[Music]
I called the course personality and its
transformations and I think you could
think about that as a restatement of the
idea of being and becoming and that's
what you are you're for whatever that
means you're an entity that both is and
is transforming and there's a rule that
goes along with that by the way which is
don't sacrifice who you could be for who
you are which means if you have to
choose to transform in a positive
direction or maintain your current
position then it's better to transform
in a positive direction so you might
even think of that as the core of your
being
that's a piagetian idea it's a union
idea as well who are you you're the
thing that transforms who you are now
you're also who you are but on top of
that you're the thing that transforms
who you are and I do think that that's
and that's not an arbitrary statement
you know one of the things that modern
universities do dreadfully now is
convince their students that value
structures are relative and that and
that's a that's a big mistake it's
there's a lot of things wrong with that
idea and one of the things that's wrong
with that ideas that doesn't include
what I just mentioned which is that's a
good moral rule is you are the thing
that is and you're the thing that
becomes and you should put the thing
that becomes at a higher place than the
thing that is that means you also have
to allow yourself to shake off those
things about you that you might be
pathologically attached to habits and
people for that matter ways of thinking
all of those things you have to allow
yourself to shake those off and that's
more like a burning that's why the
Phoenix is that's why the Phoenix is the
symbol that it is right it's all in a
deteriorate so bursts into flame and
then it's reborn it's like well do you
want to be reborn like that's not the
question the question is do you want to
burst into flame and the answer to that
generally is no but that's the wrong
answer the right answer is you let all
that nonsense burn away and you know and
you might say well I don't know what I
should leave behind and the answer to
that is that's a lie you know some of
the things that you should leave behind
you all you have to do is ask yourself
you'll come up with a list instantly of
a hundred stupid things that you're
doing that you know you could stop doing
some of them maybe you don't know you
could stop doing
well fine leave those alone for now but
there's a bunch of things you perfectly
know well that you could stop doing that
would improve your life and so do that
see what happens that's a good that's a
good idea
all right so it's personality and its
transformations because partly I wanted
to talk to you about talk to you about
what you are as a human being and also
as an individual but also what you could
become and that's actually a crucial
question in the domains of clinical
psychology in particular because a lot
of what you're doing with people as a
clinician is trying to figure out who
they could become that's right you come
you have a problem your life isn't what
it could be it's like fine let's see
what it could be like if we changed it
we'll figure out how to change it that's
got to be a negotiated dialogue right
because like I don't know what the hell
you should do with your life I can help
you figure it out maybe we can talk
about it but you are the person who has
to decide if the things that you're
aiming for you know get you out of bed
in the morning because that's really the
that's at least one of the crucial
issues so you got to specify the goal
and then you go to specify the
transformation processes and start
practicing them and you have to
understand that you're going to be bad
at it but it doesn't matter because
Bad's fine persistence is what you need
to be if you persist with tiny
improvements if you persist you win so
okay so in a broader you know in a
broader context you can think about this
as a more fundamental ontological
question so one the one question is how
you should act to the world the other
question is well what is the world and
that's a complicated problem this this
is a scientific answer to that question
and that is that the world is a
collection of objective phenomena and
that's a very powerful perspective and
we have a good method for determining
what the world is like as a collection
of objective phenomena and and that's
made us very technologically powerful
and so more power to us and all that but
leaves a question unanswered and the
question is well the world isn't just a
place of objective phenomena because
it's not a panoply of inert matter it
has living conscious creatures in it and
that's a different they're a different
order of be
and the fundamental issue for conscious
active creatures is not what is the
world from an objective perspective but
how it is it that you should conduct
yourself in the world and that's a and
there's a very there's a kind of
unbridgeable gap between those two
domains of inquiry and I think the
reason for that is that there's a the
scientific method removes value from its
description so that's actually what it
does and so once you're left with value
free descriptions it's very difficult to
extract out a value proposition from
them because you've that's the
scientific method removes the value
propositions you're supposed to be left
with only that which is objective right
and value propositions are in the domain
of the subjective so I think the idea
that you can derive what you should be
or do from a collection of facts is
flawed a because the collecting the
facts themselves gets rid of the value
structure but B there's an infinite
number of facts and so which how are you
gonna pick which ones should guide you
you can't you can't you you have to do
something else the facts do not tell you
what to do with the facts you need
something else to help you figure that
out well it's come to me over the years
that that's what essentially that's what
the narrative cognitive framework does
it's the framework that we use to
specify how we should act in the world
and so you could divide the world into
the world as it is and the world as
perhaps it should be
that gives you some direction and you
need that and we know this technically
right you need direction the reason for
that is its direction that produces the
primary that produces primary positive
emotion and so if you need positive
emotion to move through life which you
do because you can't even move without
positive emotion and also positive
emotion is a good bulwark against terror
and pain if you need those things then
you need direction you need a goal you
need a value structure so that doesn't
seem particularly disputable to me you
could still say well what value
structure it's like okay fine that's a
good question but I was you know I've
thought a lot about that too so if we're
gonna adopt a value structure there's a
couple of rules that go along with it
and this is why the bloody post
modernists are wrong as far as I can
tell is a it can't just be my
value structure because I'm stuck with
you and we're both stuck with all these
other people and so if I'm going to lay
out a value structure which is a way of
interpreting the world let's say and
there's an infinite number of potential
ways of interpreting the world it's like
the out fine no problem except that I
have to interpret the world in a way
that I can use while I'm dealing with
you and the world two of us are dealing
with everyone else and while all of you
are dealing with everyone else and so
that that's the piagetian game
proposition if you want to be a popular
kid on the playground you better play
games that other people want to play
that's a brilliant brilliant brilliant
observation and I told you that Piaget
was trying to heal the rift between
science and religion and that's one of
the things that he did that he thought
helped do that his question is well
where the moral judgments come from
well they partly come emerge as a
consequence of consensus and it's a
bounded domain if we're gonna if we're
gonna occupy the same space for any
length of time and those are two
critical propositions the same space and
a long time then we have to figure out
how to play an iterative game that
doesn't spiral downward hopefully that
might even improve that we both don't
object to because otherwise it's not
gonna work right you'll walk away and
play another game or the game will will
disintegrate catastrophically so there's
massive social constraint on what
constitutes an appropriate frame of
reference so so much for the relativist
argument and then there's another issue
that's equally relevant and it's
associated with the idea of objective
reality to some degree but it's not
exactly it's not that's not exactly
correct because it's not exactly
objective reality let's say that you and
I decide to occupy the same place for
some substantial amount of time and we
figured out how to solve the problem of
