Subtitles
that the point that I wish to make most 00:00:00
that the point that I wish to make most strongly 00:00:03
that behind a vital religious life for the West 00:00:16
there has to be faith which is not expressed in things to which you cling 00:00:22
in ideas opinions to which you cling in 00:00:31
a kind of desperation faith is the act 00:00:35
of letting go and that must begin with 00:00:39
letting go of God let God go but you see 00:00:44
this is not a theism in the ordinary 00:00:46
sense atheism in the ordinary sense is 00:00:48
fervently hoping that there isn't a God 00:00:51
it has become extremely plausible that 00:00:57
this trip between the maternity ward in 00:01:01
the crematorium is what there is to life 00:01:04
and we still have going into our common 00:01:08
sense the 19th century myth which 00:01:12
succeeded the ceramic myth in Western 00:01:14
history I call it the myth of the fully 00:01:16
automatic model of the universe namely 00:01:20
that it's stupid it's blind force 00:01:20
heckles gyration for fortuitous Congress and Adams isn't the same vintage as 00:01:31
Freud's libido the blind surge of lust 00:01:40
at the bases of human psychology 00:01:43
but when you consider this attitude you 00:01:48
know what is the poetic counterpart of 00:01:49
man is a little germ that lives on an 00:01:52
unimportant rock ball that revolves 00:01:55
about an insignificant star on the outer 00:01:58
edges of one of the smaller galaxies 00:02:01
there are what I put down that was 00:02:01
but on the other hand if you think about that for a few minutes 00:02:08
I am absolutely amazed to discover 00:02:13
myself on this rock ball rotating around 00:02:16
us of a spherical fire it's a very hard 00:02:19
situation and the more I look at things 00:02:25
I cannot get rid of the feeling that 00:02:28
existence is quite withered I know that 00:02:32
see a philosopher is a sort of 00:02:34
intellectual yoga who GOx and things 00:02:39
that sensible people take for granted 00:02:41
and sensible people have existence it's 00:02:44
nothing to all I ministers basically 00:02:46
just go on and do something see this is 00:02:48
the current movement in philosophy 00:02:50
logical analysis says you mustn't think 00:02:52
about existence it's a meaningless 00:02:53
concept 00:02:54
therefore philosophy has become the 00:02:56
discussion of trivia and philosophical 00:02:59
journals is now a satisfactorily dull as 00:03:01
any other kind of purely technical 00:03:04
inquiry no good philosopher lies awake 00:03:08
nights worrying about the destiny of man 00:03:11
and the nature of God and the all that 00:03:14
sort of thing because philosopher today 00:03:16
is a practical fellow who comes to the 00:03:18
university with a briefcase at 9:00 and 00:03:20
leaves at 5:00 he does philosophy during 00:03:23
the day which is discussing whether 00:03:25
certain sentences have meaning and if so 00:03:27
what and then he would as William Earl 00:03:30
said in a very funny essay he would come 00:03:33
to work in a white coat if he thought he 00:03:35
could get away with 00:03:36
[Music] 00:03:38
problem is he's lost his sense of wonder 00:03:41
wonder is is like a in in modern 00:03:44
philosophy something you mustn't have 00:03:45
it's like enthusiasm in 18th century 00:03:47
England there's very bad form but you 00:03:51
see I don't know what question to ask 00:03:54
when I wonder about the universe it 00:03:56
isn't a question that I'm wondering 00:03:58
about it's and a feeling that I have 00:04:00
imagine if you had a an interview with 00:04:03
God everybody was going to have an 00:04:05
interview with God and you allowed to 00:04:06
ask one question what would you ask 00:04:10
don't don't rush into it you will so 00:04:12
find that you have no idea what to ask 00:04:15
because I cannot formulate the question 00:04:17
that is my wonder the moment my mouth 00:04:20
opens to utter it I suddenly find I'm 00:04:22
talking nonsense but that should not 00:04:25
prevent wonder from being the foundation 00:04:27
of philosophy of well as Aristotle said 00:04:32
