ALONG THE WAY

Human service is the way to divinity

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT

One free of the four dual basic urges is a unique expression of Life.

LIVING THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

School talk #51. (Excerpts of a talk given by Dr. Bob Gibson.  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.  It’s not going to produce very much of value, except that it tells them there is something else and that you’ve missed the mark or sin.  There is a phrase used in many spiritual writings called sin.  Instead of missing the mark, sin has been interpreted as doing about a thousand and one things that organizations decided that you shouldn’t 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 life, 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 did and 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 thing. 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.

There are four aspects of spiritual living. Much is written these days about longevity.  There is nothing I could suggest that would lead toward longevity better than these four things.

How do you get there?  First I would recommend to get the four dual basic urges and find out there were not worth very much after you got them.  I didn’t say they are bad.  There’re not.  They should be a by-product, not the product one strives for.  When you get it there and find that doesn’t produce what you would call happiness, then you begin to look at spiritual things.  (To be continued next month)

A STORY

What people say to me or think of me has nothing to do with me.

Years ago I was invited to Denver to be a speaker at a convention.  The woman in charge of guest speakers arranged for the rooms.  When I arrived, she met me at the plane, took me to the hotel and carried my bag to the room.  As she opened the door, she explained that another speaker would be sharing the room with me.  She knew I wouldn’t want to be alone.  Wrong.  I told her this arrangement would be fine and I assured I would enjoy a roommate.  But I suggested that next time she check with the speaker and let him/her make that decision.

Her actions were based on her conditioning.  SHE wouldn’t want to be in a strange city by herself.  She superimposed her conditioning on me.

Do I do the same thing to others?  Of course I do.  Last week I was talking to a friend.  She had planned to have company for a few days.  Her guests had called and cancelled their visit.  In my sleepy (not wanting to be disturbed) state, I said, “How wonderful.”  She looked at me strangely.  “Wonderful? I was looking forward to seeing them.”  At that moment, having company cancel sounded good.  My response was based on my feelings, not hers.

With the physical limitations I have, I learned long ago that other people’s reactions to me had nothing to do with me.  Their conditioning determined their reactions.  When I finally accepted this, I was free of feeling intimidated, put down or have my feelings hurt.

I have nothing to defend.  If I listen carefully to what others say, as well as myself, I will make discoveries about their conditioning and reveal dark areas within me.  We are all acting out our conditioning.  I will not react or defend what they are saying because it has nothing to do with me.

On the other side of the coin, I will not take compliments or the good opinions of others seriously either.  Those suggestions are also filtered through their conditioned ideas.

We really are 100% subject to suggestion 100% of the time.

I will listen to not only what I say, but listen to what others are saying to me. It gives me very interesting information regarding all of us.