Madame Ouspensky

You sit around waiting for pearls when what you should actually be doing is not to be swine. Mme. Ouspensky

Sophie Grigorievna Ouspensky

(Jessmin) Having felt, every time I came from her room, that whatever Madame said regarding the Work, organization, Mr. Gurdjieff, the house, or even individual people, was of general application and always connected with higher principles, I have decided to write down what and how I remember her conversations. There exist photographs taken in 1922 at the Dalcroze studio in Paris. One shows Mr. G. sitting near the piano platform with Mme. O. beside him. She said that her thus being near to Mr. G. was the result of chance and circumstance that opportunities to have contacts with a teacher do not always come because they are deservedthat sometimes one was near Mr. G. for a time, and then another would have that place.

Gurdjieff observing movements in Jessmin Howarths Dalcroze studio, Paris 1922. To Gurdjieffs left are Madame Ouspensky, Catherine and Maurice Nicoll. Alexandre de Salzmann stands behind the piano, and the edge of Thomas de Hartmanns shoulder and head can be seen as he sits at the piano. Copyright 2003 Dushka Howarth

(Dushka) One of the people who cared for Mme. O. during her last years was Daphne Ripman Matchelajovic, who, now widowed, leads a large, active group in Buenos Aires. She kindly sent me some of the notes she made at Mendham from 19461950 that illustrate the kinds of conversations that took place in Mme.s room while they were choosing readings, discussing peoples questions and reporting on events of the day. Here are some excerpts that I particularly treasure: Mme. said, If our aim is not formed, we are not in the work yet. If a man has aim he makes demands on himselfa man in the work knows what he wants, knows right from wrong and is determined to achieve his aimhates sleep and desires to remember himself and takes everything relative to that. Question: If ones aim is not formed yet and one cannot start work until one knows what one wants, it seems to be a circle. How can one get out? It is a vicious circle but a way out does in fact exist. But for very few people. Only for those who realize that they are in a circlehave decision and determination to come out and are willing to pay a high price to escape. You cannot come to consciousness unconsciously. If we see what we have not got we will know what we wantand what effort or payment we must make to get it. We can always gauge how much we want something by the price we are willing to pay for it. Mme. describes us now as People without railway ticket who come up to the gate but who wont be let through.

Question: This house as arranged by Mme. seems to collect attention. If we use this house rightly it would help us to collect ourselves? In fact, Mme. finds that on the whole we have less attention and are less conscious than people in ordinary life. She says that today people in ordinary life have to have a certain degree of awarenessbusiness people have tothey know they lose money if they dont people in jobs have to be alert or they lose their jobs. But we in this house can do things with impunity and therefore in fact Mme. finds most of the time we are on a level lower than people in ordinary life. Making demands on oneself is not a question of activity. Some machines are made to be active. To make demands on oneself, try to stop the machine in simple ways, which depends on whether one has energy. It should already be clear that you cannot create energy. Necessary save energy, stop wastage. This is possible only if it is your hearts desire and you know what you want. We had been told many times that we could not do. Mme. said, yes, in happenings, in momentum, impossible to doonly way of doing was by going against happenings, by stopping momentum. Aim is to be free to remember oneself. It is impossible to see anything or do anything without first stopping machine. She saw us as people without brakes. Even with car the first thing you check, before knowing what speed it goes at, are the brakeswhile things were going at high speed, like a car going at high speed, no change of direction was possible. Everything depends on whether you really want, or you only think you do. Work is not living in house or coming into special conditions, or reading books, or coming to lectures or listening to readings. None of this leads in direction of work or aim from system point of view. People are divided in two categoriesthose who think and those who really want. If one really wants, one does. God gives one free choice. No one forces you to do it. But your choice places you like the dog and the antelope, one goes for the bones and the other goes to the grass, (in the anecdote it is carnal or spiritual). And all this has nothing to do with high ideas and imagination about yourself. Until one sees oneself as one is, and it may mean going many steps backwards from what one thought one was, one has no starting point. By ourselves we do not examine ourselves. We have to be made to see. If we then see it is like a thermometerwe can throw away thermometer or refuse to put it in our mouth but it is a fact. What we do with what we see is our business but facts exist, thermometer exists, temperature exists. Before it is possible to work on attention a person must know why and what they want to direct attention towardsbecause attention is like a tool, like a knife which can be used for right purpose or wrong purpose.

