“Stillness in Mouvement” – GURDJIEFF Sacred Dances workshop

Something is transmitted, through and beyond the Movements: A quality of silence, a wisdom that is both ancient and contemporary, a quiet clarity and a lively openness. Through this practice, we try to transmit what it means to be present and to radiate this quality in our daily life.

GURDJIEFF

Movements are an essential part of the teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff, an enlighted mystic of the 20th century. Gurdjieff created around 250 Movements or Dances, which some come from Sufi, Tibetan, Buddhist, Gnostic traditions, from Asia, Tibet, Egypt… Some movements were created by Gurdjieff himself on a music composed by Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann.

MOVEMENTS:

Movements in general are of incomparable beauty and uniqueness, each one being complete in itself.

Movements offer the opportunity to see ourselves in our greatest nakedness, and at the same time to lift ourselves out of the muck in which we might be immersed, opening doors to higher places within ourselves from which we can begin to live a more conscious life.

Movements involving our 3 centres have proven to be tools we can use against the downward movement of inertia. Some we can use to relax, some to come out of sadness or despondency, some to invigorate the courage to move forward, some to feel the wholeness and joy of life, and most of all some to feel that our being acts as an antenna through which a higher force can act.

Because the practice demands our full attention, it offers shelter from the worries and anxieties of ordinary life. The result is complete relaxation, even though the movements can be very active and tiring.

The effort of attention and presence leaves us with an inner accumulation of energy which, in turn, can serve our ability to cope with life’s difficulties without being too entangled in our emotions and thoughts.

Movements teach us to feel body parts and muscles, postures and body co-ordination that we have ignored until now.

They open our limited vocabulary of gestures to new combinations of limbs moving in unison or in opposite and totally different ways.

At the end of the class, we often feel a rush of energy, a sense of well-being, life pulsing in our muscles, a clear eye, an uplifted spirit and calmed emotions, provided we give ourselves totally to the movements, leaving aside the emotional highs and lows that we mistake for real emotions within us.

The movements awaken the body and the body in turn awakens the “I” in us that simply looks at what is happening inside and outside, giving us relative freedom from the constant external manifestations in which we have been so constantly involved, forgetting the inner dimension of our existence.

So when I find my mind wandering, when I am lost in inner discussions, in worries, in doubts, in concerns about people’s opinions, in desires, the practice engages my attention in such a way that it becomes impossible for me to wander very far away in mental flights, but I find a deep inner centre and a ground from which I can open myself to the outer world with more compassion, patience and silence.

FACILITATOR : Shruti Whittington  –  meditator  and  Gurdjieff  movements  certified  instructor

Workshop details will be coming soon

WHERE: 

OSHO meditation Centre in Foix, 09000 Occitanie, South-West France

WHEN:

From Friday 20th November at 4pm to Sunday 22nd November 2026 at 4pm

HOW MUCH:

The fee for the teaching is 180 EUR

FOOD AND ACCOMMODATION for two nights’ stay:

• Full board from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch in a shared room with 3 people, with private bathroom : 150 Euros
• For out-guests – all the meals 80 EUR, including service charges for 2 days

HOW TO GET HERE:

By train : There are excellent train connexions to Foix from Toulouse. Please call or send a text to arrange free pickup from the station.

By plane: The international airports of Toulouse and Carcassone are about an hour’s car journey away. There is a shuttle going from the airport to the train station Matabiau where you can take a train to Foix.

CONTACT AND BOOKINGS:

Leela  +33 (0) 7 80 30 53 05 or by email : leela@oshofrance.com