One of the great temptations to each and every one of us is to come to a conclusion. We have observed something. We have made a discovery in a given moment. To be in a state of knowing at a given moment is to be in a state of discovery where everything is new; one is seeing new relationships. One is seeing everything in a new light, which is, of course, the first attribute of the new man is to be seeing differently. But the temptation is that as soon as one has made a discovery, one forms a conclusion. 

Now, to come to a conclusion is from the word “conclude.” So one concludes paying attention; one is delighted with one’s newfound discovery and one goes to “sleep.” You see, when one has a conclusion one is asleep, at least on that given subject. One dreams that what one has observed or discovered is permanent. But everything in the world is in a state of change. You, I, everyone is in a state of change. Every thing is in a state of change. So, a discovery is valid for this moment. It gives us a new way of seeing. What we really discover is a new way of looking at things, and nothing to come to a conclusion about. 

One of the greatest difficulties that people have is that they come to conclusions about each other. A person comes to a conclusion “I” know so-and-so, and so-and-so is a liar because possibly so-and-so told a great big fib one time, and one was aware of that he was fibbing. But this doesn’t mean that he fibs forever and ever. Possibly the very next day the person would be incapable of fibbing about anything. And possibly he couldn’t fib about that general subject or whatever it may be. You see, in the process of change – even in the mechanical person – is constantly surrounded by various influences. And so, something that has come about today does not mean that one can come to a conclusion. When one is “know-ing” – knowing from moment to moment – one is aware, possibly, that so-and-so is “lie-ing” at the moment. But possibly the very next moment he is speaking the fact, so one could not say that the person was a liar. 

You see, we come to conclusions. And all of a sudden we exist in a dead world because everything we have come to a conclusion about is from that moment on never seen in any other way. We never see the constant change, the constant rhythm of life, the constant ebb and flow of everything that does exist in this earth planet. Everything is in a process of change. We look out and we see a rose garden and we come to a conclusion about the rose garden. But the rose garden is, at that moment, in a dynamic set of changes and it ever exists in a dynamic set of changes. It is an event, and every split second is an event. 

Man is designed as an experiencing creature, one that experiences WHAT IS and sees the VALUE of it moment by moment. The perversion of conditioning, the effort to be secure entices him to come to conclusions. And he concludes, of course, that what it is now it will forever be. He has mistaken an event for a thing; and he feels that things are permanent, things are dependable.

However, if one observes even one individual, say a husband or wife, and observes them without any conclusion from the past as to what that person is like – in other words one sets down the accounts one has made against a given person and says, “I’m going to observe this individual,” – one will see that you have a brand-new person about, that it is not the same person one had formed the conclusion about. This is to awaken to see that everything is in a state of change, that there is nothing permanent in the visible world, that all are events that are ever undergoing change. And one can resist the temptation to “know.” 

Now as we go along we make discoveries. And of course, those discoveries are very delightful because one has seen a certain relationship that one had never seen before. Having experienced this delight, of course, mammon says it is true forever and ever. You have found the truth. Now, one comes to a conclusion and then one is back “asleep”. 

You see, one is see-ing truth moment by moment. One never has discovered THE truth. One is seeing truth from moment to moment, which is seeing WHAT IS from moment to moment, and seeing the VALUE of it. It is said in some ways in attempting to define what the Teaching is about – which no definition is adequate any more than trying to define what Life is – we can only define certain attributes. But one of the attributes that has been given as some description of the Teaching is that it teaches man to see WHAT IS from moment to moment. In other words, it allows or challenges man to be awake and to resist the temptation to be safe and secure by coming to conclusions. He begins to see that all conclusions are a way of being asleep. And that really it is what sleep is about.

You see, it is the form of suggestion that this is the case. And it’s always the case. And so the person then has concluded “being,” has concluded experience-ing, and has experienced something in the past and begins to assume that everything will be the same from now on. And of course, the person begins to see it as whatever the conclusion says. If one has seen a given person as a liar, one always sees them as a liar. If one has seen a given person as being unfair, one always sees that person as being unfair. And if you will notice, take the case of a mate One has many conclusions about that mate, none of which are possibly true at this moment. Sometimes a person has come to a conclusion that the mate is sloppy, or is a nag, or is something because at one given moment such was observed and a conclusion was come to at that moment. The person may be the most meticulous dresser and the most careful grooming henceforth and thereafter. But the person still has the idea that there is nothing but the same old conclusion. And that with this conclusion, nothing can be accomplished.

We are quite prone to come to conclusions about almost everything. A child going to school possibly comes across someone that picks on him a little bit. So, he decides that “they are always picking on me,” and that child will go through his entire life feeling that he is being picked on. Just at this moment, the studio door, while marked “Recording in Session – Do Not Knock,” was knocked upon by someone. Now, we could come to a conclusion: “People never pay attention to signs; people are very inconsiderate.” However, such is not the case because most people do see the sign. We have been recording in this studio for many, many hours and it is the only time the door has been knocked upon. So, all we can say is that the door was knocked on once during the recording sessions and that all the other times it was not. So, we can be experiencing a given situation without coming to a conclusion about it.

Sometimes a person in a moment of anger is judged as always being angry. And possibly most of the time they are not. A person has been known to steal at some time or other, but possibly never be capable of stealing again. Would you say that the person was a “thief?” Or would you say that the person was a person who at one time took something that did not belong to them in a given moment?

You see, each person only exists a moment. Everything dies moment by moment; and man, to be awake and to be conscious and aware, is always aware that the last moment is dead. Sometimes it’s said, “Die to the past day,” but it’s “Die moment by moment to the past.” The past is only an illusion that it really exists. All we have is a record of what happened at that moment. But nothing in the past does anything for this moment. We cannot evaluate this moment from the past moment.

Now, of course if I see that “I am always being picked on,” if I came to that conclusion when a little boy was say, eight or nine years old and some kid picked on him one day at school or some other place on the way to or from school, and he came to a conclusion, “People are always picking on me,” how do you suppose the little boy as he grew would experience almost every day? He would experience that somebody is picking on him. So, he is firmly convinced that it is always that case that people are continually picking on him and that there is no way that one could convince him that everything is changing every moment because he has concluded and therefore, from now on, experiences this static state. Regardless of what people do, he experiences it as picking on him. And possibly some of us have been around those folks.

Now if we can get that person to see that each moment is new and different, if we can see that each moment is new and different, we cease to come to conclusions. We cease to conclude things, which to conclude is end, ending of experiencing moment by moment, ending of really being awake or alive. You see, one is only awake when one is experiencing this moment and this is what we have started with is for I to arise from among the conclusions of the ways of self-improvement, from the conclusion as to the purpose of living. And to be observing the self without condemning it or justifying it. Possibly observing that when one is doing this, one has discovered an entirely new life, a life that’s very rich, very varied – completely different every moment.

There is a saying in one of the ancient Greek schools that a man cannot step in the same mud puddle twice. They went on to say the reason this was impossible was because the second time the man stepped in the mud puddle, the mud puddle was a mud puddle that had just been stepped in. The first time it was not such a mud puddle. And besides that, the second time the man stepped in the mud puddle, he was a man who had just previously stepped in a mud puddle. And the first time he was not such a man. So obviously, as one recalls these various little parables that keep one awake, that one’s job is to not come to conclusions, but is to be experiencing this ever-changing, dynamic existence called LIFE – which is ever changing, ever varying.

One begins to re-evaluate all the conclusions that one has experienced through the years one has come to, one has that put one to sleep with – that one is amongst the dead. And one arises from all those dead conclusions and begins to experience this moment as something new and different, begins to see each moment as a beginning of a life. Frequently we see a phrase somewhere now that says, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” If that be the case, then everything that happened yesterday and yesterday and years ago is totally gone. It is immaterial. 

Now, here is a source of re-evaluation, both for number one and for anyone we may be working with. Because a person comes and tells you, “My husband is always doing so-and-so, or my wife is always doing so-and-so, or my children are always doing so-and-so,” we are almost certain that that person has come to a conclusion because nobody does the same thing all the time. One will begin to re-evaluate old conclusions, to begin to be aware of the present moment, to begin to be obedient to one’s nature, to be paying attention to this moment without comparing it to some other moment, without comparing it to a former conclusion that was in some vague way similar. Then one finds one is seeing different and is being a new person.

Somewhere in the scripture it says, “Be you transformed by a renewing of the mind.” Now a mind that is full of conclusions is an old one and it always sees the things. One is only transformed when one has a new mind and the new mind is empty of conclusions. It is empty of the idea that everything continues the same. It is awake. It is a wide-open space that is free to receive, moment by moment, all the many WHAT IS that’s going on and to see the VALUE of that WHAT IS for this moment.

Then one is a new person. One is living in a new world. One has ceased to be bored. One has ceased to be angry. One has ceased to be resentful. One has ceased to be fearful or apathetic. One is no longer contented – one is vitally interested, or exhilarated, or is seeing relationships in this moment that one’s never seen before. One is seeing where these relationships are aiming. One does not know that they will continue to that direction. So one cannot come to a conclusion because some force may come along and completely change the direction of which something is going. One is seeing relationship of forces, relationship of persons, relationships of all manner of events that are going on, and one is in a very wonderful, wonderful state within oneself. 

