wu wei (on the sly)

so how has the Work changed? is being passive and receptive the bona fide modus of Working? what i find suspect is that the blatant change in modus is not openly discussed and subjects what might be the bona fide new modus to distortion. but then again, how would i know? without discussion, how can i tell if the gurdjieff international review's blurb (as of may, 2009) indeed represents michel de salzmann, or if it is just pimping him out to sell copies of the journal:




Dr. Michel de Salzmann
1923-2001

How To Live Simply?
“Forget all you know about the Work. Its terms are an obstacle for you now. Avoid this old reductionism. Be new. Only then can you wish with real feeling, with love.”

upon clicking on the link a slightly fuller context is available,

How to live simply?__Michel de Salzmann

The following comments by Michel de Salzmann were made at a meeting in France in June, 2001 and were later recalled and edited by members of the Philadelphia Gurdjieff Foundation group who were in attendance.

It is a big question. Let the answer come into the empty space that one must create in oneself. Trying to live simply is not the way—we don’t know how. Trying to fix it is filling the space with activity, when what is needed is to empty oneself and allow an answer to appear…

[The complete text is available in the printed copy of th[e] issue.]

Copyright © 2007 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing
Featured: Spring 2007 Issue, Vol. X (1)
Revision: April 1, 2007

presumably eventually continuing with the excerpt from which we linked to this page:

... Forget all you know about the Work. Its terms are an obstacle for you now. Avoid this old reductionism. Be new. Only then can you wish with real feeling, with love. ...

there's numerous things that don't add up. of course the question is "how to live simply?" is dr. de salzmann suggesting: best not to sit between two stools at all!? of course he might be talking about a higher level, or he might be instead addressing the lowly level on which i find myself, or he might be talking about the Work as opposed to the Fourth Way (which appears for a certain time for a certain purpose, etc.)? tai chi maybe? who knows?! Besides, the quote likely bears directly upon the context within which it arose in 2001 and might not be meaningfully reconstituted. still, even granted that the agency that published that blurb was trying to popularize certain merchandise, doesn't it raise a red flag that anyone designates "forget all you know about the work" as representative of dr. de salzmann and/or the Foundation and/or the Work and/or the Fourth Way? why would anyone do that?

what if the magician didn't want his sheep to evolve, would he tell them they are evolving? here's a side interest that for better or worse made formative impressions on my budding consciousness way back when:

Malcolm X - Message To The Grass Roots
Delivered on 10 Nov, 1963 in Detroit , MI:
part1:

part 2:

It was the grass roots out there in the street. [It] scared the white man to death, scared the white power structure in Washington, D. C. to death; I was there. When they found out that this black steamroller was going to come down on the capital, they called in Wilkins; they called in Randolph ; they called in these national Negro leaders that you respect and told them, “Call it off.” Kennedy said, “Look, you all letting this thing go too far.” And Old Tom said, “Boss, I can’t stop it, because I didn’t start it.” I’m telling you what they said. They said, “I’m not even in it, much less at the head of it.” They said, “These Negroes are doing things on their own. They’re running ahead of us.” And that old shrewd fox, he said, “Well If you all aren’t in it, I’ll put you in it. I’ll put you at the head of it. I’ll endorse it. I’ll welcome it. I’ll help it. I’ll join it.”

…

Let me show you how tricky the white man is.

…

[As] soon as they got the setup organized, the white man made available to them top public relations experts; opened the news media across the country at their disposal; and then they begin [sic] to project these Big Six as the leaders of the march. ...

It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to sleep. This is what they did with the march on Washington . They joined it. They didn’t integrate it; they infiltrated it. They joined it, became a part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. They ceased to be
angry. They ceased to be hot. They ceased to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, a circus. Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all. You had one right here in Detroit — I saw it on television — with clowns leading it, white clowns and black clowns. I know you don’t like what I’m saying, but I’m going to tell you anyway. ‘Cause I can prove what I’m saying. If you think I’m telling you wrong, you bring me Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph and James Farmer and those other three, and see if they’ll deny it over a microphone.

No, it was a sellout. It was a takeover. When James Baldwin came in from Paris , they wouldn’t let him talk, ’cause they couldn’t make him go by the script. Burt Lancaster read the speech that Baldwin was supposed to make; they wouldn’t let Baldwin get up there, ’cause they know Baldwin ’s liable to say anything. They controlled it so tight – they told those Negroes what time to hit town, how to come, where to stop, what signs to carry, *what song to sing*, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make; and then told them to get out town by sundown. And everyone of those Toms was out of town by sundown. Now I know you don’t like my saying this. But I can back it up. It was a circus, a performance that beat anything Hollywood could ever do, the performance of the year. Reuther and those other three devils should get a Academy Award for the best actors ’cause they acted like they really loved Negroes and fooled a whole lot of Negroes. And the six Negro leaders should get an award too, for the best supporting cast.

granted change happens, and granted that ouspensky didn't have the full deck - still, what if gurdjieff's indications of the fourth way were and are still valid - wouldn't a magician want to eradicate all that fabulous theory and instead insinuate being worked on?

Forget all you know about the Work. Its terms are an obstacle for you now. Avoid this old reductionism. Be new. Only then can you wish with real feeling, with love.

-Says Who?