wonder is the beginning of philosophy 00:04:35
because it strikes you that existence is 00:04:38
very very strange and then more so when 00:04:41
this so-called insignificant little 00:04:43
creature has inside his skull a 00:04:46
neurological contraption that is able to 00:04:50
center itself in the midst of these 00:04:53
incredible expansive galaxies and start 00:04:56
measuring the whole thing that is quite 00:04:59
extraordinary then furthermore when you 00:05:02
realize that in a world where there are 00:05:04
no eyes the Sun would not be light 00:05:04
and that in a world where there were no soft skills rocks will not be hard 00:05:11
nor in a world where there were no 00:05:15
muscles would they be heavy existences 00:05:19
relationship and you are smack in the 00:05:21
middle of it 00:05:21
There is obviously a place in life for a 00:05:33
religious attitude in the sense of or 00:05:37
astonishment at existence and 00:05:41
[Music] 00:05:43
that is also a basis of respect for 00:05:46
existence we don't have very much of it 00:05:49
in this culture or even though we call 00:05:51
it materialistic a materialist is a 00:05:54
person who loves material and I suppose 00:05:57
in the Christian tradition and in the 00:05:59
Jewish one would say that the Lord God 00:06:01
is the greatest material issed because 00:06:04
you know as William temple once in God 00:06:07
is interested in many other things than 00:06:09
religion well God only interested in 00:06:13
religion the world would consist of 00:06:14
nothing but church buildings and Bibles 00:06:16
and pleasure pretty boring so 00:06:16
[Music] while in the culture that we call 00:06:29
materialistic today we are of course 00:06:33
bent on the total destruction of 00:06:34
material and its conversion into junk 00:06:36
and poisonous gas as quickly as possible 00:06:39
this is not a materialistic culture 00:06:41
because it has no respect for material 00:06:44
and respect is in turn based on wonder 00:06:47
I'm feeling the mob of just an ordinary 00:06:51
pebble in your fingers 00:06:54
[Music] 00:06:55
so I'm afraid you see for the goddess 00:06:57
dead theology that it will sort of drift 00:07:00
off into secular do-goodery in the name 00:07:08
of Jesus and this is I think where we 00:07:14
can be strongly revivified and 00:07:16
stimulated by the introduction into our 00:07:20
spiritual life of certain things that 00:07:22
are oriental now you see it must be 00:07:26
understood that the crux of the Hindu 00:07:30
and Buddhist disciplines is an 00:07:33
experience not a theory not a belief if 00:07:41
we say that a religion is a combination 00:07:44
of creed code and cult in other words 00:07:46
this is true of Judaism Islam and 00:07:49
Christianity and if they are religions 00:07:51
Buddhism is not because the creed is a 00:07:56
revelation a revealed symbolism of what 00:08:00
the universe is about and you are 00:08:03
commanded to believe in it on the divine 00:08:04
authority the code is the revealed will 00:08:07
of God for man which you are commanded 00:08:08
to obey and the cult is the divinely 00:08:11
revealed form of worship which you must 00:08:13
practice commandment because God is boss 00:08:16
he's ruler king of kings and Lord of 00:08:19
lords 00:08:21
but the discipline say of yoga in 00:08:24
Hinduism or of the various forms of 00:08:27
Buddhist meditation do not require you 00:08:29
to believe anything and they have no 00:08:32
Commandments in them they do indeed have 00:08:34
precepts but they are really vows which 00:08:37
you undertake and on your own 00:08:38
responsibility not in obedience to 00:08:40
anybody they are experimental techniques 00:08:43
for changing consciousness and the thing 00:08:47
they are mainly concerned with is 00:08:49
helping human beings to get rid of the 00:08:52
hallucination that each one of us is 00:08:54
asked in encapsulated ego you know a 00:08:58
little sauce a little man inside your 00:09:01
head located between the ears and behind 00:09:03
the eyes who is the source of conscious 00:09:05
attention and voluntary behavior most 00:09:09
