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which comes from our resources.

Boy - Otherwise we're just like the hands of a clock,

Yes, or any machine. So we suspend and ask ourselves: "Do we as resources want this or want that?" How can we do it? What are the means of bringing what we want out into life?". This questioning sort of opens you up and allows your resources to come out into your life and the lives of others. That's one idea. We'll leave that now and go on to a different one.

In connection with the desire to improve, let's take our desire to improve the mill. Would the desire do us any good, or do the mill any good if we just had the desire and that was all?

Boy - No, you'd have to do something about it.

We'd first have to think of the ways and means of improving the mill in the way we wanted it to be improved. Now if I had a desire to improve you....

Boy - You have.

Yes I have. And the only way I know how to do it is by thinking about it, and about you; and by having some previous experience to draw on; and by beginning to do it. Now we wont go into all these different urges in detail. Just remember that in order to make these urges effective - you must think about them - understand what they are, and understand what you are dealing with. That is true of anything you are going to do. In order for Ramsey to do anything with the fields, he must understand...

Boy - How to plow and how to plant different seeds, etc.

Suppose a man came from the city and wanted to have a farm; but he didn't know just what to do ...

Boy - He'd have all the implements but not know what to do with them.

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Yes. He'd come with the desire to improve the country but he wouldn't have the understanding that would enable him to carry out that desire. Have you ever heard the expression: Hell is paved with good intentions?

Boy - No I don't think I have.

Well, you will, because it is a popular expression. So many people have good intentions but so few know what to do about them. How to carry them out? Suppose I didn't know anything about your bicycle. You break it and ask me to fix it for you.

Boy - You'd take it all apart and not know how to put it together again. That's why I don't take the brake off now, because I don't know how to fix it.

That's why we must suspend reactions so as to think. We must think so as to understand. We must understand so as to make the most of our human resources?

How do you feel, Peter, shall we stop or shall we go on?

Boy - I'm right with you. Go on.

This is related to what we've been saying. I'm going to tell you some more of the things in human nature - asources. One of the things that is in there is simply the desire to do good work. Evelyn has this desire. She does whatever work it is, with this urge behind it.

Boy - She tries to do it well.

And you. Whatever you do you have the desire to do a good job. You and me and Marjorie and Lin. Wharton and John also are moved by this desire to good work - good honest work- to put something into the world that is useful.

not

Boy - That desire is in the minds of everyone - those who

Often they just have the desire to get

money.

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We, all who are true humanbeings, have the desire to be honest -
not dishonest, not cheating, not slovenly.

Boy - Some people sell wood that is supposed to be solid
walnut, and then when you get home you fine it has a little thin
piece of walnut on the outside!

Unfortunately there are some like that. I want you as you
go through life, to observe men and women with the idea of seeing
whether they are good honest workmen or not. If they are dishonest,
cheats, slovenly - you are not going to rat them very high as
human beings.

Boy - Pretty low.

And if they are good honest workmen, you observe them so that
you can learn how to become one too. That's one of the values of
your helping Ramsey with the cows and in the fields, because he's
an honest workman and a good one. Watch John in his shop. By
watching them you will learn how to be a good workman too and ful-
fill this desire in you to be so. That's another thing in human
nature resources.

Boy - There are a lot of people who haven't it.

Yes, unfortunately some have been spoiled.

Boy - That's one thing about Sears Roebuck. They don't do
that kind of thing.

What kind?

Boy - They don't tell you it's one thing and then you find it's not.
They *are* not dishonest.

No they don't misrepresent.

Boy - They don't deceive you. They're pretty honest. They
don't try to make you believe a lot of hooey. They don't put
false beliefs in you.

Well, Peter, *here is* another one of these desires. At first

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you may not understand this term, but I'll explain it. The desire to behave becomingly - you yourself to behave becomingly and to be treated becomingly by others. Becoming means fitting, - it suits you. It is the right way. Here's an example of unbecoming behavior. Somebody told you something for your own good. And you, instead of thanking them, sassed them, or cussed them. It wouldn't be fight, it wouldn't be becoming for a boy of eleven years old to behave that way to a man of forty years old who is trying to help him.

Boy - I wouldn't. But once in awhile I do. It comes out of me.

in you
You have the desire to behave becomingly and if it comes out once in awhile - just note it.

Here's another example. We're talking. Someone who doesn't know what's going on here, comes in, yanks you away and throws you into bed. This person isn't treating you becomingly. We all protest against unbecoming treatment, because this desire is a very strong one unless it is damaged.

