Responsibility and the Will - Part 1

January 11, 1987

...the key to the whole thing is the observation of it.

Corky: There are two things I want to cover today that are really good, we've been covering these two things for ten years, but we're going to do them again. Um, I want to know why Terry and Mary didn't call and tell us they weren't going to show up last night. What's that mean Bernie?

Bernie: What does that mean? That it's not a big enough deal to warrant the call.

Corky: Donna, what does that mean? You've seen the story for five years since you've been here. What's the story? Like when Steve S. came a couple weeks ago and said how come you guys didn't come to my house and give me a list of all the new rules and carry me down there?

Donna: A way of saying it... if you have your own home, or you have your own business, you know what's going on, you know what needs to be done, nobody needs to call you and needs to tell you because that's a priority in your life, and your life revolves around that. If your life revolved around Summum, no one would need to call you, no one would need to tell you, you would find out, you would know, you would care, you would just know what was going on because you were interested and you would care.

Corky: Right, and over the last five years since 1980 have you got a lot of people that have been upset with you because you didn't tell them what was going on?

Donna: All the time, still do.

Corky: On a daily basis, on a weekly basis? Because you didn't take the responsibility to tell them what was going on.

Donna: Now when I first came I tried to do that, I mean I spent a lot of hours on the phone calling for this or calling for that.

Corky: But it goes one way right, in their minds. Why does it go one way?

Donna: Well part of it is when I tell them about something, they think if I come to do it I'm doing it for her, somewhere in their minds, is what I picked up anyway. Part of it was, "Well, if she's asking me to do it then I'm doing it for her," which has nothing to do with it.

Corky: But I mean, it goes one way. I mean, how come we have people- when we were building the pyramid, Jim-that would get mad at us because we wouldn't call them up and tell them that we were going to pour cement on so and so date? Remember that? Or we were going to put tar paper on the building, or instead of putting tar paper on the building at noon it snowed five minutes before and so we couldn't put it on and so instead we went in the building and nailed drywall and when they got here, they got mad. Right? Why?

Jim: Because that's what they wanted to do. If it came down to doing something hard...

Corky: Or different.

Jim: Then they would get all pissed off.

Corky: Did you ever see anyone get mad like that when we were building the building?

Jim: Oh, all the time.

Corky: On a regular basis?

Jim: Yeah. The one thing that people hated the most was to dig.

Corky: Oh yeah, to dig. That would be like a trick we played on them right? Like if we were going to paint and they showed up... they called in the morning and we'd say we're going to paint today but what happened was it would get too cold to paint so we would dig instead with a shovel, what would happen? Would they get mad? How mad?

Jim: I don't know, sometimes they were pissed off.

Corky: The reason I asked Mary and Terry why they didn't call us and tell us they weren't going to show up is... does that sound like a funny question?

Terry: No.

Corky: It doesn't? What do you mean Terry?

Terry: We should have known, should have been around more to know what was going on and to know the reason for those get-togethers.

Corky: Right, do you think it's a natural instinct for most people to put their responsibility for knowing on somebody else? And, that if the plane doesn't take off they get mad? It's like going to the airport and Western Airlines has this facility that says you can call reservations to see if it's going to take off on time or not and the plane is scheduled to go and when you get down there it doesn't take off and the people get mad. Why do they get mad?

Al: They are kind of mad at themselves because they get down there and it's not the way they anticipated it's going to work out, there has been a change, and they have no control over the change. They had control over it prior, but because they dropped the ball and weren't prepared in making all the provisions in a way to adjust the time or their day or whatever, they get mad at themselves because there's been a change. They knew that they had control over it, but once they see the change it's too late.

Corky: Right. Now do you think it's possible for Western Airlines to get a hold of all the passengers?

Al: Ha, I think it's possible, but the probability of that working out is not likely. It's not their responsibility to call in 5 minutes before the flight. You buy the ticket, you buy in, it is your responsibility to be there.

Corky: Do flights change times?

Al: Constantly.

Corky: Why?

Al: Because there's so many circumstances involved that the company, like Western Airlines as an example, has to comply with so many schedules, so many adjustments from people to mechanical things, that it is constantly in a state of change and it must change in a direction that is the most simple and works out the best for everybody that is concerned. Sometimes that may cause us an inconvenience, but for the whole it works out best.

