-2-

II

You remember we said that the first thing for a man to make was himself? Now you may not understand just what I meant by that.

What I meant was that we have different parts of us that need exercise in order to grow strong. Our bodies grow strong if we use and exercise them; and our minds need exercise to grow strong so that we can think clearly and strongly with them; and our feelings need exercise so that they may grow strong and we can feel deeply.

You know already what your body is and you know some of the things you do with it. You know that you use your mind to think with. But do you know what feelings are?

(Boy) - It is very doubtful

When you did that job today back of the Mill, gathering up all those stones, you used your body, didn't you? Also you used your mind because you had to think about what you were doing. Did you feel anything about it? Were you glad you were doing it?

(Boy) - I was glad to be helping.

Well, that was a feeling. Were you glad that Argie was helping you?

(Boy) - Yes.

Well that's another feeling. So you see, you were exercising more than just your body when you were working there this morning.

When a man is trying to make himself, it is necessary for him to be able to discriminate between things in himself, so as to know what to do with each thing according to its kind.

- 3 -

XXXXXXXXXX

I want you to learn to discriminate between your actions,
your feelings and your thoughts. XXXXXXXXXXX

(Boy) - Why?

Suppose that when you began to do that work this morning,
everything in your mind was confused and you did not know the
difference between stones, bricks, ground and grass. Don't you
see? Instead of gathering up stones and bricks and putting them
in a pile by themselves, - which was what I wanted you to do -
you might have pulled up the grass and put that in a pile, or you
might have dug up the earth and put that in a pile. So you see
that in order to do the right and useful thing in that job, you
had to know the difference between the things you were dealing
with. So in order to do the right and useful work in making a
man of yourself, you must know how to distinguish between the dif-
ferent parts of you.

## II a.

Peter, I want to ask you a question.

Are you your body?

(Boy) - is greatly puzzled and not at all sure what to answer.)

That is your hand, isn't it?

(Boy) - Yes.

Are you your hand?

(Boy) No.

Your hand is a part of your body, a sort of tool of your body,
I isn't it? So are your feet. Are you your feet?

- 4 -

(Boy) - No!

Your legs are another part of your body. Are you your legs?

(Boy) No.

Well then, are you your body? Or are you something and your
body a part of you - your instrument?

Boy - I don't think I quite understand you.

Don't feel you must answer now. It's just something to think
about. Some time when you feel you have answered it, come and
tell me about it. what you think.

III

(Prelude - Peter heard remarking: "I wonder what he's going
to talk to me about today!")

Peter, What is a human being?

(Boy) - A human being is a mammal.

Why?

(Boy) - Because they can't breathe under water, and because
they have legs.

What mammals do you know about?

(Boy) - Oh - whales - and bears. You see a whale can't breathe
under water - and a man can't either.

But Peter, you can't define anything by saying what it's not,
or what it can't do. It wouldn't tell you much about an automobile
if I said that it didn't eat hay.

(Boy goes into paroxysm of laughter at the idea of a car
eating hay.)

You see, when you want to define a thing, you must pick its
main characteristics, the things that really make it what it is.

- 7 -

gance.

Yes - AFAI don't believe that these pigeons have much idea
of the lives of pigeons a few hundred years ago. That has to do
with language and with writing.

(Boy) - Stories may have been passed down in their language.

Pete, you have a swell imagination. But I doubt it.

Boylasughing) - So do I !

Well to get back to what we were talking about, human beings
differ greatly in these ways from all MANKIND animals, whether they're
mammals or not. They cannot then be defined as belonging to any
group except the human group. They are not mammals, or fish, or
any other kind of animal. Human beings are human beings.

Now human beings with their marvelous equipment - their
minds, their emotions and their bodies, could be much
finer creatures than they are. So to go back to what we were talk-
ing about the first day - There are, again, two kinds of men: those
who are trying to help men to become finer and better human beings,
and those who interfere, in one way or another, with the development
of human beings as human beings.

To show you what I mean, let's take the pigeons again as an
example. I can behave toward them, in one way or another.
Let's say it is the nature of a pigeon to eat, to fly, to mate, to build
nests, to lay eggs, and to have squabs. I can help them to
lead good natural pigeon lives, by making conditions right for them
to do all the things that are natural to them. Or, on the other
hand, I can go up there, clip their wings, take away all the stuff
they make nests with, and put each in a separate cage. That would
be hindering, interfering with their leading good lives
as pigeons.

V. July 23

Peter, what is thinking? See if you can give me an example of thinking.

(Boy) - When I'm going to sit in a chair, I think which chair I'm going to sit in.

There isn't a great deal of thinking involved in that.

(Boy) - There is with me.

Well, what do you think when you're going to choose a chair to sit in?

(Boy) - I think whether it's comfortable - whether I can curl up in it - if it's a good place to read - 'cause when I start I'm usually there for an hour or so.

Yes, but there isn't much thinking to that. You see a chair, and you know pretty well whether it's comfortable or not.

(Boy stubbornly) - Still - it's thinking.

Alright - we'll say it is. But it is a very simple kind of thinking. Give me another example.

(Boy) - When I'm going up to the shop to make something, I think what I'm going to make, and how to make it.

Yes. That takes real thinking. That's a good example. Can you give another?

(Boy) - When I'm climbing a tree, I have to think how to do it, so I won't fall, and so I can get down again.

Yes. That's another. Why do you think? Why think at all?

(Boy) - If you don't, you're stupid.

Yes, but what is its positive value. How does it help you? When you're choosing a chair, when you're going to make something in the shop, when you're climbing a tree, why think about it?

(Boy) - It helps me to do it.

That's it! After thinking about it, you know how to do it. Give me another example of thinking.

(Boy) - I think where to ride my bike.

You don't have to think much for that. How about school? Do you have to think in your studies?

(Boy) - Sometimes, it depends on the teacher, a lot on the job. The English teacher just gives it to you. Nice old dame. She just gives it to you.

Now, Peter, we have several examples of thinking. Let us say that the first kind - choosing a chair to sit in, or climbing a tree, or riding your bicycle - they use practical thinking. There is another kind of thinking involved in, say, arithmetic, for example, different kinds of thinking.

(Boy) - Making a chair is something like arithmetic. You got to think a little differently think how long the legs should be - the size of each piece - how large the seat - and so on -

It isn't quite the same thing to think out a problem in arithmetic as to think how to make a chair.

(Boy) - It is the way my father does it. 'Cause he says you got to decide these sizes, before you can do anything.

Now Peter, I am going to give you an example of another kind of thinking. This kind has a big word for it. It is called psychological thinking. But before I give you an example, I must make certain things clear. M

Before you could think about choosing a chair to sit on, you had to see it. So before you could think in that case, you had to see something. Now with the chair that you're going to make -

(Boy) - You see that with your minds eye.

That's right. As you say, you have to see that with your
mind's eye. Then you have to observe the wood that is going into
the making, and so forth. The general idea is this: before you
can think you must see or perceive something.

(Boy) - What is perceive?

Perceiving is seeing with your mind's eye. Without perceiving
anything you wouldn't have anything to think about. For example
you've never seen New Mexico. You couldn't think much about New
Mexico, because you haven't seen it with your eyes or with your
mind's eyes. Generally speaking, you have got to see or perceive
something before you can think about it.

Now suppose that instead of seeing one chair, you thought you
saw two chairs all jumbled up together. If you didn't see straight,
you couldn't think straight, could you?

(Boy) - I see four chairs right now -

Maybe, but not all in one place. If you thought a mattress
was a chair - or a pillow a chair - you might make a mattress or
a pillow when you meant to make a chair. So you see without see-
ing clearly you couldn't think clearly.

Now as to psychological thinking - psychological thinking is
thinking about people, thinking about people so as to *make them*.
Your knowledge about people gives you power to make them.

Here's an example of psychological thinking. This morning
you had to be quiet because of your sore toe. Because of your
having to be quiet, a certain amount of energy got pent up in you.
YOU'RE SORE, AND RESTLESS. YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT.
YOU BECAME
restless. Did you perceive that you were restless?

(Boy) - Yes.

Alright - you had a psychological perception.

(Boy) - What is a perception?

A perception is what you see without your eyes - what you see
with your mind's eye. You know that just as clearly as you know
that you are holding a pillow in front of your face now. But did
your knowing that you were restless help you to do anything about
it?

(Boy) - No, it didn't.

Well, you see, that time it didn't help you to do anything,
did it? When you think about making a chair, it helps you to make
the chair - but in this case it didn't help you at all. Did I do?
Maybe you didn't think very much thinking about it. When you came
into lunch did you know that some of that restlessness was making
you hop back and forth between your table and our table more than
you needed to?

Boy) - No.

Do you think so now? Do you know it now?

