Many weeks ago, in fact, the 4th week of our investigation into the study of man, into self-Awareness, the study of the self, we discussed the two worlds: the man-made world and the real world. We put the real world at the top, the world of real living beings, no two of which are alike, no two of which are ever in the same environment at the same time. And the man-made world which man lives in, but is not of – of the idea of ideas, ideals, standards, machines and games.

Among the games (down at the bottom of it) we said there were four great games. These four great games man uses on man – as though he were also a product or a native of the man-made world instead of something he is in, but not of – were the games called “Theology, The Healing Art, Power Policies, and Big Business.” Each of these sets up a standard for man as though he were a mere machine.

THEOLOGY sets up a standard of “good” according to which theology one subscribes to.

THE HEALING ART sets up a standard of “norm,” normal, and each and every one of us are compared to that norm. Some are too fat, some are too skinny; some don’t sleep enough, some sleep too much; some the heart runs too fast, another one it runs too slow. And as it fits, nobody quite fits the norm because it is an artificial norm set from averages and consequently everyone is abnormal.

Then in the POWER POLICIES we are told to follow a certain line or idea. Without that we are, of course, out of step and probably an enemy of the state, and we might run into various and sundry difficulties by so doing. So, we are either “in” if we agree with everything and follow the line, or we are “out” if we do not agree with it.

Then, of course, BIG BUSINESS sets up a standard of what’s “pretty.” And of course, everything is obsolete in a year or so because it’s no longer “pretty.” Sometimes more often than that. The style of clothes changes completely, automobiles change styles, and housing changes and means of decoration, the furniture and everything changes. Cause we must have the newest “in” or we are, of course, “ugly”.

Now, we’ll also consider this in the light of that great Teaching story called “The Good Samaritan,” the story of The Good Samaritan. The story is told that a certain man, while on his way down to Jericho (or he could have been on the way down to Chicago, or the way down to Los Angeles, or the way down to Salt Lake City) that he fell in amongst thieves and robbers, and that he was wounded severely, robbed of all his possessions, and left for dead. And that while he was laying in the ditch, dead, that a doctor came by. In this case it was a doctor of the law, but we will use it possibly in today’s modern world, we can update the parable a little bit.

A doctor came by and he didn’t want to be involved in something there – he was liable to get a malpractice suit against him if he even fiddled with him; besides, he’s dead. And besides that, the state patrol will take care of it, and they have ambulances to take him in, and “If it gets him in a hospital, I’ll see about him.”

The next was the lawyer. He, of course, came by and obviously the man didn’t have any clothes on, so he had no way of paying a fee. And he was unconscious, so how could he file a complaint of anything, so he went on his way.

And another man came by who was a priest, and obviously the man was dead. And his work was to save souls, not deal with drunks laying in the ditch that didn’t even have their clothes on. He was simply indecent, and it really should be reported to the police. Pretty soon the police will pick him up and throw him in jail. So, he went on his way.

And of course, to make the story current we will have a merchant come by. And the merchant saw he didn’t have any clothes, so obviously he didn’t have any pockets to have money in, or a credit card, nor a checkbook, so of course he was of no interest to the merchant because he couldn’t sell him anything. He couldn’t convince him he had some need that he could supply if the man but had the money. The man had no money, no credit card, no clothes, so leave him. The police will take care of him after a while.

And it said that another man came along – a Samaritan. A Samaritan were disliked very intensely by the people who wrote this story. They were of Jewish extraction, and they did not like Samaritans because Samaritans worshipped in a temple in Samaria and did not go to the one, the temple in Jerusalem. Of course, they belonged to the “wrong” church you might say, so obviously, we can’t have anything to do with them. But the Samaritan came by, and regardless of the man being naked, being injured, possibly getting in trouble with him, he may be drunk – whatever the case – the man saw here was a fellow human being incapacitated. So, he made some CONTRIBUTION.