Corky: Do you think it's fair for Mary to get mad at us if she comes to the class on Sunday and we're not here?

Al: Is it fair for her to get mad at us? No, because it's her responsibility.

Corky: Yeah, but we've been holding classes here on Sunday, Mary hasn't been calling us and telling us she's not going to come. She comes sometimes and sometimes she doesn't. This is hypothetical Mary, this isn't real. And she hasn't been calling us and well Su didn't call and tell us whether she was going to show up or not at eleven. So it's a guess for us.

Al: So we're sort of like the airlines at this point. You can assume, based upon the habit or reputation of how things fluctuate with events, you can assume and be pretty close that the flight's going to take off.

Corky: Have you flown a lot?

Al: Several times.

Corky: Have you learned to assume that it doesn't take off?

Al: Oh yeah. Like the day I went and waited for you at the airport. I had checked in advance but there was a change in total airplanes that I wasn't unaware of, and so I wasn't surprised when I got there that there had been a big change and the flight was an hour late, and found that I was in the wrong building.

Carnie: You know at one time I went to pick up one of the people from California in the middle of the night at two o'clock in the morning and the plane didn't come in until three and I said to the steward at the gate "Well I guess the plane is an hour late." He said "No, this is the time that the plane comes in now, it's been rescheduled." And I was really put out that somebody couldn't tell me when I got up at two o'clock in the morning in the middle of the night to come and pick them up that the schedule had changed, that he hadn't bothered to tell me that.

Corky: But wait a second. What if they didn't know?

Carnie: Well, they should have known. That's what I figure.

Corky: Why?

Carnie: Because you are inconveniencing other people, if there are other people involved...

Corky: But wait a second, how are you going to call everybody, how is the airline going to call all the passengers and they can't get a hold of them?

Carnie: Well I would assume that if the person made the flight and they knew what time it is going to ...

Corky: How are they going to call you from the air?

Carnie: It doesn't, it's not a matter of that.

Corky: I don't understand what you're saying Carnie. Does it make sense to you Al?

Carnie: What I do, if somebody's going to pick me up at the other end, I know the flight number and I know time of arrival, that's all I'm saying. And when I communicate to that person I say, would you pick me up at the airport? I'm coming in on the airline, the flight, and the time I'm coming in.

Corky: The airline changed the schedule and the passenger didn't know.

Carnie: Hmm! Well the person got on the plane ok, so I presume they know what time to get on the plane and the pilot and airline knew what time the flight was coming in.

Corky: So you go to the airport and you're going to New York and you're supposed to arrive at two in the morning...

Carnie: No, I didn't change in the middle of the night. It didn't change on that day.

Corky: Yeah it did, it changed because of the time of the year, it changed from two o'clock to three o'clock, but you didn't take the time to find out in the middle of the night.

Carnie: Hmm! I don't think that's my responsibility. I think if a person says meet me at a place, help me out, pick me up, I think it's their responsibility to tell you what time the plane is coming in.

Corky: But what if they don't know?

Carnie: To the best of their ability.

Corky: Well they did. So then what?

Carnie: I don't see it that way.

Corky: Does anyone see it the way Carnie does? All of you that see it the way Carnie does, raise your hand. ... All the ones who see it differently than Carnie does raise your hand.

Unknown speaker: Well the safest way to do it is, call up half an hour before arrival, so and so, flight number, on schedule.

Al: I've got an example. The other day I was scheduled to be at a class for state inspection school, I had never been to the building where it was, I had no address. All I had was directions of "it is behind this other building." Now, to me, that means it could have been in Bountiful for all I knew. So that meant, I went four hours early because of that part of town, and I said I'm going to cruise by and find out exactly where I'm supposed to be so that at seven o'clock tonight, I will be in the right building and there will be a chair for me, I'll make sure of that. So I did that. I went to the building, I asked questions and I found out this was the place they hold the classes. And I knew where I was supposed to be, and then I still wasn't sure as to what time to be there and so I asked a few questions and they suggested I be there an hour ahead of time. Ok, so you get a chair and you aren't standing up. And I was there an hour ahead of time and I got a chair and I wasn't standing up. I was on time, I was in the right building. Now had I just wandered around at five minutes to seven when it was supposed to start, I wouldn't have known where to go. I would have missed the class.

