Alan Watts searchable speech v2.0

i find it a little difficult to say what 00:00:01

i find it a little difficult to say what the subject matter 00:00:03

of this seminar is going to be because 00:00:07

it's too fundamental to give it a title 00:00:11

i'm going to talk about what there is 00:00:11

now the first thing though that we have to do 00:00:17

is to get our perspectives 00:00:23

with some background about the basic 00:00:27

ideas which as westerners living today 00:00:30

in the united states 00:00:31

influence our everyday common sense 00:00:35

our fundamental notions about what life 00:00:37

is about 00:00:37

and there are historical origins for this which influence us 00:00:44

more strongly than most people realize 00:00:48

ideas of the world which are built into the very nature of the language we use 00:00:56

and of our ideas of logic and of what 00:01:01

makes sense altogether 00:01:04

and these basic ideas i call myth not 00:01:07

using the word myth to mean simply 00:01:10

something untrue 00:01:13

but to use the word myth in a more 00:01:15

powerful sense 00:01:17

a myth is an image 00:01:17

in terms of which we try to make sense of the world 00:01:25

and we at present are living under the influence of two 00:01:30

very powerful images which are 00:01:35

in the present state of scientific 00:01:37

knowledge inadequate 00:01:41

and one of our major problems today is 00:01:43

to find 00:01:45

an adequate satisfying image of the 00:01:47

world 00:01:49

well that's what i'm going to talk about 00:01:52

and i'm going to go further than that 00:01:54

not only what image of the world to have 00:01:59

but how we can get our sensations and 00:02:01

our feelings 00:02:03

in accordance with the most sensible 00:02:06

image of the world that we can manage to 00:02:07

conceive all right now 00:02:11

the two images which we have been 00:02:13

working under for two thousand years and 00:02:15

maybe more 00:02:15

are what i would call two models of the universe and the first is called the 00:02:20

ceramic model and the second 00:02:26

the fully automatic model 00:02:26

the ceramic model of the universe is based on the book of genesis 00:02:34

from which judaism islam and 00:02:40

christianity derive 00:02:41

their basic picture of the world 00:02:45

and the image of the world in the book 00:02:46

of genesis 00:02:48

is that the world is an artifact 00:02:48

it is made as a potter takes clay and forms pots out of 00:02:55

it 00:03:00

or as a carpenter takes wood and makes 00:03:03

tables and chairs out of it 00:03:06

don't forget jesus is the son of a 00:03:08

carpenter 00:03:08

and also the son of god so the image of god and of the world is based on the 00:03:14

idea of god as a technician 00:03:20

potter carpenter architect 00:03:24

who has in mind a plan 00:03:28

and who fashions the universe in 00:03:30

accordance 00:03:31

with that plan 00:03:31

so basic to this image of the world is the notion you see that the world 00:03:38

consists of stuff 00:03:44

basically 00:03:46

primordial matter substance 00:03:50

stuff as pots are made of clay 00:03:55

and the potter imposes his will on it 00:03:57

and makes it become whatever he wants 00:04:01

and so in the book of genesis the lord 00:04:03

god creates adam out of the dust of the 00:04:05

earth 00:04:06

in other words he makes a clay figurine 00:04:09

and then he breathes into it and it 00:04:11

becomes alive because the clay 00:04:15

becomes informed 00:04:18

by itself it is formless it has no 00:04:20

intelligence and therefore it requires 00:04:22

an external intelligence and an external 00:04:25

energy 00:04:27

to bring it to life and to put some 00:04:29

sense into it 00:04:31

and so in this way 00:04:34

we inherit a conception of ourselves 00:04:39

as being artifacts as being made and it 00:04:43

is perfectly natural 00:04:45

in our culture for a child to ask its 00:04:47

mother 00:04:48

how was i made or who made me 00:04:48

and this is a very very powerful idea but for example it is not shared by the 00:05:00

chinese 00:05:03

or by the hindus a chinese child would 00:05:07

not ask its mother how was i made 00:05:10

a chinese child might ask its mother how 00:05:13

did i grow which is an entirely 00:05:16

different procedure from making 00:05:19

you see when you make something 00:05:22

you put it together you arrange 00:05:26

parts or you from the outside to the in 00:05:30

as a as a sculptor works on a stone or 00:05:32

as the potter works on clay 00:05:35

but when you watch something growing it 00:05:36

works in exactly the opposite direction 00:05:39

it works from the inside to the outside 00:05:43

it expands it burgeons 00:05:47

it blossoms and it happens all over 00:05:49

itself at once in other words 00:05:51

the the original simple form say of 00:05:54

a living cell in the womb progressively 00:05:58

complicates itself 00:05:59

and that's the growing process and it's 00:06:01

quite different from the making process 00:06:05

and so there is for that reason 00:06:09

a fundamental difference between 00:06:13

the maid and the maker 00:06:13

and this image this ceramic model of the universe 00:06:20

originated in cultures where the form of government was 00:06:25

monarchical 00:06:29

and where therefore the maker of the universe 00:06:34

was conceived also at the same time in 00:06:38

the image of the king of the universe 00:06:41

king of kings lord of lords the only 00:06:43

ruler of princes who dust from thy 00:06:45

throne behold all dwellers upon earth 00:06:47

i'm quoting the book of common prayer 00:06:47

and so all those people who are oriented to the universe in that way 00:06:56

feel related to basic reality 00:07:05

as a subject to a king 00:07:05

and so they are on very very humble terms in relation to 00:07:11

whatever it is that works all this thing 00:07:17

i find it odd in the united states that 00:07:20

people who are citizens of a republic 00:07:23

have a monarchical theory of the 00:07:24

universe 00:07:24

because we are carrying over from a very ancient near eastern cultures 00:07:31

the notion that the lord of the universe must be respected in a certain way 00:07:39

people kneel people bow people prostrate 00:07:47

themselves 00:07:49

because they're when you know what the 00:07:51

reason for all that is 00:07:52

that nobody is more frightened of 00:07:55

everybody else than a tyrant 00:07:58

he sits with his back to the wall and 00:08:00

his guards on either side of him 00:08:02

and he has you face downwards on the 00:08:04

ground because you can't use weapons 00:08:05

that way 00:08:08

when you come into his presence you 00:08:10

don't stand up and 00:08:11

face him because you might attack and he 00:08:14

has reason to fear that you might 00:08:16

because he's ruling you all 00:08:18

and the man who rules you all is the 00:08:19

biggest crook in the bunch 00:08:22

because he's the one who succeeded in 00:08:23

crime the other people are pushed aside 00:08:25

because they 00:08:26

the criminals the people we lock up in 00:08:28

jail simply the people 00:08:29

who who didn't make it 00:08:29

so naturally the real boss sits with his back to the wall and his henchmen on 00:08:38

either side of him 00:08:42

and so when you design a church what 00:08:44

does it look like 00:08:46

catholic church with the altar as it 00:08:49

used to be it's changing now 00:08:51

because the catholic religion is 00:08:53

changing but the catholic church has the 00:08:55

altar with its back to the wall of the 00:08:56

east end of the church 00:08:56

and uh there the altar is the throne and the priest is the chief 00:09:02

vizier of the court and he is making a 00:09:07

basis to the throne in front but there 00:09:08

is the throne of god the altar 00:09:11

and uh all the people are facing it and 00:09:13

kneeling down 00:09:16

and a great catholic cathedral is called 00:09:18

a basilica 00:09:19

from the greek basilius which means king 00:09:23

so a basilica is the house of a king and 00:09:27

the ritual of the catholic church is 00:09:28

based on 00:09:29

the court rituals of byzantium 00:09:29

a protestant church is a little different but 00:09:36

basically the same the furniture of a 00:09:39

protestant church is based on a judicial 00:09:41

courthouse 00:09:44

the pulpit the judge in an american 00:09:47

court wears a black robe he wears 00:09:48

exactly the same dress as a protestant 00:09:50

minister 00:09:52

and everybody sits in these boxes like 00:09:54

there's a jury box there's a box for the 00:09:55

judge the box for this the box for that 00:09:57

and those are the pews in an ordinary 00:10:00

kind of colonial type protestant church 00:10:04

so both these uh kinds of churches which 00:10:06

have an 00:10:07

autocratic view of the nature of the 00:10:10

universe 00:10:11

decorate themselves are architecturally 00:10:14

constructed 00:10:15

in accordance with political images of 00:10:17

the universe 00:10:20

one is the king and the other is the 00:10:22

judge 00:10:23

your honor there's sense in this 00:10:23

when in court you have to refer to the judge as your honor it stops the 00:10:32

people engaged in litigation from losing 00:10:38

their tempers and getting rude 00:10:40

there's a certain sense to that 00:10:40

but when you want to apply that image to the universe itself to the very 00:10:47

nature of life 00:10:52

it has limitations 00:10:52

for one thing the idea of a difference between 00:10:59

matter and spirit 00:11:00

this idea doesn't work anymore 00:11:05

long long ago physicists stopped asking the question 00:11:14

what is matter they began that way 00:11:19

they wanted to know what is the 00:11:22

fundamental substance of the world 00:11:26

and the more they asked that question 00:11:27

the more they realized they couldn't 00:11:29

answer it 00:11:30

because if you're going to say what 00:11:33

matter is 00:11:35

you've got to describe it in terms of 00:11:37

behavior 00:11:39

and that is to say in terms of form in 00:11:41

terms of pattern 00:11:42

you tell what it does you describe the smallest shapes of it that you can 00:11:49

see 00:11:53

atoms electrons 00:11:57

protons nissans all sorts of 00:12:01

sub nuclear particles 00:12:05

but you never never arrive at the basic 00:12:08

stuff 00:12:10

because there isn't it 00:12:10

what happens is this stuff is a word for the world as it looks when our eyes 00:12:19

are out of focus 00:12:23

fuzzy stuff the idea of stuff is that 00:12:27

it's undifferentiated as some kind of a 00:12:29

goo 00:12:31

and when your eyes are not in sharp 00:12:33

focus everything looks fuzzy 00:12:35

when you get your eyes into focus you 00:12:38

see a form you see a pattern 00:12:41

and so all that we can talk about 00:12:41

is patterns so the picture of the world in the most 00:12:49

sophisticated physics of today 00:12:54

is not formed stuff 00:12:58

potted clay but pattern 00:13:02

a self moving self-designing 00:13:06

pattern a dance 00:13:10

and we haven't yet our common sense as 00:13:12

individuals hasn't yet caught up with 00:13:14

this 00:13:14

well now in the course of time in the evolution of western thought 00:13:19

the ceramic image of the world ran into 00:13:25

trouble 00:13:27

and changed into what i call the fully 00:13:29

automatic model 00:13:31

or image of the world in other words 00:13:31

western science 00:13:36

was based on the idea that there are laws of nature 00:13:41

and it got that idea from judaism and 00:13:45

christianity and islam 00:13:48

that in other words the potter the maker 00:13:51

of the world 00:13:52

in the beginning of things laid down the 00:13:54

laws 00:13:54

and the the law of god which is also the law of nature it's 00:14:01

called the lagos 00:14:04

and uh in christianity the lagos is the second person of the trinity 00:14:11

incarnate as jesus christ who thereby 00:14:18

is the perfect exemplar of the divine 00:14:21

law 00:14:21

so we have tended to think of all natural phenomena 00:14:29

as responding to laws as if in other 00:14:35

words 00:14:35

the laws of the world were like the 00:14:37

rails on which a streetcar or tram or a 00:14:39

train runs 00:14:40

and these things exist in a certain way 00:14:42

and all events respond to these laws you 00:14:45

know that limerick there was a young man 00:14:46

who said damn 00:14:47

for it certainly seems that i am a 00:14:49

creature that moves indeterminate 00:14:51

grooves 00:14:52

i'm not even a bus i'm a tram 00:14:58

so here's this idea that there's a kind 00:15:01

of a plan 00:15:03

and everything responds and obeys that 00:15:05

plan 00:15:08

well in the 18th century 00:15:11

western intellectuals began to suspect 00:15:14

this idea 00:15:14

what they suspected is whether there is a lawmaker 00:15:20

whether there is an architect of the universe 00:15:25

and they found out or they reasoned that 00:15:29

you don't have to suppose that there is 00:15:33

why because the hypothesis of god 00:15:39

does not help us to make any predictions 00:15:39

in other words let's put it this way if the business of science is to make 00:15:49

predictions about what's going to happen 00:15:53

science is essentially prophecy 00:15:53

what's going to happen by studying the behavior of the past and describing it 00:15:59

