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Blake, A. G. E.
The Music and Movements
Gurdjieff and Now
of Gurdjieff
Possible Foundations Of
Inner Exercises C om ing across Gurdjie ff was a wondrous m om e nt in m y life whe n in de e p
une ase at be ing alive , indulging in e x iste ntialism , se e k ing answe rs in physics
Gurdjieff and Now and be ing visite d by fe e lings and thoughts that just could not fit into the
worldvie w that se e m e d to be gove rning the world, he had the appe arance of
Back to Articles Home som e one who had be e n through all of it and com e out the othe r side . He
be longe d with m any othe rs such as Krishnam urti and I would add today,
Blake, A. G. E. Be rnade tte R obe rts who we re spe ak ing from anothe r place . Ye t he also had
appe al be cause he offe re d ways of e x pe rim e nting with e x pe rie nce itse lf that
one could do he re and now in the m idst of life . He raise d a ne w aware ne ss of
what it was to bre athe , m ove , think and pay atte ntion so that one could
e x pe rie nce som e thing of that Ze n-lik e quality of ordinary life two inche s of the
ground. He brought into que stion the m ost ordinary and e ve ryday things we
tak e for grante d.
Gurdjie ff is wide ly re cognize d as be ing pre tty unique in disdaining be lie f and
advocating an e m pirical approach find out for yourse lf. Howe ve r, this has
be e n tak e n unfortunate ly in the spirit of ve rify for yourse lve s that what we say
is true . That is, the re is an assum ption that Gurdjie ff is right and we just have
to com e to se e this for ourse lve s. The re has also be e n a te nde ncy for m any
pe ople to fe e l, in front of Gurdjie ffs e vide nt ge nius, that the y are so
inade quate that the y are not able to se e for the m se lve s what he m e ans; with
the re sult that Gurdjie ff has be e n turne d into som e k ind of saint or m age and
acquire d an im m e nse am ount of hagiography.
Along the se line s, it se e m s to m e that Gurdjie ffs fam ous work has be e n
turne d into a se t of te chnique s. Pe ople ge t toge the r to do his m ove m e nts,
practical work , and to practice som e k ind of m e ditation or othe r suppose dly
de rive d from e x e rcise s he showe d during his life tim e . Som e have gone on
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doing this for fifty ye ars e ve n though the re is little e vide nce that any de e p
change is be ing brought about. It is just lik e the situation of som e one be ing
shown a m antra that will libe rate the m and afte r trying it for som e tim e ask ing
why it is not work ing to be told that the y have not trie d hard e nough!
Ive always had a strong re sponse to those ane cdote s about Gurdjie ff in which
he is urging his followe rs to think. In one of his m ost sple ndid talk s title d
connaissance (Fre nch word for k nowing) he actually says that the whole point
is to k now. In introducing e x e rcise s as writte n up in Life is O nly R e al he te lls
his audie nce to look into what the e x e rcise s m e an. It is an astonishing
passage . In contrast, I discove re d for e x am ple in spe ak ing with a m e m be r of
the Gurdjie ff Socie ty in London that the y hardly e ve r discusse d the ide as! The
ine vitable re sult m ust be that we go on with various practice s, re ad various
book s, but ne ve r ge t down to inve stigating what it m e ans.
Me aning arise s whe n we tak e hold of som e thing for ourse lve s. W e can only do
this by inve sting som e thing of ourse lve s. In doing this, we m ak e som e thing
ne w. The prolific write r Patte rson has argue d that O uspe nsk y, O rage and
Be nne tt are to be se e n as back m agicians who distorte d the pure m e ssage of
Gurdjie ff; but if the y did any re al work the y will ne ce ssarily have change d what it
is. W im van Dulle m an, who has done so m uch to m ak e available the original
m ate rial of the m ove m e nts and m usic, has pointe d out that Gurdjie ffs
re ndition of form s of e aste rn dancing we re no m e re copie s but a cre ative
transform ation of the m through his own be ing into a unique form . Incide ntally,
Gurdjie ff him se lf provide s a re m ark able m ythical m e taphor for this proce ss in
his wondrous account of the C hoot-God Litanical Pe riod (whe n God alm ost had
to ask for he lp) that de scribe s how libe rate d souls who com e to dwe ll on the
Holy Sun Absolute m ix in the ir individual vibrations with those of His
Endle ssne ss, re sulting in a m ore chaotic e m anation into the unive rse !
