School Talk 25 - Making Up the Mind

(Audience participation in parenthesis)
Talk Covers:
The Beggar's Wish
Story of the shipwreck
What and the How
two or more on contract
"if's, "but's" and "trying"

OK, today we're going to talk about making up the mind, considering that the ability to make up the mind singly is probably the most valuable asset that any of us could have. Most of the time we're all in a state of conflict-I want to-I don't want to. I want to, but…… So we don't usually make up our mind except about the simplest things.

Now we all make up our mind many times a day; so it isn't anything esoteric or complicated. You made up your mind to be here this morning. You make up your mind to stand up; and you stand up. You make up your mind to get a drink of water; and you get a drink of water.

Now we don't know how to do anything. I've made up my mind to be saying certain words; but I don't know how to move all these little vocal cords, and the lips, and the tongue and everything else. If I had to figure that out, I'd be a mute because I couldn't figure out how to do it.

So "all I am" is that "I'm aware of what I want to say and it happens". So when you are sure of what you want to do-singly--you have made up the mind.

We go in many different directions of "I want to do this-but. When we put the "but" word in the sentence, the "but" cancels out the first part of the sentence we said--so we haven't made up our mind. If you said, "I want to stand up, but I want to continue to remain seated." you are not going to do much of anything--only exist with a conflict going on for a little while. I talked with a man on the weekend who called me up and said he just had to have an appointment with me; and so we had an appointment. He told me that he wanted to go in business for himself and quit his job that pays him very well; but he didn't want to get tied down.

Well, I've found out that any time you have a business, you're pretty well tied to it unless you want it to go broke really quick. But nevertheless he's on the trip that he prefers to have unemployment and have a good business at the same time. He probably won't get very far with it--that's conflict.

Many times you hear a person say, I want to do so and so, but……….. So nothing very much of anything happens. The "but" is a canceller, so there is no MAKING UP THE MIND.

So now we're all acquainted with the picture of man, which shows that we want to be non-disturbed and that the way to get it is to complain, stick up for your rights, blame, etc. Now when you're doing those, obviously all of those are disturbances. They are not making up the mind very quietly or singly in any direction.

So what we're going to talk about is just simply making up the mind about things that we don't do every day. Now it has been said that when two or more people agree about anything-in other words, two of us make up our mind at the same time about something-that it always happens. Having had a number of years of experience of working with that, it is factual to the best of everything I've ever seen.

One of the ways I've seen it work the best, is that you sit down and write out a piece of paper like you were writing a contract-very specifically, very precisely. This is what we're going to do--this is what I'm having to happen, ok? Two or more people sign that piece of paper after carefully reading it-inasmuch as you would sign a contract. Then put the piece of paper away somewhere; and you'll find that it does happen.

Now when you make up your mind, you'll find that you don't have to go over and over and over it. You don't have to keep it in mind or any of that sort-you just make up your mind once and that's it.

Now all healing and all unusual events that people attribute to having happened around the world is because somebody makes up their mind. NOW I'M CALLED ON TO DO THAT VERY FREQUENTLY AND I DO IT; AND I TRY TO DO IT WHEN I'M ALL ALONE AND VERY QUIET-NOT WHEN I'M BUSY OR BEING DISTRACTED. So I've got one thing to do is make up my mind, in that quiet moment, of what I'm talking about. I don't need something else in there distracting me, so I'll take care of those other chores sometime else. Neither do you have to go over and over it as we said.

Now seemingly, we all know about the "picture of man", X, the awareness, the physical body and function. So awareness decides "what", X takes care of the "how". Now a lot of times we think we're going to make up our minds; but we say, "Well, I don't see how that could ever happen?"--implying that if I, awareness, (with it's little education and experience can't see how something's going to happen); then,obviously, Life, Spirit, whatever you want to call it, couldn't do it because obviously, X is bound to be inferior to me. Also frequently we want to know the "how". We say, "Well, I don't know how; but if I could learn "how" then I could do it." More than likely you'll never learn how anyway.

