Status
Call number
Genres
Collections
Publication
Description
"Gurdjieff was an extraordinary man who made a profound impact upon those who met him even casually. In the early 1920s he founded a school in France, popularly known as the 'forest philosophers,' and attracted a circle of remarkable men and women whose lives were changed by their contact with him. Nevertheless, after 1935 he almost disappeared from view and remained an enigma till the end of his life. His followers pledged themselves to perpetuate his work and to oversee the publication of his writings. Through their efforts Gurdjieff's ideas have penetrated into the world, particularly Europe and America. Books by and about him have been widely read and discussed. Appearing everywhere are groups dedicated to the study and application of Gurdjieff's teachings. Yet many have admitted that they have not fully understood his thought, especially his masterwork Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson. Now J.G. Bennett, long both friend and pupil of Gurdjieff, has undertaken a mammoth task: to put Gurdjieff's mission into perspective and to indicate precisely how his three-volume All and Everything fits into this mission. Bennett's painstaking research into Gurdjieff's early life and the sources of his teaching gives the book a solid foundation, a way out of the subjective impasse all too typical of hooks on Gurdjieff. He offers fresh evidence that 'schools of wisdom' existed in Central Asia and suggests Gurdjieff's possible connection with these spiritual traditions. The fascinating story of Gurdjieff's own searchings forms a second thread that runs in documentary fashion through the book. Finally, Bennett interprets Gurdjieff's message and outlines the methods that he used in transmitting this message to his followers. The entire enterprise is held together by reference to 'Gurdjieff's Question' as Bennett calls it in chapter 8: 'What is the sense and significance in general of life on earth, and in particular of human life?' This question, and the answer Gurdjieff found, lead to the conclusion that Gurdjieff has left an original and workable system of beliefs and values for our own time, and that we should set ourselves at once to decipher it and put his advice into effect. [This book] makes it clear that the message of this spiritual avatar was by no means his own private affair but rather part of a greater message coming from a higher source, unaffected by passing fashion and so capable of enlightening our changing, confusing orb."--Dust jacket.… (more)
User reviews
It’s a book that tells a new [or very ancient, although these are one in the same] mythology on the nature of existence and on the purpose of human life. Gurdjieff was the catalyst for
At the heart of this myth is the idea that people matter. We’re not here to drive the progress of technology [an ultimately ego-centered aim], or even to eradicate poverty, halt global warming, or fix any of the other problems that we’ve created for ourselves [that just puts us back where we started]. Instead, we’re part of a much bigger system based on the principle of reciprocal maintenance. The passage of time creates entropy, and leads to heat death: involution. But we have a counter force - evolution - a function which concentrates and improves the quality of energy. As humans we’re in the middle of the energetic food chain:
1) Heat
2) Simple
3) Crystal
4) Soil
5) Vegetable
6) Germ
7) Animal
8) Man
9) Demiurge
10) Cosmic Individuality
11) Trogoautoegocrat
12) Endlessness
-
This book definitely gave me a different perspective on history. The first half of the book focuses heavily on Middle Eastern history, and takes a much longer look [100k years] than we see in popular academics. Gurdjieff and Bennett developed a strategic plan for the next millennia not the next five years, as is commonplace today. I find the breadth of their present moment refreshing. In the tech bubbles of today, sometimes I feel as though we feel shame for the past, like we’re always looking “forward.” But Bennett’s story paints a very different picture of history, quite counter to our story of technological progress.
-
Also, all of the review of Middle-Eastern history got me researching the Middle East. I was eleven when 9/11 happened, so anything Middle Eastern was banished from my progressive education. Bennett suggests that Gurdjieff was in touch with some very ancient lineages handed down from generation to generation in the Middle East. Whatever globalization had left of them, the War on Terror has almost certainly destroyed.
To go on an aside, everything concerning Islamic fundamentalism, “terrorism,” Osama bin Laden, and al Qaeda turns out to be rife with irony. For example, we funded Osama and Islamic fundamentalists in the ’80s in their fight again the USSR. And then the tides turned in the ’90s. Also, we knew 9/11 was coming, and didn’t care. Osama points out in a letter to the US, that we are the extremist terrorists, and by the simple metric of human deaths, he couldn’t be more right - 9/11 killed 3,000 people, and just in Iraq, we’ve killed hundreds of thousands so far - three magnitudes more deaths!
Another piece of irony is that al Qaeda’s goal, which has been public for years, is to bring down the US economy by 2020 through involvement in unwinnable wars. Well, we totally fell for it, and they’re succeeding…
Two last pieces:
1) Check out Sharia law - what a lot of Middle Eastern culture is based on.
2) Drones! Killing Pakistani tribespeople!