The Gurdjieff Conference in Cambridge as a modern-day Babylon became my overriding impression of the event. Granted, I was initially piqued that Cynthia Bourgeault and Joseph Azize were on the podium with top foundation members like Roger Lipsey and Alexandre de Salzmann.
What I found, right from the initial reception Wednesday evening, was an openness and lack of apparent agendas on all sides. In fact, someone pointed out that our assigned name badges held only our names—no affiliation with this or that “group.”
Further, there became a tendency throughout the conference to introduce myself to those standing or sitting nearby and engage in conversation. This resulted in some meaningful exchanges. The energy throughout was congenial and participatory. After all, we were all there sharing the same interest, the Work.
A Modern-Day Babylon
Honestly, it was not until I started reading the program outlining the topics and bios of all sixteen presenters that I felt the full import of what was happening at Harvard Divinity School. The sense of an historical event grew until I felt compelled to gather the signatures of each speaker as a documentation for posterity. This indeed, was a modern-day Babylon per All and Everything, page 329, 1950 edition:
“The learned beings collected in this way there in the city of Babylon from almost the whole of the planet … discuss among themselves, as it is proper to the learned beings of the planet Earth, questions which were either immeasurably beyond their comprehension, or about which they could never elucidate anything useful whatsoever, either for themselves or for ordinary beings there.”
I mean, what can you convey in a fifteen-minute presentation? However,
“The question which chanced to become the-burning-question-of-the-day so vitally touched the whole being of every one of them, that they even ‘climbed down’ from their what are called ‘pedestals’ and began discussing it not only with the learned like themselves…”
Babylon Reimagined
In fact, over-riding everything, was a growing sense of presence, not just from what the speakers brought, but from the tenner of the participants. I sensed a shared need to gather resources for urgent work ahead of us all.
This was not an academic exercise. It was a spiritual recognition among the Gurdjieff Tribes, that our times demand something of us and we need each other’s support.
What spoke loudest to me amongst all the words, was the presence that Alexandre de Salzmann brought and the shared recognition of that presence.
At the end of the presentations on Thursday I handed over the signed Gurdjieff Conference brochure to the Harvard Divinity School. They agreed to scan and archive the program.
Let us Hope that this Babylon does not go the way of the one in Beelzebub’s Tales.