So this is set up as that there is "what" and "how" involved in about everything. You have "what you want done" and "how". Now let's say you had a partner that you went out and got an order for something--you had a partner who would always fill it without any effort on your part. You'd have a pretty good working arrangement, would you not? So we'll say you were making some complicated electronic widget-so you can go make the order for it, call it in and say, "Here's what I want done", and he makes the widget and sends it out to you.

One day, however, you decide, "Well, I'd rather do his thing", but you don't know how to make the electronic widget, huh? So then the whole thing gets torn up and apparently he would say, "Well, you know so much about it, you make the thing", and you don't know how to make it. So we have here where there is one X in all probability-all I can see is there is only one X or one Life; and it has millions and millions and billions of forms, each with its awareness.

Now a little bird wants to make a nest. I'm sure the bird never went to architect school on "how" to make bird nests; but I notice they make them all the time; and they seem to do quite well at it. So the bird makes up its mind, "We gotta have a nest because mama's getting broody a little bit here". So pretty soon there's a nest there and a little later they have little eggs in it. They know how to sit on them; and they, seemingly, know how to turn them over-all of which X is taking care of through the bird. Obviously, the bird hasn't been educated that you turn the egg over every day or else the yolk slides to one side; and if it does ever start incubating, it sticks to the shell and won't work, so she turns it every day. You can see a little bird and with its bill, it turns it over every day of the world. So somewhere Life knows exactly how to run everything. But we have decided that we know "how" or with something we haven't done much, we figure that we can't know how.

So if you'd like a little experiment in knowing "how", why not start in to see what's the first muscle, second muscle, third muscle and fourth and fifth muscle that you use to stand up with. You'll be surprised as to how it works. In the first place, you won't figure it out; but nevertheless, you would be surprised as to what the first muscle you would use to stand up? But you don't have to go through all the "how". All you got to do is decide, and make up your mind you want to stand up and that's it-you experience standing up.

Now of all the events in the world, one is no more complicated than the other one. In fact, most of the things you would "want in this world" that you would say "what" about is far less complicated than standing up. It really is-far less!

If you ever looked at a human body's anatomy, it's got all kinds of little bended places all the way up through it-hundreds of them; and there's no way you could prop it to stand up. Surprisingly, it is suspended from the head down just far enough to reach the ground-that's what X does; but we never did notice that. The head goes up first and the first muscle you tighten up, if you're going to stand up, is the back of your neck. Try it. See if you can stand up with your neck relaxed? Just try it one day.

Now whenever we're going to figure what we want, it has to be singly-it can't be a whole bunch of things. Now sometimes if we do like we said a little while ago,-write this-write it down. See that it is concise--like an attorney would write a contract--rather than a bunch of this and this and this, and a bunch of that and that and that.

Story of the Beggar's prayer

So there's a little story that I've heard that sometimes illustrates this idea. It's said that long ago there was an old blind man who was a beggar. He was a very old guy about 70 or 80 years of age and he lived in India. He was a beggar and he was blind. So he prayed and prayed and prayed to whoever his God was; and one day, the god answered and said, "I'm going to grant you one wish old man, and that's it"! "So make sure you make a nice wish."

The old man said, "May I have 24 hours before I give you the wish?" The God said, "Yes, you can have 24 hours."

So 24 hours later, the old man expressed his one single wish. His one single wish was that he would live to see his great grandchild eating in the palace of the King out of a golden bowl with a golden spoon. And the God said, "You tricked me, but you can have it because it was one wish. But let's see all it covered. Number one, that he would live to an extremely advanced age. Number two, that he would have a child at his advanced age which he had no children and no wife. He would have all of that; and he would regain his sight; and that he would be very wealthy; and his family would be living in the palace-so you can see this was a pretty good one.

Now if a beggar can dream up that one, surely we can make one wish once in a while, ok? Just one single thing. It's not a wish; it's a statement that this is what I'm going to do, ok? Just one, but it always has to be single, it can't be multiple.

