Esoteric Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff: Development Techniques

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff - this name is familiar to many spiritual seekers not only in Russia, but throughout the world in general. During his lifetime and to this day, he remains one of the greatest mystical philosophers, spiritual mentors, composers and travelers of the first half of the 20th century. Many facts of his life are shrouded in mystery., for example, date of birth: according to one source, he was born January 14, 1866, according to others - 1874 or even 1877, for the third - December 28, 1872; as well as the place where he was born: some sources say that this is an Armenian city Gyumri, while others are city Kars in eastern Turkey. However, the date and place of his death are known for certain - Gurdjieff died on October 29, 1949 in France in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a commune on the western outskirts of Paris.

Origin of the surname

If we talk about the surname, then it can be interpreted as Gruzinov or Georgian, after all, it was the word “Gurji” (“Gurji”) that Persians used to call Georgians earlier, and today they continue to call almost all residents of Islamic countries. Also, the surname Gyurjyan or Gyurjiev is carried by many Greeks who once moved to the territory of Armenia from Georgia and other neighboring countries. For example, even today there is a fairly large colony of Greeks in the region of the Georgian lake Tsalka.

Formation of Gurdjieff

According to the words of Georgy Ivanovich himself, it was his own father, together with his spiritual father, who at that time was the rector of the cathedral, who aroused in him a craving for knowledge of the life process taking place on our planet and, mainly, for knowledge of the meaning of human existence. All his work and life were devoted to such processes as the self-development of a person, the growth of his awareness and being in ordinary daily life. Besides, a huge impact Gurdjieff gave physical development person. For this reason he was called (and in last years During his life, he himself called himself that) “dance teacher”. For some period of time Gurdjieff referred to his teaching as "esoteric Christianity".

Georgy Ivanovich very early began to travel the world, in particular, in the countries of Africa and Asia, where he did his best to find answers to questions that interested him. The countries he visited include Afghanistan, Turkey, Egypt, some areas of the Middle East and Turkistan, as well as the famous city of Mecca.

Gurdjieff's travels, among other things, were very similar to the expeditions that he carried out together with his like-minded people from the society he created by himself called the Seekers of Truth.

Gurdjieff devoted his wanderings to the study of various spiritual traditions and even folklore, to the collection of fragments of ancient knowledge, and sometimes to archaeological excavations.

"The Fourth Way" Gurdjieff

Yet in 1912-1913 Gurdjieff came to Moscow, continuing his career as a "Teacher of Theosophy". In Moscow, he was very quickly able to gather students around him, whom he began to teach. Already in 1915, he met the Russian philosopher, journalist, traveler, mystic and esotericist Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky, who was 37 years old at that time. They joined forces and created a common group in St. Petersburg.

Later, the so-called sorting and systematization of the very diverse experience of Grudjiev began, which was greatly facilitated by both Uspensky himself and his like-minded people, who not only became interested in the ideas of Georgy Ivanovich, but also constantly asked more and more new questions and argued with him on issues of interest to them. Topics.

In addition, Ouspensky, who already had a solid experience with esoteric teachings, was able to isolate and comprehend new ideas. Eastern schools, which often appeared in the presentation of Gurdjieff himself, and was also able to adapt them to the European mentality - he translated them into a language that was understandable to the psychological culture of the West. Thanks to this collaboration, a new set of certain concepts and practices was formed - it was called the "Teaching of Gurdjieff-Ouspensky", but later it began to be called the "Fourth Way".

Institute for Harmonious Human Development

In general, attempts to establish the "Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man" were made several times by Gurdjieff. The first time it happened in 1919 in Tiflis, after that in 1920 in Constantinople. Then a similar attempt was made in Germany, but it failed because of conflicts with the authorities.

Having moved to the UK after Ouspensky, Gurdjieff tried to create an "Institute" there, but he again failed, because. his students were not allowed into the country.

And only after that the great teacher was able to create the "Institute". It happened in 1922 near Fontainebleau near Paris in the Prieuré estate - there Gurdjieff bought a castle with funds raised by Ouspensky's English students. At the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, Gurdjieff taught not only the complex principles of the Fourth Way, but also the simplified, albeit exotic, ideas of Aida Yoga.

In the castle in the Prieure, Gurdjieff often organized demonstrations of the Sacred Movements which were special exercises and dances. Gurdjieff himself developed them, taking as a basis temple and folk dances, which he managed to study perfectly while traveling through the countries of Asia.

These performances were known to a huge number of people, both in France and abroad, for example in the USA, where he visited from time to time with his students to give lectures and organize performances of Sacred Movements.

Separate material on Gurdjieff's Sacred Movements is presented.

Break with P. D. Uspensky

In January 1924 it happened significant event- Gurdjieff's break with Ouspensky. For this reason, some students of Georgy Ivanovich began to consider Uspensky just an ordinary student, and especially zealous ones - even an apostate. However, the reality was quite different.

In fact, Peter Demyanovich can be called one of the few associates of Gurdjieff who could go against the will of the Teacher in order to defend the right to independent work his English group.

The rest of the groups, led by the other three main assistants and students of Gurdjieff, were reformed, after which they could not continue to function properly.

By the way, already in July 1924, just six months after breaking up with Ouspensky, Georgy Ivanovich miraculously escaped after a terrible car accident. As a result, the Prieure becomes a practically inaccessible abode, but the closest students of Gurdjieff remain there, while others systematically visit their mentor.

Work "Everything and Everything"

It was during this period that Gurdjieff began the main work of his life - a series of books "Everything and Everything", which will include three books "Beelzebub's stories to his grandson", "Meetings with wonderful people” (based on this book in 1979, director Peter Brook will shoot film of the same name) and "Life is real only when I am." At the same time, together with the composer Thomas de Hartmann, Gurdjieff creates about 150 small musical works for piano, many of which are based on Asian motifs, and music specifically for the performance of Sacred Movements.

In 1932 the "Institute" was closed, and Gurdjieff moved to Paris, from where he began to visit the United States from time to time. In the States (Chicago and New York) groups of Gurdjieff's students were mostly led by a man named Orage, once the owner of the New Age magazine. Gurdjieff continued to work with his students at his home or in a cafe where he arranged his meetings.

It is impossible not to mention the fact that during the Second World War, and even during the occupation of Paris by troops Nazi Germany, Georgy Ivanovich did not stop his activity, although, of course, its intensity began to decline.

After World War II

When the second World War ended, in Paris Gurdjieff gathered together the students who were in various groups, including the students of the late Ouspensky at that time. Among them, the mathematician and philosopher John Bennett, who wrote The Dramatic Universe, a work in which an attempt is made to adapt Gurdjieff's ideas to European philosophy, deserves special attention.

