Become Open To Evolve - Part 1

April 2, 2005

If you are in a cause of openness or a cause of liberation or emancipation, you have to give yourself away.

Corky: Okay Su, we better do class because we have some important things to talk about.

Su: I know this is mostly for me to have to do this, but I think, what can I say to everyone that hasn't already been said a million times for millions of lives? So, I just sort of have to speak from what I know, which isn't a lot yet. I was thinking about the book we're reading, The Opening of The Way and Sealed Except to the Open Mind, there is one word that is very common in both of those titles. Opening. When you think about it... not when you think about it, but when you feel that word... it's a very interesting word; "opening." I was going to say it was a pregnant word, but that is too final — pregnant. Because it has already happened. But womb-like is more appropriate to me; opening. Because there are so many possibilities when you are open. An opening has more to do on the receiving end. Well, both are needed; the receiver and the transmitter. It is a copulation between two things. But there are some things that are needed to be open or be an opening. And I thought when we read the book on Thursday, there was a statement, and I guess it hit me because I'm a teacher and I have said this so many times to my students, or thought it so many times about my students.

"It would be unwise to give too absolute an answer, for the answer must depend on the stage of evolution of the individual's consciousness, on his convictions, and often on his courage."

And then this was the statement that spoke to me:

"One should never try to force understanding on those who cannot or will not listen."

In my teaching, this last time when I was getting my students ready for recital, it was very difficult for me and I don't know exactly why. It must have been my own place in time, and my students were probably just reflecting what I was doing, I don't know. But I would say that I have some students who are very resistant to making any kind of change sometimes. I had one particular student, and I was trying to work with him, and he hadn't done enough work yet to be to the point where I could work with him on another level. And I kept trying to explain to him that he needed to practice more in order for me to be able to give him an understanding of what the music was sort of about. And I said to him, "You haven't done enough work yet. I can't work with you yet." I was trying to get him to go, move a little bit, cause sometimes the music has to move a little bit more and then it has to hold back a little bit more. And I couldn't get him to do it because he couldn't even play through the notes because he was fumbling. I said, "You have got to get in there and you have got to learn the notes, so that at least I can show you how you should play this music. Or at least give you an idea, a clue." And it was interesting, because the next performance class he came and it was just the same kind of thing, stumbling over it again. And I said to him, "Is it too much to ask that just between now and the recital that you practice more than you normally do?" And he said, "It's a lot!" And I thought, "What's the use? Why do I do this?"

Shad: Why does he?

Su: I know! In fact, I said that to him. The next time I saw him I said, "You know, maybe you should think about why you are up here doing this, why are you even wasting your time up here?" And so anyway, I decided to try a different tactic. I decided those that weren't listening to me, I wasn't going to listen to them at all in their lessons. I decided and I refused, well at least I tried to refuse to listen to what they were doing for the recital. Because normally when recital is coming on, when it's about a month away that's pretty much what I focus on, because you know they need to know how to do their piece. So I was just skirting around. I had several, about three students that I was going to do this with, because they weren't listening anyway, so why should I even bother. They weren't caring what I had to say. They didn't want to do the work. So he asked me, "Well aren't you going to listen to my recital piece?" And so I proceeded to tell him why I wasn't going to listen to it. So the next week he came and he had practiced and I was finally able to get him to do some of the things that I wanted him to try to do. You know sometimes when you are working with students they are at different points, and I'm using music as an example, okay... I know it's a greater level, a master has to work with students, but this is a different level, but it's very similar. I have some students who just know how the music goes. I don't know how to explain it. But they've somehow, in another lifetime, they must have learned how to play or how to feel the music, how to listen. And they are so much easier to work with.

Corky: Do you think that the ones that are able to feel the music are the ones that have surrendered to it?

Su: Yes, definitely. And I had some students that just, you know, it was interesting the statement...

"You should never try to force understanding on those who cannot, or will not listen."

And it made me think, sometimes a person cannot listen because they haven't had an experience yet, of whatever it is, you are trying to tell them to correspond with that.

