| You can’t
|
| You know, you can’t eat 10 roasts of beef in one day
|
| Can’t live in six houses at once, can’t drive three Rolls Royces at the same
|
| time
|
| What are you to do?
|
| Watch what is going on
|
| Watch what happens
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Watch what is going on
|
| Watch what happens
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Well, you just go make more money, put your money back
|
| Invest in something else, it’ll make more
|
| You don’t give a damn how it’s made, so long as they make it
|
| You don’t care if they foul the rivers, put oil fumes throughout the air
|
| everywhere, kill off all the fish
|
| So what?
|
| So long as you see these figures happening, you’re not aware of anything else
|
| So you see, you went out to do a self-improvement thing
|
| Making money, you see, is a measure of improvement, a measure of your economic
|
| worthwhileness
|
| Or at least, that’s what it’s supposed to be, it isn’t anything of the kind
|
| But you went out, in other words, for the status, instead of for the actuality
|
| Watch what is going on
|
| Watch what happens
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Watch what is going on
|
| Watch what happens
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| You do art, you’re a musician
|
| Why do you play music?
|
| The only reason for playing music is to enjoy
|
| If you play music to impress an audience
|
| Read about yourself in the newspaper, you’re not interested in music
|
| So in the same way, why do I come and talk to you?
|
| 'Cause I enjoy it
|
| I like the sound of my own voice
|
| I’m interested in what I’m talking about, and I get paid for it
|
| Now, that’s smart in this life
|
| You get paid for what you enjoy
|
| So here’s the situation, you see
|
| The whole idea of self-improvement is a will-o'-the-wisp and a hoax
|
| That’s not what it’s about
|
| Let’s begin where we are
|
| What happens if you know, if you know beyond any shadow of doubt that there is
|
| nothing you can do to be better?
|
| Well, it’s kind of a relief, isn’t it?
|
| You say, «Well, now what will I do?»
|
| Because we are so used to making things better
|
| Leave the world a better place than when you found it sorta thing
|
| I want to be of service to other people, and all these dreadfully hazy ideas
|
| But supposing instead of that, seeing that there isn’t really anything we can
|
| do to improve ourselves or to improve the world, if we realize that that is so,
|
| it gives us a breather, in the course of which we may simply
|
| Watch what is going on
|
| Watch what happens
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Watch what is going on
|
| Watch what happens
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Nobody ever does this, you know
|
| Therefore, it sounds terribly simple, it sounds so simple that it almost looks
|
| as if it isn’t worth doing
|
| But have you ever just watched?
|
| Watch what’s happening and watch what you are doing by way of reaction to it
|
| Just watch it happen, and don’t be in a hurry
|
| To think you know what it is
|
| In other words, people look, so that’s the external world
|
| Oh? |
| How do you know?
|
| The whole thing, from a neurological point of view, there’s a happening in your
|
| head
|
| That you think there is something outside the skull is a notion in your nervous
|
| system
|
| That may or may not be, but it’s a notion in your nervous system
|
| You think this is the material world
|
| Well, that’s somebody’s philosophical idea
|
| You think it’s spiritual
|
| That too is somebody’s philosophical idea
|
| This real world is not spiritual
|
| It is not material
|
| The real world is simply…
|
| So could we look at things in that way, without fixing labels and names and
|
| gradations and judgments on everything?
|
| But watch what happens
|
| Watch what we do
|
| But watch what happens
|
| Watch what we do |