1949 - the last year of the life of Georgy Ivanovich- was marked by the fact that the Teacher gave instructions to the students about the publication of two of his works, as well as the manuscript of Uspensky, which turned out to be in his possession, entitled "In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching." This work was perceived by Gurdjieff as a very peculiar presentation of his lectures, which he gave in Russia in 1915-1917.

After the death of Gurdjieff

Georgy Ivanovich Gurdjieff died on October 29, 1949 Years at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. After his death his closest colleague Jeanne de Salzman tried to unite the students– it was to her that the Master entrusted the spread of his Teaching. The activities of Madame de Salzmann served as the basis for the creation Gurdjieff Foundation, principal in New York in 1953.

In addition, the aforementioned John Bennett and some of Ouspensky's students actively disseminated Gurdjieff's ideas: Lord Pantland, Rodney Collin, Maurice Niccol and others. And Lord Pantland was appointed President of the Gurdjieff Foundation, a position he held until his death in 1984.

Among other famous students of Gurdjieff we can name the American publisher Jane Heap and the American artist Paul Reynard, the English writer Katherine Mansfield, the French poet René Daumal, and the English writer Pamela Travers, who is familiar to many from the children's book about Mary Poppins. Later, Gurdjieff's students were trained famous musicians Robert Fripp and Keith Jarrett.

Today separate groups of Gurdjieff function in different cities around the world. and recruit followers into their ranks. The “Fourth Way” itself is often compared with many traditional teachings, such as, for example, Eastern offshoots of Christianity, Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Tantrism, yoga, as well as the mystical traditions of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The Master himself always said that it was completely impossible to understand his teaching.. But the essence of the main idea is that a person must wake up from the "sleep in reality", stop degrading and act mechanically, like a machine.

However, Gurdjieff nevertheless carried away the main secrets of his doctrine with him, as he predicted in his unfinished work “Life is real only when I am.”

Bibliography Gurdjieff

• Views from real world
• Questions and answers
• Eight meetings in Paris
• Beelzebub's stories to his grandson
• Meeting wonderful people
• Life is only real when I am
• Man is a complex being

Gurdjieff, Georgy Ivanovich

Did you stumble upon Gurdjieff and be motivated to study his legacy? Read this article first and I promise a reasonable person will save a lot of time...

Gurdjieff, Georgy Ivanovich, a Russian mystical philosopher ("esoteric Christian"), whose work did not die out with his death in the distant 1949, but still stars in many places, crowding a gullible flock into enclaves of "followers".

Such a beginning in an ironic tone does not at all mean that Gurjiev was a "bad" person, because one can be bad only in relation to someone specific and in specific situations. Gurzhdiev was not even inclined to "bad" because there is no person who, apart from the mentally far from normal, who would not strive for the best in his soul - you just have to understand anyone and forgive his "evil". No, but what once seemed new-fresh-progressive loses its freshness over time, just like a rotten fish, unless it is imperishable: those thought-statements that are based on a timeless correspondence to reality (scientific freaks call this is an axiom), remain unshakable and cannot be refuted. As for Gurdjieff, his thoughts-statements did not turn out to be such literally in any part of them, although this is not obvious to very many who fall for their attractiveness. The purpose of this article is to show this inadequacy of reality critically, more precisely, being reasonably skeptical about the once created world of Gurdjieff's subjective ideas. Let this also be a kind of response to attempts to criticize Man by Gurdjieff himself (see Objectively Impartial Criticism of Man's Life (Weselvul's Stories to His Grandson).

The relevance of the topic is quite obvious: today there is great amount sites devoted to the "teachings" of Gurdjieff, many take him so seriously and trustingly that they do not notice the vices. As usual in such cases, scam seminars flourish. On the site International Gurdjieff Club to become one's own transfer the annual membership fee, which is 500 rubles, using one of the methods we have proposed.One of the fan sites rejoices over every new book about Gudzhiev: " A new book!!!Margaret Anderson. "The Incomprehensible Gurdjieff" A new book!!! Ch.S. Nott. Gurdjieff's teaching. A diary student, etc. "in short, the Teaching continues to develop rapidly, despite the declarations that the Teacher has already providedcomplete and comprehensive knowledge- from the cosmology of the universe to the roles we play in life.

Far from all the final statements and ideas of Gurdjieff are false, not correct and do not correspond to reality. No, with considerable wisdom of life, he also expressed what today in its final form looks sensible, but if you trace how he came to such thoughts, it turns out that, most often, purely intuitively, heuristically, not due to some complete system and sometimes even in spite of it. This phenomenon can be seen in almost all philosophers: the justifications are one, and the conclusions miraculously are made, as it were, independently. Here are some of these statements, of an everyday level of understanding, with which it is difficult to disagree (from the list of Gurdjieff's favorite sayings):

It takes a lot of courage to admit you're a coward.

In the dark, the louse is worse than the tiger.

It does not carry its own burden.

The fool is the one who talks too much.

A talkative wife is worse than a serious illness.

Happy is he who does not notice his misfortunes.

If you want to be rich, befriend the police.

If you want to be famous, make friends with journalists.

If you want to be full, make friends with your mother-in-law.

If you want to live in peace and tranquility, make friends with your neighbor.

If you want to sleep peacefully, make peace with your wife.

If you want to be an atheist, befriend a priest.

Consider the modern interpretation of Gurdjieff's statements according to the text of the book of his followers:George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Essays and reflections on the Man and his Teaching, which unconditionally distorted the original Truth of Gurdjieff (as fans can claim in justification) and assures that the statements of the teaching prove that it actually contains complete and comprehensive knowledge- from the cosmology of the universe to the roles we play in life. but at the same time" Before you start doing anything, - Gurdjieff repeated more than once, - you must realize your insignificance."Well, also to practice the "Sacred Dances" that Gurdjieff came up with, spying on a variety of religious rituals.