Having m e ntione d an e x am ple from what De nis Saurat ack nowle dge d as a
unique case of m ythological cre ativity Be e lze bubs Tale s to His Grandson it
is re le vant to m e ntion the gre at significance of Gurdjie ffs bre ak with his e arlie r
te aching to adopt a ne w way of e x pre ssing the ide as. Gurdjie ff said he hope d
that his book would inspire future artists and write rs, but this has scarce ly com e
to pass. Part of the significance of this bre ak was that it m ove d the ide as
furthe r away from syste m atic e x pre ssion into a re alm whe re he art and m ind
ne e d to m ove toge the r.
Many pe ople , including m y te ache r John Be nne tt, struggle d ve ry hard to find
the source s of Gurdjie ffs ide as. I have argue d (se e m y Pre face to An Inde x
to In Se arch of the Miraculous) that the supposition that Gurdjie ff got his ide as
from som e whe re in particular ne e ds to be que stione d. I se e him m ore as an
e x e m plar of a m ode rn we ste rn approach in which all and e ve rything is tak e n
as a re source , drawing on the re alization that we live in a global com m unity.
Gurdjie ff him se lf did not disdain pick ing up ide as from conte m porary scie nce , in
spite of his e x pre sse d attitude that the se m ode rn scie ntists dont re ally k now
anything.
I think his approach was that in e ve ry fie ld, the point is be ing m isse d, that we
do not re alize what is re ally going on, that we do not se e the wood for the
tre e s. In this re spe ct, I picture his work as lik e a doorway. Include d in this
picture that we do not k now what is on the othe r side until we go through it. W e
m ay e ve n find that the re was no door at all.
W he ne ve r, in m y sm all lim ite d e x pe rie nce , I have caught a glim pse of the
othe r side I have fe lt, as e x pre sse d by R um i, W he n the y lift the lid, how
ofte n the y will say This is not what we e x pe cte d. The whole te nor of Gurdjie ffs
te aching se e m s to m e to sugge st that our ve ry consciousne ss is faulty.
Krishnam urti in his wonde rful dialogue s with the physicist David Bohm e nquire s
into what we nt wrong in hum anity? and com e s up with his own alte rnative to
Gurdjie ffs kundabuffer.
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into stagnation. Accuse d by m any as be ing e cle ctic and he re tical, Be nne tt had a
firm foundation in syste m s think ing and re alize d that close d syste m s can only
te nd towards incre asing e ntropy. By tak ing in ne w influe nce s, the spirit of the
se arch is k e pt alive .
This has a gre at be aring on the que stion of practice s. In a way, it doe s not
m atte r what the practice s are . W hat m atte rs is whe the r the y are alive. It is just
the sam e with te rm inology, which is close ly allie d. If we use words ove r and ove r
again the y lose vitality and the ir continuing usage be com e s a barrie r to
unde rstanding. It is as if te rm s have a half-life just as radioactive substance s
have . I say that m aybe what the practice s are doe s not m atte r, but the re are
still som e crite ria to apply. The practice s ne e d to challe nge our assum ptions.
The y ne e d to libe rate ne w insights. Som e have rightly said that the y e x ist to
e nable us to ge ne rate an inne r e ne rgy by which we can then se e diffe re ntly and
the re by act diffe re ntly. The y can also be ways of consolidating that te nuous
bridge in ourse lve s be twe e n the se e n and unse e n, be twe e n the two m ode s of
consciousne ss that se e m to de fine our pre dicam e nt. But, the guiding authority
in ourse lve s ne e ds to be from the othe r side and not from this one .
Param ount in all this is the re cognition that we need to le arn som e thing that we
at pre se nt do not. But this e ntails re alizing that in fact we do not unde rstand
what we have always tak e n for grante d and assum e d we did. Tak e such an
e x am ple as reading. Eve ryone assum e s the y can re ad and e ducationalists
pontificate on the e fficacy of this or that m e thod of te aching re ading to childre n,
but I would agre e with Gurdjie ff whe n he de clare d to O uspe nsk y that the latte r
did not know how to read. How fe w of us have e ve r conside re d such a thing? Ye t
this is a m ajor clue . W e have to be gin all ove r again to le arn how to re ad, walk ,
think , e tc. This for m e is the root ge nius of Gurdjie ffs work . And it has to be
borne in m ind whe n we want to asce nd into the he ave ns, into highe r state s of
consciousne ss, and can be se duce d into disdaining what is at hand in e ve ry
m om e nt.
