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

MR. O. Yes, if you can. But the effort must be constant. The momentthat the effort stops you begin to think about some quite useless thing.MR. H. By controlling negative emotions do they disappear or do theyrecur?MR. O. I didn't speak about the control of negative emotions. I spokeabout the control of the expression of negative emotions.MRS. S. Being not identified means not to be attached?MR. O. Yes, but not to be identified means to remember yourself.MR. H. If a train goes by and you think that you wish it would stop, isthat identification?MR. O. No, it's only the beginning, if it's for a moment, but if itcontinues it becomes identification. Say you think how you would liketo put a bomb under it.MRS. S. To have a positive emotion we would have to rememberourselves?MR. O. Oh, positive emotion is far from us. Yes, one must almost havefull control. But that is quite interesting because before we can thinkto have positive emotions, we must become more emotional.MRS. B. Then the education that the English receive is bad—selfcontrol?MR. O. Oh, why accuse the English? No, self-control is always good.But how—that is the question.MRS. M. Thank you for saying that, Mr. Ouspensky. Because all theother teachers teach the opposite.MR. O. Yes, I would like to know about anybody who teaches anything.They teach either the cultivation of imagination, or negative emotionsor identification.M R . H . What is a positive emotion?MR. O. Something that we don't have. In the New Testament it saysthat if you have enough faith that you can move mountains, also loveyour enemies. But who can do that? We cannot even love our friends.MRS. W. Why are we afraid of emotions and of being emotional?MR. O. Because our emotions turn into negative emotions so we preferto have none.MRS. R. One way to work on positive emotions is to work on negativeemotions?MR. O. Yes, work against negative emotions is one thing. But youmust realize that you have not enough emotion. And emotional centre