The Party

An excerpt from a talk by Rhondell where he discusses finding a purpose of living.

So, many years ago I was taught that there were four questions. That if the person could answer them, it would determine whether they had the minimum amount of sanity or not. Just the minimum amount, you know, to get along with.

So the first question is What am I? Now if you don't know what you are, you may be thinking that you're a butterfly dreaming you're a man this morning, or something like that, obviously we would be a little bit concerned with you, is that right? If you didn't know what you are. You think well maybe I'm a cow out in the field and dreaming I'm a human setting in a building this morning, huh? (laughter) You know, we really don't know what we are a lot of the time. If we didn't know what we are, we'd have to assume that that person was a little less than sane.

The next one is Where am I? Now if we don't know what we are, and we don't know where we are, you know, you begin to wonder about that person. So this we were taught was the minimum standard for sanity. Just enough to get by on, huh? What you are, where you are.

And the next is What's going on here? And the fourth one is What can I do. Now if you couldn't answer any of those questions, any person couldn't answer those, what would general assumption would you have to make about them? What do you think? (Woman: stupid) No, not stupid, just not quite sane. Nobody's stupid. But nobody's stupid, really. We all have enough to get along on.

So we will try to give some sort of an answer to these four questions. What am I, Where am I, What's going on here, and What can I do. Now, none of those says what you should do, what you ought to do, you're not where you ought to be, or you're not doing any of these things that people worry about all the time.

What should I do, where should I go, should I stay here or go to Oklahoma City, should I stay in the house I'm in or should I get out, you know, it goes on and on and on. And these are non-answerable questions, because you get two answers to them. Now, you never want to know what's going on here, we very frequently are asked "Why did this happen to me?" Did you ever ask that? "Why do I have so much trouble with my weight and these other people eat three times what I do ... (laughter) There's no answer to why questions. There really isn't, because you're really just trying to find something to blame. "Why do we get older?" "Why does this happen?" Why did that happen? Why aren't I happy? Why can't I be happy like everybody else.

I used to listen to people for fees, a long time ago when they come in and talk, and they very frequently come in and I say, "Well, tell me about yourself." And they would say, "Well, to begin with, I had a very unhappy childhood." I said, So, what's new? Join the human race, it's miserable to be a kid. (laughter) Right. You can't reach, all you can see is about from here up to here down on people, and you go around looking at things, and everybody (unintelligible) and everybody says don't do this, don't do that. Everybody tells you what you have to do, what you must do, and so on. It's miserable to be a kid.

So the first, "I had a very unhappy childhood." Well, so what? You're not there any more, so what's that got to do with it? Is that right? Huh? What's it matter what kind of childhood-you lived over it.

So, we'll try with What am I? Well, let's use the available evidence. You did nothing that you can recall of to earn your trip here, is that right? None whatsoever. You brought nothing with you. You came totally unprepared for what's here. Probably if you would have known you wouldn't have come. But, whatever it is, you were totally unprepared for it, you arrived at this world broke, helpless, naked, and found a world well equipped, and a lot of things going on and two slaves to look after you, is that right? (laughter) You can't do much better than that.

So, you'd have to say from the evidence that I'm a privileged invited guest. Would that be about all you could come out and say? You come to a place, you brought nothing, and everything's here for you to use. Is that right? So you'd have to say you're a privileged invited guest. By Life, not by your folks, that's nothing, that's a couple of slaves they gave you, to look after you for a while when you first came here.

And where am I is-obviously we have sufficient evidence, that we're at a beautiful estate called Earth where life is the host Is that correct? Can you contend that one in any way? The evidence is all around us, isn't it? It's been my privilege to get to travel around over the states quite a bit, and all of it's beautiful. The desert, the seashore, the mountains, you name it, the plains, everything is beautiful. Wherever you go.

So we are privileged invited guests, invited to a beautiful estate called Earth, where Life is the host. That's I believe is checkable, you can check up on that, is that right?

