Occupy Your Body—Sense Always
“This work has service at its apex not its foundation.
At its foundation it has understanding what our situation really is.”—J.G. Bennett. Fallen Leaves. Private Collection, 1980.
“Tonight when we reached Hopeless Idiots, G was very solemn and after the Addition, spoke about ‘this small aim’ not to perish like a dog, and how everyone must have this. Everyone must have the wish ‘not be taxi,’ but to have real owner, not a succession of passengers. He gave us all the task of learning to distinguish between feeling and sensing*—when he sees that we do this task, and do it often, then he will be able to give us another subjective task.” — Elizabeth Bennett. Idiots in Paris p. 48.
download >> The Distinction Between Sensing and Feeling. JG Bennett, 1949.
“We had one of Madame Salzmann’s extraordinary practices: first we sat for 20 minutes sensing various parts of the body** and then the whole body: then we did a new canon with more ‘active’ sort of movements than usual: then we worked on the arms and legs, separately, of the First Obligatory, and she gave us an astonishing demonstration of how to balance; then we sat, beating rhythms on our knees, then we marched on the spot, and afterwards round the room, and then she teased us because we could not do it properly, and jumped up, with a little bounce, from the piano, laughing, and ended the class.” — Elizabeth Bennett. Idiots in Paris p. 128.
“This morning I spent an hour on my knees in the Spring House. After forty minutes, I found I had the power to reach the Collected State. Afterward the pain in my legs became too insistent. But once again toward the end, I began to sense my existence differently. I am not sure that I am doing it rightly, so I hope I shall have a chance of asking.” — JG Bennett. Ibid. p. 12.
Anyone who met Elizabeth Bennett—especially those who accepted her as their teacher–knows well and felt clearly her enthusiasm for “sensing”: she lived it! This enthusiasm was once simply-yet-powerfully expressed to us who were at Sherborne on the fourth basic course: (referring to Mr. B.) she said, with a twinkle in her serious light-filled eyes, “In 1949, he came back from Paris with “sensing,” which Mr. Gurdjieff was then emphasizing as the foundation of his Work!”
The rest is history: a corpus of “morning exercises” was developed and introduced by Bennett and his students to thousands. These “active meditations” are founded and grounded in that action of mind-to-body we (today) simply call “sensing.” The without-a-doubt most important experience Bennett transmitted to us during the last months of his life was that of “occupying our own body” through the work of being actively attentive to the organic sensation of life in it!
Wow! is an understatement. We all know and have experienced—or if not yet, then we need to find a source of help to experience—”without a doubt” the equanimous state of attentive mind in which we are present to life in any part, every, all parts or the whole of the body. It’s really simple, this sensing thing—but to come to it “without a doubt” weeks, months, even years of regular practice with right-accommodating guidance from others who have already come to it without a doubt is necessary. Where to find this help?
The intention of this post is to begin a lively conversation on the received benefits of “sensing” and on how to share with others this important human activity for right human development.
—James Tomarelli
I was a student on the first course at Sheborne, and have since then found sensing to be the bedrock of maintaining my inner equilibrium in any situation. Two days ago, I finished a forty day participation in a 40 minute daily meditation from a different tradition than the Fourth Way. What the first few lessons brought me to was the collected state, and what the penultimate lesson included were the equivalent of the 6th and 7th latifs. The terminology was different; the biggest difference was the attention on body and feelings, automatic thinking and intentional thinking, but no sensing as we have been taught to perceive it. The practice was very powerful and helpful to me, so this isn’t a criticism of another ancient tradition; it is simply an observation of a difference in practice.
For me “sensing” is like returning to home. I have found “sensing” somehow familiar to me, but at the same time it is always something new. I think that experience has helped me to recognize life which I am part of at any moment; something that comes from inside and goes outside with new eyes. These new eyes are the ones that awake myself sometimes when there is too much noise… Also “sensing” has increased my desire of being “there” more often, exploring it. That may sound very simple but for me it seems a miracle.
Isn’t it all really the same? Whatever language I use, whatever tradition, fundamentally, when I am ‘called’, return, there is this simple question about who I am, and what is all this that surrounds me – all that I was born with and all that I have become? The only real difference is the sincerity and the impartiality of this question. I suppose the emphasis Gurdjieff gave has become a touchstone that enables us to find a true vision from behind all of our partialities, our subjectivity. And one can always try in new ways. I have found this increasingly over the years – it is inexhaustible, and one shouldn’t be afraid of being creative in this – I remember a former teacher saying to us “try anything” – it keeps us searching and maybe keeps us clear of dogma. So, for example, I have never put it to myself quite in the way suggested in the extract – sensing the hand in contact with something when it is not in movement, without thinking and without looking at it – and it helps me to return to this as if for the first time. When I notice the breath, it is as if I have just begun to breathe. This question of my feelings, is something that has arisen for me recently as if it had never existed before – after some thirty is years of working!. For me it seems to be connected with awarenes of the circulation of blood in my body – the movement of my emotions is so dramatic – swelling, rising, sinking, exploding – and they are in one state or another from one moment to the next – the consumption of energy is quite incredible, and most of the time I am totally swept up by it. One of the most important ideas that I never seem to understand fully is that the prime purpose is not to change anything – but to step back within myself and simple try to see. to witness whatever is there – and it is hard to sacrifice my dentification with those feelings. That’s the real transformation – to find freedom from identification. And there I go reacting because the cursor doesn’t do what expect it to do. And it keeps happening. Ashley West
Nothing is changed by being aware, but being aware changes everything.
