gistfile1.txt

[00:00.000 --> 00:05.440]  And if you beat up somebody enough, it does stop up his or her love springs.
[00:05.440 --> 00:08.240]  They become a being who is incapable of love.
[00:08.240 --> 00:14.000]  I wrote a sonnet once,
[00:14.000 --> 00:32.200]  The man, when all is said, what fallen man calls sin is but another name for love locked in.
[00:34.960 --> 00:41.480]  Here speaks the nature of the damage done that man knew not how it and he are one.
[00:41.480 --> 00:51.080]  Thus outlawed from the secret of the earth, entrusted in his being at his birth,
[00:51.080 --> 01:01.880]  His sin a code, its key a turn of fate, man struck, struck man, ere woman let him mate.
[01:01.880 --> 01:11.460]  But codes made up by man, by man are broken, and names will man to man deny the call.
[01:11.460 --> 01:14.640]  And something, something lost it there.
[01:16.520 --> 01:17.500]  Something token.
[01:21.380 --> 01:24.020]  And the last of the sestet,
[01:24.320 --> 01:25.920]  I'm sorry, I missed it there.
[01:26.480 --> 01:27.460]  I didn't prepare it,
[01:27.700 --> 01:31.080]  and I haven't recited it for many years.
[01:34.140 --> 01:38.500]  And the last line is,
[01:38.500 --> 01:40.820]  and open secrets are not secrets lost.
[01:40.820 --> 01:42.300]  I'm sorry, I will get it back.
[01:43.840 --> 01:45.960]  It's just that I didn't practice it beforehand.
[01:49.620 --> 01:55.480]  But the first two lines are the important ones here.
[01:56.020 --> 02:03.240]  When all is said, what fallen man called sin is but another name for love locked in.
[02:03.240 --> 02:06.140]  and
[02:06.140 --> 02:10.200]  there it is
[02:10.200 --> 02:11.640]  it's just what the whole thing I've just said
[02:11.640 --> 02:14.680]  and of course I didn't come to this
[02:14.680 --> 02:16.920]  this whole conscious realization
[02:16.920 --> 02:18.980]  of all this about it
[02:18.980 --> 02:20.360]  when I wrote that sonnet
[02:20.360 --> 02:20.680]  because
[02:20.680 --> 02:23.640]  when you write poetry
[02:23.640 --> 02:25.340]  or perform any art
[02:25.340 --> 02:26.560]  the Tathagata
[02:26.560 --> 02:28.780]  it is not you speaking
[02:28.780 --> 02:29.720]  it is the Tathagata
[02:29.720 --> 02:30.480]  it is not human
[02:30.480 --> 02:33.780]  who is using you to speak through you
[02:33.780 --> 02:36.220]  and in the days when you write it
[02:36.220 --> 02:38.040]  you may not understand it.
[02:38.960 --> 02:40.800]  I mean, I sort of understood this.
[02:41.420 --> 02:43.620]  It was a very beautiful sonnet
[02:43.620 --> 02:45.560]  and it had a tremendous effect, especially on men.
[02:47.000 --> 02:51.000]  And Ronnie thought it was the best sonnet I'd ever written
[02:51.000 --> 02:52.920]  and it was at the time.
[02:52.920 --> 03:07.080]  and I was applying it to myself then. I see now how it applies to my mother. This love locked in,
[03:07.080 --> 03:15.660]  this little girl crying, I'm no good, nobody wants me, nobody loves me in this big, great,
[03:15.660 --> 03:24.220]  big room and that's who she was and that that was her sin when all is said what fallen man calls sin
[03:24.860 --> 03:36.860]  is but another name for love locked in and it's not true she was without love a
[03:36.860 --> 03:46.740]  This woman pointed out, yes, she did show her love in the only way she could.
[03:50.640 --> 03:58.440]  She realized that she was oppressive to you all this year, through the year, except in the summer.
[04:00.000 --> 04:03.100]  And she fought with my father.
[04:04.140 --> 04:05.180]  It gets us a beach house.
[04:05.360 --> 04:06.320]  My father wouldn't have it.
[04:06.320 --> 04:08.400]  Yes, she fought and she fought and she won.
[04:09.480 --> 04:12.160]  And while we were there, she let us free.
[04:12.980 --> 04:20.120]  We roamed all day and only came back for meals
[04:20.120 --> 04:25.660]  and then ran out again and did all the most dangerous things.
[04:29.480 --> 04:33.600]  And we knew all these creeks and all the inlets and islands
[04:33.600 --> 04:35.200]  and we were in heaven.
[04:36.320 --> 04:38.760]  And she did that.
[04:38.760 --> 04:42.300]  That was the way she expressed her love.
[04:53.640 --> 04:54.160]  Yes?
[04:55.520 --> 04:56.640]  Have I finished on time?
[05:03.980 --> 05:05.300]  What are you giggling about?
[05:06.320 --> 05:07.720]  Oh, you're giving me about him, aren't you?
[05:36.320 --> 06:06.300]  Thank you.
[06:06.320 --> 06:36.300]  Thank you.
[06:36.320 --> 06:48.500]  Yes, I managed to reconstruct that sonnet.
[06:50.340 --> 06:52.220]  I hope I can read my own writing now.
[06:54.800 --> 06:57.680]  When all is said, what fallen man calls sin
[06:57.680 --> 07:00.940]  is but another name for love locked in.
[07:00.940 --> 07:01.400]  Sorry.
[07:02.000 --> 07:03.860]  When all is said, what fallen man calls sin
[07:03.860 --> 07:06.500]  is but another name for love locked in.
[07:07.580 --> 07:09.600]  Here speaks the nature of the damage done,
[07:10.040 --> 07:12.840]  that man knew not how it and he are one.
[07:14.080 --> 07:15.920]  Thus outlawed from the secret of the earth,
[07:16.360 --> 07:18.020]  entrusted in his being at his birth,
[07:18.700 --> 07:21.040]  his sin a code, its key a turn of fate,
[07:21.640 --> 07:23.300]  man struck, struck man,
[07:23.820 --> 07:25.280]  ere woman let him mate.
[07:26.820 --> 07:29.340]  But codes made up by man, by man are broken,
[07:29.980 --> 07:32.340]  and names will man, to man deny the call,
[07:32.340 --> 07:36.680]  and secrets must from man to man be crossed
[07:36.680 --> 07:41.480]  and codes undone are not without their token
[07:41.480 --> 07:44.820]  and names denied are not denied to all
[07:44.820 --> 07:48.700]  and open secrets are not secrets lost.
[07:57.600 --> 07:59.500]  You'll be breaking the law if you didn't.
[08:02.340 --> 08:03.940]  Unless I gave permission.
[08:04.920 --> 08:05.560]  But I would.
[08:07.020 --> 08:08.720]  Provided you didn't publish it.
[08:09.760 --> 08:10.080]  Okay?
[08:12.140 --> 08:15.300]  Or copy it and distribute it for profit.
[08:26.000 --> 08:28.280]  But I have some even more beautiful poems.
[08:28.280 --> 08:32.220]  You know, about 400 of them unpublished.
[08:32.340 --> 08:34.000]  All my best poems are unpublished.
[08:35.660 --> 08:38.640]  And it is, of course, impossible to translate poetry.
[08:38.900 --> 08:41.280]  It's very difficult to translate the tales
[08:41.280 --> 08:47.940]  because the symbolism is so exact.
[08:48.600 --> 08:49.960]  But, of course, with poems,
[08:50.200 --> 08:53.940]  the only way to translate a poem is either completely literally
[08:53.940 --> 08:58.560]  and you don't get all the scansion and the rhyme and everything.
[08:58.560 --> 09:02.920]  and so you don't have the effect of magic
[09:02.920 --> 09:06.320]  because it is perfectly magic
[09:06.320 --> 09:09.000]  that writing can be put into this pattern
[09:09.000 --> 09:13.400]  and yet every word is the exact word that is correct
[09:13.400 --> 09:18.140]  and one of the so-called modern poets
[09:18.140 --> 09:24.540]  who writes without rhyme or scantion
[09:24.540 --> 09:26.480]  or rhythm of any kind
[09:26.480 --> 09:32.060]  one of my recitals many years ago
[09:32.060 --> 09:32.540]  said
[09:32.540 --> 09:36.080]  well why don't you
[09:36.080 --> 09:38.460]  why don't you get rid of
[09:38.460 --> 09:40.100]  rhyme and rhythm and so on
[09:40.100 --> 09:42.360]  and use the exact, the correct word
[09:42.360 --> 09:45.160]  and I said to him
[09:45.160 --> 09:47.700]  I challenge you or anyone else
[09:47.700 --> 09:51.300]  to take any
[09:51.300 --> 09:53.540]  of my poems
[09:53.540 --> 09:55.040]  published or unpublished
[09:55.040 --> 10:04.100]  and find a word which you could substitute a more exact word for.
[10:05.360 --> 10:07.580]  And the challenge was never met.
[10:08.960 --> 10:09.400]  What?
[10:13.480 --> 10:16.680]  Yes, you know, you don't have to rhyme.
[10:16.960 --> 10:19.600]  If you think that because I've had to rhyme,
[10:20.360 --> 10:23.620]  therefore, you know, I've chosen the wrong word,
[10:23.720 --> 10:24.620]  there's a better word.
