Conscience: The Search for Truth

by P.D. Ouspensky, Merrily E. Taylor (Introduction)

The five works in this collection are an introduction for the lay reader, to the insights of the Russian thinker, P.D. Ouspensky. "Memory" teaches the reader how to attain "true self-consciousness" and appreciation of being alive. "Surface Personality" bids the reader to shed such superficialities and acquire a centre of gravity instead. "Self-Will", usually a recipe for disaster, is best replaced by mindfulness and responsibility. "Negative Emotions" can be destroyed, first by limiting them and then by getting to their roots. "Notes on Work" warns the reader of the commitment and self-discipline needed if one earnestly desires to change one's life.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology, Nonfiction, Metaphysics

Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii (known in English as Peter D. Ouspensky, Пётр Демья́нович Успе́нский; was a Russian mathematician and esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915. He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with Gurdjieff from then on. He shared the (Gurdjieff) "system" for 25 years in England and the United States, having separated from Gurdjieff in 1924 personally, for reasons he explains in the last chapter of his book In Search of the Miraculous.

All in all, Ouspensky studied the Gurdjieff system directly under Gurdjieff's own supervision for a period of ten years, from 1915 to 1924. His book In Search of the Miraculous is a recounting of what he learned from Gurdjieff during those years. While lecturing in London in 1924, he announced that he would continue independently the way he had begun in 1921. Some, including his close pupil Rodney Collin, say that he finally gave up the system in 1947, just before his death, but his own recorded words on the subject ("A Record of Meetings", published posthumously) do not clearly endorse this judgement, nor does Ouspensky's emphasis on "you must make a new beginning" after confessing "I've left the system".

Reviews

[Jennifer Sweete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Memory - it's not what I thought it was ... and that's something I try now to remember.

[P.Dodd · Rating 1 out of 5]

An insolent, pointless, useless, traduced and redacted collection of some of the 'juvenilia' of Ouspensky's, his ruminations before he met G i Gurdjieff.
Merrily, sadly, wastes her time, and, more importantly, mine.
Throw in the dustbin, if you cannot get your money back.

[Jordan Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book is one of my favorites by Ouspensky. I reread some or all of it most years. I don't share his fascination with recurrence and memory, but the section on negative emotions is worth reading more than once.