.Tuesday, April 25.2006.
     If you might like to understand the writing from this morning, you might like to please read the chapter " ART "
from Gurdjieff's " All & Everything ", and on the back cover of the newer edition we use at our Spice House, it is
written, by a book reviewer, that this is one of the one hundred most influential books ever written.  I am not a
literary man, in the usual sense, yet I have always felt the realy powerful, yes profound nature of the writing in this
book.  Artists and writers are drawn to Gurdjieff as a moth to a flame.  Yes.  And I do consider myself an artist; altho
in the connotation of being an " organic ortist " through my spice work.  So please open your book to " Art ".
.
We are here in April 2006.  We will also be in February 1934.  Gurdjieff was dropped off by someone at the foot
of the driveway there at Taliesin in Spring Green Wisconsin at Frank Lloyd Wright's new " Organic School of
Architecture ".  " Are you sure it was then Paul " I asked Paul Beidler.  He was there, then, in early 1934.  " Yes,
it was early 1934, and Gurdjieff was in tough shape.  He had been drinking. "  My Father was a Russian immigrant
who lived alone.  Gurdjieff was living alone pretty much in those days too, just as my Father did.  And these
Russian immigrants were drinkers.  Drinkers with a capital D.  Vodka mostly.  The stories of Gurdjieff in those
days paint him as a statesman type, living a sort of classy elegant lifestyle with admirers.  But the truth, it is my
feeling, is that he was just like my Father, pretty much a lonely man, making his way through those tough times
as best he could, and living a rough life, in a sense living by his wits, and imposing himself; mooching; as best he
could to get by.  And to also perform his mission in life.  But set within the contexts of how it was' rugged, tough.
.
As I understand it, yes, the Frank Lloyd Wright school was influenced to some degree by Gurdjieff through
Mrs. Wright, but this is not as it is relayed through the writings that describe this situation.  Paul told me that
there was a group within that group, which did have Gurdjieff style gatherings; meetings; readings, but it was
very small.  I had written Olgivanna Wright in the 1970's, sent her some of our spice samples and our spice
material, but I never heard back from her.  I told Paul about this and he replied that she would have written
back to me IF she had received my material.  I got the impression that not all the mail sent to her every made it
into her hands.  Who else was in this small inner ciricle of Gurdjieff students besides Paul and Mrs. Wright?
Well, ther could have been two young people; two young men, and possibly a couple of others,  Perhaps a
woman, a little bit older than the students.  Paul was twenty eight at the time, Mrs. Wright was about ? 35, and
there were mostly young 18 year old kids.  Paul in a sense was a teachers assisstant to Mr. Wright.  He had
studied with Le Cornusier in Paris,  and with another famous architect in Holland, I believe.  He had cut a deal
with Mr. Wright to get something off of his tuition by helping to be an older student and a sort of assisstant.
I recall how he told Ruth & I how Frank Lloyd Wright put the bite on him for $ 300. one day, he told us the story
in detail, and also how Gurdjieff put the bite on him for about the same amount while Gurdjieff stayed there.
.
Henry Schubart Jr. was perhaps 16 at that time.  Later Paul helped him to go to northern Irag on a trip with
the University of Pennsylvania archeolical studies group, and Mr. Wright was furious with young Henry.  You
might read the FLW letter to young Henry when he attempted to get back into the fellowship after his return.
Why do I think that perhaps Henry was part of the small group who studied Gurdjieff seriously there at Taliesin?
He told me, Mr. Schubart, that he did have dinner with Gurdjieff, either in New York or Paris, as he went to Irag.
He said to me that he celebrated his 16th birthday with Frank Lloyd Wright, and his 17th with a dinner with Gurdjieff.
.
Was Edgar Tafel part of the small inner group of serious Gurdjieff students?  He also was very young.  He was
the official sort of piano player at the Taliesin Sunday gatherings, and was gifted.  Paul told me the favorite song
of Frank Lloyd Wright, was it by Greig? and that he would request it be played at those Sunday gatherings.  It is
odd by it is the very same music that the man who adopted me in the late 1940's in Shorewood Wisconsin loved,
and he would ask me to play it for him on my clarinet as I practised.  He liked the work of Frank Lloyd Wright
and it was he who first introducted me to his architecture by taking me to the early Frank Lloyd Wright home in
Illinois, I can't remember the name of the town at the moment but Mr. Salentine was visiting his Lewis Shepard
Fork Lift Turck Co. sales manager who lived in this sort of wealthy suburb of Chicago and we visited the Wright
home there.  But am I wrong in thinking that Edgar Tafel might have been drawn in to be part of the readings
that Gurdjieff gave there at Taliesin while he stayed for a few months ( and did plenty of cooking as I undersant it ).
