Friday, September 2nd, 1988

KENNETH THURSTON HURST (KTH) TALK

THE SECRET PATH TO SELF-FULFILLMENT

at SPIRITUAL ADVISORY COUNCIL 1988 CONVENTION ORLANDO, FL

September 2, 1988 (Friday; see note)

TOPIC: Kenneth Thurston Hurst Talk

SUBJECT: The Quest

SUBSUBJECTS: PB anecdotes, PB Books, Sickness and Healing

CONTENTS:

OPENING REMARKS AND NAMES

SHAGGY GURU STORIES

IMPORTANCE OF HUMOR

PB'S EXPERIENCES IN THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

HOW PB CAME TO WRITE THE SECRET PATH; RAMANA MAHARSHI

BEING SURROUNDED BY GOD

KENNETH AND AMERICA

GOING WITH THE FLOW

CLOSING REMARKS

BOOKS / MAGAZINES QUOTED FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret India

• Paul Brunton, The Secret Path

• Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret Egypt

• Kenneth Thurston Hurst, Live Life First Class

• Who's Who

• Bible, Proverbs (23:7), Luke (15:11-32), Acts (9:5, 17:28)

• Life magazine, 1952

• Dr. Hans Selye, The Stress of Life

• Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking

• William Shakespeare, Hamlet

NOTES:

• Notes from JF and IT on the misdating issue: This event is an evening talk that Kenneth Thurston Hurst gave at the Spiritual Advisory Council 1988 Convention; its audio was found in the WG audio tapes collection – tape mislabeled 1984 0210 WG Plotinus class – but apparently the class was copied over and the tape not relabeled. KTH mentions it is seven years after PB's passing (1981) – hence 1988. He also mentions towards the end, "There's tomorrow, there's Sunday," which would make this the Friday of the convention. Hence this is tentatively dated Sept. 2, 1988, which would be Friday of the 1988 Labor Day weekend. The audio file corresponding to the tape has been relabeled appropriately.

• KTH = Kenneth Thurston Hurst.

• See p. 2 for additional note about possibly controversial item in this talk.

• This talk also includes references to KTH's living in Florida, and KTH's house in Hector, NY – but not to Joan, whom KTH married in 1994.

TRANSCRIBED by Happy Scribe, third pass relisten by JRM 2019, fourth pass by JF 2020. Formatting by JRM/JF 2019-2020. Subheads & Contents by JRM. In 2024, IT does two more passes, corrects listening errors and makes verbatim, corrects date, updates prefatory matter and footer, alters Topic to make more accurate, creates Subsubjects, completes Book List, fixes errors/typos, adds new notes within transcript, reformats to accord with new conventions. Archival Verbatim Transcript – V14.1a.

AUDIO FILES: 1988 0902a. [Note: "Tape" refers to original audio cassette tape that was later digitized into an .MP3 Audio File.]

1988 09/02 at Spiritual Advisory Council 1988 Convention

Kenneth Thurston Hurst Talk: The Secret Path to Self-Fulfillment

Archival Verbatim Transcript

OPENING REMARKS AND NAMES

[Audio File 1988 0902a Begins]

KTH: Ok. Yes, that's right, I guess-- How-- how many people here were at the intensive yesterday? Ok, two-- so three, ok. So, you know, I went into all that but I'll be glad to answer your question. The reason is, as I explained, my father's name was, is, Raphael [KTH pronounces: Raphel] Hurst. And he was called Ralph by my mother's family until-- (so both) Ralph Hurst. And he was a newspaper reporter, a magazine publisher, a journalist, a researcher. Does somebody want to close the door please? Thank you. Yeah.

And, when he first started writing spiritual books-- This was not his first book, this was his second book. The first book was A Search in Secret India, which was published in 1934. He went to India in 1931 when he was 9-- when he was 33. And, he came back after two years and wrote the book Secret India. It was an instant success. Altogether, it sold over a quarter of a million copies and as a publisher, I can tell you that's very good [one/two words inaudible] And now as a author [Live Life First Class] and ex-publisher, I can tell you, extremely good. (KTH laughs) Yes. And, he knew that he was going to spend the rest of his life writing books on spiritual subjects, and he knew it would be a complete change of pace.