I want to use definitions in teaching the music, because sometimes in the music they will have a word, a lot of times it is in Italian, but it has a meaning behind the word. Or the title of the piece gives a clue as to what the piece is about, and the effect it should have. And so I will say, do you know what this means? And we'll look up the word. And if you've ever noticed when you look up a word, there is one definition that stands out for you because a lot of times you've had an experience of that word and how that relates to the word you are looking up. I don't know how to explain this. But it's the same in music. Sometimes they haven't had the experiences of something and so it's more difficult for them to give you what you are asking for. And sometimes then you have to realize maybe that's part of the problem, and that maybe you have to give them a little time, a little more experience. While others seem to have already gone through the experience.

But it's like Corky said, I think sometimes a person is not willing to listen to what you have to say because first of all, I've said this so many times to students, it takes effort to make a change. If they practice something one way and then they come, and I say, "Well, that's not exactly how it's supposed to go." Now they're going to have to really be aware, you're going to have to watch yourself as you practice to make sure that you don't just repeat the same thing, like an automaton. Because it's so easy to fall back into the habit instead of to make the change. And a lot of times they don't want to hear what you have to say because they're going to have to work harder to make any kind of a change. Or they hear what you have to say and are just stubborn and don't want to hear it. And so then you really can't make them change, a lot of times.

I've said to my students: "I know that you are hearing what you are playing, but you are not really listening to what you are playing." And there is a big difference between hearing and listening. We all hear. Hearing is just something we naturally do, everybody hears. It was interesting, I looked it up and it says: "Hearing is to perceive by the ear." We all do. There are sounds around us all the time. But to listen is "to pay attention in order to hear." And I thought that was an interesting concept, because what it means is that there is an opening. Basically, you have to become open. You have to surrender. You have to allow something else in order for you to really listen. You have to open yourself up to other possibilities, other than what you thought as the way it should be. And it's very difficult when somebody has a perceived idea, to change that idea. And I've had teachers and I've said this before, in a lesson where just by either something they've said, or something they've played, the way they've played has totally changed my concept about the way I felt about the passage I was playing.

Al Martin: Don't you think that the teacher learns more than the student?

Su: Absolutely. Yeah, I've learned so much over the years because of having to teach. And you know, I think that the student has to be ready. It talks about it in the Summum book, when the student's mind is open then comes the teacher to fill it with wisdom. And it's so true. You have to be at a point where you are receptive. And that's the opening. And that's the beginning of starting the way, whatever that is for you. I've been touched by teachers that have taught me concepts, I'm sure you all have. I've been touched by teachers that have taught me to play music in a totally different way than I thought it should be. And I've been touched by a master. And it's changed my life. And that's all I have to say.

Corky: Last Saturday we were discussing Donald Trump and being devoted to a cause. Anybody remember that? And I was hoping, well not really hoping, but I just sort of left the conversation open for someone to tell us what a cause really is. Whether a Donald Trump cause is a good cause, bad cause, I don't know if there is a good or bad about it, or an evolutionary cause. What kind of cause is Donald Trump Cami?

Cami: I think he is a consumption cause.

Corky: It's his personal cause right? Is it anything other than Donald Trump's cause?

Cami: Probably his wife's. But, no it's a personal thing.

Corky: It's a little tiny thing isn't it? Seems so big, but it's so small. It's just trying to satisfy what Donald Trump thinks he needs right?

Cami: Right.

Corky: What's the difference between that and a real cause? I mean the Big Cause? There is this thing called the Big Cause, what's the Big Cause? Isn't it Creation Itself? The Cause of Creation? The Thing that makes everything happen? Does the Cause of Creation identify itself just with itself, or is it everything? It's everything. So do you think there is a difference between Donald Trump's cause and the Cause of Creation?

Cami: Yes, an infinite difference.

Corky: I was inviting everyone into understanding what taking on a cause in existence would be. I would say that 99.9999999% of the people on the planet are involved in their cause, and it's their cause. And it sort of circles around their propensities, hopes, wishes, wants and desires. Chris has a cause right? What would you say Shad, if you had to narrow Chris's greatest cause down to one or two words? I want to, what?

Shad: I want to screw.

Corky: No. Squirt. He wants to squirt. Isn't that what he says Al? Have you been here when he talks about it?

Al Martin: He wants to see if what you said was true.

Corky: No, he didn't say that. What did Chris say is his greatest cause Donna, Su, Ron?

Donna: Squirt.

Su: He likes to squirt.

Ron: Sounds like he's normal.

Corky: What does he want to do?

Ron: I'm sorry but yeah, he wants to do what the rest of the planet is doing.

