“We are at the beginning of a process. To be aware of a current…. It is an inner shift. All that is required is a kind of remembering to bring it about, and then watchfulness against being distracted…. Dwelling in stillness is the channel through which the other current can flow. It is the current.“ –Jean-Claude Lubtchansky

Through these 41 recollected talks of meetings with a Gurdjieff guide, we join Jean-Claude Lubtchansky for a Work week in Provence, a weeklong retreat in Holland, and Work days in New York. Awakening in the midst of everyday life, seeing objectively, being present, related to higher energies—all these are prominent themes.

“When I dwell in the awareness, unidentified with the contents of awareness,” he tells us, “I am in the stillness which is always there… truly magical.”

In the Preface, a small group in Provence meets with him one afternoon, outdoors, under a tree. Blue sky. Scent of rosemary. “There is a secret consciousness contained in the silence, hidden from ordinary mind,” he says. “This tree… when I am quiet in myself, and I look at this tree,” here he smiles, “we are already in Paradise.”

Now, Sensitivity, in the Silence

Awaken the Attention

Finer Energy Can Appear

Trust This Awareness

A Taste of Freedom

Silent Mind

Listen As If It Is All Unknown

Objectivity in Seeing Myself

Tree of Life, Rooted in Attention

Have This Look Upon You

Come into Presence

All My Beliefs Are Nothing

Return to This Light in You

Embody This Force Consciously

From the Recollected Talks of Jean-Claude Lubtchansky

There is a Life in you.  You can become sensitive, receptive to a finer material.  It is important to mobilize attention and to be very watchful.  What is needed is a very active attention, a strong attention.

Seeing at each moment:  not so easy when talking or moving, but something sees how I am.  Then it becomes possible for Attention to flow through.

A level of intensity can come by opening again and again to Presence. If I am near, I go deeper into that dimension. If I am far away, I come back.

Experience it, embody it.  It is always there.  Be aware of this finer Intelligence coming into me, through me. Silent mind. Allow the force of Life to come through.

The attention needs to be free. It needs to be very strong in order not to be distracted by associations or outer events. There is an external silence and an inner silence. With an inner silence a higher energy can come down from Above, and I can function, think, speak, from this Intelligence.

One has to open to it, and allow it to flow, to penetrate one’s being. The most important thing? It is to let the higher energy manifest in me so that all my functions serve the Light.

Jean-Claude Lubtchansky (1930-2020) led the Paris Institut G.I. Gurdjieff and guided the network of Work foundations around the globe during the last twenty years of his life. Working closely with Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, he participated in every aspect of the production of the film drawn from Gurdjieff’s book Meetings with Remarkable Men. Working with Dr. Michel de Salzmann, Jean-Claude brought to fruition Seekers of Truth, a three-part documentary of Gurdjieff’s life, including rare footage and interviews with pupils.

“This new book will make an important contribution to where the Work can be… now in the midst of all of the ‘thinking’ which needs to be put firmly aside in favor of what is spoken of here. For the gift of this Work, thank you.”

–Lee van Laer, zenyogagurdjieff.substack.com