In this last documented session of 1977, Hatonn gives a great sermonette with a surprisingly naturalistic view of how inner and outer realities connect. Not only do our manifest lives reveal in previously unrecognized ways our thoughts, we tap into this hidden wealth of our lived experiences through our quest to know ourselves:

For we say that what you experience is the manifestation of your own thought patterns. Whether they be of a conscious or subconscious projection, they are indeed the manifestation of your own [inner] thoughts, [feelings,] emotions and understanding. So is it not logical that in order to truly know your universe and all about it, that you must first know yourself?

- Hatonn via unknown: November 9, 1977

Towards the end of the recorded session, Laitos chimes in to build upon this understanding of reality and the role desire plays. Part of “walking the path,” in my view, relies upon this accountability one begins to take for one’s experiences in life, a responsibility for how our desire draws to us that which seems to happen at us. Laitos implies that we just don’t take ourselves seriously; that if we connected more to our true, inner identity transcendent of this illusion, we’d even play these mundane roles in ways more helpful to ourselves and others.

This concept of desire as a magnetic force is an especially rich metaphor, in my view, when juxtaposed with the “sawdust” and “sand.” What baffles me about life often is the sheer proliferation of endless, inscrutable detail, how much information our consciousness accepts for processing prior to us even understanding its spiritual import. Like “don’t think of a pink elephant,” these details will take up real estate in our minds once perceived. Our only hope is to use the magnet of our desire to draw the truth through the lies, to trust the process of our co-Creatorship to pull us through this jungle of detail with enough balance and grace so that we can trust the learning is occurring in spite of what can often seem a quite shallow life. If we desire the depth purely enough, reality will disclose itself to us, and we will realize we are responsibile for all of it both before the realization and after. That is our heritage, Laitos reminds us.

My friends, we would ask you to become aware of the fact that you are real. It is indeed almost as though your peoples, my friends, think of themselves as one of your toys, a doll perhaps, or a stuffed animal that a child would pick up and play with, making pretend in various situations and then putting the doll aside. And so you treat yourselves, my friends, many times. And then you say, I will play the part of a wage earner, or I will play the part of a man about town, or an attractive woman, or I will play the part of a churchgoer, or I will play this or that role. And you do not believe yourselves, my friends. You do not understand the game at all.

You see, underneath the sawdust and the tinsel of everyday life, there is something in you that is real. And that reality is very precious and will outlast the tinsel and the chemical body itself. The things that happen to you daily are quite important to this real self. Not perhaps in the way they seem to be important, as you pretend to be this or that. The importance of these things comes to you in a funny way, shall we say. It comes to you depending on how you desire that it comes to you. It has been written in the holy works that you call the Holy Bible, “Seek and you shall find.” Just as you desire your experience to be, so it will show itself to you.

Most people, my friends, thinking of themselves as little more than a sawdust doll, do not desire deeply that they may discover the truth in their existence. Therefore, they do not discover the truth in their existence. But, my friends, if you truly desire that each moment may teach you its lessons, then you magnetize yourself, just as though you were walking through a vast beach and looking hopefully for precious metals. Sawdust, my friends, does not attract metal. But if you have magnetized yourself, ah, the metal comes to you through all of the useless sand and it attaches itself firmly to your understanding.

Desire. Do not be afraid of that word. What you desire is up to you. The intensity of your desire is very much up to you, my friends. Do not be afraid to really want to know the truth. Not just now, but all the time. When you are eating, my friends, when you are drinking, when you are speaking, when you are watching your television; you are in there, my friends, you are real, and you are here to learn the truth. It is a simple game and you play it by magnetizing yourself with the desire.

- Laitos via Rueckert: November 9, 1977

Originally posted on r/lawofone_philosophy.