needleman intro

7/31/2019 Needleman Intro

1/66


2/66

Introduction to

HE GURDJIEFFWORK


3/66

Published by Sandpoint Press 2009Copyright 2009 Sandpoint Press, an imprint o Morning Light PressCover: Detail o 19th Century Dorasht Kelege carpet, Northeast Persia.Photograph: om Woodward, Woodward Images, Hope, ID

Previously published as the Introduction to Te Inner Journey: Views Fromthe Gurdjief Work, Morning Light Press, 2008.

Portions have been drawn rom G. I. Gurdjief and His School by JacobNeedleman, originally published in: Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needlemaneds. Modern Esoteric Spirituality, New York: Crossroad, 1992 and romTe Gurdjief radition by Jacob Needleman, originally published asan entry in: Wouter J. Hanegraaf (ed.) Dictionary o Gnosis and Western

Esotericism, Leiden: Brill, NV, 2005.

All rights reserved. No part o this publication may be reproduced orutilized in any orm or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ-ing photocopying, recording, or by any inormation storage and retrievalsystem, without prior written permission rom Sandpoint Press, an imprinto Morning Light Press.

ISBN: 978-1-934686-02-7 Printed on acid-ree paper in Canada.

Needleman, Jacob. [Inner journey]Introduction to the Gurdjief work / Jacob Needleman.Originally published: Te inner journey : views rom the

Gurdjief work. Sandpoint, ID : Morning Light Press, 2008.Includes bibliographical reerences.ISBN 978-1-934686-02-7 (Sandpoint Press : alk. paper) --ISBN 978-1-59675-029-6 (Morning Light Press : alk. paper)1. Gurdjief, Georges Ivanovitch, 1872-1949. I. itle.BP605.G94G873 2009197--dc22

2009000080

SANDPOINT P R E S S10881 North Boyer Road, Sandpoint, ID 83864 morninglightpress.com


4/66

Introduction to

HE GURDJIEFFWORK

Jacob Needleman

Introduction to

HE GURDJIEFFWORK

Jacob Needleman


5/66


6/66

1

HE GURDJIEFFWORK

It has been nearly a hundred years since G. I.

Gurdjie rst appeared in Moscow in 1912, bring-ing with him a teaching unlike anything known or

heard o in the modern world. And although his

ideas have since then been explored in hundreds

o books and articles, and now exert a signicant

inuence throughout the Western world, both the

teaching and the man himsel remain essentially as

new and unknown, and as astonishing, as when they

rst appeared.

Gurdjie s undamental aim was to help human

beings awaken to the meaning o our existence and

to the eorts we must make to realize that mean-ing in the midst o the lie we have been given.

As with every messenger o the spirit, Gurdjie s


7/66

2

undamental intention was ultimately or the sake

o others, never only or himsel. But when we rstencounter the gure o Gurdjie, this central aspect

o his lie is oten missed. Faced with the depth o

his ideas and the inner demands he placed upon

himsel and upon those who were drawn to him,

and becoming aware o the uniquely eective orms

o inner work he created, we may initially be struckmainly by the vastness o his knowledge and the

strength o his being. But sooner or later what may

begin to touch us is the unique quality o seless-

ness in his actions, the sacrices he made both or

those who came to him, and or all o humanity.We begin to understand that his lie was a work o

love; and at the same time that word, love, begins

to take on entirely new dimensions o meaning,

inconceivable in the state o what Gurdjie called

waking sleep.

In most major cities o the Western world, men andwomen are now trying to live his teaching. It is not too

soon, thereore, to consider what this teaching has


8/66

3

brought or can bring to the world. As human lie in

our era spirals downward toward dissolution in vio-lence and illusion, one central question rises up beore

us in the shadow o which all teachings, including the

Gurdjie Work, must now be measured: How can

humanity reverse the process leading to its seem-

ingly inevitable sel-destruction?

In the ace o this question, the heart is restless,but the mind soon alls silent. It is as though the

unprecedented crisis o our modern world conounds

and all but reutes thousands o years o religious

doctrine and centuries o scientic progress. Who

now dreams o turning to religion or the answerwhen it is religion itsel that lies so close to the root

o war and barbarism? Who dares turn to science

or the answer when it is advancing technology, the

very ruit o scientic progress, that has so amplied

the destructive powers o human egoism? And who

imagines that new theories o society, new socialprograms, new ideologies can do anything more

than wrap the alling earth in dreams o ying?


9/66

4

Te mind alls silent.

But in that silence something within can awaken.

In that moment an entirely new kind o hope can

appear. Te Gurdjie Work may in part be under-

stood as the practical, painstaking cultivation o

that silence and that hope, that state o embodied

awakening to the truth o the human condition inthe world and in onesel. Te unanswerable question

about the ate o humanity and the world is trans-

ormed into the question, also unanswerable: What is

a human being? Who am I? But it is now a question

asked with more o onesel, not only with the mindalonethe mind which, with all its explanations,

has so little power to resist the orces o violence and

brutality; nor with emotion alone, which, with all

its ervor, oten ends by making the most sacred o

doctrines into instruments o agitation and death.

Nor, so the Gurdjie teaching also shows us, can thequestion o who and what we are be answered by

giving way again and again to the endlessly recurring


10/66

5

obsessions rooted inthe physical body. Tat is to say,the great question o who and what we are cannot beanswered by only one part o the whole o ourselves

pretending to be the master. Tis sel-deceptive state

o the human being is precisely what Gurdjie meant

by mankinds state o waking sleep. In this sleep, he

tells us, we are born, live and die, write books, invent

religions, build monuments, commit murders, anddestroy all that is good.

One thing, and one thing only, is thereore nec-

essary. It is necessary or individual men and women

to awaken, to remember Who they are, and then to

become Who they really are, to live it in the service

o ruth. Without this awakening and this becom-

ing, nothing else can help us.

