All articles and the historical background information were written by Kamori Cattadoris, co-founder of Ancient Traditions Community Church. The church offers a path to God for skeptics, promoting the balanced development of both Mind and Heart. The chief aim of the curriculum is to decondition and recondition the Mind in order to open to the inner wisdom of the Heart. Only through the intelligent cooperation of both the Mind and Heart can we learn to live in harmony with others and all Life. The Ancient Traditions Community is a group of seekers committed to offering one another the mutual support necessary to take responsibility for our own spiritual re-education and transformation in the midst of modern life. Contact Kamori at http://www.AncientTraditions.org, “Seeking God within the Human Heart”.

- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND -
(click here for Gurdjieff's early beginnings)

Faith vs. Belief
Copyright © June 2005 Heart Links / All Rights Reserved

“Faith is not the same as belief.” Nearly every time I present this postulate, I am met with a long pause or a raised brow. The daring will finally ask, “How can that be possible?” Like many words in the English language that are taken as synonyms, these two words actually express quite different concepts. But in order to understand the difference, one must explore deeply the processes of the rational mind we know—and the non-rational mind we don’t know. It behooves us to examine just what we mean by the word “knowing,” also.

Do you remember believing in Santa Clause? The Tooth Fairy? The Easter Bunny? Do you remember the hope of anticipation, the joy at discovering mysterious gifts, the peace of “knowing” such benign beings looked after us? My youthful worldview was shaped by such beliefs and the experiences that seemed to “prove” them. As my physical brain matured and I gained practical life experiences, Common Sense began to form, which I define as the ability to assess the probability of information being true or useful if acted upon. Eventually my young, but skeptical mind, demanded a higher level of proof, and failing that, concluded from the evidence that Mom and Dad were the true providers of the gifts. When my beliefs changed, my World View likewise was forever changed.

History tells us that society once believed the earth was flat. Adventurers were mortally afraid that a ship could sail off the edge of the planet to certain death. People once believed that the sun and moon were just out of the reach of birds. Whole cultures develop Common Sense, too, as humanity matures and the knowledge derived from practical experience is preserved and passed down through the generations. Curious, skeptical minds found ways to gather the evidence needed to deduce that the earth is in fact round, that the sun and moon are quite far away—and our collective World View likewise changed.

Beliefs, then, are mental constructs, conclusions about reality. My perceptions are continuously filtered and shaped by my World View. My experience is a product of these interpretations, and as such cannot “prove” my beliefs. Think about it: if not for the Indwelling Presence at my core, I would be unable to recognize this phenomenon. My conditioning would hopelessly trap me with no possibility of escape. My awareness allows me to inwardly detach from my own processes, where I can observe them with objectivity. When I examine my life, I realize that my beliefs continuously change over time. The faculty of formulating beliefs, or working hypotheses, was meant to serve as a frame of reference to help us navigate through life with integrity and purpose. As I gain ever more practical knowledge validated in the manifested world, my beliefs come closer to describing reality. Unfortunately, we mistakenly accept beliefs as reality, fearfully clinging to them as we would a life preserver.

So what, then, is Faith? Our limited, finite minds cannot directly perceive the All, or God. However, we can perceive “evidence of things unseen.” We can use our minds to intuit the Presence of the Eternal Creative Power. Just as we “know” Love by experiencing it—even though it is impossible to pick it up, or to perceive it with the physical senses—so we can “know” God. Since God must be the Essence of Every-thing, God is also my Essence. I can intuit that my relationship to God is akin to the relationship each individual cell has to my body as a whole: I am a microcosm within the Macrocosm.

Have you ever wondered why we are driven to search for our Source? Why we persist in grappling with questions that are beyond our ability to comprehend? These pursuits are evidence of Faith: the upwelling of an innate, non-rational “knowing” that there is far more to Life than meets the eye!

There persists the belief that a seeker must be saturated with the “right” set of beliefs in order to “produce” Faith. This brainwashing does produce “group-think,” a most formidable force capable of controlling fearful people, disempowering them by cultivating distrust in their own perceptions. In such a state we accept beliefs just because others share them—how could so many people be wrong? Even though 1000 people believe differently than I, my hard-won truth is not negated. In fact, society may be unconsciously waiting for those of us with the courage to step forward and declare that the Emperor is wearing no clothes. There is no need for fear, guilt or shame when letting go of beliefs that no longer serve one, that defy one’s maturing Common Sense, one’s deepening Understanding, one’s emerging Faith. Clearly, this is rather the mark of a growing, evolving Human Being.

