George Gurdjieff: biography and research. George Gurdjieff mystical secrets. In search of ancient knowledge

“Remember yourself,” said Mr. Gurdjieff, “return to yourself.” This, he argued, is essential; otherwise, our movements, thoughts, emotions are mainly the result of our conditioning: family, social, educational, religious. “Man is a prison,” said Mr. Gurdjieff. Thus, there is a challenge for the human being to develop consciousness in order to come out of the animal state and conditioning. Our only opportunity is in searching: searching for ourselves with sincerity, with passion and with humor. And we need help. Not just intellectual knowledge, but also something that involves the physical and emotional parts of our being.

We can all see that we are capable of driving a car, smoking a cigarette, cooking, thinking, feeling, speaking, moving, working without realizing it. The forces of forgetting oneself are strong. The temptation to “be passive” is especially powerful. It's comfortable. We so easily allow ourselves to be distracted, manipulated, lulled to sleep. Everything in Mr. Gurdjieff's work is very practical; he clearly proclaimed the importance of the body and physical work in the transmission of his teachings. And he attached this importance to the Dances, with a specific approach, such as the Gurdjieff Movements.
One can grow towards a higher and more balanced state of consciousness and a sense of presence and a sense of being. The method is described quite simply: when moving, dancing, remember yourself.

Psychologist, philosopher, scientist, traveler, choreographer, teacher and mystic, founder of the doctrine of the “Fourth Way” of human inner realization. Russia, Georgy Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born on November 28, 1877 in Alexandropol (from 1924 - Leninakan) in Armenia into a mixed Armenian-Greek family. He spent his childhood years in Kars, was a student of the Russian abbot cathedral, who had a great influence on Gurdjieff. Although he never received a systematic secondary education, he knew several languages ​​since childhood.

The search for answers to the “eternal questions” led him to the creation of the doctrine of the “fourth path” of the internal realization of man. Travels and wanderings (1896-1922), first as part of a small group of “Seekers of Truth”, then as a wanderer, teacher and emigrant, became a kind of university for G.I. Gurdjieff. During this period, G.I. Gurdjieff visited Central Asia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Tibet, India, Assyria, Palestine, Russia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Turkey, Crete, Greece, Italy, Germany, England and France.

The search for esoteric knowledge, the “inner circle” of humanity led him to the secret Sufi brotherhoods of the Hindu Kush and to the Buddhist monasteries of Tibet. In 1915-1917, Gurdjieff created groups of his students in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Revolutionary events forced him to emigrate to the Caucasus, then to Turkey, Germany and France. In 1922, George Gurdjieff recreated his Institute near Paris in Fontainebleau harmonious development person, which existed until 1933. During this period, G.I. Gurdjieff conducted practical classes with his students, trainings on introspection, yoga, meditation, and worked on the manuscripts of his books.
Miraculously, surviving after a car accident, Gurdjieff wrote three books: “Everything and Everything”, “Meetings with wonderful people“, “Life is true only when I am,” and in 1933 he wrote another book, “The Messenger of Good Things to Come.” In the same year, he closed the Institute and resumed his travels around Europe and the USA, giving lectures. George Gurdjieff died on October 29, 1949 in Paris.

from wikipedia.ru

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (January 14, 1866, in other sources January 14, 1877 or December 28, 1872, Alexandropol, Russian Empire - October 29, 1949, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) - mystical philosopher, composer and traveler (Greek father, mother - Armenian) of the first half of the 20th century. “Gurdji” or “Gyurji” is how the Persians called Georgians, and the rest of the Islamic world still calls Georgians, and therefore the surname Gurdjiev can be translated as Gruzinsky or Gruzinov. The surname Gurdjieff or Gurdjian is borne by many Greeks who migrated from Georgia and other areas on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains to the territory of Armenia. To this day there is a large colony of Greeks in the area of ​​Lake Tsalka (southern Georgia). According to Gurdjieff, his own father and his spiritual father, the rector of the cathedral, instilled in him a thirst for knowledge of the life process on Earth, and especially the purpose of 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, introduced himself as a “dance teacher.” At one time he characterized his teaching as “esoteric Christianity”

Cousin of Sergei Dmitrievich Merkurov, Soviet monumental sculptor.

Biography

Gurdjieff began his travels early in various countries of Asia and Africa, where he tried to find answers to the questions that interested him. Among the countries that he, in his words, visited are Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, various areas in the Middle East and Turkestan, including the holy Muslim city of Mecca. These journeys often took the form of expeditions that Gurdjieff organized with other members of the “Seekers of Truth” society they supposedly created. In his travels, Gurdjieff studied various spiritual traditions (including Sufism, Buddhism and Eastern Christianity), collected fragments of ancient knowledge, sometimes even “resorting to archaeological excavations,” as well as folklore (in particular, dance and music) of the countries he visited.

Fourth way

Continuing his career as a “Teacher of Theosophy” [a popular movement of neo-mysticism at the beginning of the 20th century], which he began in his youth, in 1912-13. he came to Moscow, where he managed to gather a small group of students around him. In 1915, he met with P. D. Uspensky, a 37-year-old philosopher and journalist, a famous author of a number of works on mysticism and also a traveler. In alliance with the latter, he created a group in St. Petersburg. Uspensky and his circle of metropolitan intellectuals, who became interested in Gurdjieff’s knowledge, with their leading questions and polemicizing judgments contributed to the “sorting and bringing to systematization” of the versatile experience of the latter’s research. In addition, the new associate, who had many years of independent experience in interacting with esoteric schools and literature, identified and comprehended new ideas of Eastern teachings, among others that appeared in Gurdjieff’s presentation, and also adapted them to the European mentality, translating them into a language understandable to Western psychological culture. This collaboration, which led to the formation of a set of unique concepts and practices, was called the “Teaching of Gurdjieff-Ouspensky” or “The Fourth Way”.

Institute for Harmonious Human Development

Gurdjieff tried several times to found the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” - first in Tiflis (Tbilisi) - 1919, then in Constantinople (Istanbul) - 1920, from groups transferred to him by Ouspensky. His attempt to do this in Germany failed due to a conflict with the authorities. Then, following Uspensky, he tried to move to the UK. However, the authorities did not allow his followers to enter the country. As a result, in 1922, with funds collected by the English Assumption groups, Gurdjieff bought a castle on the Priere estate, near Fontainebleau near Paris. There the “Institute” was founded, which taught no longer the complex ideas and principles of the “Fourth Way” (even this name itself was left to Ouspensky by Gurdjieff), but a much more stripped-down, simplified and deliberately exotic (for romantic Paris) “The Way of the Cunning” or "Ida Yoga".

Sacred Movements

The Prieure hosted public lectures and demonstrations of the "Sacred Movements" - dances and exercises developed by Gurdjieff, based on the folk and temple dances that he studied during his travels in Asia. These evenings were well known to the French exalted public. Most of Gurdjieff's students (not for free) remained to live and work in the Prieure. Although some of them (mainly those who emigrated from Russia with him) Gurdjieff still supported financially. Several times he visited groups of his students in the United States, also organizing public lectures and performances of his “Movements” there.

Break with P. D. Uspensky

January 1924 - the time when life paths Gurdjieff and Ouspensky separated; this made it possible for some of Gurdjieff’s followers to rank Ouspensky among the “apostates” and even “ordinary students,” which was not true. For Ouspensky turned out to be almost the only associate of Gurdjieff who was able to resist the harsh will of the latter and defend his English group and the right to independent Work (which was not of a strong-willed nature, like Gurdjieff’s, but of a psychological nature). The groups of the remaining 3 main assistants and students of Gurdjieff later underwent a harsh and uncompromising reformation, from which they were never able to recover, having lost their previous style and leadership.

In July 1924, just six months after the break with Ouspensky, Gurdjieff was involved in a car accident, in which he almost lost his life. After this, the Prieure becomes more closed, although many of Gurdjieff's disciples remain there or continue to attend regularly.

"Anything and everything"

During this period, Gurdjieff began work on his books - "Everything and Everything, or Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson", "Meetings with Remarkable People" and "Life is Real Only When I Am". In addition, together with the composer Thomas de Hartmann, about 150 short pieces of music for piano were created during this period, often based on the melodies of Asian peoples, as well as music for the Sacred Movements.

The Institute in Prieure was closed in 1932, after which Gurdjieff lived in Paris, continuing to visit the USA from time to time, where, after his previous visits, a certain Orage - the former owner of the English magazine "New Age" - led groups of his students in New York and Chicago . After the closure of the Prieure, Gurdjieff continued to work with students, organizing meetings in city cafes or at home. His activities clearly decreased, but did not stop even during the Nazi occupation of Paris.

After World War II

After the end of World War II, Gurdjieff gathered in Paris students of various groups formed on the basis of his System, in particular, students of the already deceased P. D. Ouspensky. Among the latter is the philosopher and mathematician John Bennett, the author of the fundamental work “The Dramatic Universe,” in which an attempt was made to develop Gurdjieff’s concepts in the language of European philosophy.

In the last year of his life, Gurdjieff gave instructions to his students about the publication of two of his books (“Everything and Everything”, “Meetings with Remarkable People”) and the manuscript of P. D. Ouspensky, sent to him, “In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching,” which he considered very the original version of the presentation of his lectures given in 1915-17. in Russia. Gurdjieff himself died in an American hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine on October 29, 1949.

Ideas

After Gurdjieff's death, his student Jeanne de Salzmann, to whom he entrusted the dissemination of his "Work", tried to unite students of various groups, which marked the beginning of an organization known as the Gurdjieff Foundation (the Gurdjieff Foundation - the name in the USA, in fact - a union of Gurdjieff groups in various cities, in Europe the same organization is known as the Gurdjieff Society. Also actively disseminating 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 headed it until his death in 1984.

Among Gurdjieff's famous students were: Pamela Travers, author of the children's book about Mary Poppins, French poet Rene Daumal, English writer Katherine Mansfield and American artist Paul Reynard, Jane Heap - American publisher, active participant modernism. After Gurdjieff's death, famous musicians Keith Jarrett and Robert Fripp studied with his students.

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

The teachings of Gurdjieff-Ouspensky are compared with many traditional teachings, among them Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and eastern branches of Christianity. In addition, connections with the mystical traditions of Mesopotamia and Egypt are noted. They tried to connect the metaphysics and ontology of this teaching with many spiritual traditions, in particular with Christianity (B. Muravyov) and Sufism (Idris Shah). Even professional ethnographers did not ignore it; in the modern "Philosophical Dictionary" they talk about a mixture of elements of yoga, tantrism, Zen Buddhism and Sufism.

The leitmotif of Gurdjieff's ideas: significant degradation of man, especially over the last few centuries; and in this, while it completely coincides with many mystical Teachings, it sounds very peculiar, sometimes even excessive. And this is one of many reasons, precisely the claim to “esoteric Christianity”, why the Russian Orthodox Church classifies Gudzhiev as an “occult magician” 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 adherents claimed this. The main idea of ​​the teacher is to awaken a sleeping thought and a sense of true reality in a person. Fearing that his followers would quickly drown in abstractions instead of real practices, he decided to rely on art (magical dancing) and the creation of “communes” where like-minded people could help each other realize themselves. The brief material of excerpts from his lectures to his “students” testifies to the simplicity of his language, which tends more towards Khoja Nasredin or Aesop. The clearest presentation of Gurdjieff's early ideas can be found in P. D. Uspensky's book “In Search of the Miraculous,” where the author systematizes his cosmological, alchemical, energetic and other concepts. Later, in his books, Gurdjieff chose a writing style more suitable for his ideas, leaning towards narrative, metaphor and personal appeal to the reader, whom he often “leads by the nose”, so that the reader comprehends the writings not by logic, like Ouspensky, but by intuition. In the last, unfinished book, “LIFE IS REAL Only When I AM,” Gurdjieff expresses disappointment over the failures of his mission and emphasizes that he will take the main secrets and secrets with him.

