To all those searching for meaning and wholeness in our lives, Gurdjieff called uncompromisingly for us to open our eyes, to see ourselves as we actually are, to remember ourselves, to awaken. What does it mean, in today’s conditions, to be a human being? Who am I? What is the sense and purpose of my life? What do I serve? To help us be able to understand life more fully, Gurdjieff proposed a vast framework of cosmological and psychological ideas. But right up front he says, “You have no business to believe me. I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.” So he offers practical ways of working, individually and together, to verify not only the truth of the ideas, but also to develop a more integrated consciousness, and thus be more open to the source of life.

When we see how disconnected we have become from that source, how all our attention is taken by the automatic thoughts, feelings and activities related to our outer lives, we begin to feel the impoverishment of our inner lives. In our preoccupation with outer things, Gurdjieff reminds us that we have been ignoring consciousness, and have forgotten our selves.

The Gurdjieff Foundations

Since Gurdjieff”s death in 1949, the publication of his writings, and of numerous books about him, has given wide currency to his name as a teacher of new ideas about the sense and aim of human life. As a result, an increasing number of people have expressed a serious interest in understanding his ideas. Groups have sprung up, looking for practical guidance in pursuing “work on oneself” indicated—in general terms—in the books.

Before he died, Gurdjieff charged Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann (1889-1990) and other senior followers with the responsibility of bringing his teaching to the world. They then established Foundations in Paris, London, Caracas and New York. It is through these centers that the Work has spread and that, gradually, as Gurdjieff had instructed, his writings have been published in many languages and his teaching made available around the world. Inspired by the Institute which Gurdjieff had created near Paris in the 1920s, more than thirty centers have been formed in North America alone since the New York Foundation was officially constituted as a not-for-profit charitable foundation in 1953.

The Teaching

Although his actual sources were never disclosed, there’s no doubt Gurdjieff’s ideas came from an ancient tradition shared by all great religions and systems of knowledge. Through his own understanding, he was able to transmit a coherent and practical method, expressed in contemporary language, and adapted to today’s conditions—a unique, new and complete teaching providing, for those who can find it, a key to their deepest questions.

Those familiar with the difficulties of inner work understand the reluctance of those engaged in it to proselytize. This accounts for the paucity of public statements from the Gurdjieff Foundations. However the present demand is so strong that this brochure has been prepared in response. If you wish further information, please write to the Foundation.

Recommended Reading:

By George I. Gurdjieff:
All and Everything, in three Series

Meetings with Remarkable Men, a film directed by Peter Brook, 1979
Views from the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff

By P.D. Ouspensky:

(Internet searches often find free downloadable pdfs.)