being together but you and I still have
to figure out how to solve the problem
of being together in a manner that
doesn't make the world object too much
and it isn't just other people although
that's a huge part of the world you want
them to know what object you may even
want them to support you that would even
be better but you also have to deal with
the you know the the the tendency of
matter to object because so your mode of
being in the world
your interpretive framework
as a description of how you should act
is actually the laying out of a strategy
that will produce the ends that it
predicts which are the things that you
want so this is the pragmatist
perspective this was worked out by
William James and his people back in the
late 1800s in New England the only
genuine brand of American philosophy and
what the pragmatist said is how do you
decide if something's true the answer is
how the hell can you you don't know
anything well that's true but that isn't
helpful because there you're stuck with
the problem of how to be in the world
well so what you do is you lay out a
mode of interpretation that has an
endpoint and then you run the mode of
interpretation embodied right because
you act it out and if it doesn't produce
the outcome then it's not let's say true
the claims within it aren't they're not
true by the definition of the game
itself
so you might say well you're a kid on a
playground you want to play a game one
of the implicit demands is that the game
is fun if it's not fun it's not worth
playing so you play it for a while and
then you see well was that fun if the
answer is yes then you keep playing the
game you say well that game is it's good
enough it's accurate enough it's true
enough and so you lay out
interpretations in the world and they're
subject to massive constraints other
people have to go along with them and
cooperate with you because if they don't
then look the hell out like it's a major
serious non-trivial constraint and then
the other thing is well social proof
isn't good enough it also has to work in
the world outside of the social world
you know so if you have an illness and
you have some hypothesis about how to
construe it you might say well is my
understanding of the illness correct
well it implies that I take these
actions well how do you know if it's
correct while you take the actions and
if the illness gets worse then by the
definitions that are implicit in the
framework of reference that you're using
you've made an error and so there's no
relativism in that you could still say
well there's a lot of potential
solutions to any potential set of
problems it's like yeah yeah there's
lots of different ways to play chess on
the on a single board right but that
doesn't mean that any old solution is as
good as any other solution it doesn't
mean that at all
so okay so then we're looking at things
two ways we're trying to figure out well
how does the world present itself and
then how is it that you should act in it
and so well there's other there's other
constraints on the mechanisms of
interpretation that you place in the
world so we could say well you're
constrained in your interpretations by
the constraints that other people place
on you but there's internal constraints
as well we talked about those mostly
from a biological perspective because
you could also regard yourself in some
sense as a loose internal society that's
sort of a psychoanalytic dictum right
you're you're a collection of sub
personalities or you could say your
collection of subroutines I don't care
how you how you formulate it but you're
a unity but you're a you're a universe
unity that brings together a plurality
of sub components and part of the
constraints on how it is that you lay
out your interpretation of the world is
that you have to satisfy those internal
subsystems right so you're the ego but
it's more like you're the captain of a
ship full of people who were rowing you
got to keep the people rowing you're not
you know a tyrant you're not an impotent
tyrant of your own destiny you're
constrained by the nature of your own
being and so you have to provide
yourself with food and you have to
provide yourself with shelter and you
have to provide yourself with water and
all of these things and and those are
demands that are laid on you by the
nature of your internal processes and of
course how they lay themselves out as
demands and what the appropriate
solutions to that is to those problems
are is is debatable infinitely but you
can see that constraints stack up you
have to satisfy your internal
constraints so they have to be brought
into a unity that seems to happen at
least in part but between the ages of
two and something like between the ages
of birth and four years old maybe even
two years old you bring yourself
together into something that's sort of
functioning as a unity then you have to
turn that unity into a unity that can
function in the social world in with
increasing breath and that unity in the
social world has to be a unity that can
function inside the natural world it's
something like that so it's you're
stacking up these games into a hierarchy
of increasing complexity and one of the
questions that emerges from that is well
what should be at the top of the
hierarchy if it's a hierarchical
structure it has to be a hierarchical
structure because some things have to be
worth doing more than others or
you can't act which is another thing I
really don't like about the
postmodernist ethos because it claims
that value structures are there to
eliminate to exclude and oppress and
never once notices that well yeah fair
enough but value structures are also
there so that you know which way to walk
because you can't figure out which way
to walk without saying that that
direction is preferable to that
direction
so you stuck with the damn things and
and they do exclude obviously category
structures exclude the question is if
you're going to have a value structure
how is it that it should be constituted
well ready to describe some of the
constraints like if your value structure
is perfectly functioning except that you
don't get enough to eat that turns out
actually to be a fatal problem right and
it might be you can run into all sorts
of fatal problems you're too lonesome
while means you're let's say that your
value structures too narcissistic
there's lots of reasons to be lonesome
but that might be one of them or you're
too timid or something like that like
you're gonna be informed by your own
internal biological mechanisms when the
value structure that you're laying out
in the world is insufficient to keep
itself propagating across time and some
of that's just you and some of that's
other people in some of that's the
natural world constraints galore and so
in the phase of all those constraints
and absolutely unreasonable to say and
the old solution goes try it generate a
random solution run it as a simulation
in the world and see and see how many
slings and arrows come your way they'll
be plenty and you might say well I don't
care about slings and arrows it's like
ya know that's a claim you don't get to
make so okay so you know you're you're
being informed internally as to the
nature of your value structure you have
to specify where you are you have to
specify where you're going you have to
integrate all your underlying biological
mechanisms into that into that schema
it's something I think that's actually
kind of weak about the P a jetty an idea
say because Piaget a great fan of Piaget
but Piaget tended to think that the
child came into the world with nothing
but a set of reflexes and that's his
technical claim and that the boots drop
off those reflexes and I think that's it
underestimates the degree to which the
child comes into the world as it already
prepared unit
and I mean he just thought of those
things that's so self-evident that you
don't need to talk about them but that's
actually not true you do need to talk
about them we know for example that if
you provide children with food and
shelter and an adequate food and shelter
but you don't interact with them
socially almost all of them die in the
first year right it's not optional touch
is not optional for children attention
is not optional for children play is not
optional for children so it isn't just
like well the child comes in to the
world with a set of reflexes and can
adapt to any old environments like no
the environment has to be structured in
a certain way or the child will die and
it's very interesting when it comes to
things like play and touch because you
wouldn't think of those as fundamental
necessities right but it turns out that
they are if you deprive a child badly
enough of play and touch in the first
three years of their life even if they
survive what comes out at the end of
that is often something that's like
barely recognizable as a functional
human being and cannot be repaired after
that point and that that experiment was
done with Romanian orphans back in the
