Our Practice
The Gurdjieff Practice continues an oral tradition undertaken by thriving groups all over the world.
This is a living teaching based on practical inquiry and exchange, not solely on reading or conventional study.
Our practice consists of:
Group meetings
Sittings (Meditation)
Music
Movements (Sacred Dance)
Workdays
Retreats
Group Meetings
Initially guided by more experienced students, members meet regularly—usually once a week—to discuss questions that emerge from their attempts to remain present in daily life and to share practical exercises that help illuminate what Gurdjieff referred to as “self-remembering.”
For those wishing to participate but who live remotely, there is the alternative of meeting through Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
Meditation
Meditation (also called “sitting”) is a fundamental practice within the Gurdjieff teaching. Members are encouraged to work in this way each day, a practice to bring one closer to an inner discipline, which can help quieten and harmonize mind, body, and feeling… and deepen our questions.
Members also meet together at the Group house to work in this quiet way..
Movements
The Movements are a series of sacred dances that call for a unified, awakened attention—whether in motion or stillness. Their precise postures, shifting rhythms, and coordinated actions create conditions for experiencing oneself differently.
At times, a finer, more complete attention may appear, engaging mind, body, and feeling together. Through their beauty, rigor, and music, the Movements invite one’s full participation.
A Teaching - and a learning without words..
Music
The repertoire of the music composed by Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann includes pieces for Movements, dances, hymns and more traditional folk music.
De Hartmann wrote:
“Mr. Gurdjieff’s music had great variety. The most deeply moving was that which he remembered hearing in remote temples during his Asian travels. Listening to this music, one was touched to the depth of his being."
Workdays
Regularly scheduled days of practical work, crafts and other activities offer opportunities to work together with others in an atmosphere supportive of receiving impressions of ourselves in daily life.
This practical way of working can help deepen our attention to everyday tasks which carries over into our lives, in the most ordinary situations.
Retreats
From time to time we gather together at a country retreat. The continuous, 24-hour immersion in meditation, movements, shared work, and communal meals creates a unique quality of energy—one that, when carried back into everyday life, infuses it with renewed meaning, purpose, and hope.
