School Talk 55 - Where to find Truth

(Using descriptive adjectives)
(Aims and Goals)
(everyone is a unique individual)

[brackets for clarification]
(audience participation in parenthesis)

A very wise man I know one time told me never to go out looking for truth because you wouldn’t find it. He said you might turn lots of rocks over, but all you’d find was bugs and worms and what-have-you under there; and as he didn’t see much use in that, he said if you wanted to find truth, that you would look for a misconception; and you would no doubt find lots of those misconceptions available. In addition, if you saw a misconception for what it was, then you’d see the Truth of the matter.

He also said that when you begin to see the Truth of the matter of everyday living, all the things around you and the way you live and exist each day, that that removes the obstruction to Spirit working within you. He added that when Spirit works from the inside to the outside, that’s known as truth with a capital T. Truth is the synonym for Spirit, or for Essence, or for Life Force. So, when you have found a misconception and really seen it for what it was, you have seen truth, the misconception—that’s with a little t. Now when you have dug all those misconceptions off, you have removed the obstructions to Truth with a capital T expressing through.

So I took him kind of serious because I found over many times of talking with him, that he knew what he was talking about. So I began to look for misconceptions. Well, I found there was a great, great many of them that all of us have accepted as fact all the days of our lives. We live with them without knowing about them. So I set about trying to make them conscious and simple at the same time. Inasmuch as I’m kind of a simple person. I wanted everything to be simple. So I took a lot of these little misconceptions I observed in others and self that people live by every day of the week and tried to simplify them. In that way, there wouldn’t be a whole bunch of them because a lot of them are too hard to remember.

So we come up with a very few. If we get these three really looked at someday (while we are not in an extremely stressful situation) then we could remove the obstructions to our being a very conscious, awake individual. That would be one which Truth was expressing through us rather than I went out and found what I thought might be truth.

Now truth is always here, but usually covered up with a bunch of misconceptions, so we go to work to find out what that Truth is covered up with so we can dig it off. It’s like if there was a treasure buried in your back yard. There’s nothing you have to do to the treasure, you just need to dig the dirt off, and the treasure is all there for your use. So misconception is the dirt that we want to look at.

So the first one of these big misconceptions that reacts within us is thinking we’re a victim. Everybody holds this to be true. No matter how much you learn, how much you memorize, how much you read, as long as we buy into seeing ourselves as a victim--whenever we’re challenged, it’s going to act first and then maybe we think about what we are studying later. So we want it to be where our observing is spontaneous and that it’s on top.

Now as an infant, we all started off feeling we were victims of all these big people around—a victim of all these sensations, things that hurt us, things that annoyed us and things that prevented us from having every little thing we wanted at the moment. So we very solidly began with a conception (which was really a misconception) that we were victims. Now we have drawn a little circle for people to see a number of times; but I’ll do it again.

If you have a misconception, sooner or later you’re going to have a false feeling of emergency—usually much sooner. Then you’re going to be in a state of chemical imbalance and neuromuscular tension, and then you’re going to have to have adaptation to return the body to chemical balance. The adaptation will occur in the form of unusual cellular activity, unusual sensation, tissue cell alteration or breakdown or the adaptation can take on unusual behavior—one or the other. These happen in order to burn up the chemical imbalance and neuromuscular tension. Each of these being very uncomfortable gives us a further reinforcement of the misconception that I’m a victim. So most of us live in something we refer to as the vicious cycle. We live there most of our life.

Now we learn a bunch of things and can talk very learnedly and very holy and righteous about all our goodness and all our love for everything and everybody; but when it all gets down and there’s a sudden little challenge, why we go back to being a victim; and a victim, of course, either reacts one way or another—either by hiding, being fearful, upset, nervous or getting very angry—whatever the case may be.

So if we can take one day and really look and see that I am not a victim of anything. Now that’s one little thing that’s easy to say, but it’s another to sit down and really discover that we are not a victim of the way people treat me.

I’m not a victim of circumstances. I’m not a victim of anything that you could come up with and conceive of. I’m not a victim. I’m not a baby anymore. A baby may could be, but we grow up somewhere along the way; and we no longer could say that we are a victim.

Now this is one of the most firmly implanted misconceptions that everybody holds; and so the least minute that something comes along that you don’t like, you feel like you’re a victim, is that right, Perry? Somebody’s picking on you—somebody’s doing this—the whole worlds against me, the sky is falling like in the story of “Chicken Little”. You got troubles, is that right? Everybody’s against you and you’re a victim of all these things. You come up with a cold, and you see yourself as a victim of it. If you get aches and pains and miseries, you’re a victim of something or other and off it goes.

Now somewhere if we would care to look, this is one of those things the man said—if you want to find truth, you find a misconception and see it for what it really is, then you’ve seen the truth of the matter, ok? Now a few nights ago I was watching a TV show for lack of something better to do--late in the evening. There was a series of events around the world about villages. You’ve been in India, haven’t you; and know about the villages? Even in South America they’ve got lots of them. I’ve been down there and looked at those. They’re little villages and most of the people in the villages feel they are victims. They’re victims of their government. They’re victims of poverty. They’re victims of poor circumstances.

