Gurdjieff sacred movements exercises. Gurdjieff Movements: Physical Practices and Sacred Dances

They show us amazing practices related to the acquisition by a person of a feeling and a sense of self-understanding and self-control, including physical level. an entire section of it educational activities includes the concept of Gurdjieff's movement and his so-called sacred dances.

Dancing Gurdjieff

We rarely realize, or to be more precise, we often do not realize at all that all the "services" and functions of our body are very closely interconnected, dependent on each other and reflect our and, again, each other's real state. So, for example, as soon as we think about something negative, the body immediately reacts to this by changing the position of our body, our mood changes, we begin to be filled with certain corresponding feelings and experiences.

Back in ancient times, knowledge associated with influence and interconnection human movements with its emotional and mental states was the most important part of the spiritual traditions and elements folk art inhabitants of Asia, Africa and the Far East. Various sacred rites, expressed in various dance movements, also existed in many temples and monasteries and were passed on as an element of the most important knowledge about man and the universe from generation to generation.

George Gurdjieff himself, during his wanderings and travels, repeatedly for several years took music and rhythm lessons from Asian monastery dervishes in the monastery of the Yesavian order: there lived masters who taught people through dance movements what people usually learn through books. In addition, he studied the art of ritual dances in many other monasteries and temples, as well as in the esoteric schools of the East and Tibet.

Thus, the movements of Gurdjieff - as his dances are also called - are ancient and not quite, from the point of view of modern man, common practice. Its meaning is the fixation in the personality of its conscious state through the unification of the mind and feelings with the movements of the body.

Learning a certain kind of dance is one of the possibilities for transforming a personality towards its enlightenment. This is what Gurdjieff did with groups of students at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. Attempts to create such an institution where people could move under the guidance of the Teacher to comprehend the higher spheres of man and the universe were undertaken by Gurdjieff more than once. The first - back in 1919 in Tiflis, then, a year later - in Constantinople, later - in Germany. But they all failed for one reason or another. Finally, he managed to realize this idea in France.

Not far from Paris, in the estate of Château Prière, the master bought the old Abbey castle at the expense of his students. Here, subsequently, demonstration performances of his amazing dance mysteries were organized. Moreover, the dances in them were not just elements pure art. These were, first of all, finely organized systemic movements, which, in fact, were designed to develop all the components human nature- and in practice they did it.

Studied at the institute, mainly in two types dance moves: exercises and ballets. Exercises were endurance tests. For example, some movements were supposed to be done without interruption for hours. And this could not but influence the education of the dancers of a certain endurance and stamina.

The teacher was convinced - and convinced the students - that in order for a person to really begin some kind of movement towards his personal development, he simply needs to be taken out of his comfort zone. That is, any creative process begins as a result of struggle. And if you follow the well-known principle of the pendulum, it is important to unbalance this pendulum.

And that is why glamorous aristocratic young ladies in the palaces of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man washed clothes and hammered nails into the walls. And those who were afraid of blood were sent to slaughter cattle, and so on. In Gurdjieff Alma mater the most severe Spartan discipline reigned. Not everyone could stand it: one of the students of the institute, English writer Katherine Mansfield, having stayed here for a short time, died altogether ... Nevertheless, - these were, according to Gurdjieff, crisis management technologies.

Speaking about the theme of ballet, we recall that it usually meant a special Sufi cosmogonic dance, uniting the performers into a single energy wave of emotions and movements. Each such sacred dance act contained a certain mysterious meaning, which was available only to the initiates.

The ballet and sacred movements that Gurdjieff taught his followers helped the latter gain the highest degree of control over the body, as well as develop their ability to concentrate their attention. All this had an incredible impact on emotional condition people working here. It also influenced the development of their various qualities: from moral-volitional to physical.

Continued travel and expeditions

In 1924, Gurdjieff went to the USA with a tour of his troupe. The audience was presented with a phenomenal spectacle of a dance performance-mystery, when the magician-Teacher demonstrated to the audience unlimited dominance over his students.

Some even regarded this action as a kind of transformation of people into a team of "trained zombies or circus animals." In fact, when presenting his ballets to the audience, Gurdjieff simply wanted to demonstrate to them the incredible possibilities that a person has in the field of dance, movement, and, in general, in the art of controlling his body.