."  What did you learn from Gurdjieff? " the Millwaukee Journal art critic James Auer asks Olgivanna Wright on the
secret video he made ( his son Charlie, a really decent sinderely nice young man, was a Spice House apprentice
for a year here in Tosa, James Auer also lived  here in Wauwatosa ) and which he let Ruth & Billy & I see one night.
Mrs. Wright looked out the window and was silent for a minute; you could see from the look on her face the feeling
she had for Gurdjieff ....... " Well, he taught me how to cook. "
.
Bbut where we are going here is to where Gurdjieff read some of the rought drafts of various chapters to that
little group there at Taliesin, rought drafts from material that was to become his classia " All & Everyting " and he
read, as I understand it, to them from the chapter on " Art " and it is a monster chapter; a blockbuster piece of
writing, and he brings in architecture ( Tuesday was the day of the architects ) ... and he brings in Leonardo Da Vinci
into his narrative about what this thing called " art " is; what it really is, and he also attempts to separate out this
other thing that the ancients did, the thing which was much more, can we use the owrd again, " organic " in that it
was really truly functional art, and was of a much higher quality than this thing that followed which was to later
become known as art.  And there was more to Gurdjieff's writing on this subject.  It was a massive letting out of a
secret thing which was performed by the ancients ( the chapter Art is mostly set in ancient Babylonia, where Irag
is today ) which was an attempt to insert something, hidden, into one's life work, something of a very high order &
something that might be used for future generations to be exposed to so as to help these later  peoples to be
inspired; to be elevated in some degree, at least to have a feeling that one's work should not only be based on
higher things; but should attempt to incorporate hilgher things actually within their work.  It is our same question
involving our spice work.  But this is extremly mysterious material.  No one understands it; no one can explain it,
but Gurdjieff does tackle this approach to things in " Art " and he brings in Leonardo Da Vinci as a pivotal figure
who was given this specific information by teachers; higher teachers; so that he knew how to " read " this sort of
material within an attempt at art, whether it was painting or statues or architecturek ... and he also knew how to
insert it.  But Gurdjieff weaves this material into his writing in an enigmatic way, so that one is pretty much left
on their own to put it all together and mak.e some sense out of it.  Paul said it well in one of his hand written
programs that he gave Ruth & I & the other years later there at Northeon Forest:  " perhaps one day a man
will come to us; a higher man; even tho a young man; who will be able to explain these things for our illumination ".
It wasn't written exactly like that, but pretty close.  So Paul listened to Gurdjieff bounce his rough writing off of
the young people & Olgivanna there at Taliesin in the later Winter, early S;pring of 1934.  (  Paul told me that
he had " run into " Mrs. Wright there in Arizona; she was 90 and he was about 84 or so.  They looked at ech other
& laughed at where life had taken them with their wrinkled faces.  You might buy the song " Photographs " by
Nana Mouskouri, it talks at this subject.  About this time Lord Pentland had phoned Paul to ask him his opinion
about that Robert De Rope was planing to write a book about Gurdjieff and Iran or Irag.  Paul soid to Lord
Pentland " Has he ever been to Iraq or Iran?  "  " No " replied Lord Pentland, at which Paul simply scoffed
derisevely.  Paul lived with the Yezedi for two years in northern Iraq when he was a young man.
.