Well, they showed one of these little villages in India; and these people were the uttermost of victims. They’re fields were full of big rocks, and they had a wet season where things would grow; but for the rest of the year, it was dry and they couldn’t grow anything. They starved and all this other stuff. So a man came by and looked at the situation. He told the people he would adopt them for three years in order to do what he wanted to do. He would rent their land for three years. Then he would pay them to work on it.

So he gave them money, cash rent, in advance for three years on all their land. So everybody had some money. Anybody that didn’t have any land would be hired to work on the land. He said you have everything here to be very prosperous—you have everything.

Of course they looked at him like he was crazy—how dumb could he be. We’ve been starving here for centuries. Our ancestors starved here before we did.

So the first thing he did was tell them these rocks in the field would make a wonderful dam across the dry river bed. That way when it rained they would have water, stored up for the dry season.

So they all carried the rocks out of the field and put them in this dry river bed. He showed them you could pound up some limestone in the bottom of the creek bed and make a mortar that was twenty times better than ordinary cement bought at the store--and he made a dam. So when the dry season came, they could irrigate. So he had them all irrigating and they improved the fields with a little soil conservation and fertilizer.

He sold all the products—he had it all. He sold it to them. He’d rented it from them and paid the rent in cash--in advance--and also hired them to work. So there was plenty to eat for three years while they were building this up. Then he gave everything back—it’s all yours now, I don’t want it. I don’t want to rent it anymore.

But in three years, they were very, very prosperous. Now they were living in exactly the same place. The only thing he removed out of their head was this. He gave them several talks on how they were seeing themselves as victims, and he convinced them they were not.

Now that’s one of the hardest sell jobs you’ll ever do. I’ve sold a lot of things in my life, and the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to sell anybody was that they were not a victim. That’s the hardest sell I’ve ever tried to make--no matter what!

I’ve sold little squares on a map for $6,000 and all sorts of other things; but nothing is even remotely as hard as selling somebody on the idea that they’re not a victim. But this man sold them in no uncertain terms. He pounded at them day and night until he convinced them they weren’t victims.

Now the program showed them two years after he had departed. He no longer adopted them, and they were all dressed in fine clothes. They were living like the high “muckity-mucks” in Calcutta. They were big wheels. The ladies had beautiful dresses and the men had beautiful clothes. They all had good food to eat. They had fixed up their houses and they weren’t victims anymore, ok?

Now what had really changed? The man tried to show them truth. Now there wasn’t anything that he gave them. He didn’t give them one dime because he would not admit to himself that they were victims, and wouldn’t agree with them about being victims. So they didn’t need anything. They had everything they needed except they were working under the misconception that they were victims. Now as long as they were victims, they couldn’t do anything about it, is that right? There was nothing they could do. They couldn’t move the rocks out of the field—who’d ever thought of that? They just cursed the rocks every day when they went out in the field. They screamed about it. They found all the things that were wrong. Now here they had somebody who pointed out a different way of doing things.

So the program went on with several different samples of this.

In another village there were fishermen. They caught the fish and brought them ashore. There was a money lender/buyer there. He loaned them money during the “off” season of the fishing, so they owed him money during the “on” season. So they had to sell him all the fish which he bought for 10 cents; but sold them for a dollar. So they got the dime, he got the 90 cents; and then they paid him back for last year’s loan.

So they were in this starvation situation—pity poor me. They were victims of the weather. They were victims of this money lender. They were victims of the system. They were victims of everything.

Another guy came long and talked to the women. He said, “Well instead of you sitting and bitching all day because of how poor you are, why don’t you sell the fish your husbands catch and put that money lender right out of the game. Don’t sell him any fish. You take them into Calcutta to sell a few miles away. So for a few days they carried them on baskets on their heads, but in a few weeks they bought an old bus, and then they started hauling them into town. Now they had so many customers that they were hustling their husband to catch more fish to supply the customers.

Now in less than a year this whole village was very wealthy. They were wearing beautiful clothes. They were making a dollar where they had been making a dime. Now they didn’t owe any big interest to the moneylender because they paid him off in very short order and got rid of him. I’m sure he felt like he was a victim then, but that’s beside the point. The point was that all these people began to be very prosperous who had for centuries—for generation after generation considered they were victims of the system. They were totally victims.

Now with this idea, you could go out and look anywhere you want to. You can see it. The best place in the world to look at it is in number one. We have convinced ourselves that we are victims; and therefore, can’t get out. It’s up here in the head—in the mind. We got this little bit convinced we’re a victim, but all this in here is conditioned instead of being consciousness.
It can be consciousness and then I will begin to operate upon that. All it does is get a different set of information to operate with. But if you feel that you’re a victim—every bit of information that comes in is going to prove that in some way or another--you are going to unconsciously see yourself as a victim. It is going to operate on us in the way people treat us. It’s going to operate on seeing the weather as against me. It’s going to blame the economy. It’s going to blame the government. It’s going to blame health problems. You know the old bit; you never know when illness is going to strike and many other ways.

