Prem Martyn Opines:
Doing the Gurdjieff movements in Nisarga
was and is a technical bind,
a choral liability,
a gordian knot,
an exercise in futility, a realisation of defeat, a surrender to due diligence without result, unrewarding practice, mutual support, contrition, vulnerability, a deepening sense of separation ,and unity, moments of sublime gratitude, insight beyond the already known that arises from and permeates the heart, actual love chest pain , two left feet, hands that can’t be trained to follow deliberately confusing patterns, legs that cant be told what to do except follow, the rising unity of the sung voice, the sacred origins of do re mi , dogged persistence, technical instruction stripped of phatic pleasantries, constant failure, occasional success, fear, frustration, watching, stopping, breathing, present attention, relief…
there are so many of these one word aphorisms – ‘pithy observations that reveal a general truth’
but the movements are rewarding…like any deliberate effort must be ( i don’t ski, mountain climb, or do algebra so comparisons are limited )…
but more than that…
for me it was bonding and fun… absurd ridiculous fun… made possible by my old friend Amiyo and her husband Chetan… They are at it right now.. as I type, in another corner of Europe with friends , doing the Work…
The music is very touching, just of itself, composed by Gurdjieff and used for all the movements
In moments the tears, music, movements, the friends, the heart , the support implicit, Osho, Gurdjieff, …all fuse…wonderfully…
If you like to try the impossible without result attachment..have a go…
its the legacy Osho requested Amiyo to promote…through sacred movement…
heres some music to set the mood.. but its not the one we moved to, that I don’t have.. just in my body-mind memory..best place for tunes…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wcGWR3ndQ
And if you want a storytelling read…try
Damascus Nights…
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/507036.Damascus_Nights…
and dont forget the
http://www.tracscotland.org/festivals/scottish-international-storytelling-festival
love
Martyn,
What about the cost factor? As I have heard, prices in Nisarga are three times less than in Resort.
As a westerner, what is your impression?
Shantam,
Actually if you stay on the internet, it’s even cheaper.
I have recently done post-hypnotic tantra training and a full Lithuanian folk festival, using just a series of youtube downloads, two Skype calls and standing in a 40 litre bag of wet peat (Lithuania is marshy ) whilst the whirling group was conducted in the confines of my garden, using cardboard prints of my friends stuck on balloons, and a fan.
Shantam, the trick is in not spending…it is in getting other people to pay you for your services rendered.
Btw, I’ve met some very interesting ways in which people have income, move around the planet, or by boat, without a penny, young, then invent businesses, live in far off lands, make a 100,000 dollars then give it all away to a friend in need and go back to zero, are artistic, creative, connected, and either contribute or are rewarded by their efforts, friendships and adventures. I find people’s creativity, inventiveness, lines of work, the happen-chance coincidental positive support from all sorts of directions, the way people meet, sponsor each other and then share fascinating life stories which just happened to make connections out of nothing…remarkable. Inspiring. I’ve met so many nationalities these last few months…the planet really is a playground.
And btw, there is so much happening all around the place, that now being 56…I sometimes wish time wasn’t so limited to…well, you know…time plays its tricks on the mind…looking forward, back…less time day by day…
The Spanish say…
Between what I think, what I mean to say what I think, what I say, what you want to hear, what you hear, what you think you understand, what I understand, there are nine possibilities not understood:
“Entre lo que pienso,lo que quiero decir, lo que creo decir, lo que digo, lo que quieres oír, lo que oyes, lo que crees entender, lo que entiendes, existen nueve posibilidades de no entenderse”.
And now for a musical interlude…Praful, who delighted us for three days in the Mallorca meditation fest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9jqz3SeRM&list=RDIiz574bnDco&index=5
I don’t know the answer to how to crack the money questions and opportunities and limitations of cost in wanting to ride the networks of possibilities, places etc. Maybe someone else can give advice to you on that area, if that’s an issue.
P.S:
Have you thought of getting sponsored for staying up and tapping away at the keyboard? You are an internet sensation with the type of joined-up thinking skills even Donald Trump would be jealous of having.
Night, night…tap, tap….
No, I don’t want to be sponsored by anyone, not even crowd funding.
There are lives after lives…why not postpone many wishes, dreams and visions for the future when grass grows without any Monsanto seeds?
“Shantam, the trick is in not spending…it is in getting other people to pay you for your services rendered.”(Prem Martyn)
You speak out of experience here, don´t you, Prem Martyn?
Loved the music you shared, don´t know what you take otherwise for my taking any other of the offers of a raving SN reporter though, who is getting into his stride again.
Madhu
P.S:
Loved the title re the Scottish Storyteller 2016 year Event… dreaming something good into life…and how wonderful and romantic is that in precarious times…Cynics, I guess, hopefully won´t contribute there.
Marty, yesterday when I saw your post on the caravanserai page and couldn’t find it here, I thought to myself, moderators didn’t like it perhaps; now this is a pleasant surprise to see it as a main thread.
These days, anything which costs money on the net is a no-no for me; shall try to find a free pdf if possible. Thanks for the music though.
