Lesson 11
Two frequent ideas used in the Teaching are that of “what is,” what is, is whatever one sees as fact; and the other idea that is frequently used is “what ought to be,” or the ideal; this is what one sees as good. Now frequently one sees some fact and decides that it is not good, that it has no value and, of course, there begins the struggle to change what is into something that one would see as good or Ideal or what ought to be. Of course, this is conflict, struggle and resistance.
Now the Teaching says that what is has a value. Now to be able to see that value one might see that the self has many ideals or many ideas of what ought to be or many ideas of what is good or valuable. Unless these two, what is and value are seen in the same light, one has not seen Truth. Now a fact is not what is referred to as Truth. It is a true state of affairs, it may be true what one sees but is not considered truth with a capital T. Truth with a capital T means that one sees what is and sees the value of what is. And that, of course, is the ending of conflict, struggle and resistance because when one sees what is and then sees the value of it, X acts upon that. But as long as one sees what is, something as being a fact, and the self suggests that that is not good, that what is ought to be something else, then comes the struggle, the conflict and the resistance.
Suppose that we begin today to write down on two sheets of paper, one is headed, “What Is,” and the other one is headed, “What Ought To Be. Now we will see many things today that are “what is,” facts, but we do not see that fact as having any value. We might see it as having a very negative value, a minus; it is something as being bad. Then we will see that the self begins to work as to what that “what is” ought to be. Write down under the “What Ought To Be,” what we would consider to be good. In other words what-ought-to-be are considered to be illusions of what was good. We haven’t seen the good of what is.
A child in school is given an assignment and he doesn’t want to do the assignment. Now he knows WHAT IS but he doesn’t see it as good so he will procrastinate, he will fret, he will complain; he will make all manner of noise, say it is impossible, that teacher is an old meany for having given him the assignment. Another child may see the assignment as being very worthwhile, of having value in becoming proficient in whatever the subject the assignment concerned. He will find interest in doing the assignment and very quickly the assignment is done. He has a great sense of satisfaction. X operated upon the assignment because it was seen, of course, as WHAT IS, which both agree on, and it is very difficult to argue with a fact. But it is very easy to contend as to the value of that fact and thereby come to Truth.
Now under the “What Ought To Be” and “What Should Be,” we are going to write many of the things that we feel would be good. The first thing we probably feel would be good would be that I should always be comfortable. The fact is, the “what is” possibly is that one is not comfortable. Now that has a value because that being uncomfortable is a signal that one is struggling toward an illusion, that one is in some form of stress. There’re four possible ways of being in stress:
1. From the environment. There are sudden changes in temperature. There are jolts, jars and falls, there is toxicity in the air or what have you or various substances are toxic when taken into the body. If one is in a state of discomfort it is telling one that it is in one form of stress and one can then look for which form it is.
2. From the inner feeling which accounts for about 97% of the stress.
3. Improper nutrition. One isn’t eating and providing the fuel or seeing as good the fuel that is required for the body.
4. Unusual activity. Seeing as desirable some sudden stressful activity such as skiing or mountain climbing after as sitting at a desk for many months. One would find that this would bring about some sort of ache, pain or misery.
However, we have been conditioned. The self sees all discomfort as something bad and does not see it as a value and begins to look for some way to achieve the ideal of what ought to be. So one uses drugs or many other methods to make one insensible so that one no longer receives the signal. One is only interested in what one sees as good. Now in beginning to observe the self, I observe the self, one of the more valuable areas is to see what the self has considered to be good. We have seen that it considers to be good, to be totally non-disturbed physically. That it is seen to be good to have attention. Now one can gain attention by driving down the street at an excessive rate of speed or by doing unusual things such as standing on the corner and eating a piece of coal, one will gain attention. One can gain approval from certain people by agreeing with them, which may or may not be to one’s advantage. One can gain approval by doing acts of daring, by performing very unusual feats or by attempting to do them to show that one is not chicken, that one is brave, and sometimes we see people do very foolhardy actions by trying to gain attention and approval.
One may feel important by lording it over other people, by gaining some means of control over others either by suggestion or by force or by threats or by withholding or giving of certain values that the one receiving sees. As one observes this one sees there are many unusual values placed. And that in order to be conscious and to live on a different state of being, that what one has held out as being good, what one has accepted as being valuable or good is possibly one of the greatest areas of confusion. When one sees something as true but some other state as being of value, there is conflict, there’s struggle and there is resistance, which is the disintegrating factor. The struggle toward an illusion, an illusion that what is can be changed into fitting what the self has agreed is valuable or good.
Now very little effort is spent on seeing if what is, is good, on an entirely different viewpoint, if one looks at it differently. We have suggested that there are four possible forces in the world.
