Subtitles
so it all comes down to this basic 00:00:03
so it all comes down to this basic question that human beings have for a 00:00:06
long long time being concerned about 00:00:12
transforming their minds is there any 00:00:15
way in which one's mind can be 00:00:17
transformed or is it simply a process 00:00:20
which is nothing more than a vicious 00:00:22
circle 00:00:22
I could ask why have you come here this 00:00:24
afternoon what were you looking for 00:00:26
would it be too presumptuous of me to 00:00:29
say that you were looking for help that 00:00:31
you hoped you would hear somebody who 00:00:34
had something to say that would be of 00:00:37
help and relevance to you as members of 00:00:40
a world which is running into the most 00:00:43
intense difficulty a world beset by a 00:00:47
complex of problems any one of which 00:00:49
would be bad enough but when you add 00:00:51
together all the great political social 00:00:55
and ecological problems with which we 00:00:57
are faced they are appalling 00:00:59
and one naturally says the reason why we 00:01:02
are in such a mess is not simply that we 00:01:05
have wrong systems for doing things 00:01:07
whether they be technological political 00:01:10
or religious but we have the wrong 00:01:12
people the systems may be all right but 00:01:15
they are in the wrong hands because we 00:01:18
are all in various ways self-seeking 00:01:21
lacking in wisdom lacking in Courage 00:01:24
afraid of death afraid of pain unwilling 00:01:28
really to cooperate with others 00:01:30
unwilling to be open to others and we 00:01:33
all think that's too bad it's me that's 00:01:35
wrong and if only I could be the right 00:01:38
person is this man going to tell me 00:01:40
something that will help me to change 00:01:43
myself so that I will be a more creative 00:01:45
and cooperative member of the human race 00:01:48
I would like to improve so in so many 00:01:51
people's minds and from so many 00:01:53
different angles there is this urgent 00:01:56
feeling 00:01:57
that I must improve me and this is 00:02:00
critically important because it's 00:02:02
obvious that the least it superficially 00:02:04
operates that the way things are we are 00:02:07
going to hell fast now in this question 00:02:09
can I improve me there is the obvious 00:02:13
discipline that if I am in need of 00:02:15
improvement the person who's going to do 00:02:18
the improving is the one who needs to be 00:02:20
improved and there immediately we have a 00:02:23
vicious circle all right you want grace 00:02:26
well ask God maybe he'll give it to you 00:02:28
and the theologian will tell you yes God 00:02:30
gives his grace free he gives it to all 00:02:32
because he loves all its care like the 00:02:34
air all you have to do is receive or a 00:02:36
more orthodox a Catholic Christian would 00:02:39
say all you have to do is to be baptized 00:02:41
to take the holy sacrament of the altar 00:02:43
the bread and wine the body and blood of 00:02:45
Christ and there is the grace right and 00:02:47
it's given by these simple physical 00:02:49
means so that it's a very easily and 00:02:51
readily available well a lot of people 00:02:53
got baptized and it doesn't always take 00:02:55
people fall from grace 00:02:57
why do they you see we're just talking 00:02:59
about the same old problem but we've put 00:03:01
it a step up but it's the same Trogdon 00:03:03
how can I improve myself was the first 00:03:06
problem the second problem is how can I 00:03:09
accept grace they're both the same 00:03:10
problem because you got to make a move 00:03:12
which will put yourself out of your own 00:03:14
control into the control are they better 00:03:17
if you don't believe in the Christian 00:03:19
kind of a God you couldn't believe in 00:03:21
the Hindu kind of a God who is your 00:03:23
inner self you see you've got a lower 00:03:24
self which you can call your ego that's 00:03:27
that little scoundrel Escala it's always 00:03:29
out for me but behind the ego there is 00:03:32
Atma the inner self the inward light as 00:03:35
Quakers would call it the real self the 00:03:37
spirit which is substantially identical 00:03:40
with God so you got to I an edit 8 in 00:03:43
such a way that you identify with your 00:03:45
higher self how do you do that well you 00:03:47
start by watching all your thoughts very 00:03:51
carefully watching your feelings 00:03:52
watching your emotions so that you begin 00:03:55
to build up a sense of separation 00:03:57
between the watcher and what is watched 00:03:59
so that you are as it were no longer 00:04:01
carried away by your own stream of 00:04:04
consciousness you remain the witness 00:04:06
impassive impartial suspending judgment 00:04:09
and watching it all go on that seems to 00:04:11
be something like progress at least 00:04:13
you're taking an objective view of what 00:04:15
is going on you are beginning to be in a 00:04:17
position to control it but just wait a 00:04:19
minute who is this self behind the self 00:04:22
than watching yourself can you watch 00:04:24
that one it's interesting if you do 00:04:26
because you find out of course that this 00:04:29
is just as the problem of grace is 00:04:32
nothing more than a transposition of the 00:04:34
first problem how am I to be unselfish 00:04:36
by my own power it becomes how am I to 00:04:39
get race by my own power so in the same 00:04:41
way we find that the watching self or 00:04:44
the observing self behind all our 00:04:46
thoughts and feelings is itself a 00:04:48
thought that is to say when the police 00:04:50
enter a house in which there are thieves 00:04:53
the thieves go up from the ground floor 00:04:55
the first of all when the police arrive 00:04:58
on the first floor the thieves have gone 00:04:59
up to the second and so to the third and 00:05:02
finally out to the roof and so when the 00:05:04
ego is about to be unmasked it 00:05:07