But it is very difcult. An extraordinary qual-

ity o help is needed. o this end, Gurdjie created

what has come to be called the Work.


11/66

6

Te Gurdjie Work oday

Te Gurdjie Foundation

Beore his death in 1949, Gurdjie entrusted

the task o transmitting the teaching to his chie

pupil, Jeanne de Salzmann, and a small circle oother pupils in France, England, and America who

acknowledged her leadership. Under her guidance,

the rst centers o the Work were established in

Paris, London, New York, and Caracas. Over the

past hal-century other centers have radiated rom

them to major cities o the Western world. Most othe groups maintain close correspondence with the

principal centers and most have developed under the

personal guidance o one or two o the rst-genera-

tion pupils o Gurdjie. Te general articulation o

all these groups is a cooperative one, rather than onebased on strictly sanctioned jurisdictional control.

Tere are also groups that no longer maintain close


12/66

7

correspondence with the main body o pupils and

operate independently. And there are numerousother organizations led by individuals who claim no

historical lineage with either Gurdjie or his direct

pupils. In what ollows, we limit ourselves to the

teaching as it has been studied and transmitted by

groups that may be historically designated as rep-resenting the direct Gurdjie lineage. Tese groups

now exist in each specic location under the name

o Te Gurdjie Foundation, or, in the United

Kingdom, Te Gurdjie Society.

6

A central ocus o the Gurdjie teaching is the

awakening to consciousness and the creation o

proper communal and psychological conditions that

can support this multi-leveled process. For this, apreparatory work is necessary, as stated by Jeanne de

Salzmann:


13/66

8

According to Gurdjie, the truth can be

approached only i all the parts which makethe human being, the thought, the eeling,

and the body, are touched with the same

orce in a particular way appropriate to each

o themailing which, development will

inevitably be one-sided and sooner or later

come to a stop. In the absence o an eec-tive understanding o this principle, all work

on onesel is certain to deviate rom the aim.

Te essential conditions will be wrongly

understood and one will see a mechanical

repetition o the orms o eort which neversurpass a quite ordinary level.1

Gurdjie gave the name o sel-remembering

to the central state o conscious attention in which

the higher orce that is available within the human

structure makes contact with the unctions othought, eeling, and body. Te individual remem-

bers, as it were, who and what he really is and is


14/66

9

meant to be, over and above his ordinary sense o

identity. Tis conscious attention is not a unctiono the mind but is the active conscious orce which

all our unctions o thought, eeling, and movement

can begin to obey as the inner master.

Consistent with the knowledge behind many

contemplative traditions o the world, the practice o

the Gurdjie work places chie emphasis on prepar-ing our inner world to receive this higher attention,

which can open us to an inconceivably ner energy

o love and understanding.

6

Te Gurdjie work remains above all essentially

an oral tradition, transmitted under specially cre-

ated conditions rom person to person, continually

unolding, without xed doctrinal belies or external

rites, as a way toward reeing humanity rom thewaking sleep that holds us in a kind o hypnotic illu-

sion. Te moving lie o the tradition thus supports


15/66

10

the individual search and helps to overcome the

seemingly universal impulse o resistance or inertia:the tendency toward attachment, and the gradual

xing on partial aspects, institutionalized orms,

dogmatic doctrines and a habitual reliance on the

known rather than acing and entering the unknown.

According to the Gurdjie teaching, the orms

exist only to help discover, incarnate, and elaboratea ormless energy o awakening, and without this

understanding, the orms o the teaching become an

end in themselves and lose their meaning.

At present, the general orms o practice in the

Gurdjie tradition may be characterized as ollows:

Group meetings: Gurdjie taught that alone, an indi-

vidual can do nothing. In group meetings, students

regularly come together to participate in a collective

atmosphere that is meant to unction as a principal

means or the transormation o the individual stateo consciousness. Although, with the help o more

advanced pupils, questions are shared and responded


16/66

11

to in words, the undamental support o the group is

directed to the individual work o acing onesel andconsciously recognizing ones own inner lack, until

the appearance o a new quality o energy is possible.

Te more experienced pupils, helping the group as

part o their own search, strive to be sensitive not so

much to the content o the exchange, but to the pro-

cess o the developing energy and the mutual teach-ing that can take place under its inuence. In their

turn, more advanced pupils just as urgently need to

work in groups, and in this way a redenition o the

conventional image o the leader is inevitable. At

each level o inner work, what has been understoodneeds to be individually and collectively re-examined

and veried in the movement o a dynamic living

esoteric school.

Te sacred dances and movements which Gurdjie

taught were partially a result o his research in themonasteries and schools o Asia, and are o a nature

that seems unique in the modern Western world.


17/66

12

In certain respects, they are comparable to sacred

dances in traditional religious systems (or example,the Cham dances o ibetan Buddhism or the der-

vish dances o the Sus). Like them, the Gurdjie

Movements are based on the view that a series o

specic postures, gestures, and movements, sup-

ported by an intentional use o melody and rhythm

and an essential element o right individual eort,can help to evoke an inner condition that is closer to

a more conscious existence, or a state o unity, which

can allow an opening to the conscious energy o the

Sel. Te Gurdjie Movements are now regularly

given at major centers o the work by careully pre-pared pupils who emphasize the need or exactitude

and a special quality o eeling, without which the

movements cannot provide the help or which they

were brought.

Te practice osittingis difcult to characterize apartrom observing that, in accordance with the overall

aim o the work, it is not a orm in and o itsel, but


18/66


19/66

14

to come into contact with an ever-deepening sense

o inner need which allows an opening to a power-ul conscious inuence within onesel. According

to Gurdjie, without a relationship to this more

central aspect o onesel, everyday lie is bound to

be an existential prison, in which the individual is

held captive, not so much by the so-called orces

o modernity, as by the parts o the sel that cannothelp but react automatically to the inuences o the

world. Te help oered by the special conditions o

the work is thereore understood not as replacing

our lie in the world, but as enabling us, in the course

o time, to live lie with authentic understanding andull participation.

