Repentance, Rebellion, Resignation, Reincarnation

“….now I have been discussing four fundamental attitudes that are found in the various religions of the world towards the human predicament and as you see still on the blackboard they are given to be four hours instead of the three hours repentance opposite rebellion and resignation opposite reincarnation — the latter word being used in a special sense not in the ordinary sense of ‘rebirth’ but of an affirmation of the humanistic iment of getting with Life —

And this morning I discussed the attitude of repentance — The frame of mind in which it is felt that there is something profoundly wrong about being a self-conscious isolated individual Human Being and I try to show that when this attitude is carried to an extreme point, it results in your discovering that you are a total phony.

And I said that the difficulty of The Repentance Attitude is that people don't carry it through — with each screen part and they use the attitude of repentance and the indulgence in punishment for whatever they think is wrong about themselves as a kind of lifestyle — which assures you that You're in The Right.

they carve you her and because you insist that you're wrong sometimes suggested that this statement I am a sinner is logically equivalent to the statement quote this statement is false unquote because you see if that is a true statement it's a false statement and if it's a false statement at the true state and go on forever and to say I am a sinner is really the same thing because it implies that the statement itself since it is the statement on earth inner is the sinful statement and it could attract called a double by and so I thought often quitted my clergy friends about this and to their great amusement because the clergy are as bad as you might think least that many of them they have trouble in making it with their congregations and they clicked that their congregations will want the good old religion our wallowing in sin because come many congregations I found out love to be scolded and if you make everybody feel temporarily guilty but also make each individual feel assured that everybody else was more guilty than years this is an extremely much sought after emotional experience but the point that I was making was that if you pursue this idea of being sinful of being phony of being insincere to its ultimate point where you discover that all you do and all you are is a big act then this raises the question of what is reality what lies behind phone and so then and there you have an initiating experience because it leads in the discovery the fuel Connie shot called tatsumaki that about that the real you is not the isolated conscious ego that is only again being played all over the place by what there is not there and what there is is coextensive with the whole cosmos and is the imperishable reality and everyone is that but the game since era we started on the premise that existence is a game the game is hide-and-seek the gain is pretending that is not So we then move on you see to another possible response, not repentance, but that of resignation "I quit The Game, I won't play it." There are all sorts of ways of doing this but basically this is an aristocratic posture, "You ordinary mortals with all your Desires, and all your Involvements are deluded - You Get attached to Things. But there are a certain minority of Us, Who are above it all. And since We've resigned We're not going to follow This now. " This as I say is an artistocratic, [be aware] that it may be aristocratic in two ways There's the aristocracy of the Hindu Sannyasi the people outside and above caste and there's also the aristocracy of the actual aristocrat - I get so mixed up with my British and American pronunciation on this - but The Aristocrat who comes on with the position of always being bored, who has complete hogwash who is imperturbable Kaiser Ling's study of this mentality is marvelous in his book of Europe the essay on Hungary portrays the rightly he calls the grand signeur. He always identified himself as a type disrobe the grand familia cannot be saved, who could always be always rise to the occasion under any social circumstances whatsoever, without trying to do so or without apparently trying to do so. In other words if he goes to the Opera wearing blue jeans he will somehow make it apparent that everybody else is improperly dressed. This is a very interesting type of person you know there was an essay written by someone whose name I can't remember in the Centennial Review which contrasted the Attitude to Time of the aristocracy the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; It said The Aristocrat lives in The Past because his ancient forbears have achieved everything and his very by the fact of his birth in his existence he has nothing to strive for and he somehow I never need overdo it - he's always cool. The Bourgeois on the other hand feels that it's necessary to arrive and he's always striving for The Future Whereas the aristocrat lives in the past, on the other hand, the proletarian lives in the present because he doesn't care about his reputation and he just lives, and so of the two the bourgeois of the three the bourgeois is the sucker because the formula is always cheated because well it's going to come someday see you're going to get it even your money when you pull it out of your pocket, there says on it "Promise to Pay" - watch out for that! It's poverty and the bourgeoisie use the news on from the whole the whole economy is the United States being the great bourgeois country is in a state of expectancy of feeling happy, not on what you have but on what is going to come The Aristocrat is happy on what has happened, these great achievements of the past mean there's nothing left to do except sort of glory in it. The Proletarian wants it right now, see and they often get it; About the poor bourgeois, my uncle once said The Poor have it given them The Rich have it anyway so The Middle Classes do without So