back in the 90s so it was it was an ugly
situation to say the least
okay so now you take these underlying
biological systems and maybe they
aggregate themselves into something that
vaguely looks like your temperament your
your five temperamental dimensions so
maybe if you're an extrovert you're
dominated by the dopaminergic system
just like you are is if you're high an
openness and if you're if you're you
know if you're high in eroticism it's
mostly that you're dominated by anxiety
systems and systems that mean mediate
emotional pain and if you're agreeable
you're dominated by the function of the
underlying maternal slash care
affiliation systems but so you could say
well you've got these loose you've got a
multitude of fundamental biological
predispositions that manifest themselves
as implicit stories something like that
and they organize themselves into the
primary temperaments and the primary
temperaments are biasing factors that
determine in part the nature of the
interpretive structure that you're going
to lay out in the world it's not
entirely determined by your temperament
we know that personality is only
predicting you know something like let's
say 10% of the variance in most complex
social outcomes and and the other
elements are well temperamental as you
might be used
have to get along with other people in
the world so you you know you come in
with these internal biases but they have
still have to be modified extensively by
your social and your natural surround
okay and then you develop your routines
from the bottom up as Piaget pointed out
and sometimes from the top down because
now and then you can think yourself into
a radical transformation but mostly what
you're doing is building the micro units
of your interpretive schemas and your
behaviors and aggregating them into
higher order structures that you can
then tag with higher order abstractions
and we talked about that you can't tell
a three-year-old to clean up his room
and the reason for that is he those are
empty boxes as far as the kid's
concerned clean he's doing he might he
might have room he might have that clean
he doesn't have he might have pick up
the teddy bear and put it in that space
right so that's one of these little
micro routines and maybe you say you put
20 of those micro routines together and
now you can say clean up your room and
basically what you're saying is here's
implement the 10 micro routines that
you've learned and so a well-functioning
personality has all the micro routines
in place that's actually something that
you help people with if you're a
behavioral therapist because one of the
things you assume if you're a behavioral
therapist is that sometimes the reason
people aren't doing things is because
they don't know how you know sometimes
maybe the person is depressed but
potentially high-functioning they got
all the damn micro routines they're well
socialized they're just dormant you got
to get them awake again and implementing
them but sometimes you get someone in
your in your practice say who's just
been neglected like you cannot believe
right the parents never paid any
attention to them or maybe just punished
them every time they did something good
that's really fun and then you know they
didn't make friends and so they're
really really big and and and poorly
articulated and so then what you do is
you work at the bottom of the micro
routines and get them to practice
building up all these little attributes
that they didn't build up and you know
one of the things you can think about in
terms of character development is so now
maybe understand something about your
own personality you might say well what
could you do to improve your personality
and the answer is develop some of the
micro routines on the other side of the
personality distribution so if you're
disagreeable as hell maybe
start learning how to do nice things for
people and that actually works by the
way so if you take disagreeable people
who are depressed and you get them doing
nice things for other people their
depression tends to lift but then by the
same token if you're agreeable then you
should practice doing some things for
yourself and being more tough minded in
your negotiations and so you can sort of
place yourself on the on the personality
trait distribution you know you're
extrovert it's like okay man learn to
spend some time with yourself right
you're low in openness well try reading
a book that's outside of your you know
your your sphere of interest now and
then if you're conscientious well you
should probably learn how to relax
occasionally and and so forth so you can
I think partly what you're doing is
you're developing your personality is
not moving the mean much the average
where you know where you're located but
you're extending the standard deviation
so that you're a bigger bag of tricks
than you were before and I think you can
practice that consciously it's like
you're hyper orderly it's well get a dog
you know dogs they're messy horrible
things you know it's just what you need
if you're hyper orderly because they're
gonna leave hair everywhere and force
you live with it and so okay so and so
this is sort of you right this is your
personality it's this connect collection
of root subroutines that you've turned
into a hierarchy and then there's
something at the top of it and that's
that's a big question like what the hell
should be at the top of the hierarchy
because that's the ultimate question of
unity and then the clinicians would say
well it's the self-actualized person or
it's the self or something like that you
know that's that's the ID that's the
implicit and perhaps explicit ideal that
you're aiming for and you might say well
is does such thing exists that I would
say well do you admire people because
that's your answer right do you despise
people well you like some people and you
don't like others you respect some
people you don't respect others well
you're acting out the notion that
there's at least an implicit ideal you
do the same thing when you go to movies
you know you you know who the hero is
you know who the bad guy is you're
acting out the proposition that there's
some sort of value hierarchy and there's
some sort of manifestation of it that's
coherent across time
so you appear to believe that and you
know you are driven at least to some
degree by your own inner ideals and so
you tend to answer the question is that
real with an affirmed
and if you don't there's catastrophic
consequences Nietzsche and the
existentialist we're very good at
detailing that's like you let your value
hierarchy disintegrate well then what
well part of it is nihilistic chaos whoo
that's not so much fun and then there's
the alignment of nihilistic chaos with
the intrinsic desire that someone will
come along and tell you what to do right
so what happens is if you let this
devolve you end up with nihilistic
exists
not with nihilistic chaos or the demand
for for the tyrant to come forward and
we've had that happen lots of times and
doesn't seem to have gone that well so
all right well so what happens when you
you lay out these little routines in the
world at different levels of analysis
well this is how your emotions function
broadly speaking you know you're aiming
at something and this is an
oversimplification which is why I want
to show you this right when I show you
this assume that it's made out of that
right it's just a schematic
oversimplification because even if let's
say that I'm trying to do something as
simple as walking towards the door I
mean that the action of walking towards
the door is predicated on the existence
of all the subroutines that enable me to
propel my body across time and space and
like there's that took a lot of internal
organization to get that right it's a
traumatized now and so you can treat it
like it's invisible but implicit in any
one of these structures is this entire
structure and you actually see this in
therapy very frequently too so I was
talking to a client the other day it was
so interesting this person said
something he had been talking to his
mother and he's he just made a casual
comment he said he was talking to his
mother who was in a state of grief for
for good reasons that were it
independent of this particular person
who said and I hate her and I thought oh
that's interesting like where did that
come from and so I made a comment on
that
that's a Freudian slip right because
there was the conversation was flowing
and then this little emotion tagged
utterance came forward and whenever an
emotion tagged utterance
of that sort comes forward you know it's
associated with a whole rat's nest of
underlying pain and anxiety and and and
on what would you call it disappointment
and frustration that hasn't been
properly rectified so it's like a marker
and yet you know this when you're
talking to people they say something and
you think oh you know what Wow
too much information that's one way of
thinking about it's like just what are