So here is a misconception that I could highly recommend that each person take a good solid look at and discover that it is a misconception—not a fact. Now about everybody, without knowing it, unconsciously, at least, believes they’re a victim. It’s been there so long, you just take it for granted and go on.

Now it’s like all these people we talked about in these little stories. They had the idea that they were victims through all these generations. But their whole circumstances could undergo a total transformation almost as quick as it could be pointed out to them that they were not victims--that they could take charge of their own circumstance.

Now if I’m a victim, I don’t have charge of my circumstance, right Faye? If I’m a victim, I don’t have charge of it. And if I’m not self determined, then I convince myself that somebody else is determining everything I do, is that right? There will be a lot of different people, but somebody somewhere, something or other is determining everything that I do. So I would have to say in playing the victim role, I’m other determined—that means other than self determined. That’s as long as I consider myself a victim, right? Whether I blame friends, husband, wife, children, government or the system—that’s a good one you know. It’s just the system. It’s got us all tied up here. But really none of those things are fact.

Now here is a place—shall we look to see the misconception for what it is—then you’ve seen truth; and it’s the only way you will ever find truth because you can take charge—I’ve met people that tell me they’ve been on the path searching for the last 44 years and they haven’t found the truth yet, but they got gobs of good misconceptions they wouldn’t dare look at because they have become “sacred cows”—you don’t touch those. If you talk to one of them, you’re not allowed to say they have a misconception.

So possibly even greater than misconception that I’m a victim is I don’t have any misconceptions--that’s probably the biggest one of the whole slew. I was going to spare you that, but I had to throw it in. The biggest misconception we probably all have is that I don’t have any misconceptions, ok?

Now here’s another one here that gets us off a lot of hooks. It keeps us in a tremendous amount of turmoil and anxiety and frustration with all the people that we know around. You know it’s easy to say I love all mankind—it’s those individuals that are a mess--I don’t get along with those bastards. Mankind I really love—I want you to know that, but those individuals get under my skin—that’s the way this misconception comes out. People know what is right, proper and/or justifiable, but they go on and do wrong anyway. Now this is a solid misconception that much of our society structure is built on—that’s why we have penal codes and punishments because these people knew what was right and went on and did wrong anyway. So this one comes along that people know what’s right but they go on and do wrong anyway—that gives me perfect justification to be angry, to be upset with people, to tell them off and to feel very sorry for myself—that’s a “goodie” you know; I like to feel sorry for myself, it’s so wonderful. So that keeps everybody feeling miserable.

Now there’s something that you can check out very quickly. We’ve had talks about this one before and we’ll probably talk about it again a few times because it’s a pretty valuable one to know. Here is the fundamental idea that you can check out even if you’re a Roman Catholic, and you go to confession for mortal sin.

By the way, mortal sin is defined that you knew was wrong and improper and unjustifiable but you went on and did it anyway.

So it happens to be impossible to commit a mortal sin in the terms the Catholic Church definition of it—try it and see. You just can’t do that, the best you can do is a little menial* sin. I don’t know what one of those is—that’s one that doesn’t matter very much, I heard. But the “biggies” you can’t do—that I know. I don’t know about the little ones. In other words little ones are easy to justify, but still puts us in the same boat. So it’s highly possible that under the definition that’s put out by organized religion as to what sin is impossible to commit—very possibly—try it and see, work on it—check it out.

Now this is another one. That if you can’t undo it, you are loaded with something that you’re going to fly off the handle about any minute—you’re going to be angry. You’re going to be upset. You’re going to be ready to do somebody in. You’re going to think murderous thoughts, obviously--whether you ever do them or not--probably not. Most of us don’t have the nerve to. But we’re going to think about them because then we can hate and we can have resentment, and we can have all these other things against other people who know what is right and go on and do wrong anyway.

Think of what would happen to the court system if people got around to seeing this fairly well, huh? Because everybody that files a law suit or a criminal charge feels that the person knew what was right, proper and justifiable and went on and did wrong anyway, right? Now we got to straighten them out and take them to court—get all this stuff straightened out. So we can have all these terrible turmoils going on which are all based upon a very fundamental misconception.

I’ve spent about three years working in a mental hospital as an intern there. I worked two years as an intern; and then I wanted to play some more so I stayed there another year because these people do the same things as people do on the outside do--except they’re much more exaggerated. So it made it easy enough for me to finally catch on by observing the not i’s in them.

We had a lady there that had a misconception that she was being tormented by people who knew what was right, proper and justifiable and doing wrong anyway. She believed they were pumping the room full of poison gas. Now she was in a room with a lot of other people, but it didn’t seem to register with her. Her attention was only on her. As far as she was concerned, she was the only one in there. So every day, sometime through the day, she would say, “they’re filling it full of gas.”

So first she’d stand up and when the gas got up to her knees--it was heavy gas that apparently filled from the floor up. When it got to her neck, she climbed up on the stool that sat in front of the piano in the day room. And when it got up to here, again, she got up on the keyboard cover. And when the gas got to there, she climbed up on top of the old upright piano and stood with her head almost against the ceiling--just right up there. When the gas got to there, she’d collapse; and then she rolled off down to the floor. After a while she came to and thought about something else for a while.

