George Gurdjieff

shanyin

Hello. I just came to learn about George Gurdjieff, heard him described twice as a master.

He came up with something he called 'the fourth way'. I am interested in hearing his teachings and I think the fourth way is what he taught to 'wake up'.

'people live in sleep, and die in sleep' he says.

Has anyone very familiar with him and his teachings?

I'm thinking about getting this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Way-P-D-Ouspensky/dp/0394716728/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285705962&sr=8-1

armando

you'd probably want to go with "all and everything" and "meetings with remarkable men", both by gurdjieff. ouspensky tends to off on his own weird tangents. i'd take gurdjieff with a grain of salt. he does have some interesting and amusing insights on the human (three brained beings) condition.

mugzy

Never heard of him...

Simonthepilgrim

Gurdjieff left us far too little written evidence of his long life and work - and I know too little of it, except that he was both charlatan and teacher, and a magnificent dancer according to my late father who had known him in Paris in the '20s and '30s. It was always somewhat strange to me that Pa was clearly very fond of GG, being pretty anti-supernaturalism, but I think he recognised that, behind all the Branum-and-Bailey showmanship, there was a genuine seeker after truth.

When GG talks about our being 'asleep', he is saying what we all say too. After all, the Buddha is the Awakened One and we are all trying to wake up from the delusions of samsara. GG, however, like Jung or Ramana Maharshi or Roberto Assagioli, believed that we each " fall asleep to essence", whereas many Buddhist deny or ignore "essence", preferring to believe in groundlessness.

One of Gurdjieff's theories was about what is now called the Enneagram. Having studied this for a couple of decades now, I am of the opinion that he was quite right when he said that this is something which cannot be explained, it can only be danced.

If you want logic and common sense, avoid GG but if you want to understand something of the roots of current mystical and theosophical thought, go for it.