Jeanne De Salzmann (1899–1990) met G. I. Gurdjieff (b.1866), the famous and controversial spiritual guru, in 1919 and committed herself to his work known as the Fourth Way. Before he died in 1949, he designated her to carry on his teachings and practices. During the next 40 years she arranged publications of his books, worked with his dance exercises called the "Movements," and set up Gurdjieff centers in Paris, New York, London, and Caracas, Venezuela. This long-awaited volume brings together Jeanne de Salzmann's notebooks on her teacher's path of spiritual transformation.
In her first encounter with Gurdjieff, Salzmann notes that he was like an irresistible force, a spiritual master who could "show you what you were in a way you would never forget in your whole life." She begins her extensive probe of his teachings with a look at Gurdjieff's call to consciousness and the art of self-remembering. For him, the sacred manifests itself as inner consciousness. Salzmann then moves on to the challenge of opening to presence. What Gurdjieff called "the Fourth way" is, according to the author, "a way of understanding that is to be lived." The practice of being present keeps us focused on what shows up in our lives. As we tread this path it is helpful to have others who assist us in "the Work." Community is important and so is practicing the Movements (bodily exercises) — both enhance "a way of living the idea of Presence." Other knotty teachings which are explored by Salzmann are establishing an inner sense of gravity, stages of breathing, ego and illusion, the act of seeing, obedience and will, a body of energy, and opening without fear. These are not easy teachings, but there is plenty of wisdom on these pages especially in regard to being present, self-discovery, and the arduous process of spiritual transformation.
