Many ‘spiritual teachers’ claim to be of the Fourth Way, Gurdjieff’s declared system. Without proof or background, some have affiliated themselves by using Fourth Way techniques, jargon, exercises, including the movements and morning inner work, copied the practical work of the Prieurie, even shaved their heads into Gurdjieff’s famous bald pate. Some sought adherents by putting bookmarks in all of the ‘Work’ books in esoteric bookstores. Of course, they have attached Gurdjieff’s name to their own bricolage, attested that they have the source, call their path by associative names like Sarmoung or the like and yet, in ways both major and minor ways, deviate significantly, without noting such to the consumer of their product.
Attached have been such philosophies and practices as traditionalism, Sufism, contemplative Christianity, ecstatic dancing and free love, wineries, acting, and more. Of course, Gurdjieff himself may have been a bit of a bricoleur, hinting for the curious about Tibet, Egypt, hidden monasteries in the Caucasus, providing all sorts of avenues of exploration, argument and identification. None of it has been objectively provable, although people have taken some of the writings, especially Meetings with Remarkable Men, as somewhat biographical. Indeed a movie was made by Peter Brook, appearing to support this view. But Gurdjieff himself stated that his system was from the ’knowledge of the West and the wisdom of the East’ not any particular place.
Gurdjieff has had many legitimate heirs, students who have taken his teachings in their fullness out to many more. Among those are Jeanne De Salzmann, Wim Nyland, JG Bennett, Jane Heap, George & Helen Adie in Australia, John Sinclair, Lord Pentland, Pierre & Vivian Elliot, Rina Hands and many, many more. Today, a good deal of those who profess to follow Gurdjieff’s teaching come to it through reading In Search of the Miraculous by Petr Ouspensky, as well as the above practitioners, many of them authors in their own right. So, who reads Gurdjieff anymore in his original writings, something he stated was a necessary component of this Fourth Way work? Indeed, the magnum opus, Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, was written to ‘bury the dog’ exceedingly deep. It contains nearly 1300 pages of sometimes unintelligible neologisms, run-on sentences and fantastic characters who tell stories with no discernable plot. In today’s lexicon, it would be called a hot mess.
The movements, the series of choreographed exercises to music, has been extensively used by both legacy groups and appropriated by those with less knowledge, as they are a way of working on radical attention that produces some of the palpable energy needed in inner work. One can see examples on YouTube , some true to form, some awkward, and some pure silliness, drama and fantasy, obviously without the inner teachings that are transmitted orally. Indeed, Gurdjieff at the end of his life called himself a ‘teacher of dancing’, as if the movements were the icing on his multi-layered cake that brought all together in a whole. I can attest, having just returned from a movements intensive with young people in this Work which was, for many, their first experience. Those youngsters made connections to their practices that hitherto fore had been inaccessible and the energy was infectious. It was delightful.
However, Beelzebub remains opaque to many and yet it is the one of the ‘Obligolnian Strivings’ (Gurdjieff’s 5-part explanation of the teaching when humans were normal) that one must read it as it contains: “The conscious striving to know ever more and more about the laws concerning world-Creation and world-Maintenance” This is the formulation that Gurdjieff put in Beelzebub, which he wrote while recovering from an automobile accident. Indeed, this huge piece of writing was the center for many years of Work effort by the group surrounding Gurdjieff in Paris. Louise March, part of the team that was dictated to and who rewrote, translated, parsed and then rewrote again, said emphatically that Gurdjieff was the ‘master of exactitude’, demanding that his teaching, while deliberately obscured, was complete in the text.
To the groups that surrounded Gurdjieff following its tentative completion, chapters were read aloud. There was no reported commentary by the author. However, there are anecdotal reports that the book was discussed late at night in cafes and hotel rooms as well as pondered as was encouraged. Each student took away their own impressions of the text, sharing with others and many later in life wrote books with their impressions, conclusions and interpretations. Many of those ‘grandchildren’ of Gurdjieff, to whom the book is addressed, have read only those books as Beelzebub remains a far field and perhaps a life-long pursuit and there are simpler, more accessible accounts.
However, there are those who insist—as did Gurdjieff in ‘Meetings’, that the later accounts are in fact, journalism per se. This is not to disparage those efforts which, to many, have been useful. But indeed, they are not the words of the progenitor of the Fourth Way. Is there a reason now, in the world of ‘cut-and-paste’- teachings and AI to actually go back and see what was said, see what it means to oneself and see what it takes to gather this experience?
Because experience it is. Although Gurdjieff’s writings are contained in four books, Herald of the Coming Good (withdrawn by Gurdjieff), Meetings with Remarkable Men, Life is Real Only then, when ‘I am”, and All and Everything, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, it is the latter that daunts many a reader. Yet, this work, (called the Work) implies that efforts must be made and that the laws needed to learn one’s place in the scheme of things are contained in the book itself, although buried deeply. To literally delve into the book requires patient work.
Obviously, those New Age gurus around would not associate themselves with Gurdjieff’s name unless there were real meat to be had. All the nutrition is not contained solely in the movements, or the ideas, although, like the proverbial layered cake, each has its force and each provides an element in the panoply. Not all the practices can be found in a book. But the efforts required to be a reader and share with others those efforts have special rewards, not just found in the text but in the action of doing.
Of course, there are still traditional groups who read the text assiduously, although they too, are aging out in many places. They are also hard to find in some areas of the world. Online groups who try to teach the book as “the Work” are without the context that physical proximity provides, nor can they truly provide that richness of the companion practices, of physical work, movements classes, group sittings and face-to-face thematic discussions. However, something can be conveyed when working with those to whom the parsing is a practice as well as an effort. Most require some sort of introduction and do not recruit.
However, there is one venue yearly which is open to everyone. The All and Everything Conference, three days of studies, individual and group into the writings, finished last month. Begun in 1996 in the UK as ‘Companions of the Book” this conference has been going for 28 years now. Alternating between Europe and the US, it is a place where people can gather, listen to individual papers into the writings of Gurdjieff and participate in group readings with facilitators. The papers and question and answer sessions are rich in far-ranging discussions and shared insights. However, it is the groups study sessions of particular writings of Gurdjieff that can be a boost to the effort needed to tackle Beelzebub.
As again, Louise March, in her book, The Gurdjieff Years, recalled Gurdjieff as ‘the master of exactitude.” It is not just the text, the fractured story and the characters and their conversations that are the root of the teaching but the complex syntax, run-on sentences, weird made-up words from a variety of languages and linguistic morphology. There are those who profess that the very act of reading aloud gives a deeper understanding as the very sounds have effect—these are works of multilayered experiences beyond the usual ‘this means this’ associative thinking.
So why read Gurdjieff? Perhaps because the water at the spring is purer than downstream. You choose where to drink.