Now she was doing the appropriate thing for the information she was feeling. Huh? She was feeling that the room was filling full of poison gas. She saw “them” as filling this room full of poison gas. If you had a misconception and saw it this way, what are you going to do? You’re going to keep your head above it, is that right? If it’s heavy gas, it fills up from the floor. So I don’t care how crazy she was, she was still doing the appropriate thing for the information she was reporting to X. The room was filling full of poison gas. Now to her that was real. That was a big misconception—one which, thank goodness most of us don’t have; but she still had the misconception that she was a victim. She had the misconception that there was a “they”--but she never did tell us who “they” were. “They” were pumping this room full of poison gas every once in a while. Was she doing the appropriate thing for these misconceptions?

We have them too. We’re just like that poor lady; we don’t believe we have any misconceptions. We think everything we’re seeing is “that’s the way it is”. And it isn’t that way. There isn’t anybody out bugging you. You know something else, they’ve got more interesting things if nothing else—they wouldn’t be picking on you.

So again this one is one that I recommend we spend some considerable time seeing that it truly is a misconception. In fact, try to do something that you feel very definitely, in yourself, is wrong, improper and totally unjustifiable and let’s see if you can do it? You know you ask somebody about that, and they say sure I can do it because Mama used to scream at us when we were kids, “You knew better than that, why did you do it?”

(Because.)

You didn’t know the answer. Did you hear that one, Linda? You knew better than that. So they can hypnotize us into believing we knew better, but did it anyway. We haven’t checked that misconception out. You cannot know better than something and go on and do it anyway. You simply can’t.

You go out here and start driving in the traffic on Scottsdale Road and there’s a red light facing you—you drive out in the middle of that. Let’s see if you can do it. Just drive in the middle of the intersection—you knew better than that, is that right? You can’t do it. Momma had some misconceptions too—she believed this misconception like her mother did. And it goes back to her mother and her mother and it goes back as far as I can read.

In recorded books, they believe this misconception has been handed down in our genes. It’s been around so long that people know what’s right, but they go on and do wrong anyway. And so when we did a little something and Mama had told us once, don’t do that—she said, “Why did you do that, you knew better, why’d you do it?” Now you didn’t know better. It seemed the thing to do at that moment, is that right? That’s what happens—it seems the thing to do in that moment. Maybe a minute later I saw the justification broke down. But while I was doing it, it seemed the thing to do, is that right? Right on down the line.

Now let’s get that misconception straightened around so that we are aware it is a misconception. See that misconception for what it is, and you’ll see a pretty good size piece of truth, ok? It’s not so hard to do--it’s just willing to admit that I have some misconceptions—that, of course, is a “biggie” with most of us huh? I don’t have any misconceptions. You do, but I don’t.

Did you ever play that game with people—I, you, they?

I, you, they? I’m very determined. You’re stubborn, they’re flat bastards. That’s the way that goes down the road. Easy enough? So I, you, they goes on. Now I don’t have any misconceptions. I have firm righteous beliefs. Now you believe some things that are not quite right—they are deluded. That’s the whole bit. So let’s be honest enough to say that obviously I’m loaded down with a certain number of misconceptions. If I didn’t have those misconceptions, I would be a living example or a living expression of truth on earth. I think that would probably be a very worthwhile little activity to be involved in. (From Marsha…..being an example or living expression is much different than telling people what it should be and that they should try to do it. I’ve also noticed that when I try to set an example that I’d better also watch the expectation that they learn from it because it rarely happens and if it does, I’m not there to see the by-product of my efforts.) I might even have a very excellent purpose, but I can’t do it as long as I have misconceptions unrecognized and devalued. We simply can’t do it--no matter how great our intention is. We simply can’t do it because when something suddenly and unexpectedly comes booming in, these misconceptions jump up and take over.

Another misconception to look out for is “I have rights, and by golly, I’m going to stick up for them.” You have rights Faye?

(Right?)

Right and you have to stick up for them. Nobody else has the foggiest idea of what they are, but you do. And they are sometimes hard to defend, aren’t they?

(Very.)

So when we have rights, we, of course, are out busy trying to defend those rights, stick up for them, and we really have none. We don’t have a right—one. We don’t even have a right to be alive. Anybody with a rock can pick up a rock and knock the Life out of us right quick. You pick up a little old gun; and boom, it’s all over with. Stick a knife in your throat—goodbye. So we don’t have any rights. We have a considerable number of privileges basically which we have all mistaken for rights, and stuck up for.

Now the best way in the world to lose a privilege is to mistake it for a right and start sticking up for it. If I know what all I have is really privileges, I take good care of them. You know a privilege is a gift—another way of saying a gift, isn’t it? So if I have privileges, I’m going to take care of my privileges or gifts. I’m going to remember they are gifts and not I’m going to take care of them, enhance them and try to get some more. How am I going to do it?—with the way I behave. That simple enough, huh? That’s simple enough, isn’t it? I’m going to maintain them, enhance them and encourage more if I possibly can—that is if I see them as privileges—as I go through my day, I can observe those privileges I’ve taken for granted.

