Program Notes
Guest speaker: J. Krishnamurti
[NOTE: All quotations below are by J. Krishnamurti.]
“Give your heart and your mind with every thing that you have to find out a way of living differently.”
“Where there is love, do what you will it will be right action, but never bring conflict to one’s life.”
“We are talking about a revolution, not physical, but a psychological revolution in which there is no, at the depth, conformity. … Conformity exists when there is comparison. For a mind to be totally free from comparison, that is to observe your whole history which is embedded in you.”
“What’s your answer to this question that human beings have lived this way for millenia upon millenia, why haven’t they changed? … Why don’t you, if you’re at all serious in this matter, why don’t you ask yourself that question? Why am I, a human being who has been through all of this, why haven’t I changed?”
“To go into this question of bringing about a total revolution in what is, one must have an extraordinary sense of awareness.”
“And when observed through history, through our life, all that hope and faith have no meaning at all, because what is important is what we are, actually what we are, not what we think we are, or what we think we should be, but actually what is.”
“What we are trying in these discussions and talks here is to see if we cannot radically bring about a transformation of the mind. Not accept things as they are.”
“To understand is to transform what is.”
More information about Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti Founda.tion of America
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Transcript
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Greetings from cyberdelic space.
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This is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the psychedelic salon.
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This is Lorenzo, and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic Salon.
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And today, I’d like to thank Samuel H., Val S., David M., and Lee M., all of whom sent in very generous donations to help pay some of the expenses associated with producing these podcasts.
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And I really can’t thank you and all of our previous donors enough for keeping these podcasts going.
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So Samuel, Val, David, and Lee, hey, thanks a million, you guys.
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I really appreciate your support.
00:00:55 ►
So, like many people in the world, I watched Barack Obama take over as president earlier this week.
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Having lived through the days of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s,
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the event took on an added joyous dimension for me,
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over and above the fact that eight years of the Bush crime family running things is at long last over.
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But there were some things about the scale of the event and some of the themes that bothered
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me. One in particular was the call for hope and faith. Hope and faith in the system, or what has
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become known as the American way of life. In a word, consumerism. And that brought to mind some
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things I once heard a seer named Krishnamurti say, and so I began to search for the talk that I’d heard it in.
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I couldn’t find the tape I was looking for,
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but instead I came across a whole bunch of short YouTube videos of his talks,
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so I decided to string together a few of my favorites
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in an attempt to give us all something to think about
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as we look ahead to whatever it is that’s coming our way.
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Now, without the video to set the scene, you’ll have to make a few quick jumps
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as you listen to him speak, first in a lecture hall and then to an outdoor setting
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where he is answering written questions from a crowd,
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and on to other kinds of interactive sessions as well.
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In the program notes, I’ll provide links to the full
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YouTube videos that these came from, but what I discovered by stripping out the sound is that I
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was better able to focus on his thoughts when I listened rather than when I listened and watched
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the videos and sometimes got distracted by scans of the crowd and other scenes. Now you can listen to a few of his words of wisdom without those distractions,
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and then take a look at the video format later if you want.
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And by the way, this is only a very tiny smattering of all the hours of Krishnamurti videos that you can find online.
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So let’s begin now with an introduction of Krishnamurti from a video titled,
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You Are the World.
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I believe this was actually done by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America in 2002.
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But to be honest, the announcer you’re about to hear is so dramatic that I think he sounds more like something from a 1940s theater newsreel or something.
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Of course, I also think that adds a lot of charm to the introduction.
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And so I thought it would be more fun just to hear these facts from someone other than me.
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So now let’s begin our little odyssey through the mind of Krishnamurti.
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Throughout history, rare individuals have broken with tradition.
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Socrates, Einstein, Martin Luther,
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the great revolutionary Jesus Christ,
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Freud, the Buddha.
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They had the courage and insight
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to see themselves and the world around them
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in a completely new way.
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And what they saw changed the world forever.
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As Einstein was to Newton, so he was to spirituality.
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For most of the 20th century,
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millions of people from all over the world were drawn to his vision.
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The Dalai Lama, Aldous Huxley, Eric Clapton, Kahil Gibran, Hurricane Carter, Greta Garbo, Deepak Chopra, Van Morrison, Helen Keller, Charlie Chaplin, Jonas Salk, George Bernard Shaw.
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Mothers, students, farm workers, poets, scientists and heads of state.
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He spoke to each of them directly of the most fundamental issues facing humanity.
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What we are trying in all these discussions and talks here
00:05:00 ►
is to see if we cannot radically bring about a transformation of the mind.
00:05:09 ►
Not accept things as they are.
00:05:12 ►
Nor revolt against it.
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Revolt doesn’t answer a thing.
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But to understand it, to go into it, to examine it. Give your heart and your mind with everything that you have to find out
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a way of living differently.
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The speaker is Krishnamurti.
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He is a man who cannot be placed in a simple category
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like philosopher or religious leader.
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He is, however, one of the more challenging
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and creative men of our time.
