Our Group
The Denver Foundation
We are a school/spiritual community that offers practical information, skills, and support for inner growth, consciousness, an embodied presence, and the ability to be alive and awake within one’s life. Our practices come from the tradition Gurdjieff himself presented, passed through the forms of work he generated as well as through an oral tradition. The ideas of the teaching—fundamental concepts, teachings about energies, a cosmological perspective, a spiritual psychology— the ideas form a framework upon which our practical work is based. But it is through one’s own efforts and experience in the conditions our group creates, that understanding grows.
We do not have dogmas; no one makes a profit. The Fourth Way draws from the best of other traditional paths toward consciousness, spirituality, or presence, but also offers keys to other knowledge. While we hold weekly meetings, sittings, and movement classes, that work serves as preparation for working practically to transform our experiences and relationships in our everyday lives. But during these shared practices, we have found a deep meaning and real “help” for that which is hard to name and yet which insistently calls us to work, to open, to be more.
It is so precious to have others with whom to explore our questions. Our established group meets in weekly meetings. Group members share their observations and impressions from their work during the week. The meetings are also an opportunity to ask questions that have come up about obstacles or difficulties in our practice. Meetings are about an hour long. At times the group leader may share perspectives that are helpful. In addition, we have weekly Movements classes as part of more advanced group work.
There are many ways to work to develop attention and consciousness. The Gurdjieff Movements and Sacred Dances were offered to bring us more into balance, collect attention, and transmit knowledge that cannot be written or named. We also sit together in silent attention with some regularity, a different form of quiet inner work. Music is also a part of our tradition. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann created a repertoire of music both for the movements and for listening together--transmitting states and experiences needed for self-development that might otherwise remain inaccessible to most of us. Occasionally, we gather for a day or weekend of practical work together, maintaining our house, preparing and sharing meals, working on projects, doing movements, and again sharing our observations and experience.
We are in the process of reaching out to new people who may be attracted by these possibilities and offer occasional events to allow people to taste our work. If you are interested, if you too feel there is something more that is possible than this current life, please contact us.