I think that with the above I have already shocked the adherents of the Gurdjieff Truths enough, so that they, having nervously smoked and, leaving the question of the victory of someone's Ideas behind, will be able to perceive the arguments presented quite rationally or simply disappear from this article :)

The most important context of understanding is that in the distant times of Gurdjieff's work, the principles of methodology and cognition, formulated in the classic work of I. Lakatos, were not yet formed and widely accepted, even approaches to the study of the mechanisms of the psyche were not yet understood. But with all this critically irreparable insufficiency for Gurdjieff's themes, he argued about the essence of which can only be understood by clearly mastering the methodology of cognition and having a fairly holistic view of the essence of mental phenomena, from which the abstractions of statements so widely and so superficially used directly arise. Gurdjieff. He just didn't have a chance to imagine everything right. That's why There is plenty of evidence that Gurdjieff had an extraordinary ability to use all the questions put to him in order to convey the inexpressible, disarm the questioner, deprive him of the opportunity to resort to the usual ways of thinking, creating the necessary conditions for direct transmission of the knowledge of Being. It is difficult to guess exactly whether this refers to the esoteric "Direct knowledge" or the ability to instill in the listener the confidence of understanding the "inexplicable". But in fact, all the texts of Gurdjieff and his followers are replete with such significance, when even a finger sticking out in front of the eyes gives the impression of thoughtful sacramental knowledge. Simply put, Gurdjieff's maxims are just as incorrect for conveying a certain meaning and statement as Malevich's Black Square. Turns out Gurdjieff created a special language for his teaching, and certain keywords have a special meaning and weight. but at the same time he was far from understanding what makes definitions correct. An example of a peremptory statement:

Here are other examples of reasoning and assertions.

According to Gurdjieff, the decline and disappearance of civilizations is associated with "an imbalance between 'knowledge' and 'being'": "In the history of mankind, numerous examples are known when, due to the preponderance of knowledge over being or being over knowledge, entire civilizations perished"65. Don't we live in a world where knowledge far outweighs being?

In this regard, Gurdjieff separates the "foundation of knowledge" and "the foundation of understanding."
"Knowledge is one thing, understanding is another. People often confuse these concepts and do not clearly see the difference between them. Knowledge in itself does not give understanding; and understanding does not increase due to the growth of knowledge alone. Understanding depends on the relation of knowledge to being, this - resultant of knowledge and being.

At the same time, there is not even an attempt to first define the concept, but what is meant by the word "knowledge"? This seems self-explanatory. It turns out that it is possible to measure knowledge and being as countable entities, like bricks, so many kilograms of knowledge and so many kilograms of being, and if a lot of knowledge outweighs, then civilizations are kirdyk. Without such a countable comparison, the statement becomes meaningless.

To show the incorrectness of these statements, a description of what actually is knowledge and what is understanding is not even required. But in order to put everything in its place, I will now do it on the basis of a system of ideas about abstractions, the corresponding mental phenomena. For understanding, it is worth reading the articles Knowledge as a conscious phenomenon and Understanding. The ability to understand. Communication. So, knowledge- a system of individual skills in a given subject area of ​​activity, tested by him on personal experience(as opposed to information, such as "book knowledge") and giving a certain confidence in their use in conditions that have become familiar to him. Unlike knowledge - as a system of skills, understanding is always applied in relation to something external to the understanding subject, which this subject perceives so adequately about its essence that its assumptions, verified in reality, confirm this adequacy. those. we are talking about personal knowledge, personal attitude skills, personal life experience in relation to the subject of understanding, which is opposed to perceived information that is not yet knowledge (see discussion). Subjectively, understanding manifests itself as confidence in recognizing the meaning of the situation, which may be an illusion, and only an objective attempt to act in accordance with such a representation shows the adequacy of understanding, which outwardly looks like a manifestation of understanding. In relation to the externally perceived, understanding is the knowledge of the perceived, the skill of recognizing the significance of what is happening. Those. understanding - special case knowledge. Therefore, at the household level, these concepts are sometimes confused.

Gurdjieff, saying: " Knowledge by itself does not give understanding; and understanding is not increased by the growth of knowledge alone.", peremptorily utters a false idea simply because he does not understand (and could not understand at that time) the mechanisms of these manifestations of the psyche.

Literally all of Gurdjieff's statements have such a vicious quality, and if you pay attention to this according to the proposed method, then this becomes obvious. His statements regarding the structure of matter are generally absurd, but they are just as confidently categorical and just as peremptory as any of his other statements. He knows everything!

"Everything in the Universe is material: therefore Great Knowledge is more material than materialism... The Absolute is just as material, just as weighable and measurable, like the moon, like a person... the rate of vibration of matter shows the degree of reasonableness of its given type. You must remember that in nature there is nothing dead and inanimate. Everything is alive and conscious in its own way, everything is rational.... In addition to its cosmic qualities, each substance also has psychic qualities, i.e. a certain degree of rationality ... Man is a "miniature universe" in the full sense of the word: in him there are all types of matter that make up the universe: the same forces, the same laws that govern life in the universe; therefore, by studying a person, we can study the whole world". Again, without bothering to define what "consciously", "reasonably" is, he pointedly endows the physical world with these indefinite qualities. But it would be worthwhile to give a correct definition to these words and the presence of these entities in everything or not would become self-evident. It is clear that the origin of the fixed idea has mainly dogmatic roots, so it is not surprising that it turns out " Between Everything and Nothing passes the ray of creation. Do you know the prayer: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal"? This prayer came from ancient knowledge. "Holy God" means the Absolute, or Everything; "Holy Mighty" also means the Absolute, or Nothing; six notes of the ray of creation with organic life. All three taken together make one; it is an indivisible and unmerged Trinity".

In the book Man is a complex being.

... "I" does not exist, or rather there are hundreds, thousands of small "I" in each of us. We are divided in ourselves, but we can only know the plurality of our being through observation and study. AT this moment- this is one "I" in the next moment - this is another "I". Many selves in us are conflicting, which is why we don't function harmoniously..

As usual, Gurdjieff did not define in any way what “I” is, so that later you can clearly see: yes, this formation is really not the same at different moments and situations, and it does not just change every time, but it already represented as a set of completely independent formations. Gurdjieff draws such a conclusion heuristically, without understanding the essence. And therefore, it turns out that these “I” function in some way inharmoniously in him (what kind of harmony is meant, you also need to guess). Much later, he philosophizes about what "I" is:

It should be understood that in every person there are completely separated parts, in some way two different person. This is his essence and his personality..

... Essence is "I" - it is our heredity, our type, our character, our nature.

Personality is there random thing- upbringing, education, judgment - everything that comes from outside. Personality is the clothes you wear, your mask, the result of your upbringing or the influence of your environment...

It is no longer a set of "I", but two main ones. And personality is opposed to "I", i.e. self-awareness.

About the ability to adapt and volitional efforts of Gurdjieff, a categorical idea:

We usually live with only a tiny part of our functions and our power, because we do not realize that we are machines and that we do not know the nature and functioning of our mechanism.... We are completely controlled by external circumstances. All our actions follow in the direction of less resistance to the pressure of external circumstances.