carefully 00:16:02

we can make predictions about what's 00:16:03

going to happen in the future that's 00:16:05

really the whole of science 00:16:07

and to do this and to make successful 00:16:10

predictions 00:16:11

you do not need god as a hypothesis 00:16:14

because it makes no difference to 00:16:15

anything if you say 00:16:17

everything is controlled by god 00:16:19

everything is governed by god 00:16:22

that doesn't make any difference 00:16:26

to your prediction of what's going to 00:16:28

happen 00:16:28

and so what they did was simply drop that hypothesis 00:16:33

but they kept the hypothesis of law 00:16:39

because if you can predict if you can 00:16:41

study the past 00:16:43

and describe how things have behaved and 00:16:45

you've got some regularities in the 00:16:47

behavior of the universe you call that 00:16:49

law 00:16:49

although it may not be law in the ordinary sense of the word it's simply 00:16:55

regularity 00:16:57

and so they what they did was they got rid of the lawmaker and kept the law 00:17:02

and so they conceived the universe in 00:17:08

terms of a mechanism 00:17:11

something in other words that is 00:17:12

functioning according to 00:17:14

regular clock-like mechanical principles 00:17:17

newton's whole image of the world is 00:17:19

based on billions 00:17:22

the atoms are billiard balls and they 00:17:25

bang each other around 00:17:28

and so your behavior you every every 00:17:32

individual therefore is defined as a 00:17:33

very very complex arrangement of billion 00:17:36

balls 00:17:36

being banged around by everything else 00:17:39

and so behind the fully automatic model 00:17:41

of the universe 00:17:42

is the notion that reality itself 00:17:46

is to use the favorite term of 19th 00:17:50

century scientists 00:17:52

blind energy in say the 00:17:55

metaphysics of anz takel and t.h huxley 00:17:59

the world is basically nothing but 00:18:02

blind unintelligent force and likewise 00:18:06

in parallel to this 00:18:07

in the philosophy of freud the basic 00:18:10

psychological energy is libido 00:18:12

which is blind lust 00:18:15

and it is only a fluke it is only as a 00:18:17

result of 00:18:18

uh pure chances that 00:18:21

resulting from the exuberance of this 00:18:25

energy 00:18:27

there are people with values 00:18:30

with reason with languages with cultures 00:18:34

and with love 00:18:34

just a fluke like you know 1 000 monkeys typing 1 000 typewriters 00:18:42

for a million years 00:18:47

will eventually type the encyclopedia 00:18:49

britannica 00:18:51

and of course the moment they stop 00:18:53

typing the encyclopedia britannica they 00:18:54

will relapse into nonsense 00:18:58

and so in order that that shall not 00:18:59

happen because you and i 00:19:01

are flukes in this cosmos and we like 00:19:04

our way of life 00:19:05

we like being human if we want to keep 00:19:08

it 00:19:09

say these people we've got to fight 00:19:11

nature 00:19:13

because it'll turn us back into nonsense 00:19:15

the moment we let it 00:19:17

and so we've got to impose our will 00:19:20

upon this world as if we were something 00:19:22

completely alien to it 00:19:24

from outside 00:19:24

and so we get a culture based on the idea of the war between man and nature 00:19:31

we talk about the conquest of space 00:19:38

the conquest of everest and the great 00:19:42

symbols of our culture 00:19:43

are the rocket and the bulldozer 00:19:43

the rocket you know compensation for the sexually inadequate mail 00:19:51

[Laughter] 00:19:58

so we're going to conquer space you know 00:20:01

we're in space already way out 00:20:04

if anybody cared to be sensitive and let 00:20:06

what's outside space come to you you can 00:20:09

if your eyes are clear enough 00:20:11

aided by telescopes aided by uh radio 00:20:14

astronomy 00:20:15

aided by all the kind of sensitive 00:20:18

instruments we can devise 00:20:20

we're as far out in space as we're ever 00:20:22

going to get 00:20:22

but you know sensitivity isn't the pitch in in especially in the wasp culture of 00:20:30

the united 00:20:34

states we define manliness in terms of 00:20:37

aggression 00:20:39

you see because we are not we're a 00:20:40

little bit frightened as to whether we 00:20:41

are really men 00:20:43

and so we put on this great show of 00:20:46

being 00:20:47

a tough guy uh it's completely 00:20:50

unnecessary 00:20:51

uh you know if you have what it takes 00:20:53

you don't need to put on that show 00:20:56

you don't need to beat nature into 00:20:58

submission why be hostile to nature 00:21:00

because after all you are a symptom of 00:21:03

nature 00:21:03

you as a human being you grow out of this physical universe 00:21:09

in just exactly the same way that an 00:21:12

apple grows off an apple tree so let's 00:21:16

say the tree which grows 00:21:17

apples is a tree which apples using 00:21:21

apple as a verb 00:21:22

and a world in which human beings arrive 00:21:25

is a world that peoples 00:21:28

and so the existence of people is 00:21:30

symptomatic 00:21:32

of the kind of universe we live in 00:21:32

just as spots on somebody's skin are symptomatic of chickenpox 00:21:39

but we have been brought up by reason of our two great myths the 00:21:46

ceramic and the fully automatic 00:21:48

not to feel that we belong in the world so our popular speech reflects it we say 00:21:56

i came into this world 00:22:00

you didn't you came out of it 00:22:00

we say face facts we talk about encounters with reality 00:22:07

as if it was a head-on meeting of 00:22:12

completely alien 00:22:14

agencies and the average person has the 00:22:16

sensation 00:22:17

that he is a somewhat that exists inside 00:22:19

a bag of skin 00:22:21

the center of consciousness which looks 00:22:23

out at this thing and what the hell is 00:22:25

it going to do to me 00:22:27

you see i recognize you you kind of look 00:22:29

like me and 00:22:30

i've seen myself in a mirror and 00:22:33

you look like you might be people so 00:22:36

maybe you're intelligent maybe you can 00:22:38

love too 00:22:40

and maybe perhaps you're all right some 00:22:42

of you are anyway if you 00:22:44

got the right color of skin or you have 00:22:45

the right religion or whatever it is 00:22:47

you're okay but there are all those 00:22:49

people over in asia 00:22:50

africa and they may not really be people 00:22:54

when you want to destroy someone you 00:22:56

always define them as unpeople 00:22:59

not really human monkeys may be idiots 00:23:02

maybe 00:23:03

machines maybe but not people 00:23:07

but we have this hostility to the 00:23:09

external world because of the 00:23:11

superstition the myth 00:23:13

the absolutely unfounded theory 00:23:17

that you yourself exist only inside your 00:23:20

skin 00:23:23

now i want to propose another idea all 00:23:24

together 00:23:24

and other astronomers either say there was a primordial explosion an 00:23:30

enormous bang millions of years ago 00:23:35

billions of years ago 00:23:36

which flung all the galaxies into space 00:23:38

well let's take that just for the sake 00:23:40

of argument and say that was the way it 00:23:41

happened 00:23:42

it's like you took a bottle of ink 00:23:45

and you threw it at a wall smash 00:23:49

and all that ink spreads 00:23:52

and in the middle it's dense isn't it 00:23:55

and as it gets out on the edge 00:23:57

the little droplets are finer and finer 00:23:58

and make more complicated patterns 00:24:00

see so in the same way there was a big 00:24:03

bang in the beginning of things and it 00:24:05

spread 00:24:06

and you and i sitting here in this room 00:24:08

as complicated human beings 00:24:10

are way way out on the fringe of that 00:24:12

band 00:24:13

we're the complicated little patterns on 00:24:15

the end of it very interesting 00:24:18

but so we define ourselves as being only 00:24:21

that 00:24:21

if you think that you are only inside your skin you define yourself as one 00:24:26

very complicated little curlicue way out 00:24:31

on the edge of that explosion 00:24:32

way out in space and way out in time 00:24:37

billions of years ago you were a big 00:24:38

bang 00:24:38

but now you're a complicated human being and with them we cut ourselves off like 00:24:44

this 00:24:48

and don't feel that we are still the big 00:24:50

bang 00:24:51

but you are 00:24:51

depends how you define yourself 00:24:55

you are actually if if this is the way things started if there was a big bang 00:25:01

in the beginning 00:25:04

you're not something that is a result of 00:25:06

the big bang 00:25:09

on the end of the process you are still 00:25:11

the process 00:25:14

you are the big bang the original force 00:25:17

of the universe coming on 00:25:19

as whoever you are see when i meet you 00:25:23

i see not just what you define yourself 00:25:26

as 00:25:27

mr so-and-so miss song so mrs so-and-so 00:25:30

i see every one of you as the primordial 00:25:32

energy of the universe coming on at me 00:25:34

in this particular way 00:25:36

i know i'm that too 00:25:39

but we've learned to define ourselves as 00:25:41

separate from it 00:25:41

and so what i would call a kind of a basic problem we've got to go through 00:25:47

first 00:25:50

is to understand that there are 00:25:53

no such things as things 00:25:57

that is to say separate things or 00:25:59

separate events 00:26:01

that that is only a way of talking 00:26:01

if you can understand this you're going to have no further problems 00:26:07

i once asked a group of high school children what do you mean by a thing 00:26:13

and first of all they gave me all sorts of synonyms they said it's an object 00:26:20

which is simply another word for a thing 00:26:25

it doesn't tell you anything about what 00:26:27

you mean by a thing 00:26:29

finally a very smart girl from italy who 00:26:32

was in the group 00:26:33

said a thing is a noun 00:26:36

and she was quite right a noun isn't a 00:26:39

part of nature it's part of speech 00:26:42

there are no nouns in the physical world 00:26:42

there are no separate things in the physical world either 00:26:48

see the physical world is wiggly but 00:26:53

clouds 00:26:54

mountains trees people 00:26:57

are all wiggly 00:26:57

and uh only when human beings get working at things they 00:27:03

build buildings in straight lines and 00:27:07

try and make out that the world isn't 00:27:08

really wiggly 00:27:09

but here are we sitting in this room all 00:27:11

built on straight lines but each one of 00:27:13

us is as wiggly as all get out 00:27:13

now then when you uh want to get control of something that wiggles it's pretty 00:27:20

difficult isn't it 00:27:24

you try and pick up a fish in your hands 00:27:26

and the fish is wiggly and it slips out 00:27:27

what do you do to get hold of a fish 00:27:30

you use a net 00:27:34

so the the net is the basic thing we 00:27:37

have for getting hold of the wiggly 00:27:38

world 00:27:39

and so if you want to get hold of this 00:27:41

wiggle you've got to put a net over it 00:27:41

and i can number the holes in a net so many sew holes up so many holes 00:27:48

across 00:27:52

and if i can number these holes i can 00:27:54

count 00:27:55

exactly where each wiggle is in terms 00:27:59

of a hole in that net and that's the 00:28:02

beginning of calculus 00:28:03

the art of measuring the world but in 00:28:06

order to do that i've got to break up 00:28:08

the wiggle into bits 00:28:09

and i've got to call this a specific bit 00:28:12

and this the next bit of the wiggle and 00:28:13

this the next bit and this the next bit 00:28:15

of the wiggle 00:28:16

and so these bits are 00:28:19

things or events 00:28:22

bits of wiggles which i mark out in 00:28:26

order to talk about the wiggle 00:28:28

in order to measure it and therefore in 00:28:30

order to control it 00:28:31

but in nature in fact in the physical 00:28:33

world the wiggle isn't bitted 00:28:33

like you don't get a cut up fryer out of an egg 00:28:40

but you have to cut the chicken up in order to eat it you bite it 00:28:44

but it doesn't come bitten so the world 00:28:51

doesn't come 00:28:52

thing it doesn't come invented you 00:28:55

and i are all as much continuous with 00:28:59

the physical universe as a wave is 00:29:01

continuous with the ocean 00:29:03

the ocean waves and the universe peoples 00:29:08

and as the wave i wave at you and say 00:29:10

you the world is waving at me with you 00:29:14

and saying uh hi i'm here 00:29:14

but we are consciousness the way we feel and sense our existence 00:29:21

being based on a myth that we are made 00:29:26

that we are parts that we are things 00:29:29

our consciousness has been influenced so 00:29:32

that each one of us does not 00:29:34

feel that 00:29:34

we feel we have been hypnotized literally hypnotized 00:29:39

by social convention into feeling and 00:29:44

sensing that we exist only inside our 00:29:46

skins 00:29:47

that we are not the original bang but 00:29:50

just something out on the end of it 00:29:53

and therefore we are scared stiff 00:29:56

because my wave is going to disappear 00:30:00

and i'm going to die and that would be 00:30:03

awful 00:30:04

we've got a mythology going now which is 00:30:06

father mask will put it 00:30:07

we're nothing but something that happens 00:30:09

between the maternity ward and the 00:30:10

crematorium 00:30:13

and that's it and therefore everybody 00:30:16

feels unhappy and miserable 00:30:19

you know this is what people really 00:30:21

believe today 00:30:22

you may go to church you may say you 00:30:24

believe in this that and the other 00:30:26

but you don't even jehovah's witnesses 00:30:29

who are the most fundamentalist 00:30:30

fundamentalists 00:30:32

they're polite when they come around and 00:30:33

knock at the door but if you really 00:30:36

believed in christianity you would be 00:30:38

screaming in the streets 00:30:41

but nobody does 00:30:41

you would be taking full page ads in the paper every day you would have the most 00:30:46