He was going to devote his life to this. And so he decided on a change of name. Many people do this, many people in the world, right? In show business it's done all the time, I mean-- How many people here remember Archibald Leach? Nobody? How many people remember Cary Grant? That's Archibald Leach, sure. And so he decided on the name not-- not Paul Brunton, no. He decided on the name Brunton Paul, which he felt was very elegant, very erudite, you know, sounds good right? But, when the proofs came to the printer, the printer was a pragmatic soul, he said, "Terrible mistake. Must be Paul Brunton," and changed it around. (laughter) And so my father accepted it as the whim of the gods. Now I-- at that time I was just a little schoolboy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (laughter)

And you know school boys don't like to change their names, they're afraid of peer pressure or whatever. So, I just-- I didn't, you know, decide to change my name. And, when-- as I got older, as I got out of my teens and into my 20s, I didn't want to bask in my father's reflected glory. I wanted to (come out--) get out and get some glory of my own, you see. So that's why I never changed my name.

Now after he died seven years ago, [Note: This dates KTH's talk to 1988; PB died in 1981.] a number of people suggested that maybe I should change my name, Brunton, Kenneth Thurston Brunton, whatever. But no, you know, it's too late now, I mean I'm in Who's Who with a long listing under Thurston. They would get awfully annoyed if they ever change it over to B's.

But Thurston, since you got me on this, and it all ties in in a way, but Thurston, Kenneth Thurston Hurst, Mr. Thurston was my father's first guru, his first teacher. He was an American, an American painter living in London. And, I might say that I owe my very life to Mr. Thurston. Because when my mother announced the good news, or the news, to my father that she was pregnant, he wasn't too happy about it.

You know when you're on the spiritual quest you don't-- you want to spend your time on meditation, not on watch-- changing diapers, right? And so, most of us have had to do both, right? And he really didn't want to be bogged down with a child so he was seriously talking to my mother about a-- having an abortion. And back in 1920-- I mean 1950-- (laughter) This was a much bigger deal than it is today, right?

And Mr. Thurston, my godfather to be, said to my father, "No. No, no, no." He said "This child is meant to be. It is a karmic tie and you should have the child. And you would name him--" Oh, no, he told my father, he said "He will be a commander of men." And, so my father accepted it from his teacher, went to the Book of Names, you know, looked up "commander of men," came up with Kenneth. You know what Kenneth means? The Neth of the Ken, it's a Scottish name, the Neth of the Ken, the leader of the clan, commander of men, the closest he could come. Though, you know, commander of men you end up as president of a large corporation, that's I guess commander of men. So that's how that all happened. This is not bad, we've done five minutes already. (KTH laughs, laughter) So, I'm going to need to wake up.

[Notes on above: JRM: "super controversial." From TJS email Jan 4, 2020: "I think all such comments by KTH should be included. We all know that in long-term and difficult relationships our egos will latch on to particular comments or images and they will become talismans of the relationship, regardless of their accuracy or even authenticity. So far as I know Karen had already started her romance with Les before KTH was born--it was certainly in full swing long before the divorce. KTH chooses to see his father rejecting him from the womb, as it were, rather than his mother wrecking the family before it could even be a family…the more that is available, the less it becomes 'dirt' and is just trivia for most; the few that want to smear KTH or PB have lots of material with which to do so; withholding this won't stop them."]

SHAGGY GURU STORIES

KTH: You know, the story that (Jerry/Gerry) told, the version I heard of that, you know about the avocado? The story I heard is the guru says, "The meaning of life? The meaning of life is that wet birds don't fly at night." And the man says, "What!?" He said, "I've come all around the world, up the mountains, up, you know, to ask you the meaning of life and all you can tell me is that wet birds don't fly at night?" And the guru said, "You mean they do fly at night?" (laughter)