Two more urges, and then we stop. Do you know what"respect" means? To respect yourself, you must have some sense of your own worth - a true sense - not conceited or egotistical. To respect others you must have some sense of their worth. You want Argie to respect your rights to read or do something that you want to do. You want to be let alone some times,

Boy - No, I can't read with her around - she sings, and asks me silly questions and wants me to play with her.

You rightly want her to respect your rights and you want to respect the rights of others. Back in your resources it probably makes you uncomfortable or ashamed or angry to see or experience lack of respect, because you have an innate sense of respect.

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Another urge is for dignity. You don't yet know what it is. It is even larger - more important than respect. To live a dignified life - to have a sense of your own dignity as a human being, and a sense of the dignity of other human beings.

I said this was the end, but I'm going to give you one more. This you can understand. The desire to be just. What is to be just? You see Argie doing something that annoys you. But instead of slapping her, you think about it. You realize that she is a girl of five and doesn't understand much yet. You don't punish her for something she's not to blame for. You are just to Argie. It is unjust for a man to beat a horse because the horse is tired and can't go as fast as the man wants him to go. If the man stops to think, and understands that the horse is tired and is doing his best, he treats him differently. He helps him and urges him gently and they get back to the barn, and the horse has not been treated unjustly.

Boy -

unjust to somebody else.

There is something in you that doesn't like that kind of behavior. These things that I have mentioned today, are all of them urges.- They are innate in human nature resources. These are the inner wealth of a man, the true wealth. To become a fine man you must cultivate them, and develop them - and as a means you must be able to suspend your reactions and think about things. If you don't do this, you won't have a chance to use them. Just imagine what a marvelous world it would be if all people were living to do this - If they began this when they were about eight years old and went on through life doing this - cultivating their own resources - and helping others to cultivate theirs.

This, Peter, is what I live for. This is my career in life. Who knows - maybe you will grow up to live for this kind of thing

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in your way. To the degree to which you can do it, you will be
a fine constructive man.

I'm going to ask you a question. Do you think that John can
do the thing that Wharton can do with wood?

Boy - XXXXXXXXXXXX No, I don't.

Neither do I. Neither does anybody else. XXXX There you
have the difference between a craftsman and an artist. In terms
of what we were saying can you put into words one of the real
differences between them?

Boy - XXXXXXX John uses his hands - Wharton uses his mind,
and his mechanical sense.

What's good. See if you can mention another difference that
includes more.

Boy silent.

John thinks too. He makes good products - but Wharton draws
on his own resources. Because he does this, he puts XXXX things
out here in the world that have never been in the world. John
could make tables - plenty of people make tables - but none make
tables like Whartons. A table can be a good table - good for the
body to use - strong, comfortable to sit at. Its appeal would be
chiefly to the body. Wharton's appeals to our feelings. You could
love one of his. It appeals to more of a person than just one part
of him. His tables even make you think about them - you begin
to wonder how he did them - how he conceived them. Everyone who
come in here and sees that table of Whartons in the dining room -
has some response to it in his body, his feelings and even in his
mind. And the difference is that most tables are human products,
while his come from his own resources. An artist is a person who
is able to draw on his own resources - to a greater degree than
most people.

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XIII

Friday, Aug. 6th.

Do you remember, Peter, in one of our talks we mentioned the
five senses? What were they?

Boy - Smell, sight, hearing, things...

No.

Boy - I mean, thought.

No. That's not one.

(Pause)

Touch and taste. These five senses
are so called because there are five organs connected with them,
which register impressions from the world.

Boy - Yes. For smell there's the nose, for hearing there
are the ears, for taste there's the palate - and for touch

Now these five senses put you in contact with a lot of things
in life.

Boy - If we didn't have them we'd be just like animals. No,
worse off, 'cause they can smell and touch and hear and....

You've probably never thought about this question but you try
to think now quickly and if you don't get it, I'll give it to you.
Do you think that all you know about in the world is communicated
to you by your five senses? That your senses get in touch with
things and thereby you know about them?

Boy - No. I don't think so.

You're right. But why?

Boy - I think there's some other place - some other way.

How? What other way?

Boy - You've got me down! (laughs)

You had a good hunch, Peter. But you see, we're right up
against something, aren't we? All that you know doesn't come

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through the five senses; and that's one of the things we're going
to talk about today. XXX

You see this bench - my eyes see this cobbler's bench.

Boy - Yes, your eyes see it.

But my eyes just tell me it's a wooden bench.

Boy - Just a bench.

That's right. My eyes don't even tell me that it's wood.
They see this object, but they don't even tell me it's a bench.

Boy - That's transmitted through the brain.

That's right, Peter. Scientists tell us that all these ob-
jects are made up of molecules - that everything is made up of
different kinds of molecules - molecules of wood or of sugar or
any kind. Now do you think you see the molecules?

