Who inhabits this body of flesh and bones?
Is there someone home ?

What immensity does exist within the limitations of the body ?

How to answer this nostalgia of the “higher”, the “better”,
and this call for truth that once in a while grabs one’s own soul ?

How to live more passionately the inner fire ?

What is the meaning of the Gurdjieff movements practice in our daily life ?

This journey of discovery is priceless…

Given very precisely by Gurdjieff as a powerful tool for growth, the practice of movements creates exceptional conditions for transforming the body –machine into a place where the forces of intelligence, heart, and action can freely expand, through the development of a certain quality of attention and relaxation.

Sincere efforts are needed, but efforts in lightness…. We can’t fly freely through the inner sky burdened by the heaviness of seriousness.

Seriousness has been misunderstood as sincerity. Seriousness belongs to the ego and leads to self-importance. Sincerity is of the heart, it is totality, it is a love affair ….

Bringing a totality to our movements, our activities, we can suddenly realize that deep within, there is a still point, which does not know the world of efforts. It is the ground of our Being

Effort on the periphery. Non-effort in the center.

Activity on the periphery. Absolute non-activity in the center. 
 While practicing the movements, we intend to strengthen the watcher inside us, to keep our centre of gravity into the watcher. From the flow of movements, energies, emotions and thoughts to the one who sees them.

Yet we see how much we forget it again and again, how we get distracted by some desire to reach, “to get” the movements, to succeed, some comparison or judgment, some day-dreaming. As such is the society around us .The movements call us back to the watcher, and further, to an anchor of stillness, silence and inner peace.

Such is the inner process, the inner dance of attention, from the inner to the outer, from the outer to the inner. Learning to sense our body from inside, first one fragment after the other successively, then combining them, suddenly this sensation radiates to the whole of ourselves, a vivid sensation of existing as One. This experience can be called Presence

Then, the watching is not limited to the body, but expands to the room, the other participants, the music and sounds…
Distance with thoughts and emotions is created. Stillness is experienced at the core of all movements, inaction behind action…

• The seen is movements, forms, rhythm, emotions, thoughts, group action.
• The seer is formless, inaction, motionlessness, silence.
• Every movement springs forth from this silent life, and every movement deepens the stillness of this life

The movements are a flowing current but there is no movement at the centre. Through the changing forms, whether quick or slow, round or staccato, we awaken to the unchanging and the formless. Hence this feeling of freedom and expansion…

The 3 elements of human nature are always participating in the movements : The movements of our body, our heart, our mind are brought in a harmonic exchange with each other, in a certain common vibration. Hence the importance of the presence of the 3 components :

• Obviously the awakening of an intimate relationship with our body through the sensations that are revealed, whether the body is still or not.
• The intellectual part through a specific quality of attention, but also sometimes through counting, repetitions of words or statements.
• The emotional part may be given by the music which will trigger a specific inner state, or the remembrance of a brother, sister et… or the suggestion to enter a special feeling, or the mirroring effect of the others persons in the room.
• The practice of the movements is the attainment of balance and harmony. For this, intellectual discipline, emotional discipline is called forth along the physical discipline.

This word “discipline” is nowadays very much misunderstood. It simply means “readiness to learn”, a deep acknowledgement that without a guideline, I would be wandering around endlessly, and a joyful leap into learning…

Within the precision and the beauty of the movements opens a world of clarity, love, inner strength, creativity and action…