MANLY PALMER HALL

How to Turn Off the TV in One Simple Lesson and Live Happily Ever After

Well, this morning we had a little different approach to the problem, perhaps, than what you may
expect. The Olympic Games that are on here are a magnificent example of dedication and discipline on
the part of these young people who are competing. Many of them worked for years with the hope that
they might achieve on this event. Perhaps the entire theory is subject to certain criticism, but very
largely, let us face that this way: these young people, about 6,000 of them, are here competing for the
gold, as they call it. In the audience are about 120,000 people, also competing for the gold; but not in
the same sense. These a hundred or more thousand are working in an entirely different approach. And
for the most of them, self-discipline plays a very small part in their conviction of how to get what they
want. To them, the end must be achieved in any way possible. And, of course, only a very few achieve
even in this possibility.
But I think in the problem of television, we have a lesson that we might give a lot of thought to these
days. Theres a great deal of criticism of television programming. But that is not going to be the burden
of my discussion this morning. As something else it seems to me to be infinitely more important. And
that is, that man is no longer simply a biped without feathers, as Diogenes likened him. Man is a thinking
creature. He should not be brought up by a trainer, like a dog. He should not be taught only to obey. He
should not be fed because he obeys. He should not have a life of luxury, perhaps, because he happens to
obey a rich person.
The actual problem is that a human being has a mind that was given to him to think with. It was an
active organ; an organ to do something. It was not simply a receptive faculty to listen, to hear and to
see. Most people, in various fields of activity, never participate in those practices and policies which
stretch the mental power, and make it do things that we want it to do. In modern world we train the
mind by education, to give us a profession, or a trade, or a craft, or membership in a union, or whatever
it may be. We listen to the instruction, we get the job, we stay with the job, and in all this procedure we
have done very little thinking. We have followed policy, we have obeyed rules, we have done what the
boss told us to, and we may have taken a few special courses in computerization or something of that
nature. But the real creative faculties of the mind have not been used at all. So at the end of one of
these harrowing days in which most of the harrow has now been eliminated, we go home, set down and
sit down in front of the television, and perhaps spend anywhere from two to six hours watching what?
Were not watching anything that was going to make us really think a good deal. If its an educational
program, it will be turned off very quickly. We watch sports; we listen to the news, which is usually
highly influenced politically; were going through a few horror dramas, westerns, a few very poor humor
programs, and then settle down to the great run of family epics, in which we learn nothing, but may
choose one or two characters to pull for, because they seem to create sympathy, and one or two whom
we love to hate, because we dont like them. This constitutes a big intellectual experience. And by the
time we have finished with that, were so exhausted, we fall into bed. In the daytime we have all kinds

of domestic programs; programs which may or may not bear upon any factual situation. We may have a
few instructive ones on non-commercial programming. But we listen, we watch, and then just go out
and get a cold beer or something of this nature. Nothing happens upstairs in ourselves. Nothing is being
developed as a factor in the growth of our own thinking. Were not thinking, actually, and if we are
thinking, were not doing anything about it, because most of the thoughts are non-factual.
So here we go all through an entire lifetime, surrounded by all types of information which we accept
only through the eyes and ears. And when the time comes, we do very little to solve our own problems.
If we get sick, we go to a doctor, and maybe we will do what he recommends, and if we do not like what
he recommends, well get further advice on the subject. But actually, we have inside of ourselves a mind
that does not become healthy unless it is exercised. And exercise is use. Exercise is not sitting and
watching. Exercise is not reading. Exercise is thinking; thinking with the faculties that we posses, and
which we are supposed to enrich every day of our lives. Everything that happens to us has some kind of
meaning. But we accept it through the ears or the eyes, and it fades away. The mind is not involved in
the process of personal growth in most cases. We use the mind only as a computer or as a machine,
never as a creative, thinking equipment.
So somewhere along this line we have to face what we might term a gradual deterioration of the mental
powers within ourselves. And this deterioration is very obvious in society as we know it today. We are
not doing as good a job of living, thinking, acting, as our ancestors did. They had to do better. They had
to think, or they could not survive. We have created a situation in which thoughts are liable to destroy
us rather than protect us. And in the face of this, we settle back to a daily routine in which the growth of
our own inner life is very much weakened.
When we get a mans working for an Olympic gold, we find him exercising every day. And the result of
his exercise is that his body becomes more and more an instrument of his purposes. He gains control of
himself. The pianist does the same. He uses the body for purposes within himself. Today we do not use
the bodies we have for the advancement of principles of use to ourselves. We think only of enjoyment
or relaxation, or go around and play cards, or do something of this nature. Some of these things could
give us a little intellectual stimulus, but in most cases we wouldnt recognize it if we had it.
This type of thing has gotten very much worse, until today the creative thinker is a person seldom seen
or met. A person whose mind is being used every day to find new values, accomplish new works, do new
things that have not been done, improve the quality of living, solve the personal problems of his life.
These are the things that help to exercise the mind. But to drift along from work to television to bed and
then up and again the next day is not doing anything to make people. It is only continuing a humdrum
which is only one step above animal existence.
This means that in some respect we need creative programs. Now, a creative program is something that
we do because basically we want to express ourselves. We do not wish merely to do what everyone else
does. We want to do something that will satisfy our own inner impulses. But for the most part, these
impulses are not active enough to give us any positive directing. So it seems that one thing we have to
do to get away from this hypnosis of the tube is to realize that we have faculties within ourselves that do

