We seek the answer only we can know, just as only we can eat our own meals.
Ashish,p. 73
This path is so difficult that many people feel if you can do anything else, go and do it.
Ashish p.147
The Master is one with the spirit. He exemplifies the final attainment. He is what is as yet only a partially realized potential in your own being. You can “recognize” him only to the extent that you can feel the responses in your essence when like answers to like.
Sri Madhava Ashish (p. V, The Masters Speak: An American Businessman Encounters Ashish and Gurdijeff)
Exercises for becoming aware of the body have value only to the extent that they lead to awareness of the awareness which is aware of the body. Merely to become aware of the body is not part of the work.
Madhava Ashish quote, p. 107, sept 11, 1983
In India there is a saying that the disciple’s final attainment requires him to put his foot on his guru’s head, as a stepping stone – the ultimate insult. In Japanese Zen, “If you meet the Buddha on the path, kill him”. The point being that a man has to get past misconceptions of the true nature of the teacher / teaching.
Sri Madhava Ashish quote, p. 118, June 25, 1983
These are all quotes from: The Masters Speak: An American Businessman Encounters Ashish and Gurdjieff, by Sy Ginsburg.
There is only one way of understanding. To become silent. The two Titans–Sri Krishnaprem and Sri Madhava Ashish–enlivened Mirtola for seven decades. Let silence turn every heart into a Mirtola, to enable one to hear their footsteps, so that one’s heart beats with their heartbeats. So long as the mind intervenes, there will be dithering. O my heart, pray to Yashoda Ma for the same grace she showered on Sri Krishnaprem which he, in his turn, showered on Sri Madhav Ashish.
Om Shantih
Ajit Sambodhi