These performances, somewhat reminiscent of the tricks of Copperfield or Houdini, were designed to somehow stir up the hall, to make the average layman think about what, in fact, unique opportunities he has ... At the same time, it should be noted that in the Gurdjieff troupe there were not professional dancers: it was just the usual good educated people. Each of them also owned some specialty, but they were all covered by a thirst for esoteric knowledge and the desire to discover something new on the web.

That is, they were, as we understand, not even zombies at all. But the zombies were just during their performance in the concert hall ...

Gurdjieff: The Law of the Three Forces of Creativity

The total number of patterns that govern almost all processes, both in the world as a whole and in man, is not too large. And everything that seems to us an infinite variety of forms and phenomena is created by just a few different combinations.

To try to understand the essence of the mechanics of the Universe, you just need to decompose these complex and diverse phenomena into the elementary laws that make them up. We must understand that we live in a space that has already been created and ordered. That is - our Universe is already a kind of Creation.

And Gurdjieff considered the so-called The Law of the Three Forces of Creativity. Everything that happens around is the result of a combination and interaction of these three forces: the power of Active, Passive and Neutralizing. And they are all in nature, and in each of us. These are the forces of creativity: nothing in the world is created without their participation.

Our entire Universe consists of vibrations that are elusive to human hearing. She is literally filled with them. They exist in all matters that inhabit the world, and manifest themselves in a variety of vibrational sounds: from the finest to the coarsest. From this follows the Second Fundamental Law of the Universe according to Gurdjieff: Law of seven octaves.

Music by Gurdjieff

This, one might say, is a separate, no less significant topic in his view of the world. We already know that Georgy Ivanovich was very serious and attentive to this one of perhaps the most mystical types of art. And him law of seven octaves- there is a natural continuation of the researcher's experience in this plane. The essence of this law is that all the sounds of universal vibrations are ordered in the form of a descending musical scale: from the top "to" - narrowing down in the direction of the musical scale - and down to the lowest sound, which is the basis of everything. So, if we talk about this big and difficult topic V in general terms, he determined the sound of the Absolute, inaccessible to human and even scientific understanding.

The principle of seven octaves corresponds to any development both at the planetary level and at the level of birth and the birth of a separate human soul. Therefore, in order to be able to realize and track the process of development as such, it is important to understand that there is a reason for changes in the directions of this movement.

And still very important point: in order for such a movement to occur in principle, it is necessary to stop the leakage of energy and stock up on pleasant impressions.

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky

Returning to the theme of Gurdjieff's life in its various periods, I would like to note some of its chronological sequences, because then his reflections on a person and the results of all his mystical searches and meetings will acquire in our eyes some vital links to real circumstances ...

So, in 1912, Gurdjieff began to give his lectures and reports in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg). Here, like-minded people and followers gather around him: people who want to start working on themselves. Among them is also , who, having plunged headlong into Gurdjieff's teaching, saw in him at first something completely new and unusual for himself.

The whole fusion of his own intellectual searches seemed to be reflected in Gurdjieff's system of views. A whole avalanche of things unexpected for Ouspensky - new concepts, practical structures and exotic exercises captured the researcher.

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, mystic, philosopher, spiritual teacher (1877-1949) was born into a Greek-Armenian family. His father was a collector and performer ancient epic. G. I. Gurdjieff himself, driven by " irresistible desire to understand the exact meaning life process all external forms of breathing creatures on earth and especially the purpose human life… ", with a group of like-minded people who called themselves " Seekers of Truth", traveled around the East in search of ancient knowledge. Over 20 years of travel, he visited Egypt, Afghanistan, Turkey, Central Asia, India, Tibet, Gobi Desert. He studied the practices of Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Esoteric Christianity and the Pythagorean tradition.

He also traveled to Russia, where he gathered a group of followers.

Gurdjieff discovered that many Laws who ruled the universe were expressed in music and dance. In the temples, monasteries, and special schools he attended, dances were a series of unusual sequences of movements in which Truths transmitted from generation to generation could be read.

Performing movements also open the way for human development: overcoming your usual automatisms and limitations, deepening the level of awareness, contact with higher energy.