Boy - Not one of them alone, but a lot of them.

No, we don't see the molecules.

We do see a lot of them.

In this bench, we don't see molecules; we see wood.

Boy - Yes we do only we don't recognize them as molecules.
We call them wood.

You may be right, Peter. You may be right. Do you know what
a microscope is?

Boy - Yes.

With a microscope you could see these things.

Boy - Some of them. Not all.

The scientists also tell us that molecules are composed of
atoms. And not even with a microscope, can you see an atom. Yet
we know that they exist. They know this by use of the mind - they
use the mind's eyes. I don't want to go over all the things in the
world ...

Boy - That would take pretty long!

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So we'll take it as a fact that the mind can perceive much
more than the eyes can see.

Boy - Or any other of the five senses.

Yes, it can perceive ideas.

Boy - You see a grain of salt.

Yes, and our eyes can see a bicycle, but can our eyes see
the idea we talked of yesterday? The idea that the bicycle is
not its parts? Only your mind could see the meaning of that -
never your eyes. This is true of all ideas and of all understand-
ings and all knowledge.

We know very well that ideas exist and that they are very
important for man's life. We know that there is such a thing as
thinking, but eyes can't see it. This is chiefly true of our
brains and minds. You've never seen your mind, but you have seen
your bike. Which is more important to you, your mind or your bike?

Boy - Mind.

Yes indeed.

Boy - All the more important things you can't see with your
eyes.

The senses then are means - instruments - for transmitting
messages from the world. You remember we agreed that the body was
an instrument?

Boy - I always knew it was.

Now you know more why it is. Wire and telegraph keys

Boy - Perpetual motion -

Could your body move if you weren't in it?

(Big laugh)

Take, for example, the body of a dead chicken. That body can't
move, can it? Because the chicken isn't in it.

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Boy - What d'you mean? Chicken not in his body? (big laugh)

Well, I'll explain more about that another time. Now as to
these important things that exist and we can't get through our
in
five senses, how about feelings? You can get more touch with them,
can't you?

Boy - They're abstract.

You can also find out what other people are feeling sometimes.
These things taken all together constitute what is called the inner
part of the man, or the inner man.

Boy - Inner man?

So you thought you were your body? That's a little difficult
so we'll pass over that just now. I'm going to list for you five
stages in the operations of yourself, your intelligence. Here
again you can't completely understand what I'm going to tell you,
but if possible, just sort of remember it. It will be important
for you some day.

This interior action should begin with perception - that is,
you should see it with your mind's eyes. You have to get the idea.
If this table is broken we must perceive it before we can do any-
thing about it. Every real process begins with perception. If
the car is out of order - we don't just what is wrong. We take it
are
to the garage. There people trained in repairing cars....

Boy - Repairing Ford cars.

But even these trained people can't stand a block away and
tess us what's wrong. If they did, they'd be talking nonsense.
First he must examine it to see, to perceive, to check it over.

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When he has perceived that the water pump is what's causing the trouble, he draws on his past experience and knowledge of cars in general, and water pumps in particular. He thinks about it and draws on his knowledge to arrive at understanding. When you have arrived at an understanding you conclude something about it, arrive at a sound judgment. Know what that is?

Boy - No.

Suppose you ask me about tomatoes. I tell you I like them. That's a personal statement - that's all. Suppose you ask me to describe a tomato. I say it is a more or less spherical vegetable - that it grows on a vine - gets red when it ripens. That's a description. If I say a tomato is good - good for people to eat, that's a judgment - a conclusion. Have I any right to say it's good unless I've had some experience of it, have thought about it? Do you think people make statements like that without having a right to do so?

Boy -

was

Good boy! It's just that I wanted you to perceive but you already had sort of perceived it for yourself. Many if not most of the judgments delivered by people are not

They jump to conclusions. How accurate that term is - you jump - skip all the in between stages. Like skipping grades in school or skipping preliminary stages in learning to ride a blike. something Usually they hurt themselves. You remember we said yesterday about false beliefs and prejudices - a lot of those are arrived at by people jumping to conclusions that they have no right to make, that they have never thought about.

So then, we have first - perception; second thinking in order to arrive at understanding; and third - judgment. This third

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stage is a most important one. If as you grow up, you make your-
self go through the preliminary stages, XXX then when you arrive
at a judgment, it will be a sound one.

The next and fourth stage is decision. If we have XXXXXX understand that XXXXXXXXXXXX there are worms on the tree, and arrive at the judgment that they should be sprayed, then we must decide XXXX to spray them, and then we must act.

If we have seen rightly, thought clearly, arrived at correct
understanding, my judgment will be sound and my decision right and
my act effective.