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Born in South India and educated in England, he has followed a singular and original path
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of thought free of factionalism and dogma.
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We’ve got the capacity, the energy, the sufficient intelligence to go into ourselves, look at ourselves, face ourselves, never escaping from us.
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We’ve got all the energy to do that.
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Think what energy is needed to go to the moon. You understand, sir? Enormous cooperative energy, driving.
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But apparently when it comes to us,
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it kind of becomes slack.
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Nobody is going to give it to you.
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That’s one absolute fact, irrefutable fact,
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because we have had leaders, we have had teachers,
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we have had saviours, we have had every kind of outside agency.
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And the misfortune is, because we don’t know ourselves, we are destroying other human beings.
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We are destroying this marvelous earth.
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of living without conflict, of freedom, compassion, education, violence, meditation, fear, love and loneliness, on relationship, living and dying. Translated in 33 languages, his 75
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books challenge humanity to discover a new way of living.
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challenge humanity to discover a new way of living?
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Where there is love, do what you will.
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It will be right action.
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It will never bring conflict in one’s life.
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So it’s important to see that jealousy, antagonism, conflict and all the pain of relationship
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has no place in love, where there is love.
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And can one be free of all that?
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Not tomorrow, now.
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Remember, the five question is, who are you?
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Is that an important question?
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Or would you say, who am I?
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Not who you are, who am I?
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And if I tell you who I am, what does it matter?
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It would be out of curiosity, wouldn’t it?
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It is like reading a menu at the window.
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You have to go into the restaurant and eat food.
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But merely standing outside and reading the menu
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won’t satisfy your hunger.
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So, to tell you who I am is really quite meaningless.
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First of all, I am nobody.
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Right? That is all.
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It is very simple as that. I am nobody.
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But what is important is who you are,
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what am I, What are you?
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When they ask who you are, in that question is implied, you are somebody very great, therefore
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I am going to imitate you – the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you brush
00:10:01 ►
your teeth or whatever it is. I am going to imitate you.
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Which is part of our pattern. You understand?
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There is the hero, or the man who is enlightened,
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or the guru, who says, I am going to copy everything you do.
00:10:19 ►
Which becomes so absurdly silly – you understand? –
00:10:23 ►
childish, to imitate somebody.
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And are we not the result of a lot of imitations?
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Right?
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The religions have said, they don’t use the word imitate – but give yourself over,
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surrender yourself, follow me, I am this, I am that, worship.
00:11:02 ►
Right? All this is what you are.
00:11:11 ►
In school you imitate.
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Please, acquiring knowledge is a form of imitation.
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And of course there is the fashion – short dress, long dress, long hair, short hair, beard, you know, imitate, imitate, imitate.
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And also we imitate inwardly, so we all know that.
00:11:41 ►
But to find out who you are – who you are, not who the speaker is, is far more important.
00:11:51 ►
And to find out who you are, you have to enquire. or the story of mankind,
00:12:10 ►
if you really see that,
00:12:17 ►
it gives you tremendous vitality, energy, beauty, love,
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because it is no longer a small entity
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struggling in the corner of the earth. You are part of this whole humanity.
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It has a tremendous responsibility, vitality, beauty, love.
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But most of us won’t see this, but we are most of us concerned with ourselves, with
00:12:48 ►
our particular little problem, particular little sorrow and so on.
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And to step out of that narrow circle seems almost impossible.
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Because we are so conditioned, so programmed, like the computers, that we cannot learn something new.
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The computer can, but we can’t.
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See the tragedy of it.
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The machine that we have created, the computer, can learn much faster, much infinitely more
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than I can, than the brain can.
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And the brain which has invented that, that has become an ultra-intelligent machine.
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Right?
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Whereas our brain is sluggish, slow, dull, because we have conformed, we have obeyed,
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we have followed, there is the guru, there is the priest, there is the ritual. You follow?
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And when you do revolt,
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as the revolutionaries and the terrorists do,
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it is still very superficial,
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changing the pattern of politics,
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of so-called society.
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Society is merely the relationship between people.
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And we are talking of a revolution, not physical,
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but the psychological revolution in which there is no,
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at the depth, conformity
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– we have put on trousers because we are in this country,
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and we have put on, in India, different clothes –
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that is not conformity, that is nothing childish,
00:15:01 ►
but inwardly, not a feeling of conformity.
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Conformity exists when there is comparison,
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for a mind to be totally free from comparison. That is, to observe the whole history which is embedded in you.
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You have heard all this, you as a human being.
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Why don’t you change?
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What prevents you?
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If each one of us asked that question, not verbally or merely intellectually as an entertainment,
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but asked that question more seriously and deeply, what’s your answer to this problem that human beings have lived this way for
00:16:10 ►
millennia upon millennia? Why haven’t they changed? Why haven’t you, who are listening
00:16:17 ►
now, why haven’t you changed? You know, if you don’t change, what the consequences are?
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You’ll be national, nationalistic, you’ll be tribal, insular, isolated,
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and therefore having no relationship globally, fighting, fighting, fighting,
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building up more and more armaments, destroy each other.