Gurdjieff considered gymnastics and dancing as an art, as way harmonious development human, and therefore dances and movements are intended, in his opinion, to connect the mind and feelings with the movements of the body and their joint manifestation. That is, thanks to his dancing body, mind and senses develop simultaneously.

Another purpose of his dancing is teaching. Certain movements carry certain knowledge, religious and philosophical ideas . In some of them you can even read the recipe for cooking a dish.

In many parts of the East, the inner content of this or that dance has been practically forgotten and yet they continue to dance simply out of habit.

Thus, Gurdjieff movements have two goals: education and development.

In the precise movements and combinations of the dancers, it is clear reproduced some laws. Therefore, such dances are called sacred.

"Each position of the body corresponds to a certain internal state. On the other hand, each internal state corresponds to a certain posture. A person in his life uses a certain set of habitual postures, and he moves from one to another without stopping in an intermediate position.

Adopting a new, unusual posture allows you to internally look at yourself in a new way.(G.I. Gurdjieff " Views from the real world").

These dances are also called " meditation with open eyes ". The outer form of every movement " mathematically"Painted from beginning to end. The sacred imitative geometry of dances and universal laws are the background for individual search. Reliance on habits, reflexes and symmetry is minimal here. The movements of the arms, legs and head are combined with each other in rhythms independent of each other. Quiet or spoken aloud dhikrs (prayers), a canonical count, at times in Greek, add to the difficulty.

Sacred Dances And Gurdjieff's movements- This group practice. This is something that cannot be done alone. Sacred dance is a story told by a group of people, in which everyone, while maintaining a connection with himself, is simultaneously aware of the connection with the group, feeling others.

Gurdjieff's movements allow realize stereotypes our own behavior in relationships with other people, to see what prevents people's relationships from being truly conscious.

Dances and movements of Gurdjieff - wonderful gift for everyone who wants to become more conscious and is ready to take concrete actions for this.

With the right approach, they harmonize various energies within the body, help to enter into presence state, living in the present, which is not easy in everyday life. For the mind constantly lives in the past or the future. Thanks to these dances, a person is completely immersed in present moment being, a short moment between the past and the future. As a result, the desired harmony is created.

Learning process Gurdjieff dances- This journey to the center of your being, finding inner silence, beauty, bliss.

During the dance takes place relaxation and optimization of energy consumption, people go beyond dual perception.

Today, Gurdjieff's books are published in the West and in Russia in significant numbers. His music, in the processing of the famous Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann, published in the form of musical albums and CDs. Adherents of Gurdjieff's ideas were B. Show, O. Huxley, K.Isherwood. Organizations of his followers who study his works, practice his teachings and perform the sacred dances and movements created by him exist in most countries of Europe, Asia and America.

The sacred dances and movements of Gurdjieff are a wonderful gift for everyone who wants to work on themselves. Exercises and dances known as sacred dances Gurdjieff, were collected by George Ivanovich Gurdjieff during his twenty years of wanderings in Egypt, Turkey, Tibet, India, Assyria, Greece, Russia and other European countries and Central Asia in churches and monasteries.

Psychologist, philosopher, scientist, traveler, choreographer, teacher and mystic, founder of the doctrine of the “Fourth Way” of the inner realization of a person. Russia, Georgy Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born on November 28, 1877 in Alexandropol (since 1924 - Leninakan) in Armenia in a mixed Armenian-Greek family. He spent his childhood in Kars, was a student of the rector of the Russian cathedral who provided big influence to Gurdjieff. Although he never received a systematic secondary education, he knew several languages from childhood.

Searching for answers to " eternal questions” led him to the creation of the doctrine of the “fourth way” of the inner realization of man. Travels and wanderings (1896-1922), first as part of a small group of "Seekers of Truth", then as a wanderer, teacher and emigrant, became original universities of G.I. Gurdjieff.

According to Gurdjieff, in ancient times, Movements occupied an important place in art. Asian peoples. They were also used in Africa and far east in sacred gymnastics, sacred dances and religious ceremonies. The seekers of truth, whose group included archaeologists and specialists in Eastern religions, found that this sacred gymnastics was preserved in certain parts Central Asia, in particular, on the territory from Tashkent to Chinese Turkestan.