immediately identifies with the higher 00:05:09
self it goes up on them because the 00:05:12
religious game is simply a refined and 00:05:16
highbrow version of the ordinary 00:05:19
how can I out with me how can I one-up 00:05:22
me so if I find for example that in the 00:05:26
quest for pleasure the ordinary 00:05:28
pleasures of the world food sex power 00:05:33
possessions all this becomes a drag and 00:05:36
I think no it isn't there so I go in for 00:05:38
the arts in literature poetry music and 00:05:42
I absorb myself in there in those 00:05:44
pleasures and after a while they aren't 00:05:47
the answer so I go to psychoanalysis you 00:05:49
see and then I found out that's not the 00:05:52
answer I go to religion I'm still 00:05:55
seeking what I was seeking when I wanted 00:05:57
candy bars I'm gonna get that goodie 00:05:59
only I see now that of course not gonna 00:06:01
be a material goodie all material 00:06:03
goodies fall apart and maybe there's a 00:06:05
spiritual good in is not gonna fall but 00:06:08
in that quest the quest is not different 00:06:10
from the quest for the candy bar same 00:06:12
old story 00:06:13
only you've refined the candy bar made 00:06:15
it abstract and holy and blessed and so 00:06:17
on you see the reason you want to be 00:06:20
better is the reason why you aren't so I 00:06:22
put it like that 00:06:22
we aren't better because we want to be 00:06:25
because the road to hell is paved with 00:06:26
good intentions 00:06:27
because all the do-gooders in the world 00:06:30
whether 00:06:31
doing good for others or doing it to 00:06:32
themselves our troublemaker on the basis 00:06:34
of kindly let me help you or you drown 00:06:36
said the monkey putting the fish safely 00:06:39
up a tree because sometimes doing good 00:06:42
to others and even doing good to oneself 00:06:44
is amazingly destructive because it's 00:06:47
full of conceit how do you know what's 00:06:50
good for other people how do you know 00:06:52
what's good for you if you say you want 00:06:55
to improve then you want to know what's 00:06:57
good for you but obviously you don't 00:06:59
because if you did you would be improved 00:07:01
so we don't know 00:07:03
so you see here again the problem comes 00:07:06
out in genetics we do not really know 00:07:09
how to interfere with the way the world 00:07:11
is the way the world actually is is an 00:07:16
enormous ly complex interrelated 00:07:19
organism when you come out with 00:07:23
beautiful eyes blue or brown greens the 00:07:26
case may be you don't congratulate 00:07:28
yourself for having grown one of the 00:07:30
most fabulous jewels on earth so it's 00:07:33
just eyes you don't account at a virtue 00:07:36
to see to entertain the miracles of 00:07:39
color and form but that's real virtue 00:07:41
virtue in the sense the old sense of the 00:07:44
word of strength as when we talk about 00:07:46
the healing virtue of a plant that's 00:07:49
real version so in a way the moral or 00:07:52
the immoral of these considerations is 00:07:55
that if you are really aware of your own 00:07:59
inner workings you will realize there's 00:08:01
nothing you can do to improve yourself 00:08:03
and this also goes for society we can 00:08:07
change society we can get enormous 00:08:09
enthusiasm going out of the idea that 00:08:12
there is a revolution of 00:08:13
and that this revolution is going to set 00:08:15
everything to ride do you know a 00:08:16
revolution that ever said anything to 00:08:18
ride whether the revolution came from 00:08:20
the left wing or from the right wing so 00:08:24
let's look at this thing from another 00:08:26
point of view which you will at first 00:08:28
think highly depressing 00:08:29
let's supposing we can't do anything to 00:08:31
change ourselves suppose we're stuck 00:08:33
with now that is that the worst thing an 00:08:35
American audience can hear there's no 00:08:38
way of improving yourself because every 00:08:40
kind of culture in this country is 00:08:42
dedicated to self-improvement so here's 00:08:46
the situation you see there is no that 00:08:48
the the whole idea of self-improvement 00:08:50
is a is a will of the wisp and a hoax 00:08:54
that's not what it's about let's begin 00:08:57
where we are what happens if you know if 00:09:01
you know beyond any shadow of doubt that 00:09:04
there is nothing you can do to be better 00:09:06
well it's kind of a relief isn't it 00:09:08
seeing that there isn't really anything 00:09:11
we can do to improve ourselves or to 00:09:14
improve the world if we realize that 00:09:16
that is so it gives us a breather in the 00:09:21
course of which we may simply watch what 00:09:23
is going on watch what happens 00:09:26
nobody ever does this sooner therefore 00:09:28
it sounds terribly simple it sounds so 00:09:31
simple that is almost looks as if it 00:09:33
isn't worth doing but ever just watched 00:09:36
watch what's happening and watch what 00:09:38
you are doing by way of reaction to it 00:09:41
it's what should happen and don't be in 00:09:44
a hurry to think you know what it is you 00:09:47
think this exists the material world 00:09:49
oh that's somebody's philosophical idea 00:09:52
now maybe you're you think it's 00:09:54
spiritually that too is somebody's 00:09:55
philosophical idea this real world is 00:09:58
not spiritual 00:09:59
it is not Material the real world is 00:10:02
simply so could we look at things in 00:10:09
that way without as it were fixing 00:10:12
labels and names and gradations and 00:10:14
judgments on everything but watch what 00:10:16
happened watch what we do now see if you 00:10:19
do that you do at least give yourself a 00:10:21
chance and it may be that when you are 00:10:24
in this way freed from busy partners and 00:10:28
being out to improve everything that 00:10:31
your own nature will begin to take care 00:10:34
of itself because you're not getting in 00:10:35
the way of yourself all the time you 00:10:37