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Now why don’t you, if you are at all serious in this matter, why don’t you ask yourself
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that question?
00:16:53 ►
Why am I, a human being who has been through all this, why haven’t I changed?
00:17:01 ►
What would be your answer? Either you are not serious, you want to live a very, very superficial life, and that superficiality
00:17:13 ►
temporarily satisfies you, or you really don’t care.
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As long as you have immediate pleasures, immediate satisfactions, you really don’t care.
00:17:28 ►
You don’t care for your children if they are murdered.
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If you really have no deep love, affection for them, if you had, you would prevent all wars.
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So, apparently, none of these things mean anything to you.
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All probably, you are so deeply conditioned psychologically,
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of course we are biologically conditioned,
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that’s a different matter altogether,
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but psychologically conditioned.
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And one is not aware of it.
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And unless there is freedom from that conditioning,
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you will go on this way.
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After all, life is one.
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One global unitary movement.
00:18:39 ►
So, in the same way, our consciousness is common to all mankind.
00:18:49 ►
Now, if I radically change, surely it affects the rest of the consciousness of man.
00:19:00 ►
Now, why don’t you change?
00:19:12 ►
Is it possible to totally bring about a mutation in what is?
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And to bring, to go into that,
00:19:30 ►
to go into this question of bringing about a total revolution in what is, one must have an extraordinary sense of awareness.
00:19:37 ►
You know, to be aware of the trees, of the blue sky through the trees.
00:19:56 ►
We were saying how very important it is to bring about in the human mind a radical revolution.
00:20:11 ►
The crisis—and there are always crises in the world, especially now, it seems to me, is a crisis in consciousness, a particular way of life, whether it is the American way
00:20:50 ►
or the European way or the Asiatic way. what the world is now, with all the misery, conflict, destructive brutality, aggression,
00:21:13 ►
tremendous advancement in technology and so on. It seems to me, though man has cultivated the external world and has more or less mastered it,
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inwardly he is still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive.
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And he has built a society along these lines.
00:22:00 ►
What do you think is happening to the whole American people as a whole?
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With the automation, with electronic brains, you know what I mean?
00:22:13 ►
The whole setup.
00:22:16 ►
What is happening and where are they going?
00:22:17 ►
You understand what I mean?
00:22:23 ►
I think an increasing number of them are beginning to ask themselves the question to whether or not there may be
00:22:25 ►
alternative forms of human behavior because they… And what do they do?
00:22:31 ►
Because by then after asking questions and all the rest of it they’re
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almost finished. They’re ready for the grave. And in Europe the phenomena there
00:22:42 ►
is the same as here, more or less.
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The production is more perhaps than in America even.
00:22:49 ►
In Germany, of course. In Germany, of course.
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And Russia is now doing the same.
00:22:54 ►
So take all these parts, put them together,
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China, Japan, whole of Asia, India included,
00:23:04 ►
and then Europe, America, China, where is
00:23:08 ►
it all moving?
00:23:11 ►
What we are concerned with is the understanding of the whole process of life with all its complexity, with its aggressions and miseries,
00:23:26 ►
with its sorrows and confusions and agonies.
00:23:32 ►
And to understand this vast field of life which is at constant movement, One must not only hear the words but also go beyond the words, because words, the explanations,
00:23:53 ►
are not the facts.
00:23:57 ►
But most of us are caught in words, and one must be free of the word, the symbol, the idea, the conclusion.
00:24:10 ►
Then one can look, then one can listen.
00:24:15 ►
And that act of listening is really a miracle.
00:24:19 ►
Perhaps it’s the greatest miracle, when one can listen totally without any defence, without any barrier,
00:24:36 ►
neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
00:24:38 ►
Which doesn’t mean the mind is open.
00:24:41 ►
On the contrary, the mind is extraordinarily alert then. I hope when one
00:24:48 ►
is listening to this talk or to the various other talks that are coming, one hears a lot of words, and hearing many words is not listening.
00:25:14 ►
It’s like a noise among the leaves, soon passes away. When we hear, we either accept or reject, or we translate what we hear according to
00:25:35 ►
our knowledge, our background. Or we compare what is being said to what is already known.
00:25:52 ►
Or we oppose one idea by another. All these characteristics of hearing denies the act of listening.
00:26:12 ►
The act of listening is entirely different. There is no comparison, there is no acceptance or rejection.
00:26:30 ►
The quality of listening is attention.
00:26:37 ►
And when you attend totally with your whole mind, with your heart, with your nerves, with your eyes and ears completely,
00:26:49 ►
in that state of attention there is the act of listening.
00:26:58 ►
And that act of listening puts away anything that is not true, when you give your whole attention to something,
00:27:13 ►
that is, when you are completely listening, you listen to the totality of the thing.
00:27:25 ►
When you attend, there is no borders of inattention.
00:27:33 ►
When you so intensely listen, you are listening to the birds, to the wind, to the breeze among
00:27:44 ►
the leaves.