But, you know, my favorite, my favorite shaggy guru story? You know-- Right. (laughter) Right. (KTH laughing) It's a whole genre of them. My favorite shaggy guru story is this woman, you know, leaves California, boat to India, train up to New Delhi and then mules up into the mountain passes, on foot for weeks up in the Himalayas. Finally arrives at the ashram and she asks to have an audience with the Master. And (he said), "Oh no, no." And he said, "The Master never sees anybody. And he certainly wouldn't see a foreigner, and he certainly wouldn't see-- forgive me ladies-- he certainly wouldn't see a woman." And she said, "Oh, that's--" She kept on and on, she said, "No, I only want to say four words to the Master, just four words." So finally, she wore them down. They let her into the presence of the Master, into the guru's presence, and she said, "Marvin. Enough is enough." (laughter)

IMPORTANCE OF HUMOR

KTH: Ok, what are we supposed to be talking about? The-- (laughter) There is nothing wrong with having a sense of humor, right? You know, hey! You know, so many people think that because you're on the spiritual path you're supposed to go around looking very holy, you know. No! God must have a sense of humor. After all he created us, right? (KTH laughing) Sure. And laughter-- Norman-- didn't Norman Cousins prove the healing power of laughter? Didn't St. Paul long before Norman Cousins say a merry heart is the best medicine? I think it was St. Paul. Shall we have any--

Thank you madam, thank you Rita. I have to be very careful with my Bible quotations now because recently I wrote an article in which I quoted Jesus as saying, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." And the very next issue of this magazine somebody wrote in a letter saying, "I happen to be a gospel scholar, and I'd be most grateful if Mr. Hurst would kindly inform us in which gospel does Jesus say that?" Now I felt like writing back, "The Gospel according to St. Kenneth." (laughter) Actually it wasn't the New Testament, it was in the Proverbs, it was (though). [Bible, Proverbs, 23:7.]

But doesn't it sound like something Jesus would say? Sure, right. So I'm very careful now. You see, the tr-- You know, the problem, you know the trouble? I'm a triple Aries. Can you imagine that, triple Aries? We don't bother to check our facts right, we don't check our sources. Are you an Aries too? [Audience member, faint: I have a daughter.] Yes, so you know, you understand, right. Multiply it by three, a factor of three. So, you know, we (think/figure) somebody will always point out to us if we're wrong, right?

Come on in ladies, come on in. Have to find some chairs though I think. Sit on the floor. There's one chair in front, one chair in the back row. Can we break you up? [Audience member, very faint: No problem.] No problem? Ok. I like that.

PB'S EXPERIENCES IN THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS

KTH: Well, I've-- The Secret Path to Self-Fulfillment. Well, Paul is making a play on words here I think, because one of my father's favorite books, and one of my favorites among my father's books, and one of Paul's favorites among my father's books, is this book The Secret Path, which is a beautiful little book. Very inspired. It was actually-- Shall I tell you how it was written?

It was written after he came back from India, wrote A Search in Secret India, it was a big success, and he then decided he would do the same thing with Egypt. He would go to Egypt, interview the holy people there, the fakirs and the magicians, and he ultimately did and it was called A Search in Secret India-- Search in Secret Egypt, a big success. You know, he was the first man to spend a night in the Great Pyramid. And he had to be locked up and somebody asked me, "Well why was he locked up?" Because, in those days they had the tourists in the daytime but they locked up the Great Pyramids at night time. I don't know if they still do, I don't know.

And so to get permission from the government of Egypt at that time, this was 1935, he had to agree to be locked in all night and he did. He had some tremendous psychic experiences, fantastic. He was brought back into what he realized was an old Atlantean initiation and he realized that the pyramids, as we know them in Egypt, and also in South America and the Mayan, were Atlantean colonies, and their pyramids were replicas of the other pyramids in Atlantis. And he was-- well first of all he was put through these tests.

Apparently you have to go through these tests before you can be accepted. Well we have this in the Freemasons today, it's come down to us. And you know-- well, we're in Orlando, right, and it's Disney World over there and you take these rides, you know, it's great fun actually. Take these rides and all these things come bopping out to you, boop, boop, boop, yeah? But you and I know that we don't have to be scared so long as we play the rules. So long as we keep our arms and legs inside the pit making the boop, boop, boop, all (their/these)-- you know, their bump in the night all they like and they won't hurt us. The same way with these terrible frightful apparitions which appeared to my father as part of the testing process. He was scared he was going to lose his mind but he held on to his faith in the Divine and he came through. Then, three initiates revealed themselves to him. And so they were going to show him the secret chamber in the pyramids, a hidden chamber, which has still never been found. Did you know that?