But don’t we have privileges? Now rights you don’t do any of those nice behaviors for. Now when you see different things as rights, you don’t have to do a thing--you just got ‘em with no effort on your part. And so you start sticking up for them. You may get a bunch of other guys to go out with you and have a riot. You might turn over all the police cars and burn up your own car and a few other things, sticking up for your rights. You see new situations around the world everywhere and everyday on the news where people are sticking up for their rights. Does it look pretty or does it look gruesome to say the very least. Would you say that those people are maintaining their rights or are they losing a lot of privileges while they’re at it? Sometimes they even lose the privilege of breathing, is that right? They’re dead. So if you have the misconception that you have rights, what’s going to happen to you? You’re going to be in fights with people all the time. Now they may not be fist fights and gun battles, but there is going to be a verbal fight. Have you had any verbal fights with anybody lately over your rights?

There is nothing gained by sticking up for your rights that I can see. You might get a few scars on your head. You might get a few bruises here and there and you might get dead if you stick up for your rights enough. But if you’re working for maintaining your privileges, enhancing and getting more, that’s a pretty simple thing to do, isn’t it? Now if it looks like I’m about to lose a privilege, I get to be very nice because I want to keep that privilege. And do you get privileges by being belligerent or assertive, huh? You know they have assertive classes especially for ladies so they can feel justified in being rude. That doesn’t mean they’re going to get anything for it, but they just get to be rude, is that right?

Now if you want some privileges, I can give you several little pointers. I don’t think I need to give anybody any pointers. How about you, Ruby? Do you think anybody needs to tell you how to keep your privileges, maintain them, enhance them and get more?

Now getting rights is a different story. You’re not going to get those--I don’t care what you do. But you wouldn’t have to have any training or coaching to be sure, you keep your privileges, huh? All you got to do is be nice--that’s all—just simple good manners. That’s about all it takes to have privileges, is that right?

Now where did we come up with the idea that we’re a victim? It was handed down to us from many sources and we never thought to check it out or question it.

How did we come up with the idea that people know what’s right and go on and do wrong anyway? How often have we heard that phrase, “You knew better than that, so why’d you do it?” We heard it so often that it became the rule of attitude/action and now it comes from within as a not i.

Now all of these go along unconsciously. So just take these three. We only put three misconceptions up here. Now I could state these three probably in three hundred ways fairly easy. I think any of us could do that. We could state these three basic misconceptions in some three hundred ways or more because we could express them in so many different ways. If you took these three out of your conclusions, you could drift through this world pretty nicely without having all those daily bumps and contentions. Could you conceive anywhere you would rub anybody the wrong way. I think these three conclusions cover about 300 ways of saying misconceptions. You could hunt them up in hundreds and hundreds of different ways of saying them, but they basically come from these three.

So I like the good simple way. We only got three to look at. Now you can handle three can’t you, huh? Now if you got those misconceptions out of your way of looking at things, this whole picture of man begins to look awful different.

In other words here’s the old basic decision the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed. We consider that a right; and if we don’t have it, we consider that we’re a victim. If there’s anybody else we can think of, we blame them for what we want not being there. So we pretty well got that misconception well set. It’s important to have “my way right now”; and “if I don’t get it, I’m going to complain”. It says “if I don’t get my way, you kept me from it—they kept me from it”, huh? Or “the system kept me from it”. So I got somebody to blame for feeling like I’m a victim which is supported by the idea that they knew right and went on and did wrong anyway, and that follows with the third misconception that I have rights to have whatever I want—and right now. And over here it says it is necessary to please everybody. Now it says “I’m a victim, so I have to go around being a pleaser”. Now I don’t please people because I gain privileges that way, do I? I do it because I feel guilty if I don’t. Perhaps I’m pleasing because I think I have to—perhaps somebody laid it on me and I believed it.

The next one down here says that you must believe and do as told by your authorities. “I’m a victim of an authority.” They know what’s right, but they tell me to do wrong anyway.

The next one says. “I should improve myself because I’m a victim and maybe if I improve myself, they won’t notice it as much and won’t pick on me.” If I improve, there wouldn’t be as many people picking on me.

And then there’s number 6. If everybody else would do the right thing then I wouldn’t be a victim—the blamer or judger.

I think there is three ways of saying it. That covers practically every misconception that ever has been written about, talked about or a lot of them that haven’t been. It covers the field of misconception that if you didn’t have these, you can mark it off here and say you have “perception”. You would see “what was going on”. That means see the Truth of things.

As my friend told me, don’t look for truth, go out and look for misconceptions; and when you see the misconception for what it is, you have then seen the Truth. So you find Truth by removing a misconception, not by going out and turning over rocks and looking for truth.

Then you would have true feelings about the situation. You would have chemical balance, neuromuscular tone, and then there would be creative action instead of adaptation.

Now that is called the living cycle; and I think if you lived on it, you’d find that you changed your entire outlook, and you might gain about four more years on your life expectancy if not a lot more. All you need do is see these three for what they are. You’d be a liberated individual. Now would that be worthwhile doing?