Analogy from Buddha reading: From the same food and the same circumstances the hornet produces poison and the bee produces honey. Directed attention supposes someone there to direct itnot just chariot without driver. Where ones attention is caught, one becomes that thing and of the level of that thing. If one loses ones attention in this table one becomes this table. Collecting attention is bringing it back and bringing it into a definite place in oneself. Question: This feeling that one is nothing, to really feel it is a very rare thing. Mme. answered that you either have some feeling or have not. And what does it mean, nothingness? We come as beggar and we go as beggar. We have nothingwe have no consciousness, no I, no willare automatons. Question of seeing facts. Question of whether bigger Idea exists for one or not. To be humble is natural, to be proud is absurd. Realization must grow as man examines himself, observes. Mme. said for her big idea was that man was self-creative being, that exactly what one is depends on oneself. Man has in his nature all things from God to devil. They all have their place and their note, only which ones control is the question for us. Not question of abolishing lower have pig in oneself it isnt a question of killing pig, but keeping it in backyard. Mme. also said she didnt want us to forget the parable of the talentsnot to think that God had a sentimental attitude towards us. Those who had something could get more, but those who did not make use of what they had, would lose even what they had got. This was a principle and not sentimental.

A Beginners Movements Class New York, 1981

All work begins with the control of attention, and in this connection much can be learned from the Movements. Mme. Ouspensky

Jessmin Howarths Movements class during a semi-public demonstration at Londons Colet House, 1939. The participants are members of P. D. Ouspenskys community in England,

Lyne Place, classes insisted on by Mme. Ouspensky.

(Jessmin) Since so many of you are now embarking on the Movements, it seemed appropriate to say something, both about their background or even about the way you do them. Im told that you are now beginning to study the Movements. How many lessons have you had? Four? Five? Well! Doesnt it feel very interesting that Mr. Gurdjieff was not content to just give his system of ideas, but that he also brought a system of sacred dances, of Movements? And he made it very clear that the study of the ideas and the practice of the Movements were to be complimentary. And if I think a little, I realize why it must be. Certainly, when I first hear of the teaching I am interested, uplifted, because I know Mr. G.s aim was to help us develop consciousness; and this gives us a purpose in life. We realize then, as some of his words have brought to us, that it is quite true: We are asleep in certain ways. We dont really know what were doing what we are thinking what we are feeling. We are not aware. We dont live intentionally. And when we realize that, something wishes to be able to live differently. And we try! We find that we really do need many, many reminders. We do need to wish very deeply and very continuously. And then it is made possible for us to go into the Movements. And there we are under different conditions. We find that our habitual vocabulary of attitudes, movements, and gestures isnt required. We are asked to take positions and move in ways that many of us have never done before. And so there is a possibility of seeing of knowing myself. And as I work, I realize that what I need is a very special kind of attention. With my head I try to be clear. In the Movements, my head knows what the next attitude is supposed to be. It tries to help my body to get there directly. My body feels the different positions. It senses how it should be. It knows that it changes the tonicity of its muscles according to the various positions So it has an attention as well as the head. And in myself Im eager to do the Movements. Im eager to learn what they can bring and so theres also an attention in the feeling. And when all of these are present somehow Im aware of all my energies being used in a right way. I feel myself collected. Somehow, a kind of life force in me is released and I can become more open, more sensitive, and perhaps receive impressions of a finer quality than usual. Now! One thing Ill say to you in the beginning in the Movements you will want to do them very well. And so you should, because these Movements are created in such a way that unless they are done absolutely exactly, the inner connections will not be linked, and

the vibration that one looks for will not appear. But! If I grow too identified with how I do the Movements, and think only of executing the Movements very well ah, then I lose something. It might be that even if I made a mistake if I were able, at that very instant, to see myself not the mistake so much. Not to criticize myself, excuse myself, justify it but really see how I am at this very instant. Its the act of seeing at this exact moment of being aware at the moment one moves. That is what I must try to develop! What I see how I do yes, I learn from that. But if I can try to be alive, and awake at the very instant that I move or speak then I really am helping myself along the road to growing more conscious. So try not to forget when you get enthusiastic about your Movements. Try to remember what it is you are really trying for to develop and make grow. I hope you all get a great deal from Movements. Most of us have. Youll find that, somehow, through your body and your feeling youll begin to understand things in the system of ideas that might otherwise remain, perhaps, only theory.

Mme. de Salzmann, Michel de Salzmann, & Jessmin Howarth

Notes
1

Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff: Definitive Edition, by Thomas de Hartmann and edited by Olga de Hartmann, London: Penguin Arkana, 1992, p. 46. 2 Ladies of the Rope, by William Patrick Patterson, Fairfax, California: Arete Communications, 1999, p. 122. 3 The Gurdjieff Years 19291949: Recollections of Louise March, by Beth McCorkle, Walworth, New York: The Work Study Association, 1990, p. 33. 4 Ibid. 5 Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff: Definitive Edition, p. 237 6 Ibid., p. 46. 7 Gurdjieffs nickname for Dushka was Sophie. [GIR editors] 8 Diary of Madame Egout Pour Sweet: With Gurdjieff in Paris 19481949, by Rina Hands, Aurora, Oregon: Two Rivers Press, 1991, p. 68.