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A Woman's Work with Gurdjieff, Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma & Pak Subuh: The Spiritual Life Journey of Ethel Merston

A Woman's Work

Jean Vayasse (1917-1975), Gurdjieffian!

Jean Vayasse (1917-1975) 

Jean Vayasse was born in Le Mans, France.  Very little has been written about Jean Vayasse outside of his medical accomplishments and brief mentions of him in conversations of the Fourth Way.  In ordinary life Jean Vaysse participated during the 1950s and 1960s in the great discoveries of modern surgery: renal grafts, cardiopulmonary bypasses, and surgery for arterial hypertension.

"His quest to understand the meaning of life brought him in 1947 to an encounter with the teaching of Gurdjieff. Working in the groups in Paris and later helping to lead them through the 1960s, Jean Vaysse felt the time had come to express Gurdjieff's written teaching in a more coherent and logical way in order to bring it within the range of the average educated reader."

  "Jean Vaysse was a long time pupil of Jeanne de Salzmann."

 

He is well known for writing Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Left by Gurdjieff.  Some quotes from his book:

Page 35, "We live in self-forgetfulness, and it all happens without leaving any trace.  Life lives itself, but there is no 'fruit' for the one who lives it."

Page 41, "But a real feeling would be something quite different.  We live with nothing but automatic emotional reactions, feelings that follow each other in rapid succession at each instant of our lives and cause something in each circumstance to please us or displease us, attract us or repel us."

Page 42,"Thus the struggle against automatic habits established in each of our centers can be a support for the early stages of self-observation, just as later another kind of struggle -- of oneself with oneself (between two aspects of my nature) -- will be necessary to serve as a basis for the appearance of a 'presence,' and later still the struggle between the yes and the no (that is between these two natures) will be necessary for spiritualization."

Page 79, "In my ordinary state, I have no true feelings, I have only automatic emotions, the emotions of reaction, depending entirely on which personage is present."

Page 80, "The emotional center becomes capable of real feeling only when a stable presence, relatively independent of surrounding circumstances has been developed... The feeling of self that accompanies awakening to oneself is the first real feeling that human beings can have;..."

Page 90, "... the sensation of ourselves is there or it is not there, depending on whether we are turned toward ourselves or attracted outside, and this is why it can be considered one of the best tests for verifying the reality of efforts toward self-awareness."

Page 92, "And above all, as I become more able to see myself, the inadequacies and failures that I record no longer arouse regret and resolutions or impulses 'to correct myself,' but bring instead the true 'subjective' feeling of remorse of conscience."

Page 98, "When the emotional center works for another center, it brings with it its sensitivity, its speed, its intensity and above all, an egocentric quality that gives it away more than another sign does.  When it works instead of the intellectual center it produces nervousness, feverish and unnecessary haste, exactly where, on the contrary, calm judgement and deliberation are called for.  When it works instead for the moving center, it produces impulsiveness and a tendency to be carried away rather than making the right movement.  In the place of the instinctive enter, it produces exaggerated effect and too much or too little activity."

Page 99, "The intellectual center is neither capable of substituting for the moving center nor of controlling movements-- sensation does not exist for it, sensation is a dead thing for which it substitutes visualization."

Seminar: The Primordial Actualization & Exploration

Seminar

The Primordial
Actualization & Exploration

Friday, September 3 to Monday, September 6, 2010
San Juan Bautista, California
(1 hour from San Jose Airport)

Through guided meditation, Conscious Body-Breath Impressions™, dialogue and private interviews, William Patrick Patterson explores the theme. Open to all levels of simplicity. No previous experience necessary. This will be the last open seminar. Future seminars will be limited to direct students and those participating in The Gurdjieff Studies Program.

Because space is limited and past seminars have filled quickly, please make your reservation early. The total cost of tuition, lodging (double occupancy) and meals is $575 with reservations received by August 15, 2010. Afterward, the cost is $675. Space is reserved with a deposit of $300.

To reserve a place, send your deposit by mail or reserve electronically below. There is a small surcharge when using the latter.

To reserve a place by mail, send a check made out to Arete Communications to the following address:

Arete Communications
773 Center Boulevard #58
Fairfax, CA 94978-0058

If you have questions, email us at: Introduction@Gurdjieff-Legacy.Org or call (800) 470-3086

Emotion and Blood

Back in 1997 I read a fascinating book by Candace Pert, "Molecules of Emotion" that discussed her research into the subject. Evidently it was good science and her colleges later received formal recognition for the discovery of the "opiate receptor."

Connection of body to emotion by blood? What do you think?

The Help, review

The Help by Kathryn Stockett




This was an excellent introduction to the world of women in the south during the 60's and before. The NPR interview did not do it justice. It is much better than I expected.

View all my reviews >>

Frank Lloyd Wright, Gurdjieff, Louis Sullivan, Ayn Rand?

Wright, Frank Lloyd (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin.  He was a famous architect and author about  architecture and society.

He first encountered Gurdjieff was via his wife, Ogivanna. Olgivanna Hinzenberg, one of Gurdjieff's pupils from 1919 to 1924, married Wright. Gurdjieff and Wright first met in June of 1934 at Taliesin in southern Wisconsin. (1.)   Gurdjieff visited Taliesin in Wisconsin for 24 hours during his visit to Chicago in 1934.  (2.)   Gurdjieff and Wright met several times during the 30's and 40's. (4.)  Solita Solana wrote about Frank Lloyd Wright having dinner with Gurdjieff and his students prior to May 30, 1937.

Frank Lloyd Wright's role in the Work was that he supported his wife, Olgivanna in teaching the Work at Taliesin. (4.)  Frank and Olgivanna formed the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932. "It was a community that provided architectural training with a holistic, "learn by doing" approach that stressed appreciation of all the arts, ..." (5.)  Olgivanna continued the Taliesin Fellowship after Wright's death, up until her own death on March 1, 1985. (3. pg 15)

1. Gurdjieff International Review,

Gurdjeef at Taliesin

By Frank Lloyd Wright

This newspaper article [by Frank Lloyd Wright] was published in the Capitol Times (Madison, Wisconsin) on Sunday, August 26, 1934. 

http://www.gurdjieff.org/wright1.htm

Copyright © 2004 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing

Featured: Fall 2004 Issue, Vol. VIII (1)

Revision: November 1, 2004

2. Gurdjieff International Review,

No Harem

Gurdjieff and the Women of The Rope

by Rob Baker

http://www.gurdjieff.org/rope.htm

Copyright © 1997 Rob Baker

This webpage © 1998 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing

Featured: Winter 1997/1998 Issue, Vol. I (2)

Revision: April 1, 2000

1. Frank Lloyd Wright: a biography By Meryle Secrest

ISBN: 9780226744148   Published May 1998 

University of Chicago Press

1. JSTOR: The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Winter, 1974-1975), pp. 126-139

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4634942

Organic Living:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowhip

and Georgi Gurdjieff's Institute for the 

Harmonious Development of Man

1. http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/