Ravi Ravindra[1] is a Professor Emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax (Canada) where he served for many years as a Professor in the departments of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and of Physics. Ravi's spiritual search has led him to the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, G. I. Gurdjieff, Zen, Yoga, and a deep immersion in the mystical teachings of the Indian and Christian classical traditions. He is the author of several books on religion, science, mysticism, and spirituality.

 

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Herebelow are two excerpts from his Heart Without Measure: Gurdjieff Work with Madame de Salzmann that is composed of Ravi Ravindra's journal entries of his meetings with Jeanne de Salzmann over a period of twenty years, from 1971 to 1990. 

 

First excerpt includes the passage quoted by Azize in his critique, and the second one is a record of Ravindra’s experience of the descending energy.

 

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SOMETHING NEW

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I often feel that Madame de Salzmann is saying something new, other than what Gurdjieff brought, although there is a discernible continuity of the teaching. It seems that the emphasis now is not so much on 'effort' as on 'being available' to the higher energy entering at the top of the head. Perhaps now some people in the Work are ready for that. 

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Also, it seems that she has been emphasizing the new aspect only in the last four or five years. She said, "The whole work is being related to the higher energy, and letting it pass through me, even when in movement. The movements are an aid for that." 

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On the one hand, one constantly hears in the Work —especially in the writings and talks of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff—about will, effort, conscious labour, intentional undertaking and the like. On the other hand, Madame de Salzmann in particular is emphasizing being available, letting go. In the later stages of meditation, one is not even concerned with the body. There the body is asleep as it were, and it does not change position or demand anything. It is only the fine attention, which has been freed from the self-occupations of the body or the mind, that matters. It is not the posture or breathing or any kind of effort. One might say that a certain kind of forgetting is a part of remembering or being connected with the Real. One needs to understand this in order to be free of one's own will, effort, aim and the like in order to be able to hear and serve a higher aim. As Madame de Salzmann said, "Both effort and letting go are needed. It is important to know the point of transition. It is very subtle. The ego makes the effort, then the ego has to let go. Always search for the balance." (Paris, April-May 1983) [2]

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HIS WILL CAN BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS DONE IN HEAVEN

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Madame de Salzmann asked, "When do you come next to New York?" 

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I said, "The end of February, but by that time you might be gone back to Paris." 

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She said that she did not yet know when she would leave. "In any case, you can call me any time and I shall see you." 

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What a generous teacher she is! A master never spares herself, even when the pupil is lazy and does not know what to ask for. 

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When I reached the place where I was staying I made some notes. Before I could finish writing I had a strong urge to sit and meditate. During quiet work, I felt and understood what early Christians might have meant by their prayer Maranatha (Lord Come). Someone is crying in the wilderness asking to make straight the path of the Lord. The higher energy is there, and could hardly be other than the Christ, but there is no clear path in the body for this energy. One can work and with one's attention make a channel in the body for this energy. Then the Kingdom—which is in Heaven, above the head—can come down to the Earth, in the body, and His will can be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven. But we are tempted and we are not delivered from evil. We remain in sin, and the Earth, at least our Earth in this body, falls down and is not nourished by the Christ, the Bread from Heaven. Indeed, Lord have mercy. Maranatha! (New York, January 1988)[3]

 

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[1] Personal website: http://www.ravindra.ca

[2] Ravi Ravindra, Heart without Measure: Gurdjieff Work with Madame de Salzmann (Morning Light Press, 2004) pp.128-129.

[3] Ravi Ravindra, Heart without Measure, pp. 183

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