We've discussed the web from three points of view
As an analogy of the selective operation of our senses and mind
Whereby certain things in the world are picked out as significant according to certain game rules
The game that we are playing mostly is the survival game
That is to say the game ought to go on
Only the way we play the survival game has a kind of element in it
Which makes it difficult
Because we tend to say, “The first rule of this game is that it's serious.”
And that messes the whole thing up
So, you have to watch out in other words when you play
For contradictory game rules, self contradictory game rules
Because if you get mixed up into them
The game seizes to be worth the candle
You start straining at doing something when it just isn't worth it
Then the second thing that we observed
Was the web as an analogy of mutual interdependence
We could call it the idea that all existence is relative
That all existence is transactional
The transaction being typically exemplified by say the operation of buying and selling in which there can be no buying without somebody selling, and there can be no selling without somebody else buying
That kind of interdependence of the inside going together with the outside
[Chorus]
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
Existence is relativity
Then we explored the web as a trap
The spider's web, "Won't you come into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly
And we saw what happens when you look at all of life from the point of view
That it is original selfishness and original hunger
And we found that if you take that point of view to its ultimate extreme
It dissolves
And it isn't so bad after all
Shakespeare says, "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and theory, signifying nothing."
When it's put that way, it doesn't seem so bad after all [Laughs]
[Chorus]
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
Existence is relativity
I remember that I had a Zen master friend who wrote a letter to a friend of mine, which was passed onto me
This friend of mine was aspiring to be a writer
And he was trying to write a novel that would but across Buddhism to people
Sugar the pill
And my Zen master friend didn't approve of this at all
He said, "Don't write any story to people, write it to the great sky.”
Because all the real masters of literature, especially novelists and storytellers
Are great masters of nonsense
Think of Lewis Carroll
You can use Lewis Carroll, and he did use Alice in Wonderland as a Zen textbook:
‘‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”
That’s Zen
I had a discussion with a great master in Japan
We were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English
He said, "That's a waste of time."
"If you really understand zen," he said
"You could use any book, you could use the Bible, you could use Alice in Wonderland, you could use the dictionary."
Because he said, "The sound of the rain needs no translation."
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
So what does the rain say?
Evening rain
It is the banana leaf that speaks of it first
You see that's the point, and all the talk in the world
Doesn't get it unless you listen to the talk in a new way
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
As an analogy of the selective operation of our senses and mind
Whereby certain things in the world are picked out as significant according to certain game rules
The game that we are playing mostly is the survival game
That is to say the game ought to go on
Only the way we play the survival game has a kind of element in it
Which makes it difficult
Because we tend to say, “The first rule of this game is that it's serious.”
And that messes the whole thing up
So, you have to watch out in other words when you play
For contradictory game rules, self contradictory game rules
Because if you get mixed up into them
The game seizes to be worth the candle
You start straining at doing something when it just isn't worth it
Then the second thing that we observed
Was the web as an analogy of mutual interdependence
We could call it the idea that all existence is relative
That all existence is transactional
The transaction being typically exemplified by say the operation of buying and selling in which there can be no buying without somebody selling, and there can be no selling without somebody else buying
That kind of interdependence of the inside going together with the outside
[Chorus]
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
Existence is relativity
Then we explored the web as a trap
The spider's web, "Won't you come into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly
And we saw what happens when you look at all of life from the point of view
That it is original selfishness and original hunger
And we found that if you take that point of view to its ultimate extreme
It dissolves
And it isn't so bad after all
Shakespeare says, "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and theory, signifying nothing."
When it's put that way, it doesn't seem so bad after all [Laughs]
[Chorus]
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
What is in you going together with what is outside you
Is absolutely fundamental to existence
It is existence
Existence is relativity, existence is relativity
Existence is relativity
I remember that I had a Zen master friend who wrote a letter to a friend of mine, which was passed onto me
This friend of mine was aspiring to be a writer
And he was trying to write a novel that would but across Buddhism to people
Sugar the pill
And my Zen master friend didn't approve of this at all
He said, "Don't write any story to people, write it to the great sky.”
Because all the real masters of literature, especially novelists and storytellers
Are great masters of nonsense
Think of Lewis Carroll
You can use Lewis Carroll, and he did use Alice in Wonderland as a Zen textbook:
‘‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”
That’s Zen
I had a discussion with a great master in Japan
We were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English
He said, "That's a waste of time."
"If you really understand zen," he said
"You could use any book, you could use the Bible, you could use Alice in Wonderland, you could use the dictionary."
Because he said, "The sound of the rain needs no translation."
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
So what does the rain say?
