This interesting paper, elegant in its forceful simplicity of thought, was left unfinished mid-sentence. It is among the papers at Edinburgh University. So far as I am aware, it has never been published – but if anyone finds it, please let me know.

File 651d

11 October 1940

III

After hearing these two lectures on self-observation, people often say something of this kind “Why should I observe myself – is it necessary?” Or they say – “What is the object of all this teaching, and where does it lead to?” Or “Why is it not more generally known that self-observation is necessary?”

All these questions and many other similar ones now require to be answered. And for this reason, it is necessary to speak of man and his possibilities – that is, of the position of man being on this planet and of the state of man as he is.

From the point of view of this system of teaching that we are studying, the position of man on this planet is bad. As we shall see later, man on this planet is nearly in the worst position he can be in.

Everyone knows quite well that he is not in good circumstances and that human life is not what he feels it should be. But as a rule people think that if only something or other would change, if only people could agree and so on, life would be different.

As we shall see later on, when we begin to speak of the cosmological side of the teaching, the planet is under many inexorable laws which cannot be altered. At present it is sufficient to say that, from the merely scientific point of view, the planet is a minute part of the solar system and our solar system is a minute part of the Milky Way, which is composed of myriads of suns and solar systems, and that our Milky Way itself is only one of thousands of other and even greater galaxies, with their own myriads of suns and solar systems. In other words, we occupy on this planet a position that is infinite terminal in view of the total immense city of the universe. And in comparison to the physical size of the physical universe the existence or nonexistence of our planet is without any significance.

Man inhabits the surface of our Earth. He, with the rest of life, forms a thin film over this planet – and nothing more. This living film, and the earth itself, is of no importance in view of the gigantic systems of suns that constitute the physical universe. And from this point of view, namely the point of view of enormous magnitudes that physical science has brought home to everyone today, man is negligible. And this attitude, combined with other findings of modern science, has diminished the sense of value in human life, and particularly the doctrine of a dying universe.

All these ideas and many other correlated ideas have influenced man negatively and increased his belief in purposelessness and meaninglessness. This has had a definite psychological effect on man – one that perhaps is not yet properly understood. And it is perfectly right to say that if the universe is meaningless and nothing but a gigantic machine, why then should anyone take the trouble to observe himself or attempt to alter himself?

But if we take the trouble to examine the different forms of literature that have been preserved to us from the past, it will become obvious to him that there is a certain class of writings which have to do with man and his possible destiny. These writings, sometimes taking form of what is called religious teachings, are concerned with a possible development or evolution of man. The point of view taken by this special class of writings is that every man is in some way in an undeveloped state, which can be altered, provided that he realises it and finds the methods and ideas necessary for him to change and evolve.

These teachings, though they reach us in the most fragmentary and contradictory forms, are beyond any possibility of argument, about one thing – namely, man on this planet is capable of undergoing some change, some inner transformation and that is the real secret of his existence. That is, they all take the point of view that life is not explicable in terms of itself, but in terms of something which, while admittedly very difficult to understand, is additional to life.

This class of writings, however vague and incomplete, do point in the same direction. Life on this planet does not explain a man’s existence. And this means that life is not explicable in terms of itself, but only through something else. And while many people begin to feel this, or have always felt it, for the majority there is nothing clear enough in their minds, nothing sufficiently definite—sufficiently understood, and sufficiently practised, to make them begin to follow their inner sense and feeling about their own existence. Life is always very strong and even though a

[the text ends there, mid-sentence]