terrifying television programs 00:30:50

the churches would be going out of their 00:30:52

minds if they really believe what they 00:30:53

teach 00:30:54

but they don't they think they ought to 00:30:57

believe what they teach 00:30:58

they believe they should believe but 00:31:00

they don't believe it because what we 00:31:01

really believe 00:31:02

is the fully automatic model 00:31:02

and that is our basic plausible common sense 00:31:11

you are a fluke you are 00:31:15

a separate event 00:31:15

and you run from the maternity ward to the crematorium and that's it baby 00:31:22

that's it now why does anybody think 00:31:29

that way 00:31:31

there's no reason to because it isn't 00:31:32

even scientific 00:31:34

it's just a myth and it's invented by 00:31:38

people 00:31:39

who wanted to feel a certain way 00:31:42

they want to play a certain game see the 00:31:45

game of god begotten 00:31:47

got embarrassing 00:31:47

the idea of god as the putter the architect of the universe is 00:31:52

is good it makes you feel that life is 00:31:57

after all 00:31:58

important there is someone who cares 00:32:02

it has meaning it has sense and you are 00:32:05

valuable in the eyes of the father 00:32:08

but after a while it gets embarrassing 00:32:11

and you realize that everything you do 00:32:13

is being watched by god 00:32:13

he knows your tiniest inmost feelings and thoughts 00:32:20

and you say after a while quit bugging 00:32:23

me 00:32:25

i don't want you around so you become an 00:32:28

atheist 00:32:30

just to get rid of it then then you feel 00:32:32

terrible after that because 00:32:33

you got rid of god but that means you 00:32:35

got rid of yourself you're just nothing 00:32:37

but a machine 00:32:39

and your idea that you're a machine is 00:32:41

just a machine too 00:32:43

so if you're a smart kid you commit 00:32:45

suicide 00:32:45

camus said there is only really one serious philosophical question 00:32:51

which is whether or not to commit 00:32:54

suicide 00:32:56

i think there are four or five serious 00:32:58

philosophical questions 00:33:01

the first one is who started it the 00:33:04

second is are we going to make it 00:33:06

the third is where are we going to put 00:33:08

it the fourth is who's going to clean up 00:33:08

and the fifth is it serious 00:33:13

but but still should you or not commit suicide this is a good question 00:33:20

why go on 00:33:22

and you only go on if the game is worth the candle 00:33:28

now the universe has been going on for an incredible long time 00:33:33

and so really a a satisfactory theory of 00:33:41

the universe 00:33:42

has to be one that's worth betting on 00:33:42

that's a very seems to me absolutely elementary common sense 00:33:49

if you make a theory of the universe 00:33:53

which isn't worth betting on 00:33:55

why bother just commit suicide 00:33:55

but if you want to go on playing the game you've got to have an optimal 00:34:00

theory for playing the game 00:34:06

otherwise there's no point in it but the 00:34:09

people who 00:34:10

coined the fully automatic theory of the 00:34:13

universe were playing a very funny game 00:34:15

what they wanted to say was this all you 00:34:17

people who believe in religion 00:34:19

are old ladies and wishful thinkers 00:34:22

you've got a big daddy up there and you 00:34:23

want to comfort and thing but life is 00:34:25

rough 00:34:27

life is tough and uh success goes to the 00:34:30

most 00:34:31

hard-headed people that was a very 00:34:33

convenient theory 00:34:34

when the european american world was 00:34:36

colonizing the natives everywhere else 00:34:36

he said we are the end product of evolution and uh 00:34:42

we are tough see i'm a big strong guy 00:34:47

because i 00:34:48

face facts and life is just a bunch of 00:34:50

junk 00:34:52

and i'm going to impose my will on it 00:34:53

and turn it into something else you see 00:34:55

and i'm real hard see that's a way of 00:34:59

flattering yourself 00:35:02

and so it has become 00:35:06

academically plausible and fashionable 00:35:10

that this is the way the world works in 00:35:12

academic circles 00:35:14

no other theory of the world than the 00:35:15

fully automatic model is respectable 00:35:18

because if you're an academic person 00:35:20

you've got to be an intellectually tough 00:35:22

person 00:35:23

you've got to be prickly see there are 00:35:26

basically two kinds of philosophy 00:35:28

one's called prickles the other is 00:35:29

called goo 00:35:29

and uh prickly people are precise rigorous logical 00:35:39

like everything chopped up and clear goo 00:35:46

people like it vague for example 00:35:49

in physics prickly people believe that 00:35:53

the ultimate constituents of mata are 00:35:55

particles 00:35:56

gu people believe it's waves 00:35:56

and uh in in philosophy prickly people are logical positivists 00:36:04

and goo people are idealists 00:36:09

and they're always arguing with each 00:36:11

other but what they don't realize is 00:36:13

that they 00:36:14

neither one can take his position 00:36:16

without the other person because you 00:36:18

wouldn't know you advocated prickles 00:36:19

unless there was somebody else 00:36:20

advocating goo 00:36:23

you wouldn't know what a prickle was 00:36:24

unless you knew what goo was 00:36:24

because life is not either prickles or goo it's gooey prickles and prickly coo 00:36:30

they go together like back in front male 00:36:35

and female 00:36:37

and that's the answer to philosophy see 00:36:40

i'm a philosopher 00:36:41

and i'm not going to argue very much 00:36:43

because if you don't argue with me i 00:36:44

don't know what i think 00:36:44

so if we argue i say thank you because they're 00:36:51

going to the courtesy of your taking a 00:36:53

different point of view i understand 00:36:54

what i mean 00:36:55

so i can't get rid of you 00:36:55

but however you see this whole idea that the universe is just nothing at all but 00:37:02

unintelligent force playing around and 00:37:08

not even enjoying it 00:37:10

is a put down theory of the world people 00:37:13

who 00:37:13

had a an advantage to make a game to 00:37:16

play 00:37:17

by putting it down and making out that 00:37:19

because they put the world down they 00:37:21

were a superior 00:37:22

kind of people 00:37:22

so that just won't do we've had it because if if you seriously 00:37:29

go along with this idea of the world 00:37:35

you're what is technically called 00:37:37

alienated 00:37:39

you feel hostile to the world you feel 00:37:42

that the world is a trap 00:37:45

it is a a mechanism it's electronic 00:37:50

and neurological uh 00:37:54

mechanisms into which you somehow got 00:37:56

caught 00:37:58

and you poor thing have to put up with 00:38:00

being in a body that's falling apart 00:38:03

and uh that gets cancer that gets 00:38:06

the great siberian itch and it's just 00:38:09

terrible 00:38:10

and these mechanics doctors are trying 00:38:12

to help you out but they really can't 00:38:14

succeed in the end 00:38:15

and you're just going to fall apart and 00:38:16

it's a grim business and it's too bad 00:38:16

so if you think that that's the way things are 00:38:22

you may as well commit suicide right now 00:38:25

unless you say well i don't because they're really after all there might be 00:38:34

eternal damnation 00:38:37

in the back of the thing if i did that 00:38:39

or uh 00:38:40

then i identify with my children or 00:38:42

something and i think of them going on 00:38:44

and without me 00:38:45

and nobody to support them but of course 00:38:47

if i do go on in this frame of mind and 00:38:49

continue to support them 00:38:51

i shall merely teach them to be like i 00:38:53

am 00:38:54

and they'll go on dragging it out to 00:38:56

support their children and they won't 00:38:58

enjoy it 00:38:58

and they'll be afraid to commit suicide 00:39:00

and so will their children 00:39:02

they all learn the same lesson 00:39:02

so you see all i'm trying to say is that the basic common sense about the nature 00:39:09

of the world that is influencing most 00:39:13

people in the united states today 00:39:16

the fully automatic model is simply a 00:39:19

myth 00:39:19

if you want to say that the idea of god the father with his white beard on the 00:39:24

golden throne is a myth 00:39:27

in the bad sense of the word myth so is 00:39:29

this other one 00:39:29

it's just as phony and has just as little to support it 00:39:34

as being the true state of affairs why 00:39:40

and let's get this clear if 00:39:44

there is any such thing at all as 00:39:46

intelligence 00:39:48

and love 00:39:48

and beauty well you found it in other people 00:39:55

in other words it exists in us as human beings 00:40:00

and as i said if it is there in us it is symptomatic 00:40:07

of the scheme of things we 00:40:15

are a symptomatic of the scheme of 00:40:16

things as the apples are symptomatic of 00:40:18

the apple tree or the rose of the rose 00:40:18

bush the earth is not a big rock 00:40:25

infested with living organisms 00:40:34

any more than your skeleton 00:40:37

is bones infested with cells 00:40:37

the earth is geological yes but this geological entity grows 00:40:47

people and our existence on the earth is 00:40:57

a symptom of the solar system 00:40:59

and its balances as much as the solar 00:41:02

system 00:41:02

in turn is a symptom of our galaxy 00:41:05

and our galaxy in its turn is a symptom 00:41:08

of the whole 00:41:09

company of galaxies goodness only knows 00:41:12

what that's in 00:41:12

but you see when as a scientist you describe 00:41:18

the behavior of a 00:41:24

living organism 00:41:24

you try to say what a person does it's the only way in which you can describe 00:41:30

what a person is 00:41:33

describe what they do 00:41:33

then you find out that in making this description you cannot confine yourself 00:41:38

to what happens inside the skin 00:41:41

in other words you can't talk about a person walking 00:41:46

unless you start describing the floor 00:41:51

because when i walk i don't just dangle 00:41:53

my legs in empty space 00:41:55

i move in relationship to a room 00:41:59

and so in order to describe what i'm 00:42:01

doing when i'm walking i have to 00:42:02

describe the room 00:42:03

i have to describe the territory so in 00:42:06

in 00:42:07

describing my talking at the moment i 00:42:10

can't describe this just as a thing in 00:42:12

itself 00:42:12

because i'm talking to you and so 00:42:16

what i'm doing at the moment is not 00:42:18

completely described unless your being 00:42:20

here is described also 00:42:23

so if that is necessary if in other 00:42:25

words in order to describe 00:42:26

my behavior i have to describe your 00:42:29

behavior and the behavior of the 00:42:30

environment 00:42:31

it means that we've really got one 00:42:33

system of behavior 00:42:33

that what i am 00:42:38

involves what you are i don't know who i am unless i know who you are 00:42:46

and you don't know who you are unless 00:42:50

you know who i am 00:42:52

it was a wise rabbi once said 00:42:55

if i am i because you are you and you 00:42:58

are you because i am i 00:42:59

then i am not i and you are not you in 00:43:02

other words we are not separate 00:43:04

we define each other we are all backs 00:43:06

and fronts to each other 00:43:09

you know uh you can't for example have 00:43:12

two sticks 00:43:13

you lean two sticks against each other 00:43:15

and they stand up because they support 00:43:16

each other 00:43:17

take one away and the other falls they 00:43:19

interdepend 00:43:21

and so in exactly that way we and our 00:43:24

environment and all of us and each other 00:43:27

are interdependent systems 00:43:30

we know who we are in terms of other 00:43:33

people 00:43:34

we all lock together 00:43:34

now this is again and again the serious scientific description of how things 00:43:41

happen 00:43:44

and any good scientist knows therefore that what you call the 00:43:52

external world 00:43:56

is as much you as your own body 00:43:56

your skin doesn't separate you from the world it's a bridge 00:44:03

through which the external world flows 00:44:06

into you 00:44:08

and you flow into it just 00:44:11

for example as a whirlpool in water you 00:44:14

could say because you have a skin you 00:44:15

have a definite shape you have a 00:44:17

definite form 00:44:18

all right here is a flow of water and it 00:44:21

suddenly 00:44:21

it does a whirlpool and then it goes on 00:44:22

the whirlpool is a definite form but no water stays put in it 00:44:30

the whirlpool is something the stream is 00:44:34

doing and exactly the same way the whole 00:44:37

universe 00:44:38

is doing each one of us and i see you 00:44:41

today 00:44:41

and i recognize you tomorrow just as i 00:44:45

would recognize a whirlpool in a stream 00:44:45

i'd say oh yes i've seen that whirlpool before it's just near so-and-so's house 00:44:51

