The Gurdjieff teaching forms the spiritual foundation of our community, encouraging each of us to explore personal and spiritual growth in all its forms. Participation in the Gurdjieff work is not a requirement, but the shared goal of self development is a common thread that unites us all. At the Guild, we engage in crafts, daily tasks, and community activities with the purpose of learning, growing, and experimenting with what it means to be human. This shared journey towards self-discovery is what makes our community vibrant and transformative.
The message Gurdjieff brings is one of hope: That there is the real possibility of evolution and discovering what it means to truly be a human being. Our community reflects this hope through our daily practices and collective efforts to live meaningful lives.
Gurdjieff Teachings
“The work of Gurdjieff has many aspects. But through whatever form he expresses himself, his voice is heard as a call. He calls because he suffers from the inner chaos in which we live. He calls us to open our eyes. He asks us why we are here, what we wish for, what forces we obey. He asks us, above all, if we understand what we are. He wants us to bring everything back into question. And because he insists and his insistence compels us to answer, a relationship is created between him and ourselves which is an integral part of his work.”
Near the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, G. I. Gurdjieff, sensing the ongoing disintegration of world culture, went in search of “a powerful ancient stream of true knowledge of being” at the root of the world’s great traditions.
-Views From the Real World
Gurdjieff’s rich legacy of writings, movements or sacred dances, and music can be studied at the Rochester Folk Art Guild.
His teaching engages the intelligence of body and heart as well as mind. As one Guild potter said: “To make a beautiful pot, one needs to participate in a universal process of awakening the intelligence of the body and the hands.” The forces that shape a pot are the same forces that shape a person’s life. With the effort to attend to what one is doing in every moment, simple acts come to have inner meaning.
At the Guild, all share in community tasks such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, taking care of animals, building maintenance, and general upkeep. These daily chores, the discipline of the crafts, and practice of the music and movements not only provide a field for the study of attention, but also offer a model for transformation of materials, inner and outer.
