"Once upon a time a man was seated at home reading the newspaper and he
turned from page to page and when he got to about page seven his eyes were
fixed on a big, large ad and the ad said, ‘Sale on light bulbs, two cents a
piece.' Wow, he was a man who liked to save money so he put the paper down,
ran on down to the store before others got in before he did and he bought a
thousand light bulbs at two cents each, he felt as if he's scored a
victory, right? Light bulbs for the next eighty years.
Well, the night came when one of his old light bulbs went out, so he put in
a new one and sat down to read his favorite sports news of the evening and
he was reading along, the lights went out.
With his usual little mechanical habit of getting annoyed, he put the paper
down and staggered to the closet, got another bulb, put it in; it took him
twenty light bulbs to get to the end of the sixth inning. Cheap, worthless,
and you already know the point: you get what your pay for spiritually.
What are you getting?
Look at it very, very simply. Are you getting something and I'll specialize
on this one point? Are you getting something from your selected spiritual
ideas that keep you relaxed, under all circumstances, or are you what is
commonly known as a nervous wreck? Yes or no, I am a nervous wreck, yes or
no? Did you tell the truth? If you told the truth, if you're capable of
telling the truth about your actual state, you can learn how to not fall
for false bargains in light bulbs and also life bulbs."
from a talk given 7/31/1988 Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 22, talk 531, track 1
