Ordinarily we never pick up a book to read it, we don’t listen to a talk, or we don’t sit down to have a private conversation with someone unless we have a practical purpose. We have a problem to solve. Or we intend to gain something from it. That purpose is always seemingly predicated on the Four Dual Basic Urges of mammon – that “I” ought to gain pleasure and escape pain, or “I” want to gain attention and escape some disapproval. Or “I” want to get over this sense of inferiority and feel superior one way or another. “I” want to be able to control people.

When we have this purpose, we block off the listening. We are listening for this particular purpose, so we turn off everything that doesn’t seem to relate to it, and that which “I” feel might relate to it, “I” twist it around so it will fit. How much do we miss of what is said, what we read because we’re reading it with looking for one certain thing? We can go to “sleep” and go over rows and rows of paragraphs because we were scanning it to see where it would give us something we wanted. It is most interesting to hear a book quoted, or even to hear self quote it. It is most interesting. It doesn’t come out at all like what’s been said. If you had said it like the person quotes it, it would have solved a problem and that was never the purpose of it in the beginning.

We approach things with a problem. We are never quite willing to let the problem sit for a while. We are always so busy finding solutions to problems, and most of what we call problems are solutions to something else. It is, in all probability, that we have a lot of solutions and really no problems at all. What is the solution to growth of a city? Isn’t it pollution? So maybe we can’t stand too many more solutions. Problems, of course, are the outcome of the mind, the self, that is struggling to change something. That’s the problem – the mind that is looking to change something. The self wants to change WHAT IS into what it “ought to be” so it will bring pleasure, comfort, attention and approval. 

An entirely different type of mind or awareness must be present for at least a few minutes while one sees what is true. When you listen to anything, when you read anything, if you can set the problem aside – disidentify from the problem and I does the reading – and don’t allow the self to get in and do all the judging. You know, “A” will say one thing, and “B” says it’s another; and the turmoil is going on until one doesn’t know what one has read. That’s why it quoted rather oddly, because maybe “A” quotes it, maybe “B” quotes it. Who knows?

When not looking or reading for the purpose of solving a problem, you will find that there’s possibly something that is described that is true. Possibly if you are just listening to a discussion; and you are not listening for a certain purpose, you are listening to see what is being said. You’re not going to apply it to making more money, you are not going to apply it to feeling better, you are not going to apply it to make your husband or wife behave better or how to get the children to behave. You’re just simply listening to see what is said. It might be interesting. You see, if one is interested in everything, one is listening. But if one is in one of the states of being of the walking sleep, one is identified with the “self.” Then one is listening to get over an anger, or to find how to get a revenge, or how to get over boredom, or how to get over fear, or how to get over resentment or something. Or how to get even, maybe.

You see, just listening has its own effect. It works on you, not you on it. What you’re listening is you hear a fact, you hear a statement. You are paying attention. You see it as a “what is” description and you see some value in it, regardless of what. It’s just a truth. You know, the old statement is that it isn’t all your struggles and efforts that make one free; it is the truth that frees one. But you know, we seldom ever just listen to see WHAT IS TRUE about what’s being said and what’s the VALUE of it. We’re looking at it for a purpose to do something to serve mammon with it. You can’t use anything that’s true. It has its own effects, its own worth, and the very fact of discovering it, of uncovering it, brings about a complete revelation in the whole state of being because that truth begins to be acted upon by X. One discovers truth, one doesn’t use truth. Now, that state of being, that total revolution, that transformation within one – most everyone seems somewhat interested in. We’d all like it. We don’t know what it is, but we’d like to have it. But you see, we are a little afraid also of a revolution in the being. What we really want is a revolution in the problems so the problems will all go away; but we have never seen that the “ideal” made the problem. We are trying to achieve the “ideal”.

