MEDITATION
Each traditional spiritual teaching offers a particular form of Meditation that supports its fundamental tenets while using practices and methods that are shared by other practitioners.
Meditation is a shared practice in Gurdjieff groups and, while emphasizing the importance of seeing ourselves as we are in the moment, is always an exploration into the deeper levels of Being.
“If a person were to stop all his outer and inner movements at a given moment in order to see what is acting in him, he would nearly always feel a tendency which has about it something narrow, something heavy, something with a negative aspect that tends to be against, to be egoistic. All that is usually going on unseen. But if he tries to awaken to what is going on in himself, to be sincere, he will be able to witness, in addition to what could be called the “coarse” life in him, another life of another quality–much subtler, much higher, lighter–that is also part of himself." Pauline de Dampierre
Guided meditation by William Segal
"There is a middle ground, a basic Reality embracing self
and Self. It may be called my true nature. To discover what
prevents me from the experience of it, I have only to look
at myself, just as I am.
It is so simple.
At this moment, what is my state?
I let my attention embrace the whole of myself, from the
top of the head through the torso, solar plexus, the entire
structure.
I am very still in the body. I follow the breath. I watch
the movements of thoughts and associations. The feelings
become quiet, and the activity in the head diminishes. I
am more. I perceive the whole of my world, just as it is.
I remain very still, refusing the mind’s inclinations to reach
for anything.
Thoughts and feelings come and go like floating clouds.
They are not me.
The experience is at one and the same time, both active
and passive. Through sensation of the body, I perceive that
I am. Yet, I do not know who or what I am. I am witness to
my existence.
I am aware of a feeling which suffuses the interior of myself.
It is a choiceless, an accepting awareness. With it comes a
sensation that extends to and envelopes all the parts of the
body. I am very still, relating to the silence that is both
inside and outside.
Nothing is lacking at this moment."