Bronco-

Haven't you known people who thought they knew it all, make hasty
decisions and rush at something and do it all wrong?

Boy - I still know them.

Remember how we spoke of people who don't know they don't
know?

Boy - People don't know they're dumb.

XX All this process - all these five stages - are the means
by which man arrives at what is true, and lives according to what
is true. Here's another definition of man - Man is a truth seeker.
He seeks is so as to live according to what is true. Should we say,
that is what man is, or what a man ought to be?

Boy - Ought to be.

If they're not seeking for truth, what are they seeking for?

Boy - False beliefs.

(Laughter.)

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A lot of them seek for what is not important. They ought
to be seeking for truth. That's the way for them to become real
human beings. It would seem that the only way to arrive at know-
ledge and wisdom is by thinking. Is that the only way?

Boy - No.

What other way?

Boy - The five senses.

But then, you would have to think about what they brought in.
Not that you can understand, but just for the words, I'm going to
tell you of two other ways of arriving at understanding and know-
ledge: One is intuitively - by intuition. Intuition is a faculty....

Boy: What's a faculty?

A faculty is an ability. Intuition is a faculty of man.
And still another way of arriving at understanding and knowledge
is *revelation*.

Boy - It is revealed.

Yes it is suddenly revealed to you. Your own resources can
hadn't
suddenly open up and reveal something to you that you wouldn't
before.

Kind of a tough lesson today, wasn't it?

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XIV

Peter...

Boy - That's the way you usually xxxxxx start out - Peter ...

Pete, do you know what it is to be conscious?

Boy - I've got sort of an idea. It's abstract anyway, so I can't explain it.

You just know it's there. Well, give me an example of what it is to be conscious.

Boy - I'm conscious of the color of this floor.

You know what it is.

Boy - Jim was conscious when he drove his new red XXX Lincoln down town in N.Y.

Yes, but that's a special kind of consciousness. That was an unpleasant consciousness wasn't it? See if you can give me an example of plain good consciousness.

(silence)

Well, let's put it this way - when you're XXXXXX sleeping, what are you?

Boy - My mind's asleep. Everything is asleep - not working - except my heart and breathing and...

The processes of your body don't stop.

Boy - Sometimes I turn over, and when I wake up I'm in a different place, without remembering how I got there.

When you're asleep, you're unconscious. What are you when you wake up?

Boy - Conscious.

Yes. To be awake means to be conscious. If you're not awake you're not conscious. You can't do much, can you? To be conscious is natural. What you told me about Jim was a special kind of consciousness -

Boy - I'm conscious that you're talking to me.

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Surely. If you're not conscious you can't understand or do
anything about it. What do you think? Do you think your conscious-
ness has increased as you grew? That it is more this year than
last year - more than it was five years ago?

Boy - Sure!

So then, we may say that as you grow up ...

Boy - My consciousness grows up too.

your
That's right. It would be funny if xxx body grew and the rest
you
of xxx didn't. That's another difference between human beings and
animals.

Boy - Their minds grow and their intelligence grows.

Yes. They become more conscious. The pigeons are not conscious
of much.

another one
Boy - They're not conscious when XXX gets hurt.

No, they're not conscious of one of their friends gets hurt.

Boy - You couldn't even call them friends.

They haven't that kind of feeling, have they?

Boy - They're not enemies either.

Alright. We've decided that a certain degree of consciousness
is a mark of human beings. Which part of us, do you think, XXXXX
XXXXXX is most conscious - Body, feelings, or mind?

Boy - I think, but I'm not sure that my mind is most conscious.

I think so too. If your mind was asleep and your body lay on
that couch you wouldn't be conscious of much. OK So let's take it
as true that your mind is the most conscious part. When you
learn how to think better, more accurately, more deeply, your con-
sciousness grows. The two go together. Now answer me this. Are
you pretty conscious when you're seeing a movie?

Boy -

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When you're listening to the radio?

Boy -

How about when you're very active, playing with the boys?

Boy -

How about right now, are you very conscious now?

Boy - I'm conscious that there are people in the room - that they're reading or writing, but my main consciousness is centered on you.

That's right. That's a good answer. You're sort of aware XXX of the others in the room.

Boy - And of the peanut in my hand. (haugs.)

Yes. You were even conscious of that nut you were about to crack! Now Peter, you don't want to confuse the unpleasant kind of consciousness that Jim had with the regular important kind. That other kind nobody wants to have, but this regular kind we all do want.

Boy - But not everybody has it.

Do you think it's also possible to be conscious of yourself?
Of course I mean, conscious in this good way we're talking about.

Boy - Yes.