Boy) - Yes

So, some of your energy was spent by doing that hopping back
and forth.

(Boy) - Yes - but I didn't want everybody to have wait on me.

Yes, both of those things were in your behavior. At that time
I knew there were both of these things. I knew it by thinking
about you. What do you think that kind of thinking enabled me to
do? That enabled me to understand you at lunch time. So you see,
That's how we know they
we people arrive at understanding of themselves and what to do,
and arrive at understandings of other people and what they do,
That is the value of psychological thinking. It enables you to
understand yourself and others. If I had been in New York, could
I have thought about you and understood you? No, I wouldn't have
had anything to go on. I could only think clearly and accurately
because I saw you clearly and accurately. So that's one of the

things you want to do in life. See what you're doing clearly
and why you're doing it. The same with others. See clearly and
accurately, enables you to think clearly and accurately. (Argie,
stop bothering Peter. I'm talking to him.) She wasn't thinking
that time. She isn't old enough to really think. That's the way
she behaves when she asks every day when someone is going downtown:
"Can I go to town?" The last time when I said "no", did I answer
happily or was I annoyed?

(Boy) - I think you were annoyed, now.

You perceived that. But you didn't then. Did you think why
I was annoyed? Now my annoyance prevented the very thing you wanted
to happen. If you had thought about it, you might have let me go
down town two or three times without asking. Then when you asked
I would have smiled and said yes. But to be asked every time any-
one makes a move toward going to town, causes annoyance. All of
that understanding would have come about through thinking. It is
a way of doing things with yourself and with other people. That's
what psychological thinking is.

So in the future you think sometimes what kind of a state or
condition you are in, and what kind of a state or condition others
are in. That effect has it when we are playing croquet, and you
behave in a certain way? What kind of an effect is produced in us
when we hear you say so often: "I don't like this and I don't
like that."

(Boy) - I guess you get sort of annoyed at it.

It isn't a matter of whether it is right or wrong. It is just
that when you say something, it has an effect of some kind. Well,
then ask yourself, what kind of an effect? When you and Francs
were sitting in the middle of the living room floor when I came

18

VI

Peter, in school do you read history?

(Boy) - Yes! I've read American history, mediaeval history, lots of history.

real

Why do you think you study history? What's the reason?
I'm not speaking about you being interested in what all the kings and armies do. I mean, what can you really learn from history that is important to you.

(Boy after a puzzled pause) I don't guess I know.

Tell me this Peter. You know you've had a history. It hasn't been long - only eleven years - but it's your history to date. Now suppose you look back over what you've done, what important thing could you learn from your personal history?

(Boy) - I could learn what I did wrong and know not to do it again.

Fine, Peter. That's a good and true answer. Now just as you can learn to profit by knowing your own past mistakes, so that you do better and more intelligently in the future, so all living men can profit by reading and coming to know the mistakes of people who lived before them.

Out west, Peter, there are large holes in the ground, called abandoned mines.

(Boy) - I know about them. Around Paoli, there are a lot of abandoned quarries. They gave them up because they found it was too expensive to operate them.

That's right. That's one reason. Another reason is that in some cases they thought there was ore down in the earth, but when

19

they dug down they found that they'd been mistaken. Now suppose
you were out there, wanting to find ore, and suppose you came
across such a mine, but suppose you didn't see what it really was,
and you didn't think clearly about it, and come to a right under-
standing. You wouldn't profit by the mistake made by the other men,
would you?

(Boy) - No.

You might spend five years of your life, working around that
mine, trying to go deeper and all to no purpose. But now, suppose
instead that you saw this mine for what it really was, and under-
stood that other men had worked here and found nothing. This know-
ledge would save you the trouble of working at it, and you could
move on to some better place.

Now, Peter, mankind for many many ages has been trying to mine
its
in this way. It has been trying to do things with nature and with
men so as to develop splendid human beings, and a fine civilization.
Men in the past have made many mistakes. They did things that had
to be abandoned like that mine we were speaking of. They did other
things which they should have abandoned, because in reality there
was nothing in it for them. Living people can profit by reading
history, and so learning what mistakes people in the past have made,
and what they failed to do in their efforts to develop splendid men
and women. You can learn a great deal as to what you and the rest
of us who are living should and should not do; but only if you see
the thing clearly and straightly and think about it and understand
it.

Can you remember the trouble you had learning to ride a bicycle?

(Boy) - Not so much trouble because I had scooters first.

20

Well what makes you think we have to learn difficult that you have learned to do?

Boy - Well - I think learning to balance a bike was about the hardest thing I can think of.

balance much more

People have been trying to make more difficult things than bikes. They've been trying to learn how to live and grow and develop. From their efforts you may be able to learn things that will guide you in your efforts.

When I try to balance this household, I draw upon a great deal of experience. I've read books and know some of the snags and difficulties that other people have had. I know some of their mistakes. All of this I bring to bear to balance this household. How difficult it is, you don't know. You can't know, because you've never tried anything like that yet.

Boy - Now that I know how, riding a bike seems easy. I can ride freehanded.

Oh yes, when you know how? They it seems easy. But it isn't your aim in life to be able to balance a bicycle. You want to be able to balance your life and to help others balance their lives. This ought to give you a new attitude toward reading history. I read history to learn what they did right and the mistakes they made. Is that a good aim for reading history?

Boy - Yes.

Do you think that's your teachers' aim?

Boy - No

What do you think their purpose is in having you study history?

Boy - I don't know.

21

Well, it doesn't matter really, what you think their purpose
is, or even what they think it is - You read history with this
purpose and you'll learn things. That's one half of our talk
today. The second half I am only going to give you a sketch of,
and we'll talk about it tomorrow.

You know what an individual is? A person - one person. And
you know what a family is - a number of people, a small group.
And a larger group is a community, the group in which a family
lives. Then there is the town ...

Boy - And the county.

Yes and the state; and still larger, the country, the nation.
Now what's beyond the nation?

Boy - The world, Whose And beyond the world? The universe.

Boy - And the space beyond the universe.

I don't go that far. The universe is quite big enough for
us to consider. Peter, do you know how you were born?

Boy - More or less.

You grew inside your mother's body - inside a part of her body
that is called, the womb. Peter in embryo inside his mother's womb.
At that time that was your environment.

Boy - Wait a minute. What's environment mean?

Your surroundings. Here, our environment is this place and
the next neighboring farmers.

So the mother is the environment for the embryo - the close
surroundings. After you were born your environment became your
family - your mother and father, and your two sisters. Later school
became part of your environment - and the town of Paoli. Look what
has been happening. As you grew, you became larger...

22

Boy - And the environment grew larger too.

Yes. And as it grew you made more contacts; you learned to know more about people, and more happened to you. If that is the way of development, wouldn't it be good for people, instead of stopping, to go on becoming larger in themselves, and making their environment larger? As you grow the environment grows, and the larger environment helps you to grow more. So as you go on, you become a citizen of Paoli - of Chester County - of Pennsylvania - of the United States; not just in name, but really. Would this be a good place to stop?

Boy - I don't know what's coming, so I can't say.

If you go on growing, you become a citizen of the world and - the next stage - citizen of the universe. That's what's called a progression. You start at a small point and lead logically and rightly to the next. You don't stop. Mother, family, town, state, nation, world; develop and you become a citizen of the universe!

One more idea and the lesson is over. Do you think that for the growth of the body, it is necessary to go through all these stages?

Boy - No.

That's right. Your body could grow perfectly well in the small environment. What is it in you that needs the larger one?

Boy - My mind.

Yes, your mind; and this thing that is you - You, Peter. That is what needs to grow from a very small environment to the greatest possible environment, and that's what will happen if you lead a life of "making good", and developing those resources we talked about.

23

Do you know what it is to memorize something?

Boy - Yes.

Well, I advise you to remember this progression. From the body of your mother, to the family, town, state, country, world - citizen of the universe. This is why you are living. You are living KMX ultimately to become a citizen of the universe.

These ideas are too big for you to understand just now, and that is why I simply want you to remember them. It is important for your KMX life that you simply remember them.

VII

Peter, what do you think people live together for? Why
do they live together?

(Boy) - To exchange things. Suppose one man could only make tables - and another could only make chairs - why the one who could make tables, wouldn't have any chairs to sit on. So they exchange what they can make.

Yes that's one reason. Can you think of any others?

(Boy) - Yes - for protection - against wild animals and
Indians -

Now you've given two reasons for living together. To exchange things and for protection. But why exchange products?

(Boy) - So that the man who can only make tables can get chairs from the man who can only make chairs. If they didn't do that, he wouldn't have any chairs to sit on.

Yes, but are chairs and tables absolutely necessary for men?

