Looking at ways to bridge the interval in an upcoming seminar, I decided to make an enneagram. A fundraiser for Emberlight (9) was worthy, the presenters came together (1), and the planning was productive (2). But registration (4) doesn’t seem to be happening in the slam-dunk way I thought it would be. At first, everything … Read more
I’m working with an exercise that’s new for me, so I thought I’d review how that has evolved. Until a few years ago, all the inner exercises I knew had been ones Mr. Bennett showed at Sherborne. For years I worked from the notes I took during the course. Later, I was privileged to be … Read more
Everything in me felt like not doing movements as we drove home from Asheville June 14th. I had intended to arrive the previous Tuesday, in time to be rested and ready for the International Movements Retreat. But we decided to stay in North Carolina an extra few days, which seemed the right thing to do … Read more
Transformation—what does that mean? This is my budding enquiry. Like so many words belonging to the Gurdjieff vocabulary, the word is very familiar. Bennett used it to describe the nut of what he was after. We, in this Work, are constantly referencing it. But what do I know about it? Here I am, fifty plus … Read more
The importance of aim is central to both Gurdjieff and JG Bennett’s lives and work. A big aim can give purpose to life, small aims can help guide us forward.
What does it mean to be impartial? I think I know what it means. Not to take sides, not to have a horse in the race. To not be identified. Now there’s a good one. What are the signs of being identified? When I find tapes looping in my head, that’s usually a sign. When … Read more
The two to eight line of the enneagram has been giving me pause. For example, I saw the importance of looking ahead at one’s aim (point 8.) This was the key to getting to point 4 from 2 in the student/teacher example given in my last post. It may be that 2 is the first … Read more
I’ve extrapolated a student/teacher enneagram based on one that JG Bennett laid out in Enneagram Studies. His had to do with training a professional singer. As Bennett’s enneagram of a gifted pupil working with a dedicated teacher unfolded, I began to see this enneagram applying to a teacher of the Work and his student. Bennett’s … Read more
My physical body is sick this week and it’s put me energetically in front of the work of not doing. I simply do not have the energy. Usually, I am all about doing. I start doing before I get out of bed, setting up the routine of the day and my relationship with it. Sometimes … Read more
I feel like I’m walking the line, and a thin one at that, between drowning in negativity and sending positive energy out to the future. Part of me hopes the negativity I get caught up in is partisan politics, not our democracy being hijacked and turned into a Fascist regime. That I need to work … Read more