But back to this pivotal question we are involved in today; here in April 2006, in that Mr. Edgar Tafel, now in
his 90's and possibly the last survivor of that 1934 Taliesin group, or one of the last, in a really surprising turn of
events, has agreed to become the design consultant for two new Penzey family Spice Houses;  primarily the
new little " Penzeys Spices " in Grand Central Station in New York City.  And now Ruth & I find that our daughte
& Son-i-law Tom & Patty Erd, have just opened their new " City Market Spice House " in a newly constructed
downtown city part of Milwaukee, which happens to be actually an effort of the very same building group who
have done the Grand Central Station shopping mall there in New York City.  So we are going to please ask Mr
Tafel to let us put up the sign that he is allowing,

                                                    " Edgar Tafel, Frank Lloyd Wright architect, has agreed to
                                                                                   be the design consultant for this small spice shop. "
.
into both shops.  Thuy is busy at the very moment making some preliminary sketches to send to Mr. Tafel
in New York City for his ideas and his approval.  But in all of this the main thing is that we are going to all of us
here in our Spice House in Wauwatosa, study; really study; what Mr. Gurdjieff was alluding to about inserting
something of a higher nature into these two new Spice House efforts, and possibly Mr. Tafel might agree to
shed some of his thinking on this aspect of things.
.
There is a second major part of this story which we will attempt to share as time goes on:  Paul did some years
of architecture there in New York City in the mid 1940's, and as I understand it, he attempted to insert these very
same materialized feelings into his architecture there as we are attempting to insert into our spice work.  But he
was very closed about this; about his architectural efforts.  He was like that.  A very private man.  Possibly
Mr, Tafel might have learned of what Paul was doing there in NYC in the mid 1940's, so that we might go these to
these places for some sort of clues at to the exact nature of what Gurdjieff writes that Leonardo Da Vinci knew;
understood, was able to impliment.
.
It was Oct. 1, 1983.  Paul sat with Ruth & I in his house there on Northeon Mountain in eastern Pennsylvania
  He allowed us tc be with him  for one & one half hours that morning, the three of us talking.  He asked many
questions about our Spice House & how we did things, and we explained in detail the way we did things by hand
mostly & how we shared this attempt to do good spice work with the younger people who were with us.  Mostly
he was taken with the labor intensive but very close to our work; always touching; hand sifting, seeing; seeing;
and after awhile, when we went to go he said

"  Bill & Ruth, don't change a thing. "                                    More to come as this all unfolds.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
.


..Thursday, April 19, 2006.  Hyparxsis.  A phyicists term that postulates we live in a nine dimensional universe,
    and that one of the most important of these nine is " meaning ", what the Chinese claim the Tao to be.
.      Please see last sentence in Dr. Max Lake email.  Also refer to " Dramatic Universe " by Paul's friend John Bennett.
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.

Dear Dr. Max Lake;
What a brilliant insight about ozone Dr. Lake.  No wonder you get paid
the big bucks, as they say currently here in America.

.The photo from yesterdays Chicago Oldtown Spice Gathering ( 7/22/03)
shows Jill Norman with daughter Patty Penzey Erd ( you may recall you spoke
to her by telephone from Australia some years ago ).  Jill Norman has just
agreed to become a " teacher's assistant " in our magical, mystical
Mistress of Spices Twelve Young Ladies Wisdom School .... and is
being presented her very very special  Pyramid Rainbow Pepper Mill,
with the " Peppercorns Sovor/Saveur " mixture by daughter Patty.
This special mill is a marvelous talisman & provides a special coating of
sunshine like purity to all the cooking transactions that come from one's
table.  It is especially apparent ... this sunshine like evanesence ....when
pepper is milled in the presence of that unique vapor known to scientists
as " ozone " but known to others by the name of " the Oz one ".
Hope to get your books soon Dr. Lake.                   Sincerely,    William Penzey

...................................................................................................................................................

Max Lake wrote:

 >  Not sure if I agree with your keyboard "constrictions" concept.
> However, an idea of inhibition or braking does resonate with the
> neurology of the huge link between the emotions and the automatic body
> function switchboard called the hypothalamus. The actual connection to
> the frontal lobe is a thick as your thumb, with uncounted connections
> which are doing something.The hypothalamus is surprise surprise
> intimately connected to the old smellbrain [see TASTE] . As far as
> perfume Noses are concerned [ and food and wine connoiseurs be it
> added] these people have opened and consolidated wiring that less
> experienced mortals dont even dream of. A bit like Olympians. Deriving
> principles and abstractions from such traffic might lend colour to any
> accompanyng view.Any "sense of authority" you credit me with derives
> from the influence of mentors, experience, training and
> dedication.Where do the eyes focus during heartfelt singing ? You may
> be amused to learn that I often take my glasses off to better nose
> some offering. I have concluded that there may only be enough mental
> energy avaialble for such concentration at any given time, so best not
> to squander it. Probably relates to the attention spike in the EEG.
