture
knows
all
of
the
culture
they
don't
have
a
division
of
labor
every
man
is
a
master
of
quite
a
number
of
skills
and
naturally
every
woman
knows
all
her
side
of
the
thing
but
they
are
not
fixed
the
religion
of
a
hunting
culture
is
shamanism
a
shaman
is
a
liberated
man
who
gets
his
liberation
by
the
Indian
cultures
of
the
United
States
especially
in the
West
are to
a very
large
extent
cultures
of this
kind
and their
religion
is a
form of
shamanism
and shamanism
is a
universal
religion
spreads over
the whole
world
nature
but the
essential
thing
of the
shaman
is that
he becomes
liberated
from even
this loose
sort of
a culture
by going
off by
himself
and
naturally
the
highly
socialized
people
have a
terror
of
solitude
because
in
solitude
the
awesome
facts
are
slowly
going to
appear
first of
all
the
triviality
of your
role game
and then
deeper and
deeper in
you get
until at
last
one night
all alone
and cold
under the
stars
you find
out who
you are
that's what
every shaman
does
and then
he comes
back into
the world
in those
kind of
societies
as a
magic man
but when
human
societies
become
agrarian
and become
settled
they divide
labor
and they
put a
stockade
around
themselves
at the
crossing
of two
roads
all
cities
are
fundamentally
that
where
two
roads
cross
and the
cross
is
encircled
with a
pale
parlo
tree
spiked
on top
and you
say of
somebody
who isn't
really at
all nice
that he's
beyond the
pale
you see
so we
settled
that way
and then
what we
did
was we
divided the
functions
of labor
into the
four quarters
encircled by
the city
and we
made four
castes
the first
was priests
lords
spiritual
the second
was
officials
soldiers
and rulers
lords
temporal
the third
was
merchants
and
so the
house of
commons
in england
is really
a merchants
debating
society
and finally
in the
as it were
the lesser
of the
quarters
the laborers
the workers
these are the
four casts
of hinduism
the priests
brahmana
the officials
the merchants
vaishya
and the laborers
the holy man
of an enclosed
society of this
kind
is a priest
and he gets
his
authority
not from
going off
by himself
but from a
hierarchy
that's the
game
that we are
still playing
only we've
modified it
enormously
we're not
living any
longer in
walled cities
but we have
different kinds
of walls
we have the
view line
the radar
belts
and all that
kind of thing
it's still
essentially the
same game
but it's been
spread out
in the most
extraordinary way
and we
have become
so absorbed
in this game
that we don't
have quite the
same sense
that our
primitive ancestors
had
of there being
an outside
to the game
because you see
there are two
kinds of people
beyond the pale
there are the
people we
throw out
and there
are the
people who
go out
the outlaw
who's a
criminal
is fighting
one sort
of game
the outlaw
who is a
saint
is beyond
the pale
in the sense
that people
can't understand
him
his experience
is ineffable
that means
what can't
be effed
or spoken
from the
Greek
Phoebe
so notice
then this
curious
companionship
between
the
saint
the no
good
they've
always
been
and it's a very odd thing
Jesus as we know
sought out as his friends
the disreputable people
in the community
the whores
and people who are now called
notorious evil livers
I say not now
but they were
in the prayer book of the Episcopal Church
there is a passage about
notorious evil livers
who should not be admitted to communion
but you see
the funny odd queer thing is
that it is precisely
the notorious evil livers
that people like Jesus
cultivated
because they were interesting
because there is something in people
like that
that is
manureish
feisty
that somehow cultivates
a new thing
as the book of
the
revelation says
because thou art
neither hot
nor cold
but lukewarm
I will spew thee out of my mouth
you cannot
pretend
that you don't have
the dark side in you
everybody has a shadow
and if you won't acknowledge
your shadow
you will
push it onto someone else
for example
often
we find that
people who are sexually repressed
and as I say
sex
being the taboo
in our culture
was the problem thing
are very cruel
but
here is the game involved
but it's an unconscious game
if you
make sex
the chief taboo
of the culture
you make it
