All and Everything

by G.I. Gurdjieff

After a lifetime spent in the teaching of a system of knowledge which he gave only to a small circle of pupils, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff decided shortly before his death in October 1949 to publish the first of a series of his books which expresses his ideas in the form of a cosmological epic based upon the legend of 'Beelzebub' - whose banishment to our Solar System brings him inte contact with mankind whose strange customs and problems he describes with deep compassion and at times with superb humour. This 'all-wise Beelzebub', with profound understanding af the weakness af humanity, paints the way towards the regeneration of mankind through the development of the inner possibilities of man and presents a teaching ef exceptional value for the world. All and Everything is of speclal significance now, when the world is helplessly struggling to control the intensification of technical achievement which threatens to destroy the essential values and purposes of life. This book rediscovers the path whleh man was destined to follow in the universal scheme and from which he has so far gone astray.

Genres: Spirituality, Philosophy

402 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1974

About the author

Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (Armenian: Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև, Georgian: გიორგი გურჯიევი, Greek: Γεώργιος Γεωργιάδης, Russian: Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гюрджи́ев, Georgiy Ivanovich Gyurdzhiev, or Gurdjiev) was an influential Greek-Armenian mystic, spiritual teacher of the early to mid-20th century, and a self-professed 'teacher of dancing'.

He taught that the vast majority of humanity lives their entire lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep," but that it was 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's daily lives and humanity's place in the universe. The title of his third series of writings, Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', expresses the essence of his teachings. His complete series of books is entitled All and Everything.