At Movements* class last week, the instructor asked us to assume the initial position of First Obligatory. It is a posture of standing at attention, with arms at the sides.We waited for her command to proceed to the next positions, but she had us stay and inhabit that one standing posture for a while. Then we dropped it and went to work on another Movement.
Several times during the class, we returned to the first position of First Obligatory. Each time she invited a deeper exploration of what it is to just simply stand here on this earth.
I won't go into all that was said, but the indication was that we could be educated by this posture; and that a deepening connection with it could be taken into life, like when one is waiting on line in the grocery store or at the bank.
The following weekend, I had to attend a two-day tournament in Maryland with my daughter's basketball team. The event required long periods spent standing as a spectator. Immersed in dense crowds; sweating in the stuffy hot atmosphere with massive noise assaulting from everywhere, it was a challenge just to stay focused, much less enthusiastic.
Wishing for deeper presence at these moments, I found myself returning to the posture of the First Obligatory -- arms down at sides; knees softened, shoulder blades loosely together and down so that the chest was not pressuring the solar plexus.
I have practiced this Obligatory and others from the Gurdjieff canon on and off for 29 years; they invite more mystery and sacred wonder as time goes on. Here I find a world of quiet little details involved in simply standing; my attention begins to embrace it and I am grounded in the present moment, in which everything inside and outside is new. How much time in 50 years of life have I spent simply standing, unaware of this miracle?
*Sacred dances and exercises taught by G.I. Gurdjieff.
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