The re has be e n an assum ption that Gurdjie ff taught us m e thods of wak ing up
or som e such. I say that the valuable thing he taught was to pay atte ntion to
what we norm ally do not. It can be said to am ount to the sam e thing but the
spirit is ve ry diffe re nt. I le arne d from Be nne tt that wak ing up whate ve r that
m ight m e an for us com e s from within. Ex e rcise s are sim ply ways of he lping us
m ak e se nse of what arise s spontane ously. In a sim ilar ve in, Be nne tt pointe d
out the im m e nse dam age done by those le ading groups who bully or apply
shock s to the ir pupils suppose dly to wak e n the m up, which in fact just m ak e s
the m de pe nde nt on such tre atm e nt and obscure s the ir own inne r spirit.
I also m e ntion groups be cause the y have playe d a conside rable part in the
history of Gurdjie ffs work . Group work is usually acce pte d as ax iom atic. The
assum ption has the n arise n that Gurdjie ff k ne w about groups and work groups
cre ate d in his nam e e x hibit a supe rior m e thodology to ordinary one s. Look ing
at what Gurdjie ff says about groups first, we can se e that his approach assum e d
such groups had a te ache r or le ade r who was suppose d to be on a highe r le ve l
than the re st. This has be com e e nshrine d in pyram idal institutions such as the
Foundation, but it is also a fe ature of m ost spiritual m ove m e nts. Hie rarchy
and its concom itants of authority, ide ology and the lik e are strong fe ature s of
such groups.
I say that a dange rous fe ature of such groups is that no one can e ve r say what
the y m e an. The re is always the fram e work . Always control inve ste d in one or
two individuals. Always a se nse that what the y are about is already known at
le ast to the one in charge .
In contrast with this, the twe ntie th ce ntury saw an all im portant line of re se arch
and de ve lopm e nt into group proce ss, m ostly conducte d unde r the auspice s of
psychoanalysis or psychothe rapy, but by no m e ans e x clusive ly. A crucial fe ature
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Gurdjieff and Now - Blake, A. G. E. http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=247&W=6
of this line was that it did not assume that we knew how groups worked at all.
Pe ople we re actually willing to find out. It is significant to note that us the n
young lads around Be nne tt k ne w about som e of this re se arch, in particular the
work of W ilfre d Bion, now som e fifty ye ars old. His book Ex pe rie nce s in Groups
is a m aste rpie ce of discove ry and insight with dire ct re porting on Bions actual
puzzle s, que stions, obse rvations and falte ring e x pe rim e nts. In fact, this line
starte d way back at the be ginning of the ce ntury with such pione e rs as Trotte r
who was am ongst the ve ry first to sugge st that groups have a m ind of the ir own
that e x hibits phe nom e na we cannot othe rwise acce ss.
The contrast is stark . O n the one hand the on-going assum ption that we k now
how groups work to find out the truth by im itating what we be lie ve Gurdjie ff did.
O n the othe r, to start from scratch. W hat strik e s m e with ove rwhe lm ing force is
that what this line of re se arch re m inds m e of is the way that Gurdjie ff de scribe s
such associations as the Akhaldan groups ge tting toge the r to e x change
obse rvations, pose que stions, do re se arch and find out for the first time what is
really going on. I m ight add into the picture m y favourite characte r Be lcutassi,
who cam e to suspe ct that som e thing not quite right was going on! Now, of
course , m ost pe ople would say, That is all we ll and good for such e x traordinary
pe ople as Gurdjie ff is tak ing about, pe ople of a calibe r lik e Gurdjie ff him se lf.
But it is nonse nse to sugge st that we m ight actually do som e thing lik e this
ourse lve s. I say to that balone y! I do not say this out of any nave be lie f that
we can just sit down and act in such an inte llige nt way as the socie ty Ak haldan.
I am de e ply aware of the hazards and difficultie s of the proce ss. But I think
that without this approach we go round in circle s, trying to le arn about the truth
in ways that m ak e it im possible be cause too m uch is tak e n for grante d in the
first place .
This is a radical approach. The politics of re ve lation is lik e the old saying,
The re s nobody he re but us chick e ns. It is to suspe nd all the be lie f syste m s
and authority base d think ing that has pre vaile d for m ille nnia (possibly at le ast
since what Jayne s calls the rise of the Bicam e ral m ind). It is a harrowing
prospe ct, sim ilar to that salutary prospe ct of conside ring that one will ne ve r
k now any m ore than one doe s right now, that this is all one has, and the n
what?