He first considered of the man that he was in a predicament where he was without ability to care for himself. He didn’t try to change him over and try to convert him into any idea. He didn’t try to do “good” for him. He just did that which was obvious to do for someone who was rendered incapable of caring for self and he made some contribution. It says, “He poured on oil and wine into the man’s wounds.” He set him in his own Cadillac and took him into the next town and installed him in a motel. He paid his bill for a day or two in advance and told the motel operator that he would take care of any further bills that the man might incur on his next trip through. He probably was a salesman or someone who frequently came by and was known to the motel. At least, they trusted him.

So we have quite a story of the four great professions. First, if we will go back and look a minute, we have never been taught that when we are ill, that it is a normal adaptation to some sort of stress either from inner feeling, from activity, from nutrition, or from some stress from the environment. If any of those were noticed, we would know that the adaptation was perfectly normal to restore to the balance that X sets for the physical body instrument, that it may operate well; that it had been stressed and now it would have to have a little while to return. It was also a signal to say if anything needed to be corrected.

Nutrition could be looked over. One’s activity would be considered, and one’s inner feeling for the past several days would be checked out to see if one was in a state of anxiety because of struggling towards some “ideal”, or because one had been disappointed and felt hurt, looked for blame and become angry, or feeling guilty, or fearful, or insecure. Some “ideal” hadn’t been realized. Or there may be some obnoxious substance in the environment that one would need to take a little effort to clean up. At any rate, it is a signal; and it is a sign of the normal adaptation. Two in one information.

But we don’t see it as that. We see it as something having “attacked” us – some unknown something called a “disease” which has attacked man. And all we gotta do is determine what his name is. So one goes to the healing art with a normal adaptation and a signal to report that something in one of the four areas [nutrition, activity, environment, inner feeling] is not going toward optimum, but is going the other way. That one is missing the mark in caring for the dressing and keeping the garden on the outside of the things that the garden exists in. So, one gets a “diagnosis.” And the diagnosis determines what evil entity, what evil “dis-ease” has attacked a person.

The word diagnosis is from three Greek words. “The first one is a prefix – “di,” which means two; “agno” is the root, which refers to “I don’t know” – like an agnostic. And “osis” is a suffix that refers to “condition of.” So one has a diagnosis: a condition of two not knowing – the person who was in the state of disorder and the one he went to. But we do now have a name and the name is the symptoms described in Latin. We’ll take the common for instance of arthritis. “Artho” is the Greek word for joint. “Itis” is the word for inflammation. We put them together and we have an inflamed joint. So, John walks in and tells the doctor that, “My joints hurt, and they are painful to move. When I move them quite a bit in my day’s work, I suffer excruciating pain.” So after a very expensive examination, possibly three days observation in a hospital, one is told one has arthritis. We translated pain in joints into Greek, and now we have a diagnosis.

Then, of course, the treatment comes about, gives sedatives so you won’t feel it. That numbs the signal so that it can continue to have whatever the stress is, continue on for years and years and nobody particularly looks for the stress. We’re interested in a cure, a cure meaning something that will make one comfortable. Now of course, when a man is laying in a ditch, he was so called to be there, he is unable to look after himself. He is “conditioned” now. So, obviously the doctor went on by because the man was in the state which he fits – he is conditioned now. His problem originated from possibly one of those people back down the way.

Then the next man came by was the lawyer. The law tells us what is “in,” so obviously, this man was “out.” But how do we decide we’re “out?” When we no longer agree with every ideology that is spoon-fed us day and night, with suggestion from this source and that source and all this. We are to hate this group of people. We are to love these over here. Maybe a few weeks later it quits. We will not trade with this bunch because they are evil people and they would take what we give them in trade and shoot it back at us someday or feed their soldiers while they shot at us. Then a little later it seems it’s very reasonable to trade with them. One we won’t even recognize they exist; later we recognize they exist. If the leaders of these ideas should decide to go into a mutual extermination process, then of course each side is made to feel it’s holy, righteous, and if you should question it, of course you are a very evil person. You are very “out” and all sorts of things might happen to one. Then of course, the lawyer went on by.