So you will be working with many people as the months go along. All of them will come to you with a problem. If you get caught in the trap of trying to solve their problem, they have caught you. If you get them to see the ideal and not the problem, and they see the conflict, the struggle to change WHAT IS into “what ought to be,” that they have put… [corrects himself] seen WHAT IS, but they didn’t like it and they put value on “what ought to be.” And so, they’re in a state of frustration, which is called a problem. They want something to fit some ideal and, of course, we can’t try to help them get that ideal because that would be contributing to their delinquency. We can only work the other way – to see if we can get them to question the whole purpose of living. If they can’t, coo a while and let them go.

Practically every person that comes to any of us has a certain thing that wants to be corrected, straightened out or something done to it. They don’t come usually to find out what they can is making the problem. They don’t come with the idea, “I don’t know what’s wrong, something is.” They don’t come with the idea that, “I am totally lost, and I don’t know what the purpose of living is.” So, we can let them work in the outer realm – the outer school, so to speak – for a while and see if they can begin to pay attention to self. The first thing is to pay attention to self before one can do much else. That won’t harm anyone if they don’t do it, even though you tell them about it. And it doesn’t waste anything if they don’t do it. 

They come in wanting a person straightened out. They know what they need to have if they could just find the way to get it and they would like for you to get it for them if possible. Or, at least, tell them how to get it. We can only go back to the Teaching, and we don’t get sentimental and start “helping” people to get their ideals. Even if we knew how, we wouldn’t do that. Because as long as we aid them to expect to work toward some ideal of non-disturbance, of non-challenge, that they can’t see that everybody has a cross to bear – the cross of WHAT IS and what is the VALUE of what is. We all have to take up our cross. And then if we use the Teaching as a light, maybe that cross changes very decidedly, but it will still be WHAT IS and the VALUE of what is. But as we see different, WHAT IS seems to undergo a transformation. And WHAT IS OF VALUE in WHAT IS, as we see differently, certainly undergoes a transformation. Of course, all the people that come to you with all their problems, seemingly, and that problem is out of their own confusion, and you certainly can’t straighten it out.

You can’t listen with wondering “what can I do about this?” We can only listen to them; and as we listen, we will hear the self. We see the Picture of Man drawn out in words very clearly in front of us – IF WE JUST LISTEN. Then we can truly see the truth of what that person’s difficulty is. We don’t try to straighten out all their little things: “My husband drinks and doesn’t treat me very nice.” “My wife nags me.” “My children don’t obey me.” “The boss is overbearing to me – he is very demanding, and he doesn’t care a thing in the world about our rights,” and so on and on and on. 

I think it was old Winston Churchill who made a wild comment one time. He said, “Most everybody stumbles over truth every now and then, but they usually get up and dust themselves off and go on like nothing had happened.” The way that we manage this is it doesn’t solve the particular person’s problem that they wanted changed at that time. So then, of course the truth that was handed out – that your whole difficulty comes from another direction – the study of self so that we might could see about the problem.

So, some time we might use the idea that instead of solving the problem, let’s see if we can understand the problem. Of course, the problem always turns out to be the self, sooner or later. Sometimes this can get something started – to work with a person who has a potential. But it is only a way to see if you can actualize the potential to get them to see that there must be something haywire in the purpose of living that they have, this whole idea of being non-disturbed. But, basically, most will not hear anything you have to say. There is nothing accomplished. Nothing occurs, of course, when they only listen for a problem, how to solve a problem. Today there was a letter came. It said, “Please send information. My husband is in a mess, and I hope he will read something that will straighten him out.” He obviously didn’t fit the ideal.

So, as we see what to work with people, we see that there is first a necessity to get the person to see that they have to find out something for self, that they can’t go solving problems because most of the problem-solving only results in solutions. Which are then seen as problems. The endless cycle of this wears them out. It is useless to work with someone unless there can be something done. If the person is not in a position to work – to be knowing self, to consider something, and to make some discovery of what is going on – there is somebody else that one could work with to more advantage. Who knows, maybe next week, next month, or next year, that person who couldn’t work today may get in such a state that their necessity is so increased that they will begin to question the whole purpose of living.