[10:24.620 --> 10:26.700]  you can put a better word in that doesn't rhyme
[10:26.700 --> 10:28.740]  and they can't
[10:28.740 --> 10:33.100]  I mean except bad poets
[10:33.100 --> 10:36.460]  dear old Wordsworth
[10:36.460 --> 10:39.400]  another ram
[10:39.400 --> 10:42.680]  born with son in Aries
[10:42.680 --> 10:43.380]  he's
[10:43.380 --> 10:46.740]  lets down the side
[10:46.740 --> 10:50.040]  as someone once said of him
[10:50.040 --> 10:51.920]  he's not a ram, he's an old sheep
[10:51.920 --> 10:57.000]  and the poem that children always have to learn at school
[10:57.000 --> 11:04.520]  is one of the worst examples of poetry that anybody's ever seen.
[11:05.440 --> 11:06.640]  But it's always the case.
[11:06.980 --> 11:10.160]  I had to learn a Mozart sonata at school.
[11:11.320 --> 11:16.940]  And the associated board of the Royal College of Music
[11:16.940 --> 11:21.200]  and the Royal Academy of Music in London
[11:21.200 --> 11:31.200]  They publish these things which are a sonatas of the great composers or other pieces which are considered suitable for teaching.
[11:31.200 --> 11:39.200]  And they always choose the worst of those boring examples for use in teaching.
[11:39.200 --> 11:45.200]  The idea being of course that if it's boring and painful it must be good for you
[11:45.200 --> 11:48.900]  and that actually learning shouldn't be a pleasant experience.
[11:49.320 --> 11:51.680]  If it's pleasant, it can't be doing any good.
[11:52.780 --> 11:53.580]  It's like food.
[11:53.800 --> 11:55.580]  I mean, if you don't like it, it's good for you.
[11:56.180 --> 11:59.100]  And if you like it, it must be bad for you.
[11:59.740 --> 12:03.480]  Whereas, of course, the body knows what is good and bad for it
[12:03.480 --> 12:05.480]  because what is good for it is pleasant
[12:05.480 --> 12:06.940]  and what is bad for it is painful.
[12:07.860 --> 12:09.760]  And we reverse that, you see.
[12:10.360 --> 12:11.840]  Oh, it doesn't hurt.
[12:12.000 --> 12:13.380]  It's not doing any good.
[12:13.380 --> 12:19.480]  and of course there are occasions when it does have to hurt a bit
[12:19.480 --> 12:25.400]  because one of the quickest ways of getting rid of all the rubbish
[12:25.400 --> 12:28.800]  that's accumulated which prevents you seeing anything
[12:28.800 --> 12:33.400]  is by being rude and you can imagine I've been very rude
[12:33.400 --> 12:36.380]  and it may be a bit painful
[12:36.380 --> 12:40.360]  but you realise you're never rude to somebody you don't like
[12:40.360 --> 12:43.760]  it's not being
[12:43.760 --> 12:45.660]  rude maliciously, it's being rude
[12:45.660 --> 12:47.640]  for a purpose and this is recognised
[12:47.640 --> 12:50.020]  at least by the awareness although the conscious
[12:50.020 --> 12:51.760]  side of you might get very
[12:51.760 --> 12:53.100]  upset about it
[12:53.100 --> 12:54.440]  and
[12:54.440 --> 12:59.460]  so this
[12:59.460 --> 13:01.460]  dreadful poem by Wordsworth
[13:01.460 --> 13:03.460]  which everybody has to learn at school
[13:03.460 --> 13:05.240]  and it's the only poem that anybody can think of
[13:05.240 --> 13:06.440]  if asked to recite poetry
[13:06.440 --> 13:09.560]  I wandered lonely
[13:09.560 --> 13:10.980]  as a cloud
[13:10.980 --> 13:15.540]  oh god I've parodied it
[13:15.540 --> 13:17.020]  so I can't remember the actual verse
[13:17.020 --> 13:19.300]  I wondered lonely as a cloud
[13:19.300 --> 13:21.180]  or
[13:21.180 --> 13:23.560]  or hills
[13:23.560 --> 13:24.280]  and vales
[13:24.280 --> 13:26.440]  something something
[13:26.440 --> 13:29.320]  when all at once I saw a crowd
[13:29.320 --> 13:31.140]  oh yeah
[13:31.140 --> 13:33.100]  I wondered lonely as a cloud
[13:33.100 --> 13:35.620]  something
[13:35.620 --> 13:37.460]  something or vales and hills
[13:37.460 --> 13:44.780]  when all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils.
[13:48.400 --> 13:52.460]  Now, let us start to criticize this poem.
[13:53.520 --> 13:56.320]  I wandered lonely as a cloud.
[13:56.480 --> 13:58.700]  Who knows that clouds are lonely?
[14:02.000 --> 14:05.480]  The poet is already not speaking from experience.
[14:05.700 --> 14:07.100]  He is making it up.
[14:07.460 --> 14:12.680]  are something something well hills and
[14:12.680 --> 14:14.600]  veils is a cliche and he turns them
[14:14.600 --> 14:16.500]  round so it doesn't look so bad he says
[14:16.500 --> 14:19.560]  veils and hills I can't remember the
[14:19.560 --> 14:20.920]  rest of the line or something something
[14:20.920 --> 14:23.840]  veils and hills would wander over veils
[14:23.840 --> 14:26.240]  and hills something like that when all at
[14:26.240 --> 14:29.440]  once I saw a crowd now a crowd in
[14:29.440 --> 14:33.440]  English means a great crush of people
[14:33.440 --> 14:36.400]  you know the crowds in Madison Avenue or
[14:36.400 --> 14:38.380]  Trafalgar Square or whatever you have
[14:38.380 --> 14:39.380]  in Berlin or whatever.
[14:40.640 --> 14:44.220]  And so you think,
[14:44.360 --> 14:45.100]  you know, ah,
[14:46.220 --> 14:46.940]  a crowd,
[14:48.160 --> 14:49.960]  oh, he's going to talk about some sort of
[14:49.960 --> 14:52.380]  throng of people,
[14:52.480 --> 14:53.880]  a multitude of people, you see.
[14:54.280 --> 14:56.060]  And he realizes it's the wrong word,
[14:56.180 --> 14:57.960]  but he's used it because he wants a rhyme
[14:57.960 --> 14:58.680]  for cloud.
[15:00.800 --> 15:01.940]  And he's used crowd,
[15:02.040 --> 15:03.220]  which is not the right word,
[15:04.700 --> 15:06.120]  just for the sake
[15:06.120 --> 15:08.180]  of getting a rhyme. Well, this is unforgivable.
[15:11.200 --> 15:12.280]  The poor man
[15:12.280 --> 15:14.240]  has no access to magic. He is making
[15:14.240 --> 15:16.300]  it up. And when you make up
[15:16.300 --> 15:17.460]  poetry, it's atrocious.
[15:18.520 --> 15:20.200]  Before I became
[15:20.200 --> 15:21.900]  a poet, before I discovered
[15:21.900 --> 15:24.180]  how it was done, I used to
[15:24.180 --> 15:25.920]  think, well, I can do everything else.
[15:26.000 --> 15:26.920]  I'm so bloody clever.
[15:28.100 --> 15:29.680]  Why can't I write poems?
[15:29.960 --> 15:32.140]  And I used to write the whole
[15:32.140 --> 15:34.080]  way round, consciously make up
[15:34.080 --> 15:36.060]  a sonnet about love
[15:36.060 --> 15:37.940]  and it was always, you can imagine how
[15:37.940 --> 15:40.340]  extremely embarrassingly bad
[15:40.340 --> 15:41.100]  it used to be
[15:41.100 --> 15:42.920]  and
[15:42.920 --> 15:45.580]  so
[15:45.580 --> 15:50.220]  what has he done? He's used the wrong
[15:50.220 --> 15:51.420]  word for the sake of a rhyme
[15:51.420 --> 15:54.140]  he's got to cloud and now he has to
[15:54.140 --> 15:55.800]  rhyme with cloud and all he can think of is
[15:55.800 --> 15:58.120]  crowd and it's not the right word, which we'll see
[15:58.120 --> 16:00.400]  in a minute, and he realises it's the wrong word
[16:00.400 --> 16:02.020]  so he then uses another word
[16:02.020 --> 16:04.260]  you know, to sort of attempt to correct
[16:04.260 --> 16:05.960]  himself, a host
[16:05.960 --> 16:08.320]  Ah, now, not a crowd, it's a host.
[16:08.540 --> 16:11.500]  And when we talk of a host, we mean the heavenly hosts.
[16:12.620 --> 16:16.980]  A host is an army, the heavenly army, the hosts of angels and so on.
[16:17.100 --> 16:18.720]  So we think of an army of angels.
[16:19.520 --> 16:23.120]  A crowd, oh well, he's got it wrong, so he's corrected himself,
[16:23.220 --> 16:24.980]  he's over-corrected himself with a host.
[16:28.700 --> 16:32.960]  And then suddenly, of golden daffodils,
[16:32.960 --> 16:37.900]  Daffodils, a daffodil, you know, is one of these yellow things that comes up with stalks.
[16:37.900 --> 16:45.320]  And of the variety of, it's a wild variety of orchid.
[16:45.860 --> 16:49.900]  And they come up in the spring, you know, in March.
[16:53.120 --> 16:57.900]  And the daffodils, it's quite wrong, you see.