And then you can ask what's going on here. Well, obviously, when you see a whole lot of people gathered together and they're all playing games, you'd have to say it's a party. I believe that's the definition, isn't it, when you got a lot of people together and they're all playing all kinds of games, you'd have to say it's a party. That right?

So there is all kinds of games being played, there is the business game, there is the marriage game, there's the football games, there's the traffic games being played out here, and you could just go on and on. Now there is no game you have to play. Nobody forces you to play any particular game, do they. You don't have to play the traffic game if you don't want to. You don't' have to play the business game if you don't want to. You don't' have to play the marriage game if you don't want to. Is that correct? But you can play any game you wish, and the only request that's made of you is that you choose to play the game and you choose to play whatever game you're playing while you play it, according to the rules. That's about correct, isn't it?

Now for every game, there is four things required. Number one, there has to be players, second there has to be rules, or it wouldn't be a game, and third there has to be officials, and then there's rewards and penalties, according to how well you play the game according to the rules. Is that correct?

So we have all these games being played, and there's jillions of guests. Now the host did not ask any of us to check out the guest list. Now the host evidently invited them because he found them interesting. In one way or another. So if anybody's still at the party, the host finds them interesting. Correct? Now there's nothing for me to judge about them. Now maybe I like one of you real well and want to be with you, and maybe another one I don't particular for, but I don't have to play a game with anybody I don't want to. That right? I don't have to go and play a business game with somebody I don't want to play with. I don't have to play any other game. Maybe sometimes I play the traffic game, there's some I'd just as soon wasn't out there, but basically they all do it pretty well I've noticed, and very nicely, they let you in slots in the freeway, and let you get off and on. We've all handled it fairly well, right?

So there's no game that I have to play, but I'm free to play any game that I want to. That's correct isn't it? I don't have to check out the guest list I don't have to sit and wonder why the host invited anybody, including me. It's very simple, if you put on a party at your house and you invited some people, you invited them because you feel that in some way or other they would be interesting to you or the other guests, is that right?

Now you've been provided with a house, or some kind of shelter, you've been provided with food, clothing, and transportation, ever since you arrived at the party, is that right? You had all of that. And for the first few years, a couple of slaves to look after you. Maybe you still got them on the hook, I don't know. (laughter) You still got them? (Woman: No) You finally released them, give them their freedom after so many years, is that right? Did you finally give yours their freedom? To go on and not have to be a slave. But for many years they were total slaves to you, is that right?

So what's going on is fairly easy to see, that we are a privileged invited guest at a beautiful estate called Earth where there is a tremendous big party going on that we can play any games there if we wish, we don't have to play any game we don't want to. And we don't even have to play by the rules, if we don't want to, but it behooves us to. Okay? It's more fun. If we see what's going on.

So that finally gets us down then, we can ask, what can I do? Now under these. You first would have to know what you are and where you are and what's going on before you could intelligently ask the question what can I do. That right? If you didn't know where you were, it wouldn't matter what you did, right? Huh? So now if we could kind of see, by the evidence presented to us, that this is the situation, we can ask the fourth question, what can I do?

Now if I come as a guest to your house, well, I consider I'm a guest here. I was invited here and I'm a guest here. Now there's only one thing I can intelligently do, it seems to me, as I'm a guest in your place, huh? I was invited here. I can be what to me-now I'm the only one who can judge it-but what to me is being a good guest. Would that be about the only thing you could do, when you're a guest somewhere? And you know you're a guest.