terribly important
I've said that Christianity
is the religion
about sex
I mean we think
there are sexual religions
like priapism
which is
phallic worship
or tantric yoga
which uses sexual intercourse
as a form of meditation
but compared with Christianity
these are
things only mildly
interested in sex
Christians are
utterly obsessed
with sex
and today
the function of the churches
is primarily
to be family
and sexual
regulation organizations
that's about the only thing
they do
seriously
the only thing they do
seriously
and the test of it
is what can you be
kicked out for
you can
you know
you can embezzle funds
you can be a drunk
you can be a
anything
but the moment
you make a sexual mistake
out you go
that's what scam
so in
what do you mean
by being immoral
what has come to your mind
when you say
somebody's immoral
does it mean
that he cheats
and forges checks
it sure doesn't
what do you mean
by living in sin
does that mean
that you're conducting
a butchery
no
it means sex
I remember
when we were in school
we had every year
a certain clergyman
came to visit us
and he had
beetling eyebrows
and was a very fierce
kind of personality
and he always talked
on the subject
of drink
gambling
and immorality
and he
he rolled it
round his tongue
just like that
so
immorality
you know
it meant sex
and so
but do you see
the duplicity
of this
by making sex
the naughtiest thing
imaginable
it's made it
terribly interesting
so this poses
to anybody
who becomes aware
of this
this poses
to everybody
who's gone
through psychoanalysis
or
anything like that
the question
that St. Paul
raises
in the epistle
to the Romans
St. Paul
explains
that
were it not
for the law
he would never
have known
what sin was
except the law
had said
thou shalt not
covet
I have not
known lust
and so he says
it is only
therefore
because we
came to know
of sin
that there can
be deliverance
from sin
the fact that
we discovered
that
we were
really incapable
of being virtuous
is the only
is the one
really important
thing
for being
in the process
of being
saved
in that case
then
you will
notice
that human
history
has done
a very strange
thing
until
100 years
ago
the course
of human
life
remained
at a
certain
even level
which it
had maintained
for thousands
of years
life
in
England
or France
in 1700
was not
remarkably
different
from life
in Rome
BC 50
in Alexandria
of the same
period
where they
had evolved
extremely high
cultures
and so far
as peasant
life is concerned
outside the
great cities
it had remained
substantially the
same
for thousands
and thousands
of years
but suddenly
with the industrial
revolution
the whole human
race goes
like this
the population
suddenly starts
expanding at an
unprecedented pace
and power
is blowing
out of us
in all directions
something
quite different
has happened
and the speed
of social
change
in other words
the rhythms
of everyday
life
are completely
changed
now bees
and ants
have kept
their life
rhythms
going
for probably
millions
of years
without any
change
at all
they are
very successful
societies
and they
are what
you might
call
non-historical
societies
they have
no history
because they
have a
completely
settled
life
and in
the same
way
when human
beings
have a
completely
settled
agrarian
life
they do
not
record
their
histories
there is
nothing
to record
it's the
same
day
after day
are we
as someone
has suggested
I forget
his name
called
he wrote
a book
called
post-historical
man
are we
about to
enter a
non-historical
stage
spengler
thought that
we were
going to
that we
were going
to turn
into what
he calls
a
fellaheen
culture
we're an
enormous
milling
mob
of
fundamentally
people are
just getting
by
and eventually
we
are taken
over by
various
beneficent
despotisms
which run
us like
an anthill
and that
this may
go on
for hundreds
and hundreds
of years
or what
is far
more likely
are we
going
faster
and faster
towards the
point of
blow up
in which
we turn
into a
star
well now
it is said
in the
Hindu
cosmology
myth
that as
the Kali
Yuga
progresses
it becomes
easier
and easier
for anyone
to be
liberated
right at
the beginning
of the
manifestation
liberation
was amazingly
difficult
and the
reason was
that life
was too