you up to and and then if you have any
sense you just forget that that even
happened and you continue but that's
that's like the snout of a dragon
peeking out from a cave and you might
say well it's just a snout man but it's
not because dragons snouts tend to be
attached to the whole damn dragon and so
this is also something to know about
relationships because when you're in a
relationship with someone they'll do
that now and then they'll you know utter
something and you think huh-huh it's
like there's a bump in the road well
we're gonna look underneath that at our
peril but if you do go down there and
you look at it then then the whole thing
comes you can start to disentangle the
the web of of memories and and
experiences that are all tangled
together as a consequence of their
emotional identity because I could say
well everything that makes you anxious
or everything that makes you upset is
the same as every other thing that's
ever made you upset and so and then
there's an even different subset instead
of that which is all those things that
have made you upset that you've never
dealt with they're all laying down there
at the bottom of your nasty little soul
waiting to pop themselves up in some in
some random utterance right and so then
you go in there at your peril because if
you're the person who pokes around in
that then you're gonna get blasted with
all of that stuff it's gonna come out
like almost uncontrollably then then you
can sort it out and so what you find is
if you ask a person a question like that
and then you let them free associate
which is just talk about it they'll do a
wandering around like that maze that I
told you about they'll do a wandering
around of that entire territory and
sometimes just having them worn during
it can help them straighten it out but
you might find out that something
happened to them 15 years ago that left
them with a terrible sense of guilt or
dismay or frustration and then when when
they interact with their parents in a
certain way the parent knows exactly how
to tap that and then that all comes up
and that's what produces that that
little
that little utterance and so that's the
material of the world manifesting itself
that's what matters
manifesting itself and it almost always
manifests itself as an object something
that objects we're having a conversation
it's going quite well no problem there's
a bump in it there's an emotional
disjunct right now we're no longer in
the same place at the same time we're no
longer playing the same game so that I
might say okay well let's open that up
and see what's behind it
well the question is what's behind the
game you're playing and the answer to
that is all the world that you're
ignoring always so when so when imagine
that think about it this way you're
trying to do well in a class and you get
a bad grade okay so you're in this
little frame you want to get a good
grade that isn't happening you got a bad
grade okay what is it that's manifesting
itself as the bad grade well you could
say well it's a c-minus on a piece of
paper it's like well that's you know
really no that's the objective
manifestation you got a piece of paper
with a c-minus the value-free
proposition is that you've been
delivered a piece of paper with a curve
on it a little you know negative sign
well you think well that's what that is
well you know it's as dopey as thinking
well here you got your failing grade you
go into the lab and you like weigh it on
a scale then you burn it and see what it
was made of it's like well why did I get
so upset about that it's just paper it's
like no that's not just paper it's an
entity that exists in a web of
connections the fact that it's signified
by paper is almost completely irrelevant
what is it the answer is you don't know
and that's why when you pick it up you
get this paralyzed sinking feeling
because your limbic system is a lot
smarter than your perceptual systems and
your perceptual systems say well that's
a piece of paper and your limbic system
says nah for sure dragan right right and
so then you're sweating and then maybe
you put it away and you go play video
games because you know better the
hypothetical dragon than the real dragon
and so instead you pull out the piece of
paper maybe and you think okay why
I did I get this c-minus well that's a
hell of a question isn't it it's like
maybe you're stupid well that could be
or at least stupid compared to who you
think you are like that's that's the
real horror that's lurking there writes
like all I thought it was kind of smart
that's a that's a proposition of the
highest order
I thought I was kind of smart it's like
yeah well what about this c-minus it's
like well that goddamn professor right
that's the first thing it's it's I've
been attacked by a predator that's the
first response right so it's it's a
nonsensical message it's just delivered
by someone evil and predatory well
that's you know possible but I wouldn't
go there I wouldn't go there first
necessarily so but then well then say
you don't go there okay well so what is
this exactly do you not know what you
thought you know are you not who you
think you are do you not work hard
enough or your values not organized
properly do you misuse your time are you
in the wrong field is the way you're
construing your life completely
inappropriate are you acting out what
your parents wanted you to do it and
you're pissed off about it so you're
only running at 40% despite them despite
the fact that they're paying $25,000 a
year for your education because that's a
fun game yeah I'll go do what you want
me to do but I'll fail but not
completely because then that would
wouldn't cost you very much I'll just
fail a little bit so that you have to
spend all that money forcing me to do
what I don't want to do but you'll never
get to escape from it and then every
time we interact I'll stab you in
various ways that you don't quite
understand just to show you how
irritated I am that I happen to be
acting out the destiny that you've put
forward for me so maybe that's part of
the dragon' right and then that pulls in
the whole parent thing and you know it's
these are bottomless pits often when you
when you're in the world there's
something objects to you something that
matters objects to you then in the
entire unrealized world is in that thing
that objects it's all tangled up inside
that's why it's the great dragon of
chaos it's everything that's outside of
your conceptual structure and what is
that it's everything that lurks outside
of your of your walled city and it's
manifested itself like the snake in the
garden and the
easiest thing to do is say I'm not
having anything to do with that but the
problem with that is well you get your
c- and you don't do anything about it
maybe you're a little bitter and more
resentful in your study habits get a
little worse so the next time you get
like a d-plus and then you collect a
bunch of FS and then you stop going to
school then you stop showering right
then you end up jumping off the bridge
and so that's a that's that's how the
dragon eats you when you don't pay
attention to it and so it's no bloody
wonder that people avoid you know it's
really no wonder that they avoid because
error messages contain within them the
implicit world now the upside of that is
while they contain within them the
implicit world and the world isn't all
negative and so maybe you get your
c-minus and that's actually the best
gift you ever got because somebody
finally took you and went whack you no
clue in and so you take that apart and
you think oh I don't know how to write I
don't know how to think I've never read
anything in my life my study habits are
abysmal you know like maybe I'm working
at 2% efficiency which which is probably
I would suspect that you know some of
you aren't doing that but I bet you that
I bet there's thirty thirty to fifty
percent of the people in the room are
working at two percent efficiency it's
like you got it that's so to find that
out is so optimistic I mean if you're
barely hanging in there but you're only
working out 2% you might imagine what
you could have as a life if you work it
out like 50 percent so so that the
c-minus can be the best gift you ever
had and that's the gold that the Dragon
hoards right that's exactly what that
means and so well so you're moving from
point A to point B in your little
circumscribed world you've made
everything invisible and as long as that
works then your Theory's good enough
it's accurate enough it's true enough
you're in your little paradise but if
something comes up and objects well
that's where your character is tested
fundamentally that's the character test
it's like what do you do with messages
of error and that's a tricky issue okay
so here's a solution to that here's what
not to do I am a bad person
I got to see mice I'm a bad person I'm
out I'll just go jump off the bridge
it's like no that's not good because
what that means is that every time every
