WHAT’S GOING ON
2022 JANUARY NEWSLETTER

#162 January 2008

ALONG THE WAY

When the false has ceased to be, the truth is what remains. (Headlines, p.14)

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT

Most people are mechanical in that their state of existence is caused by what happens to them. (Headlines, p 14)

LIVING THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

School talk #51 (Continued from last month)

Now another thing of the spiritual life is the tendency to serve life. Now we know when you’re on the way up to gain all the four dual basic urges, the usual thing is to have life serve us. I listen to a lot of people who say prayers or they ask me to get it for them. Of all the people who call wanting something, I don’t think I’ve had more than one or two in the years I’ve been doing this have asked me how might they could serve. They’ve all asked me “Can I have this? Can I have that?” We agreed they would have those things. But nobody has asked, “How can I be of service?” “How can I gain?” Yes. “How can I get? How can I escape?” Yes. We got gobs of those.

We know people must have those before they could live the spiritual life. So we do our dead level best to see that they get them. But we also know that it won’t do what they thought it would or hoped it would, even though we try our very best to see they get it. We have a different purpose in working because we’re hoping they get the four dual basic urges to the fullest extent.

Then they will discover it wasn’t so valuable. “Why did I waste all these years doing that?” Then maybe they will ask, “What else is there?” And maybe we could tell them that there is a different kind of life to live and a way of living that is totally different from shooting for the four dual basic urges and the more they work at that the less they will have. We know they have to gain the four dual basic urges first.

A lot of people ask me, “Why do you work with people who are asking for a better job, a new mate, a new house, a new automobile, trip to Tim Buck Two?” As though why work with them because they are not really dealing in spiritual things. But I know that before the person could be interested in spiritual things they have to achieve what the world calls happiness, success. In other words, they get the four dual basic urges. So we do our very best to see that everybody who asks gets the four dual basic urges.

But I also know what’s going to happen after they get it. Its not going to produce very much of value, except that it tells them there is something else and that you’ve missed the mark. There is a phrase used in many spiritual writings called sin. Sin has been interpreted as doing about a thousand and one things that organizations decided that you shouldn’t do. It was always something somebody wanted to do.

Another thing that comes along in a person who is living the spiritual life is forgiving. Now the world carries grudges. We have been taught to carry grudges. We have been taught to stick up for our rights which means we have a grudge against somebody.

We have also been taught to see what was to blame. And so we go through all of these and we carry little accounts receivable. It’s very easy to see how many accounts receivable we are all carrying around. We probably have a whole bunch of them.

If we’re interested in the four dual basic urges, obviously all the people who are to blame for my discomforts and problems and losses, should be blamed. But if one is living the spiritual live, you discover you could eliminate about everybody you consider to be an enemy. You could look at a different way of living, a whole different set of values, a different purpose in life, there would be forgiveness, because there is understanding.

If you understand that everything people do they feel it is right, proper or justifiable with what light they have. You would be forgiving. It is kind of spontaneous. I have no reason to carry a grudge, because all a grudge will do is give me gallstones, ulcers and kidney stones, as well as a few other miserable things—sleepless nights and bad dreams. So what’s the use of having a grudge against anybody or an account receivable against them?

But again, until a person has achieved a high degree of the four dual basic urges, we’ll all probably have them. But if you have achieved that, then forgiveness can be a way of being. There is an expression of forgiveness when we understand other people like we understand ourselves, if we really look. Everything we do we feel it is right, or proper or justifiable.

So forgiving comes when you are living with understanding. You are beginning to recognize what’s going on here. You can forgive anybody and everybody. You don’t have to work at it. It’s not a sacrifice. It’s as spontaneous as breathing because you understand they did what they felt was right, proper and justifiable.

Another thing that goes into the spiritual life is reverence for all life. That includes weeds, even. If we look we see that Life animates all these living beings in the world. I don’t care if it plants or animals or humans. Drive out through the desert and see life out there unfolding and growing in the most adverse circumstances. You can see the life out there adapting to the particular environment and it grow there and unfolds and lives.

