am going to
try now, it will not be by pretending to know; after all, I am still in a
learning
process and want only to pass on what others have taught me. What I
learned from
Kate and Tinky Brass, whose attitude stands out as an example of
what
cooperation should be, patiently demonstrating for me the treasured
Movements from
their line of Work - the original Ouspensky line. I wish also to
describe what
I understand of the historical picture, painted so eloquently for me
by Dushka
Howarth. I want also to recall my experiences with the many
independent
groups I met during my period of intensive travels. that took me
throughout
Europe, from Scandinavia to Greece, and also to parts of America.
Each of the
groups faced the present-day reality of the Gurdjieff Work in their
own way and I
learned much from them. The vitality of our own Movements
groups, in
Amsterdam and Berlin, brought me new insights each time we came
together, and I
have tried to incorporate some of these experiences as well in this
article. I am
indebted most of all to Mme. Solange Claustres, herself a pupil of
Gurdjieff for
seven years. During the long years I played the piano in her classes
she provided
me with prolonged and intensive instruction on Gurdjteffs
Movements.
This has been one of the great privileges of my life.
REMEMBERING
MME. SOLANGE CLAUSTRES' CLASSES
Somewhere in
the mid-sixties a bunch of us hippies interested in the
theories of
Gurdjieff, entered a dance-studio in the then still existing old Jewish
Quarter of
Amsterdam. We were welcomed by a beautiful French lady, whose
relaxed smile
put us directly at our ease. Without losing any time, she ranked us
into lines, as
if we were an Army squadron, and demonstrated a vigorous
movement of
arms, legs and head, that we had to perform simultaneously. An
elderly woman
sat at the piano and began pounding the keyboard, seemingly
searching
desperately for the right keys, to a haunting and strange melody.
The
combination of the movements of my body with the music had a sudden
impact on me.
It was as if a strong light had penetrated everything in that hall,
as well as
myself. I knew that I had hit upon something of an enormous magnitude
and power.
Later that same afternoon an incident occurred that made an
even deeper
impression on me. We were told to sit and relax, while Mme.
Claustres
checked the tension in our bodies by gently moving our shoulders. One
of us, a
strong, tall man was obviously very tense, because after try-ing to relax
his shoulders,
she lost her patience and said angrily. "This man is stiffer than a
piece of stone
from the Alps; it is impossible for anyone to work on the Movements
in this
condition." The man looked so unhappy and uncomfortable that it caused
a brave young
woman from among us, to stand up for him. "But Madame," she
exclaimed,
"you are talking to our Group Leader." Without comment Mme.
Claustres
walked back to her place in front of the class, then wheeled around and
faced us all
with a look of stem determination, and said, as solemnly as a judge
passing
sentence, "He may talk about ideas, yes; talk as long as he likes, but his
body is not in
the Work!" "The body has to be in the work ... the body has to be in
the
work...." - While biking home that evening, these words, like a Buddhist
prayer drum,
kept resounding in my head. A door had been opened and I
understood how
one-sided my intellectual pose had been. The body, that was now
skillfully
managing the bike through chaotic traffic in the center of old
Amsterdam - my
own body - was the body I had ignored, and that I had excluded
from my
thought. My legs propelled the bike forward - what would I be without
my legs? I
drank in this new truth, so simple that it had been long forgotten.
Why had I
forgotten? The silent water of the canals mirrored a dark evening sky.
Hidden in the
midst of their concentric circles was a deep enigma. I had been
asked to play
the piano in Mme. Claustres' classes and for the next thirteen years
I played for
all the classes in Holland. I had to do both the Movements and the
music, because
a pianist who did not have the Movements in his body was of no
use to her.
Sometimes I was so exhausted from the required work, I would fall
asleep between
the classes with my head on the piano. What I understand now of
the Movements
inner content, took shape in me during these years, because of
Mme.
Claustre's knowledge, example and inspiration. I saw that in each moment
one had to
renew the atten-tion, to check again and again the contact with the
body and the
feelings, and to feel remorse for one's incompetence. To be honest
and simple -
this is what she demanded of us. My own sense of independence is
proof of the
validity of her teaching. What, after all, is the practical value of a
teaching that
only produces an "eternal student," one who will never be able to
stand on his
or her own feet?
A DEFINITION
OF MOVEMENTS
George
Ivanovitch Gurdjieff left a legacy of unique diversity He wrote
three books
and, in collaboration with his pupil Thomas de Hartmann - a Russian
composer well
established in the ranks of the avantgarde in the beginning of the
twentieth
century - composed over 200 musical compositions. Further he
created an
intriguing body of some 250 dances and physical exercises called
Movements, no
doubt the spearhead of his teaching, for he had wanted to be
known simply
as "a teacher of dancing." For many, the first impression of the
Movements will
be a revelatory opening to the never be foreseen, unlike
anything they
have been familiar with in the world of dance. Those who have
practiced the
Movements often refer to them as "sacred dance." because of their
extraordinary
impact on their psychological state and expanding awareness.
