Gurdjieff calls us to open our eyes, to awaken, to see ourselves as we are, and to remember ourselves. What does it mean in today’s world to be a human being? What is the sense and purpose of my life—what do I serve? Who am I? To help approach and understand life more fully, Gurdjieff offers a comprehensive body of related 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.” Equally important, he offers practical ways of working, individually and together, to verify for oneself the truth of the ideas, and to begin to understand one’s unique place in the world, and one’s relationship to the cosmos.
A more objective self-observation becomes our most valuable tool to collect facts. We mustn’t fear what we find, or judge ourselves without compassion. We will see our lack of will power, and that we are consumed by reactions, fears, tension and mindless nonsense. But are we forever consigned to being unhappily divorced from our own natural essence?
We must live in the world we have inherited, but another possibility exists. Gurdjieff calls us to discover what has been forgotten, not to invent something novel. He reminds us that we have forgotten not only our selves, but also our place in the universe. And this is already within us.
The Gurdjieff Foundations
Since Gurdjieff”s death in 1949, both his own writings and many books about him have made his name well known as a teacher of new ideas about the sense and aim of human life. Groups formed, as an increasing number of people expressed serious interest in understanding his ideas. They naturally sought practical guidance in pursuing “work on oneself” as described in those books in general terms.
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. Gradually, as Gurdjieff had instructed, his writings have been published in many languages, and his teaching has been 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. The New York Foundation was officially constituted as a not-for-profit charitable foundation.
The Teaching
Although his actual sources were never specifically 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. If you wish further information, here is a link to the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York.
Recommended Reading:
By George I. Gurdjieff: All and Everything, in Three Series:
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson: An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man
Meetings with Remarkable Men
Life is Real Only Then When ‘I Am’
Views from the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff
Meetings with Remarkable Men, a film directed by Peter Brook, 1979
By P.D. Ouspensky:
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
(Internet searches often find free downloadable pdfs.)