[16:57.900 --> 17:00.380]  a sea of daffodils
[17:00.380 --> 17:01.440]  you know
[17:01.440 --> 17:04.280]  not a crowd
[17:04.280 --> 17:06.640]  you never say oh I saw a crowd of daffodils
[17:06.640 --> 17:07.660]  a crowd of daffodils
[17:07.660 --> 17:08.580]  you can't say that
[17:08.580 --> 17:11.660]  I saw a crowd of people not a crowd of daffodils
[17:11.660 --> 17:15.980]  oh I saw a host of daffodils
[17:15.980 --> 17:17.360]  you can't have that
[17:17.360 --> 17:18.960]  a host of daffodils
[17:18.960 --> 17:20.580]  an army of daffodils
[17:20.580 --> 17:21.560]  and
[17:21.560 --> 17:26.320]  this is what happens
[17:26.320 --> 17:30.120]  if you don't do it by magic.
[17:33.160 --> 17:33.480]  A
[17:33.480 --> 17:36.220]  Levator,
[17:37.660 --> 17:39.180]  I don't know what
[17:39.180 --> 17:42.740]  a nationality he was,
[17:42.820 --> 17:44.880]  about the 16th century, 17th,
[17:45.520 --> 17:46.860]  he may have been German,
[17:48.000 --> 17:50.380]  he wrote a book of aphorisms.
[17:50.380 --> 17:52.580]  I don't know whether they were in English
[17:52.580 --> 17:54.620]  or translated from some other language.
[17:55.480 --> 17:56.040]  And he said,
[17:56.320 --> 18:02.960]  The poet who composes not before the moment of inspiration,
[18:04.260 --> 18:07.200]  and as that leaves him, ceases,
[18:09.380 --> 18:15.720]  composes, and he alone, for all men, all classes, all ages.
[18:17.820 --> 18:18.920]  He knew what it was.
[18:20.140 --> 18:24.600]  And before you know this, you cannot write poetry.
[18:25.220 --> 18:26.120]  But you can write it.
[18:26.320 --> 18:28.820]  But it isn't poetry.
[18:28.820 --> 18:30.080]  I could write funny verse.
[18:34.400 --> 18:35.940]  You can write verse.
[18:35.940 --> 18:37.320]  You can write very clever verse.
[18:37.320 --> 18:38.360]  It still won't be poetry.
[18:41.000 --> 18:44.940]  And the difference between a work of art, a poem,
[18:44.940 --> 18:52.040]  or a piece of music or whatever that is inspired, is divine,
[18:52.040 --> 18:54.680]  is I don't mean God inspired.
[18:54.680 --> 18:55.360]  I mean divine.
[18:55.360 --> 19:06.760]  you dug deep for it, you've divined it, you've gone to the sea of awareness. You've gone
[19:06.760 --> 19:17.080]  to the sea of awareness, the ocean of all knowledge. And the form in which you write
[19:17.080 --> 19:20.060]  the poem, is the shape of the vessel
[19:20.060 --> 19:25.900]  into which you have dipped into this sea
[19:25.900 --> 19:30.480]  and you brought up a piece of the awareness from the sea,
[19:30.660 --> 19:32.980]  the truth from the sea, which is in the form,
[19:33.120 --> 19:35.520]  in the shape of the vessel that you dipped in.
[19:37.160 --> 19:40.120]  And so, provided you don't,
[19:41.380 --> 19:44.200]  the piece of awareness you've got out
[19:44.200 --> 19:48.360]  is not interfered with,
[19:49.260 --> 19:51.360]  it doesn't matter what the shape of the thing is
[19:51.360 --> 19:52.920]  that you've dipped in to get it,
[19:53.820 --> 19:55.920]  the awareness will be perfect
[19:55.920 --> 19:59.320]  and the result will be perfect.
[19:59.760 --> 20:01.560]  There won't be anything that can be changed
[20:01.560 --> 20:03.500]  for the better.
[20:04.840 --> 20:08.340]  And so you have nothing to worry about.
[20:08.340 --> 20:11.680]  Blake
[20:11.680 --> 20:16.880]  sometimes
[20:16.880 --> 20:19.900]  revised his poems
[20:19.900 --> 20:23.740]  when consciousness takes over
[20:23.740 --> 20:29.860]  then the result is almost ruinous
[20:29.860 --> 20:33.300]  Blake
[20:33.300 --> 20:36.800]  originally wrote
[20:36.800 --> 20:41.180]  I asked a thief to steal me a peach
[20:41.180 --> 20:44.700]  he turned up his eyes
[20:44.700 --> 20:48.240]  I asked a lithe lady
[20:48.240 --> 20:50.180]  to lie her down
[20:50.180 --> 20:53.560]  holy and meek
[20:53.560 --> 20:55.380]  she cries
[20:55.380 --> 20:59.340]  as soon as I went
[20:59.340 --> 21:01.400]  an angel came
[21:01.400 --> 21:04.300]  he winked at the thief
[21:04.300 --> 21:06.240]  and smiled at the dame
[21:06.240 --> 21:09.320]  and without one word spoke
[21:09.320 --> 21:10.860]  had a peach from the tree
[21:10.860 --> 21:13.340]  and, twixt earnest and joke,
[21:13.820 --> 21:14.680]  enjoyed the lady.
[21:20.380 --> 21:21.940]  Now that poem is perfect.
[21:23.600 --> 21:24.540]  It's beautiful.
[21:31.460 --> 21:33.000]  Do I need to explain it?
[21:34.620 --> 21:35.860]  I don't think so.
[21:35.860 --> 21:37.400]  I mean, it's so obvious, isn't it?
[21:39.740 --> 21:45.400]  You cannot ask somebody who is committing an illegal act directly to do it.
[21:46.040 --> 21:47.760]  You have to ask in some code.
[21:48.200 --> 21:48.580]  You wink.
[21:56.920 --> 22:03.640]  And if you ask the dame to do something which she's been forbidden to do,
[22:03.640 --> 22:06.440]  then she can't say yes
[22:06.440 --> 22:08.920]  so you have to code it again
[22:08.920 --> 22:09.460]  you smile
[22:09.460 --> 22:13.340]  and the angel knows this
[22:13.340 --> 22:14.620]  you see and does it
[22:14.620 --> 22:17.200]  whereas he had done the wrong thing
[22:17.200 --> 22:19.340]  and not got it
[22:19.340 --> 22:21.280]  and then he
[22:21.280 --> 22:22.220]  revised this poem
[22:22.220 --> 22:24.400]  he tried to improve it
[22:24.400 --> 22:26.360]  of course there's no way it can be improved
[22:26.360 --> 22:29.120]  and
[22:29.120 --> 22:31.540]  he improved it as follows
[22:31.540 --> 22:32.720]  I ask it a thief
[22:32.720 --> 22:34.140]  to steal me a peach.
[22:35.220 --> 22:36.160]  Holy and meek.
[22:38.020 --> 22:38.880]  Oh, what am I talking about?
[22:38.980 --> 22:39.780]  I'm going the wrong way around.
[22:40.180 --> 22:41.720]  I asked the thief to steal me.
[22:41.820 --> 22:42.440]  He turned up.
[22:42.440 --> 22:46.000]  I asked
[22:46.000 --> 22:47.560]  a wise lady
[22:47.560 --> 22:49.600]  to lie her down.
[22:51.500 --> 22:52.660]  Holy and meek,
[22:52.900 --> 22:53.580]  she cries.
[22:54.980 --> 22:56.300]  I have seen an editor
[22:56.300 --> 22:58.000]  who has
[22:58.000 --> 23:00.280]  re-transcribed this poem
[23:00.280 --> 23:01.560]  with
[23:01.560 --> 23:05.320]  holy and meek, in inverted commas, she cries.
[23:07.240 --> 23:10.360]  Well, if you say to a lady,
[23:11.680 --> 23:13.780]  come to bed, the last thing she's going to say,
[23:13.780 --> 23:16.400]  holy and meek. She's not going to say that.
[23:18.660 --> 23:21.760]  She is holy
[23:21.760 --> 23:23.600]  and meek. And she
[23:23.600 --> 23:27.480]  cries. She weeps.
[23:27.480 --> 23:33.060]  and now let's see how he improved it.
[23:33.460 --> 23:34.680]  Improved, inverted commas.
[23:39.620 --> 23:41.520]  As soon as I left,
[23:43.380 --> 23:45.480]  as soon as I went, an angel came.
[23:50.660 --> 23:52.580]  He winked at the thief and smiled at the dame.
[23:52.680 --> 23:53.580]  So far it's all the same.
[23:54.060 --> 23:55.740]  He winked at the thief and smiled at the dame.
[23:57.480 --> 24:15.320]  And without one word said, said, pronounced said, S-A-I-D, without one word said, had a peach from the tree and still as a maid enjoyed the lady.