Briey, the movement toward awakening, which

is meant to be supported by the ideas and these

orms o practice, becomes in act an organic process

in lie and movement, and or that reason, dogmatic

approaches will inevitably ail. Te process o awak-ening requires not only an understanding o the con-

stituent orces and laws governing mans psyche and


20/66

15

actions, but also a deep sensitivity and appreciation o

individual subjective needs and conditions. In otherwords, or an eective guidance, the principle o rel-

ativity must be recognized in the transmission o the

teaching: individuals must be approached according

to their respective levels o development and expe-

rience. Gurdjie might have stressed one view to a

student at a certain level o understanding and quiteanother view when that student had reached another

level. Tis might give the appearance o contradic-

tion, but in act it was consistent in applying only

those aspects o the whole teaching truly necessary

at a given moment. Te same principle applies to theideas, some o which seemed more accessible at one

period while others still remained to be revealed in

the unolding lie o the teaching.3

For example, the work o sel-observation

acquires a completely new meaning as the develop-

ing attention lets go o its eort, joining and willinglysubmitting to a higher conscious seeing. Te action

that might take place in this conditionin the quiet


21/66

16

o meditation or even in outer actionreects the

simultaneous dual nature o both an impersonalconsciousness and a personal attention that has a

new capacity to maniest and act in the world. Te

qualities o both these aspects o consciousness and

attention are quite unknown to the ordinary mind.

In this new relationship o individual attention and

a higher impersonal consciousness, a man or womancan become a vessel, serving another energy which

can act through the individual, an energy which

at the same time transorms the materiality o the

body at the cellular level. Tis understanding o

inner work introduced by Jeanne de Salzmann can

be ound today in many o the Gurdjie Foundation

groups worldwide.


22/66

17

Te Lie o Gurdjie

and the Principal Ideas

Te Early Years

What we know o Gurdjie s early lie is based

mainly on what he has revealed in the auto-biographical portions o his own writings, espe-

cially Meetings with Remarkable Men. Although

there is no reason to doubt the accuracy o his

account, the act remains that the principal aim o

Gurdjie s writings was not to provide historical

inormation, but to serve as a call to awakening and

as a continuing source o guidance or the inner

search that is the raison dtre o his teaching. His

writings are cast in orms that are directed not only

to the intellectual unction but also to the emotional

and even subconscious sensitivities that, all together,make up the whole o the human psyche. His writ-

ings thereore demand and support the search or


23/66

18

a ner quality o sel-attention on the part o the

reader, ailing which the thought contained in themis unveriable at its deeper levels.

Gurdjie was born, probably in 1866, to a Greek

ather and an Armenian mother in Alexandropol (now

Gumri), Armenia, a region where Eastern and West-

ern cultures mixed and oten clashed. Te environment

o his childhood and early adolescence, while suggest-ing a near-biblical patriarchal culture, is also marked

by elements not usually associated with these cultural

traditions. Te portrait Gurdjie draws o his ather,

a well-known ashokh, or bard, suggests some orm o

participation in an oral tradition stretching back tohumanitys distant past. At the same time, Gurdjie

speaks o having been exposed to all the orms o

modern knowledge, especially experimental science,

which he explored with an impassioned diligence.

Te inuence o his ather and certain o his early

teachers contrasts very sharply with the orceso modernity that he experienced as a child. Tis

contrast, however, is not easily describable. Te


24/66

19

dierence is not simply that o ancient versus mod-

ern worldviews or patterns o behavior, though itcertainly includes that. Te impression, rather, is that

these remarkable men o his early years maniested

a certain quality o personal presence or being. Tat

the vital dierence between human beings is a mat-

ter o their level o being became one o the unda-

mental elements in Gurdjie s teaching and is notreducible to conventional psychological, behavioral,

or cultural typologies.

Meetings with Remarkable Men shows us the

youthul Gurdjie journeying to monasteries and

schools o awakening in remote parts o CentralAsia and the Middle East, searching or a knowl-

edge that neither traditional religion nor modern

science by itsel could oer him. Te clues to what

Gurdjie actually ound, inwardly and outwardly, on

these journeys are subtly distributed throughout the

narrative, rather than laid out in doctrinal orm. Dis-cursive statements o ideas are relatively rare in the

book, and where they are given it is with a deceptive


25/66

20

simplicity that serves to turn the reader back to the

teachings woven in the narrative portions o the text.Repeated readings oMeetings with Remarkable Men

yield the realization that Gurdjie meant to draw

our attention to the search itsel, and that what he

intended to bring to the West was not only a new

statement o what has been called the primordial

tradition, but the knowledge o how to conduct asearch within the conditions o contemporary lie.

For Gurdjie, as we shall see, the search itsel, when

rightly conducted, emerges as the principal spiritu-

alizing orce in human lie, what one observer has

termed a transorming search, rather than a searchor transormation.