(It would be worth doing.)

is that so difficult to see that you’re not a victim?

(No.)

It’s easy to say it, but the next time somebody pokes you, you’re liable to act like you are one.

(Agreed.)

So you’d better do some looking in between times. You don’t get this done while you’re under attack. You get it done while you’re sitting here or sitting at home and you got a little peace and quiet.

I used to get most things done driving cars. I’m driving an automobile down the road with little traffic. I came all the way from Kingman to Wickenburg the other night and only saw one truck. He was in front of me and going about 20 miles an hours up three hills.

(Tough to pass on that road.)

That one was impossible, and it was raining on top of that. But I had plenty of time to sit there and think because he was driving his consistent 20, and I did my consistent 19, and so we went ambling along down the road. So you always have enough time out there, in the desert country anyway, to do a lot of real worthwhile work while you’re driving the car because you’re not going to be distracted by too many other things. I won’t have a phone in my car, so I’m not going to have it ringing at me. I’m not going to be reading a book, so I don’t get distracted with that either. So I can think about these misconceptions within—I can really look at them. I can really view it, and it’s easy to see I’m not a victim. I’m in charge of what I do or don’t do.

Now if it doesn’t work out just like I want it, I’m not going to blame it on somebody—not even myself! I say, “Well, it looked like the thing to do at that moment; and I did it with what light I had at the time, so I forget it--that’s it.

And it’s pretty easy to discover that people are all doing what they feel is right or proper or justifiable. You can find out with your own thinking and behavior that you can’t do what you feel is wrong, improper or unjustifiable. And we’re all pretty much alike. We all got one head, two arms, two legs, and look about alike some way or other. So if I can’t do it, I’m pretty sure you can’t either.

I’ve tried working with a lot of people and observed that they can’t; and I’ve even worked in mental hospitals and seen that they’re always doing what they feel is right, proper, and justifiable. So I’ve got it pretty well figured that I can’t find any fault with anybody for what they do because they’re doing what they feel is right, proper, and justifiable with what light they have and that’s what I’m doing. So, I’ll try to point out to them once in a while—If they ask—that possibly there’s a misconception there.

Now that’s when “fat gets in the fire” because, I hear, “I don’t have any of those misconceptions—you do, but not me”. Most have a “stick up for myself” image--so we find it important to be considered “absolutely right” at all times, basically. But let’s say that it’s possible that misinformation has been handed down for ages and just possibly I accepted a lot of it without questioning or checking it out.

So I think the misconceptions are not anybody’s fault—nothing nor nobody’s to blame for these misconceptions. They’re just due to lack of information and misinformation for generations untold. A misconception is not something you did wrong-- something you should be blamed for or even to blame yourself. There is no need to blame anything or anybody else for either. It is due to misinformation and lack of information for ages untold backwards. Somebody passed out misinformation to you. They never knew to give you the information to do anything about it, and they passed out a lot of misinformation. It’s never been challenged except by a very few people and is called the teaching material that is found around the world. They are the only ones that have ever challenged conditioning. Most people take it for sure and certain that that’s the way it is.

Grandpa had it, Great Grandpa had it, his grandpa had it and Adam had it previous to that. So pretty soon we have a system that nobody ever thinks to check up to see where they’re locked up within. And that’s what the old gent told me. “Don’t go out looking for truth, Robert, you’ll never find it. You go looking for misconceptions; and when you find one and you see it for what it is, you can then see the Truth”, and I can verify that he was correct because I’ve checked it out. And I can highly recommend it; and the only thing he left me with is trying to find out what all the misconceptions were.

Well, that was a good job for me, I came up with 300 and some odd misconceptions and got tired of writing them down—then I started to see if I could simply and condense. I came up with three, and I think anybody can handle three. Can you handle three of them all right, Linda? Can you handle these three little things and discover they’re really not factual. And that you don’t have to go out and turn somersaults and dig around at any thing.

You can begin to see that you can take charge of your own Life—nobody else can or is going to do it. You’re not a victim. You can see that you can’t do anything unless you feel that it’s right or proper or justifiable in spite of Mama or someone else hollering you know better, why did you go and do that, huh? Now you can see that. You can find it out in a little while.

And then you can see that you have no rights because there isn’t anything you have that can’t be taken away from you—that is except Truth. And that, you cannot ever find Truth, but if you once have it, they can’t take it away from you--you got it. So could you go through these three and check them out? See that they’re really misconceptions, they’re not true. They simply are not true.

Then, you’ve seen the Truth of the matter. You can do that can you not, Leland? Even you got time to do that driving in the field. You got time to do that?

(I got time, but I’m having a little trouble there with rights.)

You think you have some?

(Well, who’s giving us the privileges?)

Nobody. Life gave you the privileges. You got it by simply being alive.

(You’re calling it by different names.)

No, I’m not calling it by a different name. Rights are something that can’t be taken away from you. I can take all your privileges away from you.

(All right.)

In fact you can lose them yourself by just sticking up for them.

(In that definition.)

Well, that is the definition.