Now basically every time we know we're a guest, we do that. But we have never seen that we were really a guest all the time. You know, if somebody invites you to their house, you can be what to you is a good guest. Now, what would be, what would a good guest do? Now that's all I can see that any of us can say was our major purpose or thing in life, was to be what to me was a good guest. Now I can't say what was-how you would behave to be a good guest. I can only say it to me, is that right? Now I think it has some broad fundamentals, I would think a good guest would always be considerate, considerate means you pay a little attention, huh, you'd be considerate of the estate that you were invited to for the weekend, wouldn't you Becky? Hmm? You'd be considerate of the estate. You'd do that, wouldn't you? I wouldn't go around carve my initials or... (laughter) take a scratcher and scratch it up, and I wouldn't go over and take chalk and write a few little pithy sayings on the wall, either here or in the washroom. I would behave as what to me is a good guest, I would be considerate of the estate, wouldn't' you? And the house, wherever I was staying, whatever it may be, is that correct? That's easy enough. I think everybody here could do that. To be considerate. Of the estate, you'd be considerate of your host, and wouldn't cause them any undue discomfort or aggravation or annoyance, would you? You wouldn't do that, would you? You wouldn't wake up at three o'clock in the morning and couldn't sleep, well, I think I'll go down and turn on the stereo room volume and let it run why everybody else is trying to sleep. You wouldn't do that, would you, if you were a guest. Now if you were in your own house you might do that, but not if you were a guest, would you? And you wouldn't go klonking around slamming doors, and all this, you wouldn't go down and go through the host's desk drawers to see why he was putting on this party and how much money he had and what was his reason for inviting you, and why did you invite HER, of all people, you know... you wouldn't do that, would you? You wouldn't go in the bathroom and dig through the medicine cabinet to see what kind of pills they were on, and wondering what kind of ailments they had, you'd be considerate of those things and let them alone, is that right? Would that be about the way you'd do it? ...

So number one, we'd be considerate for the estate, for the host, and certainly I would be considerate of the host's other guests. Wouldn't you? Hmm? Wouldn't you be considerate of the host's other guest. You know, those other people all sleeping, you're awake, you wouldn't go turn the stereo room volume, let it shake everybody awake, you wouldn't' wake up the other guests, would you? No way.

And neither would we go around griping because of what food the host served. And we wouldn't gripe because of what room he gave us in the house, and we wouldn't gripe because he invited some of these other people. Now that is if we are relatively conscious. Just a little bit conscious, even, just a minimum amount of conscious, we wouldn't do that, would we?

People always ask me, how can I be conscious. And when I tell them, they sometimes think that's not complicated enough. But now if you are conscious of what you are, where you are, what's going on here and what you can do, would you be considerate of the host, and of the host's estate, and of the other guests. I believe any one of us has that much simple good manners. Is that right? We all have that. You do, I do, everybody can do that.

So be considerate. That's no big deal, is it? That's just something kind of comes natural when you know what you are, where you are, and what's going on here, and what you can do, that obviously you COULD do. But you see the only time we ever thought of a guest, we were a guest of one of the other guests. We didn't notice we were a guest at the whole show.

Now the next thing that one might do is being a conscious guest, and aware of what's going on, it would be harmless. Now that's a little more difficult than being considerate. The being harmless.

But really, there's only two ways I know I could harm another person. One is by physical violence. I can go up and bop you on the head with a hammer, or shoot you, or kick your shins or something like that, stomp your toenails. That would be physical violence. Now the other one was, if I were to agree with anybody that they were a victim. You know, I hear a lot of people tell me how they are terrible victims of every conceivable thing (laughter) They're a victim of illnesses that come out of the sky and attack them, they're a victim of their mate, they're a victim of the weather, they're a victim of all these plants that bloom in the spring, it makes them sneeze. It goes on and on, they're a victim. Now I refuse to agree with anybody that they're a victim. That is one way I feel is being harmful. Would you think that would be harmful to sit and agree with somebody that they're a victim? Now, not to agree with them is an excellent way to lose friends and alienate people. (laughter) But, I hang in there, I'm not going to agree with you that you're a victim. No matter what, okay? Because I feel that that would be harmful. Because once you get an agreement with somebody else to anything, you now make that your truth. Isn't that correct? What usually passes for truth is agreement. Two or more people agree on something, now that's truth to them. And if I agreed with you that you were a victim, I would be very harmful to you.