Evening rain
It is the banana leaf that speaks of it first
You see that's the point, and all the talk in the world
Doesn't get it unless you listen to the talk in a new way
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
The sound of the rain needs no translation
Now then the question arises, who's deceiving who?
Who's fooling who?
I'm fooling me?
What is fooling?
Now then the question arises, who's deceiving who?
Who's fooling who?
I'm fooling me
What is fooling?
Fooling is playing like you're there when you're not
You know getting someone else to answer your name in the role call
[Laugh]
So, we're all this is the metaphysical basis of it, this is what the Hindu's mean by māyā
The world-illusion
The world is playing it’s there when it isn’t
[Pre - Chorus]
And it's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
And it's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
And it's a thorough big trap too
But always when you get an idea like this, or a feeling like this
Follow it to its extreme
Don't back out from it
If you find your selfish
Go to the extreme of what selfishness means
Confusion largely results
From not following feelings or ideas to their depth
You know, people think they want to be immortal
They'd like to live forever
Do you really want to do that?
Think about it, really go into it
What it would be like
People say they want this, that, and the other
They want this kind of car, they want this kind of dress
This much money and so on
It's always a good idea to think it right through
What it would involve to be in that situation and to have those desires fulfilled
[Chorus]
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
Also when you form a relationship to another person
Think it through too
You see?
How inconvenient could they be?
However attractive
Always turn the embroidery around, and look at the underside
But don't get caught doing it
See, that's something one does on the side, in secret
'Cause otherwise you play the game that everything is as it's supposed to be on the front
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
Who's fooling who?
I'm fooling me?
What is fooling?
Now then the question arises, who's deceiving who?
Who's fooling who?
I'm fooling me
What is fooling?
Fooling is playing like you're there when you're not
You know getting someone else to answer your name in the role call
[Laugh]
So, we're all this is the metaphysical basis of it, this is what the Hindu's mean by māyā
The world-illusion
The world is playing it’s there when it isn’t
[Pre - Chorus]
And it's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
And it's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
And it's a thorough big trap too
But always when you get an idea like this, or a feeling like this
Follow it to its extreme
Don't back out from it
If you find your selfish
Go to the extreme of what selfishness means
Confusion largely results
From not following feelings or ideas to their depth
You know, people think they want to be immortal
They'd like to live forever
Do you really want to do that?
Think about it, really go into it
What it would be like
People say they want this, that, and the other
They want this kind of car, they want this kind of dress
This much money and so on
It's always a good idea to think it right through
What it would involve to be in that situation and to have those desires fulfilled
[Chorus]
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
It's a trap
And it sucks you in
And you can't get out of it
Also when you form a relationship to another person
Think it through too
You see?
How inconvenient could they be?
However attractive
Always turn the embroidery around, and look at the underside
But don't get caught doing it
See, that's something one does on the side, in secret
'Cause otherwise you play the game that everything is as it's supposed to be on the front
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
And that makes you humorous
And that makes you human
Think of camouflage
The chameleon who changes his color
Think of the butterfly pretending it has eyes
Think of the flower, saying to the bee, "Like my honey?"
The bee says, "Wow!"
But then that means that the bee has to be
It has to go on living, and all the trouble it takes to go around collecting honey and raising other bees, and organizing itself, and doing that dance which tells the other bees where there's more honey
All that stuff to do
Because the flower was deceptive
Life is a drama, and a drama is a deception
A big act
When you peel an onion, and you don't really understand the nature of an onion
You might look for the pit in the center, like any ordinary fruit has
But the onion doesn't have a center
It's all skins
So when you get right down there's nothing but a bunch of skins
You say, "Well, that was kinda disappointing."
But of course you have to understand that the skins are the part that you eat
[Chorus]
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
That's why, in Zen discipline, they give you kōans which require a perfectly genuine act
An act of total and absolute sincerity
And people knock themselves out trying to do this thing
But they always know that the master's gonna catch them
Because he reads their thought
You know that story of von Kleist, about the man who had a fight with a bear?
And the bear could read his thoughts?
So, the only way of hitting the bear was to do so not on purpose
Because the bear would know in advance
So it's the same in working with a Zen master
You have to do the genuine act not on purpose
But since you're put in a situation where it's rather formal
And you're supposed to do it on purpose
You're stuck you see?
So, you explore the onion and you go in, and in, and in, and then you find
Well, it's all a deception
[Chorus]
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
The chameleon who changes his color
Think of the butterfly pretending it has eyes
Think of the flower, saying to the bee, "Like my honey?"
The bee says, "Wow!"