> [see TASTE].The Milwaukee concert ? Is it possible you were high on
> ozone or something like it ?Excitement may relate to an overflow
> discharge in the hypothalamus. See nucleus accumbens in TASTE. A
> second circuit ? Why not more ?  Hyperarxis  seems to straddle all of this.       Max Lake

                                                                           .............................................................................................



Tuesday, April 18. 2006.
.
We sat on the edge of the large Oriental rug; Paul and Ruth & I.  Paul asked Darwin to come over and sit with us.
The Sunday meeting was just over and everyone was leaving.  They all had Paul's hand written new program in
their hands, as did Ruth.  We talked and I happened to ask Paul " Was Tatiana Nagro fond of you? "  Usually one
would not; could not; ask him a personal question like this.  " Well, I don't know if she was fond of me, but she knew
I was there. "  Paul replied.  Paul also said that the movements were not necessary in our case ( Darwin winced ).
.
Tatiana Nagro was Ouspensky's grand daughter and we were referring to the Gurdjieff school known as
Franklin Farms, located in the wealthy old traditional New Jersey village named Mendham.  The Wisconsin
socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan had donated a very expensive parcel of property tere to the Ouspenskys for them
to run a Gurdjieff style school.  Dodge was the heir to the Dodge auto car fortune; was a small car company that
was, as time went on, bought out by the larger Chrysler Car Co.  Mabel Dodge had married an Indian artist from
Taos New Mexico named Tony Luhan, as I understand it.  Ruth and I had gone there in our search for a good
Gurdjieff teacher in late 1983 just before we went to New York City to see Lord Pentland & Richard Brower on
5th Avenue.   Ruth had talked twice with Tatiana Nagro and she suggested we go to Yale University in New Haven
Conn. and there we should go to Sterling Hall where the manuscripts of Mr. Ouspensky were kept.  I think Ouspensky
lived in Kiev, Russia, briefly in about 1900, which was when my Father & Mother also lived there in Kiev.  She said
that possibly this was the place we should go, and perhaps something would happen there at Yale, that we would
meet someone who might help us.
.
In talking about Franklin Farms, Paul said he had gone there every weekend for seven straight years.
As he explained it, Mme. Ouspensky was his teacher more than Mr. Ouspensky, and he did not seem overly warm &
respectful towards Mr. Ouspensky.  Paul was truly a man.  A man.  I recall one time at a gathering when there were
some fifty of us there all sitting on that Oriental rug, and he asked if there were any questions, and I blurted out
" What ils it to be a man? "   I even surprised myself with the question and I quickly hid behind the person sitting in
front of me.  He lashed out in response to the question, to me, and you know I never really did understand why he
took this question to be so offensive, altho there were women in the audience and perhaps he took it as a question
with too much gender in it.  But :Paul was a man.  I recall Helen saying how she had felt fortunate to be allowed to
sity at his feet, and this was true.  He was quite a production; the real thing.  Yes, the real thing and everyone there
knew itc.  ( do you know that the script I am writing in was designed at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliensin Organic
School of Architeture as a class project back in 1932-1933?  One some computers the " rights to reproduction "
are not allowed, on others they are.  We purchased the rights to use them for making small sings in our shop  ...
the B has special meaning for me as it is designed in the shape of a heart, and when Paul would write me an
occassional letter or note, he always made the " B " just like that when he wrote my name out in his hand .......
a B iln the shape of a heart ).  But the main thing I am wanting to share here is that Paul attended this Gurdjieff
School  for seven straight years every week end.  As I understand it Paul was an architect in New York City at the
time and this is where the " new search that we seem to be pointed in the direction of " seems to be going.  To go
back to find the architecture that Paul made there in New York City to see if we might extract from it the certain
devices he used, along the line of what Gurdjieff talked about in the chapter on Art in Al.l & Everyting, where it is
said that Leonardo Da Vinci knew how to read the hidden signs, as Gurdjieff also implies he knew how to insert the
hidden ciphers and I am thinking that perhaps Paul also came to understand how to insert these powerful loaded
with a certian type of meaning devices into one's work.  This is where Ruth & I are after just finishing reading the
chapter " Art :" in All & Everything.  We need to attempt to put these extra rich meaning  clusters into our spice work.