(Boy) - Well if we didn't have them we'd have to sit on the floor - and -

Yes - but does it make much difference where one sits?

(Boy) - Not in China -

Does it really make much difference anywhere?

(Boy) - Well -

I know what you mean, Peter; but what I mean is, why do we
sit on chairs at tables? Are you living in order to sit on a
chair? That's not sufficient purpose for living. Suppose then,
that people lived together only to exchange products - that's
what we call commerce, or business - What then is the idea of
being in business?

(Boy) - For profits and savings.

Why save and why make profits? What do you want them for?

(Boy) - To buy food and clothes.

(Does the man who is in the grain business grow the grain?
Not if he is a miller, says the boy. Usually he doesn't)

Well, we will say then that one purpose for people living
together is, as you say, to buy food. Another purpose is pro-
tection. Both of these purposes have to do with what we call
"survival" - in order to keep the body alive. But what are you
keeping your body alive for?

(Boy) - I don't know. (general laughter)

Now I'm going to make a little detour before answering that
question.

(Boy) - What's a detour?

The same thing as a detour on a road. We'll leave this <u>question</u> for
awhile, and go around and come back to it. I'm going to give
you another reason for living together - a reason you haven't men-
tioned. <u>To help each other.</u> That's what I'm going to tell you
about.

Look at our pigeons. Do they <u>always</u> help each other? Can
you find any example among animals of their living to help each
other?

(Boy) - Fishes live in <u>pools</u> to help protect each other.

I doubt it. If a shark were to come along, he'd open his
mouth and swallow the whole school. If a hawk were to swoop down
on our pigeons, each one would try to save himself. If two dogs
are hungry and one finds a piece of meat, does he call his friend
to share it with him? No indeed he'd gobble it down as fast as he
could.

Boy - That's what people want to do, and some do.

I don't think you're right there, Peter.

(Boy) - A mother bear helps her cubs.

All mothers - everywhere - of every kind - do that.

(Boy) - Do mother pigeons help their squabs?

They bring them food - they feed their young; but when the squab is big enough to get food for himself - it's finished; no more help. So we agree, don't we, that in general animals do not help each other - but human beings do.

(Boy) - Ants help each other. I read a story of how when ants move, they have leaders or something like that -

Yes, Peter, ants are interesting to study and they do quite a few things that seem to resemble human activities, but I wonder if you'd ever find an ant going out of his way to help another ant - and doing it voluntarily, because he realized that the other ant needed help. I think you'll find that all that the ants do is done in a machine-like way. This is somewhat true of all insects, and animals in general. Not only do most animals not help each other in the way we now mean it, but they can't. They're not able to.

When our pigeons first came, before their present house was built, they were housed in a tumbledown shed, where rats began to attack them. The rats actually got a few of the big male birds, and once a rat attacked one but the pigeon got away. When I came in in the morning, this pigeon had a bad wound on the side of his throat. None of the other birds tried to help the bitten one. And what's more, they couldn't. Now what happened the other day when you cut your foot? Three people came to help you, and were able to help you. They not only had the desire to help, but they could, help.

You remember in our first talk, we wanted to find out what
are the peculiar characteristics of human beings. Well, this is
one of them. The desire and the ability to help others.

If you want to grow up to be a real human being, this charac-
teristic must grow - the desire to help *and* the ability to help
others; and also when you desire to *be* helped, you must have the
ability to *be helped*.

**Boy**- Sometimes people don't want to be helped. They fight being helped.

Yes, in certain situations - such as a man who is drowning,
who fights off those who come to help him. In that case the man
has lost that human characteristic - the ability to be helped.

(Boy)- But sometimes they get it back.

Yes, they regain it when they regain their senses; but for
they lose
the moment, that human characteristic. Suppose I had wanted to
fix that pigeon's wound.

(Boy)- He'd have pecked you.

Yes, he'd have carried on fearfully and wouldn't have let me
get near him. So when human beings get into the state of which
drowning is an example ...

(Boy)- They become animals.

No, they become *like* animals. Now we come to the matter which
you mentioned - some human beings who really don't want to help
others. How can we class them? What do we call them?

(Boy) - Criminals!

That's right. It doesn't matter what else they are called -
bankers or lawyers or manufacturere. Those names are like labels
that are stuck on the outside of a bottle when something different

28

is inside.

(Boy) - I don't think they're allowed to do that - stick wrong labels on bottles.

No, they're not allowed to on bottles, but a lot of human beings are going around with false labels on. Lots of human beings are not nearly as good as milk, but they have labels that say "milk" on them. How do you think they became that way?

(Boy) - Instinct? No - Oh, I know. It's from the second part of the mind that you drew on the blackboard the other night. I don't know what you called it, but it was that part next to the right-hand side - there in the middle -

Bravo, Peter! That's right! Through ignorance, through bad environment - that thing in the person and that thing in the people surrounding him, made him that kind of a person.

(Boy) - I'm sure that robbers don't want to help cops.

No, I guess not. But maybe some bankers, and lawyers and business men are similar in that respect.

(Boy) - What about the continuation of what we were talking about yesterday? You only told me half of it and said you'd speak about the rest today.

I'm coming to that. We have decided haven't we, that one of the characteristics of a true man is that he wants to and can help others - and that he himself wants to be helped and can be helped. But Peter, there are very different kinds of help you can give a person. ~~Suffrage~~ is a person who has lost his way, and asks you how to get to Paoli.

(Boy) - I'd help him find it.

Yes, that's one kind of help. You mentioned in the beginning
two of the reasons why we live together - the exchange of products
and -

(Boy) But some of the products aren't necessities - some are
luxuries - we don't need them the same way.

That's right Peter. There are different kinds of products,
and sometime we'll have to go into that matter. But now let's
keep to our reasons for living together. Exchange of products
and mutual protection. Those are two kinds of help. Both of these,
you remember, come under the heading of survival. In short, human
beings can and do help each other to survive.

But what, Peter? Are we surviving simply in order to sur-
vive? Or are we helping each other to survive so that we can help
ourselves and others in other and higher ways?

Now we come to a most important kind of help, which probably
hasn't occurred to you. In fact this kind of help doesn't occur
to many people. What about living together not only to exchange
the products of human nature, but also to exchange the resources
of human nature - our human nature resources ?

(Boy) - That's the way I want to help people.

That's a swell idea. That's the greatest, highest idea in
living - to tap and really use human resources, so as to improve
and develop to be as fine human beings as we possibly can be.

When you first came here, at this time of day, we used to just
sit and talk ordinarily, didn't we? And perhaps have a drink or
eat a cracker - Now, drinking is a sort of exchange of products.
At that time, we were consuming products, but were we being very
helpful to each other in any big way? Was there any help being
given you or anybody else?

30

(Boy) - There is now.

Yes, I am drawing upon my resources to help you. And other
men before me drew on theirs to help me - to help me to be able
to draw on mine.

(Boy) - You're helping me to help others.

That's right. I want to help you to become able to help
others. All of the future of mankind is dependant upon this kind
of help. The time is coming when you and young men like you are
going to be the ones that say what is to be and what is not. You
will be one of the adults. My body - the bodies of these present
adults will be gone. Because the body is dead doesn't mean that
we will be; but we won't be here. We won't be present in these
bodies. You and your generation will be the men who are ruling or
directing. Your generation will then be ruling the world. Each
generation has the possibility of making the world as they want it
to be - trying to make the world a truly human place. You try to
make your family a truly human family, your state a truly human
state, your country a truly human country - a truly human world.

(Boy) - And the universe a truly human universe.

When we come to the universe, Peter, you will find that there
are a lot of living and intelligent beings in the universe, in
addition to men. So it won't be exactly a human universe. But
men have a job to do in the universe. You can grow and develop
to do your job in the universe by living with yourself and with
people with whom you come into contact - living so as to desire
and to be able to help them in these important ways, such as draw-
on their resources - their human resources.

One more idea and then we stop for today.

31

Do you know the difference between a desire, a wish for a thing, and the ability to do that thing? You might wish to ride a bike, but sitting and wishing you could, wouldn't make you able to ride it, would it? You must first have the desire - then you have to learn how - and then you become able to do it.

Do you know what my job in life is? It is to increase the desire in people to really be human beings, and then to help them to become able actually to be what they desire.

Did you ever hear of Christ? Certainly you have! Did you ever hear of Buddha?

(Boy) - No, but I've heard of Moses.
probably

Well, the reason you didn't hear of Buddha was that he happened to live in India, but all of them were great teachers. They were great teachers of mankind. These great men lived to do in their great way, just what I live to do in my smaller way. They were just marvelous human beings, and they lived to teach people to do just the things we are talking about.

32

VIII

Friday July 30th

Peter, what are you going to do with your body when you grow up?

Boy - Develop.