both the aristocrats and the sannyasi have resigned. Now, the more interesting of the two types is Acosta Sonia who resigns from The World Game, let me review for you the role of the sannyasin in Indian culture you know there are four castes because the priests or Brahmins the caste of warriors and rulers called Kshatriya the caste of merchants called Vasia and the caste of workers called Shudra And to belong to a caste means that you are in the state called grihastha, which is householder that is to say you are One Who is Involved in The World, you are engaged in what is called loca Sandra and loca means The Well, Sandra, upholding, upholding the going on of The Great Illusion and so you are playing for money for position for status, for success and hoping above all that you could win - You can beat The Game. But it's supposed in the same culture that every man who attains the age of or so, who has now a grown son to take over his work, will quit the game, will resign and so, when you come to be at age you're supposed to move from the state of grihastha, householder to vanaprastha which means forest dweller. You give away all your possessions to your son, you change your name, you take off your clothes and go more or less naked, because you have abandoned status. So in spite of the fact that he has no status, he is however respected in the culture for being an upper outcast, whereas the Aborigines of the Indian Peninsula are Untouchables the lower outcast and the upper outcast always mimics the lower for example Buddha had his disciple wear ochre robes because ochre robes were worn by convicts. So in the same way if today, in San Quentin, they all wear blue jeans with special kind pants and a kind of a blue denim jacket and this could well become the uniform of a new kind of sannyasi in the Western world and to some extent this is happening. So this guy says "The Game is not worth the cap, the richer I get the more miserable I get" You know how this is, you think that your problems may be monitored and you get more money. What do you do then we've got enough money, you start worrying about your health and you can never never stop worrying about that Or if you're not worried about your health you worry about politics, if somebody's going to take your money away from you, worried about taxes, about Who's Cheating You. And so a person who goes through all that he's finally "I don't think The Game's worth it, I'm going to resign." And so resignation or renunciation the difference from repentance it hasn't it hasn't got the same kind of passion in the resolve that the repentant person feels he's wrong who made a mistake has committed sin and wants to get better about the renounce first didn't concerns of that country he knows that better progress whether moral or material is an illusion and you have to understand this when you approach for example the study of Buddhism I think one of the most withering remarks I ever heard, from an oriental, he was Japanese he said once he was "Never forget that whereas Jesus was the Son of a Carpenter, Buddha was the son of a King" You know Wow! Take that! And it's choose it is something always about about that this is not the this is ead to see which Christianity historically was the protest of the slave class again if the Roman, establishment Buddhism was different it was the abandonment of position by an aristocracy - That We've done it We've seen it all we've had it so now we check out and we will be therefore we will resign from all games and if you follow this attitude to an extreme you're going to make because it all goes to the center the same discovery that is made by the person who follows repentance to an extreme. Just as The Repentant person discovers that his contrition is phony the person who tries to resign will discover that he can't, that there is no way of not playing games Let's go a little bit then into this Game Theory there are a lot of games that we play and not only the game of Can I get One Up on The Universe, of Pretending That I'm me This Ego, With Its Name and Its Role, The Man, but also we have what I call meta-games, for example the game My Games Better Than Your Game, or the game "I Won't Play With You Because Your Game is Vulgar, Stupid, Banal, Inferior or Whatever." One of the most, therefore, effective games in saying My Game is Better Than Your Game is that I'm Not Playing Games At All You are now at the lowest level we find that in the form of You're Not Sincere, I am sincere You are Fooling, I'm not Fooling You and Being Honest with You Now, that's a great game and of resignation is a form of it as to say you are children claim with toys and you haven't ever really woken up to the important concerns of life you haven't reached the dimension of ultimate sincerity all, that is to say Ultimate Reality, and in order to reach it you have to resign from distractions You hear a great deal in the literature about meditation of getting rid of distractions wandering for well I you might ask when you think about all that what are wandering for what are wrong for what shouldn't I be doing with my mind, well they all say actually every day you think about this and then you think about that in your thoughts run on in an undisciplined way from one association to another and you can't keep your mind fully on the job or whatever so you see, you're supposed to announce that because that's True Reality all those wandering thoughts they're not about the importance now what's important what should you keep your mind on well, something just as long as you keep your mind on. In an instruction one of the Buddhist scriptures says about concentration, when they concentrate on a yellow square on the ground, on the burning tip of an incense stick, on your navel, on the tip of your nose on the, center between the eyes, or anything. And then the footnote the commentator adds "But not on any wicked thing." As you know that commentators the world over, they never have any [sense of humour]. So anything will