on the edge of the river 00:44:54

and it's always there so in the same way 00:44:57

when i meet you tomorrow 00:44:58

i recognize you you're the same 00:44:59

whirlpool you were yesterday 00:45:02

but you're moving the whole world is 00:45:04

moving through you all the cosmic rays 00:45:06

all the 00:45:06

food you're eating the stream of steaks 00:45:08

and milk and eggs and 00:45:11

everything is just flowing right through 00:45:12

you when you're wiggling the same way 00:45:14

the world is wiggling the stream is 00:45:16

wiggling you 00:45:18

but the problem is you see we haven't 00:45:21

been taught to feel that way 00:45:21

the myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense 00:45:27

have not taught us to feel identical 00:45:32

with the universe 00:45:33

but only parts of it only in it only 00:45:35

confronting it aliens 00:45:35

and we are i think quite urgently in need of coming to feel 00:45:44

that we are the eternal universe each 00:45:51

one of us 00:45:51

otherwise we're going to go out of our heads we're going to commit suicide 00:45:55

collectively with courtesy of h-bombs 00:46:02

and uh all right 00:46:06

supposing we do well that will be that 00:46:07

and there will be life making 00:46:09

experiments on other galaxies 00:46:11

maybe they'll find a better game 00:46:15

well now i was discussing 00:46:19

two of the great myths or models 00:46:23

of the universe which lie 00:46:27

in the intellectual and psychological 00:46:30

background of all of us 00:46:30

the myth of the world 00:46:36

as a political monarchical state 00:46:40

in which we are all here on sufferance 00:46:45

as subjects of god in which we are made 00:46:56

artifacts 00:46:59

who do not exist in our own right 00:47:02

god alone in the first myth exists in his own right 00:47:09

and you exist as a favor 00:47:12

and you ought to be grateful it's like your parents come on and say to you 00:47:21

maybe 00:47:23

look at all the things we've done for 00:47:25

you all the money we spent to send you 00:47:27

to college 00:47:28

and uh you turn out to be a beatnik 00:47:32

you're a wretched ungrateful child 00:47:32

and you're supposed to uh say sorry but um i really am 00:47:40

but you're you're definitely in the 00:47:45

position of being on probation 00:47:48

so that that idea of the royal god 00:47:52

the king of kings and the lord of lords 00:47:54

which we inherit 00:47:55

from the political structures of the 00:47:59

tigris euphrates cultures and from egypt 00:48:02

the pharaoh amenhotep iv is probably 00:48:07

as freud suggested the 00:48:10

original author of moses monotheism 00:48:14

and the certainly the jewish law code 00:48:16

comes from 00:48:18

hamurabi in chaldea 00:48:23

and these men lived in a 00:48:27

culture where the pyramid and the 00:48:29

ziggurat 00:48:30

the ziggurat is a chaldean version of 00:48:32

the pyramid 00:48:33

indicating somehow a hierarchy of power 00:48:38

from the boss all the way down 00:48:43

and god in this first myth that we've 00:48:46

been discussing 00:48:48

the ceramic myth is the boss 00:48:48

and the idea of god is that the universe is governed 00:48:58

from above but you see 00:49:06

this parallels and goes hand in hand 00:49:09

with the idea 00:49:11

that you govern your own body 00:49:15

that the ego which lies somewhere 00:49:18

between the ears and behind the eyes 00:49:21

in the brain is the governor of the body 00:49:21

and so we can't understand an assist a system of 00:49:31

order a system of life in which there 00:49:34

isn't a governor 00:49:36

oh lord our governor how excellent is 00:49:38

thy name in all the world 00:49:38

but supposing on the contrary there could be a system 00:49:44

which doesn't have a government 00:49:46

that's what we are supposed to have in this society we are supposed to be a 00:49:51

democracy and a republic 00:49:55

and we are supposed to govern ourselves 00:49:59

and yet as i said it's so funny that 00:50:02

americans 00:50:04

can be politically republican i don't 00:50:06

mean republican in 00:50:07

the party sense and yet 00:50:11

religiously monarchical it's a real 00:50:14

strange contradiction 00:50:14

so what is this universe is it a monarchy is it a republic 00:50:22

is it a mechanism or an organism 00:50:27

because you see if it's a mechanism either it's a a mere mechanism 00:50:36

as in the fully automatic model or else 00:50:43

it's the mechanism under the control of 00:50:44

a driver 00:50:46

a mechanic if it's not that it's an 00:50:50

organism 00:50:52

and an organism is a thing that governs 00:50:54

itself in your body there is no boss 00:50:59

you can say you can argue for example 00:51:01

that the brain 00:51:03

is a gadget evolved by the stomach 00:51:07

in order to serve the stomach for the 00:51:09

purposes of getting food 00:51:11

or you can argue that the stomach is a 00:51:14

gadget evolved by the brain 00:51:16

to feed it and keep it alive whose game 00:51:18

is this is it the brains game or the 00:51:20

stomachs game 00:51:22

it doesn't make actually they're mutual 00:51:26

the brain implies the stomach the 00:51:28

stomach implies the brain and neither of 00:51:30

them is the boss 00:51:32

you know that story about all the limbs 00:51:34

of the body 00:51:36

said the hand said we we do all our work 00:51:39

the feet said we do our work 00:51:40

the mouth said we do all the chewing and 00:51:42

here's this lazy stomach 00:51:44

who just gets it all and doesn't do a 00:51:45

thing 00:51:47

he doesn't do any work so let's go on 00:51:49

strike 00:51:51

and the hands refused to carry the feet 00:51:53

refused to walk the mouth refused to 00:51:54

chew 00:51:56

and said now we're on strike against the 00:51:58

stomach 00:51:58

but after a while all of them found themselves getting weaker and weaker and 00:52:02

weaker and weaker because 00:52:06

they didn't recognize that the stomach 00:52:08

fed them 00:52:08

so there is the possibility then that we are not in the kind of system 00:52:17

that 00:52:20

these two myths delineate 00:52:20

that we are not living in a world where we ourselves in the deepest sense 00:52:30

of 00:52:33

our of self are outside reality 00:52:36

and somehow in a position that we have 00:52:39

to bow down to it 00:52:41

and say as a great favor please preserve 00:52:44

us in existence 00:52:47

nor are we in a system which is merely 00:52:52

mechanical and in which we are nothing 00:52:56

but flukes 00:52:58

trapped in the electrical wiring of a 00:53:01

nervous system 00:53:04

which is fundamentally rather 00:53:06

inefficiently arranged 00:53:09

what's the alternative 00:53:09

well we can put the alternative in another image altogether 00:53:16

and i will call this not the ceramic 00:53:20

image not the fully automatic image 00:53:23

but the dramatic image 00:53:26

consider the world as a drama 00:53:26

what's the basis of all drama the basis of all stories of all plots 00:53:35

of all happenings 00:53:43

it's the game of hide and seek 00:53:43

you get a baby what's the fundamental first game you play with a baby 00:53:50

you put a book in front of your face 00:53:56

and you peek at the baby like this the 00:53:59

baby starts giggling 00:53:59

because the baby is close to the origins of life 00:54:04

it comes from the womb really knowing 00:54:09

what it's all about but it can't put it 00:54:11

into words 00:54:12

see what every child psychologist really 00:54:14

wants to know is to get a baby to talk 00:54:16

psychological jargon 00:54:18

and explain how it 00:54:18

but the feels knows you do this and this this 00:54:26

this and the baby starts laughing 00:54:28

because the baby 00:54:29

is a recent incarnation of god 00:54:30

and the baby knows therefore that hide and seek 00:54:37

is the basic game 00:54:38

see before uh when we were children we were taught one two three and abc 00:54:45

but we once sat down on our mother's knees and taught the game of black and 00:54:52

white 00:54:53

that's the thing that was left out of all our educations 00:54:58

that life is not 00:55:06

a conflict between opposites 00:55:11

but of polarity the difference between a 00:55:15

conflict and a polarity is simply 00:55:18

when you say about opposite things we 00:55:20

sometimes use the expression 00:55:22

these two things are the poles apart 00:55:25

you say for example with someone with 00:55:28

whom you totally disagree 00:55:30

i'm the poles apart from this person 00:55:34

but you're very saying that gives the 00:55:37

show away 00:55:38

poles poles are the opposite ends of one 00:55:42

magnet 00:55:42

and if you take a magnet it's a north pole in the south pole 00:55:47

right chop off the south pole move it 00:55:51

away 00:55:53

the piece you've got left creates a new 00:55:55

south pole 00:55:57

you never get rid of the south pole 00:56:00

things may be the poles apart but they 00:56:02

go together 00:56:04

and you can't have the one without the 00:56:06

other 00:56:08

that's the basic idea of polarity but 00:56:09

what we're trying to imagine 00:56:11

is the encounter of forces 00:56:15

that come from absolutely opposed realms 00:56:19

they have nothing in common when we say 00:56:23

of two personality types that they're 00:56:25

the poles apart 00:56:27

we are trying to think eccentrically 00:56:31

instead of concentrically 00:56:34

and so in this way we haven't realized 00:56:38

that life and death 00:56:39

black and white good and evil being and 00:56:43

non-being 00:56:43

come from the same center they imply each other so that you 00:56:49

wouldn't know 00:56:52

the one without the other 00:56:52

now i'm not saying that that's bad that's fun you are playing the game 00:57:00

that you don't know 00:57:04

that self and other go together in just the same way as the two poles of 00:57:12

the magnet 00:57:14

so that when anybody in our culture says uh slips into the state of consciousness 00:57:20

where they suddenly find this to be true 00:57:25

and they come on and say i'm god 00:57:28

we say you're insane 00:57:28

now it's very difficult you you can very easily slip into the state of 00:57:36

consciousness 00:57:39

where you feel your god 00:57:39

it can happen to anyone 00:57:43

just in the same way as you can get the flu or 00:57:49

measles or something like that you can 00:57:53

slip into the state of consciousness 00:57:55

when you get it it depends upon your 00:57:58

background and your 00:57:59

training as to how you're going to 00:58:01

interpret it if you've got the idea of 00:58:03

god 00:58:05

that comes from popular christianity god 00:58:08

as the governor the political head of 00:58:10

the world 00:58:11

and you think your god then you say to 00:58:14

everybody well you should bow down and 00:58:16

worship me 00:58:16

but if you're a member of hindu culture and you suddenly tell all your friends 00:58:23

i'm god instead of saying you're insane 00:58:27

they say congratulations at last you 00:58:29

found out 00:58:29

because their idea of god is not the autocratic governor when they'd 00:58:36

uh make images of shiva say he has 10 00:58:43

arms 00:58:44

how would you use 10 arms it's hard 00:58:46

enough to use 00:58:47

two you know if you play the organ 00:58:50

you've got to use your two feet 00:58:52

and your two hands and you play 00:58:54

different rhythms 00:58:56

with each member it's kind of tricky 00:59:00

but actually we're all masters of this 00:59:03

because how do you grow each hair 00:59:05

without having to think about it 00:59:08

each nerve how do you beat your heart 00:59:12

and digest with your stomach at the same 00:59:13

time 00:59:14

you don't have to think about it in your 00:59:18

very body you are omnipotent in the true 00:59:21

sense of omnipotence 00:59:22

which is that you are able to be 00:59:24

omnipotent you are able to do all these 00:59:26

things without having to think about it 00:59:28

when i was a child i used to ask my 00:59:30

mother of course all sorts of ridiculous 00:59:32

questions that every child asked 00:59:34

and when she got bored with my question 00:59:36

she'd say darling there are some things 00:59:37

we're just not meant to know 00:59:40

well i said well we ever know she said 00:59:42

yes of course when we die and go to 00:59:43

heaven every god will make everything 00:59:45

plain 00:59:46

so i used to imagine that on wet 00:59:47

afternoons in heaven we'd all sit around 00:59:49

the throne of grace 00:59:50

and say to god well now why did you do 00:59:51

this and how did you do that 00:59:53

and he would explain it to us 00:59:53

heavenly father why are the leaves green and he would say because of the 00:59:59

chlorophyll 01:00:01

and we'd say oh 01:00:03

[Laughter] 01:00:03

but in the hindu universe you would say to god 01:00:15

how did you make the mountains and he 01:00:19

would say 01:00:20

well i just did it because what you're 01:00:23

asking me for 01:00:25

when you ask me how did i make the 01:00:26

mountains you're asking me to describe 01:00:29

in words how i made the mountains 01:00:32

and there are no words which can do this 01:00:34

words cannot tell you 01:00:36

how i made the mountains anymore then i 01:00:39

can drink the ocean with a fork 01:00:39

a fork may be useful for sticking into a piece of something and eating it 01:00:46