But why do I have a little bit of a feelilng that we have been doing this for some time now, but are not conscious,
in a sense, that we have been doing it.  Or is this ego talking?  We are asking now everyone here to read aloud part
of the chapter " Art " and we will put different tracks of certain Baroque music as a backround as we read, the idea
being that perhaps it might be true that the sound syntax of Baroque music slides one gently into a more receptive
state so as to be able to understand things just a little more?  Or is this romantic nonsense ( my romantic " I " which
gets me on the wrong track often, but actually, in the larger sense of things, has never really been harmful.  I am
fortunate in that I have a wife with very good common sense perception who helps me keep out of real trouble ).
So there they were, going to the movie house in Madison Wisconsin near the UW campus on State Street.
Gurdjieff, Olgivanna Wright, and Paul.  Gurdjieff stopped in the small fruit & vegetable store just outside the movie
house and bought a small bag full of raw carrots to chew on in the movie house .......  more to come as time goes on.
The year was 1934, and Mr. Gurdjieff was there at Taliesin and while there cooking for all the young people and
also working on revision drafts of his book to come " All & Everything " and he would read to a small group there
in the evening some of his revisions to see their reactions; their responses, and he read to them the ideas about
Leonardo Da Vinci and hidden methods.
...
.
. Edgar Tafel and Leonardo Da Vinci.
.
Explain the situation about Paul Beidler's special architecture there in New York City, where he put together buildings
based on the ideas & principles that possibly Leonardo Da Vinci in a sense, showed him?
 
A.  Gurdjieff working on the drafts of this chapter in 1934 at Taliesin where his rought drafts; writing, was read aloud
         to the small group there within the larger group.  Paul, Mrs. Wright, who else?  Henry Schubart Jr?
.
B.   Gurdjieff's weaving in Leonardo Da Vinci as one of the main characters in his exposition of certain very old
        hidden ideas as to how to weave into one's work; one's art, things of very high quality to pass them on
          to future generations.  But one has to know how to " read " these hidden things within the finished work.
.
C.    Clues Gurdjieff gives as to how to insert these things into one's work; one's art.  It has been my approach
           that what we do is " organic art " here at  our Spice House.  Include here the writing about my Father &
                my Mother and the term; the gift term, called " barraka ".
.
D.   The search in New York City for the architecture that Paul Beilder left behind for us ( meaning all of us
            Spice people ) to study; to learn from; to possibly include within our body of spice work, if, once we,
               get to know our way around in this very high, very cleverly hidden, system of  things passed down
                  from generation to generation for the good of all those who come in contact with these things.
.
E.  The attempt to ask Mr. Tafel to lend us a hand in this search there in New York City, possibly through ?  Thuy?
.
.
.Sunday April 9, 2006.  Below is an example of what we are asking, that you please take a red or other colored pen,
    and copy over, as exact as you can, the letters as written out by Paul Beilder for his Northeon Forest programs.
We have some dozen programs like this, and will post them from time to time.  Other things follow below that, including
the photograph of Edgar Tafel's book cover about the students of Frank Lloyd Wright.  Share ET Gurdjieff stories.
........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
 




Gurdjieff.  Notes:  Sunday March 26, 2006.
.
.......          1.  the reading of the chapter " Art " from Gurdjieff's masterpiece " All & Everything ".
                     How did Paul say it about Gurdjieff's book?  Something like " it is amazing that a man
                       could have written this material as it is so advanced :"
.