How? What kind of a body do you want to have?

Boy - A good strong one, with strong muscles.

Why do you want to develop such strong muscles?

Boy - Well you can't buy strong muscles, you got to develop
them.

Yes, but what do you want muscles for?

Boy - So's I could dig ditches or something like that.

Do you expect to dig ditches when you grow up?

Boy - No - but I might have to - to earn a living - and not
starve.

Do you think there's much likelihood that you'll earn your
living digging ditches?

Boy - No.

Why then build muscles for something you're not really expect-
ing to do?

Boy - For an emergency. If I can't find any other job.

Peter, how did you get that idea about earning a living digging
ditches?

Boy - Don't know just how - It came out of my head.

What did you see that put it in your head?

Boy - Don't know.

Do you think that the present King of England has any such idea?

Boy - No, I guess not.

Do you know what happened to the former Tsar of Russia? Well,
he was dethroned, and the present Kind George of England must know

33

that no kings today are any too secure. Now let me ask you this.
Let's do it on my hand. Here is ditch digging; here's how fine
wood-working like John does; here's playing a violin; here's being
a writer; here a doctor. Now for which of these occupations would
you need these very powerful muscles? Only for the ditch digging.
Now a man hasn't the time or the energy in one life to train to be
all those things. He has to pick out one to specialize in. Which
one is he going to pick? Why - the one he most wants to do!

Boy - The one he's most fitted for.

Yes. Suppose a man is fitted to be a doctor and I were to ask
him: "Why develop your body?" - and he says: "to dig ditches".
He can't prepare for everything. If he is to be a doctor, he must
think how to make his hands skillful and his eyes able to detect
disorders in people. Powerful muscles won't help him to become a
good doctor. At least the muscle building would be sort of a side-
line. Of course he wants to have health and a certain amount of
strength. Everyone does. How about with you, Peter? Has muscle
building ever been the most important thing for you?

Boy -

How about your father? Do you think he could dig ditches?

Boy - Sure!

He isn't very muscular.

Boy - He's pretty strong.

Yes, he's strong enough but he isn't one of those powerful men,
with big heavy muscles, is he?

Boy - Guess he isn't.

Have you ever seen any prize fighters or wrestlers?

Boy - I've seen pictures of Joe Lewis.

Well, your father hasn't that kind of muscles, and you'll never
be like

be like Joe Lewis either, will you?

Boy - No, I guess not.

Would

You like to be?

Boy - I don't think so.

Why wouldn't you?

Boy - 'cause fighting isn't important.

That's good, because you never could be. Your body is not
made that way. Your body isn't built to become a fighter. Those
who are going to become wrestlers or fighters show signs of that
kind of body at an early age. They are husky kids, with heavy
frames and thick wrists, etc. What you want your body for is to be
a good instrument for whatever you are going to do.

You know violins, don't you Peter?

Boy - Sure. I used to play one.

When men made violins how did they want them to be?

Boy - So's they'd sound musical.

Yes. That's right. I used to play them huge, you know, forX
box huge, forX huge, forX huge, forX huge, forX huge, forX

Boy - So's they'd fit a man.

That's right. They didn't want them to be huge, or as strong
as a sledge hammer. They wanted them to be right for a man to play
on, so as to produce music. Who makes the music - the violin or
the man?

Boy - Both.

Yes - but which really makes it? Which is the more important
in producing the music?

Boy - The man.

Certainly. The man is the musician; the violin is his
instrument. By means of this instrument he can make you hear and
feel what he has composed, inside himself.

Boy - Not always himself. He can play what somebody else has composed.

Yes - but it has come out of *someone*. Maybe even out of the resources of someone. What do you think about that?

Boy - I probably did.

Certainly great music does. Violins then are instruments to express and communicate - to make audible - so that others can hear and feel. They are the musicians' means of helping himself to compose, and of helping other people to hear and feel. What do you think I mean when I say that your body is an instrument?

Boy - You mean that it should be fitted to do what I'm fitted to do.

I mean that what is living and growing inside of you, has your body as its means of expression, development, etc. Does the man exist for the violin?

Boy - No - the violin exists for the man.

Do you live for your body or is your body for you?

(Long pause)

What's puzzling you?

Boy - I think they exist for each other.

Yes and the musician and violin are for each other too. Yet you answered the first question definitely, without hesitation. Why is it not the same with the second? Isn't the body an instrument?

Boy - The man and his body are combined.

That's true. They are more of one piece. It isn't quite the same thing as a musician and his violin. But I'll explain why I'm asking you these questions.

Do you know any one who lives just for his body? They do nothing but eat and drink and dress up and ride around in cars and

36

show off their bodies and their cars, and show off their fine houses,
ate. They never think of questioning how fine a mind a person has,
or how fine feelings. They don't think about these qualities, that
make a true human being. They just think about their bodies and
the bodies of other people. Now what do you think a pig does?

Boy - He lives for himself.

Yes - but what is a pig? Has a pig a mind? Has he fine feelings? No, he just

That's the way it seems. Of course I don't know because I've never
been inside a pig. But do you think a pig ever has any great ideas?

Boy - No.

Will he ever be able to help anybody?

Boy - It helps us to eat him.

Only if we butcher him. He doesn't live for these qualities
inside him. Well, some people in life are sort of pigish.

Boy - Rich people.

And some who aren't so rich, Peter.

Maybe and maybe not. Some people think the body is the most important thing in life.

Boy - Yes. They have towing machines and mechanical horses
and all sorts of things to keep their bodies nice, - and they take
laxatives and -

Yes. They're always thinking about the body. Much like the
musician who is always thinking about him his violin - always taking
it out and polishing it, and showing it off - but not playing it.

Boy - He says - "look what a fine instrument I have. It's

37

too old to play on." He says that just 'cause he can't play.

Yet it's made to be played on - made to be used, by true human beings.

Boy - For what?

That's a good question and maybe you can answer it yourself.

Boy doubtfully - To live? To learn?

Yes, that's two things. What else? I think you've forgotten your lessons while we've been in New York.

(pause) then Boy - To help each other. (Pause) To tap natural resources and human natural resources.

That's it. Now they're coming. To develop as a true human being; to develop more of the things that make human beings true human beings. Have you had that attitude toward your body?

Boy - Guess not.

What have you thought about it?

Boy - Haven't very much.

When I was a boy about your age, I wanted my body to be a strong strapping body like a wrestler's. I didn't know anything about the body being an instrument or of being of use to me in my development. I wanted it to become like this and that and the other strong man's. And so I wanted a lot of effort trying to become that way. I wasn't built that way.

Their bodies will become very very strong, especially if they are well taken care of and built up, but your body isn't made like that and instead of yours becoming like Joe Lewis or yours will become sensitive and skillful. Of course everyone should have a certain strength and health, but this other kind of strength is a special thing. Your body can only become strong as

38

as it's built to be. One of Wharton's delicate hammers can not be
a sledge hammer. Your body wasn't made for a sledge hammer, but for
more sensitive things. Maybe you have been like me when I was your
age. Have you ever had such a desire? Most young fellows have;
because they grow up among others who think it's great to be that
way, but have no ideas that some bodies should be sensitive, deft,
skillful and strong in their way. You must be true to the way you
are built. Don't try to become like somebody else.

Most of those fellows who are physically strong are not mentally
strong.

The whole idea, Peter, is that you must be true to what you
try to be
are and not let other things in life make you something that you
are not. It's a waste of time - for you can't do it. It delays
your becoming what you are and can become. What would you think of
me if instead of doing what I do I'd get out and spar and train
to box, every day? Maxxux

Rik Boy laughs.

Most people would say - Swell. But they wouldn't be right,
would they? The first strong man who came along would lick the
pants off me. If I were to fight Joe Lewis I'd never even got a
chance to hit him.

Boy - And if you did, he wouldn't feel it.

First then: - Be true to what you are - true to what your body
is. And second: Your body is an instrument, so that you can be
useful to yourself and to others; so that you can use human re-
sources, and become a fine human being, instead of a second-rate
Joe Lewis.

41

an animal.

Now, Wharton phones. Remember what he says: "Peter, do you want to come home or stay at the Toomers?". If that stimulus ran around and came out of you without thinking, you might just repeat to him what he said to you.

(The chalk s squirts on the blackboard and Boy squirms) That's a stimulus too, Peter.

Boy @ And your talking to me is a stimulus.

Yes indeed. If the stimulus of Wharton's words came out as I have diagrammed, it would be the way an animal works. When Skippy hears a noise she barks. She barks because the stimulus (in this case the noise) comes in and out without thought. You can find in animals and even in men, this kind of thing happening. In comes the stimulus - out goes the reaction. Perfectly automatic - like our oil burner. It doesn't think about what it's doing. It continues to work that way unless something gets out of order. It has no mind - no brain. Animals haven't the kind of brain we have. So the sound makes Skippy bark xiii.