not need to be subjected to this continual negative conditioning; that we are simply capable of thinking,
rather than merely watching the antics of someone else. Its so everywhere today. In music we have the
same problem. We go and listen to a good concert and we applaud the performers but for the most part
we do not think of putting ourselves under the discipline of music. Another individual is much interested
in the dance, but he can barely stay on his feet on the ballroom floor. We see people that are
interested in all kinds of crafts; they collect them, but they dont create them. Now something has to
happen to change our way of life from that admiring the creations of others to the development
of creative capacity in ourselves.
Of course, we had the old 24 inch rule that was not only used by the old builders and artificers, but also
appears in the Koran. And that is, the 24 hour rule is the day; the 24 hours. It is divided into three
sections of 8 hours each. One of these sections is used to work and to earn a living. One of these
sections of eight is used for rest, sleep and repose. And the remaining third is dedicated to worthwhile
activities and self-improvement. On this basis, some people are thought of missing the idea. Because
their idea of improvement, of rest, relaxation and the ability to grow as people, this does not seem to
have a very great amount of meaning in most cases. We cannot grow, particularly in sleep, although it
may help a little. We can grow, a little, in work, if that work has creativity in it; otherwise it is just,
simply, routine. It is done only for the sake of making a living. So we have these other eight hours to do
something with; eight hours to be ourselves; to dream our dreams; to build our thoughts and hopes for
the future; to be with our friends and children; to do all kinds of things that warm up and intensify the
natural inclinations for beauty, affection and friendship that are within ourselves.
So what do we do? We pull up the chair with a television dinner and remain there until we go to sleep in
the chair. This is a complete loss of one of the most valuable factors in human life: the individual
thinking for himself. Of course, we realize there is a tremendous penalty on it. The individual who thinks
for himself may have to think his way out of a number of difficult situations. But he can. To think for
ones self is to break through the chain that has gradually developed; the chain of education, in which
the individual thinks what hes told to think; the job, in which he does what hes told to do; the family, in
which he does that which one of the more positive relatives tells him he should. Then, little by little to
become locked in responsibilities which mostly exist because he has never faced issues directly. So,
something has to be done to change this if the individual really wishes to have a significant life.
Now, in the old theatre it wasnt so difficult. And the old theatre had many advantages which we have
no longer with us today. One of the advantages was for the actor himself. He had a year - two years five years to live the part he was playing. He could gradually refine the characterizations until they were
nearly perfect. He was, actually, understanding Shakespeare, or whoever it was he was indebted to for
his scenario; he was doing things that meant self-searching; trying to understand and live the character
of another person. And he had plenty of time to do it. The audience, also, would go to the theatre
maybe once a month, or every couple or three months when a particular program came along. There
was never a type of program that people went to every night, or every day. They chose the things they
wanted, and a program lasted in the theatre sometimes for five or ten years before everyone who
wanted to see it got to do so. Then came the motion pictures; silent films. There was still a little margin
of creativity in the silent film, because the watcher had the privilege of trying to interpret in his own

mind the words of the actors. This process was one in which a certain identification was achieved. The
audience began to feel the ideas, thoughts and emotions of the characters on the screen. Then came the
talking film, in which every bit of suspense of thought was taken out. You knew exactly what everyone
was going to say and what they meant. Therefore a little corner of the mind was lost again. And now, in
television, we have a further involvement; namely, programming continuously; and this programming,
done primarily and basically as an advertising medium. We do not have any real participation. The actor
does not do what he could do, because he must finish a major film in two weeks. He will play his part
and never play in again. And it will be shown at one time for the larger part of the audience that will see
it. This is entirely away from any depth of watching or depth of doing. The entire program is gradually
mechanized. It is stream-lined and is gradually formed into a mere interval between advertisements.
All this is doing something to people. Young people get started with it. And as a result of this type of
thing, personal living is becoming less and less significant. We are gaining our morals from the motion
pictures and television, we are gaining our education from false statements and misrepresentations in
films, we get our inspiration from everything you can think of except that which has lofty or meaningful
significance. Gradually, the television is taking over the moral habits of mankind, it is telling what we are
going to do, it is contributing heavily to crime, and the average individual just sits and watches it. Maybe
he will never be a criminal as a result of watching it; maybe he will have enough morality in himself not
to fall for this type of pressure, but many do fall for it, as our law courts know today. The point is, here
we sit, and do nothing. We have a limited allotment of time; maybe 70, 80, 90 years. But one of these
days its going to be gone. And its an amazing thought, perhaps, to realize that out of our about 80 year
life perhaps we have spent 15 years of that, of our waking time watching television.
There should be something else in life that is more interesting than this. There should be something that
makes life significant. We look over the various problems of living. We do not know, for sure, for
example, that if we are going to have a future incarnation sometime, that we will use the actual
knowledge we are accumulating in this life. The only thing we can take with us is what we achieve within
ourselves; what we do to grow or intensify our principles and integrities, to gradually achieve a victory
of integrity over the haphazard indifference with which most people are burdened.
So here we have a wonderful opportunity to do something; a time which is not one that we have to
worry over. The individual who watches television today is not really doing it because hes exhausted.
The labors of the day havent worn him down to the condition where he wants to doze all the evening. It
is simply that this is the cheap, convenient, easy way of wasting time. And those people do not realize
that time is worth more than the wasting of it. And because of that fact, individuals drift into older years
without the maturity, without the integrity, without the ideals and principles that are so necessary to a
well-rounded life. At the same time, they are setting a bad example for the next generation growing up
in this confusion.
Now, how can we start to be a little more creative in our thinking and acting? Well there are various
ways with which we can become involved. Largely, personal experience is based upon involvement. If
we do not get into situations, we will never learn how to get out of them. If we do not do something
ourselves, then we simply drift along a pattern which has never led anywhere and never will. We have a

