The Reality of Being, Mme. de Salzmann
65. Situating the center of gravity
…Inside, my attention, my will, is always passive. At the same time, my body and my functions are active. So long as this relation remains as it is… no new possibility will appear. I have to feel the necessity to change this relation so that my body and my functions accept a state of voluntary passivity. This can take place only if I actively situate the center of gravity of my attention, the voluntary attention of my whole Presence, the echo of “I.”
21. A new way of functioning
The state of my being today is conditioned by my way of thinking, feeling and sensing, which takes all my attention and restricts me to a narrow part of myself.
…(A)ccord of my centers of energy and their functioning cannot be brought about by forcing. There must be a quieting, a letting go of their movement, in order for a balance of energy to appear between them. But something is missing. I feel I am always too passive. So the need for an energy appears, an attention that will stay free and not become fixed on anything. It is an attention that will contain everything and refuse nothing, that will not take sides or demand anything. It will be without possessiveness, without avidity, but always with a sincerity that comes from the need to remain free in order to know.
61. The aim of my effort
To be centered means to abdicate, for each part has to renounce the pretense that it is the whole, that it sees and directs the whole. It is as though I submit to an order that is greater, an order on a cosmic scale, and all my parts accept to serve it, to remain voluntarily passive in front of it.
…. My whole effort, my whole work, is to maintain this direction—to maintain a body so relaxed that the energy does not leave, a thinking turned toward myself so vigilant that its very presence sustains the stillness of my body, and a feeling of what wants to be recognized, of what is here, a feeling of “I.” It is an effort of attention coming from all the parts of myself—to purify the attention in order to concentrate on “I.” In this effort I discover a way of functioning that is no longer passive, a work in which the functions are called to obey the movement of attention.
64. Our vital center
Our aim is to be centered, centered both in the sense of concentrating our energies and in the sense of finding the center of our being, the vital center of our force. …From here I can maintain a right relation with all the parts of myself and follow their movements without being lost in them. …I do not have to make this contact. I have to allow it to be revealed to me, with an attitude that is never sure of itself and that always makes room for the inner being.
…one must be present at the source itself, at the center where the force has not yet taken a direction, where it has no form.
65. Situating the center of gravity
…At the beginning I have a tendency to experience this sensation predominantly in the solar plexus or in the head. But with the letting go, the sensation expands and takes the form of a whole Presence that is rooted in the abdomen. Gurdjieff always pointed to this place as the center of gravity of the being, the point where the second body is attached to the first. I let my energy flow toward this center of gravity, which is a support for the entire upper part of the body. It is also the support for my thought and feeling. As soon as I am centered, I feel my thought is free, my feeling is free. From this center, in a wholly natural way, I can stay in contact with all the parts of myself. I am in an attitude of balance. This is maintained by the sensation, which is renewed as an act of obedience to the Presence whose law I wish to feel. My body is entirely inhabited. It is animated by the Presence, which at this moment is stronger than the body, stronger than the thoughts or desires.
66. Becoming second nature
My aim is to become whole, a unity. Only then can I know what is necessary for the whole. For this I must be centered. Tirelessly I turn again and again toward my center of gravity. What is only occasional today must become second nature. Without tension, the energy is liberated in a downward movement of letting go. The totality is no longer threatened. I discover a law under whose influence I wish to remain. This is the Law of Three, which can make a new being of me.
The Role of Emotion, Michel Conge
The center of gravity is neither in the head nor in the emotions. It is in that place where I recognize a feeling of being that allows me to search. This is a place where I become interested in beginning the work of understanding my situation and everything that is within my capacity. Otherwise, I will be lost, following the game of emotions and functions. If the master is absent, the functions take over….
Spiritual Physics, Jerry Brewster
The Energy of Hydrogen 24
Mme. de Salzmann brought us …work on centering…. this place in us that is … like the source of instinctive energy, … it’s not the mind, it’s not the feelings, not the ordinary body; …Many times [she] called it void or emptiness, …Mme. de Salzmann brought …many exercises to do this in … sitting, and many ways to bring this into life.
In …trying to …connect… with this very subtle resonance, … it would come and be gone quickly… As I struggled in … quiet work I made the connection, and …started to follow a ‘hum.’ I found this hum only came in very special circumstances, in special conditions of work, and a few times in life. I couldn’t really produce it at will, on my own. …I started to want this vibration in me all the time.
…I found …it was a little bit easier for this resonance to appear when working with others. …After a period of time, instead of having this hum for three minutes during the meeting, I would have it for ten minutes and later, for fifteen minutes. …I started to judge my work from the point of view of this connection. If the hum, that resonance, wasn’t there, I felt I wasn’t really present.
…I attribute the quieting of the mind to this resonance. You could be without a thought, taking in impressions on this resonance. …through it I found a different substance in me. …that vivified … resonance, … I now refer to as (Hydrogen) 24. I believe, in the enneagram it would be the succeeding higher H24; it’s always active, what Gurdjieff calls, “The Omnipresent-always-active-Okidanokh.” …
…work on centering helped a great deal in the beginning. It supported a place in me where the resonance could appear. If I could maintain this resonance for a period of time I started to be without associations… (T)his resonance combined with the energy of the mind and I would start to find a balance between mind and body. But then I started to notice that I had no feeling. It seemed these energies tuned towards each other, and there was a call to the emotions(.) (B)ut there was no emotional energy available at the right level for this new tuning. …My negative emotions, my ordinary emotions, were meaningless in this work. There was something about the lack of real emotions; of not having the right energy; I started to suffer greatly in this feeling of being emotionally dead.
I remember going to Mme. de Salzmann and asking …about the energy, this hum, this resonance. She …said, “This is what Mr. Gurdjieff brought to us. …Now, you have to suffer this. You are suffering right?” I said, “I am suffering terribly.” She said, “Well, maybe this is the beginning of what could be conscience, and that’s the level that you need. But that is very difficult.”…