people you know don't think they don't 00:09:10
really think that they are anything but 00:09:13
that and the body is the thing you have 00:09:15
mummy who would I have been if my father 00:09:18
had been someone else parents give you 00:09:21
the body and you pop the soul into it at 00:09:23
some period conception or partition 00:09:24
nobody could ever decide and this 00:09:27
attitude stays with us that we are 00:09:28
something in our body that we have a 00:09:30
body and we are not it so we experience 00:09:34
the beating of the heart as something 00:09:36
that happens to me whereas talking or 00:09:38
walking is something that I do don't you 00:09:40
beat your heart the language won't allow 00:09:42
you to think that it's not customary to 00:09:44
say so 00:09:45
how do you think how do you manage to be 00:09:48
conscious you don't know how do you open 00:09:51
and close your hand do you know if 00:09:54
you're a physiologist you may be able to 00:09:56
say but that doesn't help you to open 00:09:57
and close your hand any better than I do 00:09:59
see I know how to do it but I can't put 00:10:02
it into words in the same way the hindu 00:10:05
god knows how he creates this whole 00:10:06
universe because he does it but he 00:10:09
wouldn't explain it that would be stupid 00:10:10
he might as well try to drink the 00:10:12
Pacific Ocean with a fork so when a 00:10:17
Hindu gets enlightened and he recovers 00:10:20
from the hallucination of being a skin 00:10:23
encapsulated ego and finds out that 00:10:25
central to his own self is the eternal 00:10:27
self of the universe and you go up to 00:10:30
him and say well how do you do all this 00:10:32
he says well just like you open and 00:10:34
close your hand and because we're all 00:10:37
dead 00:10:38
whenever a questioner used to come to 00:10:42
Sri Ramana the great Hindu sage who died 00:10:46
a few years ago they said to him master 00:10:50
was I living before in a previous 00:10:52
incarnation and if so who was I he would 00:10:56
say who is asking the question 00:10:56
who are you and a spiritual teacher in both Hinduism and Buddhism is a kind of 00:11:04
well what he does to awaken you to get 00:11:11
you over the hallucination of being the 00:11:13
skin encapsulated even he bugs you 00:11:13
he has a funny look in his eye as if to say come off it Shiva I know what you're 00:11:20
doing it's about me he looks at you in a 00:11:32
funny way finally you get the feeling 00:11:39
that he sees all the way through you and 00:11:42
therefore that all your selfish and evil 00:11:44
thoughts and nastiness is a transparent 00:11:48
to this gaze and then you have to try 00:11:51
and alter them he suggests you see that 00:11:54
you practice the control of the mind 00:11:55
that you become desires you give up 00:12:01
selfish desire so as to cease to be a 00:12:03
skin encapsulate itself and then you may 00:12:07
have some success in parting and then 00:12:11
after that he's throw a curve at you 00:12:13
which is but aren't you still desiring 00:12:17
not to desire 00:12:17
why you trying to be unselfish 00:12:20
well the answer is I want to be on the side of the big battalion I think it's 00:12:25
going to pay better to be unselfish than 00:12:30
to be selfish 00:12:31
well Luther saw that Augustine saw that 00:12:37
but there it is because what he's done 00:12:41
you see he's beginning to make you see 00:12:44
the unreality the hallucinatory quality 00:12:47
of a separate self this has merely 00:12:53
conventional reality in the same sense 00:12:55
as lines of latitude and longitude the 00:12:57
measurements of the clock that's why one 00:13:00
of the meanings of Maya illusion is 00:13:02
measurement things for example are 00:13:06
measurements they are units of thought 00:13:08
like inches are units of measurement 00:13:10
there are no things and physical nature 00:13:14
how many things is a thing any mate is 00:13:16
any number you want how's the thing as a 00:13:21
think a unit of thought it's as much of 00:13:25
reality as you can catch hold of in one 00:13:27