Yet two years ago the government of Egypt announced that they knew there had to be such a chamber. Just as, remember the scientists, the astronomers, knew that there had to be a planet way out there and they named it Pluto, that nobody's ever seen it, but they said mathematically, everything points to the planet being out there. And, yes, sooner or later they found this planet. The same thing with a chamber, they know that there has to be a chamber there but they can't find it. And these initiates said they were going to take my father down to the chamber. And they led him down these steps. But they said there's one test, one thing you must not do. You must not look back. I don't know why but, if I say to you, "You must not look back"-- If I say to you, "You must not think of a rhinoceros--" Right? All you could see, you know, rhinoceroses all over the place. Or is it rhinoceri? Whatever.

Like Lot's wife, remember, she was turned into a pillar of salt? Well, my father couldn't resist it, he looked back. And the whole thing vanished. The whole vision disappeared and he woke up, he was in a fever for several weeks afterwards as a result of this, even though he had prepared himself, oh, for about three months beforehand through fasting and meditation for the-- for the-- for the night. So it's an interesting story.

HOW PB CAME TO WRITE THE SECRET PATH; RAMANA MAHARSHI

KTH: But, before he went to Egypt, he was ready to go, his bags were packed. He took the day off, went down to the countryside and Buckinghamshire where he used to like to go. And he was sitting under a tree when he had a vision of his Master, his Indian Master, who was called Ramana Maharshi. How many people here have heard of Ramana Maharshi? Oh I'm surprised there aren't more, he's fairly well known in the West now. And even in New York City there's a big Ramana Maharshi center.

He was the Indian mystic whom my father met and wrote about in The Search in Secret India, and, he became a very famous-- world famous because of that. He was on the cover of Life magazine in 1952 along with another great Indian holy man, Sri Aurobindo. So he's very well known. Anyway this-- Ramana Maharshi appeared to my father and said "All is not well my son. Before you leave for the land of the swaying palm, you should share with your fellow men what you have learned." And my father did. Within three months, inspired, he wrote this beautiful little book which has a lot about meditation in it, and (day) this has been a very popular book. The governor of Hong Kong at the time of the Japanese invasion in December 1941 said he would have gone insane with the pressures upon him had it not been for this book on his bedside table.

It's still my favorite and still the one I take with me when I'm traveling. It's also a very practical book and I think it ties in with what we're talking about, the Secret Path of Self-Fulfillment, because it shows that mysticism has a very practical use. It's not something which we can put on the shelves and gather dust. True mysticism can be practiced in everyday life. You all know that? Sure you know that, right? That's why you're here, why I'm here, why we're all here. Because it has to be something we can use to benefit ourselves.

BEING SURROUNDED BY GOD

KTH: Now what are we-- what are we really here for? Now, I would-- well (we) don't have the time, but if we had the time and we went around the room, you know, each one of us said why we are here at this conference, I would think that we could sum them up, we could come up with a consensus that, we are here to find God. Would anybody disagree strongly with that? And yet the funny thing is, God was never lost. Right? So how can we find God? No.

It's-- yeah it's incredible, it's like fish swimming in water and one fish asking the other fish, "Is there such a thing as water?" There's nothing else but water. There's nothing else but God, we're surrounded by God. Saint Paul, I love quoting St. Paul, you know, he's very quotable, right? St. Paul and Emerson, my favorite quotees. St. Paul said, "In him we live and move and have our being." [Bible, Acts, 17:28] And have our being. Isn't it a wonderful experience? Like the cells in our body, I don't know how-- Anybody know how many billions of cells in the human body? Quite a few, right? I haven't counted them lately. But these cells have a degree of intelligence.

Anybody who's ever been through a life-threatening illness will know that they come into harmony with their body, or that you talk to the cells in your body, and you can really increase your thrust toward wellness, your healing, through becoming identified with the cells in your body. Anybody else beside myself have that experience? Oh come on, really? Yes, of course we have. Now isn't this interesting, that these cells have an intelligence. They are intelligent. When we're dispirited, when we're tired, when we're low, when we are dis-ease, when we're not at ease, those cells, yeah, they feel uncomfortable, they feel dis-ease, and what happens, they are very susceptible to the first onslaught of stress which comes along.