Now we talked last night about the great profession, that we looked at, that you go to when you have difficulty. Now their whole program is to agree that you're a victim. You sin because the devil made you do it. (laughter) That's on bumper stickers all over the country, and signboards. "The devil made me do it." Or "He made me do it, or she made me do it," or somebody else made me do it, I'm a victim. A person says "I had to go to school." That says I'm a victim of some big old something that's forcing me around. I have to go to work, you're a victim of something, is that right? If you have to cook dinner, you're saying you're a victim of some extra force that's sitting on you making you do all those things. Is that right? If you say I have to lose weight, you say there's something out there driving you to that. And I'm not responsible, I'm a total victim. That's not true, I won't agree with you. Because if I did agree, I have been your ally and helped you create a false feeling that something that is not true IS true. I've agreed with you. Because most people, if somebody agreed with you, that makes it true. Isn't it? As the old saying is, forty million Frenchmen can't be wrong. But they can.

So I want to be harmless, and that means very simply, I will not go around bopping you on the head with a hammer, or shoot you or kick you, or step on your toes or anything else, I let you alone. You have all the space you can have around there, and I'm not going to interfere in it. And I will not agree with you that you're a victim. Now that's fairly simple isn't it? Until somebody starts telling you how they're victimized and you begin to tell them how much more you're a victim than they are? (laughter) You know, the first guy doesn't have a chance. Did you ever go sit down somewhere and some guy starts telling how bad everything is, then YOU start telling how bad everything was. The next guy told you your problems were minor compared to his. Is that right? They're REALLY having problems.

So that's being harmless. Now the next thing that possibly a conscious guest, one who was aware they were a guest, is that they would make some little insignificant contribution as a way of saying thank you. Not because they should or ought to or have to. Now if somebody invited me to their home, and they had heard that I was a pretty good cook or that I could do something else, or whatever some of my little skills were, and they invited me there so they could use my services for free, and make me feel that I was obligated to do it, I think that's a dirty trick. So I'm not going to do it as a service, now. There's a decided different between a servant and making a contribution, is there not?

Now I hear people get up and say that you have to serve God. Well, he invited me to the party, I didn't ask to come, the best I recall of, hmm? And uh, put me down here and here I am. Now then, it's up to me to choose whether I will make a contribution or not, but I don't feel I have to go out and do a whole bunch of things just because I got here. Okay? I'm not obligated. Because then I wouldn't be a guest, I would be a slave. And I don't want to be a slave, okay?

And neither do I buy that we were invited to this party and they set all kinds of delightful temptations out in front of us and then said if you do it we're gonna make marks. And when you get five, you've had it. (Laughter) I don't buy that one either. Nope, it's here, I'm going to use it and I'm going to enjoy it, okay?

So, could you make a contribution? What for, it's your way of saying Thank You, for having been invited to the party. Now if I were at your home and you were having a party, I would probably come around and say, Look, I can help in the kitchen, because I'm a fairly good cook, I can get by with it. Everybody'll like it, and I'll do all the prep work. So I would do it not because I felt I should, or I was obligated to get even with the host for inviting me, but simply as my way of saying thank you for having been invited, I would make an insignificant little contribution and know before I make it it's not needed, or they wouldn't have invited me in the first place. You see, nobody needs those, you already made arrangements to take care of all the guests. Didn't you? So it would be strictly a free will contribution because I wanted to say Thank you for having been invited to the party. Certainly not an obligation. You're not making a contribution when you're paying an obligation. You know, if I sign a note at the bank for five hundred dollars and I go down and pay the five hundred plus interest, that's not a contribution to the bank, that's an obligation. So there's a decided different one. This one is a way of saying thank you. Okay?

