Mme De Salzmann on death

Mme De Salzmann on the death of Mme. Ouspensky

"When Mme. Ouspensky died, on December 30, 1961, the following letter was
received by the New York groups from (Mme. De Salzmann) , Paris

"In the name of my relation with Madame Ouspensky, who was the nearest soul
in my work, I wish to tell you this:

Once more I recognize the truth I experienced in front of Mr. Gurdjieff's
body, and which has become a certitude:


There is no death...Life cannot die.

The coating uses up, the form disintegrates, but life is--is always
there--even if for us it is the unknown.

We cannot know life.

We can know life only after we know death. Death is the end--the end of
everything known.

And because we cling to the known, the unknown is a fearful thing.

If we wish to know life, we need to die to the known and enter the unknown.

We need to die voluntarily.

We need to free ourselves from the known.

In being free from the known, we can enter the unknown, the complete
stillness where there is no deterioration--the only state in which we can find out what life is and what love is. As without that love we will never find the truth."