world around us of people in trouble. We have all kinds of problems, individual and collective, which
need thought, need some kind of involvement. Now, involvement doesnt necessarily mean that we
simply read about something. Here again it is vicarious. The modern literature that we get is very largely
non-directive as far as our own personal living is concerned. And the psychological and metaphysical
literature is so burdened with exaggerations and mysteries and wonders, that again it does very little to
help us in our daily conquest of circumstances. Involvement means to do something with your hands; to
do something to help to build. Involvement means an art; not watched, but practiced. It means some
kind of activity for which we do not buy a ticket, but go out there and do it ourselves. Therefore,
anything which causes the person to control, discipline and direct his own attention to the improvement
or fulfillment of some inner conviction, any such program as these is creative, it is involved, we become
part of it, we do something that otherwise would not be done.
In our childhood days and in the days of our parents one form of involvement was the neighborhood.
People all did things together. They were part of a pattern, and did all kinds of simple but sometimes
very kindly things. Another form of involvement was involvement in the church affairs of the
community; the individual giving time, days, evenings, week-ends to try and to help some religious
purpose. This was involvement. Today, the simplest way to meet all of these responsibilities is to write a
check. This is not involvement. It is simply buying immunity to involvement. And we do it all the time.
And we derealize or believe that we cant do it any other way.
Now, involvement used to be all of the family getting together whilst grandmother or great
grandmother played the piano and everyone sang. Involvement was the home theatre with the kids all
playing the roles. Involvement was all kinds of relationships in young peoples groups. It was also
involvement in the activities of the older generation, where people were doing things together for some
purpose. Maybe it was all to get the bed spread shown at the county fair, but it was involvement. The
individuals did something themselves to earn the respect and regard they wanted. They wanted their
own victory, and in order to be victorious they had to do something that they could win. They never did
anything they could neither win nor lose, and everything was at a dead standstill.
Now, we all have problems today that, perhaps, we do not know exactly what to do with. One way of
solving this problem is the involvement in self-improvement; the individual deciding something hes
always wanted to do and doing it. If he has always wanted to advance some specialized art, or science,
or philosophy in himself, he can take courses in it, he can participate in discussions, he can join groups
working with these situations. If he wants to become involved in charities or in helping under-privileged,
he can become part of a group that is doing this, and not just sending the check. As far as thats
concerned, if he wants, he can send the check also, but he must be down there doing it, to become
involved. And in the process of helping worlds to grow, we all must become involved.
Involvement, of course, immediately presents difficulty with us, because of the way we have always
lived. Very few people are really ready for involvement, when what they call involvement is simply
interference. They try to get into a situation they dont understand and take it over. This is not creative
involvement. Now, every person, or nearly every person, has some kind of an aptitude; an aptitude
different from the one by which he makes a living. I know one minister who had all his life wanted to go

to the sailing ships. He had in his little ministerial study models of all kinds of boats; and he was building
models. He was doing all kinds of things. He was studying it in his spare time. He was involved in
something that he had to do some work with. Now the work might not change the course of history, or
might be of value only to himself, but he was doing it; he was doing it every day, because he enjoyed it
and because he felt that it increased his understanding of the sea and the ships. So we have there an
involvement, of a person very sedentary, given largely to biblical discussions, and marriages, and
baptisms and funerals, who found time to open the horizon of a secret longing, and did it by the only
involvement that he could find without leaving his job, and that was to make the ships in literature, that
he was reading about; understanding them, and participating in the adventures, at least vicariously, of
the mariners who had gone before.
There are all kinds of things that the individual can do, but he must do something, or otherwise hes just
going to sit and try to be entertained by impossible amusements. Now, this is too much of a problem to
low over lately. There has to be something done about it. And every person has a reason to do it. Many
people who live alone, and are by nature a little on the neurotic side, retire into some small world and
use the television as their only outlet. They have no real contact with real life. They consider themselves
to be loners. They have no recognition of a world of values and factual things. So they simply retire
further and further into themselves until they can no longer bear the bruises of contact. They have to
remain alone until death takes them. This is absolute futility. It has nothing to do with a good life well
lived. These persons should get out of this solitariness that they have gotten into, and if they have a
religious length in their hearts, go into charities, go into helping other people who are worse off than
themselves; join activities, groups; taking care of the underprivileged. But never go off by themselves, sit
alone, mood and brood, and watch this impossible entertainment. Do something to get yourself into the
world of which you are a part. Now, if you do that, you may also have some temptations come along.
But temptations are necessary. The individual who is so completely isolated that he is never tempted,
not only doesnt commit any evil, but doesnt do any good. Therefore it is necessary to become involved.
Now, of these most people I talk to, as some of them say, well, Ive always kind of wanted to have
another language. All right, get it! Study it, take courses in it, go to night school; spend part of the time
that otherwise you would spend watching Who Done It and go to this school. Or get someone who
knows the language and will help you. Find ways to master the language. And when you can go out and
converse with a native in that language, you won your gold. You got your medal. You do it. You have it.
You have achieved something yourself.
Now, there are many ways in which achievement can come. Most of the great achievements involve art,
music, things of this nature. But literature is another interesting field of achievement. To sit all the time
reading a book, it gets rather dull, because the book might not be too much better than the television, in
fact the television may have been based on the book. And when you get to watch them both you dont
recognize any similarity. But instead of sitting always in reading, decide on incidencing your own life and
start writing. Do something yourself. If youve enjoyed certain episodes and incidents recorded in
popular publications, youll usually find in those publications a little paragraph saying that they will
accept further incidents of personal happenings of an unusual nature. Put down the personal
happenings in your own life. And if the personal happening that is most important is that you suddenly