But then that means that the bee has to be
It has to go on living, and all the trouble it takes to go around collecting honey and raising other bees, and organizing itself, and doing that dance which tells the other bees where there's more honey
All that stuff to do
Because the flower was deceptive
Life is a drama, and a drama is a deception
A big act
When you peel an onion, and you don't really understand the nature of an onion
You might look for the pit in the center, like any ordinary fruit has
But the onion doesn't have a center
It's all skins
So when you get right down there's nothing but a bunch of skins
You say, "Well, that was kinda disappointing."
But of course you have to understand that the skins are the part that you eat
[Chorus]
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
That's why, in Zen discipline, they give you kōans which require a perfectly genuine act
An act of total and absolute sincerity
And people knock themselves out trying to do this thing
But they always know that the master's gonna catch them
Because he reads their thought
You know that story of von Kleist, about the man who had a fight with a bear?
And the bear could read his thoughts?
So, the only way of hitting the bear was to do so not on purpose
Because the bear would know in advance
So it's the same in working with a Zen master
You have to do the genuine act not on purpose
But since you're put in a situation where it's rather formal
And you're supposed to do it on purpose
You're stuck you see?
So, you explore the onion and you go in, and in, and in, and then you find
Well, it's all a deception
[Chorus]
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
Well, in rather the same way, you see, you find
When you explore yourself and your motivations
You go through and through and you try to find out
That thing which really is genuine
That thing which really is genuine
Jung had a tremendous humor
And he knew
[Chorus]
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
"Well I've had enough of that," you know?
And do you see how in a strange way there's a certain sanity in that?
When a person indulges in a certain kind of duplicity of deception
There is something, you all laughed when I said that, there’s something humorous about it
And this humor is [a] very funny thing
Basically humor is an attitude of laughter about ones self
There is malicious humor, which is laughing at other people
But real deep humor
Is laughter at ones self
Now why fundamentally do you laugh about yourself?
What makes you laugh about yourself?
Isn't it because you know that there is a big difference between what goes on the outside and what goes on the inside?
That if I hint
You see, that you're inside is the opposite of your outside it makes people laugh, if I don't do it unkindly
If I get up in the attitude of a preacher
And say you're a bunch of miserable sinners and you ought to be different
Nobody laughs
But if I say “Well, after all, boys will be boys, and girls will be girls,”
We all know, then, people laugh
[Chorus]
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
"Well I've had enough of that," you know?
Now, you see what's happening when we do that?
Now, I passed you around a lot of embroidery to look at
Before we started
And I'm perfectly sure that you got the point
That there's a big difference between the front and the back
In some forms of embroidery the back is very different from the front
Because people take shortcuts
In the front everything is orderly, and it is supposed to be kinda messy on the back side
See, which side will you wear?
You got to be sure you get the front in the front, and the back in the back
The back has all the little tricks in it, all the shortcuts
All the low down that people don't acknowledge
And it's exactly the same with the way we live
You know, like sweeping the dust under the carpet in a hurry just before the guests come
I mean we do ever so many things like that
And if you don't do it, if you don't think you do it, and you think
“Well, really my embroidery is the same on both sides.”
See? Well you're deceiving yourself
Because what you're doing is you're taking the shortcuts in another dimension
Which you're keeping out of consciousness
Everybody takes the shortcuts, everybody plays tricks
Everybody has in himself an element of duplicity, of deception
Because you see from this point of view that I'm discussing, where the web is the trap
To be is to deceive
[Chorus]
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
"Well I've had enough of that," you know?
To be – is to deceive
To be – is to deceive
And he knew
[Chorus]
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
"Well I've had enough of that," you know?
And do you see how in a strange way there's a certain sanity in that?
When a person indulges in a certain kind of duplicity of deception
There is something, you all laughed when I said that, there’s something humorous about it
And this humor is [a] very funny thing
Basically humor is an attitude of laughter about ones self
There is malicious humor, which is laughing at other people
But real deep humor
Is laughter at ones self
Now why fundamentally do you laugh about yourself?
What makes you laugh about yourself?
Isn't it because you know that there is a big difference between what goes on the outside and what goes on the inside?
That if I hint
You see, that you're inside is the opposite of your outside it makes people laugh, if I don't do it unkindly
If I get up in the attitude of a preacher
And say you're a bunch of miserable sinners and you ought to be different
Nobody laughs
But if I say “Well, after all, boys will be boys, and girls will be girls,”
We all know, then, people laugh
[Chorus]
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
"Well I've had enough of that," you know?
Now, you see what's happening when we do that?
Now, I passed you around a lot of embroidery to look at
Before we started
And I'm perfectly sure that you got the point
That there's a big difference between the front and the back
In some forms of embroidery the back is very different from the front
Because people take shortcuts
In the front everything is orderly, and it is supposed to be kinda messy on the back side
See, which side will you wear?
