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

Monday. December 7th 1936. [About ten pages missing.]MR. O. We must now speak about man's place in the world and, if wehave time, also about schools.MRS. S. What does it mean to give up self-will? Does it mean to giveup the determination to awaken?MR. O. Did you understand what I meant by self-will? It is alwaysconnected with self-opinions, a man always thinks he knows something.Then he comes to a school and realizes that he knows nothing. That iswhy preparation is necessary for school. One is usually full of self­opinions and self-will. Self-will is like a child saying: 'I know myself, Iwill myself.' Self-will has many features. One is told not to dosomething and at once one wants to do it; one is told that something iswrong and at once one says: 'No, I know better.' A man who comesto a school must be ready to accept the teaching and the discipline ofthe school, he must be free to accept it, or else he will get nothing. Hecannot acquire Will unless he gives up self-will, just as he cannotacquire knowledge unless he gives up self-opinions.There are in the system certain principles about knowledge. One ofthem is: to know means to know all. To know a part cannot mean toknow. Knowledge begins with a general understanding of the wholeand then with finding a place for each separate thing.In school one cannot begin with knowledge of all. So one beginswith fragments. First one studies fragments relating to the psycholo­gical side, then fragments relating to man's place in the world, etc. Afterseveral fragments have been studied, one is told to try and connectthem together. If one is successful, one will have in this way the wholepicture. And then one may be able to find the right place for eachseparate thing. There is no other way. One cannot learn the systemfrom books.As a matter of fact I have written down and described how we metthe system and studied it. But I realized what a different impression itall produces on readers as compared to us who actually were there. A