Mme. Claustres
described them as "an objective form of art... a construction of
great beauty
that we cannot fathom. but which contains the law of the evolution
of human
consciousness. They express how and in which direction that
progression
has to go and as such they are a school in the real sense of that word."
(1) Although
the origins of these dances have been the subject of considerable
speculation
and mystification there remains little doubt that Gurdjieff created
the major part
of them himself. As Mme. Solange Claustres stated, "A number of
these dances
stem from the Middle and Far East where Gurdjieff studied them
during his
travels, visiting religious communities or special ethnic groups, but
the majority
he created himself." (1)
Gurdjieff’s
Movements within the context of early 20th century european dance
and the
avantgarde
A whole
library can be filled with the published writings of Gurdjieff s
philosophical
and psychological ideas, but a comparative study regarding his
Movements has
never been made. Yet, if we ask ourselves what is really new
about them, we
cannot avoid considering the works of other prominent artists
active at the
same time. This will help us to see the accomplishments of this
revolutionary
creator more clearly, in profile against this background.
According to
one of his own explanations, the aim of his Movements was to assist
the
"harmonious development of man" by a method combining mind and
feeling
with the
movements of the body, and manifesting all three of them together.
This is a
development that can never happen mechanically, by accident or by
itself, but
which stimulates the formation of what he called "the whole man:
mind, body and
feeling." (2) The division of man into body, emotions, and
intellect was
not uncommon in the writings of the Russian Symbolists (34) and.
even more
interesting, brings to mind the work of Francois Delsarte. Now
regarded as
one of the founders of modem dance. Delsarte taught, in the midnineteenth
century, a
system relating all human expres-sions to one basic law,
his "Law
of Three." (5) Painter and choreographer. Oskar Schlemmer was
another
pioneer fascinated by the threefoldness of man. as shown by his "Triadic
Ballet"
for which Paul Hindemith composed the music. By 1923, when he worked
for the
Bauhaus in Weimar, he had already fully developed his geometrical
concepts of
the human body, which were in dramatic contrast with the then
prevailing
free flowing expressions of Isadora Duncan. Schlemmer, moreover,
was able to
explain the deep significance of geometric body positions with an
astonishing
and visionary precision. His figure drawings are certainly evocative
of the
powerful abstract body positions employed by Gurdjieff in his stage
presentations
the very same year. (6) Another parallel with Gurdjieff’s
Movements is
to be found in Emile Jacques Dalcroze's approach, especially in his
rhythmic
studies. And perhaps not only in these, because it is reported that at
the night of
the first demon-stration of Gurdjieffs Movements in Paris in 1923
Dalcroze's
students protested in front of the theater, shout-ing, Tricheur...
Voleur. (11)
...BUT THE
EXISTENCE OF THESE SIMILARITIES DEMONSTRATES THAT
GURDJIEFF WAS
A CHILD OF HIS TIME AND SUBMITTED TO THE MYSTERIOUS
FORCE BY WHICH,
IN ANY GIVEN CULTURAL PERIOD, THE SAME
EXPERIMENTS
ARE PERFORMED SIMULTANEOUSLY BY INDEPENDENT AND
GEOGRAPHICALLY
SEPARATED PERSONS.
It is,
however, highly unlikely that Gurdjieff would have been in the least
interested in
any European who had developed something comparable to his own
work, let
alone copy it, but the existence of these similarities demonstrates that
Gurdjieff was
a child of his time and submitted to the mysterious force by which,
in any given
cultural period, the same experi-ments are performed
simultaneously
by independent and geographically separated persons. Gurdjieff
was not only a
"master of dance" but he wrote books and composed music as well
and used these
different art forms to mutually sustain and enhance one another.