Corky: What would you say Chris wants to do in life Steve?

Steve: I just recorded class from three weeks ago, and he said that, yes.

Corky: He said that was his cause in life?

Steve: It's not as strong as it was, but it's still there.

Corky: Still his main cause right?

Steve: Yes, but it's not as strong.

Corky: Now, if you had to stand back from this planet for just a second, okay, and say you were an alien. One of those advanced beings that are on Star Trek, that are called the Founders, or the Vulcans. If you were a Vulcan, okay, what do you think that the Vulcan's cause is? Do you think that their cause is to squirt Bernie?

Bernie: No.

Corky: Why?

Bernie: Because their cause is logic.

Corky: Logic. So they've moved beyond squirt? Do you think squirt has a logic to it, or it's a propensity Steve?

Steve: There's a logic to it; to have babies.

Shad: It's a bio-logic.

Corky: It's a bio-logic. Do you think it's a bio-logic and you are caught in your propensities of your body? You can't escape them. That your genetics have control of you instead of you being in control of your body? Do you think that the Vulcans have sort of mastered that to an extent? That their biggest thing isn't to be biological, it's to master their essence or their spirit or their mind or whatever. So they've evolved?

Bernie: Yes.

Corky: And the Founders have evolved even further right? The Founders have said, "I don't care about the body, I'll mold into a plant, a jar, whatever it be. The body's not important. The consciousness of creation is." So it's an evolutionary thing. So like Su was saying, an openness allows you to evolve. But when you are closed, and you have a cause on, a closed cause, you are stuck. Wouldn't you say Al?

Al Greco: I would choose the word mission maybe.

Corky: A closed mission. Does Lenny have a mission on?

Al G: That's why I said mission.

Corky: What's his mission?

Al G: Lenny's mission is for himself to get.

Corky: To get something.

Al G: To get something. Pretty much. To get.

Corky: He almost got HIV.

Al G: He almost got no hand. He's got a "get on," literally.

Corky: To acquire something rather than to give?

Al G: He's got a "get on" with life over here.

Corky: Could Lenny ever teach anybody anything with a "get on?"

Al G: No.

Corky: He gives things to trick people. And he read it in a book.

Al G: He called me up about a month ago and said "Hey Al, buy a dozen donuts and take them down to this guy over on third west." I said, I'm not going over there, I'm not...

Corky: It's a sale. It's a sales game; he's trying to make a sale. It's like, Lenny met this young girl in her late teens or early twenties, I don't know she could have been a teenager. She was doing crack cocaine and methamphetamines and stuff like that, and he went and did the weekend with her. And paid $300 to supply her habit and rented a motel and stuff like that and then he thought that because his weenie was squirting blood that he had something bad or something like that.

Shad: That doesn't sound good!

Ron: Sounds pretty bad to me.

Corky: Is Lenny online?

Bernie: He might be. I haven't seen him post lately. Yes, he's online.

Corky: That's good. Anyway life is funny that way. Last week when I was talking about how your liberation comes through a cause and I brought up Donald Trump, I said Donald Trump's cause is okay because everybody has their own cause and everything. But Donald Trump's cause is to get something for Donald Trump. And if you are in a cause of openness or a cause of liberation or emancipation, you have to give yourself away. What you want to do is get rid of yourself, and so you have to give yourself away. Because all of the other causes are causes to imprison you. You may think you are getting something; you may get something for sure, I mean... there are lots of things out there to get, right Steve? I mean the world is full of it right now right? There's a new one every day coming up that you can get out there.

Steve: People get bored with the old stuff, and go find something new.

Corky: Find a new one. They get a new thing that's going to incarcerate them in some way. But getting someone to listen to that is very difficult. Like trying to tell Chris some things is impossible. Why do you think it's impossible to tell Chris anything?

Steve: Is it?

Corky: Al, why would you say?

Al Martin: Because you have to experience it to understand it. He doesn't realize you can have sex so much, like you have, that you can just drop it and say let's just go for a walk. I'm just kidding.

Corky: Cami, why is it impossible to tell Chris anything? Is he listening?

Cami: Well I think when you still want to have your propensity, you still take pleasure in it...

Corky: That's your thing?

Cami: Right. And I think that maybe he's open to a degree of hearing, but then the stubbornness comes in.