I had the privilege, let's see, back in 1953, when I was at McGraw-Hill before I went to Prentice-Hall, of working with a man, a famous scientist named Hans Selye, Dr. Hans Selye of Montreal. I can see some heads knocking. Nodding, not knocking. (some laughter) Be careful where you knock on. And, we published the book The Stress of Life [Dr. Hans Selye, The Stress of Life, 1956] and it was a great book, and I went up to Montreal, the University of Montreal, several times to work with him on it. And he had in there the syndrome of stress.

All life is stress: physical or physiological. Or psychological. You step out on the road and a truck almost knocks you down. You have the physical, the changes, the adrenaline in your body. You have the physiological, you know, you go white, and you have the psychological when you realize what happened, almost happened. And he said this takes a certain amount of stress out of us. When we're born, we're given so much stress in the bank. And every time something like that happens, we're drawing on it, we're making withdrawal from our stress bank. And when it's all used up, you die. He said it's simple as that.

So, these cells in our body come under stress and they react by becoming diseased. Because they are our dis-ease. They become ill. So that is how most illnesses originate. But the-- the good news is that if this happens we can help the reverse happen, by talking to ourselves, by cheering them up, by playing lively mus-- they love-- My cells like Bach and Handel and Hayden, lively music, and talking to them, giving them affirmations. Because they exist within our-- within our body without realizing the physical body. They don't know they're in Orlando or Naples or New York, they don't know where they are. But they are aware of something greater than they encompassing them. You see what I'm getting at?

We are the cells, the intelligences, within the body of what we call God. We don't know much about it [couple/three words inaudible] we're saying we don't know much about it but, can you envision we are within that body of what we call God, we know there's something greater than ourselves encompassing us on which we are reliant. Isn't it wonderful? This is beautiful. So--

If there is nothing else but God, if we are surrounded by God, if we're the fish swimming in the water of God, why is it that we're not more conscious of God? Why is it that we're not-- we don't realize what God is? Well, I think, and here again we're talking a priori, we're hypothesizing, we don't know, but I think it is because we have-- first of all I think it's because the greatest pleasures are always hidden the deepest, isn't that true?

You know the old story about the gods up in heaven who said, "Where shall we bury the knowledge of God?" You know that story? Yes, you've heard it, right? And they said-- no, one said let's hide it at the top of the mountain, man would never climb them. Well, he might climb. Well, let's put it at the bottom of the sea, he'll never-- Well, he might. They finally decided to put it inside man's own breast, he would never look inward. He would never turn inward. But I also like to think it's because the-- we have to earn the right, we have to earn the right to know God. It's like steel. You know steel, before it's tempered, would break very easily? You know, you can take it and break it. Even Yuri Geller could do it with his mind. But once it's been tempered in fire, it's unbreakable. And the same way I think with us. Until we are tempered in the fire of experience, in the crucible of life, maybe not until then can we be useful to God. So we have to earn the right to be useful to God. Say, you know, electricity was only discovered what, two hundred years ago by Ben Franklin up in Philadelphia waving a kite or whatever he did. But, electricity has obviously been around for hundreds of thousands of years before that, right?

And yet nobody discovered it. And it wasn't until two hundred years ago, what a fantastic revolution in our lives electricity has made. The air conditioning, lights, electric cooking, radios, television. Well, maybe they should have stopped with radios but-- Well what a fantastic difference in our lives. And yet it was there all the time, right? We are surrounded by electricity but we have to learn to harness it, put the right wires and connections in our homes, and then, what do we have to do, we have to switch on, switch on.

You know, there's the classical radio station in-- all across the country, it's very interesting, they're always around the 90's-band on the FM. In Naples, it's 90.1, Fort Myers 90.1, in Orlando it's 89.9.