(12) This
leads us looking for a common denominator linking Gurdjieff to
European art,
to the origin of the Gesamtkunstwerk. This concept, first used and
propagated by
Richard Wagner, deeply influenced Russian Symbolism. Relating
Gurdjieff to
this late nineteenth century cultural trend is treading on thin ice,
but it is the
purpose of his art rather than its form that is reminiscent of
Symbolism,
where the merging of different arts had to call forth a new vision
and ultimately
a new form of being, as in a religious service. Further it is
noteworthy
that both Scriabin and Kandinsky, who were to develop the concept
of
Gesamtkunstwerk fur-her into the area of synaesthesia. were personal friends
of De
Hartmann. This comparison shows us a noticeable difference as well, which
is Gurdjieff s
economy of means. The reverber-ation of one tone in his music can
be as
effective as a whole orchestra playing a minute long dramatic sequence. If
we, judging
from hindsight, realize that exaggeration is the enemy of artistic
expression, we
can confirm that in this respect Gurdjieff, in his Movements and
music, was
truly modern. A further difference is the fact that performances of
the works of
Wagner. Scriabin, Mahler, and the like, will be subject to the
division of
active performers and passive spectators. In contrast with this typical
European
cultural phenomen, it is possible for anyone to participate in Gurdjieff
s Movements
who can find a teacher in the tradition of Gurdjieff s Work and with
an organized
class. All ancient cultures relate dance to manifestations of God,
Creation and
its Mysteries. In those cultures, dances invariably accompany and
assist men and
women in their crucial steps towards physical and psychological
growth.
Movements represent the result of an ultimate effort by Gurdjieff to
reinstall in
the life of people - especially those living in Western cultures - the
importance of
dances and physical exercises in the processes of self-development.
He introduced
and implanted in our culture a new liturgy, a new ritual to
stimulate and
assist transformation of individual people and of society as a
whole. The
Movements can and should be a point of reference and study for all
serious
people.
"OLD
MOVEMENTS" AND "NEW EXERCISES"
Gurdjieff
created Movements in two completely different stages of his life,
the first from
1918 until 1924. the year of his almost fatal car accident, and the
second from
1939 until his death in 1949. The earlier Movements were
performed on
stage in 1923 in Paris, and in 1924 in America, and consisted of
"obliga-tory
exercises." work dances, dervish dances, a group of women's dances,
and several
elaborate prayer rituals and ceremonies. In 1939, after a period of
fifteen years,
he again took up his activities as a "master of dance." In what was
probably the
most structured teaching practice during the last decade of his life.
Gurdjieff
organized Movements classes for different groups almost every day and
gave scores of
new Movements and exercises until his death in 1949. There
cannot be any
doubt that his Movements in this period of his teaching were
among his most
primary activities and concerns. In this period he created what
became known
as the "39 series." An important difference between the old
Movements and
the new exercises is that for the accompaniment of his early
Movements
Gurdjieff himself composed the music in cooperation with Thomas de
Hartmann. who
wrote it originally for a 36 piece orchestra and reworked it later
for piano
solo. Only the old Movements have Gurdjieff s own musical
accompaniment,
whereas. Thomas de Hartmann composed the music for the "39
series"
after Gurdjieff s death. This time he had to compose alone, without
Gurdjieff s
guidance, but he used the same signature style as in his earlier
musical
cooperation with Gurdjieff.
THE CREATION
OF THE "39 SERIES"
This last
decade of Gurdjieff s life, the second stage of his Movements
teaching, was
one of extraordinary creativity. "Our group had a class once a
week,"
remembered Mme. Solange Claustres. "and he taught at least one new
Movement in
each one of them. This continued for the seven years I was in his
classes! He
demonstrated the new 6 Movements, but rarely explained much
about them.
His presence was so strong - it literally filled the whole place - that
you could
absorb the new exercise in a direct way. No further explanation was
needed. We
were never allowed to make choreographies notes, because this
activity would
reduce our first and complete impression to an analytical or
rational
attitude."
Gurdjieff’s
stream of creativity was confirmed by another pupil, Mrs.
Jessmin
Howarth, a choreographer at the Paris Opera before she joined forces
with
Gurdjieff: "He used to come every evening with three or four absolutely
new
attempts."
(11) Those who were in his classes at that time described Gurdjieff s
creativity to
me as an empirical experiment of great intensity, lasting years.
(12) He made a
supreme effort to develop exercises that would help people
strengthen
their awareness, will and power of attention. Sometimes he was weak
or sick and
had to support himself, leaning against the piano to keep standing.
But he kept on
working. It was also explained to me that Gurdjieff studied the
results of
each new Movement he gave by observing the state of the people in the
class. Many of
his new exercises did not reach the goal he had in mind, only some
did. It is
reported that he sometimes left during the classes, to come back after a
while to
propose a small change in a Movement, for instance a wrist that had
been straight
was now bent, an arm that was horizontally forward was now
diagonally
forward. Occasionally even these new changes did not fulfill his goal
of the desired
state in the dancers, and he then would give a strict order, "No...
