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

MR. O. For some people.MRS. U. Is it the root of many negative qualities?MR. O. I don't know.MRS. D. Is there a danger of your teaching. .. .MR. O. Which teaching? I don't know. I advise you not to take anyteaching just like that.MRS. J. I have been trying to think only of what I know, and while Ifind that ordinary knowledge comes through my senses and logicalthinking. . . .MR. O. Very good. Sooner or later you may come to something.Well, Dr. R., you had some questions. What kind of questions?DR. R. There were some questions starting from your book.MR. O. Oh, it is old story. Stories from books can be repeated andrepeated, and nothing comes out of it.DR. R. There was another question, that 'I think there is somethinglacking in me'. This man said, 'I feel an unreal person. No character.No solidity. Is there a way to arrive at this?'MR. O. Please, you start with nothing?DR. R. But I have to discover things before I can have something.MR. O. I don't know. In this case question is what you want, and whatyou may want must be something permanent. Anything.MRS. Y. I want to escape.MR. O. Escape where, and why?MRS. Y. I want to escape from mechanicalness and sleep.MR. O. Probably impossible.MR. wo. Is it possible in one lifetime to gain some freedom from theconditions that fix me in my present state?MR. O. How can I know? Everybody has only one life, or one canspeak only about one life.MR. x. The basic facts of self-control and self-denial are more [?]pleasant and more [?] rewarding than self-indulgence. That surely isa paradox in terms. Doesn't that imply the existence of laws of whichwe know very little?MR. O. I don't know.MR. I. How can I learn to know the right part of myself and to listento it?MR. O. The thing is I don't know what you want—even first step.MRS. L. I can see now everything about me is false, and the part of