Mme de Salzmann on body position

I have been reading the book Heart without Measure: Gurdjieff Work with Madame de Salzmann, by Ravi Ravindra, (2004, Morning Light Press, Sand Point, Idaho) as my current morning inspirational reading. Highly recommended book for those working with the Gurdjieff material! A very accessible read.

Here is a quotation I found relevant to some of my current issues I've been working on:

In the groups Madame de Salzmann so much emphasizes the right bodily posture as a prerequisite for a higher quality of attention. At one moment, sitting very straight in her chair, she pointed to her foot and said, 'If even a foot is not rightly aligned, the connection with the higher energy can be broken.' She herself sits there like a stupa, demonstrating, by her presence, the right posture and the connection with the higher energy. I see more and more that posture is an essential part of the teaching. I felt that my body was too heavy and that I was not sensitive enough to see the harm done by the wrong placing of the foot. I suppose the body is like a musical instrument. A sensitive and accomplished musician is likely to be more aware of the various subtleties of the instrument than a novice. It seemed so clear that one needs to see a little before one can even realize the fact of one's blindness. Those who suffer for their fragmentation are already in purgatory; they may possibly hope for wholeness, for it is said that His Endlessness occasionally visits the aspiring souls in purgatory.

– page 26

Personally, I've been working on how I can hold my body in such a way as to maintain a contact with whatever degree of hopefully higher energy I've been able to contact within the meditative body-awareness practices I do in the morning. I've been feeling how my sensitivity is shocked by sudden movements. I've also noticed a deeply habitual quality of dismissiveness towards the simple activities of showering, getting dressed, washing dishes and so forth - an attitude that these things are kind of a drag and I want to rush through them to get to the "good stuff." Whatever that is! I see that this quality of negative attitude, expressed in the speed and crudity of movements, pollutes these activities and degrades what could otherwise be a simple, joyful moments of my morning building towards a wonderful day.