Subtitles
the difficulty you see is with people 00:00:00
the difficulty you see is with people who get their introduction to mysticism 00:00:02
through LSD or marijuana and other 00:00:10
chemicals is that they get suddenly 00:00:13
flipped into very high states of 00:00:17
consciousness with no background no way 00:00:21
to comprehend it no way to deal with it 00:00:23
no way to bring it down to earth and 00:00:27
therefore since there are operating in 00:00:31
the same area where these things are 00:00:33
happening experienced people who have 00:00:37
long long training in knowing how to 00:00:41
connect the mystical was a practical 00:00:43
this is a very good influence and in the 00:00:47
same way I would think Krishnamurti has 00:00:47
a comparable influence although he doesn't act as the leader of an ongoing 00:00:56
community as Susan he does this is 00:01:06
more or less touch-and-go thing a few 00:01:09
meetings a few encounters and that's the 00:01:11
end of it it's up to you after that but 00:01:14
both these directions of presenting the 00:01:17
problem of self-realization are 00:01:23
certainly not frivolous and certainly 00:01:28
require a great deal of self-examination 00:01:31
and this is a great problem which faces 00:01:34
us now among young people who are in 00:01:37
revolt against all sorts of things that 00:01:41
in the lives of their fathers and 00:01:44
mothers they feel to be false they are 00:01:47
in result and against what Buddhists 00:01:50
call samsara samsara means the wheel of 00:01:54
birth and death 00:01:55
but samsara really is the same thing as 00:01:58
a squirrel cage a rat race where you are 00:02:02
working and working and working for you 00:02:07
really know not what a process of 00:02:10
gaining money or status or whatever it 00:02:13
is not really to be enjoyed because one 00:02:16
feels a little bit too guilty to enjoy 00:02:17
it but to bring on children to give them 00:02:22
expensive and glorious college education 00:02:24
so that they can bring up their children 00:02:27
to do the same thing you see and it just 00:02:29
goes on and on and on and on like this 00:02:30
and so against this Rand race against 00:02:32
the absorption say of the at the 00:02:35
executive in paperwork and abstraction 00:02:37
against the complete dissolution of the 00:02:40
family by reason of husband's absorption 00:02:44
in business wife's absorption in women's 00:02:46
clubs children's absorptions in a school 00:02:49
where they're not cared for by their 00:02:51
parents the revolt against all that sort 00:02:53
of thing is going on but it's just not 00:02:56
enough to revolt 00:02:58
it's just not enough to take various 00:03:04
drugs which open your mind to new 00:03:06
dimensions it's not enough to challenge 00:03:08
everybody standards in clothing in 00:03:11
housing in family arrangements and so on 00:03:16
behind all the behind and beyond all 00:03:18
that there must be some way of bringing 00:03:21
it all to earth grounding it as I've 00:03:24
intimated already the fascination of 00:03:27
young people today for the mystical and 00:03:30
for chemical mysticism is very dangerous 00:03:35
like every worthwhile Enterprise is 00:03:38
dangerous if they weren't doing that 00:03:39
there'd be driving hot rods and perhaps 00:03:42
skydiving anyway something dangerous the 00:03:46
young always have to be involved in 00:03:47
something dangerous but this adventure 00:03:50
of exploration of the inner world is of 00:03:53
peculiar danger simply because it goes 00:03:58
into that aspect of our being about 00:04:00
which we know least our own in a life 00:04:03
our minds but it is of the utmost 00:04:05
importance that those adventures be 00:04:09
accompanied with some kind of discipline 00:04:12
our discipline is a dirty word today 00:04:14
among young people when you say 00:04:17
discipline it means a bad no don't do it 00:04:21
and so I substitute for the word 00:04:24
discipline the word skill because there 00:04:27
is no pleasure in this world without 00:04:28
