Lesson 12
In our discussion last week and the one you have been working on this week was discovering that I has two basic things to do. One is to see what is and the other is to see the value of what is — this is reporting to X. Only to report what is does not bring about a very decided action. When one begins to question the value of the four dual basic urges as the purpose of living one really becomes a student of the Teaching. Now at first when one takes up the study, one is only studying self, I observes the self to see how it works, what it does, how it operates and how it has had I totally under a hypnotic spell, that everything it said was true. In other words, one accepts the thoughts as being true and acts upon them, tells the value that the thoughts had, or the thoughts said this should not be and I have been accepting those as fact. So the first step of the study of evolving and transforming and being a new person is to study the old man, the self.
Then it is a student of the Teaching after it has considered the self for some weeks and looked at it and sees. Then one becomes a student of the Teaching and it checks out the values of the Teaching. It does not accept that it is true, it does not accept that it is dogma or that it is revealed. It may be but no one is to accept it for that purpose. It is to be checked out and to determine what values it has and this value is to be determined by experimentation, with seeing the self, events, other people in relationships, in various what is situations in the light of the Teaching.
Now the Teaching is not an authoritative system. It is based on scientific principles that one takes an aspect of the Teaching as a hypothesis only and then experiments with it, and possibly the best way to experiment with it is to try to disprove it, not prove it. Experiment with it in any way that one can see to experiment with it and find out for self if the Teaching is a light. Doing this one becomes a student of living, a student of man, and he begins to have a true knowledge, a true knowing. He has experimented for himself. One of the great Teachings says, “A man who heard the words and did not act upon them was likened unto a foolish man who built his house on sand.” He said, “Oh, those are wonderful,” and he built his house on sand. He heard the words, did not act upon them, did not experiment with them, and when the first challenge came along his house fell down. But that the man who heard these words of the Teaching and acted upon them, experimented with them, found out for himself, built his house on a firm foundation, on rock, and that no matter what happened the house would stand because it had a firm foundation.
So our start today is to EXPERIMENT to see what the Teaching has to say and to begin to value it. In other words, I is beginning to build a body. Now the body is a spiritual body and that body is a frame of reference where it sees things. Now if the frame of reference is from what one has heard, what one has been taught to believe, what one has accepted as fact from the ideas of the self, then one has a rather poor spiritual body. So we’re starting to build a new man and the man, of course, is not the body, the physical body, but is the spiritual body, the real inner state. So to give something to start looking for we will try three questions. Now this relates to I, the observer. I has been observing the self, now it will begin to try on some propositions. WHAT AM I? WHERE AM I? AND WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? These are very basic questions that I will start to consider.
WHAT AM I? WHERE AM I? WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? Now the Teaching says that what I is, is the awareness function of X, of Spirit. No one is expected to accept that but to take it as a working hypothesis and to begin to experiment with it and see if such is the case. If one has then one has found something worthwhile. If one finds that such is not the case, one, of course, will discard it. So the Teaching says that WHAT AM I is answered by, “I AM THE AWARENESS FUNCTION OF X.”
WHERE AM I? I’M AT A BEAUTIFUL ESTATE CALLED THE EARTH. The earth is also considered in the Teaching to be the physical body as well as the planet earth because the physical body is made of earth and energy. That’s where we are and the body is a function of X for expression also, and that it always expresses through that instrument based on the information received from the awareness function as the WHAT is and what is VALUABLE.
The third thing, WHAT IS GONG ON HERE? The Teaching says there are a great many games going on here that allows one to exercise what one is and to further discover where one is and to be more conscious. That the games which are a form of Teaching, the Teaching of life, the Teaching that is never away from us, the one that is constantly in contact, that is Teaching the awareness function of X everything that it needs to know. Now X wants the awareness function, obviously, if such is its case that it is the awareness function of X, it wants it to be accurate and it wants it to be well informed and to be clean. In other words, not be contaminated with false ideas. So X is teaching the awareness function that one is a privileged invited guest to this beautiful Teaching that one always has available to it. But we have never seen it as a Teaching; we saw it as something bad when the self was deciding what was going on.
