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

Thursday. January 27th 1938. (Warwick Gardens.)[Written questions read.]MRS. M. To be serious, it seems to me necessary to have achievedunity. But, as we are now, I suppose to be serious is to remember ouraim and to judge and value other things in relation to it.MR. R. To be serious is to think, in relation to what one thinks or feelsto be important, about those things which one considers relevant tothat.MR. H. To be serious about a thing means, for me, to consider it inrelation to my own ultimate profit; to try to eliminate things which aremechanical, but to make use of things which lead to greater awarenessMISS J. Is to be serious to be able to see things on their right scale?MR. B. Is seriousness to do only those things which are importantfrom, as far as possible, absolute standards?MR. O. And what is important? That is just replacing one word byanother.MR. A . Seriousness in my opinion is not grimness nor the opposite ofjoyousness nor the absence of gaiety. I think that joyousness and gaietyare greatly enhanced if tempered by a measure of seriousness. Fromthis I incline to the deduction that seriousness and self-rememberingare identical.MR. O. No, you cannot replace one word by another. That would betoo easy.MISS S It seems that it must be impossible to be truly serious withouthaving a permanent 'I'. I think that to be serious one would have tohave a very large scale view of everything so as to know all the timewhich things are of permanent, lasting importance.MR. O. If we wait until we have permanent 'I', we will never have it.We must be serious before that.MR. S. To be serious is to seek for a way of life which will givemeaning and purpose to existence.MR. H. If I enquire of myself whether or not I am serious about this