Issue #20 February 2023
“With thorns in the inner world there will always be roses in the outer world, in law-able compensation.”
~Gurdjieff
Reflections of Jane Heap
The just-published book of Sayings From The Gurdjieff Work includes a chapter of maxims from Jane Heap, most of which were gathered from here notes. Jane had a memorable and often profound way of expressing herself. Here are twenty of her utterances, all of which are likely to catch the ear.
Damascus Steel
It was not purity but impurity
that lent strength to these swords,
ingots of iron with carbon
traced in tungsten and vanadium.
Folds upon folds ran through each blade, rivers of darkness and light
shimmering like moonbeams on water.
The Cathode and Anode
The evidence is gradually accumulating that the whole of the universe is threaded together by flows of plasma – ionic matter that flows from galactic cluster to galactic cluster, and within the cluster, from galaxy to galaxy and within galaxies from sun to sun, and within solar systems …
The Enigma of Life is Real
In his excellent book, Heart Without Measure, Ravi Ravindra writes:
“Madame de Salzmann told of an incident, late in Gurdjieff’s life, when she came upon him in a place in Switzerland. He was sitting, looking very sad and discouraged. She asked him: “Are you
Sayings from the Gurdjieff Work is a thought-provoking collection of over 1200 unique quotations that offer deep insights into the Gurdjieff Work. In this book, you’ll find a wide range of quotations that cover a variety of topics, including self-knowledge, consciousness, how to approach The Work, aspects of Gurdjieff’s objective science, and the purpose of man’s existence.
Each quotation has been selected for its clarity, its beauty, and ability to inspire readers to reflect on their own lives and their personal work.
Aside from Gurdjieff, there are chapters of aphorisms, sayings and epigrams from A. R. Orage, C. S. Nott, P.D. Ouspensky, Jeanne de Salzmann, Maurice Nicoll, Jane Heap and Rodney Collin, sourced either from their writings or from accounts of people who knew them. It also includes quotations (usually of Gurdjieff himself) from the writings of A. L. Staveley, Rina Hands, Katheryn Hulme, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bernard Metz, Fritz Peters, Loise March, Henri Tracol, Henriette Lannes, J G Bennet and Michel Conge. It devotes a whole chapter that provides all the quotations from Mullah Nassr Eddin – not just those that are to be found in Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, but also those from The 1931 Manuscript and Meetings With Remarkable Men.
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