idea so when this realization of the 00:13:34
hallucination of the separate self comes 00:13:36
about it comes about through discovering 00:13:38
that your alleged separate self can't do 00:13:40
anything it can't improve itself either 00:13:44
by doing something about it or by doing 00:13:46
nothing about it both ways are based on 00:13:50
illusion you see this is what you have 00:13:54
to do to get people out of 00:13:55
hallucinations you make them act 00:13:57
consistently on the suppositions of the 00:14:00
hallucination people who believe that 00:14:02
the earth is flat cannot possibly be 00:14:04
talked into seeing that it's round 00:14:05
because they know it's flat because 00:14:08
can't you see so what you do is this you 00:14:11
say let's go and look over the edge 00:14:13
wouldn't that be fun but you see to be 00:14:16
sure that we do get to the edge we must 00:14:18
be very careful not to walk in circles 00:14:22
so you'll perform a discipline you go 00:14:26
steadily and rigorously westwards along 00:14:30
latitude 40 or something and then when 00:14:32
you get back to the place where you 00:14:33
started he is convinced that the world 00:14:35
is at least cylindrical 00:14:38
by experiment 00:14:40
by reduction ad absurdum of his premises 00:14:43
and so in the same way the guru whether 00:14:47
Hindu or Buddhist performs a reductio ad 00:14:49
absurdum on the premise of the skin 00:14:51
encapsulated ego well what happens then 00:14:56
you might imagine from garbled accounts 00:15:01
of Eastern mysticism that one thereupon 00:15:04
disappears forever into an infinite sea 00:15:08
of faintly moved yellow 00:15:08
and become so lost to the world in entrace that you forget your name 00:15:17
address telephone number and function in 00:15:21
life and nothing of the kind happens the 00:15:25
state of mystical illumination although 00:15:28
it may in its sudden onset be 00:15:30
accompanied by a sensation tremendous 00:15:32
luminescence and transparency as he get 00:15:36
used to it it's just like everyday life 00:15:39
here are the things that you formerly 00:15:42
thought were separate individuals and 00:15:44
they're here you who formerly thought 00:15:46
was merely confronting these other 00:15:48
people when the great dr. DT Suzuki was 00:15:52
asked what is it like to be enlightened 00:15:53
he said it's just like ordinary everyday 00:15:55
experience except about two inches off 00:15:57
the ground 00:15:59
[Music] 00:15:59
because what is altered is not the way your senses perceive what 00:16:05
is altered is what you think about your 00:16:13
definitions of what you see your 00:16:15
evaluation of it so when you don't cling 00:16:19
to it when you have no longer a hostile 00:16:21
attitude to the world because you know 00:16:22
the world is you it is I mean let's take 00:16:26
it from the point of view of biology if 00:16:28
I describe the behavior of a living 00:16:30
organism I cannot possibly describe that 00:16:33
behavior without simultaneously 00:16:34
describing the behavior of the 00:16:36
environment so that I discover that I 00:16:40
don't describe organisms in environments 00:16:43
I describe a unified field of behavior 00:16:46
called an organism environment - awkward 00:16:49
word but there it is the environment 00:16:54
doesn't push the organism around the 00:16:56
organism doesn't push the environment 00:16:58
around they are two aspects or poles of 00:17:01
the same process 00:17:01
and so you have to understand that this attitude towards nature seeing the 00:17:08
fundamental unity of the self which 00:17:12
manifests it all is not an attitude as a 00:17:15
missionary's apt to suppose which denies 00:17:18
the value of differentiation 00:17:21
you must understand the principle of 00:17:23
what are called identical differences to 00:17:28
take a coin the head side is a different 00:17:30
side from the tail side and yet the two 00:17:33
are inseparable 00:17:35
take the operation of buying and selling 00:17:37
selling is a different operation from 00:17:40
buying but you can't buy unless somebody 00:17:42
