Events
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois periodically offers introductory gatherings, and other special events, open to those who are interested in pursuing a path in this tradition or simply in learning more about Gurdjieff’s ideas.
If you are searching for an approach to support your inner growth, or if you are simply interested in learning more about the Gurdjieff tradition and practices, consider attending one of the introductory gatherings periodically offered by The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois and listed here, below.
We ask that you pre-register for these events through our email. Events usually take place at our center on the Northwest side of Chicago but are also sometimes held at other locations or online. Location is included in each event description.
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois is offering a series of introductory meetings beginning April 2, 2024, at 7:30 PM. In these meetings we will explore an introduction to the ideas and practices of G. I. Gurdjieff. We will meet weekly into early June with breaks for holidays. Please email, search@gurdjieff-illinois.org, for details.
Past Events
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
Invites You
To a Fourth Way Introduction
The ancient parable of “The Horse, The Carriage, and the Driver” captures the situation of the human condition. The elements, a horse, a carriage, a driver, and something missing invite us to journey into self-discovery. We will explore this parable through discussion and viewing a stop animation film. Join us on:
February 25. 2024
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
at
3252 W. Bryn Marr Ave.
Chicago, IL
You’re Invited for an Introduction to
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
What Is My Place in the World?
In The Marketplace:
A Ken Burns Documentary about William Segal
In the Marketplace Cover Art
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois invites you to a screening of, In the Marketplace, directed by the noted filmmaker, Ken Burns.
In this film, Ken Burns brings you to the streets of Paris as he follows his friend, William Segal, an artist, writer, and a long-time student of the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 2023
TIME: 1:00 PM
PLACE: The Gurdjieff Foundation, 3252 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago, IL
RSVP: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
There will be light refreshments and a discussion after the film.
It has been a hundred years since G. I. Gurdjieff first appeared in Moscow, bringing with him a teaching unlike anything known or heard of in the modern world. His fundamental aim was to help human beings awaken to the meaning of our existence and to the efforts we must make to realize that meaning within the life we have been given. We can now begin to understand that Gurdjieff’s life was a work of love, and at the same time that word, ’love,’ begins to take on entirely new dimensions of meaning.
An Introduction to The Gurdjieff Work
Jacob Needleman
Date: Sunday, August 27, 2023
Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Place: 3252 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago, IL 60659
The Call to an Inner Life
An Open Invitation
For those interested in self-development, spirituality, and learning more about the teaching brought by G. I. Gurdjieff, our Foundation will be holding a series of three open discussions in September.
The meetings will take place 7:30 – 8:30 PM on:
Tuesday, September 13
Tuesday, September 20
Tuesday, September 27
Participants are encouraged to bring their experience and questions. Senior members of the Gurdjieff Foundation will be on hand to welcome you and present an introduction to practical inner work as presented by G. I. Gurdjieff and an overview of the supporting activities available through our Foundation.
A beginning study group will be launched later this Fall. These meetings offer the opportunity to learn more about the nature of what has been called The Fourth Way, and to assess your interest in further involvement.
Those interested in attending, please contact us via email to register for one or more of the discussions. Email address: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
An Inner Practice in Every Day Life
An Invitation
Saturday, June 18, 2022
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
held at
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
Located on northwest side of Chicago
RSVP for address and details
Email: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
“In the depths of your organic life things must change,
must become accustomed to being related differently.”
--G. I. Gurdjieff (quoted by Henriette Lannes)
The Power of Self-Observation
An Invitation
“Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening,” from In Search of the Miraculous, by P.D. Ouspensky.
Artwork by: Andrea Kielpinski, © 2022
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois will be hosting an online introductory event on Sunday, March 6th at 1:30 PM (CST) followed by an in-person event for those in the Chicagoland area on Tuesday March 15th at 7 PM (CST).
The meetings are for those interested in learning more about the ideas and practice brought by GI Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.
RSVP if you are interested in participating in one or both events. Further information on the events’ programs, and a Zoom link, will be sent to you by email.
Website: www.gurdjieff-illinois.org
What Is My Place in the World?
An Invitation
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois will be hosting an online introductory event on Sunday, December 5th at 1:30 PM (CST) followed by an in-person event for those in the Chicagoland area on Tuesday December 14th at 7 PM (CST).
The meetings are for those interested in learning more about the ideas and practice brought by GI Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.