Gurdjieff's Sacred Movements help participants become "masters of themselves" by bringing them more and more into a space of calm and inner peace. We also learn to move at the same time relaxed and fast, and not relaxed and lazy, and not fast and tense.

You need to be able to release the state of tension at any moment, which appears, for example, with an overabundance of desire, excitement of the mind, anxiety. We learn to move out of relaxation, keeping the question alive; "How can I move out of stillness without breaking it?", even by doing such vigorous dances as the Dervish Dances, And we also learn to remain inwardly actively present by doing slow repetitive movements that require a lot of focused precision, such as the Om Circle.

This is a kind of meeting of Yin and Yang, male and female principles that will radiate into our lives. This relaxed alertness can open us up to the synergy of the different qualities of energy that moves through our bodies. In all my life as a dancer, no other approach has ever given me such a blissful feeling, with my body being a living channel for subtle and very pleasant energies to flow.
Accepting all these energies, standing between heaven and earth, we become the meeting point of two worlds, the human and the other, from which the highest energy comes.

The dance then takes on a completely different meaning; you become an instrument of universal energy. Moving along this path through music, dance and self-observation is a movement towards a more total and complete life.

Gurdjieff, Georgy Ivanovich (1872-1949)- Greek-Armenian philosopher-mystic and "dance teacher". Gurdjieff's teaching is dedicated to the growth of human consciousness in everyday life.

Gurdjieff became interested early in "supernatural phenomena" and began his travels in various countries Asia and Africa, where he tried to find answers to his questions. Among the countries he visited were Egypt, Turkey, Tibet (practically inaccessible to Europeans at that time), Afghanistan, various places in the Middle East and Turkestan, including the Muslim holy city of Mecca. These travels often took the form of expeditions that Gurdjieff organized with other members of the Seekers of Truth society he had created. In his travels, Gurdjieff studied various spiritual traditions, including Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism and various branches of Eastern Christianity, as well as folklore (in particular, dances and music) of the countries he visited, and collected fragments of ancient knowledge (mainly Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations). ), sometimes resorting to archaeological excavations.

At the beginning of the 20th century, on the basis of learning from teachers of various traditions and his ethnographic and archaeological research, Gurdjieff created a system of concepts and practices, which later became known as "Gurdjieff's Work" or " Fourth Way The origins of many aspects of this system are rather difficult to trace among the various religious and philosophical concepts with which Gurdjieff may have been familiar. Some of these aspects were probably Gurdjieff's own contributions - for example, the idea of "mutual maintenance" - the interchange of energies and matter between all essences of the Universe, without which, according to Gurdjieff, their existence is impossible.

Gurdjieff began to pass this system on to his first students in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1912. Among the students he attracted during this period are the mystic philosopher Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky and the talented composer Thomas (Thomas) de Hartmann. In parallel with the teaching of students, who are gradually becoming more and more in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Gurdjieff begins work on the ballet "The Struggle of the Magicians" - work on it, together with the students, continued in exile, the ballet script was preserved, but neither the music nor the choreography for the ballet were completed and it was never staged for the public.

After the revolution, Gurdjieff had to leave Russia for emigration with his students.

Gurdjieff tried several times to establish his "Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man" - first in Tiflis (Tbilisi) - 1919, then in Constantinople - 1920, until he finally realized his idea by founding the Institute in the Prieuré des Basses Loges estate, near Fontainebleau under Paris in 1922. public lectures and demonstrations of "Sacred Movements" - dances and exercises developed by Gurdjieff, partly based on folk and temple dances, which he studied during his travels in Asia. These evenings were quite well known among the French educated public. Besides, a large number of Gurdjieff's disciples were left to live and work in the Prieure, some of these students (in particular, those who emigrated with him from Russia) Gurdjieff supported financially. Several times he made long visits to groups of his students in the USA, also organizing public lectures and performances of the "Movements" there.

In July 1924 Gurdjieff enters car accident in which he almost loses his life. After this, the Prieure becomes more closed, although many of Gurdjieff's students remain there or continue to visit regularly.

During this period, Gurdjieff began work on his books - "Everything and everything, or Beelzebub's stories to his grandson", "Meetings with wonderful people"and" Life is real only when "I am". In addition, together with the composer Thomas de Hartmann, about 150 short musical works for piano, often based on the melodies of the peoples of Asia, as well as music for the "Sacred Movements".