do just so long as you keep your mind on it, and don't wander, stick to it, so wandering is involvement in games, by this kind of definition, so then you try to get out can you now get out can you stop competing with other human beings In ancient Greek society there was a place in the center of the community called the argon AG om and this was a place for contests where they had wrestling matches and other athletic events because all the men were constantly trying to show who was the better and from this were the agonyax which means these the contest itself held in the argon we get our word agony, the struggle and striving to be superior and a lot of people that you meet among you, you will recognize this among your friends all the time are not happy unless they are involved in the contest it doesn't matter what it is, so long as they're trying to beat something they're happy And you may say over everything "You know can't we just sit around and talk instead of having to play a game, or bet or do something to prove who's the stronger...?" I was married to a girl who never was happy unless she was engaged in some kind of combat, when of course I had a game, it didn't look like one, and so it was a very superior game just because it didn't look like one, but it was a form of the game, my games that renews so you can't really not-play, you may go through the motions of not playing, but you still are. And one of the most marvelous examples of this is the Buddhist Sangha The Sangha means the order of Buddhist monks, or - monks isn't quite the right word because the basis of Buddhist monk-hood is a little different than Christian but I don't want to go into that technicality here are these people living in say Burma, Cylon, Thailand and so on who go around in yellow robes and never announce The World, but of course they've become as a community very prosperous empower and everybody you know makes the patients a month and feeds them and they don't they don't feed just on the rice gruel important monks get called into the houses of wealthy layer it and get given a fine dinners because the layman feels he's acquiring merit by being so generous to the month and you should see the scene in Japan although today the monks have lost their power to a large extent you can see the traces of the power they want hat in the Kyodo the Buddhist orders then Tendai and they especially shinshu sect have the best part of town if you stay a night in a Zen monastery as a guest go into one of the rooms there you are not in any hobble during the palace you live differently from the way we are customed - but you're liable to get shown into a room where the walls are entirely covered in gold leaf and painted by the greatest masters of Japan will say sit down to sleep by a car no motor no blue screen and the landscape around you the garden the views are gorgeous beyond belief this is the life of residence now it's true I know most about then monks rather than the other orders Zen monks live a pretty rough life but it's extremely Tony it's healthy it's it's absolutely non masochistic they have studied the art of enjoying poverty now this is a terribly important thing in the understanding of Far Eastern culture when a man in Japan diseases sort of inherits an old fashioned tradition makes a killing in business he doesn't go around showing off how much he does it he goes around showing off how little he possess even though he may drive to his office in a Mercedes or a Rolls Royce his house is relatively barren and he chooses objects of art and painting that look are extremely simple and he will likely as not have a separate house from his main huge establishment where it's like a Hermitage I mean it's almost as absurd in its own way as Marie Antoinette playing shepherdess after reading losses and having a little cottage rustic cottage the grounds of Zarephath but it's not quite as absurd as that because even the main house has an austerity about and they learn you see to love that offset to then it has the feeling of great comfort now you see what happened is this that long ago the best part of Kyoto the hill that ring the north side and each of the cities being so beautiful were owned by a bunch of Britons who were later the noble daimyo Lords of Japan great Google pounds and these people were as tough as all get-out they were always fighting and so the Buddhist monk rule did and decided they would take this property away from the Daniels buy out competing by playing the game our game more interesting than your game so they said to all those ridges so what you've attained all these conquests you have your castles you have your great estate within what it all falls apart you know especially when the brigand is getting a little elderly and has stomach troubles and the dizziness and so on and this month comes along and furthermore the Munsters you can't scare me and the Griffin Show huh and he pulls out his sword much but now the point is he can't kill them up that then and there because if he does that he won't find out whether the month was scared or not and so the month look straight in the eye and nothing happens he doesn't flinch and the brigham has now in a contact think and he puts the sword quite right against his throat well the monk has it right there but you see how in a way easy the game was because the mount knows that he wins his point he W if the brigand killed him before the monk flinches he's obviously cheated now since there is honor among thieves the chances are although that will sometimes be a Brigid will feel put down by this contest that therefore killed among the chances are that he went but look what the monk stands to gain if he wins Brigid Wow would I like to have that courage because if I had that courage I would be that much better a warrior so the monk says our peach and as a result of that the monk Bell teacher he teaches in the practices then zazen meditations and all this kind of thing and puts it through the the work and so he comes to understand what