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

MR. O. Oh, because they destroy their resistance. And they are notsuicides until they kill themselves.MISS H . Could one end life entirely in this way?MR. O. Oh, yes, certainly. Then one ceases to be born.MR. M. You really discard it then?MR. O. Discard, yes, but it may happen in many different ways.MR. M. Is that deterioration deliberate then?MR. O. 'Deliberately' is very rare. Laziness—not doing what one knowsone ought to do.MISS B. What happens if one stops recurring?MR. O. Nothing, he just disappears. Then something remains and mayeven suffer. But that's in the moon.MRS. N. How could one become dangerous?MR. O. By lying. One continues to think, but one does not wish toknow right things—so one invents.MISS B. If one becomes conscious, does that mean eternity?MR. O. Some things go on for ever. But it's relative. Even man No. 7is immortal only in the limits of the Solar System.MRS. N. Then the soul has separate existence on the moon?MR. O. In normal man it has no consciousness. It's just mechanical, soit doesn't suffer.MRS. C. Can one ever reach a point where one can control the Law ofAccident?MR. O. You see it is a very strange thing, the Law of Accident.MRS. N. What do you mean by knowledge?MR. O. Well, first, self-knowledge. We don't know who we are, etc.And when you begin to learn yourself you begin to learn otherpeople.MRS. N. Then a person with no book knowledge can have knowledge?MR. O. Certainly, but it's difficult to begin.MISS B. How would you explain a man like Jacob Boehme?MR. O. Oh, I don't explain this. It is so far away.MR. N. A man feels that he should develop himself.MR. O. Man cannot.MR. N. What happens to a man who wants to develop and doesn't?MR. O. I don't know. Who looks may find. Who doesn't, won't.MR. N. Suppose that a man thinks that he ought to enter this systemand doesn't, what happens?