The Prière Institute was closed in 1932, after which Gurdjieff lived in Paris, continuing to visit the United States from time to time, where, after his previous visits, groups of his students arose in New York and Chicago. After the closing of the Prieure, Gurdjieff continued to work with his students, in particular by organizing meetings at his home. This work did not stop even during the Nazi occupation of Paris.

After the end of the Second World War, Gurdjieff gathered in Paris the students of the groups formed on the basis of his teachings, in particular, the students of P.D. Uspensky. Among the latter is the philosopher and mathematician John G. Bennett, author of the fundamental work The Dramatic Universe, in which an attempt was made to develop Gurdjieff's concepts in the language of European philosophy.

IN Last year life, Gurdjieff instructed his students to publish two of his books - "Everything and Everything" and "Meetings with Remarkable People" and the book by P.D. it was given until 1917 in Russia.

After the death of Gurdjieff, his student Jeanne de Salzmann, whom he entrusted with the dissemination of his teachings, tried to unite the students various groups, which marked the beginning of an organization known as the Gurdjieff Foundation (the name in the USA, in fact - an association of Gurdjieff groups in various cities, in Europe the same organization is known as the Gurdjieff Society, "Gurdjieff Society"). John G. Bennett and P. D. Ouspensky's students Maurice Nicholl and Rodney Collin also actively disseminated Gurdjieff's ideas.

Notable students of Gurdjieff included Pamela Travers, author of the children's book on Mary Poppins, French poet René Daumal, English writer Katherine Mansfield and American artist Paul Reynard. Already after the death of Gurdjieff, his students taught famous musicians Keith Jarrett and Robert Fripp.

At present, Gurdjieff groups (associated with the Gurdjieff Foundation, the Bennett line, or independent students of Gurdjieff, as well as independently organized by followers of his teaching) are active in many cities around the world.

Gurdjieff's teachings are compared with many traditional teachings, and, above all, with Sufism.

The metaphysics and ontology of Gurdjieff's teachings are defined by two fundamental "sacred laws" known as the "Law of Three" and the "Law of Seven".

The "Law of Three" clearly indicates the Christian (from a metaphysical point of view) character of this teaching.

Gurdjieff speaks of a significant degradation of man over the past few thousand years, and especially over the past few centuries; here it completely coincides with all traditional teachings.

However, a certain specificity, and specifically Christian specificity, arises at that point in Gurdjieff's teaching, where we are talking about the "Sacred Ways" of Faith, Hope and Love, open to man in previous metahistorical epochs, but closed in the present, for which there are reasons.

Philosophical doctrine Gurdjieff contains many classical esoteric ideas, but a number of his own ideas are particularly original - these are:

Belief in illusion ordinary life;

The idea of the correlation of the microcosmic plane with the macrocosmic;

Recognition of the special role of the Moon in the cosmic evolution of mankind;

The division of man into four bodies;

Teaching about the centers, their manifested or unmanifested functioning;

The doctrine of the types of human personality;

Features of a person's mental work on himself;

The idea of the "Ray of Creation";

An increase in the number of laws that materiality obeys as it moves away from the Absolute;

The subordination of the evolution of the Universe to the law of the octave.

According to Gurdjieff, man lives in a very insignificant place in the universe. The planet is governed by many mechanical laws that impede the self-realization of man. Inner growth is not easy to achieve; great attention and great efforts are required from a person. And although a person has the opportunity to increase the level of his consciousness and, consequently, being, it is incredibly difficult for him to realize this alone. Work on oneself, according to the teachings of Gurdjieff, is individual and experimental. Nothing should be taken for granted unless proven by personal experience.

On the "Fourth Way" - this is how Gurdjieff called his teaching - a person must assert himself. The method of self-development that he taught is an attempt to free a person from the burden of laws that affect his development.

He argued: one of the important laws of development is related to the spiritual impulse, i.e. For spiritual development personality needs additional influence from the Teacher or the group.

He spoke of the law of three, which he called the basic law concerning all events - always and everywhere. This law says that every manifestation is the result of three forces: active, passive and neutral. This law - the basis of any creativity - is reflected in many world religions.

