The Gurdjieff Work in Practice

Gurdjieff chose to express the teaching in many forms. The Gurdjieff teaching is an oral teaching: it must be passed from teacher to student and must be lived to be well understood.   

Initiated in the Russian period and continuing to this day at the Society and its worldwide affiliates are group meetings in which the ideas of the Gurdjieff teaching are thoroughly and deeply explored. Working together, we also sit in silent mediation, work on teams on special projects and tasks, care for a house of work, participate together in arts and crafts, and initiate studies of the teaching which include reading from a wide collection of Gurdjieff literature. 

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The Gurdjieff Movements, or sacred dances, offer a unique approach to self-awareness and the development of integrated, three-centered attention. Classes work on a large repertory of dances and exercises, choreographed by Gurdjieff, primarily on the basis of models witnessed during his years of travel in remote regions. Please visit these pages for more on the Movements: The Movements and Upcoming Events.

Music represents an essential expression of the teaching. Piano music to accompany the Movements was composed by Gurdjieff in collaboration with Russian composer, Thomas de Hartmann. There is, as well, a body of salon or concert music, composed by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann in the mid-1920s, now available in a four-volume edition and a growing discography. Please see these listed on our Gurdjieff-de Hartmann Music page.

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Finally, there are Gurdjieff's own writings and those of his close students, of which a recommended list appears on our page, Books in the Gurdjieff Canon.

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Photo courtesy of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York