skill and skill is a an attractive word 00:04:32
discipline is a pushaway word see 00:04:36
and you are all do as I look round to 00:04:41
estimate the ages of people in this room 00:04:43
you're all involved with young people 00:04:45
and you must be very conscious as you 00:04:50
all are very common of the strife the 00:04:55
discord the gap between generations and 00:04:58
so what I I'm myself regard my function 00:05:02
to be a bridge person I've worked all my 00:05:06
life to be a bridge between East and 00:05:08
West and now is thrown in my lap the job 00:05:11
of being a bridge between the unruly oak 00:05:13
and so now I'm talking to them a 00:05:17
relatively older group and I want to say 00:05:21
some very serious things to you about 00:05:25
how to handle what is happening among 00:05:27
young people especially since this is 00:05:29
under the auspices of the Blaisdell 00:05:31
Institute which is concerned with a 00:05:33
university education of young people in 00:05:38
relation to everything I've been talking 00:05:40
about because the young are interested 00:05:43
deeply and seriously invested in the 00:05:46
transformation of consciousness in 00:05:51
breaking out from the narrow situation 00:05:54
of the alienated individual against the 00:05:56
world but in doing this they are showing 00:06:00
the usual 00:06:01
excesses and imbalances of things that 00:06:04
young people always do they're not 00:06:06
experienced they're not mature 00:06:06
therefore just for the very reason that they're not mature they have the guts 00:06:12
while the fool hardness if you want to 00:06:17
call it that to go out on these 00:06:18
expeditions but it was always so in the 00:06:21
year 6,000 BC 00:06:23
an Egyptian priest was complaining of 00:06:26
the death and irresponsibility and 00:06:28
discipline be done so what to do under 00:06:31
these circumstances we you must not give 00:06:35
up your own ground in the sense that 00:06:38
there is as I said a very definite need 00:06:43
for a discipline for something that will 00:06:47
act in the same way in as in radio the 00:06:50
ground wire access to the antenna it's 00:06:54
not enough to have own way out 00:06:56
experience and come back and say to your 00:07:00
friends man the gas because it is 00:07:03
immemorial wisdom that everybody who 00:07:07
takes a heroic journey must bring 00:07:09
something back because if he doesn't 00:07:12
nobody knows he's taken in they have 00:07:15
lied he may say he may just have said 00:07:17
that he went to the land of the demons 00:07:20
and fought with the dragons and then 00:07:22
crossed the perilous bridge and came 00:07:24
into the fairy Palace 00:07:27
bring back a fairies feather 00:07:27
proven this is not merely to prove it is also to do another thing which is the 00:07:35
whole work of art what is art art is 00:07:39
what Christians call the process of 00:07:42
incarnation the making of the Divine 00:07:45
Word into the flesh the expression in a 00:07:50
material form of vision and to do that 00:07:53
it's very difficult on a hundred 00:07:57
micrograms of LSD you may very well have 00:08:00
seen the vision of God in a dirty old 00:08:01
ashtray do can you imagine that that's 00:08:04
possible but it is because what is an 00:08:09
ashtray actions the decay falling apart 00:08:13
burning away the turning of a lie more 00:08:20
or less alive or lease moist leaves of 00:08:22
tobacco into dust and as you begin to 00:08:26
think about that from a certain point of 00:08:28
view it becomes a terrible process of 00:08:30
existence what is this turning of 00:08:33
everything into dust the first sight it 00:08:36
looks as if it were a kind of a do 00:08:39
everything is just going into dust dust 00:08:41
dust dust and blowing away and you 00:08:44
realize that's what you're doing and by 00:08:47
smoking these cigarettes 00:08:48
you're slowly coating suicide giving 00:08:52
yourself lung cancer or something then 00:08:55
you may remember the words of C ji-yong 00:08:58
that life is an incurable disease with a 00:09:01
very bad prognosis which lingers on for 00:09:03