good
it was so
pleasurable
and delightful
that nobody
wanted to
leave it
obviously
not
because
if the
game
if the
fundamental
game
is one
of hide
and seek
and therefore
the initial
phase of the
game
is to get
lost
then
in that
case
nobody
wants to
wake up
because
the
godhead
doesn't
want to
wake up
not yet
but then
as you
see
you get
bored
with being
nearly
happy
and you
start getting
adventurous
you get
involved in
more and
more
far out
situations
in which
you goose
yourself
you thrill
yourself
with the
idea of
being out
of control
let go
so therefore
in the
again by
studying our
own energy
patterns
we begin to
understand what's
going on in
general
so in the
same way
you might say
that in the
game of
hide and
seek
the
hiding
the
abandonment
of control
gets more
and more
far out
but
it goes
along
simultaneously
with an
attempt to
control things
more and
you remember
how I
described
the two
way
nature
of a
tree
pattern
from the
roots to
the twigs
but also
from the
twigs to
the roots
well then
it is said
by very
deep
Hindu
metaphysicians
that the
pralaya
and the
manvantara
the
manifestation
and the
interval
between
manifestations
are really
simultaneous
if you're
truly enlightened
you see
that time
itself
is an
illusion
there is
in fundamental
reality
no succession
there is
only the
appearance
of succession
as when
you observe
a Rorschach
blot under
the influence
of LSD
it looks as
if the
blot is
flowing into
position
it is
moving
you can
see the
paint or
the ink
or whatever
is on
it
going
but it's
always standing
still
and it's
moving at
the same
time
so that's
the situation
we have
eternity
and time
together
it's
always there
but it
looks as
if it
were changing
but it
keeps changing
into the
same thing
hence the
French proverb
please
la change
please
c'est la même chose
the more it
changes the
more it's
the same thing
it keeps
turning into
itself
so the
counter movement
is this
that at the
end of the
cycle
things get
more and
more out
of control
and everybody
every individual
has the
sense of
powerlessness
that the
government is
out of hand
that nobody
is put up
for election
whom we
care to
vote for
that the
whole thing
is a
mess
and that you
can't do
anything about
it and the
wars which
we don't
we are
trying to
control
everything
and so
government
gets more
and more
uptight
and at the
same time
since we
are coming
to the
end of the
cycle
in which
the divinity
wakes up
from the
dream
more and
more people
are beginning
to have
mystical
experience
that is the
waking up
process
but then
in all
this
there is
the kind
of terror
you see
of waking
up
because
that is
a way
of experiencing
one's own
to oneself
that is to
say
when you
want to
play hide
and get
lost
and imagine
that you
are all
this
and that
is your
firm intention
so much
so that it
produces
the vivid
reality of
all this
going on
you are
repressing
who you
really are
what you
really are
and that
repression
when uncovered
is experienced
in the form
of terror
at finding
out
don't
look
into
the secret
box
there is
always something
there is always
a forbidden
area
there is always
something behind
the scenes
with a sign
that says
keep out
you mustn't
find out
what goes
on in there
and so
naturally
the suspicion
in which
the mystics
have always
been held
is that
they disobeyed
the keep
out sign
they looked
under the
carpet
they peeked
through the
bathroom
keyhole
they found
out what
was going
on behind
the scenes
the mystic
is a peeping
tom
yes
obviously
from the
point of view
of the
management
because the
management
keeps the
show going
the show
must go
on
you must
be responsible
the mail
must be
delivered
people must
be fed
babies must
be looked
after
of course
the show
must go
on
and therefore
any suggestion
that this is
completely
unnecessary
will be
regarded as
utterly
subversive
and of course
it is
subversive
because it
turns the
carpet
upside down
that's all
so then
you get
this
really
frightening
picture
that as
we move
ineluctably
towards
the
final
colossal
explosion
we all
begin
waking up
and we
begin to
see in
our
visionary
experience
the great
white
light
well what
do you
suppose
that is
why that's
the star
you're going
to turn
into
