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P.D. Ouspensky

P.D. Ouspensky Books

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Tertium Organum

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“Q. But it seems to me there are circumstances that simply induce one to have negative emotions! A. This is one of the worst illusions we have. We think that negative emotions are produced by circumstances, whereas all negative emotions are in us, inside us. This is a very important point. We always think our negative emotions are produced by the fault of other people or by the fault of circumstances. We always think that. Our negative emotions are in ourselves and are produced by ourselves. There is absolutely not a single unavoidable reason why somebody else's action or some circumstance should produce a negative emotion in me. It is only my weakness. No negative emotion can be produced by external causes if we do not want it. We have negative emotions because we permit them, justify them, explain them by external causes, and in this way we do not struggle with them.”

PhilosophyPsychologyEmotionsMetaphysics
Book:The Fourth Way: An Arrangement by Subject of Verbatim Extracts from the Records of Ouspensky's Meetings in London and New York, 1921-46
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“If one does not develop, one goes down. In life, in ordinary conditions everything goes down, or one capacity may develop at the expense of another.”

PhilosophyPersonal DevelopmentPhsychology
Book:The Fourth Way: An Arrangement by Subject of Verbatim Extracts from the Records of Ouspensky's Meetings in London and New York, 1921-46
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“We cannot know the truth but we can pretend that we know. And this is lying. Lying fills all our life. People pretend that they know all sorts of things: about God, about the future life, about the universe, about the origin of man, about evolution, about everything; but in reality they do not know anything, even about themselves. And every time they speak about something they do not know as though they knew it, they lie.”

PsychologyIgnoranceLiesEpistemology
Book:The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution
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“„Mi mislimo da smo ovakvi kakvi smo. Na nesreću, mi nismo takvi kakvi smo, već takvi kakvi smo postali: mi smo neprirodna bića. Mi suviše spavamo, suviše lažemo, suviše živimo u fantaziji, suviše se identifikujemo. Mi mislimo da imamo posla sa pravim bićem, ali u stvarnosti imamo posla sa imaginarnim bićem. Gotovo sve što znamo o sebi je imaginarno. Ispod tih naslaga čovek je sasvim drugačiji. Mi imamo mnoštvo imaginarnih stvari koje moramo odbaciti pre nego što stignemo do pravih stvari. Sve dok živimo u imaginarnim stvarima, ne možemo da shvatimo vrednost pravih; a samo kad u sebi dođemo do pravih stvari možemo da vidimo šta je izvan nas stvarno. U sebi imamo isuviše slučajnih slojeva.”

PutUspenskičEtvrti
Book:The Fourth Way: An Arrangement by Subject of Verbatim Extracts from the Records of Ouspensky's Meetings in London and New York, 1921-46
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“What is the best way to look for one´s chief feature?" someone asked. Simply see yourself. I do not know how to explain it better. It is possible one may find something -- chief feature of the moment. It is imaginary personality; this is the chief feature for everybody."Can one alter one´s chief feature?" asked someone else. First it is necessary to know it. If you know it, much will depend on the quality of your knowing. If you know it well, then it is possible to change it.”

IfsKnowsWayFirstsWellsLooksMayMomentsQualityKnow HowKnowingPersonalityDependsBest WayChiefsFeaturesImaginary
Author:P.D. Ouspensky
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“Man is a machine which reacts blindly to external forces and, this being so, he has no will, and very little control of himself, if any at all. What we have to study, therefore, is not psychology-for that applies only to a developed man-but mechanics. Man is not only a machine but a machine which works very much below the standard it would be capable of maintaining if it were working properly.”

IfsMenLittlesWould BeForceStudyPsychologyCapableStandardsMachinesMechanicMaintainingExternal Forces
Author:P.D. Ouspensky
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“Man is a machine, but a very peculiar machine. He is a machine which, in right circumstances, and with right treatment, can know that he is a machine, and having fully realized this, he may find the ways to cease to be a machine. First of all, what man must know is that he is not one; he is many. He has not one permanent and unchangeable “I” or Ego. He is always different. One moment he is one, another moment he is another, the third moment he is a third, and so on, almost without end.”

KnowsMenWayFirstsMayDifferentEndsMomentsCircumstancesEgoMachinesThirdsCeasePermanentTreatmentPeculiarUnchangeable
Author:P.D. Ouspensky
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“You can understand other people only as much as you understand yourself and only on the level of your own being. This means you can judge other people's knowledge but you cannot judge their being. You can see in them only as much as you have in yourself. But people always make the mistake of thinking they can judge other people's being. In reality, if they wish to meet and understand people of a higher development than themselves they must work with the aim of changing their being.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMeanRealitySpiritualWishLevelsMistakeJudgingDevelopmentHigherAim
Author:P.D. Ouspensky
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“Think about death. You do not know how much time remains to you. And remember that if you do not become different, everything will be repeated again, all foolish blunders, all silly mistakes, all loss of time and opportunity - everything will be repeated with the exception of the chance you had this time, because chance never comes in the same form.You will have to look for your chance next time. And in order to do this, you will have to remember many things, and how will you remember then if you do not remember anything now?”

IfsThinkingKnowsLooksDifferentRememberFormOrderNextOpportunityChanceLossMistakeKnow HowRemainsFoolishSillyExceptionNext TimeBlunders
Author:P.D. Ouspensky
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“I had come to the conclusion a long time ago that there was no escape from the labyrinth of contradictions in which we live except by an entirely new road, unlike anything hitherto known or used by us. But where this new or forgotten road began I was unable to say. I already knew then as an undoubted fact that beyond the thin film of false reality there existed another reality from which, for some reason, something separated us. The 'miraculous' was a penetration into this unknown reality.”

LongReasonFactsRealityFilmUsedKnownLong TimeForgottenConclusionContradictionMiraculousLong Time AgoLabyrinthPenetrationNew RoadsFalse Reality
Author:P.D. Ouspensky
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