                     We are attempting to read it; all of us here at our Wauwatosa Spice House, this year,
                 as it has so much information; guidance; for an effort like ours.  To insert this special sort
                 of information that Gurdjieff speaks of ... the type of rich content that came just before
                    the word " art " was used to describe what was to come after.  Ruth read eight pages last
                       night, and another four pages tonight.  It is something to think that the setting is Baghdad,
                        on the outskirts of modern day Baghdad, Babylon, some three thousand years ago, or more.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Re: the reading below.  Compromise.  There is a beautiful line in a segment of the old TV series " Cheers "
   where Ted Danson speaks the words written by one of the show's writers first:
          " Compromise.  Doesn't it all come down to, at the end of it, we have to accept this sort of
              painfull thing & suck it in & come to accomodate the other person; the situation. "
   Was he talking about his situation with the girl that Shelley Long played?  Perhaps.
Which reminds me of the line Ruth & I saw last night in a TV segment about polygamy, where the comedian's line
   is said that " whether you're married to more than one woman, or to just one woman, it still is one
          woman too many " .......  but back to the point.  Yes, compromise.  Paul said it well and often;
  " Conscous Labor and Intentional Suffering ".  You see we are exposing our young people to the spiritual ideas
of the spice cultures of our Earth;  Judaiism, Hinduism, Taoist, Buddism, Christianity, yes, mostly, and also a bit
   from the world of Islam.  To live together we will have to learn about each other more than we do now.
      The three kids doing the reading, one has an A+ grade point avera ge at Pius High School, one is pretty
much an " A " student at Wauwatosa East, and the third was a valdictorian at East.  The material they are reading
you will see is advanced material  exactly correct for fine yound minds to be exposed to, and we say that
especially about what we asked them to read has lots of references to higher more advanced books; specific
references.  We are asking them to each write the name of the three volume poem by Rumi on the chalk board,
each to do this, so that maybe this title will stick with them and they might, in future years, even attempt to read it.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
.
.Saturday, April 1, 2006.  There is a short lull in the busy goings on in our Spice House.
Carlo is grinding cassia cinnamons in the back.  First the very high oil Saigon, then the sweet rich
China Tung Hing, and hopefully; if he has time; the lower oil Mr. Wu's A & B which we use because of
their solid dark firm sienna colors.  Thuy has just packed off a dozen fresh new crisp Ethnic Milwaukee
Seasoning Gift Boxes ( still just $ 14.89 and we've shipped hundreds everywhere )
 and Katherine is busy in a corner rushing to put up small sample spice poly pots of
just mixed aromatic Peace Climb Chili Powder.  I ask Ruth if she thinks it might be possible to fit in just a
little reading with these three gifted young people; she replies she thinks so, and she opens a book to the page
which has a reference to At'tar the chemist.  We have been wanting to start a study of this well respected
scientist of the Arabian world of times past.  You may have heard the expression " at'tar of roses "?
Well, as I understand it, this is from his name & from his process, for distilling & purifying the rose concretes
used in the perfumery trade.  The chapter in the book Ruth turns to is"  Aleppo " and it tells the story of a
seeker going to Allepo in the hope of obtaining some knowledge for his questions.  Ruth has the three spice
helpers fill each a small spice bottle with our " Aleppo sweet red pepper " ( a delicious tasty condiment ) to
take home with them, and they, the three of them, take turns reading .......
.
" Illness forced me to stay in Jerusalem for ten days
although I was anxious to be on my way to Aleppo.  The
complaint was the usual one suffered by travellers unused
to Middle Eastern food and, since I intended to travel by
land, I wanted to be quite fit before I left.
My enforced stay enabled me to read a lot.  I chose for
the most part Persian authors whole work I could read
or where there was a good translation in English.  I wanted
to see if the accusations of neo-Platonism, Gnosticism
and/or Shamanism levelled against the Sufis could be
supported by available fact.  I confess that I laboured
under great disadvanatses, for I was not sufficiently con-
versant with the great masters of Sufi thought to be able
to give any sort of jedgement.  Should I be safe enought in
arriving at a decision which satisfied me alone?  What
would be the difference in the impact if I should find
Sufism to have been influenced by neo-Platonic thought?
Yet, if their theories were valid, did it matter whence they
came or did it not?
These questions vexed me, for I felt muyself perilously
near bringing intellectual or academic arguments to bear
on the situation.
The source material which I found, with the help of a
.
72.
friendly bookseller, included Al Ghazzali, Jalaluddin
Rumi and Fariduddin Attar the Chemist.
