See there’s a certain spiritual rule that you have to obey and act upon
in order to find something higher than what you now have. That law says
that you must first abandon something. You must first let go of something.
Now what is that something you have to let go of? What you now falsely
value.
You know you have all these dreams, don’t you? You’re quite sure that
when these dreams come true that then the ache will go away. I guarantee
you it will not because your dreams are simply an outgrowth of your own
wrong nature and therefore it produces wrong desires, wrong dreams. And even
if you do attain them by getting more money or whatever, even if you do
attain them they’re not going to do a thing for you because you’re
simply finding something that the old nature yearned for. And you must drop
entirely all your ambitions of trying to find satisfaction in anything,
anything whatever in this world.
Haven’t you ever noticed how you want to be someone? You want to be
accepted, for example, you want to be liked, you want to be promoted, you
want to be the president of your organization you work at, you want people
to think that you’re nice. You know, if you were really nice, that is if
you were truly right inwardly, if you were really a nice person you
wouldn’t have to give one thought of what other people think of you at
all, and yet look how your usual thoughts dominate you in that area. Do you
want people to admire you? You want them to accept you, you don’t want
them to yell at you, you want all these things.
Why? Why do you live on this level of anxiety over whether you’re going
to be accepted or not? The answer is because you have not explored, you
have not gone into yourself to see the actual cause of your self-torment.
You have not done it.
Unless you do it, unless you go into yourself, examine, see yourself, know
yourself, understand yourself, unless you do that you will have to continue
to pay the price for your ignorance. You’re going to have to pay the
price for your refusal to find something higher.
So, if you really want to be nice, and by the way, to be nice means to be
nice to yourself, it means to have a whole nature. So if you want to be
nice to yourself follow the exercises that you’re given in these classes,
follow the plans by which you can see through yourself. See how you’ve
been making all kind of promises to yourself that have never been fulfilled
and which will never be fulfilled because it all starts with
self-deception."
Questions and Answers 1 DVD # 2, talk 2
