Saturday, October 15, 2005
FOUND ANOTHER GURDJIEFFIAN CHURCH
This one is called the Ancient Traditions Community Church, and their website is copyrighted by Appalachian State Unniversity.
The church practices the Gurdjieff Work which includes movements and sacred dance.
The calendar of events includes such activities as a Fall Equinox Ceremony, Poems of Ecstacy, Gurdjieff Centering Exercise (Guided), ministerial training that covers history and study of Old Testament Writings from a New Thought perspective. The Introductory Class teaches
How to discern faith from belief; truth from dogma? De-condition from 2000 years of fear and authoritarian control. Find out the deeper meanings of the original Greek words used in the Bible. Explore the wisdom and methods of the early desert Fathers and Mothers.
My own particular favorite class in the ministerial training is the Willing Power class:
By letting go of my illusion of being "in control" I becoming (sic) "willing" to receive guidance from my indwelling Presence within.
Think about that in the context of de-conditioning "from 2000 years of fear and authoritarian control" which I presume means the Roman Catholic Church.
The class titled Gurdjieff: Opener of the Way uses the
methods and principles of Eastern Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, and Mevlevi Sufism adapted for modern urban life. Includes spiritual psychology and cosmology. Answers the question: how does one learn to live what Jesus (Buddha, whomever) taught?
There are also drumming circles, and sacred geometry classes are planned for the future.
The Ancient Traditions page tells us that
We fight one another, then, over dogma, over our differing beliefs, forgetting that beliefs are siimply the human mind's best attempt at any given moment in time to describe this awesome, stupendous Universe and the Unspeakable Source of it All, ("God" for short), and our purpose within it. The ancient traditions all teach the opposite of attempting to nail things down: to Be in Question, always. The human mind may need to formulate "working premises" along the way, but these need to grow and change with every new insight, every new discovery, to which we are lead by our questions.
Is this what is more commonly known in Catholic circles as "development of doctrine"? I tend to see it as just the opposite of absolute truth.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
