ARROGANCE
by Eugene Halliday
[Recorded at ‘Parklands’, Bowden, Cheshire]
1.
We’re
going to talk about ‘Arrogance’ … … Would anyone like to make me an offer about
the meaning of ‘arrogance’? …..
2.
(Audience)
The opposite of ‘humility’…. …
3.
…
That’s called defining one by another – negative. … … Two unknowns … One
defines the other. …
4.
(Audience)
Non-humility
5.
Non-humility.
‘Non’ is a negative. You’ve got an undefined and your defining it with another
undefined. … Try again Greta … … Go back to basic behavior. When you are being
arrogant, how do you behave?
6.
(Audience)
In a unformulated way
7.
Really?
I would have thought the opposite.
8.
(Audience)
‘High and mighty’.
9.
‘High
and mighty’. … Instead of ‘low and meekly’. … Any other offers?
10.
(Audience)
Egotistically (Pardon?) Egotistically.
11.
Egotistically.
….. Mm mm.
12.
(Audience)
With pride and aggression.
13.
Pride
…?
14.
(Audience)
And aggression
15.
Aggression.
… Pride, covetousness, envy, anger, concupiscence, gluttony, sloth..
16.
(Audience)
Contemptuous indifference…(../..)
17.
Very
good, I like long definitions like that
18.
Very
good …
19.
(Audience)
(… …? …) in your mouth …
20.
Lucky
you’ve got something in your mouth, otherwise you couldn’t talk. Tongues are
quite useful actually, although they do get in the way sometimes. … Especially
if you’re trying to talk ‘pure vowels’ … I’m very fond of vowels, but people
don’t seem to comprehend much … from mere ‘vowel talk’.
21.
Anyhow,
we’ll take a dictionary definition to begin with … Don’t ignore the dictionary
just because you’ve got one, you know. The object of having a book to consult,
is to consult it.
22.
Roughly
it says ‘arrogance’ is ‘the taking to oneself, of anything whatever, without
entitlement’ …
23.
How
about an offer, what does entitlement mean? What does it mean for you to have a
‘title’ to something?
24.
(Audience)
Ownership.
25.
Ownership.
… Their arrogance is ‘pretending to ownership without permission to do so’.
Where does the permission come from? When you get an entitlement within a
National State, what does it mean?
26.
(Audience)
Something that is due to you (EH: Pardon?) Something which is due to you .
27.
Due?
… How about the variety of honors dished-out to people; and how about the
‘Beatle’ who returned his honor? Was it due? No. It’s conferred by a superior being onto a
relatively inferior being. Your ‘title’ is another word for ‘label’. You give a
label, like ‘Lord High and Mighty’ or whatever, or ‘Half a Lord’, ‘Mediocre
Helper to Empire’ …
28.
Let’s
accept the dictionary definition to begin with, that ‘arrogance’ is ‘the
appropriation or taking to oneself of anything whatever, without authority,
without entitlement conferred upon us from above’.
29.
Now
who would be the first one to confer entitlement? … Somebody says, ”God.” …
Whispering it … Don’t mention the ‘Holy Name’! … Certainly not out loud.
30.
Well
obviously the highest power is the source of the highest title. … So
‘Hashem’ … the name … the ‘Holy Name’.
31.
That
to which the ‘Holy Name’ refers is ‘the infinite field of sentient power’ (5.00)
32.
Now
‘the infinite field of sentient power’, in itself, is called ‘the Godhead’; but
the same field - beginning to create - is called ‘God the Creator’.
33.
So
we’re distinguishing between ‘non-creative-power’-infinite; and the same power
engages in an act of creation, and therefore called ‘God’.
34.
In
the fourth gospel it distinguishes them with the ‘definite article. “In
the beginning was the word, the word was
with the God, and the word was a God.”
There is there a distinction between
‘infinite, non-creating’, and the same power creating.
35.
Right.
… We’re going to draw our famous number. …
36.
Did
any of you see an article in the local rag about a fellow terrified of the
number of his motorcar? 666 … And he asked them, the local parson, to bless it.
Why bless it? It’s perfectly exorcised … Anyhow, the blessing didn’t work, and
he had another accident, and he was wondering whether he should re-approach the
same man for a better type blessing.
37.
Now
there is a light - that you see on the screen - represent consciousness. Light
… ‘Let there be light’ means, ‘Let there be consciousness in what you’re
doing’. ‘Let there be consciousness’.
38.
‘Consciousness’
means, ‘with analytical processes operating on being essence’ -
Con-sci-ous-ness – ‘the essence of being analyzed and held together’.
39.
Consciousness
only occurs when you analyze the content of the Sentient Power Field
discretely. Seeing each component separately and then putting them back
together again in relationship.
40.
Now
the light represents consciousness, and so far, apart from in the corner there,
which you may not see, it is perfectly free from content.
41.
Imagine
a consciousness with no content. What it is like? It’s like nothing, except
itself. So the mystics call it ‘no-thing’ – not yet a thing. Now how does it
make ‘thing’ inside? It does it by focus.
42.
Consciousness
has the power, as you all demonstrate to yourselves when you attend to anything
whatever (a-tend, the ‘tend’ is ‘towards holding’ – tendere – to hold). You
hold your field awareness to a point. And in the fact of holding it so you
create, by your interest, the characteristics of the point. You insert
interesting characteristics from you, into that field of consciousness. And
when you contract, the point of contraction is limited, and dislikes the limit,
and tends to run out of it.
43.
If
I put a dot there (Is that big enough to be seen? … … Is that big enough?) … Well it should not
have any dimension whatever so it’s too big. It’s a location without dimension,
as you few pointed out. But, once you focus like that, it tries to dodge, it
doesn’t like being pinned. ‘P-in’,
‘pin’, ‘power within’.