00:27:47 ►
You listen to the slightest whisper that’s about you. That very act of listening brings about a total attention in which you see the totality
00:28:16 ►
and the whole significance and structure of what is being said.
00:28:20 ►
When you say, I can’t, you have blocked yourself.
00:28:25 ►
But you can understand more and more of it.
00:28:28 ►
Not by blocking yourself.
00:28:32 ►
Look, sir, if I say there is no God, I’ve blocked myself, haven’t I?
00:28:41 ►
Or if I say there is God, I’ve blocked myself. But if I say I really don’t
00:28:47 ►
know, let’s find out. Then I have the energy to go into it. Right? Now, so don’t let’s take science about it.
00:29:05 ►
Now how would you see the totality of something, of life?
00:29:13 ►
You know, get a grasp of, feeling of it, a touch of it, a smell of it.
00:29:18 ►
Well, as I said, by trying to take more and more of it and understand more and more of
00:29:24 ►
it. Ah! and more of it.
00:29:25 ►
You have no time.
00:29:26 ►
I know. That’s the problem.
00:29:27 ►
That’s the problem, of course.
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That’s what I said.
00:29:30 ►
That’s what I said at the beginning.
00:29:33 ►
I mean, if I take time, time…
00:29:37 ►
It would be impossible.
00:29:38 ►
Follow it up, follow it up step by step.
00:29:41 ►
You have approached this problem with the habitual tools, and you have eliminated those
00:29:50 ►
tools.
00:29:53 ►
Not because you are prejudiced against them, but you see that they won’t answer.
00:30:00 ►
Now when you have eliminated them because they do not answer, your mind is sharper,
00:30:05 ►
isn’t it?
00:30:06 ►
If you are on the right track.
00:30:09 ►
Of course, you are eliminating them.
00:30:14 ►
Right?
00:30:15 ►
Of what significance is hope and faith to living?
00:30:25 ►
What significance is hope and faith to living?
00:30:31 ►
I hope you won’t think me harsh if I say there is no significance at all.
00:30:42 ►
We have had hope. we have had faith—faith in church, faith in politics, faith in leaders,
00:30:54 ►
faith in gurus, because we wanted to achieve a state of bliss, of happiness and so on.
00:31:05 ►
And hope has nourished this faith.
00:31:12 ►
And when one observes through history, through our life, all that hope and faith have no
00:31:18 ►
meaning at all, because what is important is what we are, actually what we are, not what we think we
00:31:27 ►
are or what we think we should be, but actually what is.
00:31:34 ►
If we know how to look at what is, that will bring about a tremendous transformation.
00:31:44 ►
We are the product of the society in which we live, the experience, the knowledge and
00:31:49 ►
all the rest of it.
00:31:51 ►
And there is nothing original.
00:31:58 ►
We repeat, inquiry, meditation.
00:32:14 ►
You don’t just get it by just coming to a meeting for an hour and thinking will be…
00:32:22 ►
One has to work tremendously hard.
00:32:27 ►
You do work very hard to earn a livelihood, to go to office every day, but this requires
00:32:35 ►
much more alertness, much more careful examination.
00:32:42 ►
And one is not… one doesn’t have the energy, the patience or the interest, because this
00:32:49 ►
is non-profitable.
00:32:51 ►
It doesn’t bring you any profit, financial or any other way.
00:32:55 ►
Here is the question.
00:32:59 ►
I suffer, physically, psychologically, and I can do something physically.
00:33:10 ►
Psychologically I don’t know what to do, will tell me what to do.
00:33:29 ►
Or I put up with it getting more and more and more bitter, dull, stupid, full of animosity
00:33:37 ►
and all the rest of it. Without doing any of those things, can one look at that thing, neither enjoying it nor
00:33:56 ►
pushing it away? Which means can I look at it without any demand to overcome it, to justify it, to control
00:34:11 ►
it, just to observe it?
00:34:13 ►
How is it possible to do what you say in a few seconds? How is it possible to do what you say in a few seconds?
00:34:25 ►
How is it possible to do what I say for…?
00:34:27 ►
I said it would seem that I would have to start by doing it for a few seconds.
00:34:32 ►
Do it.
00:34:33 ►
Do it.
00:34:34 ►
Do it.
00:34:35 ►
For a second, do it.
00:34:36 ►
Now. You know, as I said the other day, the word how is the most mischievous word, because
00:34:59 ►
somebody wants somebody else to tell you how to do it.
00:35:13 ►
So we suffer, not willing to suffer, there is suffering, and we are asking, can you look
00:35:22 ►
at it and remain with it, be quiet with it, neither
00:35:30 ►
accepting nor rejecting, just be quiet with it. Please, doesn’t this require great meditation?
00:35:58 ►
No, please, do it.
00:36:13 ►
If one does it, you will find that you derive from that very observation a great energy, don’t you?
00:36:16 ►
You are not dissipating any energy. It is there.