[24:15.320 --> 24:20.480]  now there's very little changed
[24:20.480 --> 24:26.040]  remember the first time he said
[24:26.040 --> 24:28.380]  without one word spoke
[24:28.380 --> 24:31.740]  had a beat from the tree and
[24:31.740 --> 24:33.580]  twixt earnest and joke enjoyed the lady
[24:33.580 --> 24:38.420]  now he's tried to improve this but it's not the magic
[24:38.420 --> 24:41.020]  now it is the conscious wrecker
[24:41.020 --> 24:44.500]  that is here fortunately he left
[24:44.500 --> 24:48.060]  his first draft, editors were sensibly published
[24:48.060 --> 24:50.580]  but the other one was published too
[24:50.580 --> 24:52.000]  and
[24:52.000 --> 24:59.280]  I'm sorry this is rather difficult
[24:59.280 --> 25:01.720]  because it's English poetry and it's
[25:01.720 --> 25:03.660]  very subtle the difference in English but
[25:03.660 --> 25:07.020]  said well it's just a rhyme with now what he
[25:07.020 --> 25:09.800]  wants to put and still as a maid
[25:09.800 --> 25:13.380]  enjoy the lady, now still as a maid
[25:13.380 --> 25:19.060]  what he consciously desired to do
[25:19.060 --> 25:21.600]  was to get more into it
[25:21.600 --> 25:25.780]  still as a maid
[25:25.780 --> 25:27.320]  a maid is a maiden
[25:27.320 --> 25:27.920]  you see
[25:27.920 --> 25:29.860]  Virgo intact her
[25:29.860 --> 25:33.480]  and he wanted to show
[25:33.480 --> 25:35.520]  how magic the angel was
[25:35.520 --> 25:37.160]  because the angel was magic
[25:37.160 --> 25:38.260]  and so could have
[25:38.260 --> 25:40.300]  have the lady
[25:40.300 --> 25:42.320]  and she'd still be a maiden
[25:42.320 --> 25:43.280]  after he'd had her
[25:43.280 --> 25:46.700]  so the angel is magic and that goes in there
[25:46.700 --> 25:49.000]  but still as a maid
[25:49.000 --> 25:51.200]  has another meaning
[25:51.200 --> 25:55.520]  that the maid is still, she doesn't move
[25:55.520 --> 25:59.980]  and there's a very interesting passage
[25:59.980 --> 26:02.200]  in Lord Chesterfield's
[26:02.200 --> 26:04.780]  Letters to His Son which is a great long book
[26:04.780 --> 26:07.220]  where he advises his son how to
[26:07.220 --> 26:10.820]  everything about the world and how to cope with it
[26:10.820 --> 26:15.920]  and one of the questions in one of his letters is
[26:15.920 --> 26:28.340]  how do you tell if you're in bed with a lady or a slut?
[26:30.840 --> 26:34.240]  Answer, ladies don't move.
[26:34.240 --> 26:39.940]  it was considered
[26:39.940 --> 26:42.660]  that
[26:42.660 --> 26:45.840]  only the man enjoyed sex
[26:45.840 --> 26:48.340]  and the woman endured it
[26:48.340 --> 26:52.340]  and therefore she mustn't show she's enjoying it
[26:52.340 --> 26:53.340]  by moving about
[26:53.340 --> 26:55.940]  and
[26:55.940 --> 26:59.740]  facilitating the proceedings
[26:59.740 --> 27:02.440]  she's got to cry absolutely still and think of England
[27:02.440 --> 27:06.020]  which was the way in fact
[27:06.020 --> 27:09.920]  that I mean these poor girls were brought up to be Fridians
[27:09.920 --> 27:15.040]  and the advice you know the mother used to give to the daughter
[27:15.040 --> 27:17.980]  you see when you get married you won't like it
[27:17.980 --> 27:21.580]  but you have to do it
[27:21.580 --> 27:25.360]  and the best you can do is just lie still and think of England
[27:25.360 --> 27:30.100]  and you know that's the joke
[27:30.100 --> 27:33.440]  so Blake was
[27:33.440 --> 27:37.520]  producing all this you see
[27:37.520 --> 27:38.780]  and trying to get it in
[27:38.780 --> 27:41.560]  that the angel was magic
[27:41.560 --> 27:43.480]  you see so the virgin
[27:43.480 --> 27:45.200]  was still a virgin after it had her
[27:45.200 --> 27:47.200]  and
[27:47.200 --> 27:49.260]  furthermore you see that
[27:49.260 --> 27:50.740]  because she was a virgin
[27:50.740 --> 27:53.780]  she lay absolutely still
[27:53.780 --> 27:56.980]  because this was the tradition
[27:56.980 --> 27:59.020]  that
[27:59.020 --> 28:01.700]  the women don't like it
[28:01.700 --> 28:04.560]  and if they moved
[28:04.560 --> 28:06.960]  they betrayed themselves
[28:06.960 --> 28:08.360]  to somebody who did like it
[28:08.360 --> 28:09.720]  and therefore was a slut
[28:09.720 --> 28:10.460]  or a prostitute
[28:10.460 --> 28:10.820]  or whatever
[28:10.820 --> 28:12.000]  you know all the bad words
[28:12.000 --> 28:13.240]  a tramp
[28:13.240 --> 28:14.220]  and
[28:14.220 --> 28:16.980]  so Blake had got all this in
[28:16.980 --> 28:19.220]  very cleverly
[28:19.220 --> 28:20.640]  very clever
[28:20.640 --> 28:21.160]  you know
[28:21.160 --> 28:22.280]  he's got all this in
[28:22.280 --> 28:23.420]  to those three little words
[28:23.420 --> 28:25.060]  and still as a maid
[28:25.060 --> 28:26.700]  three little words
[28:26.700 --> 28:27.380]  four little words
[28:27.380 --> 28:31.320]  and still as a maid
[28:31.320 --> 28:32.540]  four I miscounted
[28:32.540 --> 28:35.200]  and so
[28:35.200 --> 28:40.560]  but what has happened to the poem?
[28:41.100 --> 28:43.120]  it's ruined, completely ruined
[28:43.120 --> 28:46.580]  because you can always tell where consciousness has taken over
[28:46.580 --> 28:49.520]  it's always contrived
[28:49.520 --> 28:53.040]  it's always ridiculous
[28:53.040 --> 28:56.480]  the first one was not contrived
[28:56.480 --> 28:58.260]  it was the Tathagata
[28:58.260 --> 29:01.160]  it was
[29:01.160 --> 29:05.960]  the non-human intelligence speaking
[29:05.960 --> 29:08.380]  which cannot make a mistake
[29:08.380 --> 29:11.540]  and then Blake
[29:11.540 --> 29:14.420]  corrected it, improved it
[29:14.420 --> 29:18.220]  with the human consciousness
[29:18.220 --> 29:20.180]  thereby ruining it, fortunately
[29:20.180 --> 29:23.580]  left his first draft and so that's the one that we
[29:23.580 --> 29:24.400]  recite
[29:24.400 --> 29:26.520]  and
[29:26.520 --> 29:31.380]  I remember
[29:31.380 --> 29:34.380]  when I was a don at Oxford
[29:34.380 --> 29:36.640]  a professor
[29:36.640 --> 29:39.340]  I mean it wasn't officially a professor
[29:39.340 --> 29:40.620]  we called them dons
[29:40.620 --> 29:41.820]  fellows
[29:41.820 --> 29:43.720]  and
[29:43.720 --> 29:47.080]  a
[29:47.080 --> 29:51.240]  I decided that
[29:51.240 --> 29:54.500]  I thought I was so clever
[29:54.500 --> 29:55.700]  that
[29:55.700 --> 29:59.020]  I could do anything
[29:59.020 --> 30:01.320]  that anybody else could do.
[30:03.620 --> 30:05.980]  But I had found from experience,
[30:06.320 --> 30:07.040]  from trying,
[30:09.040 --> 30:10.340]  that I couldn't write poetry.
[30:13.160 --> 30:16.180]  Because I attempted to do it cleverly,
[30:16.700 --> 30:17.080]  consciously.
[30:17.080 --> 30:26.140]  and the other thing I thought I'd never be able to do is mathematics just wasn't
[30:26.140 --> 30:34.180]  good enough and always is in life the things you can't do the things you have
[30:34.180 --> 30:41.580]  to learn to do and for years and years and years I couldn't write poetry and
[30:41.580 --> 30:47.060]  because I thought you did it consciously, as in fact people still do.
[30:47.240 --> 30:52.020]  Academics still think that poetry is crafted, it is made up, it is thought out.
[30:52.180 --> 30:53.120]  It is never thought out.
[30:54.920 --> 30:58.300]  You do it, you're completely unconscious when you do it.
[30:59.220 --> 31:01.300]  And if you aren't, it's no good.
[31:01.300 --> 31:04.320]  I learned later that
[31:04.320 --> 31:09.480]  when in fact
[31:09.480 --> 31:12.000]  I started, it happened to me
[31:12.000 --> 31:15.900]  I learned, I didn't know what it was
[31:15.900 --> 31:16.760]  I didn't know what had happened
[31:16.760 --> 31:22.800]  and then I read Robert Graves who speaks of the poetic trance
[31:22.800 --> 31:27.420]  and then much later
[31:27.420 --> 31:30.700]  of course I learned that Star-Kill-Mooney always spoke in trance
[31:30.700 --> 31:38.420]  speaking from awareness, not from consciousness.
[31:39.860 --> 31:42.080]  And I wrote laws of form in trance.
[31:42.580 --> 31:44.580]  Although I wasn't enlightened, it makes no difference.
[31:44.700 --> 31:48.940]  The point is that when you speak from awareness,
[31:49.160 --> 31:51.080]  and you can do it whether you're enlightened or not,
[31:52.660 --> 31:55.080]  it is perfect.