Corky: Of getting his thing? He'll pass out the donuts or buy the flowers or whatever or pay the bill to get his thing. But if he can't get his thing, he's not up for it? It's sort of... it's really a reversal. It's like saying, you're going through life as a male and all of the sudden you have to become a female, like turning inside out. It is like making your male into a female and your female into a male, and taking your inside and putting it outside and outside putting it inside and making them one. It's a real abstract, bizarre thing Shad?

Shad: Abstract is a good word for it.

Corky: For most people don't you think?

Shad: Yeah.

Corky: And so to try to tell somebody that, try to tell one of your students to practice Su when they don't want to practice they have an agenda on, they're not going to do it are they? I mean you could walk on the ceiling for them, flip through the air and levitate for them and it wouldn't make any difference. It wouldn't do any good. You could tell them you would do anything in the world, and they're still going to do their thing, right? Not going to listen. They'll tell you they're going to listen. They'll give you flowers and candy and tell you all those things you want to hear.

Su: Whisper sweet nothings in your ear... and nothing is what they are.

Corky: Yeah right, what they think you want to hear. They'll do all those things, they'll send you emails, and tell you all those things, but they're still going to go on and do their thing right? Because they haven't relaxed enough to open. They haven't relaxed their desire, or their wish, or their hunger enough to open for another possibility. They can't take the key and turn the lock and open the door; the master key. Because they are so tight. They are so imprisoned by their propensities. And then they get mad when you talk about it. Right Chris?

Chris: I'm not too bad right now.

Corky: Just a little?

Chris: Just a little, not too bad.

Corky: But they do get mad when you talk about it, right?

Chris: Yes, they do. I do, and they do.

Corky: Then they get angry right? And anger pops up right? And an argument pops up right? How in the world are you going to go anywhere, if you are stuck in prison, angry and arguing? It's a cesspool. It holds you. It is so tight, and so imprisoning. Nothing can happen. Whew. It's intense right Chris? Gotcha right now. You can't move because you've got to guard the vestibules right?

Chris: I'm not too angry right now.

Corky: I didn't say you were too angry. I said you were just a little tiny bit right? When you are a little tiny bit angry, you've got to guard the vestibules right? You gotta protect them right?

Chris: That's true.

Corky: And when you are protecting the vestibules, you are protecting what?

Chris: What is a vestibule?

Corky: Those are the openings that could be open. But you've got them closed. I mean you've got them collapsed. You've got them so collapsed and so tight because they're in the protection stage. And you have to have an anger on to have the energy to repel anything that would attack it. If you are open you would let it in right? If you surrender you just totally relax, open and let it happen. Cami, how many times do you think that women really surrender when they're having sex? The average woman, if you had to draw a line across the board?

Cami: Very infrequently.

Corky: I'd agree with you. They're just sort of there doing it. It's an obligation.

Cami: Yeah. Or it's even something that they want to do, which is still an obligation...

Corky: It's an obligation. Even if they're doing it, they're doing it because they want to do it, because it's an obligation, they never really fall into it do they? Isn't that funny when you think about it?

Cami: Yeah.

Corky: Isn't it sort of bizarre?

Cami: Yeah it is. It kind of creates a prison out of it. Even out of something so massively desired and everybody's after it, and it's a prison.

Corky: It's very difficult to tell that to a man isn't it?

Cami: To anybody. But yeah, I think men are more...

Corky: It's even difficult to tell it to another woman because they want to argue about it because they think they have it all. All that kind of stuff right?

Cami: Yeah. Right.

Corky: But most women do sex for a reason right? They have a reason. It's not a falling into it, is it? It's not a happening. It's not an all of the sudden you are feeling, and then the next thing you know you are in a feeling, it's a feeling, it's not a sex. Sex and feeling are totally different things. They are two separate issues. They're on different planets.

Cami: Different universes.

Corky: It's a feeling. There is no such thing as sex; the real thing is the feeling? Do you think that Chris thinks that is a squirt?

Cami: I think he's looking for it in the squirt, yes.

Corky: Yeah. He's trying to find the feeling in the squirt. Do you think it can be found in a squirt?

Cami: No.

Corky: Do you think it's possible to tell anybody that?

Cami: No. I think it's an experience that you come across.

Corky: That you surrender to? Don't you think you have to surrender to it?

