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

an action happen, or are the three forces in equilibrium, the removal ofone making the action happen?MR. O. No, not the removal. There must be three forces meeting foran action to be produced.MR. A . We are told that there are four ways to the attainment of unity.If, while we are learning here, we think we discover we belong toanother way, that we are, for instance, of the religious type, should weabandon the Fourth Way?MR. O. You see, this happens very, very seldom. Generally, if onecomes to this, for instance, to group of the Fourth Way, and is able tounderstand and follow it, it means one can follow that. The otherforms will be more difficult for him. In any case he may find there isnot so much difference. I remember being told a story once by a manwho said it had been his own experience. Some disciples of a schoolwhich was half Yogi, half religious, found the school difficult, so theycame to another school. To their surprise they found they wereimmediately given the same tasks to do, but with some additionaldifficulty. One of them asked the man who gave them the task how heknew, whether it meant that schools communicated with each otherwhen a man left. The teacher answered: 'It is not worth whilecommunicating when a man runs away from one school and comes toanother school. As soon as I saw you I saw what was the task you hadbeen given, and could only give you the same but perhaps a little moredifficult.' You see there is really no choice. Here everything is explained.You can ask any questions and have them answered. But the Yogi usesquite different methods. Some time before the war, a young man inParis started to study Indian philosophy with some pundits in France.They gave him a certain symbol on which to meditate and told him tocome back in six months' time, to write down what he had done andbring it with him. In six months he came back with heaps of papers.They said: 'Very good. Continue and come back again in six months.'At the end of six months he came again, and again they told him it wasvery good and to come back in six months' time. He became desperateand went off to Benares, where he met some learned man and askedhim to help. The man asked what he had been doing in Paris. Herepeated it all except that he did not say he was displeased but just thathe thought perhaps there in Benares he could do more. The mananswered: 'Very good. Continue. Come again in six months' time.'