As has been noted, Gurdjie began his work as a

teacher in Russia around 1912, on the eve o the civil

war that led to the Russian Revolution. In 1914, he

was joined by the philosopher P. D. Ouspensky and

soon ater by the well-known Russian composerTomas de Hartmann. Ouspensky was later to

produce In Search o the Miraculous, by ar the best


26/66

21

account o Gurdjie s teaching written by a pupil

or anyone other than Gurdjie, while de Hartmann,working in a unique collaboration with Gurdjie,

would produce what has come to be called the

Gurdjie/de Hartmann music. Soon ater, as the

Revolution drew near and the coming breakdown

o civil order began to announce itsel, Gurdjie and

a small band o dedicated pupils, including Tomasand Olga de Hartmann, made perilous journeys to

the Crimea and iis (now bilisi). Tere they were

joined by Alexandre and Jeanne de Salzmann, the

ormer a well-known artist and theatrical designer

and the latter a teacher o the Dalcroze system orhythmic dance who was later to emerge as Gurd-

jie s greatest pupil and the principal guide under

whom his teaching continued to be passed on ater

his death in 1949. It was in iis, in 1919, that

Gurdjie organized the rst version o his Institute

or the Harmonious Development o Man.Te account by Ouspensky and notes by other

pupils published in 1973 under the title Views rom


27/66

22

the Real World show that in the Moscow period,

beore the journey out o Russia, Gurdjie tire-lessly articulated a vast body o ideas about man

and the cosmos. It is appropriate here to interrupt

the historical narrative in order to summarize some

o these ormulations, which played an important

role in the subsequent development o his teaching,

even as Gurdjie changed the outer orms and cer-tain inner emphases in his direct work with pupils.

Also, to a limited extent, these ideas throw light on

developments that came later, some o which have

given rise to unnecessary conusion in the minds o

outside observers. One caveat, however, is necessary.I in his writings Gurdjie never sought merely to

lay out a philosophical system, all the more in his

direct work with pupils did he mercilessly resist the

role o guru, preacher, or schoolteacher.In Search o

the Miraculous shows, with considerable orce, that

Gurdjie always gave his ideas to his pupils underconditions designed to break through the crust o

emotional and intellectual associations which, he


28/66

23

taught, shut out the voice o conscience in man.

Te oten awesome precision with which he wasable to break through that crustways o behaving

with his pupils that were, in turn, shocking, mys-

terious, rightening, magical, delicately gentle, and

clairvoyantremains one o the principal actors

around which both the Gurdjie legend and the

misunderstandings about him have arisen, as well as

being the element most written about by those who

came in touch with him, and the most imitated in

the current age o new religions.

Te Gurdjie Ideas

It is true enough to say that Gurdjie s system o

ideas is complex and all-encompassing, but one must

immediately add that their ormulation is designed

to point us toward a central and simple power oapprehension that Gurdjie taught is merely latent

within the human mind and that is the only power


29/66

24

by which we can actually understand ourselves in

relation to the universe. In this sense, the distinc-tion between doctrine and method does not entirely

obtain in Gurdjie s teaching. Te ormulations

o the ideas are themselves meant to have a spe-

cial action on the sense o sel and may thereore

be regarded as part o the practical method. Tis

characteristic o Gurdjie s teaching reects whatGurdjie perceived as the center o gravity o the

contemporary subjectivitythe act that modern

civilization is lopsidedly oriented around the think-

ing unction. Modern mans illusory eeling o I is

to a great extent built up around his thoughts andthereore, in accordance with the level o the pupil,

the ideas themselves are meant to aect this alse

sense o sel. For Gurdjie, the deeply penetrat-

ing inuence o scientic thought in modern lie

was not something merely to be deplored, but to

be understood as the channel through which theeternal ruth must rst nd its way toward the

human heart.


30/66

25

Man, Gurdjie taught, is an unnished cre-

ation. He is not ully Man, considered as a cosmi-cally unique being whose intelligence and power

o action mirror the energies o the source o lie

itsel. On the contrary, man, as he is, is an automa-

ton. Our thoughts, eelings, and deeds are little

more than mechanical reactions to external and

internal stimuli. In Gurdjie s terms, we cannot doanything. In and around us, everything happens

without the participation o an authentic conscious-

ness. But human beings are ignorant o this state o

aairs because o the pervasive and deeply inter-

nalized inuence o culture and education, whichengrave in us the illusion o autonomous conscious

selves. In short, man is asleep. Tere is no authentic

I am in his presence, but only a ractured egoism

which masquerades as the authentic sel, and whose

machinations poorly imitate the normal human

unctions o thought, eeling, and will.Many actors reinorce this sleep. Each o

the reactions that proceed in ones presence is


31/66

26

accompanied by a deceptive sense o Ione o many

Is, each imagining itsel to be the whole, and eachbuered o rom awareness o the others. Each o

these many Is represents a process whereby the subtle

energy o consciousness is absorbed and degraded, a

process that Gurdjie termed identication. Man

identiesthat is, squanders his conscious energy

with every passing thought, impulse, and sensation.Tis state o aairs takes the orm o a continuous

sel-deception and a continuous procession o ego-

istic emotions, such as anger, sel-pity, sentimental-

ity, and ear, which are o such a pervasively painul

nature that we are constantly driven to amelioratethis condition through the endless pursuit o social

recognition, sensory pleasure, or the vague and unre-

alizable goal o happiness.

According to Gurdjie, the human condition

cannot be understood apart rom considering

humanity within the unction o organic lie onearth. Te human being is constructed to trans-

orm energies o a specic nature, and neither


32/66

27

our potential inner development nor our present

actual predicament is understandable apart romthis unction. Tus, in the teaching o Gurdjie,

psychology is inextricably connected with cosmol-

ogy and metaphysics and, in a certain sense, biol-

ogy. Te diagram known as the Ray o Creation

provides one o the conceptual keys to approaching

this interconnection between humanity and the uni-versal order, and as such invites repeated study rom a

variety o angles and stages o understanding.

Te reader is reerred to chapters 5, 7, and 9 o

In Search o the Miraculous or a discussion o this

diagram, but the point to be emphasized here is that,at the deepest level, the human mind and heart are

enmeshed in a concatenation o causal inuences o

enormous scale and design. A study o the Ray o

Creation makes it clear that the aspects o human

nature through which one typically attempts to

improve ones lot are without any orce whateverwithin the network o universal inuences that act

upon man on earth. In this consists our undamental


33/66

28

illusion, an illusion only intensied by the technolog-

ical achievements o modern science. We are simplyunable to draw upon the conscious energies passing

through us which, in the cosmic scheme, are those

possessing the actual power o causal efcacy. We do

not and cannot participate consciously in the great

universal order, but instead are tossed about en masse

or purposes limited to the unctions o organic lieon earth as a whole. Even in this relatively limited

spherelimited, that is, when compared to mans

latent destinyhumanity has become progres-

sively incapable o ullling its unction, a point that

Gurdjie strongly emphasized in his own writings.Tis aspect o the Ray o Creationnamely, that

the ate o the earth is somehow bound up with

the possibility o the inner evolution o individual

men and womenresonates with the contemporary

sense o impending planetary disaster.