Now, only you can choose what contribution you will make. Now I know of one contribution that's very simple to make, and probably an extremely valuable one at the party. That's to make a contribution to a pleasant harmonious mood wherever you're sitting around at the party. Now that's easy enough to do, isn't it? You don't have to (makes drudge voice) make a contribution to a foul mood at the party. You don't have to be all serious at the party. Huh? You don't have to sit and worry about all these terrible things. You know, I run into people who say, "If God made this world, why does he let them have wars?" He doesn't care what games you want to play, go play war games if you want to. (laughter) You want to shoot each other, have fun. He's got plenty more guests invited to the party (laughter). He let any game played. You want to play the game? You want to play the war game? You can shoot all you want to. Get you some on the other side that wants to play. You can sit there and shoot at each other, have a ball. You know, that's been one of the favorite game people been playing since they started the party. So it is not so terrible, you know. And if you want to play the self-destruct game, there's nobody going to stop you, it's all right. You can um, shove down all toxic substances you want to, you know, it's just fine, if you want to play that game it's all right with me. Who cares. It's a party, you can get it, all you want of it.

So you can play any game you want to, okay? Or, you could play the game of being what to you is a simply, to you, a good guest. That'd seem fairly easy, wouldn't it? You can do that all day, and it doesn't matter whether you're a bookkeeper or whether you are a typist or whether you're a school teacher or librarian, or a farmer, or a fisherman, or whatever, I can use that as my way of making a little contribution and being a good guest, is that right? If I'm a cook, I can certainly cook a good meal and set it out in front of you, and that contributes a little bit to a pleasant, harmonious mood. Is that right? I don't like to eat what's cooked angry, it always gives me an upset tummy. It hurts. So I would like to do something that's pleasant, huh?

Now one of the things that I can see that all of us could do, without any effort, no money, nothing, I can make a contribution to a pleasant harmonious mood while I'm at the party, is that right? Is that hard to do? (Woman: Not really) All I do is leave off complaining, sticking up for my rights and blaming, and pleasing people because I have to, and quoting some authority because he said so, and trying to make me and everybody else ought to be different. Just leave that off and then, you know, ... make a contribution to a pleasant harmonious mood... Now do you know anything any greater for this world than if everybody was kind of having a good time at the party? If you put on a party, would you want all your guests [Bob apparently frowns] or would you like them all be having a good time. Which way would you want it? (Woman: a good time.) That's why you put on the party.

Now, that seems to me that all we have is that in some way or other I can say thank you for having been invited to the party. These are all to me just a way of saying thank you. A way of saying thank you for having been invited to the party.

Now I read a story that kind of tells that we weren't even supposed to be invited to the party. Did you know that? We weren't even supposed to got here in the first place. It says that a great man, probably the host of this world, decided to put on a party, and he invited his friends. No doubt equal, you know. People who owned other little planets sitting around here and there and elsewhere. And invited them to the party. And he made it a great feast and prepared the whole house to put on the party. And he sent his runners out to go bring the guests. To say dinner's ready now, all of you come. And lo and behold, they all begin to send excuses as to why they couldn't come. One said he just bought a new John Deere and he couldn't come, look at it, he had to go try the John Deere out, he couldn't come to the party. Another one said his father died, he'd have to go bury the old man, so he couldn't come, begged to be excused. Another one said that he had just got married and so he'd have to stay home and entertain his wife. And another one said that he had just bought a nice big ranch out here somewhere and he had to go out and check the ranch out to be sure that he didn't get cheated and so forth. Another one said he had a big oil deal going and he had to go check up on the deal, and all of them didn't come. Nobody came. So, when the runners came back, they said, the guys you sent us to see, none of them's coming, another one said none of them's coming, and said that the host of this big party got ticked off in no uncertain terms. He was piqued. He slaved his fingers to the bone over a hot stove to build a big dinner and nobody come to it.

