Gurdajeff?

[GrandTrinity]

Anyone down with Mr. G? I like this idea of the 4th way beyond the yogi, monk or fakir. The 4th way is beyond duality and emobying the trinity into the next dimension...he used qi kung like dances, right?

[Cameron]

Dennis did alot of work with that stuff and he talks about it sometimes. Seems like a western system of enlightenment. For example, one thing he said to try is if you always open a door with your right hand open it with your other hand for a week. Or just do something differently.

 

I am not strongly attracted to it and remember Bodri saying in an email how no one ever got enlightened in Guierjief system except guiejief(I must have spelled that wrong I know).

 

I really havent studies it deeply enought tt comments though.

[Leo]

Yeah...I think consensus opinion was that he had a fairly high attainment, but he didn't seem to leave behind any students that ended up being good teachers. If you are interested in the Western tradition in general, one of the best guides is "The Zelator" by Mark Hedsel. It is the story of a guy running around in the occult circles in Europe and America from around the 1920's or so through modern day. It is pretty intricate though, with tons of footnotes, and lots of names that may not mean anything to you unless you're very familiar with a lot of the different schools of thought. Anyway, one of his teachers that he mentions in the book seems to have been Gurdjieff, although he doesn't name him. If you're interested, here is a web site devoted to the book and related thought:

 

http://zelator.topcities.com/index.htm

[Trunk]

Anyone down with Mr. G? I like this idea of the 4th way beyond the yogi, monk or fakir. The 4th way is beyond duality and emobying the trinity into the next dimension...he used qi kung like dances, right?

SimonV just made a thread at HTUSA that talks about that:

On this topic I just acquired and read an extremely good book called Gurdjieff: Key Concepts This is the best, most lucid overall guide to the Gurdjieff material I've come across, clarifying many obscure things. ... author, .. Sophia Wellbeloved

Simon is very well studied; the comment comes from a good source. Read the whole thread, he says a number of things about G.

 

Also, "The Fourth Way" by P.D. Ouspensky gets good reviews.

[Ian]

Many of the books of William Patrick Patterson are useful. Eating The I for an account of his own involvement, The Struggle of the Magicians for a historical view of why some of his most promising students never quite made it, and Voices in the Dark and Ladies of the Rope for intriguing snippets quoted from actual meetings.

 

Fritz Peters' books, Boyhood with Gurdjieff and Gurdjieff Remembered are among the most compelling first-hand accounts of the man himself. Recently reissued, too.

 

And if you're really into it, there are a few passages in a book called something like "A quest for the unitive vision" in which a channelled teaching tries to explain why Gurdjieff struggled to impart his clearly stupendous attainment to others. Read it in a shop, don't buy it.

 

My impression is that little from his teachings has really survived because he refused to generalise. Each person would get exercises, physical and mental, tailored to their own state, and was warned not to pass them on to other for whom they wouldn't work.

 

I read every word I could find about and by Gurdjieff for about 3 or 4 years. I still have his picture on the wall. Dunno why, really. Something about his face gives me a sense of something or other.

[Leo]

[cloud recluse]

I think he was a bit of a twit myself.Seems to have really gone off the deep end towards the end.Definetely had refined the capacities of personal concentration to the nth degree,but couldnt release into any broader ground of transpersonal Being.Showed marked signs of paranoid delusions,claiming that the car accidents resulting from his insane,breakneck driving style were actually the result of an evil force out to get him coz he was so wonderful &'awake'.Definetely didnt mind lying & decieving people to get to their money,an exercise he bragged about as "shearing sheep".Got quite a few of his female discilples pregnant ,& described non-Guirdjieffian women as "mans handkercheif"!Not so much a "rascal" as a dodgy nutter.

 

Anyhow,just thought Id put my 2 cents in Regards,Cloud.