Now you can make many in a day if you want to, you could make up your mind about many things; but inasmuch as most of us have a conflicting set of not "I's" around with us, we generally complicate everything by making it almost mutually exclusive-like the man who wants to have a good business and a fine income; but don't bother me with the workin'. This is where very few people truly can make a single statement--especially without writing it down. That's why we would recommend that you do write anything that is, in the least, unusual to you.

Now you might be surprised how easy it would be if you wrote several of these down even about the simpler things you do every day--like having the oil changed and the car lubricated--like go to the laundry or have the laundry done today or go to the dry cleaners. You see, most of the time we qualify that. I'm going to the dry cleaners if I have time today. I'm going to have the car oil changed and lube done if I can get there today. I'll get my tire changed if I can take off a day's work, etc. etc. etc.-and so on down the line. The not "I's" are so busy telling us that we can't do anything except that which we have been doing since infancy; and we've been doing those things so long that we have now taken them for granted.

So if somebody came up to you and said that cousin Joe is very ill and that Joe has asked if you would do whatever you could for him, what would you say? Do you know how to do for cousin Joe or does the first not "I" jump up and say, "You don't know how to do anything for cousin Joe." OK? So that would put you out right there. You're out. But if you could MAKE UP YOUR MIND that cousin Joe would be feeling fine by tomorrow morning; and you didn't have any doubt--anything other than you're very confident that whatever you have MADE UP YOUR MIND to, it happened--cousin Joe will get up feeling fine tomorrow morning. Now that is--unless cousin Joe is intent on not feeling well; but he's theoretically asked for you to do that as far as I heard there. So if you made up your mind he would get well; and he does, so does that make you a healer-no-but Life is. I'm not-Life is. But I can talk to Life and Life so loves each of us, all of these little awareness functions that we call Sharon, we call Joe, we call Charlie, and so forth-It so loves us that It will do whatever we say singly. We ask one thing at a time. X is not going to figure out some complicated stuff; it is very powerful, but very simple.

So it always has to be a single asking, not a whole bunch of complicated rattling around over things. So each of us can do anything that we want. Now if I may make another suggestion-basically when you MAKE UP YOUR MIND for somebody else, you're not emotionally involved in it. But let's say that you had a pain in your knee; and you wanted to MAKE UP YOUR MIND that it would be gone. You would probably make it important that you got it gone; and consequently, all you would be reporting to X was anxiety, and your knee would probably be worse tomorrow morning. So until you get kind of used to it, it's always well to ask somebody else to make up their mind for the things that relate closely to you.

For instance, if you wanted a job, it's probably better to sit down and write out something and get another person to sign with you on it. It's like getting a co-signer on a note. The other guy won't make it very important-you might make it important, and if you make it important; all you're going to report is anxiety.

Now just saying the words is not making up your mind. YOU'RE SAYING THE WORDS WITH A FEELING. A FEELING IS A FEELING OF CONFIDENCE; or otherwise, you are not confident-aren't you anxious all the time? Is that about right? So X, no doubt, responds to the feeling as well as the words, We say, "I'm making up my mind that so and so happens tomorrow", whatever it may be. So I don't put any anxiety on it; and I would have a feeling of confidence about it. Now when you're trying to do it for yourself, most often you would make it important, would you not?

(Yes.)

You would make it important and therefore, you would be anxious.

Whenever we make anything important, we're anxious about it. So we can get somebody else to work with us when there's something very close to ourselves, at least, for the first few months until we get where we are confident. You see, the more times you see it does work exactly as you say, the more confident you become. So at first get somebody--somebody that you consider that has a reasonable degree of confidence--to sign your paper with you, your little notes so to speak-you get a co-signer; and if you get a co-signer who is having a feeling of confidence, even if you don't, it will still happen. That is the reason for having two or more to work on it, do you see? So anything that you would choose to make up your mind, singly with confidence, is going to happen--don't make it up unless there's confidence, otherwise you haven't made up your mind--you've got doubts. You're only trying to make up your mind if you are anxious in any way.