decided to do something instead of listening to others, you might even win a prize, so just know what
youre telling. But do it. Get something so that when you come home from work that there is immediate
involvement.
One of the nicest involvements, of course, is the family involvement in those conditions. But today, the
whole family has become so tied-in to the present pattern, that the different members do not want
involvement. Each one wants to lead a solitary existence under the same roof, doing exactly as he
pleases and trying desperately to over-instance the fellow members of his family. This is, therefore, not
easy. But in families starting out, certainly, mutual involvements can be the secret of an enduring
marital relationship, if both persons are working in exactly the same general direction, if each one is
willing to listen to the suggestions of the other, if each one is grateful for companionship and insight in
these various problems, the marital situation is going to be far better off than it will be if the two
persons sit down in front of a television and compete with each other as to which station theyre going
to watch. The height of the problem is the family in which there is a television in every room, and no
two members are watching the same program.
This is what happens when people do not actually think, or do not make any effort to get hold of
situations. I think almost everyone, if they would look inside themselves a little bit carefully, has a
submerged hope; a submerged ideal; a secret desire to achieve something worthwhile. Most persons
have been under the pressures of circumstances, and have had great difficulty in being themselves.
Everything seems to force them to follow patters of other persons. If by some circumstance the
individual suddenly finds himself alone, he should not regard himself as deprived. He should take the
attitude that he is now able to be himself, perhaps for the first time in his life. But theres a catch in this
also. When he tries to be himself, he discovers he has no gift for it. He has never done anything to build
the kind of life that can stand on its own feet. He has always leaned on something, always lived by some
concept, or by some relationship, and when he is alone, he is not free, he is just playing lonesome. He
has never found the key to doing the things he has always wanted to do, but was prevented by the
burdens of his relationships with others.
So, with the beginning of life a person should always recognize that the ideal of the one-pointed career
is essentially false. The individual who becomes absolutely involved in his business or in some
relationship, or some political activity, or something in which there is no variety, no change of pace, this
person will naturally turn to some entertainment like the television, simply for a change of pace.
Because he has no variety except what is imaginary and comes to and through the tube. This person
should and must find the way to express some purpose that is worth his consideration and his daily
dedication.
Well, therere all types of things we can start physically to get a job. One of the physical things we have
to do is to take sufficient interest in our physical existence, to apply certain disciplines to our conduct.
The individual who simply lives the best he can until death takes him has no discipline. All achievement
is based on discipline. Therefore at the beginning of life he can discipline his mind, put certain controls
over himself, and try his best, not necessarily to lengthen his life, this is not the point, but to prove that
he is able to control the body in which he lives. If he can control his body, he has made a certain physical

achievement. If he has been able to correct the facts in himself, he is doing something. He is not simply
reading a book. He is putting what he learns to work and making it work for him. And as long as he
sincerely labors with the problem, he will improve himself.
Beyond this, of course, we have not only the physical body, but the emotional body, which is a very
troublesome one, and which causes perhaps most of the complications of life. Your rational emotions
are probably the greatest source of tragedy that we know. Emotion must be placed under discipline. The
most powerful discipline for emotion is religion. But you can study religion all your life and remain just
as emotional as you were before, and no better. Therefore no amount of membership, no amount of
prayer or any of these devices will have the effects you want unless you discipline your emotions
yourself. If you have hate, than the great creativity is to transmute it; if you are revengeful, this will
continue, no matter what church you belong to, until you outgrow it within your own emotional life.
Everywhere emotions are tricky; jealousies, grieves, bigotries, fanaticisms, they are all hard to work
with. They will neither be cured by a book, nor a membership. They will be cured only by discipline; by
the individual taking hold of himself, thinking things through, and determining the course that is best for
himself.
Having made this decision, he must then fortify it by action. He must perform according to the level of
his new convictions. If his new conviction is that he shall meet and overcome the dislike he has, then he
must go and do this, not leave it as an emotional asset until it is made real. Therefore, every control,
every discipline, must lead to a reality; to a proof of achievement by the correction of a weakness.
Otherwise it doesnt mean anything. But there are all kinds of ways in which we can think through these
things, and to try to work out some programs by which we can accomplish this, either through
philosophical assistance, through education, through psychological conditioning, through the
broadening of our religious background, not as theology, but as a way of life. So perhaps the height of
the emotional life of the individual is the regeneration of the impulses of affection and proving it by
action. Never leave it something beautiful in the soul that you really believe, which you still cant speak
to those people you dont like.
So this type of thing puts a control; an emotional control is worth winning. But is never to be won simply
by watching a television program in which emotions go wild: horror, terror, destruction, always in the
atmosphere. This does not help us to mature the emotions. The mature emotions have also their own
expressions: love of art, love of music, love of nature, love of all kinds of service programs, love of the
animals, protection of the natural resources. All these require thoughtfulness. And sometimes this
thoughtfulness is going to interfere with a long-established habit. Then there is the impact. And you
must either have a deep enough emotional foundation to rise above the old habit, or you will fall back
into the previous condition.
Emotions must be disciplined. And they are disciplined not by giving vent to them. The old psychological
attitude of the 20s and 30s that you had to be nasty in order to be healthy is no longer valid. It is not
necessary to get rid of treachers by being unkind. The real answer is to reach and reach the inner life so
that the unkindness falls away of itself because you have simply outgrown it. So participation and

