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

that he wanted to go to Italy on a holiday. I looked at him and said:'You are not ashamed to go to Italy?' And probably even to this dayhe does not understand what I meant. He was a particular type ofman—all his life consisted in passing from one holiday to another. Hedid not even attempt to understand, so I let it go.MISS M. It seems that when one is doing things like washing-up,dusting, lighting fires or even walking, which are purely automatic,one should find opportunities for observation. I find, however, that Itend to day-dream even more than usual. Could you give us someadvice as to how to do this kind of work for self-observation?MR. O. Effort is necessary, doing things in an inconvenient way—thatwill remind you.MISS M. I try to set myself small tasks such as not to talk about thingswhich are not necessary to keep secret. The best thing that seems to happenis that I remember to do the task, but I do not observe myself or remembermyself. Is there any way in which these tasks may become more profitable?MR. O. It is the same thing—you must find what will remind you.MISS R. As there can be no good or evil excepting in relation to aim itseems strange to me that good and evil seem to mean something forme in spite of the fact that I cannot exactly formulate my aim.MR. O. This is philosophy. We are not satisfied with philosophy, we musthave facts. On our level, for us, there is good and bad. Evil can pass onlythrough involuntary actions, it cannot come through voluntary actions.MISS P. Is the 'Song of Solomon' a poetical work of man No. 5 or 6?MR. O. You must ask his contemporaries.MRS. M. Is there conscious evil on the cosmic scale?MR. O. Before asking this question it is necessary to think what evil ona cosmic scale means. Our possibility of thinking about it is so abstractthat we cannot think about what it would be. We cannot speak aboutevil beyond our own life.MRS. M. Is what we call evil on our own level due to the mechanicalworking of the formatory apparatus?MR. O. This is limiting the question.MRS. M. Can we be told what witchcraft is in the light of this system?MR. O. What do you know about witchcraft? Most of it was imagina­tion, or it may be the remains of magical knowledge. Usually it issimply hypnotism, occasionally it is the working of higher centres. Sowhich do you mean and what do you know about it?