years and invariably ends with death 00:09:03
everything you do is bad point like the little boy four years old who'd got 00:09:13
sunburned and his skin was peeling and 00:09:18
he looked in the mirror said so young 00:09:22
and wearing out already 00:09:22
all energy wears you out everything is going into dust but as I was suggesting 00:09:32
this morning when you understand that 00:09:38
the life is that that your birth was 00:09:41
being kicked off a precipice that you're 00:09:43
going to ashes 00:09:46
remember the ceremony in the Catholic 00:09:48
Church on Ash Wednesday everybody deals 00:09:51
before the altar the priest put 00:09:52
cigarette ash or rather the burnt palm 00:09:54
leaves previous table Sunday on their 00:09:57
forest instead remember oh man the dust 00:09:59
thou art and unto dust thou shalt return 00:10:01
you remember the poem of GK Chesterton 00:10:04
not dust what a vile dust the preacher 00:10:08
said piss off the whole world will he 00:10:12
goes off these talks about 00:10:14
[Music] 00:10:16
everything be her kind of trembling dust 00:10:18
and he ends up by saying talking of that 00:10:22
final day no not the final day the first 00:10:25
day when God was with the Angels when 00:10:28
God to all his paladin's by his own 00:10:31
splendor swore to make a fairer face 00:10:34
than heaven of dust honey so he distally 00:10:37
it to the extent see this earth was a 00:10:39
kind of a paradox and to the extent that 00:10:42
you'll completely accept the dissolution 00:10:44
of everything in the dust that by doing 00:10:49
that you let go of that clinging to 00:10:53
prominence to yourself to security which 00:10:56
releases all the energies of life to the 00:10:58
degree the formula in it to the degree 00:11:00
that you are willing to become dust that 00:11:02
degree you are alive and that's how a 00:11:05
person could see the vision of God in 00:11:07
imaginary now I've spent a few minutes 00:11:09
taking some trouble with words to 00:11:12
explain the ashtray as the vehicle of 00:11:15
the women of God now if you're a painter 00:11:17
[Music] 00:11:19
it's not just enough to take a pedestal 00:11:23
I mean so then let's say you're a 00:11:24
sculptor you're a person who presents 00:11:26
objects of art you can't just get away 00:11:30
with putting a nice walnut cube 00:11:34
beautifully polished filthy ashtray on 00:11:37
it enclose it in a glass case put a 00:11:40
label on it 00:11:40
say beatific vision that will shock 00:11:45
people a little bit and I give them 00:11:48
pause but if you are really skilled you 00:11:53
will understand how to paint an old 00:11:55
ashtray or photograph it in such a way 00:11:59
that people's hearts will stop 00:12:01
[Music] 00:12:04
and then pee but to do that will be 00:12:07
necessary for you to show all the 00:12:09
individual little pepper of pepper and 00:12:12
salt pepper patterns in ash as a 00:12:16
collection of tiny jewels which is how 00:12:21
you can see them but you have to 00:12:23
represent that and carry it out and 00:12:25
bring it through just in the same way as 00:12:27
the people who painted Persian 00:12:30
miniatures which are painted jewelry 00:12:34
would look at trees and grasses and 00:12:38
rocks and suddenly show them as full of 00:12:43
interior light enchanted divine by a 00:12:47
very skillful technique but you have to 00:12:51
have that technique to bring it through 00:12:54
some for some possession some complete 00:12:57
mastering of an artistic technique is 00:13:00
necessary for the bringing through of 00:13:02
the vision so then our young people have 00:13:06
stumbled on 00:13:07
[Music] 00:13:09
a key to the vision psychedelic 00:13:13
chemicals and such things 00:13:16
but they will not be able to bring it 00:13:19
through unless they also have the skills 00:13:22
and therefore the and the attitude of 00:13:25
the older generation in this situation 00:13:27
will naturally be one of great concern 00:13:30
and worry as to what this kind of easy 00:13:34
mysticism too easy mysticism shall we 00:13:38
