What we’re about
Welcome to the Meditation Group of Alexandria Meet-Up. Known by various names and forms "meditation" has a central place in spiritual search and practice. Fundamentally it is a work with attention.
These meet ups are organized by members of the Gurdjieff Society of Washington. The Gurdjieff Society of Washington was founded in 1949 by longtime students who share a direct lineage to Mr. Gurdjieff and works with the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York. More at www.gswdc.org
The "Work" is a living oral teaching based on traditional methods of inner exploration shared in a group setting. It consists of meetings, the study of ideas, music, the movements, inner exercises, crafts, and practical work together in the work "house". Its aim is fully balanced self development.
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff was born in 1866 in the area of the "Silk Road", a meeting place of cultures and traditions, in what is now eastern Turkey. He was drawn to conduct a long spiritual search in remote parts of central Asia. After visiting monasteries, dervish groups and traditional teachers, he discovered a teaching belonging to what he called Ancient Knowledge. He spent the rest of his life sharing that teaching with the west. After opening branches of his institute in many cities he opened the "Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man" near Paris in 1922. He traveled to America a number of times and continued teaching until his death in 1949. His work has been faithfully maintained by his close pupils, and continues to grow.
"Man's possibilities are very great. You cannot even imagine a small part of what man is capable of attaining. But nothing can be attained in sleep."
G.I. Gurdjieff
"We are in a group because we need help to find a quality in ourselves, a state in which we can experience something real. We need higher influences that are inaccessible when we work alone with our ordinary means. Without the group we cannot come to the necessary intensity. The group can be a conduit for higher influences, ideas from a higher level of life. But we must be wholly present. We receive these ideas in the exact measure that we are present."
Jeanne de Salzmann, from The Reality of Being
Good source for informed information and essays:
Gurdjieff International Review: see: www.gurdjieff.org
The Gurdjieff Society maintains two properties for meetings and practical work, in Virginia and Maryland and may be contacted at 202 328 8581 or through www.gswdc.org