So let’s kind of consider what’s going on at the party. One arrived at the party practically asleep and was quickly met by some of the other guests who suggested that the whole purpose of this party was to be non-disturbed. That one should gain lots of attention and lots of approval and lots of pleasures and comforts and that one should control all the other guests one could. So one began to do that. One quickly learned to complain to control some of the guests and then quickly learned to stick up for rights. Now as privileged invited guests at a big party one doesn’t have any rights, one has only privileges by being invited. But nevertheless one decided that to stick up for rights was necessary because maybe this wasn’t a party, maybe it was a dog-eat-dog trip. Then one decided later and split oneself into more than one piece, that there was something that should be done to please the other guests because they were larger and more powerful than self and so they should be pleased. Then there were a lot of people who said, “If you will believe and do what we tell you to do you will be non-disturbed at this party, and that there is another party beyond this one. And if you don’t do what we tell you, you will be in a horrible shape there and if you do what we tell you, oh, you will be something very, very wonderful.” Now they acted as though they knew all about it, but what little they know is about this party and they may be in many illusions there.
No doubt there are other worlds, we came from the uterine world to this world. We died to the uterine world and found ourselves born into the earth world at this big party. If we ever leave this party, no doubt we’ll find another world. But we didn’t have any preparation for this one except to report to X, and X always did the thing we reported and we’ve survived so far; so possibly it’s quite all right. And then we thought that it was necessary to put on a different front and to put on a show for the other guests and thereby impress them. We never thought about the host, we only thought about the other guest. And then, of course, we began to blame the other guests because of the many difficulties we might have experienced. We also began to see that there were many activities going on. We never thought of these as games, like the games of traffic and the games of business, the games of association, the games of relationship. We saw them as something that we had to succeed in, which we had rights in. We didn’t see them as games, as a Teaching method that would give us awareness.
Now as we’re looking at them let’s begin to see that they are Teaching methods. Traffic: One is learning to be aware and report to X that this is the situation, that everything has a value, even someone who’s driving rather erratically has a value. It keeps I aware that it is to be awake and not asleep, and it reports to X and X maneuvers the car and everything seems to be all right. One saw it as what ought to be that other person ought not to be driving erratically. He should stay totally out of the way and I have all this traffic by myself, I have the whole roadway to me and everybody is obeying what I think. They are even capable of reading my thoughts and doing just exactly what I know they ought to be doing, that which would be good. But one finds self very frustrated in this because they are not doing what I think they ought to do, but they’re doing what is and what is has a value. One is in a relationship called marriage and one thinks that the mate ought to always do what I know they ought to do. There is no opportunity if they did, for one to evolve, to have understanding, to have truly love. It would only be that they were a convenience, a means of providing pleasure and comfort to me. So the fact that they have their own ways of doing things, they have their own tastes, they go to sleep and are totally inconsiderate, is an excellent device, a Teaching device, provided by an Intelligence of untold quality to provide the awareness an opportunity to be really a capable reporter to X. For the awareness to develop a state of being wherein it is aware and is not asleep, is not caught by all the suggestions. In this big game there are constantly people who give advice, suggestions, suggest that they know all about the future, they know what will happen when one does this and does not do that. This give awareness, I, an opportunity to discover and to consider for self that they know no more about the future than it does. That really there is no need to know the future and that one would not want to know the future, and as long as one reports the actual situation and its value, X does the appropriate thing. One is not dependent upon other people; one is not dependent upon suggestion or institutions. One is the function of infinite Intelligence that always does the appropriate thing for the information it receives, and one is beginning to be a new man now.
Now another favorite thing going on at the party is judging the guest list. One sees someone who isn’t doing what one wants to be non-disturbed, and so one says that person is bad, this person is evil, they’re uncouth. One begins the judging trip. Now as I observe these he sees that they are doing what they see is right or proper or justifiable, and that it gives one the excellent opportunity to be considerate, to have love for that individual, which is understanding. To understand that that self, that I is sound asleep and under control of the self and is working to gain pleasure and escape pain, to gain attention, to gain approval, to gain importance and to escape being ignored or rejected, to escape disapproval as it sees it, and to gain a sense of importance, and that there is first one I up and then another. One up trying to gain attention and it does things that most people will disapprove of in its efforts to gain attention, and then when the disapproval comes another I jumps up and complains and feels guilty and makes all manner of noise because there was disapproval. As one observes this one understands the situation that all the other guests are in. And one recognizes that the host invited all the guests because they’re interesting and that all of them are at School; and all of them are being given every opportunity to develop awareness, to have I take its rightful place and throw out the usurpers of the self which has brought about an old set of values, values based upon the sense as being the ultimate to serve. So as I observe this, I sees that while it was conditioned and arrived on the planet Earth, that it served mammon which are the senses, the urge to have the four dual basic urges. Now it is seeing that its whole purpose is not to serve mammon but to serve X, Spirit, Infinite Intelligence. That’s why it’s referred to as X. Nothing could describe it so X is only the symbol of infinite intelligence that always knows the appropriate thing to do and does the appropriate thing for the information received as to what is and the value of what is. One is beginning to turn about from serving mammon to serving Spirit, and one cannot serve both at the same time.