And you know right now, I bet that classical station in Orlando is playing some beautiful music, some lovely classical music, but we're not hearing it. Why? We're not tuned in. We haven't switched on. And yet we go around at night grumbling, saying, "Well, there's no music," you know. The music is all around us, it's beautiful, but we have to make the connection, we have to switch on. So, the Secret Path to Self-Fulfillment, and now I'm warming to the subject-- Right. (laughter) I'm going to thank Paul Johnson for this, I wouldn't-- I didn't think I was going to but I will. We have to do our part. Since we're surrounded by so many ministers here (and/in) Spiritual Advisory Council, they'll allow me to quote the parable of the prodigal son. Remember the prodigal son? [Bible, Luke, 15:11-32]

When the prodigal son had enough of wasting his inheritance, he came back, and the father went out to meet him. The father didn't wait in his study saying, "Oh, bring him in back to this--" you know, "Bring him back to me." No! He went out to meet him, lay them down with gifts for the prodigal son.

Isn't that beautiful? Now, who is the prodigal son, right? We are the-- Watch my lips. (laughter) Right. We are. Is it watch my lips or read my lips? [Audience member, very faint: Read.] Read my--

Ok. We are. (KTH laughing) We are. And as we go to meet Spirit, call it what you like, it goes to meet us. There is always a corresponding response. And, like the father comes to meet us, lay them down with gifts, beautiful gifts, there's-- That's the thing, "Oh, you've been a naughty boy," and, you know-- No, none of that stuff. It's pure forgiveness, pure love. And if we're not experiencing this, whose fault is that? Hello. Right. It can't be God's, right, because then it wouldn't be God, God wouldn't be God, it certainly wouldn't be my sort of a God, you know.

The Old Testament God, remember the Old Testament God of-- of vengeance, you know, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That's a nasty sort of God, right? That's not our-- it's not your God, (is--) Virginia. Oh, I used to know a girl named Virginia. They called her Virgin for short but not for long. No, I-- (laughter) Ohhhh. You've heard that before. (KTH laughs) [Audience member, very faint: Back to the Virgin Islands. It's going to be (couple words inaudible)] Oh, there you are. (laughter)

Well, back to the rant, back (on) the subject. The Secret Path to Self-Fulfillment. Oh I hope I didn't offend that lady. Oh well. (laughter) She's going to report me to something else, probably Paul Johnson. (KTH laughing) No, um-- where was I? (KTH laughing, laughter) No. (more laughter) No, the Old Testament God is not our sort of a God.

KENNETH AND AMERICA

KTH: All of us here in the, well you can say, you know, the New Age movement, which is what it is. And isn't it interesting that the New Age flowered in the new world? You ever-- have you ever thought about that? Really has.

Now you may have heard it from my accent [British] that I'm not from around here. Yeah. A few weeks ago I was having dinner with some friends in a small town in Georgia and they took us out to a restaurant. And the poor little waitress had a terrible time with my accent, she couldn't figure out what I was trying to say. (KTH laughing) And finally she-- in exasperation, she says to me, "You talk funny, are you from out of town?" (laughter)

No I'm an American by choice, not by accident of geographical birth, and-- So I had to become a citizen. I didn't have to become a citizen, I became a citizen and in the process of becoming a citizen you have to learn certain basic things about the Constitution and so on. In fact, when I applied for my citizenship, they said, "Do you have a high school diploma?" And I said no. They said well then you have to take a literacy test.

I said, "What?" You know? I graduated from University of Cambridge in England but I didn't have a high school diploma, therefore I had to take a literacy test. So I-- (laughter) There I am in this room, surrounded by fifty Puerto Ricans, and we're all looking at this test.

And the top of the paper says, "Christopher Columbus landed in America in 1492." Question number one, "Who landed in America in 1492?" "When did Christo--" you know. And all these Puerto Ricans were going "Caramba, ho!" at the-- Well I managed to pass, and-- (laughter) And one of my proudest certificates in my office at Prentice-Hall, the publishing company, was this literacy test. (laughter) Yeah.

I'm sure that many of our authors doubted it at times but-- (laughter) Yes. Where am I? (KTH laughs, laughter)

Right here, ok. Yes. And so being an American by choice, perhaps I can be a little more objective what this country stands for. I have also had the great good fortune to travel around the world. Frank Tribbe asked me tonight at dinner is there any country I hadn't been to. I said, "Yes sir. Quite a few, Frank." He said, "Name one." I said, "Upper Volta" [now Burkina Faso], you know. I was fortunate enough to be able to pick the countries I wanted to go to.