44.
So
it moves. When it moves it dodges out like that, and it’s pursued by the field
of intension, to hold that point in being, and it winds out like this. … Off it
goes into the infinite from which it started.
45.
Now
this is our friend again, the number six, winding in; and the field comes in,
traps it, and goes round; and it pushes it in again, and that’s made that very
ancient diagram – the spiral with a center of reference.
46.
There’s
our number six. And that derives - in its primordial diagram, the form in the
mind, a form within the consciousness.
47.
Now
we consider what it does.
48.
As
long as we remember that the point was posited by the Infinite (10.00) we are not arrogant. We are not
‘taking to our self’, without authority of the Absolute, anything whatever. We
are saying, “The Infinite has posited a point of reference.” I say, “I’m a
point of reference,” you all say, “You are points of reference of consciousness
in yourselves.”
49.
There,
is the center of your point of your individuation possibility; and here is the
energy trying to escape individuation. Why? Because individuation is exposure
to possible attack.
50.
Where
you are individuated, you are formulated; where you are formulated you can be
attacked.
51.
Now
you remember the rule. The Light – the Infinite – is a continuum. A continuum
has no parts; what has no parts is identical, absolutely, throughout itself.
52.
So
if it can make a number six there, it could equally well make another one there….
53.
All
is fine, and perfect, and harmonious, and beautiful, until those two touch
there. And at that point there is a disturbance of each by the other. We call
that point, ‘the point of contingency’ and that is the point causing all our
trouble … ‘the point of contingency’.
54.
Each
being – here’s a being – has, by the very fact that energy can’t do nothing,
wound in tighter and tighter, to a point where it can’t go any tighter, and has
to come out. … It keeps winding in, winding in, winding in, winding in, but it
cannot go into the dead center because the motion of it is eternal, so it can’t
come to a dead stop. So it can’t get into that center there, that center is
impregnable, enviable. So I’ll draw it again. … Here we are. … There’s a being,
and there is the impregnable center, and I’m going to put a letter ‘A’ in
there, because that is the Absolute that has precipitated that zone – remember
this is going on here, all the way round. But there is the Absolute, because
the energy that’s spinning can not get into that center. Now that ‘A’ there -
little ‘a’ and big ‘A’ – are the same in absolute character and essence. That
is big ‘A’; that is little ‘a’.
55.
If
you want to write a, say, Aleph, that’s equal ‘1’. In Hebrew we just write
that, that the first letter equals ‘1’. But if you write it big … like this …
that’s worth a thousand, and the same letter means ‘tremendous number – the
Absolute’ is used ‘big’ to represent the same viewed as small. The large and
small are identical, in essential quality, character, and essence. …
56.
Are
those diagrams fairly clear? … Are they puzzling because there’s a lot of them?
….. No.
57.
Well
‘Jim’ll Fix it!’, because ‘J’ is ‘affirmation’, ‘I’ is ‘individuation form’,
and ‘M’ is ‘substantialization’. That’s the ‘fixer’.
58.
Now,
when we have a situation like that … One ‘sixer’, if it forgets that it comes
from infinity, cuts itself off there, only in it’s imagination. It cannot do it
absolutely, but it can think and pretend that it has cut itself off from the
Infinite, and it does so. And another one will come along and strike it, and
immediately the impregnable center there ‘a’ and there, ‘a’ – both Absolutes
identical with this Absolute here (It’s beginning to look like an owl already,
can you see a nice owl here?)… …. … (15.00)
59.
Now,
the ideal relation before ‘the Fall’ is to the absolute center of the
individual, shall speak to the absolute center in another individual. But at
the point of stimulus there, there is a tendency to obscure, because when two
forces meet, they cause a rotation. …. When two forces meet … Now cut them off
so they are contingent and they’ve forgotten their origin. … They don’t know
there’s a nice ‘s’ sat there …. But here, when the energy goes to meet the
stimulus, it spins - the energy goes to meet the stimulus and it spins.
60.
Now
that point of spin is a contingency point, and it is the center of the
empirical egoic structure. ‘Empirical’ means ‘from experience’.
61.
That
is the cause of all the trouble – identification with the point of contingent
stimulation; forgetfulness of the Absolute.
62.
Now,
here’s our pair again … The center is forgotten, and we now have that energy
going out, to meet another energy. That produces zones of spin in each one and
this becomes the center of egoic defense in the time-matter process.
63.
Time
is serialization caused by contingency. You might see there, Mars and Venus
symbolized … like that … That’s the symbol, and we’ve turned it round
historically for convenience; and that one, we’ve gone like that … and that’s
Venus, and that’s Mars. Because when the contingent stimulus situation arises,
there is always a relative hierarchy of power; the intensity is not the same on
both sides. One initiates, the other reacts; one is active, the other is
relatively passive.
64.
So,
here … we have a little egoic structure. Let’s say the one on the inside – the
‘A’ – equals ‘Atman’ … and that equals ‘Absolute’, which in Sanskrit is Brahman
… The extended man, and the fixated man, are the same essentially. But the one
that is formulated inside that little rotating zone, on the periphery where contingency
occurs, is called ‘Jewa’. So we have ‘J’ equals ‘Jewa’ – ‘affirmed individual
for developmental activity, and that equals ‘ego empirical’ … Yes? …
65.
So
as to your intent to develop yourself, as a finite, getting bigger and more
powerful – bigger and better – you are called ‘Jewa’; as an absolute awareness
of your identity with the Absolute you are ‘Atman’ … Very important .. Put them
both together, ‘Absolute affirmation’ equals ‘affirmation of Absolute’.
66.