Boy - She has no mind. She can't think.

Now I'll explain why human beings can. What I am going to draw isn't exact, but it will help us to understand the workings. In us there is what we call an associational area. You don't need to remember that name, just get the idea of how it works. Stimuli register in man through two sets of nerves. One kind brings the message in to the brain and the other kind sends one out. There are both - intake and outgo. One set registers the stimulus and one set transmits impulses to the body.

42

If you went over to the fireplace and didn't know it was hot,
and if you touched it your nerves would transmit this unpleasant
sensation to your brain, and you would draw away from it. This
thing in man happens very quickly.

Boy - Like lightning.

This process goes on so quickly that you've drawn away your
hand before you know it. If this happened all the time in man...

Boy - We'd just repeat what was said to us !

That's right. But in the human brain there is this area,
and the connections aren't just like this drawing. There are so
many relationships that it doesn't work quite so quickly. It sus-
pends reactions. It delays them. This is what enables you not
to parrot Wharton when he asks you: "Peter, do you want to come
home or stay at the Toomers". This enables you not to react at
once, and allows you to delay or suspend your reaction until you've
thought about it.

There is no need for you to know all about the brain. You'll
learn that later on in school or college. But the idea is important.
That this enables you to suspend reaction and come to a real decision.
Let's represent it this way.

Here is a telephone. Here is an incoming set and here an out-
going one. Suppose instead of a human being sitting here receiving
the message, it was a machine. It might send out an exact duplicate
of what was said; and if another machine were at this end, these
silly questions - Do you want to come home or stay etc., would
just keep on going around and around and around -

Boy choking with laughter - If it got started.

44

out and have something to say about it.

The other day, you hurt your toe. Your first reaction was to feel maybe a little frightened, and feel that those stones oughtn't be there, and you cried a little. That's all very natural reaction - but after awhile you - Peter - got on the job. You literally stopped yourself from crying, you stopped being frightened, you stopped being angry at the stones for being there. You began to think and one of the first results of your thinking allowed Marjorie to bandage your foot. With the pigeon I told you about, who had been bitten by the rat, he would have reacted to my coming near him and to my putting out my arm - and away he'd fly. The stimulus would just come in and action would go out. If you had been like that you wouldn't have let Marjorie fix your toe. In the same way, if you grow, and if your resources grow and develop, you will not only be able to suspend this automatic thing, but when you act, your action will be from your resources.

This afternoon when you come on the porch, you asked me: "Don't we deserve anything today?" I knew, "Peter would like to have a talk with me, but I also knew it was late. If I had not stopped to think, I'd have said: "It's too late".

Boy - You could have said that but you didn't. You thought.

I thought about Marjorie. How nearly is the duck done, and instead of saying no, I went back to the kitchen and asked her. Then I decided. This decision came through my mind; but having decided to have the talk, I now must call on my resources in order to talk to you about these matters.

Boy - You talk to me so as to help me use my resources.

Yes, and all this depends on my ability to suspend my reaction and arrive at a right judgment. This last gives us another word for thinking. It gives us the possibility of thinking in a way

45

that we call *critical* thinking, something like examining the thing from all sides - every way.

Suppose Wharton wanted to buy some wood. He goes to the lumber yard and there's a big pile of boards. He sees only the outside, probably only the but ends of them. His eyes see only a little bit of the whole. If he just reacted to the stimulus he'd buy them, and then when he got home, he might find they were some other kind of wood...

Boy - Or crooked or full if knots. But Wharton wouldn't buy wood like that.

No, he wouldn't, but I'm supposing he did. What he would do would be to ask the man to take some down, and he'd examine them very carefully, looking at them from all sides - critically. Only then would he be able to get a clear idea of what they really were like. Then he'd think critically about them.

Do you see then the value of critical thinking? It enables you to make the right selection, so you can do the think you want. Through *XXX* to do; so as to do what you have in mind. *XXX* critical thinking you come to understand the whole thing, and then you can really be intelligent about it. Now, Peter, just as it is necessary to examine wood if you're going to do the best possible woodwork, so is it necessary to examine most things in life, if you're to make the most of them.

Boy - And examine myself so as to make the most of myself.

That's the idea exactly. Examine yourself - see yourself - think about yourself - come to understand and know yourself, so as to be able to make yourself a true human being. Now among the things to be examined critically are ideas and opinions, all ideas and all opinions, those you hear from other people ...

Boy - And my own ideas.

46

Yes, Peter. Your own ideas and my ideas. You must think critically about what I'm telling you in these talks. Don't merely react to them - don't merely believe or disbelieve. It won't do you any good if you just react - it won't do you any good if you just believe or don't believe. You yourself have got to think about them, so as to see for yourself if they are true or not. You must suspend them in your mind, look at them from all angles, and yourself come to really understand what I'm talking about. Then these talks will do you good.

Now, let me give you another example of the need of suspending reactions. This will be a graphic example.

Boy @ What's graphic?

Something that stands out clearly so that you can see and grasp and remember it. Here's the example. Suppose I went up to the field, saw that the wheat was ripe and simply reacted to this seeing. I'd get the tractor and hitch on the reaper and binder, and get up to the field and only then it might occur to me that I had no man to help me and I really couldn't cut the wheat today. You see, in that case, I really wouldn't have thought about what I was doing, I wouldn't have thought to ask, is there someone to help me; I'd simply goad blindly ahead and then been stopped by an obstacle that I would have foreseen if I'd stopped to think about it.

Or suppose that I see that the wheat is ripe and there is a man to help me and we start reaping, but after I get the field half cut I look up at the sky and see it's about to rain. It does rain and we're driven from the field and the cut wheat lies on the ground a week and begins spoiling.

didn't

Boy - You didn't think about the sky, did you?

That's it. I saw that the wheat was ripe. I knew there was

47

a man to help me but I simply reacted without looking at the
sky and without stopping to think of whether it would rain or not.
So I was caught by the rain and my work spoiled. Isn't this clear?
Wouldn't
Ridiculous this show is! Who anyone the value of suspending reactions so
as to take in all the factors, and really think about them from
all possible points of view, and come to a true understanding and
a right decision?

Boy - That's a good example.

Now Peter, we have really ended the talk for today but I'm
going to tell you two things more, as preparation for tomorrow's
talk. They're right in connection with what we've been saying.
What things in people do you suppose keep them from suspending
their reactions and really thinking about things? What things in
people do you suppose make them act like automatons, even though
they have the possibility of acting as human beings? I'm going to
tell you two things. One of them we call false beliefs. The other
is called prejudice. Suppose for example that you know something
and at once you believe it. Suppose what you hear is false and
so when you believe it you have a false belief. You would simply
react, wouldn't you as dictated by this false belief? How would
you react?

Boy - Stupidly - Maybe like an animal - maybe like a Skippy -
She believes there's something to bark at when there isn't and so
she barks. She fools herself and sometimes she fools me too,
because I go to see who she's barking at and it's nothing except
some silly little noise.

That's a good example of how a false belief produces reactions
that are either silly or not true to the facts. So just remember
that uncritical beliefs are among the things that make those who

48

should be human beings, act like unthinking machines. And simply
remember that prejudice is another one of these things. We'll
talk about this more tomorrow.

X

Tuesday, August 3rd.

What do you think with respect to these chief parts of a
person as he grows up? Do you think he ought to develop and
improve in his ability to do things? Do you think he ought to
develop and improve in his ability to feel things? Do you think
he ought to develop and improve in his ability to think? as he
grows up?

Boy - Yes.

You think he should do that. Do you think all people do do
that?

Boy - No. In fact I think they go backwards.

But why? How do you explain it? You and I agreed that as
boys and girls grow up to be young men and women, they should
improve in their ability to do, and to feel, and to think. And
we agreed that it doesn't happen that way. Do you know what we
call it when growth doesn't happen as it ought to? We say
it is arrested - by which we mean, stopped - warped or something
like that. Take a tree or a seed - we will agree that it is
natural and normal for that tree to grow up into a fine oak tree,
(if it is an oak). If we find that it isn't growing as it should,
the intelligent man begins looking and questioning and thinking,
why that tree doesn't grow as it should. Just this question of
why man doesn't grow as he should, is perhaps the most important
question in man's life. Why do human beings not develop and improve

51

the Toomers - there's no tennis court - there's no landing field.

So you'd pass right by without knowing it, and...

Boy - I'd land somewhere else and ask.

field

But suppose from the air you thought the wheat was a landing field and you come down, and find it's too short and you crash into the Watson's woods.

Boy - Just escape by parachute.