creativity are expressed through outgrowing the smallness or the limitations that have previously
interfered with your conduct. Then you get up and end another step to the mantle.
And the mind, of course, is very difficult to control, because very few people realize that the mind is
anything except a servant. The mind is something that just justifies whatever we want it to justify. Our
mind is something that proves that our mistakes are correct. It also proves to us that our fanaticisms are
justified. It proves to us that our mistakes are gorgeous. Everything that we do, the mind says Amen,
Im for you all the way. Well, this is one way of being in trouble all the time. The mind has powers of its
own. The mind can think. But its only on rare occasions and a great emergency that we use it to think
with. As life goes along on a comparatively monotonous level, we do not wish to think. We simply wish
to be thoughtless. We want to do whatever we feel like doing at the moment. And anyone who
interferes with this is a tyrant. If we want to worry, were going to worry. And the mind tells us just what
is important at that moment to worry about; when it should be telling us how to solve the problem
instead of worrying at all. But if the mind can never protect us from the worries of situations we get
into, then the mind isnt doing us much good. And the reason its not doing much good is because it is
gradually dying of anemia. The mind is having no opportunity to be itself. It is not being encouraged to
think, it is simply being encouraged to agree with us. And that phase of the mind is too childish. We
cannot mature with this type of thinking.
So the mind has to be disciplined into right and wrong. If we believe in the Ten Commandments, then
the mind has got to show us how to keep them, not how to break them. And if we do break them, the
mind has got to criticize us for doing it. The mind has got to tell us that we failed, and not let us get away
with the idea that we have made a gorgeous exception to the rules of life. We havent. Never can. So if
we had a code, and its a good one, the mind should be a sentinel, guarding our fulfillment of that code.
If it says in the mind that we must do a certain thing because it is the basis of our character, that thing
we must do. In the same time we may think of the mind as being an idealistic thing, and is not all
rationalization. Well, the Sermon on the Mount is a very good discipline for the mind. It tells us what we
should do about situations.
So if the mind is to do us any good, we have to appoint it as prime-minister of our lives. Not as a ruler,
but as one of the cabinets of advisors. And when we break the rules which our mind has been instructed
to give us, then we must repent and do something about it, instead of changing the subject. If we can do
some of these things, then we will show that we are disciplined people. This was the concept beneath
the philosophy of Confucius. Confucius declared that the human being was separated from the animal
simply by the intellectual capacity to think. And that the human being who thinks wisely is the superior
person. And in the course of time, this superior person, increasing in wisdom and fulfilling the needs of
the wise content in himself, can go into the unknown future with a good hope. If we assume that the
superior person is one who is above performing inferior actions, then we must admit that Confucius was
very right; that he did have the answer to the whole thing. That the answer was not simply in abstract
wisdom and learning, it was forever in the individual, living on the highest level of his own
understanding. And this level is much higher than we suspect. It may be that at first we have to work a
little with the level of understanding of someone who is wiser than ourselves. But we do it only in order
that we may also attain wisdom.

Now, all over the world, we go to people when we have problems; these people may be religious
counselors, they may be psychologists, psychiatrists, or one type or another of inspiring guidance. We,
therefore, go to them and pay them to do our thinking for us; because we find, when we study therapy,
that we are not capable of a separate look at ourselves. We are so tangled up in our own prejudices that
we have to go to a third party to untangle us. This is really not necessary, except perhaps in very serious
and immediate cases. The individual who is all wound up in a situation has the power to unwind himself
if he does something about it, but if he simply sits and watches commercials on television he will never
unwind himself. He is wasting the time that he needs to work out solutions for his own dispositional
problems. It is necessary for him, therefore, to give the time and attention to matters directly involved
in solving his problem. He may want to read a book or two on it if he can get a good book. If the book
caters to him, however, hed better throw it away. He must get a book that demands more of him than
he normally wants to give. It must be a book that challenges him to recognize his own mistakes, and not
pass them off on other people. But if he does have a gradual recognition that he cant live with himself
the way he is, he will not come to the erroneous conclusion that the answer is to forget himself; and by
forgetting himself, burry himself in non-essential, non-productive, avocational activities such as
watching television. It is necessary for him to get at his own nature. And creativity is partly the process
of creating a better self within him; a self that you can be proud of; a self with which you will gain the
recognition of other people who are worth recognizing him.
Now, its an interesting fact, however, that Ive noticed, namely that a person who has made some of
these adjustments is not only recognized by others who have made similar adjustments, but is
recognized also, very generously, by people who have made no adjustments, but wish they could.
Therefore, a person who has disciplined himself is also admired by the undisciplined. He becomes a
stronger person. He becomes a human being in a world of beasts. He becomes capable of gaining the
respect of those with whom he comes in contact. His reward is to improve his recognitions; his reward is
to be called upon to help other people and to have a life full of useful activities. So there are rewards for
taking hold of these problems.
Actually, also, as people get a little older, and not quite so vital and so active, it becomes more
important for them to recognize the realization of this problem of self-discipline. Unless there is some
real reason why an individual cannot take an active part in society, he should take such a part. He should
find ways to do it. He can join senior citizen activities. He can become part of group thinking and group
action. But most of the time, the older person has a tendency to live in a kind of nostalgia. He is inclined
to being neurotic, he is inclined to feel self-pity, he is inclined to think he is neglected, or ignored, or that
life has passed over him. Worst of all, perhaps, with these older people, there is an adjustment to be
made which they have never thought of, and which could be tremendously important. And that is, that
to be comfortable and happy in life, each person has to be contemporary. When we reach that point in
life when everything we like and know has faded away, and we live in a world of strangers, and can no
longer find the consolations that helped us in youth, then we are in the presence of a great challenge.
We must not try to live in 1950 if we are in 1980. We have to find contemporary activities. Now, we may
say these contemporary activities are a constant offense to us. They can be, and many of them are. But
whether they are offensive or defensive, we have to accept them. We have to recognize that there is no

