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

demolished slowly. Can this be explained by different ratios of thedensities of the three forces one to another? For instance, in the FoodTable, first force is half of second force.MR. O. No, that is quite wrong. These do not alter at all.MR. H. Would the printing press be used for printing matter forprivate distribution or for sale to the public? I think this might make adifference to the question of the trade union feelings.MR. O. There will be time to speak about that later.MR. S. Did Mr. O. say that when one had proper attention it formed acentre of its own? It seems you can't see it unless it goes on in morethan one centre.MR. O. I do not understand. In any case, I never said that.MRS. J. Is it possible to direct attention with any centre but emotionalcentre?MR. O. Yes, certainly. You can direct intellectual, moving.MR. H. I should like to understand how to keep attention on somethingthat really needs attention all the time—I find I cannot keep myattention fixed for more than a second at a time. I can see it has goneand bring it back, but I should like to know how to keep it fixed.MR. O. Then you have to do something. When you have to dosomething you have to keep your attention, otherwise you will dosomething different from what you intended.MRS. S. I should like to know how to prevent identification whenreading books—it is so difficult to see where attention in emotionalpart of intellectual centre slips into identification.MR. O. Only experience can show you. Observation. There can be nodescription.MR. B . Is trying to be conscious really trying to do things at once?MR. O. Conscious means conscious. It does not mean to do anything.MR. M. Is it advisable to look for the force which begins an activity,for example in painting a picture? Is it a right observation that thetriad starts with third force, that is, the completed picture, in the sameway the effort to remember oneself starts off with the result which youare aiming at?MR. O. No, thinking in that way will not help.MISS B. Painting a picture starts by knowing what you want to do, buthow does the image get there?MR. O. Ah, that is the secret.