the light
of glory
God
in the
form of
the sun
greatest
and most
ancient
symbol
even used
by Christians
when God
is called
the sun
s-u-n
of justice
and is
born
in the
form of
Christ
at the
winter
solstice
which is
the period
of the
birth
of the
sun
because it
is when
the sun
is at the
lowest point
in the
midheaven
and
is starting
to rise
again
towards
the summer
solstice
now just
let's suppose
I mean
I've been
telling you
a fairy tale
science fiction
sort of
thing
let's say
we're getting
into a new
thing called
metaphysical
fiction
and let
us see
that if
if
that is
the possibility
what is
actually
happening
what will
be our
attitude
towards it
we can
react in
horror
and say
oh no
not that
because it
happens in
nature
all the
time
tribes
of insects
almost
various
kinds
lemmings
methodically
annihilate
themselves
they commit
group
suicide
so we can
object to
it very
strongly
but the
curious thing
is
that the
harder we
object to it
the faster
it happens
all
warmongers
are pacifists
and therefore
they call
their war
department
the department
of defense
they're always
fighting for
peace
and
for justice
or some
good cause
so it is
highly possible
then
that if we
accept that
this is the
state of
affairs
and we do
not do
anything to
try to
prevent
ourselves
from blowing
ourselves up
that this
could very
possibly have
a slowing
down effect
on the whole
process
what happens
you see
is that the
system does
blow itself
up
through
expansion
of its
control
over itself
so therefore
the more
you have
the powerful
fascistic
type
government
whether it
masquerade
under the
name of
communism
or capitalism
or whatever
it's all
the same
thing
the government
is invariably
the most
successful
group of
gangsters
so when
it gets
very very
tough
and strong
you can
see then
that
the world
is getting
up tight
and as
any system
whatsoever
gets up
tight
it begins
to vibrate
too fast
it's the same
principle as
the thermostat
if you get
the thermostat
up tight
that simply
means
that you
have put
your on
switch
point
and your
off switch
point
too close
to each
other
you wanted
to control
the temperature
of the room
and keep it
exactly at
70 degrees
so that
you put
the off
switch
at 71
I mean
yeah
the off
switch
at 69
and the
on switch
at 71
notice
that's
the other
way
around
it goes
off
at 71
and on
at 69
then
you see
what happens
is
it's too
close
the mechanism
confuses the
go with the
stop signals
and so
it starts
going on
and off
on
and off
on
and off
and it
shakes
itself
to pieces
that is
a mechanical
analogy
of anxiety
and to be
uptight
you see
is to be
anxious
and so
the colossal
paranoia
and anxiety
that spreads
through the
world today
on all
sides
engendering
vast
secret
services
espionage
systems
espionages
on espionages
and police
looking after
policemen
and all
that kind
of thing
is what
is going
to blow
it all
up
because it's
all being
done in the
name of
security
you know
the security
officer
there is no
security
there never
was
and everything
that is done
to insure
it
is a source
of trouble
like insurance
read
Ambrose
Pierce
the devil's
dictionary
the section
on it
so then
the only
thing
that might
be done
is really
to do
nothing
to start
relaxing
saying
well
if rape
is inevitable
enjoy it
by doing
this
we would
considerably
slow down
demise
in other
words
one says
to the people
who want
power
you want
power
take it
you bore
yourself
you tie
yourself up
in knots
trying to
arrange
everything
I think
that under
such circumstances
we would
find
there would
be a
considerable
solution
of problems
it's like
the riots
if the police
weren't there
they wouldn't
have happened
it was by
anxiety
to keep
everything under
control
that you
started a
riot
saying that
I know
the details
of how to
work this
out
but I am
saying
that if
that is
the direction
in which
things go
you cannot
oppose it
there's no
point in
opposing it
you could
by
understanding
that you
have to
go with
it
you could
tack
against it
and slow
it up
but we
do know
that life
is always
a process
which tends
towards death
it tends
to run
down
things fall
apart
they wear
out
even though
the biological
organism is
different from
the geological
simply
disintegrates
slowly
