A Record of Meetings held by P.D. Ouspensky - HolyBooks.com

MISS C. In the school language do the words sensation and emotionhave the same meaning?MR. O. Sensation—in the right sense of the word—is physical. But thisword has also another meaning, which I think I used in describingparts of centres—in the sense of sensationalism.MR. P . Can we say that evil is unconscious because it always calls itselfsomething else? Crimes are always committed for the sake of somecause. And anger calls itself a sense of injustice.MR. O. Too much interpretation—but it is very near the truth that evilis unconsciousness.MISS C. From the point of view of our aim is not mechanicalness evilwhen it takes the place of what should be conscious?MR. O. Certainly, but apart from that, conscience has a feeling of evilapart from all explanations and interpretations. Only it is asleep, so wecannot rely on it.MISS v. Should we escape from evil if we could escape from the Lawof Accident?MR. O. Accident and mechanicalness are very near relations. If youescape from one you escape from the other.MISS C. Is all evil caused by the wrong working of centres?MR. O. No, it is a little too much to expect from wrong work ofcentres.MR. S. Is trying to think in new categories another way in which weimitate conscious thought?MR. O. Yes, only better replace the word 'imitate' by some other word.MR. D. Mr. O. said that war is sometimes justified, because only bymeans of war, in some circumstances, could anything be settled. Whatis meant by 'circumstances'?MR. O. Without speaking much about political questions and history itis difficult to answer. We may come to that, but it is better to leave itat present.MISS H . I don't understand what thinking in new categories means.How can we start to do this?MR. O. It is very difficult to explain without a practical example.MR. C. When Mr. O. said that no conscious action could be evil, didhe mean evil in the ordinary sense, or from the point of view of thesystem?MR. O. In the ordinary sense, only a little justified, explained. We take