but it won't it is no use for for 01:00:50

imbibing the ocean 01:00:53

to take millions of years so it would 01:00:55

take millions of years 01:00:56

in other words you would be bored with 01:00:58

my description long before i got through 01:01:00

it 01:01:01

if i put it to you in words because i 01:01:04

didn't create the mountains with words 01:01:07

i just did it like you open and close 01:01:09

your hand 01:01:10

you know how to do this but can you 01:01:11

describe in words how you do it 01:01:13

but you do it you are conscious aren't 01:01:17

you do you know how you manage to be 01:01:19

conscious 01:01:20

do you know how you beat your heart can 01:01:22

you say in words explain correctly 01:01:24

how this is done you do it but you can't 01:01:26

put it into words 01:01:28

because words are too clumsy and yet you 01:01:31

manage this 01:01:32

expertly for as long as you're able to 01:01:35

do it 01:01:38

we are playing a game and the game runs 01:01:42

like this 01:01:43

the only thing you really know is what 01:01:45

you can put into words 01:01:45

let's suppose i love some girl rapturously and somebody says to me 01:01:52

would you really love her well how am i 01:01:59

going to prove this 01:02:00

let's say uh write poetry 01:02:00

tell us all how much you love her then we'll believe you 01:02:07

so if i'm an artist and i can put this 01:02:10

into words and convince everybody that 01:02:12

i've written the most 01:02:14

ecstatic love letters ever written they 01:02:15

say all right okay 01:02:17

we'll admit it you really do love her 01:02:21

but supposing you're not very articulate 01:02:24

are we going to tell you you don't love 01:02:25

her 01:02:27

surely not 01:02:27

you don't have to be heloise and abelard to be in love 01:02:33

so the whole game that our culture is playing 01:02:41

is that nothing really happens unless 01:02:44

it's in the newspaper 01:02:44

so when we are at a party and there's a great party somebody said 01:02:50

it's too bad there wasn't a tape 01:02:52

recorder and so our children 01:02:54

begin to feel that they don't exist 01:02:57

authentically unless they get their 01:02:58

names in the papers 01:02:59

and the fastest way of getting your name 01:03:00

in the papers is to commit a crime 01:03:03

then you'll be photographed then you'll 01:03:05

appear in court then everybody will 01:03:06

notice you 01:03:06

it really happened if it was recorded in other words if you shout 01:03:11

and it doesn't doesn't come back an echo 01:03:15

it didn't happen 01:03:15

well that's a real hang up it's true the fun with echoes 01:03:23

we all like singing in the bathtub 01:03:26

because there's more resonance there 01:03:28

and when we play a musical instrument 01:03:30

like a violin or a cello 01:03:32

it has a sounding box because that gives 01:03:34

resonance 01:03:35

to the sound and in the same way the 01:03:37

cortex of the human brain 01:03:39

enables us when we are happy to know 01:03:41

that we're happy and that gives a 01:03:43

certain resonance to it 01:03:45

if you're happy and you don't know 01:03:46

you're happy there's nobody home 01:03:46

but this is the whole problem for us 01:03:51

several thousand years ago human beings evolved the system of self-consciousness 01:04:00

and uh they knew they they knew there was a young man who said though it 01:04:09

seems that i know that i know 01:04:12

what i would like to see is the i that 01:04:15

knows me when i know that i know that i 01:04:17

know 01:04:19

you see and and this is uh the human 01:04:22

problem we know that we know 01:04:27

and so there came a point in our 01:04:29

evolution when we didn't guide life 01:04:32

by distrusting our instincts 01:04:32

and had to think about it and had to purposely arrange 01:04:37

and discipline and push our lives around 01:04:42

in accordance with foresight and words 01:04:44

and systems of symbols 01:04:46

accountancy calculation 01:04:49

and so on and then we worry 01:04:52

once you start thinking about things you 01:04:55

worry as to whether you've thought 01:04:57

enough 01:04:59

did you really take all the details into 01:05:00

consideration was every fact properly 01:05:03

reviewed 01:05:04

and by jove the more you think about it 01:05:06

the more you realize 01:05:07

that uh you really couldn't take 01:05:10

everything into consideration 01:05:12

because all the variables in any human 01:05:14

decision 01:05:15

are incalculable so you get anxiety 01:05:15

and this though also this is the price you pay 01:05:24

for knowing that you know for being able 01:05:29

to think about thinking 01:05:30

to feel about feeling 01:05:30

and so you're in this funny position 01:05:34

now then do you see that this is simultaneously an advantage 01:05:43

and a terrible disadvantage 01:05:50

what has happened here 01:05:53

is that by having 01:05:58

a certain kind of consciousness 01:05:58

a certain kind of reflexive consciousness 01:06:05

being aware of being aware 01:06:09

being able to represent what goes on 01:06:13

fundamentally in terms of a system of 01:06:15

symbols 01:06:15

such as words such as numbers 01:06:19

you put as it were two lives together at 01:06:22

once one representing the other 01:06:22

the symbols representing the reality the money representing the wealth 01:06:30

and if you don't realize that the symbol is really secondary it doesn't have the 01:06:39

same value 01:06:42

you know people go to the supermarket 01:06:44

and they uh 01:06:45

get a whole cart load of goodies and 01:06:48

they drive it through 01:06:49

and then the clerk fixes up the counter 01:06:52

on this long tape comes out 01:06:55

and you say thirty dollars please and 01:06:57

everybody feels depressed 01:06:59

as they they give away thirty dollars 01:07:01

worth of paper 01:07:03

but they got a cart load of goodies 01:07:06

they don't think about that they think 01:07:08

they just lost thirty dollars 01:07:11

but you've got the real wealth in the 01:07:12

cart all you parted with was a paper 01:07:12

because the paper in our system becomes more valuable 01:07:20

than the wealth 01:07:21

it represents power potentiality whereas the wealth think oh well 01:07:28

that's just necessary you've got to eat 01:07:34

i mean that's to be really mixed up 01:07:40

so then 01:07:46

if you awaken from this illusion 01:07:49

and you understand that black implies white 01:07:56

self implies other 01:07:58

life implies death or shall i say death implies life 01:08:06

you can feel yourself not as a stranger in the world not as 01:08:16

something here on probation 01:08:22

not as something that has 01:08:25

arrived here by fluke but you can begin 01:08:28

to feel 01:08:28

your own existence as absolutely 01:08:32

fundamental 01:08:32

what you are basically deep deep down far far in 01:08:39

is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself 01:08:48

so say in hindu mythology 01:08:54

they say that the world is the drama of god 01:09:02

god is not something in hindu mythology 01:09:07

with the white beard 01:09:08

that sits on the throne and that has 01:09:10

royal prerogatives 01:09:11

god in in indian mythology is the self 01:09:16

sachit ananda which means sat that which 01:09:19

is chit 01:09:20

that which is consciousness that which 01:09:22

is under is bliss 01:09:24

and in other words re the 01:09:27

what exists reality itself is 01:09:31

gorgeous it is the plenum 01:09:34

the fullness of total joy 01:09:34

wow we and all those stars if you look out in the sky as a firework display 01:09:42

like you see on the 4th of july 01:09:45

which is a great occasion for 01:09:47

celebration the universe is a 01:09:49

celebration it is a fireworks show 01:09:51

to celebrate that existence is 01:09:54

wow we and then they say but however 01:10:00

and uh you you would dig that and come 01:10:03

out of that and say wow that was a 01:10:05

close shave wasn't it and then 01:10:08

you would get more and more adventurous 01:10:10

and you would make further and further 01:10:12

out gambles as to what you would dream 01:10:14

and finally you would dream 01:10:18

where you are now 01:10:18

you would dream the dream of living the life that you were actually living today 01:10:23

that would be within the infinite 01:10:28

multiplicity 01:10:29

of choices you would have of playing 01:10:32

that you weren't god 01:10:32

because the whole nature of the godhead according to this idea 01:10:39

is to play that he's not 01:10:44

the first thing he says to himself is 01:10:46

man get lost 01:10:46

because he gives himself away the nature of love 01:10:53

is self-abandonment not clinging to 01:10:56

oneself throwing yourself 01:10:58

out as in for example in basketball 01:11:00

you're always 01:11:01

getting rid of the ball you say to the 01:11:04

other fellow have a ball 01:11:06

see and uh that keeps things moving 01:11:10

that's the nature of life 01:11:13

so in this idea then everybody is 01:11:16

fundamentally 01:11:18

the ultimate reality not god 01:11:22

in a politically kingly sense but 01:11:25

god in the sense of being the self the 01:11:27

deep 01:11:28

down basic whatever there is and you're 01:11:31

all that only you're pretending you're 01:11:34

not 01:11:34

and it's perfectly okay to pretend you're not to be absolutely convinced 01:11:40

because this is the whole notion of 01:11:44

drama 01:11:45

when you come into the theater 01:11:48

there is a proscenium arch and a stage 01:11:51

and down there is the audience and 01:11:53

everybody assumes their seats in the 01:11:55

theater 01:11:56

and uh are going to see a comedy a 01:11:58

tragedy a thriller or whatever it is 01:12:00

and they all know as they come in and 01:12:02

pay their admissions 01:12:04

that what is going to happen on the 01:12:05

stage is not for real 01:12:09

but the actors have a conspiracy against 01:12:12

this because they're going to try and 01:12:13

persuade the audience 01:12:15

that what is happening on the stage is 01:12:16

for real 01:12:18

they want to get everybody sitting on 01:12:19

the edge of their chairs they want to 01:12:21

get you terrified or crying or laughing 01:12:25

ab absolutely captivated by the drama 01:12:25

and if a skillful human actor can take in an audience and make people cry 01:12:34

think what the cosmic actor can do why 01:12:39

he can take himself in completely 01:12:42

he can play so much for real that he 01:12:44

really believes it is like you sitting 01:12:46

in this room you think you're really 01:12:47

here 01:12:49

while you've persuaded yourself that way 01:12:50

you've acted it so damn well that you 01:12:52

know this is the real world 01:12:52

but you're playing it 01:12:56

it's because the audience and the actor is one 01:13:03

because behind the stage there's the green room 01:13:08

off scene obscene 01:13:10

where the actors take off their masks you know that the word person 01:13:17

means mask the persona which is the mask 01:13:23

worn by actors 01:13:24

in grieco roman drama because it has a 01:13:28

megaphone type mouth 01:13:30

which throws the sound out in an 01:13:32

open-air theater 01:13:33

so pair through sona but the sound comes 01:13:36

through 01:13:37

that's the mask how to be a real person 01:13:40

how to be a genuine fake 01:13:40

a mask so the dramatist personae at the beginning of a play 01:13:48

is the list of masks that the actors 01:13:51

will wear 01:13:52

and so in the course of forgetting that 01:13:55

this this life is a drama the word 01:13:57

for the role the word for the mask has 01:13:59

come 01:14:00

to mean who you are genuinely 01:14:03

the person the proper person 01:14:07

incidentally the word parson is derived 01:14:10

from the word person 01:14:15

the person of the village person around 01:14:17

town the person 01:14:19

funny so anyway then this is the drama 01:14:25

i'm not trying to sell you on this idea 01:14:27

in the sense of 01:14:28

converting you to it i want you to play 01:14:30

with it i want you to think of its 01:14:32

possibilities i'm not trying to prove it 01:14:34

i'm just putting it forward as a 01:14:36

possibility of life to think about 01:14:36

so then this means that you're not victims of a scheme of 01:14:44

things 01:14:49

of a mechanical world or of an 01:14:51

autocratic god 01:14:54

the life you're living is what you have 01:14:57

put yourself 01:14:58

into only you don't admit it 01:15:02

because you want to play the game that 01:15:04

it's happened to you 01:15:04

in other words i got mixed up in this world my parents i had a father who got 01:15:09

hot pants over a girl and she was my 01:15:14

mother 01:15:15

and uh because he got the he was just a 01:15:18

he was just a horny old man and as a 01:15:20

result of that i got born 01:15:23

and i blame him for it and say well 01:15:24

that's your fault you've got to look 01:15:26

after me 01:15:27

and he says i don't see why i should 01:15:29

look after you you're just a result 01:15:29

and but let's suppose we admit that i really wanted to get born and 01:15:38

that i 01:15:42

was the ugly gleam in my father's eye 01:15:44

when he approached my mother 01:15:46

that was me i was desire 01:15:46

and i deliberately got involved in this thing 01:15:54

look at it that way instead 01:15:59

and that even if i got myself into an 01:16:01

awful mess 01:16:03

and i got born with syphilis and the 01:16:05

great siberian itch and 01:16:07

tuberculosis and uh in the nazi 01:16:10

concentration camp 01:16:11

nevertheless this was a game which was a 01:16:14

very far 01:16:15

out play it was a kind of cosmic 01:16:18

masochism 01:16:20

but i did it 01:16:20

isn't that an optimal game rule for life because if you play life on the 01:16:28