That's right. It's a very valuable kind. Now we'll go on
from here. Your mind begins to see things, to examine them, to
think about them. Have you any idea what you ought to look for?

Boy -

Do you know what a fact is?

Boy - Something that's true.

Yes. That's right. That's a good definition.

Boy - For instance it isn't true - they lie when they say
that certain cars can go 30 miles on a gallon of gas.

88

I'll have to see the scene of the happening, and after all that,
I can perhaps find out what the facts are and decide what to do,
in justice to all of you. Facts don't always just come to you -
you have to work for them. If you haven't worked for them in your
life, somebody has in the past. Facts weren't just handed to them
on a silver platter. All the important things somebody has to
work for.

Now the next thing we must know is that there are many differ-
ent kinds and classes of facts and that for man some facts are
important and some are not. It is useful to know that there is
sant on the New Jersey shore. That's a fact. But it isn't im-
portant to know how many grains of sand there are.

Boy - You couldn't count them in millions and millions of
years.

It isn't important.

Boy - It could never be known.

If we heard of any man who was over there on the beach, try-
ing to find out how many grains of sand there were, we'd say he
was wasting his life. Can you give me an example of XXXXXXXXXXXX
that is important?

Boy - Marjorie is smoking a cigarette.

But that's not very important. As you grow up you want to
use that good mind of yours to discriminate between the important
and the unimportant ones - select those that are important to you
and don't bother about the rest. Some people are concerned all
their lives with trifles, but if you're concerned only with trifles,
your life will be trifling.

Now we'll come back to the iade of different kinds of impor-
tant facts. There are, for example, physical facts - facts about

89

your body - physiological facts - biological facts. Dr. W. sitting there, knows certain facts about your body. He's worked hard to learn them.

Boy - We don't know them.

No we don't. There are some that all people know and some of another class that people devote their lives to knowing, and those we don't know. We don't know about the workings of some organs, or how to detect disorders in the body, or how to cure them. There are facts about food and cooking that the cook must know. There are agricultural facts that the farmer must know. Ramsey knows ..

Boy - Maybe Dad knows more because he's older.

Maybe he does. However all the Lewis family sort of focus on farming facts. That doesn't mean they don't know any others.

Boy - They know what money is worth. They have to know how to read and learn the right feed to give, etc.

Well, Peter, there are business facts, political facts, social facts... and plenty of other kinds. Let's come back to one person again. There are these physical facts that the Doctor knows. If you get interested in facts about your body, and you get to know him and see him some other time, you ask him about them. That's just a very intelligent thing to do - to ask somebody who knows. Are there facts about feelings?

Boy - Yes.

You bet there are! Are there facts about mind? Mental facts?

Boy - Sure. There are facts about everything.

Yes that's true; but that doesn't help us to do anything about it. We have to work at things this way - examine into them in order to get them straight. If we just lump everything together - it would be all jumbled up and we couldn't see anything in the mess.

90

Here's a question you've got to put your mind on to answer. We've talked about consciousness - talked about facts. Consciousness should develop so that it knows facts. Do you think that facts already exist and your consciousness grows up to be aware of them? Or do they only come to existence when you become aware of them?

Boy - Some of each.

That's a good answer. You're playing safe! But by and large most of the facts are already present and it is man's consciousness that must grow to perceive them, know them, and think about them. All the facts about your body are already there - they were there five years ago.

Boy - Yes, but I didn't know them.

Boy: Nevertheless they were there. All your organs were there. Even now, although you may know they're there, you don't know all about them.

Just think of that. All these things are there and it is your mind - your consciousness that grows up to see and know them. You will never know for years to come, how important just this point is. Man's mind is a fact finding instrument. Remember, we said man is a truth seeker.

Boy - Should be.

That's what man's mind should be - the instrument for finding the facts and using them rightly. If all men's minds worked this way, there would be a happy world.

Boy - Almost a perfect world.

That's right. But man's mind gets full of a lot of false beliefs and nonsense. Then he stops using his mind as a fact finding instrument, but believes that all the nonsense is truth.

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of here and you went by that; you'd never reach it. I'd have
given you the wrong directions. Suppose I told you the roads were
good and they were just awful - XXXXXXXXXXX. You ran into a mud
hole and couldn't get your car out. There were no filling stations.
and
This is just to illustrate that to know the facts, ^ to give accurate
descriptions of the facts, is very important. Only then can man
steer a true course in life. Only then can he be really directed.
He must direct himself and others according to the facts, or some-
thing unfortunate is bound to happen. You know unfortunate things
do happen in life.

Boy - Yes! And do they happen!

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XV

Monday August 9th, 1937.