So, this is what's been called faith in certain books that's been written through the ages and says, the most powerful force is human faith. Faith is the ability to make up the mind; and it is possibly the most valuable asset you will have in every day life all your years-no matter how many of them you live. Possibly the ability to make up your mind-singly--is the most valuable asset you can have. It will work whether you're shipwrecked on an island or out in the water.

A man told me one time the only thing you could really claim to own was what could survive a shipwreck. Now if you had all your possessions on a ship and it cracked up and went down, they haven't survived-all your gold, all your silver, all your cars, all your clothes, everything's gone; but if you stop to see what it is that could survive-it would be the ability to make up the mind--singly with confidence--and you wouldn't need anything else. Ok? So that's the only thing I can conceive of that could survive a shipwreck-that you could say this is mine. I have the ability to make up my mind-singly--whenever I want to-with confidence. That could survive a shipwreck; and that's the only really valuable thing you really have--all the rest are nice things regardless of her shirt that says, "You can have all when you die; because you really haven't got them anymore-they're all gone; but you won the prize to the cemetery.

So I think that it is well that we see what would be the most valuable thing we could have-that which would survive the shipwreck. The only thing that could survive the shipwreck is the ability to make up your mind singly; and you wouldn't need anything else because you could have yourself picked up out of the ocean. You could have yourself go buy all the new merchandise or whatever you dropped in the water when you went down. Those are all temporary worthless things; but the ability to make up your mind is a permanent attribute if you can use it. And, incidentally, when we talk about not "I's", we look at them where there's the complainer, the sticker up for rights, the blamer, which says, "I'm a victim". I've got to please you or I'll be in a mess; and I have to quote the proper authorities or I'll be in a mess, or I've got to improve myself.

The reason we study those is to get conflict out of the way so that it might be possible that we can MAKE UP OUR MIND SINGLY. Knowing that this conditioning has been within, and we have very little ability to make up our mind singly, is why we give you the technique of writing it down; and having someone you like-- somebody that's around you--and somebody you trust a little bit of having a little bit of ability in this field to co-sign with you--that both of you have signed that this is what we have our mind made up to. It's a good start. So it's an excellent little technique in order to get where you can make up your mind singly.

Now on the other side of the coin, we also show you about
WHAT WE ARE,
WHERE WE ARE,
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE, AND
WHAT WE CAN DO.

THE ULTIMATE IN WHAT YOU CAN DO IS WHATEVER YOU MAKE UP YOUR MIND TO DO WITH A FEELING OF CONFIDENCE.

So if I make up my mind that I'm going to do what to me is being a good guest, I have used faith that I can do that-and I can do it consistently. If I've made up my mind that I can contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood at all times, I'll find I can do it. I've made up my mind-then X carries it out.

So we are involved in the "what", X takes care of the "how"; and the whole thing that we can do-the one thing we can have, that will survive the shipwreck, would be the ability to MAKE UP OUR MIND SINGLY.

Now I think I've talked long enough. Now let's have comments, questions, challenges, whatever you want to have. Start off here, ok?

(You were mentioning "ifs"-the if is also like saying ……..)

"If" everything works out fine.

("If" everything works out fine.)

It's always the same old thing. It's the same as "but", it says, "I don't have any confidence in it unless I can," [which is disregarding and not trusting X] and so it's another way of saying, "Well, the only way I could see it would happen is if this all happened first." It's another way of saying "unless this happens, I can do it". So "if" this happens, and "if" that happens. So "if" and "but" are two very large English words as you well know. Huh?

Ok, next question. Got a question? Mama, you got a question?

(Well, I think like this. Now I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it if I can and if I can't, I'm gonna try.)

Well, you can hear the "do it if"-you got that "if" in there; and I have some definite ideas about this, "I'll try." We give people certain things to do, sometimes, when they come in the office; and they are acting like they're sick or something. We tell them to act like they feel better. It doesn't take much effort to do that; but they say, "Well, I'll try."--Goodbye.

(That's a "nullity" work.)

