1. Some Remarks on Gurdjieff’s Stop-Exercise
by
Dr. Armen Mehrabyan
Yerevan, 2005
Summary:
Many authors mentioned that the play element of culture is an important part of the
life of the Homo sapiens. Indeed e.g. Sumerians, Assyrians who had lived centuries ago in the
countries which are called now Historical Armenia (from Tavros to Mesopotamia) and the
Wider Caucasus regions have known the meaning of role-play, theatre and arts.
Gurdjieff himself took his famous stop-exercise from ancient tradition to show the
importance of mindfulness. Even nowadays you will find children playing the stop-game in
Armenia which has been passed from generation to generation since ancient times. Being a
child myself we had played this game without knowing who Gurdjieff is. The Armenian name
of the play is “Zgast” which could be translated as attention and mindfulness in his deeper
meaning. Some questions emerging from this: “What was Gurdjieff’s intention to introduce
this exercise to his pupils? Did he know the various effects of this game? Was his main
concern to show us the importance of will? Did he invite us to “kill the process” of ill
running emotions and its consequences?
To gain a full understanding of Gurdjieff’s different exercises like the above mentioned one
has to be aware of the roots and the oral tradition. In our point of view the some existing
Gurdjieff’s groups in the West are cutting off from their own traditional roots. They are
taking care for the ashes and don’t know any more how to light the fire.
Key words:
Awareness, Altered States of Consciousness, Gurdjieff Teaching, Mindfulness, Spirituality,
Stop-Exercise, Transpersonal Psychology.