However, not knowing this nature, we talk about it so confidently that we are a machine to such an extent that we are unable to control something in defiance of external circumstances. Although literally next to it he writes: " I'm not saying no one can control their actions.". Too mysterious for common sense a. And what is said in the book does not correspond too much to the realities of mental phenomena, except for some heuristic revelations that are not deducible from the logic of his ideas, but rather are the result of his purely practical life experience. Everything related to the description of psychic phenomena is naively and incorrectly stated (well, it is impossible to guess the mechanism of such a complexly organized system just like that):

Memory, attention, observation - this is nothing but the exploration of one center by another, or listening to one center by another ... We have many centers and the same number of connections; let's say five. (In fact, this is not the case: some people have two connections, others have seven. We took five as an average). At the same time, he often immediately contradicts what has just been said, without noticing it: If the connection (between centers) is interrupted, we no longer wake up, we no longer fall asleep. If two bonds are broken, we wake up even less - but we never fall asleep. If the third connection is broken, we do not wake up and never fall asleep at all. And so on. Therefore, we do not have two states, sleep and wakefulness, as we think, but several states..

We have - i.e. all of us are. Saying that some people have only two connections between centers, he immediately postulates that the number of states is more than two, i.e. at different people it is different. But it turns out (from which finger sucked?) there are people whose ability to move, walk, live ceases only when all their ties are severed. For others, it is enough to break two connections for them to fall into a dream. All this is very sacramentally confusing: but self-know yourself and you will understand, but I kind of already understand. What are the connections? What is their functionality besides the declared listening from one center to another? For Gurdjieff it doesn't matter, so he jumped over such an understanding and draws very confident conclusions. In any case, everyone should understand that sleep is achieved only when all communications between the centers are severed. Only then can the machine produce what sleep is supposed to produce.

Of course, to seriously criticize the statements of a person who is far from understanding even the basics of the mechanisms of the psyche is a useless exercise. He cannot have correct ideas and make correct statements in such a complex subject area - in principle. But he devoted a lot of texts to this, too many people fell for it, and, accordingly, this must be taken into account. And in his reasoning, Gurzhdiev simply often slips into schizotericism:

We cannot change ourselves, we can only modify ourselves a little. But with outside help, we can be changed. According to esoteric theories, humanity is divided into two circles: a large outer circle that includes all human beings, and in the center a small circle of people who are instructed and who understand.

In the book An objectively impartial criticism of a person's life and whether Beelzebub's stories to his grandson.

Declared in the first lines: Everything is based on completely new principles of rationale ...

What are these principles and in general what is a "logical rationale", again, one can only assume, although it will seem to any layman that everything is so clear here. The principles are not disclosed in any way, and the most plausible thing about "logical justification" would be to assume that this is not justification with reliable facts, but a kind of Aristotle's logic, an attempt to explore the world "logically". But logic is precisely generated by observation of the world, of what can happen and what is absurd. Moreover, these observations always occur within certain limits of conditions, so that within other limits, the logic of causality may turn out to be completely different. So logic is a formalized part of the description of causality within certain conditions. Failure to understand this made Aristotle's logic vicious (see On Aristotle's Fly).

A. Dmitriev: APPEAL TO THE READER Reader, in your hands is a book about unusually deep system of Knowledge, and it was written by a person whose scope and real capabilities far exceed the normal level of people .

Yes, this book was written by an already fully formed Guru who loves his ideas, which have already become unshakable fixed ideas. And this Guru was perfectly aware of his guruness, bequeathing before his death: "... the most important thing, the very first thing, is to prepare a core of people capable of meeting emerging requirements. Until there is such a core, the action of ideas will not go beyond a certain threshold.".

Among other beliefs that have formed in... my... life, there is... an undeniable conviction - that always and everywhere...it is customary ... in the presence of something new, by all means say ...: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

I removed the pathetic floridity that tears off the roof by the ellipsis, leaving the essence: Gurdjieff is convinced that any person, faced with the new, is baptized. This phrase clearly does not apply to completely new principles of rationalization , she's just a ritual: I can now be completely calm ... that everything further in this new enterprise of mine will now go, as they say, "like clockwork".

After infinitely long equivocations, replete with the expression A, damn it! finally went epic musings.

I accidentally touched on the issue here, recently become mine so to speak, skate", exactly process of human thought... . to say something about this an axiom that accidentally became known to me that on Earth in past in all ages it was accepted that every person in which the audacity arises to achieve the right to be considered others and to consider oneself "consciously thinking", should be aware even in the first years of its responsible existence that a person generally has two kinds of thinking: one kind - thinking through thought, in which words are used that always have a relative meaning, and another kind, which is common to all animals as well as to man, which I would call "thinking through images".

It is not clear why every "consciously thinking" person should have in mind these kinds of easily distinguishable styles of thinking. What for?.. A "consciously thinking" person still does not know many features of the mechanisms of the psyche, among which the mentioned one is far from the most practically useful, it is only more obvious during self-observation.

The further fragment of the text contains a fairly correct description of the fact that subjective images have individual specifics, but this is also a superficial judgment that does not depend so much on the enumerated environmental factors as on the characteristics of individual adaptability - on linking the perceived with its significance for given conditions. subjectivization of perception images. But this becomes, as it were, an excuse for the fact that the reader can misunderstand something from Gurdjieff's wise writings, because the subjective worlds are so different: I warned you about the most important thing, I'm already calm about everything else. Even if there is any misunderstanding regarding my writings, you alone will be to blame, and my conscience will also be clear...

After all this introductory pathos, a fairy tale-like description of the galactic wanderings of the character Beelzebub begins, undoubtedly with the deepest sacramental, schizoteric meaning.

Yes, - answered Beelzebub, - almost on all the planets of that solar system three-brained beings also dwell, and in almost all of them higher being-bodies can be covered. Higher being-bodies, or, as they are called on some planets of that solar system, souls, arise in three-brained beings, breeding on all planets, with the exception of those to which the emanations of our "Most Holy Sun of the Absolute" reach only after, as a result of repeated collisions, gradually lose the fullness of their strength and, in the end, completely lose the life-giving ability to cover the higher being-bodies.

... the ships of this Saint Venoma system had been in existence for twenty-three years, when the rumor first spread that Archangel Khariton had invented a new type of ship for intersystem and interplanetary communication. ... as long as the world and, therefore, atmospheres exist, the cylindrical barrels invented by Archangel Khariton will always work.

I yawn, wading through all this garbage... Although this flight of fancy is fundamentally no different from what produced all the Great Ideas of Gurdjieff. Of course, instructive instructions are unobtrusively woven into the intricacies of science fiction:

... exist as you exist. Just do not forget one thing, namely, at your age it is imperative that every day at sunrise, watching the reflection of its splendor, you establish contact between your consciousness and the various subconscious parts of your common presence. Try to prolong this state and convince the unconscious parts - not as if they were conscious - that if they interfere with your general functioning, then at the time of your responsible age they will not only not be able to carry out the good that is due to them, but your general presence , of which they are a part, cannot be a good servant of our COMMON INFINITE CREATOR and therefore will not even adequately pay for its emergence and existence.