How are human beings to change this state oaairs and begin drawing on the universal conscious

energies which we are built to absorb but which now


34/66

29

pass through us untransormed? How is humanity

to assume its proper place in the great chain obeing? Gurdjie s answer to these questions actually

circumscribes the central purpose o his teaching

namely, that human lie on earth may now stand at a

major transitional point, comparable perhaps to the

all o the great civilizations o the past, and that

development o the whole being(rather than one oranother o the separate human unctions) is the only

thing that can permit us to pass through this transi-

tion in a manner worthy o human destiny.

But whereas the descent o humanity takes place

en masse, ascent or evolution is possible only withinthe individual.In Search o the Miraculouspresents a

series o diagrams dealing with the same energies

and laws as the Ray o Creation, not only as a cosmic

ladder o descent but also in their evolutionary aspect

within the individual. In these diagrams, known col-

lectively as the Food Diagram, Ouspensky explainsin some detail how Gurdjie regarded the energy

transactions within the individual human organism.


35/66

30

Again, the reader is reerred to Ouspenskys

book. Te point o these energy transactions isthat humanity can begin to occupy its proper place

within the chain o being only through an inner

work which within the individual human being may

be subsumed under the general term attention. Te

many levels o attention possible or man, up to and

including an attention that in traditional teachingshas been termed Spirit, are here ranged along a

dynamic, vertical continuum that reaches rom the

level o biological sustenance, which humans require

or their physical bodies, up to the incomparably

ner sustenance that we require or the inner growtho the soul. Tis ner substance is termed the ood

o impressions, a deceptively matter-o-act phrase

that eventually denes the uniquely human cosmic

obligation and potentiality o constantly and in

everything working or an objective understanding

o the Real.


36/66

31

6

Te Ray o Creation and the Food Diagram,

extraordinary though they are, are only a small

part o the body o ideas contained in In Search o

the Miraculous. Tey are cited here as examples o

how Gurdjie not only restated the ancient, peren-

nial teachings in a language adapted to the modernmind, but also brought to these ancient principles

something o such colossal originality that those

who ollowed him detected in his teaching the signs

o what in Western terminology may be designated

a new revelation.

However, as was indicated above, the organic

interconnection o the ideas in In Search o the

Miraculousis communicated not principally through

conceptual argument but as a gradual unolding,

which Ouspensky experienced to the extent that

there arose within him that agency o inner unitywhich Gurdjie called the real Ithe activation

o which required o Ouspensky an ego-shattering


37/66

32

inner work under the guidance o Gurdjie and

within the general group conditions he createdor his pupils. Each o the great ideas in the book

leads to the others. Te Ray o Creation and the

Food Diagram are inseparable rom Gurdjie s

teaching about the undamental law o three orces

and the law o the sevenold development o energy

(the Law o Octaves), and the interrelation o theselaws as expressed in the symbol o the enneagram.

Tese ideas are in turn inseparable rom Gurdjie s

teaching about the tripartite division o human

nature, the three centers o mind, eeling, and body.

Likewise, the astonishing account o how Gurdjiestructured the conditions o group work is insepa-

rable rom the idea o his work as a maniestation o

the Fourth Way, the Way o Consciousness, distinct

rom the traditionally amiliar paths termed the way

o the akir, the way o the monk, and the way o

the yogi.Te notion o the Fourth Way is one o Gurd-

jie s ideas that have captured the imagination o


38/66

33

contemporary people and have brought quite a new

meaning to the idea o esotericism. Te meaning othis idea is perhaps best approached by resuming the

narrative o Gurdjie s lie, with special attention

given to the conditions o work which he created

or his pupils.

Te Institute or the Harmonious

Development o Man

Ater a brie period in Constantinople, Gurdjie

and his group o pupils made their way through

Europe and nally settled in France where, in 1922,

he established his Institute or the Harmonious

Development o Man at the Chteau du Prieur at

Fontainebleau-Avon, just outside Paris. Te brie

intense period o activity at the Prieur has been

described in numerous books, but even or thoseamiliar with these accounts, the establishment

and day-to-day activities o the Prieur still evoke


39/66

34

astonishment. It was during this period that Gurd-

jie developed many o the methods and practiceso group work that have retained a central place

in the work throughout the world today, including

many o the Movements or sacred dances. All seri-

ous accounts o the conditions Gurdjie created at

the Prieur give the impression o a community lie

pulsating with the uncompromising search or truthengaging all sides o human naturedemanding

physical work, intensive emotional interactions, and

the study o a vast range o ideas about humanity

and the universal world. Tese accounts invariably

speak o the encounter with onesel that these con-ditions made possible and the experience o the sel

which accompanied this encounter.