"The results of work are proportional to the consciousness in it"
G. I. Gurdjieff
//Biography of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
// V. Aleksakhin
======================================

THE PATH OF GILGAMESH

The mysterious appearance of Gurdjieff on the horizon of historical vicissitudes XX
century - a special phenomenon, comparable, perhaps, with such extravagant
conductors of esoteric influences on humanity, like Apollonius of Tyana,
who lived in the 1st century AD, was known as a miracle worker and studied in the East,
in India and other countries. Or, for example, Johann Faust (1480-1540),
mastered the secrets of magic and served as the prototype for the hero of the immortal poem
Goethe. Some researchers of the life of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1877-1949)
they compare him with Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo), with the amazing “immortal”
Saint Germain (appeared in Europe in 1735, died in 1784), whom Elena
Blavatsky ranked among the “great Tibetan masters”.

It is interesting to note that Gurdjieff produced in Russia a stronger
"furor" than the Count of Saint-Germain during the time of Catherine II, since he acted
secretly and extremely effectively - perhaps more effectively than many of
are able to understand and appreciate us... A striking pattern is striking: during periods
crises and cataclysms, individuals appear on the historical arena who
create special schools and groups of people capable of moving human
spirituality in a direction perpendicular to the ordinary flow of time.

It was Gurdjieff who conveyed to his students the secret of fateful intervals
historical time: "There are periods in the life of mankind when the masses
people begin to irreparably destroy and destroy everything that was created
centuries and millennia of culture. These periods generally coincide with the beginning
decline of culture and civilization; such periods of mass madness are often
coinciding with geological disasters, climate changes, etc.
similar phenomena of a planetary nature release a huge amount
knowledge. This, in turn, necessitates the work of collecting
knowledge that would otherwise be lost. Thus, the work of collecting
scattered matter of knowledge often coincides with the beginning of destruction and collapse
cultures and civilizations." In addition to Faust, Saint Germain and Apollonius of Tyana
It is appropriate to mention another, almost mythical figure, who has a direct
attitude towards Gurdjieff. We are talking about Gilgamesh, the hero of the most ancient epic,
famous in the history of cultures, a hero who set off on a journey beyond the distant
the sea to get the “flower like a thorn” that gives immortality. Exactly like this
flower of immortality (which in fairy tales and legends turned into “scarlet
flower") Gilgamesh wished to bring to his people...

Where did this associative origin come from, at first glance - nothing more than
associative? - connection: Gurdjieff, legendary teacher of the esoteric school
"of the fourth way", who lived in the 20th century, and - on the other hand - Gilgamesh,
who lived at the end of the 27th - beginning of the 26th centuries BC. (!) in the city of Uruk in Sumer.
According to modern scientific data, Gilgamesh was a real historical
figure, fifth ruler of the 1st dynasty of Uruk. After his death he was deified
after which his name appears in the “royal list” of the III dynasty of Ur, where he
turns into a mythical king-hero. Already from the 2nd millennium BC.
Gilgamesh was seen as a judge in the afterlife, a protector of people from
demons ("protector of people" is a remarkable term to which we
we'll be back). The earliest version of the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh (3-2nd
millennium BC) is attributed to the Uruk spellcaster Sinlikeunninni -
this is the poem "About Seen Everything", one of the most outstanding poetic
works of ancient Eastern literature. With his friend Enkidu Gilgamesh
performs many feats (ancient Indian version: Rama and Ha-numan). But
Enkidu dies - Gilgamesh, shocked by the death of his brother-brother, runs away to
desert, where he first realizes that he, Gilgamesh, the “great king,” is
mortal, is insignificant dust in the eyes of eternity: ...

How can I remain silent, how can I calm down? My beloved friend became the earth, Enkidu,
my beloved friend has become earth, dust! So, like him, will I not fall, so that
never get up, forever and ever?..

Gilgamesh travels the path of Shamash, the Sun deity, through the mountains,
going beyond the horizon, into the dungeons, ends up in a wonderful garden, is crossed
through the "waters of death" to the island where Ut-napishtim, the only person, lives
one of the people who gained immortality. Ut-write (analogous to the biblical Noah,
saved from the flood) tells Gilgamesh the story of the Flood,
after which only he, Noy-Ut-napishtim, remained, since the council of the gods decided
grant him "eternal life." At the request of Ut-shti's wife, he wrote the Sumerian Noah on
farewell reveals to Gilgamesh the secret of the “flower of eternal youth.”

FLOWER OF SELF-REMEMBERING

Gilgamesh goes on a journey and with great difficulty obtains this
"flower of eternity" But he fails to use the magic of the flower: while he
was swimming, the flower was carried away by a snake, which immediately shed its skin and became younger,
gaining new life. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, comforted by contemplation
the inaccessibility of the walls around the city... What does all this mean in the secret language
characters? The end of the Gilgamesh story emphasizes the idea that
the only thing available to a person is the memory of his glorious deeds, or rather
- memories of one’s own successes and failures, moments
“self-memories” that a person takes with him to the dimension of Eternity.
It is this idea that is one of the main ones in the “Fourth Way” school, although it can
have different aspects of understanding at the level of cultural traditions and
mystical interpretations. The idea of ​​"self-remembering" appears later in
antiquity, in the dialogues of Plato, in the aphorisms of Aesop and Socrates, in the saying
Delphic Oracle "Know Thyself", etc.

The idea of ​​self-remembering is the most important practical idea of ​​Gurdjieff's system and
his followers. In a veiled form it can be found in various
mystical schools of East and West. For example, in Chapter XIII of the Bhagavad Gita,
which is called “The Yoga of Discrimination between the Field and the Cognizing Field”, i.e.
“discrimination”, “division of attention” between the contemplated and the contemplator: “Those
who with the eyes of wisdom see the difference between the Field and the Cognizing Field and
liberation of beings from Prakriti (materiality of the world), they go to the Highest."

However, a clear presentation of the principle of "divided attention" in Russian
a modern seeker of truths can discover in the book of Peter Uspensky “In
searching for the miraculous": "- None of you noticed the most important thing that
“I have your attention,” he said. - In other words, none of you
noticed that you don’t remember yourself (he especially emphasized these words). You do not
feel yourself, you are not aware of yourself. “Something is watching” in you - absolutely
just like “says something”, “thinks”, “laughs”. Don't you feel: "I
I observe”, “I notice”, “I see”. You still have something “noticeable”,
“visible”... To truly observe oneself, a person first of all
must remember himself (he emphasized these words again). Try to remember
yourself as you observe yourself, and tell me the results later.
Only those results will be of any value that are accompanied by
remembering yourself. Otherwise, you yourself do not exist in your observations. And what
Are all your observations worth it then?.. Everything that Gurdjieff said, everything
what I thought through myself, especially what my attempts to remember myself showed me,
soon convinced me that I was faced with a completely new problem,
which neither science nor philosophy has yet paid attention to."

WONDERFUL PEOPLE

Gurdjieff was born in the city of Alexandropol (now the city of Gyumri, territory
Armenia) in 1877, when this area was part of the Russian
empires. Literally "Alexander" - "protector of people", "Alexandropol" - "city
protector of people"... This in Greek repeats one of the titles
legendary Gilgamesh.

"Gyurji" is Turkish for "Georgian", a resident of the Caucasus. Surname Gurdjieff or
Gyurjian is worn by many Greeks who migrated from Georgia and other regions along that
side of the Caucasus Mountains into the territory of Armenia. To this day there is an extensive
a colony of Greeks in the area of ​​Lake Khalka (southern Georgia). Gurdjieff's mother is Armenian,
father is an Asia Minor Greek. Already in early childhood, my father, a great expert on legends,
and songs of antiquity, sang the story of Gilgamesh to George. Later Gurdjieff
I read the contents of this song in one of the scientific journals where they were
published data from archaeological excavations - cuneiform tables,
found in Nineveh. This fact convinced Gurdjieff that there was
"oral tradition", independent of official science, which is not preserved
worse than official writings and tables and puts more correct emphasis on
content aspects of knowledge. Vivid examples this kind of singer
ancient Greek legends Homer, Slavic Boyan, author of "The Elephant about the Regiment"
Igorev" and others.

Belief in receiving punishment for disobedience.
The hope of receiving an award only on merit.
Love for God, but indifference to the saints.
Remorse for mistreating animals.
Fear of upsetting parents and teachers.
Non-aversion to worms, snakes and mice.
The joy of being content with only what you have.
Sadness at losing the goodwill of others.
Patient endurance of pain and cold.
Trying to earn your bread early."

Gurdjieff exclaims: “To my great chagrin, I did not have to
to catch the last days of this worthy and wonderful man, so that
to give him the last debt of earthly life, my unforgettable teacher, my
to the second father... Rest in peace, dear Teacher! I don't know if I justified and
do I justify your dreams, but the commandments that you gave me, I have never
violated my entire life." Another person who had a "remarkable" influence on
Gurdjieff, there was Bogachevsky, father Evlysiy, who ended his days as an assistant
vicar of the Essene Brotherhood monastery, located near the Dead Sea.
According to legend, in this brotherhood “Jesus Christ received the blessing of
their asceticism" (modern data confirm the close connection of the first
communities of Jesus with the Qumran schools of esoteric Judaism). "I met
Bogachevsky for the first time when he was a young man and, having completed his course in
Russian Theological Seminary, awaited ordination to the priesthood and was
deacon in the military cathedral in Karei."

Bogachevsky had a unique knowledge of distinguishing between subjective and
objective morality: “Objective morality,” he said, “is established by life
and the commandments given to us by the Lord God himself through his prophets, she
becomes the basis for the formation in a person of what is called
conscience. And with this conscience, objective morality, in turn,
supported. Objective morality never changes - it can only
expand over time. As for subjective morality, it
invented by man and therefore is a relative concept, differing
for different people and different places and depending on the subjective
understanding of good and evil prevailing in a given period." The future father
Eulysius ordered Gurdjieff to live and act according to inner conviction,
without following the tricks of "generally accepted conventions": "You should know not what
your immediate environment considers you good or bad, but to act in life,
as your conscience commands you. An undeniable conscience will always know
more than all the books and teachers combined. But for now, before
your own conscience will be formed, live according to our commandment
teacher of Jesus Christ: "Do not do to others what you would not have them do
did to you." During this period Gurdjieff became very seriously interested
supernatural phenomena, but even immersed in books and communicating with
scientists, he could not find answers to many inexplicable things, an eyewitness
whom he happened to be. He began to look for answers in the field of religion: “I
visited various monasteries and saw people about whose piety I had heard,
read the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints and was even for three months
servant of the famous Father Evplampius in the Sanahin monastery. I also committed
pilgrimages to most of the holy places of various faiths in Transcaucasia." On his
eyes, a paralytic was healed on Mount Dhajur, where he was
monastery with the miraculous tomb of the saint. Another phenomenon is the effect of prayer
with icons and banners to ask for rain during periods of severe drought. Third
example - saving a doomed girl in an unusual way: to her sick mother-in-law
Mariar Ana (Azerbaijani Virgin Mary) appeared in a dream and ordered to collect
pink berries, boil them in milk and give them to the girl to drink.

During these years, Gurdjieff became close to an Armenian youth, whom he later
will call him “Mr. Isk” or “Captain Poghosyan” in his memoirs. Discussing many
problems, they came to the conclusion that there is a "secret knowledge" known
people since ancient times, but by now it has been lost and forgotten. Having lost
any hope of finding anything in modern sources, Gurdjieff and Poghossian
plunged into the study of ancient literature. They settled among the ruins of an ancient
Armenian capital Ani and one day accidentally (??) stumbled upon a buried
monastic cell, where they found “in a corner niche a pile of parchments with
in writing"...

SECRET BROTHERHOOD "SARMUNG"

Thanks to the study of the scrolls, it became known: the brotherhood (ernos) "Sarmung"
existed near the city of Sinarush, but was previously located “in the Izrumin valley,
near the town of Nivesi. It turned out that the city of Mosul, near which
was the former capital of Assyria, Nineveh, in the 7th century. It was called "Nivesi"...