Now in beginning to observe the self, which we have been doing for several weeks and which we will continue to do, we recognize that all the attributes of the self are intent upon serving the four dual basic urges which are referred to as mammon and that all of this is in darkness and that the awareness has been caught in it, has been conditioned in it. It’s the story of the parable of the Prodigal Son who went down into Egypt. He took his inheritance, his ability to be aware which are the greatest riches one could know, as an invitation to the party and he went down into Egypt, which is the symbol for darkness or conditioning or serving the senses or for mammon. He went down and served mammon and he wound up in a hog pen. He had wasted all his substance.
Every one of us is a prodigal son. We’ve all gone down and served mammon trying to gain the four dual basic urges and we’ve wasted our substance and we’ve found ourselves in a state of considerable misery or we wouldn’t be listening to the Teaching. As long as mammon is providing even the hope of pleasure and comfort, attention, approval, one doesn’t question that purpose of living. But when one has eaten quite freely of it and still finds that one is somewhat miserable, one discovers one is in the hog pen wishing they could have even the husk leftover from what the hogs eat.
And then it says, “The young man arose, he awoke and said to himself, What am I doing here? I will arise and go serve my father as a servant.” He even saw that at the moment he could not be called a son or a privileged invited guest, but he would go be a servant. So the first act of the servant is to be aware of the Egyptians, the four dual basic urges and the other ideals of what ought to be. People ought to do what I want them to when I complain. They ought to do what I want them to when I stick up for my rights and when I blame and when I please and when I believe and do as I’m told by authorities, and when I put on a front. So he arose and it says, “He started toward home.” We all have started when we begin the study of the self and now we’re starting to study what is, the estate, what it’s about. And it says, “The young man’s father saw him when he was a long way off and came to meet him.”
We will find the same situation. As we begin to do it we will find untold assistance. These sometimes are called intuitions. They sometimes are called a sudden hunch. We don’t care what it’s called. One will experience information and Teaching from a higher realm as one begins to see what one’s nature is and to see what one is serving, and one is intent upon serving X and not on serving the Egyptians, the four dual basic urges and their prime ministers. As one is doing this one is met from a long way from the point of where one can go and is given assistance — which means one is met on the way and further and further information comes to one from within. One has had the Teaching from without to start one on the way and to continue to give one assistance in how to see things. But it says, every time you check it out for yourself. Now the father said, “My son which is lost has been found.” When I is identified with the four dual basic urges, with the self, it is lost, and he said, “My son which is lost has been found, and my son which was dead is alive again.” When I is identified with all the conditioning, with the self, it is dead, it is not doing its job, it is allowing someone else to speak in its name; it is dead.
Now then, the first step we took was to study the self. Now for a considerable length of time we will be considering the Teaching. Now we will not accept the Teaching as fact, we’ll accept it as a hypothesis, one upon which I must experiment to find out for self. This is called The Science of Man. Being a science it requires experimenting. It is not something one is forced to believe under threat of future punishment or future rewards; in fact, none are offered. No future reward is offered and no future punishment is threatened. It is something one is doing now with the aim in mind of finding out for self. Finding out for self is to be more conscious. To accept what one is told is to accept without investigation for self; is, of course, to be subject to suggestion, which is one in a hypnotic sleep. We are not talking about being in a hypnotic sleep, we’re talking of awakening from a hypnotic sleep and arising from amongst all the things of the hypnotic sleep. How are we going to awaken? By waking up and looking. How are we going to arise? By our own experimentation. We will then begin to build a spiritual body, the real body, a frame of reference based upon experimentation that says that that is like unto a house that is built on a firm foundation, upon a rock. We will experiment with this and see if it be true. If we can’t find anything to experiment on, we’ll have to leave it for a while until an experiment presents itself. Now some things cannot be experimented with just at any moment, they require the proper time, place and circumstance, as any experiment does. One cannot experiment with a delicate chemical operation in a barn lot. One cannot experiment with a given electronic experiment without some of the pieces to work with. So while one may not be able to experiment with a given thing today, we will hold it that that hypothesis is there and that we can jolly well depend that before long the proper time, place and circumstance will present itself for the experiment. So I is on the lookout for the proper time, place and circumstance to run other experiments but there is usually some experiment that one can be running now.
Now we’ve been experimenting for some time with being aware of the self as an object, and I’m sure everyone found that that can be done. Now we’re going to begin to study life. We’re going to be studying what is and we’re going to be studying values, we’re going to be studying the building of a spiritual body.
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.