You see, one of the possibilities that we get caught in is that we have a tendency to be sentimental. The poor person is begging – possibly with tears in their eyes, with a quake in the voice, and with a woebegone expression – and it looks like one will have to be very hard-hearted and very cruel not to try to help them in some way. But you see, here is where one sees WHAT IS and what is the VALUE of it. Unless one sees that there is no value in being helpful, and it is in all probability harmful, and as we said, one of the things that the person that has some awareness does is consider, yes…but is harmless. TO BE HARMLESS REQUIRES GREAT CONSIDERATION, considerable cogitation, if you please; but to be “helpful” is so easy. I can be helpful any minute. I can give a kind word. I can give a little reassurance. I can do all manner of things that will be helpful. 

The person may be very appreciative of it and give me some approval while I’m doing it, but I have been harmful. I was not considerate. I did not make a contribution. I aided the person staying in bondage longer. Sometimes it would seem that one almost has to turn away in order to not see the agonizing expression on the person’s face, to hear their quavering voice. But here is temptation – temptation to be helpful, to see an ideal. You see mammon in all of his tricks bring some pathetic poor person to you. And that person says, “You always look so happy. You always look like a light is shining off of you, and I know that you could do something for me. Won’t you please?”

And if you try to give them some comfort, and some pleasure, and relieve their pain a bit, you may have made them dependent on you. You may have gotten a good feeling out of it, but mammon caught us. He got us back to seeing the ideal of the world – that the whole idea is to gain pleasure and escape pain. Maybe even it sounds better if I say: to give pleasure and comfort, and to take away pain. But you see this would only be actualizing the ideal of the world for a few minutes, and then the person is dependent on you. And pretty soon you have a chain around your neck.

And there’s people that could understand, and could work, and have come to the point where they have questioned the whole purpose of living. In other words, they are challenging mammon. But the other one is still serving mammon, and they’re still doing everything possible to gain pleasure and escape pain. They are the ones that will tempt you. You see, mammon uses them, I think, to bring them around, to see if you will get caught trying to be helpful which, of course, is to get back into the world again, to be serving the world.

Certainly, one is not discourteous; certainly, one is kind. But one continues to discuss: “Let’s set the problem aside” or “Let’s understand the problem. Now you’re saying, of course, that you’re in all this misery, but let’s understand the problem.” Then we go back to what a problem is. There is only one thing the person can really call a problem. That is conflict, that is struggle, resistance. They are synonyms, one and the same. One must be in a conflict with WHAT IS because it is not “what ought to be.” One is struggling to change WHAT IS into what one thinks “ought to be” to achieve the ideal. Or one is resisting any Second Force – any resistance to what one has initiated and wants to do because that was what would make one pleasurable and comfortable. If one isn’t looking for the ideal, there is no such thing as Second Force interfering with what they’ve initiated because there is a series of events, and they can respond to event by event.

So, let’s take a note of what is a problem. This is on a page because there will be people constantly, frequently inquiring of you and they will have problems.

So, what is a problem? A problem is:

1: CONFLICT, STRUGGLE AND RESISTANCE.

2: How does it come about? WHEN THERE IS THE BELIEF IN AN “IDEAL” AND A STRUGGLE TOWARDS “WHAT OUGHT TO BE.”

Then of course, there is conflict, struggle and resistance because one is struggling towards an illusion. You know, of course in order to understand the problem, one understands that the person is in a conflict, struggle, resistance. This person begins to see that this is the nature of their problem, one of those three aspects of the one resistance. Then they begin to understand the problem. They might begin to see that the ideal is an illusion. If anyone sees the ideal as an illusion, they immediately have to question the purpose of living. If they see that the ideal is an illusion, that it is purely a product of imagination or suggestion from someone else’s imagination, that over the years we have built up these ideals; and then the person starts to understand the problem rather than solve the problem. So, you might make another note: there is no attempt ever made to solve a problem.

3: THERE IS NEVER AN ATTEMPT MADE TO SOLVE A PROBLEM. 