(Well.)

You see rights are something that you cannot lose because you never had them in the first place..

(Ok. But what about privileges?))

(They are and have been bestowed upon you.)

(In that sense, its privileges you give to yourself.)

You have the privilege of performing and rights can be taken away from you at any moment, is that right? Can your privileges to go one place or another be taken away from you?

(I think so. Perhaps it’s is how you want to see it.)

Well, it’s not only how you want to see it, it’s the way you see that there’s a difference between rights and privileges. Rights are something that can’t be taken away from you. As we define “right” and as most people define “right”, it can’t be taken away from you.
And I don’t know of anything that can’t be taken away from you friend. All you experience and have is a privilege.

(I agree with you there.)

So you have lots of privileges, but you usually mistake all of what you experience and “have” as “rights” and start sticking up for whatever that might be that you want for the primal purpose of non-disturbance, and, consequently, lose a whole slew of what you might want to continue to experience with someone, something, circumstances, or events by thinking that you are entitled to whatever it is by being belligerent and sticking up for such privileges..

(So the privileges, then, are even something you determine………...)

You determine that you maintain and even enhance and get some more. It’s within your power if you can see it and act on it. You’re not a victim of somebody dishing out few or many. Is that right?

(That’s true.)

Ok. All right—now then, can you handle that? Can you handle three of them? How about you, Randy.

(Can I ask a question?)

Sure, we’re ready for all the questions in the world.

(Since we’re dealing in privileges and rights—what about contracts between, say, two individuals that you specify actions for each party.)

Ok.

(If somebody changes the action……..)

What you mean is they don’t do according to the contract and change their action, so you see, then, that you have the privilege of suing him in a court of law.

(Ok, it is a privilege however….)

That’s right.

(It’s not a right, it’s a privilege?)

That’s a privilege, do you see. That we have a privilege of saying that a third party should come in and haggle the contract. In the United States, a contract is considered sacred. It’s the only thing in law that’s considered sacred is a contract.

(We’re not looking as victims, as victimizing.)

No, it’s just that this didn’t happen and so now I have the privilege of going down to the courts—which is the third party—and saying I want to be redressed because this jerk didn’t pick up his end of it.

[From Marsha. It was Dr. Bob that started me looking up words in the dictionary. It is a very worthwhile exercise and always expands my horizon of meaning. It also amazes me that he always used words correctly after I look them up. I have heard “redressed” but never thought about it very much. Here’s the dictionary meaning.

redress To set right; remedy or rectify.]

He has the privilege of coming in and saying I did do it or I didn’t do it, but he turns it over to the third party, and then it’s up to the court. So there’s nothing right or wrong about it. It’s an option you can explore Now if you have a contract and the other person doesn’t do whatever it is you think they should have done, you have the privilege of appealing to the third party called the government to settle the dispute, is that right? You don’t have King Solomon.

He used to be the government in some country, and he’s supposed to be all wise. So when people got in a haggle over their contracts, they went down and said “Hey Sol, what about this?” and Sol issued out a viewpoint that impressed everybody as to how smart he was, ok?

(One other thing on Number 2.)

Ok, Number 2, justifying.

(There are things that—off hand--I can’t think of one, but I can say that I cannot justify myself doing them.)

Right. I couldn’t very well justify stealing from you for the simple reason that it wouldn’t be to my advantage. If it was to my advantage, I probably could.

(I wouldn’t find fault with that. Now about drinking alcohol for example—let’s just pull that one out—it’s an old one. I could no more justify that for myself, yet I could find myself at times when I would do that.)

Well, naturally, but at that particular moment you could justify it or you wouldn’t do it.

(Yes, because it’s pleasing some sense.)

That you said, “Man I’m hungry. Look I’ve been around people all my life that overeats, over drink, over anything—I don’t care what it is….

(There could be something that you could not justify in your own mind.)

Ordinarily—but under THIS particular circumstance, today I could justify it. You see, justifications don’t stay there all the time.

(It goes clear to subconscious then, doesn’t it?)

I don’t know subconscious—it goes back to the old decision that something is justifiable. If you have been mistreated or denied or feel you have been, then you’re feeling sorry for yourself—self pity—then man, you can get in there and maybe tonight you could get drunk because of the way things went on today.

I’ve heard guys say “sigh” “I’m glad this day’s over, let’s go to the bar.” Because he feels he had a rough day; and now then he’s justified in having ten good jolts of Jack Daniels. It doesn’t make any difference.

(I’m going to have to come up with an example.)

Well, there isn’t any example you can come up with. I would hope you work all week trying to find one, because you can not unless you kid yourself.

(I’m not saying it exists. I’m just saying I can see the “right”, and I can see the “proper” bit.)

Oh, you can find a justification for this or that, that ordinarily you couldn’t—but today you could. Now ordinarily a man says he wouldn’t steal, he can’t justify it. But if his kids are hungry, he can justify it dame quick?

(True, but that isn’t the kind of..)

Well, I know, but let’s say stuffing your gut for instance, ok? Ordinarily you wouldn’t do it. You have no reason to, but some day the food was so good, like Thanksgiving, plus Grandma cooked up so good and Mama cooked and everybody brought in all these goodies and you just couldn’t turn it down.

