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

opposites—splendour and misery, delight and sadness, bitter andsweet.If part of this were negative, it would taste so; but the whole, bothopposites together, seems to form a unity with a positive taste.What is the explanation of this double experience? Is it the contrastof suddenly becoming more awake than before? Or is it in fact a formof negative emotion, which the positive cannot overcome?MR. O. You make a mistake about positive. It is not positive. It issimply pleasure and pain, not the opposition of positive and negative. Insuch as we are, there is one thing to remember. Every pleasant emotioncan become negative the next moment. So even extreme pleasurereminds one of pain. Your observation only proves that statement.MR. F. You spoke at the last lecture of a triad being 'too good' forsome purpose possibly. Is this in reference to the triads using differentenergies—do some use finer energies than others?MR. O. No, it means simply wrong triad. Suppose you use, withoutknowing, a certain triad which can produce some special kind ofresult, it would not be good for your purpose.MR. F. Is the inferiority of the factory-hand as a type, compared withthe craftsmen of former times, able to be expressed in terms of the typeof triad, and therefore of energy demanded by two different forms ofemployment? For example, controlling a machine, compared withdesigning and making a chair.MR. O. It can be. One can do only one thing and another can do thisand that.MR. F. Do certain parts of centres work chiefly or exclusively withcertain triads?MR. O. No, that is wrong. You must not try to invent things, butfollow the lines that are shown. Analogies connected with centres andparts of centres are wrong.MR. D. I find it extremely difficult to classify events according to thecategories mentioned by Mr. O. If one understood, which I do not, theexact significance of each category, would it be possible to diagnose, inadvance, circumstances likely to lead to certain events?MR. O. Yes, it is very difficult. It takes years to do that. But it ispossible. There are certain categories, and you must try to find what isanalogous. If you find analogies, then little by little your knowledgewill increase. Choose what does fit, not what does not fit. Not just take