00:36:21 ►
When the question such as, what am I to do with myself,
00:36:23 ►
however the question may be framed,
00:36:28 ►
there is always someone there,
00:36:31 ►
whether it’s the advertising man on television or the Zen master
00:36:35 ►
to give him a set of answers
00:36:38 ►
and somebody follows him and nothing happens.
00:36:42 ►
Because there is nothing in this culture
00:36:43 ►
that we’re talking about that would
00:36:46 ►
prompts people to listen, really to come into relation to themselves in a tough
00:36:54 ►
minded way. This is young nation, you follow what I mean? A mixture of extraordinary, you know,
00:37:02 ►
thoughts, feelings and cultures. I should have thought
00:37:05 ►
they would produce something extraordinary, you know?
00:37:07 ►
Well, we don’t know quite what will happen when this nation is taken up to an external
00:37:13 ►
crisis. They never have.
00:37:16 ►
Would you say she has reached, immaturely, forced by circumstances, a pinnacle of maturity, and now declining.
00:37:27 ►
This I would say, yes.
00:37:30 ►
You would say that.
00:37:31 ►
When you have really faced with a problem of war, of famine, of death, of poverty and so on,
00:37:42 ►
you can’t argumentatively discuss about them.
00:37:48 ►
One has to deal with them, one has to put one’s teeth into them.
00:37:53 ►
And you cannot artificially, intellectually have teeth to put into problems that are vital.
00:38:03 ►
to put into problems that are right. So I hope when we ask questions and go into those questions,
00:38:10 ►
I hope they will not be merely intellectual or curious,
00:38:16 ►
but serious enough to investigate for ourselves what lies behind these questions and their import.
00:38:35 ►
What is the problem? Hunger. Hunger, lack of clothes, shelter, all that.
00:38:47 ►
Now, how is it going to be solved?
00:38:49 ►
Not by a particular nation.
00:38:55 ►
As you and I can’t solve the… if we went in the abug couldn’t solve it, no sovereign
00:39:01 ►
government is going to solve this. No Indian government is going to solve this.
00:39:05 ►
No Indian government is going to solve it.
00:39:07 ►
They can pretend, and they do.
00:39:12 ►
So what is preventing the solution of this problem is nationalism.
00:39:21 ►
My flag, your flag, my country, your country.
00:39:25 ►
And the division that takes place geographically,
00:39:30 ►
which is exploited by the politician.
00:39:34 ►
That is the factor, one of the major factors,
00:39:37 ►
of preventing the solution of starvation, of feeding the people.
00:39:42 ►
Now science has means of giving food, clothes
00:39:48 ►
and shelter practically to everybody. It’s not being done because of you are a
00:39:54 ►
British, I’m an Indian or Russian. So it’s a world problem not individual or
00:40:01 ►
nationalistic problem. Right. Well, how do you…
00:40:05 ►
how do you suppose that one be a loner from these nationalistic barriers?
00:40:10 ►
First, one has to be free of it oneself.
00:40:15 ►
Well, I don’t see how I can be…
00:40:16 ►
Wait, wait, wait.
00:40:18 ►
One has to be free of it oneself,
00:40:20 ►
neither American nor Indian nor…
00:40:22 ►
Then get up and talk, shout, do anything,
00:40:27 ►
not for the little things, but for the major issues.
00:40:32 ►
Then perhaps you will sow some seed that will take root.
00:40:38 ►
Now, if every human being, educated, cultured, who is really serious serious wants to solve this problem he
00:40:46 ►
will do something like war we have accepted war is the way of life all man
00:40:57 ►
has throughout centuries and to stop war one is concerned with the whole process of living as a human being,
00:41:11 ►
then perhaps we’ll be able to solve this question of war.
00:41:16 ►
Potentially, the society has solved the problem of food, clothing and shelter.
00:41:26 ►
Once you’ve solved those problems, what do you have to look for?
00:41:30 ►
What else?
00:41:33 ►
I don’t quite understand what else.
00:41:37 ►
You mean, what is beyond these three?
00:41:41 ►
Yes.
00:41:45 ►
Sir, what is man seeking basically? He basically is seeking these three because
00:41:54 ►
these are absolute necessities whether California, India, Russia, anywhere. So
00:41:59 ►
beyond that he says after satisfying, let’s seek something else.
00:42:07 ►
Let’s go after something else.
00:42:10 ►
Is that the way to begin?
00:42:19 ►
Is it bread first and then the other, or the other first and bread afterwards?
00:42:21 ►
I don’t know if you… I follow you, I believe.
00:42:22 ►
Yes, so, in getting bread, we get lost.
00:42:31 ►
We get superficial.
00:42:32 ►
We get caught in the trap of amusement and religiosity and all that.
00:42:40 ►
But if we were seeking, not seeking so much,
00:42:44 ►
if we were after something more than bread
00:42:46 ►
and butter, in the more included the bread and butter, then I think this problem would
00:42:52 ►
never arise.