Cami: You have to, yes.

Corky: Why would you have to surrender to it?

Cami: Because if you are arguing or resistant or...

Corky: You have a cause on?

Cami: Yeah.

Corky: To acquire something, some kind of satisfaction...

Cami: Yeah, there is a mission.

Corky: There is a mission, a place to arrive to, you gotta go somewhere right? You gotta go someplace. You can't be going anywhere if you're going to be there.

Cami: Right.

Corky: I mean, I can't think of anywhere to go if you're in it. You are already there. You have arrived. So there is nothing to do is there?

Cami: Nope.

Corky: You think it's possible to teach that to anybody? You can't teach that to anybody can you?

Cami: No.

Corky: It's not an initiation is it? It's something you can't show anybody. You can't tell them about it, you can't demonstrate it to them. You can't show them how to do it. You can't do it for them. They can only do it themselves right?

Cami: Right.

Corky: It's the only way it can happen. When they get so burnt out, it's the only thing left. Right? Whew. Wow. It's a long way down the run. There are so many things to do before you get there.

There is an easy way if you can find a cause that you can give yourself to rather than take something from it. It opens all the doors and all those things that we're talking about in class, those secondary things like feelings, automatically happen. And the reason they happen is because when you give yourself to that cause, all the sudden you become open and everything flows out of you and you surrender to it. But as long as you have some part of your agenda on, some part of your propensities, some part of your wishes, wants, hopes and desires, you can't give yourself to that cause because those things come first. And to be able to give yourself to that cause you have to make that cause the first thing. But then all the arguments come: "How in the world can I make that cause the first thing? I've got to have rent, I've got to have food, I've got to have girlfriend, boyfriend, a car, gotta have a trip, gotta have a vacation, gotta have, gotta have, gotta have, gotta have, gotta have, gotta squirt."

The thing is you'll never have anything because you've imprisoned yourself in those small limits of your propensities until you really surrender. And when you surrender you have everything. When you give yourself away totally everything is yours. You still have to live life. You gotta get up, eat, work, and do those things and everything. But your cause is different. It's a living cause, rather than a desiring cause. It's a cause of Creation Itself. It is a birth, it is an opening, it is a giving, it is a flowing, it is a river, it is the sun shining in the solar system bringing life to everything. It is the thing that makes everything live. And you are the sun. But you are just a part of it. You are not it. Because you have your propensities, and it gives you yours. The symbolism of sun worshipers, the Egyptians; worshipers of Ra, they said they were sun worshipers or whatever. It was a symbolism of a total giving. It was a symbolism of a person, like Jesus, or the father in heaven or the mother in heaven, or the Buddha... the total giving. All it is, is a symbolism. But it's a manifestation of reality too because without the sun, you wouldn't be. Because the sun has many dimensions, besides its manifest dimension of creating life, and planets and all the elements. All the elements come out of the sun. All the elements of creation are born inside of the sun. There are one hundred and... how many elements are there Chris?

Chris: It's been a long time. But I think it's one hundred and six.

Corky: I think it is one hundred and nine... All are born inside of the sun. They can't be made anywhere else. They are created inside of there; Iron is created inside of the sun, Helium, Oxygen, Uranium, Plutonium, everything comes out of the sun. What a symbolism! But what a reality. Nucleic acids come into existence because of the sun. You couldn't have nucleic acids without a sun. You couldn't have protein without nucleic acids. Could you Chris?

Chris: No.

Corky: You couldn't have a planet without a sun. It's the open womb of the solar system. It's the womb that everything comes from, it's the birth canal. Everything is born out of the sun.

Al: Doesn't everything revolve around it?

Corky: It's hangin' out to stay alive. Stay in existence with its propensity on. Even the planet Earth has its propensity of its orbit, because it is not the sun. If you can give yourself away, you'll find yourself. But as long as you have a mission on for your cause, or a mission for a type of cause, you'll never surrender. You'll never give yourself up. You'll never lose yourself to really find out what you really are. Until you become nothing. Until you become no thing. Until you become nobody and give yourself away totally to it, it won't be yours. You won't be the sun. And the son of God is a metaphor. That's just a metaphor, they took it from what the Egyptians were teaching; the sun, you see it up there creating everything. But you can't tell anybody can you? Nobody is listening. They've all got a mission on. Let's take a quick break.