Continued from page 1
What then is this "work"? Those in
Gurdjieff school write of "work on oneself," and often capitalize concept, as in "The Work." Gurdjieff time and again insisted on importance of direct transmission of knowledge from teacher to student, and emphatically warned of grave dangers of attempting to learn exercises from a book or cramming one's head full of abstract spiritual notions on one's own. Those who have met an authentic teacher know sense of presence so important to whole process, teacher is an embodiment of knowledge of which he or she speaks, and in a sense what he or she says is of little importance compared with student's opportunity to observe what he or she is. Descriptions of Gurdjieff by those who worked with him are filled with references to his effortless bearing, his economy of movement, his feline grace, his almost overwhelming physical presence as well as his spontaneity and earthy sense of humor. A student in Gurdjieff's Moscow circle described his first meeting with teacher: ‘He looked at me, and I had distinct impression that he took me in palm of his hand and weighed me.’ {He could cause women to feel sexually aggressive and lose all inhibition through use of this look combined with breathing techniques.}
Although knowledge is not hoarded secretively, there are inevitable difficulties and pitfalls in efforts to share it with outsiders. Jesus called this "casting pearls before swine." Gurdjieff said students of his methods would find themselves "unable to transmit correctly what is said in groups. [Students] very soon begin to learn from their own personal experience how much effort, how much time, and how much explaining is necessary in order to grasp what is said in groups. It becomes clear to them that they are unable to give their friends a right idea of what they have learned themselves." Ouspensky relates that in early work with Gurdjieff in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it was strictly forbidden for students to write down, much less publish, anything at all connected with Gurdjieff and his ideas; somewhat later, Gurdjieff relaxed this rule, accepting as students many who subsequently published accounts of their experiences in work.
Having, I think, caveated whole matter sufficiently into dust, I offer here a brief outsider's summary of what was involved in work of Gurdjieff's groups.
Relaxation. Many of Gurdjieff's exercises involved or began with some sort of gradual relaxation of muscles, starting with muscles of face and working downward through body. Fripp has said that we can do nothing when not relaxed, and since his time at Sherborne has practiced a regular routine of relaxation in morning before breakfast; such a ritual, led by a qualified instructor, has been worked into Guitar Craft seminars. Along with relaxation goes a type of exercise for sensing different parts of body "from inside." For Gurdjieff's groups, this might have involved, for instance, lying on one's back and concentrating all of one's awareness first on one's nose, then on one's right foot, and so on.
Other Exercises; The Movements. Ouspensky relates a series of what he found to be "unbelievably difficult" physical/mental exercises that Gurdjieff had picked up in various esoteric schools during his travels. In general, these involved some precise and exact combination of counting, breathing, sensing of body parts, and movements, to be done in some coordinated sequence. The famous "movements," often done to music Gurdjieff had composed himself, were dances based on those Gurdjieff had observed and participated in, notably among Sufis and dervishes, and in ancient hidden monasteries. Gurdjieff taught that movements were not merely calisthenics, exercises in concentration, and displays of bodily coordination and aesthetic sensibility: on contrary, in movements was embedded real, concrete knowledge, passed from generation to generation of initiates - each posture and gesture representing some cosmic truth that informed observer could read like a book.
Que sera, sera