stop... forget
this one, don't perform it again ever." That was the definite end of
such a
Movement. However, if a Movement did create the desired state in the
psyche and
bodily expressions of the performers, he would say, 'That's it, this one
is set and
ready now. What number are we?" This referred to the numbers they
gave to the
new "set and ready" move-ments. These numbers represented the
slowly growing
list of what became the "39 series," the group of Movements
Gurdjieff
advised his pupils to practice. The "39 series" were thus the kernel
of his
new exercises,
the ones he had accepted as finished and relevant. All his other
attempts, many
of which have been remembered and are since being performed
by his
students, had not his full approval and remain in this respect, open to
question,
however beautiful they may be. (13)
Work on the
series went on until the end, coming to a finish only because of
Gurdjieff s
sickness and death. Even on his last trips to America he added seven
new Movements
to the list. For that reason a list of 46 Movements is used in
America versus
39 Movements in Europe. It is interesting to note that not only
were new items
added by Gurdjieff in America, but the internal order, the
sequence of
Movements, was changed considerably, as well, most probably by
Gurdjieff
himself. (14) It is possible that he was looking for an internal order for
the new
Movements he had selected, a sequence that coupled one Movement to
the next, like
chapters in a book.
THREE
CATEGORIES
We find it
useful to divide the Movements into three categories, a
classification
to be considered by every student of the Movements.
1 . The older
Movements, stemming from Gurdjieff’s first stage of teaching.
These were
practiced for five to six hours a day by the entire group of Gurdjieff s
pupils from
1918 until the demonstrations in 1923 and 1924 (15) and are the
only Movements
existing for which Gurdjieff himself wrote the music. Of those
Movements, 27,
are remembered and practiced to this day in authentic
transmission
lines stemming from Gurdjieff. The six Obligatories belong to this
group. For
several other Movements used in the early demonstrations, only the
music remains
because the dances themselves have been forgotten or were too
difficult to
reconstruct.
2 . The
"39 series." being the set of 39 Movements selected by Gurdjieff out
of
the multitude
of his new exercises given from 1939 until his death in 1949. He
recommended
these for further practice and he considered them "set and ready."
In fact the
prominence of these 39 Movements among his other attempts was so
obvious that
when Gurdjieff asked Thomas de Hartmann to compose music for
"his
newer exercises" everybody understood he was talking about his
"39." (16)
After
Gurdjieff’s death Thomas de Hartmann composed the music for this series,
i. e., for 37
of them, because for two of the Movements the pianist is required to
improvise.
3. The
remainder of the new exercises - that have been remembered and are still
practiced -
amount to between one and two hundred Movements, depending on
the criteria
applied for counting. These vary from the most complicated exercises
with separate
roles for every dancer in the class, to short fragments for the study
of a certain
rhythm, or of a certain bodily action. Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, a
pupil through
whose activities many of those newer exercises have been
preserved,
explained once that it had only been possible to remember a minority,
some 25
percent, of all the exercises Gurdjieff taught, (17) Thomas de Hartmann
wrote music
for fifteen Movements in this group, eight of these can be heard on
our previous 2
CD set "Gurdjieff's Music for the Movements"- Channel Classics
Records. CCS
15298. Gradually over the years, many of those from this last
group acquired
their own musical accompaniment through the dedicated
activity of
other composers associated with Movement classes, like Alain Kremski
and Edward
Michael, as well as many amateur composers.
CHARACTERISTICS
AND MEANING OF THE "39"
If we compare
the "39" with Gurdjieff’s earlier Movements, we basically see
the same
components: strong dervish dances, beautiful and quiet women's
dances,
powerful geometrical patterned Movements, as well as sacred prayer
rituals.
However the ancient religious and ethnological com-ponents are
markedly
reduced while abstract gestures and positions, performed in
mathematical
displacements, now prevail. It is as if during the fifteen year time
span since his
first efforts. Gurdjieff had digested his earlier impressions and
reflected upon
them to reappear with an even more personal style, in which
mathematical
and geometrical crystalizations were now dominant. The drama
of the human
condition, so poignantly captured in a number of the old
Movements,
seems to have given way to a more abstract construction, but one
that gives
immediate and plentiful opportunity for work on oneself and work for
the class as a
whole. The later Movements were even more difficult to perform
than the
earlier ones and demanded a huge effort from a class in their demands
on precision,
quickness, discipline and sustained attention for their entire
duration. The
"39" Movements have been called Gurdjieff’s Magnum Opus and
many have felt
that in this series he summarized his whole teaching in his final
and most
powerful message to humankind.
THE MUSIC FOR
ALL THE NEW EXERCISES WAS ORIGINALLY IMPROVISED
During the
decade that Gurdjieff gave his new exercises and gradually
established
the "39," not only was the making of choreographic notes explicitly
forbidden by
him, but another of his strict orders was that the music should be
improvised by
the pianist. He would give a rhythm to the pianist and his
instructions
were generally limited to "now just do it." (18) In fact, it is
reported
that the
choice of a particular rhythm often provided Gurdjieff with the
fundamentals
out of which he created the whole structure of the new Movement.