Peter, you know we've been doing quite a bit of talking about the importance of thinking, the importance of being honest, the importance of finding facts, the importance of not being deceived and holding false beliefs. All those very good and necessary things for a human being are not so easy to do; and if you just try to do them in general or in a vague way, you might not get very far. So today I am going to give you a means - something you can use now and in the future as an aid to your own true and honest thinking, - as an aid to your becoming an intelligent man.

First thing. Whatever a man thinks or says it is just this one man thinking it and it just comes out of him.

Boy -

That's right. But, for example, when I talk to you, I have some consciousness that what I am saying comes just out of my mind.

Boy - Out of your human nature resources.

Yes. But it is just coming out of my one mind - not out of God's mind. What I think and what I feel to be true, is true for me - a man of 43 years old who has lived most of his life in America and seen what an American of this age can see; and I have used my own good mind, and my experience. Now when you think and speak, do you have a corresponding sense that what you say is coming out of an eleven year old boy, born in a certain place at a certain time; who hasn't had time yet to experience a great deal of life.

Boy - I've experienced quite a lot - been to the Florida Keys, and

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Yes, in comparison with other boys of your age, you have
probably seen a lot, and I'm sure you've kept your eyes open. But
still eleven years isn't very long XXXXXX - You couldn't have had
as much experience as an older person, even although relative to
your age, you may have had a lot. Now this is just the kind of
consciousness we want to have, because this is honest - it represents
the truth. Sometimes when a man is just shooting off his mouth -
just acting as if he knew it all - if he got such a consciousness,
what would happen to him? What would happen if he suddenly thought:
"I am just one man. I don't know all of life."?

Boy -

Major Hoople-

If he thinks he knows it all, what would happen if he were
to be struck with the idea: "I am just one man with one man's
experience. My mind, while alright is not as great as some minds
have been."?

Boy

He'd stop laying down the law. Stop thinking he knew it all.

Boy -

You've known people - boys who thought they knew all about
everything. What do you think they'd say or do if it struck them:
"I'm just a boy - I'm not even grown up yet. ": It would make
them more modest. XXXXX It would do an awful lot toward
making them into sane human beings.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Boy - I know I don't know it all.

Now I'm going to give you the means to help you preserve that
realization when you grow up, so that you won't lose it when you
know more - when you read more books - go to high-school or college.

95

There are just a lot of college men who think they know it all.
In them there is more conceit and ignorance than sound sense.
Now I'm going to give you these XXX aids to sincere thinking.
Try to be conscious of what you don't know, but honest and don't
be afraid to say "I don't know". Just come right out with it.
If it is an important thing, then let's look into it; let's try
to understand; but at present I don't know.

If you asked me what the conditions are on the Gobi Desert,
I'll say, I don't know. I have never seen it; I haven't read
much about it. But if you're interested, I can tell you certain
books to read and if that doesn't satisfy you, maybe when you're
older, you can actually travel there, and see it for yourself.
That's the first thing I want you to know which your attitude should be:
I don't know.

Now as to those things which you don't really know, but you
know a little bit. Then you can say "It seems to me". For example,
- You don't XXXXX know KYK whether it would really be a good
thing for you to have a ranch in New Mexico when you grow up.

Boy - I think it would.

Yes. It seems to you now that it would be good. You don't
know that you'd have a fine time if you went to visit those friends
of yours near Princeton. It seems to you that you would.

Boy - I've been there before, and we had a good time.

Past experience. Well, that's a good reason for thinking so.
Stil you don't really know that it will be the same this time.

Boy - No. The next time you go

That's the second class of attitudes. It seems to me.

97

Boy -

Something about forgetting most of what he'd learned

We do forget, don't we? So I'm going to put in writing some
of these things we've talked about, so that you can refer to them,
when you begin to forget.

Boy - Hasn't Marjorie been taking notes?

Yes. She has put down some of the things.

Boy - Well then, couldn't we just take that and use it?

We could put it into book form - MXXXXXXXXX and sell it - not for
the sake of the money but for the good of the country.

For other people.

Boy - For the good of the country. So that other people
who don't know much can XXXXXX read it.

Peter. You have the instinct of a writer already!

Boy - Maybe I'll do that some day.

That is one of the best uses for writing. Through writing
we can

and share these things with other people, not only those who are
living now, but for those who will live in the future.

Boy - That's not all writing. Some of it is just a lot of
junk.

That's right. We don't want to contribute to the junk. We
want to contribute things that are important to human beings.

99

tell you something about the use of that radio. Only I'm not going
to tell you. I'm going to let you tell yourself. I'm going to
ask you questions that will lead you to see for yourself. Peter,
when do you use a hammer?

