The Event
I showed up at this esoteric bookshop in midtown manhattan, linked to the Theosophical Society of NYC. There is a little “lecture hall” next to the bookshop, which felt like a yoga room. The meeting was in there.
I’d say there were about 30 of us. The crowd ranged from age 30 to 60. The leaders of the meeting were ancient, definitely over 70 years old. There seemed to be a lot of Russians in the crowd.. which makes sense because Gurdjieff was Russian-Armenian, so they’d be more aware of him than NYC locals.
The gathering started with a live performance of some of the Gurdjieff-de Hartmann music, which is very beautiful. Here’s what it sounds like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOTRK4aus4YThen, one of the three leaders read a passage from a Gurdjieff book.
Then we had some Q&A.
The leaders of the meeting were not professional teachers, they’re just enthusiasts, so their answers were a bit meandering. Like I said, the gathering had a tranquil feeling kind of like a yoga class… when you asked a question, the person would think for 20 seconds and then answer.
Some of these questions were kind of frustrating - mainly because spirituality and consciousness is really tricky to discuss, so the questions (including my own) and answers were meandering and slightly unfocused.
The three old timers wanted us to know this:
-The Gurdjieff work points to a form of consciousness that is an “altered state of being”. They say that once you experience this state (and you can only experience it for short periods, nobody can stay in it for long), it transforms you and your perceptions. I think Gurdjieff hints at this with the title of his book “Life is only real, then, when ‘I Am’”.
-Becoming conscious is important, not just for us as individuals, but for
all of us. The universe
wants to become conscious. It can only do that through us. And we are collectively served, (by “We” I mean the whole human race is served) by having more consciousness within it. They tell us there is a purpose to life, something beyond even humanity… and that consciousness helps it along.
(I want to pause here and underscore how Modern that sounds… this is a pre-WWII system, so they are focused on these big unifying ideas like the ‘direction of history’.. I would be very curious to read if Gurdjieff had a reaction to postmodern philosophers like Camus and Sartre, who rejected ideas like universal meaning and purpose)
After the Q&A, we did some
group movements.I can imagine a slightly alternate universe in which people do this stuff instead of Yoga.
To explain the tip of the iceberg - Gurdjieff Movements are a form of group meditation. Gurdjieff studied Sufi and Tibetan temple dances and the way they affected consciousness. He distilled what he thought were the useful parts and wrapped them up in de Hartmann’s music.
The Gurdjieff Movements are a practical exercise in raising consciousness. They are supposed to make you aware of your body, aware of your thoughts, but also aware of the group movement, the group energy, the group experience, the group identity. I think the idea is to lose yourself in the movements and get a direct experience of a collective identity.
(quick aside - this is basically what Schopenhauer wrote about - the
transcendent properties of art and dance)
I’m fascinated by the Gurdjieff movements. They’re dances, but they’re supposed to be private; they’re not performances. Luckily, it’s 2017, and everything is on youtube. Here’s a video that absolutely blows my mind, I love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=740PhEOdx1MWe are told that there is a presentation coming up.. apparently the Movements will be ‘performed for the public’ for the first time since 1961. Before that, they hadn’t been performed since 1923. So the fact that there’s a presentation next month is a big deal. As soon as they post tickets for the event, they sell out in a flash - I’m staying tuned to the event page so I can get some when they’re posted.
So anyway, we did this ‘group work’, which was more or less doing a bunch of synchronized movements to this strange music.
Then there was some more Q&A, another reading, and we broke for refreshments.