(19) Mme.
Solange Claustres, as a talented pianist who had already won a
"Premier
Prix" for her playing before she met Gurdjieff, was asked by him to take
over his
classes when he travelled to America in 1949. "He instructed me to
improvise,"
she told me, "and of course I had to, because no written music existed
at that time
that could be used. Improvising was not easy for me, but it taught
me a great
deal about the true function of music. It has absolutely nothing to do
with
"accompaniment" but is a living part of the inner work that takes
place in
the
classes." (1) A couple of decades earlier a specialist in composing music
for
gymnastics,
Rudolf Bode, had already stressed the importance of improvisation:
"... for
the teaching of gymnastics as far as it is accompanied by music, the
ability to
employ some improvisation, even though it be pro-duced by the most
simple means,
is absolutely essential every kind of merely outer simulation must
necessarily
lead to monotony...." (21)
Obviously,
Gurdjieff worked along the same lines and was on his guard for
any premature
fixations. Movements and music had to be alive. The truth of his
work should
present itself in an ongoing creative process, an ever new and
immaculate
form in every moment. For those who regard such processes as selfevident
it will be
useful to add that a balance between music and dance is rare.
Historically,
one of the two was dominant: either the music was written to
sustain the
ballet, or the ballet had to fit into the existing music. Many artists,
like those of
the "Loheland" dance school in Germany in the beginning of the last
century, have
directed their energy towards restoring this balance. About this
question Mme.
Solange Claustres following words touch the very heart of the
matter.
"It is the sound produced by the pianist that determines everything, it is
this sound
that has to complete the inner process brought into action by the
movements of
the dancers. (22) Indeed, in doing Movements one can experience
sound in a totally
new way, as if if illuminates one's inner life. A unique balance
comes about in
us; the music, the gestures and our inner aspirations become one
and it is as
if we have entered a new place, one without walls and outside of time.
At such a
moment we experience life in a way that will become difficult to forget.
THE
TRANSMISSION OF MOVEMENTS
In the
following chapters I will discuss the transmission of Movements.
This confronts
us again with the question, What are Movements? Because the
answer to this
question alone tells us what exactly has to be be transmitted. Each
man's answer
will be different, and this will be something to remember as we
venture into
this complex realm. For those living in a world of outer forms there
will be no problem.
Movements are movements, a form of gymnastics. a bit
mysterious
because not many people know them, but therefore all the more
suited to
offer as a product in today's "Supermarket for Self-development."
Those
searching for
a meaning behind the ruthless wall of appearances understand the
difficulties
in transmitting and receiving Movements. if I were to be asked what
the Movements
mean to me, I would answer: "they help me to come closer to
God." The
sound of the wind in a tree, the amazement of a child that wakes up
and finds the
world covered with snow, the beauty of a lonesome house in the
fields with
smoke coming out of its chimney, the eyes of the beloved, the pale
light of the
new morning vibrating with the eternal enigma of life.... Movements
help me to
come closer to all that. They either awaken an energy that was
dormant, or
they put me in touch with something from the outside. This new
energy that
starts circulating in me is precious. It makes me calm, aware and
determined,
and it will be this energy that I will need when I have to face the
utterly
unknown. Mme. Claustres once said to me. "All Gurdjieff’s Movements
are
prayers." And when she herself once went to Gurdjieff to tell him how
deeply
she was always
touched by his Movements, he only said quietly, "Yes... they are
medicine."
(23)
The inner
meaning we attach to the Movements causes the difficulties in
the often
seemingly contradictory process of their transmission. The Gurdjieff
Work is a
difficult area to investigate because of the prevailing sense of secrecy,
as well as the
increasing isolation and lack of cooperation, if not hostility,
between the
lineages. My role of "wandering minstrel," playing the Gurdjieff De
Hartmann music
in all sorts of places and circum-stances, helped me to come
into contact
with many Gurdjieff groups and organizations that I had never met
before. They
all were kind to me and welcomed me warmly. I respected them and
I refused
judgment, as I only wanted to learn. In that period it struck me how my
work as a
"wandering minstrel" resembled the job I had, several years before,
working for a
large international company. Of course I did not play piano for
them, but I
was selected to function as a central person, in an experiment
supervised by
specialists from Harvard University, to which all managers in
Europe could
talk completely freely about their problems and how they proposed
to solve them.
Of course I was under an obligation of strict confidentiality. The
coincidence
and the resemblances of these two activities, as if this stage of my life
had a specific
pattern, convinced me that all organizations, whether their goals
are spiritual
or commercial, have to cope with the same sociological problems.