Then the priest came by. Now, the priest tells us what is “good.” And no one can live up to all the ideas of what is “good” while one is conditioned and lives in the man-made world of conditioning. So one is supposed to have sinned. Sin has been changed from “missing the mark” to “not fitting the code of the theologian” of that particular moment. So, if one has drunk a cup of coffee, one is evil; or if one has eaten meat on a certain day of the week, one is evil. Or if one has gone to a dance, in another theology, one is evil. And if one has read certain books or attended certain meetings, one is evil and in danger of being thrown out. So this man laying by the ditch was obviously thrown out.

And then the merchant came by. And the merchant tells us what’s “pretty,” and pretty is ever changing, and the man was no prospect at the moment. But he was possibly in this state because he had struggled so hard to gain that which was “pretty.” You know, many people are drastically in debt. They have bills in all directions – not because it requires more than their income to provide food, clothing and shelter, but it requires considerably more than their income to buy all the things that are supposed to make one “pretty.” A new automobile, a new house, a new carpet, a color TV, a vacation in the right spot, and all the many other goodies that the merchant has to sell because his constant advertising is that you are pretty far “ugly” if you don’t have all these newest and prettiest of his goodies that he’s made.

What he made last year suddenly is “ugly.” What he’s making this year is really “pretty,” and you will be very “pretty” if you buy it. So, of course, all the things that one buys in order to be “pretty”, all the struggles that one makes to be “in”, all the struggles that one makes to be “good”, and all the struggles that one makes to be “healthy” leaves one in a very degraded state. One has been beaten and robbed and is left for dead because he is fully conditioned now. “He’ll do what we tell him to do when we have something for him that he is capable of doing it.”

But then a Samaritan came by. Now the Samaritan is represented as a stranger to the people. So a stranger came and the stranger has something valuable to the man in the ditch, to the man who was left for dead. He has oil and wine. He has compassion on the man. He sees the person in the total state of bondage, rendered incapable of providing for self, of even the simplest things. He is rendered incapable in every direction. He is totally conditioned by the circumstances and by what’s going on.

So the Samaritan represents the Teaching, the carrier of the Teaching. He is always a stranger. He carries wine and oil. Wine is truth and oil is the value of the truth. So he puts them on the man’s wounds. The wounds are all the areas of the conditioning of man. Everywhere we are conditioned is a wound because it is preventing us from pursuing the real purpose of living. The man was on his way to Jericho, wherever Jericho may mean. He may have been on his way someplace else. He was on his way, but on the way he was rendered incapable and robbed.

So while a person may be on his way to keeping his destiny of evolving into a fully conscious man, there are many robbers on the way. He is stripped and robbed and wounded and left for dead. So the Samaritan poured on Truth and the Value of the Truth – oil and wine. Oil and wine is that which begins to point out the fallacies of the Four Dual Basic Urges. It sees the value in departing from the Four Dual Basic Urges. It sees the value in dis-identifying from everything connected with the Four Dual Basic Urges; and of seeing how these have led to man’s fallen state of being in the ditch. Somewhere else it says a man falls in the pit. So obviously, the Samaritan had a reason.

Then he carried him on his vehicle. It says in the old story he put him on his beast and took him into town. Of course, we don’t ride horses today, so he put him in the car or the pickup and went to town. And he put him in a motel, an Inn, where the man could be safe; he put him in a school. He gave him enough to see that the man could start on his way. Obviously, when the man was in the state that he was in, his necessity had been increased to the point where he was ready to question the purpose of living – the way he had been going and the ideas he’d been living by, and that every time he had a problem he went to the people who had produced the problem… he was ready to do a little listening. So he put him in an Inn, which means he put him in a school. And he said he would take care of him on his way back, so he went on out of the picture. The man in the ditch was now put in the Inn. He was in a place where he could recuperate from the conditioning that had been given to him.

