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

MISS N . When I try to think about these ideas, I get a sort of negativefeeling of helplessness, as if nothing I can do will prove them tomyself. Whereas the psychological things I can more or less prove tomyself.MR. O. You put yourself in a wrong position. Formatory thinking inrelation to these ideas can give no results. But if you can think rightlyabout one thing, you can think rightly about another thing.MISS S. I do not understand the distinction between theoretical andphilosophical ideas. Can this be made more clear?MR. O. We may come to that later. It is very important to understandthe difference of language and the difference in attitude as regardsthese.MR. T . Some little while ago we were given a diagram showing howthe three notes of organic life filled the interval in the Ray of Creation.Could it be explained why there are three notes and the part each ofthese notes plays individually?MR. O. These three notes have no separate meaning. As time goes onyou will see how they can be understood. They sound all threetogether. We may come later to what that means, but not in the wayyou approach it.MISS L. May I go back to the question of illness? In the chapter ofFragments in which we heard about the enneagram, we were shownsymbols of man on the way to change. When all five centres wereworking properly, man was represented by a five-pointed star. Afterhe grew a sixth principle, he was represented by a six-pointed star, theSeal of Solomon. Can I assume from that that if instinctive centre isnot perfect, man has not the possibility of that change?MR. O. No, that has nothing to do with it. Also, as regards difficultiesof instinctive centre, it is necessary to know what kind of difficultiesyou mean. It is impossible to speak in general. You just say 'ifinstinctive centre is not perfect', as if this were something uniform,whereas it may have many different forms. So I cannot answer thisquestion as it is.MR. D. Is intelligence due to essence or personality, or both?MR. O. It must be understood without connecting it with essence andpersonality.MRS. P. Does this system think that ill-health can be avoided by selfknowledge?