time you try to
learn something you're going to make a
mistake because what do you know so
you're gonna make mistakes and if the
rule is every time you make a mistake
you're gonna go jump off the bridge then
that's not a useful problem-solving
strategy and so when you make a mistake
you don't get to beat yourself to death
with a club it's a bad strategy and
you'll have your internal tyrant in
there who's perfectly happy about doing
that that's the you know overactive
super-ego that Freud talked about maybe
it came to you via a parent who was too
authoritarian or a grandparent or or
maybe it's just you because you're
disagreeable and neurotic and so you'll
take you're at hyper conscientious
you'll take yourself apart well starting
the and so you've got a problem
something has objected to you then the
question is well what does that mean
well maybe you're not looking at the
world right maybe your goals are wrong
maybe you're not acting properly it's
okay so the question that arises when an
obstacle emerges is which part of this
structure needs attention and the first
answer can't be all of it which is why
when you're arguing with someone in an
intimate relationship and you're angry
at them and you want to win which is a
big mistake
you want to win you say well your this
is what you're like here's another ten
examples of how you've done that in the
past and I can enumerate more of them if
you'd like and so it doesn't that's
actually what you like and I've tried
fixing you and didn't work and so it
looks like you're gonna be like that up
into the future and you're basically
saying to them well you're a bad person
and the only thing they can do is either
collapse or punch you and punching you
is actually better than collapsing look
you don't you know what I mean it's such
a counterproductive way of arguing they
you don't leave the person any out and
so maybe while they're civilized so it
doesn't get physical well maybe that's
good and maybe it isn't but then they
end up either really not happy with you
in a way that they will manifest the
first possible opportunity they get or
they have to go off in the corner and
cringe it's like great you won it's like
now your partners either hates you or is
cringing it's great that's a real good
victory man cry rack up about a hundred
victories like that and you'll be in
divorce court and spending two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars while being
miserable about it
yeah so anyway so something objects to
you and you think okay well I need to I
need to take myself apart right because
there's a piece that's broken somewhere
and then you might think well let's
let's assume it's a little piece to
begin with that's the right mechanism
it's like okay you got a c-minus that
doesn't prove that you're stupid and now
it implies that you might be stupid but
it doesn't right really it does and
that's why you don't want to look at it
maybe it implies that you're lazier
implies that you're ignorant or like it
implies all sorts of terrible might
imply that you're a bad person even but
you don't want to leap to that and
that's sort of the proclamation of
innocence before guilt assume that
you're the least amount of reprehensible
and ignorant possible and so then you
look at the micro routines it's okay
well I got a c-minus in this course
maybe I should study for that course
fifteen minutes more a day for the next
three months and then you ask yourself
do you think you could do that no I'm
too useless okay how about fifteen
minutes every second day you think you
could do that you put it in your
schedule like 15 minutes every second
day in the morning and that's while you
think well what's wrong with me
well I'm not very good at managing my
study schedule that's not quite down
here at the behavioral level but it's
pretty close because what you you can
take an action you can open up your
schedule and you can say all mark 50
minutes of it aside then you can
practice doing that it's pretty low
level in the hierarchy means while
you're still not a horrible person you
just gotta polish up your work ethic and
so what you want to do is you want to
it's like it's like the old adage you
got to stand up for yourself but you
don't want to make unnecessary enemies
that's a really good thing to know it's
like shut the hell up most of the time
but now and then you don't shut up
because it's time to say something you
don't you don't want to make unnecessary
enemies though well you don't want to
take yourself apart any more than is
absolutely necessary
start little and you do that with people
around you too like if you have a child
you know and the child does something
that isn't right
then you think okay minimal necessary
intervention what can we do to decrease
the probability that that's going to
occur in the future so and that's so
that's a good thing to know with
children it's also a good thing to know
with your partners you have an argument
some it's like okay what the hell do you
want what's the minimum thing you can
request from them that would satisfy you
and the evil part of your soul is going
to be I want them cringing in a corner
it's like yeah get that get that stuff
under control man see if you can figure
out what that person could offer you
that would be minimal that you would
accept and then tell them that it's like
here's the words I would like you to say
in the apology I would like you to
formulate assuming that you think you
did something wrong we have to argue
about that because maybe you didn't but
if you did I want to specify it
precisely and narrowly and I want to
give you an escape route and you know
you might only be able to do it badly
because you're still mad so you
apologize half-heartedly it's like you
get a pat on the head for that good next
time it'll be 51% not half-heartedly
right so it's careful training its
careful training of yourself and other
people with with the goal in mind but
also with the least amount of harshness
possible and then the other thing to do
as well and this is also true for you
and this is something I learned from
studying the behavior is like watch the
people around you like a hawk whenever
they do something that you think is good
you tell them that's wisdom man you'll
get so far with that you cannot bloody
well believe it because most people you
know they're afraid of any number of
things but one of the things they're
really afraid of is that now and then
they'll creep out of their cynical shell
and try to do something good you know
it's like they're it's like they're
popping out this thing that's
unbelievably vulnerable to try to do
something good and creep right back into
their persona and they'll look around
see if anyone noticed and sometimes
they'll get punished for it and then
well then they won't do it again so
don't do that but then now and then you
think hey I saw you do this it was
actually that was actually pretty good
Oh someone noticed it looks like wow and
then they'll think yeah I could maybe I
like I could do that again and if you
want to live with someone for a long
period of time I would say every time
they do something that you would like
them to do more of number one notice
number two tell them right because I
know you don't want to because you
really want to dominate them and you
don't you don't want them thriving
because then
maybe a they'd be competition to you and
you wouldn't be able to go complain to
your mother about what a miserable
partner you have and you know how
delightful that is so you have to forego
all that pleasure if you actually help
your person develop so you got to get
over all that it's really annoying so
you know you've got this person peg this
yeah you're stuck with them and you know
maybe it's the best you can do but you
got one eye open and then every time
they do something good you don't want to
notice because if that elevated them a
little bit you wouldn't be able to feel
so resentful and miserable and keep your
eye open for the next possible affair
and that is what people are like that is
what people are like and that's what
you're like - that's what people are
like so you got to decide if that's what
you want or you want to help the person
that you're with grow you know that's
dangerous because they might out sign
you well good then you have someone to
compare yourself to that would be a good
deal it's really rough with kids you
know because parents will stop their
children from succeeding beyond them
they get jealous and then they'll put
them down and then they have kids that
do not like them and they'll pay for it
so one of the things that I figured out
over the last years is this is a good
proposition so you know it's pretty
self-evident that life is has got its
rat's nest of miseries and that's for
sure and maybe you could even make a
categorical statement that life is
mostly a rat's nest of misery you know
and you can make a pretty powerful
argument for that but then there's a