We all have to recuperate, because we have been rendered almost dead and left really for being dead. We have many wounds. Many areas of our being are totally under the control of conditioning; and we are no longer able to function entirely alone. So one has to have assistance. This assistance comes in the form of the ideas of the Teaching. One must see them as of having value, must see them as wine and as oil. When one sees them as wine and oil, they have great healing properties. All that which has obstructed man from his true destiny of being a fully conscious union with Spirit, X – being one with God so that he could say along with the Christ, “The Father and I are one. The Father within doeth all the work.” I see what to do; He does the work.

This total union is what all men are designed to go toward, but somewhere on the way, we meet up with forces that we are unaware of that offer us pleasure and comfort in the end if we will, of course, provide for them in the process.

So as one begins to observe this, one begins to see the man-made world in a new light. Now this is not something to go out and talk to everyone about because it might not be much to one’s advantage. But it is something to be aware of, to observe, and to observe that when someone comes to tell you what a problem you have, that he also brings with him a remedy that will cost you quite a bit. If these remedies really worked, that would be fine; but you’ll notice they don’t work. They give temporary relief now and then. But in the long run – we are talking in all areas of man’s existence, not just one – in the long run, he is what? Left for dead. And nobody has interest in him anymore because he “failed” in his destiny. All of them offer that your true destiny is to be non-disturbed, to be back to the uterine world.

You might say that this is what each and every one of the great professions tells you: “If you will believe and do as I tell you, you will then be back to the non-disturbed state.” Now, we never look at the game. We only look at the various operators. So, we try to decide which theology to go, because obviously with their many ideas of what is “good”, something is a little… funny, to say the least. So we try to pick out one. We never look at the game at all. We only look at the various operators of the game.

We go to the Healing Art. There are many branches of Healing Art. There is the regular medicine, homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, there is naturopathy, physical culture, Christian Science, and many, many more. Acupuncture, now, is gaining a little light in the road, which is an old, old form of Chinese medicine, of Chinese healing. So all forms are getting their play – psychological healing – but we never look to see that each is offering the same thing, that it’s the game we’re interested in, not the operator of the game. Each says the other one is real “bad”.

In Power Policies there are many different parties: Democrats, Republicans, American Party, Communist Party, Socialist Party, Christian Democrats, on and on. And each says he is the one that should be given to run, but we never question the game. We only try to decide which operator of the game is the one we will follow, and that keeps it confused. So we really never study the game.

Suppose we have as our assignment to study games of the four great games. Now, we are not talking about any individual. We are talking about an ideology, a philosophy. You know, in many places we might read in the Scripture that the wisdom of man and the philosophies of man is as foolishness with God, because the philosophies of man are all turned towards gaining non-disturbance, trying to find out what is “good” to bring about the non-disturbed state. Where the Teaching is not concerned with your being non-disturbed, the Teaching is only concerned with one being CONSCIOUS. It is not telling you it will make you conscious. It says, here are some ideas that if you work with you will find out for yourself what happens. And that one can also observe the “world.”

So as one goes about for the next few days, let’s observe “the world”. Let’s observe the suggestions that come over the television from these four different areas of influence. We are not talking about an individual, not one anywhere in the world. We are talking about a philosophy, four philosophies that while they have many branches, are concerned with the same thing. They’re all philosophies of men. So, let’s observe philosophies. You see, man is conditioned by agreeing or disagreeing with given philosophies.

Let’s see what we discover as we observe these philosophies, not the various brands of the philosophy, but the very basic philosophy itself: that there is a “normal” for man, that there is a “good behavior” for man under all circumstances, and that there is an “in” state for man – the real political philosophy – and that there is a “pretty” state for man. And that these are all really “ideals” that have been convinced that one is real. And the struggle towards the illusion or an “ideal” is the disintegrating factor.

So let’s become acquainted with these four philosophies. Now, we will also see that the Teaching is not a philosophy, but is a science that says, here is a hypothesis. EXPERIMENT WITH IT AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF.

When we say theologies, we are not talking about religion. RELIGION IS THE RELATIONSHIP OF GOD AND MAN, SPIRIT AND MAN. It is a very intimate relationship that each of us is working to discover. Theology is man’s idea about what God wants.