Poghossian and Gurdjieff met the description of the Sarmung brotherhood in print
publication of the ancient mystical book "Merkhavat". They decided to find traces
location of this school between Lake Urmia and Kurdistan, three days' journey from
Mosul. Overcoming many difficulties and dangers, friends accidentally
discovered a "secret card" ancient egypt"from one of the local priests.
They managed to make a copy of the map - they headed to Egypt. But Poghosyan decided
stay on the ship, heading to Alexandria. Later, having received
educated in Liverpool, he became a qualified mechanical engineer.
Poghossian was one of those who taught Gurdjieff many things, especially -
the ability to consciously do things and achieve goals. After 1908
Poghosyan became a businessman and became one of the richest people
on the ground. "He was right when he said that unconscious work is always
gets lost. He really worked consciously and conscientiously day and night,
like an ox, all your life, in all circumstances and under all conditions."

Further adventures of Gurdjieff, his meetings with amazing people,
who shared with him the difficulties of searches and efforts can be found in the book "Meetings
with wonderful people" (Abram Elov, Yuri Lyubovedsky, Ekim Bey, Peter
Karpenko, Professor Skridlov, etc.). In the end, Gurdjieff found that
he searched, although he had to pay many people for this... Uspensky writes in
book "In Search of the Miraculous": "About the schools, about where he found the knowledge that,
no doubt possessed, he spoke little and always somehow casually. He mentioned
Tibetan monasteries, Chitral, Mount Athos, Sufi schools in Persia, Bukhara and
Eastern Turkestan, as well as dervishes of various orders; but about all this
was said very vaguely." At the head of the "Seekers of Truth" group in
At the age of 22, Gurdjieff goes on an expedition to the countries of the East
(India, Afghanistan, Persia, Turkestan, Egypt, Tibet, countries of the Middle
East). For some time he studied in a system associated with Sufi
Order of Naqshbandi. In Bukhara he meets with a member of the Sarmung Brotherhood
whose monasteries are located in the inaccessible mountains of Central Asia (on the territory
Afghanistan). Here Gurdjieff brings together and synthesizes everything he
acquired over years of study and travel.

GURDJIEFF IN RUSSIA

In 1912, Gurdjieff appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg, speaking with
lectures and creating groups of people interested in working on themselves.
In the spring of 1915, Gurdjieff met with Ouspensky, who by that time had already
traveled to many countries of the world, was in India, in Egypt, saw the Sphinx with his own eyes,
Taj Mahal and Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris. Uspensky was fond of theosophy,
occultism; he had already written a brochure about the Arcana of the Tarot and summarized his
research in the book "TETRIUM ORGANUM". Later, in our time, Rajneesh (Osho)
will call this book the third most important after Aristotle's Organon and
"New Organon" by Francis Bacon... Subsequently, Gurdjieff admitted
Ouspensky, that these books drew Gurdjieff’s attention to the personality of Ouspensky,
and his involvement in Gurdjieff's school was thought out and planned in advance.

Russian society during the First World War was already permeated
searches for mystical movements, schools and circles, salons and philosophical
society The exotic east began to lift its veils before our eyes
Russian intellectuals, dreamers, symbolist poets. See you soon
Gurdjieff, Ouspensky shaped his worldview in his own way. He realized
himself as the creator of a “new model of the Universe”: the world appears to be multidimensional, and
mysticism - “cognition by expanded consciousness” of that noumenal world of “things”
in oneself,” which was spoken about by philosophers and mystics of various times and cultures.
Its development was “rapid and quite in the spirit of the wonderful beginning of the century,”
as Arkady Rovner notes. At age 13, he became interested in dreams and psychology;
at 16, he discovered Nietzsche and thought seriously about the idea of ​​the “superman”; V
For 18 years he began writing articles and books, came to the exhaustion of rationalism and
took steps in search of "unknown knowledge". At the age of 29 he became interested in the idea
"fourth dimension", which could justify any "miraculous" based on
from mathematical models of the multidimensional world and the transition from ordinary time to
dimension of "eternity".

The schools that Uspensky found in the East required a break with
culture of the West - but Uspensky believed in reason and intellectual freedom,
which remained alien to the amorphous mysticism of the East. The ecstasies of meditation
compared with the “charm” of unusual states that visit ascetics and
monks and well known to the elders of esoteric Christianity
(followers of Gregory Palamas, hesychasts) and are described in "...". In full
confusion from the failure of his searches abroad, Uspensky unexpectedly
I encountered myself with the most mysterious, perhaps, of the people of our century. IN
In the face of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky encountered a completely new form of thinking.
The system, which he began to eagerly study with the help of "a man with a face
Indian Rajah or Arab Sheikh", was capable of fusing,
reunite all the knowledge that was known to him, including religious,
philosophical, occult and scientific forms and principles. Now he could get rid
from the feeling of annoyance experienced while reading H. P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant,
Charles Letbitter, Papus and the newfangled “yoga” profane writers
waves of the beginning of the century.

Gurdjieff in a short period of time gave such powerful energy of knowledge that
fell upon Ouspensky’s intellectual acuity like an avalanche of a waterfall.
A whole network of new concepts, structures and practical exercises broke
illusory stereotypes of everyday, albeit quasi-scientific, ideas about the world,
man and higher influences. Gurdjieff drew his attention to the tragic
gap in the European world of "essence" ( inner man) and "personality"
(external person, “persona”, “mask”, “imitator”, “adapted to
environment). The essence remains with an adult raised in
world of falsehood and imitation, at the level of a six-year-old child, while
his personality is a multitude of small “I”, compressed into a swarm or legion
conflicting motives and desires - increases exaggeratedly,
subjugating the essence, turning it into a slave, into a “Cinderella”. The idea of ​​essence development
person - transition to the third stage, which is not entered ordinary people,
- appeared before Gurdjieff’s students as quite concrete and real
tangible task. Gurdjieff, unlike many others, is not just something
asserted or proclaimed - he gave clear exercises and methods,
allowing you to change yourself, to make a leap in the direction of growth of your essence.
The entity can be compared to a downtrodden "ugly duckling" who does not suspect
what can become a "swan"...

Each of the ideas - which is always in the “Fourth Way” System
accompanied by a practical aspect of understanding, was aimed at living
of man (knowledge of the world was correlated with knowledge of man and vice versa), -
could serve as a theme for the creation of some new philosophical system,
with which the speculatively educated West was filled. We will only list
A few of these ideas forming an interconnected and coherent whole:
the idea of ​​"dividing attention" and "self-remembering"; the idea of ​​"four states":
dream; wakefulness; the third state, “self-remembering”; fourth state
consciousness, "objective consciousness", transcendental "illumination"; idea of ​​multitude
"I"; the idea of ​​opposition between “personality” and “essence”; idea of ​​scale, inclusion
some levels of being into others, more “eternal” and “free”; Ray idea
creation and hierarchy of worlds in the Universe; the idea of ​​the law of "three forces" and "seven notes"
(principle of triad and octave); the idea of ​​the mechanicalness of people, the loss of “themselves”;
the idea of ​​unobservability and secrecy of the “third force”; the idea of ​​four centers-minds,
functioning in the organic human machine, etc.

To assimilate the ideas and principles of the “Fourth Way” school, there was
a special language that was lost once upon a time, during the
construction of the Tower of Babel and the so-called migration and confusion
"peoples" and cultural languages. Gurdjieff claimed that there were three left
projections, three modifications of a single “universal language”: first modification
- "on the first of them you can speak and write, remaining within your
own language, the only difference being that when people speak
in their ordinary language, they do not understand each other, but in this other language -
understand" (another time he called such language "philosophy" and compared it with
the first inner circle, the "esoteric" layer of inner humanity,
pointing to India, where this form of presentation and communication has been preserved); second
modification - “in a second language the writing is the same for all peoples, as,
say, numbers or mathematical notations; but people still speak
their own languages; however, each of them understands the other, at least
this other one spoke in an unknown language" (otherwise it is "science"
"mesoteric" layer of inner humanity, historically such a language
preserved in Egypt, the Middle East); the third language is the same for
everyone, both written and spoken; at this level the differences between
languages ​​completely disappear" (this is "practice", "esoteric", nuclear layer
inner humanity, this “language” was preserved in Central Asia, Turkestan,
Mesopotamia). "External humanity" - outside the walls of that "city" or "fortress",
which was probably built by Gilgamesh when he created the principles
esoteric foundations of existence, methods of improvement, achieving immortality,
approaching the divine level.

This division of “tongues” was apparently known to Moses,
Pythagoras, Plato, adherents of Kabbalah, Sufism, esoteric Christianity and
other mystical teachings, in the basis of which a hidden code can be traced
Tetrads or Tetragrammaton - a way of dividing the single Logos-Meaning into
steps or stages of gradual connection of knowledge and being. An attempt to make
this code is more accessible to Western culture undertaken by Dante Alighieri,
although his theory of four meanings (coinciding with the symbolism of Philo, Origen,
Kabbalah, Sufi masters and Gnostics) remained misunderstood and
undeveloped European tradition.

A new period of Uspensky’s life begins after the 1917 revolution.
when, at the invitation of Gurdjieff, he came to Alexandropol, and then to
Essentuki, where he settled in a house on Panteleimonovskaya Street. To this place
gradually other disciples of Gurdjieff came together, forming a close-knit group,
completely devoted to work and communication. And learning. Went to bed late
got up early, with the sunrise: “We haven’t talked so much in six years,
how much we've talked in these six weeks." In the midst of global and
civil wars, among terror and numerous gangs, in Essentuki,
unnoticed by the influence of planetary fires and bloodshed, there was an intense
painstaking work to create an awakened consciousness... This feature is
property of an esoteric school, which should be able to derive “benefit” from
any situation, whatever it may be. Gurdjieff demonstrated to his
students not in words, but in deeds, what he can do and how he can do it in the most
hopeless and critical, at first glance, situation. He could
subscribe to the aphorism that goes back to Lao Tzu: “The worse, the better.”
If for Uspensky the events of 1917 in Russia seemed only “massive”
madness", then for Gurdjieff they were an incentive and a condition
real practice. After all, Gurdjieff was always in favor of extreme situations,
when “super-efforts” are required, without which real transformation of oneself
impossible: “Schools are urgently needed... man is too lazy... he
afraid of doing something unpleasant to himself. On his own he never
will reach the required intensity."

When the Reds appeared in Essentuki, Gurdjieff presented to the new authorities
their group as scientists searching for the location of gold in the mountains
Caucasus. He proposed a plan: to officially equip the expedition (ostensibly) for
searches and export of gold. Props from Kislovodsk, Mineralnye were collected
Waters, nearby stations: horses, carts, alcohol for scientific needs, provisions,
-although Ouspensky decided not to participate in “Gurdjieff’s crossing of the Caucasus.” He
I soon learned that the group had reached Sochi, from where they arrived in Tiflis: everyone
participants in the historical “transition”, this experience became almost the most vivid
mystical impression and the discovery of a “second wind”, overcoming one’s
mechanicalness.

In the summer of 1919, Ouspensky received a letter from Gurdjieff inviting
him to Tiflis to work at the new “Institute of Harmonious Development
person"... At this time, Uspensky is in a state of rejection of the individual
Gurdjieff. By accepting the entire Fourth Way system, he already assessed
Gurdjieff's extraordinary harshness and "unintelligence" is negative, as
"polluted source" There are different points of view regarding the conflict
between them. One of them is that Gurdjieff was not interested
Uspensky's intellectual constructions, his efforts to give everything his own
definition and correct formulation, - Uspensky was offered
the traditional Eastern formula of unconditional devotion to the teacher, without
any subterfuge or self-will. But Uspensky tried to preserve his
independence - he even began to lead clubs according to his own plan in the summer and
in the fall of 1919 in Ekaterinodar, Rostov and Novorossiysk.