Here is the website of Osho Nisarga:
http://www.oshonisarga.com/
And the website of Amiyo, who conducts the movements:
http://gurdjieff-dances.com/eng/amiyo-devienne/
I respect this post for the same reason that Lokesh often gives. It shows the spirit of creativity and exploration is alive in present time, and is written about something that is happening now for Prem Martyn.
That is not to denigrate history, it is a form of simplistic thinking that the past cannot come alive in the present, or that lessons from the past should not have their place in the present. Anything less is a form of, all too common, foolishness.
Dear All,
I didn’t imagine this would end up as a full-blooded post. Blimey… It’s like being shoved on stage at the last minute and told to entertain the troops.
Actually, of course, there was plenty of that in Nisarga too. Half-way through my two weeks of attempting to impersonate Swami Terence Stamp (English actor and Lao Tsu resident) in his ‘Meetings with Remarkable Men’ (Gurdjieff film – and a rubbish one, apart from the dances, directed by that scion of British theatre and luminary in the Gurdjieff legacy world, Peter Brook, a man guaranteed to be more effective than that popular, anti-insomniac, late-night linctus, ‘Snoozy-Snoozy-Snooze’)…
Oh, yes…where was I?
Er, uhm, ahh…Yes, of course, sacred dancing…Well, there was sacred cabaret too…and sacred hysterics…and sacred tea breaks…and sacred long-night beedie-sucking and choking breaks, spent inhaling…the moon and wondering out-loud amongst fellow visitors from planet GG what in heaven’s name was being transformed by the successive day’s labours…and reaching the conclusive evidence that it was…the…ah…you know, the…uhmmmm…”Oh, look at the moon”…”that’s nice”….ermm…”ahhhhh”, “ohhhhh….”
Well, as Osho had personally left me in charge of myself, as all Swamis and Mas likely also know for themselves by now, it would not have been gracious of me to be involved with rubber-stamping Gurdjieff-dancing without a decent dollop of Osho-infused merry-making.
So yes, we messed…Gurdjieffians take note, we did not drink ourselves into oblivion. Which reminds me, Gurdjieff’s daughter, Dushka, published a cook- book some years back, which I bizarrely, by chance, espied in some incense-laden bookshop somewhere…which I mentioned to Amiyo, who had indeed met her, of course. (Note to self: Small world of synchronicity to be seized, surely).
As luck would have it, of course, all of this made absolute sense to Chetan, who, as a fully-trained Russian opera-singer, ensured that during these riotous events we (about thirty vermilion-robed seekers, in corpo-robus flagrante, all joined in with a rewritten version of Bizet’s inflaming chorus, ‘Le Torreador’, accompanied by the Buddha Hall/ Nisarga Mandir sound system and soundtrack. Sort of a very large karaoke and performance, with singalong lyrics in the British pantomime style.
You’ll forgive me conjoining the two Amiyo/Chetan groups here as we were together for a total of four weeks, moving from GG dancing to a looser dance group. So yes, there was performing and also its more common cousin, under-performing, and also moments of downright embarrassment to all things seekerish, the moments where my three gold-star badge of ‘I’ve sat through Osho video discourses, matey’ was looking decidedly rusty as GG’s work becomes (stay in the present) Osho’s play.
You know all of this goes to show that (and you’ll have guessed I’ve missed out three chapters from my forthcoming book entitled ‘Me, Bizet, Nijinsky, Diaghilev, Les Ballets Russes, Fontainebleau, T.S. Eliot, Maurice Chevalieff and how to sing-a-long-a-GG’)…
…it all goes to show that if you need some healing, if you need some lush provincial sedate hang-out, if you can handle putting on robes again (de rigeur) and if you missed any Osho discourses and moreover, informing fellows and fellowesses that it is Sannyas News where all this can be enjoyed from the privacy of a keyhole-shaped laptop, as in a scene from a Charlie Chaplin movie, then you too might seek to go, or even go to seek there.
But remember, please spell out the address of this august organ, as when spoken it is easily confused. In fact, one sannyasin adamantly confirmed that it was read by his colleague doctors at the local university training hospital. “Yes, yes, yes”,he said fervently when we talked of Osho’s printed legacy, “it is an amazing read, all the latest on rhinoplastic operations and acute nasal sinusopathies.”
Sometimes it’s essential to be reading from the same page, when sharing moments.
TTFN-SN
P.S:
Just found this – strange how the net works…
Singing words may well expand the experience…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hnKz9rlna4
NOTE:
The link won’t work from here (for me) although it was fine earlier. I suspect trolls who have attacked my websites elsewhere and right wingers around the net…
Just look for ‘Gurdjieff’s Daughter’ on youtube, by Laura Marling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hnKz9rlna4
MOD:
IT’S OK, Martyn, IT WAS AN ADMIN ERROR AT SN HQ! ORIGINAL LINK NOW RESTORED.
After listening to this song I felt how some of our fathers & mothers are always there to remind us to be always alert, in their own way.