[31:55.080 --> 31:57.100]  and
[31:57.100 --> 31:59.760]  a
[31:59.760 --> 32:05.040]  it doesn't matter whether the author
[32:05.040 --> 32:06.620]  is enlightened or not
[32:06.620 --> 32:10.180]  I think it does matter in some cases
[32:10.180 --> 32:13.080]  you have
[32:13.080 --> 32:15.160]  but it's very difficult to tell
[32:15.160 --> 32:18.880]  at the point where
[32:18.880 --> 32:22.660]  I was enlightened if there was any change to my poetry
[32:22.660 --> 32:24.560]  because the
[32:24.560 --> 32:27.340]  you're using the Buddha nature
[32:27.340 --> 32:29.820]  to write poetry whether you're enlightened or not
[32:29.820 --> 32:32.060]  and
[32:32.060 --> 32:34.880]  so
[32:34.880 --> 32:37.600]  it's the same nature
[32:37.600 --> 32:38.380]  it's coming from
[32:38.380 --> 32:41.500]  it's the same nothing it's coming from
[32:41.500 --> 32:43.560]  it's the
[32:43.560 --> 32:44.740]  consequence of nothing whatever
[32:44.740 --> 32:47.660]  and that is
[32:47.660 --> 32:48.800]  why it says nothing
[32:48.800 --> 32:51.720]  a
[32:51.720 --> 32:53.440]  you can think of
[32:53.440 --> 32:55.560]  of a great symphony
[32:55.560 --> 32:57.940]  or a great sonata, whatever.
[32:59.100 --> 33:00.460]  It says nothing, whatever.
[33:01.060 --> 33:01.900]  It picks you up,
[33:04.340 --> 33:06.920]  shows you the eternal truths
[33:06.920 --> 33:08.980]  and plants you back on your feet again
[33:08.980 --> 33:09.840]  wondering what's hit you.
[33:11.540 --> 33:13.000]  It hasn't said anything at all.
[33:13.040 --> 33:14.080]  It hasn't told you a thing.
[33:16.520 --> 33:18.840]  And it's the same
[33:18.840 --> 33:20.560]  with divine speech,
[33:21.120 --> 33:21.640]  with poetry.
[33:23.440 --> 33:27.180]  why it is so much more difficult
[33:27.180 --> 33:30.760]  to realize what's happening here
[33:30.760 --> 33:35.980]  is because we expect
[33:35.980 --> 33:38.500]  the poetry to say something.
[33:39.260 --> 33:40.640]  We expect, you know,
[33:40.720 --> 33:44.060]  we bring in all these things
[33:44.060 --> 33:45.080]  associated with speech,
[33:45.180 --> 33:46.680]  like opinion and belief.
[33:47.000 --> 33:48.140]  We think we have to believe
[33:48.140 --> 33:49.420]  or disbelieve it or something.
[33:49.840 --> 33:51.780]  That is why music is so instructive,
[33:52.000 --> 33:52.880]  because we don't think
[33:52.880 --> 33:55.840]  we have to believe the music or disbelieve it.
[33:56.580 --> 33:58.400]  And it's the same with poetry, any art.
[33:58.920 --> 34:01.520]  Belief, disbelief is completely irrelevant
[34:01.520 --> 34:05.620]  because nothing is being said.
[34:11.620 --> 34:13.620]  And the first...
[34:15.200 --> 34:22.340]  Well, I'd begun to write Lord of the Fall.
[34:22.880 --> 34:29.520]  And I had begun to realize that what I had to say had to be done mathematically.
[34:29.980 --> 34:35.020]  And so I apprenticed myself to J.C.P. Miller, a famous number theorist,
[34:35.640 --> 34:38.600]  without which I couldn't have, I think, would have been professional
[34:38.600 --> 34:42.280]  because you have to learn everything by apprenticeship.
[34:42.460 --> 34:45.560]  You have to apprentice yourself to somebody who can do it.
[34:47.060 --> 34:48.860]  I called them substitute fathers.
[34:48.860 --> 34:53.460]  and I had about a dozen of them to learn all my skills
[34:53.460 --> 34:57.440]  because you can't learn skills from academics who tell you these things.
[34:57.980 --> 35:00.440]  You have to learn it from people who actually can do it
[35:00.440 --> 35:03.440]  and very few people can actually do these things
[35:03.440 --> 35:05.440]  and that's the only people you can learn from.
[35:06.600 --> 35:11.960]  You can't learn how to play poker, a card game,
[35:12.640 --> 35:15.100]  from a book called How to Win at Poker
[35:15.100 --> 35:19.100]  because anybody who is winning at poker
[35:19.100 --> 35:23.460]  is not going to find the necessity to scratch a living writing about it.
[35:23.640 --> 35:26.800]  Furthermore, he's not going to give away the secrets whereby he makes his money.
[35:27.560 --> 35:29.460]  So it's only the failures who write the books.
[35:30.340 --> 35:32.800]  How to do, how to do this, how to do that.
[35:33.860 --> 35:35.680]  Law's form doesn't say how to do anything.
[35:36.200 --> 35:38.100]  It just gives you a set of instructions.
[35:39.100 --> 35:41.640]  And if you follow them, you know everything you want to know.
[35:41.640 --> 35:44.200]  and it doesn't say
[35:44.200 --> 35:46.020]  this is how to know everything you want to know
[35:46.020 --> 35:47.740]  and
[35:47.740 --> 35:51.900]  I was
[35:51.900 --> 35:54.100]  I began to write
[35:54.100 --> 35:54.740]  Lord of the Pond
[35:54.740 --> 35:55.740]  and
[35:55.740 --> 35:59.180]  I was still concerned
[35:59.180 --> 36:01.300]  I was working for the railways
[36:01.300 --> 36:01.920]  and
[36:01.920 --> 36:04.800]  they wanted me to do
[36:04.800 --> 36:07.620]  a report on wagon control
[36:07.620 --> 36:08.440]  it was awfully boring
[36:08.440 --> 36:11.940]  and I was very late with this report
[36:11.940 --> 36:14.200]  and every time I got up
[36:14.200 --> 36:16.320]  I tried to get this report out of the way
[36:16.320 --> 36:18.740]  and started writing little bits of verse
[36:18.740 --> 36:19.500]  and I wrote
[36:19.500 --> 36:25.380]  I got up one fine sunny morning
[36:25.380 --> 36:28.120]  27th of May 1964
[36:28.120 --> 36:32.600]  and beautiful sunny day
[36:32.600 --> 36:35.980]  I was up maybe 5 or 6 in the morning
[36:35.980 --> 36:41.680]  and thinking, I must get this report at least started.
[36:42.620 --> 36:44.640]  I found myself writing little bits of verse.
[36:45.940 --> 36:47.720]  And one of the little bits of verse was,
[36:48.440 --> 36:50.280]  a farmer and the farmer's wife,
[36:51.720 --> 36:53.100]  a farmer's son and daughter,
[36:54.040 --> 36:55.780]  all lived upon the farmer's farm
[36:55.780 --> 36:58.140]  and drove his cows to water.
[37:02.360 --> 37:03.660]  I thought, hmm, yeah.
[37:04.460 --> 37:05.920]  There's a story in this somewhere.
[37:05.980 --> 37:09.460]  and
[37:09.460 --> 37:12.760]  so I went on
[37:12.760 --> 37:15.760]  but of course by the moment I did this
[37:15.760 --> 37:18.640]  the destructive consciousness took over
[37:18.640 --> 37:23.240]  and wrote
[37:23.240 --> 37:28.000]  the farmer and the farmer
[37:28.000 --> 37:28.680]  the next verse
[37:28.680 --> 37:30.280]  the farmer and the farmer's wife
[37:30.280 --> 37:33.140]  the farmer's daughter and son
[37:33.140 --> 37:39.160]  all doted very prettily upon his little grandson.
[37:40.900 --> 37:41.180]  Yuck.
[37:43.100 --> 37:44.500]  No, obviously not poetry.
[37:45.340 --> 37:46.500]  Nothing to do with it, you know.
[37:46.560 --> 37:47.140]  It's made up.
[37:48.160 --> 37:49.580]  Consciousness has taken over.
[37:51.140 --> 37:54.280]  So I thought, my God, I'm no good.
[37:54.600 --> 37:55.120]  Mein Gott.
[37:58.120 --> 38:00.900]  I can't even finish a simple story in verse.
[38:00.900 --> 38:03.640]  I can't write a report for the railway
[38:03.640 --> 38:04.780]  what good am I?
[38:04.960 --> 38:07.080]  I can't do anything, I'm no good
[38:07.080 --> 38:08.980]  no
[38:08.980 --> 38:11.180]  echoes of my mother
[38:11.180 --> 38:12.960]  you'll never be any good
[38:12.960 --> 38:16.380]  and
[38:16.380 --> 38:19.400]  that is a very cruel thing to say to a child
[38:19.400 --> 38:22.180]  you'll never be any good
[38:22.180 --> 38:24.600]  but it was meant to be
[38:24.600 --> 38:25.860]  it was meant to be
[38:25.860 --> 38:26.880]  and
[38:26.880 --> 38:40.560]  And so in great misery, I wandered into the other room, clutching this sheet of paper
[38:40.560 --> 38:53.240]  with the one good verse on it and the one bad verse, and a pencil.
[38:53.240 --> 39:04.480]  I was grabbed by an unseen hand, forced into a chair, trapped to be at the card table.
[39:04.480 --> 39:19.860]  And my pencil scored out the bad verse and started writing. And I looked at what I was
[39:19.860 --> 39:22.760]  My God, I could never write anything like this.
[39:23.380 --> 39:24.480]  It was incredibly funny.
[39:24.580 --> 39:25.540]  I was giggling away.
[39:27.700 --> 39:32.040]  And after it had been going on for several pages,
[39:33.200 --> 39:35.800]  I thought, well, maybe I can put a word or two
[39:35.800 --> 39:37.400]  in of my own somewhere, you know,
[39:37.820 --> 39:42.280]  make it look as if I've got some control
[39:42.280 --> 39:43.980]  over this proceeding, you see.