counter question which is well what if
you tried not to make it any more
miserable that had had to be right then
what then what would it be like and my
suspicions are is that a lot of that
misery I would suspect that most of that
misery would go away
because it's the unnecessary misery that
really brings you down you know it's
like well someone has cancer it's like
that sucks but it's not like it's not
like you can say if only we had done
this differently then that wouldn't have
happened but when someone's out like
torturing you in a malevolent way or
maybe you're doing the same you could
always ask yourself was it really it's
this really necessary is this just like
an useless add-on to the miseries of
life that's what disheartens people and
so even in your own life if if you if
you aren't suffering from self-imposed
misery and your
only suffering from an escapable misery
maybe you could handle that and you know
you could you could survive you could
bear it and even maybe without becoming
irredeemably corrupt so the goal would
be well yeah life is a rat's nest of
miseries and maybe it has no ultimate
meaning we could say that for feeling
particularly pessimistic but it still
leaves one question open which is if you
didn't do everything you could to make
it worse how good could you make it be
and the least answer is well it it could
be tragedy but maybe not hell and I
think that's right I really believe that
that's that's the most pessimistic
proper statement the worst-case outcome
in the worst of all possible worlds is
that your life could be tragic but not
hell and that's blood better than hell
right it's it's and you think I could
give you an example of the difference
you're at your mother's deathbed
well that's tragedy here's another
scenario you're at your mother's
deathbed and all you you and all your
idiot siblings are arguing well that's
the difference between tragedy and hell
and you might be able to tolerate the
first circumstance and maybe it would
even bring you closer together with your
family members the second one no one can
bear that you walk away from a situation
like that sick of yourself and sick of
everything else - and you know it's
often the case that tragic circumstances
bring out the Dragons because the stress
is high and all those things that people
haven't dealt with they don't have the
energy to repress and and all the
bitterness comes pouring forward it's
like seriously man you know so that's
actually a good
it's a rough lesson but it's a good
hallmark for figuring out whether or not
you're you've got yourself adjusted
properly and in relationship to your
siblings it's like if you are all
gathered around the bed of someone close
who is dying could you manage it if the
answer is no it's like well put your
life together because it's going to
happen and you should be the person
who's there that can do it and do it
properly and then maybe you'd find that
it isn't the sort of thing that will
undermine your faith in life itself and
I've seen I've seen both of those
situations you know ugly ugly ugly
situations you know murderously ugly
situations and then they're opposite
where people
had terrible things happening to happen
to them as a family and you know they
pull together and they rebuild their
damn ship and they sail away so that
seems to me to be a lot better that
makes you know when the flood comes
right well okay so the same thing the
question emerges well who are you well
you could say your this plan that's what
people usually that's how people usually
identify maybe they have no plan at all
and they're just in chaos right that's
like being in the belly of the beast
they're nihilistic and chaos they have
no plan they're just chaos itself and
that's a very dreadful situation for
people to be in or maybe they conjure
together a plan that's their identity
it's kind of fragile and they're holding
on to that with with everything they've
got it's their little stick of wood that
they're floating in the ocean clinging
to you know and so they're identifying
really hard with that plan that's what
happens when you're an ideologue is that
you're identifying really hard with that
plan the problem is if something comes
up to confront it well how do you act
well you can't let go with a plan
because you drown then you cling to it
rigidly well that's no good because then
you can't learn anything then if that's
you you're a totalitarian you're not
going to learn anything you're gonna end
up in something that's close enough to
hell so that you won't know the
difference and you might drag everyone
along with you that's happened plenty of
times right it's the whole story of the
20th century happened over and over and
over and it happens in people's States
it happens in their business
organizations it happens in their cities
it happens in their provinces it happens
in their states and it happens in their
psyches all at the same time you can't
blame the manifestation of that sort of
thing on any of those one levels it
happens when a society goes down that
way it goes down everywhere at the same
time it's not the totalitarians at the
top and all the happy people striving to
be free at the bottom it's not that at
all it's totalitarianism at every single
level of the hierarchy including the
psychological and so you don't want to
be the thing you don't want to be in
chaos that's for sure but you don't want
to be the thing that clings so
desperately to the raft that you can't
let go when someone comes to rescue you
right you don't want to be that so then
you think well exactly what are you
you know what the chaos you not the plan
maybe you're the thing that confronts
the obstacle and I would say that's the
categorical lesson of of psychology
insofar as it has to do with personal
transformation that's what you always
teach people in psychotherapy I don't
care what sort of psychotherapists you
are you're always teaching them the same
thing you're the thing that can you not
you're not the plan you're the thing
that can confront the obstacle to the
plan and then when you know even further
that the obstacle is not only an
obstacle but opportunity itself well
then your whole view of the world can
change because you might think well I've
got this plan something came up to
object to it it's like it's possible
that the thing that's objecting has
something to teach you that will take
you to the place where you develop an
even better plan that's a nice framework
to use it's like are you so sure that
this is a problem is that the only way
that you can look at it or is it an
opportunity I mean I'm not trying to be
you know naively optimistic there are
some things that's pretty hard to
extract gold from some dragons and maybe
the death of a family member is a good
example of that
but in even in a situation like that I
can tell you that it's an opportunity
for it's an opportunity for maturation
that's for sure
and the thing is you might say well it's
pretty miserable to go to be digging for
gold when someone's falling into the
grave well if they really love you first
of all that's what they'll want you to
do and second you're gonna make their
death a lot more palatable experience
for them if you're someone who can be in
the room and be helpful instead of be
you know quivering in the corner and
feeling that the entire world is
collapsing in on you I mean that's
another you want to be the useful person
at the funeral how's that for a goal
that's a good goal man you know that
you've got yourself together in a
situation like that because you're gonna
be at them and maybe you want to be the
person on whose shoulder people cry
that'd be a good goal that's kind of you
know I don't like being naively
optimistic so when I tell you to get
your life together I'm not gonna say
roses and sunshine it's like that's
that's that's that's pablum for fools
but it really is something to be the
reliable person out of funeral right and
you can aim at that you can do that it's
and you got to be tough to do that
because it also means that you can
sustain a major loss without collapsing
and that
you've got to be a monster to do that
right because you might think and I've
had clients like this while I love my
child I love my mother so much that I
couldn't survive if anything happened to
them it's like you have some serious
thinking to do about that
it's like you really want to curse
someone with that kind of love do you I
couldn't live without you it's like my
god get away from me
really it's terrible that's the eatable
mother right that's like I'll forgive
you no matter what you do it's like
really you no matter what I do eh
you are not my friend that's for sure
not at all it's a horrible thing to do
to someone that's that's the witch in
the Hansel and Gretel story all
gingerbread and outside to the lost kid
inside you feed them candy and make them
fat and eat them right that's Hansel and
Gretel that's the eatable mother that's
one of Freud's major discoveries it gets
