"The occupation of that man or that woman is not what he or she thinks it
is, the daily routine, the motives. He or she, and also you, think that you
have a conscious clear-cut objective in life. You're wrong.
You think that your main aim is to, what, is to get a higher education,
whatever that means, to get married, to get unmarried, to get a higher
salary down at the factory, to be able to retire. Humans think that this is
the aim they're going for, the aim they want. It is all a masquerade.
Sure they're going to college and sure they're engaging in commerce,
sure they're doing that, but why? You have never asked yourself that
question why you're doing what you're doing.
Now I'm going to tell you the real reason why everyone does what they do.
Everything is calculated to try to remove unhappiness, to try to feel a
different kind of feeling than the one that enslaves, dominates your day,
which you don't understand but oh, how well you know how you feel about
it.
The rule is, when you don't know the right thing to do, you do the wrong
thing and therefore you never learn the right thing. Human beings live from
unconscious actions, motives, things to do. They don't know what I just
explained to you, that the ache is so awful, that they'll do anything, a
thousand things, in order to get rid of it.
That's your present motive for living and you don't know it and I'm
telling you, so you won't be deceived any more, so you won't waste your
life anymore."
from a talk given 6/3/1987 Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 12, talk 283, track 1