Now
that ‘Jah’ or ‘Yah’ – because ‘J’ and ‘I’ and ‘Y’ are the same letter is our
friend, which in English we call ‘Jehovah’. That affirmer of activity is
actually God.
67.
Now
it is inside everyone and precipitates everything whatever. Nothing is
precipitated without it. Nothing has any existence without it, and that brings
us to the meaning of ‘arrogance’.
68.
If
any individual whatever believes that it has something of itself not derivative
from the Absolute - that is arrogance. It is pretending to have authority of
its own, not derivative from the Infinite Sentient Power. So there’s our ground
of arrogance.
69.
Now,
in the human economy of nations, you could be given permission (20.00) by the masses of people to be,
say, a prime minister, or even an elected king – like the people in Spain
voting to have a king back after a dictator they didn’t like. And the same in
Italy, and the same in many places; kings have been elected by people accepting
them, and they have been deposed by people not accepting them.
70.
So
you could be affirmed by the whole mass of the human race, saying that, “We
like you, and we like your government. So we confer upon you...” ‘Con-fer’ –
‘with-bearing’. “We put a load of responsibility on you. You’re brilliant,
you’re clever, so you must solve our problems.”
71.
The
masses are dull, the masses not very analytical, and when they see a very
analytical mind, they nail it and tie it down, but a crown on him and say, “You
now belong to us.”
72.
That
crown does not mean the superiority of the king. It means ‘the binding of the
king to the will of the people that support him’. That’s tremendously good
politically.
73.
If
the prime minister – like dear Maggie – thinks she’s got power from herself to
rule a mass of idiots, she’s ‘arrogant’. If she knows her power depends on the
will of the people to keep her as prime minister, then she’s not ‘arrogant’.
You have to decide which she thinks she is, and you may or may not be right.
And she may or may not be right, from one room into the next! Because she may
fall, one moment into being clever, and the next, to remembering the origin of
her power.
74.
So
our lowest level of conferring a title, a label, of responsibility comes from
people, on the whole. The next level of conferring titles, labels, of
responsibility is the elected government. Who, once they’ve been elected, think
of themselves as an elect body, separate from the dullards who elected them.
And they then elect those suitable for their purpose.
75.
So
you then have a relatively small group electing you to be a responsible person
and do as you’re told by your electors – like an American president. He’s not
there by his own power. He’s there by a group – an oligarchy. ‘Oligarchy’ is
‘ruler-ship by a tightly bound small group’. They find him useful; he’s
smiling; good presentation; keeps his age; and does as he’s told, so the oligarchy
keep him in power. That’s the second reason. The first: the whole mass of the
human race agree, “Nice fellow, we can place ourselves in his hands.” Usually
that works out only when a nation elects somebody. But there’s not enough
communication yet between all the nations of the world.
76.
Such
is the way the oligarchy elects, and confers a label upon, and imposes
responsibility on, some individual who will, they believe, fulfill their cause,
and do what he’s told. That’s the elected representative of an oligarchy.
77.
And
thirdly, the Absolute elects the electors. The Absolute Intelligent Sentient
Power chosen upon whom it will confer a label. And it may not be a nice label
to receive, as in the Old Testament prophets. They are called by God, “Go on and
prophecy, and tell people they are going to be destroyed for their evil ways,”
Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh. And the prophet goes out and prophesies, and then the
people throw stones.
78.
Now
the Absolute doesn’t care about anything except the absolute final result. The
oligarchy doesn’t care, as long as their elected representative does as they
want. And the masses of people don’t care, as long as they get their little
gifts promised to them politicians. In fact the whole of it doesn’t care for
anything except its own will.
79.
So
the real battle is the battle between the Absolute Sentient Power, which is
Infinite, wise, powerful; and the relatively small group – the oligarchy – of
the bigger group – the masses of people. But the one that’s going to win, because
it started the whole process, the Absolute. (25.00)
80.
So
the victory has been gained before the foundation of the world. Because it’s
all Infinite Power manifesting a system: star systems; galactic systems; solar
systems; terrestrial systems; governments, they’re all appointed from above.
81.
Now
if we know that, and we adhere to it, and we believe it, and we act upon it,
and say nothing can happen without the will of the Absolute allowing it to
happen, then we are not arrogant. But as soon as we appropriate to ourselves
anything whatever, no matter how large or how small, we appropriate it and say,
“It is mine,” – ‘opprobrium’ means own-ness – “This is mine, I made it, I am
the cause of it, I am responsible for it, and the Absolute does not exist.” It
doesn’t matter what it is, how small, how large, the moment we say that we are
arrogant. And we are destined to be destroyed in our misapprehension. Our
system of thought - based on arrogance - must degenerate, must be defeated,
because the Absolute cannot abandon its own power. There’s one thing that God
cannot do and that is, eliminate God. It can eliminate any modality of Himself,
but not His essential spirit. So our arrogance is very unprofitable.
82.
Now
it needs very hard self-analysis to see whether we appropriate something and
think it’s our own.
83.
I
saw a little arts program about an artist who was neglected, last night.
Neglected throughout his life, and he was a bit sad at the end - because he was
being neglected. Now that was arrogance. To be sad about being neglected.
Because it suggested that he had a merit of his own which was his and not
conferred upon him by the masses, or by an oligarchy, or by the Absolute. So he
was at fault, even though he was very sad. And Zero said to me, “I would have
bought that picture, it’s very good.” Yes. But he was very unhappy that people
didn’t. He was unhappy because he did his best, and thought it was HIS best,
and not the best conferred upon him by the Absolute.
84.
Now
if you examine yourselves, you will find, somewhere inside, that you believe –
and this is caused through bad training – you believe you have something of
your own to which you are not indebted to other beings. Can you believe that?
