So now the first thing I want you to understand if you really want to wake up is that you don't want to wake up.
The first step to understanding or to waking up is to be honest enough to admit to yourself that you don't like it.
You don't want to be happy.
You want a little test?
Let's try it.
It can take you exactly one minute but listen to this.
Think of someone you so-called love,
Someone you're close to,
Someone precious and say I'd rather have happiness than have you.
See what happens.
I'd rather have happiness than have you.
If I had a choice,
No question about it,
I'd choose happiness.
How many felt selfish when they said this?
See how we've been brainwashed into thinking how could you be so selfish?
Look who's being selfish.
Just imagine somebody says how could you be so selfish that you choose happiness over me?
How could you be so selfish that you would demand that I choose you above my happiness?
Tell me.
Is sacrifice the test of love?
But now tell me,
Would you want me to love you at the cost of my happiness that you would love me at the cost of your happiness and I would love you at the cost of my happiness and you got two unhappy people?
So now the first thing I want you to understand if you really want to wake up is that you don't want to wake up.
We don't want to be happy.
We want other things or let's put it more accurately we don't want to be unconditionally happy.
I'm ready to be happy provided I have this and that and the other and you know what we're really saying?
We're saying you are my happiness to our friend or to our God or to anything.
You are my happiness.
If I don't get you I refuse to be happy and it's so important to understand that and that's the reason why we don't want it because we cannot conceive of the fact we would be happy without all of those things.
We've been taught to place our happiness in all of those things.
So that's the first thing we need to do if we want to come awake which is the same thing as saying if we want to love,
If we want freedom,
If we want joy and peace and spirituality in that sense spirituality is the most practical thing in the whole wide world.
I challenge anyone to think of anything more practical than spirituality as I have defined it.
Not piety,
Not devotion,
Not religion,
Not worship,
Spirituality,
Waking up,
Wake up.
Look at the heartache everywhere,
Look at the loneliness,
Look at the fear,
The confusions,
The conflicts in the hearts of people,
Inner conflict,
Outer conflict.
Suppose somebody gave you a way of getting rid of all of that.
Suppose somebody gave you a way of stopping that tremendous drainage of energy,
Of health,
Of the emotions that come from these conflicts and confusions.
Would you want that?
Suppose somebody showed us a way where we would truly love one another and be at peace at last.
Can you think of anything more practical than that?
But here you have people thinking that big business is more practical or politics is more practical or science is more practical.
What's the earthly use of putting a man in the moon when we cannot live on the earth?
Is psychology more practical?
Nothing is so practical as this.
What can the poor psychologist do?
He can only relieve the pressure.
I'm a psychologist myself and I practice psychotherapy,
But you know I have this great conflict within me when I have to choose between psychology and spirituality.
I'll explain that.
You know,
It didn't make sense to me for many years until I suddenly discovered that people have to suffer enough emotionally before they're ready to wake up.
And what I was doing as a psychotherapist was easing the suffering.
People have to suffer enough in a relationship that they'd get disillusioned with all relationships.
Isn't that a terrible thing to say?
They've got to suffer enough in a relationship before they wake up and say,
I'm sick of it.
There must be another way of living than depending on another human being.
And what was I doing as a psychotherapist?
They were coming with their relationship problems,
Communication problems,
Etc.
And sometimes that was a help and sometimes I'm sorry to say it wasn't.
Maybe they should suffer a little more.
Maybe they ought to touch rock bottom before they say,
I'm sick of it all.
It's only when you're sick of your sickness that you'll get out of it.
People,
Well,
They go to a psychiatrist or a psychologist to get relief,
To get relief.
There are times when psychotherapy is a tremendous help because,
You know,
When you come to that point where you're about to get insane,
You're about to become either a psychotic or a mystic because that's what the mystic is.
You know,
Once you've woken up,
You're asking yourself,
Am I crazy or are all of them?
Because they're crazy.
The whole world is crazy.
They're living on crazy ideas about love,
About relationships,
About happiness,
About joy,
About everything.
They're crazy to the point that I've come to believe that if everybody is saying something,
You can be sure it's wrong.
Every new idea,
Every great idea,
When it first began,
Was in a minority of one.
That guy called Jesus Christ,
Minority of one.
Buddha,
Minority of one.
Everyone was saying something different.
In fact,
It's even worse.
I think it was Bertrand Russell who said,
Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.
That's well and accurately put because they're crazy,
They're lunatics.
And the sooner you see this,
The better for your mental and spiritual health.
Don't trust them.
They're very clever,
As you are when you're dealing with everybody,
Though you probably don't know it.
You're putting on a great act.
I'm not being very complimentary,
Am I?
Do you want to wake up?
You're putting on a great act,
Aren't you?
And you don't even know it.
You think you're being so loving.
Whom are you loving?
Even when you go in for self-sacrifice,
It gives you a good feeling,
Doesn't it?
For me,
I'm sacrificing myself.
I'm living up to my ideal.
Boy,
You're getting something out of it,
Aren't you?
You're always getting something out of everything you do until you wake up.
So there it is.
Step one,
Realize that you don't want to wake up.