As a result of this law, work on oneself is not reading books. Threefold effort is needed: active - the Teacher, passive - the student, neutral - the group. But he who craves knowledge must himself make the first effort to find true knowledge and approach it.

Knowledge cannot come to people without their own efforts, he said. "It is necessary to organize, it is necessary to work in a group and with the help of someone who has already been liberated before. Only such a person can tell what the path of liberation is. Accurate knowledge is needed, instructions from those who have already passed the path, and it is necessary to use them together."

The esoteric truth of Gurdjieff's teaching is addressed primarily to man himself and only through him to the outside world.

This teaching allows you to take a critical look at yourself and the world, to try to understand the worldview of another person, to think seriously about the fundamental issues of being.

Demonstration of Gurdjieff sacred dances

Sufi dances, whirling, dervish dances

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff

In most major cities in Europe, America, South America groups of people can be found studying the ideas and practical techniques given by George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff groups generally shun publicity, do not proselytize, are relatively invisible in the world, and lead ordinary lives of intense inner work.

Unusual person, the "cunning sage" as he is called, Gurdjieff devoted his life to the study of Eastern esoteric teachings and the transmission of knowledge of theory and practice in a form adequate to the thinking of Western man. We know relatively little about him. The specific influences and sources of his teaching remain as mysterious as those of another "Man of Knowledge", Don Juan.

He was born in 1872 in Alexandropol, in the region of the Caucasus, to a Greek father and an Armenian mother. As a boy, he becomes a student of the rector of the Russian Cathedral, who had a huge impact on his development.

According to Gurdjieff, his father and his spiritual father- the rector of the cathedral - engendered in him a thirst for knowledge of the life process on Earth, and in particular the purpose of human life.

The city of Kars, where he lived, located between the Black and Caspian Seas, was the birthplace of many peoples, faiths, cultures. Already in adolescence Gurdjieff plunged into the atmosphere of a great mixture of cultures. Followers of Christian, Armenian, Assyrian, Islamic and even Zoroastrian traditions lived here. Already in his youth, he came into contact with the holy of holies of almost all secret organizations - religious, philosophical, occult, mystical, political.

He absorbed a lot, especially from Christian monastic sources. Later, he always emphasized the importance of esoteric Christianity. He knew well the Christian ritual and practices, ancient symbolism, liturgy. He was familiar with the technique of rhythmic breathing and mental prayers used in monasteries.

However, despite joining a variety of religious traditions, in which he grew up, he did not find the answer to the basic questions that he asked himself. He goes in search of knowledge.

With a group of friends who called themselves "seekers of Truth", at the age of 16 he went to the East, on a three-year journey through Central Asia, then reaches Ethiopia, the Solomon Islands. During the trip, he learns, gets acquainted with many traditions. The masters of the esoteric Islamic orders had a particularly great influence on his formation.

It was the Sufi teachings that became the source on the basis of which his Teaching was largely created.

The central symbol of Gurdjieff's work is an enneogram of Sufi origin. Many sacred Sufi dances are performed as meditations in Gurdjieff's schools.

In the teachings of Gurdjieff, other esoteric influences can also be traced - this is the Buddhism of Tibet.

He lived in Tibet for more than 10 years. Here he develops enormous psychic spiritual powers, which is especially valued in Tibet. According to some reports, he was a mentor to the little Dalai Lama, and held important financial positions under the Tibetan authorities.

Very little is known about this period of his life in Tibet and Central Asia, which covers the beginning of 1890 and continues until 1910. It is known that he conducted research, studied ancient texts. He conducted his searches in Lamaism and the practice of Lamaism, in tekkas, monasteries, where ancient knowledge, studied Siberian shamanism.

Obviously, as a result of all these searches, studies, practices, a single view of the world, a synthesis of knowledge, has arisen. Gradually, he became aware of his mission: to bring this knowledge about the "horror of the situation", as he said, and possible ways out of it into the Western world.

Next milestone in his biography is 1915, when he first appears in Russia as a Teacher - in the cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In St. Petersburg, he meets with Peter Uspensky. Ouspensky himself had just returned from a journey in search of true esoteric knowledge and was surprised to find that the purpose of his search was on his own. native land, in his hometown.