Corky: What if they would have changed the class room on you about an hour before?

Al: An hour before I would have known because I was there an hour early. So if they would have made any changes I was prepared for those changes.

Corky: And what if they had just changed it, because they couldn't use the room?

Al: And I went at the time that I went? Well I would have found out because of everything that was taking place.

Corky: Donna, back to the story of people demanding that we keep track of them... tell it.

Donna: I don't know how to tell it.

Corky: Bernie, you have a fun look on your face, tell it.

Bernie: Ha, well it pisses me off.

Corky: It does, when you see people like that?

Bernie: Yeah.

Corky: Why?

Bernie: Because they are too lazy to get off their ass and find out what's going on. I mean, it doesn't take that much effort.

Corky: How many times have you tried to contact people and tell them about something that's happening?

Bernie: Oh, I've tried a few times.

Corky: Donna, how about you?

Donna: A lot of times.

Corky: Thousands?

Donna: It really ticks you off because it makes you feel "what makes you think that I have any more time than you have?" That I'm here running around trying to track everybody down to tell everybody about a change and there will always be changes. And I get "well you told me that it was going to happen such and such a way." Yes, well, there was a change. "And you told me on such and such a time that this was the way it was going to be," and well it was that way for that time and now it's different.

Al: Last summer we ran into Manu at one of the clubs and the topic of the farm happened to come up. She asked do you guys still go to the farm? Do you still do the farm thing? And I said yeah. So she said "Gee I'd like to go there sometime, can you call me the next time you go?" And I said sure. So I called her up the day before we were going to go pull weeds or something and she said "Well gee, I don't know if I can make it or not." She says I want to go out there, I want to be out there. And I don't call anybody as a rule, but I said well I'm just going to call her on this, not so much as physically call her on it, but just to see if she's going to go out on the farm. And then it was "well I don't know if I can make it, but I may not be able to make it." And I said well if you go you go, because I'm pretty sure you know where it is, but there are going to be a bunch of people leaving from the pyramid if you want a ride. But she wanted the whole world to stop for her because she had to do something else first, or here she wanted to go but she didn't make it a priority to leave that day reserved for this. I mean that's just another example.

Corky: Donna, have we ever had functions where we've waited for people to show up because they don't bother to call and tell us that they aren't going to show up? How often does that happen?

Donna: On a regular basis.

Corky: How come they don't bother calling to tell us they're not coming? That they've changed their mind about coming? Jim? What do you think? Have we ever waited for anybody?

Jim: Yeah, there's another thing that goes on, I think is... take Frank for instance. Frank always used to be late and I think it's a subconscious thing, that he really doesn't want to come and if he comes late then the door is closed and he can go home or something like that. Or what Rachael used to do on a regular basis, she would call up two minutes before class and she was clear up on the east bench and say "I'm getting in my car and leaving right now, will you wait for me?."

Corky: And then she wouldn't show?

Jim: A lot of time we would wait for her and she wouldn't show or she would show up. And other times she would come early...

Corky: And demand to know how come everybody is late.

Jim: As soon as her watch hit 10 o'clock she'd stomp out of here and go home because not everybody is here for class. I think there is some kind of subconscious thing going on with these things. They say they want to do it but they don't want to do it. It's weird. If you don't want to do it, just say you don't want to do it.

Corky: Was there just as much responsibility for the people to call and say they're not coming as there is for when we're having a function to call people and tell that we're having it?

Carnie: Yeah I think communication goes two ways. That's the point I was making with the airplane story. Communication goes two ways. If there's an intention on both ends, then people follow through. I mean I don't think anybody here would think of calling Frank to come to the bar, they would just assume that Frank wasn't coming because Frank hadn't shown up in a long time, months.

Corky: What if a person is sporadic, sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't?

Carnie: Those people you'd probably call or make an attempt.

Corky: Well why don't they fucking call?