1

You would be acting on the basis of a false belief. This shows how dangerous it is to have false beliefs, and to act on them.

DANGEROUS FOR OTHERS

Boy - DANGEROUS FOR OTHERS More dangerous for other people -

those that don't know what you're telling me. They don't know they have false beliefs - and some might think it didn't matter.

What does that show about them?

Boy - Their minds aren't working.

That's right, they can't think straight, or act straight..

Boy - Or hear straight. They were told something wrong.

Now let's apply that same thing to a person. Instead of a drawing on paper with pencil - a false picture of a house and grounds - somebody draws with words a picture of a person whom you don't know. He tells you about him; he doesn't tell you the facts, but just his own cock-eyed impressions.

Boy - Maybe he just thinks wrong - maybe he's mistaken. He might think the man had black hair, when it was really blonde; or he might say he had very long legs, when they were really short,

So you'd never be able to recognize him.

He might also tell you the man was not a nice fellow, but nasty, tricky, mean, bad-tempered, and if you believed all he told you, you would build up a false picture of the person and

52

you'd begin to dislike him before you even met him - without knowing him at all. Then if you did meet him, you might get into trouble with him, because you were acting from a false belief. You might treat him as if he were a bully, or mean, and he'd get angry at you, and MOM & DAD you at him, and pretty soon you're in a fight. Without this false belief, you and he might become good friends. This is another example of how false beliefs can get you into trouble.

How how about your pictures? Suppose you drew in your own mind some false pictures about yourself - You'd really get into trouble with yourself, wouldn't you?

Boy - How?

Suppose a fellow who was physically not strong, thought he was a little Sampson ... he'd get himself into trouble.

Boy - Who's Sampson?

Sampson was a biblical character - a very very strong man. He'd get himself into trouble. Or suppose he was very intelligent but thought he was stupid. He'd get into trouble too, because he'd not be able to use his intelligence rightly. If told something, he might say: "I don't know much about it and I don't think I can learn much." And so he wouldn't be able to learn.

Boy - The wise man knows he doesn't know much. The more he learns, the more he realizes, there's more to know.

Yes. Most wise men realize that there is much to learn. All their lives they are students - examining, learning, thinking. But now, Peter, if a fellow already thinks he knows it all ...

Boy - The stupid ones strike them, they know it all.

["54", "Then\nplane?\" \"No, I don't think they have\", says he. \"What have they\ngot a landing field for? Is it a government field?\". \"No it's\ntoo small for that\". \"Maybe you didn't see right; it doesn't sound\nand then\nreasonable\". You question this, even if you come up here in a\nplane you'd be prepared; you'd come down low and look, and see\nthat it was just an ordinary wheat field. That's what thinking\nwould do, if thinking stepped in.", "Boy - Yes, I'd see that wasn't a place to land. And if I\nwere ready to land, I'd choose another place. I know! I could\nland on the road, if the wind were blowing in the right direction.", "Let's now think about a person. Haven't you heard people\ntelling you what kind of people live in New York - or what kind of\npeople live in the South - or what kind of people live in Russia -", "Boy - Sure. Our geography teacher tells us things like that.\nYes\nBut I mean not even that seriously - just talk. You yourself-\nhaven't you done that too? Haven't you talked carelessly, and\nmade mistakes in your judgment? Even this matter of asking\n* can you go downtown; when I said no, maybe you thought - Oh he's\njust a cranky old fellow. I don't say you did, I only say maybe\nyou did.", "Boy - That's what I thought last year about Ramsey, when he\nwouldn't let me sit on the set.", "Maybe you learned later that there was a good reason for his\nrefusing.", "Boy - I did.", "Your own impressions and thoughts were mistaken. OK\nOK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK

55

This is most important for everybody - not only you - but everybody on this earth. This is the danger of false beliefs. False beliefs can prevent thought.

This is the danger of false beliefs. That they prevent

In the case of Ramsey, your false belief kept you from thinking at the time. Kept you from wondering. It was just like a link between the incoming and outgoing. In it came - there was the link - out it went. This false belief sort of took away from you the power, which you would otherwise have had. It linked things that ought not be linked. In your brain there is this area so that you can delay the machine, and if you delay it you can think about it, and understand - but if not, not. Then you just act like a machine. The false belief wipes it out - makes it as if this area didn't exist, and reduces the human brain to something not much better than a dog's.

This is a little difficult, Peter.

Boy - That's alright. I get it.

Nature has been laboring for ages to make a brain just like this, with these sections that do this, and feel and think, - but when people's heads are full of false beliefs, this whole thing that nature has done is undone.

Boy -

Let me illustrate this and then we stop for today. This is the best example I can think of. You know that in our oil burner, there is a thermostat, by means of which we control the burner. By means of it we can get more heat or less heat. Man's mind is designed to be the thermostat or controlling instrument for his whole person.

Boy - But it doesn't always work.

56

If
Just because there are false beliefs in there. Instead of
~~there were no~~ there being this thermostat, in the burner, there were none, the
it on burning,
 burner, once started, would go right on and on, whether you needed
more heat or not. Just on and on. Men who do not suspend their
reactions - men whose minds are full of XXXX false beliefs are
like oil burners without thermostats; they go on running mechanic-
ally according to how much fuel is provided. Remember this although
you can't completely understand it. There is the possibility of
delaying reactions; false beliefs eliminate that possibility; and
you can

Boy - So that he's like an oil burner without the thermo-
stat.

Like any machine that goes and goes, or if stopped, can't
start itself again; can't do the intelligent thing - can't do
what is good for himself and for other people. False beliefs de-
rived from false descriptions, or inaccur-
ate seeing, keep human beings from developing and improving in
their ability to do; from developing and improving in their ability
to feel; from developing and improving in their ability to think;
as
from developing normal fine human beings.
Tomorrow we will talk about prejudices; and I'm going to recall
to you what I called a progression - From the body of your mother,
to family, to community, to town, to state, to country, to world,
to universe. You will then see how this links with that, and how
by knowing what I'm saying now, you will be enabled to grow and
develop until you become a citizen of the universe. This is one
key to that.

Boy - One key to a hundred doors.

57

XI

Wednesday Aug 4th.

Well Peter, before we go on you want to have clear in your
mind for what purpose men ought to be able to control what hits
them. Why they should be able to think. Why? What's the idea
of it all?

Boy - If they didn't they'd be like Skippy - barking when
she has no reason to bark. She's not able to control herself.

That's right; she doesn't behave intelligently. Now suppose
we put it this way. Of these stimuli that we talked about - there
are just all kinds; a loud noise, somebody calling you ...

Boy - A pin pricking your finger.

Yes that too. And sometimes what you see with your eyes is
a stimulus.

Boy - What you hear, and what you feel.

Yes. Whatever comes in through our five senses.

Boy - Let's see - five - hear, see, smell, taste ...

Touch is the other. Our five senses can transmit to us a
lot of things - and they are not all important. You may see....

Boy - Your eyes and your ears are the most important.

All the senses are important. That's why we have them. But
all the things they transmit are not important. Suppose that every
time you saw a weed, you reacted, automatically stopped to pull it.
With a twinkle in me eye.

Boy - That would be good, I guess.

Well - no; it wouldn't; because you wouldn't have any time
to do more important things. There are a lot of weeds around here :
You don't want to spend your life just pulling weeds. You wouldn't
have any time to help Ramsey with the cows !

Boy - Yes, I'd go out to get a few April, and I'd see a weed,

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"and I'd say: "Ramsey, here's a weed," and I'd stop to pull it. And then I'd see another and another, and we'd never get the cows in. I'd just be pulling weeds all day. Of course, I'd automatically come back here to get something to eat."

Yes, your stomach would prompt you to do that; and that would be what I called an internal stimulus. Now as we said about the many different kinds of stimulus - some aren't important, and if man couldn't control it....

Boy - He wouldn't do anything else.

He wouldn't be able to discriminate between the important and the unimportant, and so he couldn't choose the important ones. Now with Argie here, she is not old enough to choose between important and unimportant things. Her brain is not as developed as yours at present. You are able to do more important things than she is. When she is your age she will be able to do the kind of things that you now do.

Boy - Unless she stops growing.

I don't think she will. In order that man not be a slave to these unimportant things, he must select from among them, the important ones.

Boy - Those he's most fitted to do.

select in order to do

He must know what is humanly important. That's the big reason.

The next point is, as we said, that many things will come to you from the world. Some are facts and some not. Some are true and some not. If you had no inner power of selecting the true from the untrue, you'd be just like an automaton - like a jack-in-the-box - press the button and he pops out! In order to be able to select what is true, you must be able to control, to some extent, what happens in you; so that you don't behave according to what is false.