Beliefs can actually block Faith. Many of us, unable to swallow the beliefs put forth by some churches, turned a “deaf ear” to the inner promptings of Faith, even declaring ourselves to be “atheists.” I experience Indwelling Faith whenever the Mind attains stillness and the Heart opens, even if only for a moment. Externally acquired beliefs change; Indwelling Faith endures. Faith informs me that I will come to know who I am by finding God within.

Willing Power
Copyright © September 2005 Heart Links / All Rights Reserved

When I registered for my first psychology class in college, I was desperately searching for the secret to acquiring “will power.” I was thoroughly enmeshed in a relationship with a fellow student who had made it clear to me that if I wanted to continue to be his girlfriend—really, his “trophy”—I had to lose at least 15 pounds. But losing weight turned out to be far more difficult than simply deciding on a diet. To my horror and dismay, my body and psyche immediately revolted when they figured out what was in store for them! My happiness was now on the line. I was convinced that will power and following a strict diet was the only way to achieve the thin body my boyfriend desired. I came to believe that my self-worth—and my supply of love—depended on success.

You can guess the next chapter of this story. I quickly became caught in the trap of “yo-yo” dieting. Cycle after cycle of pumping myself up with visions of an attractive, thin body—grimly resolving to go on yet another restricted diet—invariably backsliding into an out-of-control binge shortly afterwards—feeling mortified by guilt and shame—sinking into long periods of numbness and depression—only to scrape myself up off the floor to slog through the cycle all over again, continuing long after my relationship with that young man had ended.

Fortuitously, in the midst of one of those cycles, I became acquainted with and joined a community of seekers practicing the Gurdjieff method of spiritual transformation. I began to learn a spiritual psychology that emphatically declared that, as he is, Man cannot Do. Man, the product of social conditioning, has no independent Will, no unified Individuality, and only limited Consciousness. With such a Man, Life drives him—not the other way around.

This thought-provoking idea at least provided me with an explanation of sorts for my seeming lack of will power. But the finality and starkness of the statement, “Man cannot Do,” didn’t set well with my hypersensitive personality. Besides, the Gurdjieff system was said to be very slow working and oriented to long-term results. I was convinced I didn’t have that kind of time to invest. I was convinced that my life depended on somehow manipulating will power into being NOW—if I only knew the secret! I continued to scour various teachings and self-help books for just such a secret, but of course, to no avail.

Finally, after ten grueling years of trying to control my weight through frantic dieting, I had to concede that all I had to show for all the pain and suffering was a net gain of five pounds over where I had started. At long last, some tenacious part of me was willing to give up this torturous pursuit. Perhaps I did have time to try the slow way after all—what could I possibly lose after such a devastating defeat?

I took stock of everything I had learned in the Gurdjieff teaching for some guiding principles. I had learned that cycles are a manifestation of universal laws at work. The wild swings between dieting and binging had the hallmarks of what Gurdjieff called the “pendulum effect,” reminiscent of “what goes up, must come down,” or “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” I formed the intention to study all aspects of these laws in order to better understand my plight.

By this time, I had also begun practicing the basic principles of spiritual psychology through participation in the Gurdjieff community’s activities and study groups. I became aware that my desire to lose weight was exclusively motivated by the conditioned self, or ego, with its obsession with image and addiction to the approval of others. Just the act of making an inner separation from these powerful impulses and circular thought processes, witnessing them as the workings of my human machine, was evidence of a significant internal shift of consciousness that had come about in me. My ego still believed it was the center of the universe, still believed it possessed great “will power.” But now “I” knew better. I came to recognize my utter ordinariness, that I was just another grain of sand, virtually indistinguishable from all the others on the beach of humanity. Such a realization of one’s nothingness is said to be the beginning of the Way. Certainly it was only after exhausting the limited resources of my ordinary self that I was finally “willing” to open to receive direction from my Higher Self within. I had discovered “willing power.”