Te most active period o the Prieur lasted less

than two years, ending with Gurdjie s nearly atal

motor accident on July 6, 1924. In order to situate

this period properly, it is necessary to look back onceagain to the year 1909, when Gurdjie had nished

his twenty-one years o traveling throughout Asia,


40/66

35

the Middle East, Arica, and Europe meeting indi-

viduals and visiting communities who possessedknowledge unsuspected by most people. By 1909

Gurdjie had learned secrets o the human psyche

and o the universe that he knew to be necessary or

the uture welare o humanity, and he set himsel

the task o transmitting them to those who could use

them rightly. Ater trying to cooperate with exist-

ing societies, he decided to create an organization

o his own. He started in 1911 in ashkent, where

he had established a reputation as a wonder-worker

and an authority on questions o the Beyond. He

moved to Moscow in 1912 and ater the revolutiono February 1917 he began his remarkable journeys

through the war-torn Caucasus region, leading a

band o his pupils to Constantinople and nally to

France, where he reopened his institute at the Ch-

teau de Prieur at Fontainebleau-Avon. His avowedaim during this period was to set up a worldwide

organization or the dissemination o his ideas and


41/66

36

the training o helpers. Te motor accident o July

1924 occurred at this critical juncture.When he began to recover rom his injuries,

Gurdjie was aced with the sheer impossibility

o realizing his plans or the institute. He was a

stranger in Europe; his health was shattered; he had

no money; and many o his riends and pupils had

abandoned him. At that point he made the decision

to nd a new way o transmitting to posterity what

he had learned about human nature and human des-

tiny. Tis he would do by writing. His period as an

author began in December o 1924 and continued

until May 1935. It was during this period that heproduced the monumental expression o his thought,

Beelzebubs ales to His Grandson; the subtle, crystal-

line call to inner work, Meetings with Remarkable

Men; and the prooundly encoded, unnished Lie is

Real Only Ten, When I Am.It was also during thisperiod that he culminated his collaboration with

the composer Tomas de Hartmann, rounding o


42/66

37

the unique corpus o music that now bears both

their names.In act, although the period o the Prieur had

ended, and although struck by numerous personal

blows and tragedies, Gurdjie by no means limited

himsel to writing. Quite the contrary. His travels to

America, and his seeding o the work there, acceler-

ated and intensied. Te creation and development

o the Movements continued. And, perhaps above

all, assisted by Jeanne de Salzmann, his work with

groups and individuals in Paris not only attracted

rom Europe and America the men and women

who would later carry the work to the cities o theWestern world, but at the same time allowed him,

within the silence and energy o his Paris apartment,

to transmit a portion o his understanding o inner

work to many other men and women rom many

parts o the world.Ater his death in Paris in 1949, the work con-

tinued under the guidance o Jeanne de Salzmann


43/66

38

and now rests largely in the hands o the second

generation o his circle o direct pupils.

6

In conclusion, and returning to the idea o the three

centers, a succinct statement o this undamental

aspect o what Gurdjie brought to the modernworld as the Fourth Way may be cited rom the

descriptive brochure published at the Prieur in

1922:

Te civilization o our time, with its

unlimited means or extending its inuence,

has wrenched man rom the normal condi-

tions in which he should be living. It is true

that civilization has opened up or man new

paths in the domain o knowledge, science

and economic lie, and thereby enlarged his

world perception. But, instead o raising himto a higher all-round level o development,

civilization has developed only certain sides


44/66

39

o his nature to the detriment o other ac-

ulties, some o which it has destroyed alto-gether . . .

Modern mans world perception and his

mode o living are not the conscious expres-

sion o his being taken as a complete whole.

Quite the contrary, they are only the uncon-

scious maniestation o one or another parto him.

From this point o view our psychic lie,

both as regards our world perception and

our expression o it, ail to present a unique

and indivisible whole, that is to say a wholeacting both as common repository o all

our perceptions and as the source o all our

expressions.

On the contrary, it is divided into three

separate entities, which have nothing to do

with one another, but are distinct both asregards their unctions and their constituent

substances.


45/66

40

Tese three entirely separate sources o

the intellectual, emotional or moving lie oman, each taken in the sense o the whole

set o unctions proper to them, are called

by the system under notice the thinking, the

emotional and the moving centers.4

It is difcult conceptually, and in a ew words,to communicate the meaning o this idea o the

three centers, which is one o the central aspects

o Gurdjie s teaching. Te modern person sim-

ply has no conception o how sel-deceptive a lie

can be that is lived in only one part o onesel. Tehead, the emotions, and the body each have their

own perceptions and actions, and each in itsel can

live a simulacrum o human lie. In the modern

era this has gone to an extreme point, and most o

the technical and material progress o our culture

serves to push the individual urther into only oneo the centersone third, as it were, o our real

sel-nature. Te growth o vast areas o scientic


46/66

41

knowledge is, according to Gurdjie, outweighed

by the diminution o the conscious space and timewithin which we live and experience ourselves. With

an ever-diminishing I, we gather an ever-expand-

ing corpus o inormation about the universe. But

to be humanto be a whole sel possessed o moral

power, will, and intelligencerequires all the centers,

and more. Tis more is communicated above all inGurdjie s own writings, in which the levels o

spiritual development possible or human beings are

connected with a breathtaking vision o the levels

o possible service that the developing individual is

called on to render to mankind and to the universalsource o creation itsel.

Tus, the proper relationship o the three centers

o cognition in the human being is a necessary pre-

condition or the reception and realization o what in

the religions o the world has been variously termed

the Holy Spirit, Atman, or the Buddha nature. Teconditions Gurdjie created or his pupils cannot be

understood apart rom this act. I wished to create


47/66

42

around mysel, Gurdjie wrote, conditions in which

a man would be continuously reminded o the senseand aim o his existence by an unavoidable riction

between his conscience and the automatic manies-

tations o his nature.5 Deeply buried though it is,

the awakened conscience is the something morethat,

according to Gurdjie, is the only orce in modern

mans nearly completely degenerate psyche that canactually bring the parts o his nature together and

open him to that energy and unnamable awareness

o which all the religions have always spoken as the

git that descends rom above, but which in the con-

ditions o modern lie is almost impossible to receivewithout an extraordinary quality o help.

