How to Work with an Inner Theme

I’d like to share how to work with an inner Theme. Every week on my course at Sherborne House, Mr. Bennett presented themes . However, DONE is my own theme, which came to me unbidden.

The Concept of a Theme

“Live each moment as if it were your last.” Mrs. Popoff, my first teacher in Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way school of transformation, gave me this task one day. As a young adult, I did not connect with the reality of this.

Fast forward fifty years to this morning. I found myself inside the moment of being “done” while working on one of Gurdjieff’s movements called the Great Prayer. Besides all the other meanings that long and weighty movement might entail, the very end of it has come to represent for me the moment one lets go of life.

At the end of the musical score there are three trills during which I envision my functions—physical, emotional, thinking, as if they are dissolving in turn, floating away into the ether. The music has a long pause   —

then the crash of the last chord shakes me to my core.

DONE

Plumbing the Topic

This morning, inside the final silence of that movement, images came to me:

Of Simone Biles at the Olympics completing her less than perfect balance beam routine, epitomizing the “one shot” chance in any performance. Of the moment of death, and how my work becomes more and more about that finale and will I be ready? Yes, we get one shot in this life and then it’s done.

“‘Tis like that,” Mr. Bennett might say.

But all our moments are like this. DONE means this moment is over. It will never be just like this again.

DONE feels like there’s freedom within it, allowing me to relax and be present to what is. A moment can encompass a big event, like a dance performance, or an everyday one, like finishing a meal.

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The notion of DONE allows me to appreciate each experience as unique, including its flaws and perfections. Each time I practice the Great Prayer, which demands presence, it is never the same. Within each final moment, lives the essence of life.

Carrying the Theme Within

This week, I’m going to carry the flavor of DONE within me as my Theme and see what my experience is.

I’d be happy for feedback from others who choose to explore DONE as a Theme, in whatever way you can.

For myself, I will drop the notion of DONE into my silent mind, rather than actively thinking about it. Every so often throughout the week I’ll touch base with wondering about DONE. Bringing the awareness of my body and my feelings into as many moments as I can, I’ll remember this too, shall pass.