Guided by the intuitions received through this new openness, I began a slow, deliberate path of restoring balance. I let go of any notion of attempting to adhere to ”diets” with their endless rules and lists of “okay” and “no-no” foods that continued to preoccupy my mind. For a time I had to observe, with forbearance, the swinging of the pendulum back in the opposite direction of constricted food intake. Feelings of anxiety desperately tried to convince me that I had to quickly regain “control” or I’d surely turn into a circus fat lady—and how would I ever get love then? I held onto my conviction that it was precisely this grandiose delusion of being “in control” that had pushed me so far out of balance in the first place. Slowly, over two years’ time, the pendulums began to lose momentum until finally my body established a new equilibrium of moderation. The old obsessions at last subsided so that other matters could now enter into the field of my attention, and even take priority. What a relief!

During this period of willingness to listen to the promptings of intuition, I had to make a conscious effort to turn away from old associations triggered in my mind about food and health that I’d picked up over the years so that I could directly experience food as if for the first time. Perhaps it truly was the first time! I found myself giving a great deal more attention to the act of eating food. I noticed the energy and vibration of food, how the degree of care during its preparation affected food. I noticed the effects of different foods on my body while eating, how my body felt afterward, and the cumulative effects over time. My body became more sensitive to the degree of Life force present in fresh vegetables, fruits and grains compared to processed foods. My body informed me that this Life force was also a most important “food” in itself. Never were my body’s or psyche’s favorite ”junk” foods totally eliminated. I did not have the “will power” to enforce any such restrictions. But my “willing power” guided me to very gently, minutely adjust the proportions, so that after a few more years had passed in this way, my diet had changed significantly. Also along the way, as a totally unexpected by-product, my body quite naturally dropped some unnecessary pounds. My aim had truly shifted from “losing weight,” motivated by fear and vanity, to “restoring and maintaining health and well-being,” motivated by a growing love for myself.

Some twenty-five years have now passed, and all the while I have applied this same approach in other areas of my life. I now regularly start my days with a meditation practice. I enjoy a daily thirty-minute walk. I stretch and flex my body’s muscles and joints using Yoga postures. I take time for an evening period of journaling and reflection. I practice patience, respect and kindness with others. Each of these endeavors were woven into the fabric of my life one strand at a time over many years. As I reflect on my life now, I realize that by outward appearances the changes seem so inconsequential, so ordinary as to be hardly worth mentioning. There is nothing about my life that sets me apart in a crowd in any way. But from my internal perspective, these changes are “extra-ordinary.”

The story would not be complete without mentioning the psychological changes in my psyche as I continued to apply the universal spiritual truths to my life. I discovered that until I was “willing” to give up the belief that I needed love from outside myself in order to thrive, I was unable to experience the Indwelling Love already flowing within me. I discovered that, completely independent of the approval of others, this Love bubbles up from within, nourishing me with unconditional acceptance and patience with my humanness. I realized that in my youth I had mistaken the ego’s desire for external approval for the Heart’s desire for Love. As I continue to decondition from mistaken beliefs, I find that the quality of my life has also changed, from persistent bouts of moodiness and depression, to bursts of joy and contentment with the simple life. All thanks to Willing Power.

Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born approximately 1872 (some sources say 1866) in Alexandropol, the Caucasus region of what is now Russia. His father was Greek, while his mother was of Armenian descent. His father was an Ashokh, a lineage of bard priests. As a part of his training, his father had memorized the entire Gilgamesh epic poem, which was transmitted to him in its entirety orally. The young Gurdjieff listened to his father recite portions of this epic throughout his growing years. Tutored by the dean of the Russian military cathedral in academic studies, Gurdjieff prepared for the vocations of physician and priest. None of these studies gave him the answers to questions that burned within his heart. In addition, he had witnessed marvels for which he could not rationally explain.

Around this time, Babylon was first being excavated by archaeologists. Cuneiform tablets carved with the epic poem of Gilgamesh, dated around 2,000 BC, were found among the ruins. Gurdjieff read excerpts from the translation published in a local newspaper and was astonished to realize that, word-for-word, it was nearly identical to what his father had recited to him as a child. For over 4,000 years, this epic had been preserved intact through the oral tradition of these bard priests (who, incidentally, are no longer to be found). What was the truth behind the myth? What civilization gave birth to this great legend? Gurdjieff’s thirst to understand the origins and meaning of life and humanity’s place in the scheme of the universe drove him to leave his homeland in search of hidden knowledge.