At the same time, questions such as CHAPTER 9 The reason for the appearance of the moon ... the cause of this terrible phenomenon was just this very planet Earth, which from time to time passed very close to our planet Mars ... two large fragments broke off the planet Earth and flew into space ... planet Earth , constantly sent to her separated fragments, for their support, the sacred vibrations of "askokia"

In short... greatly carried away by his allegories and fantasy visions, so wonderfully weaving " new rationales"to the universe, Gurdjieff" like clockwork "creates what his fans will then exalt as complete and comprehensive knowledge - from the cosmology of the universe to the roles we play in life. At the same time, the phrase COMMON INFINITE FATHER capital letters occurs an incredible number of times in variations of the type ALL-LOVING AND LONG-Suffering INFINITE CREATOR.

By the way, one of the chapters is called: CHAPTER 13 Why the human mind can accept fantasy as reality.

How does Gurdjieff end the epic? CHAPTER 46 Beelzebub explains to his grandson the meaning of the form he chose and the sequence of presenting information about a person.

It was my idea, when we went on this journey in the spaceship Karnak, to use this time and help you to harmonization your functions and the formation of your future active thinking I, depending on them, would take place exactly in the order, the correctness of which I was convinced by my whole presence in the process of my long personal existence .... I decided, under the guise of satisfying this interest of yours, to tell you about them in such a way that the so-called "egoplasticuri" necessary for your future being-associations crystallize in you without any trace of doubt... adhered to the following two principles. First: do not express anything as your personal opinion, so that the data necessary for your own convictions do not crystallize in you ready in accordance with someone else's opinion. And, according to the second principle... I have chosen just such an order and such a premeditated sequence so that you can build your own subjective explanation of all the causes only on the basis of the facts told to you .

All three-brained beings of different nature sang together the "Hymn to our INFINITY", which is always sung on such occasions everywhere in the Universe by beings of any nature and all forms of external covering. This hymn contains the following words: You, the Long-suffering CREATOR of All that breathes, You, the LOVE-filled CAUSE of All that exists, You, the Only WINNER of the Merciless Heropass, now Rejoice with the Sounds of our Praise and abide in Bliss. You gave us the Beginning by Your Unparalleled Works, by Your Victory over Heropass The opportunity we found Ourselves to perfect to the Holy Enclad, Now just rest You deservedly, And we, with Gratitude, will support everything that You created, And always and in everything we will be forever to praise You, to praise You, the CREATOR-CREATOR. You, the Beginning of the Ends of all, You, who originate from Infinity, You, Having the End of everything in Yourself, You, our INFINITE, INFINITE.

Amen.

From unfinished Life is real only when "I am"

My miserable condition was aggravated that morning by the fact that for the last two or three weeks I had slept no more than one or two hours a night, and that last night I could not sleep at all. The main reason for such insomnia and general frustration, in those days already excessive, of almost all the important functions of my body was the continuous flow in my mind of “difficult” thoughts regarding the apparently insoluble situation that then unexpectedly developed for me ... For more than three years before that I wrote, almost day and night, constantly pushing myself, books that I decided to publish.

I would like to say that this explains a lot, because such a lack of normal sleep with an active load on the brain inevitably leads to serious mental disorders and gives rise to a specific inadequacy of thinking. But the reason for all Gurjiev's fixed ideas is not in psychopathology, but psychopathology has developed on the basis of these ideas, which have become an insoluble dominant of the subjective production of fantasies.

Something about self-improvement, to which Gurzhdiev constantly called.

As a means of self-improvement, a person can use some property that exists in his psyche and which even has a very negative character. This property can help self-improvement and exists in people in general, especially in modern people and especially in you, and is nothing other than what I have condemned many times and what people themselves consider an unworthy manifestation for a person who has reached a responsible age - of course, never not meaning themselves - and is called "self-deception" .... due to the fact that the comprehension of the truths about the possibilities of self-improvement and the real formation in oneself of what is required for this should not occur in the ordinary consciousness of a person, which in this case is of little importance, but in what is called the subconscious, and since, thanks to all kinds of accidents arising from the various abnormalities of our ordinary life became impossible for a person, especially for modern man, to perceive anything at all and, so to speak, "digest" it directly with his subconscious, therefore, as it has been experimentally proved by people of Pure Reason over many centuries, he needs to use special means to introduce into his subconscious some reasonable indications that he accidentally perceived ordinary consciousness and not contrary to its instinct, and this can only be done through this inherent property of self-deceptive imagination.

The idea of ​​self-improvement seems obviously positive and tempting to the layman, especially when it does not require much effort, but thoughtlessly enough, as Gurdjieff advises, to listen to the Guru. Why this is not so - in the article Self-Improvement.

I think enough has been said. The question may arise: but there is something positive, useful in this person, who was carried away by so many followers (it is him, and not his ideas, which are practically not understood by anyone, given that none of the followers is able to critically evaluate Gurdjieff's statements). But it is not for nothing that he wrote so much and so intriguingly.

Usefulness in the example: it turns out that a philosopher who at one time made a strong impression on people, with the time of discoveries of facts that directly show the falsity of his statements, clearly demonstrates that he was just a pretentious chatter who did not say anything true in terms of learning new things, what is needed be very careful with philosophy and not get so far away from reality that there is practically no chance of being right in judgments. Particularly sad in this regard are Gurdjieff's arrogantly self-confident statements about physical realities and the structure of matter (shown above).

And, finally, it is worthwhile to stop relying in personal knowledge on those who said their word so long ago, but none of the followers came to the forefront of research in this subject area, i.e. this word turned out to be unnecessary, vicious, unacceptable. After all, there are those who promote knowledge, standing on the shoulders of really correct thinkers who ensure continuity, not refuted within the limits of applicability of their statements (Newton - within the limits of relativistic speeds, Einstein - within the limits of macro-descriptions, etc.) .

If someone has a supposedly correct and useful for knowledge statement of Gurdjieff, then please bring it in the discussion of this article.

Georgy Gudzhiev is one of the most mystical figures of pre-revolutionary Russia, whose fame as a seeker of truth in Sufism, Buddhism and Christianity grew even in Soviet times among rare people who combined the construction of communism with a passion for the occult. He is now known in the same way as the Roerichs, who were characterized by immersion in the same "demonic".

Travels

George Gurdjieff visited many countries, the Middle East explored especially carefully. Was in Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and many other places. These were expeditions organized by the Seekers of Truth community, in which spiritual traditions were studied and compared different peoples, found fragments of knowledge that came from antiquity were collected, even in the form of sacred music and dances.