Peter - When I want to drive a nail. Or knock something
apart. Knock something together or knock it apart.

a
-That's good answer. You use a hammer when there is some specific job you want to do with it. That's true of any instrument.

Peter -

- When you've finished the job you want to do with the hammer
do you carry it around and knock XXXXXXXXXXXX and bang XXXXXXXXXXX
things with it?

Peter - I used to but not now.

- Ah, you've learned to use a hammer when you need it and,...
And

Peter - Where I need it, and XXXXXXXXXXX for what I need it.

- Now tell yourself how you ought to use a radio.

Peter - It's something you listen to every day. Sometimes
you hear XXXXXXXXXXXX things you want to know - like recipes. Sometimes I
copy them down and try them out. And sometimes I just like to
hear it.

- Yes, but you should use the radio when you have use for it.
When you can use it. When you have something definite you want to
hear or when you feel like really hearing some good music.

Peter - Yes good music but I do

- When you finish what do you do?

Peter - Turn it off.

- Yes, but when you just lie on the couch and read or fiddle
with the dial, isn't that something like just banging around with
the hammer?

Peter - Just as bad or maybe much worse when I keep someone

["100", "have it blaring as loud as it will go.", "haven't", "-So you'll really applied to the radio what you have already applied to the hammer. How about most people? Do they know how to use it?", "Peter - I'm pretty sure most of them don't.", "- You're pretty right, Peter.", "Peter goes on to say what he's noticed with people using the radio in Philadelphia - and something about rich people - (He seems to have it in for them!)", "- What would you call this monkeying around with the radio? Is that right use?", "Peter - No, it isn't.", "- That's misuse. 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101

Peter - No matter how dumb it is they say if you buy this or
that you'll make a lot of money out of it, etc.

- That's one of the big troubles with the world. There have
been some men who have spent their lives contributing big and im-
portant things to the world,...

Peter - Like Edison and Marconi...

- And then people ...

Peter - Misuse them.

- Yes and that misuse starts all kinds of trouble.

Peter - Even starts wars.

- Yes even wars. Now you Peter want to become a man who
knows how to use things rightly and wisely. Then you have to
begin with what is close at hand. You have to think about it. For
instance if you ask yourself what the radio was really made for,
you'd find that it has important uses. It is important for ships
at sea to be able to communicate with the shore, and for aeroplanes
to get in touch with the ground. But you aren't the captain of a
ship, or a pilot of a plane, so you have to ask yourself how you
can use it rightly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Peter - By turning it on now and then XXX and listening to
some music and then turn it off.

- Many of the things that come over the air just aren't
worth listening to. So you are not just misusing the radio,...

Peter - But misusing my ears.

That's good, Peter. Misusing your ears!

Peter - And misusing the rest of my body - my mind - it puts
false beliefs in my head.

- Yes XXX all that is so and I am going to tell you something
else.

102

Peter - I bet I know before you say it.

- Alright, what?

Peter - Advertising. All those goofy things they say -

Yes that's more false beliefs. But here's something even more
basic. It makes you passive! That's just the opposite of being
active - alert - awake ...

in cars

Peter - That's why radios are bad.

Yes, they lull to sleep or They distract your attention from
driving and they make your mind muddy - like stirring mudding
water around. You become sleepy over it.

Peter - They make you unconscious.

That's right. You found the right word. Now I used the
radio as an example, but this is true as a principle for everything.
Whatever makes you passive has the same result. Now when I saw
you that morning, lying on the couch copily, and turning the dial
around ..

Peter - That's what anybody <del>XXXXX</del> is likely to do when they
come into a home where there 'a new kind of radio.

That's right. So I said to myself, I may have to tell Peter
about this ...

Peter - And I may not!

I said to myself, from what I've seen of Peter in the past,
he is not a dopy boy, he's wide awake, alert, and active. I began
wondering and then I began thinking. And when I thought about it,
I began to understand. This place is new to Peter. He doesn't quite
know what to do with himself yet. But I believe, on the basis of
past experience with Peter that as soon as he gets accustomed to
the place he'll quit this mondying with the radio.

Peter - You shouldn't say monkeying, because when I say that
I mean taking off the back and beginning to take it apart.!

103

- All right. We'll call it fiddling. Now Peter, when I thought about you, I didn't think *you* about just a part of you. Not just one thing ...

Peter - A thousand things.

- That's right. When you first came you wanted to do farm work and you did. You helped me, you did things for Mother Latimer, you worked with Lin, and we used to have these talks just about five o'clock in the afternoon.

Peter - And one day, I wasn't there.

- That's right. You had begun to work with Ramsey, helping him to bring in the cows, and milk them, and feed and water the other animals. Now why do you think I shifted the time?