Carnie: And then on the other hand if they show up and you weren't there you wouldn't feel bad because there wasn't a constant intention on both ends, but if there is intention on both ends...

Corky: And so if they don't call and tell us they're not coming, we don't have a responsibility to tell them, do we?

Carnie: No, but if we have an intention on both ends then more commitment is made to the communication.

Corky: Right. Chris, what do you think about this conversation today?

Chris: I agree with you, but I think what you're saying is, you are using an analogy but I think you want to zero in on a particular situation, unless I'm mistaken. Or you want to talk about the general thing?

Corky: I want to talk about the general thing because it is going to go on, it'll always happen around here.

Chris: I agree with the general thing, and my understanding of the club thing, and maybe I'm wrong, I may have missed a chapter here, my understanding is that this is a general rule, and there may be changes but I never knew we had an obligation to call in to say we're not showing up to play at the bar.

Corky: How many times have we waited for Chris at the bar Donna and Jim?

Donna: Practically every time.

Corky: Is it a waiting game to see if he shows, how long do we have to stay to see if he shows because he doesn't bother to tell anyone.

Chris: No one asked you to wait though. Unless I have a wrong understanding of my obligation in this.

Corky: Ok, that's fair. I agree with you.

Chris: I thought there was a thing that you could come if you want to and not come if you don't want to.

Corky: That's exactly right, and that's what you just said, so was there any obligation for us to do anything since we had a change last night to contact you? We tried, but was there any obligation, it goes both ways.

Chris: No, not really. We're going a long way around the block you know, it's no big deal that it didn't work out, it's not the end of the world, I got a lot done last night. The only reason I was a little irritated is that I did ask Corky at 5PM, which was three hours before flight time and I guess that wasn't current enough, but three hours before flight time at 5PM Corky said I will be at the Green Parrot from 8 to 9 PM to see if anyone shows up. So I went to the Green Parrot at 8:20 PM. This is not a major crisis here. Maybe I should have called at 7:30, I did not know that was maybe a good practice.

Corky: A half hour ago Donna, was it a major crisis with Chris?

Donna: It seemed to be a major crisis.

Corky: Did it seem to be a major crisis to you Bernie?

Bernie: Oh, a little bit of a crisis.

Corky: What changed Chris? I mean in the last half hour, what changed it from being a big deal to not that big of a deal?

Chris: Because if it was really a big deal I would have called you at 7:30 and made double sure.

Corky: So you do agree that you have some responsibility in the situation.

Chris: Some responsibility, yes.

Corky: Ok. Anyway, we're going to have this kind of problem in the future with lots of different kinds of things, and we want to let everybody know that they've got as much responsibility as they get, like Al said before, to what's going on here. Or like Donna said, a communion with knowing what's going on in Summum is the responsibility Summum will give back to them. It's sort of like a magnet, it's got a positive and a negative pole, and when you increase the energy of the positive pole, automatically the negative pole increases in energy. It's just a natural thing. And so, as much closeness as you get with what's going on with Summum, it is sort of like you are at the heart of it and you know exactly the details of what it is, you sort of get a sense for it, an inner sense, it's a telepathic sense wouldn't you say Donna? You feel what's happening with it even if you are not even told?

Donna: It was funny because last night I told Corky that I wasn't going to go to the club and then I thought well, maybe I ought to just go down and have one drink or something and I thought no, they may or may not be there if I go all the way down there.

Corky: Because you had a telepathic thing that things were going to change. And then because of the bond of the responsibility, you have taken it to you, and the closer you get to it the more those things automatically happen, and this is the message we want to get over to people, is that law in nature and it happens in everything. It is sort of like you know how you have a boyfriend and a girlfriend in a relationship, you can sense what's going on in times and places with the other person, but if you have a casual relationship and you show up at their house you don't know whether they're going to be there or not, whether they're going to receive you well or not, but if you had an intimate thing you sort of get a feeling of how it's going to be when you arrive. It is the intimacy of that relationship that takes place. Does that make sense to everybody? And so we're going to have that.