But, I've always been so joyous at coming back here to the States and knowing that this was my home, that I was living here. This is such a wonderful country, it's so big. I have a friend here, Arthur [Broekhuysen], I don't know where he is now, he's wandering off somewhere, dancing under the stars. But some of you may have met him, the Dutch fellow, librarian, and he comes over here a couple of times a year. He was here last year at the Orlando festival. He is amazed. We were up at my old house at Nyack. I said we're going to church and then we're going to go with some friends for brunch. We're going down to New Jersey. He said, "Well how far is that?" I said, "Oh, it's only about half an hour."

He said, "Half an hour!?" He said, "In Holland if you drive for half an hour you're outside the country." (laughter)

And New York State, my state, he was amazed when I explained to him that it is actually twice the size of France and Germany put together. Can you imagine that? Yeah, big state. So this is a big country (and) creating big ideas in you. You know, it's a wonderful feeling. And, I feel that very strongly. So, the Secret Path to Self-Fulfillment. (laughter) I'm going to be very interested in listening to this tape myself. (laughter)

When I drive back to Naples [Florida] tomorrow I'll listen to it.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

KTH: Well, what the heck. Right? It's all fun, isn't it? You don't take life-- you know, we shouldn't take life so seriously. It's when we take it seriously that we get uptight and we get stressed and the cells feel stress. Yeah. And they react. But when we go with the flow-- you know the Chinese philosophy of the Tao, T-a-u, the Tao? Going with the flow. It's used in the martial arts like karate to use your opponent's strength to undermine him. So when he lunges at you instead of, you know, going-- you go backward. So he overreaches. He goes past you. Loses his balance.

In other words, the same with life. Somebody in the New Testament says, (KTH laughs, laughter) "Don't kick against the pricks," right? [Bible, Acts, 9:5.] You can't fight City Hall.

You know all this nonsense about Robert Burns, you know, the spider? Remember that? "If at first you don't succeed try--" You remember that? You're brought up on that, I was-- Lot of nonsense, all hogwash. You know, if at-- if at first you don't succeed, forget the damn thing and go on with something else, yeah. (laughter) Sure. Why waste your time? Oh I've offended two more people, I'm sorry. (laughter)

Forget the-- forget the darn thing. (KTH laughing, laughter) Ok. We'll erase the tape. There's 18 seconds missing of the tape. (KTH laughing, laughter) Expletive deleted! (more laughter)

Right, yeah, but why, you know, waste your time and energy on, you know-- look for something else which will be easier.

Where was I? (laughter) Oh. Go with the flow, don't kick against the pricks. To go through life-- I have a Chinese daughter, and she explained to me bamboo. She sent me a beautiful painting of bamboo, and she explained to me that in Chinese symbology-- Is that the right word? The meaning of the bamboo in Chinese symbology is that it represents a gentle man, a gentleman, because the stem of the bamboo is hollow. And she says a gentleman is receptive to new ideas, like you are, ladies and gentlemen here tonight at this conference. And it's, you know-- and also the bamboo bends with the wind. When the wind comes the bamboo isn't upright and stiff-necked and then breaks easily. No, the bamboo always bows with the wind. In a hurricane it would survive. And so the true gentle person likewise goes with the flow, bends with the wind, and comes right back.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that this is something we can do in everyday life. That when these things, oh, come to bother us, I talked about the plumber, you know, it's just, you know-- Really, I'm getting a bit too much. (KTH laughing) I have to phone my astrologer and say when is Neptune disappearing. But, these things come to pass, right, the-- the Good Book said, "They came to pass." Didn't say they came to stay, right? No. Came to pass. So next time you have a flat tire, (bicusp) is broken, whatever it is, just remember, it's going to pass. Don't get upset about it. Don't get uptight about it.

I got a feeling that I'm keeping you up too late, am I? Because we-- You know, this is supposed to be from 9:30 to 10:30. So-- yes.