How did it start

In 1912, George Gurdjieff opened his own school of spiritual knowledge in Moscow, and in 1915 he met the esoteric P. D. Uspensky, who was not only a philosopher, but also an active journalist and avid traveler. Gurdjieff managed to interest Ouspensky's friends and acquaintances with his theories of the search for truth and created a fairly large group of bored representatives creative intelligentsia. Even a branch was created in St. Petersburg.

Ouspensky helped Gurdjieff to adapt his ideas for the people of the European vision of the world, that is, to translate them into an understandable language accessible to the psychological culture of the West. At the same time, Gurdjieff's teaching was called the "Fourth Way." So the years went by, but everything did not grow together with the main dream of the spiritual teacher, it did not work out anywhere with the Institute of Harmonious Development: neither in Moscow, nor in Tiflis, nor in Constantinople. It turned out in Paris, already in 1922.

Uspensky

Once again, a philosopher of the highest order, who had become by that time, helped. The British, with whom he settled, were afraid to contact the world's leading esotericist and occultist, therefore, in order not to expand the circle of sorcerers and other cosmologists, Gurdjieff was not allowed into England.

In 1921, he moved to Germany, and then, with the money collected by Ouspensky's English neophytes, he bought a castle near Fontainebleau, where the institute flourished for several years. George Gurdjieff, whose biography is reverently studied by supporters of ecumenism today, was satisfied for a short time.

sacred dances

Many esotericists even today assure that George Gurdjieff influenced not only the individual people he met on his path, but also quite strongly - on public life and policies of individual countries. Here are just the methods used by Gurdjieff at the same time (his sacred dances known to everyone, for example), remained not fully studied and not understood even by his closest followers.

In the spring of 1915 in Moscow, in a small, medium-sized cafe, two people were drinking coffee and talking quietly. One of them was swarthy in the Oriental fashion, with a black mustache, with a piercing and unpleasant look. His presence here even somehow strangely did not fit with the atmosphere of a Moscow eatery. As if mummers, moreover, unsuccessfully dressed. It's like he's not who he claims to be. And the interlocutor, who subsequently recorded the course of this meeting, had to communicate and behave as if he did not notice anything strange. The second gentleman was Ouspensky. And the first - mummer - George Gurdjieff. The real-world views of this man were repulsive at first.

In a very short time, Ouspensky will become an ardent supporter of the teachings of Gurdjieff, but for now they are talking about travel, the topic of which is close to both of them, then about drugs, which help in understanding the very nature of all mystical phenomena. In the second, Gurdjieff turned out to be much stronger, although Ouspensky managed to try many substances in order to consider himself sufficiently sophisticated. Nevertheless, Ouspensky was inspired, captivated and matured for teaching sacred dances.

Caucasian mystic and battle of magicians

About a year before the meeting described above, Ouspensky read in a newspaper that a certain Hindu was staging the ballet "Battle of the Magicians". It wasn't worth asking great work. It was George Gurdjieff, who always planned meetings with remarkable people in this way: an article of the most irrational content is ordered in the newspapers, and an esoteric intellectual elite will run herself. Of course, no ballet - in the general sense of the word - was planned.

After the very first coffee drinking, Gurdjieff managed to charm Ouspensky, and after a couple of weeks he even received telepathic orders. Moreover, Ouspensky was convinced that Gurdjieff knew everything in the world and could do anything, even to interfere with the cosmic course of events. The project of the ballet "Battle of the Mages" concerned precisely cosmology: it was supposed to be sacred dances, where every movement is calculated " knowledgeable person and corresponds exactly to the motion of the sun and planets.

Building a biography

And now people are known who are gifted enough to, for example, write good poetry, but who lack some kind of spice so that readers look at the poet with astonished adoration. Then legends help fame, and even actual exploits, designed for PR and rightfully included in the biography.

Where did this "Indian-Caucasian" come from, who he was - no one knew for sure. But there were rumors - one more eloquent than the other. George Gurdjieff, whose quotations from books were passed from mouth to mouth, did not refute the rumors about himself, but, on the contrary, let in a little more fog here and there. He did not even construct an autobiography - he carefully erased it. You can try to compose his biography on the basis of the works that remained after him. Many did just that. But George Gurdjieff, whose books are a historically extremely unreliable source, deceived grateful humanity here too. The other sources available to us are even less reliable.

Rumor has it

It is said that George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born in the Armenian city, which is now called Gyumri. His mother was Armenian and his father was Greek. In some books written by George Gurdjieff, you can find quotes that tell about the author's childhood and adolescence. Not a single date, location, not a single name could be found in reality. The following is written there.

Gurdjieff allegedly became interested in a teenager supernatural phenomena, wanted to comprehend their nature and even learn how to manage them. Therefore, he began to read a lot, communicate with Christian priests, and when he did not receive all the desired answers to his extraordinary questions, he set off to travel.

In search of sacred knowledge

Twenty years of wandering gave the very odious sacred knowledge that, according to Ouspensky, the mystic, of course, possessed. Knowledge led him along the roads of Transcaucasia, Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, Tibet. He wrote about specific schools, sometimes speaking extremely vaguely, casually, mentioning Tibetan monasteries, Mount Athos, Chitral, Persian and Bukhara Sufis, dervishes of various orders. Georgy Gudzhiev described all this very vaguely. Therefore, it is difficult to understand where he really was.

According to information received from a variety of sources, George Gurdjieff led excursions in Egypt, then in Jerusalem, was a tax collector from peasant villages with Tibetan lamas, worked for railway in Turkey, painted sparrows to look like canaries for sale, maintained a workshop for repairing broken ones, even owned oil wells and fishing boats, and also sold carpets. Always and everything that Gudzhiev managed to earn, he spent only on travel.

Between business and earnings, during his travels, as the legends say, he mastered some techniques of hypnosis and telepathy, as well as other supernatural tricks, Sufi and yogic techniques. He was wounded, because he was often brought into war zones, he was seriously ill for a long time, after which he decided to stop using any exceptional force. Among the students, Georgy Gudzhiev was known as a prophet and a magician. He called himself a dance teacher. This is, in principle, true.

Accident

In the summer, the car of the magician and the prophet unexpectedly crashed into a tree. The teacher was found unconscious. The students wondered: well, the rain was not the cause of the incident, the accident was probably set up by enemies, of whom Gudzhiev had accumulated enough. According to the students, Gurdjieff Georgy Ivanovich, whose books were read to holes, was in his knowledge and skills equal to Blavatsky and all the Tibetan sages put together. He could not help but foresee this tree in the path of the car! If Hitler himself consulted with Gurdjieff, choosing a swastika for the party emblem of National Socialism, if Georgy Gurdjieff and Stalin together developed a method for remaking human consciousness!

