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.

Ruminations on the topic "Help"

My friend Calvino of the Play as Being project (defined as "a group of people exploring reality by using our own life as a laboratory" http://playasbeing.wik.is/) proposed a topic for contemplation: "Help." It's been rattling around in the back of my brain this week ... I wonder if one reason it's been rattling around is because the word itself has mixed connotations for me.

What does the word "Help" mean - assistance? That's the closest synonym that occurred to me, and feels a little more neutral than "help." (In my mother's nursing home, the woman next door often calls out "Help! Help!" in a quasi-urgent tone to get nursing attention instead of pushing her nursing call button. She does it so frequently that she she is the woman who cried "Wolf!" (Help!) in terms of the attitudes of the staff towards her cries. So for me the word Help brings this woman's use/abuse of the term to mind ... So already I can make a distinction between the cry for "help!" and the non-urgent usage "help." But ... the connotation bleeds over.

The first thought for me is that one man's help is another man's hindrance. A classic example that occured to me: one member of a couple wants to "help" the other person to improve their appearance, notwithstanding the lack of interest or downright resistance of the other party to such "help." In this case, the best descriptor might be "interference" or even "control" (as in "control trip"). Above is a cute cartoon from a client's website illustrating this idea.

So stepping back a little bit - this example shows that the word help has to be seen in terms of "help - to do what?" as well as "who's asking for the help." Without these two pieces of the picture, the concept doesn't quite click into place for me. So if the husband in the example above asks his wife, "Hey, honey, can you help me to improve my wardrobe?" then this is a legitimate help situation involving an asker and a specific goal. If she imposes her "help" without being asked for it, I would question whether the word help would really apply in that situation.

(By the way, has anyone ever actually *heard* of a man asking his wife to help him with his wardrobe? This could be an imaginary example!!)

So let's say we're talking about "help" in the context of someone wanting to improve or direct a certain personal issue in a certain direction, and feeling that they don't have all resources they might wish at hand to accomplish their task. I am guessing this might be the context in which Calvino is thinking of the topic - is that correct, Cal?

Thus, perhaps finding help is about acquisition of resources ... emotional, intellectual, instructional and inspirational as well as the crassly material type of resources.

A side thought sprouting off ... I think we operate under the impression in daily life that we are an independent entity, controlling and directing the resources in the domain of our daily life, to accomplish tasks. This subjective impression may be necessary for mental health ... I think it also may be necessary for our experiences as "individuals" (another topic to explore) ... so it can create cognitive dissonance to try to find help outside our supposedly independent domains.

So in terms of acquiring resources to work with in order to move a personal issue forward, I feel we are drowning in information, books, and advice, but that the resource that's most difficult to come by is the internal capacity to digest information, to discern the next best action towards our goal from the enormous array of choices: where to place our attention? Even how to actually PLACE our attention instead of having it drawn to various focuses without a feeling of deliberate placement?

On an even deeper level, I have experienced from time to time such a deep sense of presence in the moment that every small simple moment bursts with significance, beauty and truth illustrating universal concepts in action ... at those times I am taking in so much that I wouldn't need any help or additional outside resources to accomplish my spiritual goal. The missing resource or help I need when I'm *not* in this state - is remembrance of a way back there ... where are Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs when you need them?

Thus help is a word my mind uses to express a sense of incompletion. In me, the energy to do, to solve problems, is probing around the general internal environment trying to resolve the discomfort, seeking something to hang onto to ride into a different feeling/energetic state with less discomfort, looking for "help."

Recipe - Rosemary Polenta with Peppers, Onions, Ham and Eggs

Here's a healthy and hearty breakfast dish. This recipe serves one voracious or two smaller appetites.

Heat a tablespoon of mild flavored oil (cold-pressed safflower is good) in a cast-iron skillet. Then add:

• Quarter of a large onion or half of a small one, medium sized dice (3/8" to 1/2" inch square)
  
• Half a red pepper, diced medium sized dice

Saute the above on medium heat for a few minutes.

Then slice a log of prepared polenta (I used organic Food Merchants brand, available at Whole Foods) into half inch slices – 3 to 4 slices per person.

Add a little more oil to the pan, and increase the heat to medium high. Add the polenta slices and cook until they seem a little crispy on the bottom. Turn them over, and add:

• Two scallions, sliced tip to toe into quarter-inch cylinders
  
• One or two pieces (1-2 oz) of thin-sliced deli ham (I like Black Forest), chopped into small pieces
  
• Quarter tsp rosemary
  

Continue cooking until the other side of the polenta is crispy looking.

Lower the heat, push everything aside a little to create a small area for egg cooking. Add some oil or butter to that spot. Break two eggs into that spot, cover and cook gently until the egg whites are almost solid, but the yellow is still runny.