supposition 01:16:33

that you're a helpless little puppet got 01:16:36

involved 01:16:37

or if you played on the supposition that 01:16:38

it's a frightful 01:16:40

serious risk and that we really ought to 01:16:42

do something about it and uh 01:16:44

so on it's a drag 01:16:49

there's no point in going on living 01:16:51

unless we make the assumption 01:16:54

that the situation of life is optimal 01:16:57

that really and truly we are all in the 01:17:00

state of total bliss and delight 01:17:03

but we are going to but i assume maybe 01:17:06

you are not serious but sincere 01:17:09

that you are ready to wake up 01:17:12

so then when you're in the way of waking 01:17:15

up and finding 01:17:15

out who you really are you meet a 01:17:17

character called a guru 01:17:17

as the hindus say this word the teacher the awakener 01:17:23

and what is the function of a guru he's 01:17:27

the man who looks at you in the eye 01:17:31

and says oh come off it 01:17:31

i know who you are you know you come to the guru and say sir i have a problem 01:17:36

i'm unhappy and i want to get one up on 01:17:42

the universe or i want to become 01:17:43

enlightened 01:17:44

i want spiritual wisdom ah the guru 01:17:47

looks at you and says 01:17:49

who are you you know sri ramana maharshi 01:17:53

that great 01:17:54

hindu sage of modern times people used 01:17:58

to come to him and say master 01:17:59

who was i in my last incarnation as if 01:18:02

that mattered 01:18:03

and he would say who is asking the 01:18:05

question 01:18:05

we look at you and say basically go right down to it 01:18:10

you're looking at me you're looking out 01:18:14

and you're unaware of what's behind your 01:18:16

eyes 01:18:18

go back in and find out who you are 01:18:20

where the question comes from 01:18:22

why you ask and if you've looked at a 01:18:25

photograph of that man 01:18:27

i have a gorgeous photograph of him and 01:18:30

you look in those i walk by it every 01:18:31

time i go out of the front door 01:18:34

and i look at those eyes and the humor 01:18:36

in them 01:18:37

the lilting laugh that says oh come off 01:18:41

it 01:18:42

[Laughter] 01:18:45

shiva i recognize you 01:18:46

when you come to my door and you say i'm so-and-so i say ha ha what a funny 01:18:52

way god has come on today 01:18:57

[Laughter] 01:18:57

there are all sorts of tricks of course that gurus play 01:19:04

they uh say well 01:19:10

we're going to put you through the mill 01:19:13

and the reason they do that is simply 01:19:16

that you 01:19:18

won't wake up until you feel you've paid 01:19:21

a price for it 01:19:22

in other words the sense of guilt that one has or the sense of anxiety 01:19:27

is simply the way one experiences 01:19:33

keeping the game of disguise going on 01:19:33

do you see that supposing you say i feel guilty 01:19:43

christianity makes you feel guilty for 01:19:48

existing 01:19:50

that somehow the very fact that you 01:19:52

exist is an affront 01:19:55

you are a fallen human being 01:19:58

i remember as a child when we went to 01:20:00

the services of the church on good 01:20:02

friday 01:20:03

they gave us each a colored postcard 01:20:07

with jesus crucified on it and it said 01:20:10

underneath 01:20:11

this have i done for thee what doest 01:20:13

thou for me 01:20:13

you know you felt awful you would nail that man to the cross 01:20:18

because you eat steak you have crucified 01:20:23

christ 01:20:24

because it killed the bull after all you 01:20:26

depend on it 01:20:28

mithra it's the same mystery 01:20:33

and what are you going to do about that 01:20:35

this have i done for thee what do you 01:20:36

style for me you feel awful that you 01:20:38

just exist at all 01:20:38

but that sense that sense of guilt is the veil 01:20:46

across the sanctuary don't you dare come in 01:20:54

in order to you know in all mysteries when you're going to be initiated 01:20:59

there's somebody saying uh uh uh don't 01:21:04

you come in 01:21:05

you've got to fulfill this requirement 01:21:07

of this requirement of this requirement 01:21:09

of this requirement 01:21:10

then we'll let you in and so you go 01:21:14

you you go through the mill 01:21:14

because this is you're saying to yourself 01:21:24

i won't wake up until i feel i deserve 01:21:28

it 01:21:30

i won't wake up until i've made it 01:21:32

difficult for me to wake up 01:21:35

so i i i invent for myself an elaborate 01:21:39

system of delaying my waking up 01:21:43

i put myself through this test and that 01:21:45

test and i feel it's been sufficiently 01:21:46

arduous then i may at last 01:21:48

admit to myself who i really am and draw 01:21:52

aside the veil 01:21:54

and realize that after all 01:21:57

when all is said and done 01:21:58

i am that i am which is the name of god 01:22:05

and when it comes to it that's really rather funny 01:22:14

they say in zen when you attain satori 01:22:18

nothing has left you at that moment but 01:22:19

to have a good laugh 01:22:24

naturally uh all masters 01:22:27

zen masters yoga masters every kind of 01:22:29

master 01:22:31

uh puts up a barrier 01:22:31

and says to you 01:22:35

he simply plays your own game you know we say anybody who goes to a 01:22:45

psychiatrist ought to have his head 01:22:47

examined 01:22:47

because you when you go to a psychiatrist you define yourself as 01:22:52

somebody who ought to have his head 01:22:55

examined 01:22:55

same way the zen masters say anybody who studies zen or comes to a zen master 01:23:01

ought to be given 30 blows with a stick 01:23:04

because he was stupid enough to pose the question 01:23:11

that he had a problem 01:23:11

but you're the problem you you put yourself in this situation 01:23:17

so it's a question fundamentally do you define yourself 01:23:24

as a victim of the world or as the world 01:23:25

you can define yourself you see if you identify you 01:23:33

with what you call the voluntary system 01:23:38

of the nerves 01:23:40

and say only that's me and that's really 01:23:43

a rather limited amount 01:23:45

of my total performance what i do 01:23:47

voluntarily 01:23:49

then you've defined yourself as the 01:23:50

victim in the game 01:23:50

and so you were able to feel that life was a trap something else whether it was 01:23:57

god or whether it was fate or whether it 01:24:02

was 01:24:03

the big mechanism the system imposed 01:24:06

this on you 01:24:07

and you can say poor little me 01:24:11

but you can eat equally well and with 01:24:13

just as much this justification 01:24:15

define yourself not only as what you do 01:24:17

voluntarily but also what you do 01:24:18

involuntarily that's you too 01:24:20

do you beat your heart or don't you 01:24:23

or does it just happen to you and if you 01:24:26

define yourself as the works 01:24:28

then nobody's imposing on you 01:24:32

you're not a victim you're doing it 01:24:32

because you can't explain how you do it in words because words are too clumsy 01:24:38

and it take too long to say you get 01:24:44

bored with it 01:24:46

but actually then you can say 01:24:49

with with gusto 01:24:49

i am responsible for this life 01:24:57

whether comedy or tragedy i did it 01:25:04

and it seems to me that that is a basis for behavior and going on 01:25:10

which is more fundamentally joyous and 01:25:16

profitable 01:25:17

and great than defining ourselves as 01:25:21

miserable victims 01:25:23

or sinners or what have you 01:25:27

i was discussing an alternative myth 01:25:31

to the ceramic and fully automatic 01:25:33

models 01:25:34

of the universe i'll call the dramatic 01:25:38

myth 01:25:39

the idea that life as we experience 01:25:43

it's a big act and that behind this big 01:25:47

act 01:25:48

is the player and 01:25:51

the player 01:25:55

or the self as it's called in hindu 01:25:57

philosophy the atman 01:26:00

is you 01:26:00

only you are playing hide and seek since that is the essential game that's 01:26:06

going on 01:26:10

it's the game of games the basis of all 01:26:13

games 01:26:14

hide and seek and so since you're 01:26:17

playing hide and seek 01:26:19

you are deliberately although you can't 01:26:22

admit this 01:26:25

or won't admit it you are deliberately 01:26:27

forgetting who you really 01:26:29

are or what you really are 01:26:29

and the knowledge that your essential self 01:26:38

is the foundation of the universe 01:26:43

the ground of being as tilik calls it 01:26:47

is something you have is what the 01:26:48

germans call a hintagadanka 01:26:51

a hintagidanka is a thought way way way 01:26:54

in the back of your mind 01:26:55

way back here somewhere something that 01:26:58

you 01:26:58

know deep down but can't admit 01:27:05

so in a way then in in order to 01:27:09

bring this to the front in order to know 01:27:12

that that is the case 01:27:14

you have to be kidded out of your 01:27:17

game 01:27:17

you see the problem is this we identify in our experience 01:27:24

a differentiation between what we do and 01:27:30

what happens to us 01:27:30

we have a certain number of actions that we define as voluntary 01:27:36

and we feel in control of those and then 01:27:42

over against that there is 01:27:44

all those things that are involuntary 01:27:47

but the dividing line between these two 01:27:49

is very arbitrary 01:27:51

because for example when you 01:27:55

move your hand you feel that you decide 01:27:57

whether to open it or to close it 01:28:01

but then ask yourself how do you decide 01:28:05

when you decide to open your hand do you 01:28:08

first decide to decide 01:28:10

you don't do you you just decide and how 01:28:14

do you do that 01:28:16

and if you don't know how you do it is 01:28:18

it voluntary or involuntary 01:28:18

let's consider breathing 01:28:22

you can feel that you breathe deliberately you can control your breath 01:28:26

but when you don't think about it it 01:28:31

goes on is it voluntary or involuntary 01:28:31

and so we come to have a very arbitrary definition of self 01:28:40

that much of my activity which i feel i 01:28:45

do 01:28:46

and that then doesn't include breathing 01:28:48

most of the time 01:28:50

it doesn't include the heartbeats it 01:28:52

doesn't include 01:28:53

the activity of the glands it doesn't 01:28:56

include digestion 01:28:59

it doesn't include how you shape your 01:29:01

bones 01:29:01

circulate your blood do you or do you not do these things 01:29:07

now if you get with yourself 01:29:11

and you find out that you are all of yourself 01:29:17

very strange thing happens you find that your body knows 01:29:23

that you're one with the universe 01:29:28

in other words that the so-called 01:29:30

involuntary circulation of your blood 01:29:33

is one continuous process with the stars 01:29:36

shining 01:29:38

if you find out that it's you who 01:29:39

circulates your blood 01:29:41

you will at the same moment find out 01:29:42

that you are shining the sun 01:29:42

because your physical organism is one continuous process with everything else 01:29:50

that's going on 01:29:54

just as the waves are continuous with 01:29:56

the ocean 01:29:57

your body is continuous with the total 01:30:00

energy system of the cosmos 01:30:02

and it's all you only you're playing 01:30:05

the game that you're only this bit of it 01:30:09

but as i tried to explain there are in 01:30:11

physical reality no such things as 01:30:13

separate events 01:30:13

so then remember also when i tried to work towards a definition of 01:30:20

omnipotence 01:30:24

omnipotence is not knowing how 01:30:27

everything is done 01:30:28

it's just doing it you don't have to 01:30:31

translate it 01:30:32

into language look supposing when you 01:30:36

got up in the morning you had to switch 01:30:37

your brain 01:30:38

on and you had to think 01:30:41

and do as a deliberate process waking up 01:30:44

all the circuits 01:30:45

that you need for active life during the 01:30:47

day why you would never get done 01:30:51

because you have to do all those things 01:30:52

at once how can a centipede 01:30:54

control a hundred legs at once because 01:30:57

it doesn't think about it 01:30:59

and so in the same way you are 01:31:02

unconsciously 01:31:04

performing all the various activities of 01:31:08

your organism 01:31:08

only unconsciously isn't a good word because it sounds sort of dead 01:31:14

super consciously would be better 01:31:18

give it a plus rather than a minus because what a consciousness is is 01:31:25

simply 01:31:29

a sort of specialized form of awareness 01:31:32

when you uh look around the room 01:31:36

you are conscious of as much as you can 01:31:39

notice 01:31:39

and you see an enormous number of things which you don't notice 01:31:43

if for example i look at a girl here and 01:31:48

somebody asked me later what was she 01:31:49

wearing 01:31:50

i may not know although i've seen 01:31:53

because i didn't attend 01:31:56

but i was aware you see 01:32:00

and perhaps if i could uh under hypnosis 01:32:04

be asked this question where i would get 01:32:07

my 01:32:07

conscious attention out of the way 01:32:09

through being in the hypnotic state 01:32:12

i could recall what breast she was 01:32:14

wearing 01:32:14

so then just in the same way as you don't focus your attention on how 01:32:20

you make your thyroid gland function 01:32:24

so in the same way you don't have any attention focused on how you shine the 01:32:31