He describes his first meeting with Gurdjieff in In Search of the Miraculous as follows: "I saw a man oriental type, middle-aged, with a black mustache and penetrating eyes. It was a man with the face of an Indian raja or an Arab sheikh. He spoke Russian incorrectly, with a strong Caucasian accent...".

Ouspensky assembled a group of followers who worked with Gurdjieff until the revolution. He spoke with his students about the relationship of man with the universe, about the levels of consciousness, death and immortality, the possibility of self-realization.

One of his early students describes this period as follows: Russia in 1917 was torn apart by war and revolution. Gurdjieff was an unknown "mystery man." No one knew about his origin and why he appeared in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, but whoever came into contact with him wanted to follow him."

A group of his students leave Russia, make an intricate journey on foot through the mountains to Tiflis. Here he collects new group and worked with her for several years, but when the revolution reached Georgia, they crossed the border, reached Constantinople, then Berlin, and finally, after several years of hardship, Paris. Here Gurdjieff decided to settle down, for a year he collected the money necessary for the acquisition of the Château de Avon near Fontainebleau, where he founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.

10 years from 1923 to 1933 were spent on hard work with students at the Institute; during this time Gurdjieff tested and tested the system of teaching, self-observation, practical exercises.

Whoever came to study with him could be sure that constant and intense effort would be required of him. The time spent in the "Prier", as the castle was called, was seen as an opportunity to develop self-awareness.

It was a period of intense work that included demonstrations and lectures in Europe and America. It was interrupted by a serious accident - a car accident, after which Gurdjieff miraculously survived.

This event brought a new direction to his work. He began to write three big books. They were written to solve the following major problems facing humanity:

ruthlessly destroy the faith and views that have been rooted in the consciousness for centuries about everything that exists in the world;
to acquaint the reader with the material necessary for new creativity;
help the emergence of a true idea of the world, replacing the fantastic, illusory that exists now. Give an idea of the real world.

These are books " Everything and everything", "Meeting wonderful people" And " Life is true only when I am".

In the first book, Gurdjieff comments on the life of modern man through the gaze of a cosmic being who has flown to Earth. This work is an encyclopedic commentary answering most important issues facing humanity.

In the second book, he tells his story of the search for truth, recalls his mentors and unusual people whom he met in his wanderings in search of esoteric knowledge.

The third one reports on personal development, special practices are described that develop awareness of "oneself".

In 1933 another book was written " Herald of good things to come", presenting the ideas on which Gurdjieff's work is based, and describing the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.

From 1933 to 1949, a new phase of his activity took place. He closes the Institute, travels everywhere, creates new groups in some American cities.

By the time of his death, in 1949, he had several hundred students, mainly in New York and Paris. Now the number of followers of his teachings is in the thousands.

The philosophical teaching of Gurdjieff contains many classical esoteric ideas, but a number of his own ideas are particularly original, these are:

belief in the illusory nature of ordinary life;
the idea of the correlation of the microcosmic plane with the macrocosmic;
recognition of the special role of the Moon in the cosmic evolution of mankind;
division of man into four bodies;
the doctrine of the centers, their manifested or unmanifested functioning;
the doctrine of the types of human personality;
features of a person's mental work on himself;
the idea of the "Ray of Creation";
an increase in the number of laws that materiality obeys as it moves away from the Absolute;
the subordination of the evolution of the Universe to the law of the octave.

He argued: one of the important laws of development is related to the spiritual impulse, i.e. for the spiritual development of the individual, additional influence is needed on the part of the Teacher or the group.

As a result of this law, work on oneself is not reading books. Threefold effort is needed: active - the Master, passive - the student, neutral - the group. But he who craves knowledge must himself make the first effort to find true knowledge and approach it.

The esoteric truth of Gurdjieff's teaching is addressed primarily to man himself and only through him to the outside world.

This teaching allows you to take a critical look at yourself and the world, try to understand the worldview of another person, think seriously about the fundamental issues of being.

