Gurdjieff – Gurdjieff Foundation of India

G I Gurdjieff

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, born in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, was a Greek Armenian mystic who observed that humanity was getting more and more mechanical and automated. He pointed out that human beings are easily given to suggestibility, a condition he felt was killing personal inquiry and the passion to know the truth for oneself through experience. Gurdjieff claimed that deep conditioning and mechanicality i.e. the human condition in general, are akin to a state of waking sleep. Driven by a resolve to discover the truth about human life on earth, he set out to understand the inner workings of the human body and mind, and devised practical methods to make his disciples comprehend these facts for themselves.

With the intent to find the truth for himself, he undertook several journeys, at times with a group of friends and at times all by himself, mostly to the East. He travelled to Egypt, the Gobi Desert, India, Tibet and China.

Later, Gurdjieff formulated a Science of Being which could make it possible for human beings to evolve. This teaching has been called ‘The Work’.

Later, Gurdjieff formulated a Science of Being which could make it possible for human beings to evolve. This teaching has been called ‘The Work’.

According to Gurdjieff, the harmonious development of body, mind and feeling can be achieved by developing and harmonizing the moving, the intellectual and the emotional centres. By working on oneself through impartial self-observation there is a possibility to know more and more about oneself and the human condition, to know the laws which govern organic life on earth, to see the human potential and to develop it, and finally, to live as a complete human being.

The forms of the Work include meditation, Movements or sacred dances, music which Gurdjieff composed with Thomas De Hartmann, a study of ideas that deal with the cosmological and psychological aspects of creation and humanity, physical and creative work, Work with others, and weekly practices focusing on bringing greater and greater attention into one’s daily life.

Gurdjieff emphasized the importance of working in a group, where all the members work towards a common and definite aim. He started working with small groups in Russia and during the Revolution moved to Fontainebleau and then to Paris. He travelled several times to USA to work with his pupils.

Gurdjieff worked closely with his foremost disciple Madame Jeanne De Salzmann who, after his death in 1949, continued his work and created four centres in Paris, New York, London and Venezuela. Currently, the Work continues to be led by pupils of those who had been with Gurdjieff himself. They lead small groups across the world which are informally monitored by four main Councils.

Towards the end of his life, Gurdjieff wrote a trilogy, ALL AND EVERYTHING IN THREE SERIES, to express his ideas.

ALL AND EVERYTHING IN THREE SERIES

FIRST SERIES: Three books under the title of An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man, or, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson.

SECOND SERIES: Under the title of Meetings with Remarkable Men.

THIRD SERIES: Life is Real Only Then, When ‘I Am.’

These series, as Gurdjieff explained are:

“All written according to entirely new principles of logical reasoning and strictly directed towards the solution of the following three cardinal problems:

FIRST SERIES: To destroy mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world.

SECOND SERIES: To acquaint the reader with the material required for a new creation and to prove the soundness and good quality of it.

THIRD SERIES: To assist the arising in the mentation and in the feelings of the reader, of a veritable, non-fantastic representation not of that illusory world which he now perceives, but of the world existing in reality.”

(Introductory passage in Beelzebub’s tales to His Grandson by G. I. Gurdjieff)

Besides the ALL AND EVERYTHING series by Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous, and Madame de Salzmann’s The Reality of Being are classics within the literature of the Work. Many of his other disciples have contributed richly towards the dissemination and understanding of these ideas.