It's sort of like the farm. When we go to the farm there will be days this coming spring where the Summum people will know what's going on, but the metaphysical people won't, because they aren't close to the farm project and how it happens and why we don't water sometimes at 3:00 because we traded water with Norm Jesse and the watering happens at 4 to 5 and they're going to show up at 3 and get mad. Because they didn't have an intimacy with the details of it. But the more intimate they get with it, the more they realize what's going on, but everybody chooses the things they want to be intimate with and the things that they don't.

How is everybody doing, does anybody need to pee? No one needs to pee? Ok, let's get started on our next thing and wait till 11 and see who didn't call and who is here.

A real interesting thing, you know to even go beyond this topic we were just on, to something that really has a number of different stages of consciousness to it as you discover it, and there is a point where you discover it where it has an unbelievable effect on you. And that almost (talk about getting mad!)... when you discovered that you lived your whole life in an illusion. When you discover this thing, you get so mad at yourself and at existence because of what's going on with this thing and then because of the madness the next phase you go through would be a disillusionment with existence. That you don't want to be in the existence of a situation like that and then on the other side of it is a freedom that is beyond description. And this is the law of Cause and Effect. You know we made the nectar of Cause and Effect and it is the law of Cause and Effect that here, at possibility and nothingness as they go into bond an infinite number of times in a finite moment, a huge explosion takes place. And out of that explosion is manifested the will and the spirit, and then the farther away it gets from the explosion down here to the mass materials of matter and bodies and evolution of the species that are filled with the spirit and the will behind that. And this thing evolves along and evolves along, finding its way back to the explosion, and it happens again and it comes out of there. But that whole creation happens in a finite moment. And it makes a giant movie as it goes out and the movie is set. It is sort of like, has anybody ever looked at movie film? When you hold it up and it has all these little frames and each frame is set there, isn't it? And nothing is happening with it until you put it on the projector and you play it. And when you play it, you see the movie and you get lost in the movie. You try to figure out what is going to happen with the movie and you don't know what's going to happen with the movie, and you see it as if you are part of it and all the words are coming out and all the action. But the movie is already preset. Although, you are so lost in the movie because of your involvement in it, you don't realize that it automatically has an ending and every word that's going to be said, every happening and every thought with the movie is all preset, and the only way you can change movies is wait until that one is over or stop it in the middle, take it off the reel and put another one on. And the time these changes take place is when the movie is stopped. And that's how life is.

And so here comes this conflict: "Bullshit! I've got control over my life. I can think what I want to. I can choose what I want to do, I can choose to get up and walk out of this room right now." But what's amazing about that is, that is all part of the movie of life. Because, what makes you choose that is some kind of cause that's already within you or the environment around you, that is all affected by causes that came out of creation. And so the big question is, do I have free will? The right to choose? In reality you don't. You don't have any free will, none, zero.

Al: Because whatever you choose, you would have chosen anyway.

Corky: Because you were caused to choose it by the effects that were cause and effect, cause and effect. It is all accumulation. And so here comes the forlorn: "Well, my GOD if I can't do anything about it, why do I do anything? Why not just sit!?"

Al: If you did that, you were supposed to do that too.

Corky: Exactly, that's part of the cause and effect.

Al: So you don't know what to do at times.

Corky: And the key to the whole thing is the observation of it. You are free, within your will to observe it. Laugh at it, but you are still in it. The will can observe it, or the observer. Watch the movie as you go through life. And that doesn't make sense to many people until they do that. Everybody thinks they are doing that, but they're not. They're in the movie, and they are so caught up in it and they are trying to manipulate it and make it happen and everything, that is part of the cause and effect, part of the movie. But the will does nothing, it just observes it. It has no judgment on it, it just is. And most people think they've discovered their will, but they haven't. Because they are operating from a spiritual state or a manifest state and the only time this is changeable is at death. Then the will has an option at that point to choose its next movie or not.

Now when you first hear this story and it starts to become a reality it is disheartening to say the least. Because most individuals are so lost within the movie, they want to believe that they have control over the movie because it is an ego trip and the ego's part of the cause and effect system. And then comes "Oh, I don't have any responsibility here." Which is part of the cause and effect also, because the will doesn't make decisions. All it does is observe because decision is a judgment of the movie.

Why don't we take a quick break and just think about that and then we'll come back.