a major discovery it's like the
devouring force of love you want the
person to be able to stand on their own
and price you pay for that is that you
stand on your own
it's like good to have you around I'm
glad you're here but if if tragedies win
and if and when tragedy strikes either
of us I hope that one of us is standing
when it blows past and and that there's
a harshness about that that's
unbelievably cruel because you know you
say well if my mother died I could live
well what kind of monster are you
exactly death of your mother doesn't do
you in well turns out that being a
monster is the right thing so and that's
a rough thing to learn but it's
necessary to learn you know because it
also makes you you know at some point
for example as you get older mm-hmm
by the time you're in your mid-20s
something like that you should start
having a relationship with your parents
that's approximately one of peers and
you can tell if you have that so here's
a little trick you can use so you have
parents obviously they have friends you
probably care what your parents think I
would imagine do you care what their
friends think of you and answer that is
well not nearly as much and so then I
would say well why do you care what your
parents think of you then they're the
same
you know what I mean it's just luck of
the draw that your parents are someone
else's kids friends they don't think the
same way about them that you do well
that's where you see that you have a
projection right if by the time you're
30 if what your parents think of you
matters more than what say a random set
of their friends think of you then
you've still got your parents confused
with with God that's one way of looking
at it you've still got them confused
with an archetype and you're still a
child and you might think well it's
pretty damn rude not to think about what
your parents think of you anymore not to
care it's like yeah it's kind of rude
but maybe you'll be useful for them when
they get old and that's a much better
form of caring it's like you're going to
be independent enough and strong enough
and and detached enough so that when the
taught when the when the power dynamic
shifts which it will that you'll be the
person that can carry things forward
well you can't do a better thing for
them than that right that's the best of
all possible outcomes for your parents
well you can think about the world this
way you can think about it as your
orderly little plan that's a place and
you can think about it as the place that
things that disrupt your plan comes from
that's another place this is a bigger
place than this because there's an
endless number of things that can
disrupt your plan and only a tiny number
of them that can you know that will help
you work it out so part of the question
then too is like are you the friend of
your plan or are you the friend of the
thing that disrupts your plan and I
would say you should work to become the
friend of the thing that disrupts your
plan because there's a lot of that and
then if you become the friend of the
thing that disrupts your plan then you
start to develop strength in proportion
to the to the disruptive force and
that's really what you want you want to
be able to implement your plan obviously
but you want to be able to take on the
consequences of error and learn from it
and then then you win constantly because
even if something goes sideways you
think there's something to be derived
from this that's wisdom fundamentally so
and so those are the eternal domains
right there's the domain of order
that's a snake by the way and that's a
domain of chaos and that's the world and
maybe you're in the order and maybe
you're in the chaos but those can flip
on you and maybe you shouldn't be in
either of those places maybe you should
be right in the middle and that's where
you should be as far as I can tell and I
think this is this is another escape
from postmodern nihilism let's say
that's actually a real place it's not
metaphysical or maybe it is but it's
metaphysical if metaphysics is more real
than physics and you can tell when
you're at that place because that's a
maximally meaningful place and you drift
in and out of it all the time in your
life and when things are really bad for
you you're not there hardly at all right
because everything is overwhelming you
or the things have become sterile but if
you watch your life even over a week or
two you'll see that now and then you're
there I think you stand up straighter
right because you're in the right place
at the right time you think aha I got
the forces of chaos and order properly
balanced it's unstable and it'll fall
apart on you but you know you can
practice bringing things together
continually and then you can end up so
that you're there more often than not
and then that's that's a meta place it's
not a place it's a meta place and it's a
place that you can be in all places and
and it's not an illusion of any sort
it's the deepest reality your nervous
system is always orienting yourself your
is always orienting you to that place
always and and that's because it's a
real place that's another way of
thinking about it well that's the normal
world with that's the garden with the
snake in it and that's chaos that that's
the chaos that arises when your plans
collapse right that's the world in the
underworld and so the underworld is
always there and it's lurking beneath
everything it's like the figure of the
shark in the jaws poster right there you
are swinging at the top and there's that
terrible thing underneath that can come
up and pull you down that's the world so
you need to be able to operate here and
you need to be able to operate here and
when you operate here well that's when
you rescue your father from the belly of
the whale that's when you go down you
see when you're down in chaos and you
don't know what the hell's going on you
have to rediscover the values that
orient people have oriented people
forever that's what you have to discover
so for example when I'm dealing with
people have post-traumatic stress
disorder and they've usually encountered
someone malevolent they have to relearn
the description of good and evil because
if they don't they have no framework
they're lost they think well there's a
malevolence afoot in the world and I'm a
naive I'm a naive I'm a prey animal a
naive prey animal for the malevolence of
the world it's like well good luck
functioning under that set of
assumptions man you just do not recover
from that you stay at home in your
burrow that's what you do well you have
to you go down into that you think okay
well malevolence is afoot I better be
the sort of person that can understand
it and deal with it and that's another
reason why you have to transform
yourself into a monster that's the
Jungian incorporation of the shadow it's
no bloody joke because the only thing
that a monster won't mess with is
another monster and you might say well I
don't want to transform myself into a
monster it's like you don't have a
choice you can either be a pathetic
monster or you can be a monster with
some power those are your options
there's no non monster alternative weak
or strong and I don't mean strong like
dominating tyrant strength that isn't
what I mean at all I mean strength like
functioning at a Funeral strength and
that's a kind of monstrosity and when
you're down in chaos that's what you
have to rediscover well that's partly
what that means you're lucky if you come
back out remember I told you the story
of Jonah at the beginning of the course
it's like he had something to do and was
refusing to do it and so God pulled him
down to the depths of being and
threatened him with death but worse not
just death he'll really well he decided
it was better to come popping up back
into the light and go do what he was
supposed to do well there's a reason
that like that's the oldest story of
mankind as far back as you go into the
archives of history you find this story
right and it's because well it's because
not only is it because it's true it's
because it's true and everyone knows
it's true even though they don't know
that they know that this is the story -
it's the same thing there
always a city it's always enclosed right
there's always people who inhabit it
there's always someone who's willing to
notice that the dragon hasn't gone away
the skulls are still around there's
someone who's willing to come out of the
fortress and and take that on right and
to prefer perform the job of rescuing
that's an eternal story are you the city
are you the dragon are you the thing
that engages voluntarily in combat with
what lies outside your range of safety
because that's what that image
represents it's that is the monster
amalgam symbolic amalgam of all that
which lies outside your realm of safety
you want to be safe forget that right
that is that's not that's not in the
cards you're not gonna be safe well then
you have to be meta safe and that's way
