G.I.
Gurdjieff
“Awakening
is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are
ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very
long time and very persistently in order to attain it.”
G.I.
Gurdjieff
I
attended a concert at the Art Museum yesterday; “Journey to
Inaccessible Places” featuring the music of G.I. Gurdjieff. It was
a dark and rainy afternoon; perfect for the deeply reflective music
performed on solo piano by Laurence Rosenthal. Between the ambient
music and Rosenthal's sedating voice, I struggled to stay awake.
Gurdjieff wrote the music to accompany his spiritual dance
movements which are designed to take you inside yourself, and to
induce a state of meditative quiet. Even without the movements, I
came away feeling as though I had clouds inside my head. Pleasurable
clouds—the sort you get when you have an hour of deep tissue
massage.
Gurdjieff
was an Armenian Christian, who became an influential spiritual
teacher in the first half of the twentieth century. He established an
institute at Fontainbleau-Avon near Paris, where he taught and
composed music with the help of Thomas de Hartman. He had a devoted
following then and even now, there are groups all around the world
who study his teachings and writings, and practice his meditative
movements. He taught that the vast majority of humanity live their
lives in a state of hypnotic waking (essentially sleep walking) but
that it is possible to ascend to higher states of consciousness with
study and intensive personal work.
Being
of the notion that God is still speaking through human beings, I am
one who looks to learn from folks like Merton, Kierkegaard, Rilke,
Rumi, Gurdjieff, Jung, as well as modern spiritual writers such as
Deepak Chopra, Mark Nepo, Thomas Moore, Caroline Myss, Joan
Borysenkyo and others. There is value in studying their works in the
pursuit of your own individual relationship with the divine. In the
end, of course, it is only the personal journey that arrives at the
desired destination.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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