For thousand of years the human brain has been conditioned to act from the center to the periphery and from the periphery to the center by a continuous movement, going out and coming back. How could this movement ever stop? If it ceases, an energy will appear that is without limit, without cause, without beginning or end. To come to this, it is first necessary to make order -to clean house- a task that requires complete attention. The body must become very sensitive and the mind completely empty, without any desire. Understanding comes not by an effort to acquire or become, but only when the spirit is still.
Our true nature, an unknown that cannot be named because it has no form, can be sensed in the stop between two thoughts or two perceptions. These movements of stop constitute an opening to a Presence that is without end, eternal. Ordinarily we cannot believe in this because we think anything without form is not real. So we let pass the possibility of experiencing Being.
Our fear of being nothing is what pushes us to fill the void, to wish to acquire or become. And this fear, conscious or not, leads to the destruction of our possibility to be. We cannot get rid of it by an act of will or by any effort to free ourselves. Opposing one desire with another can only engender resistance, and understanding will not come from resistance. We can be liberated from this fear only by vigilance, by becoming conscious of it. We must see clearly through the contradictory desires with which we live. It is not a question of concentrating on a single desire, but of freeing oneself from the conflict engendered by avidity. With the dissolution of this conflict comes tranquility. Reality can appear.
The highest form of intelligence is meditation, an intense vigilance that liberates the mind from its reactions, and this alone, without any willful intervention, produces a state of tranquillity. This requires an extraordinary energy, which can only appear when there is no conflict in us, when all the ideas have completely disappeared, all belief, hope and fear. Than it is not contemplation that arises, but a state of attention in which there is no longer a sense of ”I,” someone present to participate in the experience, to identify with it. So there is no experience. Understanding this at the deepest level is important for one who wishes to know what truth is, what God is, what is beyond the constructions of the human mind.
In this state of vigilance, I do nothing, but I am present. The mind is in a state of attention in which there is lucidity, a clear observation without choice of all that one thinks, all that one feels, all that one does. The mind concentrates without boundaries. This state creates tranquility, and when the mind is perfectly quiet, without any illusions, ”something” comes into existence, not constructed by the mind, that cannot be expressed in words.
—From The Reality of Being, by Jeanne de Salzmann, Shambhala, 2010., pp.320. There is also a review of the book by Tracy Cochran on PARABOLA’s website.
Thank you Luke for the post. A few minutes ago I had my morning preparation and now, reading this form mdme de Salzmann, it was a direct answer to my questions and difficulties in my sitting.How can I become free from this inner conflict, while I see all this distractions, thoughts, tensions, and something does not like what is looking, it bocomes dissapointed – is the question…
Finally, allow me to say that the above passage is in page 278, of the book.
Warm wishes from Greece
Stefanos
Thank you Mr. Storms for this stunning article and picture of Madame Jeanne DeSalzmann. The experience she relates in the last paragraph (in my own copy of The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, these words appear instead on page 278 under the title of “Meditation is not contemplation” under the overall section entitled “AN ATTITUDE OF VIGILANCE”) is familiar to many within the bona fide Gurdjieff Work and is approachable by normal adults who have what Gurdjieff describes as a functioning magnetic center, i.e. a non-theoretical interest in these types of ideas and practices.
I attended a program on June 4 at St. Marks in The Bowery Church in NYC which had the purpose of introducing interested persons (with magnetic center presumably) to the Gurdjieff Ideas and Music and Movements. First, a portion of the the ideas was discussed in some detail. A person from the Gurdjieff Fundation of NY who had studied the Movements with Jeanne deSalzmann for most of her own adult life then brought some of the preliminary exercises necessary to actually take part in a real Movements class. Most everyone in attendance took part in these exercises, young and old. And then there were two pieces from the Gurdjieff’DeHartmann repertoire of Music played. A portion of the teaching is said to have been conveyed by Gurdjieff in these pieces.
One gentleman raised a question about the availability of the Work in today’s overall craziness and why was it so “hidden” when so many people had an overwhelming spiritual hunger, especially younger people. I can’t recall the exact response from those in front of this program but his question has stuck with me for the several weeks since June 4. In my own view, the Gurdjieff Work these days is seemingly everywhere for those who are so-inclined and who are really looking for something.
Maybe people are put off by all the dilettantes and dabblers out there in the spiritual scene who may have read one of Gurdjieff’s books at some time in their life, or who may have attended a program about the G practice, or maybe who knew someone in the Work or who may have even put their tippy-toe in the water some time in the past and attended meetings for a couple of years and consider themselves a “Gurdjieffian”.
Jacob Needleman spoke at the NY Open Center at the end of May, 2011 as part of the program on Gurdjieff and the Crisis in Our World and he said he thought we were at a tipping point in the world these days, maybe including the financial and political and even the spiritual worlds. It sure feels like it to me. But he said he thought that the Gurdjieff Work as continued by Jeanne DeSalzmann and now others, was emminently legitimate and is what the world needs at this time.
Seeing this aricle by Mrs. DeSalzmann in this Parabola forum reminds me of his point.
Thank you: I had not read this before stumbling onto your site and upon reading it, well, curious how resonance opens spaces and places isn’t it? Meditation as an intense vigilance, that state of awareness beyond words, beyond intellect and instinct even as all seven, seventeen, or million senses that we have are engaged and active and alert, present in the moment, facilitating being rather than doing: an active practice that energizes and enlivens. Thank you so much for posting this.
Thank you for this!
In the “Transcripts Mr. Gurdjieff at some points said to the participants that one must become aware of and accept that one is Nothing.
It is not an easy thing to come to that.
But how can something new come in, when my house is full of useless, degenerating things, illusions, dream, fantasies about me and everything else?
A short story:
A lover comes to the beloved ones house, knocks at the door.
“Who is there?”
Answer:
“It’s me!”
Reply:
“Then you have to go away, I can not open the door for you. There is no room in here for you!”
The one outside becomes very silent for a moment, then knocks again.
“Who is there?”
“This is you!”
“Come in….”
Hello Jürgen.
Welcome to the city, and for that wonderful story.
Many Blessings,
Luke
Hello Donald,
Thank you for visiting the city, and for leaving this thoughtful and engaging comment. It’s a large question that you raise, and one that I have encountered in many groups, as well as other spiritual disciplines. Especially the question of attracting younger people. I don’t have an answer, but I am also not all that worried about it. I’ll just keep on working. I don’t think the extraordinary scope and depth of the teaching Gurdjieff’s brought will be extinguished. I think your right, the world does need it at this time, but this teaching is certainly not fluffy and sugar-coated. It requires tremendous discipline and effort, as you know. And it requires a quality of people who are willing to be monastic in life, and that are equipped for a long and difficult road.
I think that this work will always be protected, even if it is only by a few people, who actually make efforts and most importantly, are humble in the fact that they don’t know anything.
warm regards,
Luke
Greetings Stefanos,
Thanks for dropping by, and for letting me know the page number that this extraordinary passage is found. I had forgotten to include that.
Many Blessings,
Luke
Thank you fs.