(So you could even have in that case a sleeping justification. You realize you’re aware?)

Well, you’re never aware you’re justifying something—it always slips up on you from one of these good little characters right here. [He was probably pointing to the complainer, sticker up for rights, or blamer on the picture of man] One of those little guys always gives you the justification. So observe people—they go have a big Thanksgiving dinner and they pile the food up there enough for 20 families for 10 weeks, and they stuff it all away on Thanksgiving and all of them end up holding their bellies. But, you see, they justified that it was so good. Did you ever do that Linda—100 times over?

(I didn’t really have a justification for it—it was just plain stupidity.)

Well, that’s your justification.

(That’s the justification? I get it.)

(The definition of victim,…….What about the victim in an earthquake. That’s not what we’re talking about here.)

No, he’s not a victim there. He is experiencing a certain set of things—and did you read where they pulled those little babies out of that earthquake a week later and they were sitting there peeing away and having a good time. They didn’t know that they were mistreated. Yet a grown man came out of there and said, I wanted to kill myself because I could sit and imagine all kinds of things. But the little babies didn’t know what to expect when they’re born, so that’s something to ponder on. They come out feeling pretty good.

So there is a very simple way to find truth, Leland. Can you recognize each of these as a solid misconception, and you don’t have them anymore when you’ve got them up and really looked at them. Then there is nothing between you and your experiencing or sensing, and that Essence within. That Essence can be called Spirit, it can be called Life, or it can be called whatever you want to. So it doesn’t matter about what name you lay on it. I don’t think it cares. You could call Amon; I think it’d be all right. And it wouldn’t make any difference. I’ve heard people call it George and got along just fine. The point is, it begins to express because you have dug the dirt off the top of it so that there isn’t a bunch of conditioning that comes in.

So somebody has these three—there’s a stimuli comes in from the outside—you’re going to be a victim, you’re going to be mistreated by some bad people. You can give them hell, talk about them, call them dirty names and you’re rights have been violated in some way or other, right? And here it pops up all the time.

Now here we can be without that, period. Now the only way we’re going to do it is that we know what those major misconceptions are—they cover a lot of subdivisions within each one of them. You could have many synonyms for each one of these. I tried to lay them in the easiest term, so you don’t have to go hunt up synonyms. And if those misconceptions are out of the way, you will find that there is a total straight-in reporting to X, Spirit, Life, Essence, whatever term you want to use. That which determines you’re there, you’re alive; and if it’s not there, they say here lies the remains—because you’re not alive any longer, ok? That’s what counts—because it is wisdom itself. It’s Truth. And Life can be expressing and here is a very simple way to get at it. Now it requires some consideration that you truly first see that you have the misconception—every one of us has these things unless we have worked diligently to get them out. They may pop up and try to hypnotize us, but we don’t believe them or use them.

We have them. No disgrace, you’re born with them. They come in with the first nutrition you got—and it was reinforced every day of your life up until probably today. It’s been reinforced by being held to be true—it isn’t true, but we never thought to check it out. You’ve held these to be true all your life without ever thinking about it. You acted as though they were true. You may never think of the exact terms, but you acted every day showing that they were there. You’ve acted a victim. You’ve acted out that you have rights. You’ve acted those out without ever necessarily thinking of these words.

Now let’s see that we can see them plain enough that we find it impossible to act them out, and then you will find that there has been one fundamental transformation in yourself, and that you’re now a living being. Ok? Any other questions, comments?

Call it a day. You got in after the hammer fell, but go ahead.

(You got about four minutes on the tape.)

I know that.

(I’m saying that—this is maybe more than you want to cover in four minutes, but I’ll ask the question now and see what you do with it. In choosing a new purpose, you pointed out that the new purpose can’t be anything to merely be a substitute to get the four dual basic urges all over again.)

I would say that, I’ve laid out a new purpose here, huh?

(To discover misconceptions wherever it is to be found.)

And we’ve laid out which ones they are, and that you could eliminate them and then that you have made awareness and X in union; and I don’t know any better purpose in living than that one, ok?

(Will they eliminate themselves once you recognize….)

(Do I understand you right, Bob, when you say that they’re many misconceptions, but if we really work on these three, we pretty well covered….)

Covered the misconceptions, yes--all the others, some synonyms or another statement of these. That is the best I could come up with after observing and gathering out some 300 or so of them on paper. I think I could reduce them all of those to these three as fundamentals

The three misconceptions

That I’m not a victim

That what anybody, including self, is doing, ever has done or ever will do—at the moment of doing was felt to be right, or proper or justifiable with what light they had.

That I have no “rights” which I unconsciously want to stick up for. I only have privileges which I would like to enhance and get more. Further, the only thing that can’t be taken away is Truth which in fact is “what is” at this moment.

That’s all for today.

ve·ni·al–adjective

1.	able to be forgiven or pardoned; not seriously wrong, as a sin (opposed to mortal).

2.	excusable; trifling; minor: a venial error; a venial offense.