1. INITIATIVE: Something I do, something one wants to originate. And then there is:
2. RESISTANCE always against that, whether it be gravity, distance or weather, whether it be someone or whether it is a given event. So second force comes along to obstruct, in some way, resist what the origination was. But without this second force there would be no strength, no power. It is the same as if you tried to mold a ceramic dish without a mold of resistance to pour the liquid ceramic in so it could harden into the shape one wanted. Then one would have a:
3. FORM: So with initiative and resistance comes about a form and then the form provides a use, the:
4. RESULT. So we have four forces: INITIATIVE - RESISTANCE - FORM - RESULT
Now most of us see all second forces as something frustrating, something that interfered with the ideal of things being like I wanted them to be, like they ought to be, like they should be. And, of course, second force is seen as misfortune, as evil, as something bad, bad luck, and, of course, the person resists that second force and thinks they ought to be without it. This, of course, is one of the things that brings about the idea of what ought to be, the ideal.
Another ideal one would probably have is that one should know the future, and then one could make all manors of preparations and could avoid every unpleasant situation. But if you know the future, the future is complete and includes oneself. You see, if one could know the future, that a given accident was going to occur, one would have to go ahead and do it, otherwise one only knows probabilities and don’t we already know probabilities? There is a probability that if I take up thieving as a means of livelihood there’s a very high degree of probability that I will be apprehended in the thieving and thrown in prison. Would one say that one knows the future? No, but one has a high degree of probability. If I new the future, that I would thieve, that I would get caught and throw in prison, then I would have to go ahead, I couldn’t stop it because otherwise I would not know the future, I would only know the probability.
Frequently we hear someone in a given situation. They’ve been tied up in a snowstorm on the highway or something and they say, “If I’d known this I wouldn’t have left home.” But if they would have known it, they would have had to leave home and they would have gone on. So one of the ideals of what is good would be to know the future. But possibly if we reevaluate that “good” and looked at it, we would see that to know the future would be the most painful hell anyone could ever experience. From the day you were born you knew exactly every event that would happen and you knew exactly when it would happen and all the circumstances about it. You could do nothing to stop it or nothing to speed it up or nothing to slow it down. It would be a movie that you had already seen in advance and the movie was going to be run again. Could you imagine any more horrifying existence?
So we have seen that what is, is we do not know the future, but we have seen that as bad, that we ought to be able to know the future. Then, of course, only giving it a casual look we felt we could change the future. But if one could foresee a given event and then change it, one was not knowing the future. So what is, is living by reporting what is to X and seeing what is as good or valuable or worthwhile and X operates upon it. In this way man recognizes his oneness with X, with Spirit. If he could foresee and could change the future and change all the events in it he would have no comprehension of X. He would never realize his oneness with X, that he was a function of X. So what is, is so designed by an almighty loving Creator that one would be given every opportunity to discover one’s oneness with X because one never knows the future. But regardless of what happens, if one sees what is and sees its value, X operates upon it. One then sees that one does not need to know the future, that everything is an ever-changing, ever-loving panorama of change, and one could be comfortable with change, comfortable with the unknown and recog- nize the oneness with X, the union with X.
If one could do what the ideal says, the what ought to be, what one has valued, one would be in a horrible state of existence; the most boring, the most tedious, the most fretful form anyone could be in. One would see the whole panoramic future and see everything and know that it was coming. You know on a given day you are going to get burned, you are going to receive news that a loved one has passed away, there is nothing you can do, you know the future. Wouldn’t that be horrible?
As we begin to observe we begin to reevaluate what the self has said is good. Now the self is based upon the four dual basic urges that the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed, to avoid all pain. But pain is the great signal that tells us we are not reporting accurately to X, that we are walking into something that is destructive to the entire state of being, destroying the organism, the awareness, the whole union of X, awareness, body and function, casting it asunder. Pain is the announcer that one is headed on that way.
Without that pain one would be totally insensible to everything that is destructive to the body, to the awareness, to the state of being, to existence, even. So one begins to see that the self has accepted as good something that would be very damaging. This is called REEVALUATION.