For this
reason, most large commercial enterprises have changed their
hierarchical
structure into a flat leveled organization, consisting of many
independent
smaller units, who can better adjust themselves to the complexities
and demands of
present day society. When I try to convey my experiences
during these
years of comparative research it is not my intention to criticize the
very
organizations that have been beneficial to my own development, but to
present those
findings in such a way that an analysis of the situation is possible
and will lead
to a constructive way to work in the future. I have to make clear
the subjective
nature of my findings. and add further that I know the situation
in Europe much
better than I do the situation in America.
Movements
Traditions WHERE ARE MOVEMENTS BEING TAUGHT. HOW, AND
TO WHOM?
Movements can
only be learned in an authentic transmission line. Study
of them will
take years of determined effort and should encompass not only
Gurdjieff s
Movements, but his teaching as a whole. Any learning process has
stages. It
requires the acquisition of new knowledge, the absorption and digestion
of this
material, and finally the application in practice of what has been learned
in theory. In
learning Movements these stages add up to a minimum of ten
years. It only
makes sense to study with a teacher who knows the Movements, is
willing to
give the whole Movement and not just in fragments, and is able to
stimulate the
class in its inner work. A transmission line is authentic when
founded by a
personal pupil of Gurdjieff. These pupils often cooperated with one
another, at
least in the years immediately after Gurdjieff s death, and amidst
the labyrinth
formed by these lines the Institut Gurdjieff in Paris and the related
Foundations
stand out because of their historical bonds, their competence and
the size of their
organization, and because all were led by their founder, Mme.
Jeanne de
Salzmann. Several other lines, independent from the above mentioned
organization,
and smaller in size, can also be qualified as authentic because they
too were
founded or guided by direct pupils of Gurdjieff who themselves stood in
his Movements
classes. From this last group the original Ouspensky and Bennett
lines seem the
most important, in so far as comparative study of Movements
transmission
is concerned, but these are by no means the only ones. All these
organizations
differ widely. To call the Bennett line an organization is a
misnomer in
the first place, because it consists of a varying group of pupils of
John Bennett
who have organized different sorts of activities, open to everybody,
according to
specific needs or circumstances. The Ouspensky line is a relatively
small one,
while the Foundation, by which term I indicate the different
international
Foundations founded or supported by the French Institut Gurdjieff
and the Foundations,
which incorporate thousands of students. Despite their
different
sizes these last two have in common that they could be qualified as
hierarchic.
If we, just as
an example, want to compare these three lineages we need
criteria for
comparison. The following criteria seem relevant. criteria for
comparison
- whether or
not Movements are related to the study of Gurdjieff’s teaching as a
whole -
- the number
and type of Movements that are being transmitted
- the relation
between form and content of these Movements
- to whom they
are taught
-whether or
not whole Movements are given, or only fragments of Movements.
Application of
these criteria will quickly bring the strengths and
weaknesses of
the different lines of transmission to the surface. Both the
Foundation and
the Ouspensky line teach Movements only to members of their
organizations,
as an integrated component of the whole teaching they are
supplying. The
Bennett line experiments with short seminars, open to
everybody, where
the Movements dominate all other activities. The repertoire of
the Ouspensky
line consists only of the 27 older Movements that have been
preserved, but
not only do they know them in full historical detail, they also
transmit them
in their totality. The Bennett line has a mix of some old
Movements and
several newer exercises. They too teach the whole Movement,
however not
with the same painstaking care for detail as demonstrated by the
Ouspensky
line. The Foundations have a true wealth of newer exercises at their
disposal,
unequaled by any other existing lineage. However, in Europe many of
the older
Movements are hardly practiced, at all and are almost forgotten.
Equally
unparalleled their repertoire of newer exercises is their knowledge and
experience in
exploring the inner content of them. The other side of this coin is
that they show
a shocking disrespect for the form of Movements by their
inclination to
teach fragments only. Further, because of their size, they are in
danger of
creating "specialists" for different areas of Gurdjieff's teaching,
Movements
being one of them. To become a "specialist." in whatever part of the
Gurdjieff
Work, means to suicide oneself for the whole of it.
It is
remarkable, and touching as well, to realize that the three entities we
selected all
reflect, to this day, the historical stage of the Movements at the time
when they
received them. The intensive training programs in the Ouspensky
line, where
everybody knows all the old Movements by heart, originated no
doubt from the
time that Gurdjieff demanded his pupils to exercise them, five to
six hours a
day, as preparation for the public demonstrations in Paris and in
America. The
focus on the newer exercises in the Foundation, and the way to
connect them
to inner work, stems from the last stage of Gurdjieff's Movements
teaching and
the enthusiasm of Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, who preserved
many of these
exercises. The readiness to experiment with new forms of
Movements
education, characteristic of the Bennett line, mirrors the openmindedness
of John
Bennett himself. The key supplied by this comparative
effort, and
the basic lesson to be learned is that no line is perfect. When you want
the best of
these three worlds you have to sacrifice your isolation and start
working
together. That means to cooperate without being incorporated. This is
what we in the
Berlin and Amsterdam Movement groups have done. Two years
ago we
organized in Amsterdam an exchange on the subject of the "old"
Movements
between our group and a group of the original "Ouspensky" line. To
our surprise,
Mrs. van Oyen, one of the two living members of Ouspensky's
London group,
turned up to join us and when asked why, given her extreme old
age, she replied.
"I saw many years ago how the Work had split itself into small
fractions. Now
I heard that an effort is being made to unite what I had seen drift
apart, and for
this reason I insisted on being present. Only if we work together
will there be
results!" This is a direction I hope will continue.
MOVEMENTS AND
SECRECY
The one single
factor responsible for the inaccessibility of the Movements is
"secrecy."
Let us review two reasons for this inclination, because a side effect of
this is
responsible for the the growing isola-tion of many Gurdjieff communities.
For one to
whom the Movements represents the most intimate and sacred
expression of
the "Work." I am dismayed when I witness the Movements being
offered to
people who think they are dealing with another variety of aerobics.
There is the
well known esoteric principle, "You can't give what cannot be taken,"
or, "Do
not cast pearls before swine." But how to select those that can take them?
Should
inclusion be restricted to members of an organization? When I play a
Gurdjieff
recital for a group of people who have never even heard of Gurdjieff,
the inner
response, as I can sense and feel it, is no less than that of members of
Gurdjieff
organizations. On the contrary, it is sometimes even better, and the
question
arises as to who can take what. Of course it is necessary to protect the
Movements
against outside influences and to keep them as pure as possible.
Unfortunately
changes occur anyhow, and this can never be stopped. Curt
Sachs, the
great German researcher on music and dance, formulated the
principle that
no single cultural phenomena exists that will not be influenced by
other cultural
phenomena and in its turn not influence other cultural
phenomena.
(24)
When Gurdjieff
presented his Movements in France and in America, these
events were
open to anyone interested and with a single exception, admission
was always
free. When he was asked. "Why do you open this to all these people?"
he answered
angrily, "How can you judge?... We have to let everyone hear. The
results do not
belong to us." (25) Clearly, he intended his work to have a definite
influ-ence;
and indeed, would not anybody who has to live in the reality of our
society with
its out of control violent and destructive tendencies. Was the
surrealist
Andre Breton so far from the truth when he stated that modern society
is the
extension of Hell on earth. If we agree, are these definite influences not
needed?
Prudence in dealing with Movements can change into arrogance, and
here I refer
to the old Latin root of that word, which means "To keep for
oneself."
Esotericism is
an historical fact and occurs in all religions. Secrecy is a human
vice. How to
draw the line between the two? This question was formulated by
A.L. Staveley
as follows, 'Which is worse? That Movements fall into the hands of
those who do
not respect them, distort and dilute them? Or that they are kept so
wrapped up and
"protected" that those who could benefit by them and who must
be those for
whom Gurdjieff intended them and gave them to us to pass on, never
get the
opportunity to work on them?" That was exactly the problem I faced
when I felt
the obligation to pass on what was given to me! "What" to pass on and
to
"whom?" The only way I felt that the Work could be be productive was
to avoid
an
hierarchical, or closed structure. As formulated above, the new sociological
situation of
our time had done the same thing to large commercial institutions as
to the Work
organizations, and therefore it required cooperation rather than
incorporation.
It requires working on the same level, in smaller subunits, rather
than in a
"topdown" structure. We tried to find a middle way. we didn't want to
throw the Work
out onto the street at the feet of every passer by, but rather, to
open it to
those with a real interest That has worked marvelously well - almost
by itself two
Movements groups were born, consisting of hard working and
serious minded
people, one in Berlin and one in Amsterdam, and they have
stabilized themselves
rather quickly. These groups have been in existence for
over three
years.
MME.
CLAUSTRES' CLASSES REVISITED
How changes
affect the practice of Movements, even in the most protected
and isolated
situations, was brought home to me when I participated in some
recent
classes. To begin with there was none of the vitality of one of Mme.
Claustres'
classes. A solemn teacher had prepared a little program of Movements
sequences; the
pianist was sitting stiffly behind the piano waiting for the
command to
start playing the sheet music in front of his nose, from which he
dared not
deviate. With Mme. Claustres there was always a living synergy
between
instructor and musician. The teacher had to know how to play, if only a
little, the
rhythms, the harmonies and the tone quality needed for the
accompaniment
of any Movement she or he was teaching. Beware the pianist
that in her
classes would continue to play the music straight through! One
needed to
improvise, to finds one's own way, and together with the class.
"Feel"
she would call
out. "listen to the class, listen to your sound... make variations...
work."
When I once commented. "But I am playing for the Movements, not doing
them."
She would say, "If not with the body, then your fingers must do the
movement on
the keyboard." This advice, at first sight so strange, was a great
help to me! It
is extremely important for anyone teaching classes to understand
that we never
worked in a program form in Mme. Claustres' classes. A Movement
was selected
by her because at that particular moment the class needed some
characteristic
of it. In that way she masterfully sought the "intervals" and
guided us
towards a new octave of understanding, the pianist exploring the new
area,
sustaining the search as best he could! Each class was an active search for
an octave!
Although we never discussed it. I have no doubt that this
methodology
was derived directly from Gurdjieff. To be able to guide a class in
such a way
needs at least three qualities that she was able to demonstrate
without words.
Perhaps even
more than these were shown, but only these three imprinted
themselves
deeply on my memory. These are: Never to react on a personal level,
but always to
observe the whole class, as if from a distance. This is not be
confused with
any kind of censorship; on the contrary, the second quality is to be
able to accept
one's feelings, be open to them and to be aware of the peculiar
moments when
the transition from one feeling to another takes place. The third
one, and the
one most difficult to understand, is the ability to sense the body all
the time, in
an ever ongoing and active effort to integrate the specific radiation,
life and being
of the physical body in one's total presence, and never, not for one
moment, to
allow this process to be disturbed or destroyed by mental activities or
emotional
reactions. The last word: "sensation" Let us be honest about
sensation.
In the Fourth
Way everybody uses the term "sensation of the body." If one only
could understand
what that means! Always, always I have to renew the first step
in the process
of sensing the body; by realizing that I do not know what it means.
It is but an
illusion that I am able to establish contact with my body at will, it
requires a
very long time and one of determined effort. With this. the moment
will come when
the body finally responds. Only then, when this new sensation
circulate
through my entire body, from the top of my head down to my toes,
only then have
I found the true meaning of "sensation," which means I have
found one of
the components of the elixir of life that man has been trying to
prepare for
himself from the beginning of time.
NOTES
(I) Wim van
Dullemen, Madame Claustres' Talks about Gurdjieffs
Movements,
interview published in Bres, Amsterdam, October 1997. Article
authorized by
Mme. Claustres. Quotation kindly permitted by Bres.
(2)VIEWS FROM
THE REAL WORLD, EARLY TALKS OF GURDJIEFF, as
recollected by
his pupils, 1973 Triangle Editions, Inc. Toronto. Vancouver, see
page 183.
(3) James Webb
(an historian specialist in Russian Esotericism) the
harmonious
circle. Thames and Hudson, London .1980. Page 535.
(4) Symbolism
was a cultural trend which originated in the West European
industrialized
countries in the last decade of the nineteenth century. It could be
characterized
as a search for spiritual values against the domination of science
and
industrialization. It was strongest in Catholic and heavily industrialized
countries,
like Belgium. Russian Symbolism, although it expressed itself some
two decades
later than in Western Europe, permeated all of Russian cultural life
in the
beginning of the twentieth century and had a deep influence on
P.D.Ouspensky.
(5) Pia
Witzmann describes Delsarte's system based upon his Law of
Threefoldness
and Ninefoldness in: Der Einfluss des Okkulten auf den Tanz. 1995
"Okkultismus
und Avantgarde" Edition Tertium, Frankfurt
(6) E. Roters
"MALER AM BAUHAUS," Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin, 1965. Page
73. Oskar
Schlemmer based his approach on an older essay from Heinrich von
Kleist
(17771811) 'Ober das Marionetten Theater'. His theory, in a nutshell, is
that mankind
as a consequence of the Original Sin is only capable of subjective
gestures and
body postures. Only through strict adherence to pure geometric
expressions
can we approach the divine and recreate the innocence we once lost.
(7) Dushka
Howarth. quoting her mother. Jessmin Howarth, during a five
hour
videotaped interview by Gert Jan Blom. New York, May 1622, 2000
(8) Of
particular importance here is Gurdjieff’s statement that "certain ideas
can only be
grasped when the emotions are tuned into them by means of music."
See:
J.G.Bennett's making a new world, Harper &.
Row. New York, 1973. page
167. This was said to clarify the
role of music played before readings from his