In January 1920, Uspensky and his family (wife Sofya Grigorievna and
one-year-old son Leonid) left Russia and moved to Constantinople by sea.
Here, among Turkish soldiers, allied armies, tens of thousands of Russians
refugees - living in a small room, he gave lessons in English And
at the same time formed his own group, giving lectures on psychology and introducing
people with the Fourth Way system. Here he met a young man
an Englishman named Bennett, who would write about Ouspensky, Gurdjieff and
the ideas of this school include about 44 books, which have not yet been translated into Russian,
which have gone through numerous editions around the world: "Creative Thinking",
"The Deepest Man", "Dramatic Universe" (in 4 vols.), "The First
freedom", "Gurdjieff: a very big Mystery", "Gurdjieff: Making New
world", "Excitement: the risk of implementation", "How we do things: the role of attention in
spiritual life", "The Image of God at Work", "International Academy
Conscious Education", "Is there "life" on Earth?", "Masters of Truth",
"The Needs of a New Age Society", "Secret Influences: Spiritual Actions in
human life" etc.

In Constantinople, Uspensky gives lectures at the Russian Lighthouse for
emigrants from Russia. In 1920, Gurdjieff arrived here with his students,
old and new. The central point in Gurdjieff's work becomes
a special ballet in which students are given performance training
"unnatural" movements that create such efforts and loads on the muscles and
nervous system, which under normal conditions, in mechanical life,
impossible. Ballet turned out to be a form of self-knowledge leading to the discovery
higher forms of consciousness, awakening of higher centers. Uspensky recalled
this "interesting time" with special warmth: he and Gurdjieff walked together
to the dervishes of the Mevlevi order; Gurdjieff explained that the whirling dervishes around
own axis was based on rhythmic counting for brain development. "To me
I especially remember one such night. We translated one of the dervish songs
for "Struggle of Mages". I saw Gurdjieff the artist, Gurdjieff the poet, whom
he carefully concealed them within himself, sometimes repeating them quietly to himself, and then
translated them into Russian for me. In just a quarter of an hour I was
buried under forms, symbols and associations; then he said: “Well,
now make one line out of it!" I didn't even try to find a rhythm or
create some measure; it was completely impossible. Gurdjieff continued
work; and after another quarter of an hour he said: “This is another line.” We
stayed until the morning. The case took place on Kumbarachi street, not far from
former Russian consulate. Finally the city began to awaken. I think I
stopped at fifth place. No amount of effort could force my
the brain continues to work. Gurdjieff laughed; however, he was tired and could not
work further. The poem remained unfinished..."

In the spring of 1920, Ouspensky lectured at the Gurdjieff Institute. Usually
Gurdjieff supplemented Ouspensky's explanations with answers to questions. In 1921
Uspensky left for London. There, in the atmosphere of "post-Victorian England",
which turned out to be favorable for the perception of Uspensky’s ideas
(he revised the ideas of Gurdjieff, the school of the “Fourth Way”), books
Uspensky is beginning to be translated into English, French and other languages ​​and
be published all over the world. Among Uspensky's students - now worldwide
famous A.R. Orage, Maurice Nicholl, John Bennett, Kenneth Walker and others.

For many, Gurdjieff's dancing was a purely exotic side of the matter.
Sometimes these dances were perceived as an expression of "Satanism", as they seemed
unnatural and too “contradictory”. Victim of this impression
turned out to be Vasily Shulgin, who in 1920 found himself with Wrangel’s army in
Istanbul and through a friend got to the “Gurdjieff dances” at the “Institute
harmonious development of man": "The man sitting on the low platform
kept still and made no movements. But he looked intently
at us... I saw his eyes. They are unforgettable. Burning eyes... Like
rich Karaites who ran tobacco shops in Kyiv..." People who do not have
magnetic center that attracts them to the source of B-influence and
then, in case of correct development of the magnetic center, to the source
esoteric knowledge in the person of a specific teacher expressing C influence is not
can correctly perceive sacred dances. Shulgin describes his
negative reaction to the "eleven controversial movements" that he
I saw at the Gurdjieff Institute, and the “stop” exercise, when the dancing figures
freeze at the teacher’s command in order to feel and realize the most unusual
the state of your body.

Gurdjieff deliberately arranged demonstration performances in the form of
dances and various psychological experiments, so that with the help of such “networks”
catch people who are really interested in the “miraculous” - those who have
the magnetic center is sufficiently developed - and then include such people in
work on yourself.

Uspensky recalls in his book “In Search of the Miraculous” (first chapter) how
one day, while working as editor of a Moscow newspaper in January 1915, he
I came across an article in the Voice of Moscow, which mentioned the ballet script
"The Fight of Magicians", belonging to a certain "Indian" (by this "Indian" as
it turned out it was Gurdjieff). The ballet took place in India and should
was to give full picture"oriental magic, including the miracles of fakirs, sacred
dancing and the like." When Uspensky got into one of the Moscow groups
Gurdjieff, he was given a manuscript by one of his students who was describing his
impressions of the meeting with Gurdjieff. This story was called "Glimpses"
truth", and it began with the episode when the author of the story fell into
a note about the ballet “The Struggle of the Magicians”... The one that Uspensky cut out from
newspapers from 1915. As Uspensky later learned, the idea of ​​this story
belonged to Gurdjieff himself, who wanted to offer Ouspensky
publish it in one of the magazines (knowing that Uspensky works as a journalist
and editor, moves among writers). This example shows how
Gurdjieff knew how to involve the people he needed in his work. He put before them
certain practical tasks and at the same time revealed their features,
features, potential capabilities, mechanics of response to certain
things.

Ouspensky writes further: “My ballet is not a mystery,” said Gurdjieff.
-The task I set was to create an interesting and
beautiful performance. Of course, there is a certain meaning hidden behind the external form; But
I did not pursue the goal of showing and emphasizing precisely this. I'll explain to you
Briefly, what's the matter? Imagine that, studying the movement of celestial bodies, say,
planets of the solar system, you have built a special mechanism to transmit
a visual image of the laws of these movements and remind us of them. In such
mechanism, each planet is represented by a sphere of appropriate sizes,
placed at a certain distance from the central sphere representing
Sun. The mechanism is set in motion, all spheres begin to rotate and
move along given paths, reproducing laws in visual form,
controlling the movement of planets. This mechanism reminds us of everything you
know about solar system. Something similar is contained in the rhythm of some
dancing. In strictly defined movements and combinations of dancers in visible
form, certain laws are reproduced, understandable to those who know them. Such
The dances are called "sacred dances". During my travels in the East
I have witnessed many times how these dances were performed during
priestly services in ancient temples. Some of them are reproduced in "Struggle"
magicians." In addition, the ballet is based on three special ideas. But if I
I’ll stage a ballet on an ordinary stage, the audience will never understand them.”

Ouspensky discovered that important scenes in Gurdjieff's ballet depict schools
"white magician" and "black magician", exercises of students of both schools and wrestling
between them. All events take place against the background of the life of an eastern city and
intertwined with love story which is allegorical in nature. By
about the “three ideas” contained in Gurdjieff’s dances, one of his
followers, Oridge (who created the center of this school in the USA, where in the 20s
years Gurdjieff came), connected them with the task of simultaneous inclusion
three centers of the human body: instinctive-motor,
emotional and intellectual. Thus, the dances are pursued externally,
indicative goals of symbolic cosmology and, at the same time, internal,
psychological goals of students’ self-observation of themselves in the process of action.
The concepts of “rhythm” and “ritual” here coincide not only etymologically, but also
in content - expressing the unity of the cosmos and man as a microcosm (small
cosmos): the Sanskrit word "rita" has a deep meaning - "Rita
determines the transformation of a disordered state into an ordered one and
ensures the preservation of the basic conditions of existence of the universe, man,
morality. Through Rita the order of rotation is achieved
universe. Since this order coincides with the truth, Rita was interpreted in
in the broadest sense (German Indologist G. Luders). The opposite of Rita
-Anrita, disorder is like Rita’s deprivation. General character of Rita
manifested in the fact that she controls both the universe and the ritual; it defines
both physical and moral aspect of life, Rita was established by Aditya,
who protect her. More than all the gods, Varuna (and Mitra) is associated with Rita,
It is he who controls the correspondence between Rita and people’s actions. Rita
invisible to mortals: “the law is hidden by the law” (Rig Veda V 62, 1), i.e. Rita
determined not from the outside, but from itself; in other words, it determines everything
including yourself. Even the activities of the gods are nothing more than private
manifestations of Rita. Through Rita, the movement of the sun, rain, life is regulated
plants, animals, people, the actions of the gods." We see that every sacred
ritual, including dancing, round dances, symbolic movements in space,
church holidays with the removal of relics, etc. - there is not just a mystery,
repeating mythical plots, but also a special way of reflecting space and
microcosm that strengthens the confrontation between the forces of order and the forces
chaos. In terms of the Gurdjieff System, "rhythm and ritual depict
the clash of “good” (conscious forces) and “evil” ( mechanical forces", or
schools of "white magician" and "black magician". Every conscious and intentional
action increases the forces of consciousness and order, every unconscious,
mechanical action - forces of disorder and loss of integrity.

Towards an esoteric understanding of sacred rites and dances as collisions
(battles, wars, competitions, Apocalypse, etc.) opposing principles,
world principles, the idea of ​​​​contrasting descending and ascending
octave The descending octave is a series of mechanical degradations in which
there is a transition along the steps or levels of being from higher to lower, from
fine to coarse or from "light" to "dark". Ascending octave -
reverse process, ascension, or, as Dante said, “anagogy” from the lower
steps to higher ones, from coarse and dense matter - to subtle and rarefied,
more and more filled with spirituality. In Judaism, Kabbalah and Christianity
the descending and ascending rows are allegorically depicted by the Staircase between
heaven and earth, which Jacob dreamed of, on which angels descended and
rose. In the Enneagram, the descending octave corresponds to movement against
clockwise, and ascending - clockwise, with the “highest” point
“9” coincides with the “lowest” point “O”, since the absolute Everything and
absolute Nothing is one and the same, represented in two opposite
aspects. Gurdjieff explained: "You know the prayer: 'Holy God, Holy
Mighty, Holy Immortal"? This prayer came from ancient knowledge. "Holy
God" means the Absolute, or All; "Holy Mighty" also means
Absolute, or nothing; "Holy Immortal" means that which is between
them, i.e. six notes of the ray of creation with organic life. All three taken
together, make one; it is an indivisible and unmerged Trinity*. Nine or
The Enneagram expresses the union of the six notes of creation (the Ray of Creation) with the One
the beginning, "alpha and omega" at the point of beginning and end, point "9":

In February 1922, Gurdjieff came to London, where he participated in lectures
Uspensky. The latter helps him in organizing the Institute and staging
long-planned ballet "Struggle of the Magicians". About
twenty people, including the participation of the famous musician T. Hartmann (one of
Gurdjieff's first students) who prepared the arrangement of musical themes
Gurdjieff. Uspensky and the rest of the students collected a significant amount of money,
with which Gurdjieff bought the historical castle "Abbey" (Chateau Priore) in
Avone, near Fontainebleau near Paris. And in the fall of 1922 a new one was opened here
version of the Institute, where a “motley company” (in the expression
Ouspensky) all those who knew Gurdjieff and Ouspensky in St. Petersburg, Moscow,
Tiflis, Constantinople and London -

In December 1923, at the theater on the Champs-Elysees in Paris,
unprecedented performance. Dances were shown and special exercises. Were
tricks and "magic" experiments: reading thoughts and transmitting them to
distance; hid the object, and the student, blindfolded, took the hand
one of the spectators was looking for something hidden; to the person sitting in the hall,
objects were shown, and he telepathically transmitted the name and shape of the object
people sitting on stage, etc. The most impressive number was when
someone from the audience mentally conveyed to the pianist F. Hartmann, who was on
stage at the piano, the title of any opera written on a piece of paper by the audience - and
the pianist performed a musical excerpt from it. Viewers ordered some
an animal to one of the students sitting in the hall - and another student on the stage
made sketches of exactly the animal that was ordered to be depicted.

The public was completely shocked, even to the point of bewilderment and horror, when
the climax of the performance, a group of students turned around to face
stage, abruptly rushed to the ramp and, flying over the orchestra pit, fell into
the first rows of the stalls, forcing the audience to jump up from their seats. But it's strange
mixed with each other, these “flying” figures, piling up on each other
friend, instantly froze in silence and stillness. Then on command they
Gurdjieff rose - and there was not a single fracture, bruise or scratch.