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but only according to what is true. If you behave according to what is true, you will be a true person. If according to what is false, you will be a false person. We want to keep these aims in mind. We want to know *why* we are to do this. We want to know *why* we should not be side-tracked by a lot of trifles, but live like true human beings.

Boy - That's a good purpose.

Yes it is, Peter. Let me ask you a question by the way. Do you think a man ought to be able to control himself first - before for example, he gets an automobile? Can a man control an automobile if he can't control himself?

Boy - No.

Why not?

Boy puzzled how to explain.

Suppose a person had no way of controlling his own reactions...

Boy - He couldn't control the car.

That's right. You know what it's like driving on the highway. Well suppose a man with no control of himself, was passed by another man in another car. If he just reacted without control, he might just step on the gas and shoot ahead without taking anything else into consideration. He might turn out right into another car, and have an accident. He had no control; he just reacted; he certainly didn't think about it - and it was a silly reaction to begin with. That kind of man shouldn't drive a car, because he's a danger to himself and to others. That's why your answer was a good answer - a man who can't control himself, can't control much else.

Another example - If a man loses his temper and begins to beat a horse because the horse is tired and can't go fast enough to please him, he shouldn't be allowed to own a horse. He should

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learn to control his own temper before he is allowed to own animals.
A young child has no control. A very young child who had a rabbit
might start to pull the fur out, and treat the rabbit as no rabbit
should be treated - that child should not have a rabbit - she is
not old enough to know and to have control.

These are simple illustrations but what a wealth of things in
the world, they cover!

Boy - If people could control themselves there'd be less
accidents.

Yes indeed - of all kinds.

Boy - Less wars.

Oh my goodness yes. No fighting. This we must remember and
never forget - the first thing a person wants to be able to control
is himself.

Now we come to that part we left out yesterday. We will talk
about one of the things in man that prevents him from developing
to be all he could be. The first thing we spoke of was false be-
liefs. We've already seen how they harm a person. The second was
prejudice. You asked me what that was. Now I'm going to tell you.
It is an unreasoned hate, dislike, of another person without cause,
against something or someone,
Usually when people are prejudiced, they have false beliefs about
them. You can have a dislike and not be prejudiced. Prejudice
involves false belief.

Now Peter, because you have a good and intelligent family -
fine parents, you haven't gotten any prejudices. You are a very
very fortunate boy - because there are many young people all over
the world, who have their minds filled with false beliefs of this
kind, and their minds and feelings filled with prejudices of
various kinds. This happens because their parents don't know

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any better. Parents don't realize how much they are harming the child. Often they don't know that they themselves have false beliefs or prejudices. These things then, that have made their parents lives difficult and unhappy are passed on to the children, and make the children's lives difficult and unhappy. Have you ever known any boy who thought his family was the only good one on earth, and all other families no good at all?

Boy - Yes!

Well, that's a family prejudice. They don't know other families yet they think all others are no good. They are already becoming victims of false beliefs and prejudices. They are like automatons - they do not act according to what is true. They only make trouble...

Boy - That's just what they do - make trouble for themselves and for everybody in the school. School is full of them

So you have seen that. And now you are beginning to understand why. False beliefs and prejudices.

Boy - Some of the girls are that way too.

Yes some of the girls too. What is to be your attitude toward these people who have these silly notions?

Boy - What do you mean?

What I mean is that your first attitude will be, I'm sure, not to become like [ILLITERATE THEM] - not be swayed by what they think. You will preserve your own integrity. You may not know what I mean by that, but some time I'll explain what that means. Your attitude will be to try to think straight, to feel straight, to understand truly and behave according to your true understanding. Some time you may even be able to talk to one of these boys, or girls, and show them how they are mistaken - you maybe able to use your good mind to help them grow up to become better human beings than they

62

can ever be if they stick to their prejudices. They haven't had
your chances.

Boy - Some of them can do things I can't do.

That may be. But you have the real kind of intelligence. What
you must do is to cultivate it. Don't become conceited about it,
but cultivate it.

These boys prosauly have not only prejudices about family,
but about other things as well. They may have prejudices about
what part of town one lives in; about what their fathers do;
about nationality ...

Boy - Gee! The Italian boys are awful. They have enemies
everywhere. They

If you were to go down to where they live and they all came
out to fight you, that wouldn't be true to what you are, would it?
They have false beliefs about you.

Boy -

Are there any colored boys in your school?

Boy - There are some colored girls, and a few boys.

Are there any who have prejudices against XXXXX each other?

Boy - What is prejudice?

I've been telling you. It is hatred without knowing anything
about the thing you hate. It is based on false beliefs about that
thing. You couldn't have a prejudice if you really knew the thing
or the person. If one of the Italian boys came to live with your
family, and got to know them, they couldn't go on thinking they were
no good, could they? And if you went to live with them, you would
find out what fine people they were. Prejudice and ignorance go
hand in hand. The world is full of this kind of thing. People on

63

Park Avenue in New York think that people who live on the West side are awful - Those who live downtown think those who live in the Bronx are awful, and so forth.

Boy - I don't know New York well, so I don't know about that. But in school, there are a log of fine boys - really fine boys - but they don't use their minds.

You will see a lot of this silly kind of thing and maybe one of the things you will want to do will be to help get rid of some of these false notions, because they happen all the time.

Boy - What's that?

They interfere with life. If you want to become a citizen of Paoli, - come to know the people in Paoli - want to help them - you might go down to see them, but they'd be full of these prejudices. You might go with friendship and they might meet you with hostility. If they did that, you couldn't help them, could you? If they were suspicious of you - or had xmas false notions about you? They mightn't even let you in. If then, they prevent you from helping them, don't they lose too? Yes. So that prejudices and false beliefs hold you back and hold them back. They are barriers between people - and barriers to development. In a town divided up among people with prejudices it would be pretty difficult for anyone to become a citizen of that town, wouldn't it? He could only get to know parts of it - never the whole, so he couldn't become a citizen in the sense in which we mean it. Nor could he become a citizen of America. Could anyone go out and do it as conditions are now? No, you'd run up against bad feelings, misunderstandings, prejudices, false beliefs - . Of course you'd meet some who would understand. But you have to get that rubbish out of life before you can become a citizen of any place - That's what it is - rubbish. How can

64

people become citizens of the world when these different groups
misunderstand - cling to their misunderstandings - and act on them?
So you see how prejudices and false beliefs keep a man from enlarg-
ing his environment and becoming a citizen of his town, his state,
his country, the world or the universe?

One more thing and then we are finished for today. You know
how a pea grows.

Boy - Sure in a pod.

Why do you think peas grow in pods?

Boy - Pods are to keep them clean.

Yes but more than that. In order that they may grow.
We are like peas in pods. When you were inside your mother's body
you were like a pea in a pod.

Boy - Yes, I see. But my mother wasn't busted open the way
a pod is. I came out naturally - she wasn't busted open. But if
you let a pea grow naturally and don't open it, it would just open
naturally too, and the pea would seed itself.

That's right. Our environments are like our pods. When
we grow to a larger environment it is like a pea breaking from its
pod - only we go to another pod - a larger one and finer one. You
remember you said that it was not for the body that we moved into
larger and finer environments - but for the spirit - for that thing
that is you - Peter. That's what needs to grow. Alright. Now
Peter, what do you think would happen in the family pod if you
were taught that your family was the only family to live in - or
that Paoli was XEXXAXLXYEXXEXXEXLXYEXXEX - no other family is any
good - no other town. See what would happen? You would be held
right there - you would be help in that pod of your family.- ME
XXXXXXXX But if you got out and went to Paoli, everybody there
would begin to tell you that Paoli was the only place to live, and

65

no other town any good - nothing to be found anywhere else. These
false views might keep you in Paoli and prevent your going out and
learning and expanding. That's what happens to these boys who think
their families are the only ones - their religion the only religion -
their race the only race - etc. They are held right there - right
in that pod -

Boy - The Chinese are taught things like that.

Those that are never can grow outside of their small circles.
You can't understand a thing unless you know something about it.
You can't know it unless you see it and think about it. And if
somebody gives you false ideas about it, you can't check up.

Here is a summary of what we've been saying. False beliefs
and prejudices prevent expansion, - ΝΟΜΜΑΣΙΟΝ prejudices about
families, or race, or color, or nation, or religion. They tie
up minds just as your body would be tied up and unable to move if
I wound a rope around it. Isn't that a stupid way to live?

Boy - Yes it is.

Why do you think they do it?

Boy - They get it from their parents, and the parents get
it from their parents - on back.

You're right Peter. Because nobody knows any better and it
got started. These things interfere with the true purpose of life for which
a human being is made.

Tomorrow I'm going to link up with some people we've said the
last few days with the ideas of resources, and show you how what
the connection is. You'll see. It will be quite simple.

