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

MRS. F. Should one try to direct energy? Suppose one has saved a littleby checking the expression of negative emotion and one knows onelacks most the energy to build a house or to burn a house, should one tryto direct it to one's need? Or does it go there of itself, automatically, asthe resistance in the body goes to where the illness or the weakness lies?[End of written questions.]***MISS N. To which centre does the feeling of humour belong? Islaughter always mechanical?MR. O. Yes. I cannot make myself laugh. It is mechanical. That meanssomething produces it.Many things can be said about it. On our level it is very usefulcapacity, but you must understand there is no humour, no sense of thecomic in higher centres. It ceases to be useful. But on our level, incertain conditions, it is useful. All its functions are filled in anotherway in higher centres.***I want to speak again about the question of meat and fish. Behindthis question is theosophical superstition. All kinds of superstitions arewrong from the point of view of the system, because they are notbased on anything. For instance, they say that matters like these bringsome kind of rough emanations with them. There is not the slightestevidence of that. So it is very dangerous to come to this question fromthe superstitious point of view.MR. A . It is not exactly that, the idea I had at the back of my mindwhen I asked the question. We are purely mechanical and thoughts andfeeling are conditioned by the state of our body, digestion. If we havein our bodies finer matters. . . .MR. O. But these are not finer matters. They are the same. On whichscale? That is what it is. You cannot say on which scale it is wrong.From the Hydrogens' point of view you can say yes. For the juices, itis easier to break up vegetable cells than animal cells. But you cannotsay so from a moral or religious point of view.There is no material to speak about it from. There is no evidencethat one is better than another. It is just a question of taste. I personallylike vegetables, you may like meat. There is no difference. We mustnot create wrong associations. I agree that vegetable food is better, butyou must explain it in another way—easier to digest, that is all.