Arkashean Q&A Session -- 128
CARLA: So my sense of disgust with the state of the world is not taking responsibility?
THERRY: How the hell did ya get that?
CARLA: Because you were saying that I'm feeling like the world is like a big shit is because I'm not taking responsibility for my own actions and...
THERRY: I never said...
CARLA: Something like that!
THERRY: No, I never said that. I don't know how you got that! We were talking about the difference between using the Devil's Advocate and the sharing method of gaining information.
CARLA: Well, then we were talking about Tina and I feeling that the world is like this big crappy place ...
THERRY: Well, it is fact that you don't acknowledge your part in it.
CARLA: So it is related then!
THERRY: Sure it's related but obviously you can't in one step accept that everybody is in the process of learning and nobody's perfect and at the same time demand that you're going to have a perfect world. Obviously if everybody's imperfect and everybody's dong what they can to satisfy themselves, what else can you get except a shit up world? So from that standpoint, you're not accepting reality they way it really is.
CARLA: Well with me I feel it's more...I mean I feel like I can understand, when you say that, it makes sense to me. Of course, what else can it be but a crappy world. The part that drives me crazy is, why I would choose to be a part of it. [Chuckle] I mean, that's the difference.
THERRY: Hell, you created it, why not? Every single time that you decide you're going to satisfy a need, "to hell with everybody else," then you become one of the creators of the hell that we have. And if tomorrow you forget about what you did to it and start screeching, then yes, you are relieving yourself of responsibility. Charity begins at home. If each and every individual pays very close attention to their contributions to the whole, we might end up a better world. But so long as everybody has the attitude, "Well, everybody else does, so I might as well," then you have no one to blame but yourself if the world gets worse and worse and worse.
CARLA: But I don't...I don't think I live my life like that, like, "Duck everybody else, I'm going to do what I want!"
THERRY: Well, I don't know if that's true. I may accept that you may not live your life that way all the time, but you have your share of it. Only you rationalize it, "I know I'm doing wrong! But for now, it's just where I'm at!"
CORA: Couldn't...couldn't it lead to martyrdom or the martyr game if you gave...?
THERRY: Any game can lead to that.
CORA: If you gave a lot, a lot, a lot and you didn't get your own needs met...
THERRY: Anything can lead to that.
CORA: I mean, is it...
THERRY: It doesn't apply.
CORA: Is it uhm causing the demise...?
THERRY: It doesn't apply because you don't have to meet your needs in such a way that it's at the expense of somebody else.
CORA: Oh so, it's okay to get your needs met?
THERRY: You have to get your needs met! You have no choice.
CORA: But never, never, never at the expense of anything else.
THERRY: Well let's say you shouldn't at the expense of anybody else.
CARLA: So as long as I'm not perfect, why should I complain?
THERRY: You got it!
CARLA: [Chuckle]
THERRY: 'Cause it's incongruent to sit there and claim imperfection as though you're proud of it and acknowledge that everybody is in the same boat and then have such behavior as "Ohhh!! Why is the world so crazy!" [In whining voice] I mean it's just, you know, it's not logical.
GUY: Does it help you uhm keeping yourself from realizing that you are part of responsibility in the crappy aspect of the world, the many aspects of the world.
THERRY: To a degree it does. It certainly helps keep you off a cross.
GUY: Hmmmm.
CARLA: What helps keep you off the cross?
GUY: Playing "This world is shit," and you know...
CARLA: Well, I guess I look at the degrees. I mean, I don't feel I'm perfect by any means, but I definitely do feel like I'm a lot better than a lot of people out there.
THERRY: I'm pretty sure everybody else has those exact same thoughts.
CARLA: [Chuckles]
THERRY: But if you put them all together, this is what you'll have.
CARLA: Yeah but I'm right!
THERRY: Yeah I know. But you're right and they're wrong. But so long as everybody else has those same thoughts exactly and you combine it all, what else can you get? If A = B and B = C, then C's got to equal A!
ALEX: But I still feel like I'm hearing that two sides of the coin now, or the two possibilities are "Oh God, this world's a piece of shit!" Or the problem you're not taking the responsibility for the fact that you made it a piece of shit but it's still a piece of shit. It doesn't seem to leave room for anything else but shit!
[Laughter]
THERRY: But that's not true because you're responsible for your little share of it. Now the statement that you were saying, while it is valid, the implication is, "Why should I have to pay for my own mistakes? Why can't the world...why can't it be so I don't have to pay for it? I can just duck up all I want and not have to pay for it!"
ALEX: No, I think what bothers me more is, focus, where the focus of everything is always negative, then I think it then unmotivates people to try do anything other than bitch.
THERRY: I can accept that but I don't view it as valid. I don't think it's a case of people focusing on the negatives. I think it's people focusing on what can't I get what I want!? And that's the negativity, it's not that the world itself is negative, it's "Why do I have to pay for my errors! Why can't the world just give me what I want and it's because I can't get what I want, that's why the world's a piece of shit."
GUY: Well, in one sense it's worse from what I thought, but it makes us closer to each other or something better.
THERRY: [Chuckle] Okay.
CARLA: That's true, yeah.
THERRY: We're all in shit up to our eyebrows, so please don't make waves.
GUY: Uhmmmm.
CARLA: [Chuckle]
CORA: Well, the truth is, is that the world is not a piece of shit.
THERRY: No, it's not, the world is exactly what you make of it, no more, no less. You will get back from it exactly what you give it, based on your attitudes.
CORA: I mean they're certain people who think the world is possibly going to get better and they have good attitudes and they're okay and there's the other ones that are like, "Oh God! Here we are in this terrible place and we're suffering." Neither is true at all really, it's just what each person is seeing.
THERRY: Well, basically, to the degree that an individual will accept the responsibility of their own choices and to the degree that an individual is willing to accept the limitations of those choices then bring them and live within those boundaries, to that degree can life be pretty good for them. To the degree that a person demands or expects to be absolved of their own choices, to that degree will the world become a pretty terrible place.
CORA: But in and of itself, it's not horrible or...
THERRY: It's neither good nor bad, it "simply is."
CARLA: Okay, okay, okay, okay!!! I get it!
[Chuckles]
TINA: Uhm, I want to ask uhm as much as the earth and people that is very beautiful, in terms of me looking at the whole scheme of things and the whole plan and the way it works, it's exquisitely beautiful to me.
THERRY: Yes.
TINA: Yet, I am very fearful, I'm kinda horrified and I would like to know what I can work on to get rid of this horror. Because really I'm quite horrified at what goes on and then I get frightened, you know.
THERRY: Yeah.
TINA: But you can't live...I mean you can, obviously, I'm doing it but I'm a wreck trying to live in this world.
THERRY: Yeah but it's your choice.
TINA: Well...alright so how do I learn how to do that?
THERRY: Come to believe that the Universe is very exact. In the Universe, it is possible for you on third street to live in peace while on first street, second street, third street, fourth street, ninth street is in absolute turmoil at all time, murders everywheres. But on your street, never any murders, never any of this, it's always peace. You bring to yourself exactly what your thoughts are. If it is your Karma to have peace, then it doesn't much matter where you live, more or less, the violence of that area will not strike you. Now, if you learn to believe that, if you learn to believe that you get exactly what you asked for in terms of what is due you, then there's no need for that fear.
CORA: But isn't Man judged as a race so that...?
THERRY: That's only in the Final Judgment, it's not...
CORA: I mean don't perfectly innocent people get hurt?
THERRY: No, no. Nuh-uhh. There are no accidents. All things are done via cause and effect.
CORA: There's never an innocent bystander?
THERRY: There's no such thing as innocence.
CARLA: [Chuckles]
CORA: So either...
THERRY: That's a really lovely thought that humans thought up.
CORA: So either we're going to get what we deserve, we might as well be at peace if we can and accept the shit that comes our way or uhm you know, it's not coming our way and we try to live in peace and face it, we've done the best we can, but never worrying it's bad or bad things are going to happen to us because you get what we deserve and just live with that uncertainty and be willing to accept it?
THERRY: Well, I'm not sure that I believe in either of those.
CORA: No? What's...
THERRY: I think it's a blend of both.
CORA: But that's the basic idea.
THERRY: Well, the thing being is that there's too much pessimism or too much resignation in both of them. I believe life is nothing but cause and effect. You bring to you, that which you drew, based upon your choices.
CORA: If you're afraid, may that bring bad things your way?
THERRY: Sure. You become the things you hate and walk towards the things you fear.
CORA: So I should really start being afraid that I'm afraid now?
THERRY: That's fun.
TINA: Is that part of the whole hanging on the cross thing?
THERRY: Yes.
TINA: What's that, "I'm suffering?"
THERRY: "Poor little me here. See how good I am? I'm patiently enduring the world!"
TINA: Even if you're not conscious of that thought?
THERRY: Oh yeah, that's when it's the most fun! 'Cause see, if you're conscious of it, it's not as real. But if you hide it from yourself, ohhhh, there's a lot of reality to it. Now I become more perfect!
TINA: So it's a poor little me thing?
THERRY: It's a combination of the "poor little me" and the Christ complex.
TINA: The Christ complex? Is that like the Atlas complex, carrying the ...or you're to blame, you're carrying the...
THERRY: The Christ complex is you carry the problems of the world on your shoulders. I'll pay for your sins, it's okay! You know, the little Jewish mother, "What difference does it make if I ...That's okay, you go ahead and have the last of the cereal, I'll wait!"
