A woman calls nearly every day to ask why her grandfather has to suffer. She complains constantly that she doesn't understand it and what a lousy world this is that she can't know these things.

One playing the role of The Grand Inquisitor (and I know several) was here yesterday demanding to know every detail about what I am doing, why I am doing it, and why don't I do it his way instead. (His digging was quite fruitless.)

The waitress at the local coffee shop asks constantly why I did not eat everything on the plate.

A great intellectual asks every time I see him why, if God is Love, Idi Amin exists (and variations on this theme). And on and on it goes.

There are two answers to all these questions, take your pick: I don't know and/or It's none of your business.

* * *

We have all been conditioned to think we have rights. They needn't be enumerated, you know them all by heart. The Teaching says that this idea of worldly rights is erroneous, that all these things we think we have a right to can be taken away, by violence, by suggestion, by seduction, and numerous other ways. Many things we think we have a right to are gifts, i.e., food, companionship, etc.

Although these specific rights are usually taught to us, it seems one in particular is almost inherent, from an early age: The so-called right to know. (Isn't it about three years old when they never stop asking Why???) It is error to think that we have a right to know anything. And it is especially fallacious to think we have a right to know by demanding.

People think that friendship (or almost any kind of relationship) entitles them to satisfy their curiosity about any facet of their friends' lives.

Spouses or others engaged in a physical relationship often think they have a right to possess the other person.

Parents often say to their children, I have a right to know, but they don't. They have a duty to do what's to the child's advantage, knowing what's to the child's advantage is part of duty, not a right.

But in the Work we are more interested in the huge idea that the student has a right to know Truth. Certainly I had felt as long as I can remember that I had had a right to know the Secrets of the Universe. In my greed to know I pursued every avenue available, and felt completely within my rights to ask anything of anyone I thought might know something I didn't know, and expected an answer. I do not have the right to know, I do have the right to learn.

The Greed to Know is a much more accurate phrasing of the occupation of most seekers. We simply were not born with a right to know anything.

BUT we do have a birthright. One could say we have an entire Bill of Rights hinging on our birthright. They need not be won, they exist already, and no one can take them away. In its usual perversion of Real Ideas, the conditioning (which cannot create anything on its own) has taken the fact that we have a birthright and changed it into the common worldly idea of rights. But one part of the Idea is the same in both the man-made world and in the Spiritual world: We are free to exercise our rights, or not. It is entirely up to us. The Real World allows us to choose whether we wish to apply our birthright or not.

Our Real Bill of Rights:

I have the Right to choose my own purpose of living.

I have the Right to act on my purpose of living.

I have the Right to pay attention.

I have the Right to evaluate objectively.

I have the Right to learn by action.

I have the Right to choose my inner state.

I have the Right to choose my duties.

I have the Right to love.

I have the Right to ignore suggestion.

I have the Right to respond to challenge.

I have the Right to do what's to my advantage.

I have the Right to Experience Freely.

This list could go on and on, but an astute observer will see that these are all different versions of the same thing, our Birthright:

I have the Right to be responsible.

To demand information, either mundane or Spiritual, from others in order to feed an insatiable greed for knowing is not a particularly responsible activity.

You will be provided with EVERYTHING you truly need to know by exercising your birthright.

And the ONLY way to know if this bit of information is accurate is TO CHECK IT OUT.

from FTE, Vol. I, No. 9