At the beginning of 1924, Gurdjieff organized a tour of his
"troupes" in US cities. And there the audience perceived the fireworks of dancing and
magical "miracles" as a phenomenon of the unlimited dominance of the teacher-magician over
by his students. The famous writer William Seabrook described it
sight as "amazing, bright, automatic, inhuman, almost
incredible obedience and robot-like submission of the students" turned into
a team of "trained zombies or circus animals." In reality
Gurdjieff sought to show the fantastic possibilities of man in such
sphere, such as dance, movement, control of one’s body. It was like
modern martial arts, fakirical abilities in the spirit of Houdini or
the tricks of David Copperfield.

The performances were supposed to shake up ordinary people, make them think about
your capabilities, look at life from a different point of view, discover something
new in yourself. It should be recalled that Gurdjieff's group did not work
professionals, but young men and women - attractive, good
educated, mastering other specialties, but thirsty
esoteric knowledge. They were not "zombies" at all, but rather something
the opposite. "Zombies", oddly enough, were at the moment
performances in the hall...

The secret of such “obedience” of students lies in the System itself and methods
training according to Gurdjieff. He himself once went through all the stages of obedience
sheikhs and mentors of monasteries in Tibet, Afghanistan and the Middle East. He
always repeated the main principle of work between a student and a teacher: “You cannot
achieve real will unless you learn absolute obedience." This
the rule is due to the fact that a person constantly indulges his whims,
remaining captive to many random cravings, useless emissions
energy, chaotic fermentation of small “I”. To overcome the clutter
own uncontrollability, the student initially trains to obey
the will of the teacher, who has already achieved the real “I”, integral and indestructible in
its action. And only after gaining experience of discipline and concentration
with all his might (based on the guidance of the truly volitional “I”), the student will be able to understand
what is what - and discover a similar integral “I” within one’s own
nature. However, ordinary people who do not have sufficient intuition and flair for
recognition of a real teacher, can easily succumb to the influence of charlatans and
all kinds of home-grown “psychics”. It's just like
if a person who wants to master mathematics would agree to study with someone other than
mathematics, and, for example, a trade worker who can quickly count
and manipulate numbers.

The master is always visible in small things and everyday situations. Here's how
One of the students describes his observations of Gurdjieff: “I was struck by
how he crossed the street through moving traffic - without
nervousness and haste, characteristic of most people - but as if he
felt with his whole being, fully aware of what he was doing, like
to the wise elephant, which I saw in Burma, when it was making its way through the thicket
forests." The same disciple gives an example of how Gurdjieff creates the will of
their students. The story was like this. The student was given the task of carrying water for
a hundred yards from the stream, which took the whole morning. One day he noticed that
a stream flowed on the other side of the wall enclosing the garden. It occurred to him
dig a hole near the wall and let water through the wall. This channel could
save a huge amount of work. But the wall could fall over
made hole. Then the student suggested pouring water through a siphon,
and, taking out a piece of hose, the two students made the water flow through
ten-foot wall and climb into a hole located in the garden. Some
residents of the "Abbey" (Château Prioret near Fontainebleau) came to look at
invention, commenting with surprise on the ingenuity of this student:
"It's funny that such great minds as Orridge, Nicole, Jung and Pinder spend weeks
carried this water, and no one came up with such a simple idea." Finally
Gurdjieff appeared, who had been on a trip before. While the "inventors"
stood nearby, rubbing their hands with pleasure, anticipating the praise of “themselves”,
Gurdjieff, having examined the mechanism, said the following: “Very good, very
witty. And now I have another thought. Remove the hose and bury
pit. Look for a spring here..." The student experienced many negative emotions.
However, five years passed, and one day wonderful days it happened that
It was this student who dug up a source of water located in the garden. Such
Gurdjieff called overcoming “super-efforts.” After this incident, this
the student became a completely different person.

This cautionary tale also has a symbolic dimension: everyone should
with the help of extreme efforts to find the source of life within oneself, and not
try to simplify the task with the help of external devices. When in July 1924
When Gurdjieff was involved in a car accident, the students noticed
that the night before his trip he behaved unusually: he asked for a mechanic
carefully inspect the car; without any reason, he handed over his papers to Madame de
Hartmann and authorized her to act on his behalf; before returning from
Paris to Fontainebleau, he ordered Madame de Hartmann to return by train and in response to
her bewilderment simply waved his hand... "The radiator was crushed, the engine
shifted to the side, the steering column is broken, blinds, doors and windows are broken,
the front axle and wings are concave. Gurdjieff was found lying on the grass that grew along
on the side of the road from Paris to Fontainebleau, and under his head he had a car
seat. How he got out of the car, whether he got out on his own or was carried out, was
dont clear. The car crashed into a tree."

About a month later Gurdjieff appeared in the garden. The head was bandaged
eyes are hidden by dark glasses. There was virtually no vision: he didn’t see anyone
found out. But every day he got up from his chair and took a few steps,
against the advice of doctors. In October, sitting in a chair, he began to give instructions
build large fires in the open air, sitting for an hour or more near
flame. It was believed that he gained strength from fire. This continued until
until almost half of the park was cut down for bonfires... Soon
he began to lead from his chair and “we began to work as before,
trying to feel and remember yourself, work carefully and realize that,
If we work consciously, we will help him as well as ourselves.”
Hartmann admitted to Nott that he was still in Russia, in the Caucasus, when he fell ill
typhus, the attack of the disease was so severe that everyone considered it hopeless.
One night he suddenly regained consciousness: Gurdjieff bent over him and
sweat was dripping down his face... "All his strength was directed towards me. He gave me
piece of bread and left. I sat down, began to eat and realized that he had saved my life."
was a teacher of the Fourth Way, whom the “yellow press” journalists to this day
day is called a charlatan and a dubious madman. Apparently,
The ballet "Struggle of the Magicians" continues to this day. On different stages in different
times of strength of consciousness and creativity are in conflict with the forces
mechanical reactions and clouding of the mind. The script for this ballet was not written
us. And this scenario is not poetic hyperbole, but genuine drama,
which takes place here and now, in the present.

And here are other “analogies” from the field of “secret lodges” and “historical
conspiracies": in the summer of 1921, Gurdjieff with a group of disciples through Romania and
Hungary arrived in Germany, appearing on the outskirts of Berlin. Here he is supposedly
met with a number of followers of Theosophy and Ariosophy who dreamed of
"superman"... There is a legend that Gurdjieff gave lessons in hypnosis
to the future "Führer of the Third Reich" Adolf Schicklgruber. But all this
unverified facts. From the works of Uspensky and other students one can make
an unambiguous conclusion about exactly how Gurdjieff treated such people as
Napoleon, Hitler and in general to politicians overwhelmed by a thirst for power: he called
such a breed of "hasnamus", a person without conscience, hopeless from the point of view
evolution. However, Gurdjieff taught how to use such people in your
purposes.

In a heap of gossip and “points of view” reminiscent of a garbage bin, those who wish
can find anything, as is usually the case around those
whose lives are surrounded by legends. But, unlike "hyenas eating
carrion", the lions move on through the desert, leaving garbage and rotting slag
those who are attracted to such “food” according to the law of sympathetic attractions
(“like attracts like”). Many modern books on the occult,
magic and pseudo-hermeticism are replete with such rubbish. These things should always
exist in order to make a proper selection and so that one type of people does not
interfered with another who was able to find something more intimate and of higher quality. Exists
a Sufi parable about how one sheikh, after being harassed by a negligent group
students who require sensations and precise instructions, in which everything is simple and
clearly, he wrote books on fortune telling, astrology, palmistry and
and the like - and as a result, bad students stopped interfering with worthy ones,
seduced by secondary knowledge. This is the wisdom of the esoteric schools.
He who has ears, let him hear! Here are the opinions of the authorities of mass culture: “In the highest
degree of dubious doctrine" (Anna Katharina Porter"; "charlatan" (Francois
Mauriac); “not one person, but a million people in one” (Margaret Anderson);
“a brilliant and amazing psychologist, not inferior to Nietzsche” (Colin Wilson);
“one of the great inspirators of the sixties” (Sergius Golovin); "This
either a great and subtle joke... or complete nonsense!" (J.B. Watson, founder
behaviorism in psychology, after reading “Everything and Everything: Tales of Beelzebub,
told to grandson").

The "fourth way", the path of the "sage" or "cunning" can be better understood if
we will try to find out the many shades of meaning of the Greek word "sophist"
or “skillful person”: “sophia” means wisdom, knowledge, sharpness,
cunning, dexterity, skill, skill, ability to do things, skillfully
to invent, to be a cunning, experienced person, to be an expert,
mentor, etc. In the Greek tradition, Solon was called a "sophist"
Pythagoras, famous philosophers, poets and sages - and only in times
Socrates and Plato, due to the spread of profane schools of learning
youth the art of success in life (similar to modern courses in psychology and
pragmatism, giving recipes for “success in business, life and sex”), the term
"sophist" acquired a negative meaning, equal to the word "charlatan" or "deceiver".

A skillful person, as Gurdjieff believed, does not allow his past to
to become the future, he tries, drop by drop, to find the divine within himself
spark, freeing himself from the burden of false “I” that fetters his movement like
lots of extra clothes. In his book Intelligence Agents, Timothy Leary cites a number of
rules that Gurdjieff used to raise the level of human consciousness:

1. Try to get to the bottom of events that other people are missing
are dismissed as mysterious and enigmatic.
2. Never do something just because others are doing it.
3. Never think the same way as others think.
4. Trust only your own vision of the world, and not how they see it.
others, and own opinion don't trust for very long.

It is known that Gurdjieff himself, having been carried away in his youth by the books of Madame
Blavatsky and Western literature about the East, I decided to check everything
thoroughly, - as he said, it took him several
years of life: from 1890 to 1898 he visited Baghdad, Afghanistan, Kashgaria,
penetrates into Tibet, gets a job as a tax collector for Tibetan lamas, which gives
he has access to all monasteries; later he studies in Kabul and other centers
Sufi science. The obvious fact is that he overcame many adversities
and tests. This is confirmed by his own words: “Do you want to know?
in fact, you have to go through suffering to know. You must
learn to suffer not the way you are suffering now, but consciously. Currently
time you do not know how to suffer for a single franc, and in order to understand you need
suffer for a million francs." Gurdjieff was beyond national questions and
despised all kinds of chauvinism: “There are no British, no Russians, no
Jews, nor Christians, but there are only those striving for a common goal - to become
capable of doing." To learn how to actually do things, you need to take
any small thing and forget about big things: “Set yourself a goal
get rid of some small habit." Art step by step
to free oneself from mechanical habits and ideas gives a person knowledge
about how and why he had previously submitted to the captivity of fantasies and obsessions - in
including where various pseudo-teachings and mystical movements come from,
99 percent of which are based on subjective perception. About supporters
Gurdjieff spoke of theosophy as about those who “heard where the ringing was, but did not know where
he." And this assessment applies to many “seekers of truth.” One of the students
Gurdjieff conveyed his point of view about humanity: "Ninety-six
percent of our civilization is determined by the instinctive-motor center,
physical body; three percent is a real culture associated with
emotional center; only one percent deals with the question “Why?” And
depends on the action of real intelligence. Instinctive-motor center,
which should be a passive part, has become an active part in our civilization,
positive force. We are upside down people, turned inside out."