Peter - You shifted the time because you knew I wanted to help Ramsey, and you couldn't shift the time of feeding or milking, and you could shift these talks. And you knew I might not be so attentive if you made me stop helping Ramsey.

- And Peter, from thinking about *all of you*, I realized that for your growth and development it is very important at this time that you do productive things with your body, and I knew that it was very important for you at this time to be helping Ramsey - as important as these talks. Now if I had only been thinking about your mind - about Peter as mind - I might have said: "What importance has it for Peter to help Ramsey with the milking?" Or if I had only thought about you as body *I* wouldn't have been having these talks at all.

Peter - *Something about psychology* -

- But it happened that I took all of you into account. This part of thinking - to try to take the whole person into

104

account - try to take the whole situation into account - always.

Peter - I don't think so.

- Why?

Peter - You can't. You can't understand the whole thing - you can only understand a little etc.

- But it is only through understanding and comprehension that you can handle it. Always in order to do anything you have got to understand it. If you didn't understand how to turn that radio on, you couldn't use it. Try to understand all aspects of a person or a situation or whatever you are thinking about. I mean *try*.

Ramsey.

Peter - I understand almost all aspects of XXXXXXXXXXXX

Well, Peter, you may have understood a good deal. But you couldn't possibly know it all. You haven't been here so long, and you are eleven years old, and he is a man of fifty-one. But remember to try to take in the *whole* when you're thinking - whether it's about yourself, or Argie, or anyboey.

Peter - And to draw conclusions.

Yes, so that ultimately we can comprehend ..

Peter - What's that?

Comprehend is another word for understand - Comprehend the whole of mankind. You begin by understanding the whole thing of what is right near you, and then gradually you enlarge your field of understand; it gets larger and larger until you understand the whole world.

Now Peter, in our talks we have spoken quite a lot about thinking. We have stressed its importance. Also we have spoken a lot about action - about doing things. But there is one of the chief parts of man we haven't talked so much about. Thinking, yes; doing, yes; but the third thing, we haven't talked so much about.

105

There's no use trying to guess. I'll tell you. Feeling. I'll
tell you why we haven't talked so much about feeling. I wanted to
mention subjects that we could talk about clearly and simply.
It is relatively easy to talk about thoughts. - what we think.
And relatively easy to talk about what we do. But it is not so
easy to talk simply about feelings. XXXXXXXXXXXX

Peter - What do you mean? Why not?

- It is not easy to describe feelings. Not so easy to tell how they work. I can describe to you how to think, how to do - how to use the radio - but it is not so easy to tell you how to develop your feelings. That's one reason why we haven't talked so much about that part. The other is that you yourself don't feel as much as you think, or as much as you act. Feelings are not so present in your whole, right now. How do I know? Because in our early talks you could tell me what you did, what you thought - ideas and opinions. One day I asked what did you feel when you were doing that job, and you couldn't tell me. Now in general, feelings have not come so uuch into your life yet. But in a very few years you will have a sort of birth of feeling. You will get a whole lot of new ones that you've never known before. Some will be very wonderful and others will...

Peter - Will give me lots of trouble.

Yes, but don't bother about the trouble - the feelings will be worth it. Every real man has to have them. We have talked about becoming a complete man. Could you do that if you had only mind?

Peter - No, I'm not. I'd be incomplete.

You'd only be one third of a man. If you had mind and body
would you be complete?

Peter - No, I'd be two thirds of a man.

106

- Still incomplete. That's right.

Peter -

-Peter, how are you? Do you know the commonly used expression for mind? We say he has a good head. And when we refer to feelings, we commonly say, heart. If we say a man has a good heart, we often mean that he is full of good feelings. Then I can tell you this - in this life of a man the heart is as important as the head. You know that. That's find. All you have to do then is to remember it, and when your feelings come to birth, all you say is: "Ha! Here is an important part of me coming into my life" and when your mind unfolds and grows stronger, you say: "Here's another important part of me"- and when you become better able to do you say: "Here's another important part of me growing". It is by having these attitudes of this kind towards yourself as a whole and towards these important parts of you, that you will have the ability to use and use rightly more and more of your own resources. That's all for today.

This talk today - this ends a series. We have had a series of talks beginning back there some time in July until now the eleventh of August. This is the end of a series. If you want my advice you will just sort of let these things soak into you. Put into practice the things you can make use of and those you can't use now ..

Peter - I'll make use of them later.

That's right. And if later on in your life, you run up against a stiff problem that you can't solve alone, and nobody seems able to help you, just write to me wherever we are. I may not be able

107

to help you, and again I may. I think you are made of good stuff.
I would like and everybody in this household would like to co-operate with your parents to doing what we can to help you to realize all of your possibilities.