Newsletter 2/2003


A new milestone in the written accounts of the Work:

La Prise de Conscience et G.I. Gurdjieff
(Becoming conscious and G.I. Gurdjieff)
by Solange Claustres
Editions Eureka, Utrecht, 2003, ISBN 90 72395 34 4

a book review by Wim van Dullemen

For decades, a steady stream of newly published books and articles about the Gurdjieff
Work has been flowing towards us. The individual works of which this stream consists are not always easy to distinguish from one another, as they are all based on the same concepts, represented by the same words. Imagination and reality are difficult to separate, and amidst the endless repetitions and associations, originality is hard to find. Right before our eyes, a rather sad spectacle is unfolding of an ever-growing number of books and articles that, although newly printed, in fact have nothing new to offer, reduced as they are to an echo of the handful of key works in this area.

The book written by Madame Solange Claustres, published this month by ‘Editions Eureka, Utrecht Netherlands’, does not belong to this particular stream. The usual code language, draining comparable works of all life, is absent in this book. In simple and honest words the author writes about her direct experiences with Gurdjieff, with whom she was in close contact, day after day, for eight years, and she reflects on the sixty years that she has been living his teaching since her Teacher died. Having been put in a responsible position, by Gurdjieff himself, for Movements classes from the start on, she subsequently guided countless
groups in this important facet of his teaching; in France, Holland, America, Switzerland and England. It took Madame Claustres over ten years of work to write down her life experiences in the form that, in her opinion, justifies the importance of the subject. Her book is a category in itself, and can only be qualified as a true masterpiece, a milestone in the written accounts of the Work.

Warning

First, it is necessary to learn how Madame Solange Claustres defines Gurdjieff‘s teaching and its transmission. This teaching, according to her neither a religion nor a philosophy, has always existed and surfaces in times of great changes in civilisation, when humanity is out of balance and has lost its reason and lucidity. The teaching is transmitted from Master to pupil and from older comrade to younger comrade, by “word of mouth and in a practical way only”.
In her foreword, Madame Claustres warns the readers for the many organisations that use Gurdjieff’s name, but where no experience in the real inner work of Gurdjieff can be found. Even groups guided by those who were in a direct line of transmission offer no guarantee, because the ego of their leaders is often too strong and the inevitable result is illusion guided by imaginiation. In this process, both Gurdjieff’s ideas as well as his Movements become distorted. She adds that nevertheless some people, “through the honesty of their being can grasp, by instinct and intuition, the real meaning of this teaching, if they are guided by sincere observation of themselves and a deep activation of their conscience.”

Language

Madame Claustres book is written and published in her own mother tongue, French. It is not clear to us if and when the book will be translated. However, let those who cannot read French not give in to any useless feelings of disappointment. A good piece of advice would be to buy a French dictionary and to start translating phrase by phrase into your own language. Better still, form a study group to do this work together and to think over and discuss each phrase. You will be richly rewarded and as a bonus for your work, you will learn the basics of the French language as well!

Contents

Roughly half the book recounts the author’s experiences as a direct pupil of Gurdjieff. These are written in the form of short episodes, each illuminating a certain definite event or experience and its relation to the teaching as a whole. Further, a whole chapter is dedicated to the Movements. It will go without saying that reading and rereading this chapter will be a must for everyone trying to work on the Movements. This is followed by two remarkable poems, without compare in the existing literature of the Work, and further reflections on the teaching and the transformation of substances. A last chapter deals again with her personal memories of Gurdjieff and provides many of his short statements, most of them never published before. It proved too difficult to resist quoting some of the many sayings of
Gurdjieff that Madame Claustres recorded:
”An integrated being teaches others through his presence”
”To acquire Real Knowledge you have to pay a certain price. You yourself are that price.”


Form, and what the book, as seen through the eyes of this reviewer, really represents

The form of Madame Claustres’ book consists, almost without exception, of separate parts of texts varying from three to six phrases. Gradually, one understands that each of those represents an event, a thought or a reflection. Each has its own meaning, its own weight and
carries its own message. One begins to understand and feel that for each of these independent
parts the author has carefully measured and separated thought from association, feeling from sentimentallity and has verified the possibility for the body to sense each phrase. It is as if in the depth of the inner self, where silence reigns, Madame Claustres has revived the significant events of her life. These events, shaped in a few phrases, become like the small pieces of a
mosaic, all of which reflect her search.

What Madame Claustres has offered us in her book is nothing less than the Mosaic of her life, illuminated by the the single, powerful, source of light of the teaching which she has lived for sixty years and to which she has devoted her life.

How this book should be employed

Because of its form, this book should not be ‘just read’. It should be reflected upon, each day one should take one of the text parts to ponder. The chapter dedicated to Movements should be read aloud in front of every Movements class before starting the lesson, each time a different part.

Gratitude

While your reviewer is preparing this text, he is sitting on a wooden bench in one of Berlin’s many playgrounds for children, and has to divide his attention constantly, because of his little
son’s expertise in quickly swallowing sand, pebbles, as well as all kinds of other objects, if you lose him out of sight for a second. Even in that condition one can have a vision. I heard from the depth of the Gurdjieff Work a voice. A voice that offers us all an objective measure by which to judge our own work, to verify its direction. Jumping from the bench to take a huge pebble out of my son’s mouth, I remember one of the silent gestures Madame Claustres sometimes made while directing a Movements class; silent and solemn her raised right arm, straight above her head, was lowered, like a sword dividing with great precision a substance in front of her. Her book is exactly like that. Like water from a well, a deep gratitude to Madame Claustres rose in me, because she allowed me once more to separate the fine from the coarse in my life. If this last phrase is too emotional, I think Madame Claustres will
forgive me. Because, reknown as she is because of her sheer force, undimished in the autumn of her life, I know her generosity and compassion to be even greater.


The first edition of this book consists of 250 books only, each book numbered from 1-250, do not let your chance go by to obtain one of these!

Wim van Dullemen



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How to order

The book has to be bought directly from
Eureka Editions.
Price: Euro 25 + shipment (within Europe Euro 3)
Eureka Editions’ website can be found at:

http://www.eurekaeditions.com
http://www.eurekaeditions.com/el2.htm

Description in french
http://www.eurekaeditions.com/SC%20TEXT.htm

Eureka Editions
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Utrecht 3512 KC
The Netherlands
Tel/Fax: ++31 30 234 01 69

E-mail:
sales@eurekaeditions.com
eureka@ision.nl

In France:
Eureka-France@wanadoo.fr
Web-page: http://www.eurekaeditions.com