TINA: So I can be doing that and have no awareness of that kind of...?
THERRY: Of course, that's what makes the game more interesting!
TINA: But that's a pretty ...you meet people all the time, you meet people all the time who're like that. "It's alright. Don't worry!" You know, the Jewish...
THERRY: Of course!
TINA: I mean, I've never seen myself being like that! If anything I'm like a little, you know....What?
CARLA: [Laughter]
GUY: Every war movie I've ever seen, I see the guy who says, "Keep on going without me, let me die here!"
THERRY: Yeah.
TINA: What are you laughing about?
CARLA: [Laugh] Nothing! [Laugh]
TINA: What, am I missing something? [Giggle]
ALEX: I think we need to have a one-man hyena break, so Carla can get it out of her system.
[Laughter]
CORA: I'm just laughing because they were laughing, it's infectious.
CARLA: I just think it's funny that you said, "Well, I can never, ever view myself like that." I felt it he just described you to a Tee! [Laughter]
THERRY: Yeah.
TINA: No, the little Jewish mother...What? Well, tell me then. The guilt thing I can understand to a Tee, but the "I'm the martyr, I"ll carry the weight of the world...It's my..."
CARLA: No, it's "I'm suffering in this world. I'm enduring all these horrors of the world..."
TINA: What? Where am I ever like that?
CARLA: Both of our attitudes. "Look at the shit we're living in."
TINA: Oh no, I'm more like the Bronx. "Gosh, this world sucks!" It's really a beautiful plan, but it sucks being here!" In other words, I don't condone it but I have to say it sucks. But I have to say this, I'm not conscious if I am doing that, I am certainly not aware of it.
THERRY: Did you ever look at your behavior towards Tommy sometimes?
TINA: That's the guilt, right?
THERRY: Well, I suppose that's one name for it. If you want to change the name of the game, does it change the name of the game too?
TINA: Yeah. Uhm. I'm missing this.
THERRY: Yeah, the little Jewish mother, "That's alright, go ahead what does it matter?"
TINA: But I'm not trying...
THERRY: Why do you think people say you're a pushover where Tommy is concerned? 'Cause you're playing that game.
TINA: Well, I must be doing it in a...I must've really disguised it then.
THERRY: It doesn't matter, the point is it's more fun if you don't know you're not doing it. That makes you better at it 'cause it's real or more real.
TINA: Oh boy! Hmmmm!
THERRY: But every mother does that, so don't feel pregnant!
[Laughter]
TINA: It's this suffering thing that I just ... "Oh, look at how I'm suffering...!" That's pretty blatant, I mean. Maybe it's the way you're saying it... "Oh! Woe is me! I'm suffering!"
THERRY: Well, you got to bear in mind your foot is heavily into theater. And based on theater belief system, only out of pain can you get beauty.
TINA: Now that I can relate to.
CORA: Yeah I know.
TINA: I guess if we keep could calling it the old Jewish lady with chicken soup, that' s a little hard for me to envision. Okay, only out of...you know, pain creates art, that I can...
THERRY: Boy I must be really beautiful. Look at all the pain I'm in.
TINA: Wow! So then I can have this subliminal subconscious way, right?
THERRY: Why? You believe in that.
TINA: But I don't say it though. I don't walk around like Celia Thomas! She's a beautiful example of that.
THERRY: Let's not mention any names.
TINA: I'm sorry. But you see people that are beautiful examples because they actually express that. I mean, I should be expressing it if I'm doing it I might as well as be getting the whole big deal out of it.
THERRY: Yeah but I wasn't aware that the conversation was to pass judgment on the positive or the negative of the game to say that. I said, I'm just not sure you can stop the game. Remember the law, "You can chose your Free Will to chose a game. Once you choose the game, then it is the game that rules, not you. And every game has its own system of entrances and exits. You can't just get out any time you want to. You can only get out when the game allows it.
CARLA: So we can't change our attitudes then?
THERRY: Only if the game allows it. I'll give you some examples.
GUY: I knew this world sucks!
THERRY: Let's say you and I are playing poker, okay?
CARLA: [Chuckle]
THERRY: If we're playing poker and I'm sitting there, can I then turn a card over and say, "Gin, I win?" Why?
CARLA: Well, that...
THERRY: Why? You're not answering my question.
CARLA: Because I don't want to play Gin!
THERRY: Bingo! So if you're playing a game that says, you're going to be on a cross until you die then does it matter if you say, "Well, I could change my attitude and get off my cross?" The game I chose to play says I can't.
GUY: But well it tends to mean that you tend to...
THERRY: Excuse me. Can you understand that point?
GUY: Sorry.
THERRY: It is the game that rules. Once we chose the game, we lost our Free Will.