4: Fourth, that THE EFFORT IS TO UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM. Fourth, that THE PROBLEM IS ALWAYS CONFLICT, STRUGGLE, AND RESISTANCE BETWEEN “WHAT IS” AND WHAT THE PERSON SAYS, “OUGHT TO BE,” OR THE “IDEAL.”

You see, everything comes out with a problem or a flaw if one has an ideal. The ideal is not real; it’s an illusion, it is a fantasy. Sometimes you might find it useful to make a little picture. On the one side, about two-thirds of the way down the page, put WHAT IS. And up on the other side about a third of the way down from the top, put WHAT OUGHT TO BE.

WHAT IS, of course can be questioned of anyone, is creation. Is it not? Yes, that’s agreeable. “What ought to be” is uncreated. So “Uncreated” goes under WHAT OUGHT TO BE. If anything is created, it does exist. Yes, it exists; that’s fact. Anything that “ought to be” that’s uncreated does not exist.

Then under WHAT IS, which is creation and it does EXIST, one would have to say it’s a fact. Yes, it’s a fact. On the other side, is it a fact? No, it’s not a fact; it’s uncreated, doesn’t exist, it’s an illusion. Okay? Then WHAT IS FACT IS TRUTH. Yes. On the right-hand side the other words all say it’s a false impression.

And one might get someone to see that they’re struggling towards the pot of gold at the foot of a rainbow, that WHAT IS, is REAL, is FACT, is TRUTH “What ought to be” is uncreated, is a fantasy, is imagination, is an illusion, and that one builds a stairway from one to the other one, tries to achieve by going to the nonexistent, to a fantasy land, something that only exists as a product of imagination – some ideal state. And if one works with people, this is sometimes a starting point. 

Sometimes a starting point is the Picture of Man as he was designed, and then as he is – that beautiful parable that tells the story of everybody’s life in a very close parallel, starting with the conclusion that the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed. And following it on, one by one as he builds them up. And seeing then that the struggle, and conflict, and resistance is all within and that there is no such thing as a problem out there.

Above all we want to be aware of the self. The self will want to solve the problem, and I will observe and see that there is no problem, and I will take over the interview and begin to work with the person. It may and may not be that the person will ever awake sufficiently – at the moment at least – to begin to really Work, to begin to observe self. They may still be so entranced with the idea of the problem because it is not what ought to be that they can’t do a thing now. One day they’ll be back again.

In the meantime, one has not produced any harm anyway. One has only pointed out that let’s study the problem, not look for a solution. As one works in this way, one finds a certain number of people who honestly will use the Work. They will see the beauty of it, see the value of it and really apply it. One will be spared many who only want someone to make them comfortable. You can maybe become, if you’re not careful and watch this trap, a mother figure or a father figure to someone. They come to you for every comfort they can conceive of. And if at any time you’re not available to comfort them, they will turn and rend you.

So, one doesn’t get caught in solving problems. One will work with understanding problems. One will work with anyone who wants to understand the problem. One always seems to find time. 

You may wonder why this is being discussed. You already have had a few people wanting to talk to you because if you have applied the Work as you have diligently observed the self, you look like a different person. and some way or other you attract those people who realize there’s a light. And they want the light, but they don’t know how to ask for it. Then there are others who just see the light and are greedy to get it. And of course, one must see who belongs in the outer school. And who can work on the inner levels and advance to more worthwhile work, that are actually candidates for transformation. And those which are only candidates for mammon.

Because mammon has far more servants than Life does. I think you have observed that before now – that mammon has a greater number of servants than Life does. LIFE has few, and mammon has many. But all mammon does is consume them, and LIFE evolves them, transforms them, makes them creative, makes them bear tremendous, wonderful fruit. 

So, as one observes this, one sees who serves. But what we are basically discussing is to be aware that it is possible to be harmful. And also, both to the other and to self. Because if one is harmful one is caught back in working towards an ideal. Whether you are working towards the ideal for this one, or for one out there, it’s all the same. One got caught by mammon.