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

ings the development of consciousness. It is the same thing indifferent words.MR. B. Is there much that one can observe about instinctiveidentification—identification with instinctive centre?MR. O. What do you mean by identification of instinctive centre?Certainly people do this all their lives in eating.MR. B. I mean identification where mingling occurs with instinctivecentre, where one mingles with that which one is observing.MR. O. What does mingling mean?MR. B. Trying to check identification is sometimes impossible becauseit all occurs so quickly. Intellectually it takes more time, but emotionallyit is so quick.MR. O. Yes, it may be. But what about instinctive centre?MR. B. I can understand where it occurs intellectually and emotionally,but I can't understand where it occurs instinctively.MR. O. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish emotional from instinctive.But instinctive is always physical, so use the word physicalinstead.MR. B. To protect oneself against physical identifying, one can see justthe moral thing—and that doesn't seem quite right. For instance, onelooks at a person and thinks of their face instead of identifying. Is thisright?MR. O. It may work all right, but like all other things of that kind, itneeds a certain amount of self-remembering and control. Just thinkingabout it is not enough.MRS. T. What are some of the ways in which one can determinewhether this system is for one?MR. O. It is much easier to say when it is impossible for one.MRS. T. The reason I ask is that you said that some people come underB influence, and come to this school, and it is not for them.MR. O. Only by trying can one really know. But sometimes one canknow and then be mistaken. If you really think about the system, youwill begin by hating it. I always suspect people who begin by likingeverything at once.MRS. K. Suspect them of what?MR. O. This kind of liking often turns into identification. C influenceis so different from anything else in life that one must acquire a tastefor it.