Thank you, Martyn, this song re-showed me a direction through his book, ‘Life is real only then when I am’, again leading to no direction!
Blimey, Kavita…You got all that?
Well, gulp, goshhh…I’m a bit gobsmacked. I’m also surprised I never heard of her even though she was the Brit Best Female Artist award winner in 2011.
Thanks for the contribution and the positive vibes.
x M
M, when I heard & saw this singer for the first time, I guessed this could not be G’s daughter so I then searched a bit.
I enjoy reading these days and I am reminded of a Swami Vishwas in the early 1990s, who owned a place and rented it out to sannyasins. He had named it White House, it was the area which is known as Indian Village in Koregaon Park.
He was a Gurdjieff devotee to the core, he even dressed like him, he had a lovely huge library which he shared with friends. My bf was also a great G devotee, and I too got a lil carried away, since we both enjoyed reading together.
x K
Martyn, in your own lucid style, please tell about the economics and business model of Nisarga.
Only if you think it is not revealing the state secrets.
“Well, as Osho had personally left me in charge of myself, as all Swamis and Mas likely also know for themselves by now, it would not have been gracious of me to be involved with rubber-stamping Gurdjieff-dancing without a decent dollop of Osho-infused merry-making.”(Prem Martyn)
Dear You,
Thank you for your report here, Prem Martyn, I also take it “without a decent dollop” and wish you very well, to integrate all you´ve experienced.
Enjoyed very much to hear about the garden and that a few seeds grew up to fabulous flowers. Amiyo and her work is one of them.
And you are so right, declaring: “Sometimes it’s essential to be reading from the same page, when sharing moments.”
Btw, Gurdijeff left with his beloveds about six children…round about, and who knows? It just happened.
With love,
Madhu
P.S:
Taken from an interview Amiyo gave to somebody in a DAO centre – and I loved to read the long interview too, as although I didn´t attend one of her groups I´ve been a watcher of the dances and that made something inside me!
Very pleased, Prem Martyn, that your report reminds me…and maybe such an interview belongs to the ‘SN-book’ too?
“The movements nourish our essence, they are not meant to serve our Ego. At first it seems like everybody does the same but actually every dancer is strongly responsible and has very specific role in his position, in his sequence, in his displacement and has to apply a balanced attention between himself and the world around him.
Gurdjieff used to say that the movements are not an art, they are a science, and they are an Objective science. Gurdjieff wanted a certain effect to be manifested through the Movements and he based his work on the science of archetypes: for example the archetype of compassion, or courage, gratitude, or peace, or joy, or nostalgia. He created the movements with this idea to embody a certain archetype on earth.
This effect happens of course in the dancer himself but also happens on the public watching the dance. So in that sense it’s an Objective science. The Movements are at the service of consciousness, not at the service of ego and personality.”
(Amiyo)
Excellent research there, Madhu.
I have been told…
Amiyo trained first as a scientist in Geology – rocks and that sort of thing, and performing since childhood with her parents in the community. So, it’s a perfect fusion of her love of dance and structured symbolic archetype, together, through Osho, Gurdjieff, Music and Dance.
I shouldn’t want to write too much on anyone else’s behalf online, as particularly I also, privately, remain grateful to her over all these years.
I think it’s very useful to reflect on substantial qualities and to sponsor Osho’s legacy from our own Osho-ness as we still find it. My understanding is that the world and my world benefits, still.
I can confirm the overall intent and specific effect of what Amiyo describes.
Possibly, as in any practice, one has the impression that all the sweat and sweet tears involved are a ‘quickening’ of the basic material.
The show goes on. It’s implicit.
I trust that these contributions expand and support others’ investigations. It was not an intention of mine to post as a main topic (it was the SN crew, as Kavita points out), but it would be churlish of me to walk away from writing replies, even though I don’t know how or what will be (as the Spanish saying goes) understood.
Love.
Madhu…
…And thank you for enjoying!
Great writing from Martyn in both the article and his comment to Shantam, whose response came across as pretty flakey. Most inspirational.
I am currently fixed on Ibiza but Martyn’s report makes me look forward to the day when I am once more cast in the role of travelling man. Happy trails, Martyn.
It is true, Lokesh. My response was not up to the mark.
“I am currently fixed on Ibiza but Martyn’s report makes me look forward to the day when I am once more cast in the role of travelling man.”
I can so relate to this; yes, happy trails to all of us who still have the energy to do that once again.
PM,
You are getting better and better, if this is still possible! It is a delight to read your posts and I always become enriched with all your information. You are a giver! I don’t know how you manage it all.
Anyway, please, always come back, don’t leave SN for too long.
All the best for the next project, and don’t forget us. XXX
Thanks a bunch, Tan,
It’s a pleasure.
So is listening to Lindisfarne…
Lindisfarne ~ Meet Me On The Corner – Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYPBF4s8m_Y
Which is my way of saying thanks and leaving people dreams…
Osho style….
Be-loved,
M
And now for our caller on the line, this one from 1971…
Run for Home (Lindisfarne):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIxRkdzjCA