Gurdjieff: A Study of His Teaching

by Kenneth Walker

G. I. Gurdjieff, was an influential spiritual teacher of the early to mid-20th century who taught that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff developed a method for doing so, calling his discipline "The Work" (connoting "work on oneself") or "the Method". According to his principles and instructions,Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness is different from that of the fakir, monk or yogi, so his discipline is also called (originally) the "Fourth Way". At one point, he described his teaching as being "esoteric Christianity". At different times in his life, Gurdjieff formed and closed various schools around the world to teach The Work. He claimed that the teachings he brought to the West from his own experiences and early travels expressed the truth found in ancient religions and wisdom teachings relating to self-awareness in people

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear and concise explanations of what Walker learned through his time with Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. I particularly liked his chapter of quotations from Gurdjieff. A few I enjoyed:

All energy spent on conscious work is an investment; that spent mechanically is lost for ever.

Mr. Self-love and Madame Vanity are the two chief agents of the devil.

For some people religion is useful but for others it is only a policeman.

There are two kinds of doing — automatic and doing what you ‘wish’. Take a small thing which you ‘wish’ to do and cannot do and make this your God. Let nothing interfere. If you ‘wish’, you can. Without wishing you never ‘can’. ‘Wish’ is the most powerful thing in the world.

[Maribel Rangel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfectly summarizes Gurdjieff's system through Ouspensky's teaching