well i
have a sort of suggestion and that is this that before we decide either to save the
planet or to destroy it we pause for a moment of silence I don't mean that kind of grim silence
which one observes when somebody says such and such a
a famous person has just died and we'll observe a moment of silence in his honor
and everybody frowns and thinks very serious thoughts
that's not silence at all.,I mean real silence in which we stop thinking and experience reality as
reality is because after all if I talk all the time
I can't hear what anyone else has to say and if I think all the time and by that
I mean specifically talking to yourself some vocally inside
your skull if I think all the time I have nothing
to think about except thoughts and so I'm never in touch with the real
the world now what is the real world some people have the theory that the
real-world is material or physical I say it's made
a kind of stuff other people have the theory that the
real-world is spiritual or mental but I want you to point out
that both those theories of the world are concepts of words and the real world is not an idea
it is not words reality is you will find therefore that if you get
with reality, all sorts of illusions disappear
and I will mention several illusions that have
not this kind of existence let's begin with some very down-to-earth
ones like money, money is a very useful method of
accounting it is a measure of wealth in the same
way as inches are measures of length
and grams measures of weight you cannot eat money you could have a
fantastic, quantity of dollar bills and stock
certificates, on a desert island they would be useless
to you, what you would need would be food
and animals, and companions, money simply
represents wealth in rather the same way, that the menu represents the dinner, only we are psychologically perverted in
such a way, that we would some of us would rather
have money than real wealth, but you know you cannot drive in five
cars at once.
even though they be Cadillacs you cannot
live simultaneously in six houses, or eats 12 roasts of beef at one meal
there is a limit to what one can consume, so that's one of the sorts of confusions
I'm talking about, another is that we confuse ourselves
as living organisms, with our idea of ourselves, that is to say with the conception of
myself which is called, the personality or ego, we that is what we have been told we are, and it's extremely crude and limited
the conception of oneself, of the actual unique living organism, and we get unhappy because we're thinking of ourselves in
this way because we, think well gee I'm going to die, I once talked to a woman who came to me
and said she was afraid of death, and uh we went into it in a long
the conversation I said what are you, afraid of, and she thought it over and thought it
over and he said you know what I'm going, to be afraid of is what other people are
going to say, they're going to say poor old gert she
couldn't last it through, because you see who you think you are is
entirely dependent on, who people have told you you are, you're not that
then another thing that bothers, us is time, most people nowadays say I have no time
of course, you don't, because you are not aware of the present
you know the present is represented on, your watch by a hairline
that is as thin as possible as is, consistent with visibility
and so everybody thinks the present is, instead of, now the present is the only real-time
there is no past and there isn't a future, and there never will be, we think ordinarily of the present as an
the infinitesimal point, at which the future changes into the
past, and we also do a terrible thing we
imagine ourselves to be results of the past
and we're always passing the buck over, our shoulders like
when god approached adam in the garden, of Eden and said
hast thou ate of the fruit of the tree, whereof I told thee thou shouldst not
eat, and adam said this woman thou gave with
me she tempted me and I did eat, and god looked at eve and said hast thou
eaten of the fruit of the tree whereof I, told thee thou shalt not eat
and she said the serpent beguiled me and, I did eat and god out of the corner of
his eye looked at the serpent, the serpent said nothing, so you see we're always passing the buck
you don't realize that the past, is caused by the present like the wake of
a ship flows back from the prowl
now the wake doesn't drive the ship any, more than the tail wags the dog
but we've all got excuses, my mother had a fit while she was
carrying me in the womb, uh they didn't bring me upright and
then they go to the mother and say how is it that you could have been
so irresponsible with your children and, she says well it was my parents
didn't bring me up right either and so, everybody passes the buck, but the truth of the matter is it all
begins here, this is where the creation begins, and you're doing it and won't admit it.
we say it has no future, well do you
much better to have a present, because if you don't it's useless to
make plans, because when they work out you won't be
there to enjoy them you'll be thinking, of something else, so we don't we realize that we are
living out of now, and throwing the past behind us, you