So he was really ticked off. So he called all these runners together and said, look, you go out into the hedgerows and the lanes and the gullies and under the highway bridges, and down back alleys and you bring in all those lame, halt, sick, blind, winos, what have you out there, so my house will be filled! And aren't we glad that happened? (laughter) We would have never made it otherwise. So luckily we have a reason to say thank you. We weren't even supposed to come here in the first place. Those equals should have come. They drug us in out of the alley, the back rows. And we of course are a little lame, in the brain, and a little halt, we don't see things very rapidly, so we didn't even catch on that we were at a party. We didn't know what we were, you know, we're not used to living in this great estate, been down in Skid Row all the time, (laughter) so we really weren't acquainted with this beautiful estate, so we looked around and said somebody's played a dirty trick on me, I didn't ask to be brought up here to this party. They're going to do things to me, and they're making me work, and they're making me pay these stupid games, only they didn't see they were games, they thought they "had to." They got to play games and didn't know it was a game. Hmm?

You know people who've never been to a party really don't know how to behave at a party. So we've never been to a party. When we got here, we didn't know what was going on. We were all torn up. ...catch on, we're up to the palace, it's a big house. And we got all these things coming in for us, and we're not even asked to say thank you for it. But as remotely a lady and a gentleman, we'd at least want to say thank you for having been invited, it would seem. Hmm? Is that right?

And so, here we come in. Now the only way I'd know how to say thank you for something I have no way of ever returning the favor, I can't invite the host to my house because haven't got one, I came from Skid Row. Slept in a cardboard box, or something. So there's no way I can return it, so the only thing I can do is say thank you. By making an insignificant little contribution. And it doesn't matter what the contribution is.

Now I've stated it to a few people, and then they come and make a big problem out of it (Bob uses forlorn voice) "I just don't see anything I can make a contribution, really want to make a GREAT contribution..." There isn't any great ones, they're not needed at all. All we can do is some insignificant little something like make a contribution to a pleasant mood. That makes the party go on nice, doesn't it? Hmm?

If you were putting on a party, you'd want it to go nice, you'd like the other guests, all the guests to put on a little contribution to a pleasant mood instead of having them [fuss] about.

So could you be doing what you want to do. The only thing I could want to do is say thank you and the only way I could see to do it is that I will be what to me is a good guest. Now that's what I want to do. So what do I want to do? I already have what I want to have, now what do I want to do? That right? I want to do what to me--I'll make it a little more proper: I want to be doing what to me is a good guest.

Now there is no laws against this. Absolutely not a law in the world that's opposed to it. You know, they didn't even tell you like not eating rocks, they didn't put no signs up against you being a good guest. Is that right? None whatsoever. There is no regulation against it. There is no limit to what you do it and when you do it. And there is no standard for you to live up to.

Now you can have what you want to have, and do what you want to do, as long as you're aware of what you are, where you are, what's going on here, and what you really want to have, is that right? Now most of us haven't ever got that figured out. Now we can't get rid of the other side of the coin on what we want to have, we can't have the ideal and never feel a little discomfort. We'll never get rid of being ignored or rejected a little bit, because all the big professions as we are, a little bit. You remember they said we were bad, ugly, abnormal, and out. So what. I laugh. Hmm? Okay?

Now, no matter what you do-what do you do real well? Mediocre well. Half-hazardly. (laughter) So you can do any little thing... as your little way of making a tiny contribution to the party. It isn't needed anyway, because the host is taking good care and you never did nothin' you know. He had the party running long before you got here, and in all probability, if you gritch around enough, he'll send you away from the party, and the party will still be going on.

Now it would be useless for most of us to take on if what we want to do is accumulate all the silverware at the party. You know I could go through the house (makes some gesture, everyone laughs) Well, you may let me get by with it for a while, but when I started to leave the party, you would say "You can leave the silverware there on the table, Bob." Huh? now you notice how every once in a while somebody who thought that was there whole purpose in what they wanted to do was accumulate all the silverware at this big party-they got a lot of it. It so happens in the last three or four years some of them got sent away from the party. They accumulated great gobs of the silverware while they were at the party, you know, they thought that was their whole purpose, go around and grab up the silverware at the big party. Put all the place settings in their pocket. But when the host said hey boys, take a walk, I've had you at this party long enough, will you go get a jug of milk and don't find the way back, they had to leave all the silverware laying here. Is that right?

