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

division of men from the point of view of the possibility of changingtheir being There is such a division Only your questions don't lead tothat, so I will just wait a little Perhaps some question will bring itnearer Because there are people for whom there is the possibility ofchanging their being, there are many people for whom it is practicallyimpossible, because they brought their being into such a state thatthere is no starting-point in them And there are people who already,by different means, different methods, destroyed the possibility ofchange of their being And in times like this, these people very oftenplay a leading part We can speak about it now or another time, onlyyou must come nearer to that I don't want to make it simplytheoretical It must start with some practical approach, for understandingMR A I feel if I only had to be told what to do I could do itMR O No, this is not a question of doing It is a question ofunderstanding—understanding of different types of men from thepoint of view of changing their being The question of being told whatto do doesn't touch it at all You can be told what to do only inschool, in school work Now we speak in generalMRS P Then the people that really lead, whose being is destroyed, arelunatics, are they?MR O May be even worse than lunatics Even lunatics can recoversometimesMR F Does this bad state depend on extreme division in themselves?MR O No It is worse than that But we cannot begin from this angleWe must begin from ourselves and see in what condition we areMR L I feel that my desire to change would be greater if I could feelthe danger of my situation The danger seems always very remoteMR O Again this is individual Either you feel it or don't feel itEither you realize and understand or you don'tMR B Does the destruction of possibilities depend on constant suppressionof conscience?MR O I said we cannot begin from this end We must begin frompossibilities, not impossibilitiesMR R As the greater mass of humanity are absolute recurrences orgoing down, only very few are going up or growingMR O It is difficult to introduce the idea of recurrence But after all, itis possible Yes, certainly the larger part is unconscious, repeating the