Gurdjieff

A Personal Perspective

The bitchy oneupmanship world of so-called Western Esoteric Knowledge is more volatile than Palestine is politically and believe me, peace between warring factions seems even less likely.

Consequently, I warn you that any research you may perform on George Gurdjieff, the Greek/Armenian philosopher (probably 1872-1947), is usually permeated with words like charlatan, womaniser, liar etc., slurs that he strangely spent much of his life trying to encourage. He has certainly been judged harshly for them and dismissed by many but his excuse was that he needed people to grasp his ideas and use them, not to see & remember him through the rosy-colored glasses of the bourgeois morality.

And what are those ideas?

Well, probably nothing that you haven't already heard in a bastardised, narcissistic, post-Sixties type of thing...but possibly far more. It all depends on how you hear them.

Without going into Gurdjieffian jargon, my personal view is that Gurdjieff's system a.k.a. The Fourth Way is a significant chunk of the timeless and virtually completely lost esoteric knowledge that unites all the great religions.

His reasons for breaking with his Teachers and bringing this knowledge of the mechanics of human psychology & the possibilities for further development to The West are clear:

Gurdjieff, circa 1915

Unlike Madame Blavatsky's feel-good Theosophists, who brought Disney-Hinduism to The West in the 1890s, much of the Fourth Way sits easily with the contemporary Western mind (though, admittedly, it would've been incredibly intimidatory a century ago).

On a micro level, Gurdjieff was (as far as I know) the first person in The West to present the consciousness of the average man as being:

• multiple personality, with no controlling personality taking responsibility for actions performed in passion, anger, boredom etc. or
• asleep, blissfully unaware of actions in one's life, performing them like a robot...depending on which aspect was being discussed.

And on a macro level, Gurdjieff was also the first to talk of Man's responsibility, both:

• consciously on an individual basis &
• unconsciously on a collective basis

...within a type of cosmic eco-system, a good 60 years before biological eco-systems started being discussed in the early 1970s. Inbetween these polar ideas, Gurdjieff put forward a dazzling array of concepts, providing Western Man with the capacity to witness how mechanical the majority of our actions are.

Incidentally, the late writer Spalding Gray wrote a number of books that illustrate this beautifully. Gray's work is totally self-absorbed and an incredible accurate blueprint of how the mind functions in its own world of abstraction.

 

The application of Gurdjieff's concepts through techniques introduced and nurtured by a teacher drag the analysis of behavior away from "good" & "bad" towards an impartial "what is"...and a reconnection with:

• Higher Ideals (e.g. Unsentimental Morality)
• Higher Knowledge (e.g. Intuition) &
• ...perhaps even Higher Powers (spiritual energy from more advance people / teachers / spirits (?)

That, of course, is very similar, theoretically, to the effects of meditation. However, meditation sits better with the Eastern mind, which accepts melting into the void far more readily than than the frantic Western mind...and The Fourth Way seems an excellent data-driven way to reach the same state. If you like, it makes the esoteric tangible. 

Personally, I wonder whether Gurdjieff's time has gone. His profound understanding of human psychology may no longer be appropriate for the Sound-byte Age of Shattered Consciousness, rampant materialism and unquenchable lusts that blight our time. It may also be that the bringing together of:

"...the Wisdom of the East and the Energy of the West..."

...has already been harmonised as best it can, already, as we move towards a global mono-culture. We shall see. Nevertheless, these are the books that I recommend for those interested in finding out about this incredible man.

All & Everything:

Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson  

Gurdjieff was very clear. Anyone interested in really discovering what he was trying to convey should read Beelzebub. However, because of the complicated style of writing, that is actually a rather a big ask. Also included are a short review of his other official book, Meetings With Remarkable Men and the movie of the same name.

In Search Of The Miraculous

Ouspensky's In Search Of The Miraculous is, simply speaking, the best introduction to Gurdjieff's teaching that I know of.  It's weaves many anecdotes...and one gets a strong idea of how Ouspensky and his small group of friends felt that Gurdjieff, in his chaotic way, was introducing them to ideas and concepts that were the long-lost esoteric origins of Christianity, except...

The Struggle Of The Magicians

The Struggle of The Magicians is William Patrick Patterson's wonderful, almost gossipy, year by year, cross-referenced history of the Gurdjieff phenomenon, in particular, the relationship between Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

Mr. Patterson has also created 3 apparently well-regarded DVDs about Gurdjieff that may help as an introduction, I haven't seen them but intend to do so, soon.

Gurdjieff DVD

Part 1: Egypt

"...GURDJIEFF IN EGYPT IS ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL VIDEOS I or the other Convergence staff have ever seen. I have watched it at least four times and could probably watch it as many times more, learning something new with each viewing. The narrator, William Patrick Patterson, follows the track of G.I. Gurdjieff to the origin of ancient teachings, the basis of the esoteric teachings behind the perennial wisdom, to ancient, pre-sand Egypt.

"Patterson draws the viewer into the esoteric meaning of many of the great treasures of the temples of ancient Egypt, decoding the art, architecture, hieroglyphics, and statuary. He brings particular understanding to the relationship between Horus and Set and the essential tension that binds light to dark, the spiritual to the material. He also comes to the astounding conclusion that prehistoric Egypt was Christian in its teachings, principles and ideas, many thousands of years before the actual birth of Christ.

Highly recommended for the serious student..." Virginia K. Slayton, Editor, Convergence Magazine

Gurdjieff DVD

Part 2: Introducing The Teaching To The West

"...I not only liked it, I admired it. It's a first-rate documentary from a technical and artistic angle, but more importantly it succeeds in vivifying and condensing without distorting what is-of course-a very important story. Moreover, it acts as a useful teaching vehicle; and for some people it may be their first introduction to a few of the ideas discussed, and to the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music..." Jeffrey Zaleski, Reviews Editor, Publishers Weekly

"...This DVD picks up where Mr. Patterson's first video, Gurdjieff in Egypt: The Origin of Esoteric Knowledge, leaves off. It focuses on Gurdjieff's struggle, despite the socio-political issues of the time, to establish the teaching in Russia, Turkey, and Europe, as well as to find and train helper-instructors to disseminate his teaching..." S. Nichols

Gurdjieff DVD

Part 3: Gurdjieff's Legacy

"...Winner of the WorldFest 2003 Gold Special Jury Award for Outstanding Excellence, Gurdjieff's Legacy tracks Mr. Gurdjieff's struggle to establish the ancient teaching of The Fourth Way in the West. It covers the final period in his life, 1924 to 1949...from his near-fatal car crash through to his giving meetings during the Nazi-occupation of Paris to his death..." Amazon blurb

"...The third DVD in Mr. Patterson's series gets more at the "meat" of the Gurdjieff teaching, especially as it pertains to the student-teacher relationship as exemplified by Gurdjieff's relationships with P.D. Ouspensky, A.R. Orage, and J.G. Bennett. Once again, Mr. Patterson pieces together much of what was written by these students, not just in published works, but in personal notes, diaries, letters, and such..." S. Nichols