Gurdjieff’s Search

Gurdjieff knew that in remote regions of Asia there were monasteries of different orders reputed to preserve the knowledge he was seeking. Reasoning that Babylon, known for its ancient ruins, might be the birthplace of civilization, Gurdjieff set out in that direction. Along the way, through a series of events more fully described in his book, Meetings with Remarkable Men, Gurdjieff happened upon an Armenian priest who produced before his amazed eyes a well-preserved parchment showing a map of “pre-sand Egypt,” a time when the region was dotted with bodies of water and covered with lush vegetation. On that map of pre-sand Egypt was the distinct image of the Sphinx. To fully appreciate Gurdjieff’s amazement, consider that the last time Egypt had that much water was, at the earliest, 7500 BC! This lead Gurdjieff to believe that the origins of civilization must be in Egypt rather than Babylon, and so he immediately changed course.

Gurdjieff and a few comrades lived among the ruins from Giza to Thebes and Edfu, learning to decipher some of the hieroglyphs they found on the walls of ruins. One story told of the “7 sages” that came to ancient Egypt and founded the society that built the great temples. The sages had arrived on a solar barq from the sunken continent of Atlantis. In the Gilgamesh epic, there are similar stories of the arrival of emissaries of an ancient spiritual culture. There is considerable corroborating evidence that Egyptian civilization, among others, was “seeded” in this way, rather than “evolving” as academia claims. However, Egypt suffered from years of Islamic and Christian invasions, so that eventually Egyptian language and the inner meaning of its spirituality ceased to be practiced. Having derived all he could from the ruins, Gurdjieff returned to the Middle East to continue his search.

For many years Gurdjieff traveled throughout Eurasia in the capacity of a Russian spy. The early 1900s were a time of great political upheaval, so this occupation afforded him both income and passage through borders that would otherwise have been impossible. It also cost him three near-death encounters with “stray bullets.” Eventually he made his way to Tibet, where he studied with the Rinpoches of Tibetan Buddhism. During this period, he says he acquired the ability to “accumulate life force sufficient to kill a yak at a distance.” Later he would use this ability to channel life force for healing human ailments.

For many years Gurdjieff received training from several orders of Dervishes, where he learned craftsmanship and submission to God’s Will. He eventually merited to be discovered by a secret brotherhood, and was taken—blindfolded through the mountain passes—to a hidden monastery in the Hindu Kush. There he endured intensive, specially arranged conditions for the purpose of transforming the ego from enemy to ally.

In 1915, Gurdjieff began his mission to teach in Russia, at first holding lectures and instructing pupils in Sacred Dance. He was forced to flee to France to escape the Bolshevik revolution. In 1922, he founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, which he operated until 1933. At the institute, he incorporated the intensive methods he had learned in the monasteries, but adapted for Europeans.

Upon arriving at the institute, all pupils understood that they were there for one purpose: to free themselves from the slavery of egotism. They voluntarily agreed to the intensive conditions, which included hard physical labor by day, long hours of lectures and practicing the Sacred Dances by night. Time allotted for sleep was a bare minimum. Through these labors, one learned to make “super efforts,” how to tap hidden reserves of energy and thereby also to access higher states of consciousness. Gurdjieff’s institute attracted many of the intelligentia of the times. Several prominent people gave up their prestigious careers to live at the Institute and work on their inner being.

In 1924, Gurdjieff visited America, giving lectures and demonstrations of his Sacred Dances in New York, hoping to establish a branch of his institute there. But in 1925, he was involved in a near-fatal automobile collision, from which his physicians did not expect him to recover. The nature of his teaching entirely changed after that event. His recuperation was long and never complete. During that period he closed the Institute and instead dedicated himself to writing and rewriting his books. In between periods of writing, he taught solely over the dinner table, establishing elaborate teaching rituals including a “Toast to the Idiots” (a true ‘idiot” is one who knows that he does not know). He died in 1949, shortly after his own epic myth, All & Everything: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, was set for publication.