sun 01:32:33

so then let me connect this with the problem of birth and death 01:32:40

which puzzles people enormously of 01:32:45

course 01:32:45

because in order to understand what what the self is 01:32:51

you have to remember that it doesn't 01:32:56

need to remember anything 01:32:58

just like you don't need to know how you 01:33:00

work your thyroid gland 01:33:03

so then when you die 01:33:07

you're not going to have to put up with 01:33:09

everlasting non-existence because that's 01:33:11

not an experience 01:33:13

a lot of people are afraid that when 01:33:15

they die 01:33:16

they're going to be locked up in a dark 01:33:17

room forever 01:33:20

and sort of undergo that 01:33:20

but one of the most interesting things in the world this is a yoga this is a 01:33:29

way of realization 01:33:32

try and imagine what it will be like to 01:33:34

go to sleep and never wake up 01:33:34

think about that children think about it it's one of the great wonders of life 01:33:43

what will it be like 01:33:46

to go to sleep and never wake up and if 01:33:50

you think long enough about that 01:33:51

something will happen to you 01:33:51

you will find out among other things that uh it'll pose next question to you 01:33:58

what was it like 01:34:02

to wake up after having never gone to 01:34:04

sleep 01:34:06

that was when you were born 01:34:06

you see you you can't have an experience of nothing 01:34:14

nature reports a vacuum so after you're 01:34:18

dead 01:34:18

the only thing that can happen is the 01:34:20

same experience or the same sort of 01:34:22

experience as when you were born 01:34:22

in other words we all know very well that after people die 01:34:29

other people are born and they're all 01:34:33

you 01:34:35

only you can only experience it one at a 01:34:37

time 01:34:37

everybody is i you all know you're you and wheresoever beings exist throughout 01:34:43

all galaxies it doesn't make any 01:34:47

difference 01:34:48

you are all of them and when they come 01:34:51

into being that's you coming into being 01:34:53

you know that very well 01:34:53

only you don't have to remember the past in the same way you don't have to think 01:34:59

about 01:35:02

how you work your thyroid gland or 01:35:04

whatever else it is in your 01:35:06

organism you don't have to know how to 01:35:08

shine the sun you just do it 01:35:11

like you breathe isn't it doesn't it 01:35:15

really astonish you that you are this 01:35:17

fantastically complex thing 01:35:17

and that you're doing all of this and you never had any education in how to do 01:35:22

it 01:35:26

you never learned but you're this 01:35:27

miracle 01:35:29

well the point is that from a strictly 01:35:32

physical 01:35:33

scientific standpoint this organism 01:35:37

is a continuous energy with everything 01:35:39

else that's going on 01:35:42

and if i am my foot i am the sun 01:35:42

only we've got this little partial view we've got the idea that no i'm just 01:35:50

something 01:35:52

in this body the ego 01:35:56

that's a joke the ego is nothing other 01:36:00

than the focus of conscious attention 01:36:03

it's like a radar on a ship 01:36:05

the radar on a ship is a troubleshooter 01:36:08

is there anything in the way 01:36:10

and conscious attention is a designed 01:36:12

function of the brain to scan 01:36:14

the environment like a radar does 01:36:17

and note for any trouble making changes 01:36:21

but if you identify yourself with your 01:36:23

troubleshooter 01:36:25

then naturally you define yourself as 01:36:27

being in a perpetual state of anxiety 01:36:27

and the moment we cease to identify with the ego 01:36:35

and become aware that we are the whole 01:36:39

organism 01:36:41

you realize as the first thing how 01:36:43

harmonious it all is 01:36:46

because your organism is a miracle of 01:36:48

harmony 01:36:50

all this thing functioning together even 01:36:52

those copper schools and uh 01:36:54

creatures that are fighting each other 01:36:56

in the bloodstream and eating each other 01:36:58

up 01:36:59

if they weren't doing that you wouldn't 01:37:00

be healthy 01:37:02

so what is discord at one level of your 01:37:05

being 01:37:05

is harmony at a higher level 01:37:08

and you begin to realize that and you 01:37:10

begin to be aware too that the discords 01:37:12

of your life 01:37:13

the discords of people's life which are 01:37:15

a fight at one level 01:37:16

at a higher level of the universe are 01:37:19

healthy and harmonious 01:37:22

and you suddenly realize that everything 01:37:24

that you are and do 01:37:24

is at that level as magnificent and as free of any blemish 01:37:31

as the patterns in waves 01:37:36

the markings in marble the way a cat moves 01:37:44

and that this world is really okay 01:37:47

and can't be anything else because otherwise it couldn't exist 01:37:54

but the reality underneath physical 01:37:59

existence 01:38:00

or which really is physical existence 01:38:01

because in my philosophy there's no 01:38:03

difference between the physical and the 01:38:05

spiritual 01:38:05

these are absolutely out of date 01:38:07

categories it's all process 01:38:10

it isn't stuff 01:38:10

on the one hand and form on the other it's just it is pattern life is pattern 01:38:15

it is a dance of energy 01:38:21

so i will never invoke spooky knowledge 01:38:25

now that is to say that i've had a 01:38:26

private revelation 01:38:28

or that i have sensory vibrations going 01:38:30

on a plane which you don't have 01:38:32

everything is standing right out in the 01:38:34

open and it's just a question of how you 01:38:36

look at it 01:38:36

so you do discover when you realize this the most extraordinary thing to me that 01:38:42

i never cease to be flabbergasted at 01:38:47

whenever it happens to me 01:38:47

some people will use a symbolism of the relationship of god to the 01:38:55

universe wherein 01:38:58

god is say brilliant light 01:38:58

only somehow veiled hiding underneath all these forms that you see as you look 01:39:06

around you 01:39:09

so far so good but the truth is funnier 01:39:12

than that 01:39:13

it is that you are looking right at the 01:39:16

brilliant light now 01:39:16

that the experience you are having which you call ordinary everyday consciousness 01:39:22

pretending you're not it that experience 01:39:28

is exactly the same thing as it there's 01:39:31

no difference at all 01:39:31

and when you find that out you laugh yourself silly 01:39:38

that's the great discovery 01:39:41

in other words when you really start to see things 01:39:47

and you look at an old paper cup 01:39:49

and you go into the nature of what it is to see 01:39:55

what vision is or what smell is or what 01:40:00

touches 01:40:01

you realize that that vision of the 01:40:03

paper cup 01:40:05

is the brilliant light of the cosmos 01:40:05

nothing could be brighter ten thousand suns couldn't be brighter 01:40:16

only they're hidden in the sense that all the points 01:40:22

of the infinite light are so tiny when 01:40:26

you see them in the cup 01:40:29

they don't blow your eyes out 01:40:32

but it is actually see the source of all 01:40:34

light is in the eye 01:40:37

if there were no eyes in this world the 01:40:39

sun would not be light 01:40:39

you evoke light out of the universe in the same way you by virtue of having 01:40:47

a soft skin 01:40:50

evoke hardness out of wood 01:40:53

wood is only hard in relation to a soft 01:40:56

skin 01:40:57

it's your eardrum that evokes noise out 01:40:59

of the air 01:40:59

you by being this organism call into being the whole universe of light 01:41:06

and color and hardness and heaviness and 01:41:10

everything 01:41:11

you see uh but in the mythology that 01:41:14

we've sold ourselves on during the end 01:41:16

of the 19th century when people 01:41:18

discovered how big the universe was 01:41:20

and that we live on a little planet in a 01:41:23

solar system on the edge of a galaxy 01:41:25

which is a minor galaxy 01:41:27

everybody thought ah we're really 01:41:29

unimportant after all god isn't there 01:41:32

and doesn't love us and nature doesn't 01:41:34

give a damn 01:41:34

and we put ourselves down you see but actually it's this little funny 01:41:40

microbe 01:41:43

tiny thing crawling on this little 01:41:45

planet 01:41:47

that's way out somewhere who has the 01:41:50

ingenuity 01:41:51

by nature of this magnificent organic 01:41:53

structure 01:41:54

to evoke the whole universe out of what 01:41:57

would otherwise be mere quanta 01:42:01

there's jazz going on 01:42:01

but you see this little little ingenious organism 01:42:07

is not merely some stranger in this 01:42:11

this little organism on this little 01:42:13

planet 01:42:14

is what the whole show is growing there 01:42:18

and so realizing its own presence 01:42:18

well now here's the problem if this is the state of affairs which is 01:42:29

and if the the consciousness state you are in at this moment 01:42:37

is the same thing as what we might call 01:42:40

the divine state 01:42:42

if you do anything to make it different 01:42:44

it shows you don't understand that it's 01:42:45

so the moment you start practicing yoga or praying or meditating or 01:42:54

indulging in some sort of spiritual 01:42:57

cultivation 01:42:58

you are getting in your own way 01:43:01

the buddha said we suffer because we desire 01:43:09

if you can give up desire you won't 01:43:12

suffer 01:43:12

but he didn't say that as the last word he said that as the opening step of a 01:43:17

dialogue 01:43:21

because the if he if you say that to 01:43:22

someone they're going to come back after 01:43:24

a while and say 01:43:25

yes but i'm now desiring not to desire 01:43:25

and so the buddha will answer well at last you're beginning to understand the 01:43:31

point because you can't give up desire why 01:43:38

would you try to do that it's already 01:43:42

desire 01:43:42

so in the same way you say you ought to be unselfish 01:43:50

or to give up your ego let go relax why 01:43:54

do you want to do that 01:43:55

just because it's another way of beating 01:43:57

the game isn't it 01:43:57

the moment you see you hypothesize that you are different from the universe you 01:44:03

want to get one up on it 01:44:04

but if you try to get one up on the universe and you're in competition with 01:44:09

it it means you don't understand you are 01:44:13

it 01:44:15

you think there's a real difference 01:44:16

between self and other but self 01:44:18

what you call yourself and what you call 01:44:21

other 01:44:22

are mutually necessary to each other 01:44:24

like back and front 01:44:27

they're really one but just as a magnet 01:44:30

polarizes itself in north and south but 01:44:32

it's all one magnet 01:44:33

so experience polarizes itself as self 01:44:35

and other 01:44:36

but it's all one so if you try to make 01:44:40

the north pole 01:44:41

get the mastery of it or the south pole 01:44:43

get the mastery of the north pole 01:44:44

you show you don't know what's going on 01:44:48

a guru or teacher who wants to get this 01:44:50

across to somebody 01:44:51

because he knows it himself and when you 01:44:54

know it you know you like others to see 01:44:56

too so what he does is he gets you 01:45:01

into being ridiculous 01:45:05

harder and more assiduously than usual 01:45:05

in other words if you are in a contest with the universe 01:45:11

he's going to stir up that contest until 01:45:14

it becomes ridiculous 01:45:17

and so he sets you such tasks as saying 01:45:20

now of course in order to be a true 01:45:23

person you must 01:45:24

give up yourself be unselfish 01:45:28

so the lord sits steps down out of 01:45:31

heaven and says 01:45:32

the first and great commandment is thou 01:45:34

shalt love the lord thy god 01:45:38

you must love me well that's a double 01:45:40

bind 01:45:42

you can't love on purpose 01:45:45

you can't be sincere purposely 01:45:48

it's like trying not to think of a green 01:45:50

elephant while taking medicine 01:45:52

[Laughter] 01:45:56

but if a person really tries to do it so 01:45:59

you know this is where 01:46:00

christianity is rigged you should be 01:46:03

very sorry for your sins 01:46:05

and though everybody knows they're not 01:46:08

but they think they ought to be and so 01:46:10

they go around 01:46:11

trying to be penitent or trying to be 01:46:14

humble 01:46:16

and they know the more assiduously they 01:46:18

practice it the phonier and phonier the 01:46:20

whole thing gets 01:46:22

and so in this way it's what it's called 01:46:26

the technique of reductio absurdum 01:46:26

if you think you have a problem you see and that you're an ego 01:46:33

and that you're in difficulty the answer 01:46:36

that the zen master makes to you is show 01:46:38

me your ego 01:46:39

i want to see this thing that has a 01:46:41

problem 01:46:43

when bodhidharma 01:46:46

the legendary founder of zen came to 01:46:49

china 01:46:51

a disciple came to him and said i have 01:46:54

no peace of mind please pacify my mind 01:46:56

and bodhidharma said bring out your mind 01:46:58

here before me and i'll pacify it. 01:47:00

well he said when i look for it i can't 01:47:02

find it so bodhidharma said there it's 01:47:06

pacified 01:47:08

because when you look for your own mind 01:47:09

that is to say your own 01:47:11

particularized center of being which is 01:47:14

separate from everything else 01:47:15

you won't be able to find it but the 01:47:17

only way you'll know it isn't there is 01:47:19

if you look for it hard enough 01:47:21

to find out that it isn't there 01:47:21

and so everybody says all right know yourself look within 01:47:26

find out who you are because the harder 01:47:30

you look you won't be able to find it 01:47:32

and then you'll realize that it isn't 01:47:33

there at all 01:47:34

there isn't a separate you 01:47:37

your mind is what there is 01:47:41

everything but the only way to find that 01:47:44

out 01:47:45

is to persist in the state of delusion 01:47:47

as hard as possible 01:47:48

that's one way i don't say the only way 01:47:50

but it is one way 01:47:53

and so almost all spiritual disciplines 01:47:56

meditations prayers etc etc 01:47:59

are ways of persisting in folly 01:48:02

doing resolutely and consistently 01:48:07

what you're doing already 01:48:07

so if a person believes that the earth is flat 01:48:13

you can't talk him out of that he knows 01:48:17

it's flat look out of the window and see 01:48:19

it's obviously it looks flat 01:48:21

so the only way to convince him that it 01:48:23

isn't is to say well let's go and find 01:48:25

the edge 01:48:25

and in order to find the edge you've got to be very careful not to walk in 01:48:30

