What's Happening In IDHHB Workshops

Kelly Rivera on the Prayer Absolute Workshop:

The Prayer Absolute Workshop which became the Objective Prayer workshop midway into it was one of the most pivotal events I've participated in here at the Institute. After nearly three decades filled with extraordinariness, that's saying a lot, even with just words as a medium of expression. As facilitator, I had done much preparation that included coordinating with a cadre of staff members to refine the details of the workshop's contents. As our well-seasoned group planned, there was an unstated awareness that at any point our carefully-crafted masterpiece might have to take a back seat to an even craftier master.

The work necessity that produced this workshop and our obligation combined to launch us all to a place of service. Each movement, everything that occurred was perfect. My experience was one of residing in a highly impartial place with an open heart. Many questions held in the months prior to this workshop were answered and new ones were put into place. In this space of service there was wholeness and congruence that demonstrated the force of the Work is greatly beyond the realm of any individual, yet addresses the individual with profound intimacy. E.J. has always said that everyone in a group is needed and vital, but no one is irreplaceable. Work is the remedy for one who is a worker.

We all walked away with many valuable impressions - it was amazing, to put it in the term most commonly used to describe the event. I am still processing as it continues to unfold. In the Tao te Ching is said "In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added, in the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped. "I learned a deep lesson about this.

My seasoned eyes could see that the data around the subject of Objective Prayer needed revising. The form at one time presented had taken on an emphasis that left little room for a true and vital content reflective of the time, place and people. Objective Prayer is highly individual, as is anything of a mystical nature. But while experience in the realm had seasoned my eyes and given me some knowledge, it was the master's hand that seized the moment's opportunity to produce a living artifact of the thing being conveyed for all to behold. The demonstration gave data of what is required to make prayer in one's own uniquely intimate way. The emphasis on form was removed in the process, thus providing fertile ground for practice.

You will be able to see for yourself soon enough. Angela Sarkisyan, an extraordinary photographer/videographer, with other members of the Fourth Way L.A. group, did an incredible job of capturing the entire weekend. Angela will soon be producing DVDs of the event that will no doubt offer the viewer a genuine taste of the weekend's potent magic.

Gurdjieff evidently gave his daughter a lot of really great advice. Two pieces stand out here - one, to stop defining herself, and two, never speak of oneself without considering that one might change. This advice seems especially pertinent here as I reflect on my unfolding impressions of this workshop. The call sounded during its course now has a response, which is the work that is ongoing toward more prayer. This work is not easy, and there is much transition. It is easy to remember that I am refining an identity that is indefinite.

However, one thing can be said clearly at this moment; knowledge and mastery bear a difference as does intelligence and soul. Mastery in this realm shows an ability to die well, to pour one's intelligent drop into the soul's ocean and be carried along, seeing with the eye of ocean, as Rumi would say. This is a school that resembles a cluster of fish more than a classroom. Praise to the school, the ocean, and the vast silence from which they spring.