You got to be sure you get the front in the front, and the back in the back
The back has all the little tricks in it, all the shortcuts
All the low down that people don't acknowledge
And it's exactly the same with the way we live
You know, like sweeping the dust under the carpet in a hurry just before the guests come
I mean we do ever so many things like that
And if you don't do it, if you don't think you do it, and you think
“Well, really my embroidery is the same on both sides.”
See? Well you're deceiving yourself
Because what you're doing is you're taking the shortcuts in another dimension
Which you're keeping out of consciousness
Everybody takes the shortcuts, everybody plays tricks
Everybody has in himself an element of duplicity, of deception
Because you see from this point of view that I'm discussing, where the web is the trap
To be is to deceive
[Chorus]
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
That nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
"Well I've had enough of that," you know?
To be – is to deceive
To be – is to deceive
One of the very great things that C.G. Jung contributed to mankind's understanding
Was the concept of the shadow
That everybody has a shadow
And that the main task of the psychotherapist is to do what he called, “to integrate the evil”
To as it were, put the devil in us in its proper function
'Cause you see it's always the devil
The unacknowledged one
The outcast, the scapegoat
The bastard, the bad guy, you see the black sheep of the family
It's always from that point
Which we could call the fly in the ointment, you see
That generation comes
In other words, the same way as in the drama
To have the play it's necessary to introduce a villain
It's necessary to introduce a certain element of trouble
So, in the whole scheme of life, there has to be the shadow
[Chorus]
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Integrate the evil
Integrate the evil
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Everybody has a shadow
Because without the shadow there can't be the substance
So, this is why
There is a very strange association between
Crime and all naughty things and holiness
You see holiness is way beyond being good
Good people aren't necessarily holy people
A holy person is one who's whole
Who has as it were reconciled his opposites
And so there's always something slightly scary about holy people
And other people react to them in very strange ways
They can't make up their minds whether they're saints or devils
So holy people have throughout history
Always created a great deal of trouble
Along with their creative results
Take Jesus for example
The trouble that Jesus created is absolutely incalculable
Think of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the… heaven only knows
What's gone on in the name of Jesus
Freud is a big troublemaker, as well as a great healer, you see it all goes together
[Chorus]
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Integrate the evil
Integrate the evil
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Everybody has a shadow
Because without the shadow there can't be the substance
So, the holy person is scary
Because he is like the earthquakes, or better still he's like the ocean
See, the ocean on a lovely sunny day you can say, "Oh isn't that gorgeous?
And you can go into it, and relax, and float around
But boy when the storm comes, does that thing get mad, terrifying
So, there is in us the ocean, you see?
And Jung felt that the whole point was to bring the two together
By a kind of fantastic honesty
To penetrate one's own motivations to the depths
Was the concept of the shadow
That everybody has a shadow
And that the main task of the psychotherapist is to do what he called, “to integrate the evil”
To as it were, put the devil in us in its proper function
'Cause you see it's always the devil
The unacknowledged one
The outcast, the scapegoat
The bastard, the bad guy, you see the black sheep of the family
It's always from that point
Which we could call the fly in the ointment, you see
That generation comes
In other words, the same way as in the drama
To have the play it's necessary to introduce a villain
It's necessary to introduce a certain element of trouble
So, in the whole scheme of life, there has to be the shadow
[Chorus]
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Integrate the evil
Integrate the evil
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Everybody has a shadow
Because without the shadow there can't be the substance
So, this is why
There is a very strange association between
Crime and all naughty things and holiness
You see holiness is way beyond being good
Good people aren't necessarily holy people
A holy person is one who's whole
Who has as it were reconciled his opposites
And so there's always something slightly scary about holy people
And other people react to them in very strange ways
They can't make up their minds whether they're saints or devils
So holy people have throughout history
Always created a great deal of trouble
Along with their creative results
Take Jesus for example
The trouble that Jesus created is absolutely incalculable
Think of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the… heaven only knows
What's gone on in the name of Jesus
Freud is a big troublemaker, as well as a great healer, you see it all goes together
[Chorus]
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Integrate the evil
Integrate the evil
The shadow
The bastard, the bad guy, the black sheep of the family
The shadow
Everybody has a shadow
Because without the shadow there can't be the substance
So, the holy person is scary
Because he is like the earthquakes, or better still he's like the ocean
See, the ocean on a lovely sunny day you can say, "Oh isn't that gorgeous?
And you can go into it, and relax, and float around
But boy when the storm comes, does that thing get mad, terrifying
So, there is in us the ocean, you see?
And Jung felt that the whole point was to bring the two together
By a kind of fantastic honesty
To penetrate one's own motivations to the depths