Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way
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Shambhala Publications08/20/2024Pages: 352Size: 6 x 9ISBN: 9781645473350DetailsA profound new look at Gurdjieff’s life, teachings, and role as a spiritual leader through the lens of esotericism.
Gurdjieff warned against taking anything literally or on faith and advised accepting only experience that could be lived oneself. He also said that one has to find out “how to know” and that understanding knowledge of being depends on the “level of being.” The aim of the Fourth Way is toward a change of being—from the level of man number one, two, and three to that of man number four. Stephen Grant offers a profound reassessment of Gurdjieff’s role as a spiritual leader and the Fourth Way in terms of esoteric theory.
The book outlines Gurdjieff’s early life and view of ancient history, followed by the itinerant course of his teaching from Russia in 1915 to his death in Paris in 1949. The discussion then focuses on his esoteric mission—to bring the Fourth Way to the West—and its three major stages: (1) introducing the system of ideas to and through Ouspensky; (2) writing his own theory of the teaching, principally in Beelzebub’s Tales; and (3) passing on the practical teaching toward consciousness to and through Jeanne de Salzmann. The last five chapters deal with Gurdjieff’s relationship with his closest pupils, his system of ideas, his hidden doctrine in Beelzebub’s Tales, and the practical knowledge revealed by Mme. de Salzmann. Those interested in Gurdjieff will come away with a rich new perspective on his teachings and legacy.RelatedCheck items to add to the cart orAuthor BioStephen A. Grant is a senior member of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York. From 1971 to 1993 he served as Secretary of the Foundation. Since 1973 he has served as Secretary and then President of Triangle Editions, Inc., the publisher of G. I. Gurdjieff's four books: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, Meetings with Remarkable Men, Life Is Real Only Then, When "I Am," and Views from the Real World. He is also the editor of The Reality of Being by Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff's closest pupil, and In Search of Being, a restatement of Gurdjieff's early teaching.Praise"Stephen A. Grant describes the three historic phases of the manifestation of the Fourth Way and so reveals in their surprising details the accurate nature of the inner esoteric work identified with George Gurdjieff." —John Robert Colombo, author, anthologist, and communications consultant
"In Meetings with Remarkable Men, the great, ever-mysterious spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff describes encountering, in Central Asia, the Monastery of the World Brotherhood. This monastery housed former followers of every religion, but they were so united in their pursuit of ‘God the Truth’ that it was impossible to discern any difference among them. In this lucid book, Stephen Grant, an accomplished attorney and Gurdjieffian, explains that they were fellow practitioners of an esoteric way—not a way of knowing but of understanding, of being, and living the Truth of God and Reality. Grant examines the extraordinary sweep of Gurdjieff’s work—his Fourth Way, which combined Western science with Eastern spirituality—to bring that ancient wisdom to the West. Charting the evolution of Gurdjieff’s teaching from his youthful search with the ‘Seekers of Truth’ to the earliest exposition of his ideas with P. D. Ouspensky to the writing of his ineffably original Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson and his unfinished last book, Grant shows us how an esoteric teaching, like the cosmos itself, grows and evolves. Gurdjieff’s work is shown to live on in the work of his closest pupil, Jeanne de Salzmann, who emphasized Presence, attention with sensation and feeling. In the deepest sense, she realized the esoteric way to Reality that her master brought to the West, according to Grant. Her last words were: ‘I see what is.’" —Tracy Cochran, author of Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself
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