value, no virtue, no fulfillment in blocking ourselves against the changes that take place in society. This
does not mean we have to do anything wrong. It doesnt mean we have to practice anything we dont
believe in. But we have to live in a world in which we understand why other people have changed,
recognizing the precious circumstances and forces that have moved them into a different relationship
with life. In other words we must accept them and understand them even though we dont agree with
them. Otherwise, we gradually lock ourselves in a world much too small for us and we find one by one
the remaining persons whom we do know slipping away until we are alone in a generation which has no
basic roots in our thinking or our kind.
Moving as we do today, at a terrific pace, it is necessary for every individual to be constantly
contemporary. The difficulty is usually that the person drifts along as he was until his last friend is gone
and then he suddenly feels this terrific need for change. But if he started it in the beginning, by
watching, participating in and studying the values of the better people who were rising around him
therere always good people he would gradually learn how to evaluate the changes which he may not
agree with, but with which he can make a satisfactory and constructive adjustment. He can live without
retiring into a world that is not real. This also occurs in cases of persons born in other countries or who
migrate to countries which were not their own, and find gradually that they are alone. The only way to
get out of aloneness is to grow; to outgrow it, by enriching the life, enriching the consciousness, and
having new dedications by means of which life continues to the end to be an interesting and dramatic
experience. Otherwise, these things get to be too difficult.
Now, there are also other groups of people who are confronted with this problem, and those are the
ones who for one reason or another are beginning to experience physical deficiencies. They are not
physically able to get along as well as they did. Now, theres a philosophy behind all this, which most
people dont think of at all. The first two thirds of life should prepare the person for the last third. By the
time we reach the period where we cant do all the things we used to do, we should have so enriched
our inner lives that we have plenty of internal activity in ourselves. We should be able to adjust easily to
the limitations of energy, and accept it as inevitable, but not gradually develop hatreds, jealousies and a
variety of neurotic pressures simply because were getting older. Actually, in mens most instances, if we
realize it, senility begins with lack of dynamic internal incentive. The individual who has nothing to live
for lives worse and worse, until finally they disappear.
So in all these things we are living vicariously, in a world which we are either accepting or rejecting, but
making very little effort to truly understand. We also have made very little effort to adjust our lives to
the capacities that we have, to find satisfaction in the achievements that are possible to us, and our also
constantly alert to new things. We must remain ever alert. And this alertness has much to do with the
creative instinct in ourselves.
Now, we have an indoctrination that we have got to get over someway. And its a fatalistic
indoctrination. Its that we place in the front row of our motional ad mental activity: fear. This is a day
and age in which we are more or less constantly in a state of fear. And this fear, such as it is, is drummed
into us on every hand. There is hardly a newspaper we pick up which does not contain something that
frightens us. The same is true with news reports on TV, all the plays that are put on. In nearly all there is

a great conflict with evil popping up everywhere, with horror, misery and crime, accepted as the normal
state of the human being. With this type of situation fear is inevitable. The individual gradually is afraid
to be himself; he is afraid to continue the activities that he formerly had because he is constantly in the
presence of danger.
Well, this is real in some conditions, there is no doubt about it, we cant completely ignore it, but on the
other hand, we can also rise above fear. We can rise to a degree of rational care. We can do those things
which are reasonable to do that will protect us. We can stop being foolish, or doing things which open
us to trouble. Most people who are in trouble have in some way lowered the resistance in themselves
which could have protected them fro difficulties. But with the fear constantly there the mind goes into a
kind of whirlwind. Fear dominates every other consideration. And the one thing we havent learned as
yet is to be afraid of the negative part of ourselves. Thats where most of out troubles originate. Our
compromises with principles are the things that get us into physical difficulties. We should be afraid
more for our own conduct than we are for the situations that may arise from it.
We have today millions of persons who are alcoholics. Not one of them really wants to kill anyone, or be
killed, but nothing seems to make enough difference. There is no dominant desire to change. Why?
Because life is empty; because its the only way of forgetting themselves; or getting over some
disagreement; or finding a use for our useless life. These things must be corrected in their causes; and
the only way to correct them is to discipline the inner life; to put something in there that makes us want
to live because we are useful to others, and not merely because we want to forget our own miseries.
The misery factor is being dramatized every day. Internationally we are in a state of constant agitation.
Politically we are involved all the time in the ups and downs of policy. And all these things cause us to
come to the conclusion that life is insecure, that the world is hardly worth living in, and that practically,
the only happy person is the one who doesnt think at all.
This type of thinking is getting more or less prevalent, or the assumption that no matter what happens
to anyone else, well be in trouble for the rest of our lives. We have to get over this, by leadership over
self; by leadership over our own tendencies. To get rid of certain fears by replacing them; not by saying
that trouble cant exist, not by denying the conditions, but by recognizing the value of self as a leader
out of dilemma; that in one way or another, the inner life can be the most protecting thing that we
have. There are laws that govern human conduct. There are laws that deal with the relationships of life.
And if the individual really keeps the rules, in most cases, the rules will keep him.
In this way we stagger around without reason or anything else in the whirl of other people staggering
around without reason that we are constantly in the face of crime and degeneracy. Now, we cant
change it all, but we can make every possible effort to get hold of ourselves; to find ways to make
ourselves available to good.
I watch quite a deal, because of the things Im interested in, reports from all around the world about
things that are happening to people. And if you sit down and relax, and think a minute, you cant help
but see some very wonderful things happening. You can see that some of the hopes that we have are
being realized; that people are trying harder than they ever have before; that various causes that have