better because then you're not safe but
you know how to cope with danger well
find that that solves the problem and
maybe it's even a better solution
because if you're safe then you just
have to stay in your burrow but if you
can confront danger then you can go
wherever you want and you can have an
adventure and maybe that's what you need
to do is to go out and have an adventure
so you don't even want safety because of
how exciting is that not Dostoyevsky
said very clearly let's say we made you
perfectly safe all that you had to do is
eat cakes and worry yourself with the
continuation of the species what would
you do
you'd smash it all down as soon as you
possibly could just so you had something
interesting and challenging to do so you
don't want safety you want to be able to
cope with danger that's a whole
different thing and I'm like this isn't
again metaphysical that did clinical
data on this is clear when you treat
someone for an anxiety disorder like
Agra phobia you do not get rid of their
anxiety
you make them braver that's way better
there's no going back like once your
agoraphobic your heart's not doing them
you know it's it's it's missing beats
now on that it's like death like the
crocodile that's got the clock and it's
in his stomach
death is after you there's no there's no
going back to naivety you don't get to
be safe ever again well so what happens
you get to be stronger well hey it turns
out that's a better bar
anyways so Lin is Bell an evolutionary
arms race between early snakes and
mammals triggered the development of
improved vision and large brain in
primates a radical new theory suggests
the idea proposed by Lin is Bell and
anthropologist at the University of
California suggests that snakes and
primates share a long and intimate
history one that forced both groups to
evolve new strategies as each attempted
to gain the upper hand that's Hercules
right well that's infinity that symbol
and this is the snake you cut off one
head and seven more growth it's like the
it's an infinite snake you're never
gonna run out of snakes those are the
things that object to your plans well
you can't get rid of the snake so what
do you do you learn how to handle them
right that's it that's that's the
answers you learn how to become a
handler of snakes both physical and
metaphysical see you see the little halo
around it I think that's st. George
might be st. Michael but I think it's
st. George why is he go to halo well
that's the Sun well what does that mean
it's gold - Gold is pure it's the pure
gold Sun it's associated with
consciousness it's the pure gold Sun of
consciousness that can confront the
terrible thing that paralyzes and that's
the same thing that's death right the
clock in the stomach of the crocodile
it's already got a taste of Captain Hook
Captain Hook's no st. George that's why
Peter Pan doesn't want to grow up I'd
always sees his Captain Hook I don't
want to be Captain Hook
he doesn't see this so he stays at home
and plays video games with the rest of
the Lost Boys look I got nothing against
video games by the way I mean everything
in moderation right and I mean they
demand skill well so what's this you
know there you are you go down into
chaos and then you come back up and so
you might say well am i this or am i the
chaos or am i the new new solution an
answer is you're not this or you
shouldn't be because that's your old
dead self right that's the thing that
needs to burn away you know what chaos
itself but you're also not the new
regenerated order you're the thing that
can make the journey and more than that
you're the thing that decides to make
the journey voluntarily and then more
than that you're the thing that decides
to make the journey voluntarily
for as long as it takes and that's where
you derive your strength it's like
there's no getting rid of chaos it's
eternal there's no getting rid of order
it's eternal those are both traps you
mediate between them and that's where
your strength lies and that's not only
strength for you it's strength for you
it's strength for the people around you
strength for the community and strength
for everything it's the thing that makes
everything order itself properly and
thrive
you have to ask yourself and this is the
thing you ask yourself this is the
existential question do you want things
to be ordered properly and thrive
because if the answer to that is yes you
have to give up your hatred of being you
have to give up your resentment you have
to give up your martyrdom and your
victimization and all of that because to
the degree that you carry that forward
it will corrupt you and you will not
want the best because to be if you
aren't the best you have to be without
Rachel hey treated rancor and and
resentment because you know if I resent
you for your inadequacies or even for
your for your accomplishments I'm not
going to have a conversation with you
where I'm aiming for the best I'm gonna
have all sorts of motivations I'm gonna
take you down somehow you know
especially if you're successful that's
the Cain and Abel story it's like I bet
I want to be who you are but I can't be
so I'll just cut you off at the knees
and that'll do just fine and then I can
get my revenge on you and I can get my
revenge on being and you know the fact
that it helps turn everything into hell
well maybe that's just an additional
benefit that's represented all sorts of
different ways the masculine Sun and the
feminine moon and that's Horus in gold
right Horus is all speech and eyes and
that's Osiris the god of tradition and
Isis the queen of the underworld you see
the same thing here suffering individual
that transcends it by accepting it
nested inside of society and the
patriarchal structure nested inside the
natural world and the feminine
that's the same idea there that's Buddha
emerging from the lotus flower and the
lotus flower if its roots go down into
the murk at the at the bottom of the of
the the pond
so it emerges out of the darkness and
manifests itself and then it climbs
upwards towards the light and then the
Lotus floats on the surface of the water
and blooms open and inside that the
Buddha sits golden buddha sits in the
light
it's the flowering of being and that's
that's a Mandela from the Union
perspective it's the Mandela opens up
and it reveals this mode of perfect
being
that's what the Buddha means and he
found enlightenment underneath the tree
because that's the human environment
there's to find enlightenment underneath
the tree he's got the Sun on his head -
and he's gold for the same reason gold
is pure
you see the same thing in Hinduism so
that's the yoni feminine symbol case you
were wondering masculine symbol that's
the union of the two right that's the
union of chaos and order
with a snake lurking in the background
and it's golden because it's the union
of those two things that produces the
power of the snake that's something that
you might think about you could think
about those as two halves of the DNA
molecule that is what they are although
I can't tell you how I know that but
it's the same idea it's the same idea
here so this what happens here is that
you see this is a very remarkable
picture so this is Eve Eve is handing
out skulls to mankind right
it's self-consciousness and the
discovery of death this is Mary as the
church on this side and she's handing
out these things that are the hosts it's
those are pieces of Christ's body and
see so he's put up there on this tree
the same as the skull as an antidote the
antidote is something that you
incorporate and the thing you
incorporate is the voluntary acceptance
of suffering as the cure for death
that's what that picture means people
worked on that bloody picture for a long
long long long time and you know we see
the picture but we don't know what it
means but that's what it means means the
same thing that this means it means the
same thing that this means means the
same thing that this means see there's
there's pride rock this is the
Scandinavian world tree there's pride
rock right there there's the territory
outside see it's a serpent it's a snake
that's the territory outside that's
outside of the light and that's all in a
tree that's how can you not read that as
a history of the evolution of mankind
that's exactly what it is that's our
eternal home
well we better stop before that girl
comes in
it was very nice having you all in the
class and I appreciated the warm welcome
I got especially in January because it
was a rough time in January and so I'm
glad this all worked out so well and it
was a pleasure teaching you so good luck
to you all
I mean it be what you can be God you let
the world dissolve around you otherwise
that's not a good thing you've got
something that everyone needs man
including yourself it's like let it out
that's where everything you want is and
it's this it's the case for every single
one of you so you know hoist up your
goddamn privilege and go out there and
do something in the world see ya
[Applause]