RSVP if you are interested in participating in one or both events. Further information on the events’ programs, and a Zoom link, will be sent to you by email.
Website: www.gurdjieff-illinois.org
What Is My Place in the World?
An Invitation
“As already said, there are people who hunger and thirst for truth. If we examine the problems of life and are sincere with ourselves, we become convinced that it is no longer acceptable to live as we have lived and to be as we have been until now.”
— G. I. Gurdjieff
DATE: Sunday, August 29, 2021
TIME: 2:00 PM
PLACE: Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
(Vaccinations and masks required for all participants)
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois invites you to experience the practices and ideas of the Fourth Way teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff.
The program will be followed by refreshments and a tour of our facility.
To Register, email us: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
Invitation to a Virtual Gathering with the Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
”Who am I? Out of fear and out of desire, I betray myself. I am who I am not. I cover my face with many masks, and even become the masks. I am too busy performing who I think I am to know who I really am. I am afraid: I may be nothing other than what I appear to be. There may be no face behind the mask, so I decorate and protect my mask, preferring a fanciful something over a real nothing.
…Who wears this mask? In response to a little knock at the door of my consciousness, I ask, “Who is it?” No naming is sufficient. What I seek is to see and touch the face of the one who calls.”
— from Pilgrim Without Boundaries, by Ravi Ravindra
Upcoming Introductory Gatherings
Sunday, April 18, 2021 at 2:00 PM
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 7:30 PM
Please contact us via email for more information and to register:
Building a Movements Hall, 1992, GFI
“A man begins to see clearly that everything that he previously counted so precious and big is only a house of cards, only ideals artificially built by him or by others, and from this nothing stays. But a man clings to it all because he is afraid to stay in front of an emptiness, an abyss….
He understands clearly that it is necessary to throw all this away, to blow down this house of cards and then, brick by brick, to build something that nothing can blow away. He knows this with his mind, and wishes it, but he is afraid to give up all his past; perhaps he will not even find a brick! What then? What will happen? He thinks it is better to have an actual house of cards than nothing…. But a risk is necessary. Without having blown away the old, nothing new can begin.”
— Thomas de Hartmann, quoting Gurdjieff, in Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff
Upcoming Introductory Gatherings
Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 2:00 PM
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 7:30 PM
“In order to approach this system seriously, people must be disappointed, first of all in themselves, that is to say in their powers, and secondly in all the old ways.
A man cannot feel what is most valuable in the system unless he is disappointed in what he has been doing, disappointed in what he has been searching for.”
— G. I. Gurdjieff, as quoted in P.D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous
Upcoming Introductory Gatherings
Sunday, November 22, 2020 at 2:00 PM
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Events
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois periodically offers introductory gatherings, and other special events, open to those who are interested in pursuing a path in this tradition or simply in learning more about Gurdjieff’s ideas.
Over the past few years, we have experimented with offering some introductory events in an online format. As COVID-related conditions have allowed, a number of these events have begun to take place in person again, at our center on the Northwest side of Chicago.
We ask that you pre-register for introductory gatherings, whether they are in-person or online. For in-person events, we require that you be COVID vaccinated. Masks are optional.
Waking Up
We do not give enough importance to the moment of awaking the moment we see ourselves as we are in our sleep. We believe that to awake is to enter into an entirely different life, which will have nothing in common with the one we lead. But, in fact, awaking means, above all, to awake to ourselves as we are, to see and feel the sleep, the identification. The moment itself when we emerge and see the identification is the only moment from which an impetus could come. Only then do I have a chance to wake up.
Jeanne de Salzmann, The Reality of Being, page 80
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 2023
TIME: 7:30 PM
PLACE: Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois invites you to experience the practices and ideas of the Fourth Way teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff by joining us for an exchange of ideas and experiences about the process of “waking up”.
The exchange will be followed by refreshments and a tour of our facility.
To Register, email us: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
The Call to an Inner Life
An Open Invitation
For those interested in self-development, spirituality, and learning more about the teaching brought by G. I. Gurdjieff, our Foundation will be holding a series of three open discussions in September.
The meetings will take place 7:30 – 8:30 PM on:
Tuesday, September 13
Tuesday, September 20
Tuesday, September 27
Participants are encouraged to bring their experience and questions. Senior members of the Gurdjieff Foundation will be on hand to welcome you and present an introduction to practical inner work as presented by G. I. Gurdjieff and an overview of the supporting activities available through our Foundation.
