Gurdjieff Movements

Monday Evenings     Baltimore Area    7:45 to 9:15 PM

Class currently forming

George Gurdjieff, in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. During those travels, he studied and collected spiritual practices, including sacred dances and rituals from Sufi, Tibetan, and other sources. In subsequent years he taught sacred dance as a method of inner work in Russia, France, and America. These dances came to be known collectively as Gurdjieff movements. They include a wide variety of styles and music, with a great range of postures and rhythms.

We practice movements in a group setting. Their sacredness derives from the attitude of inner work, presence and prayer, which we aim to embody in the movements. Indeed, the primary function of the movements is to help us raise our inner state toward deeper presence and openness to the Higher. The group that works together at movements may become, at least temporarily, a community of presence, a community of heart. Each person’s practice supports the others in learning the physical postures and rhythms of the movement and in attaining and sustaining a state of presence. We know the efficacy of such support from our experience of group meditation and communal worship.

The basic work of movements involves maintaining awareness of our body sensation as we move and performing the sometimes complex series of gestures and rhythms with precision. In addition to engaging our body, the work of movements also engages mind and heart. Our mind participates in keeping track of what gesture is required when. And our heart adopts a feeling tone appropriate to the movement, usually informed by the music. Presence thus naturally arises in movements because body, heart, and mind enter the movement together and awake. This helps harmonize and unify our being.

Our intention to enter the movement as a means of inner work opens us to higher possibilities. At times, as noted above, the sustained attention and awareness called for by the movement unifies our being and we feel personally complete and whole. At times, the group moves as one and shared awareness and cohesive will arise. At times, the experience of movements crosses into true worship and a taste of the ineffable descends.

For these and other reasons, many of those who work at movements come to love this form of spiritual practice. Come and try it. We are forming a movements class on Monday evenings in the Baltimore area. To add your name to our list of potential participants or for further information click here and send.

Joseph Naft has taught and practiced movements since the mid-1970’s. He learned movements at a spiritual school in Sherborne, England established and run by J. G. Bennett, who had been a close, personal student of Gurdjieff. Subsequently, Naft studied movements in other locations as well. He began teaching movements shortly after completing his studies at Sherborne. Naft is the author of four books and the website: www.innerfrontier.org

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