I'll leave it up to you. If you want to stay, I'll talk (about) something. (KTH laughing, laughter)

Yes ma'am. [inaudible question from audience] Pardon me? [inaudible question from audience]

Well, the house in Naples is finished. But when I came down, when was it, in October, I found that, you know, the place was-- a flood in the-- fortunately in the bathroom from the roof had to be redone. And since then I've-- you know, it's just been one thing after another. And the same thing up north, my home up north [in Hector NY], there's had three leaks up there. But it's all Neptune. The good news is the astrologer said that Neptune will pass. This too will come to pass so, you know, I don't get upset about it.

I'm helping the local economy, the plumbers are getting rich on me and-- We've got a good relationship. I think the problem is I tip them, you see. Remember William James? Remember he said the greatest discovery of our generation is that we can control our circumstances by controlling our thoughts.

Now I believe in that obviously, I wrote a whole book about it, [Note from JF: Presumably Live Life First Class, published 1985.] I think it's, you know-- it's true. Yes it's in the bookstore, pretty reasonable. For $6.95, where else can you buy-- you can't even buy a Hallmark greeting card for that, right? What a book salesman. Anyway, I believe in the power of thoughts.

And Dr. Norman Vincent Peale has a great book [The Power of Positive Thinking], inspiring (and just) lovely. Where was I? (some laughter)

The plumbers, right. My-- well, he-- William James says, you know, we control our circumstances (and all else). My greatest discovery was that spreading a little green around goes a long way in life. So every time-- the first time the plumber came, I wanted to show my appreciation so I gave him five dollars. I've come to the conclusion I'm the only person in Naples who gives them five dollars, he loves to keep coming back to my house! (KTH laughing, laughter) That was my mistake, I should stop giving him five dollars and maybe he'll fix the darn thing once and for all. It'll come, it'll come. [inaudible words from audience member]

Could be too. But I've got-- fortunately I've got three bathrooms in the house, there's-- at least two are functioning. Two out of three ain't bad, right? [Audience member, very faint: That's right.] You heard of the story of man who was going out to the darkest Africa? And his doctor warned him, he said "Now there are three things you've got to be very careful of. Don't eat anything." Says, "Any food that hasn't been boiled, don't drink any-- well, don't-- don't eat any food that hasn't been cooked, don't drink any water that hasn't been boiled, and for heaven's sakes stay away from the native women." And when he came back the doctor said, "What did you-- did you follow by advice?"

He said, "Well Doc, two out of three ain't bad." (laughter)

CLOSING REMARKS

KTH: I got a feeling that this would be a good time to close so let's close on a serious note. After all, this is a spiritual conference. (KTH laughing)

There's nothing wrong with laughter, right? And if you go-- we all go to bed tonight feeling little happiness, nothing wrong with that either. We're gonna have a wonderful conference, there's tomorrow, there's Sunday, I'm looking forward to it.

And, if we can-- if I could please give you one thought to take. It is the thought which I was talking about earlier, which I know that many of you know and many of you share--that God is everywhere, there is only God. That God exists, that God is. And that if God-- whatever we called it, we exist within God, It exists within us. And that we can tune into It through the wonderful practice of meditation.

We were saying yesterday that prayer is our speaking to God. Meditation is God speaking to us. And you remember the movie, E.T, where he wants to phone home? Meditation is our way of being able to phone home. Isn't that beautiful?

So tonight-- they also take the route in Hamlet, "May crowds of angels sing you to sleep." In fact, now wait a minute, I ain't gonna give you a-- this is something I wrote in my book, a prayer which I like very much. It's not original but by Gene Emmett Clark. This is my prayer for you tonight as you go to sleep. "Your sleep, God-given, shall be sweet. We forgive ourselves and all in our environment. We let the deep sleep of this night erase all hurt and all condemnations. Sleep heals, and as we lie in rest, there is a gathering up and a lifting together not only of the best resources of our body, but also of our mind and life and spirit. Tomorrow we can wake refreshed and we shall eagerly anticipate the day. Strength and competence and happiness." God bless you all and good night. [applause, "Thank you" from the audience]

Anybody know how to turn this off? I'm not very technically minded. (KTH laughing) Thank you.

[Audio File 1988 0902a Ends]