Raphael Lefort in the book "Gurdjieff's Teachers" shows - if you believe
his travels in search of the “wonderful” origins of the “fourth way” school,
- the whole system Sufi centers that accept students moving
from one stage to another. According to Lefort, through such a chain of initiations
Daurdzhiadze passed at one time, i.e. Gurdjieff: "Who is this 'they' who
did they send him? - I asked, asking further. “It’s no secret,” he replied.
(Haji Abdul Kader). - That Lodge near Cape Karatas in the south. They were
disciples of Bahaudin, known as the Naqshbandi, or "artists". They're already there
no, but he (Gurdjieff) must have been sent there from somewhere else, since I
I went there quite often and never saw him." To Lefort's question
“Where could he be sent from?” Haji laughed: “From the north or south, from the east
or from the west, from a thousand places. Or from another place of study from another
teachers. Who knows what he studied before he came to me? May be,
falconry, music, dancing, carpentry?.." In the end, having found
Sheikha Ul Masheikh in Afghanistan, Lefort returns to Europe, to the secret
a group for “seekers of truth” in the West. The circle closes as if
the Gnostic serpent biting its own tail.

Comparing Gurdjieff's teachings with the schools of the Gnostics, Troubadours, and Alchemists
and Hermeticists, one can come to the conclusion that in Europe at all times
there was a system of knowledge that was brought either from the East or
the roots of which existed hidden in the West, hiding behind the foliage of various
external forms. The followers of Sufism themselves understand the latter not purely
Islamic esotericism, as some believe, but something originally
characteristic of ancient esoteric schools of different cultures and eras. "True
one," although the paths to it have been lost. Gurdjieff was the one who showed the approaches to
finding the real Path to the real Truth. He paid attention to
man's self-creation of himself: "I can't advance you in any way
further, I can only create conditions in which you can advance."
this is also the purpose of his books, which originally served as a guide
for a narrow circle of students and without special comments to them may cause
incorrect assessments and associations. A version of the commentary on "Beelzebub" can be
found in Nott's book "The Teachings of Gurdjieff". A feature of the latest book "Life
is real only when “I am” is its unfinished state, or rather -
complete lack of a finished book. In fact, this is not a book, but only
a series of sketches, remarks and theses which Gurdjieff outlined for himself
themselves as “rafters” for the possible construction of a future book. With another
hand, the theses of “Life is real while I am” open before us
psychological world of Gurdjieff, his internal dialogue, style of working with himself
yourself. Most likely, if Gurdjieff were now asked the question of whether
or not to publish these sketches, he would answer laconically: “Idiots!”... And
would undoubtedly be right.

It is said that during Gurdjieff's funeral ceremony in 1949
the organizer of the ceremony, who did not know Gurdjieff during his lifetime, was so
amazed by the dignity and nobility that radiated the body and face of the deceased,
that he could not hold back his sobs at the open grave of Georgy Ivanovich.

In "The Arch-Absurd" Baal-Zebub shakes his head at the creatures of this planet.
"Our sun does not shine, does not warm." When we get high ideas like
in this Book, and make an effort to understand, - as a result, appears
true Light.

V. Aleksakhin Download all books by G.I. Gurdjieff or read them on-line by following the link

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 “demons.”

Trips

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

How it started

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

Ouspensky helped Gurdjieff adapt his ideas for people with a European vision of the world, that is, translate them into an understandable language accessible to the psychological culture of the West. At the same time, Gurdjieff’s teaching received the name “The Fourth Way”. So the years passed, and everything did not grow together with the main dream of the spiritual teacher; it did not work out with the Institute of Harmonic Development anywhere: neither in Moscow, nor in Tiflis, nor in Constantinople. It happened in Paris, already in 1922.

Uspensky

Again, who by that time had become a philosopher of the highest order, helped. The English with whom he settled were afraid to get involved with the world's leading esotericist and occultist, so to prevent the circle of sorcerers and other cosmologists from expanding, Gurdjieff was not allowed into England.

In 1921, he moved to Germany, and then, using money raised by Uspensky’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 even today, was satisfied for a short time.

Sacred dances

Many esotericists even today claim that George Gurdjieff influenced not only individual people he met along the way, but also quite strongly - social life and the policies of individual countries. It’s just that the methods used by Gurdjieff (his well-known sacred dances, for example) remained not fully studied and understood even by his closest followers.

In the spring of 1915 in Moscow, in a small, average-sized cafe, two people were drinking coffee and quietly talking. One of them was dark-skinned in an oriental manner, with a black mustache, and a piercing and unpleasant gaze. His presence here, even with the decor of a Moscow eatery, somehow strangely did not fit in. As if he were a mummer, and poorly dressed at that. It's like he's not at all who he says he is. And the interlocutor, who subsequently recorded the progress of this meeting, had to both communicate and behave as if he had not noticed anything strange. The second gentleman was Uspensky. And the first one is the mummer - George Gurdjieff. Views from real world at this person were repulsive at first.

In a very short time, Ouspensky will become an ardent adherent of Gurdjieff’s teachings, but for now they are talking either about travel, the topic of which is close to both of them, or about drugs that help in understanding the very nature of all mystical phenomena. In the second, Gurdjieff turned out to be much more powerful, although Ouspensky managed to try many substances to consider himself sufficiently sophisticated. Nevertheless, Uspensky was inspired, captivated and ripe for learning sacred dances.

Caucasian mystic and the battle of magicians

About a year before the meeting described above, Uspensky read in the newspaper that a certain Indian was staging the ballet “Battle of the Magicians.” It was not worth making inquiries a lot of work. This was George Gurdjieff, who always planned meetings with remarkable people in exactly this way: an article of the most irrational content was ordered from newspapers, and an esoteric-minded intellectual elite she'll run up on her own. Of course, no ballet - in the general sense of the word - was planned.

After the first coffee drink, 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, including interfering in the cosmic course of events. The project for the ballet “Battle of the Magicians” dealt specifically with cosmology: these were supposed to be sacred dances, where each movement was calculated by a “knowledgeable person” and corresponded exactly to the movement of the sun and planets.

Building a biography

And now there are people gifted enough to, for example, write good poetry, but who lack a certain spice so that readers look at the poet with amazed adoration. Then fame is helped by legends, or even real exploits, designed for PR and rightfully included in the biography.

Where this “Hindu-Caucasian” came from, no one knew for sure who he was. But there were rumors - one more eloquent than the other. George Gurdjieff, quotes from whose books were passed on 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 didn't even construct an autobiography - he carefully erased it. You can try to compile his biography based on 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 remaining sources available to us are even less reliable.

According to rumors

They say that Gurdjieff Georgy Ivanovich 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, or name could be found in reality. The following is briefly written there.

As a teenager, Gurdjieff allegedly became interested in supernatural phenomena, wanted to understand their nature and even learn how to control 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 went traveling.

In search of sacred knowledge

Twenty years of wandering yielded the same odious sacred knowledge that, according to Uspensky, the mystic, of course, possessed. Knowledge led him along the roads of Transcaucasia, Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, and Tibet. He wrote about specific schools, sometimes speaking extremely vaguely, in passing, 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 for Tibetan lamas, worked for railway in Turkey, painted sparrows to look like canaries for sale, maintained a workshop for repairing broken things, even owned oil wells and fishing boats, and also sold carpets. He always spent everything that Gudzhiev managed to earn only on travel.

Between work and earnings, during his travels, as 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, was seriously ill for a long time, after which he decided to stop using any exceptional force. Among his students, Georgy Gudzhiev was known as a prophet and 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 to blame for the incident, the accident was probably staged by enemies, of whom Gudzhiev had accumulated enough. According to his students, Gurdjieff Georgy Ivanovich, whose books were read to the gills, was equal in his knowledge and skills to Blavatsky and all the Tibetan sages combined. He couldn't help but foresee this tree in the car's path! If Hitler himself consulted with Gurdjieff, choosing a swastika for the party emblem of National Socialism, if George Gurdjieff and Stalin together developed a method for remaking human consciousness!

Among the outright funny there were also moments of true meaning. It is true that Gudzhiev was an exceptionally talented hoaxer. It was omnivorous, and flies of various sizes were caught in its spider webs. Gudzhiev could find like-minded people in any level of society. Among the poor and the rich, Jews and anti-Semites, communists and Nazis - he didn’t care at all. Definitely an extraordinary personality.

Books written for us

While recovering from the accident, Gurdjieff paid great attention to refining books already written and creating new ones. “Everything and Everything” - ten books, divided into three series: “Stories 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 background 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 hissing can be 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 glean certain philosophical doctrines: that man is not complete, that he can become like a god (isn’t this the speech of a serpent? Be like gods...), and nature develops him barely above the level of an animal. Next, he must develop himself, getting to know himself and his hidden capabilities. Nature provides four separate functions: mental (intelligence), sensory (emotions), motor and instinctive. Well, Aristotle wrote about this in great detail. At the same time, a person has a certain essence - something with which he was born, as well as a personality - something introduced, artificial. Further, it is no longer according to Aristotle: education gives a person too many unnatural habits and tastes, because of this, a false personality is formed, which suppresses the development of the essence.

And now here is the very “creed” professed by Gurdjieff in all guises: whether as a writer, a choreographer, a 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, every person needs transformation through suffering. And if life does not send suffering for some reason, then it is very correct 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 remarkable 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 sorts of subtle matters in the body, and the transformation of suffering crystallizes the subtle soul from subtle matters. Well, or the body - Gurdjieff doesn’t know, that’s why both words are in brackets: both soul and body.

Moreover, the author stated that everyone has a soul, but only those who have earned it through voluntary suffering have a Soul. And every time the question arises again: “Maybe the priests are right when they talk about demonism?” And again - do normal people need all this? And lastly, I feel sorry for the kids who can fall for this.

Production 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. People of various nationalities took part in the production, but the teachers understood everything, and it is not clear in what language he explained the exercises. There were also British people there, including those who sponsored the purchase of a palace near Paris to stage this space 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: having met Gudzhiev over a cup of coffee this time in a cozy Parisian cafe, Nott asked him a question about his former student, whom Gudzhiev had carried away and then abandoned without regret, to which " great magician" replied, smiling sarcastically: "I always needed rats for my experiments."

So, Gudjiev practiced dance teaching for literally decades, during which time the will of his followers was completely suppressed, and dissidents were expelled mercilessly. After which the Parisian, London and New York brethren were shown certain concerts, about which they talked about all sorts of things.

War and post-war time

Gurdjieff survived the occupation of France calmly and without clouds. Among his students there were many Nazis, including whom Gudzhiev met 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 Nazi Germany, complications began to arise for the “great teacher.” Almost all of the students fled, many called him offensive nicknames such as the Greek charlatan and the American master of magic. Also a miracle worker from the Caucasus...

The end of the journey

But the remaining students still idolized him. It was believed that he could predict the future (infrequently and upon special requests). 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 collided with a tree. But everyone also knew that the Caucasian was a hot guy and an excellent reckless driver, just a terrible, crazy driver. So, most likely, it happened without the intervention of Joseph Vissarionovich.

After the accident, Gudzhiev took a long time to recover, but eventually returned to choreographing dances. But one day he fell in class and never got up again. The year was 1949. He led an 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) - mystical philosopher, occultist, composer and traveler (father - Greek, mother - Armenian) first half of the 20th century.

Gurji or Gyurji - this is how the Persians called Georgians, and the rest of the Islamic world still calls Georgians, and therefore the surname Gurdjiev can be translated as Gruzinsky or Gruzinov. The surname Gurdjieff or Gurdjian is borne by many Armenians who migrated from Georgia and other areas on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains to the territory of Armenia. To this day there is a large colony of Greeks in the area of ​​Lake Tsalka (southern Georgia). According to Gurdjieff, his own father and his spiritual father, the rector of the cathedral, instilled in him a thirst for knowledge of the life process on Earth, and in particular the purpose of human life. His work was devoted to human self-development, 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, 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, to whom he entrusted the dissemination of his "Work", tried to unite students of various groups, which marked the beginning of an organization known as the Gurdjieff Foundation (the Gurdjieff Foundation - the name in the USA, in fact - a union of Gurdjieff groups in various cities, in Europe the same organization is known as the Gurdjieff Society. Also actively disseminating Gurdjieff's ideas were John G. Bennett and some other former students of P. D. Ouspensky: Maurice Nicoll, Rodney Collin and Lord Pantland. Lord Pantland became president of the Gurdjieff Foundation, founded in 1953 in New York, and headed it until his death in 1984.