been forgotten and neglected for ages are coming into focus. One of the most important discoveries, I
think, of modern time is the realization that materialism is dying. And the doubting, and the scoffing,
and the failure to recognize the spiritual needs of man is not fashionable anymore. This type of thinking
is gone. In the emergency we find, in spite of everything, our hopes drift back and up to the spiritual
sources of ourselves. This we see all over the world. People now struggling desperately to regain faith,
and at the same time to adjust personal living to the confusion of the day. Another situation that seems
to be very prominent today is the advancements that we have in education. We do not hear about them
very much, but all over the world, major colleges and universities are studying esoteric matters that 25
years ago would have been called lunacy. We are also doing the same thing in many fields that we did a
few years ago with acupuncture. When it arrived it was a superstition of the ancient heathen Chinese.
Today it isnt that anymore. Its being used all over the world to help people to do things and get better.
Little by little, the esoteric and metaphysical ideals that have been locked within many of us for years
are gaining recognition. We are coming more and more to be recognized as the last frontier of defense
against metaphysical, mystical or scientific chaos. The time has come gradually. I watch the papers, and I
watch the foreign journals. And every day, almost, somebody does something really great; something
really unselfish and something that really counts. But, of course, it is ground in a mass of wreckage that
we are inclined to believe.
But everywhere things are moving forward. And about the poorest place to sit to watch a move is in
front of the tube; because its there that its going to stay as it is to the bitter end apparently. But the
bitter end isnt as far off as we think. Most of the great television circuits are in serious difficulties. They
have discovered for some unknown reason they cant understand why we all should object to 20
commercials an hour. They cant understand why we are no longer fascinated with the 15th or 20th
remake of some second rate detective story. They cant understand why were getting tired of these
will-be-gone characters doing things that we wouldnt allow any relative of ours to do. And we are
forced to take into our homes the shadows of people we would never want to know. The studio cant
understand this. They think that it remains necessary to get down as low as possible in order to control
the audience. They figure if theres anything constructive, that people will turn it off. And as a result of
this attitude, people are turning it off anyway. Theyre getting awfully tired of it. Complaints are going
into the studios every day, and gradually, the one thing that counts is going to happen. The set will be
turned off. And then, we will begin to find that the people have the deciding voice in the entertainment
they are going to receive.
But if theyre all asleep themselves, why should they wake up at all? Why should we ask for something
better if we dont care? Or if we tolerate the way it is? Or whether anything is better than to think? With
this type of attitude we are going to have the same problem; always. But the programs are in trouble;
the stations are in trouble. And little by little it is becoming obvious that the audience is not satisfied,
and more and more it is supporting independent theatrical projects. We are tired of a programming that
is intended for people who do not think and do not want to think. These people are getting fewer. For
one reason, the death rate is very heavy among them; alas we think how vulnerable we are to
everything. We are finding more and more that this type of programming approach is just wrong.

So, out of this we can do a little thinking. We can do more and more of the disciplining, not only of our
own minds, but of our acceptances of the corruptions of society. We not only can turn off these things,
we can turn off advertising that is false, we can refrain from luxuries we cant afford, we can watch more
carefully the sales appeals of other people, and we can realize the fact that we were not brought here
for the purpose of trying to be happy by wasting money. Its coming. World pressures, circumstances,
are gradually emphasizing the need for intelligence. And as time goes on, this need is going to become
increasingly great, and it is up to the individual to build his mind up so he can handle it when it comes.
We dont want to be caught today with minds as they are now. Because most people are not thinking
and theyre not caring; or theyre disappointed, or if theyre having any thoughts at all, theyre keeping
them to themselves. But this is changing, and we must prepare for it. There is a world coming that is
more intelligent more forthright, more honorable and more incentive burdened than we realize. We
need incentives, but the greatest incentive we have is to make our own present condition endurable,
which it is not for many people. Our suicide rate is up simply because people have nothing to live for.
They are simply hurt all the time. Well, once youve been hurt a few times you either give up, or else you
decide that its time to use the faculties that nature and deity provided to help us get over hurts. We do
not have to give in to the misfortunes that surround us. It is perfectly possible to outgrow them.
So, this is one of our few works today. There are things we have to outgrow. One is the belief in wealth.
Another is the belief in war. A still another is the belief that other people can do our thinking for us. We
are going to gradually have to outgrow that part of ourselves which is incapable of taking care of us. We
are depending upon immature faculties to live a mature life. So, we must develop and mature those
faculties. Weve got to build within ourselves a human being fully aware of its origin and destiny, fully
capable of leading its body and its emotions in a way in which they should go. This is in the Jungian
psychology the teacher; the teacher in ourselves; the teacher that carries is in it the whole burden,
perhaps of many hundreds of lives that we have lived before; the teacher that is submerged, but is the
grand old person, the old master who has been in us and will be in us as long as we exist. It is the call
upon this inner superiority, this inner maturity to help us fight against the immaturity of our conscious
daily procedures. The teacher image within ourselves can lead us to the perfection of a way of life
suitable for our own needs. Its voice is rather weak, thats true and it is often gathered down by the
pressure of appetites and desires, but the voice of the teacher is there. And gradually we come to realize
that that potential of this redemption in ourselves is always available to us.
We are not living to the fullness of ourselves so that there is nothing else we can do. We are not all we
can be. We are very far down on the list from things that we can be. We are capable of a growth beyond
our wildest imagination. We are capable of being much more than weve ever dreamed that we could
be. But for some unknown reason, due largely to environmental pressure, we have denied that this
could be true. We assume that we cant be anything except what we are, when in reality we can be
almost anything that we will earn by our own personal integrities. So somewhere in our own present
day is the being of tomorrow. The self in us as it will be in a better world and in a larger theatre of
action; and its there ready to be built up, to be educated, to be released into expression and to take
command of conduct. And somewhere, to sorrow of living, the pressures, despondencies and
frustrations of daily experiences are going to force us to grow. We have nothing else we can do. We can

