Heart Without Measure
Heart Without Measure
This is an excellent book for anyone who is seriously interested in understanding the essence of the Gurdjieff work and how it continued after his death. It opened up a new perspective on the work for me. The book describes his meetings and conversations with Madame de Salzmann in the 1980's when he was a student with her. Although Ravindra comes across in the book as a modest man she clearly had a high regard for him and encouraged him to come and see her often - maybe she knew that he would write about the work.
He gives us the essence of her very practical, focused teaching and also conveys her powerful presence. Her teaching is unlike the intellectual descriptions of Gurdjieff's ideas found in Ouspensky's books and other descriptions of the work. What Madame de Salzman emphasises - through Ravindra - is the importance of allowing higher energy to come down into the human body and of being present. Her teaching is focused on energies,on focusing the mind on the body and becoming a channel for higher energies on the earth. It is a very practical teaching.
This is one of the best books I have read on the teachings of a true spiritual teacher and I am keen to read more of Ravindra's books.
Valuable Personal account of Work with Madame de Salzmann
For me this book provides valuable personal accounts of what it means to Work to create a place in this world for individuation and Transformation. It is a very personal and devoted account of the author's relationship with Madame de Salzmann and clearly exhibits her steadfastness and strength in her practice and being a living example of the teaching of Georges I. Gurdjieff. Thanks to the author for his honesty and frankness. This can be very helpful to anyone sincerely engaged in finding his or her way toward liberation...
Brings me back to the core
Ravi Ravindra captures the spirit of Gurdjieff's work for me, in one of the most personal and engaging accounts that I've seen from people in the Work. This time, though, rather than being about G. himself, it is a journal of Ravindra's encounters with G's chief disciple, Jeanne de Saltzmann.
As I nibble away at this lovely book, I find myself remembering the best parts of being in the Work, which ended for me almost 30 years ago. At the time, I knew about Mme. de Saltzmann only peripherally, being on the West coast and having been with her in person only once, so I was eager to read this book and fill in my knowledge of a true master whose efforts indirectly shaped my whole spiritual life.
I would have expected Dr. Ravindra, as a professor of at least six different subjects, to write in some dry, scholarly style. Instead, this loving tribute is revealing, approachable and very useful to anyone wishing to understand, in a personal way, what this teaching is about.
Deep Homage
Ravi Ravindra's Heart Without Measure, though a small book, is a powerfully felt homage to the great Madame de Salzmann, whose voice and presence, echoing through the text, resonates like a pure and holy bell, calling us all more perfectly to The Work. He describes well the experience of the student faced with the laser-like eye of the teacher who can read hearts and souls, an encounter not easily endured nor understood, and reveals the 'everyman' conflicts of his strivings in a restrained, almost selfless way. Most of all, this book is sprinkled generously with esoteric clues for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. This book indeed is the 'fruit' of the oral tradition that has always existed within the Gurdjieffian canon.
Woman #5
I found this book extremely refreshing but I can't help wondering if it is really only for those who do or have done similar practices [Taoist Alchemy, Prayer of the Heart, Gurdjieff's meditations and exercises for opening and harmonizing the 7 centers].
The entire book shows Madame DeSalzmann trying to raise the author from his back and forth states to a man no. 4 - that is someone who has in Gurdjieffean terms acheived balance amongst their body, heart and mind and is thus at square one and truly ready to begin and to try and crystallize something. Similar in intent to the Pentland/Patterson drama in 'Eating the I'
Like 'Eating the I' and 'Voices in the Dark' we are taken inside the inner door to a rather significant degree, but unlike 'Eating the I', this does not try and provide much context or background info. If you have not been in The Work or learned the preliminary relaxation and self-remembering practices, you will understandably be scratching your head through much of it.
However along with Bennett and Pentland the Madame seems to have made it to Man #5. And that is worth experiencing even through the medium of printed words.
I found that the book started 'meditating me' as few books do.