Now there's plenty for you every day of the week here. You've had food, clothing, shelter, and transportation every day you've been here, is that right? You and me and you and everybody else. Now why do we have to accumulate? You know, there's a story told about some people out wandering around in the desert, every day they would pick up manna and eat it, they were quite well provided for. Huh? Then they started storing it up, so they could trade with it. Stuff rotted and got full of worms.

So do you need to accumulate anything when you're at the party? If I came to your house and you were providing me with food, entertainment, other guests to talk to, nice little games to play, you give me shelter and everything, I don't need to go around through your kitchen accumulating the food, and put it in my room so that I will have something to eat tomorrow. Is that right? Now if I went down there and I found a ham, I better get that out, get me a loaf of bread (laughter) a jug of mayonnaise, and I head up and hide it under the bed, you know, because I'm afraid you're not going to feed us tomorrow? You know, that's pretty weird, really. Isn't it?

Now, can you be what to you is a good guest? Now I can't tell you how to be one. But then wouldn't you be doing what you want to do, and you can have what you want to have, is that right? Now the doing is a will and the having is a purpose. Now you've got them altogether and you could be one person right now. You don't have to wait till manana. You can do it now, couldn't you. Could you be being what was a good guest? Can't you have what you want to have right now? You don't have to wait.

Now all conditioning ends at that. I say this is your purpose, and this is the will to do this. Now there's a real I there and you don't hear all these Not-I's yakking and crying and carrying on, because you are doing what you want to do and you're having what you want to have. Now can you do that right now? Right this minute, could you start doing that? No laws against either one of them. There's no rule. There's nobody going to stand in your way, in the first place, they don't even know what you're doing. They just think you're awful lucky, hmm? Because if you're living that then you have removed all the obstructions in yourself and all obstructions in yourself is what interferes in everything you're doing, doesn't it? It's a fight within yourself, what should I do, why did this ever happen to me, etc., you got all this conflict going on. You would be without conflict. There is no obstruction to the person who is doing what they want to do and they're having what they want to have, there is no obstruction.

Now if we tried to get something that's impossible, or see ourselves that something else, we're struggling towards an illusion. If we set up that ideal we talked about last night, and if this isn't ideal enough for me-I don't know how much more ideal it could get, come to think of it. That I'm a privileged invited guest here at this beautiful estate and I'm privileged to play any game I want to. Huh? And there's no rules against me doing it. Hmm? Not one. Now can't you have everything that you want to have and you're doing everything you want to do. Now the toys come with it. I read somewhere, you know, seek you first the kingdom of peace of mind within yourself, the peace, total oneness, in other words, that marriage where they happily ever afterwards, and all this junk that we play with, you know, the tools, the pieces we use in the various games, will be added unto you, and anybody that has experimented with it has found that it's true. You can have all the cars you want to play with, all the airplanes you want to play with, all the cabanas you want to play with, all the furniture you want to sit on, all the clothes you want to wear and more too, if you first are doing what you want to do, and you have what you want to have, which is your inner state first. Not that you say, I would be happy if I had a new Rolls Royce, I would be happy if I had a lovely home, I would be happy if I had this, and I'd be happy if I had that, which says I have set conditions before I would agree to be at peace. Now there are no conditions here, is there, you can do it right now. Not conditions, you don't have it tomorrow, you can do it right now. Can you do it now? Huh? Be what to you is a good guest. And that pretty well takes care of getting what you want to have up here, doesn't it? That gets it, it's just a little byproduct you get a lot of pleasure and comfort, attention, approval.

Now you're not a slave, you're not going out and serving the host, you are only saying thank you to the host because you're invited to a party you weren't even supposed to got to come to and wouldn't have if those other cats would have come. We'd have never got here, if they would have came. (laughter)

Now you don't take my word for this, experiment with it.