Can you believe that part of believes that it has a value in itself not derived
from other people? … Do you? …Have you got it. Or can you say, “No, no, I’m
entirely free, I don’t think I’ve got anything whatever. Not the blue eyes, the
brown eyes, the grey eyes, the hazel eyes. Or the black hair, the curly hair,
the no hair. … Everything I have rests on myself.” Somewhere you have a little
cherished idea, “This is my contribution to reality, to music, to the arts, to
dance, to singing, to something of value to the human race, and it’s mine!”
85.
Now
that is that little contingent point there talking, and hoping it can persist
in its own course and win a kind of victory over the other beings who are
contingent and in defiance of the Absolute – source of all being.
86.
Self-examining
at this moment, can you really think there is really absolutely nothing
whatever of value in us that is of us ourselves. Nothing whatever, the minutest
thing; not the greatest, not the most valuable, nothing is peculiarly ours.
87.
I
saw a little program showing a little girl with curly hair. And she was
delighted and she’d got lovely long blond curly hair. In her innocence she
said, “It’s a wig.” And he said, “Well you can keep it after the show. Take it
home and admire it.”
88.
Mummy
said, “You know, you’ll grow up and that wig will become too small. You put it
in a draw or (30.00) a little wig
stand. But your heads getting bigger and bigger.” … Not only that, but your
arrogance is getting bigger every day.
89.
Highly
probable that little girl will remember, “1987… I was praised for my golden
locks. … And I can prove it because I’ve got them in the drawer upstairs.”
90.
I
know one very intelligent woman, and she was very old and she had wonderful
teeth – 32 beautiful, well matched. And I said, “You’ve marvelous teeth, are
they yours?” And she said, “Of course! I paid for them didn’t I?” … That was
ownership.
91.
Now
all ownership.. The word ‘own’ means ‘owed to the Absolute’. If you say, “This
is my own, my own pen.” This ‘own pen’ is starting to dry out already. We’re
going to leave it exposed to show that if I expose it too long it’ll have
difficulty. I’ll have to press very hard to get the ink out. … it’s like us, we
need more and more and more effort to be ourselves the older we get. … Why?
Because everybody else is being themselves in our presence and acting upon us.
92.
So
how do we kill our arrogance? Well first of all we say that the masses of the
people won’t vote for us unless they believe that we will fulfill their wants;
and the oligarchy won’t vote for us and put us in power unless we obey them;
and the Absolute, which is the real source of all entitlements will not give us
a title except to fulfill it’s own Absolute Purpose. Lucky for us, the Absolute
is Absolutely Intelligent and Omnipotent and Omnipresent, so it can’t lose. So
intelligent is, ally ourselves with the Absolute, not with the masses, not with
the oligarchs; with the Absolute.
93.
And
if you do that, the masses won’t like you, because you will allow tolerance to
some people that they don’t like. Like the Israelis, and the Arab,
Palestinians, or the people in Beirut; Islamic people; Christian people; Jewish
people. And they are all busy slaughtering each other. You can’t please them
all at once. If you please one, you annoy another. So it’s no good looking to
the masses for permanent establishment – security - by giving them what they
want, because you can’t. Because they want you to exclude somebody else from
the benefits you are conferring on them.
94.
The
oligarchy will only use you as a tool of their will and they’ll throw you out
in a car crash, a plane crash, or some deliberate exposure of your private
naughtiness to the public. They’ll get rid of you if you don’t serve them.
95.
But
the only one that won’t get rid of you is the Absolute. Because the Absolute
Intelligence is able to utilize whatever we are and with all our beliefs - including our erroneous beliefs - it can use
them and fit them in a Universal Pattern.
96.
Can
you see that intelligence we’d better have a proper ‘I’, not a rubbish ‘I’ like
the populace; not a selfish, greedy, egotistic, ambitious one like the
oligarchy. For the Absolute knows all and has everything under control and
confers life upon us, and put together egg and sperm and made a child into a
human being. It did it, the mother didn’t do it, the father didn’t do it, the
oligarchy didn’t do it, the masses didn’t do it, but the Absolute did do it.
97.
Now
which side do you place your bet? … Naturally, where would you like to have
your faith, your belief? With whom would you like to higher yourself? … The
Infinite, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, All-Compassionate; or the greedy, stupid,
ignorant, ambitious … Choose. … How do you feel with such a simple choice?
Well, you feel fine except for one thing; the inertia of the contingent
stimulus memory … There is memory. (35.00)
98.
Now
the letter ‘M’ – the Hebrew ‘Mem’ – means ‘substance’, and ‘substance’ – you
can only say that word with your lips closed – so, it means ‘a closed system’.
In fact, we ought to draw a circle round it like that, and then turn it into
Sanskrit, like that. Ahh, the magical ‘Omm’! Which is a triplicity in that that
‘O’ is done with ‘A-U-M’. It is a triplicity of the Absolute Power Substance.
‘Absolute Power Substance’ – ‘Aa-O-Mm’ – ‘OM’. ‘Absolute Power Substance’ –
triplicity. And when you say that magical word, which Yogis believe quite
correctly, symbolizes ‘all things whatever in the smallest little diagram’. A
sign, there, ‘M’ in the circle – closure, substantialization.
99.
You
don’t substantialize: ‘sub’ – under; ‘stant’ – standing, until you close your
system, until you close your super-stance. You are a very superior being,
identical with the Absolute, until you close. And when you close, you finite
your intelligence, the data available in consciousness, and in every way you
reduce yourself to an external contingent slave to outer stimuli.
100.