circles 01:48:31

you'll never find it that way so we got 01:48:34

to go consistently in a straight line 01:48:36

due west along the same line of latitude 01:48:39

and eventually when we get back to where 01:48:40

we started from 01:48:42

you've convinced the guy that the earth 01:48:44

is round 01:48:47

but that's the that's the only way 01:48:48

that'll tell that'll teach him 01:48:51

because people can't be talked out of 01:48:53

illusions 01:48:53

but now there is another possibility however 01:48:58

but this is more difficult to describe 01:49:02

let's say we take us the basic supposition 01:49:08

which is the thing that one sees in the experience of satori or awakening or 01:49:13

whatever you want to call it 01:49:16

that this now moment 01:49:20

in which i'm talking and you're 01:49:22

listening 01:49:24

is eternity 01:49:24

that although we have somehow conned ourselves into the notion that 01:49:31

this moment is rather ordinary 01:49:35

and that we may not feel very well and 01:49:37

that uh 01:49:38

we're sort of vaguely frustrated and 01:49:40

worried and so on 01:49:42

and that it ought to be changed 01:49:42

this is it so you don't need to do anything at all 01:49:48

but the difficulty about explaining that 01:49:53

is that don't you you mustn't try not to 01:49:54

do anything 01:49:55

because that's doing something 01:49:59

and how to explain that because there's 01:50:01

nothing to explain it's still 01:50:03

it is the way it is now you see 01:50:06

and if you understand that it will 01:50:08

automatically wake you up 01:50:08

[Applause] that's why zen teachers 01:50:14

use shock treatment 01:50:17

to sometimes while they hit people or shout at them or 01:50:23

create a sudden surprise 01:50:24

because it is that jolt that suddenly brings you 01:50:31

here see there's no road to here 01:50:39

because you're already there and if you 01:50:42

ask me 01:50:42

how am i going to get here it'll be like 01:50:45

the 01:50:46

famous story of the american tourist in 01:50:48

england who asked samyokal the way to 01:50:50

upper tutnam 01:50:52

little little village the yokel 01:50:55

scratched his head and he said 01:50:55

well sir i do know where it is but if i were you i wouldn't start from here 01:51:02

so you see when you ask how do i attain the knowledge of god 01:51:15

how do i attain nirvana liberation all i 01:51:19

can say is it's the wrong question 01:51:19

why do you want to attain it because the very fact that you're wanting to attain 01:51:26

it is the only thing that prevents you 01:51:29

from getting there 01:51:34

you already have it but of course 01:51:37

yeah it's it's up to you it's your 01:51:39

privilege to pretend that you don't 01:51:43

that's your game that's your life game 01:51:44

that's what makes you think you're an 01:51:46

ego 01:51:48

and uh when you want to wake up you will 01:51:53

dislike that if you're not awake it 01:51:55

shows you don't want to 01:51:56

you're you're still playing the hyde 01:51:58

part of the game you're still 01:52:00

as it were the the self pretending it's 01:52:02

not the self 01:52:04

that's what you want to do so you see in 01:52:07

that way too you're already there 01:52:11

when you understand this a funny thing 01:52:13

happens 01:52:15

and some people misinterpret it 01:52:19

you will discover as this happens that 01:52:21

the distinction between voluntary and 01:52:23

involuntary behavior disappears 01:52:30

you will realize that what you describe 01:52:33

as things under your own will 01:52:33

feel exactly the same as things going on outside you 01:52:40

you watch other people moving and you 01:52:44

know you're doing that 01:52:44

just like you're breathing or circulating your blood if you don't 01:52:51

understand what's going on 01:52:55

you're liable to get crazy at this point 01:52:58

and to feel that you are god in the 01:53:00

jehovah sense 01:53:03

say that you actually have power over 01:53:05

other people 01:53:07

so that you could alter what they're 01:53:08

doing 01:53:11

and that you are omnipotent in a very 01:53:12

crude literal 01:53:14

kind of bible sense you see 01:53:17

and uh a lot of people feel that and 01:53:19

they go crazy 01:53:20

they have to put them away they think 01:53:23

they're jesus christ and that everybody 01:53:24

ought to fall down and worship 01:53:27

that's only they got their wires crossed 01:53:29

they haven't been able to 01:53:31

this experience happened to them but 01:53:32

they don't know how to interpret it 01:53:32

so be careful of that jung calls it inflation 01:53:39

people who get the holy man syndrome 01:53:45

that uh i've suddenly discovered that 01:53:48

i'm the lord and that i'm above good and 01:53:50

evil and so on and that uh 01:53:52

therefore i start giving myself heirs 01:53:54

and graces 01:53:56

but the point is everybody else is too 01:53:56

if you discover that you're that then you ought to know that everybody else is 01:54:03

well for example let's see how in other ways 01:54:10

you might realize this 01:54:14

most people think when they open their 01:54:16

eyes and look around 01:54:17

that what they are seeing is outside 01:54:21

it seems doesn't it that you are behind 01:54:24

your eyes 01:54:24

and that behind the eyes there is a blank if you can't see at all turn 01:54:29

around 01:54:32

you see something else in front of you 01:54:34

but behind the eyes there seems to be 01:54:36

something that has no color 01:54:38

it isn't dark it isn't light it's just 01:54:41

it's there from a tactile standpoint you 01:54:42

can feel it with your fingers although 01:54:44

you don't get inside it 01:54:44

but what is that behind your eyes you see 01:54:49

well actually when you look out there and see all these people and 01:54:55

things sitting around that's how it 01:54:59

feels inside your head 01:54:59

the color of this room is back here in the nervous system 01:55:06

where the optical nerves are at the back 01:55:09

of the head it's in there 01:55:11

it's what you're experiencing what you 01:55:14

see out here is a neurological 01:55:15

experience 01:55:17

now if that hits you and you feel 01:55:20

sensuously that that's so you may think 01:55:23

that then 01:55:24

then therefore the external world is all 01:55:25

inside my skull 01:55:26

but you've got to correct that with the thought that your skull is also in the 01:55:31

external world 01:55:33

so you suddenly begin to feel well wow what a kind of a situation is this it's 01:55:41

inside me 01:55:44

and i'm inside it and it's inside me and 01:55:46

i'm inside it 01:55:47

but that's the way it is this is the 01:55:53

what you could call transaction rather 01:55:55

than interaction 01:55:57

between the individual and the world 01:55:59

just like for example in buying and 01:56:01

selling 01:56:02

there cannot be an act of buying unless 01:56:04

the simultaneously an act of selling and 01:56:05

vice versa 01:56:08

so the relationship between the organism 01:56:10

and the environment is transactional 01:56:14

the environment grows the organism and 01:56:16

in turn the organism creates the 01:56:18

environment 01:56:19

the organism turns the sun into light 01:56:22

but it requires there to be an 01:56:24

environment containing a sun for there 01:56:25

to be an organism at all 01:56:28

and the answer to it is simply they're 01:56:29

all one process 01:56:29

and it isn't that organisms by chance came into this world 01:56:40

put it rather that this world is the 01:56:46

sort of environment which grows 01:56:48

organisms 01:56:50

it was that way from the beginning just 01:56:53

in the same way for 01:56:54

i mean the organisms may in time have 01:56:57

arrived in the scene or out of the scene 01:57:00

later than the beginning of the scene 01:57:00

but from the moment it went bang in the beginning if that's the way it started 01:57:07

organisms like us are sitting here 01:57:13

we're involved in it you see look here 01:57:17

let's take the propagation of an 01:57:18

electric current 01:57:20

i can have a an electric current 01:57:24

running through a wire that goes all the 01:57:26

way around the earth 01:57:26

and uh here we have our power source and here we have a switch all right 01:57:34

here's the positive pole here's the 01:57:40

negative pole 01:57:40

before that switch closes there is the current doesn't exactly 01:57:52

behave like water 01:57:56

in a pipe there isn't current here 01:57:59

waiting to jump the gap as soon as the 01:58:01

switch is closed the current doesn't 01:58:06

even 01:58:07

start until the switch is closed from 01:58:09

the positive pole 01:58:10

it never starts unless the point of arrival is there 01:58:15

now it'll take an interval for that current to get going 01:58:20

and uh circuit if it's going all the way 01:58:25

around the earth 01:58:26

it's a long run but the but the 01:58:29

finishing point has to be closed before 01:58:31

it will even start from the beginning 01:58:35

in a similar way although uh 01:58:38

in the development of any physical 01:58:40

system there may be billions of years 01:58:42

between the creation of the 01:58:46

most primitive form of energy and then 01:58:48

the arrival of intelligent life 01:58:51

that billions of years is just the same 01:58:53

thing as the trip of the current round 01:58:54

the wire 01:58:55

takes a little time but it's already 01:58:59

implied it takes time for an acorn to 01:59:01

turn into an oat 01:59:02

but the oak is already implied in the 01:59:03

acorn 01:59:03

and so in any lump of rock floating about in space there is implicit 01:59:09

human intelligence 01:59:16

sometimes somehow somewhere they all go 01:59:19

together 01:59:19

so don't differentiate yourself and stand off against this and say i am a 01:59:27

living organism 01:59:30

in a world made of a lot of dead junk 01:59:33

rocks and stuff 01:59:34

it all goes together those rocks are 01:59:36

just as much you as your fingernails 01:59:36

you need rocks what are you going to stand on 01:59:43

what i think you know awakening really involves 01:59:50

is a re-examination of our common sense 01:59:58

we've got all sorts of ideas built into us 02:00:06

which seems 02:00:12

unquestioned obvious 02:00:12

and our speech reflects them the communist phrases 02:00:21

face the facts as if they were outside 02:00:28

you 02:00:30

as if uh life was something you simply 02:00:32

encountered as a foreigner 02:00:34

face the facts 02:00:41

our common sense has been rigged you see 02:00:46

so that we feel 02:00:46

strangers and aliens in this world 02:00:52

and this is terribly plausible 02:00:58

simply because it's what we're used to that's the only reason 02:01:04

but when you really start questioning 02:01:10

this say is that the way i have to 02:01:12

assume life is 02:01:13

i know everybody does but does that make 02:01:15

it true 02:01:17

it doesn't necessarily it ain't 02:01:18

necessarily so 02:01:23

and so then you is as you question this 02:01:25

basic assumption 02:01:26

that underlies our culture you find you 02:01:29

get a new kind of common sense it 02:01:31

becomes absolutely obvious to you 02:01:34

that you are continuous with the 02:01:36

universe 02:01:36

for example people used to believe that the people who lived in the antipodes 02:01:43

would fall off 02:01:47

and that was scary but then when 02:01:49

somebody sailed around the world 02:01:51

and we all got used to it and now we we 02:01:54

travel around in jet planes and 02:01:55

everything 02:01:56

we have no problem about feeling that 02:01:57

the earth is globular 02:02:00

none whatever we got used to it 02:02:03

so in the same way einstein's relativity 02:02:06

theories the curvature of the 02:02:07

propagation of light 02:02:09

that began to bother people when 02:02:10

einstein started talking like that but 02:02:12

now we're all used to it 02:02:14

well in a few years it will be a matter 02:02:18

of common sense to very many people that 02:02:19

they are one with the universe 02:02:22

it'll be so simple 02:02:22

and then maybe if that happens we should be in a position to handle our 02:02:29

technology with more sense 02:02:31

with love instead of with hate for our environment 02:02:39