Thought Pollution in the Environment
Transcript of a talk given by David Truman
David: The talk for today is about the toxic qualities of negative thought, and what to do to minimize the harmful effects of thought pollution in the environment. Let me ease you into this.
You start in a real basic place: on the crapper. So there you are on the crapper, and it's one of those occasions in which, for some reason, that place really stinks when you're done. I mean bad. And that's when somebody has the misfortune to knock on the door, and want in.
You're done. But being the compassionate person you are, you give them a word to the wise, which you really hope is going to be sufficient, which is, "You might want to come back in like five or ten minutes after the fart sucker has done its work. Because I used to be a sensitive person before I was in here for five minutes, but you ARE a sensitive person STILL. If you want to stay that way, take my advice."
That's the first scene. Here's the second:
You're on the way to the prom in a limo. But you made the mistake of Mexican for lunch.
You got your prom couple, and another couple, who split the cost of this limo. But for some reason, Mexican didn't sit too well with you that day. Being the compassionate person that you are, there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, as the limo fills up with lethal gas from yours truly. You know what I mean? The first one -- the one about the crapper -- was definitely forgivable. But prom is supposed to be a salubrious occasion. Without knowing what that means, I'd say, you know what I mean, because whatever salubrious means, you know this shit definitely is not salubrious. You open all the windows, which is fine, except it's sixteen degrees out in Minnesota. And then they're starting to panic in there with you, so they open the sunroof. They all stand up. And they start getting frostbite on their eyes, you know. But it's better than dying in there. Okay? This kind of a situation happens all the time -- especially, wouldn't you know it, at proms.
Third scene:
You're in your office. And it's one of those situations where whatever you ate didn't combobulate well, and it's like in the limo, only a slightly diluted form, fortunately. BUT, same as it was on the crapper, knock, knock, knock. Ya know. Being the compassionate person that you are, you don't know what the heck to do. You know they need to talk to you, but how bad? What's it worth in terms of personal shame? "Come back later," that's your good advice. "I'm busy. I'm busy trying to air this place out."
So, you don't always know what your effects are, but thought can sure be toxic, and pollution has a way of getting around. They're probably coming up with thought pollution ten feet down in the Arctic crust.
For example, if you have an air conditioning system in the building where air circulates. Or code requires that there be five-eighths of an inch under every door. That's another thing. Anyway, things get around. Okay? It's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. If you had it in for people, if your intention was to screw them up, and darken their doorway with your stuff, this would be great. Cause this stuff gets around everywhere really easy, and you can invite everybody in, and stuff. Easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Actually, it's easier. With an AC system, it's as easy as shooting amoeba in a barrel. You don't know how many you got, but you certainly got quite a few.
It's the same with thinking
It's the same with thinking. For example, being the self-made person that you are, have you ever dialed in such a mood that when somebody knocked on the door, you didn't think they better come in? Cause this shit stinks. Being the compassionate person that you are, you don't even want to be in your own space yourself, let alone someone you love. This is the nature of moods, and thoughts, thoughts that create the moods. Who cut one? Who cut two? Who cut nine? These thoughts hang around in the space just like a big smell. They have the effect that if somebody comes in the room where the big stink happened, before the fan gets it all out, you feel sorry for them, being the compassionate person that you are. You don't want them to come inside a space that's as stinky as that is. In fact, you yourself were thinking of splitting! That's how bad it got. Have you ever not been able to be in your own room? It got so bad in there from you? Whoo! That's a case. You said, "I'm out of here. I'm gonna let this place air out for a couple of days. I'll be back when it's all settled out a little bit."
So Jesus says, this shit about thinking stinks a lot of the time. Everybody has to breathe that air. Everything in the astral gets befouled. It gets to be tough walking through it. You'd think you died and went to an embalming station, or an old lady's home. You're trying to walk through it, but you doubt whether you can not breathe all day or not. You don't know what's going to happen. Maybe it's dead clams, or a rat that died in the wall. But OOH! You're trying to exhale all day. That's the way it is (trying to just exhale). And it doesn't work! You know, the more you think about it, the less you can do it.
So Jesus says, "Meet the mother." You've seen the daughter. Now meet the mother. You got to see what this shit popped out of. What is happening around here? Is somebody in a bad mood, or what? You got to find the source of the nuisance and shut it off. Yeah. Otherwise, you see, you don't know what you're carbulating with all around that place. So, you see . . .
Some of those people had too much to think.
And so Jesus says, the way you clean up your mind, the reason you do it is you start to realize exactly how intensely every thought that we think affects everybody in the environment. If a person sits there and thinks in a stinky way, then someone knocks on the door, that's what that person's going to end up inhaling. And the stuff is actually transparent to the walls, like an AC system. It's circulating around, certainly denser right near the source, but it's getting around. And so the reality of it is, if the people want to be in a decent space, or create a decent space for others, if you're a compassionate person, it's not that you just tell everybody to vacate the house: "Go outside!" "What if it's a hundred and eighty degrees below zero outside?" "Well, go out, because I just cut a few."
CORK IT, okay? Sending people away is just not getting it. You can't send everybody outside all the time. You have to have a situation where the source is clean. Where you're not eating that bad food. Where you're not mulling over things that are toxic in your brain. You can't do that, because otherwise, everybody either has to breathe it, or else they have to split.
But you see this happening. You see they'll run like hell. You know, they're polite and everything, saying "(breathing out) I'll be back. Just thought of something." You know. That's very polite. That's very diplomatic. When they got wind of ya, and then kind of veered off. You know how it happens. But it's because of that scent that comes from the brain, for the most part. "You know, it's been really nice talking to you. Do you mind if I cut this a little short today? (breathing out). Because well, (breathing out) I gotta (breathing out)."