Now
that magical ‘M’ also means incarnation. Remember everything whatever admits of
its opposite, and the opposites are equally valid. The good, the bad, the high,
the low, the near, the far, love and hate, they’re all equally valid, and in
the Absolute they are mutually interpenetrating.
101.
Can
you believe that the evil in the Absolute is so soaked with good that it’s an evil
that is good? It has a function. Can you see that? That the evil is soaked
through and through with good. It’s wisdom: it’s the list of all the things to
avoid, all the things not to be done. That’s conscience, inherent essential
consciousness.
102.
‘Conscient’
– a French word, which in English is ‘conscience’ - means ‘consciousness’.
You’ve only got a conscience where there is consciousness to tell you, “Don’t
do that. It’s inefficient.”
103.
Socrates
has a demon. That means to say an analytical mind. ‘Demon’ means ‘analytical
mind’, ‘the spirit of analysis’ in him, and it never spoke except to say, ”No!
You can do whatever you like except the wrong.” But if you listen inside, you
are entirely free to choose anything whatever, except the wrong. The moment you
are about to you get a little warning voice saying, “No.” But it’s very quiet.
It’s called ‘the still small voice’, it doesn’t shout, it doesn’t compel you,
it just says’ “No.” That means ‘not to be done’.
104.
If
you ignore it, you set rolling the whole system of ideas, which carry you into
your next misery, which are - like the ‘Miseria Cordia’ - educational,
horrible, lessons. And it’s either/or, either you listen to the voice that
says, ”No,” or you’re in trouble, and that trouble educates you.
105.
Now
the opposite of ‘M’ is ‘H’, and ‘H’ means ‘hierarchy’ – that’s like a rugby goal
post. You know the difference between soccer and rugby don’t you? In soccer you
kick the ball under the bar – that bar represents the pelvic girdle. In soccer,
which is common type football, you kick the ball ‘under there’, that’s a sexual
target – physical. In rugby, the ball has to go over the bar. In other words it
has to rise above the diaphragm. So – the Greeks called the zone here, between
the diaphragm and the navel, the ‘epi-kometic’ the center of rage and anger –
frustrated energy – will burst out and destroy everything. So that you must
play rugby (40.00). ‘Roog boy’ –
means ‘red’, ‘energetic’ – because it needs a lot of energy. Far more in rugby
than it does in soccer doesn’t it? … See them piling up on the field. Don’t you
recognize immediately, a lot of energy there? Only best quality boys can play
that .. operate and break the rule …
106.
Right.
Now. We lack one other letter there … ‘N’ … ‘N’ means ‘nouse - ‘intelligence’.
We draw it like that as a funny kind of fish. Now we draw the fish again .. There
it is .. ‘M’ for the ‘Marie’ – the ocean, and the hierarchy, and the dear old
fish-mouth ... We might as well put the eye in there, and we need steerage, and
we’ve got a funny fish. That’s why the Messiah i s called a ‘fish’, and that’s
why that word ‘ichthys’ means ‘fish’,
and it means ’affirmation saves’. ‘Affirmation’ is the Son of God.
107.
To
affirm what you’re doing consciously, intelligently, is to be led by the
Messianic center of your Absoluteness.
108.
Well,
we’re talking about arrogance, and ‘arrogance’ simply means ‘you think you have
something of your own, and that you’re not indebted to any other being whatever
for that thing’. It could be a tiny thing. You might have a face like a
film-star, very beautiful, and not a very good actor. He doesn’t care about the
acting, he’s so beautiful. He’s happy to be beautiful, and he thinks his beauty
is his. Rather funny though, is one being interviewed, late on night in the
week, he was asked what he remembered in his life, and he said, ”Only the
insults.” All the nice things that happened – he couldn’t remember them. But he
could remember one thing. A critic had
said he was, “No good.” He’s been put forward six times for Oscars and not
given one, and he could remember it.
109.
Now
we tend to remember that because the contingent out there, is finite, limited,
and vulnerable, and terrified of annihilation.
110.
Did
anybody see Burgess, the novelist, interviewed the other night? … No? … I don’t
know how I get so much time to do this… (Laughter)
111.
He
said, at 70, “I’m a ‘cradle Catholic’. And I’ve been taught to believe in Hell,
and the infinite void - emptiness. And I’m terrified of both… I’m terrified of
annihilation, and I’m terrified of Hell even more.” … Simple little word
‘Hell’.
112.
The other night on the phone mentioned this to
me… I don’t necessarily have to watch a program to hear about it do I? … Maybe
somebody will tell me.
113.
And
he said, the word ‘Hell’ triggered him, made his eyes blink and he shook with
fright at the word ‘Hell’. Now I knew that he knew a bit of German, and I said,
“What does the word ‘H-E-double L’ mean in German. He said, “It means ‘bright’….’light’.”
Like you’d ask for a ‘helles beer,’ a ‘light beer’.” And immediately he stopped
shaking. And suddenly got a new interpretation. However it’s not roasting on a
spit, in fires, eternally: it’s just ‘light beer’. And he stopped shaking, he
said, “Oh! That’s good! I think I’ll only think of German-type hell in future.”
It means ‘bright’; it means ‘light’; it means ‘intelligence’.
114.
It
was only the association of the word in a relationship. And we discussed that
the Teutonic people loved fighting, loved enjoying fighting. Their heroes in
Valhalla (the Hall of Heroes) deliberately fight, kill each other, die. Wake
up, have a pig hunt, eat, get drunk, fight, and die again (45.00) … That’s their cycle … and they call it ‘Hell’…. Bright …
Bright life.. Get out your holler and beat each other to pieces. You are
eternal anyway. All you can have is fun. You cannot destroy the spirit; you can
batter the skull, or the body, and ruin it. But then the spirit makes another
one … So laugh .. Yes? … ‘Lacht’ … ‘Er Lachte’ .. He laughed .. at the
‘slaught’ … there’s the word ‘laughter’ in the word ‘slaughter’ … for the same
reason .. because most of the English people have a Teutonic origin… It’s fun!
