Our Approach to Movements and to the Reality of What We Are
Tirado, José
What moves us?
In most cases, a group is a gathering of people who share a
similar goal in their mind. My focus in forming and maintaining a
group, however, is not so much on our goals as on our motives. This is
based on my observation that a group organized around a goal is hardly
able to generate within itself an energy of such quality that justifies
the goal, a fact that becomes painfully evident when the group attempts
to work on the Movements. Trying to solve this problem by heady
discussions aggravates the situation. Thus, as I see, the first
responsibility of a group leader is to facilitate the group to meet in
the depth of motives than on the highness of aims. Similarly, though I
understand concerns about the authenticity of teachings and methods,
the authenticity of our motives seems more important at least in the
beginning of a journey, where I find myself and many of my fellow
travelers at.
The presence of a man like Gurdjieff
and Osho, or even of someone who slightly has became aware of a
presence of similar quality within oneself, acts as a force that enters
us from outside but moves us from within. Such a force also comes from
pieces of objective art including Gurdjieff's music and Movements. This
force is not available through worship; rather, it originates in the
realization that I am Him, He am I, with the
combination of happiness and sorrow in recognizing in oneself the same
potential for being but so unattended to. A movement that originates in
a space closer to the source is distinct from a movement motivated by
our personal goals. If I find it more rewarding to work on the
Gurdjieff Movements with Osho's sannyasins, those
who wished to open themselves to his provocation at least once in their
life, than those whose interest in Gurdjieff's idea is mostly
intellectual, it is because they have acquired more sensitivity and
openness to this phenomenon.
In the beginning,
however, we are barely aware of any desire of soul buried within us.
Rather, all our motivation in life seems to come from a part of us that
is biologically determined, in the sense that they are all connected
directly or indirectly with impulses related to the larger meaning of
the word survival, that is, of the body, of the
species, and of the ego. Even though these impulses could be beneficial
to our nature as a biologically-evolved organism, they are constantly
diverting our attention away from something extra that is evidently in
us: our second nature. A little control we have over our mental
attention often gives us an illusion that a little more training of
this attention may give us larger freedom. However, given a fuller
realization of the extent to which these impulses are governing the
major direction and involuntary movement of our attention, it seems
evident that a more satisfactory manifestation of ourselves as a man -
a double-natured being - would first require our discovery of desires
and needs inherent to the second nature of man.
Through
persistent inquiry into the sources of our actions and the causes that
move our attention, I attempt to bring ourselves to sincere realization
of the situation as it is and only then bring our attention to urges
that comes from this realization. This comes as a result of persistent
asking of more basic questions. What moves us in life? What do we
really want? Through sharing these questions of mine with others, I
came to realize how unmannerly these questions are. It seems that
asking of such questions to ourselves and to others is inhibited not
only by social manners but also by our biological conditioning. A group
is a situation in which the distinction between survival-based impulses
(including ego strivings) and motives based on qualities unique to man
becomes clear. The survival-based impulses, in whatever form of
disguise, cannot be shared with other group members in a way that
contributes to the group energy. Stronger an animal, more separate from
others it lives. Since we sense the non-sharability of these
survival-based impulses through our animal instinct, the working of
which we are not so conscious about, we often manifest a strange form
of reluctance and even an alarming drop of intelligence when we attempt
to speak honestly about them. I recently learned about the results of
an academic study about a similar phenomenon through my latest work of
translation: "Emotional Intelligence and Emphathic Accuracy" in a book
titled Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life.
In
Zen, it has been known for long that one reacts or responds to a
question like the ones mentioned above in either one of the two ways: a
way that leads him in or a way that leads him out. While our ordinary
response to a question is an effort to explain away contradictions, a
serious questioning reveals our contradictions and like a sword cuts
into the gap between our two contradictory natures, which in terms of
physical sensation is like harakiri. As the group
goes through this process, one eventually comes to a realization that
he has no motives or wishes that he can call truly his own. One
typically needs some external help at this point because alone it is
difficult to understand the value of this realization. In fact, only
after this realization, one can be open to reality and the benefits of
the work we may do together.
This realization
eventually connects us with what Gurdjieff called the striving
to become aware of the aim and significance of the Being of beings,
and though less obviously, also with another line of striving Gurdjieff
repeatedly mentioned, that is, the striving to free oneself
from the consequences of the organ Kundarbuffer. When the
group can meet on the ground of these strivings, it is sometimes
possible to create among ourselves through our collective efforts a
space which we may perceive as sacred in the sense that it temporarily
enables us to be aware of the aim and significance of ourselves. In
these rare moments, we find ourselves more capable of understanding and
pronouncing the words Lord Have Mercy, as we are
instructed to do in certain Movements . . .
The above is a part of a longer article linked from the homepage of the Osho Institute for Sacred Movements [gone 2007], Japan. For those who have not heard of Osho and also for those who only have heard rumors about him or read dubious artibles about the communal movement which happened around him, the same homepage provides a link to some of his words that touch on themes relevant to those who are acquinted with the teaching of Gurdjieff.
Please note that in my writings I don't intend to represent or speak on behalf of others who have made themselves available to the influences of both Osho and Gurdjieff because the degree to which one can truly reconcile the two should depend not only on the power of his/her being but also on many other factors. The process of such reconciliation is unsharable because it happens in the depth of one's being but its results can be manifested in what one does. The two other articles ("Entropy. . ." and "Working with Arrows") available from the links on the left are examples of such manifestations even though I have not made it explicit.
Finally I would like to take this opportunity to ask the leaders of Gurdjieff Foundation/Society groups worldwide to reconsider about their rules, if any, that prevent their group members from making a contact with anyone associated with Osho (or with any outside group?). I suspect the existence of such rules because more than one such group members worked or made a contact with us in the past, invariably asked me to keep the contact secret. One of them told me that their group leader banned even an E-mail contact with us. To any concerns or criticisms held by those group leaders who believe that such contacts are harmful, I can respond personally (mister.go@nifty.ne.jp). Who knows whether we are moving in entirely opposite directions or not? Whichever the case may be, it is good to check it out. For my reason for regarding such mutual contacts beneficial, please read the other two articles of mine.
Comments
movements are Sacred
Perhaps
the "skin" of a Gurdjieff group is wrapped loosely, however I do
believe that any contact is not casual as one enters or exits a group.
For instance the movements are not just for individuals but make
possible a connection within the room and the organization, congealing
carbon-connected tissues (via the air breathed as the muscles and minds
align, between teacher, students, and the teachers' teacher) into an
organ of perception for the Planet Earth. One must, as a "cell", chose
one's master or if possible "attract" one.
Arlene
Rodgers, United States
todeni@hotmail.com
added 2003-09-01
Plavan,
Japan
mister.go@nifty.ne.jp
added 2003-09-01
In connection with the Fourth
Way Contacts site and the entries that I have activated on it over the
past week there are some that give the contact and some that give the
contact and what I would call 'their view of the Gurdjieff World'.
Overall the Foundations do this in a very good way.
The
view is based on what the head of the organization thinks and is
subjective. In a similar way the attitudes and opinions to others and
other organizations, who are outside their world, are formed on this
basis.
I sympathize with you and just want to add
that these people are also only human and we all seem to have similar
properties.
Reijo Elsner, Denmark
added 2003-09-02
With my previous contacts
with a few of Society/Foundation group leaders and some of their group
members, I have been vaguely aware of major differences in the quality
and content of the work carried out by different groups in the world
bearing the name of Society or Foundation. If such is the situation
today, their sharing of the same name inevitably produces in others the
mirage of unity where there is none, especially if many of them carry
on the policy of not publicly revealing much about themselves.
My
major concern is about the presence of a few groups among them that
seem to promote or take advantage of the above-mentioned mirage of
unity often with a formatory statement about the lineage. Example: “We
are similar to what’s called Society in Britain and what’s called
Foundation in America,” “We are in the authentic lineage of the Work
brought by Gurdjieff and transmitted through Jeanne de Salzmann and
Henri Tracol,” with the group leader’s comment saying “it is always
somewhat impolite to speak on one's own behalf” but he was asked to be
a group leader by so-and-so.
In my opinion, for any group that
associates itself with Gurdjieff, it is obligatory to present something
more than a contact address and a stylized description about
Gurdjieff’s teaching. Talking much about the teaching and remaining
silent about oneself is not only in gross violation of the principle of
self-remembering but also shows one’s dependence on the authority of
Gurdjieff and his older pupils, which may be close to the misuse
thereof.
The quality of a group work depends much on how the
group leader has reconciles and help other reconcile a collision
between the teaching and the subjective side of oneself. One has to say
something about it when he invites others to join him, especially if he
is so dare to use the name of Gurdjieff as a part of the name of the
group he leads.
Words from a Zen master: “Manifest! Manifest!
If you don’t, your silence is not of meditation but of dumbness.” To be
impartial, finally I say that the above view of mine applies also to
those who are reluctant to reveal their connection with Osho in their
contact with the Gurdjieff community at large.
Plavan,
Japan
mister.go@nifty.ne.jp
added 2003-09-03