[39:44.100 --> 39:45.600]  And so I wrote my own little word.
[39:46.200 --> 39:48.900]  And the pencil imperiously scored it out
[39:48.900 --> 39:51.640]  went on writing imperiously in its own way.
[39:53.220 --> 39:54.220]  And what it wrote was,
[39:55.260 --> 39:56.180]  we'll start at the beginning,
[39:56.360 --> 39:57.860]  a farmer and a farmer's wife,
[39:59.040 --> 40:00.140]  a farmer's son and daughter,
[40:01.020 --> 40:02.720]  all lived upon the farmer's farm
[40:02.720 --> 40:04.980]  and drove his cows to water.
[40:06.320 --> 40:08.700]  The cows upon the farm said moo
[40:08.700 --> 40:11.360]  and lived their lives contented
[40:11.360 --> 40:14.620]  until the farmer's son, alas,
[40:15.500 --> 40:17.080]  did something, he repented.
[40:17.080 --> 40:21.000]  he taught the cows to talk
[40:21.000 --> 40:25.140]  and somehow made them understand him
[40:25.140 --> 40:29.420]  in thoughtless disregard of where
[40:29.420 --> 40:33.200]  his misplaced zeal might land him
[40:33.200 --> 40:36.300]  the farmer said you bloody fool
[40:36.300 --> 40:39.960]  the farmer's wife was tearful
[40:39.960 --> 40:43.160]  the farmer's daughter put on an expression
[40:43.160 --> 40:44.340]  that was fearful
[40:44.340 --> 40:52.180]  your father said the farmer's wife interpreting to her son is saying that you've done away
[40:52.180 --> 40:58.180]  without an english person regards as his by right freedom for speeches to be uttered
[40:58.820 --> 41:07.120]  the boy looked suitably abashed the farmer only muttered the daughter saw the point and said
[41:07.120 --> 41:13.940]  we make the cows grow fat we drink their milk we eat their meat how can we tell them that
[41:14.340 --> 41:17.140]  the farmer went on muttering
[41:17.140 --> 41:19.660]  the day was such a fine day
[41:19.660 --> 41:20.960]  he couldn't keep it up for long
[41:20.960 --> 41:23.200]  his wife said never mind eh
[41:23.200 --> 41:26.160]  we'll cross our bridges when they come
[41:26.160 --> 41:27.760]  least said as soon as mended
[41:27.760 --> 41:30.020]  let's not cry over milk that's spilled
[41:30.020 --> 41:32.200]  and so the dispute ended
[41:32.200 --> 41:35.080]  it was alas
[41:35.080 --> 41:36.360]  too premature
[41:36.360 --> 41:38.360]  for them to be complacent
[41:38.360 --> 41:41.340]  the time when it would matter more
[41:41.340 --> 41:44.120]  was all the time adjacent
[41:44.120 --> 41:48.620]  the farmer tried to take the cows to market
[41:48.620 --> 41:50.160]  in due season
[41:50.160 --> 41:54.500]  the cows just stood their ground and said
[41:54.500 --> 41:56.720]  we want to know the reason
[41:56.720 --> 42:01.120]  what a to do
[42:01.120 --> 42:03.520]  who would have thought
[42:03.520 --> 42:07.300]  that teaching them to talk would have such a strong effect
[42:07.300 --> 42:10.440]  on cows and make them be so awkward
[42:10.440 --> 42:13.900]  the farmer
[42:13.900 --> 42:15.600]  and the farmer's wife
[42:15.600 --> 42:17.720]  in conference decided
[42:17.720 --> 42:19.580]  a little learning
[42:19.580 --> 42:21.480]  was a dangerous thing
[42:21.480 --> 42:23.660]  as you and I did.
[42:24.740 --> 42:25.900]  It's plain to see
[42:25.900 --> 42:27.620]  that what the cows have learned
[42:27.620 --> 42:29.240]  has made them sore.
[42:30.520 --> 42:31.840]  The remedy for this
[42:31.840 --> 42:33.620]  they said must be
[42:33.620 --> 42:35.060]  to teach them more.
[42:39.820 --> 42:41.880]  And in the local
[42:41.880 --> 42:43.640]  paper under
[42:43.640 --> 42:54.080]  under vacant situations, the following advertisement appeared. A man of patience is wanted. The
[42:54.080 --> 43:06.540]  position is unusual. The knowledge he should know above all other things is animal psychology.
[43:06.540 --> 43:14.480]  And so at length it came to pass, to us it seems absurd, they hired a tutor resident
[43:14.480 --> 43:25.160]  to educate the herd. The tutor, when he saw the job, began explaining how he couldn't
[43:25.160 --> 43:32.280]  rightly take it, since he'd never taught a cow. They said, think nothing of it, lad.
[43:32.280 --> 43:34.460]  and so he said he would
[43:34.460 --> 43:37.760]  and soon he grew to love that herd
[43:37.760 --> 43:39.880]  as every tutor should
[43:39.880 --> 43:43.940]  and day by day he taught them more
[43:43.940 --> 43:46.440]  of algebra and history
[43:46.440 --> 43:49.680]  till everything they knew before
[43:49.680 --> 43:52.400]  became a sort of mystery
[43:52.400 --> 43:56.620]  and finally his duty done
[43:56.620 --> 43:59.340]  he took them to the knackers
[43:59.340 --> 44:02.760]  it's in your interest he told them
[44:02.760 --> 44:04.700]  rounding up the slackers
[44:04.700 --> 44:07.800]  and they of course believed him
[44:07.800 --> 44:09.500]  since they had been educated
[44:09.500 --> 44:13.080]  and knew not only what was what
[44:13.080 --> 44:15.240]  but how it was related
[44:15.240 --> 44:22.240]  the moral of this story shows
[44:22.240 --> 44:24.480]  you cannot be too clever
[44:24.480 --> 44:28.680]  a little learning may be bad
[44:28.680 --> 44:31.900]  and more is worse than ever.
[44:41.700 --> 44:42.800]  But I overwrote.
[44:44.900 --> 44:46.660]  And I was astonished by it.
[44:46.880 --> 44:47.620]  I looked at it.
[44:49.780 --> 44:51.360]  You know, the pencil finished,
[44:51.520 --> 44:54.020]  crossed out everything I tried to put in consciously,
[44:54.300 --> 44:55.460]  just not having that, you know,
[44:55.560 --> 44:56.100]  and wrote this thing.
[44:56.240 --> 44:56.940]  My God.
[44:56.940 --> 45:02.440]  I looked at it. I could never write anything like this.
[45:04.940 --> 45:07.940]  Far too good. I couldn't write anything as good as that.
[45:08.940 --> 45:18.940]  And the extraordinary experience was that I was taken over.
[45:20.940 --> 45:24.940]  And I had no idea what was happening.
[45:24.940 --> 45:28.000]  I mean, I was looking at what was being written.
[45:28.000 --> 45:29.880]  My God, I was giggling away.
[45:29.960 --> 45:30.500]  It's so funny.
[45:32.440 --> 45:36.440]  But my funniness,
[45:37.980 --> 45:40.660]  somebody asked me yesterday
[45:40.660 --> 45:43.660]  if I took what I said seriously.
[45:45.920 --> 45:48.160]  You see, people make the false distinction.
[45:52.440 --> 45:54.860]  They think that what is funny cannot be serious.
[45:54.940 --> 45:59.220]  everything I write that is funny is serious
[45:59.220 --> 46:00.880]  that is a very serious poem
[46:00.880 --> 46:03.000]  the message is obvious
[46:03.000 --> 46:06.500]  it is a serious poem
[46:06.500 --> 46:10.200]  people confuse serious with solemn
[46:10.200 --> 46:13.620]  to be serious you don't have to be solemn
[46:13.620 --> 46:16.300]  that poem is not a bit solemn
[46:16.300 --> 46:17.680]  it's quite serious
[46:17.680 --> 46:20.360]  the message is perfectly obvious
[46:20.360 --> 46:22.280]  it is not solemn
[46:22.280 --> 46:27.220]  and so funny poets have always been underestimated
[46:27.220 --> 46:29.860]  because of the stupid failure of people
[46:29.860 --> 46:34.000]  to distinguish between serious and solemn
[46:34.000 --> 46:35.700]  and they think serious has to be solemn
[46:35.700 --> 46:38.240]  and if a poet is not solemn they say he can't be serious
[46:38.240 --> 46:42.240]  so all the poets who have been funny like Rupert Brooke
[46:42.240 --> 46:44.200]  are consistently underestimated
[46:44.200 --> 46:50.320]  because they think that only solemn is serious
[46:50.320 --> 46:55.980]  So we adore second-rate poets like Milton, who is solemn all the time.
[46:56.700 --> 46:58.120]  Couldn't be funny. No sense of humor.
[46:59.760 --> 47:07.720]  And so I said, well, the railways can wait.
[47:08.900 --> 47:12.100]  The poem was so beautiful, so wonderful, I typed it all out.
[47:13.140 --> 47:16.700]  And the two children, age five and six,
[47:16.700 --> 47:19.440]  as I was teaching the boy and the girl, six, five,
[47:19.440 --> 47:23.200]  and their mother, who is German, called Trudle,
[47:25.880 --> 47:29.420]  came out into the garden.
[47:29.580 --> 47:34.140]  I was in the penthouse flat above their house
[47:34.140 --> 47:39.400]  and I went out onto the roof garden
[47:39.400 --> 47:42.100]  and looked over the parapet
[47:42.100 --> 47:44.960]  and they were preparing to have lunch in the garden,
[47:45.060 --> 47:45.880]  a beautiful sunny day.