A beginning study group will be launched later this Fall. These meetings offer the opportunity to learn more about the nature of what has been called The Fourth Way, and to assess your interest in further involvement.
Those interested in attending, please contact us via email to register for one or more of the discussions. Email address: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
An Inner Practice in Every Day Life
An Invitation
Saturday, June 18, 2022
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
held at
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
Located on northwest side of Chicago
RSVP for address and details
Email: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
“In the depths of your organic life things must change,
must become accustomed to being related differently.”
--G. I. Gurdjieff (quoted by Henriette Lannes)
The Power of Self-Observation
An Invitation
“Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening,” from In Search of the Miraculous, by P.D. Ouspensky.
Artwork by: Andrea Kielpinski, © 2022
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois will be hosting an online introductory event on Sunday, March 6th at 1:30 PM (CST) followed by an in-person event for those in the Chicagoland area on Tuesday March 15th at 7 PM (CST).
The meetings are for those interested in learning more about the ideas and practice brought by GI Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.
RSVP if you are interested in participating in one or both events. Further information on the events’ programs, and a Zoom link, will be sent to you by email.
Website: www.gurdjieff-illinois.org
What Is My Place in the World?
An Invitation
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois will be hosting an online introductory event on Sunday, December 5th at 1:30 PM (CST) followed by an in-person event for those in the Chicagoland area on Tuesday December 14th at 7 PM (CST).
The meetings are for those interested in learning more about the ideas and practice brought by GI Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.
RSVP if you are interested in participating in one or both events. Further information on the events’ programs, and a Zoom link, will be sent to you by email.
Website: www.gurdjieff-illinois.org
What Is My Place in the World?
An Invitation
“As already said, there are people who hunger and thirst for truth. If we examine the problems of life and are sincere with ourselves, we become convinced that it is no longer acceptable to live as we have lived and to be as we have been until now.”
— G. I. Gurdjieff
DATE: Sunday, August 29, 2021
TIME: 2:00 PM
PLACE: Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
(Vaccinations and masks required for all participants)
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois invites you to experience the practices and ideas of the Fourth Way teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff.
The program will be followed by refreshments and a tour of our facility.
To Register, email us: search@gurdjieff-illinois.org
Invitation to a Virtual Gathering with the Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois
”Who am I? Out of fear and out of desire, I betray myself. I am who I am not. I cover my face with many masks, and even become the masks. I am too busy performing who I think I am to know who I really am. I am afraid: I may be nothing other than what I appear to be. There may be no face behind the mask, so I decorate and protect my mask, preferring a fanciful something over a real nothing.
…Who wears this mask? In response to a little knock at the door of my consciousness, I ask, “Who is it?” No naming is sufficient. What I seek is to see and touch the face of the one who calls.”
— from Pilgrim Without Boundaries, by Ravi Ravindra
Upcoming Introductory Gatherings
Sunday, April 18, 2021 at 2:00 PM
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 7:30 PM
Please contact us via email for more information and to register:
Building a Movements Hall, 1992, GFI
“A man begins to see clearly that everything that he previously counted so precious and big is only a house of cards, only ideals artificially built by him or by others, and from this nothing stays. But a man clings to it all because he is afraid to stay in front of an emptiness, an abyss….
He understands clearly that it is necessary to throw all this away, to blow down this house of cards and then, brick by brick, to build something that nothing can blow away. He knows this with his mind, and wishes it, but he is afraid to give up all his past; perhaps he will not even find a brick! What then? What will happen? He thinks it is better to have an actual house of cards than nothing…. But a risk is necessary. Without having blown away the old, nothing new can begin.”
— Thomas de Hartmann, quoting Gurdjieff, in Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff
Upcoming Introductory Gatherings
Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 2:00 PM
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 7:30 PM
“In order to approach this system seriously, people must be disappointed, first of all in themselves, that is to say in their powers, and secondly in all the old ways.
A man cannot feel what is most valuable in the system unless he is disappointed in what he has been doing, disappointed in what he has been searching for.”
— G. I. Gurdjieff, as quoted in P.D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous
Upcoming Introductory Gatherings
Sunday, November 22, 2020 at 2:00 PM
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 7:30 PM