Among the frankly funny there were moments true meaning. It is true that Gudjiev was an exceptionally talented hoaxer. He was omnivorous, and flies of various sizes came across in his spider webs. Gudzhiev could find like-minded people in any stratum of society. Among the poor and the rich, Jews and anti-Semites, communists and Nazis - he did not care at all. Definitely an extraordinary personality.

Books written for us

Recovering from the accident, Gurdjieff paid great attention to the revision of already written books and the creation of new ones. "Everything and Everything" - ten books divided into three series: "Tales of Beelzebub ...", "Meetings with wonderful people", "Life is real ..." He wrote this for posterity, that is, for us. Whether Gurdjieff's books are needed - everyone will decide for himself.

Many researchers with a philosophical education begin to laugh out loud already on the first pages. Ministers of different faiths unanimously say that much in these books is demonic, and that when burned, even paper scatters sparks that are completely different from ordinary ones, and a devilish hiss is heard from the fire devouring the pages. Judging by the details, believers in God have already tried to do all this.

"Views from the Real World" is one of the first books of this psychic. From there, the reader will draw some philosophical doctrines: that a person is not complete, that he can become like a god (isn’t it serpentine speeches? be like gods ...), and nature develops him barely above the level of an animal. Further, he must develop himself, knowing himself and his hidden possibilities. Nature has four separate functions: thinking (intellect), sensual (emotions), motor and instinctive. Well, yes, Aristotle wrote about this - in the most detailed way. At the same time, a person has a certain essence - something with which he is born, as well as a personality - something introduced, artificial. Further, not according to Aristotle: upbringing gives a person too many unnatural habits and tastes, because of this a false personality is formed that suppresses the development of the essence.

And now the most that neither is the "credo" professed by Gurdjieff in all guises: whether it is a writer, choreographer, philosopher, and so on. Attention. A person does not know and cannot know his essence - neither preferences, nor tastes, nor what he really wants from life. In man, the real and the false dissolved into each other and became almost inseparable from each other. Therefore, each person needs transformation through suffering. And if for some reason life does not send suffering, then it is very right to make a person suffer, so to speak, in a man-made way ("it is necessary, Fedya, it is necessary ...").

And a postscript from Gurdjieff ("Meetings with wonderful people"): the main tools for a person working on himself are divided attention, self-remembering and the transformation of suffering. Self-remembering helps to accumulate all kinds of subtle matters in the body, and the transformation of suffering crystallizes from subtle matters. subtle soul. Well, or the body - Gurdjieff does not know, therefore both words are in brackets: both the soul and the body.

Moreover, the author stated that everyone has a soul, but only those who have earned it by voluntary suffering have a Soul. And every time the question arises again: "Maybe the priests are right when they talk about demonism?" And again - is it all necessary normal people? And the last thing - sorry for the kids who can "be led" to this.

Staging of the long-awaited ballet

The dances learned with the students were also extraordinary. Dressed in white clothes, they moved with gestures that we can see in Indian films. The production was attended by the people of the most different nationalities, but the teachers understood everything, and it is not clear in what language he explained the exercises. The British were also there, including those who sponsored the purchase of a palace near Paris to stage this cosmic ballet. And Gudzhiev looked at them as if they were slaves. There were no exceptions.

This is exactly what his follower K.S. Nott says in his book: this time meeting in a cozy Parisian cafe for a cup of coffee with Gudzhiev, Nott asked him a question about his former student, who was carried away by Gudzhiev, and then abandoned without regret, to which " great magician" replied with a sarcastic smile, "I've always needed rats for my experiments."

So, Gudjiev practiced dancing for literally decades, at which time the will of the followers was completely suppressed, and dissidents were ruthlessly expelled. After that, some concerts were shown to the Parisian, London and New York brethren, about which they talked about the most different things.

War and post-war

Gurdjieff survived the occupation of France calmly and serenely. There were many Nazis among his students, including whom Gudzhiev met back in the mountains of Tibet, where this ideologist of the Third Reich was looking for the roots of the Aryan race. After the collapse of fascist Germany, the "great teacher" began to have complications. The students almost all fled, many called him offensive nicknames type of Greek charlatan and American master of magic. Also a miracle worker from the Caucasus ...

End of the road

But the remaining students still idolized him. He was believed to be able to predict the future (infrequently and by special request). There is a legend that Georgy Ivanovich Gurdjieff predicted the death of Trotsky, after which Stalin ordered Beria to deal with this guru. That's how his car met the tree. But everyone also knew that the Caucasian was a hot guy and an excellent driver, just a terrible, crazy driver. So, most likely, there was no intervention of Joseph Vissarionovich.

After the accident, Gudzhiev recovered for a long time, but in the end he returned to staging dances. But one day he fell in the classroom and never got up again. It was 1949. He led the inveterate hypnotist along his "fourth path" - the path of the cunning one.

Georgy Ivanovich Gurdjieff(January 14, in other sources 1874, January 14 or December 28, Alexandropol, Russian Empire - October 29, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) - mystic philosopher, occultist, composer and traveler (father - Greek, mother - Armenian) the first half of the XX century.

Gurji or Gyurji - this is how the Persians called Georgians, and the rest of the Islamic world still calls Georgians, and therefore the name Gurdjieff can be translated as Gruzinsky or Gruzinov. The surname Gyurjiev or Gyurjyan is carried by many Armenians who migrated from Georgia and other regions on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains to the territory of Armenia. To this day, there is an extensive colony of Greeks in the region of Lake Tsalka (southern Georgia). According to Gurdjieff, his own father and his spiritual father- the rector of the cathedral - engendered in him a thirst for knowledge of the life process on Earth, and in particular the purpose human life. His work was devoted to the self-development of man, the growth of his consciousness and being in Everyday life. He also paid great attention to the physical development of a person, which is why he was nicknamed, and in the last years of his life, he introduced himself as a “dance teacher”. At one time he characterized his teaching as "esoteric Christianity"

After World War II

Ideas

Heritage

After Gurdjieff's death, his student Jeanne de Salzmann, whom he entrusted with the distribution of his "Work", tried to unite the students of various groups, which marked the beginning of an organization known as the Gurdjieff Foundation (the name in the USA, in fact - the association of Gurdjieff groups in various cities, in Europe the same organization is known as the Gurdjieff Society, "Gurdjieff Society"). Also active in the dissemination of Gurdjieff's ideas were John G. Bennett and some other former students of P. D. Ouspensky: Maurice Nicholl, Rodney Collin and Lord Pantland. Lord Pantland became president of the Gurdjieff Foundation, founded in 1953 in New York, and led it until his death in 1984.