00:42:56 ►
What we are trying, in all these discussions and talks here, is to see if we cannot radically bring about a transformation of the mind, not accept
00:43:09 ►
things as they are, nor revolt against them.
00:43:15 ►
Revolt doesn’t answer a thing, but to understand it, to go into it, to examine it, give your
00:43:23 ►
heart and your mind with everything
00:43:25 ►
that you have to find out a way of living differently.
00:43:34 ►
But that depends on you and not somebody else.
00:43:42 ►
Because in this there is no teacher, no pupil, there is no leader, there is no guru, there
00:43:50 ►
is no master, no saviour.
00:43:53 ►
You yourself are the teacher and the pupil, you are the master, you are the guru, you
00:43:57 ►
are the leader, you are everything. And to understand is to transform what is.
00:44:19 ►
Please explain what you mean by saying that if one perceives truth and does not act, it acts as poison.
00:44:31 ►
Do you need explanation for that?
00:44:38 ►
All right.
00:44:43 ►
I have heard the truth that thought is limited.
00:44:49 ►
That’s the truth.
00:44:50 ►
That’s not an invention, that’s not an exotic idea, something conceived by some idiot or
00:44:59 ►
other.
00:45:00 ►
It is a fact, and I listen to the fact, the truth of it, and I carry on my daily life.
00:45:18 ►
What takes place? I realise something to be true and I’m acting quite the opposite to that.
00:45:31 ►
What happens?
00:45:35 ►
Conflict increases more and more and more.
00:45:38 ►
It’s much better not to hear the truth. Then you can carry on in your old ways.
00:45:49 ►
But the moment you hear something to be extraordinarily beautiful, and you don’t… and that beauty just a mere description of… but the actuality of that beauty.
00:46:10 ►
Then you do something ugly and keep on repeating doing the thing ugly, it’s obviously a poison.
00:46:18 ►
It not only affects you physically, inwardly, and also it affects a great deal
00:46:28 ►
the brain that has heard something to be true and does the contrary.
00:46:39 ►
Therefore it is much better not to hear,
00:46:43 ►
if you want to carry on your old way.
00:46:46 ►
There is a very good story of four robbers, not two robbers, there are many, and they And they have been robbing and their father has been praising God for his kindness, for
00:47:09 ►
their benefit.
00:47:10 ►
You understand?
00:47:11 ►
Thieves are also gods, not the only rich people.
00:47:21 ►
So one day they have been robbing somebody or other and are coming back.
00:47:27 ►
In the patio, in the square, palazzo, piazza, there is a man giving a sermon.
00:47:39 ►
And he is saying, you must never steal.
00:47:44 ►
You must never hurt another, be kind.
00:47:49 ►
The other brother closes his eye, ears, doesn’t want to hear, and the other brother hears
00:47:56 ►
it, and for the rest of his life he is in pain.
00:48:07 ►
I think this is a fact, really a great fact, we don’t seem to realise it, that when you
00:48:16 ►
see something enormously beautiful, you see, you are sensitive enough to see that beauty, and you do something ugly, it really
00:48:34 ►
tortures you if you are sensitive.
00:48:41 ►
And that’s why truth is such a dangerous thing.
00:48:53 ►
You’re listening to The Psychedelic Salon,
00:48:55 ►
where people are changing their lives one thought at a time.
00:49:01 ►
About a third of the way into this series of sound bites, he said,
00:49:06 ►
We are psychologically conditioned to continue on with the status quo, and one is not aware of it.
00:49:14 ►
Unless there is freedom from this conditioning, you’ll go on this way.
00:49:18 ►
Well, that’s precisely why I’m doing these podcasts.
00:49:22 ►
While I’m not advocating that anyone do anything that might get them in trouble with the powers that be,
00:49:28 ►
nonetheless, I want to make sure that no mistake is made about the fact that, by far,
00:49:33 ►
the best way to break the bonds of psychological conditioning that our families, our nation, our culture,
00:49:39 ►
our friends, and our religions have forged on our minds,
00:49:43 ►
is to first learn how to use our sacred medicines in a positive and respectful manner.
00:49:49 ►
And one of the ways in which they can be used as a way to help focus your mind on larger issues
00:49:55 ►
than what normally takes place with the constant chatter we all have going on in our heads most of the time.
00:50:02 ►
Now, only the most dedicated psychonauts do things like this,
00:50:06 ►
but one interesting exercise is when you’re coming down from a heroic mushroom trip,
00:50:12 ►
but not yet all the way back to baseline,
00:50:14 ►
try listening to 15 or 20 minutes of Krishnamurti,
00:50:18 ►
and then put on some challenging music,
00:50:21 ►
like something from Spongle or Infected Mushroom,
00:50:24 ►
and see where that leads you.
00:50:26 ►
Then repeat the experience, but this time play something more mellow like
00:50:29 ►
Kitaro. I can’t guarantee that doing that will put you in the fast lane on the road to awakening,
00:50:36 ►
but at the very least it’s going to help you get up on that highway’s feeder streets.