say is going to bring about 00:13:41
all this has become terribly popular for 00:13:43
the simple reason that human beings need 00:13:46
religion are starved for it and that the 00:13:49
churches have not delivered they have 00:13:52
not delivered the experience therefore 00:13:54
alternatives are being explored right 00:13:58
now but you as I I repeat you are 00:14:02
rightly and properly concerned as to 00:14:06
what will be the after and the only way 00:14:09
to make a good job of it is instead of 00:14:13
saying suppress the whole thing which 00:14:17
never works anyway 00:14:19
is to emphasize the point all right all 00:14:22
right you've done this this is what 00:14:23
you've seen we've had these experiences 00:14:25
but 00:14:27
there is a great deal mortar at the 00:14:29
latter in my own study of these kind of 00:14:33
experiences I could not have really 00:14:39
really enjoyed them unless I had before 00:14:44
that time being trained in all sorts of 00:14:48
ways not only to understand the 00:14:53
doctrines of the symbolism of religions 00:14:56
pathologies but also simply to speak and 00:14:59
write because unless you know the art of 00:15:05
language or you know the art of numbers 00:15:09
or whatever it is whatever is the 00:15:11
vehicle through which you express 00:15:12
yourself 00:15:13
you can't bring it forth there one of 00:15:17
the great puzzles of life still consider 00:15:19
people who had a great love affair Dante 00:15:22
and Beatrice everybody knows about that 00:15:25
love affair because Dante could express 00:15:28
it so gorgeously the supposing system 00:15:32
people who had a love affair and all the 00:15:35
guy could ever say to the girls this is 00:15:50
a real puzzle because is that guy and 00:15:52
unless in love with the girl and Dante 00:15:54
was with Beatrice perhaps it was the 00:15:59
same degree of love but obviously the 00:16:02
the effect for man kind of down to his 00:16:06
love was far greater than the guy who 00:16:10
can only say move see one they they both 00:16:15
go into the paradise they both go into 00:16:17
the beatific vision the one brings it 00:16:20
back and shares it and this is the 00:16:23
distinction which is made in Buddhism 00:16:24
between two kinds of Buddhas 00:16:27
there's the Buddha who attains Nirvana 00:16:29
for himself is called a pratyekabuddha 00:16:33
and there is the Buddha who crosses and 00:16:36
sees Nirvana and comes back to share it 00:16:41
with the whole universe with everybody 00:16:42
all sentient beings 00:16:43
he's called Bodhisattva and it so turns 00:16:47
out that in the literature of Mahayana 00:16:49
Buddhism pratyekabuddha is almost a term 00:16:51
of abuse 00:16:52
whereas a bodhisattva is the ideal form 00:16:55
of math because the bodhisattva realizes 00:17:00
that he does not have the very really if 00:17:06
love and let me put it in this way I 00:17:08
don't have it if you don't because I 00:17:10
have it only to the extent that I can 00:17:13
give it away 00:17:14
that I can give it up and to I'm quoting 00:17:18
Gary Snyder up and to all others but in 00:17:22
order that people may master these 00:17:24
disciplines and this is the 00:17:28
responsibility of the older generations 00:17:30
it must be understood that working on 00:17:35
the disciplines is fun and this is the 00:17:40
task of all good teachers all good 00:17:43
really gifted great teachers there are 00:17:46
people who never have to resolve in 00:17:49
their classes to artificial methods of 00:17:51
imposing discipline they need no 00:17:54
Proctor's they need no punishments they 00:17:57
need no bribes because the good teacher 00:18:01
is the person who makes the work of 00:18:04
learning the disciplines of pletely 00:18:06
fascinating that the student is 00:18:09
embroiled the reason being that learning 00:18:16
a discipline is not a matter of forcing 00:18:19
yourself 00:18:19
and here the English language leaves a little bit to be desired we have a 00:18:24
paucity of words for effort for 00:18:32
application for concentration we can 00:18:36
