THE GURDJIEFF-BENNETT INNER EXERCISES
A BRIEF HISTORY
The Armenian mystic-philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949) and the English research scientist J.G. Bennett (1897-1974) spent the great majority of their lives researching consciousness and transmitting to others authentic techniques for human development. Bennett, a student of Gurdjieff and a major proponent of his ideas,1 received from Gurdjieff a large corpus of inner exercises by which we can actively participate in our own conscious development.
In Paris in 1948-49, during a final outpouring of creativity, Gurdjieff, since 1900 a renowned "teacher of dance", choreographed new dances and taught new inner exercises. What Bennett learned from Gurdjieff then and there in Paris -- as well as what he learned in 1924 when he was a student at Gurdjieff's Institute near Fontainebleau, France -- he subsequently practiced, researched, developed, formalized, and taught to hundreds of others, up until his death in 1974.
UNFORGOTTEN MEMORIES
At some moment, often around eleven or twelve years of age, a young girl or boy awakens to the possibility of actively participating in his or her own inner development. Yet little in our culture understands such moments or values reciprocal self-development. Consequently, childhood memories of wonder and beauty, of being alive inside a growing body, are most often forever forgotten.2 Nevertheless, our natural ability to restore, return, and re-organize ourselves to our own true good rarely atrophies beyond all possible renewal—and it is therefore not uncommon on the journey of one's life to meet others, such as Gurdjieff and Bennett, who have drunk of a unique underground spring of "forgotten" knowledge.
THE EXERCISES
The Gurdjieff Inner Exercises are practiced in a sitting meditation posture but differ inwardly from traditional meditation techniques in that they require a sustained active attention and a clear inner intention to actualize definite transformations in the body. With mindfulness, a practitioner of the exercises, depending on the aim of the particular exercise, moves his or her attention into specific areas, systems, parts, and/or organs of the body, and while keeping her attention there she "senses," "feels," and "knows" what is there. Becoming aware of the present moment of the energy inside, or of his state of mind, or of the condition of his feelings, the practitioner then changes, manipulates or influences what is there according to the intention of the particular exercise.
The inner exercises begin with what is present in the body, facilitate a possible return to a physiological state of natural being, and prepare us to go on to a creation, a distillation, or even an emergence of "presence" that is of one's own making and for which one can be responsible. For example, the impulses-of-relaxation exercises and the filling-with-sensation exercises, respectively, aim to enhance an instinctive "letting go" of tensions at the body-system level and to deepen and awaken presence to one's own life at the feeling energy level.3
THE TRANSMISSION
Since the beginning of the last century and from 1949 respectively, the Gurdjieff dances and the inner exercises have been used to develop attention, focus the mind, relax body systems, resolve neurological and cognitive agitation, and promote physiological and psychological health. After years of only anecdotal evidence, books and articles are now appearing, many of which attest to the veracity of these techniques. One such book by Bennett, Transformation, attempts to describe the results of his fifty-five years of search and research into practices of transformation. Many first person accounts, too numerous to reference here, have also appeared in literary collections, Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections and journals, Gurdjieff International Review.
Bennett's unique contribution in the transmission of these practices spans more than thirty years and includes research at his Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences (1946-1970)4 and at his Sherborne Academy for Continuous Education (1971-75).5
A more recent contribution in this transmission by a student in the Gurdjieff-Bennett Tradition is found in the findings of a phenomenological study for which she was an author-investigator. Two primary investigators, responsible for coding and analysis in the study, had no previous connection with this tradition. The study, of the effects of Gurdjieff Dance or "movement meditation,"6 was published in 2008 in the International Journal for Human Caring: a journal focused on complimentary and alternative modalities and their impact on healthcare providers and clients. Findings in this study included such paradoxical themes as "focused attention while letting go" and "presence or in-the-moment experience while distancing or disassociation from the moment to be able to reflect on the experience." Also found were other apparent paradoxes such as "presence and reflection," "embodiment and transcendence."7
TODAY
James Tomarelli (a student of J.G. Bennett, 1974-75 at Bennett's Sherborne Academy) and associates, in USA and Italy, are researching the role of "active attention" in the work of human transformation and the effects such work has on health, education, and personal relationship. With daily practice of the inner exercises and regular participation in Gurdjieff dance classes, individuals concerned with human development and helping others are finding the results they seek.
Since 2001, numerous seminars have given new participants experience in the basic exercises and returning participants a possibility of deepening experience and continuing along a progressive track of inner development.
In Santa Fe, a Gurdjieff Dance Institute will begin in 2010 to offer training for those able to become teachers of the exercises and dances.
INSTRUCTION
Beginning and advanced instruction is given
at seminars by experienced teachers.
NOTES
1. John Bennett wrote more than thirty books on Gurdjieff and his teachings and most of them are in print. Visit the www.bennettbooks.org online storefront with more than two-hundred books, Music CDs, and DVDs on or about Gurdjieff's Teaching.
2. One unforgotten memory of Elizabeth Bennett, which was recorded in her memoirs, is described by her biographer, Ken Pledge: "One evening in 1924 when Elizabeth was six years old, playing by the bay tree in the garden at bedtime, the nursemaid called her from across the lawn. She stood up and the sun was in her eyes. The nursemaid called again and Elizabeth was filled with power. She was being called, and if she did not answer no one else would! She stood there staring into the golden sunlight, aware of herself for the first time."
3. See also, J.G. Bennett. Transformation, Santa Fe: Bennett Books, 2003, p. 7, 19, and 96:
"[Transformation is] the process by which a man can pass beyond the limitations of his own nature ... I shall assume, without attempting to produce the evidence that justifies the assumption, that we all have the urge to seek for this transformation and that it is just this urge that distinguishes man from the brutes."
"We should look upon transformation as something that is happening here and now. It depends on what we do, and this in turn depends upon what moves and directs us."
"... there are seven degrees of relaxation, starting with 'letting go' the tensions in the voluntary muscles and leading through deeper and deeper 'givingway' of nerves, feelings, thoughts, desires ... It is easy to obtain a relaxed state of the body by hard physical work, by skillful massage, sauna baths and similar means. These are all useful, but they do not produce the deep relaxation that we are looking for. For this, we must learn how to make a direct connection between our will [our consciousness] and the part of the body we wish to relax. ... Learning to relax is thus a first step towards the voluntary control over physiological and psychological processes that are usually thought to be outside the power of our will."
4. Some of Bennett's most creative thinking and research occurred at Coombe Springs where his Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences flourished. See Witness: The Story of a Search, his autobiography, for details on this time in his development of the techniques discussed here.
5. See, Allen Roth. Sherborne: An Experiment in Transformation, Santa Fe: Bennett Books, 1993. See also, James Tomarelli's Epilogue to the Italian edition of J.G. Bennett's book Sex and Spiritual Development.
6. Cohen, J.A., Laskowski, C., and Rambur, B. The experience of movement meditation: a dance of rhythmic paradox and time. "International Journal For Human Caring," 2008, Vol. 12, No. 3, p. 71.
7. ibid., note 6.