00:50:42 ►
And speaking of psychedelic fun and games, I recently hooked up with Satsanina,
00:50:47 ►
who are a young couple from Croatia, and they sent me some links to some of the psychedelic
00:50:53 ►
events that are going on in that lovely country, and I was completely blown away. You know,
00:50:59 ►
sometimes us California freaks get to thinking that the best scene in the world is out here,
00:51:04 ►
Sometimes us California freaks get to thinking that the best scene in the world is out here.
00:51:12 ►
But from what I now know about Croatia, I see that there really isn’t a best place to be right now, physically at least.
00:51:16 ►
The best place to be is to be in a good spot in your own head.
00:51:21 ►
And the heads in Croatia look to me to be in a very good place indeed. So party on, dudes and dudesses.
00:51:25 ►
Another message I received this week
00:51:27 ►
came from Jake L., who said,
00:51:30 ►
Hey Lorenzo, I’m a two-year listener
00:51:32 ►
and just want to say first of all,
00:51:33 ►
thank you for the salon.
00:51:35 ►
But not only that,
00:51:36 ►
thank you for your recommendations
00:51:38 ►
on other podcasts.
00:51:39 ►
I just recently listened to
00:51:41 ►
The Black Light in the Attic,
00:51:42 ►
and wow, great stuff.
00:51:44 ►
Really enjoyed it.
00:51:46 ►
So thank you again.
00:51:47 ►
I was also wondering if you might happen to be a fan of Hunter S. Thompson,
00:51:51 ►
and if you knew of any series of recorded lectures,
00:51:53 ►
and if you might be interested in podcasting some of Hunter’s talks.
00:51:57 ►
I have some stuff, and I’ll be searching for more.
00:51:59 ►
Let me know if you’d like to get a listen or something, and I could send it to you if you’d like.
00:52:03 ►
Let me know if you’d like to get a listen or something, and I could send it to you if you’d like.
00:52:10 ►
Well, Jake, you hit one of my hot buttons, because I’m a huge fan of Hunter S. Thompson.
00:52:15 ►
Although, I must admit that he was one of those people who I like to read,
00:52:17 ►
but probably wouldn’t want to hang around with.
00:52:20 ►
Too much alcohol in his diet for my taste.
00:52:35 ►
But his writing I found superb, and if you’ve never read any of his works, I suggest starting with the title story from his collection of short stories, The Great Shark Hunt, Strange Tales from a Strange Time.
00:52:39 ►
And if that one doesn’t make you laugh out loud, you might as well move on. So my answer is yes, I’d love to preview some of Dr. Thompson’s work as long as it is either in the public domain or in some kind of a copyright gray area where I can use it.
00:52:51 ►
But I’ve never actually listened to any of his talks,
00:52:53 ►
so I can’t say for sure if they’d fit here in the salon,
00:52:56 ►
but I’d sure like to hear some Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Jr. for myself.
00:53:01 ►
So thanks for thinking of us.
00:53:03 ►
And I also want to thank all of our
00:53:06 ►
fellow salonners who have linked to
00:53:08 ►
our notes from the Psychedelic Salon
00:53:09 ►
website. Whether it’s through
00:53:12 ►
a direct link or trackback,
00:53:14 ►
all of those connections help us get a
00:53:16 ►
higher Google ranking,
00:53:17 ►
and as a result, bring more of our
00:53:20 ►
fellow psychonauts to the salon.
00:53:22 ►
In particular, I see that
00:53:24 ►
dailygrail.com and
00:53:26 ►
beyondthedial.wordpress.com
00:53:28 ►
have linked to
00:53:30 ►
the majority of our podcasts.
00:53:32 ►
And so to all of you
00:53:34 ►
who are linking to us,
00:53:35 ►
whether it’s through Facebook or MySpace
00:53:38 ►
or your own sites,
00:53:39 ►
I want to thank you for your help in
00:53:41 ►
getting the word out to the rest of the world that
00:53:44 ►
the psychedelic community is alive and well and isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
00:53:50 ►
Now, in a minute, I’m going to close with a quote that I find to be
00:53:54 ►
one of the most psychedelic thoughts I’ve come across in a long time.
00:53:58 ►
But first, I feel that I would be remiss if I didn’t say at least a few more words
00:54:03 ►
about the recent change of administration in the U.S.
00:54:07 ►
If you’ve been with us here in the salon for a while, you already know that I became disenchanted
00:54:12 ►
with young Mr. Obama last July when he turned his back on his early supporters and caved
00:54:17 ►
into the intelligence community by supporting more domestic spying under the FISA law.
00:54:23 ►
And that was only the first of my big disappointments in him.
00:54:26 ►
But hey, that poor guy has the entire world’s expectations on his shoulders.
00:54:31 ►
You know, there’s just simply no way he can live up to our expectations.
00:54:35 ►
And so I have to keep in mind the fact that at least the evil Bush crime family is no longer in the White House,
00:54:41 ►
although their dirty tentacles are still deep into the fabric of the nation
00:54:46 ►
and probably won’t be pried loose any time soon.