Ghazzali is widely considered in the Moslem world to
have revivified the faith, and he bears just that title.  Find-
ing doubts in his mind, he wandered for ten years until
they were resolved.  His books are believed to have in-
fluenced the thoughts of both St. Francis and Thomas
Aquinas, while being one of the bases of Islamic mystical
philosophy.  His Confessions of a Troubled Believer, trans-
lated by Watt, are moving in the extreme: " to begin
with, what I am looking for is knowledge of what things
really are, so I must undoubtedly try to find out what
knowledge really is. "
His research was directed towards cold analysis without
unneccessary academic verbiage or intellectual vapourings.
He sought, he sifted and above all he experienced.
To quote him: " From whence, says a doubting inner
voice, does the reliance on self-perception come?  The
most powerful sense is that of sight.  Yet when it looks at
the shadow on the face of a sundial it sees it standing still
and judges that there is no motion.  Then by experiment
and deeper observation, after an hour, it knows that, in
fact, the shadow is moving and, moreover, it does not
move in fits and starts but gradually and steadily by in-
finitely small distances in such a way that it is never in a
state of rest.  Again, it looks at the sun and sees it small
as a shilling, yet geometrical computatiion shows it to be
greater than the Earth in size. "
Ghazzali was inspiring reading for me, for his tussle
with his doubts and his intellect was clearly described, as
were the bases  of his every decision.  I could follow his
.
73
reasoning and his impeccable logic, and rejoiced at his
findings.  I could easily have accepted these findings with-
out the evidence, but the detailed explanations refreshed
my consciousness and enabled me to plot a simpler course
through the morass of my own immature thoughts , emo-
tions and half-formed opinions based on conditioned
thinking..
Rumi the thirteenth century mystic wrote the colossal
metaphysical work the Mathnavi, a three-volume poem
which can only be fully appreciated by the most devel-
oped souls.  I could not even begin  to fathom the elegant
allegory and deep, vibrant truth. I could only read it on
the surface and try to allow its reality to filter through.
I quote the story of the Greeks and the Chinese, illustrat-
ing the difference between theological and mystical
thoughts:
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If you desire a parable of the hidden knowledge, tell the
story of the Greeks and the Chinese.
" We are better artists " declared the Chinese.
" We have the edge on you, " countered the Greeks.
" I will put you to a test, " said the Sultan.  " Then we shall see
which of you makes good your claim. "
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At this point our Spice House became busy again, so the book was
set down and we resumed our spice merchants doings; spice explanations,
tastes, laughter, being accomodating, and always being the straight man;
  Ruth laughs when working with people and she has passed this on to our
 daughters Patty & Pam, they always laugh when working with spice customers in their
settings now, and also she has given this beautiful gift to young Thuy
( valedictorian at 'Tosa East ) who also laughs now when working with people.
 " That happy soul " one lady said to me of Ruth.
There were two small children in the store, and they had found their way to
the marble slab, where we have the spice graters and the whole spices for kids to grate.
I will take the liberty, if I may,  to finish the story of Rumi about true art to complete this segment:
......................................................................................................................................................................
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" Assign to us one particlular room and to the Greeks another. "
said the Chinese.
The two rooms faced each other, door to door, the Chinese
taking one and the Greeks the other.  The Chinese demanded
of the king a hundred colours, so the worthy monarch opened
up his treasury and every morning the Chinese received of his
bounty their ration of colour.
" No hues or colours are suitable for our work, " said the
Greeks.  " All we require is to get rid of the rust. "  And so saying
they set to work polishing.
There is a way from multicolourity to colourlessness; colour
 is like the clouds, colourlessness is a moon.  Whatever  radiance
.
74.
and splendour you see in the clouds, be sure that it comes from
the stars, the moon and the sun.
When the Chinese had finished their work they began drum-
ming for joy.  The king came in and saw the pictures there;
the moment he encountered that sight, it stole away his wits.
Then he advanced towards the Greeks, who thereupon moved
the intervening curtain so that the reflection of the Chinese
masterpieces  struck upon the walls they had scoured clean of
rust.  All that the king had seen in the Chinese room showed
lovelier here, so that his very eyes were snatched out of their
sockets.