Yeah, "I'll try". Now they come in tomorrow saying, "I tried, but I couldn't do it." So that's the end of it.

You got a question, comment?

(No.)

Ok, then it sounds like you got your mind made up, you're going to do your project you're working on; and it's moving along as long as you've got your mind made up, right? Now have you got somebody else that made up their mind with you?

(It's still a go.)

Ok, but you're getting somebody to make up their mind with you which gives you a little more feeling of confidence, doesn't it?

(It certainly does.)

Ok.

(It's like a support system.)

How about you? You got anything here?

(Well, when you say "what", are you saying that you can actually have an impact on other people's lives if…)

You have an impact on other people's lives by just stumbling around, honey; so obviously, you might have a lot more impact if you had you're mind made up.

Now if you made up your mind, "I can contribute to a pleasant harmonious mood"-would that affect about everybody around you? I find it does. If I go in and stand up and talk to sixty or seventy people at a time; and if I'm up there being very serious and very heavy, they're bored and they're dragged out; and did I have considerable influence on their lives for, at least, the time being? But if I go in there and have a ball and have everybody laughing and having a good time, have I had an effect on their lives? Definitely-yes!

So the WHAT IS,--is what kind of an effect I'm having on people's lives-that is what I'm interested in.

(What kind of an effect?)

I'm going to affect everybody around me to some degree. I can bore them-I can entertain them-I can delight them-I can inspire them, maybe sometimes-or whatever else may come along. But definitely I'm going to have an influence; so I want to know what kind of an influence I'm having. Does that help answer your question?

If I reacted to everybody else's reactions, I would be influencing them all to be "pissed off"; and angry all day, ok? And I don't see that I want to do that one. I'd rather do something else. I would rather, (as long as I am going to be an influence on everybody around me), I'd rather it would, at least, be a pleasant one or a useful one. I don't want to bore people.

How about you?

(So you make up your mind to do something; and then you take the first step--you can't just necessarily make up your mind to do something.)

Well, you haven't made up your mind unless you do take the first step.

(Ok.)

You been just wishful thinking, you know? It'd be like making up your mind to have $100,000. So you keep looking at the ceiling to see if it will fall through. I don't think it'd work. You didn't make up your mind because the first thing you gotta do is know what you're going to give in some kind of service or product in order to have an even exchange. Ok?

John, you in here today?

(When we make up our mind to do something, is it necessary to remind ourselves of it.)

Well, I don't think you need to remind yourself-YOU'VE MADE UP YOUR MIND-YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY-YOU NOW HAVE AN AIM IN SOMETHING; and as you say, YOU TAKE THE FIRST STEP. But also, as soon as the first step is made, there's another first step to make it continue.

So I made up my mind to give a little talk here this morning to everybody. I didn't forget it after a couple of minutes and say "Well, I came here to have coffee, where's my coffee?" I can continue on what I started on. Is that right? And I haven't had to remind myself what I'm doing at one time. Does that help answer your question? When you go to work in a day, do you have to remind yourself what you're doing or do you think you've gone fishing most of the time? Ok?

Tom, you in here?

(I've been here. Going back to writing, which I do. In the infant form of that, I make a list of things I am going to do today; and as I finish each one, I check it off.)

Ok, but you make up your mind to do number one first; and then you make up your mind to do number two.

(Right.)

And you made your list in the morning; and said all these things are to do today; so I'll get to them Ok? That's one way of doing it.

The one we were talking about is like if you say, "I'm going to build a business; and you would relate what kind it was; and then you get somebody to agree with you-that can be done--and then you'd sign it, ok? The one you're talking about with the list making is one form of it; but I know a jillion people who make them and say, "Well, I'll never get it all done today." And so "not getting it all done today" is what they've made up their mind to, ok?

All right any other questions or any other comments. We'll stop here and next Monday at 2:30 pm, we'll meet here again for another discussion.

Thank you everybody and have a lovely day. Hopefully MAKING UP YOUR MINDS singly every now and then. Ok?