00:54:50 ►
In a way, the letdown the day after the change of power
00:54:53 ►
caused me to feel sort of like a new college grad,
00:54:57 ►
you know, standing on the corner the day after graduation
00:54:59 ►
and wondering, what next?
00:55:02 ►
But now I’ve had a couple of days to think about all that has taken place these past few years
00:55:07 ►
and then again in the past few days.
00:55:10 ►
I know that as I watched what actually looked more like a coronation
00:55:14 ►
or an installation of a major religious figure
00:55:17 ►
than an inauguration of a democratically elected president,
00:55:21 ►
but when the million-plus throng of people began chanting the new President’s
00:55:26 ►
name over and over, the first thing I thought about was Terence McKenna’s comment in last
00:55:31 ►
week’s podcast, where he said he always got a little nervous when there were large crowds
00:55:35 ►
chanting political slogans.
00:55:38 ►
But hey, in a sense, the celebration was every bit as much about getting rid of little Georgie
00:55:44 ►
Boy as it was about Obama.
00:55:46 ►
And while the significance of a black man running the nation state shouldn’t be underestimated,
00:55:52 ►
I think it’s equally important to recognize that even if his father had been white,
00:55:56 ►
his accomplishment would be staggering.
00:55:59 ►
So I think we should equally honor the fact that he was raised by,
00:56:03 ►
raised largely at least, by a single working mother.
00:56:06 ►
To me, that’s also an impressive story.
00:56:10 ►
But let’s not kid ourselves.
00:56:12 ►
The U.S. is still a very racially divided and prejudiced nation.
00:56:16 ►
And so the rise to the top of the political structure by a man of African descent is astounding.
00:56:22 ►
man of African descent, is astounding.
00:56:25 ►
While I have many major differences with the new president,
00:56:30 ►
they all pale when compared to the positive effect his presidency is going to have on countless, countless people of color around the world.
00:56:35 ►
This was brought home to me most effectively yesterday while I was out on my morning walk.
00:56:41 ►
As I was heading home, I met a young woman who was pushing a baby stroller.
00:56:47 ►
In the stroller was a young girl, probably around five years old, and she was definitely too big for
00:56:52 ►
the small vehicle she was being pushed in. And so this little black girl was halfway curled up in a
00:56:59 ►
fetal-like position, and she was sucking her thumb. The little girl and I made eye contact and I have to admit that tears are coming back to my eyes again right now
00:57:10 ►
as I think of the look she gave me.
00:57:12 ►
It was a look of immense sadness and despair
00:57:16 ►
and it really tore my heart out.
00:57:19 ►
Now maybe she was just having a bad day.
00:57:21 ►
I don’t know.
00:57:22 ►
What I haven’t mentioned is that this little
00:57:25 ►
black girl was being pushed by a blonde Caucasian woman who appeared to be in her early 30s
00:57:30 ►
and was quite busily talking on the cell phone. Now, I don’t know if this was the little girl’s
00:57:35 ►
mother or caregiver, but in any case, the little girl she was taking for a walk sure
00:57:40 ►
looked like she was having a less than optimal life, at least at that moment.
00:57:46 ►
However, in the same instant that the little girl and I looked into each other’s eyes,
00:57:51 ►
a picture of the two Obama girls came to me. And in an instant, in a flash, I fully understood
00:57:57 ►
the import of what took place in Washington on the 20th of January this year. And I somehow
00:58:03 ►
feel that no matter how difficult the struggle
00:58:06 ►
that little girl in the stroller will have in this life,
00:58:09 ►
at least she’s going to be able to see those two little Obama girls,
00:58:13 ►
her age and her skin color, living in the White House,
00:58:17 ►
being part of the first family of the land.
00:58:19 ►
And while that isn’t going to solve her problems in life,
00:58:23 ►
it most certainly should give her reason to believe that
00:58:26 ►
she doesn’t need to just hope for things to get better.
00:58:29 ►
She can actually cause things to improve for herself.
00:58:32 ►
Because now, one of the biggest walls in the world has just come down.
00:58:38 ►
And for that alone, I will remain eternally grateful for
00:58:42 ►
being alive to witness this particular moment in history.
00:58:46 ►
Now let’s get to work tearing down the rest of the artificial walls that separate our human family.
00:58:53 ►
I’m going to close for now, but before I go, I want to read a quote by the philosopher Alan Watts,
00:59:00 ►
who is also an acid head, I might add.
00:59:03 ►
And it may not leave much of an impression on some of our fellow salonners,
00:59:08 ►
but if you spend a little time thinking about the implications of this one short sentence,
00:59:14 ►
you might find it to be the most psychedelic thought you’ve ever encountered.
00:59:18 ►
Here’s what he said.
00:59:20 ►
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions,
00:59:27 ►
that they exist in the present,
00:59:29 ►
which is what there is and all there is.
00:59:34 ►
And for now, this is Lorenzo signing off from the eternal present of cyberdelic space.
00:59:41 ►
Be well well my friends