What’s Going On? #80
ALONG THE WAY: We are thankful.
THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT: What is my purpose of living?
THE FOURTH WAY: (Excepts from the tapes THE FOURTH WAY by Dr. Bob Gibson Part one)
Over the ages there has been many different ideas or concepts by which man has lived and how his society is put together. There are paths or ways by which people live. Frequently the things we talk about are called the Fourth Way.
So the first thing that started on this planet or at least as far as we have any history of it, was the idea of a jungle. I am stronger than you are therefore I will eat you or I will control you or I will make you do what I want you to do—survival of the fittest. To the strong belong the spoils.
Now, when a new one comes along, there is only a little fragment of it that gets started. It isn’t that the whole thing changes. So we still have the law of the jungle. It is still going on. We call it crime these days or crime against persons or crimes against property. Somebody is a lot bigger than you are. I’m going to take it. We also have mental abilities. Certain people learn how to use covert hypnosis and control people that way.
Some 4000 years ago man came along and said that he would give them another path. So he set before them that day two paths to choose. They could continue on with the jungle or they could use justice. And he set up a bunch of laws that would indicate justice—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This developed into an idea of justice. To this day we still basically have this in all our courts. If somebody is playing in the jungle you have to pay a penalty of some sort or other for living by the law of the jungle or living by the way of the jungle. So sometimes they are put in prison for a few weeks, give him a fine, whatever.
Some 2000 years later a man came along and he gave them two more paths. They could still continue along the line of justice. I guess he thought none of these people in the jungle would listen to him anyway. He set out the way of love, understanding, which means I can see that whatever you’re doing, ever have done or ever will do, and whatever I have done, ever will do and am doing now, at the moment of doing, I feel it to be right or proper or justifiable or I couldn’t do it. So that was called the way of love.
Some 2000 years after than came along another route. You could continue on this way of love or you can go on the way of justice, or on the way of jungle, or you can go on still another way. This way you might call the Fourth Way or you could call it the way of being thankful. Now what one is thankful for is that one has been invited to this tremendous party that is going on. And you have the freedom to do whatever you want to do. You can even go back and live by the jungle if you want to. There is a tremendous price to pay for it. You can live by justice and get a little acceptance from society. If you live by the way of love you will probably be ignored. And if you live by the Fourth Way everyone wonders what you’re thankful about. What you’re thankful for is that you’re a privileged invited guest here at this beautiful estate called earth where life is the Host and you can figure out what you want to do. So you have everything. You’re not working for anything. You’re being thankful for what you already have. We have had food, clothing, shelter, interesting people to be around, interesting things to do ever since we have been at this planet. Now it is also considered in the Fourth Way that man is an alien on this Planet. He wasn’t ever originated here. He is the only creature here that can’t live without making some artificial environment for himself. He has to have some clothes. He builds shelters for himself. One thing he must use above all else is his intellect. And his understanding is based on his intellect to understand what he is, where he is, what’s going on here and what he can do. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. It doesn’t matter what’s going to happen. If you can see what’s going on here now you can handle things. So in seeing that we are aliens here then it would behoove us to keep our wits about us. We are not natural habitats of this planet. You’re an alien who got here some way, or some of your ancestors. We have to make arrangements so we can survive.
So recognizing that gives you a comprehension of what you’re about. You’re here to make this a fit habitat for a colony of human beings. Now what kind of colony do you want? Now I have a story that came out very recently about the person who sent us to run the colony was coming every once in a while and checking up and that he was decidedly discouraged, upset, miserable, drank a lot of martinis and burned a lot of cigarettes up because of the mess we’re making out of the thing, generally speaking. Now, if you know what your job is, you know, most of us have a job of some sort or others, some kind of work, and we understand our job definition and we do it quite well. Now, if you know what your job is you can carry it out pretty well. If you forgot what your job was or you never did know what your job was, what kind of a mess would you make. Over time we have wandered away from what is our job? What are we doing here? What’s going on? Now if you looked that you are a part of a crew that lives on the Planet Earth to make it a colony for humans who don’t fit here exactly like the other creatures do, not like a lion or a fox or a skunk, you’re an altogether different creature and you can’t survive like they do. So if we can see that we’re in the business of building a colony, an environment for a colony of humans and we are responsible for setting up some sort of social arrangements for us to live together, I wonder if we would behave the same way as we do now? If you knew what you were about, you’d be about it. So mankind first arrived on this Planet it was a jungle and that was the appropriate way to do it. Some two thousand years later certain trainers were sent out from headquarters to establish a little further they could go. Now this wouldn’t have been possible when they first arrived. Now then this still has its use (justice), this may still have its use (jungle) but only consciously, not as a mechanical reaction because we’re out of time and places.
It would appear that we could ask ourselves, “What’s going on here?” Now without stretching our imagination to hard we can see that we were privileged to come to this new outpost of conscious beings. And it is a real new one for conscious beings, intelligent conscious beings is the planet earth. So we have the privilege of being here and the privilege of building something if we want to build it. The point is we really have something to do. I think this is why most people have a vague feeling that there is something to do and they don’t know what it is. So they moan that they don’t know what they want to do. Because it is something that is kind of built into us in our chromosomes and genes and we want to be about it, about the business of this colony that is set up here. We have that vague feeling. And then we look around and no one lets us in on what’s going on. So we don’t know what to do. But when we look, it’s fairly simple: I want to aid in building this colony so that it would be a real worthwhile place for us aliens to exist. (To be continued next month)
IDEAS TO WORK WITH:
We have put together 190 of the IDEAS TO WORK WITH, which are all verbatim quotes from the Teachings. Each one is on business size parchment card ($15.00 covers the cost, including priority mailing). If you are interested in them, let us know. We have also finished another 190 cards. E-mail: 101donnalancaster@windstream.net.
A STORY: Many years ago we invited into our home an eight-week old, white, poodle puppy. I’m sure many of you know how we felt about her. She was sensitive, intelligent, loving, playful, etc, etc. The lady at the kennel advised us as we walked to the car with Molly, “Love her like a people, but treat her like a dog.” We did the first part 100%. We forgot the last part. We talked to Molly kindly about not using the carpet for her bathroom. As intelligent as she was, we knew she could understand what we were saying. When she had an accident, which was frequently, we would say, “If we had been watching her and had taken her outside, she would not have done it in the house”. “Or if we had been home she wouldn’t have made a mess.” We always justified her misbehavior and blamed ourselves for her actions. We wanted to believe she was a cut above all other dogs and this potty training discipline was beneath her. Granted she was a unique expression of Life. However, even CHILDREN have to have some of this training!
The day finally came when we were sick and tired of it. We couldn’t go on this way any longer. Precious one that she was, the program had to change. By this time she was 6 months old. We thought she would have known better by now. Wrong! We knuckled down with a couple of painful lessons for her. That’s all it took. And she NEVER made a mess again.
We did not see “what is” accurately. Molly was a dog. A domesticated, instinctual animal. When we finally could see that and deal with it, we were all happier.
Sometimes I don’t see ‘what is’ clearly because I am looking though a misconception, therefore, the action that X takes is inappropriate. If my life is not harmonious, it might be a good time to take a long look at the point of disharmony and see if I am operating from misconceptions. Of course, we all know what I’ll find! Nothing will change until I see the misconception clearly and report it. X renders it inoperative.
Once more time, the WORK is on the inner self.
And it is WORK.
