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

Necessary to think about it. To get this principle about differentactions. We know there is bread that we can eat, and things that arepoison. But we do not understand that actions may be equally different.One action may correspond to bread, another action to poison, but wedo not feel it. It does not enter into ordinary thinking.MR. R. Can one know differences between actions without knowingthe state of mind of the person who does it?MR. O. I do not mean state of mind. I mean actions themselves quiteapart from that. Bread or poison remain different apart from state ofmind of man who analyses them.MISS F. Are the consequences of the action part of the triad?MR. O. You may take it like that. But leave triads for a time.MISS F. Does the result of the action belong to the action?MR. O. Yes, certainly—all included in the action itself. Same as theresults are included in bread and poison. One result in bread, anotherresult included in poison.MISS M . Can we say that actions which take us away from our aim arecriminal?MR. O. No, we cannot start from this point. Definition itself must bebased on other things. At present it is quite sufficient to understandcriminal as definite fact. It does not mean it is simply called crime fromone point of view and may be called not crime from another point ofview. Definite action means crime, is crime.MR. A . What does the word crime mean to you?MR. O. Oh, that is dictionary question. Dictionary definition will nothelp to understand. It is some kind of special action, different fromother actions, from work, for instance, different from adaptation,different from many other actions. It has its own specific gravity, itsown specific meaning. It is very easy action, one of the easiest actionsin the world, and that is why crime is so popular, in our time particularly.MR. A . In our mechanical state, then, are we very often criminals?MR. O. Why?MR. A . We speak about things we do not know.MR. O. That is lying. That is another thing. Same triad but not samething.MRS. S. Is crime always the result of identification?MR. O. Not necessarily. Again that does not enter into it. This is much