115.
Provided
you remember that you are eternal, you can ‘fight the good fight’. The weapons
of the ‘good fight’ are nothing but the words of ‘Universal Logic’.
116.
‘Universal
Logic’ says that we own of ourselves, absolutely nothing. We are nothing,
except an image in the mind of God – it’s His image and not ours - He makes an
image; and in His image he makes man. And man is man, because he is in the
image of God and God makes the image.
117.
So
whatever man is, he is entirely indebted to God for his humanity.
118.
That’s
a very sobering thought. Whatever we have of power in any field whatever - whether
it’s Casanova or Einstein - all our talents are of divine origin. When we know
that and remember it daily with each other in our relationships, then our
relationship is divine, and we are no longer arrogant.
119.
Remember,
we can relate … from Absolute center to Absolute center.
120.
Now
that’s the field, and here the existing dots, can be bypassed … ridden over..
We can all talk to each other, A to A …
121.
Call
that point of contingency ‘gamma’ – the blockage point ‘A-GA’ – That’s a cooker
isn’t it? But it is also the basis of Greek ‘action’. ‘A-Ga’ … ‘memnon’ – The
Argonaut. There was a discriminatory ‘Arg’ inserted.
122.
We
can relate to each other A to A…. Or we can relate to each other, egoic to
egoic - in which case we have an unending fight; or one of them (the A one) can
relate even to the egoic structure of the other one, without being in any way
influenced or conditioned by it.
123.
Now
isn’t it obviously logical to get rid of arrogance. You know one of the things
about a-rrogation … ‘Rogation’ means ‘to go round and mark out a territory’…
What is the ‘rogation therapy’ about? …
124.
(audience)
Beating the boundaries..
125.
Well
it used to be conducted by the chief and the priest-king. And he used to walk
round the boundaries of his territory and take with him a lot of supporters and
some muscle men, and if he found anybody standing there … knock him off… And
walking round like that … knock them off… So that’s the origin of ‘rogation’…
Is there a vicar in the house? … (Laughter) … What does ‘rogation’ mean to the
church? …
126.
(Answer)
“To Work and to pray” …
127.
To
work and pray. ..And the work is, knock the other fellow out and to pray he’ll
stay out.
128.
It’s
a very ancient custom …
129.
Remember
all these things are appointed by the Absolute. Nothing exists – even the worst
crime – even AIDS… Nothing exists without permission of the Absolute. Why? …
There’s a lesson in it.
130.
I
read an article today about the number of ‘Ministers of the Gospel’ in America with
AIDS. … How could that happen? … Lots of them … How very interesting. Mmm..
Well, it means ‘time to tighten up’. Time to remember a little bit of the rule
of relation ‘A to A’ (50.00)
131.
Because
if you were considering ’A to A’, there’d be a lot of things you wouldn’t do
that you would do if you were mere ego-to-ego. Ego-to-ego says, “I want to
enjoy myself. And I don’t mind using your body as an instrument of my
enjoyment, regardless of the affect on you.”
132.
Like
two prostitutes were interviewed a couple of weeks ago, and one of them had
AIDS and the other wasn’t sure. And they said to them, “How do you feel about
possibly giving this to your clients?” … One laughed and said, ”If I’ve got a
customer, should I refuse him what he wants?” .. She’s in business ... It’s his
fault, and he will learn a lesson if he
gets for his – what did they say the current price was – seven pounds …That’s
rather cheap… When I was a small boy that wouldn’t go for four-pence…
(Laughter) …
133.
You
buy a piece of meat … for four-pence .. You may not know that in the statistics
derived in the Sorbonne University in Paris that there were two ways of getting
sexual delight auto-erotically. And one was a long French loaf with the middle
pulled out, and the other was a roll of steak around the member. But that’s
really treating ‘A’ as egoic structure… Utilizing it.
134.
Now
if you do that you are being arrogant whether you know it or not. As soon as
you start to utilize any other being in any way, that it, from its Alpha
center, would not approve of… Then you are being arrogant.
135.
You
are arrogating, to yourself, the right to treat another being as a mere means
to a finite end of yours.
136.
(Audience)
Is this because there’s a certain amount of ignorance
137.
Ignorance?
138.
(Audience)
Of unawareness as well?
139.
I
formulated on a card about 20 years ago, for a lady, that ‘arrogance equals
ignorance’. To ignore is willfully to disregard…. Ignorance is not ‘not
knowing’, it’s not nescience; ignorance is willful disregard.
140.
You
are disregarding, when you are arrogant, something you know to be perfectly
true.
141.
Did
you design the sperm; did you design the ovum, which – put together – made you?
… You know you didn’t.
142.
But
if you say, “I am myself, and I’ve got individual rights, you know that’s
rubbish… Don’t you? ..
143.
(Audience)
Yes … but you’re not always aware of it ,..
144.
And
you mean you don’t like always to be aware of it.
145.
(Audience)
Maybe.
146.
No,
no, certainly.. Ignorance is willful disregard of anything whatever that
impedes you. … If it gets in your way you ignore it
147.
(Audience)
… It’s also knowingly, that it can’t be somebody else. Is that not arrogance?
148.
Knowingly
or unknowingly?
149.
(Audience)
Knowingly … If you’re aware of what you’re doing?
150.
Yes.
If you are aware of what you are doing. What then?... And you injure somebody?…
To your own advantage? ..Yes? .. You call that wrong?
151.
(Audience)
Yes. But I’m not going to call it arrogant.