But the point is that Gurdjie ffs work has be com e caught up in the pre vale nt
social m e chanism s and worldvie ws that have the e ffe ct of displacing our own
inne r fre e dom into attachm e nt to e x te rnal figure s and sym bols of authority,
truth, divinity and so on. Inste ad of le ading back to ourse lve s, we m ay have
allowe d it to be com e a way of forge tting our ignorance . Afte r all, ignorance was
the gre at virtue approve d by Socrate s! It is all too e asy to forge t that we do not
k now whe n our m inds are full of ide as that spe ak of how the unive rse re ally is
if only we could quite grasp the m . He re I am hoping that the re is an e cho
back to m y m e ntion of Gurdjie ffs m ythological approach ce rtainly just the first
in the thre e acts of the Thre e Se rie s of W ritings but ne ve rthe le ss the starting
point.
This is not to say that all we have to do is to follow up on re se arch into group
proce ss and practice dialogue and the n we ge t insight into re ality through som e
k ind of back door. No. It is to say that we have to m ak e a start and que stion
any approach in which we atte m pt to build from our false consciousne ss. If an
e x e rcise re ve als som e thing significant to us we have to tak e it on and follow
whe re it m ight le ad. Gurdjie ffs ge nius has he lpe d us all catch glim pse s but it is
the n up to us. W e ne e d e ach othe r, but it is painful to unde rtak e the harrowing
proce ss of work ing toge the r to unde rstand e ach othe r. Ex pose d to this task in
large groups, profe ssional the rapists collapse into ange r and de spair. The void
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Gurdjieff and Now - Blake, A. G. E. http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=247&W=6
It would be sad and bad to e nd with such lofty ide as without saying that, in
spite of appe arance s, this can be a pre se nt re ality, howe ve r m uch we fall into
the m alaise of m isunde rstanding. O the rs m ight the n say, W e ll, isnt this what
we claim anyway for our Gurdjie ff groups? Is the re not always the im plicit
pre se nce of the true way no m atte r how m istak e n and pe tty we se e m to be ? I
think this vie w has m e rit but ne e ds to be gone into. I would say that we ne e d to
conside r that the re is a k ind of m ysticism surrounding Gurdjie ff work groups
that le nds itse lf to proje ction and transfe re nce in re lation to any group le ade rs
which m ight be e x pre sse d by the phrase in the nam e of. The psychoanalyst
Lacan use d the phrase in the nam e of the fathe r to indicate how m e aning was
structure d in us and this conce pt applie s he re . Gurdjie ff is the fathe r. And how
ofte n we se e that groupings attache d to Gurdjie ffs ide as carry with the m strong
e le m e nts of fam ily structure . Pe ople actually re ve rt to such te rm inology as
indicating som e thing good and profound. It is not. The fam ily is the basic
group m ost of us have e stablishe d in us and it is a barrie r to be ing on a le ve l
with e ach othe r. The fam ily is te chnically the sm all group which m ost of us
ne ve r ge t be yond. It is base d on e m otion and powe r.
The critical factor to m y m ind is to do with com ing across what is not expected.
This applie s to our ve ry se nse of ide ntity. In m y book Structure s of Me aning I
e x plore aspe cts of a k ind of se lf-re m e m be ring that be com e s possible while
be ing in dialogue and not othe rwise . Mind prove s to be m ulti-value d. It is
re discove re d in dialogue and we ourse lve s appe ar ve ry diffe re ntly. Many pe ople
try out som e k ind of what is vague ly calle d m e ditation to look m ore de e ply
within but the se practice s ofte n e ntail de e p m isunde rstandings about what is
within.
Each one of us can tak e up som e inve stigation and the re by join the com pany of
all those othe r hum ans ove r the age s who have m ade som e que stion the ir own
and be com e slave s to it, giving the m se lve s to it, be ating a lone path or in the
com pany of a fe w fe llow se e k e rs (as e pitom ize d in Attars story of the Sim urg!),
full of tre pidation. The se pe ople we re not Sufis, or anything e lse . The y we re
pe ople . W hate ve r syste m the y had going was just for social purpose s. At the
he art of it was just som e basic hum an contact, one pe rson m e e ting with
anothe r just as they might meet themselves. The y playe d around, just as
Gurdjie ff portrays in his account of the Saturday m e e tings in Babylon de vote d to
the atrical im provisation. The y got lost. The y did not k now what to do.
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Gurdjieff and Now - Blake, A. G. E. http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=247&W=6
Comments
Tom
www.SuperWisdom.com
Tom Russell,
TR@npgcable.com
added 2004-10-24
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