sells at the same time and vice versa 00:17:45
this is what is meant by the underlying 00:17:47
unity of opposites what is called in 00:17:50
hinduism advaita on non duality or when 00:17:56
the chinese use the word dao to 00:17:59
designate the way of operation of the 00:18:02
positive and negative principles the 00:18:03
yang and the union 00:18:05
it is not a unity that annihilates 00:18:08
differences but a unity which is 00:18:11
manifested by the very differentiations 00:18:14
that we perceive just as it's all polar 00:18:18
it's like the two poles of a magnet 00:18:20
different but yet one magnet so when we 00:18:25
say 00:18:25
oriental monism is a point of view towards life which merges everything 00:18:35
into a kind of sickening goo this is 00:18:42
terribly unfair 00:18:43
it just doesn't sell if you argue that 00:18:47
the sort of doctrine that everybody is 00:18:49
really the Godhead destroys the 00:18:51
possibility of real love between 00:18:53
individuals because you have to be 00:18:55
definitely other than I if I'm to love 00:18:57
you otherwise it's all cellular well 00:19:00
that argument collapses in view of the 00:19:02
doctrine of the Trinity if the three 00:19:05
persons are one God then they can't love 00:19:08
each other by the same argument Hinduism 00:19:13
simply uses the idea which is in the 00:19:15
Christian Trinity only it makes it a 00:19:17
Multi Trinity instead of the three one 00:19:20
that's all of course 00:19:27
the thorn in the flesh is always 00:19:27
in approaching a doctrine which seems to be monastic or pantheistic what about 00:19:34
evil are we to make the ground of being 00:19:43
responsible for evil and we don't want 00:19:48
to do that because we want to keep God's 00:19:50
Kurtz clean in spite of the fact that 00:19:54
our own Hebrew Bible says I am the Lord 00:19:59
there is none else i form the light and 00:20:01
create darkness i make peace and create 00:20:04
evil I the LORD do all these things and 00:20:07
haven't you heard the story about the 00:20:09
yet Sahara that according to Jewish 00:20:12
theology the Lord God implanted in Adam 00:20:14
at the beginning of time a thing called 00:20:16
the yet Sahara it means the wayward 00:20:19
spirit I call it the element of 00:20:21
irreducible rascality 00:20:23
and it's very necessary to have this in 00:20:28
order to be human you see how it was 00:20:32
done was this prohibition not to eat of 00:20:34
the fruit of the tree of knowledge that 00:20:37
was the one sure way of being being of 00:20:39
getting it eaten but of course when the 00:20:43
Lord God accused Adam and said you've 00:20:45
been eating of their tree I told you not 00:20:47
to eat and he passed the buck to Eve and 00:20:51
said this woman that thou gave is me she 00:20:53
tempted me and I did eat he looked at 00:20:55
Eve from now what about it she said well 00:20:57
it was the serpent he looked at the 00:20:59
serpent the serpent didn't say anything 00:21:03
because he knew too much and he wasn't 00:21:05
going to give away the show who is it 00:21:11
that sits at the left hand of God we 00:21:14
know who sits at the right hand its 00:21:18
hushed up because that's the side where 00:21:20
the district attorney sits and in the 00:21:23
book of Job of course you know Satan is 00:21:24
the district attorney at the court of 00:21:26
heaven he's the prosecutor he's a 00:21:28
faithful servant of the court because 00:21:33
you see the the whole problem is it 00:21:37
would be very bad indeed if God were the 00:21:39
author of evil and we were his victims 00:21:44
that is to say if we keep the model of 00:21:47
the king of the universe and the 00:21:49
creatures are all subjects of the king 00:21:51
then a God who is responsible for evil 00:21:54
is being very unkind to other people but 00:21:58
in this theory God is not another person 00:22:01
there are no victims of God he's never 00:22:04
anything but his own victim you are 00:22:08
responsible 00:22:08
and if you want to stay in the state of illusion stay in it but you can always 00:22:13
wake up 00:22:18
[Music] 00:22:45
you 00:23:07