Notable students of Gurdjieff included: Pamela Travers, author of the children's book on Mary Poppins, French poet René Daumal, English writer Katherine Mansfield and American artist Paul Reynard, Jane Heep - American publisher, active in modernism. Already after the death of Gurdjieff, his students taught famous musicians Keith Jarrett and Robert Fripp.

At present, Gurdjieff groups (associated with the Gurdjieff Foundation, the Bennett line, or independent students of Gurdjieff, as well as independently organized by followers of his teaching) operate in many cities around the world.

The teachings of Gurdjieff-Ouspensky are compared [ who?] with many traditional teachings, among them - Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, Eastern branches of Christianity. In addition, note [ who?] connection with the mystical traditions of Mesopotamia and Egypt. They tried to connect the metaphysics and ontology of this doctrine with many spiritual traditions, in particular, with Christianity (B. Muravyov) and Sufism (Idris Shah). Even professional ethnographers did not bypass him; in the modern "Philosophical Dictionary" they speak of a mixture of elements of Yoga, Tantrism, Zen Buddhism and Sufism.

The leitmotif of Gurdjieff's ideas: the essential degradation of man, especially in the last few centuries; and in this it, completely coinciding with many mystical Teachings, sounds very peculiar, sometimes even superfluous. And this is one of the many reasons, namely the claim to "esoteric Christianity", for which the Russian Orthodox Church refers Gurdjieff to the "occult magicians" and warns its adherents from studying his works.

Gurdjieff himself never hid the fact that it was impossible to fully understand his teaching, and none of his close followers made any claims to it. main idea teachers - to wake up a sleeping thought and a sense of true reality in a person. Fearing that followers will quickly drown in abstractions instead of real practices, he decided to bet on art (magic dances) and the creation of "communes", where like-minded people could help each other to realize themselves. Brief material excerpts from his lectures to his "students" testify to the simplicity of his language, gravitating more towards Hodja Nasredin or Aesop. The clearest presentation of Gurdjieff's early ideas can be found in P. D. Ouspensky's book In Search of the Miraculous, where the author systematizes his cosmological, alchemical, energy and other concepts. Later, in his books, Gurdjieff chose a style of writing more suitable for his ideas, leaning towards narration, metaphor and personal appeal to the reader, whom he often “leads by the nose”, so that the reader comprehends the writings not by logic, as in Ouspensky, but by intuition. In the last, unfinished book, LIFE IS REAL ONLY WHEN I AM, Gurdjieff expresses his disappointment at the failure of his mission and emphasizes that he will take the main mysteries and secrets with him.

see also

Compositions

• Beelzebub's stories to his grandson (original version)

Literature

• Shishkin O.A. Twilight of the Magi. George Gurdjieff and others. - M .: Eksmo, Yauza, 2005. - 352 p. - ISBN 5-699-12864-6
• B. M. Nosik. Russian secrets of Paris (continuation) St. Petersburg. Eksmo 2003 p.145-162

Notes

Links

• Books by Gurdjieff and his students - J. G. Bennett, P. D. Uspensky, K. S. Nott, M. Nikoll and others.

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• People from Gyumri
• Deceased October 29
• Deceased in 1949
• Deceased in Neuilly-sur-Seine
• Persons: New Age
• Philosophers of Russia
• Occultists
• Composers of Russia
• Authors of non-academic studies
• Buried in France

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Gurdjieff, Georgy Ivanovich(-) - Greek-Armenian philosopher-mystic, composer, dance teacher.

Gurdjieff became interested in "supernatural phenomena" early on and began his travels in various countries Asia and Africa, where he tried to find answers to his questions. Among the countries he visited were Egypt, Turkey, Tibet (virtually inaccessible to Europeans at the time), Afghanistan, various locations in the Middle East and Turkestan, including the Muslim holy city of Mecca. These travels often took the form of expeditions that Gurdjieff organized with other members of the Seekers of Truth society he had created. In his travels, Gurdjieff studied various spiritual traditions, including Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism and various branches of Eastern Christianity, as well as folklore (in particular, dances and music) of the countries he visited, and collected fragments of ancient knowledge (mainly Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations). ), sometimes resorting to archaeological excavations.

At the beginning of the 20th century, based on teaching from teachers different traditions and his ethnographic and archaeological research, Gurdjieff creates a system of concepts and practices, which later became known as "Gurdjieff's Work" or " Fourth Way". The origins of many aspects of this system are difficult to trace among the various religious and philosophical concepts with which Gurdjieff may have been familiar. Some of these aspects were probably the contribution of Gurdjieff himself - for example, the idea of ​​"mutual maintenance" - the mutual exchange of energies and matter between all the entities of the Universe, without which, according to Gurdjieff, their existence is impossible.

This system Gurdjieff began to pass on to his first students in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1912. Among the students he attracted during this period are the mystic philosopher Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky and the talented composer Thomas (Thomas) de Hartmann. In parallel with the teaching of students, who are gradually becoming more and more in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Gurdjieff begins work on the ballet "The Struggle of the Magicians" - work on it, together with the students, continued in exile, the ballet script was preserved, but neither the music nor the choreography for the ballet were completed and it was never staged for the public.

After the revolution, Gurdjieff had to leave Russia for emigration with his students.

Gurdjieff tried several times to establish his "Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man" - first in Tiflis (Tbilisi) -, then in Constantinople - until he finally realized his idea by founding the Institute at the Prieuré des Basses Loges estate, near Fontainebleau near Paris in d. The Prieure organized public lectures and demonstrations of "Sacred Movements" - dances and exercises developed by Gurdjieff, partly based on folk and temple dances, which he studied during his travels in Asia. These evenings were quite well known among the French educated public. In addition, a large number of Gurdjieff's students remained to live and work in the Prieure, some of these students (in particular, those who emigrated with him from Russia) Gurdjieff supported financially. On several occasions he made extended visits to groups of his students in the United States, also organizing public lectures and performances of the Movements there.

After Gurdjieff's death, his student Jeanne de Salzmann, whom he entrusted with the dissemination of his teachings, tried to unite the students of various groups, which marked the beginning of an organization known as the Gurdjieff Foundation (the name in the USA, in fact - the association of Gurdjieff groups in various cities, in Europe the same organization is known as the Gurdjieff Society, "Gurdjieff Society"). Also active in disseminating Gurdjieff's ideas were John G. Bennett and P. D. Ouspensky's students Maurice Nicholl and Rodney Collin.

Notable students of Gurdjieff included Pamela Travers, author of the children's book on Mary Poppins, French poet René Daumal, English writer Katherine Mansfield, and American artist Paul Reynard. Already after the death of Gurdjieff, famous musicians studied with his students