152.
Why
not?. That’s what it is. You are arrogating to yourself a right, not to need to
know what will affect other people…. Aren’t you? … You’re having to work hard
on that one!
153.
(Audience)
Yes.
154.
It
makesd 100% responsible for anything you do. That’s a horrible burden… That
you’ve got to be careful and consider other people.
155.
Look.
Just consider the absolute rule. The
rule – called ‘The Golden Rule’ – What you would like to be done to you, and
what you would like not to be done to you; use that as a rule for you with
other people.
156.
(Audience)
But if you can actually not be aware of what you would like to actually be done
…
157.
When
you’re not aware .. When you’re not aware, it’s because you’re ignorant. That
is, you have willfully ignored something that would otherwise impede you.
158.
“Mummy!
I will stamp my foot if I don’t get another ice-cream.” “But you’ve had five
already darling, and you’ll have a stomach ache.” “I don’t want a stomach ache,
I want another ice-cream.” (Laughter).
159.
That’s
ignoring ‘tummy capacity’ isn’t it?
160.
Very
important to distinguish that ignorance is willful disregard; it is not
nescience; it is not simply not knowing; it is not innocence. Ignorance is
willful disregard of something you know.
161.
(Audience)
It can be unconscious … (55.00)
162.
Oh
no! It cannot be unconscious. You have made it unconscious by refusing to
examine it because it impedes you.
163.
You
know the good criticism of Freud was this one. Freudian psychology has made
everybody not guilty of what they do…. “It’s my unconscious.” But there is no
unconscious, except that which you have repressed because you know it will
impede you if you don’t repress it. There’s no excuse.
164.
(Audience)
Oh no! I’m not saying there is.
165.
In
law, ignorance is no excuse, but innocence is. A baby – which is not supposed
to know – is innocent, not ignorant. Ignorance means you willfully disregard
the law.
166.
You
know you do. Supposing you say, “Well, I don’t know the law.” You have
deliberately not examined the law, because you feel it might impede you.
167.
I
have recommended a very good little elementary book on law to lots of young
men. You must learn about new decisions, learn about the law in some way. Here
is the book, take it home and read it. Bring some notes back. I’ve not had one
yet that’s done it yet… Why? He doesn’t want to know. Clearly not… That’s
ignorance. That’s willful disregard. And he makes – creates - the unconscious
by deliberately ignoring what he knows … ….
168.
Therefore
you escape arrogance if you say, “I haven’t got an unconscious,” instead of
that which I have willed not to know.
169.
As
soon as I will to know I can find it. I can dig in my mind … I heard a voice on
a
170.
record
last week and I shuddered when I heard it… And it was a tenor… He was singing,
“Hear my Song, Violetta.” on a ‘78’ record. And immediately his name sprang to
my mind, “That’s Josef Locke … Take it off!”
171.
So
I examine it, and I go back to the ‘Coreno Restaurant’ … where a friend of mine
in the middle of the day is having lunch. And she’s a very big-bodied Yorkshire
girl with a very good voice… A very big girl… blond … and a very good voice and
she’s singing away there, various operatic arias over the dinner … In comes a
big fellow, stops, looks amazed, walks across to the table and says, “Hi! I’m
Josef Locke. Come to my table my dear.” And she replied, “I don’t need you,
Josef Locke, to tell me how to sing.” And he went back to his own table.
172.
Now
that was very unpleasant wasn’t it? You know, a respectable Indian restaurant,
whose proprietor was a well-educated lawyer… Such as noise in his restaurant.
It would have been worse if they’d have had a duet. (Laughter) And it stuck in
my mind like that, “What a way to spend your lunch-time.”
173.
And
just go back on it… Josef Locke singing ‘Violetta’ and, “Oh My Beloved Daddy’’ somewhere
around Yorkshire blond, and both at once. Well how would you like it? … It’s
engraved in my mind.
174.
But
I tell you I’m not having it. I don’t
think I engraved it.. I think it was engraved… by a superior power (Laughter)…
175.
There
is no unconscious for the human race, other than the buried elements they don’t
want to know about.
176.
Freud
says you can blame all your crimes on the unconscious. How can you control your
unconscious if there is one. Telling you to murder this child; rape that woman;
rob that bank. It’s not you; it’s your unconscious.
177.
Remembering
another sad story, the naughty boy singing, ‘We’re deprived and therefore
depraved’ … It’s an excuse …”We’re depraved because we’re deprived… We had
ignorant mothers and fathers… drunkards. How could we have a good beginning?..
We’ve got an unconsciousness full of naughtiness and we love it intoning it…
But it’s not our fault, it’s our unconsciousness.”
178.
We
cannot hide behind the unconscious, because we can always dig out our real
motive if we wish to… Hard work – but we can do it. (60.00)
179.
Do
we want to? Well inertia says, “No!” The
inertia of that little contingent spot there says, “Don’t examine it. You’ll be
stopped, doing what you want to do.” … Agreed? … … …
180.
(Audience
quietly - one voice) Yes.
181.
…
‘Mmm yyy-ess’
182.
(Audience)
Well I know it’s a good example…
183.
No.
I mean do you like it? Do you like the weight of responsibility it imposes on
you.
184.
(Audience)
I think so. Yes.
185.
Oh
Good… You think so? You’ve not got a bad quality thinker.
186.
(Audience)
I like the idea of …
187.
Of
what?
188.
(Audience)
I like the idea .. I like the idea of it more than the practice.
189.
You
like the idea more than the practice.. Why? .. Because ‘practice’ means
‘overcoming inertia’… Yes? … You know what it is.. You put a terrific amount of
energy into defending that egoic structure. Not only you, but your parents,
your grandparents, the whole of your ancestry reference is weighting you
against acting on what you know to be true.