[47:45.880 --> 47:47.420]  and
[47:47.420 --> 47:51.040]  so I shouted down to them
[47:51.040 --> 47:54.520]  I've just written
[47:54.520 --> 47:56.760]  a fantastic new poem
[47:56.760 --> 47:57.740]  would you like to see it
[47:57.740 --> 47:59.160]  they all said yes
[47:59.160 --> 48:02.000]  so I let go the typed sheets
[48:02.000 --> 48:02.680]  and they all
[48:02.680 --> 48:04.980]  gyrated down
[48:04.980 --> 48:08.040]  amongst the bumblebees
[48:08.040 --> 48:08.840]  and the butterflies
[48:08.840 --> 48:10.800]  gyrated down
[48:10.800 --> 48:11.580]  and the children running
[48:11.580 --> 48:12.340]  hither and thither
[48:12.340 --> 48:13.700]  to catch them as they fell
[48:13.700 --> 48:15.500]  and they passed the sheets
[48:15.500 --> 48:20.300]  from one to another reading it, you see, in complete silence.
[48:21.200 --> 48:23.080]  And Troudal was the first to speak.
[48:24.000 --> 48:26.800]  And she simply said, she said, it's like God speaking.
[48:28.240 --> 48:29.200]  And I said, I know.
[48:29.460 --> 48:31.400]  I said, I didn't really write it.
[48:31.460 --> 48:32.600]  It sort of wrote itself.
[48:34.560 --> 48:38.220]  And so that was my first poem.
[48:40.960 --> 48:43.740]  And because I was just a beginner then,
[48:43.740 --> 48:48.120]  I thought, oh, I'm a poet now, I can do anything.
[48:49.520 --> 48:52.660]  And once you think that as a beginner, you come to grief.
[48:54.680 --> 49:00.000]  And there was a little girl in a greengrocer's shop
[49:00.000 --> 49:06.080]  where I used to buy my vegetables just to get the next block.
[49:07.560 --> 49:11.480]  And she must have been about 17 or something,
[49:11.560 --> 49:12.440]  I fell in love with her.
[49:12.440 --> 49:19.440]  Well, it's not true. I fell in lust with her. She actually exactly fitted my fantasy.
[49:19.440 --> 49:36.440]  And I projected onto her very strongly, you see. But I never admitted this, you see. I just used to use her as a masturbatory object.
[49:36.440 --> 49:40.780]  I was terrifically in lust with her and I used to go in the shop when I didn't need
[49:40.780 --> 49:46.140]  to and buy more vegetables than I needed just to have another look at her.
[49:46.140 --> 49:56.200]  And one day I was walking down Victoria Street from Victoria Station towards the river and
[49:56.200 --> 50:01.620]  suddenly there she was walking towards me the other way.
[50:01.620 --> 50:15.720]  my heart fluttered and I thought, shall I say something to her? I was all tongue-tied
[50:15.720 --> 50:21.520]  and I thought, no, she'll think I'm silly. She may not remember me at all, I just look
[50:21.520 --> 50:30.340]  silly. And by the time I was still thinking what to say, she'd passed. Oh, it's too late
[50:30.340 --> 50:35.940]  It wasn't too late. I could have run after. I could have shouted, but I didn't.
[50:35.940 --> 50:47.540]  And you know when this happens, you always regret it. You always think, my God, what a coward I am.
[50:47.540 --> 50:55.240]  You always think what you might have done, and what an opportunity wasted.
[50:55.240 --> 51:04.480]  And because we were all so afraid of rejection that we spend our lives in misery, in prison,
[51:04.480 --> 51:08.120]  you know, in order to avoid rejection.
[51:08.120 --> 51:15.620]  And I mean, we don't ask in case she says no or who are you or whatever.
[51:15.620 --> 51:20.000]  And the worst thing it could possibly be is what it is now, you know.
[51:20.000 --> 51:21.220]  I haven't asked her.
[51:21.220 --> 51:25.680]  And so I am self-rejected.
[51:25.680 --> 51:30.160]  And so it can't be any worse than that.
[51:30.160 --> 51:32.560]  And she might even say yes, or I'd like to meet you.
[51:32.560 --> 51:34.160]  I learned.
[51:34.160 --> 51:38.460]  But so I went back.
[51:38.460 --> 51:40.560]  I was so obsessed with this horror
[51:40.560 --> 51:43.260]  that I hadn't spoken to her, you see.
[51:43.260 --> 51:46.800]  I thought, well, I'd write my next real poem.
[51:46.800 --> 51:48.340]  And I began.
[51:48.340 --> 51:53.380]  I saw you, my sweet, in Victoria Street.
[51:53.380 --> 51:56.680]  I wish I could say you saw me.
[51:56.680 --> 52:00.720]  You walked by me there with your head in the air
[52:00.720 --> 52:03.160]  as if there was nothing to see.
[52:03.160 --> 52:07.820]  The pace was so fast that the vision was passed
[52:07.820 --> 52:12.400]  by the time I prepared what to say to greet you there
[52:12.400 --> 52:19.120]  when I saw you there then, proceeding the opposite way.
[52:19.120 --> 52:22.260]  That is beautiful.
[52:22.260 --> 52:23.440]  Then the intellect took over.
[52:26.200 --> 52:34.200]  And what it wrote was so embarrassing that, finally, I
[52:34.200 --> 52:35.460]  destroyed it.
[52:35.460 --> 52:46.740]  uh a uh it had lines like uh blah blah blah blah then i stood still like a statue blah blah blah
[52:46.740 --> 52:56.820]  blah and even my thoughts still looked at you and uh a it was facetious it was facetious uh and
[52:58.020 --> 53:02.980]  ending up and i dream of your love in the shockwave serve
[53:05.460 --> 53:07.500]  where I see you, my sweet, every day.
[53:09.780 --> 53:14.500]  And, of course, there's no difference in the feeling, you see,
[53:15.460 --> 53:18.500]  as whether you've written something very good or something very bad.
[53:19.280 --> 53:21.900]  You feel equally proud at the end of it, you see.
[53:22.520 --> 53:24.600]  And so I proudly showed this in Troudall,
[53:25.500 --> 53:28.300]  who said with elephantine German tact,
[53:29.100 --> 53:34.420]  well, it is not quite so good as the one about the cows.
[53:35.460 --> 53:42.180]  And then I began to see how bad it was.
[53:43.080 --> 53:47.040]  And then I got, you know, it was so bad that I got rather proud of it.
[53:47.160 --> 53:49.940]  You know, nobody could write as badly as this, you see.
[53:52.120 --> 53:57.440]  And a friend of mine came round, an old school friend, you see,
[53:57.440 --> 53:58.800]  and I showed him this, and he said,
[53:59.200 --> 54:02.780]  well, the first four verses are very good.
[54:02.780 --> 54:05.620]  why don't you keep those
[54:05.620 --> 54:08.920]  and then rewrite the rest of it
[54:08.920 --> 54:10.200]  with good poetry
[54:10.200 --> 54:13.240]  as if you have a choice
[54:13.240 --> 54:15.320]  as to whether what you write will be good or bad
[54:15.320 --> 54:17.540]  as if it's an act of will
[54:17.540 --> 54:19.080]  to write well or badly
[54:19.080 --> 54:21.460]  and
[54:21.460 --> 54:23.240]  I thought
[54:23.240 --> 54:24.940]  how can I do this
[54:24.940 --> 54:27.480]  and I kept it
[54:27.480 --> 54:28.740]  for years
[54:28.740 --> 54:30.180]  and
[54:30.180 --> 54:33.500]  with my first girlfriend
[54:33.500 --> 54:36.420]  who lived with me,
[54:38.060 --> 54:40.720]  she was very interested in my poetry, you see.
[54:40.760 --> 54:42.080]  And I said, why don't you write some?
[54:42.840 --> 54:43.900]  Oh, no, no, I can't.
[54:44.420 --> 54:45.120]  It would be terrible.
[54:45.380 --> 54:46.400]  You wouldn't like it.
[54:47.820 --> 54:49.840]  And I said, well, everybody has to
[54:49.840 --> 54:52.000]  be bad at something
[54:52.000 --> 54:53.220]  before he's good at it.
[54:54.040 --> 54:54.860]  Oh, I don't believe that.
[54:54.920 --> 54:57.000]  I don't believe you ever wrote anything bad,
[54:57.160 --> 54:58.500]  any bad poetry, you see.
[54:59.160 --> 54:59.960]  You couldn't.
[55:00.180 --> 55:05.860]  And so she wouldn't write anything of her own.
[55:05.860 --> 55:10.860]  And so I said, well, I can write bad poetry.
[55:10.860 --> 55:15.960]  I'm going to show you something really bad.
[55:15.960 --> 55:24.500]  And so I gave her this dreadful poem, which was so bad.
[55:24.500 --> 55:26.420]  I mean, it's embarrassingly bad.
[55:26.420 --> 55:27.420]  It was obscene.
[55:27.420 --> 55:28.940]  It really was obscene.
[55:28.940 --> 55:34.180]  Unfortunately, I destroyed it in the end because I thought it might be, when I was dead, found
[55:34.180 --> 55:37.240]  among my effects and published as one of my representative poems.
[55:37.400 --> 55:38.520]  I thought, well, I better not allow that.
[55:38.720 --> 55:39.960]  I wouldn't mind now.
