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

MR. D. You explained how knowledge of the three forces helped inschool-work. Will you please tell us how can we know which are thethree forces in any private undertaking and how can we applythem?Since in application of the three forces we have to work with otherpeople, doesn't it make altruism a scientific necessity?MR. O. Again I must say some things about language—try and specializein the language that you have learned. Altruism—it is a foreign word.***[Oral questions.]MISS B. Do we lead this life over and over again, or do we leadmultiple lives?MR. O. What do you mean by multiple lives?No, certainly not, we live in this time, until one gets out of it.MR. M. There is still the intellectual phrase, 'born of the sameparents'—that I don't understand.MR. O. It means that. One word cannot be guaranteed—'immediately'.MRS. N. What do you mean by the second line of work?MR. O. You cannot work alone in the second line—you work in agroup.MRS. D. Would you say something about not remembering ourselves?MR. O. No, that must be a matter for self-observation.MRS. S. What are negative emotions?MR. O. Again, matter for observation. At least half of them willdisappear if imagination and negative emotions go.MRS. D. Can there not be creative imagination?MR. O. Man is a machine; he cannot create anything. At best he mayimitate.MISS B. How can one tell the difference between imagination and a realexperience?MR. O. First you see imagination has the particular power of turninglike a wheel.MR. D. What is the mental state of a composer, inventor, painter, whenhe thinks about his work before?MR. O. Exactly the same as a carpenter, who makes benches.MRS. P. You wish us to establish with our consciousness the differencebetween the creative and the imagination?MR. O. Not only they don't go together, but there is great self-