Notes:

1 From the Introduction to Lie is Real, Only Ten, When

I Am, p xii.2 In 1922, Gurdjie acquired the Prieur dAvon, a

large estate and ormer priory located about 40 miles


48/66

43

rom Paris where he established intense communalconditions or inner work, especially rom 1922 untilhis automobile accident in 1924.

3 In this light, it is interesting to note that groups thatbreak away at dierent moments, to work by them-selves and on their own, run the risk o clinging dog-matically to certain specic orms and practices.

4 G. Gurdjie s Institute or the Harmonious Develop-

ment o Man: Prospectus No. 1, p 3 (privately printed,ca. 1922).

5 Meetings with Remarkable Men, p 270.


49/66

44

For Further Study

Te Gurdjief FoundationTe most comprehensive directory o websites and

contact inormation or the Gurdjie Foundations

throughout the world may, at present, be accessed

on the website o Te Gurdjie InternationalReview, at www.gurdjie.org/oundation.htm.

Books, Music and FilmNote: rst publication o all books is cited, ollowed,

in parentheses, by most recent or more readily avail-

able editions.

Books by Gurdjief

Gurdjie, G. I.All and Everything: Beelzebubs ales

to His Grandson. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1950

(New York: Penguin Arkana, 1999); and New York:

Jeremy P. archer/Penguin (revised), 2006 archer/Penguin (second revision), 2008.

Long read and respected, and perennially


50/66

45

in print, the 1950 edition was edited by A. R. Orage

on the basis o a literal English text prepared romGurdjie s original Russian and Armenian by

pupils at the Institute or the Harmonious Develop-

ment o Man. Tis version may become the readers

preerence. However, the revised translation, initially

published in 1992 and republished with corrections

in 2006, should also be read. Tis edition reects,

to some extent, the greater ease o expression o

the French edition o 1956 and also beneted rom

direct access to the original Russian text, published

in 2000 by raditional Studies Press (oronto). Both

versions o the book can be trusted.

.Meetings with Remarkable Men. New York:

Dutton, 1963 (New York: Penguin Arkana, 1985).

Gurdjie s account o his youth and early

search or hidden knowledge was written as an auto-

biographical narrative. It possesses an uncommoninner calm and presence which oers a taste o the

path that he brought to the modern world.


51/66

46

. Lie is Real Only Ten, When I Am. New

York: Dutton, 1982 (New York: Penguin Arkana,1991).

Here Gurdjie speaks on many levels and

with great precision and candor o the discoveries

and difculties in his personal struggle to bring the

Work to birth.

. Views rom the Real World. New York: Dut-

ton, 1973 (New York: Penguin Compass, 1984).

A collection o Gurdjie s lectures rom

the years 1917 to 1933. Tat any record o these

lectures exists at all is due to a ew pupils who, with

astonishing powers o memory . . . managed to write

down what they heard aterwards during the tur-

bulence o revolutionary Russia, at the Institute or

the Harmonious Development o Man, and during

Gurdjie s visits to American pupils in New York

and elsewhere. Te book oers a rare opening tothe vast scale o the Gurdjie ideas expressed in the

human resonance o his own voice.


52/66

47

Accounts by Direct Pupils

Ouspensky, P. D. In Search o the Miraculous. New

York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949 (New York: Harcourt,

2001).

Tis book may be given a special signicance

in this list o reliable recommended works. Since its

rst publication in 1949, OuspenskysIn Search o theMiraculoushas served as the most artul, electriying

and proound account written by a pupil. Ouspen-

skys book retains a remarkable strength and resh-

ness to this day and continues to help readers at all

levels o their preparation and acquaintance with the

Gurdjie teaching. For many, it remains the booko choice or those approaching the teaching or the

rst time.

de Hartmann, Tomas and Olga. Our Lie with Mr.

Gurdjie. New York: Cooper Square, 1962. Several

revised and enlarged editions have been publishedover the years. Te most recent and denitive: Sand-

point: Sandpoint Press, 2008.


53/66

48

Tis book describes the dangerous ight by

Gurdjie and a handul o pupils out o war-tornrevolutionary Russia, ending with the establishment

o the Prieur community in France. One o the

most aithul portraits o Gurdjie the man.

Lannes, Henriette. Tis Fundamental Quest. San

Francisco: Far West Institute, 2007.A direct pupil o Gurdjie, Henriette

Lannes was responsible in later years or the practi-

cal study o the Gurdjie teaching in Lyon (France)

and in London. Many o the brie chapters in this

record o her work in Lyon are deceptively simple,

recording a kind o higher common sense basedon ew but undamental assumptions: the need or

sel-knowledge, the necessity o challenging our-

selves, the revelatory power o attention, the impera-

tive o honesty with onesel and o claried relations

with others.

Pentland, John.Exchanges Within. New York: Con-

tinuum, 1997 (New York: archer Penguin, 2004).


54/66

49

John Pentland was immensely inuential

in the transmission o the Gurdjie teaching inAmerica. A aithul and dynamic record o both the

energy and the thought exchanged in a Gurdjie

group as led by one o its most powerul and creative

leaders.

de Salzmann, Michel. Mans Ever New and Eter-nal Challenge. In On the Way to Sel Knowledge,

pp 54-83, New York: Alred A. Knop, 1976. Also

Seeing: Te Endless Source o Inner Freedom in

Material or Tought, #14, 12-30.

Michel de Salzmann was both a trained

psychiatrist and one o the most respected leaders othe Work throughout the world. Tese two magiste-

rial essays show the place o psychotherapy in the

process o inner development while at the same time

oering a ar-reaching vision o the several levels o

the Gurdjie work.

Segal, William.A Voice at the Borders o Silence. New

York: Te Overlook Press, 2003.


55/66

50

A highly successul businessman, an impor-

tant American artist and a devoted practitioner oZen, William Segal was or many years a leading

gure in the development o the Gurdjie Work in

America. Tis book generously oers a window into

all sides o this remarkable Gurdjie man.