The Greeks, my father, are the Sufis; without repetition and
books and learnng, yet they have scoured their breasts clear of
greed and covetousness, avarice and malice.  The purilty of the
mirrow without doubt is  the heart, which receives images
innumerable.  The reflection of every image, whether num-
bered or without number, shines forth forever from the heart
alone, and forever every new image that enters upon the heart
shows forth within it free of all imperfections.  They who have
 burnished their hearts have escaped from scent and colour;
every moment, instantly they behold beauty.
.
read fromv the book  " The Teachers of Gurdjieff " by Rafael Lefort.
Chapter  VI 
Mohamed Mohsin The Merchant.
This book is available from " Bennett Books " Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Last, and this is important; very important to me.  On the bottom of the web page " /being.htm .... or /being.html ....
there are about a dozen of Paul's programs, which he wrote out by hand.  I have some misgivings about placing them
out there into cyberspace, is this an accurate term to use here?  Perhaps not.  But I am going to ask you, if you
would like to do this, to download a program that speaks to you, and then to take a colored pen and slowly write
over Paul's hand writing.  It is possible for me to be with him to some degree when I myself do this, and to get closer
to his material.  We've asked those who've worked with us through the years here at our Spice House to do this,
and soon I will post one of these examples where the writing was copied over Paul's writing with a red ball point pen.
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In my opinion, & I may be wrong here, to take Paul's hand written words; sentences; and turn them into " printed words "
and them put this printing on a piece of paper is a process that loses some of the connectivity to Paul & his teaching.
But isn't that what was done with Shakespeare?  And it seems to work there.  But how about humouring me & attempting
to do this?  Thank you.                Sunday evening about 10 pm March 26, 2006.
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                      After our day doing spices, and it is late evening, Ruth has her one glass of red wine,
                           we lay in bed together, she uses a new LCD flashlight in our bedroom, and she reads
                       while I rub her leg as she drinks her glass of wine.  Tonight we went over the material on
                         "  Tuesday is architecture day " and as Thuy works on Tuesday, and might become a
                      gifted architect ( as Paul was ) we agreed that Thuy should read this material over on
                         architecture when she comes in this coming Tuesday.  I  inserted a small aside into her
                           reading about my days at the old prestigous Layton School of Art here in Milwaukee,
                               this was in 1950, and the art teacher was telling us all in the class about how
                           uncertainty of it all when Frank Lloyd Wright decided to use those special new style
                              columns in the Johnson Wax Building in Racine in the late 1930's.  This was quite a
                    gamble as many thought that he was completely wrong on his theory about distributing the
                       weight of the roof onto these unusual " upside down " columns.  Perhaps we can find some
                          material that covers how right he was on this, and how wrong his critics were.  But am I
                               correct in what I am saying here?
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Edgar Tafel & the Gurdjieff salad.  I talked with Mr. Tafel about a month ago by phone.  He was in New York Cily
    at the time.  Post here the good article with his picture playing the piano there at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin
near Madison.  There is a reason that iI made the effort to contact him.  But out of it I am thinking to ask him for
the original recipe for the famous " Gurdjieff Salad " which was served at the start of the many many social gatherings
that the Wrights had in their cultivation of important people from all around the United States.  Mr. Tafel told Ruth
& I  a  very good story about transporting two or three large 50 gallon drums holding the fermenting salad material
when things were moved from Spring Green to the new southwest Taliesin in Scottsdale Arizona back in ? 1938.
  Ruth & I wrote down his narrative word for word & we will post it here when I have time.
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We are doing some work with the idea of A,B. & C influences & magnetic centre in our Spice House with the people
that we seem to be meant to be with in life.  How to support others with a good effort, but in a hidden way.  And also
we are doing something with the idea that little children, up to the age of 7 or 8, are really extemely rich with something
which might be called " essence; pure essence ".  This is the term that Dr. Maurice Nicoll uses in his " Commentaries ",
but Gurdjieff covers this subject in the four pages that Ruth read tonight, the pages ending at 471 ... I might you please
reead these pages?  Or re read them.  When Paul said that this writilng is not from a human source, these pages in
the chapter " Art " are perhaps some of the best material in his entire book.
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Gurdjieff salad is an old Eastern European style of fermented salad; cabbage, etc. that gets a nice bite as it ferments.
It is thought to be very good for the overall digestion process of the human system..
to
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