Jeanne de Salzmann was born in 1889, met G. I. Gurdjieff in 1919 and remained his closest pupil until his death in 1949. She subsequently guided the international continuation of his work until her own death in 1990, at the age of 101. The recordings discussed here therefore show not merely an elderly teacher recalling … Continue reading Madame de Salzmann at One Hundred: Attention, Automatism and the Birth of Inner Freedom
mindfulness
Reality Shifting Is Real. You Were Taught the Wrong Direction: an Ancient Magick Protocol
https://youtu.be/kQbESu3XLzU?si=HDHPjk33m_voyN0k Reality Shifting, Barefoot: An Ancient Instruction There is a practice sweeping through the younger generation called reality shifting. You write a script of the world you would rather live in, lie down, repeat your method, and try to wake up elsewhere. Whole online communities are devoted to it, and most adults either mock it … Continue reading Reality Shifting Is Real. You Were Taught the Wrong Direction: an Ancient Magick Protocol
Reclaiming the Inner World
There is a world we have almost forgotten. Not the world of phones, deadlines, opinions, news, appointments and the endless noise of the outside. I mean the inner world. The quiet world behind the eyes. The world of dreams, symbols, silence, light, intuition, prayer, meditation and subtle presence. Many old traditions knew this world very … Continue reading Reclaiming the Inner World
When Spirituality Fills the Mind Instead of Opening It
I have just published a new paper on PhilPapers: Authentic Spirituality and the Colonisation of Inner Space: Closed Symbolic Systems, Dark Magick, and Yoga as Liberation. You can find it here:https://philpapers.org/rec/KEPASA-2 This paper is part of a new series I am developing under the title Authentic Spirituality. The name may sound ambitious, but the basic … Continue reading When Spirituality Fills the Mind Instead of Opening It
What does the word Tantra really mean? An instrument to ‘stretch’.
The word Tantra is frequently mistranslated in modern new age spirituality, but its Sanskrit roots reveal a much more technical and expansive meaning. It comes from the verbal root tan (to stretch, extend, or expand) and the suffix tra (an instrument or tool). Literally, Tantra means "an instrument for expansion." Meaning a way to gain … Continue reading What does the word Tantra really mean? An instrument to ‘stretch’.
The Great Kundalini Lie
All crazy stories on Kundalini Awakening, very popular in the New Age. All lies and fantasies. Here's why that is! In modern global spirituality, kundalini has come to occupy a position of near-mythic centrality. Workshops promise awakening of dormant serpent energy; books describe dramatic ascents through chakras; practitioners seek explosive experiences at the base of … Continue reading The Great Kundalini Lie
Yoga, Impressions, and the Return of the Seer
From Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ to the work on Essence At the very beginning of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we find a definition that forms and is the essence of the yogic practice: Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. Yoga is the cessation of the movements of the mind. This sūtra is often quoted, translated, and explained, yet its radical … Continue reading Yoga, Impressions, and the Return of the Seer
Impressions as Food for Essence Part 5
In the book The Reality of Being Jeanne de Salzmann brings an important clarification around how we can and should perceive 'impressions' in order to grow. The decisive point of inner work The moment of impression In the Gurdjieff Work, the word impression refers to a precise and critical moment: the instant at which reality … Continue reading Impressions as Food for Essence Part 5
A call to consciousness, the many I’s and the search for presence Part 4
The section 'A call to consciousness' unfolds over twelve chapters and gradually sharpens the reader’s capacity to observe themselves without illusion. In the next chapter of this section, Jeanne de Salzmann turns attention toward what feels most familiar and at the same time most unstable, the sense of I. We speak of ourselves as if … Continue reading A call to consciousness, the many I’s and the search for presence Part 4
A call to consciousness, the moment life enters Part 3
In the secton of the book 'A call to consciousness', Jeanne de Salzmann (1889, 1990) turns from the general observation I am asleep to something very precise, the moment an impression enters. This moment, she suggests, is decisive. It is where consciousness is either lost again, or has a chance to appear. An impression is … Continue reading A call to consciousness, the moment life enters Part 3
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