. Opening. New York: Te Continuum Pub-lishing Company, 1998.

racol, Henri. Te aste For Tings Tat Are rue.

Longmead, Shatesbury, Dorset: Element Books,

Ltd., 1994. (Expanded and revised edition orth-

coming, entitled Te Real Question Remains by

Sandpoint Press, Sandpoint).

Henri racol was a pupil o Gurdjie or

over ten years and worked as a leader o the Work

closely alongside Jeanne de Salzmann in the years

ollowing Gurdjie s death. Te essays, talks and

interviews in this book reveal an approach to theGurdjie teaching unsurpassed in its subtlety, depth

and purity.


56/66

51

Te ollowing books seem to me to be among the

most honest attempts by pupils o Gurdjief todepict the personal impact o the man and his wayo teaching:

Anderson, Margaret. Te Unknowable Gurdjie.

New York: Weiser, 1962 (London and New York:

Penguin Arkana, 1991).Hulme, Kathryn. Undiscovered Country. Boston:

Little Brown, 1966.

Hands, Rina. Diary o Madame Egout Pour Sweet.

Aurora, Oregon: wo Rivers Press, 1991.

Nott, C. S. eachings o Gurdjie: Te Journal o a

Pupil. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961

(London and New York: Penguin Arkana, 1991).

chekhovitch, cheslaw. Gurdjie: A Master in Lie.

oronto: Dolmen Meadow Editions, 2006.

Zuber, Ren. Who Are You, Monsieur Gurdjie?Lon-

don: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.


57/66

52

Accounts by Other Pupils o the Gurdjief Work

Ravindra, Ravi. Heart Without Measure. Haliax:

Shaila Press, 1999. (Sandpoint: Morning Light

Press, 1999).

Te rst published account o the teaching

o Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjie s greatest pupil,

who was responsible or the Work ater his death.

Vaysse, Jean. oward Awakening: An Approach to the

eaching Let by Gurdjie. San Francisco: Far West

Undertakings, 1978. (London and New York: Pen-

guin Arkana, 1988); (Sandpoint: Morning Light

Press, 2009).Written by a long-time pupil o Jeanne de

Salzmann, this concise exposition claries much

that has seemed obscure in the Gurdjie teaching.


58/66

53

Also recommended:

Material or Tought, a journal published occasion-

ally in San Francisco by the Gurdjie Foundation o

Caliornia under the imprint o Far West Editions.

See: http://www.arwesteditions.com

Gurdjie International Review: see http://www.gurd-

jie.org

Guide and Index to Beelzebubs ales. oronto: radi-

tional Studies Press, 2003. Second edition, reerenc-

ing all editions oBeelzebubs ales.

Needleman, Jacob and George Baker, eds., Gurdjie:Essays and Refections on the Man and His eaching.

New York: Continuum, 2004.

Needleman, Jacob, ed., Te Inner Journey: Views rom

the Gurdjie Work. Sandpoint: Morning Light Press,

2008.Te rst major collection o essays and inter-

views by the rst and second generation o Gurdjie


59/66

54

pupils. Te present essay has been drawn, with minor

changes, rom the Introduction to this book.

Music

Te Music o Gurdjie/de Hartmann. Tomas de

Hartmann, piano. 3-disc set. riangle Records, a

division o riangle Editions.

In these essential recordings one eelsimmediately the authority o the composers inter-

pretation o his own music, although de Hart-

mann was not always aware that his perormances

were being recorded. Tus certain pieces contain

spontaneous departures rom the printed text.

Te original recordings were made largely

on an early, somewhat primitive, wire recorder. Many

years later the transer to LP, and eventually to CD,

included an electronic process designed to clariy the

sound and eliminate extraneous noises and back-

ground hiss. Nevertheless, the spiritual authenticityo these recordings make this a denitive rendition

o one o the central orms o the teaching.


60/66

55

Gurdjie/de Hartmann: Music or the Piano, Vol-

umes 1-4. Linda Daniel-Spitz, Charles Ketcham,Laurence Rosenthal, pianists. Wergo (Schott

Wergo Music Media, Mainz, Germany).

Tese perormances were recorded by the

three editors o the published complete works. Tis

edition was produced under the guidance o Jeanne

de Salzmann. A major eature o these our sets o

CDs is that they comprise a complete recording o

the our volumes o the published music, presented

in the same order. Tus it is possible or the listener

to ollow in sequence the printed scores.

Gurdjie/de Hartmann, Volumes 1-10 (Various

titles: Meditations, Music o the Sayyids and Der-

vishes, Hymn or Christmas Day, First Dervish

Prayer, Circles, etc.). Alain Kremski, piano. Fano,

Italy: Nave Recording Studio.

Alain Kremskis interpretations are otenimaginative and unusual, and always there is great

authority in his playing and technique. Although the


61/66

56

music or the Gurdjie Movements is generally not

designed to be heard separately rom the sacred dancesthemselves, Kremski has elected to include many o

de Hartmanns compositions or the Movements in

these collections.

Gurdjie/de Hartmann, Volumes 1 and 2. Laurence

Rosenthal, piano. Windemere.Tese recent recordings, part o a series still

in progress, were made by a composer and pianist

with a long association with the Gurdjie/de Hart-

mann music. Rosenthal arranged and orchestrated

many o these pieces or inclusion in the musical

score o Peter Brooks lmMeetings with RemarkableMen. Te CD o the score or the lm is available on

Citadel records.

Film

Meetings with Remarkable Men, directed by Peter

Brook, produced by Remar Production, Inc., 1978,distributed by Morning Light Press, Sandpoint.

Filmed on location in Aghanistan, and based


62/66

57

on the book by Gurdjie, this deeply evocative lm

includes what is currently the only publicly availableperormance o the Gurdjie Movements.


63/66


64/66


65/66


66/66

needleman intro

Documents