Understand

Learn more

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XII

Thursday August 5th.

Do you remember what I said at the end of our talk yesterday?
What I said we'd do today?

Boy - I have an idea.

What was it?

(silence)

I was going to relate or link together ..

Boy - The chief things we were talking about.

Prejudices and...

Boy - False beliefs -

The whole idea of why human beings should be able to suspend
their reactions - all of that I will relate to human resources.
I will join the two subjects. Just this act, Peter - just this
relating or linking or joining up is a very important act in think-
ing. And I'll show you why.

Suppose your bicycle was dismembered and the parts scattered
around. The chain in one place, the wheels in another, the saddle
in another, -

Boy - And the frame in another.

Yes. In that condition it wouldn't be of any use to you,
would it? You couldn't use it. The parts of the bicycle would
be unrelated to each other. In fact it's only a bicycle when
all the parts are assembled together, exactly in a particular way.
So you have to have all the parts put together before you can have
a bike. In much the same way, before you can have real understand-
ing, you have to have all the parts that belong together related
to each other. This is a most important part of thinking. First
we suspend, then relate - and these make possible real thinking.

Boy - Marjorie might have eggs and milk and flour, but she

67

wouldn't have a cake until they were related in the right way.

That's right. It's true of a bicycle, it's true of a cake, and it's true of human beings. Until you get all the different things about a man related in your mind, you can't understand him. If you just see one thing he does, and don't see more, and don't relate in your mind, you can't possibly understand him, or understand yourself. That's enough of this. Just remember that relating things is an important matter.

We are now going to relate the ideas of being able to suspend reactions to the ideas of human resources, and we are going to show that just as it is necessary to suspend reactions so that we can think straight, so it is necessary to suspend reactions and to think, in order to bring one's resources into play. And since you and I are living in order to bring our resources into play, and we know what we will say now is one of the most important things we have talked about so far. Now Peter I think we're going to need that blackboard.

(Boy gets sponge and cleans blackboard off carefully)

That's a good job, Peter. This by now ought to be a familiar diagram.

This whole section of the person, we will call - the human product. With it you move your body to do things, feel certain things, think about certain things. This section - back inside of you - is where your human resources are.

Boy - Human nature resources.

That's right. That's the full name and the full name of the first section is human nature products. Now I have never told you

69

poorest people have more sense than some of the rich ones. Those
this fellow who just died? An old man -

Boy - I thought there'd be one, but I couldn't think of it.
You mean Rockefeller?

We improve our living conditions so as to improve ourselves,
so as to be better human beings. Ramsey does the same thing over
sometimes that's true. Now when you saw Ramsey working that
at the farm. When he first came ...

Boy - Yes I remember that. The fields hadn't been plowed for
years, and there were lots of brambles and things. I was there then.

What did he do?

Boy - He cleaned out the fence rows and took the big rocks
out of the fields and plowed and harrowed and worked hard.

He was improving it, wasn't he? So behind Ramsey there was
this urge to improve.

Boy - Yes - He'd get better crops - more money. Some of the
poorest people have more sense than some of the rich ones. Those
this fellow who just died? An old man -

You mean Rockefeller?

Boy - Yes people like that. They don't.

Sometimes that's true. Now when you saw Ramsey working that
way, you didn't know what force was behind it. It's the same force
that's behind Wharton in his work; and you're beginning to under-
stand a lot of things. So that's the second chief urge - the de-
sire to improve.

The third is the urge to be, to feel. These terms are too
difficult for you to understand, so I'll give you a simpler one -
to love. Every human being wants to love and be loved. This takes
many different forms. It may be the love of work, or of a pet,
or of a girl, or love of nature - snow, rain, sunshine. Every
human being has this innate urge to love.

Boy - I don't think everyone does.

Everyone has had it at some time. And if they haven't now it
is because bad things have happened to them, and they've thrown it

70

out. Love of mankind - just think what that means! That is what Christ taught - brotherly love. All great teachers have taught that because they know that is native to man.

The fourth is the urge to know, to understand. We needn't go into that because that's what we've been talking about. All the time we've been talking this urge was operating in us.

The fifth is the urge to be helpful - to be of use to somebody - to yourself and as many others as you can include. Let's picture all these urges here.

But are they any good to you if they stay all bottled up in you? No. Like milk - it's no good to you if it stays in the bottle.

Boy - Or like air without someone to breathe it.

These resources are no more use to us than nature resources, if they remain untouched in the earth. As a matter of fact the resources in man continually try to come out into his life, and to come out into the world.

Boy - You're drawing two things together now.

That's right. All of yours or anybody's development comes about by these resources coming out into your life. To use the example we used yesterday, if you pick a weed every time you see one, or repeat over the phone just what is repeated to you - if your mind is full of a lot of cockeyed ideas, false beliefs, prejudices -

Boy - Like a brick wall stopping them.

That's right. Now you see why we must suspend reactions. Here's intake - here's this part of the brain - here it goes out. We as human beings don't want just to repeat what comes in. What we want to have come out to other people is our real answer - that

71

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 won't 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.

72

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 resources. 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 her.

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.

73

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, cheaters, 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 then you will learn how to be a good workman too and fulfill this desire in you be 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. They don't欺欺人.

What kind?

Boy - They don't tell you it's one thing and then you find it's not. They欺欺人 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. 'hey don't put false beliefs in you.

Well, Peter, there's another one of these desires. At first

["74", "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\nYou 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 Angie to respect your rights to read or do something that you want to do. You want to be let alone some times, X X 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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 -

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 - Mmm, I don't think so. No, I don't.

Neither do I. Neither does anybody else. In fact, 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 - Well, John uses his hands - Wharton uses his mind,
and his mechanical sense.

That'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 a lot of 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 me, 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.

77

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

78

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

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
you 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!

79

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!

80

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 four 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.

81

ONLY 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 rightto?

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. MM 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, you must then when you arrive
at a judgment, it will be a sound one.

The next and fourth stage is decision. If we have X, M, M, X, X, X,
understand that X, M, X, X, M, X, X, M, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, there are
arrive at the judgment that they should be sprayed, then we must
decide X, M, M, X, 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.

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.

EX 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.)

83

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: That'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
suddenly open up and reveal something to you that you weren't
known
before.

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

84

XIV

Saturday - Aug 75

Peter....

Boy - That's the way you usually MAXIM 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 MAM 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 AMSTERDAM 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.

85

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 man body grew and the rest
you
of man 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 man 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, man
man 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. 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 -

86

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. (haughts.)

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. They are-

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 that fact
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 age of different kinds of impor-
tant facts. There are, for example, physical facts - facts about

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.

92

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 - ΧΧΧΧΧΧΧΧΧΧ. 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, you have 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!

93

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 is 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

["94", "Yes, in comparison with other boys of your age, you have\nprobably seen a lot, and I'm sure you've kept your eyes open. But\nstill eleven years isn't very long K&X488 - You couldn't have had\nas much experience as an older person, even although relative to\nyour age, you may have had a lot. Now this is just the kind of\nconsciousness we want to have, because this is honest - it represents\nthe truth. Sometimes when a man is just shooting off his mouth -\njust acting as if he knew it all - if he got such a consciousness,\nwhat would happen to him? What would happen if he suddenly thought:\n\"I am just one man. I don't know all of life.\"?", "Boy -", "If he thinks he knows it all, what would happen if he were\nto be struck with the idea: \"I am just one man with one man's\nexperience. My mind, while alright is not as great as some minds\nhave 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\neverything. What do you think they'd say or do if it struck them:\n\"I'm just a boy - I'm not even grown up yet. \"? It would make\nthem more modest. K&X488 I lot It would do an awful lot toward\nmaking them into sane human beings.", "M&X488 I'm K&X488 I to K&X488 I to K&

98

Boy -

We do forget, don't we? So I'm going to put in writing some
of those 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 - MARRYAND 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 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 XXXXXXXXXXXX
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 XXXXXXXXXXXX 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

["100", "have it blaring as loud as it will go.", "haven't", "-So you 'XK 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. TKXXTXXXXXXAXXXIYyOUXXTOXXXKXHAXXHAXXmXkmmex", "Peter - That's like if I took the hammer and after finishing\nmaking a chair, I'd knock lamps to pieces and bust things up. I'd\nget kicked out if I did!", "Remember what we said about those who use and misuse and use\nrightly and wisely? Now I don't know if you know this, but it is\ntrue. The men who invented the radio had to draw on their re-\nsources and work for years - even devote their whole lives to it -\nto produce the radio. What purpose do you think they had?\nTo do good.", "Peter - 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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 important 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.

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, all that is so and I am going to tell you something else.

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 -

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

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. XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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 much 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. X 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, как often we say, we 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.