The Seminar

3-20-09

Ok the Seminar. For those of you who may not know, My Dad has been studying the Fourth Way for nearly 40 years. This is a teaching that George Ivonovich Gurdjieff brought to America in the early part of the 1920’s (don’t quote me). My parents never forced this on my brother or I; yet my Dad would drop all kinds of hints without me even knowing it. About 17 years ago he quit his job and devoted every once of his energy to the teaching. He has written seven books, 3 videos, a quarterly journal, and has groups on both the East and West Coast. About a year and a half ago, a good family friend and student started to bust my balls.

“Matthew, come on…what if your Dad dies? Your going to have no idea what his life’s work is about.”

“I know I know…”

The thought had crossed my mind before.

“Just go to the seminar and you will at least get an idea of what it’s all about”

She may have even called me a pansy. Whatever it was, two months later I was off to Santa Sabina for my first seminar. During that seminar I was blown away by how much my brain was full of chatter. This incessant chatter is there for almost all of us; yet few get to slow down enough to experience it. This may not sound like a big concept but I assure you, when it happens you will be shocked.

A few months later I was off to my second seminar. This one took place in Baltimore, Maryland. The seminar is broken up into two parts: the first is open to anyone and includes bodywork, meditation, and dialogue. This is the first three days. The remaining three days is called Deep Diving and is only open to students who are enrolled in The Work. This does not describe me but family has its privileges. I can see why this rule is in place and should remain. Most people would not be able to handle it with no prior experience. I was not the exception. The only thing keeping me from leaving was the fact that we were way out in the boondocks and I didn’t have a car. I struggled the entire time. On the final day I was told that breakfast would be served at 7:45 instead of 8am. I lost it. I let out a huge grown, put my head down on the table and stewed in my own drama. I was so pissed and over what? 15 minutes. It’s ridiculous when I look back on it, but this was no joke in the moment. You have to realize that I got to this point after three days of very intensive meditation. (I will leave it at that in case you ever do it).

This brings us to the third seminar, which I just completed in Tucson, Arizona. The retreat center was just outside The Saguaro National Park. I was truly enchanted by the 25’ cactus that encompassed the property. More on them later.

“Thank you all for coming” The familiar voice stated.

“We are going to do some walking, laying around, breathing, some eating but most importantly we are going to relax”

And with that all 51 of us began our “Perfectly imperfect” journey. I liked that statement, because all the decisions we made or didn’t act on etc. have shaped us into being exactly where we are right now; perfectly imperfect. The speaker stressed that The Work doesn’t change one’s life in the sense of physical location etc.

“Were not wearing long robes and asking you to move to the Ashram at the Mountain top. You stay in everyday life”

The basic concept of the entire teaching is that it starts with the body. Be here now. Two feet on the floor, breathe up from the feet and down the spine. We directed the breath into different parts of the body. While doing bodywork we tried to maintain a “Global sensation” (really being present and taking in what is happening). Trying to do this while keeping the chatter down is very difficult. After we came out of one of the poses we were told to resonate and really feel the energy in our bodies. I was surprised because I really felt it; normally the chatter is so constant that I would miss this “Global sensation”.

About 30 brave souls stayed on for Deep Diving. I will spare you the details but what I would like to mention is the feeling that happens. After each session you are diving deeper and deeper; therefore, the body is going to higher wavelengths. We went into the church on two separate occasions to listen to Nancy play the piano. The first day it was music…it was nice but not much else was happening. The second night, each note was pulsating through my entire body. All of my senses were heightened; I walked around with a big grin on my face for the remainder of the evening.
The day after the seminar, I was driving East on 10, the light was very soft and the temperature was fairly moderate for the Arizona Desert. I was going 60 while the rest of traffic was flying by at 80mph. An overpass was approaching which had steel sculptures of very large birds at different stages of flight. It was really crazy because I looked at it like stop animation; I saw the bird flapping it’s wings gracefully each image was followed by the next. This bird was in full flight. I started laughing,

“Ok I get it. This is why people come back. Slight LSD trip minus the drugs”

Next stop Austin.