Gurdjieff’s Ideas

Gurdjieff was a true “Opener of the Way”when he adapted for everyday modern life the fundamental practices of the ancient esoteric traditions he discovered throughout the Middle East during his travels. Drawing from the common roots of these seemingly diverse traditions, he developed a system of Ideas and Methods designed to totally, yet harmoniously, transform the whole Human Being.

Rather than accepting the ideas at face value, Gurdjieff demanded that his followers verify everything for themselves through their actual experience. Information on the spiritual path is useless, he declared, unless applied to one’s life—even harmful if its accumulation substituted for action. Gurdjieff would even go so far as to deliberately appear slovenly, puffing on cigars and belching, so that people would be shocked into evaluating the validity and worth of his ideas on their own merit rather than passively swallowing everything whole just because he was a celebrity. (For such scenes he earned the title “rascal sage.”)

Gurdjieff emphatically stated, modern arrogant beliefs to the contrary, that ancient societies not only were not “primitive,” they represented the pinnacle of human spiritual attainment on earth. Gurdjieff states that along with the fall of Atlantis, the collective psyche of humankind began to degenerate, slowly at first, then accelerating with each succeeding generation. Correspondingly, our egotism and arrogance have continued to grow, and now we arrogantly consider ourselves to be the pinnacle. As the sheer number of people increases, the dilution of human essence also increases, furthering our disintegration. We find ourselves spiritually bereft and in poverty, while dreaming we are wealthy beyond measure. We are asleep to our true potential of Consciousness, Individuality and Will, fantastically dreaming that we already possess these attributes.

The first task, then, is to decondition and depolarize the Mind to restore receptivity, natural inquisitiveness, and impartiality. Through the development of an “inner room” from which we can objectively observe ourselves, we learn to discern and detach from automatic reactions so that we may instead respond to life in alignment with the Higher Self. Simultaneously, we begin the task of reconditioning by learning a system of Ideas that, when grasped, totally transforms one’s outer and inner world view, effecting healing and clarity of perception. The ego is dethroned as the grandiose “center” of the universe as we gradually learn to view ourselves in perspective: as minuscule yet integral parts of the awe-inspiring Oneness. We lose our “taste” for dramatizing our everyday life experiences, slowing the drain of vital energies, until we finally begin to accumulate energy. The long process of awakening and opening the Heart begins as we gently—but persistently—apply these Ideas to our lives, much like tuning a drum all around in tiny increments. We learn to work in intelligent cooperation with one another toward the good of the Whole. As we practice relating to others with respect and compassion, we experience the synergy of Love as the fruits of these efforts. The ultimate aim is to attain communion with our own Higher Self, our spark of the Divine within.

PRACTICES

Group Work
Contemporary Gurdjieff Study Groups meet weekly for interactive discussion that develops the fundamental principles upon which all other activities depend. In an atmosphere of mutual respect, group members share questions, observations and experiences that arise as a result of work on the weekly focus, or as a result of spontaneously applying a principle to a life situation. Through dialog, each person is encouraged to arrive at their own understanding of how the principles apply to their individual character and life circumstances.

Community Work
We can have inspiring discussions while sitting calmly in a circle in the peace of the sanctuary. But what happens to our highest aspirations for compassion and respect when we work elbow to elbow with one another? We quickly find to our dismay that the Automaton within us still has the power. Using community work as our living laboratory, we apply what we learn in our studies and discussions while carrying out practical tasks. We share with one another our struggles and insights over a mid-day meal.

Centering Exercise
Noting the difficulties that Westerners encounter attempting to meditate, Gurdjieff developed a series of centering exercises that gently lead our restless minds to stillness. A daily practice of centering exercise is encouraged. Weekly group practices provide ongoing training in this approach, which precede the community workdays.

Movements / Sacred Dance
Gurdjieff was inspired by the ancient rituals, music and dance, chanting and prayer practiced in monasteries throughout the Middle East. He choreographed a series of preparatory Movements and stylized Sacred Dances designed for Western bodies. The preparatory Movements and exercises stretch and build the attention, the key to transformation. We learn to engage body, feeling and mind together, harmoniously. The Sacred Dances tell a story or represent an aspect of human potential or a cosmic truth, which evoke a sense of the sacred and lead to inner stillness.