[55:40.380 --> 55:41.680]  You know, who cares?
[55:41.960 --> 55:51.520]  But I'm awfully sorry I destroyed it because it's so bad that it's inconceivable and I
[55:51.520 --> 55:52.920]  can't recreate it.
[55:52.920 --> 55:56.500]  and anyway I said
[55:56.500 --> 55:58.620]  here you are, take this into the other room
[55:58.620 --> 55:59.900]  and read it
[55:59.900 --> 56:04.280]  so she took it away with her
[56:04.280 --> 56:06.700]  and five minutes later came back
[56:06.700 --> 56:08.220]  blushing with embarrassment
[56:08.220 --> 56:09.820]  and I said
[56:09.820 --> 56:12.940]  could you write anything as bad as that
[56:12.940 --> 56:14.580]  and she said no I couldn't
[56:14.580 --> 56:16.460]  and it released her
[56:16.460 --> 56:18.560]  and she wrote the most beautiful poetry
[56:18.560 --> 56:22.040]  and
[56:22.040 --> 56:25.920]  it is so stupid the way we educate
[56:25.920 --> 56:29.960]  because the way to educate
[56:29.960 --> 56:33.600]  is to give the child permission to do it badly
[56:33.600 --> 56:38.980]  instead of which we punish children for doing it badly
[56:38.980 --> 56:41.580]  and therefore they don't create at all
[56:41.580 --> 56:45.360]  we do not allow them
[56:45.360 --> 56:47.920]  we do not give them permission to do it badly
[56:47.920 --> 56:51.360]  and unless you have permission to do it badly
[56:51.360 --> 56:54.960]  you can't do it at all because you have to do it badly before you can do it well.
[56:56.900 --> 56:59.960]  And here was this terrible poem.
[57:00.940 --> 57:02.820]  And what my friend said,
[57:03.460 --> 57:07.340]  why don't you keep the first four verses and rewrite the rest of it?
[57:08.700 --> 57:12.140]  And I used to sit with this first four verses in front of me
[57:12.140 --> 57:16.160]  and hope that the muse would come back and do it.
[57:16.800 --> 57:19.880]  Now what was wrong, you see, what I was so afraid to admit,
[57:19.880 --> 57:21.480]  we shall see in a minute
[57:21.480 --> 57:23.920]  because I was brought up
[57:23.920 --> 57:26.000]  in a so called public school in England
[57:26.000 --> 57:29.200]  which is very cruel
[57:29.200 --> 57:31.300]  you know sometimes
[57:31.300 --> 57:33.200]  the boys kill one another
[57:33.200 --> 57:36.300]  they torture each other
[57:36.300 --> 57:37.400]  and
[57:37.400 --> 57:42.160]  one thing is you're never allowed to admit
[57:42.160 --> 57:43.220]  you're afraid of anything
[57:43.220 --> 57:46.360]  that's cowardly
[57:46.360 --> 57:48.620]  it's not cowardly to be afraid
[57:48.620 --> 57:53.620]  But anyway, that was the lack of distinction here, you see.
[57:53.620 --> 57:58.620]  And so this total forbidding of ever feeling fear.
[57:58.620 --> 58:09.620]  And so I had this first four verses in front of me.
[58:09.620 --> 58:14.620]  And suddenly the rest of it came through.
[58:14.620 --> 58:21.360]  through. And I was terribly embarrassed. You'll see why in a minute. Terribly embarrassed.
[58:25.380 --> 58:31.280]  We'll start at the beginning. I saw you, my sweet, in Victoria Street. I wish I could
[58:31.280 --> 58:37.040]  say you saw me. You walked by me there, with your head in the air, as if there was nothing
[58:37.040 --> 58:42.920]  to see. The pace was so fast that the vision was passed by the time I'd prepared what to
[58:42.920 --> 58:50.760]  there to greet you there when I saw you there then proceeding the opposite way
[58:50.920 --> 59:01.040]  you were not blind I was out of my mind afraid of being rude or improper afraid
[59:01.040 --> 59:07.280]  you say who the devil are you afraid that I might come a cropper afraid of
[59:07.280 --> 59:14.400]  being paid in my own coin, afraid. Afraid of being seen to be hollow. Afraid, if I wink,
[59:14.400 --> 59:21.600]  of what others might think. Afraid to say, lead, and I follow. Afraid to say what the
[59:21.600 --> 59:27.260]  others have got, so have I. Let them follow my lead. Too frightened to make the first
[59:27.260 --> 59:36.240]  move and take what men ever must take that they need. Who am I to say so? To say what
[59:36.240 --> 59:44.260]  I know, to say what men say all the time, to say what I think, and not just in ink with
[59:44.260 --> 59:52.860]  the added protection of rhyme. Why can't I say I am in love with you? Why don't I go
[59:52.860 --> 59:58.820]  back and catch you? I might. I could say it is true that I love you to you, and who cares
[59:58.820 --> 01:00:04.560]  with me if it's right? Who cares if I scream in the midst of your dream and shout and run
[01:00:04.560 --> 01:00:10.380]  back down the street, letting everyone see what might have been me, letting everyone
[01:00:10.380 --> 01:00:18.720]  see you're my sweet. Only I care. Perhaps I care for the wraps I imagine I'd get. Does
[01:00:18.720 --> 01:00:23.480]  it matter? Does it matter I care what you think of me there? They say it costs nothing
[01:00:23.480 --> 01:00:32.860]  to flatter. And am I so mean that I'll never be seen to give when the cost doesn't count?
[01:00:32.860 --> 01:00:37.120]  to run down the street in the wake of your feet
[01:00:37.120 --> 01:00:40.320]  to offer this trivial amount.
[01:00:45.820 --> 01:00:47.040]  Well, you see why I was embarrassed.
[01:00:48.460 --> 01:00:50.180]  At last the truth had come out.
[01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:51.980]  I was afraid.
[01:00:54.560 --> 01:00:56.500]  And embarrassed that I was,
[01:00:57.460 --> 01:01:00.260]  I thought that it was good and left it.
[01:01:00.260 --> 01:01:06.900]  And of course this is one of the most beautiful poems I've ever written.
[01:01:06.900 --> 01:01:08.580]  And these were the early ones.
[01:01:08.580 --> 01:01:10.240]  I can't write like that now.
[01:01:10.240 --> 01:01:13.740]  My techniques have got so good, you know, that I can't go back to the simplicity of
[01:01:13.740 --> 01:01:17.780]  the cows and the unsent message and so on.
[01:01:17.780 --> 01:01:22.780]  And fortunately, there came a time when I started to improve them, you know, with the
[01:01:22.780 --> 01:01:23.780]  intellect.
[01:01:23.780 --> 01:01:29.560]  Very fortunately, I kept the original drafts and all the improvements are now not there.
[01:01:29.560 --> 01:01:30.660]  exactly as they were written.
[01:01:32.560 --> 01:01:32.800]  And
[01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:35.200]  how did we get on with this?
[01:01:36.760 --> 01:01:37.540]  Oh, the
[01:01:37.540 --> 01:01:38.500]  yeah
[01:01:38.500 --> 01:01:41.220]  the awareness
[01:01:41.220 --> 01:01:43.280]  the awareness, which is always perfect.
[01:01:43.820 --> 01:01:43.900]  Yeah.
[01:01:45.280 --> 01:01:47.720]  The way the Tathagata
[01:01:47.720 --> 01:01:49.320]  speaks cannot make a mistake.
[01:01:49.460 --> 01:01:51.040]  The Tathagata is not human. These are not human.
[01:01:51.180 --> 01:01:52.440]  These are observations.
[01:01:56.500 --> 01:01:57.740]  Humanity is full of error.
[01:01:57.740 --> 01:01:59.780]  Consciousness is full of error.
[01:01:59.900 --> 01:02:01.600]  If you do it with consciousness, you will ruin it
[01:02:01.600 --> 01:02:02.880]  because consciousness is distorted.
[01:02:03.860 --> 01:02:04.560]  Awareness is not.
[01:02:05.680 --> 01:02:07.280]  Awareness is as it is.
[01:02:15.920 --> 01:02:16.520]  Oh, yes.
[01:02:16.740 --> 01:02:19.400]  I see how we're not talking about anything, are we?
[01:02:19.480 --> 01:02:19.620]  No.
[01:02:21.680 --> 01:02:25.980]  I just was able to complete this poem,
[01:02:25.980 --> 01:02:27.580]  and so we talked about how they were written.
[01:02:32.580 --> 01:02:34.020]  Are we at the end of the lesson yet?
[01:02:35.880 --> 01:02:36.320]  What?
[01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:38.120]  Is the time finished?
[01:02:39.120 --> 01:02:39.620]  Oh, you don't know?
[01:02:39.760 --> 01:02:40.320]  I don't know.
[01:02:40.440 --> 01:02:41.940]  How long are we supposed to go on to?
[01:02:42.000 --> 01:02:42.460]  Until when?
[01:02:42.600 --> 01:02:43.000]  Twelve?
[01:02:43.780 --> 01:02:44.100]  One?
[01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:45.720]  One.
[01:02:47.180 --> 01:02:48.400]  We got...
[01:02:48.400 --> 01:02:51.260]  We can stop when we...
[01:02:51.260 --> 01:02:52.120]  Or go on.
[01:02:52.580 --> 01:02:53.420]  I don't think...
[01:02:53.420 --> 01:02:55.880]  I think we've reached a sort of natural close, haven't we?
[01:02:55.980 --> 01:02:57.980]  Yes.