Among Gurdjieff's famous students were: Pamela Travers, author of the children's book about Mary Poppins, French poet René Daumal, English writer Katherine Mansfield and American artist Paul Reynard, Jane Heap - American publisher, active participant in modernism. After Gurdjieff's death, famous musicians Keith Jarrett and Robert Fripp studied with his students.

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

The teachings of Gurdjieff-Ouspensky are compared [ Who?] with many traditional teachings, among them Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and eastern branches of Christianity. In addition, it is noted [ Who?] connections with the mystical traditions of Mesopotamia and Egypt. They tried to connect the metaphysics and ontology of this teaching with many spiritual traditions, in particular with Christianity (B. Muravyov) and Sufism (Idris Shah). Even professional ethnographers did not ignore it; in the modern "Philosophical Dictionary" they talk about a mixture of elements of yoga, tantrism, Zen Buddhism and Sufism.

The leitmotif of Gurdjieff's ideas: significant degradation of man, especially over the last few centuries; and in this, while it completely coincides with many mystical Teachings, it sounds very peculiar, sometimes even excessive. And this is one of many reasons, precisely the claim to “esoteric Christianity”, why the Russian Orthodox Church classifies Gurdjieff as an “occult magician” 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 adherents claimed this. The main idea of ​​the teacher is to awaken a sleeping thought and a sense of true reality in a person. Fearing that his followers would quickly drown in abstractions instead of real practices, he decided to rely on art (magical dancing) and the creation of “communes” where like-minded people could help each other realize themselves. The brief material of excerpts from his lectures to his “students” testifies to the simplicity of his language, which tends more towards Khoja Nasredin or Aesop. The clearest presentation of Gurdjieff's early ideas can be found in P. D. Uspensky's book “In Search of the Miraculous,” where the author systematizes his cosmological, alchemical, energetic and other concepts. Later, in his books, Gurdjieff chose a writing style more suitable for his ideas, leaning towards narrative, metaphor and personal appeal to the reader, whom he often “leads by the nose”, so that the reader comprehends the writings not by logic, like Ouspensky, but by intuition. In the last, unfinished book, “LIFE IS REAL Only When I AM,” Gurdjieff expresses disappointment over the failures of his mission and emphasizes that he will take the main secrets and secrets with him.

see also

Essays

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

Literature

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

Notes

Links

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

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Born in Gyumri
• Died on October 29
• Died in 1949
• Deceased in Neuilly-sur-Seine
• Personalities:New Age
• Philosophers of Russia
• Occultists
• Composers of Russia
• Non-academic research authors
• Buried in France

Wikimedia Foundation.

2010.

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff is a man of mystery: the greatest esotericist of the twentieth century, philosopher, magician, prophet, traveler, composer, dance teacher, writer. Around the personality of this amazing person There are a huge number of the most unimaginable legends and stories, which for the most part do not have any documentary evidence. It is noteworthy that Gurdjieff himself contributed greatly to the creation of that atmosphere of mystical mystery that still shrouds his name. Even appearance

this man is extraordinary. To understand this, just look at his portrait. A passionate, strong-willed face, a piercing, hypnotic gaze - he exudes a magical mystery.

Birth

Accurate documentary information about the date of birth of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff has not been preserved; according to various sources, he was born: January 14 in 1866 or 1877, or December 28, 1872. The passports he used also show different dates of birth.

The surname Gurdjieff is pronounced Gyurjan in Armenian. Turks and Persians used the Turkic word “Gyurji” to call Georgians, and sometimes all other inhabitants of the Caucasus. This surname is widespread among Greeks who migrated from Georgia. The Greek diaspora has long been the largest in Georgia. In Soviet times, the Greek diaspora numbered about 150 thousand people.

The future great esotericist was born in Armenia in the small but very ancient city of Alexandropol. At the time of George's birth, Armenia was part of the Russian Empire. A Russian fortress and garrison were located in Alexandropol. This name appeared in 1837 - in honor of the wife of Nicholas I - Alexandra Fedorovna. Until 1837, the city was called Gyumri, and even earlier - Kumayri, in Soviet times it was called Leninakan - a place notorious to millions of people in connection with the terrible Spitak earthquake of 1988. After the declaration of independence of Armenia in September 1991, the city was once again renamed , but returned historical name- Gyumri. Nowadays, Gyumri is the second largest city in Armenia.

In the second half of the 19th century. Alexandropol was famous for its poets and ashugs, it was a recognized center of crafts and arts, and among other things, it was considered the capital of the famous Armenian humor, a kind of analogue of Odessa. After some time, the Gurdjieff family moved to Kars - the center of the newly formed Kars region of the Russian Empire. After the formation of the region, the city began to be actively populated by Russian settlers, mainly Molokans.

Under the father's sign

The mother of George Gurdjieff was an Armenian from the famous Tavrizov-Bagratuni family. Father Ivan Gurdjieff, a Greek by origin from Asia Minor, was a famous ashug singer, a master of oral storytelling and a famous person in the Caucasus. It was his father who introduced young George to the tale of the legendary Babylonian hero Gilgamesh. According to Gurdjieff himself, stories about the wanderings of Gilgamesh had a serious influence on his entire subsequent life. Gurdjieff said: “... my father was a wise, talented mentor, whose actions awakened in me a thirst for seeking true knowledge.” Several times his father took him with him to ashug competitions. The competitions took place in different cities and represented a completely unique event. The best of the best ashugs, bearers of ancient legends, experts in millennia-old traditions, guides gathered at the appointed place eternal memory their peoples. Talented poets, singers, musicians, dancers, masters of the rare art of improvisation. Storytellers from Persia, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Turkestan came to demonstrate to people the ancient art of storytelling.

It was then that Gurdjieff began to realize the enormous value of oral sources of knowledge - giving us the wisdom of thousands of years. Gurdjieff became one of the very few who appreciated the gigantic potential of this unique channel of ancient knowledge, which was considered irretrievably lost in the depths of time. It may very well be that even then, in early childhood, young Gurdjieff began to be occupied with thoughts of searching for what was lost.

In his famous book dedicated to meetings with remarkable people, among many worthy personalities, Gurdjieff gives first place to his father Ivan Ivanovich Gurdjieff.

In 1917, the Turks carried out another armed raid on Alexandropol. Ivan Ivanovich Gurdjieff tried to protect his home from the brutal Turkish soldiers. He received severe wounds and died at the age of 82 because of this. The inscription on the tombstone of Father Gurdjieff, installed by the students of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, is very noteworthy: “I am You, You are I, He is ours when we are His.”

WITH youth Ivan Ivanovich accustomed his son to physical labor, forced him to get up early and douse himself with cold spring water. He tried in every possible way to strengthen his son’s character. He paid a lot of attention to the spiritual education of his son, instilled high ideals, and developed in the boy a sense of beauty and artistic imagination. According to Gurdjieff, the father was a kind but fair man, he lived according to a clear schedule and forced his son to follow his example. He often punished George fairly, for which he was later grateful. Gurdjieff said more than once that it was his father’s correct upbringing that helped him in the future to courageously endure all the hardships and hardships of long journeys. Ivan Ivanovich Gurdjieff had the soul of a poet, but the firmness of a warrior, and no difficulties could plunge him into despondency. At one time, having received a decent inheritance, he took up cattle breeding, but he was unsuccessful; all his herds became victims of mass mortality. After that, he tried his hand at the timber trade, in which, due to his crystal honesty, he also did not succeed. But despite everything, peace, love and harmony always reigned in the Gurdjieff family (George had three little sisters).

His father became the owner of a small carpentry workshop, in which Gurdjieff the Younger also worked after his studies. In Kars, Gurdjieff began going to a Greek school, but later his father transferred him to a Russian municipal school, from whose students talented children were recruited to perform in the cathedral church choir. Thanks to his remarkable voice, Gurdjieff was among the chosen children, and it was there that he made his first acquaintance with Father Borsh, the rector of the Kars Cathedral.

Mentors

Abbot Borsh is a spiritual authority, a brilliant original, a man of the broadest outlook, the generator of many original philosophical and religious ideas, some of which later became the basis of the worldview of the young pupil. Father Borsh recognized the talented boy and helped him with his homework. One day Georgy fell ill with trachoma, and Father Borsh took a very active part in the boy’s fate. He personally brought two ophthalmologists to the Gurdjieffs' house, who quickly cured the boy. At the same time, Abbot Borsh met Father Gurdjieff. These seemingly completely different people, occupying unequal positions in society, become good friends. A significant meeting of two kindred souls took place, which had the most serious influence on the formation of the personality of young Gurdjieff. What were the brilliant philosophical dialogues of these two original minds, in which the future brilliant esotericist was present, worth? These conversations helped create fertile spiritual soil, which later gave rise to the most amazing shoots in the personality of Gurdjieff himself. Native father Ivan Ivanovich Gurdjieff and his spiritual father, Abbot Borsh, awakened in the young man a great thirst for knowledge of the purpose of human life on earth.

After some time, Father Borsh offered to pick George up from school. He said: “George is a very talented boy, he needs to get a decent education, and at school he is wasting precious time.” Indeed, the municipal school of that time was structured absurdly. A student, having studied at school for 8 years, received only a certificate of primary education, corresponding to three classes. Borsh offered to study at home, reserving the role of the main mentor, and he also undertook to find other worthy teachers. Gurdjieff Sr. agrees. Young George's education has moved to a new qualitative level, the boy diligently studies various disciplines, reads a lot, and participates in a singing choir. The Kars region is a unique geographical area inhabited by many different peoples. From early childhood, Gurdjieff (a future polyglot, knowledge of about 20 languages) learns to speak several languages: Armenian, Greek, Georgian, Russian, Turkish.

George Gurdjieff was a sociable, enthusiastic person, quickly got along with people, had many friends and good acquaintances. During this period, Gurdjieff met many new, interesting people. One of these people was Bogaevsky ( future father Eulyssius). He was still a very young man who had recently arrived in Kars. Bogaevsky had just graduated from theological seminary and served as a deacon in the Kars Cathedral; a little later he became one of George’s teachers. Thanks to the youth of both, they developed a warm, friendly relationship. Bogaevsky was an interesting, charming, easy-to-communicate person, thanks to which he quickly fell in love with many residents of the city. A circle of young Russian intellectuals formed around him: military engineer Vseslavsky, artillery officer Kuzmin and others. In the evenings, young people gathered together. They discussed many interesting topics, and sometimes heated debates arose. Young Gurdjieff, as a student of Bogaevsky, was a free listener to these most fascinating conversations; the topic of spiritualism was often the subject of discussion and debate.

Mystical episodes

At that time, spiritualism was incredibly popular among the aristocracy and intelligentsia. The so-called table-turning - evocation of spirits - was very often practiced. As a rule, the purpose of such sessions was to obtain secret information from otherworldly forces. One of these sessions took place in Bogaevsky’s circle; Gurdjieff was a witness. The young people sat around a wooden table, placing their hands in a special way, they began to ask the spirits various questions, to which they received clear answers. This incomprehensible action made an indelible impression on Gurdjieff. A serious interest in such phenomena awoke in him. The boy was able to get some books on this topic from his new friends.

During the same period, another strange mystical episode occurred, which George vividly remembered. This happened in Alexandropol when the boy was visiting his uncle. Gurdjieff stood next to his uncle’s house, and a flock of boys were frolicking nearby. Suddenly he heard a heart-rending child's cry. Alarmed Georgy, thinking that an accident had happened, immediately ran up to the crowd of children and saw a strange sight. In front of him, in a circle outlined on the ground, an unfamiliar boy was writhing and crying. His movements were very strange, he twitched somehow unnaturally, it seemed that he wanted to break out of the circle, but some inexplicable force prevented him from doing this. Gurdjieff erased part of the circle, after which the poor kid was immediately able to escape from the circle, he immediately ran away to the hooting of the boys. It turned out that this child belonged to the Yazidi sect. The Yazidis are a Kurdish people who profess a special religion. Many ordinary people considered them representatives of a Satanist sect. The main reason for this opinion was the extreme isolation of this strange people. Georgy was extremely puzzled by what he saw, but none of his acquaintances could explain the nature of this phenomenon. Subsequently, in the course of his practice, he conducted a similar experiment with a woman from the Yazidi people. The effect was the same: he was unable to pull the fragile woman out of the circle.