Turn off heat, slide everything from the skillet into a shallow dish (like a pasta bowl or plate with raised edges). Add sea salt or pepper to taste. Yum!

Variations:

• Add tomatoes, chopped greens, yellow squash, or zucchini, or substitute for any ingredient. (Tomatoes will make the dish more watery.)
  
• For vegetarian / vegan version: Leave out the eggs and ham, still delicious.
  
• Use bacon instead of ham
  
• Use basil, oregano, and/or thyme instead of or along with the rosemary.
• Add grated cheese at the end: parmesan, swiss or cheddar would all taste nice
  

What is the function of awareness?

I watched this interview on Charlie Rose a couple of weeks ago with neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran. http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10468

He touched on one of my big interests: the function of awareness versus subconscious action - aware versus subconscious neural pathways.



For example, he says, there are two different circuits for visual information - one goes to the visual cortex where one is aware of it - in cases of brain damage to those circuits, one is blind. But, if a glass is place on the table near such an individual, they will precisely pick it up - but they don't (consciously) know how they can do that. Isn't that fascinating?

All the problems that occur because we do strange things with our body without realizing it (such as my own example of throwing my travel cosmetics kit into the trash when visiting my brother, and only finding it by using the draconian measure of the St. Anthony's Prayer). What controls that? "Are we not men?" When we do strange actions without realizing it, it calls into question our human dignity. Sigh. Thus my curiosity to find out more about how all this neural circuitry works.

A friend of mind (you know who you are, Ted Garrison) likes to say "Awareness is very overrated ..." meaning, I believe, that if you can just surrender to your own nature and not try to second guess yourself you will function more smoothly in the world. Ted, am I misquoting you?

But if that were true, what function DOES awareness in fact allow that wouldn't be possible without it? J.G. Bennett (the well-known and prolific Gurdjieff student, teacher, and writer and one of my favorite authors) has very specific things to say about the function of awareness. More on Bennett later!

Plunged in galoshes up to our eyebrows

Why am I calling my blog "Plunged in Galoshes"? It is a phrase from G.I. Gurdjieff (or Gurdjieff quoting Mulla Nasruddin) - "Plunged in galoshes up to your eyebrows" ... which makes me chuckle because it so niftily encapsulates the human condition. We valiantly yet ineptly prepare for life's challenges (by putting on the galoshes to go out in the rain) and then find ourselves immediately way over our head – in deep – overwhelmed by life - plunged in galoshes up to our eyebrows.

I started this blog to share some of my observations, reactions, thoughts, about life and the human condition, to practice writing and have some fun seeing what it's like to write out into the big wide world of people I don't know yet. I am interested in a million things, including cognitive science, Rupert Sheldrake, holistic health, recovery from chronic fatigue, the human body, physics and metaphysics, music and art, American history, ancient history, and where people find their car keys after they have lost them.

Today is June 27, 2009, and this is my first post. I'm writing to you from the Trident Coffeehouse in Boulder, Colorado. It's about 9:00pm and I'm enjoying the ambience here. I'm typing on my little old 12" Mac G4, (miraculously not whirring loudly for the moment). I'm at the second table from the door on the east side of the main room, looking across at the coffee and tea counter. This very pleasant room has a high (12 or 13 foot?) ceiling, exposed brick walls, ceiling fans whirling softly. Mellow jazz music is playing.

Turning my head to the right, I can see outside to the street scene, with groups of mostly younger people streaming by, going to or returning from restaurants, or heading out for night life and drinking and dancing. A potted palm sits in the old-fashioned window, screened a bit by green floral cafe curtains on a rod. The red neon light saying "OPEN" glows beyond the palm against the glass. Outside, several people sit at white metal tables, reading and drinking tea from white porcelain pots and cups. Wooden floors, green painted wood framed windows right up to the ceiling - this might have been a dry goods store from the 1920s, very likely was.

A steady stream of people go in and out of the screen door and purchase beverages from the counter. There are some honey jars and one honey bear sitting on a shelf above the several glasses filled with clean spoons of various sizes. Behind the workers against a mirror is a shelf stocked with silver cylindrical containers of loose teas. These teas have wonderful names such as Golden Monkey, Dragonwell, Black River Pu-Erh, Golden Needle, Silver Needle, and White Peony as well as more prosaic names like Earl Grey, Assam and Ceylon-Kenilworth Estate.

Although I worry about how I might deal with interactions with unknown readers, and worst of all, what if I write something that offends someone? Well, I've decided to go ahead and plunge in, galoshes and all, and find out what it's like. I remember Arianna Huffington on Charlie Rose sometime this year, exhorting anyone and everyone to get out there are start blogging, dahling!