Most people are not really hurt by the world.
They're hurt by their own expectations.
I read somewhere that H.G. Wells was very disappointed in people.
He thought that we would have arrived at more of a scientific community
than what we have today
but what hurt him was not the world.
It was his expectations.
He expected people to lean more toward science
and less toward metaphysics.
He suspected that the system
would gather intelligence and know the right direction.
So what really hurt him was his own expectations.
The real answer to that question is:
Whatever happens in the world is real.
What you think should happen is not real.
So you're not disappointed by the world.
You're disappointed by your own projections.
If you meet a person, you say "There's a wonderful person"
and they turn out to be different than you suspected
you get mad, and you say "She isn't that wonderful"
or "He isn't that wonderful"
and it's your own projections that you're mad at.
The right way to look at a person is:
"I don't know enough about them to make a judgment."
In time, when you make a judgment
you say "Up to now, they appear to be so-so."
But something may come back that reminds them of something else.
So they hurt you. They really don't hurt you.
They're normal. That is, normal to their values.
Like my mother would believe in religion
because it's normal to her background
and when things get tough, she prays, rather then
because she doesn't know what else to do.
What you have to do is take time out
and try to inform people as to how to look at things.
It may take you two or three years to do that
but we would expect to find people that understand what we say.
When they shake their heads like "Yes"
that doesn't mean they understand.
It means they understand a limited amount.
So, the point is:
What are your expectations?
Now, in chemistry, if you mix certain things together
certain things happen, at a certain temperature.
At different temperatures, the same thing doesn't happen.
You can get mad and throw the experiment on the floor
if you don't follow the rules.
So if a person wants to be more analytical
they have to learn how to say "I don't know"
or "Up to now, everything seems to be OK.
My relationship seems to work out in many different areas
or more areas than I expected."
Sometimes we're pleasantly surprised
by the reaction of people we had a negative view of.
I may have a negative view of you
but in time, observing what you do
my negative view becomes a positive view.
But if I have a negative view, it means I was projecting.
I really don't know. So the point is
when events occur that are tough
if a person deserts you at that time
you'll understand that they can't live under those conditions.
They're not bad people. They revert back to their conditioning.
Now, "reverting back to their conditioning" means
if the world is catastrophic
if a man is shot, he's laying in the battlefield
he says "I hope the first-aid people come soon. I don't feel very good."
If they don't come soon, he says "Where the hell are they?"
He expected them to come sooner
but they come as soon as they can come, whenever that is.
And if you can't take it, you can swear all you want to
but if you continue to swear and continue to get angry
they're apt to arrive during that period.
And you say "Well, it's my prayers
because I hoped they'd come and rescue me.
That goes for...
H.G. Wells had a scene in the movie
I think it was called "The Shape of Things to Come"
in which a pilot shot down a German pilot or another pilot
and he went over to the plane crash
and the guy was very ill.
He couldn't leave. He says "The plane is going to explode
and I'm badly damaged. So
this guy gave him a gun to shoot himself.
In the motion picture "Airmail"
there was a guy caught in an airplane. [He] couldn't get out. [It] was burning
so the guy shot him twice. The guy loved him
but he didn't want him to burn to death.
Is that murder? What is it?
If anybody claimed he was suffering so much from cancer
I shot him. Is that love?
How do you talk about love?
Do you know what I mean? If a person is suffering from cancer
he says "Please, take my life.
The doctor says "I can live three months with this condition."
And you hear him crying out, suffering
and you shoot him. Are you a murderer? Are you kind?
All those words are very difficult to deal with.
It depends on the situation.
It depends on how attached you are to the person.
If you don't give a damn about their suffering. You know what I mean?
So people begged certain doctors to take their lives.
They were suffering too much. It was too much on their family.
They didn't have a bank account to pay for this medical condition
that they were under. They said "Please, end my life
because the pain is unbearable."
And the Bible says you're not supposed to take a life
no matter what the pain is.
That's your entry into heaven, especially in India.
If a person's suffering a great deal, they're paying off their karma.
If you end that, you shoot them, they can't pay off their karma.
So, you've got all these crazy things
that you are exposed to
and you use your logic, thinking that it makes sense.
It only makes sense if a person says "I see your point
but I'm unable to accept it emotionally."
There are people like that, that can't do that.
They can't shoot their father, even though he's suffering
because it says "Thou shalt not kill"
and they figure that even if they shot their father that was suffering
they've committed a crime against God.
So remember, it's your own expectations that hurt you
not the world you live in. Whatever happens in the world is real.
What you think should happen is unreal.
So people are hurt by their expectations.
Any questions about that?
If you have reasonable expectations such as "I don't know"
then whatever happens, you say "I didn't think it would be that bad."
How do you know how bad it would be?
Whatever happens, no matter how bad it is
if fifty kids are killed in a bus crash
that's a problem. Why were they killed?
The bus slipped off an icy highway. What can you do about it?
I don't know. And the condition will prevail
unless you come up with a new way of friction tires
that can't skid on icy highways.
That's the best you can do. But if you made those tires
and you put them on the bus, and the bus still slipped
it means you got more to go.
You can't say "I made ice tires that won't slip."
That's a projection, unless you tested it out many times.
Do you understand?
So what does man really want?
He really wants accurate predictability.
You cannot achieve that unless you're technical.
...accurate predictability.
If an engine fails it means
there's something wrong with a fuel pump, or any number of things.
If you can't attend to those things
then the probability is that at some time or other
the engine will fail.
Now, I don't expect you to walk around accepting everything that happens.
I expect you to be angered and say "What can I do about it?
I don't know, but I'm going to try. I'm going to try to make it possible
for people not to be injured.
I'm going to try to design a conveyor
that's on the tracks and under the tracks, that's locked
so even in an amusement park
the loop-da-loop can't go off the tracks
because it's got under-braces."
The under-braces may be perfect
but the structure of the unit may not be.
So, to the ability of an individual
to handle all those things is very difficult
but he only knows, or she only knows, what to handle after the event.
The event has to occur first, then the person makes a safety device
and he solved that problem, but there may be other problems
and another event may occur that's negative.
And the person says "What can I do about it?
I don't know enough about it. I'm going to read up on it
and try to become familiar with the nature of the problem
and try to solve it" and
when a person says to you "Have you solved it?
This is the device. I made in an attempt to solve it.
Will it work? Well, according to the tests I did, it will."
But in reality, it was cold and the oil didn't flow
so the thing wasn't lubricated, and it didn't work.
There are other factors you learned about later on.
That's called "after the facts".
So some people get mad at technicians and say
"You're a technician. Why did that thing fail?" "What do you suggest?"
is what you put to that person.
If they say "You designed that unit and it failed."
"Yes it did fail, apparently I didn't know enough about
solving that problem. What do you suggest?
Don't get mad at me. What do you suggest?
You've done nothing but expect me to solve the problem."
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