The Distinction between Sensing and Feeling… So important, and not easy with this organism which is so easily distracted! I believe the Buddha would have referred to this as desires and grasping, in the Fourth Way it is referred to as many I’s and Identification. When I make the effort to direct attention, in an exercise, or during the day, it is easier to see these “distractions” from my aim of being present/Sensing and more than this; to BE.
Three months ago I attended a five day silent retreat. from the third day on, things had settled into quietude and chatter, names and forms (Nama Rupa in the Sanskrit tradition) dropped away. It is truly a different world to see without the predominance of the naming mechanism. The Sky opening with light and expansiveness, a new Life!
P.S. Claymont 2
While sensing, we can also contemplate the question: then what? – I have learned that sensing, while essential as has been stated above, can also be used as a defense mechanism to avoid those inconvenient things which inevitably arise once we are just a little bit present, namely emotional issues. This can be a trap. Subtly we think, if we notice at all: hey what’s that, a negative emotion (a really unfortunate term, with its pejorative and moralistic ring)? What does it matter as long as I am sensing? In other words we may have taken sensing as an end in itself. However, as has also been mentioned above, sensing is the beginning of some level of presence. Does it not behoove us then to remain present to these emotional issues as opposed to a kind of “sense harder” deflection of them?
Thank you for you so much for this discussion! It is, and has been my experience that the practice of sensing brings me to a more present state. It gives me the pause factor, before I open my mouth to express a negative emotion, to give that moment of presence to stop the negative thought, as far as I am able, and to either be silent, or express something as positive as I am capable of expressing. I find that sensing itself doesn’t obliterate my negativity or change the emotion – it gives a possibility of changing my state of identification. This doesn’t excuse me from taking a good hard look at the source of my emotional issues.
Thank you Chuck for the opportunity to ponder on what you write and to try to reply. I agree that sensing can become a defense against seeing what we avoid, for example, our emotional issues. But sensing was never intended for that even though it is sometimes used for that and has even become an agent of deeper sleep. Nevertheless, “sensing” was intended to be an intentional action (of attention to life in the body) that would result in a distinct flow of energy that would then be blended with other energies resulting from other actions of attention, that is, from “seeing” and “feeling.” The problem — as you point out — is that our mechanism “steals” the energy and uses it to avoid inconvenient things. But it doesn’t have to be like that — and was certainly not intended to be like that. Some of the exercises given by Gurdjieff and further developed by Bennett and shared at Sherborne address this problem of conditioned existence and offer a way out. So, to give one answer to your question: yes, it behooves us to be present to all the energies of feeling — both pleasing and displeasing — and to be concurrently present to a something that accumulates in the head, resultant from inner and outer impressions, and to direct that to flow into and blend with a wish to be. The neurophysiologic mechanics of how to do this are clearly indicated in many of the inner exercises we learned at Sherborne. It also behooves us to practice them and — to as best we are able to — to share them with those who may need them and make good use of them.
The thing is, you can’t disidentify from an energy; and you can’t blend emotional issues, nor transcend them by blending finer energies, even though that is a very tempting thing to believe and try to practice. Best wishes – Chuck
Hi Chuck, What does it mean to “disidentify from an energy?” Yes, some people believe that they can “transcend emotional issues by blending finer energies”, but that’s their problem and it is not what I’m suggesting; some people believe they can “blend emotional issues”, ditto. The thing is, we identify with everything. The practice described above is one suggested way out and way forward. I use it, it helps. You are making good comments about a real problem for people. What practice do you suggest? Be well – James
What I am getting at is the practice of inquiry.
Best wishes, Chuck
IF you’re caught in accepting or rejecting, resisting or embracing, you’re not there and you are missing the show.. The specific exercise or meditation is a devise that can take you to a state of observation that is without judgment.
This quality of presence and attention is another level of practice.
Maybe the beginning of true practice.
Who am I (the one that is “doing” sensing)?
Sensing is only part of the process. Opening the heart is for me a deeper action, and one that is not talked about much in the work, and came across to me as something out of reach. Sensing now has become more about inhabiting the body, but the presence aspect of that is feeling. Grief for failure to be present, …. That was a lever into the heart.
Sensing is definitely not the destination. I so believed in it; but looking back I now judge that being stretched in other ways earlier would be more effective, and most important is the heart.
Chuck, did you teach turning?