Jose Reyes, Dominican Republic
Jose Reyes has been active in the
Gurdjieff Ideas since 1975. He participated in the 3rd Claymont Course of 1977
(a nine months residential course applying the ideas and methods of the 4th Way
in a practical way). After the course, Pierre Elliot (Director of Studies at the
time) and Vivien Elliot came to the Dominican Republic to help establish the
groups in Santo Domingo. Jose also participated in the Teachers Movements
Training Course in West Virginia conducted by Pierre and Vivien Elliot.
On
several occasions he met and participated in Sufi practices with Sulliman Dede
(Sheik of the Mevlevi Order), and Sheik Mustafer (Sheik of the Helveti order).
He lived for over two years in the house of Natalie de Salzmann in Venezuela
where he took part in group Work activities and received Special Movements
Training for Teachers from Dushka Howard and Jim Nott. In the last years he has
conducted seminars in Germany, Puerto Rico and United States.
Homepage:
Gurdjieff Grupo Dominicano
GIG:
It does seem to be such a long distance from Dominican Republic to Denmark, but
I just love the way we can communicate these days with e-mail and phone. Would
you like to tell me some basic things of your country?
Jose: Yes,
I would like very much to say something about the Dominican Republic, it is a
very small island in the center of the Caribbean, and it is about 300 kilometers
by 600 km, I think. It has a warm weather all year round, but it is never too
hot nor too cold. The Dominican people are very nice and good hearted, usually
the people that visit us from Europe either come back or end up living here.
Besides, the country is beautiful and we have beautiful beaches, and good
people.
GIG: Were both you and your wife Katiuska (which sounds
like a Russian name) born in the Dominican Republic?
Jose: My wife
and I were both born in the Dominican Republic; she has a Russian name from a
very famous Russian novel that her mother read before she was born. She is the
author of our homepage and I feel she has done a great job at
it.
GIG: You lived in the house of Natalie de Salzmann. We sell
books written by her, but I don't read Spanish. What are the main features of
her education system?
Jose: Yes I lived in the house of Natalie
for almost two years and it was a very good experience for me, to be able to be
exposed to the work in different ways than what I was used to. I feel that being
close to her and learning from her ways has given me a deeper understanding of
the work, and I think that her approach and the way she approached the education
of children is very special. It is like Gurdjieff had said, begin from afar. Her
method is basically a method of suggesting things and not direct imposition. In
fact she told me a story: when she was small and lived in the Prieure, there was
a bathroom that was called the Russian bathroom, she said this bathroom was so
dirty and smelly, then she took the task herself to clean this bathroom. She was
coming from school one day, she was very worried the she would not have time to
clean the bathroom and she imagined how dirty it was going to be, but when she
arrived found that somebody else had been cleaning the bathroom and she realized
then that sometimes you do not have to say things to people our hammer into
their head the things you feel are important, but just give them the example.
Her approach to education is very tender, it’s not direct.
GIG: I
met Jim Nott a long time ago when he visited his family in London. I don't know
Dushka Howard, although I met her mother. They are both important teachers of
the Gurdjieff ideas. You can see how curious I am. Tell us more about these
people!
Jose: I think I have been very lucky to have met all these
teachers, but at the same time I'm very worried because the more opportunities
you have the higher the price you have to pay or more is expected of you. I met
Dushka Howard and Jim Nott in Venezuela. While I was there Jim used to come to
the Dominican Republic once a month to work with the group and do movements. The
way he conducted the class was very rewarding, one could learn just by watch him
teach. I felt he had the right approach to the movements and that he could
somehow blend the energies of the movement to obtain a three centered balanced
state. He said we should observe the class having sensation ourselves and then
all this information will flow to the right place in us, he indeed put much
emphasis on sensation and he was always trying for the practitioner to bring
sensation into the movement.
Dushka Howard gave me a different
perspective of the movements; she seemed to be connected with how the gestures
should be done in a movement. She seems to be the last custodian of a very old
tradition; I know she received the movements from Jasmine Howard who in turn
received then from Mr. G. It was good to be able to be close to her even for a
short time, she took the heaviness out of the class, this is very important to
me. I like my students to be light hearted and content at all times. Mr.
Gurdjieff himself said that the result of this work was contentment.
GIG: You mention both Gurdjieff teachers and Sufi teachers. Is
there something missing in Gurdjieff's teaching?
Jose: No there is
nothing missing in the work but there is something missing in the way we teach
it. Mr. Gurdjieff himself does not claim exclusivity in his teaching, he was
widely open to any influence or to any teaching he came across. The work is the
overall condensation of four main spiritual practices. He mentions the four
prophets as the carriers of the four sacred impulses that are necessary for our
balanced development. Each one will contribute with a Sacred Impulse that is
highly desirable in our transformation. We try to divide the year into 4 main
practices that correspond to each of the four prophets, lent we dedicate to
Christ, study the sacred books, perform the Great Prayer, fast according to
Beelzebub, and for forty days we begin the days at 5:30 a.m. We also study the
origin of the gospels as well as those who wrote them.
The next period we
dedicate to Sufism and Sufi practices, we maintain very good relations with
several Sufi orders and we practice during this period not only the Zikr but
also all the dervish movements and the story of great Saints like
Mevlana.
Then we begin our intensive one week meditation retreat and study
also Buddhism and Tibetan meditation.
We never stop practicing the movements
specially the multiplications, because they contain a message that we can
decipher and learn from them. They really contain the essence of group work in
them.
Beelzebub in the main source of knowledge for us and we use it in most
of the activities we have, even for the kitchen.
Nobody can tell what the
work is and nobody has the exclusive of the work. The work is everywhere no
matter what you call it, it is the present moment expanded to its maximum
potential. When you are able to live the present moment then you realize that it
has no name and it doesn't come from anyone mind it just has one origin and that
is God.
GIG: Who is Sulliman Dede and who is Sheik Mustafer and
what can you tell about their organizations?
Jose: They were
Sheiks of the Mevlevi and Halveti Orders, I had the good fortune to meet them
and work with them and they had a very strong Being. One could feel their
presence when they entered the room even without looking at them. There is not
much I can say about their organizations since I only met the men and not the
organizations.
GIG: What is the World Chain?
Jose:
It is an exercise based on Gurdjieff's 'I am' exercise from the third series of
his writings.
Once someone asked Mr. Gurdjieff how he could pay him back
for all he had received from him. Mr. G’s answer was, you can pay me back with I
Am.
I believe that we can be united by this strong exercise; no matter
how far you are we will be transmitting a very powerful energy that will
permeate many people hearts. It is so strange what we are seen today, and this
is only the beginning. The world chain is only an experiment, we have kept it
alive for lent, but we believe it could be the beginning of something very
powerful, not that we pretend to change the world but I don’t think we realize
how much power we have as a group.
The chain will begin at 6AM good
Friday, until 6 AM Saturday, each participant in the chain will do the exercise
for 1/2 hour before he pass it on to the next person by a telephone call. If you
want to take part in the World Chain please send an e-mail to us to 4.camino#codetel.net.do (obviously no longer relevant)