the monk did understand anyway which was that it really doesn't matter if you live or die because the thing goes on it's perfectly indestructible if you happen to die it just goes on in a new way because you are the works so fine but the monk is playing again and so as a result all these then communities got given the old palaces the brigands all moved to Tokyo and set up there in business and all around the great court and the gorgeous temple grounds went to the monks where all those none of them owns anything personally which is a great idea project you don't have any responsibility the community owns it and you don't have to pay any taxes and since you're a nonprofit organization you're not taxable anyway always a great job and they they really did do what they did in effect was the condos brigham out of the best land in Kyoto by resignation pipe laying a higher game but you see anyone who goes through that go through the Buddhist process of resignation will come to a point where he knows that he didn't resign at all and this is what makes the difference between pedestrian Buddhist monks who think they've resigned and I feel a little bit guilty because it's such a prosperous avail to design because you live in the best places and those ones who know who go right to cause to do the small residue of great Buddhist masters who discovered that they can't resign at all let's consider an extreme example of resignation the life of Mohammed Far Eastern literature is full of the idealization of the hermit's life the wonderful idea of an old man somewhere in the mountain far off in part how couid describe such an individual who can't be found nobody knows where he is he leaves no trace and they consider that is admirable to tell him you know which says I asked the boy beneath the pine he says the map has gone alone ferb gathering on the Mount called it whereabouts on them and that idea of the far off man way way there but what does the Hermit is trouble if you try this get as lonely as you can get you become visibly aware which you can't get away from it because when you get very lonely very fast you become extremely thin and everything that goes on is or no ordinarily unnoticed cum spiritum first of all you will find with the community of insects and they are tremendously interested in not necessarily hostile in maybe sometimes but but alone in the forest when you get really quiet you'll notice little creatures will come and inspect you look you all over and they'll go away and tell their friends and they'll come and look to see what it is and you become aware of every single sound and you realize that alone you're in the midst of a vast burning crowd may not be human but it's everything else so that the the point of being honest the discipline leads you to understand that you can't design the lonelier you are the more you're joined together with everything else how do you get more sensitive so then I find then I cannot give up playing League a look at it - from another point of view supposing I say everybody's playing the game me first now I'm going to play the game you first to use the phrase of Bonhoeffer who called Jesus the man for others now let's see if we could play that game instead of me first you first after you see you know you see you know run away this is putting everybody down see I'm the one see who's so generous I'm the one who's so loving so self-effacing and all you in syria brats could go first you could play me so I'll play you I'll try and convince you to play you fur but the success is convincing on that is relatively small and therefore the in-group will always be the people playing useless and therefore they will get the honor so when you think that through and you see I cannot stop playing these up there's no way of not doing it as well now what does it mean when I'm in a trap that I can't get out of there's no way of getting out of this trap well what it means is that you and the trap of the same thing you're not caught because when there's nobody in the trap there's no trap see that as long as you think you're in the trap then the traps got you when you know you as a trap then what is the trap got if you're trying to get out of the game you're trapped no way out but when you have found that you and the game are the same there's no game to get out of there's no one to get out of the game and that's true resignation and then you can take the point of view of the Bodhisattva as distinct from the are half the our heart in Buddhist not only is the person who escapes from the wheel of birth and death the samsara he gets out of the game so he stands here the Bodhisattva is the our house tops is the our house we've done arm to find out that you can't get out of the games all so the Bodhisattvas found over here in other words he goes back into the cycle of reincarnation and that doesn't bother about escaping him so in just the same way as repentance leads to the understanding that you're a phony even in repenting resignation leads to the understanding that even in resigning you can't design it isn't as if someone were saying you must play this game and you felt yourself under some sort of compulsion it's rather discovering that the game is what there is and to if you got out of it would be to be nowhere you don't have to play this is the point I'm going to repeat this because this is crucial it isn't that you have to play because that would make you feel a victim of some process beyond yourself that is compelling it is that the playing is you and nobody is shoving you around because you and the universe which seems to constrain you are not two things if you play the game that you are only here then you'll feel pushed around but when through trying to resign from either pushing around or being pushed around you discover that it can't be done you then become very much aware there is no point getting away from it where is the way so it said a true Zen month has a mountain Hermitage in any place that is down so let's have an admission