the biological
tends to
work against
entropy
but it still
always comes
apart in the
end
and therefore
we have to
see
that maybe
one lives
by accepting
death
just as one
flies
by an
understanding
of gravity
using judo
there may be
a way of
using judo
against gravity
throw ourselves
up into the
air
how do you
suppose a
salmon
jumps upstream
it isn't
just a matter
of muscle
it's
quite
certain
I think
a question
also
of the
angle of
the tail
to the
falling water
it's like
a dolphin
can set
its tail
at a certain
angle
to the wave
made by the
bow of a
ship
and can
skitter
along the
water
riding on
that wave
it's a big
surf job
so then
if
for any
reason
whatsoever
or in
any
design
whatsoever
life
is a
system
that is
always
deteriorating
sure
it may be
going up
like this
you see
but it
always drops
and
after it's
gone like
this
and this
for a certain
cycle
it's going to
go like
this
is itself
the process
of destruction
if you
can get it
into your
heads
that
well it
just doesn't
matter
survival
is not
the important
thing
because you're
not going
to survive
this will
do two
things
one
it will
eliminate
an enormous
amount of
hostility
and
as it were
trigger
happy
fingers
it
liberate an enormous amount of our energy from defensive, security, military projects
to things that are more economically useful, like the provision of food.
You cannot, you see, be even a good soldier until you have reached a certain stage of development
where it makes no difference whether you live or die.
This was always part of the training of the samurai, that before he could really learn the use
of the sword under a skillful master, he had to get to the point where he wasn't constantly
anxious to defend himself, because that put his body into a certain kind of tension which
rendered him incompetent.
He had totally to overcome the fear of death.
That was the first requisite.
And you can overcome the fear of death only by realizing that it's completely inevitable,
that everybody here is as good as dead, under sentence of death, only because you don't
know when it's going to happen.
It isn't such a grim affair as somebody in death row, although it's just as certain,
and just as they hire lawyers to put it off, carry on business and generally delay your demise.
The thing that makes the death row peculiarly awful is that it's all so deliberate and nothing
is more torturing to a human being than to be a complete social outcast, spised by everybody else.
He has a real reason to feel paranoid.
But otherwise, we are all just as much under sentences, and there simply is no point in straining to prevent this happening.
That doesn't mean that you cease to take care in driving a car, or to be sure that you don't eat poison, and so forth.
But it means get off the strain, the general uptightness about preventing one's own demise.
And you'll live long.
It doesn't seem logical, but I think I've demonstrated that it is.
For you see, it is through the death that you become suddenly charged with life.
But I say, if you give up the impossible task, you have all the energy that you've been using to strain against the inevitable,
to do something great, so that you become alive in the degree that you accept death.
This is true of the individual, and it can be equally true of society.
That as society realizes that we cannot hold the form of our nation, the form of our civilization,
the form of our culture, we cannot stop that disintegrating.
Then the culture starts to swing.
So it seems to me that the only time to begin that is now.
You're gonna lay down from the science now.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
albo?
Cool.
You'reивают in theẻ tonights.
A MEI-R Member and I sit down to the public.
That's the reason you decide to judge that I've put my own 걸 اله inclination on this is not too long.
In the light of March, I will for bulk.
I'll stand up from what you want.
So I look forward to the experts at that other people and I watch that process,
and when I watch a lot of detail and see in my heart, we can take aще in my heart спас,
so I show them the highest birth.
CO constraint on thisatori where I know I'm playing the most degradful.