So, there reverence for life. There is a living something, which I think the most agreed upon term is spirit for whatever life is. I haven’t found a person yet who can give an adequate definition of life. But we can all know when it’s there and when it’s not. We can look at one tree and we can say it’s alive. You look at another and you say that’s a dead tree.. the same with a rabbit or a dog or a mouse or a bug. It’s alive or it’s dead. The living thing has life and that is spirit expressing its self. If you look at it it is serving a fantastic purpose for all the other life. All living things are involved with every other living things. Man has decided what is a pest and what isn’t. He mounts great campaigns to kill off all the pests. He usually found out it that it wasn’t the most appropriate thing to do and he may have ruined a lot of other things, including his drinking water and the plant growth in his effort to get rid of that one little pest that he didn’t like. But the pest is there for a very good reason, most likely to get rid of weaklings. Out in the wild the weaklings disappear pretty easy.

So there is a reverence for life. Reverence is another way of saying being thankful at all times. I’m thankful all these forms of life exist. We couldn’t eat unless other forms of life existed. We can appreciate them. (To be continued next month)

A STORY

I have difficulty seeing myself clearly. The ego is so cunning, powerful and baffling that it creates a shield of self-justification and rationalization around me to hide the truth of my being.

I have found an easy way of discovering what is going on inside me. Whatever it is in someone else that I don’t like and/or criticize is a reflection of myself. So, I made of list of the people I didn’t like and why I didn’t like them. I then put my name at the top of the list. Ugh! I didn’t use the list as judgment against others. It was only a tool that I used for greater understanding of myself. I wrote about whatever it was that I didn’t like and then located in me. Voila! It was always there covered up with layers of justifications.
From Lesson five of the Science of Man: As I observes the legion of “Not-I’s”, without condemnation or justification, X renders the “Not-I’s” inoperative, one by one, as observed. In other words you may have wondered what can be done about it. “What can I do about it?” many have been asking when they observe these various conflicts and various bits of conditioning. All one can do is observe it and report it. X does the work of rendering them inoperative. How does it do it? I don’t know. What does it do with them after it has rendered them inoperative? I don’t know. We just know they cease to be conditioning and they cease to take on and operate the body and the being.
WOW! What an incredible gift!

A Conscious Person (or integrated person)

Every so often we put this list in the newsletter. All of the ideas below come directly from Dr. Bob – collected verbatim from his work.
1. Lives without conflict.
2. Makes no judgments.
3. Is happy with what is.
4. Has no need to change anything or anybody.
5. Is not controlled by suggestion, although he remembers that he is 100% subject to suggestion, 100% of the time. He checks it out.
6. Knows: What he is, where he is, what is going on, and what he can do
7. Sees that the negative emotions are not to his advantage and does not identify with them.
8. Lives in the present moment.
9. Has no ideals to struggle for.
10. Is free to experience whatever may arise in his way today.
11. Has reverence for all Life.
12. Is in charge of his inner state.
13. Is at ease and peace wherever he is.
14. Has no problems, only challenges.
15. Is self-determined, not other determined.
16. Can play any role consciously.
17. If free of all conditioned ideas.
18. Does not turn his life over to any institution or anything or anyone else.
19. Is in charge of what he does, how he feels and how he acts.
20. Has nothing to be upset about.
21. Is in no hurry.
22. Sees ‘what is’ clearly.
23. Does not listen to propaganda and does not get caught up in causes.
24. Does things for the joy of doing, not because he has to.
25. Uses simple good manners.
26. Is not sentimental.
27. Does not give advice.
28. Has no choices to make.
29. Pays attention.
30. Does not know what ought to be for anything or anybody, including self.
31. Makes NOTHING important.
32. Sees the broad picture
33. Is grateful for resistance.

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.