Sacred movements of Gurdjieff

"Remember yourself," said Mr. Gurdjieff, "come back to yourself." This, he argued, is essential, otherwise, our movements, thoughts, emotions are mainly the result of our conditioning: family, social, educational, religious. "Man is a prison" - said Mr. Gurdjieff. Thus, there is a challenge for a human being - to develop consciousness in order to get out of the animal state and conditioning. Our only possibility is in searching: searching for ourselves with sincerity, passion and humor. And we need help. Not just intellectual knowledge, but also something that involves the physical and emotional parts of our being.

We can all see that we are capable of driving a car, smoking a cigarette, cooking, thinking, feeling, talking, moving, working without realizing it. The forces of self-forgetting are strong. The temptation to "be passive" is especially powerful. It's comfortable. We so easily allow ourselves to be distracted, manipulated, put to sleep. Everything in Mr. Gurdjieff's work is very practical; he clearly proclaimed the importance of the body and physical work in the transmission of his teachings. And this importance he attached to the Dances, with a specific approach, such as Gurdjieff's Movements.
It is possible to grow towards a higher and more balanced state of consciousness and towards a sense of presence and a sense of being. The method is described quite simply: moving, dancing, remember yourself.

G. Gurdjieff talked about the "double arrow" phenomenon: on the one hand, attention is directed outward - to the form of movements, to the rhythm of the music, to others dancing around us and a slight tendency to compare and condemn, etc. On the other hand, the arrow is directed inward - back to our center, to the source of movement, to internal energies, which move us, back to the source of any function, such as breathing, watching, moving.
We are looking for a balance "one eye in, the other eye out", as Mr. Gurdjieff said. Thus we can be in the activity of our life without ever losing ourselves.

SOURCES OF DANCES

When Mr. Gurdjieff was about twenty years old, he went to twenty spiritual journey which took him to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean, Afghanistan, Turkey, Central Asia, India, Tibet and the Gobi Desert. He visited many esoteric schools, temples, monasteries and discovered that much of the eternal wisdom, true knowledge and understanding of humanity and nature has been preserved and transmitted through music and dance. These Dances, with a variety of movements and postures similar to the alphabet, could be read like a book by those who could read and interpret them.
IN Sacred Movements Gurdjieff we strictly reproduce these movements as conveyed by Mr. Gurdjieff through his students (such as Mr. Bennett) and we use the music that he and Thomas de Hartmann created for each Dance. In total, about two hundred Movements (Dances)!

DANCE EFFECT

One of the goals of this process is to open the "presence of the being" by bringing into a new balance the three centers: physical, emotional and mental. And a new order of their functioning. It is clear that the main instrument is the physical center. We use it not as simply as in gymnastics, developing joint mobility, stretching muscles, and so on.
These Dances also enliven the inner fire, the deep longing of the heart that the Sufis speak of, the courage to keep going deep and the refusal to give up. Therefore, whatever we learn by practicing these Dances, we learn for our everyday life.

In addition, Movements often include counting, words, phrases that trigger the part of the mind that supports the process, that part of the mind has no chance to evade the Here and Now. If she dodges, an error in movement is immediately manifested. Thus, we learn through mistakes. Therefore, the Mind is not condemned, but is more involved with its rationality and clarity in the work together with the Body and the Heart.
Another goal is to create a distance from body sensations, emotions and moods, thoughts and thought associations: to learn to control them instead of being enslaved by them.

Gurdjieff's Sacred Movements help participants become "masters of themselves", bringing them more and more into a space of calm and inner peace. We also learn to move at the same time relaxed and fast, and not relaxed and lazy, and not fast and tense.
You need to be able to release the state of tension at any moment, which appears, for example, with an overabundance of desire, excitement of the mind, anxiety. We learn to move out of relaxation, keeping the question alive; "How can I move out of stillness without disturbing it?", even by doing such energetic dances as the Dervish Dances, And we also learn to remain inwardly actively present by performing slow repetitive movements that require a lot of focused precision, such as the Om Circle.
This is a kind of meeting of Yin and Yang, male and female principles that will radiate into our lives. This relaxed alertness can open us up to the synergy of the different qualities of energy that moves through our bodies. In all my life as a dancer, no other approach has ever given me such a blissful feeling, with my body being a living channel for subtle and very pleasant energies to flow.
Accepting all these energies, standing between heaven and earth, we become the meeting point of two worlds, the human and the other, from which the highest energy comes.

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