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

force that unifies all. Hence the system appears to me to be withinGod or nature. Can you please simplify your statement that thesystem is outside God and nature, so that I may understand it inyour sense?MR O. I didn't say outside God and nature; I spoke about work—theindividual work of each person—going against nature and God—andwhat is called God is the mind or general intelligence behind allcreation, that must be accepted because things couldn't happen; andnature is all that is created. And in this things partly happen and arepartly regulated by mechanical laws and so on. And work doesn't enterinto the idea of creation, nor into the idea of mechanical continuation,mechanical happening—it is against both—it is a current against thecurrent.MR. H In the sense that I understand the word 'nature', no happeningcan be unnatural, since all appears to me to happen within nature'sframework. For example, it is commonly considered for it to beunnatural for a mother to be cruel to her child. The forces that actuatethe mother are of nature. She is wrong but not unnatural. Does thisviewpoint need correcting?MR. O No That is pathological and negative—that doesn't enter intothis Nature created man and let him go in the world in a certain form.Nature doesn't produce further development of man; he must develophimself if he can, and if he wishes. This is what I mean. Nobody saidunnatural, if it happens, it is natural. But this work doesn't happen, itmust be done. It is not on the level of things that happen—it isincommensurable with things that happen, because it doesn't happen,but it can be done consciously, intentionally.MR. B. We were told that impressions were food, imparting energy,does this imply some principle for selecting nutritive impressions—assurely some impressions are relatively poisonous?MR. O. Yes, certainly—self-remembering, first of all, because impressionsthat come when you are asleep produce one effect, and impressionsthat come when you are awake produce quite a different effect—you are able to select and not take unnecessary impressions.MRS. D. Last Friday I asked whether it was possible for people whocollect money to collect knowledge at the same time. You said thatyou had never met a person like that.MR. O. If one concentrates on collecting money, then generally one