say we can go into dryer out and die, but that isnt the end of anything. We have to face a future which
can never be taken away and which can end only in achievement. We can resist achievement as long as
we want to, and we will resist it, but in the end we have to grow, because there is no other way to go.
Anything that looks like an escape is an illusion. Anything that promises that we can be happy in spite of
ourselves is wrong. We can only be happy because of ourselves. And we can only be happy because our
happiness is based upon an integrity in which we keep the rules of life and share the best that we know
with all of those we come in contact with.
All of this is part of an experience we have to face sometimes, probably sitting in front of a television
screen. We have to decide what were going to do. We have to decide how were going to use this thing.
Were going to have to say I know there is going to be a certain type of program thats going to be very
horrible I can hardly wait for it to come. Were going to have to change that and say I think its going
to be horrible, Im not going to turn it on. Little by little we have to censor our own entertainment. It
may come out that in the end, by censorship, we will have two or three programs a week that we really
feel we want to see. If thats the case, thats the type of thing we want to use with the television set.
Anything we dont want, and we know we shouldnt see we have to turn off. And as time goes on we will
find that we can turn off with one easy motion. Its very easy to just turn that dial, and it goes off. But
behind this one easy motion there has to be the development and growth within ourselves by which this
motion becomes a solution of something, and not a frustration. We have to turn it off because we want
something better, not because we simply are tired of what were seeing. It has to be something more
positive. And I understand from rumors that come along that there are plans for the development of
television outlets suitable for thinkers, for people who really want to grow; who are tired of the same
old thing. Now, this doesnt mean that all of these programs have to be dynamically religious or
hopelessly and miserably educational. They can be very happy programs, but they can be happy because
they gear in realities; they can be happy because happiness is something thats contagious if it true and
reasonable. It can, however, relieve us from all this misrepresentation and this conditioning of attitudes
which is contrary to the common good.
So we are really always on the verge of something better. We are ready to demand something better.
There is never a time in life in which the voice of the people is not heard; because the voice of the
people is the foundation of the economic structure of society. What the people wont buy wont be
made. What people do not want to pay that much for will become cheaper. And that which the
individual says Im tired of this stupid type of thing will bring an end to this type of stupidity. We can
have what we want, but in order to have it we must discipline ourselves. We must have the courage to
turn it off rather than consider it better than nothing. We have to constantly watch our own level of
censorship, and in place of these outside ways of forgetting ourselves. We must discover inside ways of
remembering ourselves correctly. We have to gradually become self-sustaining in the fact that we are
constantly searching for values that will support our integrities. If we make life a great adventure, we do
not need foolish adventures manufactured by people. If we recognize life as a magnificent experience
we dont have to worry about second rate drama. If we recognize that everything we need for a happy
internal is already available, but in order to use it we are going to have to stand against the common
practice of doing nothing.

It is perfectly possible for a person to have a good entertainment pattern, a good reading pattern and a
good working pattern, and it is also possible to gradually interpret the wisdom of the ages into the
common things we do. It is perfectly possible to recognize the family, the office, the friendship and the
nation as the levels of life within a system of discipline; that perhaps it is in this common way that the
disciplines of the ancient mysteries have come down to us. Those were given in old times, including
physical dangers in the grottos and cabins under the great temples. Today these disciplines are being
given to us in the marketplace. They are being given to us in the office, in the home, in all the
institutions that we sustain, in the policies by which nations are dominated. These things are disciplines
of one kind or another. And the great discipline is the individual who can remain true to his principles
while these things are happening and will find ways of having a full and rich life without compromising
principles to waste time.
It is therefore very easy for persons who have interest, who secretly or at least quietly believe in the
larger and more important values of living to gradually change their focus, to turn on what they know is
good, turn off what they know is not good and also to stop complaining, recognizing that regardless of
whether theyre watching something or not watching, their own inner life is a full and magnificent
experience for them. There is the great romance! There is the eternal love story: the love of the human
soul for God. These things, however, can be temporalized. They can be brought down to the common
facts of living, so that in every way life is not just simply a burden or a routine. It is a drama. It is a
romance. It is a series of wonderful happenings which are wonderful if we understand them and
miserable if we dont. And also that out of every misery can come a greater strength and a greater
courage to meet the future with a good hope. If we get these thoughts more than firmly fixed in mind
we will not be destitute for entertainment, if we are no longer inclined to watch murder rape and
mayhem. We do not need to be constantly reminded of the weaknesses of human nature in order to
grow. If we want to understand weaknesses, weve got our own. We can create a situation just as
traumatically negative as what were watching. Were full of faults, making mistakes every five minutes.
But at the same time, our mistake story had a happy ending, whereas most of those which were
presented to us end only in further misery.
So if we want to really have a great history we can study our own inner lives. If we want a great theatre
we can be both the audience and the cast. If we want any of the inner understandings which make for
philosophy, mysticism and so forth theyre all available inside of ourselves. The only thing we have got
to do is bring it out and we bring it out by dedication, gaining strength in the inner life just as the athlete
gains it by daily discipline. By the proper mental emotional disciplines we can become healthy
individuals in terms of our minds our emotions our hearts and our jobs. These are the things weve got
to work for and if it means that we must do it we can with one quick twist to the wrist get rid of most of
the corruptions of society and face the fact that these are imaginary corruptions; weve got plenty of
real ones, we dont have to build them up that way. What weve got to do is find out what corruptions
are still lurking in us and correct them and as soon as we correct the mistakes in ourselves we begin to
see better values in other people because we see in others usually what we are ourselves focused upon.
So dont let the great big bad tube get you. Be very careful about it and when uncertain, turn it off. You
will find that if as you turn it off to do something interesting, beautiful or wonderful you will never miss

it again. You cannot turn it off successfully, however, until there is something you want to be or
something you want to do right then and there that is more important than the tube. If you think it out
that way I think it will work out all right in the end.