Travel and expeditions

Wanting to devote his life to the study of supernatural phenomena, the search for secret ancient knowledge, Gurdjieff, nevertheless, needed to earn a living. In his young years, he had to master many different professions. He was many things: a carpenter, a translator, a tax collector, a tour guide, a railway worker, a seller of carpets and even sparrows painted to look like canaries. He was the owner of oil wells and the owner of fishing boats. But everything he earned was spent on travel and expeditions.

In search of answers to the questions that occupied him, Gurdjieff made pilgrimages to many holy places located in the Caucasus. He communicates a lot with Christian priests. During pilgrimages, he again sees all kinds of miracles, in no way explained by official science: the healing of hopelessly sick people, rain caused by the miracle of universal prayer.

Around the same time, Gurdjieff met Sarkis Poghossian, a young theologian who had recently graduated from seminary and was secretly disillusioned with the ethics of the clergy. This young man, like Gurdjieff, was eager to go in search of ancient knowledge. The friends decided in Alexandropol to look for a secluded and quiet place where they could calmly indulge in the study of ancient texts and books. Ruins of the city of Ani ( ancient capital Armenia), located very close to Alexandropol, were more than suitable for this purpose. There they settled in a small hut, built with their own hands. In the ruins of Ani there were a lot of underground passages, which were subjected to the most thorough research by Gurdjieff and Poghossian. Imagine the admiration of the friends when one day, making their way along one of these passages, they came across an abandoned monastic cell, where they discovered a whole stack of ancient parchments. They managed to decipher some of the texts. One of them contained information about a certain Babylonian esoteric school “Sarmung”, which existed 2500 years BC. This amazing discovery was an additional incentive for the start of Gurdjieff's wanderings.

At the age of 22, Gurdjieff created the famous society that united “seekers of truth.” The main goal of the society was to search for lost ancient knowledge in its most varied manifestations: ancient texts, oral tales, spiritual traditions, practices of closed religious communities, occult sciences. Anything that could be the key to ancient secret knowledge was of interest. Gurdjieff and his comrades visited many countries in Asia and Africa. The society also included professional scientists. Often, travel became real expeditions, even archaeological excavations were undertaken. Afghanistan, Turkestan, India, Egypt, Turkey, the countries of the Middle East and, finally, Tibet - this is the immodest geography of Gurdjieff’s wanderings.

It is known that when traveling famous esotericist received repeatedly bullet wounds, because he often found himself in combat areas. But no danger could stop him. The main goal is to obtain esoteric knowledge that touches the “inner circle of humanity.” Gradually, moving further and further along a difficult, thorny path - a path full of dangers and traps, Gurdjieff absorbs the wisdom of thousands of years. He studies the spiritual traditions of Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Eastern Christianity, and the practices of Siberian shamans. Collects unique ethnographic material: folklore dances, music, legends. Communicates with representatives of a wide variety of religious movements and philosophical concepts. Over the years of quest, Gurdjieff mastered many psychological and physical techniques, among them hypnosis, the yoga system, as well as the art of oriental fakirs, which invariably created a sensation among the European crowd.

Subsequently, based on this knowledge, Gurdjieff will create his own system of concepts and develop a methodology of unique practices. This work will become known throughout the world under the name “The Fourth Way.”

Years and years of wanderings passed in search of real truth. There were days of heavy defeats, sad losses of dear friends, but the main thing was victories, victories over oneself. The time has come to teach the chosen ones.

Work in Russia

In 1912, Gurdjieff appeared in two capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is worth noting that Russian metropolitan society of that time was very receptive to new philosophical and religious ideas. The Romanov family, well-known in Russia, set the most worthy example of this. The fashionable passion for spiritualism and mysticism flourished. Many representatives of the intelligentsia were fond of esotericism in its most varied manifestations. All this happened against the background of serious social and political changes. The premonition of future gigantic cataclysms, as in all previous times, fueled public interest in everything supernatural.

At first, Gurdjieff’s appearance did not arouse any serious interest among the spoiled, exalted metropolitan public. However, this situation begins to change quickly after Gurdjieff met Pyotr Demyanovich Ouspensky. Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky is an esotericist, mystical philosopher, traveler, journalist, and author of many books. The man is very famous and respected in both capital societies. Acquaintance with Gurdjieff made an indelible, stunning impression on Ouspensky. The venerable journalist was captivated by the extraordinary force of Gurdjieff's personality, admired by the depth of his esoteric knowledge and fascinated by his unique ideas. Ouspensky, recalling his first meeting with Gurdjieff, wrote that he gave a strange and even frightening impression at first of a man deliberately poorly disguised. The appearance of this man was disconcerting, because it was clear that he was not at all who he was trying to pretend to be. But you had to communicate with him and already behave as if you didn’t notice it. In a very short time after this significant meeting, Ouspensky became one of the first students of the “cunning sage” (as Gurdjieff was sometimes called). Ouspensky became the most zealous and most successful disseminator of the “Gurdjieff work.”

The language of many books written in the future by Gurdjieff will prove extremely difficult for the average reader to understand. Uspensky’s greatest merit is that he was able to express his teacher’s thoughts in a language accessible to the average person. Subsequently, it was Pyotr Demyanovich Ouspensky, in his famous book “In Search of the Miraculous,” who systematized Gurdjieff’s teachings.

Among the most interesting students of the esotericist, it is also worth noting the talented Russian composer Thomas (Thomas) de Hartmann (author of music for the ballet " The Scarlet Flower"). Later, together with Gurdjieff, he would write music for famous sacred dances. “Sacred movements” will be the main tool for training using the famous “Gurdjieff practices”. In total, about 150 pieces of music for piano will be created. Musical themes will be based on tunes from Asia and the Middle East. Here in Russia, together with students, work began on the ballet “The Fight of the Magicians”; in the future, this work will be continued in exile. However, due to its incompleteness, the ballet was never presented to the public.

In big cities, so-called “Gurdjieff groups” are appearing; there are more and more students, their number is steadily growing. The year 1917 arrived.

Work in exile

The atmosphere that reigned in the former Russian Empire after the October Revolution of 1917, did not contribute at all to the implementation of Gurdjieff’s plans. Together with a group of students, he leaves Russia. In 1919, Gurdjieff went to Tiflis (Tbilisi), where he tried to create the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man,” but for various reasons failed. The next attempt to create a similar institution, in Constantinople, also ends in fiasco. From Turkey Gurdjieff goes to Berlin. In Germany, relations with local authorities categorically did not work out. Then, following Uspensky, he leaves for England, and, finally, France - Paris. In fact, he is following the standard path of millions of unfortunate Russian emigrants.

France became his second homeland, and Gurdjieff’s long-time dream came true on its soil. A unique, one-of-a-kind “Institute for Harmonious Human Development” was founded there. The institute was located in one of the suburbs of Paris in the suburb of Fontainebleau. The castle on the Prieure estate was purchased with donations from Gurdjieff's students, and its doors were opened in 1922. Evenings were held in the Prieure, which included public lectures, as well as demonstrations of the “Sacred Movements” - a system of dance exercises developed by Gurdjieff based on Sufi religious practices. Such performances were quite a success among the Parisian public, striving for originality. Many of Gurdjieff's students lived and worked at the institute. Children also studied at the institute. The system of training and education in the Prieure represented a certain set of unique actions. It was a kind of symbiosis of constant physical labor, multiplied by diverse individual tasks that were assigned to each student personally by Gurdjieff. According to many students, Gurdjieff demanded unquestioning fulfillment of all his instructions. There were also those who left the walls of the institute, disappointed both with the teacher himself and with his teaching methods.

In 1923, there was an irrevocable break with Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky. There is a version that the reason for the break was fundamental differences in views on the methods of development of the “Gurdjieff teaching”. After time, Uspensky published his famous book “In Search of the Miraculous.” According to Gurdjieff, the book was an almost exact retelling of his teaching, as it was given before the revolution of 1917. All subsequent years, Ouspensky had a hard time with the break with his teacher. He died in 1947.

Gurdjieff's teaching, called the “Fourth Way,” is becoming more and more popular, with groups of students appearing in many major cities around the world. Several times Gurdjieff visited the USA with his students. In America, he gave a series of lectures and also organized theatrical performances, generally free, in New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. The opinions of American viewers were divided: some considered the performances the height of unprofessionalism, while others, on the contrary, immensely admired Gurdjieff's robot dancers. The audience was invariably amazed by the final part of these performances. The actors froze, waiting for the philosopher's command. Gurdjieff sat at the side of the stage and leisurely smoked a cigar. An agonizing tension grew, and suddenly, at a sign unnoticed by the public, about fifty artists began to accelerate to the edge of the stage. Moments and now they are already breaking away from the stage, and only at this moment the famous Gurdjieff exclamation “Stop!” is heard. The dancing actors, frozen in flight, seemed to be soaring and falling down - into the orchestra pit and the auditorium. The audience freezes in horror, but when they come to their senses, they burst into a storm of applause. It is curious that the dancers' flights have never resulted in injuries to actors or spectators. What they called him back then: “dance teacher”, “dancing provocateur”, “cunning sage”.

In July 1924, Gurdjieff was involved in a car accident. He receives injuries that are practically incompatible with life, but thanks to iron willpower, and perhaps something else (?), Gurdjieff does not die. He is slowly recovering. During this period, Georgy Ivanovich began to write books: “Meetings with wonderful people”; "Everything and everything, or Beelzebub's stories to his grandson"; “Life is real only when “I am.” The Institute in Prieure existed until 1932. However, even after its closure, Gurdjieff did not stop working with students. Periodically, he arranged meetings at his home. After the war, Gurdjieff continued to live and work in Paris.

On October 29, 1949, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff passed away. He died in the American hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. An important fact: the philosopher was buried according to the Christian Orthodox rite.

The main paths of man according to Gurdjieff:

• The first way. A person, in order to experience the world, agrees to sacrifice natural needs: he remains in the same position, refuses food and wears chains. He mortifies the flesh, but comprehends God. (The Way of the Fakir);
• Second way. A person tries to curb his heart and emotions. (The Way of the Monk);
• Third way. Man subjects his mind to severe disciplinary restrictions. (Path of the Yogi);
• Fourth way. A person’s use of the advantages of the first three directions.

A comparison of all directions shows that Gurdjieff’s teaching contains both many ideas of an esoteric nature that have become classical, and a number of his own, original ideas. The "Fourth Way" combines elements of Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism, bondage and yoga teachings. Although the latter denies the divine nature of the emergence of a soul in a person, nevertheless, Gurdjieff believed that a person does not receive a soul from birth, but acquires it himself, developing his own individualized consciousness and at the same time reaching some significant level.

Heritage

Gurdjieff left many famous students: esoteric philosopher Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky; mathematician and philosopher John G. Bennett (essay “The Dramatic Universe”); author famous book about the adventures of Mary Poppins - Pamela Travers, poet Rene Daumal (France), writer Katherine Mansfield (England), artist Paul Reynard (USA).

Shortly before his death, Gurdjieff ordered the publication of his books “Meetings with Remarkable People” and “Everything and Everything,” as well as P. D. Uspensky’s book “In Search of the Miraculous.”

After the death of the great esotericist, his student Jeanne de Salzmann, to whom Gurdjieff bequeathed the dissemination of his teachings, made an attempt to unite Gurdjieff groups scattered throughout the globe. This attempt laid the foundation for the creation of the famous organization called the Gurdjieff Foundation. The name in the USA is the Gurdjieff Foundation, the same organization in Europe is the Gurdjieff Society. In addition to Jeanne de Salzmann, the already mentioned John G. Bennett, as well as students of P. D. Uspensky - Rodney Colin and Maurice Nicol, were actively promoting the ideas of the great esotericist. And in our time, in many cities around the world, many groups of followers of “Gurdjieff’s teachings” continue to operate and develop.

Dmitry Sytov