talk about when we when we're talking 00:18:39
the children you must apply yourself now 00:18:43
it's perfectly true nothing in the way 00:18:46
of a skill will be achieved without 00:18:48
practice 00:18:49
but if practice is strained still 00:18:53
nothing will be achieved by except 00:18:55
resentment many a little boy learns to 00:18:59
hate the violin of the piano because it 00:19:03
was drummed into him this is what you've 00:19:05
got to do you've got to apply yourself 00:19:06
to it that I don't know driving it home 00:19:10
but on the other hand if there is a way 00:19:12
of fascinating a child with the 00:19:19
discipline of any musical instrument or 00:19:21
what-have-you 00:19:22
then they can apply themselves day after 00:19:26
day after day after day 00:19:28
and be fascinated with the discipline 00:19:31
now this is the skill of the teacher 00:19:33
this is papaya I use the Sanskrit 00:19:37
worthless morning skillful means to get 00:19:37
the student to love the art because they remember this principle if your student 00:19:46
does not learn to love the discipline he 00:19:51
will never be any good at what you're 00:19:52
teaching now you may know that certain 00:19:56
kinds of scholars 00:19:58
do work that most of us would think very 00:20:01
tedious they are let supposing I talk 00:20:06
afield about which I know a few 00:20:07
smatterings which was the study of 00:20:09
Chinese 00:20:09
Chinese scholarship is very difficult you have enormous amount of characters 00:20:14
to study and you have to look up things 00:20:18
in dictionaries and consult volumes of 00:20:21
this and volumes of that but the true 00:20:23
scholar is a person who just loves doing 00:20:25
that he'll spend a whole afternoon going 00:20:28
after one character through all sorts of 00:20:31
things sifting this reference and that 00:20:32
reference and he will be you'll be 00:20:35
having more fun than someone at a 00:20:40
bowling alley doing just that and from 00:20:45
the standpoint of an external observer 00:20:47
who has no particular interest in 00:20:49
they'll say oh how hard he is working 00:20:53
you know in my private life I must 00:20:56
confess to I've had a terrible time of 00:20:57
this because I love my work and people 00:21:04
who had absolutely say no comprehension 00:21:07
or interest is what I'm doing would 00:21:09
wonder how do I keep up the pace how can 00:21:12
I possibly do this that you know I love 00:21:14
it but then there are other people who 00:21:17
say you never do a limit work in your 00:21:19
life you're playing all the time 00:21:22
there's goofing off it's too easy for 00:21:25
you because you love it 00:21:25
but that's the only way to get it done and done well because if you if you if 00:21:32
if you have something that is say a good 00:21:42
marriage a good marriage is not the 00:21:46
result of forcing yourself into that 00:21:48
marriage 00:21:49
are you seriously supposing that if you 00:21:51
say to your husband or wife darling do 00:21:54
you really love me and the partner 00:21:56
answers I'm trying my best to do so this 00:21:59
is necessarily not a satisfactory 00:22:01
marriage we are not going to get 00:22:09
beautiful work by mere effort against 00:22:15
the grain when you you could tell a cook 00:22:19
instantly by tasting one mouthful of a 00:22:21
dish whether it was cooked out of a 00:22:23
sense of duty or cooked out of love but 00:22:25
the person say who cooks our own true 00:22:27
love will of course encounter days on 00:22:29
which it is difficult but somehow the 00:22:33
overall love of the art will manage to 00:22:38
get him through those days when it's 00:22:39
difficult and so with marriage and so 00:22:44
with the mastery of any other 00:22:44
but it is on the end of the older people it is up to the teachers the parents 00:22:49
to present the disciplines of life as something that not does that you ought 00:22:59
to know but as something that it is 00:23:05
beautiful to understand 00:23:07
[Music] 00:23:07
you [Music] 00:23:14
you 00:24:49