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

all organic life, then certainly man plays his part, though, since it isquite mechanical, it can hardly be called a part. From my point of viewplan begins when the part can be played consciously, with understanding.For this, he must be conscious man. Then it may be different, thequestion of how he can come into a plan, what part he plays and so on.MISS R. I find it hard to make myself copy out questions to bring themto the meeting, although I write them down roughly with greatenthusiasm when I first think them out.MR. O. Then get somebody else to copy them out for you. That is theonly solution if you cannot find some sufficiently neutral 'I' who willnot say 'this is not interesting', 'this I know the answer already'.MISS L. How can we strengthen and fix the moments when emotion isfelt so that there is no doubt we want to work and use this at momentswhen there is no doubt we do not want to work?MR. O. By just trying to connect them. When you are in this state,remember other moments in this state and make a mental link betweenthem.MR. D. I am not clear about the relationship between first and secondconscious shock. Is a high level of self-remembering necessary beforesecond conscious shock becomes a practical possibility?MR. O. Yes, and not only self-remembering. Self-remembering mustproduce results, must produce a quite different quality of material inthe body. Only then comes the possibility of second conscious shock.The transformation of mi 12 into fa 6 means producing positiveemotions. This is only possible for man No. 5, so you see we are veryfar from it. At present our work consists in the struggle with identification.This leads towards it, but we cannot think at present of producingit in its full form.MR. F. Does a buffer which separates two opposite personalities alwaysconsist of two ideas, one corresponding to each personality?MR. O. Buffer is not ideas. It is just buffer. Something which cannot bedescribed, a matter for your observation on yourself and on otherpeople. It may have one sentence which makes it possible not to seefrom one personality to another, but it is not ideas.MR. A . Why do we use the term 'buffer' and not, for instance, theword 'excuses'?MR. O. Because it is not excuses. It is just buffer. There is a greatdifference between excuses and buffer. Excuses may be different every