One of the unique features of our Wisdom lineage is the way it combines the traditional Benedictine rhythm of ora et labora—”pray and work”—with the Gurdieffian practice of taking on an inner task as a touchstone for mindfulness and self-inquiry. Practical work becomes “conscious work” as you learn to use the ordinary outer tasks of your day as a laboratory for inner awakening. For several years now members of our community have volunteered for an eight-week turn at the helm to offer guided practice in working with an inner task. You can sample their handiwork here, both as a collection of individual tasks and as a fuller teaching series.
How to Work with Inner Tasks
Jeanine Siler Jones shows how to use how to work with inner tasks on the Wisdom Waypoints website.
Foundational Inner Tasks by Jeanine Siler Jones
An Intro to the Inner Task: Eight Exercises in Sensation Part I
In this two-part post, Jeanine Siler Jones invites us to work with foundational approaches through a cycle of eight Inner Tasks. These exercises were originally…
An Intro to the Inner Task: Eight Exercises in Sensation Part II
In this two-part post, Jeanine Siler Jones invites us to work with foundational approaches through a cycle of eight Inner Tasks. These exercises were originally…
Inner Tasks by Heather Ruce
Self-Remembering, Self-Observation & Observing the Centers: Part I
In this three-part series, Heather Ruce invites us to work with a cycle of eight Inner Tasks. These exercises were originally designed to be used…
Self-Remembering, Self-Observation & Observing the Centers: Part II
In this three-part series of Breaking Ground posts, Heather Ruce invites us to work with a cycle of eight Inner Tasks. These exercises were originally…
Self-Remembering, Self-Observation & Observing the Centers: Part III
In this three-part series of Breaking Ground posts, Heather Ruce invites us to work with a cycle of eight Inner Tasks. These exercises were originally…
Fourth Way Inner Tasks by Bob Sabath
Liking What We Dislike
We have a walnut tree in our back yard, and about this time of year walnuts come crashing to the ground all day and all…
Finding in ourselves what we criticize in another
A suggestion for this week’s practice comes from Elizabeth O’Connor, Our Many Selves: A Handbook for Self-Discovery, “From Judgment to Empathy: Exercise Four”, page 71:…
Singing our inner secret songs
We all have our own “sad songs” that we sing to ourselves. This week, let’s try to observe the typical songs we sing, especially the…
The Hineni Practice
I am in the New Mexico desert with Bill Plotkin, Richard Rohr and 300 men. One of the exercises taught to us last night was…
Seeing yourself through another’s eyes
Our task this week comes from Maurice Nicoll’s Commentaries (Vol. 1, pp. 265-268): “Now suppose you have to live with a person called yourself. I…
Keeping a constant inner body sensation
Our aim this week is to have a constant inner body sensation of ourselves. Throughout the day, try to keep an organic sensation of the…
Gurdjieff Inner Tasks by Vesna Nikolic
Conscious Breathing: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
Dear Wisdom Friends, I am Vesna Nikolic and I live in Toronto, Canada. I will be posting the inner tasks for the next eight weeks.…
Attitude: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
Last week I wrote about the importance of approaching the tasks with the right attitude, with lightness and joy. This week I wish to invite…
External Considering: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
Recently, a question was raised in this space about the relationship between “going within” and external considering. Gurdjieff talked about external considering, as “adaptation towards…
Wish: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
In one of the previous tasks, I wrote that the overall aim of the tasks is to prepare the vessel, all parts of it, such…
Sensation: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
I am sitting here within my body. It is my dwelling place. For a large part of my life, I took my physical body for…
What Am I Against: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
Last week several of us who are reading Gebser’s Ever Present Origin together, shared the difficulties we encountered while reading through the description of mental…
Habits: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
Last week’s task was related to seeing our resistance, to becoming more aware of what “being against” feels like in our body. This week I…
Planning: Inner Task Series by Vesna Nikolic
It is Week 8 and this is my final post for Inner Task Friday series. My deepest gratitude to everyone who pondered upon questions raised…
Eight Inner Tasks by Jonathan Steele
Inner Work Friday: Week One of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
Hi, my name is Jonathan Steele, and I will be posting the Friday Inner-Tasks over the next 8-weeks (this will by far be the longest post of…
Inner Work Friday: Week Two of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
Hopefully after having made contact with the sturdiness of the foundation of our physical bodies this week, through moving sensation into the hips, legs, and…
Inner Work Friday: Week Three of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
This week we’re going to work with a different kind of breathing as we begin to consciously sync up the emotional center with a poised…
Inner Work Friday: Week Four of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
To dance with the energy of immediacy is to begin to learn to walk straight into the equanimity of the heart- beyond like and dislike,…
Inner Work Friday: Week Five of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
What does it mean to have integrity? And I don’t mean just in the sense of keeping your word (though I don’t not mean that).…
Inner Work Friday: Week Six of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
There is a possibility of sensation-based presence that can reconcile our being and our doing. Where roles can be played free of identification for the…
Inner Work Friday: Week Seven of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity I want to talk about a topic that we can easily hoodwink ourselves into believing we know something…
Inner Work Friday: Week Eight of Eight Week Series by Jonathan Steele
During these last 7 weeks we’ve worked with creating a sturdy foundation to return to through inviting sensation in the lower regions of the body,…
Eight Inner Tasks by Thomas Telhiard
Inner Work Friday: Week One of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
Inner Task Week One – STOP-SEEING We normally associate seeing with visual impressions that we receive through the physical eyes. That is one way that…
Inner Work Friday: Week Two of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
September 3, 2021 – Inner Task Week Two – SEEING DIMENSION Last week’s task on STOPPING SEEING may have presented us with that distinction of…
Inner Work Friday: Week Three of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
September 10: Inner Task Week Three – SEEING AS IS Last week our inner task led us into seeing dimensionally from a three-centered presence. Perhaps…
Inner Work Friday: Week Four of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
September 17: Inner Task Week Four – SEEING THE UNSEEN Last week, we attempted to see things as they are on their own, by intentionally…
Inner Work Friday: Week Five of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
September 24: Inner Task Week Five – SEEING FROM YOURSELF You may notice that the tasks we have been doing are complimentary to each other…
Inner Work Friday: Week Six of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
October 1: Inner Task Week Six – SEEING AS SENSATION Inner work, as we all have experienced, is always one step forward, two steps back…
Inner Work Friday: Week Seven of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
October 8: INNER TASK Week Seven – SEEING AS FEELING (From the Whole) In continuing with our series of inner tasks involving inner seeing, last…
Inner Work Friday: Week Eight of Eight Week Series by Thomas Telhiard
October 15: Inner Task Week Eight – SEEING as Feeding “One could say the whole of life lies in SEEING—if not ultimately, at least essentially.To…