Another thing that the self has setup as good is that one should never be ignored or rejected. But one of the great teachers in the scriptures says that one should leap for joy when one is falsely accused and mistreated by other people. Now if one sees this, that it gives one the awareness to see where one is, to see what one is valuing, whether one is caught in the valuing of what ought to be. The illusion has set up an ideal of what is good and sees no value, practically, in what is, but only in the illusion. As one follows this one sees that a certain amount of disapproval is also very wonderful. Isn’t it wonderful we can’t control people because if we did, what kind of a creature would we be, that if we had the power to control every other person we would be setting self up as a god. And it has set itself up as a god, the god of darkness, MAMMON, that says what ought to be, the ideal, being what the self from the infant decision, the four dual basic urges, from Mammon, has said is good. When one sees what is, is true, is a fact, but one feels that what ought to be, what would be good would be for a different fact to be in existence, one is in a state of mental conflict, mental struggle, mental resistance, emotionally all torn up. And, of course, reported to X that things are in a terrible shape, one is in an emergency. X prepares the body to fight or run and, of course, there is nothing to fight or run from. It is only because the self says what is, is not good and that what ought to be, would be. So what we have got to do is to change what is into something that will be what I call good, and this is the work of the self.
I observe this and sees that it is necessary to totally disidentify from the self and to begin to see value for I, the observer, begins to see the value in what is. Now before I can begin to see value in what is and remotely begin to operate the self entirely, it must be cleansed, as we have seen. So the first thing one will do is write down all the things that the self reports as being good.
Now it would be good, in general terms, to be non-disturbed, to have pleasure and comfort and to escape pain, that I would have approval and escape all disapproval and that I would have lots of attention and escape being ignored or rejected. And that I am important, that everybody is controlled by me and I’m not inferior because nobody fails to obey me, and then, of course, that complaining would change what is into something that would suddenly be what one sees as good, that sticking up for rights would change what is and that pleasing people would change what is and that believing and doing what I am told by authorities would change what is into something that I knew ought to be or that appearing to be different on the surface, putting on a different mask, would change what is, or that by blaming something, that it would change what is.
However, what is, is the fact and a fact is very difficult to argue with. You see, the person wants to be a magician and change what is into something different that one would call good, and as one observes one knows very little about good and valuable in living experiences. One sees challenges as bad and sees lack of challenge as good. But if those are looked, at all challenges are good and every what is, is a chal- lenge and one would appreciate what is, the ever changing. Each one is a challenge or an opportunity for one to be more conscious and more aware and to further show up the fallacy of the self, the what-ought-to- be. As we have seen, when we see something for an illusion we are no longer tempted to involve or to identify with that illusion.
When you were a little child you probably heard the story that there was a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. And if you ever lived in certain areas, possibly the foot of the rainbow looked like it was just a few feet away and you could rush out and get the pot of gold, and wouldn’t that be wonderful. But if you ever tried to chase a rainbow you find it is always a little further on the next hill, when you get to the next hill it’s on the next one and very shortly the whole thing disappear.
If one should ever see all the ideas of the self, of what ought to be, are just as illusory as that rainbow, one would cease to be tempted to identify with the ideas of the self. That what ought to be is good, and that what is, is bad, that it should be changed so that it would be good. Now the attempt to change a fact is the most impossible thing man knows, but it is very possible to reevaluate the value of that fact. One who did see the fact as being bad and wrong and everything concerned with it can suddenly begin to see that it is good, it is a challenge. It gives me an opportunity to evolve, to grow, to be more conscious and to arise in conscious awareness and to be more obedient to one’s nature, to report what is and its value. You see X doesn’t operate upon anything just because you say it is. You also must see its value; then you are reporting the truth to X. Now if one reports that something is but that it‘s bad, X, of course, doesn’t operate upon it. Then one reports that what would be valuable would be to attempt to change what is into what it ought to be, and that is the struggle, conflict and resistance that most everyone is in.
So on our sheet of paper we will see what is and then we’ll see, on the other side, what the ideal, what would be good. As we observe these written out where we can look at them and see them you’ll find the reevaluation begins to come about very easily. In fact one will begin to see the humor in the whole situation and begin to laugh at all the ideals, all the what-ought-to-be, all the struggle that one has been through, through the years, trying to change what is into something that I could say, that is good and valuable. I don’t see the challenge as being good. The self is totally upset with what is.
Now most everyone sees what is true or a fact, that a given event is taking place. But let’s observe that the self immediately begins to evaluates that event and very frequently says it is bad, it is not good, and then comes the struggle to change that what is into what ought to be. We can also see that it’s in a constant state of expectation that it will be what it calls good, and then when what is comes along to give one an opportunity to evolve, immediately there is the self judging it as bad.
I will observe this and we will write and carefully observe all through the week how what is, is so frequently seen as something bad and how seldom it’s seen as valuable or good.
Only as a man sees what’s true and what’s good does he see the truth, and they’re always in agreement. There is never a conflict in Truth. What is does have a value when one is awake and sees it.
Copyright © 1973 by Rhondell. All rights reserved. This material is for an individual student’s personal use; it is not to be duplicated or loaned to another.
