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

Thursday. September 15th 1938. (Warwick Gardens.)MR. S. Last week Mr. O. compared the Society as a piece of objectivework to a material object such as a bit of paper. Does this mean that asociety can have a real objective material existence, or has it anobjective existence only in a figurative sense?MR. O. But it will exist quite objectively. Perhaps there is something Ido not understand in the question, but all I can say is that it will bequite a real thing.MR. N. Can one have a real positive or negative attitude towardsanything if one does not recognize different kinds of actions?MR. O. I do not like the word 'real' in this question. Real is opposite toimaginary, and we do not speak about imaginary attitudes. But yes,certainly one can. Different kinds of action is quite a new line ofthought, and it was in quite an ordinary way that I meant what I saidabout it being necessary, in order to understand certain things, to havea positive attitude towards them and that there were other thingswhich one could not understand unless one had a sufficiently negativeattitude.MR. N. Is the objective work of the Society the same as third line ofwork?MR. O. No. That is quite a different scale. First, second, third lines ofwork, these refer to your work and the Society is not your work, it isthe organization. If you begin to work there, then you will see, but atpresent it is quite different.MR. C. It was said that for a school of this kind an objective work wasoften necessary, and that one idea of forming a society was to providethis work. If the Society will change nothing, how will its organizationprovide an objective work?MR. O. Wait and see. How else can I answer? It will be like an exotericcircle, work being the same but divided into two circles, but it will bethe same.MR. C. Why is an objective work necessary?