That's what happens
That's what happens to relationships.
That's what happens to marriages.
That's what happens to friendships.
That's what happens to office communication.
That's what people do to God.
That's what happens to a lot of things in life.
It's very important what people think
It's very important what people think. Don't make a big stink about everything in your head, because if you do, people will either die, or veer off, or get sick. Happens all the time; you've seen it. You've seen a person going into somebody's office looking great, and come out looking like shit. What in the hell happened in there? Breathing -- they breathed.
So the key to a decent environment is the mental discipline of the individuals in the environment. Everything else, God help us. God help us if we really think that it's important that we think whatever we want to think. God help us. And worst of all, God help our friends. God help everybody who knows us. Because they're the unwitting victims of some shit they didn't even emit. You see? So God help everybody in that case. And you're about the only God that can do anything about it. Got to control the mind. Got to have it be okay to keep that thing on the right line, and keep it out of the darkness. Otherwise everybody has to go down with it. Everybody has to breathe it. It's going to affect everybody. Isn't that interesting?
Sara: Breathing is a really appropriate metaphor, cause we are connected, and we can't not breathe, just like we can't not be connected.
David: Yeah. And we're self-made people in that we're always teaching ourselves what to think, and so forth. You see? And that can become a circle. You have made your set of opinions, and your ways of responding to things, and so forth. You teach yourself what everything is, through justification, rationalization -- they call it J-packing. And then it becomes an automatic set of knowings and responses that generate those thoughts that are toxic.
Everything I didn't need to know I taught myself in kindergarten
Everything I didn't need to know I taught myself in kindergarten. But at the time, I thought I needed to know that. The blaming mentality that became my method of reacting and stinking were what I thought was my knowing, my information, my self-protection mechanism. So it became very valuable to "know" all that. And then reacting on the basis of what was "known," presumed to be true. A paranoiac is the one who has all the facts, you know.
So we teach ourselves everything we don't need to know. We could have gotten by without it, in other words -- and we would have been much better off without it, as a matter of fact -- but now we know it.
And how do we unknow it?
Fugetaboutit!
The answer is the same process; by controlling the mind, and giving people the benefit of a doubt. You see, we're full of doubt. We're full of doubt about ourselves. We're full of doubt about others. And doubt is our great protection system. "I doubt this, and I doubt that, and that protects me."
There's an expression in America called "give them the benefit of the doubt." What that means is, they are basically innocent until proven guilty.
Give them the benefit of the doubt
So we have accumulated a great pile of doubt. And now what we need to do is get the benefit of it. And the way you get the benefit of something is by sharing it. So you give your friends the benefit of the doubt. Meaning you think they're a serial killer, but you're not sure. So you give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they're not.
We have so much doubt accumulated in us that we have a tremendous amount of benefit to give out. If we give them, say, the interest, or benefit, on our doubt, they'll be filthy rich! Give them all the benefit of your doubt. Turn it into cash for everybody. Every time you're not certain, give them the benefit of the doubt. Every time you doubt yourself, give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Think of how much benefit there would be.
There was this guy on that Bill Hicks skit who was walking around, and suddenly he said to his wife, "I've got it! Eureka! Dirt! We've got lots of dirt. We can sell it." He had a brilliant idea. And it said dirt for sale. He didn't realize he was dirt rich, not dirt poor. Then he realized it. "I'm dirt rich." In that same way, we're all doubt rich. And if we're willing to share the benefit of the doubt, then everybody will be rich, not just us. See how logical that is?
You know, it's shocking when you realize that something you had that was worthless suddenly is found to be of tremendous value. But it happens all the time. Years ago, yellow diamonds were worthless rejects, now they're almost priceless. The same thing happened with the alder trees. A few years ago, the only thing they would do with alders is chop them up into chips. Later on, they discovered that alder wood was great furniture material, and alder became a very in-demand wood.
Doubt, the same thing. Before this talk, everybody thought doubt was a bad thing. That's when David came down from heaven to point out the fact that if you give the benefit of it -- give the benefit of the doubt -- that's huge benefit. So now you're probably thinking, "Oh my God! I'm filthy rich!" Because you're rolling in doubt.
I doubt myself a great deal. Now I can give myself the benefit of all that doubt. And I doubt other people too. Now I can give them the benefit of the doubt I have for them. So everybody's happy, everyone goes home a winner. If you give them the benefit of the doubt -- because you don't know.
For example, you don't know if your friends are serial killers. You may suspect it, but you just don't know for sure, right?
That's what this is all about: give a person the benefit of the doubt. Does that make sense? This may be hard to face, but everything's got a benefit. Doubt does too. Otherwise I have no idea why they would say that. Think about it for a while, and eventually it'll dawn on you that if you don't know, you don't know. And if there's a doubt, there's a chance that things could be good. That's it. That's what they mean.
Sara: The benefit of the doubt is I'm going to stay on the positive.
David: Yep. And that's a good way to control and discipline the mind, is to give everyone and everything the benefit of the doubt always. You could say, "I think so and so is this and that and the other thing, but I don't know for sure. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to assume the best."
Dyana: Wow, that's a really good way around that problem.
Sara: And it really is a benefit. If you assume the best, you help the best happen.
David: Yeah. The benefit of the doubt is that, since you're uncertain, you may as well not come down on the negative side. Other than that, thinking, and inflicting harm by thinking, is as easy as shooting amoeba in a barrel. Which means you rarely know how many you got, but you can be sure you got some. It was always more than a few.
Yes. Shooting amoeba in a barrel.
by David Truman
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