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

MR O Maybe It is difficult to say You must observe yourself, andagain, in different conditions, different circumstancesMRS L The thing that worries me most is Mr O 'S statement thatthings happen to us I had to make a decision in a hurry and thenafterwards heard of other facts and said to someone, if I had knownthese things I wouldn't have made that decisionMR O But you didn't know, so you couldn't take that into consideration, so there is nothing to worry aboutMRS L They said I would have made the identical decision because Iwas I How much choice have we?MR O No, not always, because you didn't know If you knew, perhapsyou could make a different decision, but again, it would not be youwho made this decision The decision would be altered by yourknowledge of the circumstancesMR K Isn't sincere criticism a way to understanding? I mean criticismof things, weighing one thing with another One has to have come tosome decision about first principles of the thing one is criticizingMR O Yes certainly, but criticism mustn't become criticism of people,their attitudes, their being and so onMR K Is this different from criticizing actions of one's own?MR O Yes To one's own one has one attitude, to other people'sanother attitude Again, people may be in the work or not in the work,older or younger than you There are very many different possibilitiesMR B If I try to relax my muscles and stop my thoughts, I very soonbecome conscious of my breathing and this seems to interfere withrelaxation Can anything be done about this?MR O If you feel it, you feel it, only you mustn't try to change yourbreathing in this way But I think that with better methods it willdisappearMRS D When I am interested in some question at the lecture butdon't understand much about it, I begin thinking about it and so missmany other questions What can I do about that?MR O It cannot be helped All questions are repeated from time totimeMISS F I am puzzled because when I am in a bad state of considering, I am very aware of my body as a large awkward mass, and when Itry to self-remember I try to do this same thing, to be aware of mybody