190.
If
you were to listen in your head carefully, you’d hear silly comments from great-grandmother,
great-grandfather, or even from Adam and Eve, telling you, “Do this, it’s nicer
than that.” Those voices exist in the human mind and they conduct dreams until
you dig them out .
191.
Practice
is hard…. But it’s worth doing. Because you finish up primarily with the light,
and all the contents in it are known to be precipitates of the will of the
light… and then you are not arrogant. You are entirely self-creative, because
you are identified then ‘A to A’…. Yes?
192.
(Audience)
if we are all (../..) and if we are
already Absolute. Is it, in fact, possible to have non-willfull (…./…)
193.
How
do you define the word ‘will’.
194.
(Audience)..
(../..)..You answer my question first,a nd I’ll answer yours (Laughter)
195.
Alright.
Well just remember that ‘light’ signifies ‘infinite intelligent sentient power’…
Right? Now the word ‘will’ correctly used means ‘initiative’, not ‘reaction to
a stimulus’, the origination of an act without a stimulus.. Yes? … In that
case, there is only one will, the Absolute. Anything lower than that is
contingent reaction to stimuli. Now how does that fit in with your question?
196.
(Audience)
Well I think then that.. That if the only will is the Absolute Will, then this
apparent ignorance which I have…
197.
Yes,
you’ve got both. Paul did that
198.
(Audience)
…regarding that, must be willed on the part of the Absolute – and all things
must be willed on the part of the Absolute - because there is no other will
than that.
199.
OK.
Do you accept that.
200.
(Audience)
Yes
201.
Then
you’re a good Muslim!
202.
You’ve
been circumscribed…. Yes? … The moment that you accept that you are an
individual not conditionable by any other individual; the moment you come out
of contingent-stimulation-reaction you are circumscribed.
203.
The
circumcision on the flesh is only a symbol. The real thing – have you drawn a
circle round your mind? So that your mind is impregnable to the egotistic
intentions of other minds… Yes? … If so, you are a Muslim. But if I’m a Muslim only
means an accepter of that basic proposition ‘Allah always considered in it’s
All-ness, purely, is God. And there is no other God but the whole.’ Anything
less than the whole is not the God, is it? It is a contingent manifestation,
but it is not ‘The God’.
(Audience) … (../..)
204.
(65.12) Who was the theologian
that said that? Was it Anselm? …Who was it Hanukkah?
205.
(Audience)
I don’t know
206.
Who
was the person who said, “Imagine a circle of which you can imagine no bigger,
and call it God. That’s a nice joke! That’s the monistic finiting of The God…
Actually there’s no circle that you can imagine, that you couldn’t imagine a bigger.
207.
The
real one - The God - is infinity. And that is one for which you have no form..
208.
Thou
shall not make any graven image of The God because The God is infinite – not
representable. And that is the one that has caused everything. First by
conditioning itself to be God, and then, while within that circle – and of
which Infinity is greater - He makes
smaller circles right down to human beings, who are little gods.
209.
(Audience)
But you said to me once that the Infinite is in centers in us that are finite. Is that what you mean now by it?
210.
Yes!
Well the ‘A’ inside the circle here, is the Infinite Absolute within the
circle. And the circle in no way stops the continuum nature of the Absolute
does it?
211.
When
we spin water like that, it doesn’t stop the water being continuity does it? It
merely makes vortexes in it, of it. So In-finite in every finite center of
awareness, the infinite is operative conditioning and creating the life-process
of that individual… Yes?
212.
(Audience)… (../..)
My mind’s gone ..
213.
Now
can you easily see that.. The nature of the continuum is part-less. One that is
part-less is not in any way limited by any function of it… Yes? … And we
individuals are individual functions of the non-individuated Absolute – which
is called Brahmam. (../..) the individual for developmental activity.
214.
And
we are in and of, and have no reality of our own independent of it. So we
should be kind to each other. We are kin to the Absolute, and to each other…
Yes?
215.
(Audience)
(……………../……………….) you have to posit a situation that’s an illusion you are
happy with ..
216.
The
important thing… The important thing is this. That the so-called ‘will’ of the
egoic man is not will, it’s an ..tonist in its activity. The only true will is
the will of the Absolute.
217.
(Audience)
So when you say that I’m willfully … on and I’m ignorant and you say to me,
“That means you’re willfully disregarding …What do you mean then by … you just
said that there is no real will, I have no real will. What does that word
‘will’ mean in the context of me …
218.
Well,
I said ‘J-I-V-A’ means ‘affirm individual developmental activity’ and that’s
the will of the Absolute that you will to be ignorant in order to have an
experience which will enlighten you
219.
Your
greatest misery is your greatest enlightenment
220.
(Audience)
It’s the will of the Absolute that I appear to have that will.
221.
No.
He actually gives you that will, because a continuum has no parts and whatever
is anywhere is everywhere. So the will of God’s fruit is in every individual
finite … as the will of the Absolute.
222.
And
it’s that that makes you make mistakes and get into trouble, and suffer, and
educate, and become enlightened.
223.
(Audience)
Are you saying these little wills as it were are monads then?
224.
Yes.
Appearing to be separate
225.
Like
the Leibnizian monad
226.
(Audience)
Yes… And this monad is capable
227.
…
And willing
228.
(Audience)
to disregard rather than.. the situation rather than (../..)
229.
(70.00) Yes.. Now here… Lets’s
test you for arrogance. You’ll buy it. Have you got the will to pay for it?
230.
No?
…Well that’s fine. That means that the Absolute in your case is allowing you to
pay with Absolute money.
231.
(Audience)
Alright.
232.
OK?
(FIN - 70.20)