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

MR. O. No, he is taking no responsibility. It is necessary to distinguishbetween things. An individual man cannot change things, therefore heis not responsible. If we speak like that we make it impossible for us tounderstand anything. Or if we bring philosophical reasons in and saythat both an individual soldier and a prime minister are machines.MR. D. How to distinguish between a prime minister and an ordinaryman?MR. O. Ask them, who is who. If people take official posts theybecome responsible.MISS H . You said conscience is unity of emotions. Can you explain itmore?MR. O. It is capacity to see all emotions at the same time. You havemany opposite emotions and many opposite truths and you never seethe contradictions. You must start by observing how one feelingcontradicts another. If you have not observed this, you cannot seewhat I mean. You have many contradictory opinions, views, feelings.One moment you like something, another moment you hate it, etc. Butyou don't notice it. You cannot separate them.MR. A . They are separated by different moments of time?MR. O. They may be at the same time.MR. T . If you apply a standard, it is whether a particular thing helps orhinders consciousness?MR. O. The standard must be in connection with the system. Without asystem (I don't mean only this system, but you must have a system)you cannot judge. You may have a feeling of right and wrong, but youwon't know. So you must be guided by a system.MR. D. Do you make a distinction between criminal and very bad?MR. O. It is difficult to speak about words.MISS F. I cannot see a state when you see everything all at once.MR. O. You cannot. We cannot have conscience, just as we cannothave consciousness. But the more we become conscious, the moreoften moments will come when we will begin to feel conscience. But atpresent conscience is theoretical for us, we cannot experiment with it.MISS M . Is there anything in Christian religion incompatible with thissystem?MR. O. Christ taught on the level of man No. 8. So what can we knowabout Christian religion? It is a question of levels.MISS M . I mean the accepted view.