But as long as one is caught in the idea that all is static – “I know” – so to be in a state where one feels one knows is to be “asleep,” static because one has tied up, one has hung up in a given place with a given set of conclusions. One has made conclusions about almost everything in one’s world. Almost every event has a conclusion about it because the attempt to be secure has demanded conclusions. And of course, the only real security is what? Death. One will not be disturbed any more. It is all settled and done. That is the ultimate conclusion and when one is coming to conclusions one is serving death, not Life.

When one is aware from moment to moment of WHAT IS and of the VALUE of what is, without condemning WHAT IS or justifying WHAT IS. The only way it can be condemned or justified is compared to some old conclusion of what ought to be, some ideal. One can only condemn it because one says, “Something like that started once before and this came out of it – so-and-so. So of course, it will do it again.” That is concluding that “now is then.” And of course, this is called less than sanity sometimes because every moment is completely different. It’s completely new. 

And somewhere it says, “Behold all things are made new.” When a person begins to see and re-evaluate and cast aside all old conclusions, be in the state of not knowing, one is in a state of a little child not knowing, but is observing in a state of wonder at the ever unfolding of WHAT IS from moment to moment. One then has experienced everything being made new. One is in a new world, a world where there are no conclusions, where everything is vibrant, alive, and in a state of being and not in a state of has been. One finds that all the negative emotions cease to arise.

So, in many of these areas of which we have taken for granted, but they are still there – like many knowings, many conclusions, in other words – are still in the self. And these things are the subtle ones that prevent the experiencing of higher spiritual states. Furthermore, as one experiences a given state, it is for when? That moment. And that moment alone. It is not something to attempt to duplicate. It is not something to have. It is something that has only added a new way of seeing things, a new way of being alive. 

The Great Teacher said that he had come that man might have life, and have it more abundantly. The more one has conclusions, the more one is dead. The less conclusions that one has by observing them and casting them out, and seeing them operate in the self, one has life. And as one continues to not form conclusions, to remain in a state of not knowing, which is to be in a state of discovery from moment to moment, one has life and life more abundantly. Because Life is experiencing from moment to moment – everything new, everything fresh. It is like a brand-new creation for the person who has been involved in many things they knew.

So, suppose we write on our work sheet for this week: “Things “I” Know.”

And then begin to notice them and put them down, and then re-evaluate them and see, of course, they were only old conclusions and that one doesn’t really know that. What one came to a conclusion about twenty years ago, or ten years ago, or two years ago, or fifty years ago, has nothing to do with this moment. Those conclusions are great limitations to man’s state of being. As we observe these, they begin to fall away like other obstructions to spiritual experiencing. One begins to experience a whole new life, a whole new world. And one can understand the statement, “Behold, all things are made new.”

Can anything be new in a state of conclusion, or is it merely that this is a repetition of yesterday? “People are always interfering”; “People are thoughtless”; “People are always picking on me”; “Nobody is considerate of me”; “Nobody understands me”; “I am a miserable person”; “I have been miserable all my life”; “I am sick.”

Now, when a person comes to the conclusion that they are sick, they will experience a state called sickness from then on because they are dreaming that things are static. But if one says, “I feel a certain way this moment,” one begins to observe that the next moment there is another way of experiencing. And another and another, and one forgets all about that idea of being sick very quickly. You see, there are so many conclusions.

So, we will write down all the things that we know or that we have concluded, descriptions about self and descriptions about others: I am a sick person, I am an old person, I am tired, I am mistreated, he or she is a liar, he or she is a bore, he or she is greedy, he or she is always interfering in what I want to do. He or she never understands me. 

As we begin to observe, we see a completely new world. We are seeing different and we have a new state of being. And being in a new state of being is to be a new person.

So, let’s take a considerable length of time to check out what we know, because most of us “know so much.” And the peculiar thing about it is that most of what we know simply is not taking place now. It happened sometime in the dead past. Or we imagine that it would happen in some future. Or we came to a conclusion on a momentary situation – which all real situations are only momentary – and we come to a conclusion that it was permanent. Like the little boy who says, “Everybody is always picking on me,” because one kid picked on him one afternoon on the way home from school. But find the young man when he is thirty-five, or find him when he’s forty and he still feels that everybody’s picking on him. His wife’s picking on him, his children pick on him, the boss picks on him, the customers pick on him, the traffic policeman picks on him. Everything he finds evidence for that belief because he is now static. He is concluded. He is no longer living in that dynamic world of change from moment to moment.

Let’s see if we can find that ever-changing, ever new, ever fresh world. And then we can say, everything has been made NEW.