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

MR. O. There are many laws. Certainly from another point of vieweverything can be called laws. But better to say that it is avoiding lawsthat makes us like that. Man is afraid to see himself. That is not a law.If it were there would be no chance for him. He can decide at a givenmoment to be brave and see what he is. This is not a law.MR. F. You said the kind of energy used for self-remembering couldbe increased at will. How can it be done?MR. O. By trying to remember yourself and by observation. Yourimpressions bring energy. If you look and do not see, you lose energy,but if you observe and see, that means you acquire more energy.MRS. L. Can one suddenly change the energy of anger into somethingelse? One has tremendous energy, but doesn't know how to use it.MR. O. By not identifying. One has tremendous energy and it worksby itself and makes one act in a certain way. Why? What is theconnecting link? Identification is the link. Stop identification and youwill have it at your disposal. How can you do this? Not at once. Itneeds practice. Practice at easier moments. When emotion is verystrong, one cannot. It is necessary to know more, to be prepared. Ifyou know how not to identify in the right moments, you will havegreat energy at your disposal. What you will do with this is anotherthing. You may lose it again on something quite useless. But it takespractice. You cannot learn to swim if you fall into the sea during astorm. You must learn in calm water. Then perhaps, if you fall in, youwill be able to swim.MR. A . Are we to understand that self-remembering means awareness.. . .MR. O. There again, not only awareness. It means also a certain capacityto act in a certain way, to do what you want. You see, in our logicalthinking, logical knowledge, we divide consciousness from will. Consciousnessmeans will. In Russian, for instance, will is the same wordas freedom. In the languages with Latin roots, they take the meaningaway, give it another meaning. The word consciousness means acombination of all knowledge, as if you have all your knowledgebefore you at the same time. But consciousness also means will, andwill means freedom.MISS M . Does the word shock in connection with the diagrams meanthe same thing as shocks in ordinary life?MR. O. Shocks can come from ordinary life. But sometimes they must